Marketing for law firms

Every law firm needs marketing. It’s no longer enough to rely solely on referrals and personal contacts, important though these channels may be as sources of fresh revenue. The word ‘marketing’ may still leave a sour taste in the mouth to some lawyers, but the need for firms to introduce effective marketing campaigns is now recognised across the profession. With this in mind, what tactics provide the best return on investment, and what messages should law firms be seeking to communicate to prospective clients? David Saunders, managing director of Marketforce Communications, takes a look at some interesting statistics from a cross-section of in-house marketing specialists at professional services firms, and examines the options for law firms seeking to develop or improve upon their marketing strategy.

When Marketforce Communications recently surveyed 100 marketing professionals across the professional services spectrum, including lawyers, management consultants and accountants from some of the UK’s most prestigious firms, we expected a good level of awareness of the issues facing marketers in the industry. While it was clear that a broad range of marketing activities were being undertaken, it is concerning that at the highest level, there still seems to be a lack of ‘buy-in’ for marketing. Fifty-nine per cent of marketing professionals in law firms think that senior management often underestimates the importance of marketing. Only 17 per cent of marketing professionals in law firms strongly agree with the assertion that senior management view marketing as a key strategic function.

What is most concerning about these statistics is the undeniable evidence that the legal landscape is changing. The biggest firms – the Magic Circle and those close to them in size - are thinking global, trying to build global brands, entering the world of international business and seeking to tap new markets and new opportunities. The next tier of firms, in turn, seem desperate to shrug off their image as ‘niche’ players, and to expand their market presence, with the intention of occupying the space that the larger firms will leave in their wake. Pick up a legal journal, read the legal pages of a good-quality national, talk to a law firm, and the refrain you will hear is a ubiquitous one – lawyers no longer want to be seen as ‘just’ lawyers, but rather as business advisers and strategic partners.

But there’s a big difference between saying something and it being so. The desire to affect this change of emphasis, from a purely legal offering to an involvement in clients’ wider business strategy, is being bandied about by law firms in response to the call of the market, which is demanding strategic advisory services as well as legal assistance. This then, is how law firms, to borrow some much-overused management consultancy-speak, can seek to ‘add value’ to their clients’ businesses – but the $64,000 question is “How does one get there from here?”

Furthermore, it is an inescapable truth that law firms are not running the same race as the management consultancies, or at least, they are running several furlongs behind. Having begun to actively market themselves in the late 80s, most law firms now have an in-house marketing function. But, when it comes to picking the marketing communication techniques that will demonstrate thought leadership to potential clients, law firms are lagging well behind the management consultants. For instance, according to our research, just 9 per cent of law firms use strategy papers as one of their principal PR activities compared with 35 per cent of management consultancies.

Lawyers are not going at this from a standing start. Most firms produce publications of one kind or another, and they may also hold occasional seminars to let their clients know about important legal developments. But while this is a step in the right direction, it’s not a complete solution. Management consultancies are already implementing effective, far-reaching marketing campaigns – the ball is already rolling, and has been for some time now. Lawyers, by comparison, have some catching up to do.

The market is asking for business solutions. The two issues for law firms, then, are: how much is this approach being supported by the working style within our practice, and secondly, to what extent are we demonstrating, as opposed to just talking about, our expertise at delivering business solutions to the world at large?

The reasons behind the relative lack of sophistication in marketing techniques among law firms are manifold. Firstly, and most significantly, there is a lack of buy-in for marketing and PR at partner level and above. This is due to historical reasons – it seems that many law firms have yet to shrug off the professional’s habitual distaste for trade, and a residual perception of active marketing as a rather vulgar activity still inhabits the upper echelons of the legal profession.

An additional problem is the profound lack of outsourcing of marketing and media relations services in the legal sector. Bringing in consultants will accelerate the process of implementing a successful marketing campaign and will provide your in-house specialists with the benefit of external expertise and a sounding-board for their own ideas.

Finally, the time-based charging system in the profession reduces partnership buy-in for marketing activity. Nearly 30 per cent of the marketing professionals in law firms we spoke to think that the senior management of their company doesn’t fully understand marketing and business development. As long as lawyers work under the system of charging billable hours, it becomes difficult for a lawyer or an accountant to allocate any time to marketing without feeling that the firm is being deprived of income. The fee-earners, with their thoughts bent always towards hitting their billing targets, will be unlikely to have a lot of time to devote to marketing issues.

But support marketing they must, and if the marketers in your firm come to you asking for your input, you would be well advised to give them your attention. It is only when support for active marketing has been obtained from the partnership that the next step can be taken, which is to agree how to reach potential clients, and what to say to them. How can law firms win the attention of CEOs, FDs and board-level directors? If you don’t have a globally recognised brand, will key journalists and potential clients be willing to listen to what you have to say? How can you demonstrate expertise to a technical and a non-technical audience simultaneously and be sure that your messages are being received and understood? Above all, what should you be saying, and to whom?

Firstly, then, what shouldn’t you do? Although 80 per cent of those firms we surveyed undertake advertising campaigns, advertising is rarely the most effective medium through which to communicate the complex messages and services that law firms have to offer. For direct contact with potential clients, a simple direct-mail campaign and a well-produced brochure is a starting point. When it comes to building reputations and reaching your intended audience through trusted channels, a creative media relations campaign will produce better results at a much lower cost than a series of adverts. If you don’t want to take my word for it, then ask Bill Gates. He famously said that if Microsoft’s marketing budget were just $1, he’d spend it on PR.

A sophisticated marketing campaign designed to reposition a law firm as business advisers must demonstrate, rather than just assert, a change of emphasis. Demonstrating your credibility for the role of business adviser will necessitate a demonstration to your target markets that you know their businesses, understand their problems, and can offer them solutions. So how do you do this?

There is a gap in understanding at law firms as to what constitute the best channels to reach the intended target – potential clients. Most partners at a decent-sized firm with even a cursory knowledge of what PR is and what it can do for their firm will be pleased to see news from their firm or an article by one of their colleagues in The Lawyer or The Gazette. But the question you should be asking yourself is – how many of my clients read legal publications? If a significant amount of your new business comes from employed general counsel or via recommendations from smaller firms, great – go for the legal press. But if your firm focuses on corporate finance, you’d be better off trying to get into The Banker or Financial World. If your property department could do with drumming up some new business, call Estates Gazette or Property Week. Put simply, stop talking to your competitors and start talking to your clients!

But the inexperienced may be asking at this point – what do I have to say, and why would any journalist or businessman worth their salt listen to me and not that bigger/ brighter/shinier firm down the road?

When communicating with your target audiences through the media, it is vital to create and respond to platforms for debate on issues that are driving your clients businesses - ideally, issues that are likely to be of concern to them. Identify opportunities and threats to your target markets, and position yourself as part of the solution. Sounds simple? It can be – if you have the right perspective on the issue and the right approach to dealing with the media. What follows are the five most popular myths of doing PR for law firms – and the ways to avoid them.

Myth one – the press release preoccupation

Charity begins at home, publicity begins with a press release, right? Wrong. Press releases do have their place, and are a useful way of conveying time-sensitive information, such as a new set of survey results, or the findings of an interesting report. To give your release the maximum chance of success, it should be targeted specifically at the publication to which you are sending it. It should be newsworthy, current, counter-intuitive, interesting and relevant. But even then, the odds are against you. If your newly-appointed PR firm’s first news release on your behalf doesn’t get read out word for word by Michael Burke on the 10 o’clock news, don’t start polishing your shotgun just yet! Don’t dismiss the press release as a communications tool, but recognise its limitations and don’t view it as the be all and end all.

Myth two – the office party obsession

Your staff Christmas party, contrary to popular belief, is not earth-shattering news. Not front page of the FT news, anyway. Appointments, office relocations, Christmas parties are all great for your in-house newsletter but they’re not going to make a huge splash on the national media.

A much better way to try to develop a positive reputation in the media and to communicate the expertise of your fee-earners to your target audiences is to comment on issues that are of importance to your clients – which means focusing on business issues rather than legal technicalities. Identify the problems that are keeping your potential clients awake at night, and then position yourself as part, or better still, all of the solution.

Myth three – the journalist jitters

Not all journalists are out to ‘dig the dirt’ on your firm. Well, not unless you’ve been involved in late-night file-shredding sessions anyway! Ideally, your PR advisers will put you in the position of commenting and driving debate on issues of interest to your clients, rather than fielding accusations from investigative reporters. However, if you do find your firm under threat from negative media attention, do not bury your heads in the sand! Call your PR advisers, gather your most senior partners together, and work out as many ‘worst-case’ scenarios as you can. By the time this process is finished, if your PR advisers are any good, you’ll have your answer to most of the tricky questions a reporter is likely to throw at you. Remember, only if you speak to the press can your side of the debate be conveyed.

Myth four – the advertising accident

Advertising and PR are not the same thing! Although they can and do work alongside and support one another (think of the amount of copy written whenever David Beckham stars in an ad campaign), in the most important sense, advertising and PR are actually polar opposites. Advertising is bought by you, and as such is entirely controlled by you. Journalists, on the other hand, are not on your firm’s payroll, and will not write stories as you want them to be written. However, they can, if handled correctly, be influenced. What reporters write often has much more credibility than advertising – positive press coverage represents third party endorsement for your firm, and the more respected the publication, the more powerful the endorsement.

Myth five – the ‘misquoted’ malaise

Lawyers, by nature of their work, have an attention to detail when it comes to precise language that even the most experienced of journalists would envy. In practice, this means that the carefully chosen witticism that formed a part of your interview may often end up looking unfamiliar and irrational on the page. If you’re unlucky enough to have this experience, the effect that is occurring is the gap between how a phrase sounds and how it looks. With the nuance of tone, inflection, even gesture if it’s a face-to-face interview missing, a sentence can read entirely differently to how it was spoken. The editing process can further distort your carefully-crafted mot justes. The solution? Prepare, prepare, prepare. Be well briefed, know your subject and your interviewer, write your answers down in advance and if possible, try to anticipate some of the potential questions. It’s impossible to fully avoid the ‘misquote’ malaise – but with planning, forethought and a calm and rational approach, the worst of the damage can be avoided.

So what communications tools should you be looking at to give your PR campaign that something extra beyond what the competition is doing? Surveys and strategy papers on topical issues will both assert your ability to provide answers to the problems facing your clients and canvass the opinions of the major players in your target markets. Statistics are a perennial favourite with the press, and reports and white papers can provide double ‘bang for buck’ as they are easily adapted to marketing collateral. Base your direct-mail campaign on an interesting report and it can now give your clients some genuinely useful business information rather than just announcing that your firm exists. Above all, drop the legal perspective and find the business perspective. Your client wants to know how to drive the car, not service the engine!

There is no reason why today’s law firms cannot evolve from advising on problems to creating solutions. However, it is only through demonstrating thought leadership across a range of issues and industry sectors that the legal profession will be able to present a credible case for its slice of the action.

David Saunders is managing director of Marketforce Communications Ltd., a public relations firm specialising in professional services. For more information, see www.marketforce-communications.co.uk.