A law firm marketing agency vs a generalist marketing agency
In recent years, to ward off increased
competition and pressure on the pricing of their fees, large law firms have started using
agencies and then training
to better ‘promote’ their marketing for law firms. A movement born in the United States and
which has spread to
Europe, undoubtedly encouraged by the gradual repeal of laws aimed at prohibiting lawyers from
advertising.
Thus appeared ‘legal marketing’ and the rise of a new profession, that of a legal marketer.
For their part, marketing techniques have adapted to the requirements of consumers who now want
a relationship with brands as well
as a personalized experience with companies, regardless of the communication channel used.
A law firm's marketing is now seen as a way for the legal sector to rethink its ‘client
relationship’, to place the legal
consumer at the center of its activities. Since it conforms to ethical rules, legal marketing is
perfectly suited to
legal professions.
The most successful companies in the legal industry today are those that recognize marketing as
a major strategic asset.
What are the objectives of legal marketing?
-
- Differentiate yourself from the competition
With the overabundance of legal services and the pressure on prices, legal marketing is
an investment that allows you to better understand the needs of your clients,
to communicate and interact with them, to differentiate yourself and better ‘sell’ your
legal services.
-
- Gain new customers where they are
Legal marketing allows you to look at relationships with your customer and put the
customer at the center of your
organization and your actions.
-
- Make your customers your brand ambassadors
By understanding your customers, their expectations, habits and behavior, you bring your
customers into a personalized and lasting
relationship.
Legal Marketing: How Does It Work?
The function of marketing is to attract new customers and retain more existing customers,
with a view to growth and improve profitability.
The primary focus of a marketing agency is to set up an interaction between the company and its
potential clients.
To do it, on-target marketing efforts must be chosen to answer the wants and needs of the
customers. Only then the
methods recommended by the marketing agency will bear fruit.
The main distinctive feature of
a competent marketing agency is creativity. Since every company is unique and special, being
creative is the only
way to come up with a marketing plan that hits all the right targets. It’s all about the choice
of words (motto,
keywords, arguments) and visuals (logo, style, usability). And don’t forget about the workflow.
In a nutshell, legal marketing is like a ‘flow’, or a continuum, leading to sales and ultimately
the profitability of
the business. Marketing uses upstream techniques to bring qualified leads into the flow. Then,
all efforts are aimed
at advancing the potential customer towards a purchasing decision, and finally guiding them to
the provider of the
service or the final legal product - you.
Who is legal marketing for?
Because it conforms to ethical rules, legal marketing is perfectly suited to the legal and
insurance professions.
Legal marketing will concern all businesses that offer legal services or products, whether in
the private or public
sector and regardless of the B2B or B2C business model of the company or the organization.
How to choose a marketing agency for lawyers?
The world of legal professions, in particular that of the lawyer, is very competitive. In order
to stand out from the competition, it has become necessary to develop a marketing strategy.
This is where the marketing agency comes in. Such an agency is a privileged partner of the
company working to improve its image, increase its visibility, or get more cases.
However, choosing a marketing agency, which suits your needs, your objectives and the problems
related to the profession of a lawyer, is
not necessarily easy. This is because marketing for lawyers is highly regulated and few agencies
can respond to it.
Though marketing for legal firms has its specifics, companies that work in this field build
their
operational process around projects and project managers who are the point of contact between
the agency and the
client. Their work is equivalent to that of an orchestra conductor: they assign various tasks to
operational staff,
follow their team in the creation and implementation of marketing means and ensure their proper
functioning. They
take care of that while staying on budget and on time.
Generalist marketing agency vs specialized marketing agency
There is another complexity in choosing an agency: should you choose a generalist
or specialized agency?
Generalist marketing agency
A generalist marketing agency has global knowledge of subjects related to marketing and
communication. It can intervene in all sectors of activity and
themes (technologies, textiles, crafts, etc.). However, when it does not have the knowledge or
skills in-house on
certain subjects, it can call on external companies.
For a law firm, it means more contracts, more meetings, more time required for project
management. Usually, lawyers lack time being busy with their legal things and
obviously are not eager to increase the pressure by getting another bunch of meetings and calls.
Moreover, more
people involved means more responsibility shared. If something goes wrong, it would take another
eternity to find
the weak point and fix it.
Specialized marketing agency
A specialized marketing agency only works with companies in a single sector of activity.
This type of agency has a perfect knowledge of the challenges of the sector and the companies
belonging to it.
It is common knowledge that if a company specializes in something for a long enough time, it
gets really good at it. Specialized agencies know all in’s and
out’s thanks to their vast experience in the domain. This fact can be hardly overestimated in
the legal industry.
Moreover, by working with a law firm marketing agency you can be sure you will have only one
contact person (project
manager) who will be responsible for putting your marketing needs into place.
5 things to consider when choosing a specialized
marketing
agency
After having had so much information
on how to choose a marketing agency, you may wonder how to decide between these companies?
Let’s get through the main selection criteria on which you can rely to make your choice.
The agency's expertise
The first question to answer is: what is my need?
Once this question is answered, you will interview the
various agencies to ensure that they are suitable to meet your needs.
You can obviously evaluate offers of
different types of agencies (generalists, specialists, etc).
Team experience
The number of years of experience is often seen as a guarantee of success. It is true that this
criterion is important,
especially in the legal sector. Indeed, experience proves that the agency has some knowledge of
the trade.
However, technologies and the internet are changing very quickly. We, therefore, recommend that
you pay particular
attention to the different types of projects already carried out, as well as their results.
Understanding the needs and objectives
You will surely communicate to the various agencies that you contact, the
equivalent of a brief comprising your needs and objectives.
First, pay attention to the respect of the
response times. If the deadline you have given is fair, agencies should respond by the deadline.
You just need to read the first few lines of their response to see if they understood your
request.
Do not hesitate to encourage discussion with the agencies. A serious agency won't just respond
to your brief. She will try, through
dialogue, to deepen the goals you want to achieve.
Relationships
Some projects can last several months or even several years. It is, therefore, preferable to
come to an understanding with your
marketing people. A positive and pleasant relationship will be one of the assets of the success
of your
communication projects.
Price
Don't go overboard by choosing the most expensive one.
A high price is not a guarantee of quality. Don't go for the cheapest solution either. A large
number of law firms
subsequently find themselves dissatisfied. Choose the agency that will offer you the most
suitable and efficient
solution.
What you can expect from a legal marketing
company
Usually, a law firm marketing agency covers the primary areas of marketing strategy so your
company could focus on what you can do best
without having to come up with ways to attract customers. Here are some of these areas:
Brand strategy
Creating value for customers allows you to forge lasting relationships with them. This
essential marketing rule requires the choice of a brand that will be at the same time a
guarantee, a signature, and
a spokesperson. Marketing specialists co-design your brand identity and verify that your firm's
name is meaningful
and available. For the Internet, they design your logo, associate it with a graphic charter and
a values charter.
Thus, your visual identity is created. From these fundamentals, they imagine your overall
communication strategy,
both externally and internally.
Website for a law firm
Marketing experts audit your website in order to optimize its content and operation. If you do
not yet have a website, they may co-create it by
integrating your distinctive signs. They take care of the conception, design and development to
get an ergonomic,
responsive, practical and dynamic site in order to capture the attention of visitors. Also, they
build a digital
prospecting strategy to convert visitors into prospects.
Editorial strategy for law firms
A marketing agency defines the editorial line and the types of content that interest your
potential market and
can bring traffic to your website. According to your expectations, they offer the creation of
blog articles, forums,
videos, white papers, ebooks, newsletters, email campaigns. The regular publication of content
establishes a link
with your visitors and allows when coupled with referencing campaigns (search engine
optimization (SEO), keyword
research, Google adwords, landing pages), to improve your visibility on social networks and
media (conversion rate,
ppc, content marketing). The content will be what makes you stand out and your added value
compared to your
competitors.
Law firm's communication on social
networks
As a true community manager placed under your control, the guarantor of your online brand image,
a marketing agency animates your virtual
communities to create relationships with your stakeholders based on trust and interest. They
improve your image and
your e-reputation on networks and social media and promote interaction with your audience.
Traditional and digital public relations
Print press, radio, the Web or TV, a good marketing agency defines
marketing and public relations strategy for all media, both digital and traditional. They build
your image and
distribute it to your target audience through the media. They organize meetings with relevant
journalists and offer
you topics to speak about. This helps to increase the traffic on your website and to build your
notoriety and your
e-reputation.
Customer relationship management
To differentiate themselves, law firms
have at their disposal tools and working methods to improve and enhance the relationship with
their clients. These
CRM tools will also allow you to gather a lot of information on your prospects and your clients,
on their needs and
expectations. Thus, you and your marketing agency can jointly imagine new service offers or
improvements to existing
offers capable of helping you gain market share and retain your customers over time.
Automated Marketing
The ‘marketing automation’ approach allows you to retain your visitors as soon as they log
on to your website by offering a user experience specific to each of them. For some visitors,
this will be for
example the possibility of downloading a white paper on a subject that interests them. For
others, it will be the
proposal to subscribe to the firm's newsletter, which maximizes the result of the visit by
leading the visitor to
complete a contact form. This information will allow the firm to build a base of qualified
prospects.
To get more details, please contact us to discuss how we can attract more customers to your
business and get your
marketing experience to a whole new level.