As the traditionally sluggish legal marketing industry continues to mature, no longer are the most basic marketing techniques enough to differentiate firms and lawyers, opening a new era for competition and creativity in legal marketing.
“It used to be easy…nothing had been done,” said Ross Fishman, CEO of Fishman Marketing. “Any idea at all was good. The most mediocre thing was awesome. Now it’s tough. It’s a mature industry, and that makes doing it much harder. It’s harder to stand out when the competition is really good.”
Fishman discussed marketing strategy and differentiation during “Expanding Your Strategic Driver Practices: How Two Firms Nailed Strategy, Differentiation, Online Marketing and Cross-Selling,” at the LMA Midwest at Chicago Luncheon on June 12, 2014.
Get Buy-In
The first step to any marketing initiative should be getting buy-in from attorneys that marketing works. Unfortunately, Fishman said, many firms still have a philosophy that marketing does not. Over his career, Fishman said, he’s worked with marketing committees whose sole purpose seemed “to make sure we did nothing good.”
Legal marketers in even the most marketing-skeptical environments, however, are not doomed. Fishman said to find marketing advocates. “Work with people who love you, and ignore people who don’t.” Even if a firm doesn’t collectively embrace marketing, find and create an opportunity, Fishman said. “Who’s that one litigator itching to be great?”
Get Specific
In the sea of full-service firms, lawyers and practice groups should narrow their focus to dominate and become market leaders. “You can’t be the market leader in everything, but let’s be the market leader in something,” Fishman said. “Focus all of your energy somewhere where you can be market leaders.”
Once the marketing niche is decided, the next step is to make the campaign stand out with compelling and emotional messaging. Fishman suggested using strong visuals in communications.
Marketing gains might start small, but it’s important to promote any success firmwide to create internal marketing demand. The goal is to make other lawyers envious and crave marketing support, he said.
Drinker Biddle Health – A Case Study
Fishman featured the marketing of Drinker Biddle’s healthcare practice to show his methodology in action. When the firm wanted to promote its healthcare practice, Fishman found a common theme among attorneys he interviewed: the attorneys didn’t feel like they were just doing routine legal work, but that their work was part of a larger mission to improve health care.“They really felt passionate about the good work that they were doing and facilitating for their clients,” Fishman said.
For example, the attorneys were proud of a deal they completed in Montana so that children wouldn’t have to travel two hours each way for chemotherapy. From that altruistic perspective, a campaign was developed to cast the lawyers as do-good champions for health care.
One advertisement featured headline copy that read, “Rural cancer care, enabled by Drinker Biddle Lawyers.” Another read, “Safer pregnancies, courtesy of Drinker Biddle lawyers” in connection with another project. With the campaign backed by powerful stories, the initiative helped Drinker Biddle lawyers across 14 practices and 11 offices work together and cross-sell. In addition to the advertisements, the firm created a microsite focusing on health care and hosted a health care team retreat to expand their practice.
Brandon Coutre is the marketing manager of Thompson Coburn LLP’s Chicago office. Brandon works with attorneys on marketing and business development to gain visibility and create new paths to business.