Last week, we were fortunate enough to host a session in partnership with the LMA Mid-Atlantic region discussing how to activate your firm's voice through thought leadership. Moderated by my colleague Eugene McCormick, we were delighted to be joined by Julia Bennett, Chief Marketing Officer at Brown Rudnick, who shared her insight on what works when it comes to thought leadership, how to drive adoption and engagement, and advice for those starting out on their thought leadership journey.

Focus on the Why?

Make sure you understand the why behind your thought leadership. For Julia, this is all about building trust and demonstrating her firm's expertise. Authentic, high-quality, digestible content created by industry experts is the most effective way to do this:

The reason we get hired is because people trust us, and the reason for that is that we can demonstrate our expertise.

Support lawyers to create the content they enjoy

A key part of Julia's approach to building this trust through thought leadership is ensuring that lawyers are supported to create the kind of content they enjoy. By doing so, the way that lawyers interact and communicate with their clients in-person is reflected in the digital experience:

If our lawyers are producing content that they like producing and in a format that speaks to the folks that hire us, when they are in the space with us they get the same from us in person as they get when they engage with us digitally.

Build confidence in content through success

To drive continuing engagement with thought leadership within your firm, focus on the anecdotal wins, Julia says. She gave the example of a short video series produced for new partners, which resulted in a piece of new business for a partner:

It took probably 10 or 20 minutes for us to shoot a few videos for her, but just the confidence that came from getting the work was such a big win and it encouraged other people to engage.

By celebrating this kind of success, you can build confidence in content to drive further adoption and engagement from the rest of the firm.

Give things a go, but be ready to adapt at pace

Julia's final piece of advice for those embarking on their journey to drive thought leadership at their firm is to be open to giving things ago, but ready to 'pivot to take advantage' of new opportunities. To do this, make sure you are keeping visibility over the performance of your content so you can identify what is working best, and accept that not all content is going to be successful as you may hope.

For an Attorney perspective, read our round-up from Deborah here.

Hear an operational perspective, read Moya's top tips here.