Five Tips for Marketing Your Business Development and Marketing Team Internally to the Firm

If you work in law firm marketing or business development, you have likely been faced at some point in time with the dreaded question “What does your team do all day?” or you have been asked to do something with virtually no lead time for the deadline because the attorney with the request has no concept of how long it will actually take you to complete it. These are common issues we see in law firm marketing and business development teams. If you aren’t sharing the work your team is doing with the rest of the firm, then the rest of the firm probably doesn’t know all of the great things your team does. So, what is a team to do? I have laid out five tips to help you jumpstart promoting your team internally to the firm.

1. Be prepared to talk about what you are working on

Do you run away when you see someone in the hallway, bury your head in your phone when you get stuck with someone on the elevator or in the breakroom, or keep the door to your office shut all day? Most of us do – and it’s time to stop! These are great opportunities to share what your team is working on. Be prepared to answer the question “What’s new?” with a thoughtful response about what you are working on and how it supports the firm or the attorneys you are supporting.

2. Track your work

Track everything! If you aren’t tracking anything now, start small and pick a couple of things to get you going. RFPs and proposals can be a great place to start. Other ideas are blog posts, social media posts, client alerts and events. Data is king – try to tie as many data points as possible to what you are tracking including the attorney(s) and practice area(s) the activity is supporting. And, if you can, track the amount of time you are spending on each activity – a ballpark is great.

3. Create a system for the whole team to track their work

If the whole team tracks their work, that is ideal. But you will need to create a uniform system for doing this. Excel can be a wonderful and free way to do this! It really has so many wonderful capabilities for sorting and filtering data when you want to analyze it. There are also many technology systems available that can automate this process for you. Society 54 developed one specifically for law firm and business development teams based on our many years of experience in house. INform54 is a wonderful and affordable tool – you can learn more about it here! And we are always happy to provide a free demo.

4. Share the data you track to tell a story

Having the data is wonderful, but if you don’t do anything with it, you might as well not have it at all. Come up with a great way to share the data you collect. I have seen this done in a lot of ways ranging from an infographic at the end of the year with key data points to a monthly email detailing all of the proposals, blogs, events, etc. from the previous month. Figure out what works for your firm and tell the story you want to tell. This is also a great way to remind attorneys to collaborate with you and inform you of what they are working on so they can be included in the materials you disseminate.

5. Use the data to inform future decisions

The best way to use the data you track is to analyze it and apply it to future decisions. Data can tell us if something is working or if we need to adjust. It can also show us if we are working with one attorney or practice group way more than the others and we can compare that to performance metrics. Another great use for the information you collect is determining how your team is being utilized and making a case for more support. There are endless ways to use this information which is why it is so key to track.

I would love to hear from you on how you plan to track and use data to promote your team moving into 2024! And if you would like to learn more about INForm54 or discuss any of these tactics further, please reach out to me at emily@society54.com.

Written by Emily Hillman