print
	email
	translate

Navigating Your Marketing Course

by Greg Norton, MBA, Vice President, Rainmaker Marketing, Inc.

Futurists predict there will be one million attorneys by the year 2000 one for every three hundred people in the United States. This increasingly competitive marketplace has resulted in the hard realization that the practice of law must be viewed not simply as a profession, but as a business. In addition to increased competition, the legal profession has relinquished increasing portions of its traditional marketplace to accountants and other aggressors. As a result, the legal profession finds itself battling increased competition and striving to differentiate between services making marketing a necessity.

Along with input from other well-respected marketing gurus from around the country, we would like you to consider a few things before setting your boat adrift on that ocean of marketing professional options:

1. Know Your Needs
   Hire marketing expert(s) only when it is what your firm really wants; not to keep up with the Jones'. There must be universal agreement from all firm members to organize and implement a marketing campaign.
2. Legal Marketing Experience
   Expert(s) with experience in the legal profession provide some distinct advantages. They often have other legal clients who have experienced similar challenges, allowing them to provide insight and avoid re-creating the wheel.
3. Goals and Objectives
   Generate a well-defined list of goals and objectives you expect from your marketing professional(s). This list will assist in the selection and review processes to ensure you have not only hired the appropriate professional(s), but that they are also meeting your expectations.
4. Compatibility
   People do business with people they like. Make certain the individual(s) your firm hires recognize and understand your core values and beliefs. They must have the trust and respect of everyone involved to act in the best interests of the firm.
5. Designate a Contact
   Clear lines of communication must be established and maintained. There should be one person inside the firm who is the designated point of contact for the marketing professional(s). This point of contact must have the authority and responsibility to make decisions based on recommendations set forth by the marketing expert(s).
6. Provide Information
   Help the marketing professional(s) help you. This includes, but is not limited to, sharing honest evaluations of budgetary requirements, recording accurate call tracking information and monitoring changes in case loads.
7. Long-Term Commitment
   Marketing is a long-term venture. Overnight success only happens in the movies. Development of new business through marketing can sometimes take years, make sure you give yourselves and the professional(s) ample opportunity to produce results.
8. Involve Everyone
   The lures of marketing can help bring prospects to your door, but it is ultimately their level of comfort with the firm that convinces them to sign on as a client. Every member of the firm must be aware of their responsibility for developing client relationships, contacts, reputations and visibility. There is no substitute for self-promotion.

Getting Started in Marketing

Once you have selected your marketing navigator(s), together you can begin to chart your firm's course. This is a propitious time for a consultation. A consultation is an opportunity for the marketing professional(s) to get beneath the surface of the day-to-day operations of the firm and cultivate a more intimate relationship with everyone involved.

It is vital at this point for the firm members to provide the consultant with accurate information. Good consultants, just like good lawyers, are discrete and will protect the firm's confidentiality.

Your marketing activities should be outlined in the initial consultation and be part of a comprehensive plan which outlines the growth and services of your firm. Effective marketing involves research, segmentation, positioning, implementation and measurement.

Begin with research and continue with a periodic assessment of your clients. Then, use this information to segment your areas of practice to target specific demographic groups.

Once you've identified your target audience, find a distinctive quality about your firm to position in the minds of potential clients.

Next, begin by implementing some of the following internal and external marketing strategies and activities:

1. Internal Marketing
   Internal Marketing involves the creation of an organizational climate that has the right people performing the right service in the right way. In-house seminars, training sessions and internal newsletters are methods which your firm can use to educate its staff about the firms expectations with respect to marketing, client service and business development. In addition, internal methods of data collection and analysis are critical to the success of your marketing program.
2. External Marketing
   External Marketing consists primarily of programs to communicate the firm's capabilities and its position in the marketplace. Seminars, newsletters, brochures, entertainment, correspondence and other regular external activities ensure that clients know your firm cares and is genuinely interested in them.
4. Evaluation
   It is key to regularly measure your results. Marketing programs must be evaluated to determine whether the investment, the time and money expended paid off. If your firm does not set benchmarks by which progress can be measured, it will be extremely difficult to gauge the effectiveness or success of your marketing activities.

Remember, planning is needed to provide focus for the firm to reinforce the firm's strategic plan and to determine what information is necessary to implement a successful marketing program. Therefore, make sure you have faith and confidence in the marketing professional(s) you choose and are willing to empower with the freedom of their creativity. Once you succeed in the selection and planning phase, tighten up the sails, open your spinnaker and prepare to take the lead.

Greg Norton is Vice President of Rainmaker Marketing, Inc., a firm with an exclusive focus on the marketing needs of the legal profession. He can be reached at rain@makerain.com, by phone at 910-762-9808, or by fax at 910-762-9198. Rainmaker Marketing is located at 502 Market Street, Wilmington, NC 28401. Visit their Web site at http://www.makerain.com.