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Marketing Marketing: Those Three Extra Hours

Marketing Marketing: Those Three Extra Hours

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In our new Marketing Marketing feature, introduced in this issue, we ask our law firm marketing and business development friends across CEE to share their experience and perspectives on their profession. The premier question is a simple one: If you had three more hours in the day at work, what one part of your job would you prioritize in that extra time?

Jan Posvar, Independent Law Firm Marketing Specialist

If I had more time in my job, my absolute top priority would be to focus on communicating with all lawyers on a deeper level; to be able to concentrate more fully on their individual needs and profiles. Achieving this would, of course, require that everyone concerned had more time as well. In my view, having more time to discuss the specifics (as well as general aspects) of the firm’s market positioning, for all levels of seniority, is crucial. Ideally these discussions would go beyond those related to regular business. 

Polina Kulikova, Marketing & BD Executive, CEE Attorneys

If I had three more working hours a day I would spend them planning marketing activities and determining marketing strategy. I believe defining the right direction of activities from the very beginning to be critical for future results and the success of the company in general. First, I would prepare a brief executive summary of our office and describe our mission and vision, then I would conduct market research to find out trends and needs. That would help to create a strong competitive brand for the company. Furthermore, I would do SWOT analysis, specify the competition and point out marketing and financial objectives. As the most important part of a marketing plan, I see electing respectable publications, online and printed magazines, rating agencies, and business events we want to be involved in during the year. On that basis it is significant to prepare a clear marketing expense budget.

Germanas Kavalskis, Public Relations Manager, Tark Grunte Sutkiene

Spend more time on the firm’s strategic planning. I would like to spend more time or become more involved in the strategic planning of the firm, because that would help me to prepare a more precise and concrete annual action plan for PR & marketing. Currently, I am swamped with routine work. and I have little time to consider strategic questions of where the firm should move in the next three to five years. 

Stefan Laszczyk, Business Development Assistant, Hogan Lovells

I love to think and imagine things and then discuss them with people. That’s why I’m so fond of brainstorming. Unfortunately, each day there is little time to do so. If I had three more hours in the day at work, I would definitely spend them on brainstorming. I’d gather all my colleagues, present all the possibilities and opportunities there are for our business and, finally, talk them through.

Gina-Maria Tondolo, Marketing Director, Schoenherr Attorneys at Law

More time – any time please! For coffee breaks and lunches, but not alone – instead with younger partners, counsels, and attorneys, to sit down with them and discuss marketing and business development ideas. They often have a lot to say and to contribute to the marketing department and our initiatives. In addition, at this stage they want to gain more visibility, sharpen their profiles, and build their practices. It is great to discuss marketing and business development ideas with them. In my experience these types of informal meetings result in fresh ideas, especially since they provide a different slant on legal industry promotion.

Alexandra Yoshida, Business Development Director, Karanovic & Nikolic

I would prefer having more time to spend with our clients, so that I could get to know them even better. Even though we actively conduct client listening as part of our client care program, I still think it would be beneficial if I was to have a higher level of personal involvement with them on a more frequent basis.

Marietta Vidali, Corporate Communications Manager, Drakopoulos

It is sound sense that one of the things most marketers point to as a big challenge in their job is time. There is never enough time. Time is pivotal for the launching of a new campaign or the reaction to a corporate affairs crisis. If I had some more hours in the day at work, I would certainly spend them honing my business development skills. Business development is becoming a law firm imperative amid tighter competition, which is being converted into a renewed sense of urgency. 

As business development has been elevated to an important strategic pillar for our firm – a “key performance indicator, a platform for higher ROI” – so I would opt for putting more effort and time to mesh marketing with it.

To be more precise, an initiative would be to organize professional trainings for our Partners and Associates, as finding new business for law firms has evolved into an industry by itself. Such skills may also be developed through internal processes, meetings, contacts with important stakeholders, corporate presentations, and the like.

Katarzyna Buczkiewicz
, Marketing & Business Development Manager, FKA Furtek Komosa Aleksandrowicz

We work for and with clients – so it is necessary to know their actual needs, challenges, and problems. I wish I had more time to develop our CRM system, to improve the quality of the information, to collect more data, and teach people how to manage the insights and translate them into relationships with clients. I enjoy personal relationships, so I regret not having enough time to spend on meeting journalists, chambers of commerce, organizations, and others. Emails and text messages are sometimes not enough.

Klaudia Shevelyuk, COO, Vasil Kisil & Partners

If I had three more hours a day I would spend them in conversations with colleagues about life, to help them grow internally through life and career coaching. Internal personal growth is often underestimated in the legal business; thus, helping colleagues to open new horizons and expand their insights and ideas can often help to enhance business strategies by sustaining core business targets. Frank talk to colleagues is crucial in my humble opinion for the success of a team and the sustainability of a business. 

Sanda Lapinska, Marketing and Business Development Manager, Eversheds Bitans

I would dedicate time to the Raising of the Unicorns (the young practitioners of law), helping them meet the new challenges that are coming for law firms and think about how, through culture and management, we can adapt to the new needs of the market and the business environment.

First, I would concentrate on our internal culture, to create an environment of creativity and development for young Unicorns to prosper. Second, I would try to imagine what magic the new Unicorns will need. What business development tools will be necessary tomorrow? What will the methods and means of communication and service development be? Third, I would try to consider how to help them get to the end of the rainbow. Where are their new clients, what are their business values and goals?

This would be my ambition – raising Unicorns who can shape the future by preparing the ground today.

This Article was originally published in Issue 3.5 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. If you would like to receive a hard copy of the magazine, you can subscribe here.