WHAT IS A NICHE MARKET ANYWAY? What's the difference between a practice area and a niche market?

It's a good question, and marketers can't always clearly define the differences. In layman's terms, a "practice area" is a dedicated focus on a particular body of law through which an attorney, or firm, develops recognized experience, knowledge and skills. A market segment or "niche" is a cluster of demographic and behavioral characteristics shared by a group of people. A "niche" can require a variety of legal services across several practice areas simultaneously. A law firm may have a highly regarded medical malpractice defense group, for example; however, physicians and their organizations have legal service needs beyond malpractice defense. They may well be viewed as a "market niche" for estate planning, commercial litigation, taxation, real estate transactions and so forth. Aggressive law firms continually analyze the legal service needs of clients to ensure the firm is providing appropriate levels and mixes of legal services.

USE A CROSS-MARKETING COMMITTEE TO ENSURE EFFICIENT CLIENT SERVICE

Organizing cross-marketing functions in the busy law firm takes time, attention and leadership, but the rewards are clearly better service to clients and increased billings. To get started, form a committee (lawyers from each practice area), and periodically review the status of selected clients to assure that the full range of the law firm's services are known and readily available to the client. Develop and prioritize a simple strategy, such as, "why don't we introduce an attorney from our estate planning group to a few of our malpractice defense clients to see if there's any interest in a seminar on the subject?" The next step might be lunch with the client to introduce the attorney and review services.

OVERLOOKED MARKETING TOOL OF THE MONTH: LAW FIRM MAILING LISTS

Studies indicate that up to 60% of a law firm's new billings come from "existing relationships", so it's important to keep an accurate, updated firm-wide mailing list of contacts. Include potential clients, press contacts and community groups. Direct mail materials newsletters, legal notices, news releases to the list at least six times a year.

LEGAL SERVICES MARKETING MEANS BUSINESS, BUT EXPECT THINGS TO CHANGE

Successful attorneys are natural marketers, they know how to get the right message in front of the right audience. They know how to generate opportunities to produce good legal work and build a strong base of satisfied clients. But something happens when you expand the rainmaker's "natural" marketing techniques to market the multi-practice firm. Everything gets more complicated. So it helps to understand that marketing is basically a decision-making process that happens on three distinct levels in any law firm. 1. Strategic Decisions: where marketing and business intersect What are the most profitable practice areas, which are the least profitable? Where should we look for future growth? How are we perceived by our client base? These kinds of questions are asked and answered in the firm's strategic marketing plan. TIP: If you don't have one, you're shooting from the hip and reacting to market drift rather than moving toward a goal. 2. Administrative Decisions: money and time are on the line These decisions determine how much you spend, who's time goes where and what kind of marketing communications activities the firm needs. Is television advertising the way to go? How about legal publications? Will publicity help? Do we need a web site? These decisions, based on strategic goals, will get the marketing process in motion. TIP: Don't get in the way of administrative decision making. Expedite it, and you'll stay on target. 3. Operational Decisions: where the rubber should meet the road These decisions are made day in and day out. Get the ad film to the newspaper on time. Proof the first draft of newsletter copy. Sign off the text for that news release. Is the mailing list for the seminar complete? This is the level where most marketing decisions are made, where the plan comes together, where the firm marketing either happens, or it doesn't. TIP: Use time schedules - due dates - to drive projects through production. Don't contribute to delays, move paper out of your in-box. So, when thinking about "marketing," if you understand the difference in each area of decision making, you'll plan better and respond faster to each phase of marketing the law firm.

MINIMIZE YOUR CONSULTANTS' FEES

When you're working with an agency to develop a creative product such as a newsletter, brochure or web site, stick to your timetable. Time, as you well know, does equal money. The agency must spend additional time administrating the account if unexpected delays occur. After the work schedule has been interrupted, agency staff must review changes at the last meeting; administer new time lines; review with the designer, copywriter and printer to provide new schedules; and reschedule additional meetings to continue the firm's approval process. If the client stays on schedule, however, everybody involved in the project is in the loop, and the time estimated for completing the project will not exceed the original estimate.

LAWYER WRITING TIPS FOR THE PRESS

An important source of positive public relations is writing bylined articles for business or niche publications. Always keep your purpose in mind - to inform business people of legal issues. Your writing style should be brief and to the point. Lead with the most important points, avoid unnecessary detail (citations and opinions) and, most important, explicitly draw the connectionbetween the case or law and how it affects your reader. Focus on how the law impacts businesses rather than how the law evolved. Go straight to what will interest your audience the most - the bottom line.

MERCHANDISING THE FIRM THROUGH THE WEB SITE

The broader content of any law firm can be easily "merchandised" through its web site. Use the "News" page to continually update visitors. Cross reference items like the impact of court rulings, legal issues, and regulations with information specific to your firm such as attorneys, practice groups, and publications. It helps if you view the "News" page as an online magazine describing the current activities of the firm. Other web areas of interest are "recent actions" which, if designed well, will give the visitor a quick overview of the firm's capabilities across a number of practice areas. Don't forget "useful links," an organized index of helpful web sources linked to the firm's site. Don't make this page too easy to get to though, make the visitor move through the site to find the links page. Hershey Philbin Associates is a full service marketing communications firm with a 20-year history of successful professional and commercial advertising, market research, public relations and Internet marketing. For more information on how Hershey Philbin Associates can help you position your firm profitably for the future, contact Victoria Radabaugh, at (717) 975-2148, or email: vradabaugh@hersheyphilbin.com

Researching Corporate Counsel: A "Win-Win" Situation  

Expanding Profit Margins in the "Commodity" Practice Area

Writing Tips for the Press

Merchandising the Firm Through the Web Site

Good Crisis Management

Cross-Marketing Committee

Use Firm Postcards Effectively

Law Firm Mailing Lists

Legal Services Marketing Means Business

Talking to the Press

Market Managers Running Law Firms?

U.S. Funeral Industry Comes Under Scrutiny

The Strategic Business Unit

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