10 Tips for Effective Legal Marketing Brainstorming
February 6, 2012
Content Development, Legal Marketing, Practice Management
By Gina Rubel
Brainstorming is one of the most valuable and creative tools firms can harness to foster their brands, communicate their messages, and deliver impact in their law firm branding, marketing, and public relations. It is important to understand that with any type of meeting, there are important elements to consider when conducting a brainstorming session. Here are some tips that will help make your legal marketing brainstorming more effective.
Appoint a moderator: As with all meetings, appointing a designated person to run the meeting will result in more productive, effective, and focused results. The moderator should be someone who is seen as neutral from within or outside the firm. If the boss is the moderator, you can be sure the brainstorming will not be as effective because by nature of the role, participants will likely feel intimidated and not share their uninhibited ideas.
Mix it up: It’s important to pull from as many populations as possible. Don’t just invite your senior partners–rather, include people from various aspects of your business. If it makes sense, consider inviting clients, colleagues, referral sources, vendors, and other strategic partners to participate in the process. Be sure to remember those who deal with clients on the front line including receptionists, administrative personnel, and paralegals.
Communicate a clear objective: Participants of the brainstorming activity should all understand the objective of the session. Explain why they are there, the objective of the gathering, and the basic rules of the game. Think of it as a game: everyone needs to know the rules before they can play along.
Define the target audience: Brainstorming ideas will be a much less daunting task when you know the target audience you want to reach. Messages for clients may be very different from those for referral sources or internal audiences. It’s important to communicate who you are targeting before generating ideas.
Start with an ice breaker: In order to get everyone in the room comfortable, have the moderator conduct a 15-minute ice breaker. There are hundreds of resources for icebreakers. However, one that I recently witnessed that worked well was to have the moderator make a statement and then each person in the room had to add to the statement. In between each person’s statement, the moderator says “and,” and then nods to the next person to speak. For example, the moderator could say, “I am really happy when I start my morning with a giant cup of coffee and…” then the next person would respond. At no time is a person interrupted or stopped–the idea is to create an environment of free-flowing ideas.
Accept that all ideas are good ideas: When you bring people together into a room and ask them for their ideas, let them deliver their ideas without feedback or criticism. All ideas are good ideas and every idea can lead to something else. Don’t stifle creativity.
Capture the ideas neutrally: There are many ways to capture ideas neutrally. That could mean having people write their ideas on index cards and having the moderator read them, having each person write their ideas on sticky notes and post them on a board in categories, or getting even more interactive using electronic message boards connected to laptops. Regardless of the mechanism you use to deliver the ideas, make sure you capture them in writing.
Don’t deliver criticism: It is important to let the ideas flow. Allow the participants to be as creative as possible. Remember, all ideas are good ideas. In the ground rules, explain that participants may not use any negative comments or language. Tell them that they cannot use language that will ruin brainstorming such as:
- That won’t work.
- That’s not a good idea.
- I’m concerned that it won’t …
- I have reservations that…
- I’m not quite sure that …
- While that’s a good idea, I think we should …
Provide closure and follow through: During the final 30 minutes of the brainstorming provide a mechanism for anonymously voting on the ideas that the attendees believe are the most feasible using a 0 – 5 (0 being least effective to 5 being most effective) scale. Tally up the scores then determine the top three ideas. Then spend time discussing next steps on the top three ideas. The moderator should explain who will follow up and how, and then thank everyone for their time. If there will be another meeting, provide the time, date and location before ending the brainstorming session.
Stay on time: All meetings should start on time and end on time. Make sure the moderator explains how long the brainstorming will take place and each of the components of the meeting. Consider the following structure:
- 15 minutes for your icebreaker.
- 30 minutes to conduct a brainstorming activity such as word associations.
- 15 minutes to cluster those activities into categories.
- 15 minutes anonymously voting on the ideas that the attendees believe are the most feasible using a 0 – 5 (0 being least effective to 5 being most effective) scale.
- 15 minutes discussing next steps on the top three ideas.
Think of brainstorming like a war room meeting for trial strategy–all ideas are good ones until proven otherwise. Remember what Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
About the author: Gina F. Rubel, Esq., owns and operates Furia Rubel Communications, Inc., a legal marketing and public relations agency. An author, communications strategist, and lawyer, Gina and her team have won numerous awards for media relations, web and graphic design, strategic planning, marketing, and leadership. A nationally sought after speaker, Gina also blogs for The Legal Intelligencer and The Huffington Post. You can follow her on Twitter @GinaRubel, call her at (215) 340-0480, or go to www.FuriaRubel.com.
