<i>Technology in Marketing</i>: What Law Firms Can Learn from How the Swiss Sell Cheese

Law firms don't sell cheese or perfume ' they sell expertise. So how does one provide prospective clients with a 'taste' or 'spray' of something so intangible? The same question could be asked concerning existing clients. Given the marketing axiom that it is more cost-effective to generate additional business from existing clients than to sign up new accounts, how does a firm cross-sell other areas of expertise to existing clients whose exposure to the firm has been limited thus far to a single practice area?

A logical place to promote a firm's expertise would be its Web site, which can be populated with alerts, articles, press releases and other content that highlight the firm's past successes, areas of specialization and general legal prowess. The problem is that prospective clients need to Web site, before they can browse it. Given that most law firm Web sites cover a broad swath of content from attorney bios to multiple practice area descriptions, it is unlikely that the typical law firm Web site will rank highly in Google or other search engines for the kind of targeted search queries that prospective clients might run to locate a law firm specializing in a particular area.

By the same token, most existing clients don't visit their law firms' Web sites on a regular basis. While clients may frequent sites like Yahoo, Google and other popular Web destinations, surveys show that they typically visit their law firm's Web site for very functional and practical purposes such as to find an attorney's phone number or e-mail address. In short, because it is difficult to attract qualified client traffic to a law firm Web site on a regular and ongoing basis, firms need to consider how they can more effectively 'pull' existing and prospective clients into their Web sites for a 'taste' of the firm's expertise.

Go Blog

Blogs are the solution for prospective clients. Blogs tend to rank high in the search engines because they deliver what search engines want: targeted content updated frequently with lots of inbound and outbound links. As such, to the extent a firm wants to maximize the likelihood that prospective clients will 'sample' its expertise in say, the fields of 'international transfer taxes' or 'Brownfields development,' launching a blog on those topics is an excellent choice. By regularly publishing short posts on developments and trends in the often esoteric practice area covered by a blog, a firm is essentially offering the universe of prospective clients a 'taste' of its expertise in that area.

HTML e-Mail

For existing clients, HTML e-mail is the preferred solution for reaching out. By employing the same graphic look and feel as your Web site, an HTML e-mail is effectively a 'traveling' site that provides recipients with a 'taste' of the specialized content available on your primary site. With HTML, you don't have to wait for clients to visit your Web site. You can send a piece of your Web site to them!

To grab readers, the content in a blog or e-mail should be compelling, timely, relevant and grabbing. It should be representative of the firm's best thinking on a particular subject. The goal is that once prospective and/or existing clients get a 'taste' of the firm's expertise in a particular field from a blog or e-mail, they will be tempted to explore further by clicking through to the firm's Web site, and eventually initiating an inquiry.

Conclusion

Ultimately, blogs and HTML e-mail are tools for leveraging a company's investment in its Web site. They are the digital equivalent of the salesforce that leaves a manufacturer's warehouse each morning to pitch and bring samples to prospects and customers ' one-on-one, mobile, and high-impact. And the great thing about blogs and HTML e-mail is that they are cost-effective. So you don't have to spend large additional sums to dramatically increase the ROI on your Web site using these tools.

Joshua Fruchter, a member of newsletter's Board of Editors, is president and co-founder of eLawMarketing, a provider of online marketing services to law firms and other professional service providers. He can be contacted at 866-833-6245 or at [email protected].

A marketing consultant and friend, Robert Kaplan, recently shared a story with me from one of his overseas trips. He had been traveling in Switzerland when he chanced upon a cheese store. It was like nothing he had ever seen in the States. Upon entering, he was immediately approached by a man dressed in a sterile white coat (almost like a surgeon) bearing a silver platter filled with cheese. Wielding a slender knife, the gentleman cut off of a piece and beckoned Robert to sample a slice. Politely, Robert accepted and tasted the morsel. Much to his surprise, he became enamored of this variety and proceeded to buy a 2.5-kg cut.

Nice story, but what has it got to do with law firm marketing? Well, pretty clearly, it was only after Robert had been offered a taste of the cheese that he was willing to invest in 2.5 kilos. It was the 'taste' that triggered the sale. We see this marketing approach used in many other contexts, such as when beauty consultants spray you with a dose of perfume as you enter the cosmetic section of a department store.

Selling Expertise

Law firms don't sell cheese or perfume ' they sell expertise. So how does one provide prospective clients with a 'taste' or 'spray' of something so intangible? The same question could be asked concerning existing clients. Given the marketing axiom that it is more cost-effective to generate additional business from existing clients than to sign up new accounts, how does a firm cross-sell other areas of expertise to existing clients whose exposure to the firm has been limited thus far to a single practice area?

A logical place to promote a firm's expertise would be its Web site, which can be populated with alerts, articles, press releases and other content that highlight the firm's past successes, areas of specialization and general legal prowess. The problem is that prospective clients need to Web site, before they can browse it. Given that most law firm Web sites cover a broad swath of content from attorney bios to multiple practice area descriptions, it is unlikely that the typical law firm Web site will rank highly in Google or other search engines for the kind of targeted search queries that prospective clients might run to locate a law firm specializing in a particular area.

By the same token, most existing clients don't visit their law firms' Web sites on a regular basis. While clients may frequent sites like Yahoo, Google and other popular Web destinations, surveys show that they typically visit their law firm's Web site for very functional and practical purposes such as to find an attorney's phone number or e-mail address. In short, because it is difficult to attract qualified client traffic to a law firm Web site on a regular and ongoing basis, firms need to consider how they can more effectively 'pull' existing and prospective clients into their Web sites for a 'taste' of the firm's expertise.

Go Blog

Blogs are the solution for prospective clients. Blogs tend to rank high in the search engines because they deliver what search engines want: targeted content updated frequently with lots of inbound and outbound links. As such, to the extent a firm wants to maximize the likelihood that prospective clients will 'sample' its expertise in say, the fields of 'international transfer taxes' or 'Brownfields development,' launching a blog on those topics is an excellent choice. By regularly publishing short posts on developments and trends in the often esoteric practice area covered by a blog, a firm is essentially offering the universe of prospective clients a 'taste' of its expertise in that area.

HTML e-Mail

For existing clients, HTML e-mail is the preferred solution for reaching out. By employing the same graphic look and feel as your Web site, an HTML e-mail is effectively a 'traveling' site that provides recipients with a 'taste' of the specialized content available on your primary site. With HTML, you don't have to wait for clients to visit your Web site. You can send a piece of your Web site to them!

To grab readers, the content in a blog or e-mail should be compelling, timely, relevant and grabbing. It should be representative of the firm's best thinking on a particular subject. The goal is that once prospective and/or existing clients get a 'taste' of the firm's expertise in a particular field from a blog or e-mail, they will be tempted to explore further by clicking through to the firm's Web site, and eventually initiating an inquiry.

Conclusion

Ultimately, blogs and HTML e-mail are tools for leveraging a company's investment in its Web site. They are the digital equivalent of the salesforce that leaves a manufacturer's warehouse each morning to pitch and bring samples to prospects and customers ' one-on-one, mobile, and high-impact. And the great thing about blogs and HTML e-mail is that they are cost-effective. So you don't have to spend large additional sums to dramatically increase the ROI on your Web site using these tools.

Joshua Fruchter, a member of newsletter's Board of Editors, is president and co-founder of eLawMarketing, a provider of online marketing services to law firms and other professional service providers. He can be contacted at 866-833-6245 or at [email protected].