They're Really Just Not That Into You
From Larry Bodine's excellent LawMarketing Blog comes the following news flash:
CORPORATE COUNSEL IS REALLY JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU.
Your neighborhood GC not only wants her attorney to concentrate on the corporation's business but when she hears from you, she'd really rather hear about herself.
So do you continue sending your clients arcane "legal updates" on the laws of attachment in California or changes in the evidence code? Do you buy ads in "Super Lawyers?"
No, silly. You send your clients a glossy magazine ABOUT THEMSELVES.
As Bodine writes:
At least one law firm is taking the lead in giving the client what they want. Bass, Berry & Sims* has . . . produced a second issue of a 30-page oversize magazine for clients called momentum that talks about client success stories. The brilliance of the editorial focus is that when clients and targets receive it, they'll see articles about themselves, not the law firm talking about itself.
(*Note the Bass Berry firm motto on its home page: "it's not enough to know the law, we have to know our clients' businesses.")
The firm . . spent the money to make it look like a newstand magazine: . . . a table of contents organized by 14 industries, lots of pictures with people . . . , a cover with pictures of the chairman and CEO of HCA Inc. . . . sidebars with drawings of their clients, and did I mention lots of pictures? . . . .
The writing is so well done that the law firm name is not even mentioned.
Here's why the magazine markets the firm so well:
They don't "market their organization" -- . . . [i]nstead they have "organized around the market," a smart marketing technique in which the law firm features all it's glamorous brand name clients.
It's fun. Page 27 has a recipe for cornbread dressing from Cracker Barrel restaurants . . . (something that plays better, I assume in Bass Berry's market than it would in, say Los Angeles, but fun is key)
The graphics are superb -- . . . . [with] "Not Quite 20 Questions" profiling clients concisely with a flattering hand-drawn portrait. I'll bet every client requested to have the original artwork.
It's designed to actually be read -- with short articles, short paragraphs and short sentences.
And if you don't have a marketing budget big enough to put out a glossy rag the size of W? . . . have I mentioned blogs lately?
