Legal Marketing & PR

Get Top of Mind Awareness and Increased Revenues Through Innovation

By Tom Kane

A recent survey spells out how innovation not only helps keeps certain law firms top-of-mind, but also more profitable.  My friend Stacey West Clark has another great article (her standard fair) that appears on Law.com’s Small Firm Business about BTI's Survey of National Market Awareness 2008.

Her article actually covers a speech by Marcie Shunk, a principal of BTI Consulting Group, who shared some of her insights about the aforementioned, said survey (sorry, the adjectives were just a flashback to my practicing days) before the Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group.

The survey was based on 1,700 in-house counsel interviews (41% from Fortune 100 companies, and 17% from Global 500), and according to Stacey’s article:

“…one thing became statistically clear: If you have top of mind awareness with your clients and potential clients, you will beat out your competition and your revenues will be higher.”

The two things the survey showed about the most successful firms, according to Shunk:

1. Innovation is a “driving theme,” and includes:

• Leading research and white papers,
• Client service standards and strategies,
• Aggressive alternative billing arrangements,
• Client-driven technology, and
• Firm market growth strategies; and

2. Increasing brand awareness (focusing on the things that involve having a direct experience with the firm/lawyer):

• Service that really differentiates firm,
• Sales pitches that set firm apart (and demonstrate capabilities vs. claims),
• Highly professional behavior even with opponents, and
• Exceptional business development activities (seminars, networking, trade association involvement).

Not a lot of new ideas here. But if you are innovative, you can do them in ways that will differentiate your firm, which will result in top-of-mind awareness and more business.

Here’s a link to a free download of the survey’s Executive Summary.

Full post as published by Legal Marketing Blog on August 12, 2008 (boomark / email).