Marketing for Legal Firms

How can a marketing campaign work for a legal firm; is it about advertising, brand building or other clever ways of improving their profile?

The first most important thing is not the medium to market but being able to clearly define a firm's key positioning or 'how they wish to be perceived' in the market. A key element to developing this is determining their points of difference over their competitors. Now this can be a challenge with a professional services firm, as all firms basically offer very similar services. Hence the importance of developing a profile. For instance in Banking, all banks provide the same service but their profile in the market is very different. Westpac is the environmentally conscious bank, and supports women in the workplace. St George is the friendly bank. Bendigo are trying to corner the Green market.

It all comes down to who you want to target, understanding that target market and speaking into their listening.

Many firms do not understand the value of their staff as advocates for their brand
A good internal branding campaign that ensures that everyone understands the key positioning and messages to the market is so important. This way everyone is speaking the same thing to each contact point with customers and prospects.

Not speaking in legal jargon, becoming approachable and easy to deal with is important.

Then we decide which medium to communicate through. This is again based on the target market, select the best medium for the target. Targeting women, sports pages of the daily newspaper may not be the best place, targeting young people? Try websites, podcats, and blogs.

- What are some effective ways of raising the profile of a firm?
Legal firms have been in a conservative and traditional environment which has only been allowed to advertise within the last 10 years!

Profile raising through sponsorship, being a 'good citizen', regular editorial sharing ideas and IP, good news stories with customer testimonials, online such as website and more recently blogs.

What should firms be trying to achieve; an image of respectability or something more dynamic?
All depends on the target market again. One of the biggest challenges is to gain people's trust … the legal fraternity does not exactly have a reputation for truth and saving people money!! Be open, available, friendly, non-jargon. Steer clear of any projects that will be perceived negatively by your target market.

One example of a Qld firm is Trilby Misso, they've done extremely well through their marketing strategies and several take overs of small suburban firms. Their positioning is "The right people to have on your side. Because we care". Trilby Misso really changed the PI environment in Qld by firming up the concept of legal fees being paid through a winning case. They position themselves to the public as "your local lawyer" by having suburban shop fronts and specialising in PI, workplace accidents and estate law rather than a much wide gambit of legal services. The thing here is, they defined their market and stick to communicating in the right way to that market.

- What risks should firms be aware of if they seek to ramp up their profile?
Keeping their promise to the market, don't say you are one thing and then do another. This is just ammunition for competitors.
Don't promise too much.
Be willing to comment but train your key staff in responding to the media.