How to improve your marketing IQ: don't spend more – just spend it more intelligently

A recent survey revealed some interesting findings in regard to law firm Marketing. The report, entitled ‘Improving your marketing IQ’, argued that mid-sized firms could be wasting as much as £80 million on marketing every year with mediocre standards of creativity, a lack of original thinking and a failure to use intellectual capital. Victoria Ash and and Paul Griffith, founding partners of The Marketing Team, assess the results and provide some advice on how law firms can use the findings for a better future in legal marketing activity.

Ten years ago, spending money on marketing was a contentious issue for many law firms. Greater competition, more sophisticated buyers and a recognised need for more professional management mean that the situation today has changed out of all recognition. Nearly all ambitious firms have taken the decision to invest in formalised marketing and business development, and the available evidence suggests they are spending between two and four per cent of annual revenues.

The Marketing Team recently undertook a survey to see how effectively that money was being spent. Our objective was also to identify what the common factors were among the successful firms in this sector.

The conclusions of our survey were not encouraging in terms of effectiveness. Despite evidence of hefty investment, the overall conclusion was that mediocre marketing by three quarters of the firms that we surveyed means they are missing a major opportunity to differentiate themselves and win more business. Our calculations show that firms in a group that includes ambitious mid-tier firms and the UK practices of most US firms could be wasting around £80 million every year on marketing that achieves poor results.

In other words, organisations don't necessarily need to spend more on marketing, they just need to spend it more intelligently. The ray of light that shines out from this conclusion is that it should be relatively easy for ambitious firms to stand out from the crowd and differentiate themselves by improving their marketing. In particular, there is a huge opportunity for firms to identify unique ‘intellectual capital’ based on their knowledge and experience, and use it to drive original marketing activity.

Objectives
Our objectives in carrying out this survey were to improve understanding of marketing best practice for both our clients and ourselves. We chose to audit a sample that includes ambitious, high-growth firms in the mid-tier across the UK, as well as the UK operations of many US firms. We chose this sector as one where competition can be fiercest and one where access to experienced marketing resource is often limited.

We also wanted to develop a benchmark, which we call the Marketing Index Quotient (MIQ), of external marketing effectiveness that would help firms score themselves and identify opportunities for improvement.

Using part of our proprietary marketing audit methodology, we analysed and scored the public-facing aspects of a broad cross-section of firms' marketing, including:

Proposition and targeting;
Brand and identity;
Use of intellectual capital;
Sales and marketing orientation;
Awareness raising.

The survey focused on the external elements of a firm's marketing that are visible in the public domain to clients, prospects, recruits and influencers, and are critical to shaping awareness and reputation. These represent the ‘broadcast’ marketing activities that are susceptible to this form of research. Firms carrying out a full effectiveness audit would of course also want to review the strategic planning, business development and internal resourcing that make up the full picture of marketing activities.

Analysing the Marketing Index Quotient (MIQ)
The Marketing Team used the audit findings to develop the MIQ of external marketing effectiveness, identifying a number of groupings with shared characteristics to enable us to pinpoint opportunities for change and highlight deficiencies. At the top of the MIQ are the firms we’ve called Dynamites – the top 15 per cent who score consistently above average. Below them are the Dabblers – a large block of two-thirds of the sample who achieve mixed scores and are characterised by inconsistency in their marketing. At the bottom of the heap are the 18 per cent whom we've dubbed the Damp Squibs – firms that score poorly in most areas.

The breakdown of the scores for the three groups in chart one shows how the Dynamites stand out. While they don't score highly on every indicator, focusing on their shared characteristics is highly instructive.

Branding and visual identity
This is often the area where firms are spending most in terms of external marketing. There is evidence of substantial investment in branding and marketing materials, such as brochures, websites and newsletters, among all three groups but only one in four firms has a visual identity that stands out consistently. Dynamite firms manage in general to avoid the verbal and visual clichés that are common among law firms' published materials, and create an identity that is creative and courageous. They also tend to apply that identity consistently across all their materials, creating higher potential brand awareness among their audiences.

Proposition
The Dynamites in our survey are clear about what they do and for whom they do it, and about what sets them apart from the competition. They make it easy for clients and prospects to identify a fit with their needs. Moreover, they communicate their proposition consistently in a way that makes them stand out from the crowd. Among the Dabblers and Damp Squibs, propositions lack clarity, focus and differentiation. As a result, it's often extremely difficult for prospective clients to distinguish one firm from another by their marketing activities.

Intellectual capital
In common with other professional services firms, a law firm’s knowledge, experience, and original thinking are its greatest marketing assets, alongside its people. This intellectual capital can be used to differentiate a firm, to create credibility and to demonstrate track record and thought leadership, supporting the vital development of face-to-face relationships.

Given this opportunity, we were surprised to find that even among the Dynamites not a single firm differentiated itself successfully across the board in its use of intellectual capital. This is mostly down to a lack of proprietary research or thinking about their clients’ businesses and industries, and a failure to turn it into original marketing such as research papers, articles, events or speaking opportunities.

While many firms put substantial time and effort into commentary on legal matters – for example in newsletters and briefing papers – this does not always add differential value to their clients. And this kind of ‘me-too’ marketing does little to make them stand out. Similarly, few firms publish case studies of client work; while this may be a sensitive area, it is an important chance to demonstrate market understanding, original thinking and the depth of client relationships that is being neglected.

Sales and marketing orientation
Our evaluation of best practice in this area was necessarily limited to how firms handle incoming new business enquiries and requests for information. Even these limited measures, however, suggest poor business development practice in most firms including the Dynamites. Although the latter were quick to respond to requests for information, a substantial majority of all firms do not adequately qualify incoming sales leads or follow them up effectively. More than 40 per cent of the sample failed to respond entirely to a request for firm literature. All of which suggests that firms aren't doing enough to pursue and track business development opportunities.

Awareness raising activity
This is another key area of investment for many firms, keen to raise their profiles through media relations in particular. Again, as chart two shows, the Dynamites stand out here not only for the volume of their activity but also for its effectiveness in generating positive media coverage.

As the chart shows, Dabblers’ investments in PR tend to be less effective. Mediocre news announcements that fail to pass an editor's ‘so what’ test are probably largely to blame, along with probable poor targeting and follow-up that were beyond the scope of this audit to assess.

Another key point to note from the chart is the high level of news coverage – often brief mentions of appointments or deals – compared with in-depth feature coverage. Those firms that are successful in generating in-depth articles on themselves are generally those who have leveraged their intellectual capital or thought leadership. As a result, journalists seek their partners’ opinions, include the firm’s views or research in analysis pieces and articles written by the firm's lawyers are published in external media.

What can managing partners do?
Managing or marketing partners and professional marketers who are concerned about the quality of their marketing should focus on a number of key actions.

Clarify and articulate your vision
The first priority is to clarify and articulate your vision. Spend time on thinking about who you are, what you do and what sets you apart from the competition. Simplify your proposition, profile your target markets precisely and identify what your core services are. By investing in this formal planning process, you'll make your marketing much more effective because it should help you decide upon your marketing priorities and focus resources so they deliver better value.

Conversely, don’t let perfecting your proposition become a block to action. Use a heavy dose of pragmatism to decide your focus and win firm-wide consensus, and recognise that your proposition will evolve over time.
Take the outsider's view
Look at your firm as an outsider might. Do an objective audit of the externally visible aspects of your marketing, and seek the opinions of clients, prospects, suppliers and others to give a third-party perspective. Combine this with a full review of the internal aspects of your marketing to evaluate the effectiveness of your processes and strategy, and review your client development practice. Then compare your findings with your marketing objectives to establish how successful your marketing has been, including the return on investment you are achieving. If you don't have clear objectives in place, now’s the time to develop them!
Market intelligently
As we said at the outset, for most firms it probably isn’t a question of spending more on marketing, but of making their marketing more intelligent. Means of achieving this will vary from firm to firm, but here are some suggestions drawn from the survey findings and our experience:

· Unlock your intellectual capital – it's your most valuable asset. Think about how you can use your knowledge, experience and original thinking to create marketing value, especially by using original research.

· Organise your marketing activities into integrated campaigns that enforce the same message time and time again. Cut down on the uncoordinated, ad-hoc activity

· Don’t try and do everything at once. Work out in which order you want to tackle your target sectors and focus marketing spend on objectives rather than on tactics.
Invest in experienced marketers
One of the other keys to achieving intelligent marketing is to resource it properly with professional marketers. Too many firms either rely on individual partners and fee-earners to make marketing happen. As their time for marketing is limited, it makes sense to focus what time they do have on shaping the vision of the firm and unlocking its intellectual capital, not on process or tactical activities.

The other pitfall to avoid is employing marketers without sufficient experience or seniority to drive results and contribute to the overall strategy of the firm. Junior staff will often deliver excellent tactical results but Dynamite firms recognise the value of senior marketing professionals who take responsibility for developing marketing strategies and campaigns that will make a real difference, and for winning firm-wide support for them. If you don't think your budget or objectives justify a full time marketer at this level, consider outsourcing the role.
Evaluate effectiveness regularly
Finally, when you set your objectives, plan how you will benchmark results in order to assess effectiveness. At the very least re-run internal and external audits on a regular basis to track change.

Why bother?

As with losing weight or giving up smoking, improving your marketing can be subject to lots of avoidance behaviour. Aggressive growth targets will be sufficient stimulus for highly ambitious firms but there are many other triggers to consider, including:

Responses to particular competitors who are moving into the Dynamite category;
Current expansion projects (into new geographical, industry or service-led markets);
The need to attract new or better recruits;
Concerns about client profitability or retention.

And, of course, if you are concerned that your marketing may be a tad less than dynamite then think about how much you are spending on marketing per week.

The old adage applies – if not now, when?

Victoria Ash and Paul Griffith are founding partners of The Marketing Team. For further information, Victoria can be contacted at: victoria.ash@themarketingteam.co.uk