Attorney Business Development Planning for 2021 (Part 2)

Marketing Tools to Boost Your Business Development Success

With the shortest path to success charted in your 2021 Business Development Action Plan you’ll need to align your marketing resources to boost your BD strategy. Whether you have a marketing leader in your firm or you’re doing it yourself, take the steps needed in the coming months to build the case for your particular skill set. Add these steps to your BD Action Plan to feed the marketing engine:

• Update your bio on a quarterly basis. The majority of legal services buyers shop a lawyers web bio and LinkedIn profile before making a decision. This was common practice before the pandemic and as more and more activity moves online, it is even more important to appear up-to-date. Everyone you contact through strategic outreach and other visibility efforts will check you out online.

• Commit to thought leadership on a quarterly basis AT A MINIMUM. You should really be doing this multiple times per week, so it’s simplest to have a mix of strategies for both posting original content and amplifying content (your own and that of others) on various channels. Thought leadership can come in the form of:
  • Blog posts on your own website–and subsequently shared on your social media channels.
  • Articles shared on LinkedIn with brief commentary tying the topic to your skills/services or to the skills of clients and referral sources.
  • Articles in publications that reach your audience. Build relationships with reporters – they ALWAYS need content for their publications. Work with your marketing leader or consultant to push out press releases on a regular basis.
  • Regular outreach to your mailing list. Don’t have one? More on that in Part 3 of this series.

• Seek speaking opportunities in webinars with the Bar, association, industry, or networking groups you’re involved with. Work with your marketing leader or consultant to create and launch your own presentations. Webinars are the way to go these days and there’s no reason you can’t create your own on a regular basis. This is one of the few prospecting tools left for you until large in-person gatherings return. The content is typically recorded and can then become an item on your website and something else to share on social media.

• Develop an informed strategy for social media. Utilize your marketing leader or consultant to help understand the value of each channel and how best to capitalize on the visibility. Depending on your audience and your practice, Instagram and TikTok may be the right tools for you. More likely it’s going to be LInkedIn and Facebook. 

Above all be realistic in what you can accomplish. Start with quarterly goals and push yourself to do more. In Marketing, just like Business Development, the key is to remain top-of-mind.

Up next: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know: Unlock Your Pipeline