Show Them What You’ve Got – Tips on MarketingPresentation to the Women Lawyers Symposium:Fostering and Celebrating SuccessFostering and Celebrating Success

Martha A HealeMartha A. HealeyPartner, Ogilvy Renault LLP, Ottawa, OntarioFebruary 2010

A market is never saturated with a good product, but it is very quickly saturated with a bad one.

Henry Ford

This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they want not what you think theycustomers what they want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will keep coming

back.John Ilham

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Ten Marketing Tips

1. Know your clients, visit them and communicate with them 2. Be aware of your clients’ concernsy3. Market internally and externally and recognize valuable

resources and connections4. Be a discriminating “joiner”, get involved and develop4. Be a discriminating joiner , get involved and develop

networks5. Not everything should cost – consider value added

servicesservices6. Focus your marketing efforts7. Create marketing opportunities8 Don’t limit your market8. Don t limit your market9. Seek out and listen to feedback10. Take advantage of technology

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Know Your Clients

Interact with your clients – professionally and socially Maximize the opportunities to meet with your clients face toMaximize the opportunities to meet with your clients face to

face in their offices Avoid the temptation to communicate only via electronic

meansmeans Structure of the client operations – on a broad corporate

scale Key client policies i e chain of command hospitality Key client policies – i.e. chain of command, hospitality Learn about the industry in which they conduct business Who are their key competitors? Key customers? Learn the vocabulary of their industry What are the regulatory challenges that they face?

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Be Aware Of Your Clients’ Concerns

What keeps your clients up at night? Do you know?

Industry developments?Cli t d l t ? Client developments?

How can you help them?

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Market Internally And Externally

The cardinal rule: Excellent service is the minimum standard!N d f b th d d b d k/ i News spreads of both good and bad work/service

Whether you work as a sole practitioner or in a small, medium or large firm, consider your colleagues and your contacts and business and social networks as potential sources of work referrals

Remember your own personal contacts – today’s friend or colleague could be tomorrow’s client

Keep in touch with contacts from social groups, university days, law school – colleagues in other parts of the country could be a goodschool colleagues in other parts of the country could be a good source of referral work

If possible, “give back” to those who refer work to you Recognize valuable resources – do you have a marketing group within

ffi ? If t t k th !your office? If so, get to know them! Investigate opportunities to obtain formal recommendations and further

credentials

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Be a Discriminating Joiner

Make careful decisions about the organizations and groups that you join

If you join a group, commit to being involved As a priority, join the groups most linked to your y j g y

target client group Develop networks and networking opportunities Investigate opportunities to obtain formalInvestigate opportunities to obtain formal

recommendations and further credentials

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Value Added Services

Not everything should cost Clients are looking for “that something extra” – the X factor Keep an eye open for industry/legislative/governmental

policy developments – it could help to understand yourpolicy developments it could help to understand your client

What can you add for your client?Thi ill t k ti it i i t t ki i This will take time – it is an investment you are making in your clients and in your practice

Sample value added services: client bulletins, telephone calls to advise of new developments, client summaries of work in progress (some of this may be billable) and to provide status review of work, client education seminars and

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p“lessons learned” meetings

Not All Marketing Opportunities Are Created Equal

Once you start looking, marketing opportunities b dabound

Be selective! Be careful not to spread yourself too thin – aBe careful not to spread yourself too thin a

superficial effort will be noticed Quantity is not necessarily equivalent to quality

D id h t t d k ti ti Decide where you want to spend your marketing time and develop your marketing opportunities accordingly – Targeted client development in a particular sector or i d t ? B d b d f lindustry? Broad based exposure for general services?

Avoid trying to be all things to all clients

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y g g

Create Marketing Opportunities

Media opportunities – is there a particular reporter who covers your area? Investigate industry associations, meetings and

conferencesconferences Investigate industry/sector focussed publications Charitable eventsCharitable events

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Don’t Limit Your Market

Consider the entire scope of your practice – is it l l ti l i t ti l?local, national, international?

Keep that range in mind when assessingKeep that range in mind when assessing marketing opportunities and stay open to marketing opportunities outside the local area

“Pay to play” publications – assess whether they worth the investmentworth the investment

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Seek Out And Listen To Feedback

Follow up with your clients and ensure they received the service and work they needed – don’t wait until you suspectservice and work they needed don t wait until you suspect there is a problem

You may not know there is a problem/issue unless you askWh ibl b f l h l Where possible, may be useful to have someone else interview the client

Some problems can be fixed very easily – others, if left p y yunresolved, will cause the loss of a client

News of good/poor service will spread! (A client tells two other contacts and they tell two contacts and so on and soother contacts, and they tell two contacts and so on and so on and so on…)

If there is a problem – try to resolve it quickly – a face to f ti b th b t t dd i

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face meeting may be the best way to address an issue

Take Advantage Of Technology

Computer as a general source of information Invest in security to safeguard/secure electronic y g

communications Social media – what is it and who is using it? Blogs Social networks

LinkedInLinkedInTwitterWho’s tweeting?Who s tweeting?Facebook

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What’s all the fuss about social media?

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Social Media

Blogs are now commonplace and widely used and acceptedused and accepted

Linkedin has 50 million users (Oct 2009) and is business orientedand is business oriented

Twitter is the fastest growing social network in the worldnetwork in the world

Youtube is now the second leading search engine is bigger than Yahoo and accountsengine, is bigger than Yahoo and accounts for 25% of all Google searches

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Social Media - Forms

Blogs

Social Networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, etc.)

Micro-blogging (Twitter)

Collaboration (Wikis social bookmarking Collaboration (Wikis, social bookmarking, social news, opinion sites)

Media sharing (YouTube Flickr Last fm Media sharing (YouTube, Flickr, Last.fm, Justin.tv)

Virtual worlds (Second Life)

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Virtual worlds (Second Life)

Blogs

Demonstrate thought leadership Rank higher in web search than traditional websitesRank higher in web search than traditional websites

Are widely accepted

Many lawyers have blogs focusing on a specific areaMany lawyers have blogs focusing on a specific area (i.e. employment law, IP, corporate, etc.)

Not for everyone thoughy g

High level of passion/engagement on the part of the owner

Must make time to post regularly

Have something to contribute

17Must be accurate!

Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Jeremy Grushcow of OR – www.crossborderbiotech.ca

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Canadian Securities Law Online

Stikeman Elliott – www.canadiansecuritieslaw.com

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Cleantech in Canada Microsite

Seminar series developed by Ogilvy Renault, Deloitte and MaRS – www.cleantechincanada.com

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Online Social Networks

Linkedin

Facebook

Plaxo

Legal OnRamp

MHConnect

JDSupra

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LinkedIn: What’s the buzz about?

Over 50 million registered users

Business focus

As closed or wide a network as you want it to be

More and more business people are using their networks to find people

Well suited for professional services

Find and join (or create!) groups relevant to your areas of practice/interest

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Linkedin Functionality of Interest

Status

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Linkedin Functionality of Interest

Slideshare

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Twitter: what is it good for?

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Twitter

6 million + users

Over 27.3 million Twitter messages (Tweets) per day (this was 3M last year)

Fastest growing social media tool

US government asks Twitter to postpone maintenance g p pto gather intelligence on Iran protests

Brief text messages of 140 characters or lesse e essages o 0 c a ac e s o ess

Send tweets via Twitter website, your mobile phone (by app or SMS) or by email

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(by app or SMS) or by email

Twitter in the News

“If people you wish to influence are using Twitter then your business should be thereTwitter, then your business should be there too. It’s as simple as that. You go where your market is.”

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Law firms are tweeting!

www.twitter.com/ogilvyrenault

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See also…

Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

McCarthysMcCarthys

Stikeman

Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP

Torys LLP

Faskens Faskens

Davis LLP

B k R t LLP Burke Roperston LLP

Hicks Morley

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Wildeboer Dellelce LLP

How you can use Twitter

R h l Research tool

Marketing Marketing

A great source of info on what the firm is

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A great source of info on what the firm is doing

But What About Facebook???

Great for personal use but don’t recommend for corporate purposes

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corporate purposes. However, this might change as things evolve.

Take-aways

Much of the business world is moving into these forums quicklyquickly

It is not for everyone BUT everyone should be aware of what it is

Can be powerful marketing tools if used correctly

B t f thi ki d lif t l Becomes part of your thinking and your lifestyle

Destination websites are evolving. Most search will likely converge through Google and Twitterconverge through Google and Twitter

Lawyers and law firms cannot ignore these tools

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Take-aways

Social media does not replace standard methods of developing business – speaking at conferences and seminars, building referral sources, writing articles, etc. But it can help in enhancing what you are already doing.

If i t bl t t b f i l b t h t If you are going to blog or tweet, be professional about what you say. Keep in mind that you are representing the firm.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform in its essence If you Twitter is a micro-blogging platform in its essence. If you don’t have the time to commit to a blog, Twitter might be that compromise that allows you to have an effective online presencepresence.

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Should we start blogging or Twittering right away?

Not necessarily

R i it t Requires commitment

Need to have an interest/passion for it

Definitely not for everyone

But you should be aware of it and whether it may be f l iuseful to your practice.

Every tool has the potential for good or for bad. Social media is no exception.

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RESOURCES

Kevin O'Keefe's blog - http://kevin.lexblog.com/ - former lawyer who started a company advising law firms on web y p y gand social media.

Doug Jasinski's blog - http://legalmarketing.ca/ Tom Kane: http://www.legalmarketingblog.com - A

Blog Dedicated to Lawyer Marketing in any Size Firm LawPRO – Social Media Issue – Volume 8 Issue 4LawPRO Social Media Issue Volume 8, Issue 4,

December 2009 CNW Report on Social Media and Canadian Law Firms

http://www.newswire.ca/en/extras/custom/mediaroom/CNW_LawFirms_SM.pdf

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QUESTIONS?QUESTIONS?

Martha HealeyOgilvy Renault LLP

Ottawa, Ontario 613.780.8638

mhealey@ogilvyrenault.com

The author acknowledges, with gratitude, the invaluable advice and input of Lisa Azzuolo and Sameer Dhargalkar, Ogilvy Renault, Marketing.

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