Marketing for Law Firms & Legal Practices
Marketing Advice for Legal Firms
Strategic Marketing for Lawyers, Legal Practices & Law Firms
Marketing Knowledge saves legal firms marketing costs. Understanding the best methods of marketing for legal firms generates more new business, and better clients, while building long-term advantage over competitive firms.
Just as lack of legal knowledge can be fatal in Court, lack of marketing knowledge can be fatal in business decision-making: Ignorance is no defence…. be it in a Court of Law, or in Marketing a Law Firm.
Admittedly, decisions made with lack of marketing information in law don’t lead to a conviction or hefty fines, but they can undermine morale, harm reputation, ruin image, rob a legal firm of profit, kudos, word of mouth referral or key legal personnel!
Talk to a qualified marketing expert who understands legal marketing issues, knows the workings of customer behaviour, certain procedures to adopt in certain situations, and possesses a network of proven marketing services suppliers.
Secrets of Marketing a Law Firm
Even lawyers can make the mistake of perceiving ‘marketing’ as a fancy term for ‘personal selling’ or ‘advertising’, the creation of brochures, newsletters, press releases, Facebook & other Social media content, and other public relations.
Marketing of legal services is MUCH more than simple promotion, requiring focus on driving revenue and building client loyalty & volume.
Branding, advertising, direct mail, seminars, Web sites, Twitter accounts, etc. MAY be necessary, and constructive, for your legal firm. So too can cross-selling, networking, generation of referrals, and creating client service and partnering strategies… but “it depends”.
IMPORTANT: The “rules” vary according to budgets, goals, resources… AND according to specialisation (product type), product category, competitive positioning, category life-cycle, segments, target audience, etc… In other word, you really need an expert if you’re going to do it properly. Call or email to arrange a consultation & advice. Call 02 8011 4355 NOW.
Marketing Management of a Law Firm
Disciplines that are Necessary for Marketing Legal Firms include:
- Developing marketing objectives and strategic marketing governance (Vision/Mission/Purpose)
- Selecting the most suitable Promotional mix (advertising, PR, online, client relationship development, other)
- Value-based or other customer-focused pricing strategy – Setting fee structure/s and pricing for optimal sales/profit balance
- Positioning Management : e.g. Determining if and which referral-generating methods might be appropriate
- Operational Marketing Communications Management. e.g. Choosing corporate colour, name, logo, marketing communications and collateral
- Marketing Planning: Budgeting, Product/Service Development & Portfolio Management, Internal Marketing.
- Marketing Information Management : Customer Value Management (Profitability Analysis), Industry & Market Research.
- Selecting key employees, merger and acquisition targets, goodwill and pro bono policies
Plan the Marketing of Your Legal Practice
“We never thought we would be asked to take a brief from the best client in the industry… without notice they rang and asked for a brochure! If only we had been prepared but our hasty response and light-on document prepared by a friend of a friend, blew our chances completely… we didn’t even know what to include! If only we’d taken Marketing seriously…”
Every service business must plan… plan for growth, plan for market changes, plan for contingencies, plan around competition, market changes, uncontrollable factors… e.g. What if the law changes? What if your competitors get aggressive? What if there is another GFC? What if your senior partner develops serious health problems? What if a major client, or two, dissappear?
Important Facts for Marketing A Law Firm
- Did you know that advertising is the LEAST important part of your Promotional Mix, which, in tunr, is only a minor part of yoru Marketing Mix?
- Dubious advice can come from advertising firms CALLING themselves “marketing consultants”: Advertising ≠ Marketing!
- Lawyers are no more qualified to be marketers than Marketers are to be Lawyers. Avoid marketing advice from legal advisors – YOU are the trained lawyer, its a trained marketing expert you need to appoint!
You wouldn’t advise a person to go to Court without expert legal advice… So why would you go to your market without expert Marketing advice?
- The Legal Industry is relatively new to sophisticated marketing – useful and proven methods can be borrowed from experienced cross-industry consultants.
- Refuse unqualified advice – ask to see your marketing advisors’ credentials!
- As in Law, the right advice saves money!
- Marketing analysis helps legal practices improve profit.
Are You Sure You Have a 100% Water-Tight Marketing Plan?
If you have read this far, you may want to talk with someone who can assess how you might get more clients, better clients, more profit, or even simply lower marketing costs… Why not do it now… Just email us by clicking this button, or fill out this form and a consultant will get back to you ASAP. Remember, “Procrastination is the thief of time” and the sooner you act, the sooner you’ll achieve your goals!
