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Successful Marketing By Larry Alton Successful marketing is difficult in just about every trade, but the challenges are compounded in the legal industry where firms, individuals, and companies are required to tread carefully as they adapt to changes both in the workplace and the marketplace. However, for those who are able to understand the intricacies of legal marketing, the opportunities for growth are numerous. The Origins of Legal Marketing The concept of marketing and advertising is pretty straightforward in the vast majority of industries. The legal industry is not one of them, though. When it comes to legal marketing, there are many complexities and challenges facing the industry. When you study the legal industry, it’s important to remember that marketing 26 | www.atlantaattorneymagazine.com and advertising have only been legal for a few decades. Until the 1970s, it was essentially prohibited for law firms to engage in any sort of promotion. However, that all changed in 1976 when two men – John Bates and Van O’Steen – decided to do something about it. The decisions they made altered the legal landscape forever and permanently shifted the focus of marketing departments around the country. That year, Bates and O’Steen were really struggling to maintain a profitable law practice. Their law firm was designed to serve low-income individuals, but they simply couldn’t attract the volume of clients needed to turn a profit and stay in business. So, they decided that their only two options were to either, watch their practice fail or violate the laws of ethics and advertise their services and fees. Bates and O’Steen placed an ad in a Phoenix newspaper and it worked. They attracted tons of clients and business picked up. “This was the first time anyone in the legal industry was brave enough to challenge the precedent that had been in place for decades,” explains Joseph Genovesi of Thrivest, a company that works closely with attorneys and their clients to provide legal funding. “Many of the lawyers we work with now depend heavily on their ability to advertise, so this was a bold and important decision on their part.” But Bates and O’Steen also attracted some unwanted attention. The President of the State Bar of Arizona filed a complaint and a hearing panel recommended a six-month suspension for the two lawyers. The case was a big deal in the legal community and made it all the way to the
Supreme Court, where it was overturned on the grounds that truthful advertisement was protected under the First and Fourth Amendments. “The case stands for the idea that commercial information is something that offers vitally important information to consumers just as other types of speech, and the speech is important because it leads to economic decisions that govern our lives,” Bill Canby, the lawyer for Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, according to the First Amendment Center. But others feel as if the Supreme Court reached the wrong decision. “My skin crawls and stomach screams when I see the ads for lawyers who promise to fight like tigers and at very low cost,” John Frank said in an interview with the First Amendment Center. “I believe that advertising has become so sufficiently promiscuous that it is a profound change in the practice of law.” Three Challenges Facing the Industry Clearly, there are mixed opinions on legal marketing and advertising. And though we’re 40 years past the Supreme Court decision, the industry still faces some pretty stout – albeit different – challenges. Let’s take a look at some of the issues law firms have and why many are struggling to gain exposure in ethical, natural, and high-returning ways. 1. Lack of Client Education Consumer education is important in every industry, but there are few areas where it matters more than in the legal world. In almost every case, the client has something at stake – money, freedom, reputation, responsibility, etc. – and a failure to properly understand what’s happening can lead to catastrophic consequences. From the law firm side of things, it’s crucially important that firms are able to develop educational content as part of their overall marketing and advertising strategies. It’s the only way to develop healthy and stable relationships with clients. Unfortunately, many aren’t investing in client education. This is either because they don’t know how, or because they don’t recognize the need. Thankfully, there’s a lot of flexibility in today’s marketplace. With social media, blogging, and the pervasiveness of content marketing, it’s possible to publish educational materials in the form of eBooks, white papers, articles, and videos – and then push this content to highly targeted audiences. For an example, look no further than O’Steen’s current law practice to see what this looks like. 2. Attorney Pushback Against Content Attorneys – like almost everyone else – are creatures of habit. For the past few decades, law firm success has depended on networking. So, when marketing and advertising finally became options, it was difficult for many to switch gears. Nearly half a century later, many lawyers still struggle with the concept. “Many attorneys believe their networking efforts are the only tactics that successfully bring in new business,” says Matt Naffah, a marketer who works closely with lawyers. “While networking is an invaluable tool for bringing in new business, I don’t believe it’s the only tool at your disposal.” Naffah is a strong proponent of using legal content marketing to generate clients. However, he also recognizes that getting attorneys to buy-in is one of the biggest challenges the industry currently faces. His solution is to encourage firms to try content marketing for a substantial period of time and use predetermined KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to judge the results. In most cases, the KPIs will show that legal content marketing yields a positive return. As we move forward, look for more legal firms to hire content writers and copywriters in order to gain the upper hand in this aspect of digital marketing. It’s a dynamic shift in the legal workplace and will shape how clients perceive the firms they choose to work with. 3. Out With the Phone Books, In With SEO Today’s client is much different than he was 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Instead of picking up a phone book and shuffling through to find an attorney, people are utilizing the resources they have in front of them to make educated decisions. In most cases, this means a search engine like Google. But even more than searching for something like, “Personal Injury Lawyer + NYC,” people are searching for lawyers and then navigating through their websites to gain a clearer picture before making contact. “What we’re finding is that our traffic is increasing in terms of people finding us through organic search said,” Jim Matsoukas, CMO of a large law firm, when asked about the biggest legal marketing challenge he’s facing in 2016. “We have to be more sophisticated and more strategic about the language we use on the site and the language that we use in our ads and in our alerts, articles, and publications and how that matches up with people looking for legal services. I think that’s important.” In other words, while Bates and O’Steen were simply trying to gain visibility in 1976, today’s legal marketers and advertisers must be more strategic. It’s about gaining visibility and then cashing in on this platform by using the right language, resources, and content. It’s not uncommon in law practices around the country to now have weekly meetings with SEO experts and digital marketing teams. This is a pretty clear shift in how lawyers view the Internet as a source of reliable traffic generation. Leverage Legal Marketing the Right Way In most industries, marketing is straightforward. Choose your mediums, tell the truth, and see what happens. In the legal industry, things are a bit more complicated. There’s much more at stake when clients choose law firms. In order to successfully and consistently get new clients onboard in 2016, it’s imperative that you invest in quality content that allows you to overcome the challenges and roadblocks that have emerged. Furthermore, it’s important that you educate clients in honest ways that prove your firm is equipped to take on their challenges. Bates and O’Steen paved the way – it’s your turn to carry the torch. Larry Alton is a full-time freelance writer and business consultant. With over 7 years of experience providing strategic consulting to companies ranging from Fortune 500 firms to small, locally-owned shops, He has directly observed the way America’s workforce is changing across differing industries and businesses. VOL. 6 ISSUE 1 ATLANTA ATTORNEY MAGAZINE | 27
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Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents EDITORIAL 6 Miles
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Page 9 and 10: Work & Life Balance HELPING YOUR CL
Page 11 and 12: UNDERDOG By Yona Pesman every clien
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Page 23 and 24: The RMN Agency: A Legal Recruiting
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