Creative Strategy Should Always Support Marketing Objectives

 
I’ve just uploaded my portfolio to a new page on the blog. It occurred to me that it might be informative and helpful to have some visual examples of how marketing strategy is implemented in direct mail, advertising, and support materials. The differences in the creative are a reflection of the differences in industries, companies, branding strategies, marketing strategies, and specific objectives for each project.

When you’re choosing a designer or ad agency to help achieve your marketing objectives, it’s important that they not only understand your industry and business, but that they’re able to develop unique solutions for you. You may find that someone with a wide range of experience can produce more effective, unique, and memorable materials for you than someone who has very narrow industry or business experience.

Click here to see my portfolio.

Now Including Free Downloads!

 
In an effort to make my blog information easier to access, use, and – hopefully – look a little more attractive, I’ve begun compiling a series of “How To Build Your Business” PDF documents. These are free to download and share from the “Free Downloads” page. All you need is the free Adobe PDF Reader to access them. Enjoy!

To download the free Adobe PDF Reader, click here:

Exploring New Opportunities…

 
When I began Thoughts on Practical, Strategic Marketing for Attorneys, it was an experiment to see if we could take the company I worked for – ProDoc – from being a provider of document assembly software for small law firms to being a true partner with those firms by providing a range of free support – including marketing advice – to help them build successful practices.

It probably would have worked, since without any promotion or other activity, my blog has achieved some modest success. Frankly, I’m happy anybody’s been reading it.

However, times change. ProDoc was sold to Thomson Reuters, my position as Marketing Director was eliminated, and now I’m in Los Angeles resurrecting the blog after several months of inactivity.

There’s no reason now for me to focus strictly on legal marketing, so I’ve changed the blog name and will now be writing about all aspects of marketing, instead of tailoring the message to law firms. This won’t be much of a change since, although attorneys like to think they have special marketing needs, the reality is that other than some state-specific legal requirements, marketing a law firm is just like marketing any other business.

So, if you’re marketing a law firm, don’t worry; all the same principles apply. And, if you’re reading an early post and it mentions marketing for attorneys, you can apply the principle to your business - whatever it is.

It’s great to be back and there will be lots more fun things to come!

Communicating and managing expectations

 
In the most recent issue (9/08) of Strategies – The Journal of Legal Marketing, Amy I. Stickel writes in her article “What GCs Really Want” that “the answer seems to be: a little more understanding and a lower bill.”

The article is based on InsideCounsel magazine’s 19th Annual Survey of General Counsel and points to (at least) two areas where outside attorneys can improve their client relationships.

First, law firms believe they’re doing a better job than their clients think they are. While 43% of firms gave their performance an “A” grade, in-house counsel rated only 16.8% as an “A”. If your firm is doing a great job, communicate it in ways that address your clients’ problems, fears and needs so they recognize how much you help them.

Of course, if you have an unrealistically high opinion of your work, it would be wise to bring your assessment into line with your clients. Ms. Stickel writes, “nearly 42 percent of in-house counsel reported that they have fired or plan to fire a law firm in 2008, an 8.5 percent increase from 2007’s survey.” Sobering information in these challenging economic times.

Second, “in-house lawyers are not convinced their outside attorneys understand either their financial pressures or their business needs.” If your firm doesn’t understand your clients’ business and isn’t meeting their expectations, you need to change the situation – immediately -  or you may find yourself looking for new clients. And, do you really want to spend a lot of time and money on marketing?

It’s essential to understand that in order to have a successful practice over the long haul, you must consider your clients as partners. Their interests and problems have to be your interests and problems. Your job is to make their lives easier. Period.

So, to help get things off to a good start, here’s what in-house survey respondents said was most important to them:

1. Responsiveness
2. Industry experience
3. Creative solutions
4. Billing rates
5. Reputation

Good GCs are always asking, “What have you done for me lately?” You need to be ready with answers that will delight them.

Taking control of your career and your future – where has the loyalty gone?

 
A disturbing trend has been spreading throughout the business world for decades and even attorneys are not immune. It’s the disappearance of loyalty in corporate America. I can’t say whether it’s a problem in other countries as well, but I’ve experienced it firsthand here and continue to see it week after week across the country.

Corporate America no longer cares about its workers and hasn’t for a very long time. A Dilbert cartoon illustrates this perfectly – as usual. The pointy-haired boss observes that employees are no longer the company’s most important asset, cash is. Employees rank number nine, just below carbon paper.

While there are still a few pockets of sanity where employers truly believe in the value of their employees, for most, the mantra has become, “show me the money.”

Without whining too much, this is now happening to me for the third time. The software company, of which I am soon to become the former marketing director, has been sold to a major legal services conglomerate and I’ve been given the opportunity to “pursue other career options.” I really can’t complain, since I received one of the better severance packages which will allow me to advance my personal goals.

What irks me is the owner’s oft-proclaimed cherished commitment to the value of his employees. This was supposed to be a place where you could have a good job, get rewarded and which would be there when you were ready to retire. I can only assume that the owner had his “price” all along and that when it was offered, he took it.

Whether he’s plagued by guilt, having reneged on 19 years of promises to employees and customers, I don’t know. I do know that if I were in his position, I would probably have done the same thing - I have my price, too.

Now, to the point – having aired my grievances. Regardless of your position, if you think you can count on your customers, company or boss to be there for you through thick and thin, you probably can’t. Self-reliance is the rule.

To minimize the pain of inevitable change, take control of your career. You decide where you want to go and what you want to do. You make the plans and implement them to achieve the success you want. Clients and companies come and go. Write a business plan and marketing plan for yourself to meet your goals and then implement them.

You work for your employers and they compensate you. Quid pro quo. Executives have understood this for years. It seems that only dedicated, hardworking employees are surprised when “human resources assets” are “right-managed” to achieve maximum revenue for the shareholders.

We are commodities in the marketplace and only by managing our personal “assets” to their best advantage can we hope to have the career and life we want and deserve.