Terra Extraneus

The sword play among law firm marketing pundits and bloggers of late pretty well proves the point: law firm marketing did not grow as a profession and the concept of law firm marketing, much less governing principles, have never emerged. Larry Bodine’s blog on law firm marketing and the startling candor of Betiayn Tursi in her magazine summarized the state of things.

However, the reason few law firms “get it” when it comes to marketing, in addition to the fact that trying to organize a law firm owned by more than one lawyer is like herding cats, is because the concept of “marketing” is all but illegal among lawyers, much less not a subject of educational course work.

If law firms are ever to going to “get it,” it will only be because they finally figure out that it is the “brand” and the “brand recognition,” first and foremost, that lays the foundation for “marketing” as most lawyers understand it and accept it. Because “solicitation” is generally illegal for lawyers, the idea of “branding” and promoting the brand is often obscured. Even if you never solicit a client, make the law firm identifiable, brand it, and make the brand well known, and solicitation either becomes unnecessary or easy (and legal).

Most law firm employees that are titled as some sort of marketing professional can only be effective if they can help the firm create a brand and successfully promote it. Most law firms stumble on this through charity sponsorships. Not the ones in which the forty largest law firms in town are also named sponsors, but the ones which they sponsor exclusively, especially those charity events promoted by an existing client or officer of a client. It starts off with a few golf or T-shirts. The next year the charity event rolls around, it involves a few radio spots. The third year it includes a local but sophisticated newspaper and electronic media campaign in which the law firm becomes one of the spokesmen for the event or the charity. And after that, it takes on a life of its own.

While other marketing plans and efforts continue, such a corner stone leading to community recognition is the first step that makes everything else work. Also, it is the most fun and leads most law firms to meet the most new people in the shortest amount of time.

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I had this thought this morning: “Effective marketing is not so much about the big splash as it is about countless continual small ripples.” Knowing that there are no new thoughts, I Googled “marketing + big splash + ripples” to see what others have said.

• First, I came across Jeffrey J. Fox’s book, How to Become a Marketing Superstar (2003). Fox is an award-winning marketing consultant and best-selling business writer, who also wrote, How to Be a Rainmaker (2000). In Marketing Superstar, Fox has a chapter titled: “Always make a big splash, instead of a lot of ripples.” Guess we know where he stands.

• Second, I came across an online article, “How We Must Learn To Face the Consumer Again,” by Jarvis Coffin. Coffin is CEO of the web consulting firm Burst! Media, and previously was an ad director for the LA Times and USA Today. Coffin contrasts the approaches of Google and Yahoo in capturing the Internet advertising market. He writes:

Therein lies the online problem for an advertising and media culture reared on big fish and small ponds: it’s not about splash, it’s about ripple effect.

I’d have to do quite a bit more reading to know exactly what either Fox or Coffin have in mind by their use of the splash/ripple metaphor. They’re both gurus, and they may both be right. But when it comes to law firm marketing, I’m much more inclined to think in terms of making a lot of small ripples than chasing after that one elusive big splash.

With billions of pages of content on the Internet, as well as dozens of other forms of media inundating us, making a “big splash” is a very hard thing to do. Pouring all of one’s law marketing efforts into trying to make the next big wave is likely to be ineffective and frustrating. But each day in countless ways, a professional is able to make small ripples. New contacts made, old contacts renewed, a new product or service offered, new twists on old products and services, etc. There’s always another small way to get oneself “out there.”

With each new idea, one may immediately think, “Why bother? This won’t make a big splash.” Probably true. But enough small ripples can get the job done. No telling which new acquaintance, which single-column inside-page news article, which new blog content posted, which business card handed out, will result in new business. And for lawyers, the truth is that when the next “big case” does come through the door, it is just as likely to have been landed by one of those countless small ripples than by one big splash.

(Hat tip to UK blogger Anja Merret, who writes, “Chatting To My Generation,” for pointing me to the Coffin article).

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LexisOne reports: “Why Most Business Web Sites Miss the Mark: The Top 10 Mistakes Businesses Make Online.” This article contains nothing new, but it is a decent review of the basics of website marketing.

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FOLLOW THROUGH IS THE HARD SECOND MILE

What are the tools of successful law practice marketing? A sleek website. An informative blog. Cultivating referrals. Lots of networking and community involvement. Outstanding client relations. All of these are important factors.

However, I challenge any marketing guru to identify a more important rule of law marketing than this one:

Follow through with the prospective clients who have already come through the door.

This is an aspect of law marketing that is too little mentioned, perhaps because it is too often neglected. However, obviously, follow through is absolutely make-or-break for the success of any law marketing campaign. What good is an elegant, flash-animated, SEO-primed website, or a provocative blog that is conquering the ecosystem, or dozens of qualified contacts from seminars and social events, if the attorney doesn’t follow through with the prospective clients who come his or her way?

I’m not talking about “follow up” (with contacts), I’m talking about “follow through” (with prospective clients). Marketing efforts generate contacts, and of course it is important to “follow up” with contacts. But when a contact approaches you about his own legal need, your “follow through” with that prospective client is the single most crucial step in your marketing strategy.

A referring attorney has shot you an email and shipped over a box of documents and is awaiting your evaluation. Someone who previously requested “more information” online has now called your office, asking you to take a look at her legal matter and tell her what you think. During a break at a seminar at which you were a panel member, a casual acquaintance approaches you, describes his legal problem and asks if you can help.

But that was three weeks ago. Or maybe three months ago. Between juggling your current caseload and running your business and keeping all of your marketing efforts up to speed, you have not managed to advance your relationship with that prospective client one iota. No follow through.

For an attorney in a small or solo practice, it can be easier and more pleasant to devote time to sprucing up the website, posting to your blog, or making the rounds at a business function, than to walking the hard second mile of follow through with the prospective clients who have already come through the door. In the initial phase of law marketing the goal is exposure, and success is measured by the number of hits, clicks, contact cards, business cards, etc. But when a contact becomes a prospective client, the romance begins to fade and the hard work begins.

After all, what are the odds that that prospect actually has a legitimate case worth pursuing? These considerations have greater application in some practice areas than in others, but especially in civil litigation, experience has taught you that:
• Prospective clients often get it wrong in evaluating the merits of their own cases.
• The more you dig into a matter, the more you are likely to uncover the “fatal flaw” that the prospect “forgot” to tell you about upfront.
• There is a good chance that even if some harm has been done to someone, there may be no legal basis for recovery, or any wrongdoer with sufficient assets to pay a recovery.
• There is a danger of investing real time and effort to work up a case that will end up going nowhere.

Ever had such thoughts? Are such thoughts, perhaps at the subconscious level, impeding your follow through and thus crippling your marketing? The smarter an attorney is, the more experienced he is, the more times he has been around the block, the better he gets at recognizing the flaws and weaknesses in each prospective case that comes his way — until, eventually, every new piece of prospective business looks like a pig in a poke.

Yes, working up prospective cases can be unappealing, disappointing work, but it is vital to a lawyer’s marketing strategy to have mechanisms in place to make sure he does not drop the ball on follow through. Here are some suggestions:

(1) Keep a log of prospective clients. Whether stored in the database of top-of-the-line legal software, a pedestrian contact program or an even simpler Microsoft Word chart, the log should include each prospective client’s name, date and nature of the first contact, brief summary of the matter, last step taken, and next action required.

(2) Make sure you are capturing the information about your prospective clients. When a prospect calls your office, will the person fielding the call obtain and record the necessary information? If the prospect sends an email, will it get buried in your inbox and forgotten? How are you making sure that information about prospective clients is being captured and logged?

(3) Review your prospects log periodically. Once a month is not enough. In a month’s time, your prospective client may have moved on to another attorney who actually seems to care. Once a week is better. This is an appointment with yourself that you must keep, regardless of how busy it gets. Let’s face it, if being busy is an excuse to let your prospective clients slide, you will never get around to them.

(4) Keep your prospective clients appraised of your progress. Make phone calls and send letters. Don’t leave them hanging. They understand that working up the case may take some time, but they also understand that you are busy, and they don’t want to be forgotten. Besides, a commitment to make progress reports is a good way to keep you on target to actually make some progress.

(5) If the case just isn’t any good – make a decision, advise the prospect accordingly, and move on. Once again, don’t leave the prospect hanging unnecessarily.

(6) Cultivate a culture in your office in which it is understood that prospective clients get red-carpet treatment. From your associates down to your receptionist, make sure everybody understands that in your office, prospective clients are not nuisances or nuts, they are the ones who are going to pay next month’s and next year’s rent.

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Blogs are a great law marketing tool. The Yellow Pages are out. Firms must move beyond marketing to sales. Law marketing guru Larry Bodine made these and other interesting comments in a recent interview. Here are some excerpts:

• “Law firms are just beginning to use blogs … A blog is a fantastic marketing vehicle because it establishes the author as an expert, an authority. Smart lawyers will pick one narrow, particular topic to focus on their blogs.”

• “There’s no longer a need for the Yellow Pages. I tell my clients to cancel their ads and start a blog instead.”

• “I’ll give you an example. Dennis Crouch … has a blog called Patently-o and the site gets 50,000 visitors a week. He told me that his blog has brought in Fortune 500 companies and more importantly, referrals from lawyers he has never met. He writes about patents that were granted and has now made himself the national expert. And he’s been in practice only four years!”

• “How much should a law firm spend on marketing? The rule of thumb is to spend 2% of gross revenues, not counting marketing staff salaries, on marketing and business development.”

• Bodine predicts the next law marketing trend will be to move beyond marketing to sales: “Marketing will raise your profile in the market and make you well known, but it is sales that bring in new business. In law, you don’t say ‘sales,’ you say ‘business development.’ That entails picking a target … and a long-term plan to acquire the target. … Most law practices are composed of clients who sought them out. The lawyers didn’t pick the clients so many lawyers hate what they are doing. The new trend is to pick your clients and go after them.”

• “Another trend is remote law practice. Most law practice comprises transactions, and that entails documents. A lawyer can be anywhere to write the document and the client can get the document on the web - there is no need to be anywhere specifically. … All you need is the Internet and a phone connection.”

• “I ask [lawyers receiving consultation] what they like to do in their practice. Then I ask what kind of people they like to work with. Next I’ll ask what activities are fun for them, such as boating or golf. Then we are going to mix in business development with what the lawyer does for fun. Finally, we turn to finding people whom the lawyer can help. This is how lawyers should market: find someone you like, someone whom you can help in your particular field and get out there and have fun with them.”

Here’s the whole interview: “The Most Effective Forms of Legal Marketing”

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