Interview with Hannah Fish

We caught up with Hannah Fish, Marketing Manager at Carpmaels & Ransford, prior to her involvement at the Law Firm Marketing Summit, to get some of her views on the changing legal market.

What do you think is the biggest single challenge threatening the profitable future of law firms?

Flexibility to the changing nature of client expectations. We are very much in an age of instant gratification and constant communication. Law firms will need to ensure they are able to set and meet the expectations of clients as they change.

When you look at how other professional services sectors are adapting their marketing and business development strategies to changing market conditions, what do you feel the legal sector should be emulating?

Audience segmentation is something we do to a greater or lesser extent (depending on our resources) but there is always more to be done to tailor content and make it more relevant to individual audiences. This applies to BD messaging, careers campaigns and brand awareness.  

One of the biggest challenges for marketing and business development teams working within law firms is to engage the managing partners in the process – what’s your personal tip for getting this to work?

• Communicate. While they are busy people, partners I have worked with in the past have been happy to give me time, provided discussions are useful and relevant. If you can find the time to discuss their understanding of the role Marketing and BD play within the firm and what they need from the department, it can provide an opportunity to develop some good working relationships which can be nurtured into marketing champions in the long run.
• Do what you said you’d do. If you’ve said you’d look into an idea, do. A reputation for being reliable and responsive will support the development of confidence in you and your department from the partners; as a result, they are more likely to engage.

What do you believe is essential to creating a positive and effective content marketing strategy?

A good understanding of the commercial goals of the organization and the resources available is essential when creating the strategy. This avoids time, effort and enthusiasm being wasted on scattergun projects which do not interact with the objectives of the firm. At a delivery level our fee earners are best placed to understand the intricacies of their area of the law but by combining this with a commercial understanding of the “so what?” or “why is this important?” it can be translated into something relevant and actionable for clients.

What do you believe are the most common errors in customer relationship management?

Thinking of the client’s experiences through the lens of your own experience. It may be obvious but we are not the clients that we are trying to communicate with and influence. It is important to take the time to understand what is important to the client in order to communicate effectively. So often a lack of effective and flexible communication results in frustration on both sides and this is avoidable.

Looking at the agenda for the Law Firm Marketing Summit, which sessions [apart from your own, of course] are you most looking forward to?

I am looking forward to the ‘demonstrating value’ session. I think this is an area it is easy to forget about when you’re running to keep up with delivery, however, taking the time to think about and articulate the value of Marketing and Business Development to the business is essential.

If you were to relocate to work in another country, which would you pick?

While I have spent most of my career so far in the UK, I’ve been lucky enough to work in New York and Ghana as well. These experiences gave me an opportunity to understand some of the commercial challenges which face companies in these areas and are environments I would love to have the opportunity to work in again. That said, I’m a keen skier so I would struggle not to pick Canada!

For more information, check out the agenda for the Law Firm Marketing Summit 2018.