(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.543 0...

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

2007 Leigh Dance

The reproduction, modification, or distribution by whatever means of the whole or any part of this presentation

(including, without limitation, all images, logos, graphs, charts and

quotes) is strictly forbidden without specific written permission from the

author.

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Cutting Edge Marketing Strategies

of US FirmsWhat’s Hot & What’s

NotLeigh Dance

ELD Project Marketing Int’l, Inc.

PSMG London - 10 Nov. 1999

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Today’s Talk• Branding• Sales Training• Sales

Coaching• Client

Competitions• Proposal Prep

• Collateral• Electronic

media• Targeting• Database

marketing• Advertising

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Elements of Success Today:

• More creative and aggressive marketing• Client feedback and client research• More direct/intimate messages and

delivery methods• Measurement of results• 2-step focus: marketing then sales• Find something unique. Clue: it has

nothing to do with how smart the professionals are

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Today’s Buzzword:

• Everyone talks, few do it well• Need help from experts• Start by branding the firm• Taglines - help identify what you stand

for• Examples:

Womble Carlyle; Fenwick & West; Goodman & Carr ; Crosslin, Slaten & O’Connor

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Today’s Buzzword:

WOMBLE CARLYLE:• A bulldog named Winston - huge hit• Winston playing Twister, eating ice cream• www.wcsr.com - Winston wanders around

barking• Brochure: “Come. Stay.” Photos of lawyers

with their friends-- their real dogs. Puns abound

• Lawyers look like real people, fun. All communications draw attention.

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Today’s Buzzword:

FENWICK & WEST:• Carefully targeted advertising & industry

sponsorships as well as internet marketing: firm gained rep as nation’s leading Internet firm

• 240 lawyers, 59 partners - #171 among firms, #132 in revenues, #32 in profits per partner

• “Bring more value because we get in in a very deep way” -- you can hardly tell lawyers apart from clients -- Clients pay a premium to use them

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Today’s Buzzword:

FENWICK & WEST:• Only law firm ever in Fortune as “100

Best Places to Work”• Print advertising has generated cold

calls: “Will you take me public?”• Regular media stories about their wins

for clients: Smart Money story - Autoweb

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Today’s Buzzword:

GOODMAN & CARR:• Sassy, for US audience - HARD WORKING

LAWYou got a problem with that?

• Launched brand at ABA meeting in Toronto• Limos to meetings, hats and give-aways• Award-winning advertising that shows

results• Research showed same campaign did NOT

fly in Canada

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Today’s Buzzword:

Crosslin, Slaten & O’Connor:• Unique niche representing pest control industry• Bug Law: “We are the Bug Lawyers” brochure• Ads: “Some lawyers don’t know their ants from

a hole in the ground.” - fantastic client response

• www.buglaw.com - termite crawling around opening screen

• lawyers write industry articles, give speeches, seek positions in state and nat’l pest control industry

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Branding - Terrible Taglines:

• A Business Law Firm• We represent people and companies• A global law firm for the 21st century• New York’s Business Law FirmGood examples:

Fish & Neave: Leaders in the Law of Ideas

Shaw Pittman: Where Law, Business and Technology converge

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Sales Training, Sales Coaching

• Not just once in a career, once a year• Consultative selling skills, listening

skills, non-verbal and verbal communications

• Ongoing sales coaching• Sales training often outsourced• Paul Hastings - Flannery-fueled training

combined with targeted presentation efforts

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Client Competitions• Client loyalty interviews - in person or by

phone• Double or triple success rate with training

and technology-driven proposal centers designed to respond quickly and effectively

• Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse• Ann Lee Gibson: 97% record for getting

firms on short list - up to $40,000 for largest, toughest proposal responses

• Follow-up post proposal

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Collateral Materials

• Less fancy brochures, more targeted industry communications and programs

• Less newsletters, particularly broad topic ones• “Our firm is very old. We’re as good as the big firms

only more cost effective… Our firm represents everyone, from individuals to Fortune 500 companies, in virtually every practice area (long list)… We do all of them really, really well.”

• Recent informal survey showed that over 80% of lawyers in a firm hadn’t read their own brochure.

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Collateral Materials

• Pillsbury Madison Sutro - map of the technology corridor in Northern Va. - clever, memorable, serves a function

‘Tower Club is handing it out to tekkie co. clientele’

• Haynes & Boone - huge poster to roll out branding campaign. “Are You Changing?” on back is firms 10Q report. Fresh and original ‘can’t throw it away, it’s too cool’

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Electronic Media• Websites: glossy brochures of the 90’s, now

recognized as secondary reference vehicle, recruiting

• Possible trend to put less on web - proprietary info to competitors (attorney bios to headhunters, etc.)

• Extranets: front end to service integration vehicles

• Client listservs: particularly for industry groups• Brobeck & Latham: through Intranet, decentralize

marketing materials and firm resources

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Targeting/Database Marketing

• Industry-focus, trade group alliances, effective sponsorships and joint programs

• Better manage, measure and track marketing dollars

• key client efforts: focus on top clients, most productive for tailored initiatives

• relational marketing databases are widespread, most have web access

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

What’s Hot• Positioning, Logos, Branding initiatives• Technology applications that change

service delivery and add client value• Client satisfaction surveys - not written• Paranoia about how the world is changing

and reordering, including MDPs and Big 5• E-mail (pushed) client alerts• Display advertising-- airports and train

stations• Client research before presentations

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

What’s Hot• Better AV at seminars and presentations• Alumni programs • Shorter, more frequent client communications• More collaboration with other service

organizations• Highly targeted, substantive briefings or seminars• Marketing leading clients and prospects back to

websites

“Technology rules. Lawyers need to demonstrate comfort and conversancy with it, and need to market using it.”

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

What’s Not So Hot• Glossy brochures• Purposeless global firm newsletters - puff • Seminars “My dad’s got a barn, my

mother makes costumes”• Law firm infomercials• Less advertising in charity programs--

higher expectation of pay-off• “Quick-copy-shop” approach to

marketing function

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Advertising• Far more widely used in US than in UK• Focus on reach and frequency• Research shows very effective if

message communicates and ad is targeted properly

• Often used to communicate Brand• … communicate region• … communicate core practice capability • Examples

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Best Consultants - Marketing

Ross Fishman - ChicagoAnn Lee Gibson - SouthwestDeborah McMurray - Texas

Norm Rubenstein - Washington, DC***

Greenfield Belser, Washington, DCLevick Strategic Communications

(c)1999, ELD Project Marketing Int'l, Inc. - Leigh Dance - eldmarket@aol.com/001.516.726.5430

Cutting Edge Marketing Strategies

of US FirmsQUESTIONS?

Leigh Dance, ELD International391 Cobb Road, New York 11976

USAtel: 001.515.726.5430, fax:

726.5223email: eldmarket@aol.com