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Francesc Domínguez explains how to incorporate marketing into your law firm offering added value to the client

Source: Book Legal Marketing: from a competent law firm to a competitive one. How to achieve it

Legal marketing must have a solid foundation, that is, the firm’s professionals’ outstanding technical background in law, economics, etc. Without technical and service quality, there can be no effective medium and long-term marketing.

It should also be clear that marketing is more easily applied in small and mid-size firms than large ones, because its structure is less complicated. The self-limiting mentality of small and mid-size firms is the main advantage of large firms. Marketing also involves a deep understanding of clients’ business needs. We need to increase our interaction with them.

How should we incorporate marketing in the firm?

It is necessary to incorporate it as a philosophy and function of all staff, that is, marketing and people management (or human resources policy) must be aligned and integrated. The firm’s prestige and promotion go through its professionals and vice versa. We need to create real teams (that is, professionals with shared values, vision and goals) and involve them in achieving the desired brand image. It is necessary to identify the type of clients the firm desires, define a strategy, and base it on differentiation. When marketing is based on imitation, it ceases to be marketing, in our opinion.

It is essential to have a detailed strategy and to develop a marketing plan that has been agreed upon. A modest, if not simple plan to position the firm, its areas of expertise, and its professionals. It’s necessary to create a market category, a niche in which the firm can be a pioneer or be recognized as a leader. 

Fees

We must avoid competing on the basis of reduced fees and compete by offering added value to the client.

Many firms adopt low-price strategies to enter into the market but don’t know how to abandon them in the medium and long term, because they have created an image of themselves as cheap firms. Working for reduced fees is certainly a risk, because working hard for reduced fees is the road to poverty and professional dissatisfaction in the medium and long term. We must consider the consequences of our actions not only in the short term, but also in the medium and long term.