Leading Law Firm Marketers Explain How To Escape the Law Marketing Echo Chamber

Kevin Wheeler and George Beaton

Together, we have more years of experience in law firm marketing than we would care to admit. Over the decades we have definitely seen the professionalism of this key business function improve, but why do we still despair so much about law firm marketing?

Well, the main reason is that so much of it still revolves around traditional promotion like events (including hospitality), judge-based awards entries, and legal directory submissions?

Where is the strategic approach marrying an understanding of market demand to a firm’s capabilities?

Where is the focus on key market segments, i.e. primary target markets? Where is the client and market research?

What about current key clients and growing these rather than constantly chasing new ones?

And finally, where are the research-based thought leadership campaigns that demonstrate insights into current and future issues impacting clients and allow firms to demonstrate capability by presenting possible solutions?

Sadly, we think the lemming-like nature of the legal sector where firms tend to copy each other rather than doing things differently lies at the core of the problem.

Lawyers don’t like to take risks. It’s safer to move with the herd. It’s a lucrative sector; why change? Also, most lawyers have big egos; they are very competitive with their peers.

How else can you explain the fascination with directory entries and awards? The humble brag reigns supreme!

In those firms where we see a strategic approach to marketing, the difference is usually a marketing leader/team prepared to challenge firm thinking and educate the partnership to change.

Of course, you also need the firm leadership—managing partner and board—to be behind you and help you set a strategic marketing agenda for the firm.

How to avoid being a marketing lemming

So, what should your firm do to avoid being a marketing lemming? Firstly, recruit professional marketers to support the partners.

People who have the intelligence, experience and strength of character to stand up to the pushback that will inevitably come from the partners, many of whom will be resistant to the change that is necessary.

And remunerate them so that they are on a par with the partners. Even make them up to partners. These people will drive revenue and profit growth at your firm – they deserve equal status and the same rewards as the partners, whose primary role is making the product.

Next, get your firm’s business strategy in place. Marketing flows from this. What are your firm’s capabilities: where are you strongest in terms of services, client types, sectors and geographies?

What are the trends in your key markets – where is growth coming from and how are clients’ needs changing? What is your firm’s reputation – what are you famous for? How does your brand perform against your main competitors? 

Then set out in a five-year strategic plan the key market segments that the firm will be focusing on for growth, what the targets for these will be, and what resources and programmes will be needed to get there.

Key Client Programme

• Identify the firm’s most important clients. Allocate Client Relationship Partners (CRP) to each, along with dedicated teams of lawyers to service their current and expected needs.
• Continually confirm that you understand each client’s needs by undertaking regular, formal feedback.
• Prepare a client service plan and use this to report progress to the team and rest of the firm. Link some of the CRP’s remuneration to the delivery of this plan.

Thought Leadership Campaigns

• Build insights into the key issues across the market segments – services, client types, sectors, jurisdictions – that you are targeting for growth. Preferably commissioning research to underpin this.
• Get your lawyers to interpret the implications for clients and use this content to engage in discussion with both clients and targets to sell solutions.
• Demonstrating this capability should be through conference speaking, hosting seminars and round tables, distributing reports and articles, and in face-to-face meetings.
• Digital marketing now provides a very cost-effective way to deliver messages directly to your target audience. Advertising, sponsorships and corporate hospitality by contrast are very expensive and do not work, i.e. their ROI is miserably poor.
• And clients do not care much about your directory rankings or awards, unless these are based on robust client research.

Developing Lawyers’ BD Skills

• For your firm’s marketing to produce results, namely new clients and business, your lawyers must have excellent business development skills.
• Ensuring that the right training and coaching is in place so that these understand the process for building relationships and selling the firm’s services is crucial.

From this, distil out a strategic marketing plan covering each of the following three main elements:

Do all of this, and your firm will set itself apart from all the lemmings. Good luck.

The Authors –

Kevin Wheeler is the Principal of Wheeler Associates and is a Business Development adviser who set up Wheeler Associates in 1997. The consultancy acts exclusively for law firms and other professional services firms providing advice and support on all aspects of marketing and business development. He regularly writes about and consults with organisations in the UK and globally on business development matters.

Dr George Beaton is Executive Chairman of Beaton International and holds MBBCh, MBA and PhD degrees. He was a senior fellow in the University of Melbourne business and law schools for 30 years and was the inaugural chair of the College of Law program board for the Master of Legal Business innovative suite of qualifications. He has authored two books on the legal services industry.