Law Practice Management Asked and Answered Blog

Category: Marketing

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Oct 28, 2014

Law Firm Marketing – Should We Advertise?

Question:

I am the managing partner of a six attorney general practice firm located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. We have been in practice for ten years. In the past most of our business has come to us through client and attorney referrals. We have not advertised. However, several of our attorneys are pushing us to embark on an extensive advertising program. I am interested in your thoughts.

Response:

Keep in mind that advertising is only one form of promotion and promotion is only one of the four elements of a firm's marketing mix. Other elements such as service strategy, pricing strategy, and service delivery strategy are often more important to the firm than its promotion strategy. For firms that are providing commodity type legal services such as personal injury, divorce etc, extensive advertising can work very effectively. However, for firms that are providing customized differentiated legal services this form of promotion is usually not effective nor appropriate. This is why it is so important for law firms to formulate their business and marketing strategies and plans before implementing specific marketing promotional programs.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

 

Oct 14, 2014

Law Firm Client Service Standards

Question:

I am the managing partner of a 14 attorney business law firm in Baltimore, Maryland. Our marketing committee has been discussing marketing initiatives and is planning on a client service initiative. Where do you suggest that we start?

Response:

You might want to start by putting in place some basic client service standards. For example:

Look for ways to become your client's trusted advisor rather that their hired gun that they only call on when they are in trouble.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

 

Sep 24, 2014

Law Firm Business Development – Individual Attorney Personal Branding

Question:

I am the owner and founder of a 7 attorney personal injury plaintiff firm in the southwest. Over the years we have become the "go to" PI firm in the area. We have an extensive advertising program including TV, radio, and other mediums. I bring in all the business and the other six associate attorneys are primarily worker bees. I have discouraged business development by the associates and now as I approach my retirement years I am realizing that this may have been a mistake and it make take more than a "firm brand" for the firm to transition to the next generation. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Response:

While I believe that a solid firm brand is important and can provide practice value when you transition and retire from the practice of law the failure of your attorneys to develop their own brands or identities will make the transition more difficult and could even result in your firm becoming a "one generation law firm". Clients of law firms tell us they hire lawyers – not law firms. Even through you advertise – your reputation and rainmaking skills have had a lot to do with your success. Your associates must develop their reputations and hone their rainmaking skills as well and you need to help them do this. Here are a few ideas:

  1. If you do not have a marketing plan for the firm – develop one. This will help focus the firm's initiatives and serve as the glue for individual attorney personal plans.
  2. Announce that business development is important and that business development goals and plans will be developed for associates and incorporated into performance reviews and compensation determinations.
  3. Initiate business development training sessions for associates.
  4. Require each associate to prepare a personal marketing plan (business development plan) each year. These plans should be goal driven with specific SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and on a date specific timeline), approved by you, results monitored quarterly, and incorporated into annual performance reviews and compensation determinations.
  5. Get your associates networking, writing blogs and articles, speaking, and press coverage when possible on case results.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

Aug 04, 2014

Law Firm Client Telephone Satisfaction Interviews in Insurance Defense Law Firms

Question:

I am the chair of our firm's marketing committee. We are a 24 attorney insurance defense firm in Houston. While we solicit feedback from some of our larger insurance company clients at lunch and face to face meetings – the sessions are not structured, data is not really tabulated, and only a handful of clients are usually involved. We have been thinking of embarking on a more structured process. I would appreciate your thoughts:

Response:

Our firm recently completed client satisfaction interviews for several of our insurance defense law firm clients. Here are a few quotes and a summary of what these insurance company law firm clients told us:

Much can be learned by talking to your clients. Structured telephone interviews conducted by a neutral in-house law firm marketing employee or outside third party can provide many surprises as well as answers. Client satisfaction interviews can be the best marketing investment that you can make.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Jul 15, 2014

Law Firm Advertising – Should Our PI Firm Consider TV Advertising

Question:

Our firm is a three attorney personal injury plaintiff located in Los Angeles. We started the firm fifteen years ago. Two of the three attorneys are equity owners. Our firm is a high volume/low case value practice – we currently have 500 open cases. A high percentage of our cases are settled without a law suit ever being filed. We are an advertising driven practice. While over the years we have effectively used a variety of advertising vehicles we have never ventured into TV advertising. We are considering venturing into TV and would appreciate your thoughts regarding TV advertising.

Response:

I have personal injury plaintiff law firm clients that have had great success with TV advertising and other clients that have had poor results. High case volume/low case value firms such as yours have had the greatest success. In order to be successful you must have the budget to be able to stay the course and the infrastructure to support and manage the advertising effort and to support the work and cases. The worst thing you can "dabble" with TV advertising. Here are a few thoughts:

  1. Be prepared to invest in TV advertising for a least six months – or don't do it.
  2. TV advertising can be scary from two vantage points. If it is not successful you will have invested a great deal of money without receiving an adequate return on your investment. I have client firms spending one to two million dollars a year on TV advertising. You could easily spend $100,000 to $200,000 before you find out that the investment is not paying off. If your campaign is successful you may not be prepared to handle the volume of work that could result – either in the form of infrastructure or working capital. (Cash Flow)
  3. Be prepared to respond to client inquiries 24/7.
  4. Prepare your infrastructure scalability plan. Do you have the facilities, communications system capacity, staff and other resources to handle an immediate dramatic increase in case volume if it comes? If not, how quickly can you scale up? Do you have access to the capital to finance such expansion?
  5. Measure and monitor ROI from your program and fine tune adjust your program.
  6. Use a placement agency that has experience with personal injury law firms. Solicit law firm references from other markets and call each one and discuss their results in-depth.

Like any other business venture – if you do the proper due diligence and do your homework – TV advertising can be a great investment – if not it can be a nightmare. I have seen it go both ways.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Jul 08, 2014

Law Firm Partnership – Client Origination Expectations for New Associate Attorney

Question:

I am the sole owner of a four attorney general practice firm in Rockford, Illinois. I am 58 and realize that in the next few years I will need to begin implementing a succession and exit strategy by probably bringing in a partner. Two of the associates have no interest in partnership. However, the newest associate hired, who had his own practice for several years, does have such an interest even though he was recently hired. He is off to a good start as far as his production. However, I believe that he must be able to originate and bring in client business as well. So far his energy and focus has been totally on performing legal work. I want to get him started on the right track in order that I can make him a partner in a few years. Please provide any thoughts that you may have.

Response:

I agree that in a practice such as yours that client origination is important. I suggest that you start by laying out and discussing with him your expectations. In other words what will it take for him to become a partner – production, quality of legal work, billings, client satisfaction, and origination of new client business? Be specific and set specific goals for him and your expectations for him but also your timeline for partnership consideration. I would suggest five years. Personally, I believe his client origination goal at the five year point should be between $300,000 and $500,000 or higher. Establish baby step goals for origination – say $50,000 after year one, $100,000 after year two, $200,000 after year three, $300,000 after year four, $400,000 after year five. This will require that you track origination fee dollars in your billing/accounting system. Specific guidelines and rules regarding the attribution of origination credit should be developed. In other words an attorney should not receive origination because a client calls as a result of the firm's brand, advertising, etc. and he is passed the call because he is the only attorney in the office to take the call.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

Jul 01, 2014

Law Firm Marketing Investments – Investing Wisely

Question:

I am a partner in a 16 attorney firm located in Baltimore, Maryland. Our clients are primarily business firms. I am the chair of our three member marketing committee which was formed three years ago. Our firm is increasing our commitment to marketing and have increased our budget over the past three years. However, we are not sure what we should be spending our money on. Your suggestions would be appreciated.

Response:

Hopefully, you have developed a marketing plan and a marketing budget tied to the specific objectives outlined in the plan. Here are a few general guidelines, tips, and best practices:

  1. Money spent on good clients is money well spent.
  2. Allocate more money to specific practice areas or niches and individual lawyers than to the firm as a whole.
  3. Tie passive initiatives to active participation.
  4. Stand out as a major contributor to a single or a few campaigns rather than making many small contributors.
  5. Constantly measure and monitor your return on marketing investment. (ROMI)

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

 

 

Apr 08, 2014

Law Firm New Business Development – Finding New Startup Companies Before They Startup

Question:

I am the managing partner of a 17 attorney law firm located in Rockford, Illinois. While we have an active business law practice representing small companies we are planning on beginning to work more with entrepreneurial and startup companies. How can we go about finding and identifying these companies earlier in their development – possibly even before they have actually launched their businesses?

Response:

Many of the larger law firms are developing entrepreneurship and startup practice areas as a means of beefing up their business practices with new sources of business. So, I believe that your plan to reach out to entrepreneurs is a worthwhile strategy if you can learn to think like an innovator rather than being trapped by precedents of the past and become part of their network. Here are a few ideas:

  1. Learn to think like an innovator, embrace opportunity, and react quickly. Precedent can be the enemy of innovation.
  2. Go where entrepreneurs go – don't just hang out with lawyers.
  3. Join business/entrepreneurial trade associations.
  4. Speak and present at entrepreneuria trade conferences.
  5. Attend entrepreneuria trade conferences and go to the educational sessions.
  6. Write and publish in entrepreneuria trade association publications.
  7. Get a booth and exhibit at small business trade shows. For example – in St. Louis we have the Small Business Expo – http://www.stlouisbusinessexpo.com/
  8. Become involved with (possibly sponsor) startup incubators in your local community or universities.
  9. Scan public documents (i.e. Secretary State, etc.) concerning new business startup filings.
  10. Become active in your local chamber of commerce.

You will increase your odds if you can develop relationships with entrepreneurs before they have launched their businesses – this may be when they need a trusted advisor the most.

Good luck!

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Mar 18, 2014

Law Firm Websites – Videos on Site

Question:

I am the partner in charge of marketing for our 12 attorney firm located in the Dallas suburbs. We are an estate planning/estate administration firm exclusively. We have a pretty good website with attorney bios and photos, articles, practice area descriptions, client testimonials and a blog that is updated weekly. We have been discussing the pros and cons of adding videos to the site. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Response:

I believe that videos can add to the quality of the site if done properly. A quality video can help you showcase your personality and bedside manner and help a potential client "get to know you." What you say may not be as important as how you say it. However, unless the video is a quality video and well done – it can do more harm than good. Here are a few thoughts:

  1. Consider a video introduction by the managing partner introducing the firm linked off the home page.
  2. Consider a video by each attorney linked off their bio pages.
  3. Consider your audience – mom and pop individual clients as well as potential referral sources. Since your clients are individuals – dress and set your tone accordingly. Be a little less formal – speak to your client concerns. Think about their concerns.
  4. Smile and be friendly.
  5. Hire professionals to help you script and film professional quality videos. (Quality lighting and sound separates professional looking quality from homemade looking videos.)
  6. Provide on-camera training and have your attorneys – Practice – Practice – Practice before live filming.
  7. If you don't have anyone that looks good on camera – don't do it.
  8. Use your own attorneys – don't hire outsiders to be presenters in the videos.
  9. Don't let the videos sound like ads or commercials.
  10. Presentations should be educational in nature and goal should be to enable viewers to get to know you. Presentation style is critical.

Done well – quality videos can improve the performance of your website – done poorly videos can reduce the performance of your website.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

Jan 07, 2014

Law Firm Marketing – Improving Advertising Results

Question:

I am the owner of a 5 attorney estate planning/elder law firm in Boston. Our business volume is been stagnant for the past several years and down substantially this past year. We try to do all the marketing that we can. I do at least one seminar a month, we are in key directories, have a good website, send out paper and print newsletters, etc. In the past we have experimented with TV and radio advertising where we used professional narrators/actors. The results were dismal at best. Frankly, I feel we need to spend more on advertising but we are undercapitalized and funds are tight. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Response:

I am working with several firms that are facing similar challenges. Here are a few comments and thoughts:

  1. A different strategy is required for firms marketing to smaller wealth clients than larger "well-healed" wealthier clients.
  2. Advertising can be effective for the smaller wealth clients that have never had a relationship with an attorney. However referrals from referral sources and past clients are still the primary source that generates the majority of new client business.
  3. Advertising is less effective in generating business from wealthier clients. A majority of business from these clients is typically generated from referrals from referral sources, past clients, and relationship marketing activities. 
  4. Some of my most successful estate planning firms, especially those that represent wealthier clients, spend almost nothing on advertising and their major marketing investment is on relationship nurturing.
  5. You might want to look into a cable TV ad or Radio Program but proceed with caution, only if you can afford to have a sustained program, only if you are in the ad and the ad is done in a way that creates a relationship with the client (not perceived as a commercial), the results and effectiveness are measured, and an effective system is put in place for responding to inquiries on a 24/7 basis.
  6. Before investing in radio or TV ads – do all that you can with the website. Insure that it enables your clients to get to know you (personally and professionally) and feel that they have a relationship with you. Consider educational FAQ videos and a video center on the website. You might use these as "baby-steps" to TV advertising.
  7. Create a marketing plan and budget to focus your activities and help you avoid random acts of marketing.
  8. Insure that your client services are top notch and actually measure client satisfaction. Since referrals is often the major source of new business, you cannot afford to have unhappy clients or referral sources.

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John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC

 

 

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