Podcast Ep. 30: Seyfarth Shaw’s Molly Porter on Creativity in Marketing

Molly Porter (@molly_porter), Director of Marketing at Seyfarth Shaw, chats with Guy Alvarez, about putting together a strategic law firm marketing team by covering the 3 C’s: creative, content, and channels. Molly goes into some depth on the creative aspect, and also talks about becoming a student of the business of law as marketers, and making your own precedent. 

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Shownotes

On creating a strategic marketing team

The Chief Strategy Officer of Seyfarth Shaw, Joshua Kubicki (@jkubicki), wanted to reorganize the marketing department so that team would be more closely aligned with practice management and development. From there, a Strategic Performance department was created which allowed for each department of the firm to have their own marketing officer that could strategically plan which clients to reach and how to successfully reach them.

While rebuilding Seyfarth Shaw’s digital presence, it’s been important to keep in mind the 3 C’s: creative, content, and channel.

The creative aspect describes all graphic design and branding of the law firm.

Content refers to the company’s content marketing strategy – who they want to reach and the message they want to send.

Finally, channel includes platforms from the company’s website to their CRM systems. By considering these three integral components, Seyfarth can build strong supports for their new digital presence to stand on.

How does creativity affect your approach to legal marketing?

Understanding data analytics and web development are only part of being a legal marketer. While lawyers are typically very analytical, marketers need to be more creative. A creative can make user centered marketing materials with visual appeal based only on concept.

While some lawyers don’t fully understand what’s involved in the creative process, the more you can create these things for the law firm, the more lawyers will appreciate their immediate value. As a legal marketer it is essential to be educated on what makes a law firm run because the operations of the firm are in fact relevant to web design.

Learn about the industry by following influencers and reading legal publications to not only help further your career, but to empathize with the end users of the materials you create.

TIP: Learn how to rock a PowerPoint deck

Make your own precedent

Seyfarth Shaw has been continuously adding new capabilities and skills that help serve their clients better for years. The conception of creating a video game for the ACC Annual Meeting began with the idea of leveling up. The company wanted to exemplify how clients can use new skills in order to level up their own marketing capabilities.

At the conference, the game served to magnetize potential clients to the Seyfarth booth and engage them in a conversation. Innovative marketing tools like video games are effective because they connect with people on a human level. Make your own precedent: know what’s going on in legal, but look at the rest of the world too.

Additional links from the episode:

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Above the Law