This week Jane invites Karen Robinson, Marketing Manager at Jacksons to give an insight to the department.
I’ve been the marketing manager at Jacksons for over two years and I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by. This is probably due to the fact that I work in a very busy department – no two days are the same and that’s what I love most about my job.
When I started in September 2015, I was on my own however, it soon became clear I needed some help and we therefore recruited marketing executive, Caroline Noble not long after I joined. Caroline started working at Jacksons in May 2002 and had a short career break in 2014, before returning to us early 2016. Having worked at Jacksons previously, she knows our culture, our clients and our teams really well which was great for me being the newbie. It’s also good to have someone to bounce ideas off and to help with the juggling of the ever increasing workload.
Looking after the marketing and business development strategy for Jacksons’ two offices; one in Stockton and one in Newcastle, with over 30 solicitors and fee earners in our business and personal legal services departments can be very challenging. However, the partners at Jacksons are very supportive and bought into the new strategy from day one. They get it, and understand that it takes a lot of hard work and effort to sustain a strong brand in a very competitive market.
Working closely with the partners, solicitors, secretaries and admin staff at Jacksons, we’ve achieved a lot over the last couple of years; from launching a new website and a breakfast club in Newcastle’s Secret Tower, the implementation of a marketing and business development strategy for both offices and all departments, the production and design of a suite of new literature, Jacksons’ 140th anniversary celebrations, organising a wide range of legal seminars and events, strengthening relationships with clients, and contacts and building upon our network across the region. We’re also very proud of the fact that we were recognised at the Northern Legal Awards this year for our property work and won Team of the Year Property in June and were finalists at the Insider Property Awards.
The last few months have been particularly hectic but very exciting. We recently moved into a fantastic purpose built head office in Teesside are now settling in nicely. One of the great things about the new office is that we have our own conference facilities for hosting events and we’re looking forward to welcoming new and familiar faces.
As if we weren’t busy enough, I thought with the office move, this would be perfect timing for a firm-wide re-brand. We would need to re-print everything for the new office anyway! So after a few weeks of debate the new logos, stationery, literature and signage for the new building were signed-off – why don’t you visit our website to see our new look www.jacksons-law.com.
It’s not all work, work, work at Jacksons, we do have some fun and we now have a social committee who plan and organise social events where we get together and relax. I think this is really important these days as we’re all guilty of being too busy to take the time to get to know our colleagues during the working week.
We’re all looking forward to our new office launch in November and a calendar of seminars and events coming up in Teesside, Sunderland and Newcastle in the months ahead – keep an eye on our website and social media for details of all of our events. Before we know it we’ll be planning for the new financial year……… I ‘m already mentally writing the ‘to do’ list!
