10 mistakes in lawyers email

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Top Ten Marketing Mistakes

Lawyers Make

... and what you should be

doing instead!

Daniel Barnett & Eugenie Verneyauthors of Intelligent Marketing for Employment Lawyers


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Parts of this book appear in Intelligent Marketing for Employment Lawyersthe new book by Daniel Barnett and Eugenie Verney

published by Employment Law Services Ltd, October 2009, ISBN 9780955388613. Used by permission

A 416-page hardback available from

Available fromwww.intelligentmarketingforlawyers.co.uk

2009 Daniel Barnett and Eugenie VerneyTe copyright holders are licensing this under the Creative Commons Licence

Attribution 2.0 (England and Wales) and Attribution 2.5 (Scotland)http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/scotland/

Graphic design by Gisele Malenfant www.timelessdigital.org

Cover illustration by Miroslaw Pieprzyk

Please feel free to post this e-book on your blog or email it toanyone you feel would benefit from reading it. Thanks!


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www.intelligentmarketingforlawyers.co.uk

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Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make... and what you should be doing instead!

page 2 Mistake # 1 You dont know who youre talking to...

page 5 Mistake # 2 Youre only talking about yourself...

page 8 Mistake # 3 Youre doing too many things at once...

page 9 Mistake # 4 Forgetting to talk to your clients...

page 13 Mistake # 5 Reaching for the lowest common denominator...

page 15 Mistake # 6 Staying glued to your desk

page 18 Mistake # 7 Ignoring social media

page 21 Mistake # 8 Advertising just because everyone else does

page 25 Mistake # 9 Using legalese and jargon

page 28 Mistake # 10 Selling not sharing

page 29 About the authors


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2Top Ten Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make Daniel Barnett & Eugenie Verney

Mistake # 1You dont know who youre talking to...

Identifying your ideal clientYou may be in the enviable position o already seeing dream clients comprise the lions share o your business, or your corner oyour rms business. You long ago carved out a clearly demarcated segment o the employment law market and now youre justlooking or the best ways to generate business rom it.

Or perhaps not.

And you wouldnt be alone: lawyers across the landacross the world, indeedmake Mistake # 1 and ail to identiy who itis theyre talking to when they market their business. Teyre just not sure where to channel their energies, or theyre araid thatdening a niche and doing what they enjoy most will cost them too much passing trade.So instead they use a scattergun approach

which means they end up spending too much time wrestling with demanding and unremunerative cases.

What exactly do we mean? Tats the one you really dont want. Its the case that devours your resources and attention, is otenhugely annoying, and as oten as not doesnt even bring in that much in the way o revenue. And you can nd yoursel caught ina vicious circle. You eel you ought to be out there grabbing anything that foats past the door because times are challenging and

youre araid the clients you really want are going to pass you by, but because youve put all your ocus on custom you dont want,you end up ailing to pull the cases you do want.

An over-simplication perhaps, but its important never to lose sight o why you became a lawyer in the rst place and why youchose to specialise. You will always have the most energy and deliver the best results when youre being true to yoursel and doingsomething you actually enjoy. So go ahead and discover what it is that makes you stand out rom the crowd.


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Your goal here is to dene your niche and position yoursel as the best playeror at least a major playerwithin it.

Heres where to start...

1. Define who youand your colleagueswould really like as clientsFor example, i your ocus is on trade union law you have two clear types o target client: unions or the organisationsemploying their members. I UPE ticks your boxes, then look or c lients who specialise in acquiring businesses as goingconcerns. What exactly do we mean?

Perhaps you enjoy discrimination cases relying on EU law, so seek out clients whose workplaces generate the highestnumber o claims, such as under-stafed SMEs, or local authorities and NHS trusts, as well as the unions who bring thecases.

Still struggling? Ten do it in reverse. Dene the types o client whose business you know you denitelydontwant andnarrow it down that way. And be honestyou are likely to nd some o them within your existing client base!

2. Identify real businesses and organisations that match your ideal client

Build a ull picture o them, including the names o the people youll need to meet. Te more detailed you can be thebetter, as the clearer the picture you have the easier it will be to move to the next stage.

3. Imagine you are your target client...... and all the possible reasons why that target client needs the type o employment law service youre going to make yourspecialist niche. Do you have any existing clients who t the bill or come airly close? I so, use them as your startingpoint, but approach the exercise rom theirperspective, not yours, and ask yoursel:

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

How can you build on your strengths?

Are there ways you can hone them to more accurately match your ideal clients expectations?

What else do you need to do?


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4. What are your competitors doingand what are you doing that theyre not?

Pick out three benetsyour competitors are oering your target client, and then identiy how you would make these moreinteresting. Tat done, single out three keybenetsyou can oer that your competitors are not, and o those three pick theone thats your unique selling propositionthe USP much loved in the marketing and advertising worlds!

What makes these leading employment law firms stand out?

We give a free initial consultation, and I havent seen many do that. Were also of a certain age, mostof us, and that is useful in this business. And were quite exible in the way we deal with the clients.

Alain Cohen, director, Ashby Cohen

Being accessible and commercial. Theres no point being a counsellor if youre not accessible. Soaccessibility is really a subset of commercial, and with that you thrive and without it you die, in my view.

Tom Walker, head of employment law at Manches, formerly in the same role at Colemans-ctts

Our niche is to provide the quality of service youd get from a traditional commercial practice but withthe other additional benets. And really having it built into our culture that the service we seek to offer ispractical and pragmatic.Mark Ellis, CEO, Ellis Whittam

I put myself in the position of the client. What I say is: My colleague here has a magic wand. Shewaves it and all clients wishes come true. If she had such a wand, what would be your wish? Youwould like to keep your job? After what youve told me, Im sorry If you want to buy apples and Ivegot pears, Im sorry but its not going to work out.Ronnie Fox, principal, Fox Lawyers

One way in which we are different is that we do eighty per cent employer work and twenty per centemployee work. We are also the lawyers lawyerwe have a really good portfolio of other law rms forwhom we do HR work.

Mirella Sikorski, senior marketing executive, Lewis Silkin


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Mistake # 2Youre only talking about yourself...

Its all about your clients, not you

You have your ideal client in your sights. Now you must clariy what they want, and Mistake # 2is one o the most pervasiveand dangerous o the lot: conating your clients needs with what you do and whoyou are.

Beore you can win your target clients attention, you must learn how to separate outeaturessomething actual about youor your businessrom benets, what you are oering. For example, the type o metal used to build a car is a eature; how it

withstands the impact o an accident is a benet.

o see how this translates into marketing a legal service, imagine you are the proprietor o a modest SME, orced, or the rsttime, to re people you personally hired not long ago. You are under pressure, youre eeling vulnerable, you have a supercialunderstanding o the law, but youre in uncharted waters and terried youll get something wrong and end up beore a tribunal.

At the same time, you dont want to be made to eel stupid, or out o your depth. Youve done some Googling and now youre on asolicitors website, and heres what theyve got to say on handling redundancies:

The team at Adams, Brown and Curtis can help when a business has to restructure and reduce its workforce.Our employment lawyers, led by our senior partner, John Adams, have many years experience in handlingredundancies and complying with the relevant legislation, and with their thorough knowledge of the law ensurethe correct procedures are always followed.

You would hope they were! But how do these lawyers actuallydo what they do? How would iteel? Tey say theyre experiencedand knowledgeableall commendable i unexceptionaleaturesbut nothing at all about how this translates into their service orclientsthe benets.


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Now heres the same message with the emphasis rmly on benets:

If youre restructuring your business and have to cut your workforce, we can guide you through the wholeprocess. Well help you follow the correct redundancy procedures and make sure all your staff understandwhats happening every step of the way. Contact our senior partner John Adams now to nd out how we canget you safely to the other side.

You see the difference?

Te second approach is clearly about whats in it or the client, with the rmseaturesthe lawyers ability to do the job well, thename o the person to contactused only to reinorce the benets. And the sub-text here is that this rm will not only get the lawright but they ll hold the clients hand and see to it that communications remain civil with their sta, thus reducing the risk ounair dismissal claims.

Now put your small business owners hat back on again: which approach do you think youd nd most appealing, most reassuring,most likely to make you lit the phone and call John Adams?

Your next goal is get really clear about your own benetsandeaturesand how they support your USP. Tis exercise is just thatanexercise! Your only audience is yoursel and your colleagues.

Heres where to start...

1. Define that USP in detail

Here youre summing up who you are, what benetsunderpin your unique selling proposition. Not sure where to begin?Lets return to Adams, Brown and Curtis, and lets say that while they handle all areas o employment law, they specialise inrepresenting West Midlands SME employers in sex discrimination claims: thats their USP.

2. Whats your second main benefit?

What next underpins your USP? For Adams, Brown and Curtis their next client benetcould be oering employment lawservices tailored or SMEs.


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3. And whats your third main benefit?

Same as with your second benet. Specialising in all areas o discrimination law could be Adams, Brown and Curtiss.

4. Now this isis all about you...

Dene theeaturesthat identiy you. Tis could be where youre based, your specialist areas, when your rm was established,the size o your team.

Adams, Brown and Curtiss nished summary could look something like this:

1. Our USP and key beneft is representing West Midlands SME employers in sex discrimination claims.

2. Our second beneft is specialising in employment law services tailored for SMEs.

3. Our third beneft is specialising in all areas of discrimination law.

4. Our main feature is that we only handle employment law work; our second is that we primarily represent

SME clients from the West Midlands; our third is that the rm was established in 1999. Our team comprises10 solicitors with 80 years joint experience in discrimination lawthats our fourth feature. Our fth is thatour HQ is in central Birmingham with a sub-ofce in Wolverhampton.

Being really clear about who you are and what you do best is central to putting in place an eective marketing plan, and writing asummary like this is an excellent way o orcing you to ocus.

What does yours look like?


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Mistake # 3Youre doing too many things at once...

Focus on one strategy at a time

You cant do everything at the same time, and Mistake # 3 is to even try. Youll get nowhere ast i you just draw up a list anddecide that as o next Monday morning, youre going to:

Give your website a complete makeover

Launch a client newsletter

Join three networking groups

Jump aboard the beauty parade bandwagon

Start advertising.

Tats not to say that choosing anyor indeed allo these wouldnt be right or you, but you need to do some thoroughgroundwork rst and then select the one strategy that emerges as most likely to build existing client relationships and establishnew ones. How do you know whats right or you? Start with some detective work: nd out what approaches competitor rms areusing and i there are any you havent tried, test those rst. Wed recommend testing a low-investment option to start withhave alook at the suggestions under or some inspirationand note that we emphasise the word test. Tis is an absolutemarketing musti you dont test a strategy within a measurable structure, how will you ever know whether its bringing you anybusiness? And always remember that just because your nearest competitors have redesigned their website or taken out a hal-pagead in the evening paper denitely does not mean you should too!


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Mistake # 4Forgetting to talk to your clients...

Feedback is not an optional extra

O all the sources o new business you can explore, one oers more opportunities than the rest put together: your existing clients.Indeed its up to ten times easier to get new business rom existing clients than to acquire new ones, and around 80 per cent o

your business almost certainly comes rom the 20 per cent with whom you have the strongest relationships. And because the ideasthat ow rom maintaining good relationships and seeking eedback cost you little more than your time, doesnt it make sense tostart here? We think so, but a remarkable number o lawyers overlook this marketing essential, and thats

Your starting point, however, has to be in building good relationships in the rst place. And too many lawyers make dangerous

assumptions about their clients, such as:

They know all about my servicesDo they? Are you sure? I you dont tell them, they might well go to somebody who does.

If they have a question, theyll call meAnd then again, maybe they wont i theyre at all uncertain theyll get an answer... Tis one is linked to the next...

They understand Im busy and arent bothered if I take my time respondingOh yes they are! Tey mind a lotjust as you do i another proessional doesnt get back to you promptly. And theyre

not going to ask you anything i theyre not condent youll respond, or they sense their inquiries are going to betreated as a nuisance. Even i you cant deal with their inquiry in ull right away, let them know theyve crossed yourradar in a brie email and then respond in ull later. Tey want to know you care.


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So what shouldyou be doing?

How do you show your existing clientsespecially the top 20 per cent who bring in most o your businessthat you do care? In anutshell, talk to them more. Were not just reerring to the usual communications that arise in the context o a specic instruction,but the contact you make to nd out how they are and whats new with their businesspersonal (not automated) emails you

send just to ask them i theres anything you can do or them, any updates they need, how you interact ace-to-ace, by visits youmake to their place o business or meetings you organise on their premises and yours, or a catch-up coee or lunch. Highlightingrelevant judgments and news items o interest, or mentioning orthcoming events, are among less time-intensive and lower-key

ways o staying in touch. Always ask them what works best or themdont expect them to t in around your masterplan. Tebenets or you o taking the time to do this well include:

Finding out how they operate, what makes their organisation tick

Staying ahead o their game, anticipating the services theyll need next

Building their trust, cementing their loyalty, and getting instant eedback.

Which brings us to the crux of the matter... Feedback.

We mean eedback in all its guisesstructured and inormal, and i youre not seeking any, youre making a major mistake. Clientsgenerally like the opportunity to let you know what they think o you, and i it turns out they have any mixed eelings then itsbetter to nd out beore they walk away than atereven i theirs is most likely going to be a single transaction.

So i youre not already doing so, you must put in place mechanisms or eliciting eedback. For single transaction clients thisshould be at the end o business, and or your regular clients it should be at regular intervalsannually, or example, or everytwo years. And whenever you make changes to the way you do business or add to your portolio o services, seek eedback, say

within six months o their introduction. Tis does not need to be rom all your clients; a sample will do. And it doesnt alwaysneed to involve a structured eedback orm eitherwith major c lients, you could schedule periodic meetings or even phone callsspecically or this purpose.


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For the inormation you gather to be o any use, you obviously need a proper system or collating it, analysing it, and looking orrecurring themes. Tat done, you then need to act on it! I you dont pay heed to what your clients are telling you, you may as wellnot bother asking them. And dont orget to thank thema phone call, an email, a card, or even a small git will let them knowthat you appreciate the eort they have made.

How do these leading employment law firms stay in touchand get feedback?

Tom Walker, head of employment law at Manches, used two different approaches whenhe headed the team at Colemans-ctts: At the end of a case for individuals, the rm gives out aquestionnaire. They are returned in all insurance cases. The feedback I personally seek is gettinginto Chambersyou give names of certain people who are happy to be approached.

We have a detailed CRM programme in place and each one of our advisors is prompted to phoneevery four weeks if theres been activity on the client account. So were being proactive, to see howthey are and if we can help themwhich obviously builds the relationship.

Mark Ellis, CEO, Ellis Whittam

Questionnaires are work for the client, so we dont use them. Every month we will talk about howfar along the track we are. Are we two-thirds of the way along the track? Are we one-third along theway of the budget? Resulthappy client.Ronnie Fox, principal, Fox Lawyers

Teams are encouraged to get feedback from clients, but this is tailored rather than through a

blanket form. We also use an external team for general surveys of the rms performance. We dothis for transparency.



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Dean Morris of Morris Legalis directing clients towards http://solicitor.info to leave theirfeedback once business is complete.

Vista employment law and HR consultancy managing director Darren Mawprefers to seekfeedback from his clients through regular, but focused, phone calls: I dont tag it on to a serviceconversation. I make a specic call on a different day to say, Im not calling you to do with X, Y, orZ, just to say how are we doing? Have you got any gripes? Anything we can improve?

Who do your clients know?

An important rst cousin o eedback is seeking reerrals, andagaini youre not doing it, youre ignoring a valuable source owork. Why are reerrals so valued? Because they arrive carrying an already avourable impression o your business rom whoeverreerred them, and theres already an element o trust in place. And some may arrive at your door without any specic eort at all

on your partjust as an act o goodwill on the part o an existing client, made without any prompting.Te easiest way to get a reerral rom an existing client is simply to ask, and this is clearly going to be easier i the oundations oyour relationships are strong. Look or more tenuous leads rom clients as well. Tese are contacts they think might be interestedin your services rather than direct reerrals. And always remember two things:

1. Your clients wont know youre looking for referrals or leads unless you ask, soask!

2. Your business clients no doubt do the same with their clients, so they will

generally be happy to help

3. Say thanks, perhaps by way of a gift.


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Mistake # 5Reaching for the lowest common denominator...

Go for value, not price

Have you considered charging your clients more? Yes, more. Does that sound counter-intuitive, or even downright insane, giventhe present economic climate? Perhaps, but bear with us. Lets start by pointing out that there are only three ways to generatemore income:

1. Grow your client base

2. Work for your clients more often3. Charge them more.

Weve explored getting new clients and consolidating existing relationships to increase your income, so what about the thirdoption? is to get carried away in a scrabble or the bottom...

Always remember that there are complex orces at work in all our buying decisions, and while pricing is a borderline marketingactivity, its here because it interrelates closely with activities that most denitely are. Lets consider these common assumptions:

1. If I charge less than my competitors Ill get more business

2. My existing clients will go elsewhere if I charge them more

3. Other firms are reducing their charges so I must to stay competitive.

Now lets take them one by one.


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If I charge less than my competitors Ill get more business

Your clients are not generally going to choose you over a competitor simply because you charge less. Indeed, i you just ocuson price many may question why you arecharging less beore nding out anything more about you. Is it because youll do lessor them? Or perhaps youll cut corners. Or just generally oer a poorer service. Tis tactic can only ever work in a retailing

context, when youre selling as cheaply as possible and relying on high volume or prots. You, in contrast, are oering a complexproessional service, and diving or the lowest common denominator is not the way to gowith one caveat. I youre genuinelyable to make a prot on oering a betterservice or less than the competition, you can ocus your marketing not on pricebut onvalue, and you use it primarily to assess the state o the market, then its worth considering.

My existing clients will go elsewhere if I charge them more

Tis depends hugely on your relationships with your clients, and many law rmsparticularly smaller onesdo consistentlyunder charge because they are araid o losing custom. In a stronger economic climate, your clients will almost certainly beprepared to pay you more or an excellent service. In the present circumstances, however, charging more can only work i you alsooer more. Te intelligent and imaginative use o upsellingimproving or adding to a service you are already providinggives

you the justication to up your rate, and gives your client more perceived value or money. Ideas worth exploring include oeringree participation in mock tribunals, or visiting a clients ofces or a hal-day complimentary le reviewanything that only costs

you a ew hours billing but can cement client loyalty like nothing else.

Other firms are reducing their charges so I must to stay competitive

Larger rms with major corporate clients are less likely to be susceptible to this kind o direct market pressure than smallerpractices dealing mainly with SMEs or directly with the public. Whatever your client base, though, the answer is the same: dontdo it! Start by asking yoursel why your competitors are. Are they losing clientsto you, perhaps? Have they lost a key player toa rival? Have they bought into the pile-em-high psychology? Or are they just panicking? Whatevers driving them, i you do thesame and your clients, including any you might win on this new level playing eld, become accustomed to lower ees, not only will

you be losing income now but you will nd it extremely difcult to restore your previous tari once the economy picks up. Lookinstead at how you can upsell, oer more value, and improve your service.


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Mistake # 6Staying glued to your desk

Just get out there and get talking

Are you guilty o this one? You spend your entire working day at your desk, holding most o your conversations with yourcolleagues, not clients. And especially not with prospective clients. I thats you, youre making and it really is time

you got out more...

What exactly do we mean? Yesthatll be the one: networking. It used to just reer to meeting people the old-ashioned way, butthe internetand in particular the advent o Web 2.0has changed all that. Well return to social media shortly, but rst letslook at the networking basics.

People buy people...

Holding that thought needs to underpin all the marketing you do, but never more so than when youre networking. And doingit should never be equated to hard selling. Your aim is to showcase your expertise and knowledge, to give reely, and becomerecognised as the dependable expert to whom people turn, not a pushy sales person xated on talking about yoursel. But suppose

you dont want to talk at all? Suppose the whole idea makes your toes curl? We strongly urge you to get over it. Very ew peopledont eel anxious and sel-conscious aced with a room ull o strangers, and who hasnt had thoughts along these lines?

Nobodys going to talk to me.

What i Im asked something and I dont know the answer?Im not going to remember anybodys name.


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Im bound to tip my drink over somebody.

Everyone has irrational anxieties, which boil down to ear o rejection, ear o embarrassment and ear o ailure, not anythingremotely lie-threatening. And think about iti youre going through this process, so too are most o the people youre about tomeet. Have you everbeen subjected to ridicule or abuse at a business-related networking event? Do you know anyone who has?

Just accept that this is part o the process. I you keep your ocus on why youre there and how youre going to use the opportunity,the sweaty palm stage will soon pass.

Before you attend any networking event you need to ask yourself...

1. Who is your target client?

2. What do they want?

3. How are you going to provide it?

You are rarelyi evergoing to nd yoursel in a room ull o your ideal clients, but thats not the point. What matters is beingcompletely clear about what type o work brings you most satisaction and identiying how to win more o it. Once you have thatclear in your mind, its going to make it much, much easier or you to talk with ease, condence and authority. Note the use othe word ultimately. Remember, youre not there to pitch or anythingas with all eective marketing, this is about benets, not

eatures. And guess what? Your job title is a eature. So whenas can be guaranteed to happenyou are asked: And what do youdo?, the last answer you want to give is a bald, Im a solicitor. Why? Well, its a conversation stopper or startersas you sayit youre likely to start eeling deensive because lawyers are not, as we know, universally adored, and this will be reected in yourbody language. But primarily because its aeature.

So what shouldyou say?

Te Americans call it an elevator pitch, a brie but compelling response to wheel out whenever youre asked what it is you do.Detailed enough to engage interest but succinct enough to be delivered in the time it takes a lit to reach your oor. One simpleway o structuring it is: I help (your clients) to (the problems you solve or them). For example, i you were one o the Adams,Brown, and Curtis team you might say: I help local small businesses stay up to date with all the changes in discrimination law.


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Another twist is to ocus just on the challenges you address: I work with (your clients) who (the problems they ace). So: I workwith local small businesses who nd it hard to keep up with all the changes in discrimination law. Te other person will then saysomething like: How do you do that? o which you might reply: I check in with them at least once a week to keep an eye on

how its going and I also let them know immediately i anythings happened that could aect their business. Te other person willhopeully then say: Tat sounds useultell me more. You could then respond: Well, or instance only yesterday and givethem a genuine example o a problem youve solved that has wider application. And i you still eel absolutely compelled to sayIm a solicitor when asked what you do, at least qualiy it by saying: Im a solicitor, but what I actually do is..., and use the resto the ormula. Whichever route you take, the conversation should now open up, and the other person can see there may well besomething in it or thembenetsor i not or them, or someone they know. Instead o an uncomortable impasse eventuallylled by you asking what theydo, youve taken the initiative.

Now, though, you stop talking and start listening: the magic networking ormula is always 20 per cent talk/80 per cent listen...


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Mistake # 7Ignoring social media

Get over it and get online

British computer scientist Sir im Berners-Lee said in 1995 o his invention, the World Wide Web: I had (and still have) adream that the web could be less o a television channel and more o an interactive sea o shared knowledge.

With the advent o Web 2.0, his vision has come to pass in spades, and or all o us on the right side o the digital divide, aworld without this rontier-ree online dimension seems unimaginable and truly archaic. And i youre a Generation (Gen) Y(or Millennial)born ater 1980then the internet, web and mobile technology have run like a thread right through your lie,

woven into your education and every acet o your socialising. Tats how you do much o your business, stay in touch, and make

your consumer choices. You know no other way, and the rest o us ignore your reality at our perilnot only because o the actuallogistics, but because o the paradigm shit in thinking that now underpins them.

So Mistake # 7is to underestimate the importance o weaving the web into your proessional lie and instead standing on thesocial media sidelines. You may think you dont much care or Facebook and witter, and you may nd anathema the very idea oa orum where clients can give you marks out o ve accompanied by a scathing comment, but these are consumer tools that arehere to stayat least until theyre replaced by something even more complex and sophisticated.

Its all about relationships

What social media has changed more than anything is the marketing balance: no longer is it about you targeting your clients witha one-way rehearsed message via an advertisement, a brochure, or through traditional public relations that uses the media as aconduit. Now the emphasis is on building direct relationships and developing a conversation with the people you want to reach.

o do this you need to maintain maximum credibility, by being authentic, trustworthy, and transparentand by being preparedto listen, respond, share inormation or ree, and occasionally act quickly. Etiquette really is everything, and there are two majoronline no-nos:


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1. Trying to sell.You will be ignored or cast out into the cold i you use any o the main social media pillars toblatantly push your marketing message. Example: elling other witter ollowers that youre the bees knees with endlessbreathless links to your own website.

2. Failing to disclose an interest.I youre taking part in any kind o online discussion and you have a direct

involvement in what youre contributing or recommending,you must say so. I you dont, be certain that you will be oundout. Your credibility will plummet and your input will no longer be taken at ace value. Example:Joining a blog debate byadding one or more comments in which you extol the virtues o a brieng paper youve written without mentioning that

youre the author.

Where should you be making your social media presence elt? Tere is, as youll be aware, a bewildering array o choices, so herewell just stay with our networking theme and restrict ourselves to a brie look at LinkedIn and Facebook as the two major playersin their respective niches.

LinkedInis the best-known global proessional networking site. By summer 2009 it was boasting a membership o more than 43million members in over 200 countries, at least 2 million o them in the UK, and the American-owned company claims that a newproessional joins every two seconds. Te LinkedIn model has been shown to be particularly eective or those wanting to take a

step up the career ladder, but its very straitjacketed emphasis on the individual, their CV, and their existing contacts rather than ontheir business, its services and benets, may not make it quite as eective or sourcing new custom.

Facebook is the astest-growing social networking site in the worldit had 300 million users in early autumn 2009 and wasstill pulling in 700,000-plus new users a day. Its also the most popular social networking site in the UK, and ranked ourth inthe world or trafc by internet intelligence and navigation company Alexa. Te site was launched in February 2004 solely orHarvard students. Within a month, more than hal the universitys undergraduates had signed up, and within a year the platorm

was extended to other Boston colleges. Ten Facebooks scope was widened to take in all US universities, then US high schools,and thenby the end o 2005UK universities. Te doors were nally opened to everyone in September 2006, and thats when itreally began to take o.

Getting started is ree and simple. o use Facebook at its most basic all you need to do is1. Create a profileyou can only have one account, and it must be in your own name


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2. Add some contentyoure oered a list o standard settings which you can include, exclude and modiy, and youcan write something about yoursel

3. Start buildinga network o online contacts through riend requestsapproaching people you know who arealready members, or asking riends and colleagues who arent to join in. You will also receive riend requests (which you

can accept or decline). Only riends can see your ull prole, nd out what youre doing, and leave comments .

Your prole is your showcase, with brie status updates as the centrepiece. Tese can be purely personalwhat youre doing,where youre going, who youre meetingor point your riends in the direction o something interesting. Your riends cancomment on your updates, you can comment on theirs, and you can leave messages on each others walls, or communicatedirectly via personal messages. You can post photos, video and audio les, and imbed these on your prole page, and you can listupcoming events. Everything you and your riends input within your network is ed to you, and herein lies the real value. In time

your network entwines with other networks, the size o your Facebook contacts list grows, and you are linkedalbeit loosely inmost casesto a potentially enormous number o people.

Tere are various other ways o gaining a Facebook presence, principally through

Groups. As the owner o a group, you can send messages to up to 5,000 other Facebook members whove chosento join. Groups can cover an enormous range o topics (and do! Fancy some nude bagpiping?!). Tere are, or example,more than 40 which include employment law UK somewhere within their general remit. Among them are groups setup by both traditional practices and by advisors. Tere are three types o Facebook groups: open, where anyone can join;closed, where the owner or administrator has to approve membership; and secret, where only the members and peoplethey invite to join even know the group exists.

Pages. Tese are a more specic Facebook business marketing tool. o create and maintain a page, you must be anofcial representative o the business or individual that is its ocus. Rather than having members, pages have ans.President Barack Obamas main page (there are many others), or example, has more than 6 million ans. Unlikegroups, pages are indexed, which means they show up on Google, and you can also have an unlimited number o ans.

Lawyers on both sides o the Atlanticbut particularly the UK sidehave been rather slow o the mark in harnessing Facebookas a marketing tool: heres your chance to get ahead o the game!


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Mistake # 8Advertising just because everyone else doesTime to ask yourself why

Doesnt everyone advertise, in one orm or another? Isnt it a marketing must-have? Not any moreand once again, thats largelydown to the internet. Need convincing? When did you last use Yellow Pages to look or a proessional service? Or contact anaccountant, say, just because you saw their ad in your local weekly? I nobodys oering you a ready recommendation, dont youusually start by Googling when you need to nd a proessional service? Were prepared to bet you do.

And this o course begs the more important questionhow many o your prospective clients do you suppose start searching or anemployment lawyer by icking through a book? And i youre still advertising in Yellow Pages (or another physical directory), do

you really know why? Further, i youre advertising in any kind o published medianewspapers, magazines, trade presscan youquantiy whether its achieving anything?

Mistake # 8is to carry on advertising just because and without being able to measure the results.Many volumes have been written about advertising: its pros and cons, how to do it eectively, where to do it and so on. But theact remains that it carries an intrinsic weak link in any o its conventional orms. Your message is only going to be o value topeople who need what youre oering at the exact momentthey read, see, or hear your message. I they dont, they may remember

you, but unless you are esco or Ford, they much more likely wont. And herein lies the appealand what helps explain thephenomenal successo online pay per click advertising, o which more shortly.


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raditional advertising alls into two main categories:

1. Brand advertisingwhat you see on V, in magazines, on billboards. Its aimed at getting you to remember theadvertisers name. Tink Coke, McDonalds, Audi and LOreal....

2. Direct response advertising

anything that produces a response you can test or measure.

Brand advertisingis premised almost exclusively on whats known as interruption marketing: Youre watching acompelling drama on IV and along comes the ad break. Te advertiser now has to grab and hold your attention and keep you in

your seat when youd really rather be through in the kitchen popping the kettle on or relling your glass. Te same applies whenyoure reading an interesting magazine articlethe ads need to be able to pull your attention away so that you look at what theyvegot to say, without being irritated at the distraction, and then retain their message long enough to act on it.

Ad agencies around the world are paid megabucks to get their clients noticed in this way, but they are nding it more and moredifcult in the ace o the sophisticated online marketing techniques weve already touched on, where its all about conversations,interaction, sharing inormation. So unless youre already a household name, or have recently scooped the Euro Millions jackpot,

we say dont touch brand advertising with a barge pole!

Direct response works entirely dierently, and i youre going to spend on advertising this is where to do it. Here you areinviting a prospective client to take some action which leads them to your door. And, unsurprisingly, as you have no widgets tosell upront the best type o direct response advertising or lawyers is oering something or ree to start the relationship. Adams,Brown and Curtis could, or example, advertise a ree redundancy seminar in the local paper, either directing readers to a dedicatedphone number (ideally an 0800 number) and/or to a specic page on their website. Either way, the means are in place to measurethe response and gather the names o some new prospective clients, and the rm has also achieved a little positive prole-raising.Itll also quickly become obvious whether it was worth the eort.

What about those ads on Google then?

You know the onesthey appear at the top o your search results on both Google and Yahoo!, and in a column down the right-hand side o the page. Tis is pay per clickdirect response advertising 21st century-style and the easiest way to get a high search


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engine position. Googles AdWords take the lions share; Yahoo!s equivalent is Sponsored Search.

PPC can produce antastic returns because you advertise to people who are very specically searching or what youre oeringand they want it right now.You only pay or your ad when somebody responds by clicking through to your website, and the pricingis determined by a real-time auction based on actual market values, not a gure plucked rom the air by an advertising executive. Aurther huge advantage o PPC is thatunlike just about any other type o advertisingyou can turn it on and o at will.

So ar, so good, and the process looks disarmingly simple at rst glance. But do not be ooled. Finessing any PPC programme canbe incredibly time-consuming and complicated. And because its becoming more and more popular, the goal posts keep shiting,and its all too easy to spend a great deal o money very quickly and achieve nothing. So beore dipping even a toe into the PPC

water, research the topic thoroughly, get some expert advice, and dont just rely on what Google and Yahoo! tell you about theirrespective packages!

What do these leading employment law firms thinkabout advertising?

We do advertise, on a very limited basis, for very specic marketing to niche sectors, in thespecialist trade press. My problem with advertising is that you can spend a small fortune andthere are more effective ways for us to get new clients on board. My view on advertising is thatit doesnt make the phone ring.Mark Ellis, Ellis Whittam

The question is not Why dont you advertise?, its Why would you? I cant nd an answer tothe rst, so that answers the second. How many employersand our target market is 1,500employeeswould pick up a leaet and say: Oooh, that might be a good way to service ourHR strategy. Ill give them a ring?Darren Maw, Vista


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Dean Morris of Morris Legalhas tried advertising inside a local Citizens Advice Bureau. They have a displayunit on the wall and each speciality gets a slot where they put your name and they have a business card holder.

What they dont tell you, which I found out afterwards, is that the CAB ofce I happened to be put inhaving beenapproached by the advertising companydeals with all their own employment work and doesnt give anything toanybody. I felt Id been done! He meanwhile has become something of a PPC expert, using it to drive trafc to hiswebsite-based business.

We use print advertising only rarely. Our buyers are sophisticated and theyre not going to make a decision on thebasis of an ad.


Alain Cohen of Ashby Cohen has used newspaper and billboard advertising in the past. If I started billboardadvertising again, it probably would be effective for a short time. Its relatively expensive, but it could be done. LikeDean Morris, he uses PPC to direct clients to what has become a largely web-based business.


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Mistake # 9Using legalese and jargonGo for plain English every time

Teres a common misconception among some lawyers that to be taken seriously by your clients you need to address them inlegalesepossibly with some marketing jargon and business gobbledegook thrown in or good measure. Te thinking appears tobe that because theyre in business too, they both understand and actually appreciate this tortured mode o address.

We have news for you. They dont. Nobody does.

Why should anyone who isnt in the legal proession be expected to tolerate legalese, particularly in 21st century Britain? Teydont see it as a sign o your success, your grasp o your subject. Rather, its perceived as patronising and lazy and this is one surere way o alienating, intimidating and potentially losing clientseven clients who are successul high-iers in their own niches.Not to mention the added inherent risk that they may not actually understand what youre saying. is to imaginenone o this applies to you.

We are now bombarded with inormation rom more sources than we would have thought possible even ten years ago, and asa result we all have a diminished attention span and lower boredom threshold. Te ability to quickly engage your audiencesattention in any context has thereore never been more important and its crucial that you speak in plain Englishnot just in day-to-day dealings with your clients but across all your marketing communications as well. One simple way to do this is to...


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Clear out the clichs

Clichs, jargon and gobbledegook: theyre everywhere! And lawyers are right up there among the worst oenders when it comes toharnessing meaningless phrases to sell themselves. Some common (way too common!) examples are

client-centred; client-ocused; client-based (where else would you be looking?!)

committed to dedicated to commitment to clients (as above!)

a ull range o services(as opposed to whata pretty eeble range o two or three threadbare ones?)

proactive service(looks good, but what does itmean?)

cost-efective service; competitive service (as opposed to a grossly over-priced rip-of?)

wide/extensive/broad experience(against a maximum couple o years PQE or a complete lack?)

support at all levels(levels o what?)

tailored solutions(as opposed to something you toss indiscriminately in the general direction o all your clients?)

innovative solutions (in preerence to stale, obsolete, cant-be bothered solutions? Tere are anyway ar too many solutions,innovative and otherwise, out there nowthe word has alas lost its value).

Tere are plenty morevisit the Plain English Campaigns website (www.plainenglish.co.uk) or wider insight. Other sites werecommend are http://gobbledygook.grader.com, which analyses your website or excessive use o jargon (and helps you realisequite how bad copywriting can be), and David Meerman Scotts analysis o the top US gobbledegook words and phrases used in2008: http://bit.ly/2WAsiw.


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What do these leading employment law firms think about legalese?

Plain English is the language of choice at Lewis Silkin. We really dont speak legalese. Our biggest audience isHR people and in-house employment lawyers, plus FDs and MDs.Mirella Sikorski, senior marketing executive, Lewis Silkin

I will not tolerate legalese. Theres a well-known quote: The sign of a bad lawyer is one who hides his ignorancebehind his language. That has never, ever proved itself wrong. If we get a letter with legalese in it, that just says tome: Tom, youre going to win.

Tom Walker, former head of employment law at Colemans-ctts, now in the same role at Manches


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Mistake # 10Selling, not sharingBecome an expert not a salesperson

Youll by now have realised that intelligent marketing is all about moving away rom taking a traditional one-way trafc approachand instead mixing elements o the tried and tested with the new way o thinking thats owing rom the world wide web. At theheart o this lies the concept o marketing as an expert and not as somebody setting out a stall.

Mistake # 10is ailing to grasp the distinction. So what exactly do we mean?A salesperson is someone who is only interested in talking about who theyare, what theydo, what theyreoering. Teyre not reallybothered about what their clients might actually want, they dont do listening, theyre only looking or super-quick returns, andnobody gets anything or ree. Ever.

By contrast, an expertunderstands that Web 2.0 has changed the rules. Tey get involved in online conversationson orums, say,or on blogs (their own and other peoples), or on Facebook or witterand they know theyre there to add value, not grab a quickbuck. Teyre happy to give away lots o inormation or ree because this builds trust and authenticity. Teyll perhaps do this byoering guidance on an ad hoc basis via a Facebook or LinkedIn group, or by becoming their local papers rst port o call with anemployment law question. Tey may preer a more structured approach, sharing ideas through seminars or webinars, or via websitedownloads such as brieng papers, podcasts, or ebooks like this.

O course, what works best or one lawyer, one law rm, wont necessarily be perect or the next and theres never going to be a

single ormula or success. All that matters is that youre prepared to do a lot o experimenting and testing, keep an open mind andalways hold the pivotal thought that...

Intelligent marketing in the 21st century is all about listening.


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About the authorsDaniel BarnettDaniel Barnett (www.danielbarnett.co.uk) is a practising employment barrister widely recognisedor his marketing skills. In 1999, he launched the Employment Law Bulletin mailing list and was

the rst UK lawyer to make widespread use o email or marketingpurposes. Te ollowing year, he launched the UKs rst legal emailcontent service (www.emplawservices.co.uk), helping many rms osolicitors build up a substantial employment law practice. In 2006, he

was the rst UK lawyer to make use o telephone and video webinars,going on to co-ound CPD Webinars (www.cpdwebinars.com) inearly 2007. Intelligent Marketing or Employment Lawyers is hiseighth book.

Eugenie Verney

Eugenie Verney (www.eugenieverney.com) has a Masters degree in employment law and is aproessional mainstream and online communicator. Her extensive experience spans print andbroadcast journalismincluding Te Guardian, Daily Express, Granada V, and the BBC

commercial and public sector marketing, PR, copywriting, and corporate communications. Sheworks with businesses and individuals to identiy how best they can reach their clients usinga mix o traditional and web-based marketing methods and guides them through putting theory into practice with tailoredcommunications training and support.


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www intelligentmarketingforlawyers co uk

30We hope youre taking away some great ideas from this ebook!

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