legal marketing Archives - andrea paulsen.communications

A new year is an opportunity for a fresh start! Everybody is rested after their year-end break and full of enthusiasm and positive expectancy. A good time to review and update your marketing activities.

You need a marketing strategy to promote your brand and a marketing plan to implement it.

If your budget is limited, prioritise digital because it’s the most cost-effective way to raise your firm’s profile. Keep in touch with your existing client base through regular updates via email newsletters and social media.

Write articles with relevant content that you can send out in an email newsletter, post on your website and on social media, and submit to relevant publications. One article gets multiple exposures – that’s time well spent.

The essential marketing elements

Website
Database (for example, MailChimp, or via your website)
Firm profile and other brochures
Monthly newsletter
Articles for external publication
Social media posts
RFPs and pitches
Events, seminars and webinars
Directory submissions (Chambers, Legal 500, etc)
Award submissions

Review and refresh

Ensure what you put out is presented in a professional manner with a consistent brand identity and voice.

Your website. Your website is your calling card. If you haven’t got one, get one. If you have one, refresh the design if the look is outdated. Replace existing content with updated information and upload new items regularly. Update individual profiles: Add new expertise, or just rewrite existing content to make it sound fresh and new.
Brochures and pitch templates. Update design and content.
Newsletter template. Refresh the look.
Social media. People are more active on social media than ever. You can’t afford not to be seen. Ensure your social media pages are aligned with your brand and your individual lawyers’ LinkedIn profiles are well-written.

Your annual marketing calendar

Enter relevant events and dates on an annual planner. These should include:

Conferences and industry-specific association events
Deadlines for directory and award submissions
Graduate recruitment university open days
Public holidays and social events where you usually send out emailers or plan functions (like Spring Day, Mandela Day)

Then add your in-house activities:

Decide on dates for seminars and workshops for the whole year. (Note: School holidays are usually not a good time for client events.)
Draw up a schedule for newsletters and assign content provision. Make sure everyone knows what they’re expected to contribute and by when.
Social media: Schedule regular posts of newsworthy information, firm news and observances. The 80/20 principle applies: For every promotional post, you should have four that provide value-adding content.

Events and webinars

Networking is important in the legal profession. External events offer the opportunity to meet prospective clients. Interacting socially adds a personal dimension to relationships. You find common ground when you talk about your hobbies and interests and your families. And that’s when prospective clients become real clients.

But the best way to find new business is not finding new clients but getting more business from your existing clients. Internal events offer the opportunity for lawyers to introduce their clients to their colleagues. This opens the door for business development opportunities between practice areas.

What type of event is best?

Educational seminars and workshops focusing on specific areas of law can position your firm as a thought leader and attract potential clients interested in those topics. Offer short, informative seminars to clients at your offices. Keep them low budget. Have a coffee break at the halfway mark to give your lawyers the opportunity to network with the clients. Don’t think food has to be the main attraction for clients to attend a seminar. Sharing knowledge and expertise at no cost is the drawcard.
Webinars and virtual Q&A sessions offer a way to reach a broader audience without the logistical complexities and costs of in-person events.

Differentiate yourself from your competitors

You can provide in-house seminars or workshops for clients about issues that are relevant to their employees. You’re not marketing your services, but you’re adding value, and clients remember that. And these short presentations can be given by junior staff – an opportunity to develop their presentation skills.

Social responsibility

Get active in your community. If you don’t already have a social responsibility programme, partner with an NGO in your neighbourhood. Get your staff involved in volunteer work. And, if you can, make a financial contribution or offer pro bono services. These activities will create goodwill and promote your brand. As a bonus, you can post what you’ve done on social media.

Your plan of action

The size of your firm, your main practice areas, how much time you have every week to spend on marketing, and your marketing budget will determine which of these elements you can implement.

Don’t try to do everything. Pick what’s most important and manageable right now. Add other elements later – a few more next year, and a few more the year after.

Do you need help deciding on the right marketing activities for your firm? Schedule a free consultation: https://calendly.com/ap-andreapaulsen/30min

Who should implement your marketing plan?

You probably have an accountant to do your books and an IT specialist to sort out your computers.

So, don’t waste time trying to become a marketing expert. Focus on your core business and outsource your marketing if you don’t have full-time marketing staff.

Alternatively, train someone at your firm who has spare capacity to handle your firm’s basic marketing activities. More about that here: https://andreapaulsen.com/legal-marketing-101/

In the 1990s, law firms started marketing their services. At first, nobody really had a clue how to do that. Marketing professionals from other industries tried their best to figure it out. Also, initially, the ability to market legal services was restricted.

But the biggest problem was that smaller firms just didn’t have the budget to employ someone to figure it out at their expense.

So, big firms recruited marketing people, and over time, by trial and error, they learned the best practices for legal marketing.

Small firms just muddled along. And most of them still do. Skilled legal marketing professionals are in short supply, and small firms can’t afford to employ them anyway.

That’s why smaller firms are missing out on projects they’re well qualified to handle. Because big firms have beautifully presented pitches with a myriad of client testimonials and legal directory rankings, they impress.

As a small law firm, wouldn’t you want to be able to compete on an equal footing?

What if I told you that there is a way to put you and your firm on the map without breaking the bank?

Since 1994, I have been involved in law firm marketing. First in the UK, then in South Africa. Twenty years ago, I joined a medium-sized firm to increase their profile on a shoestring budget. So, what did we do?

I looked at what lawyers do already. They read, and then they write. They study the latest case law, weigh in on new legislation and its implications, debate the impact of ground-breaking judgments, and write opinions for clients. Why not turn all that into articles?

And that’s what we did, and I got these articles published in business publications. Regular columns in newspapers followed and, voilà, these marketing efforts began to gain traction.

Then we tackled submissions to legal directories, added some small events, got media coverage, and the firm’s footprint increased.

As a result of our directory submissions, some lawyers were ranked in their practice areas. That immediately made them more marketable. As the firm kept on growing, so did the marketing team. They prepared stunning pitches and handled all other legal marketing activities.

What’s your main obstacle to achieving growth and stability?

You may be a two-lawyer firm or a start-up. Or you may have a team of six or eight lawyers with expertise that matches that of lawyers in bigger firms. But it’s unlikely that you have in-house marketing support in any of these scenarios. And you don’t have the time to spend hours on the internet researching the best practices for a firm your size and in your niche.

For new and smaller law firms, it can seem like a formidable task to establish a thriving practice. It’s a competitive market. You may well have a few clients on board already, but the ongoing challenge is to retain those clients and to grow your client base.

The most cost-effective solution

Marketing is one of the most important aspects of business survival. The key is to know which marketing activities are right for a firm of your size. You want to improve your firm’s visibility and stand out in a crowded market with targeted, effective marketing techniques. Establishing trust and credibility will boost client acquisition. You need strategies to retain more clients, enhancing your firm’s growth and stability.

You may not be able to employ an experienced legal marketer, but you probably have secretarial or admin staff with the capacity to learn the marketing basics.

The most cost-effective solution is to upskill your existing team with the skills and knowledge to manage basic marketing tasks efficiently. With the right guidance, they can do what I did for that firm twenty years ago, just faster.

Marketing doesn’t have to be a process of trial and error. My article, Start the year with a marketing plan, gives you some ideas on what you could do. But your practice areas and your niche in that sector will determine the marketing activities that will give you the best returns. And that’ll vary because each firm is unique.

All you need is some guidance from an experienced legal marketer to provide your staff with basic legal marketing skills.

If you’re interested in finding out how to do that, have a look at our training pages.

Legal marketing for sole practitioners and smaller firms