HBC Swings Through the Midwest

Post Date:

June 7, 2011

HBC's Andrew Ryan and Mike Gray visited the Midwest last week as part of a three-city tour to the Detroit, Chicago, and St. Louis Legal Marketing Association City Groups. They presented a program to each city group on the importance of using non-traditional communications tactics to help credential attorneys and achieve business development goals. The presentation focused on developing alliances, using social media effectively, and taking advantage of industry-focused awards and rankings.

Some takeaways from the presentation included the following:

Aligning all external communications efforts with the business development goals of the firm;
Communicating proactively internally for cross-selling opportunities;
Using alliances as a catalyst for creating media exposure, lobbying decision makers, and generating public awareness;
Being innovative with the launch of any social media campaign to engage with potential and existing clients;
Concentrating on awards and rankings that have measurable business development benefits; and
Leveraging content to get it in front of prospective clients and fellow partners.

The presentations, given to over 30 members of the Detroit City Group, 60 members of the Chicago City Group, and 30 members of the St. Louis City Group, were extremely well received. Comments from attendees included:

"HBC gave their feedback from a recent survey about the valuable award submission directories that are useful and looked at by in-house counsel. Instead of spending time on non-valuable submissions, HBC identified Chambers, Legal 500, and industry trade publications as the top rankings we should work on."

Michael Zukewich
Director of Marketing at Brooks Kushman

"I thought the social media case studies were particularly interesting. It made me think about new tactics to add to our PR mix."

Brian Pitts
Assistant Director of Public Relations at Mayer Brown