Sorting Through Your Marketing Options

With 2006 in gear, your firm should be well into its marketing budget. In all likelihood, you have made decisions to sponsor events, renew existing advertising and the like. As a primer to making those decisions a little less intimidating, I thought it might be useful for me to share a personal experience.

Last winter, my 13-year-old car started to act up a bit, and I decided it was time for a new one. When I started shopping around, I found I was stymied. There were simply too many choices. My husband came to the rescue with an issue of Consumer Reports that sorted all the cars into categories and provided detailed information, such as gas mileage and repair history, for each one.

I decided I wanted a small, four-door sedan, which immediately narrowed the possibilities to 20, down from 200. I did more research, and the number dropped to four, based on ratings and appearance. After a few test-drives and realizing that I wanted a different type of car from the kind my parents drive, I was down to one.

Deciding which media offers to take advantage of may not be quite as straightforward as my car selection process, but the same principles apply.

Step 1: Choose A Goal

Pull out that strategic plan you've been working on, even if it is just in your head. Start by choosing one of your goals and simplify it so that it is narrowly tailored to the specific needs of your firm. It should read something like this:

• Increase the firm's visibility to general counsel and in-house IP counsel; or
• Raise awareness of the new branch office and the laterals who just joined that office; or
• Increase referrals from other firms by publicizing the billion-dollar verdict the firm just won.

Step 2: Organize Your Offers

Pull out all those media kits, offer letters, promotional brochures, etc. Sort them into piles based on type. Your piles might look something this:

• Event sponsorship
• Print advertising
• Online advertising
• Directory listings
• Speaking opportunities
• Custom events
• Research (competitive intelligence)

Step 3: Choose The Best Types Of Media

Assuming you have an unlimited budget (really hard) think about which pile(s) of offers from Step 2 will be best to achieve the goal you put down in Step 1. Be open-minded about different types of media and think about your intended audience. Some people still like to hold paper in their hands, others want to read in front of their computers and others don't want to read at all, but would rather listen to a presentation. Some do all three.

If you are having trouble deciding which media to employ to achieve your goal, use the strategies suggested in Step 4 to get a better sense of what to do. Regardless of whether you picked one pile or six, you are ready to move on.

Step 4: Ask Questions

How do you evaluate the offers in the piles you chose? Here are some suggestions:

• Ask your peers. If you are a member of one of the marketing listservs, post a question. This happens often on listservs, so you might want to search through the archives first to see if there were past discussions on your question that are relevant.
• Ask the company making the offer. Most companies do extensive research on their products. Publishers know who reads their magazines and directories and what readers like or dislike about them. Event planners know who came to an existing event in past years and, if it is a new event, who they will be marketing the event to. Webmasters know how many page views each part of their Web site gets and who is registered for their e-mail newsletters. And researchers know the methodology behind their research and who is supplying information for a survey. Companies should be happy to provide you with this information when you request it.
• Ask a consultant. Of course, you may have to pay for the answer, but legal marketing consultants have first-hand knowledge of the techniques that have worked well for clients with similar goals.

Step 5: Finalize Your Plan

Hopefully, that big pile of offers you started out with is now a bit smaller, and you can figure out how the items you've chosen fit into your budget and your marketing priorities. Once that is done you get to go back to Step 1 and begin again with a different goal.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I bought an Acura TSX.

With 2006 in gear, your firm should be well into its marketing budget. In all likelihood, you have made decisions to sponsor events, renew existing advertising and the like. As a primer to making those decisions a little less intimidating, I thought it might be useful for me to share a personal experience.

Last winter, my 13-year-old car started to act up a bit, and I decided it was time for a new one. When I started shopping around, I found I was stymied. There were simply too many choices. My husband came to the rescue with an issue of Consumer Reports that sorted all the cars into categories and provided detailed information, such as gas mileage and repair history, for each one.

I decided I wanted a small, four-door sedan, which immediately narrowed the possibilities to 20, down from 200. I did more research, and the number dropped to four, based on ratings and appearance. After a few test-drives and realizing that I wanted a different type of car from the kind my parents drive, I was down to one.

Deciding which media offers to take advantage of may not be quite as straightforward as my car selection process, but the same principles apply.

Step 1: Choose A Goal

Pull out that strategic plan you've been working on, even if it is just in your head. Start by choosing one of your goals and simplify it so that it is narrowly tailored to the specific needs of your firm. It should read something like this:

• Increase the firm's visibility to general counsel and in-house IP counsel; or
• Raise awareness of the new branch office and the laterals who just joined that office; or
• Increase referrals from other firms by publicizing the billion-dollar verdict the firm just won.

Step 2: Organize Your Offers

Pull out all those media kits, offer letters, promotional brochures, etc. Sort them into piles based on type. Your piles might look something this:

• Event sponsorship
• Print advertising
• Online advertising
• Directory listings
• Speaking opportunities
• Custom events
• Research (competitive intelligence)

Step 3: Choose The Best Types Of Media

Assuming you have an unlimited budget (really hard) think about which pile(s) of offers from Step 2 will be best to achieve the goal you put down in Step 1. Be open-minded about different types of media and think about your intended audience. Some people still like to hold paper in their hands, others want to read in front of their computers and others don't want to read at all, but would rather listen to a presentation. Some do all three.

If you are having trouble deciding which media to employ to achieve your goal, use the strategies suggested in Step 4 to get a better sense of what to do. Regardless of whether you picked one pile or six, you are ready to move on.

Step 4: Ask Questions

How do you evaluate the offers in the piles you chose? Here are some suggestions:

• Ask your peers. If you are a member of one of the marketing listservs, post a question. This happens often on listservs, so you might want to search through the archives first to see if there were past discussions on your question that are relevant.
• Ask the company making the offer. Most companies do extensive research on their products. Publishers know who reads their magazines and directories and what readers like or dislike about them. Event planners know who came to an existing event in past years and, if it is a new event, who they will be marketing the event to. Webmasters know how many page views each part of their Web site gets and who is registered for their e-mail newsletters. And researchers know the methodology behind their research and who is supplying information for a survey. Companies should be happy to provide you with this information when you request it.
• Ask a consultant. Of course, you may have to pay for the answer, but legal marketing consultants have first-hand knowledge of the techniques that have worked well for clients with similar goals.

Step 5: Finalize Your Plan

Hopefully, that big pile of offers you started out with is now a bit smaller, and you can figure out how the items you've chosen fit into your budget and your marketing priorities. Once that is done you get to go back to Step 1 and begin again with a different goal.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, I bought an Acura TSX.