The marketing team at Jacksons is working with our other teams to come up with of innovative ways of promoting our business and staying in touch with clients and contacts during these strange times. I expect most organisations will be busy doing the same.
As a law firm, we have actually been doing this for some time now as you need to, don’t you. It’s a very crowded marketplace out there. There are only two of us in the marketing department myself and Caroline, but we are lucky as we have very supportive colleagues at Jacksons who understand the importance of business development and marketing. Our managing partner, Jane Armitage is often at my desk saying “Karen, I have another idea!”
The budget planning for the new financial year was agreed and signed off by our managing partner and head of accounts, so we’ve been ready to go well in advance of the 1st April. We’re ahead of the game, or so we thought. Little did we know what was around the corner and the plan would need to be re-written!
For those of you who know Jacksons well, we put on a lot of events throughout the year, we love to network and keep in touch with our clients and contacts. However, near future events have been cancelled or postponed and we are reviewing the situation on a weekly basis.
With the current situation, we’ve had to come up with an alternative plan in order to stay in touch with our network of clients and contacts; a network that we love to meet with regularly and have worked hard to build over the last few years.
But do you know what, when you sit down and think about it there are loads of other things we can do in order to stay in touch, now that we can’t host or attend events. You can do your business development without leaving your desk – a win, win situation! Just think of all that extra time you will have, I’m saying to all of our fee earners!
If there was ever a time to take advantage of social media, it is now. At Jacksons we organised a LinkedIn drop in clinic for our staff in Teesside and Newcastle last week to give tips on keeping in touch with their digital network. It has been encouraging to see my colleagues being pro-active on LinkedIn since then; liking, sharing and commenting on other posts and writing content for their own.
In October last year we launched Series One of our Podcasts focussing on start-up businesses. Series Two was launched earlier this month which is aimed at giving young people advice on buying their first home, explaining why all young people should make a Will and why it is important to have a co-habitation drawn up when you move in with your partner. I’m pleased to say the response from our network has been very positive. Recording and launch dates for other podcasts have been planned in for the new financial year. To listen to our podcasts click here .
We are regularly checking in on some of our clients and contacts to make sure they are ok knowing that most, if not all, are working from home and will appreciate the social contact – even if it is only by phone or email.
During the last week, we’ve been approached by some of our media contacts with requests to write articles to include advice and tips to people who are concerned about the future of their business and to do radio interviews on employment issues.
We have a lot of really positive news stories we can share with other businesses in the North East; we have had one of our strongest financial years, an increase in new instructions, and we are employing more staff. We’ve worked with a lot of clients this year, new and existing to offer advice to help them achieve their business and personal goals.
An internal photography competition for staff has been launched. We’ve asked them to send in photographs of where they are listening to their Podcasts and we will be extending this to our network of clients and contacts at the end of April.
There is another campaign to be launched soon to encourage digital networking, create a distraction and have a bit of fun with our clients and contacts. I will leave it there for now though – keep an eye on our LinkedIn posts and all will be revealed!
At Jacksons, we’ve always planned ahead, kept ourselves busy and we will continue to do so. We know it is going to be tough, however, we’re always up for a challenge, and no coronavirus is going to stop us!
On behalf of the partners and staff at Jacksons, we hope that you and your loved ones stay safe. We look forward to seeing you all at the other side!
Karen Robinson, Partner and Head of Business Development and Marketing
