By Brianna Sullivan
As a “millennial” myself, I can’t tell you how much it annoys me to read about how up in arms everyone is about my generation. One day we’re ruining the world, the next we’re saving it. On Tuesday we’re lazy, entitled brats but by Thursday we’re taking jobs from everyone over 35.
Distrust of younger generations is nothing new. Young people have always driven the change and trends, but what is different about millennials is our ability to drive technology trends, which ripple out and affect all consumer markets.
So is the legal industry one of those markets? I would say, unequivocally, yes. Obviously, if your target market is Gen X or Baby Boomers you should absolutely be tailoring your efforts towards them. But everyone is getting older, and millennials are going to start needing your services if they’re not seeking them out already. Here’s how you can be ready for them.
BUILD AN AUTHENTIC BRAND
Recently, I attended a talk by Valerie Jacobs of LPK, a global design and branding firm based here in Cincinnati, called “The Brand Rebirth Formula: When, Why, and How?” Valerie is the firm’s Chief Insight & Innovation Officer, responsible for leading LPK’s efforts in trend research and brand innovation. While speaking about brand creation she said, “People want a stage for their life, and brands set that stage”. This is especially true for millennials, who look for authentic companies and products to surround themselves with.
Quite often, you are literally changing people’s lives with your law services, whether that be by helping them navigate through the court system in a criminal case or reaching the maximum compensation for an injury. Let everything about your online presence—your website, your social media content, your photographs—reflect who you are and why your practice matters to you and your community. Find words to express your passion, causes to support, and share them with the world.
LEARN HOW TO “DO SOCIAL MEDIA”
“Yeah, we have a Facebook page I think…but we never use it. Twitter, no. Instagram, no. Snapchat, what is that exactly?” Sound familiar? This is another case of following what the big brands do. The most recognized names in any consumer-facing industry are leveraging the brand awareness offered by social media platforms. This is also an excellent way for you to communicate to your consumer base about your firm in an authentic way and engage better with your community. Pay close attention to the types of content you see in your personal social media newsfeed. What types of articles are coming up? What trends do you see?
This is also a chance to be a little more fun if that fits within your firm culture. At GNGF we’ve enjoyed keeping up with Instagram challenges and #hashtags to let people know that who we are and also that we’re in touch with what’s going on socially online.
FIGURE OUT MOBILE CONVERSION
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for the past year and your website still isn’t mobile responsive, you might as well stop reading now. Seriously, STOP, because there’s nothing we can do for you until you fix this egregious error.
Those of you with mobile responsive sites, let’s talk conversion. Mobile traffic continues to dominate desktop traffic, and those numbers are only going to climb. If there’s one thing that jumps into most people’s minds when they hear the word “millennial” it’s a smartphone.
I’ve written about how tricky mobile conversion is before. It’s not an easy feat to optimize conversion of your responsive site, but it’s worthy of the effort. If you can get ahead of the game of your in mobile conversion, it will give your firm an edge on the competition.
LET GO OF YOUR FEAR OF CHANGE
Technology is not going anywhere, and it’s certainly not going to slow down any time soon. It’s time for us all to channel our inner millennial and accept technology as it comes rather than waiting for the barrage of innovation to end. We’re not advising you to jump on every trend, but rather listen to the market, your clients, and to trusted partners like GNGF about what’s best for your firm.
So let’s do it. Let’s stop treating millennials like an impending apocalypse and instead embrace what they have to offer.