Marketing Campaigns That Stand Out

So why is it that many law firm marketing campaigns appear mindless? Don't believe us? After a critical look at ads in any of the industry magazines you'll be taken aback. A recent survey of law firm ads and Web sites conducted by MindFull, Inc., showed that, with few exceptions, most firm ads fall under one of four stereotypes:

Slave to the peer group: Presents a laundry list of all the qualities every firm is expected to have. Hello! This is called cost of entry.

Chest-pounder: Goes on about how big the firm is, or old, or how many clients they have. Should be relatively easy to read between the lines: unless you're big, like us, you'll be lost in our giant, stodgy old firm. OK, it works sometimes for a few 800 lb. gorillas, but it's a bust for everyone else.

Knows all the slang: Fills every square inch of ads and Web sites with obfuscating jargon. Cool, dude. (Is it me, or did they spend two pages saying nothing?)

Class clown: thinks it takes a joke to get noticed. You have 10 minutes to skim the Wall Street Journal before an important meeting because you're looking for jokes? Unless it leads to something important, it's a wry smile, a flip of the page and you're forgotten.

The unfortunate result of such stereotypic ads is prospects and clients who pay little attention to legal marketing. Few players are recognized. Even among the top 200, prospects and clients have a hard time differentiating between firms. (Ask your clients to name 20 players ' that's just 10%. You'll be surprised how few can.)

While most of us personally moved beyond these stereotypes in late adolescence, for some reason, we've stuck to them in marketing. We're intelligent adults, so why do we persist in this?

Because we think the goal of marketing is to get awareness.

We believe that getting our name out there, telling prospects our firm has what they want, accomplishes marketing's primary goal ' generating awareness. This is a mistake. It's hard and time-consuming to evaluate a long list of firms. That's why clients quickly reduce the list of firms they're 'aware' of to a short list they think they want to work with. If you don't get beyond awareness, you'll never make it to the short list. The goal of marketing is not to create awareness, but to create desire. Prospects are not likely to desire you because you have 30 more lawyers than the next guys on the block, were founded a generation earlier, or have an office in Kuala Lumpur. They're going to want you because of the way you think, and the best way to show them how you think is to tell them something that gets them thinking. Provoke thought, and you begin to plant the seeds of desire.

'Be provocative? Isn't that dangerous? What if some prospects don't agree with us?' Yes, they may not all agree with you, but they'll notice you, and they'll respect you for taking a stand. And there are ways of provoking thought that are appropriate for different firms. Consider these approaches taken by three very different and hypothetical firms:

After two quiet years, the CEO of Amalgamated Worldwide is looking for deal opportunities again. Jackson, Johnson and Jones has a strong Corporate Finance Group. They run ads showing a large traffic light, with the headline 'Looking for Green Lights?' They offer, in print and at their Web site, a brief piece challenging the assumption that a lawyer's role in the deal process is to uncover problems early on. Jackson, Johnson and Jones thinks differently ' they see their role as looking for reasons to move forward, and they give examples of early assessment that cleared the way for speedy, successful deals.

Pierce, Plotkin and Principio have been around forever. They represented the Dutch when the Indians sued to get Manhattan Island back. They decide to give their longevity a new twist. They host a series of breakfasts where they cite 25 of the most commonly held myths about litigation, debunk them, explain their source, then show how they used this to aid clients.

MacNeil & Mulgavey made a name for themselves in the go-go years of the New Economy ' private equity, IPOs and intellectual property. With the first signs of a thaw in the technology sector, they've begun to market again, via Webinars explaining what went wrong in the bubble, and showing how smart firms are steering clear of those problems today.

Your firm is full of bright, interesting people who do amazing work for clients. Finding intriguing points of view, new ways of thinking or startling facts should be easy. Use them and you will get people thinking. Your firm will look different. The end result? Clients will want to work with you.

Let the other firms hide their intelligence. Be thoughtful in marketing and your business will flourish.

Beau Fraser is a managing director and founding partner of MindFull, Inc. in Boston, a marketing services firm that has helped companies in many categories break from conventional wisdom and set new precedent that separates them from competitors. You can reach him at 617-368-6427.

'Let's hire a dumb lawyer.'

Five words you're likely never to hear. Lawyers may come in all shapes and sizes, and their styles may run the gamut from presidential to ruthless litigator, but one thing you expect them all to be is smart. A dimwitted attorney is as desirable as an accountant who's bad with numbers, an architect with poor spatial perception or a management consultant who thinks ROI is the French word for king.

When prospects are considering a new law firm, they look for intelligence, expertise and knowledge. Given the intellectual nature of the firms they seek, one would expect marketing in this category to be of the highest caliber: thoughtful, interesting, provocative. After all, it's the first step toward a close working relationship between professionals and executives who are at the top of their game: bright, successful, adults.

So why is it that many law firm marketing campaigns appear mindless? Don't believe us? After a critical look at ads in any of the industry magazines you'll be taken aback. A recent survey of law firm ads and Web sites conducted by MindFull, Inc., showed that, with few exceptions, most firm ads fall under one of four stereotypes:

Slave to the peer group: Presents a laundry list of all the qualities every firm is expected to have. Hello! This is called cost of entry.

Chest-pounder: Goes on about how big the firm is, or old, or how many clients they have. Should be relatively easy to read between the lines: unless you're big, like us, you'll be lost in our giant, stodgy old firm. OK, it works sometimes for a few 800 lb. gorillas, but it's a bust for everyone else.

Knows all the slang: Fills every square inch of ads and Web sites with obfuscating jargon. Cool, dude. (Is it me, or did they spend two pages saying nothing?)

Class clown: thinks it takes a joke to get noticed. You have 10 minutes to skim the Wall Street Journal before an important meeting because you're looking for jokes? Unless it leads to something important, it's a wry smile, a flip of the page and you're forgotten.

The unfortunate result of such stereotypic ads is prospects and clients who pay little attention to legal marketing. Few players are recognized. Even among the top 200, prospects and clients have a hard time differentiating between firms. (Ask your clients to name 20 players ' that's just 10%. You'll be surprised how few can.)

While most of us personally moved beyond these stereotypes in late adolescence, for some reason, we've stuck to them in marketing. We're intelligent adults, so why do we persist in this?

Because we think the goal of marketing is to get awareness.

We believe that getting our name out there, telling prospects our firm has what they want, accomplishes marketing's primary goal ' generating awareness. This is a mistake. It's hard and time-consuming to evaluate a long list of firms. That's why clients quickly reduce the list of firms they're 'aware' of to a short list they think they want to work with. If you don't get beyond awareness, you'll never make it to the short list. The goal of marketing is not to create awareness, but to create desire. Prospects are not likely to desire you because you have 30 more lawyers than the next guys on the block, were founded a generation earlier, or have an office in Kuala Lumpur. They're going to want you because of the way you think, and the best way to show them how you think is to tell them something that gets them thinking. Provoke thought, and you begin to plant the seeds of desire.

'Be provocative? Isn't that dangerous? What if some prospects don't agree with us?' Yes, they may not all agree with you, but they'll notice you, and they'll respect you for taking a stand. And there are ways of provoking thought that are appropriate for different firms. Consider these approaches taken by three very different and hypothetical firms:

After two quiet years, the CEO of Amalgamated Worldwide is looking for deal opportunities again. Jackson, Johnson and Jones has a strong Corporate Finance Group. They run ads showing a large traffic light, with the headline 'Looking for Green Lights?' They offer, in print and at their Web site, a brief piece challenging the assumption that a lawyer's role in the deal process is to uncover problems early on. Jackson, Johnson and Jones thinks differently ' they see their role as looking for reasons to move forward, and they give examples of early assessment that cleared the way for speedy, successful deals.

Pierce, Plotkin and Principio have been around forever. They represented the Dutch when the Indians sued to get Manhattan Island back. They decide to give their longevity a new twist. They host a series of breakfasts where they cite 25 of the most commonly held myths about litigation, debunk them, explain their source, then show how they used this to aid clients.

MacNeil & Mulgavey made a name for themselves in the go-go years of the New Economy ' private equity, IPOs and intellectual property. With the first signs of a thaw in the technology sector, they've begun to market again, via Webinars explaining what went wrong in the bubble, and showing how smart firms are steering clear of those problems today.

Your firm is full of bright, interesting people who do amazing work for clients. Finding intriguing points of view, new ways of thinking or startling facts should be easy. Use them and you will get people thinking. Your firm will look different. The end result? Clients will want to work with you.

Let the other firms hide their intelligence. Be thoughtful in marketing and your business will flourish.

Beau Fraser is a managing director and founding partner of MindFull, Inc. in Boston, a marketing services firm that has helped companies in many categories break from conventional wisdom and set new precedent that separates them from competitors. You can reach him at 617-368-6427.