Throughout March, Bates Wells proudly celebrated B Corp Month alongside the rest of the global B Corp community. It was, writes Stan Verkaik, a fantastic opportunity to spread the word about the movement as well as collaborate with other B Corps.
Our goal
We wanted to use B Corp Month to help solidify our reputation as ‘the B Corp law firm’, allowing us to work with more clients who share our values of making a positive social and environmental impact, while providing useful content to organisations that are either already B Corps or thinking about certifying. We played a leading role in bringing the B Corp movement to the UK and we are now six years (and three certifications) into the journey, so we felt like we had some handy tips that we were keen to share.
What did we do?
We produced a host of high-quality, succinct and practical materials to help organisations with all things B Corp. At the centre of this was a series of guides, which included:
- Handy tips for B Corps
- B Corps – recruiting and retaining your people
- The General Counsel’s guide to becoming a B Corp
- The Operations Team’s guide to becoming a B Corp
- Top tips for acquiring or investing in a B Corp.
We shared these guides directly with clients and targets, as well as indirectly via social media posts and targeted sponsored LinkedIn campaigns.
We also connected, collaborated and shared our resources with other B Corps on B Hive, the B Corp community platform. The platform is filled with like-minded organisations striving to use business as a force for good, so it wasn’t difficult to find willing partners to help bring our ideas to life.
For instance, we produced a Q&A series with some fellow B Corps, with each focusing on one element of the B Corp ‘triple bottom line’: people, planet and profit. The triple bottom line is central to the B Corp mission, refocusing the aim of business to do more than just make a profit, but also to make a positive societal and environmental impact.
We also shared content that promoted the wider movement’s campaigns, like the Beyond Net Zero Campaign. Another important campaign is the Better Business Act, which aims to change UK law so that every company in the UK must put the wider interests of society and the environment, alongside their shareholders, at the heart of their purpose.
And finally, our Managing Partner, Martin Bunch, was a fascinating podcast interviewee for the Green Elephant Show, which you can listen to here.
On top of all this content, we also ensured that all of our people were confident about talking to clients about the benefits of B Corp status and what the movement means to us. As we suspected, this turned out to be the easiest part. Since being a B Corp is now such a key part of our identity and a major reason why people come to work for us, everyone in the firm holds the values close to their heart.
What was the response?
We were delighted with the response. The content was disseminated widely on LinkedIn and Twitter, and we have received lots of praise on B Hive for the helpful and informative nature of the content. We will be analysing the metrics over the coming weeks to identify what worked well and what we can improve for next time.
Stan Verkaik is a Senior BD and Marketing Executive at Bates Wells. He can be reached by email: s.verkaik@bateswells.co.uk.
