Big companies, including law firms, sometimes go into bankruptcy. It happens a lot. But when it's a major law firm, like Dewey LeBoeuf, the reasons for its demise can give us some clues about the future of all law firms.
The most corrosive concept in marketing is conventional wisdom. Why?
When everybody who holds any kind of a responsible job there is making more money than any of them ever dreamed they would, and when they're in an industry in which every competitor would pay anything to hire them away, how do you motivate people? How do you get them to stay, and to produce at the high levels demanded by high tech companies?
Here's a little secret about professional services marketing. It always comes down to selling the individual clients ' one by one. And it doesn't matter if your firm is the largest or the smallest.
The transition from the past to the future is not yet complete ' and won't be as long as we ignore the competition part of legal marketing and reside in just the mechanics.
Publicity, which is a basic purpose of the media release, uses the release as a basic tool. It's not an end in itself, despite the artistry of a good release. Its purpose is to communicate ' an idea, a fact, a product's value or superiority. It should inform, it should be read by a target audience, it should clarify or persuade. And it should get published.
It's taken more than 30 years for the legal profession to overcome the long-standing tradition under which any form of frank marketing and promotional activity has been considered unacceptable.
A marketing plan should focus not on the firm, but on the individual practice. When this is done effectively, not only does the plan work, but this kind of program redounds to the entire firm.
Despite thousands of dollars spent on research about why people choose one professional service firm rather than another, we still know remarkably little. Professional services are, to a large extent, too amorphous to respond to simple motivation, but there are some reasonable surmises that can be made, based on both logic and experience.
Professional services marketing is not a litany of mechanics. It's a process that's designed to bring a firm and its prospective clientele together. More than just accumulating clients, the effective marketing program helps shape and secure a practice that's relevant to the dynamic needs of both the firm and the clients it serves.
