There is a common misconception that law firms don’t need to place a great deal of effort into their own sales and marketing activity. Although its true that fee earners conduct their own sales activity, experience shows us that the firms who do not have a separate team for handling advertising, marketing and sales often suffer losses in both time and money.
It is time to stop pretending everyone and anyone can do marketing?
If you’re trying to do everything yourself, you might be wearing yourself too thinly and unless you know how sales and marketing functions operate or how marketing disciplines continues to develop, your firm could just simply be doing what has always worked. Until it doesn’t work anymore. Then what?
The answer could simply be to hire a professional. The right hire will know how to pitch your services as well as having a sound understanding of your practice area and how best to target the types of clients you want. Law firms today have a much greater appreciation for marketing as an investment, rather than just a cost. Dedicated marketing professionals are being hired to develop brand awareness and to expand the client base whilst simultaneously keeping existing clients happy. Most firms now have full-time marketing support in-house to help achieve business and client development goals.
Marketing professionals know how to target and communicate with your clients, which is why they’re professionals. While you might see your service through the eyes of a lawyer, the marketing professional can show you how to package and sell your product to the right clients. Sure you can do it on your own, but imagine the results you’ll get from leaving it to the experts.
I guess you could ask yourself “Why waste precious hours of company time formulating the words and images to an advertisement you can only hope will be a success?” Is it not a smarter move to put that time and effort towards billable hours, and expanding your client base?
The difficult part of this is that these people are few and far between. Recruiting someone who is both good at sales and marketing and who understands the complex needs of the law firm is not an easy task. These people are rare and hard to source. If you are lucky enough to find one, you should really try to hold onto them.
Perhaps there is an alternative solution?
Blueprint Enterprise is unique in that we solve that familiar issue of clear communications between legal and marketing professionals. What we offer requires no organisational restructuring or changes to job descriptions, and because we are campaign or project specific, you can run pilots with us to gauge efficiency and profitability.
Our team blends legal, technical knowledge with promotional expertise and skills. When you engage with us you speak directly to both legal and marketing experts at the same time. If you’re looking for a team of people with in-depth legal knowledge, an understanding and appreciation of client requirements and in conjunction with a clear strategy for growth, then maybe you should give us a call.