How to Train Your Law Firm Marketing Director

This blog post will be the second in a series of three posts covering:

(1) How to hire a law firm marketing director (directed to law firm partners),

(2) How to train your law firm marketing director (directed to law firm administrators), and

(3) How to be a good law firm marketing director (directed to the actual marketer).

Now that you have hired a law firm marketing director, you will need to (1) prepare for their arrival and (2) train them. Below, I will suggest steps that your law firm can take in advance of hiring so that once you find your dream marketer, your new guru can hit the ground running.  I will also outline the basic steps for training anyone who will be the public voice or face of your law firm.

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK: GETTING YOUR ACT TOGETHER

Whether you plan to hire a dedicated staff member for marketing or assign the bulk of the marketing duties to an existing staffer who has other responsibilities, you will need to provide that person with certain basic information. Create an Excel spreadsheet for marketing vendor information, including company name, all contact information, point of contact, pricing structure and contract details, login credentials (user name and password), account number/name, and any pertinent notes. The vendors on this list will include your call center, your website hosting company, your website designer, brochure printers, and more.  It is best to be overly inclusive.

If your law firm database includes vendor details, this list should be fairly easy to run. If your law firm is like most firms we work with, this information will be scattered between your bookkeeper, partners, vendors, and more; and, your vendors will control the access to your website and social channels.

Gathering this data on the front-end will save your incoming staff member valuable time and a very large headache.

Create a plan of action for your new marketer, including a list of firm priorities. Your list can include starting a blog, creating social media outlets, updating the website, etc.  Knowing the law firm’s priorities will significantly decrease the amount of time it will take to hit the ground running.

TRAINING A LAW FIRM MARKETING DIRECTOR

Once you have hired a marketing director, this person will need to be trained in a variety of areas in order to function optimally within your law firm.  Training must include:

1. Systems training, including database, content management software, phone system, time clocks (if applicable), and all software on his or her computer.
2. Legal ethics training, especially with regard to website content and social media use.
3. Web tools training, including website platform (WordPress, Ruby on Rails, Drupal, etc.), social media aggregation software (Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, SproutSocial, Buffer, etc.), or any other custom web tool.
4. Firm corporate culture education, including internal firm compliance rules.

NEED HELP?

After moving away from litigation, I served as both a lawyer and law firm marketing director for over six years. I have also hired and fired for positions including marketing and intake for over 10 years, so I consider myself somewhat of an expert on resumes, personalities in the workplace, and interviewing.   If your law firm wants to hire someone in-house to manage its marketing, I can help.  If your law firm wants to forego the overhead cost of adding another employee, and you want to outsource the management of your legal marketing, I can help there, too.