Cut budgets completely
Cut the entire marketing budget immediately. So you can be sure that you will remain unheard when your clients are looking for help. It may sound like an exaggeration, but that’s exactly the panic reaction that seems to create security at the first moment. After all, you need the money for your business – until it stops because there is no more sales.
Restructure budgets
It is much more important to restructure marketing budgets wisely now. Events, travel, paper brochures, advertisements in paper editions of media, etc. must be cancelled immediately. How large marketing budgets for law firms in general have to be, I once explained in this article in LTO.de: https://lawbusiness.de/marketing-budgets/.
SEO, Google and LinkedIn
You now need SEO, a strong Google ranking and a strong presence in social media like LinkedIn. In the latter you can not only buy premium accounts but also ads. A strong LinkedIn presence was already important before the sales crisis. I have almost 7,000 LinkedIn contacts in my target group – how many do you have?
WebCams & Videos – Professionally!
Invest in good webcams and work with strong online seminar providers to place your training there. But also train your employees how to make sales via web! Neither is everyone born to be a salesman nor can everyone act safely in front of a webcam. Do not underestimate this! You start again with your sales skills, because of course a WebCam cannot simulate the personal contact 1:1. Did you know for example that it looks threatening when you sit directly in front of the WebCam? You should sit at least 2 meters away so that you don’t look too frontal.
Operate – professional (!) – Videoblogs. It is essential to produce a blog at least every two weeks, which should not be longer than one minute.
Goals & Processes
But the mere shift to proven web techniques and legal tech (see our article on this subject: https://lawbusiness.de/legaltechbasics/) is far too little. Nor is it a priority. First you have to clearly define your marketing and sales goals. Especially in the current situation you have to work with scenarios. Simple example:
# Who do I sell Services X to?
# How do my clients’ requirements for Services X change when Y happens?
# What do I communicate to my clients via which channels when Y happens?
You also need to define processes for your marketing and sales services. Who is responsible for what and when should be a fixed part of your firm’s governance.
References & Content
Get references from your clients now. If you have done a good job, your clients will be happy to provide small quotes – within the framework of the confidentiality obligation, of course. If you are looking for a management consultant: Do you prefer the one with or without references? And yes, of course we have some: https://lawbusiness.de/clients/.
But how do I get to the content I am supposed to communicate via the many new channels? By regularly contacting your A/B clients via phone / web. Especially in times of crisis people are happy to be able to tell someone in detail where the shoe pinches them.
For further questions, I can refer you to https://lawbusiness.de/marketing/ and https://lawbusiness.de/business-development/ or you can contact me and my team directly.
Alexander Gendlin, Managing Partner Law Business, Bochum – Vienna