Nora Lockwood Tooher of Lawyers Weekly (ntooher@lawyersweekly.com), talked to four marketing consultants about how many law firms waste precious marketing resources. Jim Calloway, Tom Kane, Gerry Riskin gave excellent answers, and I too was asked "what are the five biggest marketing mistakes that law firms make?"
Here are my top 5:
1. Not having a marketing strategy.
According to Bodine, many firms wait until their rainmakers are about to retire before they suddenly realize no one else in the firm has ever opened a file. It's crucial, he said, to have a written plan that addresses overall marketing goals and has specific objectives. It's equally critical to review the plan regularly - say every six months - to see what has actually been accomplished.
Bodine advises firms to identify their most profitable practices and focus their marketing efforts on those areas. Marketing can start with simple things like visiting clients at their offices, taking them out to lunch and other relationship-building activities.
2. Focusing on yourself instead of your clients.
Instead of describing the firm's practices on a website and in printed materials, present the firm in light of how it can serve the industry or client it hopes to represent.
3. Failing to mention representative clients.
"Spelling out your client roster is a great way to distinguish yourself and flag appropriate clients. Don't be shy about asking your best clients to show the flag - they may well be honored to be asked, and delighted to be listed," he said.
4. Failing to list success stories.
Most marketing materials consist of vague brochures touting the firm's "excellence." Instead, Bodine suggests that these materials describe each lawyer's accomplishments and the firm's major cases.
5. Repeating mistakes.
Some firms make the same marketing mistakes year after year - like buying tables that go empty at a local charity event, mailing thousands of holiday cards nobody reads or sponsoring expensive events that attract freeloaders, but no new clients. Bodine advises firms to tally marketing expenditures and track which items actually produced results. If no result has been achieved, the activity should be scrapped.
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Posted by: Dave Hackbart | March 19, 2006 at 04:08 PM