Driving Successful and Impactful Content Marketing: An #LMA23 Recap

The following article is a recap of the #LMA23 Conference session Driving Successful and Impactful Content Marketing: 4 Steps to Stand Out in the Crowd and was republished with permission from Passle.

 From left to right, #LMA23 Driving Successful and Impactful Content Marketing: 4 Steps to Stand Out in the Crowd, Educational Session. Panelists: Freddy Dobinson, head of client experience, Passle, Kelly Harbour, CMO, Goulston & Storrs, Julia Bennett, CMO, Brown Rudnick, Eugene McCormick, SVP, Passle.

In the legal industry, great attorneys are considered experts in their respective fields. Through sharing their knowledge and publishing client-relevant insights, lawyers have an incredible opportunity to inform and educate their most important business contacts. 

Effective content marketing will elevate your attorneys' status and help them to differentiate from their competition. When their messaging reaches audiences at the perfect moment, it can also lead to revenue and won business. 

However, despite the clear benefits of creating thought leadership, publishing content can be time-consuming and daunting — particularly for attorneys who are already busy.

The Solution

To overcome these challenges, law firms can implement a well-designed thought leadership program built on four key pillars: 

1. Effortless Creation — Driving Self-Service 
2. Effective and Efficient Governance 
3. Create Once Publish Everywhere (COPE) Distribution
4. Providing Relevant and Valuable Feedback 

By taking a strategic approach to thought leadership, law firms can not only showcase their expertise, but also build stronger client relationships and drive engagement. 

This was brought to life at the Legal Marketing Association 2023 Annual Conference (#LMA23) in Florida.

Passle's Head of Client Experience Freddy Dobinson and SVP Eugene McCormick sat down with Julia Bennett, CMO of Brown Rudnick, and Kelly Harbour, CMO of Goulston & Storrs, to discuss how they've effectively implemented thought leadership programs in their firms. 

Exploring the 4 Key Pillars of Thought Leadership

1. Effortless Creation

Attorneys are experts in their fields, and using their knowledge to inform clients can be incredibly valuable. To overcome the challenges of creating and publishing content, firms can streamline the process by creating a single point of entry for attorney submissions — allowing them to focus on the content itself, rather than the publishing process. Julia Bennett mentioned this is an important part of helping make thought leadership easy for attorneys.

By setting up a self-service system, marketing teams empower their attorneys with technology and proven processes to remove hurdles that could get in the way of sharing their insights. 

Reed Smith and Morris, Manning & Martin have had great success with their thought leadership programs by starting small and building momentum over time. 

2. Governance

Fear of losing control over content should never impact your firm's content creation process. An effective, transparent approval process involves a measured approach, tailored to fit the specific needs of the content type and the people creating it.

For example, Harbour explained at Goulston & Storrs, junior team members can create content but must have a partners' approval. This enables everyone at the firm — regardless of position —to tap into their expertise, and approve and publish the content through a streamlined approach. 

3. Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE) Distribution

Once an attorney has created a piece of content, it's important to make the most of it by leveraging all its potential benefits. By managing the user journey and creating a cohesive experience, attorneys own the content. Panellists shared that attorneys who create content quickly and easily are much more likely to share their content on social. For example, Dobinson explained that attorneys at Ropes & Gray increased their use of LinkedIn seven times after embarking on a structured thought leadership program.

Be sure to implement COPE distribution by featuring content on your firm's website, in all the right places — bio, sector and home pages. By doing this, the attorney starts owning the website too! 

Finally, ensure your attorneys' content is shared on your third-party distribution channels like Mondaq, JD Supra and Lexology, along with your client-facing newsletters. This will exponentially increase the size of your audience.

4. Relevant Feedback

If the first three pillars are the engine, the feedback is the gasoline that keeps it running. Regularly demonstrating ROI, highlighting commercial successes, and showcasing your top-engaged clients and audiences will encourage attorneys to continue participating. Celebrating the people involved in the program can also help build enthusiasm and encourage inclusivity.

It's important to weave the content process into what your attorneys are already doing, rather than make it an extra item on their to-do list. By doing so, they will see the value in the program and be more likely to participate. 

The Value in Thought Leadership

A well-designed thought leadership program can help law firms showcase their expertise, build client relationships and drive attorney engagement. Law firms can create a program that benefits attorneys and clients by focusing on effortless creation, governance, COPE distribution and the sharing of relevant feedback. 

As Bennet and Harbour expressed, "A rising tide lifts all boats." Start small and build!

The audience was also asked a series of questions to better understand their firm's sentiment about thought leadership. See their answers in the polling results here.

#LMA23 Conference Recordings Now Available Did you miss out on attending the LMA 2023 Annual Conference? You can still take advantage of the high-impact #LMA23 educational content by purchasing the conference recordings to view on demand! Geared towards marketers of all levels, and mapped to the domains, skills and competencies outlined in the Body of Knowledge (BoK), those interested can now purchase the recordings bundle, which unlocks exclusive access to select recordings only available to bundle purchasers, or individual recordings. Click here to learn more and purchase.