For more than 17 years I’ve worked in legal marketing, I’ve been keenly listening to clients about how they choose their lawyer, what irritates them and why they leave. I read surveys, attend public and private panel sessions that profile clients and their preferences, and I interview clients at every opportunity.

If you’re in a business, such as law, which centres on attracting and keeping clients, your marketing — and all other business strategies — must be informed and guided by client preferences. If you’re not understanding, responding and anticipating their needs, you will never reach your full potential. Start listening, and if necessary, start asking. Gratefully, clients will normally tell you very clearly what works and what doesn’t.

Here are the nine most common themes clients want in their lawyer:

1. Know my business

Don’t learn on my dime. Come to the table with a good understanding of our industry, our history and nuances, and a map to our landmines. Ask to attend a management or board meeting to get deeper insight into our business.

2. Don’t sue us

If we’re friends, and I pay your fees, don’t let your partners take a swipe at me.

3. Ignore me at your peril

I don’t always need the answer, the final document or the update, but I do want to be acknowledged if I leave you a message or send an e-mail. Tell me when you’ll be available. I’d even be happy to hear from your assistant.

4. Show me value

Concern yourself with demonstrating value. If you write off some time on my invoice, show me. If we can learn together or attend a CLE, invite me. If you or your firm can help me in other ways, please tell me.

5. Communicate with me 

Help me understand what’s going to happen during our time together, explain your billing method so I don’t have to ask, keep in touch with me while the file is active, and help me manage the stress related to my legal issue. Explain to me who’s on my file and why. (They shouldn’t be too junior or too senior.)

6. Stay in touch

Even when there’s no active file in play, I want to hear from you occasionally. If you treat our work as transactional, I will too and will reconsider where to send each new matter. There will be no loyalty to you because you’re not investing in our relationship or staying in touch with our business.

7. Seize opportunities to learn about us

If a piece of work went to another firm, by way of RFP or otherwise, ask me why you weren’t selected. Give me the chance to discuss this with you. Perhaps you’ll be better suited next time, or even better informed, but you won’t know if you don’t ask.

When we conclude a piece of work, invite me to provide some feedback on what went well and what could improve. Lawyers never ask me about this and it’s an effective way to increase loyalty, provided it results in service delivery improvements.

8. Manage my expectations.

Don’t surprise me with your bills. Under promise and over deliver when possible.

Avoid telling me what I want to hear, instead, prepare me for the worst outcome.

9. Anticipate my needs

With your experience you ought to know what I will need and want at every stage of this matter. If you provide it without my asking, you appear thoughtful and intelligent, but you’ll also gain my loyalty because you clearly have my interests at heart.

Law students to seasoned partners ought to commit these to memory and practice them daily. It’s a formula for success. How do I know for sure? For 17 years clients have told me so.

Sponsorships. They're one of the many ways to get your name in front of a special interest group and they are often ripe with possibilities and over-flowing with potential. Some of you, though, merely send off your cheque along with your logo and forget to investigate, request and reap additional opportunities for your firm.

Every part of your marketing spend should punch above its weight and with sponsorships — unlike many other marketing expenses — it often only requires a bit of thought, planning and perhaps a healthy dose of chutzpah to get more for your buck.

With some large and well-established organizations that offer sponsorships for their special events, there’s little margin available to wiggle in extras for sponsors. The goodies at the gold, silver and bronze sponsorship levels might be etched in stone, but I would still enquire about additional opportunities.

Here are my top 10 tips:

1. Personally connect with the organization you are sponsoring. Speak to the person in charge and connect your voice/face/name to your firm and have some ongoing dialogue on mutually beneficial initiatives.

2. Ask questions, show curiosity, look under the hood and seize opportunities to benefit your firm, but don’t require out-of-pocket expenses to the organization. Things such as placing your firm name on additional promotional materials, or asking the organization’s President to write a note of thanks that you can post on your firm’s website and distribute via social media.

3. Study up! Take a close look at who else is involved. These could be sponsors, speakers, board members, conference committees, exhibitors and other VIPs. Consider how you might connect with them and how you can help each other. Build strategic relationships.

4. Increase your exposure for next year. Enquire about speaking opportunities, submitting an article for the event publication, offering an auction item, or even joining the event planning committee.

5. Only commit to those sponsorships where you can get a least two social and engaged lawyers to attend the event. Insist they circulate with a “must meet” list of people (see #3).

6. Invite a client or two to attend with you. Consider the fit of the client to the event, who they might meet, and any educational value that might exist for your client.

7. Ask for seating at a premium table location. This could be centre stage, beside a client’s table, near a prospective client’s table, near the VIP table, etc.

8. Ramp up to the event and down from the event. Announce your involvement whenever possible and relevant without getting carried away. Discuss the value you see in supporting or attending this event. Post photos (with consent from your subjects) of the event and your positive commentary via social media or your website.

9. Offer to host a pre-event VIP reception either onsite, or in your offices. This will place your firm amongst key people of the event and will create a bit of a buzz about your firm. You can invite clients and contacts of your own to this event, plus all of your lawyers and senior management staff should also attend.

10. Follow-up with people you met (this is where business development starts to happen), thank the organizers (because it’s polite, and you’ll be memorable for doing so), and ask how you can help with next year’s event (position you firm as engaged and on the starting line-up for next year).

Many firms and lawyers alike still approach marketing as a task on a to-do list. Get carpets replaced, schedule articling student interviews, get a marketing speaker for the associates…

Marketing is not any singular item. It's not holiday cards, a website, client lunches, or even a marketing speaker. None of these activities could stand alone and generate much of anything worthwhile unless your firm is the only gig in town. For the same reason that when you meet someone for the first time, it's unlikely they will immediately send you work. You need to develop a relationship and find multiple opportunities for contact to build trust and credibility. Marketing helps you achieve this, but on a larger scale.

When managing partners and their executive committees view their firm as a business – a multi-million dollar business – it's easier to see that marketing is not a separate function of the business, but an on-going and core part of the corporate fabric that drives revenue. As such, marketing, client service, client communications and client feedback should a standing agenda item for all management committees and threaded into the business plan.

Not only are orphan marketing activities ineffective, they gobble up valuable resources, whether in lawyer time or marketing budget. Instead, consider how marketing can help achieve your firm's goals by facilitating year-round dialogue with various audiences.

Here are just a few ways to avoid marketing orphans:

1. When an opportunity presents itself – a new event sponsorship that hits right in the heart of current or prospective clients, for instance – grab it, but look for additional methods to reach the same target group. Look at newsletters, pre-event gatherings or communications, advertising, follow-up with leads, sponsors and VIPs.
2. During your planning phase look at how you might circle the wagons around a specific industry or sector. If you're using advertising to boost a practice area, build out your website with lots of client-friendly rich content, secure editorial space in the same or similar publications and write a column on the same practice area (helpful content only please!).
3. Every time someone brings a "good idea" to the table, challenge the group to consider how you'll support that one initiative with other activities. Get commitment of resources – financial and human – before you hit the switch.
4. Review your current orphans and if you're not getting any results after a good effort of at least a couple of years, see about dropping some of these, especially if you can't make a reasonable business case to support it.

Soon you'll see that when you bundle your efforts, they will achieve much more than most individual activities.

If you have “friended” a reporter on Facebook you could potentially see one of your “private” photos published in a mass media publication. It happened to my client.

A recent media relations campaign for one of my law firm clients revealed a new risk with “friending” reporters. One of the media releases was accompanied with a photo of a partner standing with a high profile public person. It seems the reporter didn’t want to only run the sanitized, pre-vetted photo provided by a publicist and decided to hunt for more interesting photos.

By good fortune, or bad, this reporter happened to be among the (distant) friends of the law firm partner’s Facebook page. She thumbed through the partners Facebook photos and pulled a different one off his page for publication. It wasn’t salacious or detrimental to my client, fortunately. The photo subjects were the same, just in a different setting, but taken with an iPhone. It was a casual shot, one we’ve all been subject to when someone hollers, “Hey guys, turn around and smile.” You don’t have time to check your appearance, you just dutifully play along… because it’s a friend taking the shot and it’s for personal use. That is, until a reporter happens upon it.

It was shocking to think that any of his Facebook photos were at risk of being published. When we look out from the pages of a publication – virtually standing before thousands of people — we ought to have some measure of control of our image. Perusing, and ultimately selecting, a Facebook photo for publication just felt offside. Is it any different than going to someone’s home as an invited guest and slipping a photo from a frame on their wall for your personal use and gain?

I’ve worked in PR for almost 20 years and have never seen anything like this. So, I had to ask another colleague and turned to a seasoned PR pro, Kevin Aschenbrenner, Vice President, Public Reputation Services, at Jaffe PR.

This is a really interesting situation. It says a lot about how we treat social media. We seem to feel that just because we've "friended" someone on Facebook that they're safe and can be trusted with our most personal information, such as photos. That, unfortunately, is not always the case.

I think because social media has quietly crept into every facet of our lives that we no longer see it as a threat to our privacy, but it is. With all the furor over Facebook's upcoming changes (both the cosmetic ones and the more serious behind-the-scenes changes that greatly impact privacy) I think we all need a reminder that what you don't post can't come back and hurt you. If you post it, it's out there, and you run the risk that it will be used against you, even by a "friend."”

Do engage in PR and media relations, but don’t let this happen to you.

Take control of your image with these five essential Facebook tips:

1. Know your friends. Redirect reporters to Twitter or other social media environments.
2. Don’t post anything that can come back to hurt you (thanks, Kevin).
3. Check your Facebook security settings (again).
4. Scan social media sights for where your name is tagged to a photo. Request it be removed if it isn’t flattering in any context.
5. If necessary, activate a separate Facebook page just for family and personal photos.

This reporter has been “unfriended”.

Many of my client firms don’t have a marketing professional on staff. Instead, they have a group of lawyers who are doing their darndest to make the best marketing decisions for their firm. 

They want to know the best practices for marketing decision-making and work flow systems. There are many good models and I’ll offer a hybrid of what I’ve seen work well. This is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but should provide you with some foundational elements to build upon to suit your firm’s culture, size and needs. But for a mid-sized firm with established practice groups, or at least the notion of groups, some planning will go a long way to managing your marketing budget and non-billable time, while advancing the firm towards its business goals.

The marketing function in any business follows the directives set out by the firm’s leadership. It follows, it doesn’t lead. That’s not to say marketing doesn’t initiate ideas, concepts or strategies, but the lion’s share of the effort maps directly to the firm’s goals so that all efforts and spending is strategic. These goals can be set out in a strategic plan, or shared in a hallway following a management meeting – either way, avoid a scenario where the marketing function is making these decisions for the firm. For that reason, let’s start at the top.

Executive/Management Committee 

This group oversees the practice and business management of the firm. Think of it as a Board of Directors and if every member of this committee holds a distinct position, marketing would be represented at the table. This “Marketing Partner” has demonstrated marketing savvy, a thriving practice, the respect of the partnership, an open-mind and is keen to continue learning about marketing. This person should, for instance, have a working knowledge of social media, belong or attend Legal Marketing Association, or other marketing professional development, events.

As a side note it’s worth mentioning that the most successful Managing Partners – who closely resembles a CEO running a multi-million dollar business — also have a strong understanding of business management and how the marketing function is an essential element to success.

Marketing Committee

The Marketing Partner needs a committee to support the mandate of the firm’s marketing and business goals. The marketing committee is the engine, but not necessarily the only worker-bees. Committee members should be from all facets of the firm – litigators, solicitors, young, mid-range and senior lawyers. Most importantly, they should be individuals who are keen on marketing and are prepared to follow-through on directives from the firm’s management and marketing committees.

Depending on the size of firm and committee, a co-chair position to handle the meeting preparation, agenda, minutes and follow-up action items can be a significant boost to the Marketing Partner. The creation of the co-chair position is also a good succession planning strategy. Committees of three to eight members are most common, but should be large enough so that no one member is over-burdened and small enough to be nimble and responsive. Your committee size should be relative to your firm’s ambitions, goals and marketing budget.

If you are just getting started or revisiting your marketing structure, do consider a terms of reference document for your committee. Developing a shared understanding of the committee’s functions will be helpful to committee members and your executive. It should set out its role, responsibilities, and scope, but just as importantly, it should identify what it is not responsible for. 

Here are a few specific terms to include:

1. Committee responsibilities as a whole, and the individual roles and responsibilities
2. Scope of work and deliverables
3. Budget and other resources available
4. Reporting responsibilities

Each committee member should have a specific role and clear responsibilities. These could be the mandates below, or tactical activities such as advertising, sponsorships, website & social media, client presentations & events, and so forth. If your firm has a marketing coordinator, this person is likely well-positioned to take action on many of the decisions that arise from these meetings and will form the basis for the day-to-day marketing activities for this individual.

If your budget allows, bring in a consultant occasionally to ramp up the Committee’s efforts and inject some fresh thinking around current or problematic issues. Doing so a few times a year can bring greater effectiveness of your time and resources.

Plan to meet once a month or every six weeks and do schedule these meetings for the year, and for no more than 60 or 90 minutes each. If attendance ever starts to wane, consider that morning meetings catch everyone before client demands set in and often can rival lunch-time meetings. Follow-up between meetings by the chair or co-chair will dramatically impact how many action items are completed in time for the next meeting.

Marketing Committee Mandates

To avoid creating a rudderless committee that lacks direction or substance, it’s important to state your priorities and to set realistic goals for your Marketing Committee. Identify your purpose together to gain buy-in by all members and present your proposal to the executive committee for blessing, if that’s your structure.

Among some of the core mandates for your Marketing Committee, the following are the most effective and could be considered: 

1. Advancing the firm’s profile in key markets
2. Practice group planning and implementation
3. Business development
4. Client retention and feedback

Whether your firm’s market is geographically-based or tailored to specific sectors or industries, identify where your firm’s expertise needs to be showcased. Research what your clients and prospects are reading and attending and ensure your firm is present in the most effective manner. This could involve a variety of activities including social media, events, board positions, sponsorships, advertising, but could also include bringing your firm’s corporate image up to date and freshening up your firm’s online and print image.

The Marketing Committee should support and advance the practice groups and their marketing and business development efforts. With a firm-wide perspective, this Committee is able to evaluate marketing plans and what is appropriate resource allocation for each practice group. 

When doling out marketing dollars to lawyers or practice groups, it’s almost always advisable to request a plan or business case for each request. This way, the committee can track marketing spending and its ROI (return on investment), as well as the productive non-billable efforts of its lawyers. Practice group annual marketing plans that are drafted well before the annual budget process begins, can be presented to the marketing committee for comment, adoption and financial support. The plan should be straight-forward to complete, with an emphasis on timelines and responsibilities. Do reward and recognize the effort and not always just the results.

Business development initiatives ensure you have future work in your pipeline. Of course, new work can come from existing clients or shiny new ones. Start with existing clients first, but do plan some new client outreach efforts and request your practice group leaders capture their intentions in their Group plan.

Your Marketing Committee should work from billing and client data to further develop strategies to meet the firm’s business goals. Ask your accounting department to provide this Committee with quarterly updates on top clients by fees, practice group billings and lawyer billings. Look for trends and areas of concern or opportunity. 

Who were your top 10 clients this year compared to the past three years? Have clients dropped off that you didn’t notice? If there’s no reasonable explanation, start asking questions. Better yet, initiate a client audit program for your top clients with the sole purpose of understanding your client – specifically, how you’re doing and how you can improve. This is not a business development initiative, it’s a retention strategy and, in some way, it should benefit your client with improved service.

Those four mandates are likely enough to keep most Marketing Committees on track and busy with productive and meaningful work. Just ensure they help to achieve the firm’s overall goals.

Your management model may differ from other firms, but you can adapt the above to suit your firm to ensure your marketing efforts and decision-making hit the mark.

Benefits of the media

They may be friendly, but they are not your friends. They are skilled, resourceful and tenacious. And most drink too much coffee. Not to suggest a sinister intention, but their job is get information from you — information you may not want to share — whether it serves you or your clients or not.

There is a unique synergy between you though. Sure, you may be at odds most of the time, but you can come together in a highly productive manner if prepared and with a healthy dose of caution. 

Strange bedfellows

If there’s anything in common between lawyers and the media, it’s their love of words. Lawyers love to torture them, and reporters love to play with them. Lawyers’ daylight hours revolve around words, even the interpretation of everyday words, punctuation, and dangling modifiers; whereas the media have a larger, kinder – if not more public — playground.

Lawyers have tripwires everywhere. Use the wrong word in an agreement and your client could be exposed to a lawsuit, and so, they are verbose. While members of the media count in column inches, words, or seconds so that everything fits, and you can still get the lid on.

My idea of amusement? Watch them edit each other’s work. Now that would be fun.

One is discrete and just like your best friend, who can keep a secret – or at least keep it out of print. The other likes to shout from rooftops to anyone who will buy their paper or tune in to their show. 

Lawyers and the media. They are strange bedfellows and it’s only between rare and trusting lawyer-reporter working relationships that “off the record” pillow talk can happen. Otherwise, consider that microphone “hot” and recording. Same goes for iPhones, BlackBerries, handheld recorders, any type of smart phones … you get the idea.

Don’t go in alone

Most lawyers would rather be anywhere than in a media interview. Reporters are skilled interviewers and it’s hard not to spill the beans to someone who appears so darn interested in anything you have to say.

Despite all that, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two. You need each other to either tell a story to readers, or help a client generate public awareness, support or sympathy. Or heavens, it might even help generate work for your practice, your colleagues or raise awareness of your law firm – you know, the stuff money can’t buy.

And at the very intersection of the two camps, is trust. The reporter must trust that the lawyer will respond before deadline, say something that will be interesting and likely to resonate with their audience. “No comment” is not it. Say something else, smart people! How about “I am completely focussed on my client’s interests right now and hope to be able to speak with you later” or “These are unfortunate circumstances and no one is winning here.” 

Yet, the lawyer may see an opportunity to advance the client’s matter by releasing select pieces of information to the media, and that it not be misquoted, misconstrued or misrepresented in any way. Some lawyer clients will ask me if they can read a draft of the piece before it goes to print or air, and well, no their work is not usually subject to our review.

When working with a client on a media campaign, my own level of trust, generally speaking, is relative to the seniority of the reporter. Not to suggest junior reporters are running amok, or intentionally making mistakes. That’s just not what I’ve seen. Instead, they take comments out of context or leave a bad impression with their interviewee. It’s ok, we’re not all friends, but when a reporter makes a mistake, it can have huge consequences on you or your client.

At times, a reluctant lawyer will only speak to the media with the aid (or coaxing) of an internal marketing pro or an external public relations consultant. Let them do the heavy lifting and navigate a safer passage for you. You will be better prepared and more relaxed, so you’ll have a clearer head to give a great interview.

Crib notes for media interviews:

1. Get consent from your client to speak to the media. If your Law Society doesn’t require it, loyalty from your client probably does.
2. Get help as soon as possible – get an experienced interviewee, a marketing or communications professional, or a former journalist. They can all help you prepare.
3. Understand your message(s) – jot them down and study them.
4. Practice articulating each message differently until it rolls off your tongue comfortably four or five different ways. Make them your own, even if you didn’t write them.
5. Consider what you’ll be asked, including the tough questions you don’t want to answer. Get answers for each and media training if you’re struggling with the tough ones.
6. Boldly ask the reporter what they’ll be asking you. Many will tell you. Some will dodge and weave. 
7. You are not on the witness stand. You don’t have to answer the question as it’s asked. Take a deep breath, think, and then speak. Consider your audience and how best to tell them your story. Avoid legalese and do use picture words and descriptions. 
8. Unless it’s radio, find some visuals to accompany your story. Photos, props, video, evidence, other interviewees, etc.
9. Get as comfortable as possible. Conduct the interview on your own turf if possible.
10. If your image will be used, take a moment and check your appearance. It’s time to primp. Fellas, powder is not just for women.

When you’re called for an interview, just stop for a moment and consider why you should do it. Then, start preparing to meet a new “friend”.

The Disney Institute speaker launched us into a fascinating 90-minute presentation that started with an invitation to take a drink from a high pressure water hose, took us “off stage”, and left us inspired.

The 2011 Legal Marketing Association conference was recently held in Florida’s Walt Disney World — a great venue to ignite a conference that centres on understanding and improving the client experience.

Our Disney Institute keynote speaker was as well-rehearsed as any Disney production, but with plenty of nuggets to take away and consider. Disney, as an organization, is a model to follow and learn from. Yes, even a law firm. Legal services may be the furthest thing from Disney, but there are plenty of strategies we can learn and adapt that improves the law firm client experience and drives revenue.

Consider their business model. It looks like this:
Leadership excellence -> Cast excellence -> Guest satisfaction -> Financial results. 

Each stage leads to financial results, and there is significant interdependence between the stages. On the surface it’s a basic chain of functions, yet behind each stage – you’ve got to know – is myriad of highly strategic and tactical initiatives that place Disney among the world’s smartest businesses.

Here are just a few of the many nuggets that lurked behind that business model:

1. Disney’s goals are simple: (1) Create an intent to recommend (2) Create an intent to return. Everything they do can be mapped back to one or both of these goals.
2. Centre all effort on the guest experience. It’s all about the guest– their experience and emotional state throughout their visit, right through to their return home to face the bills. Disney “meets guests at their emotional level” whether they are excited as they enter through the front gates or exhausted on existing.
3. Implement high standards and clarity when hiring. Be upfront about what you need and the “uncompromisable” things that the organization requires. This is where self-selection begins. Attitude always trumps aptitude. If you’re not willing to smile, work as a team, toe the line, there’s the exit. But do come back and see us as a guest! Throughout the process everyone is treated as a Disney “guest” (see #1 above). New recruits – or “cast members” are schooled in Disney basics or “traditions” where everyone learns that picking up litter at the Disney park is expected, to always smile when “on stage”, to answer more than just the simple question (“When is the 3 O’clock parade?”). Disney management meet with new cast members regularly and frequently, and every manager meets with individual staff once per month. Rewards programs are in place and transparency is evident.
4. Figure out how to lessen the negative stereotypes of Disney and emphasize the positive. As one example that hits close to home, the sticker price for a Disney experience is high. They do not apologize for this, and nor should we for our legal fees. To improve the impression of value for dollars, Disney sends a satisfaction questionnaire 45 days after they return home, to coincide when their bills arrive (see #1).
5. When necessary, guests/clients will forgive you when there is loyalty. Even Disney isn’t perfect or when, say, safety is an issue and a cast member must step in to circumvent an accident, inconvenienced guests will understand and forgive.
6. The next great idea can come from anywhere or anyone. Disney listens to guests, but also to everyone in their organization. 

What can your firm adopt from Disney? Just imagine. 

There’s something in that Disney water, even if it comes from a hose. 

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." — Dr. Seuss (I Can Read with My Eyes Shut)

Early adopters they are not, but lawyers I have found are keen to learn. But as a group, it’s the drive to action that’s the biggest challenge, particularly if it cuts into billable time or doesn’t have an immediate or positive impact that’s within sight.

I’ve been talking a lot about social media to client firms and larger audiences for a while now and the results bring varying degrees of adoption. Anytime we try to coax a freighter towards a new course, it takes time and a healthy dose of patience. I recently recalled something my mentor told me a long time ago. Our law firms – or, in my case, my clients — require us to discuss, promote, and write about issues, people or topics of interest ad nauseam. Then, we’ll do it all over again until we get the desired results.

And then, when we think we’ve even reached those in caves, someone will always ask, “Huh, what was that? Social what?” So, we start at the beginning again, shattering any illusions our lawyers will jump on the social media bandwagon in droves.

With most things shiny and new, many lawyers will stand back and view it sceptically, examining it from this angle and that. Oh they’ll listen, synthesize, ponder, consider and generally torture themselves over-thinking and analyzing all the ways they could possibly compromise their status among colleagues. OK, not all of them, but 99.9% of them. 

If you ask me, I’m okay with that, especially if they continue to read, learn and ask questions. Baby steps still results in advancement, right?

As I patiently wait, advise and coax those that only see risk, I realize that from a bird’s eye view, the marketing landscape has shifted significantly over recent years. Marketing 2.0 is the new black and we may never go back. Here are just some of the things that have crept into our paradigm:

1. Our writing is more strategic. Smart marketing strategies and the lawyers for which they are designed, no longer luxuriate in waxing poetic on the subject du jour. Now we consider key words, reader reaction, whether it will be “liked” or not and so on
2. Our online writing is amplified … significantly … and not only by our own steam, but by others whose own endorsements can push our content towards new audiences. But once it’s online, you can’t get it back. Ever.
3. Everyone’s a publisher and timelines are measured in minutes, not hours. Print news media have a love/hate relationship with the online world. Conventional media will never win at scooping a story, but they will pick up resources, photos and quotes online. They will monitor comments on blogs to gauge reactions and news value of a story. And bloggers will take in news from multiple sources. They’ll churn, season and present it for their own audience. It’s a strange but sweet symbiotic relationship.
4. Google rankings and the degree of social media influence a person has will trump mind share. Mind share, or share of mind, is valuable space where consumers’ purchasing decisions are – or were — largely made. Competition is fierce among marketers who strategize to capture this “top of mind” position among target audiences. Those days are passing as Google rankings and a person’s online influence is rapidly replacing our personal beliefs and experiences.

How a professional is profiled online, how they rank in their field in keyword search results, how they articulate their knowledge and value, what others say about them is the new share of mind. 

My, how things have changed. 

So, congratulations on the merger and keeping a lid on the news until recently. I didn’t see one leak of this news. It’s quite a feat keeping the media at bay. I know; I’ve worked on two mergers. They get one whiff of merger negotiations and they pounce on your most vulnerable chatterbox. I would bet you had plenty of partners who were DY-ING to tell the story. Those of us on the marketing side of law… well, we like a little drama and plus, we can be controlling too.

Media can be relentless. They try all points of entry and keep at it until they crack the surface despite your impenetrable internal communication policies and protocols … I know, I know, you were ready. Some of us live for this stuff. You had key messages prepared for all possibilities, your spokespersons on both teams were media trained (in French too? Impressive! ) for both print and broadcast interviews.

Really, though … Did you actually have all your partners in lock down?

No, of course not. You are pros and weren’t going to let the media scoop your story until you were good and ready, when the Managing Partners finally agreed on the details of the media release and the ink was dry on that stack of documents. Oh… and documents, you locked them down with a secret password, right? What was it? Come on. You can tell us now, it’s all over. The fat lady sang already. Lemme guess. Was it Project Chantepleure? Project McDeal? Binch Me?

As each marketing team was acting oh-so-casual and preparing the new marketing materials and drafting the media release under the cover of darkness, whose name went at the top? Was there any debate?

Lang Michener, you did bring your name to the negotiating table, didn’t you? You fought hard, right? You spoke with elegance about the firm’s history and the 80 years’ worth of characters who’ve walked your halls. What’s that? McMillan actually wrestled it away from you? They seemed so, um, refined. Sheesh… well, I suppose the McMillan name has punch; panache. You know, the sort of name that scares the other side silly and makes them run away like little girls who’ve just seen a snake. It’s like a seal of quality, high standards… smarts. But then, so does Langs, right? Maybe the French translation of Langs was discovered to be something … naughty ?

Now that the Lang Michener stationery is a hot commodity, have you checked under partners’ desks to see if they’re hoarding some final pieces? Lawyers can be so strange. Here’s a tip: just let it slip to your IP lawyers and they’ll be down on all fours sniffing out the last LM logo’d envelope.

Best of luck!

Whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah or another cause for celebration that triggers you to pause, over-eat, connect with loved ones, the winter holiday is a blessing. It also reminds us to stop and appreciate our clients, especially if we haven’t done so during the year. 

A few years back I was working on a project and my law firm client retained a well-known Vancouver design firm. On the eve of Thanksgiving, all of us on the project received pumpkin pies with a note of appreciation attached. Simple and sweet. It was their strategy to offer a memorable token of appreciation during at time when they weren’t competing with a mountain of other shiny or sparkly gifts and cards. It worked.

Giving your best

If your clients — especially your best clients – haven’t felt your love recently, the time is approaching to make that right. While we’re still enjoying the bounty of fall, it’s hard to get our heads around winter holidays, but we must.

While we all appreciate every last bill-paying client, some have more promise than others. Your elite group, comprised of your best clients and prospects, referral sources and champions, should know they are recognized and appreciated as such. It’s just good business. We’re human and, like it or not, we make most of our decisions on how we feel about something or someone. 

Set a healthy budget and set out to do something special for each of them. For inspiration, ask your assistants and lawyers who know them best and I’d bet within five minutes you’ll have some thoughtful ideas.

Pressed for time? Ask a staff member to spearhead this effort armed with clear instructions and a budget. There are many safe online sites to shop for special items or you could use a good gift-basket supplier. Don’t ask your staff to create the baskets; it’s not worth the time and effort. Order them from a supplier early and view samples to ensure they are assembled beautifully. Set a budget and develop criteria for which clients will receive a gift basket. If not, your firm runs the risk of spending a small fortune on these gifts, plus the related courier charges.

I’ve also seen lovely intimate events for small gatherings of clients produced to great effect. Name cards are placed at each place-setting, token, but thoughtful gifts are presented with cards signed by all the lawyers the client has worked with. All this fuss amounts to your guests feeling special and valued. It also provides the added benefit of your lawyers spending time with your elite group and reinforcing a positive working relationship.

Now the rest

For the bulk of your clients, a thoughtful card is a good standby. There is much debate about e-cards versus hard-copy cards. E-cards are becoming popular, but some marketers give them thumbs down as they can’t be signed and personalized for each client. It’s also tough for recipients to display an e-card in their office. E-cards are ‘green’ though, and that might outweigh the other limitations. And if your firm’s brand screams innovation or forward-thinking law, an e-card is a good vehicle to strut your mettle with a leading-edge and unique creative experience. They pull at your emotions unlike their hard copy cousins and for this reason, incorporating your charity of choice can be very effective.

Speaking of charities, consider choosing a small lesser-known charity and point clients to their website or include part or all of their mission statement in your holiday message.

And please, budget-permitting, your card should be as innovative as possible. Don’t do what others are doing. We’ve all seen twinkling stars and snow falling gently – I know you can do better.

If the hard version is your card of choice, be sure to choose a unique one that reflects the firm’s brand. If your firm is young and hip, don’t go for a traditional card. Get everyone the client knows to sign the card – including staff – and add a personal handwritten message whenever possible. This takes time, I know, but it’s the biggest advantage over e-cards.

Where to detour

Careful with gifts of alcohol. Just be sure it’s an appropriate gift by asking someone close to the recipient if you don’t know with certainty. Also, navigate union executives, Crown Corporations and government clients carefully where gift-giving is concerned. Many are prohibited from accepting gifts and could even cause the recipient some trouble and embarrassment.

A little extra thought and creativity will bring so much more punch to what might otherwise be considered a necessary, but mundane task. 

A rogue and disgruntled associate in a large Canadian law firm had a bone to pick with a few of its partners. Rather than pull in one of those discrete committees that operates just under the surface of every large firm and deals with sensitive internal matters, this associate opted for an office-wide diatribe sent via e-mail from his home. 

The scandalous statements created shockwaves and went through the local legal community like a missile. Inside 24 hours the first media outlet called the firm and the associate for interviews, with many more to follow, including national print media. Then, it went global.

Blogs were hyperventilating over the news, restaurant lunch tables were a-buzz and the media hounded the law firm for a response – in some instances, relentlessly. That was way back in 2002 when references to blogs were always followed with a definition and were largely published by students and early adopters.

Today, public relations is no longer contained by spokespersons or campaigns guided by professionals. Now, many people get their daily dose of news with a quick scan on twitter or news feeds. As evidence, take the growth of twitter in less than two years and the intense rate of change in which it delivers news (with a nod to Vancouver’s Matt Wilcox for these stats):

• 20 tweets per hour on Maple Leaf’s Listeria-related recall, August 2008
• 250 tweets per hour on US Airways Hudson River crash, January 2009
• 10,000 tweets per hour on H1N1 discovery, April 2009
• 50,000 tweets per hour on the Tiger Woods scandal, January 2010
• 180,000 tweets per hour on iPad launch, March 2010

Just a few years ago PR professionals told our own story at our own pace and with a degree of control. We did so for years and without the help of citizen journalists who now regularly break or hijack stories. Your firm’s reputation and story-telling is subject to anyone with access to a keyboard. The playing field is officially levelled. 

Online news is now delivered and received at the speed of sound, anytime and practically anywhere. Now that PDAs are relatively inexpensive and mobile, it guarantees its continued growth. Witness something suspicious, record and YouTube it. See a news-worthy event on the street, it gets a tweet. Get bad service, a blog lambasts the company and names the employee. 

More than ever, major brands and reputations are at risk if they haven’t devised a media plan that monitors, responds to and measures “brand mentions”, whether they are favourable or unfavourable.

Major Canadian law firms are predictably slow on the uptake to monitor or participate in reputation management. And that same rogue associate today would likely ignite a significant and damaging story within an hour, not 24 hours. The firm would be called upon to respond to media enquiries before management even saw the story – they wouldn’t know what hit them. 

Traditional media and methods of public relations, for that matter, are long gone. We turned that corner a while ago. Law firms now need to prepare to protect and advance their firm’s reputation, brand and profitability. Anything short, for a large firm in particular, is risky.

On the flip side, use online PR to your advantage by responding to comments or questions about your firm or area of law. Position yourself or your firm as the expert and encourage interactivity with your clients and prospects. After all, I think we can now, finally, all agree that professional service firms are built on existing relationships.

Don’t leave your most valuable corporate assets—your brand and your reputation—in the hands of anyone with a strong opinion and a keyboard.

I was in Whistler, British Columbia, for a law firm retreat and stayed at one of the best hotels – you know, one of those places with the ultra plush bedding, towels that stack high and spa-inspired toiletries that smell good enough to taste. 

About a month before my stay, this hotel started a pilot program to accept dogs. So, not only did my family join me, so did our beloved Golden Retriever. After two nights in the palace, complete with The Dog, I spent the better part of an hour filling out their dog service survey. I used every available blank space on that survey, turning it this way and that way, spewing revenue-generating ideas, things that bugged me (and my pooch), and of course, lots of ideas how to promote this service to other dog-lovers. Proud of what I thought was a respectable contribution, I sealed the envelope with a smile, dropped it in their survey box and waited for recognition of my astute observations, clever use of white space or even a "thanks for filling out our survey, Ms. Van Dyke".

It's been months and I'm still waiting. So, I've started filling out all kinds of surveys now, just to see who is paying attention and responds beyond "Dear valued customer …."

And I do believe a response from the palace was warranted. Not only is it common sense to express gratitude, but it's also good business. I am a perfect candidate for repeat business as an engaged client of their service … or hospitality. Plus, dog-lovers walk and talk a lot with our own kind, so we're a good referral network of sorts.

I am an advocate for speaking up when you have experienced exceptional service — good or bad — I also believe we must ask our clients for their feedback in order to view ourselves through the lens of experienced clients. Quality service is a moving target and those that remain stationary do so at an increasing degree of risk because it's relative to the offerings of the firm across the street or even across the country. The ante is rising. 

Many mid-sized and large firms push out client service surveys regularly and get a small but seemingly acceptable number of completed surveys returned. It's an easy, cost-effective method of "touching" a client with a communiqué that says they matter. In theory, it's also a process to collect all types of comments and opinions about your firm and its lawyers. 

I wonder, though, about the quality of the feedback using surveys. Sure, it's a measure against an illusive service benchmark and could provide markers on an aggregate basis that would help flag a trend, but if one of your best clients was dissatisfied with their lawyer there's a darn good chance they are among the majority who don't complete your survey. Client retention among your upper echelon of clients should be tracked carefully. They should also be interviewed and not surveyed if you're serious about keeping them.

Know the risks if you put all your eggs in a client survey basket. And, at the very least, acknowledge the clients that do spend their precious time to tell you how you're doing, even if you get a bad review. Anything less will damage your image. Besides which, every person, and their dog, deserves better.