Friends,
Following up on Emily’s recent post, on behalf of my former SIG co-chair, Katy Corrigan, and my current co-chair, Heather McCullough, I’d like to invite you to attend this year’s Impact Marketing Pre-Conference in Denver.
We are particularly excited about elevating this year’s highly-interactive program as we created it based upon your requests via the SIG list serve. The program will focus on helping marketers from small and mid-sized firms create an overarching marketing and business development plan for their firms. Attendees will walk away with the tools they need to leverage existing resources and tap into new resources to exceed the expectations of firm leadership. Not only will you have the opportunity to learn from colleagues and other well-respected professionals in the industry, you will also have occasion to discuss the program’s topics with peers from firms similar to your own. You’ll hear about what has worked for others, what hasn’t, and have the opportunity to discuss exciting new ideas with new friends.
We look forward to seeing you in Denver! Register by February 14th for early bird pricing!
Jennifer Griffin Scotton and Katy Corrigan
Impact Marketing Pre-Conference Program (March 25, 2020)
Discover the specific tools required to be a successful business development and marketing leader in a small to mid-sized law firm, when time, people and money are limited and stretched to capacity.
These sessions will leverage the knowledge and experience of in-house marketers and consultants who have built innovative programs that can be executed in this environment. You’ll examine a variety of business development and marketing topics and case studies and leave with a clear action plan for maximizing existing resources and tapping into new resources to exceed expectations.
9:00 a.m. Budget Bingo: Everybody Wins Planning Strategies
Budgeting doesn’t have to be painful or a last-minute, stress-fueled frenzy. It can be an ongoing process and opportunity to focus your firm leadership on tactical detail. Learn simple budgeting practices that reflect the vision and strategy of your firm and help you properly build out a strategic marketing plan.
You’ll learn how to:
- Gather the information you need from leadership and memorialize cues through the year
- Advocate for important budget items and get decision makers on your side
- Categorize expenses by type, industry and practice groups for accountability
- Utilize prior performance with monthly and quarterly review processes
- Prepare for an economic downturn
Tanya Riggan
Director of Business Development and Marketing
Koley Jessen P.C., LLO
Marc T. Hollander
Director of Client Relations
Whitfield & Eddy Law PLC
10:00 a.m. Client Targeting Programs: How to Overcome Random Acts of Business Development
Do you often vet random acts of business development at your firm? How many times have you received a local business journal article and a request to “see if we know anyone at this company?” Have your lawyers ever requested to sponsor an obscure conference, convinced it is their “target audience?” Managing these requests is cumbersome and reactive and falls far from our vision of being strategic advisors. Find out how to prioritize and turn these random acts of business development into focused, client-targeting exercises.
You’ll learn how to:
- Kick-start and execute a client targeting program to establish a control mechanism for random acts of business development
- Get buy-in and engagement at all levels and roles
- Identify potential targets through research tools and technology
- Develop and deploy the “flywheel” effect for client/target outreach
- Leverage best practices for sustaining a program for the long-run
Amy Norris
Managing Director, Corporate
Bass, Berry & Sims PLC
11:00 a.m. PR that Drives BD: Leveraging PR to Walk Your Attorneys to New Business
We’ve all been in one-on-one conversations with attorneys who look to us for help in building a book of business. In this session, the panelists will arm you with strategies you can take back to your office and execute the next time you have an opportunity to coach a lawyer on business development planning. The session will feature case studies, discussion of best practices and a live group exercise in which you’ll build a PR-informed BD plan together.
You’ll learn how to:
- Engage your attorneys in a productive discussion about how effective PR can be a centerpiece to their BD planning
- Get to know your target client—research is the start of any effective strategy that leverages PR for BD
- Use social media as an effective business development research tool
- Follow an exploratory process to evaluate opportunities for walking your attorneys step-by-step closer to their prospective new clients
- Help attorneys build a business development plan that is actionable and effective
Burton Taylor
President
Proventus Consulting
Sam Diederich
Director of Marketing and Business Development
Spencer Fane LLP
12:15 p.m. Networking Lunch
1:15 p.m. Building Brand Impact in a Digital, Data-Driven World
When it comes to broadening your brand’s online exposure, the digital marketing world can be overwhelming. This session will break down the fundamentals, including website conversations, search optimization, AdWords campaigns, hashtags, online reviews, email marketing, social media and more. In addition, you’ll gain strategic guidance for leveraging your digital efforts. Join this session to explore the concept of “impact marketing” from a digital perspective—growing online engagement, reinforcing your firm’s marketing message and ultimately building a bigger brand impact.
You’ll learn how to:
- Understand the fundamentals of digital marketing—and which tactics will work best for you
- Include all the core components in your digital marketing plan
- Use practical tactics to take your digital marketing efforts to the next level
- Set effective goals, track progress and showcase results
Holly Miller
Director of Marketing
Gevurtz Menashe
Don Snyder
Business Development
McClatchy
2:15 p.m. Cross Selling: Oh to Never Hear Those Words Again!
How many times have you heard that the easiest way to win new business is to cross sell? Everyone wants to cross sell, cross sell, cross sell, but very few are doing it effectively and it remains the Holy Grail to building business with your current clients. In this session we will talk about tried and true approaches for expanding your business taken from a diverse set of non-legal industries. These approaches, when implemented will enable you to accelerate your business development and expand your share of legal spend at existing clients…so I guess cross sell.
You’ll learn how to:
- Get the ball rolling, to engage your attorneys, the right attorneys
- Identify top opportunities, not every opportunity
- Turn small wins into big wins
David M. Popp
Director of Business Development, Marketing and Client Services
Keating Muething & Klekamp
3:15 p.m. Taming the Beast—Keeping Sponsorships Strategic
Sponsorship requests and charitable events can be all-consuming. How do you prioritize and, most importantly, how to do you determine what commitments make the most strategic use of budget dollars?
The reality is, it is important to make thoughtful decisions about what to support and how to best leverage each opportunity. Being strategic allows firms to align sponsorship investments with firm-wide and professional marketing and growth goals. This session will address the sponsorship process from the first call (or email) to execution and will also include:
- How to establish an approval process from interest to implementation
- Moving from subjective to objective with criteria for evaluating requests
- Ways sponsorship commitments can be optimized or leveraged
- How to say “no” and “not now”
Caren Rodriguez
Chief Marketing Officer
DMJ & Co., PLLC
4:00 p.m. Legal Directories: Tips and Tricks
Directory submissions—the never-ending process that every legal marketer can relate to. From start to finish, this session will provide tips and tricks to help you effectively manage each step in the submission process.
You’ll learn how to:
- Create an in-house process that works for your firm
- Manage lawyers’ expectations for directory submissions
- Leverage practical tactics for completing directory submissions
- Use important steps you should be executing during research
- Establish a relationship with directory editors and researchers
Jenna E. Darling
Communications Project Manager
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Aileen Hinsch
Manager, Practice Group Leader
Crowell & Moring LLP