1. In This Issue
By Kimberly Alford Rice
It seems impossible that we are once again at the end of a full and busy
year, “predicting” what’s ahead for the next. If there is one iron-clad tru-
ism for law firm marketing, it’s that nothing stays the same. So what can
we expect for the year ahead? We conducted an informal poll of our Board of
Editors, and here is what they had to say …
ACCOUNTABILITY
In 2016, marketing and business development leaders will be increasing
their focus on accountability to ensure greater returns on their efforts. As tal-
ented professionals continue to give lawyers the tools and training they need
to achieve the most potent results, they will be using performance metrics,
mobile platforms and targeted programming to fuel success in an evolving
digital market. — Ari Kaplan, Ari Kaplan Advisors, LLC, New York
TECHNOLOGY
We will continue to see technology grow in our departments. Specifically, busi-
ness-to-business law firms will follow the lead of consumer law firms that make
use of client data to predict future legal needs. For years, consumer law firms
have captured important client data and then used the information to position
themselves for future legal needs with the same target market. I think we will see
more from the technology side to help firms learn more about clients and even-
tually, with prediction models. — Beth Cuzzone, Goulston & Storrs PC, Boston
AFAS AND LATERALS
Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFA) can only succeed if the attorneys use
legal project management (LPM) frameworks to drive profitable matters. There
are too many firms losing out to inefficiencies in the practice of law.
Succession planning is critical as baby boomers are retiring. Clients
need to be handed off to younger partners years before the lead senior
partner retires.
By Stephan Hovnanian
Depending on who you ask,
your prospective clients are be-
tween 50%-90% through their
buying process before even
contacting you. Consider that
for a minute, especially focusing
on how powerful recommenda-
tions are in the legal profession.
They’ve searched on Google
for the type of law you practice,
and/or maybe even the answer
to a specific situation. They’ve
asked their friends and col-
leagues for references. They’ve
read industry content online to
become more educated about
the problem they are facing.
They’ve narrowed down the
list of potential firms/lawyers
to contact based on a variety
of factors, such as: 1) Personal
recommendations; 2) Online re-
views (both positive and nega-
tive); 3) Earned media; 4) How
closely those firms are associ-
ated with the educational infor-
mation they read; and 5) Which
firm websites were easiest to
navigate and felt the most reas-
suring
Oh, and there’s more. Let’s
assume that, for your target cli-
ent profile, research shows that
they are typically 65% of the
way through the decision-mak-
ing process by the time they
contact you. Your marketing
What’sintheCards
For2016?............... 1
HigherProfitability,
PartOne ................ 1
Marketing Tech:
GlamorizeYourFirm.. 3
SalesSpeak:LawFirm
BusDev................. 5
Media&
Communications:
TheArtofPR........... 7
Marketing
The Law Firm
®
continued on page 8
continued on page 2
Higher Profitability
In 2016
Four Areas of Focus
Part One of a
Two-Part Article
What’s in the Cards for 2016?
3. ❖
By Karen Ellis
If you didn’t jump on the “selfie”
band-wagon, you can count yourself
sane; and now with the rush to ban
“selfie-sticks” by major public places
around the nation (including Disney,
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, New
York’s Museum of Modern Art, Coo-
per-Hewitt Design Museum, and Cali-
fornia’s Getty Center,to name a few),
certain law firms might start to con-
sider how to prepare to handle law
suits arising from the trend.
But just because the narcissists of
the world are driving the rest of us
crazy with their self-infatuation does
not mean that glamorizing your law
firm using modern technology should
repel you. If there was ever a time in
history that a law firm should “go
Hollywood,” this is it. Jumping on the
promotional tech bandwagon may
mean the difference in your law firm
rising to the top of your industry to
beat out the competition, or fading
into non-existence. If this concept
seems too progressive for your con-
servative clientele, consider that even
the most conservative American en-
joys going to the movies. Hollywood
is America, and there is no separating
the two. Modern technology has giv-
en us all the opportunity to easily be-
come “entertainers.” Even if your law
firm commonly shies away from the
more entertainment-inspired versions
of normally repetitive activities, glam-
ing up your brand online with mar-
keting technology and adding “zing”
might just be the most beneficial
thing you’ve done for your business
since taking it online. (Remember
when you swore you would never
have a website?)
There have been some big changes
in marketing that many traditional
businesses have not so eagerly em-
braced. However, business predic-
tions claim that if businesses don’t
pick up on modernizing their brand-
ing with the most current technolo-
gies, they will fade into the forgotten
world of dinosaur legacy companies.
These days, “boring” is death to a
brand’s image and will sink it into
the abyss of endless information. In
other words, the marketing and ad-
vertising of all brands must move into
the pseudo-entertainment space, and
soon. Some call it the “Disney-effect,”
and with it came a pull for brands
to emphasize what they do through
more grandiose expressions. Market-
ing today requires that brands reach
higher and not only seek to offer
impressive solutions to potential cli-
ents but engage and entertain them
as well.
Following are some progressive
marketing technologies that law firms
can consider if they want to start
pushing their brand beyond the com-
petition and into the emerging age of
successful brand engagement.
DEVELOP AN APP
Develop an app for your firm. If
you haven’t already created one,
consider having it done now. You
may wonder how this will ultimately
benefit your firm — 51% of people’s
time is spent using mobile digital
media (as opposed to those 42% still
on desktops); and 86% of the mobile
digital media users time is spent us-
ing apps. With a majority of the world
spending a majority of its time on a
mobile device, it’s easy to see why a
mobile app becomes the best way to
connect with potential and current
clients. Even more importantly, apps
are an invaluable way to gather sta-
tistics, conduct surveys, keep clients
happy, and stay in the minds of those
clients whom your firm has already
obtained. Happy clients are your best
marketing tools and can become
your most powerful influencers. Apps
make life easier for your firm influ-
encers to spread the word and tighten
your legal “neighborhood” while ex-
tending your brand’s reputation.
Apps have also been shown to in-
crease productivity among employees
by 20%. Easy access to your law firm’s
culture through an app allows em-
ployees to be well-informed, smarter,
more dedicated and thus more profit-
able.
BROADCAST
Start broadcasting your culture. So-
ciety has always had a love affair with
seeing how lawyers work, which is
why TV shows like Law & Order nev-
er seem to go out of style. However,
few law firms have used this to their
advantage. Yet these days broadcast-
ing has never been easier — using
apps like Periscope or Meerkat just
require one click on your phone or
tablet to go live. Consider setting up a
specific date and time to broadcast an
engaging and informative show and
watch your viewers (and potential cli-
ents) grow by leaps and bounds! (I re-
cently broadcast a show called “Walk
and Chat in Atlanta” to Periscope, and
within 45 minutes I grew my viewer
base from five to 400+ followers.)
These platforms are also an excellent
way to engage your mobile audience,
since they are run on mobile apps.
Broadcasting platforms are suc-
cessfully being used to solve one of
the most difficult problems to over-
come online — gaining people’s trust.
Prior to the Internet, people relied
on face-to-face interactions to see
how business worked, thus building
trust. Now with the rise of the online
world, potential clients often don’t
have the opportunity to meet busi-
ness people before making a decision
on whether to go forward with using
their services. This inability to “see
and judge” who they are engaging
with has caused a lack of transpar-
ency and trust; yet at the same time,
transparency and authenticity have
become one of the most important
things people are looking for when
MARKETING TECH
Glamorizing Your
Law Firm with
Modern Technology
Karen Ellis is the Owner of Social
Sweet Spot, digital strategizing, con-
tent writing and IoT for the mod-
ern age of marketing. Reach her
on Twitter @socialsweet and Social
SweetSpot on Linkedin, Facebook,
Periscope, Instagram and more. continued on page 4
4. ❖
considering choosing a business to
work with. Real-time broadcasting
platforms are solving that problem
by giving businesses the ability to let
potential clients peer into their world
and build trust in their systems prior
to committing. If yours is the business
giving them this opportunity, you are
going to win out over the competition
that isn’t providing the same.
Another benefit of broadcasting
your law firm is its ability to connect
you quickly with local, national and
international journalists, and to be-
come known as a “go-to” authority in
your area of specialty. Broadcasting
using modern technologies puts you
in control, and puts your firm in the
spotlight affordably and efficiently.
HIRE A WRITER
Hire a professional content writer.
As with any other investment, with
content writing, you get what you pay
for. Realistically, you should expect to
pay between $35-$95 per 500-1000
words for a quality article depending
on research time and complexity. It is
not an expensive investment, but if
you so choose to go the “super cheap
$5 per article route,” please make
sure your writer’s first language is
English — I think you get my drift. At
the very least, you should have your
writer create a 500-1000-word blog
post for you at least once a month.
The benefit here is multi-layered. It
not only keeps your business look-
ing alive and current, it also makes
Google continue to take notice of it.
ADD FRESH CONTENT
Most people have the misconcep-
tion that Google is crawling every
website in the entire world everyday,
but each site is different in Google’s
view. Most businesses want to know
how they can get Google to crawl
their sites more often. If you’re con-
stantly adding new content to your
website, Google won’t want to stay
away; it won’t want to miss any-
thing new that you post for fear of
not having your site fully indexed in
its search engine. Therefore, adding
fresh content to your site is the easiest
way to entice Google to come back to
your web and social sites, and come
back often. If you want to see how
often Google crawls your website, it
can easily be found in your Google
Webmaster Tools account. (Google
Webmaster Tools is a free service pro-
vided by Google, so if you don’t have
it, go to google.com/webmaster/tools,
where Google will walk you through
how to set it up.) Once you’ve logged
in to your Google Webmaster Tools
account, navigate to the “Crawl”
menu item on the left, followed by
the “Crawl Stats” sub item after that.
You’ll notice Google Webmaster Tools
only stores historical data for up to
90 days but this should give you all
the information you need to discover
Google’s crawling habits as they re-
late to your website.
You may be wondering why you
shouldn’t do your own content writ-
ing? The answer is simple. You won’t
do it (or you would be doing it al-
ready), and you aren’t good at it. Just
as you don’t want to have a market-
ing person go into court and be the
lawyer that represents your firm, you
should understand that people don’t
necessarily enjoy reading what law-
yers have to write. Lawyers tend to
write in a very legalistic complicated
way and although that is appropriate
for your industry, it isn’t appropri-
ate for gaining clients. Complicated,
industry-laced lingo, or boring talk
can drive a potential client away from
your site as fast as they got there
because they will feel your brand is
“un-relatable.” So unless you are John
Grisham, hire a writer that can trans-
late what you are trying to relate to
the public in an engaging and enter-
taining way. It is a simple premise,
stick to what you do best and hire
others to do the rest. A professional
content writer will also know how to
creatively add SEO keywords to your
online articles making them all the
more desirable to the Google crawl.
GAMIFY
Don’t just glamify … gamify. Con-
tent marketing is predicted to con-
tinue to be a key marketing strategy.
Leading brands continue to look for
new solutions to create fun and en-
gaging content. Gamification gives
marketers the power to appeal to
the competitive nature of humans
and successfully get them to engage
with a brand. Gamification rewards
“players” with points or badges, or
by displaying top engagers on spe-
cial leaderboards. This strategy offers
powerful motivation for users, and
gamified strategies are becoming a
standard practice for driving brand
engagement and fostering client loy-
alty. It may sound complicated or ex-
pensive but gamification can work for
almost any product or service and is
adaptable to every budget. Gamifica-
tion can help create better awareness
about the services your law firm pro-
vides while increasing your bottom
line. Gamified strategies engage and
direct visitors to other parts of your
website (or app) to learn more about
your specific area of service.
One of the most popular ways to
gamify your brand is through surveys.
You’ve probably already engaged in
these games without even realizing it.
Every time you jump to a survey from
a friend’s Facebook post, you are en-
gaging in a gamified strategy. It works
by having you click away from Face-
book to arrive on the brand’s web-
site where they can collect stats on
you and entice you to click on other
pages and advertisements. Then they
get you to continue the process by
posting your analyzed answer to your
Facebook page where your friends
will click on it. The end result allows
for brands to “vine” out through users
contacts and collect a huge amount of
data resulting in qualified leads.
CONCLUSION
Building your story is building your
brand. With the evolution of Google
tools, storytelling has again become
a highly valued means of marketing.
The more entertaining and engaging
your brand’s story is, the more valu-
able your brand will become. Your
goal for marketing your brand should
be to stand out from the crowd of mil-
lions of other lawyers and law firms
expressing themselves online.
Don’t be afraid to glam up your
brand and take your law firm to the
next level with modern technology.
Make your law firm the one everyone
is talking about — online and off.
Marketing Tech
continued from page 3
—❖—
5. ❖
By Bruce Alltop
The legal market continues to
change. One thing that continues
to remain constant is the difficulty
that law firms and lawyers have
with identifying and communicat-
ing how they differ from their com-
petition. The most common refrains
that I hear being used when asked
the question, “Why should clients
retain you?” include the standard
“quality, responsiveness, communi-
cation, practical advice,” etc.
The reference to deep industry
experience is bantered around,
too, but all too often, not in a man-
ner that truly differentiates. This
article offers two suggested solu-
tions to the differentiation conun-
drum; the first of which relates to
the go-to-market approach itself
and the second relates to the com-
munication of value.
Let’s begin with the go-to-mar-
ket approach. I continue to hear
from industry sages and from our
clients’ clients (through feedback
engagements) that legal decision-
makers expect outside legal coun-
sel to understand their business.
This drum beat continues to grow
louder with every passing year and
becomes more important to legal
decision-makers as they select
outside legal counsel. In fact, “Un-
derstanding the Client’s Business”
has been highlighted in recent BTI
surveys as being the single best
way to differentiate your law firm
from your competition.
Meanwhile, many firms still
have not made understanding
their clients’ business a priority.
Most firms continue to go to mar-
ket by practice area, rather than
taking a coordinated, client-cen-
tric approach to the marketplace.
What this means is that firms are
not listening to what the clients
are saying, which we all know is
bad business development strat-
egy.
HOW TO START
In successful relationship de-
velopment, listening is rarely an
insignificant component. When
asked, many of my clients tell me
that they aren’t changing their ap-
proach because they aren’t quite
sure where to start. So, I offer the
following questions that you and
your teams should be considering,
among many others, as you start
down the road to “understanding
your client”:
What is your client’s busi-
ness model? In other words,
how does your client’s com-
pany make money?
Where is your client’s indus-
try heading? What are some
regulatory trends that may
result in an impact on your
client’s business?
What are your clients’ busi-
ness goals and objectives?
What are your key contacts’
personal goals and objec-
tives?
What are some obstacles that
may get in the way of your
client’s company achieving
their objectives? What are
their stated risks (Hint: com-
panies list them in their an-
nual 10K SEC filing)
How is your client’s com-
pany organized? (Hint: get
a copy of their org chart);
which business unit leaders
are influential in hiring out-
side counsel?
What is your client’s defini-
tion of success? How about
their definition of value?
Which legal solutions can
we bring to them that we’ve
brought to other clients
just like them to help them
overcome the obstacles that
are getting in the way of
them achieving their objec-
tives?
FINDING THE ANSWERS
So, how do you go about finding
the answers to these questions and
others like them? You can certainly
create intelligence dossiers, create
Google searches, use an aggrega-
tor tool like Manzama, go to the
client’s website, review their secu-
rities filings, etc. There are several
technology tools available to help
keep apprised of developments
with your client companies that
are relatively inexpensive; particu-
larly considering the increased im-
portance clients are placing on this
knowledge year-after-year. Howev-
er, although valuable, the informa-
tion provided by these tools is no
substitute for an interactive discus-
sion with your client!
There is no need to wait for a
formal setting like a pitch meeting
to ask your client contact these
questions (and many similar oth-
ers). As a side note, there is no
need to feel obligated to get the
answers to all of these questions in
just one meeting. I’m not alone in
believing that firms should make
client-centricity the keystone to
their go-to-market strategy, but it’s
certainly something that I’m pas-
sionate about. Given the competi-
tive environment in which we’re
operating, I think you should be,
too.
Understanding the client’s busi-
ness is very important. So, too, is
going to market by industry. What
does this actually mean? Going to
market by industry really means
being focused on what the cli-
ent needs, rather than what we’re
trying to “sell.” To be success-
ful in professional services busi-
ness development these days, it’s
SALES SPEAK
Law Firm Bus Dev
Differentiation Isn’t As
Hard As You Think
Bruce Alltop, a member of this
newsletter’s Board of Editors, is
a Senior Consultant at LawVision
Group. He helps firms with client
retention and growth as well as
with new business development. He
may be reached at 781-834-3825 or
bruce.alltop@lawvisiongroup.com. continued on page 6
6. ❖
imperative that you understand
what business issue that you or
your firm is solving for the client.
Then, and only then, do you bring
the “solution” to the problem.
COMMUNICATING
DIFFERENTIATION
Understanding how to surpass
the competition typically begins
with an understanding of who
the competition is. In many cas-
es, firms or practice groups with
whom I work haven’t taken the
time to identify their competition
or to investigate and discuss their
respective go-to-market messages.
Communicating how we are
different may manifest itself in a
couple of ways; 1) the facts them-
selves are very compelling; e.g.,
“No other firm in the universe has
ever attempted and achieved such
a feat of extreme litigation”; or 2)
quite simply, the manner in which
the value message is delivered.
Let’s focus on the latter. Typically,
because they are really smart, my
clients will resort to responding
to the differentiation question by
answering, “We have more expe-
rience in your industry, Ms. Pros-
pect, than any of our competitors.”
Keeping in mind that clients have
said over and over again that they
want their providers to understand
their business, the previous sen-
tence could be a very compelling
differentiator. However, it could
also mean losing the engagement.
Allow me to share both scenarios
with you.
In the simplest of terms, the
experience-related differentia-
tion statement above is a “feature”
statement. It implies value, but it
doesn’t explicitly convey value.
When we imply value in business
development, we give the prospect
an opportunity to come to their
own conclusion about the value.
For example, when we only pro-
vide a “feature” statement such
as the experience-related answer
above, we think that the prospect
is going to be duly impressed be-
cause of the obvious value that
this level of experience will de-
liver to the prospect once we’re
retained. Well, the truth is that by
only providing the “feature” state-
ment about industry experience,
we have given the prospect an op-
portunity to determine what that
actually means to them and their
organization; many times, their
conclusion wasn’t what we intend-
ed.
If we answer the question, “Why
should we retain you?” and our
answer is, “We have more experi-
ence in your industry, Ms. Pros-
pect, than any of our competitors,”
the prospect, left to his/her own
devices, may arrive at a different
conclusion altogether. What if that
prospect, although placing indus-
try experience at the top of his or
her list of decision criteria, also
wants the provider not to be lim-
ited to that one industry, but also
have experience outside of the
specific industry to incorporate
best practices from elsewhere? If
we simply convey that we have ex-
perience in his/her industry and
leave it at that, instead of differen-
tiating ourselves, we may have just
disqualified ourselves.
CONCLUSION
The takeaway here is to always
include a “benefit” statement along
with the “feature.” We have estab-
lished above that “We have more
experience in your industry, Ms.
Client, than any of our competi-
tors.” is the feature statement. A
benefit statement might be “which
means that we can alert you to
business issues of consequence
and best practices that fall out-
side the boundaries of this specific
engagement.” All too often, I find
that feature statements are what
are being delivered. Look at your
website, fast fact sheets, your law-
yers’ bios, etc. and I suspect that
you’ll find many of these feature
statements.
Consider adding a benefit state-
ment to each of them. Although
many of your feature statements
will be similar in nature to the
competition’s feature statements,
telling the prospect what the value
is through a benefit statement will
differentiate you and the firm.
Communicating value by using
benefit statements will set you
apart from your competitors, be-
cause, for the most part, they are
not doing it properly either.
Sales Speak
continued from page 5
—❖—
establishing Chief Innovation Of-
ficers. Attention for some time has
been on “innovation” in the delivery
of legal services. True innovation
will come from the creation of new
types of products and services. Sey-
farth, for example, has a leader ded-
icated to intrapreneurship. Clever.
Sadly, examples of true innovation
at law firms are few and far between.
There has been some push to adja-
cent lines of business (e.g., Drinker’s
e-discovery subsidiary, the Silicon
Valley firms’ start-up arms, Manatt’s
Healthcare Solutions group); and
noteworthy advancements such as
Thomson Reuters’ partnership with
IBM Watson or RavelLaw’s with Har-
vard Law School bring innovation
to the industry overall. — Marcie
Borgal Shunk, Law Vision Group
CONCLUSION
There you have it, the best of
the best in law firm marketing
sharing their views on what is to
come. We’ll meet you here same
time, same place, in December
2016 to see what actually trans-
pired! It’s going to be another ex-
citing year.
What’s Ahead?
continued from page 2
—❖—
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7. ❖
By Kathy O’Brien
Love him or hate him, there is no
question that Donald Trump is in for
the long haul. Since he announced
he was running for president of the
United States, he has received wall-
to-wall news coverage almost every
single day from every form of me-
dia — broadcast, print, online and
even “fake news” programs like The
Daily Show, Last Week Tonight with
John Oliver, and others.
Even though there is just about
11 months to go before the election,
Trump doesn’t show any signs of
stopping, and the media continues to
follow in his wake. When it comes to
PR, Trump has made a lot of missteps,
to be sure, but — shockingly — there
may be a few nuggets of wisdom in
his take-no-prisoners PR approach.
When working with the media,
here are a few lessons from The
Donald’s scorched-earth strategy.
TELL IT LIKE IT IS
While Trump is known, and may
be even revered, for his brutally can-
did approach, saying whatever pops
into your head while a microphone
is on is not recommended. Instead,
know your key messages in advance.
What is a key message? It’s the one
thing you want your target audience
to remember more than anything
else, and you should use every op-
portunity during the interview to
deliver it. Use colorful, descriptive
words to paint the picture for the au-
dience, but certainly don’t cross the
line into being crude and offensive.
USE PLAIN LANGUAGE
Again, Trump is likable to some
because he is easy to understand.
He doesn’t use complex political
speak. There is no waffling, lack of
energy or convoluted explanations.
He speaks directly to his audience,
using plain and simple terms.
In the legal profession, it’s easy
to hide behind complex words or
phrasing, but doing so means your
audience will soon be lost in a deep
sea of jargon and will inevitably
tune you out. Avoid excessive stats
or numbers and technical explana-
tions. If your non-lawyer friends
can’t understand what you’re talking
about, then you’re probably making
it too complicated. To further facili-
tate understanding, try to be as de-
scriptive as possible and use analo-
gies. And once again, tell it like it is
by expanding on the “why,” talking
about what else can still be done,
discussing the impacts and using
each question as an opportunity to
drive home your key message.
Just as Trump has taught us that
we should avoid flippant comments
and off-hand remarks, he has also
shown us that — while you want
to keep your comments straight-
forward — those comments and re-
marks should never be dismissive or
superficial.
BE YOURSELF
While often unapologetic, bra-
zen, shocking and even offensive,
Trump is Trump. He does not pre-
tend to be something he’s not. He
doesn’t play by the typical PR rules.
He doesn’t dodge the media, hide
behind a spokesperson, offer script-
ed statements, retract comments or
give apologies. Eventually, this may
mean the downfall of his campaign,
but at press time, he is still holding
his own in the polls.
While we are not recommend-
ing Trump’s aggressive approach,
we do recommend that you strike a
balance between being interesting,
engaging and even a little contro-
versial. You can’t survive on rheto-
ric and message points alone. There
must always be substance behind
the comments that comes from your
heart. In the end, your audience will
see you for the polished, prepared
and honest person that you are.
CONFRONT BAD NEWS
Inevitably, all law firms will face
bad news from partner defections,
staff reductions, malpractice suits,
drops in revenue, controversial cas-
es and other stomach-churning situ-
ations that have many law firm lead-
ers looking to the stars and praying
for it all to just go away. Sticking
your head in the sand and ignoring
the problem doesn’t work. The con-
versation in the media, especially
social media, will happen whether
you participate in it or not. So why
not control the narrative?
While Trump manhandles the
media, often cutting reporters off
to make his point and speaking in
loud, aggressive tones, his willing-
ness to tackle problems head-on
helps him control the message. Ever
since his drop in the polls, he has re-
sponded to every media question on
the issue, often shrugging it off and
pointing to results that show him
on top. Then, he tweets it: “Wow! @
FoxNews poll just came out. #1 with
26%! Almost as importantly, I am the
strongest on economic issues by far!
#Trump2016.”
While I don’t believe Trump has a
set strategy on how to engage with
the media when bad news breaks,
law firms should. Identifying and
training a key spokesperson, outlin-
ing the critical messages, giving the
story to a trusted reporter and even-
tually sharing the details on social
media should all be part of a law
firm’s crisis PR playbook.
USE SOCIAL MEDIA WISELY
The Donald comes from the New
York real estate world, which has
embraced social media since its
inception. It’s an easy and inex-
pensive way to show a property,
discuss market trends, and reach a
young, wealthy demographic that
consumes more than nine hours
of digital media a day. Trump, (or
someone on his staff on his be-
half) joined Twitter in 2009 and,
MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS
The Art of PR
Lessons Learned from
Donald Trump
Kathy O’Brien is an award-win-
ning publicist with Jaffe. She may
be reached at 203-268-1315 or
kobrien@jaffepr.com. Connect with
her on LinkedIn and Twitter. continued on page 8
8. ❖
To order this newsletter, call: On the Web at:
since then, has amassed more
than 4.72 million followers and
pushed out nearly 29,000 tweets.
(Meanwhile, he only follows 46 ac-
counts.) Clearly, Trump uses social
media as a megaphone to share
his story with the world and invite
conversation.
Sometimes, however, that trans-
parency can backfire. In fact, in
September, Trump told the Twit-
tersphere to “ask me anything.”
As it turns out, people did, and
some of the responses were ruth-
less (and hilarious). While Twitter
can certainly be an asset to any
organization, it can also mean the
organization’s downfall if not used
properly. Trump now wisely uses
Twitter to promote his upcoming
appearances, poll numbers, book
signings and major interviews,
serving as a good example of how
law firms can share their news,
too.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS,
PAY FOR SPACE
At press time, Trump announced
that he was planing to spend
$300,000 in ad buys in the pri-
mary states of New Hampshire,
Iowa and South Carolina. The ads
will focus on the cornerstones of
his campaign — the huge wall, his
business experience and the in-
eptitude of his competitors. While
not everyone agrees with these
positions, those are his positions,
and, rather than risk the messaging
getting jumbled in the press, he is
reinforcing his points by doubling
down and purchasing media space
in those key markets.
Paid media, although very helpful
in communicating a message, some-
times is seen as less credible. You re-
ally need to weigh the pros and cons.
Sometimes buying an ad, sponsoring
an event or paying for a bylined arti-
cle placement where you can control
the message makes perfect sense and
should be part of an overall market-
ing strategy. Other times, the results
of those techniques can be laughable.
With the election less than year
away, there is no doubt we will be
seeing a lot more of Trump. In the
coming days, weeks and months,
I’m sure he will continue to provide
fodder for late night talk shows,
newspaper editorials and marketing
best practices (or worst practices)
that we as savvy legal marketers can
replicate, or avoid at all costs. Either
way, it will be an exciting year.
Media & Comm
continued from page 7
—❖—
still has to account for the remain-
ing 35% as the leads are nurtured
and ultimately closed. That burden
falls on the shoulders of your firm’s
staff, who need to be up to speed on
what type of experience and trust
you created for the first 65%, or the
client will receive mixed signals and
decide to look at the next name on
their short list.
And yes, marketing touches even
more still. Your firm is in the sub-
scription business, not because
you charge a $29 monthly fee for
access to some software or infor-
mation but because your clients
make the choice to work with you
(or not) every time they need legal
services. Retaining them as clients
increases their client lifetime val-
ue, makes them more profitable,
and ultimately can reduce the (sig-
nificantly higher) resources you
invest toward new client acquisi-
tion.
Marketing has become account-
able for the entire customer journey
because in the end, the marketing
department’s mission is to delight
the clients so they buy from you
again.
IDEAS FOR THE NEW YEAR
Below are areas within your
firm that you can work on in 2016
to give you the best likelihood of
creating those end-to-end delight-
ful experiences. But first, keep this
phrase in mind as you read through
the rest of this article: Sell the hole,
not the drill. Or, put another way:
You sell your clients a better version
of themselves.
Now, let's get started with our
2016 to-do list:
Buyer Personas. Hopefully you
are very familiar with this term. If
not, create a buyer persona using
feedback from multiple depart-
ments within your firm. Learn ex-
actly why your clients choose to
retain your lawyers, why they left,
what demographic tendencies they
have (gender, company role, age,
etc.). Remember to keep your per-
sonas up to date, instead of stashed
in a network drive as PDFs.
Account-Based Marketing. Look
into account-based marketing to
identify what is influencing larger
clients to engage you across mul-
tiple practice areas, and what those
engagements look like. Can you
spot any opportunities or trends?
CONCLUSION
Our list is far from complete. Next
month, we continue our look at
account-based marketing, and also
explore value nurturing, conversion
optimization, and more.
Stephan Hovnanian is founder
and owner of Shovi Websites, an
e-mail and web marketing company
outside Boston. He may be reached
at www.shovi.com or 781-538-5901.
Higher Profitability
continued from page 1
The publisher of this newsletter is not engaged in rendering
legal, accounting, financial, investment advisory or other
professional services, and this publication is not meant to
constitute legal, accounting, financial, investment advisory
or other professional advice. If legal, financial, investment
advisory or other professional assistance is required, the
services of a competent professional person should be sought.
—❖—
