Depending how your firm is leveraged, there's a good chance your law clerks, graduates and more recent admittees are going to form a decent chunk of your workforce.
So how can these awesome humans, busting with energy and positivity, help your marketing efforts?
After all, they're probably not at “go and get that client” territory just yet for a few reasons. Firstly they won't have the confidence, second they won't get the meeting, and third you've probably got them busy with other things. At the end of the day, a big marketing contribution isn't usually what firms expect of young and aspiring lawyers.
But does that mean that their only role is trying to stitch together a case summary article every now and again? By no means!
Let's see how your young lawyers might be able to lend their assistance to the bigger picture.
The Social Media Juggernaut
I'm pretty confident that any content your firm produces ends up on social media somewhere.
So let me ask you this: what's your process for getting it shared by your own staff?
So many firms miss a huge opportunity to expand the reach of their articles with their own staff.
On average, each of your young lawyers might have another 300 or more connections of their own on social media. So if you have 10 young lawyers, then you are missing 3000 potential new readers.
Are those all potential clients, on point and carefully selected? No of course not.
But let me ask you this: if your own young lawyers aren't prepared to share your articles, then what does that say?
So here's tip number 1 – get a system in place where you share each article internally, and ask your own staff to show it a bit of social love.
Q&A
Sometimes we get stuck in our own heads. We lose site of the simple for the complex.
So if you have a new starter, just learning the ropes, pay attention to the questions they ask, the knowledge they have, the things they need to pick up before they are functioning as a well-informed and expert member of your team.
After all, one of the quickest ways to generate a pile of content ideas is to hunt down the most common questions you get asked – and answer them.
So pay attention to what your young lawyers do and don't know. Pay attention to what they need to learn. Pay attention to the things they find confusing – and use that to your marketing advantage.
Deeper Corporate Connections
While it's true that the immediate decision makers for many B2B law firm operations will probably not be close connections of your young lawyers, we can't take a short term view.
The best clients are those who have connections at many levels with your firm. Sure, the decision makers are connected with your firm's partners. But beyond that, are the managers connected with your senior associates and the sub-managers connected with your newly admitted staff?
Find ways to connect your clients with your staff at many levels. This can only serve to deepen the relationships between you.
There's Plenty More
I get it – you don't want to invest a tonne of time and money where your graduate staff could well leave in the short term (more on that another day).
But if you want better relationships with business clients, creating more tendrils of connection is a good way to do it.
And fostering your young lawyers' marketing efforts is a good way to start.
Happy Lawyering!
