Facilitating law firm meetings to discuss marketing strategies and goals is essential. Law firm marketing meetings allow the law firm team and their marketing team to discuss their marketing goals and if they are headed in the right direction to meet their marketing goals.
During a law firm marketing meeting, the law firm staff and marketing team will discuss marketing goals, marketing budgets, what marketing methods they are using and how effective they are, possible marketing methods they can implement, and any questions or concerns that the law firm has regarding their marketing strategies. Essentially, they can brainstorm as a team.
This allows the law firm to fully understand what the marketing team is doing to ensure their goals are being met, and if they are working. The marketing team should be meeting the law firm’s marketing goals, or working towards their goals and making an impact on the overall business of the law firm.
Continue to read this article to learn about how to effectively coordinate marketing meetings and receive the marketing outcomes you desire.
Table of Contents
Assign a Coordinator
In order to facilitate a meeting, you must have a meeting coordinator. Having a meeting coordinator for your law firm marketing meeting will allow the meeting to run productively and smoothly. The meeting coordinator should figure out a time the entire law firm team is available to meet, and how the meeting will play out. As with any meeting, there must be someone in charge to direct the meeting and make sure meetings are meaningful.
The law firm marketing coordinator should be someone that is able to run a meeting without interfering too much. In other words, it can’t be someone that announces their opinions and discusses only their marketing ideas. They need to be open to ideas, communicate effectively, and bring the attention of the conversation to the main topic of the meeting.
The law firm marketing coordinator should:
- Include all of the staff and ensure both the law firm and marketing team are available to meet
- Create a structured plan for the meeting by discussing current marketing methods that are effective, possible marketing ideas, and marketing methods that do not seem to be working
- Address any questions that the law firm and the law firm marketing team may have
- Ensure the meeting is interesting and full of conversation
- Coordinate a potluck so staff is happy
Include Everyone
A meeting is meant to discuss as many relevant topics as possible with as many people as possible. This means the entire team should be involved. As previously mentioned, include the entire law firm staff, this includes part-time assistants and receptionists. Every person within the law firm can project their ideas — the more ideas the better.
Furthermore, you can also invite clients that are willing to attend the meeting and allow them to give their input. This will give you insight into what clients have to say and how they feel about the marketing strategies you are using. Get a perspective from the outside looking in. This can turn into crucial law firm marketing information and lead to much bigger ideas.
Of course, make sure the entire marketing team is available for the law firm marketing meeting. They will come up with great ideas and listen to alternative ideas from everyone else. From there, they can evaluate the strategies they are using for your law firm to review what needs to be changed or incorporated for law firm growth.
Create a Law Firm Meeting Objective
Create an objective so meeting participants understand what the topic of the meeting is about. Evaluate what is important at the moment for your marketing goals. Determine an objective and send out an email at least a week in advance regarding the meeting details — date, time, and objective. This gives the law firm and marketing team time to consider the objective and think about ideas, questions, or concerns they would like to discuss. In this regard, the law firm and its marketing team will be ready to discuss and brainstorm.
Here are law firm marketing meeting objective examples:
- Decrease law firm marketing budget while increasing website traffic
- Develop a content marketing strategy for next year
- Redesign the website and create a logo that stands out
- Increase traffic on the car accident webpage
- Optimize SEO by focusing on PPC
- Begin social media marketing
Determine Your Targeted Audience
Anyone can plan and attend a meeting. What’s important is the effectiveness of the meeting, and what the outcome of the meeting is. In order to effectively run a meeting and leave with an outcome, you must be specific. Who is your targeted audience within the meeting?
Maybe you invited clients to receive feedback. In this case, the clients would be your target audience. What are they most interested in? What are they looking for while browsing lawyer websites? When it comes to communication, what do they prefer? What is one website component that is inconvenient to them? The meeting would be run much differently than if you had a colleague attend, or if the meeting was just strictly law firm and marketing staff.
If you invite a colleague you may discuss law firm marketing methods that have worked for them, which marketing methods failed, and ask relevant questions. Determine who your target audience is and take note of what needs to be discussed.
Begin with an Icebreaker
Meetings always take place during work hours. Typically, either before or after the work day. Regardless of when they are, many employees may feel tired and dread meetings. Break the ice by starting each meeting with an icebreaker. The icebreaker does not need to be relevant to the topic of the meeting. It’s easy to ask a question and go around the room and let everyone answer. The point of the icebreaker is to get the participants talking, warmed up, and feeling relieved.
Here are a few icebreaker ideas to begin your law firm marketing meeting:
- Where was your favorite place to travel to?
- Where would you like to travel?
- If you could write a book, what would it be about?
- What superpower would you choose to have and why?
- If you could time travel, what year would you travel to and why?
Provide a Comfortable Environment
Law firm marketing meetings are planned to let the entire law firm staff and marketing team discuss marketing ideas that they have in mind. If anyone involved in the meeting criticizes other ideas, meetings will become dull, and no one will want to attend them. People will be afraid to speak out and the law firm marketing meeting will become pointless.
Allow everyone to explain their ideas without negative feedback and criticism. The more brainstorming ideas, the better. You may hear about the best law firm marketing idea. Ensure you create a welcoming environment so everyone feels comfortable explaining the law firm marketing ideas that they have in mind.
Collect Written Ideas
Oftentimes, in meetings, there is so much said in such little time. Every time there is a law firm marketing meeting, make sure there is a way to document the ideas. There are many ways to go about this to ensure ideas are documented and not too much time is being spent notetaking.
Here are ways you can document ideas:
- Have each person write their ideas on an index card and collect them
- Have each person write their idea on a whiteboard, and take a picture of it afterward
- Have each person text their idea in a group chat
- Open an online forum where participants can send in their ideas
Prohibit Negativity
As previously mentioned, the law firm marketing meetings should be a time and place where legal staff members and the marketing team freely discuss law firm marketing ideas. Set rules and do not allow any negativity. Explain to those included in the meeting that they cannot use language that will disengage the meeting and brainstorming.
Avoid negative language such as:
It is important to let the ideas flow. Allow the participants to be as creative as possible. Remember, all ideas are good ideas. In the ground rules, explain that participants may not use any negative comments or language. Tell them that they cannot use language that will ruin brainstorming such as:
- That is not a good idea
- I think that’s a good idea, but…
- We have already done something similar to that
- That may not work because…
- That will not work
Legal professionals and the marketing team can discuss what they feel will work best after the meeting. Many great ideas stem from a positive, creative marketing meeting.
Close Out the Meeting
Within the last 15-30 minutes of the law firm marketing meeting, spend time wrapping up the meeting. Allow the marketing team to discuss their input on the meeting, and explain how the participants’ ideas can support their marketing efforts.
The law firm meeting organizer should then explain what they will do with the law firm marketing ideas that were discussed and assure participants that they will be informed about what marketing strategies they will use. Lastly, they should thank everyone for attending the meeting, and bring attention to the overall productiveness of the meeting. If there has already been another marketing meeting set up, provide everyone with the date, and time of the meeting prior to dismissing everyone.
Pay Attention to Time
Every meeting should begin and end on time. The meeting organizer should quickly explain the time snippets of the meeting prior to starting.
For example:
-10 minutes: Icebreaker
-45 minutes: Brainstorming, sharing law firm marketing ideas, enjoying the potluck
-5 minutes: Closeout — Marketing team discusses next steps, meeting coordinator expresses appreciation, and announces details regarding next meeting
A planned law firm marketing meeting allows things to run smoothly so that the law firm can discuss markeitng ideas in an effective way and get started with creative marketing methods to grow their law firm. Here is how to coordinate effective law firm marketing meetings:
- Assign a Coordinator
- Include Everyone
- Create a Law Firm Meeting Objective
- Determine Your Targeted Audience
- Begin with an Icebreaker
- Provide a Comfortable Environment
- Collect Written Ideas
- Prohibit Negativity
- Close Out the Meeting
- Pay Attention to Time
