The Conversation: Louanne Buckley

"Failing fast" is the key to successful law firm marketing, according to Norton Rose Fulbright's Chief Marketing Officer Louanne Buckley. You can imagine how this upside-down statement got my attention right away! But of course, she's right - for law firms to be fleet-of-foot in the marketplace, they need to assess the success (or otherwise) of their initiatives quickly, learn the appropriate lessons, adapt and then pivot and move on, applying what they've learned to the next thing. But this well-known management mantra "Fail fast, learn and adapt" is not one that sits easily with the generally conservative nature of lawyers, who often feel under pressure in their own roles to get it Right the First Time. However, when you're trying new things, as we so often are as marketers, always looking to bring a fresh approach and move with (or ahead of) the times, it's vital to identify what's not working and quickly move on to a better approach. Master this, and you'll have much more marketing success. And it works on a number of levels, Louanne tells me, serving to give lawyers the 'evidence' and 'metrics' they crave to buy into marketing.

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"Partnerships are more complex than 'normal' corporations", [Louanne's word choice, not mine – I couldn't possibly comment??], "so communication, socialization and collaboration are vital to get everyone working together, understanding their own and everyone else's role and agreeing what success looks like. Only when everyone is on the same page as to the metrics for judging success, and only when trust has been built up between the marketing team, the lawyers and everyone else in the firm, will people feel comfortable looking at metrics quickly, e.g. on an event, assessing whether or not it worked, and moving on to make improvements – or ditching the idea and trying something else instead.?

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"And to build trust, as marketers we must remember we are bringing lawyers on a journey. We need to develop a common language and, through that, a shared way of viewing objectives, approaches and success. There's no point in using language that alienates them. As we refine the messaging around their services, yes, our job is to use our communications skills to demystify their legal offerings and put them into language that less specialist audiences can understand. But we should avoid 'marketing speak' and make sure the messages we craft are still true to how lawyers see their offering to clients. This requires frequent conversations between the marketers and the lawyers in a firm, and the understanding needs to flow both ways. Indeed, this is how we deepen our understanding of the legal services we are helping the firm to sell. And it improves relationships with lawyers so they see the marketing department as essential to the piece, not a 'nice to have'."

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So how does she make sure these conversations happen as regularly as she needs them to? "We have a marketing person dedicated to each practice area who's in constant contact with the lawyers. We don't just engage with them on particular marketing initiatives but between times as well. We're practicing what we're preaching here – we always advise lawyers to keep in contact with clients between transactions, if you want to build strong relationships, so this is what we do. It also means we are continually bringing intel from the practice groups to the central marketing team for all our marketing colleagues to benefit from. And we can keep a constant eye on activity in all corners of the firm, and together check everything is staying in line with the central marketing plan.

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"Another crucial point for successful teamwork with the firm's lawyers is to be mindful, always, that whenever we are talking to them, we are taking them away from billable work. So, we need to be succinct in getting our points across and skillful in showing there's value in spending time with the marketing team. How do we do this? We tell stories that celebrate marketing success, showcase the skills of my team that were involved and demonstrate, tangibly - i.e. with evidence and metrics - the value-add."

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And if something hasn't worked, it's all about facing it quickly, i.e. 'failing fast', learning, adapting and moving on to something more successful.