Think Marketing is an Expense? Think Again.

You have a proven product or service that is in demand. The recession has caused the demand to diminish by 10%. You reduced your marketing spend by 25%. Your new business is now declining 50%. Marketing is where many business owners and CEOs look to cut costs when the economy slides. If you are cutting marketing by a percentage that is disproportional to the decreased demand for your offering, it is very likely that your marketing program was either ineffective and not optimized to begin with (in which case you need to get a better grasp on your marketing return on investment), or that your organization is making a major strategic mistake that will end up costing clients and revenue.

I have a business colleague named Elliot Stone, who is the CEO of a firm called MedQuest MedQuest, a highly successful litigation support service company. His firm offers Medical Expert Services, Sanction Databases, Record Retrieval and other resources. Elliot deserves mention, because he put his foot on the pedal hard when the economy slowed and others who were similarly situated fell asleep at the wheel.

By increasing his marketing and even bringing on marketing resources when others pulled back, Elliot was able to take advantage of the reduction in noise to deliver his messages and is reaping the rewards in increased customers. This is not about the demand for his services increasing dramatically, rather about outperforming competitors through smart, timely and consistent marketing.

Can't find sufficient money to market? Cut your operating expenses. Want to know how, send me a note at jzissu1-litigation@yahoo.com and I will gladly discuss with you what your organization can do to cut operating costs in order to free up marketing investment dollars. Tip: Recession is a time to trim fat, but trimming productive marketing resources is a one-way ticket to lost marketshare.

Get Ready to Rumble...

As an early pioneer of Web assisted dispute resolution, I am very disappointed to inform that relationships between insurance companies and claimants have recently taken a turn for the worse and plaintiff's and defense lawyers may already be seeing the impacts of this shift toward an increasingly adversarial environment. Of course, the economic downturn is once again the main culprit.

So, what exactly is going on? The property and casualty insurance industry depends on premium investment earnings for a considerable portion of profits. There are many profitable carriers that do not have a combined ratio (losses plus expenses divided by earned premiums) of under 100. Translated in English, a carrier may spend $1.02 and earn $1.00. However, in good times, that $1.00 can generate an extra $.16 because it is floated, or held on to for a lengthy period of time.

As you can guess, insurance carriers are not very eager to part with their capital, while their investments earnings are at all time lows. Under normal conditions, insurance companies are driven by both the compelling need to satisfy policy holders and the financial reality that legitimate claims do not get cheaper as they age. However, given the market dowturn, carriers have started digging in and cash flow has become the new profit and loss.

Here's a link to an interesting Business Insurance article, where David Siesko of Siesko Partners elaborates on the carrier perspective and its current impact on relationships with policy holders.

What does this mean for litigation professionals and the vendors that support them?
This phenomenon is having a profound impact on the industry and the impact varies according to the perspective.

Let's start with plaintiff's lawyers and claimants. If you are a trial lawyer that handles a large volume of carrier settlements, get ready for protracted negotiations, and an increase in litigation due to less flexibility by insurers. An increasing number of commercial carriers will be following in the footsteps of auto carriers and taking an increasingly rigid approach to settlement. A year ago you may have negotiated a specific injury to a $45,000 settlement. Today, a carrier may offer you $35,000 and tell you to take it or sue.

"Mill" type firms, which are dependent on high volume, low severity claims, will see an increase in receivable cycles and likely a reduction in the amounts they are able to negotiate. This will ultimately cause many firms to rethink their existing business strategies. Plaintiff's firms will become increasingly dependent on litigation financing companies to help them navigate the peaks and troughs that will be created by this new environment.

Insurance companies will become increasingly dependent on defense firms, which is certainly a positive if you fall within this category. However, it is not all sugar and spice, as insurers have begun to scrutinize every dollar spent, in an uprecedented fashion. A number of carriers are hiring additional legal bill review experts to help them turn the heat on their defense firms.

Legal vendors will be impacted differently, depending on the type of business they are in. Litigation financing is a great place to be today - just have to make sure your investment is secured by viable cases, or that the firm you are lending to is very healthy financially. It is a different ballgame today.

Some vendors, particularly ones working with plaintiff's firms, may expect a delay in receivables. Firms will not be seeing settlements as fast as they once were and this is going to affect everyone doing business with them. It is a good time to be in the cost-savings business, but you will need to demonstrate an immediate and certain financial return, to win business consistently.

So a few tips to overcome this change in carrier practices: ensure adequate cash flow by learning about and leveraging the legal financial services available on the market, keep your own operations trim and tight to remain competitive and make sure to stay on top of the aging of your receivables.

The Increasingly Important Web Site

I hope you are enjoying the holiday season. A few days ago, Amazon.com surprised a lot of people (including me) with record holiday sales, despite the economic climate. I think this underscores two very important points. First, consumers are increasingly price sensitive and Amazon has done an excellent job of delivering value at reduced prices. Second, it is compelling evidence that consumers are increasingly embracing technology to conduct business and that the Internet is not only facilitating offline business, but in many instances replacing many aspects of it.

This is why, more than ever, organizations can no longer afford to throw up a Web site that simply touts products and services. Web sites are becoming 2 way streets, that allow companies to interface with customers, through the collection and distribution of information.

At a minimum, ask yourself the following questions:
How does your Web site capture information from your visitors?
Do you have a sufficiently compelling proposition on your Web site to capture incoming leads on your Web site? In other words, what are you offering to visitors in exchange for sharing their contact information (other than your services)?
Does your Web site focus only on the features of your services, or do you clearly communicate benefits and/or savings that your prospects are looking for.
Countless studies have found that emotion plays a large part in the purchasing process. Even the most rational and analytical buyers are influenced. How does your Web site leverage this?
What steps have you taken to ensure that the information you posted is consistent with what your prospects are seeking?
What activities do you engage in to nurture the leads generated via your Web site? Do you have a process for this, or do you follow up arbitrarily?

Tip: Your Web site is becoming an increasingly critical lead generation tool, irrespective of the business you are in and appearance is much less important than function.

If you would like some free tips on ways to improve your Web presence, contact me today at jzissu1-litigation@yahoo.com

Blogging Secrets... Revealed

The list of reasons why bloggers blog is fairly vast and some of the benefits may come as a surprise. When I first heard of blogging, I naively assumed that it was something that self-centered people with too much free time did... and now here I am... hmmm.
OK, should you consider a blog and if so why? My answer is... it depends... so why do bloggers blog?

1) Search Engine Traffic
According to search engine gurus the return on your marketing investment for natural search can blow pay per click away. Blogs promoting your business or law firm can dramatically enhance your search engine position listing. This one should be reason enough for many plaintiff's lawyers looking to cast a wide net for claimants. I managed search engine optimization for a law firm advertising company back in 1999 and had the opportunity to see how powerful of a marketing tool this was, even 10 years ago. Today, with the keyword price inflation of pay per click (particularly for terms such as "Personal Injury" or "Asbestos Litigation" or "insert harmful drug name here" - you get the picture Trial Lawyers...) Should you have a blog for this purpose? The answer is: the bigger your organization is and the more critical search is in your overall marketing mix, the more likely you will need to give blogs serious consideration, as part of your overall strategy.

2) Position Yourself as an Industry Expert
If you write enough about what people want to read, they will come back. If they come back enough, you may find that one day you will actually be seen as an expert in your field. In fact, I think my mother is fairly convinced that I am an industry luminary in the litigation marketing field and sends my blog to all her friends and co-workers, so if you happen see her, please let her keep thinking that I am important...

3) Social networking with a group sharing common interests
This one is fairly straight forward. Chances are you are probably reading this because you have some interest in the litigation world, or in getting some tips on improving your marketing.

4) Cost-effective Promotion
Web sites cost money - blogs are free. They are also very easy to use and do not require a high degree of technological aptitude.

5) Communicate Message to Broad Audience
You publish a post once and the content is there forever for anyone to find. Blogs are also cumulative. The more you post the stronger your blog becomes. 20 posts are 10 times more likely to be found than 2. It is virtually impossible to not see a considerable increase in traffic if you commit to posting on a regular basis.

There are many other reasons for blogging, but these are some of the most common. Remember, Tip: Blogging is highly cost effective, but you need to be persistent to see results. It's not for every organization, but it can make a huge difference in certain organizations. If you would like to know whether a blog is appropriate for your firm, e-mail me at jzissu1-litigation@yahoo.com

Marketing, Operations & Your Litigation Practice

In today’s competitive legal environment, litigation frequency is gradually, but persistently decreasing and technology is completely redefining competitive advantage in both marketing and operations. As a result, litigation firms that lack the foresight to adapt will inevitably be forced out of the marketplace by organizations with more innovative and aggressive business practices.

While competent legal representation leading to favorable outcomes remains the key benchmark upon which litigation firms are measured by their clients, organizations of all types are finding innovative ways to reduce costs, and to increase profits by improving the return on their promotional initiatives. Once firms have ensured that they have the legal talent necessary to succeed, they must turn their attention toward two key areas of opportunity for competitive differentiation: operations and marketing.

Most firms today are completely inundated with the requirements of running a legal practice and often fail to dedicate sufficient time and resources on building the appropriate business infrastructure to ensure sustained growth and competitive advantage. Many such firms have grown through considerable reliance on quality of relationships of one or more partners. This overreliance on the brand of a particular individual poses multiple potential threats, or opportunities, depending on one’s perspective.

First, when the markets face recession like conditions, price sensitivity is heightened. This is a major opportunity for efficient organizations to capture market share from competitors by either offering a comparable offering at a better fees, or offering additional value through enhanced technological capabilities.

Next, there is considerable risk that the departure or loss of a key firm member can have considerable potential impact on firm revenue. By establishing greater brand equity in the firm itself, an organization may partially insulate itself from such a threat. Large and prominent corporate firms such as a Skadden Arps, or a Wachtell Lipton, Rosen & Katz, often recruit lawyers from other firms, or even merge in entire departments. The strength and prominence of their brands allow new firm members to benefit from the overall reputation of the firms.

Now, these firms did not build their brands overnight. They established them over decades and decades of quality representation and continual commitment to excellence. The good news is that today’s market is much more dynamic and competitive and your business can achieve much more in a far quicker time by implementing cutting edge marketing and operational strategies.

As a smaller firm, you may not have the same firepower (read capital), but thinking about your processes like the big firms do will keep you one step ahead in the game. Here is a partial checklist you may want to go through in your mind as you consider how your firm stacks up against the competition in the areas of marketing and operations:

Marketing

• How do you highlight your firm’s successes to existing clients and/or prospects?
• What do your regular client touch points look like, outside the ordinary course of handling your case?
• How do you measure the overall financial return on your marketing expenditures?
• If you deal with repeat client business (plaintiff’s firms typically excluded), what is the lifetime value that the average client brings to your firm?
• How much does it cost you to bring that client in?
• Do you have a process for capturing information for and following up with business leads (Web site visitors, inbound calls, RFPs, event participants, exhibit booth traffic, random leads)
• What steps have you taken to provide your staff with better sales and client service skills?
• Do you have a cost-effective marketing process for continually staying in front of your key prospects until they are in a position to contact you?
• How are you leveraging new technological capabilities in your marketing efforts? Online surveys? Electronic newsletters? Social media focusing on your areas of expertise?

Operations

• Is there a more cost-effective solution to handling your firm’s redundant tasks?
• Does your technological infrastructure maximize staff efficiency and provide management and clients with transparent data?
• How do you handle temporary surges in labor requirements caused by considerable case loads?
• Is your firm able to perform around the clock?
• Do you have clearly defined roles and responsibilities and processes in place

Tip: The most successful businesses focus on their core competencies and seek out assistance in areas outside the scope of their expertise. If you are a law firm, practicing law is yours. Remember, putting a plasma tv in your office is an expense. Spending capital on cost reduction initiatives, or on improving client acquisition and retention is an investment.

Now for the shameless self-promotion... LitigatorEdge will help you take your business to the next level by improving your firm's operational and marketing performance. Contact me at jzissu1-litigation@yahoo.com if you would like to discuss your needs further.

The Price is Right... Right?

Today we're shifting focus to one of the 4 p's of Marketing - Pricing. In sticking with the recession motif, I wish to point out that a company's pricing strategy becomes even more critical in a down market.
There are few organizations that are not price sensitive these days and considerable power has shifted to the customer / purchaser. When the market tightens, demand drops and competition stiffens. This is why it is absolutely critical to (Tip:) consider a customer centric pricing model, whereby revenue is earned when value is delivered to the client.
Plaintiff's lawyers have a highly customer centric model - most of you do not charge unless claimants win. This makes it very compelling for a client to come to you and creates great disincentive for a claimant to deal directly with the insurance adjuster. However, I predict that 1/3 contingency arrangements on 8 figure verdicts may eventually be history, as the Internet will eventually connect informed claimants directly to the results of the top firms in a particular area of expertise and those firms will have to duke it out for the right to represent that particular client.
Yes, firms compete for clients today, but many claimants select firms from one tv ad or one friend referral. Sophisticated consumers will eventually have access to the type of data that will enable them to make much smarter and more efficient purchasing decisions on the type of firm they select and yes, that $10 Mil. contingency on a $33 Mil. verdict that cost you only $1.5 Mil. in litigation expenses and overhead will become less and less common, as a broader pool of competent plaintiff's lawyers and increased technology will ensure tighter competition.
If you are a defense firm and would like to differentiate yourself and possibly win over a new client, how about putting more skin in the game than your competitors? Consider making a small percentage of your fees contingent on particular agreed upon success metrics or "key performace indicators" - just make sure you do not assume too much risk that is outside of your control.
If you are a vendor, make a note of the companies offering similar products and services. Ask yourself questions such as: how are they different, why is it that they are pricing this way, is it important for me to be better on price, or do I have sufficient competitive differentiators that this is not necessary.
Lastly, always keep an open line of communication with your customers. If your product or service is not priced appropriately, they will typically let you know it.

Staying Afloat in Rough Waters

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." - FDR

Economic experts are predicting that we are about to enter a period of recession that is expected to last for at least the next 12 months. Inevitably, many undisciplined investors will react and move long term investments out of equity and into conservative investment when the market bottoms out, only to miss the ultimate rebound.

There is little difference where business owners and marketing are concerned. In fact, when the going gets tough, the smart steal business away from competitors.
Challenging economic, or down business cycles, actually help sort out inefficiencies in the marketplace.

For example, if a particular defense firm has a relationship with a manager in an insurance branch office, they may have had the luxury of being insulated from competition when markets were strong. Now, the same company may have tighter cost contraints from home office that will force that manager to consider shopping multiple firms that deliver the same, or greater value at more competitive fees.

A vendor that offers cost management solutions to law firms may find that their offering is a much greater business priority today than it was just a year ago and they may actually experience a reduced sales cycle.

Consider the fact that many of your competitors will decrease their marketing spend and there may be far less marketing clutter, as well as decreased demand, which means your dollar may take you much further. As always, look for opportunities where you will get the biggest return and bear in mind that the legal world is not impacted by discretionary spending like other industries are.

Remember, the markets will eventually improve, and what affects your business affects everyone else's also. Tip: The real battle is against other firms, not the market and will be decided by which company can promote itself better, offer more favorable pricing and deliver a superior product and/or service to its clients.

The auto industry serves as case in point and I will rest my case here.

Strength in Numbers

Why is it that Fortune 500 companies can't seem to get enough of gobbling each other up? Companies merge, the large company now acquires a smaller one, then another, until the company becomes too large and diverse to effectively manage. Before you know it the company is involved in an accounting scandal that the CEO "never knew about", or the company falls to pieces as a result of risky subprime bets. Then, guess what? A white knight swoops in and... yup, you got it - acquires the collapsed business.
While there are many lessons (Do's and Don't Do's) to be learned from the world of mergers and acquisitions, here are a few reasons why companies choose to merge.

- Consolidate redundant functions and cut costs
- Gain tax advantages
- Increasing market power
- Compensating for weakness in key areas

How does this apply to litigation marketing?
Tip: There is strength in numbers.

The same principles that apply to these large companies also make sense for smaller entities. I have seen a perfect example of this in a NY no-fault/PIP firm that has brilliantly combined partner merger activity, superior marketing and client communications, technological efficiency and operational exellence to blow their competition away and gobble up market share. The merger was the catalyst for everything else that followed.

They combined one partner's marketing expertise, with another's client base, another partner brought strong operational capabilities to the table and together they created efficiencies and pooled resources. This in turn allowed the partners to focus on their respective areas of expertise, cut costs, increase marketing spending and it wasn't long after until no firm in the marketplace could keep up and they put much of their competition out of business.

Now, I am not suggesting that mergers, or even joint ventures are for everyone. In the legal field, or even as a legal vendors, getting in bed with the wrong partner can be disastrous. However, it is important to be mindful of the flip side of this coin. Make sure that you do not get so caught up in your business routine, that you ignore opportunities to strengthen your firm's or company's strategic position - your competitors may be doing just that!

Search Engine Basics

Today, search engine marketing is an integral part of many litigation firms' and vendors' marketing strategies. This post will give a basic overview to some who may be less familiar with the topic, rather than attempt to get into the many intricacies involved in managing a succesful program.

Search engine strategies can be divided into 2 simple categories:

(1) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Simply described, SEO is leveraging the arrangement of words and links contained on your Web site, in order to achieve a higher ranking on a search engine. Over the last 10 years the SEO market has skyrocketed. When I first became involved with marketing in the legal space, back in 1998, SEO was the first marketing tactic I was responsible for managing. Back then, there were only a handful of firms specializing in this. Today there are offshore companies and a number of companies that handle this within a specific business niche. For example, most trial lawyer conference will have several vendors that specialize in SEO, or in online marketing generally.

(2) Search Engine Marketing (SEM) This is actually nothing more than paying to place text advertising on search engines when specific words are inputted into the search engine. Businesses essentially try to outbid each other to place their ads higher on search results and achieve more clickthroughs than the competition. Yes, this pretty much all there is behind the disgustingly brilliant and simple business model that is almost singlehandedly responsible for Google and Yahoo's Billions. Get the entire world to use your search engine and have every business compete for qualified traffic seeking the products and services they are offering online.
Today, there are many firms that handle SEO, SEM and other online marketing and many traditional ad agencies have developed expertise in online mediums.

I can spend days speaking on SEO and SEM, having leveraged both as part of prior business online marketing strategies and understanding the intricacies involved. While I do have to sleep at some point, I will offer one tip with respect to each. However, if you have any particular questions on the subject, I would be happy to provide answers via e-mail.

Tip 1: If SEO is a major source of lead opportunities for your business, do the ROI math and invest the appropriate capital into a firm to stay on top of this for you. Some firms will consider partial incentives based on ranking performance - I would lean toward a win-win arrangement like this.

Tip 2: Studies have shown that there is no such thing as optimal position in SEM. The optimal position is the one that gets you the most leads at the lowest investment. (In other words, traffic that clicks through when you are ad link #1, does not behave any differently that traffic clicking through ad link #5). The difference is it will cost you less to be link #5 and likely get less traffic. If it costs you 1/5 of the price and you get half the traffic, it may be prudent to consider going for link #5, unless your market share strategy dictates otherwise

Referrals: The Biggest Lost Opportunity in Business

Let's face it, there is no such thing as the perfect marketing plan. No matter who you are, what type of business you are in, there is always an opportunity to improve your marketing. With so many different business priorities, there is just not enough time in the day to focus on all the opportunities to promote your business.

Therefore, when we approach a subject as critical as referrals, I will make sure I stress that this tactic is not a "nice to have" but a "must have" in your marketing practices. That said, I would be willing to guess that 90% or more of all businesses do not have a reasonably sound strategy for leveraging client referrals.

How many plaintiff's firms follow up with their personal injury clients by sending an e-mail or letter along the following lines: "Dear Ms. Smith, it was our pleasure assisting you with your case. We wish you a speedy continued recovery.
We hope we were able to exceed your expectations while we represented you. If there is anything we could have done better, please let us know, as we are always looking for ways to improve our practice.
If you were satisfied with our service and performance, we would greatly appreciate your future referrals."

Requesting referrals is a very easy tactic that offers an astounding return on your efforts, but is often forgotten. As a defense lawyer working with a client, how about following up a positive survey response with a follow-up call? "Good afternoon Mike, I wanted to take a minute to thank you for your continued business and the time you took to provide feedback. [My pleasure] Mike I would like to ask you one more thing, do you feel based on our service level that you would feel comfortable recommending our firm to a peer? [yeah, certainly] Would you be comfortable giving me the names and contact information of 2 or 3 peers that you feel may be interested in considering our firm on their next case? [no problem] That's wonderful, thank you so much, and may I refer to the fact that we have worked with you on these particular matters [go for it] Thank you!

And that is how simple and effective referrals can be. It takes a little salesmanship, but if you give it a shot, you will be increasing your business in no time!

Tip: Think about missed referral opportunities in your ordinary course of business and try to leverage them whenever possible

Return on Client Investment

If you were to impart just one lesson from your business experiences, what would that be?

Although I certainly have a lot more learning to do, I would have to say that over the first 10 working years of my career, my personal lesson is to always strive to exceed expectations -- as it pertains to both performance and character.

I have always tried to go above and beyond what my supervisors expected. Further, I came to the fundamental realization that it was not enough to exceed the expectations of the company that employs me, but that I needed to do everything within my sphere of control to exceed the expectations of those who employ my company - our clients.

What does this have to do with marketing?

As I noted in an earlier blog, marketing touches all parts of your business and Tip: there are few things that can impact your business brand (positively, or negatively), like the level of service you provide to your clients.

Think about the last time a business truly wowed you with its level of service. Companies that I interact with that stand out in my mind are Enterprise Rental Car, Optimum Cable, Fidelity Investments and Geico. Every time I deal with these organizations they are prompt, knowledgeable, profesional and always seem to go the extra yard. Consequently, my business has stayed with these organizations even though I may conceivably have saved a few bucks by moving elsewhere.

The best organizations create a culture of customer service amongst their employees and if you are able to achieve this, you too will see remarkable improvements in your business output. Great client service reduces turnover and increases profits. I have seen top tier client service salvage Fortune 500 accounts, in spite of inferior product offerings. Yes, it is THAT important.

As a plaintiff's firm, consider the importance of giving regular feedback to your clients on the status of their cases. Yes, it is likely that you are extremely busy, but think of how professional you would look if you had your secretary or paralegal proactively e-mail a periodic status update to your client. You would reduce the number of calls and improve satisfaction and subsequent referrals.

Defense firms - same thing. Keeping adjusters and defense counsel in the loop is another great strategy to build relationships. Couple surveys with a strong process for status updates and you are already ahead of the game. If you want to truly wow your best clients, try noting their contact preferences and customizing your follow-up strategy to their unique needs.

As a vendor servicing litigation firms, take the time to understand what clients value most in your interactions with you. Is it the support that you provide when they have questions on their software? Is it how quickly you respond to a trial exhibit need? How much personal care you give in understanding what they are looking for in a Web site? Determining the types of service interactions your clients value most and going above and beyond to execute better than your competition is another clear key to success.

The Rise of the Affiliate Marketing Program

If you have ever paid someone a fee or a percentage for sending you business, you are already familiar with the core concept behind affiliate marketing, a form of online marketing that is, relatively speaking still in its infancy.
Today plaintiff's firms typically take 1/3 of 1/3 when referring a case to another firm that is better equipped to handle that particular type of case. Maybe there are minor deviations, but this is fairly standard practice in the industry today. This arrangement will likely be gone with the rise of the Internet, as will the standard 1/3 fee.

The Internet is giving considerable power to the consumer and things that we have come to expect as standards today will be obsolete tomorrow. You can call it a prophecy, lunacy, or just research enabled foresight. In any case, I will spare you the details of my Nostradamic prediction, just trust me that competition will increase, fees will be even more closely aligned with lawyer performance and the 1/3concept will be subject to added flexibility.

Speaking of alignment with performance - we have come full circle and returned to the topic of affiliate marketing - which does just that. With affiliate marketing, an organization pays a fee to one or more affiliates or partners for a customer, or for traffic generated by the affiliate's efforts. For a very comprehensive explanation of affiliate marketing you can go to the following Wikipedia listing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing

If you are currently using revenue sharing as part of your business strategy, or considering this as an alternative, it pays to conduct some additional research into the concept of online affiliate marketing, even if only for your own knowledge. Today, major online retailers, e-commerce companies, financial services companies, etc... are the major players in affiliate marketing. Interestingly enough Wiki's historical overview points to gaming and adult Web sites as being among the first movers in the world of affiliate marketing.

Affiliate programs are somewhat complex to manage and consequently may be less feasible for a smaller, non e-commerce business. However, with the Internet becoming more sophisticated, chances are strong that online affiliate marketing programs may be something your organization will want to educate itself on further - particularly if you are a vendor with a strong online lead presence, or in a larger law firm targeting online leads.

Marketing Tip: Be aware of any new trends in marketing that can help to give you a leg up on the competition.

What is Marketing?

Ask 10 different lawyers or business people what marketing is and you are likely to hear a very broad range of responses. To one, it may be television advertising, yellow pages and print ads. To another it's a well designed web page and intelligent search engine marketing. A third will say it's managing client relationships through effective service.

The textbook definition of marketing is actually the process through which an organization develops and communicates value to its prospects and customers. When you stop to think about it, this is quite a broad definition - and it should be.

Tip: Marketing touches all parts of your organization and it encompasses vastly more than most imagine.

Marketing is pricing, market research and strategy, messaging, appearance of marketing material, planning and measurement, service, sales and yes, the channels through which you reach your clients. Solid marketing can make a company with a mediocre offering successful and poor marketing can make a company with a great offering fail.

The best marketing organizations measure return on marketing investment for every tactic and do not engage in tactics that are not measurable.

How many times have law firms become so dependent one or two marketing tactics that they are eventually blindsided when these channels dry up, or become oversaturated with competitors? Marketing requires the continual monitoring and analysis of results, tracking of lead sources and regularly updating strategies to keep ahead of the curve.

As for vendors, many do not realize how precarious their competitive position is, absent consistent monitoring and adjustment of their marketing efforts. I have managed marketing plans that have enabled the companies for which I workedto take considerable market share from segment leaders, in short periods of time. We were able to do this by executing throughly researched, integrated marketing plans and rapidly adapting them to those channels where the highest return on investment was realized. We maximized the highest return tactics and eliminated, or dramatically reduced the rest.

In conclusion, the proper management of your marketing is your highest return on investment. If, you are not able to afford a full time resource to assist in the continual tracking and measurement of your investments, consider retaining an experienced marketer on a consulting basis for a full evaluation of your current marketing process.

If you have any specific marketing topics you would be interested in hearing about, or have a specific question that pertains to your firm, please e-mail me or leave a comment and I will do my best to address your inquiry.