As attorneys — especially as trial attorneys — we have a tendency to prefer the ‘old school’ methods of doing business. We prepare for trial by writing and re-writing arguments on butcher paper. We take our notes on yellow legal pads. We have a Kum-Up system that still utilizes a cardboard box. We meet in-person with our clients again and again to prepare for cases, and for many years we relied on nothing more than word of mouth to bring in new cases.

When it comes to managing our business though, we want to make sure we’re staying on top of our game. So while some old school methods are still viable (your legal pad can’t break down like a computer might), the old school methods for marketing your business and bringing in new clients are long expired.

We broke down the procedural aspect behind what it took to improve our company’s brand and incorporate new practices for doing business in the legal world to share with you. Here are our steps for how to can revamp your legal image and bring in new clients and cases.

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1) Define Your Objectives

Before you can begin any project, you need to have a clear idea of what the end goal is. This could never be more true than in business. We took the better part of last year self reflecting and developing answers to the following questions that helped us learn where we wanted to be in a year’s time.

Here are some questions to help you develop not only what you want to improve, but what you need to improve with how you do business:

How do you want to be perceived by the consumer?

Create a list of adjectives that you think are an honest reflection of how you would like to do business. For example, “the best” leaves a lot to strive for and no real direction. Try narrowing it down to themes such as “responsive,” “transparent,” and “relatable.” These words will help you define your marketing message later.

How can you improve your current service for your clients?

This might require some research. Consider surveying your current clients in order to obtain better insight as to what they liked about doing business with you, and what they didn’t. You could even develop your own focus groups and survey them as well. This would give you the perspective of potential clients and what their initial opinion of your company is.

How can you better serve your stakeholders?

Your stakeholders are more than just your clients. A stakeholder is any person, organization, or group that interacts with or has interest in your business. For lawyers, this includes other lawyers. It could also include other professionals such as doctors, law enforcement, and corporations (depending on what type of law you practice).

Analyze each of your stakeholders and how they do business with your company, and reflect on how you can better improve the process or experience for them. Being aware of all stakeholders, not just the clients, is important in managing an operational law firm.

 

How can you improve your teams efficiency?

This question can have multiple solutions, so it’s best to truly understand the root of any issue before moving forward — otherwise you may find yourself wasting time, money and effort on fixing the wrong problem. Some problems can be solved by incorporating technology, others are perhaps an issue of structure and management.

Surveying your firm’s employees are some of the best ways to check-in and see if they have any issues they need to address. For best results, make sure the surveys are anonymous and then you’ll receive the most honesty.

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2) Update Your Brand

Change Your Name

Your company’s brand and name are separate entities, but have a strong relation. The name of your company can help to portray the image you want your stakeholders to have. In our case, for 40 years our firm was called “The Law Offices of David Drexler.” This could be a completely viable name for a firm, but the question we had to consider was “What does our firm’s name make people think about the firm?” The Law Offices of David Drexler evokes the image of a small, perhaps single-person firm. It could be the firm of a sole practitioner who might work out of a small boutique or home office. It could sound like an attorney who has one specialization and might have limited resources. There is nothing ultimately wrong with this image or name, but it did not accurately reflect our firm and our capabilities.

That’s why we changed our name to The Drexler Law Firm.  We needed a name that reflected the size and capabilities of our firm. We have multiple lawyers and a full support staff. We have the resources to take on enormous catastrophic injury cases and have the ability and experience to stand up to any adversary of any capability. We needed our name to reflect those strengths so the first step in reconstructing our brand was changing our name.

Modernize Your Design

We then evaluated the look and feel of the brand.  We had a logo designed, chose a color palette, and reworked our driving philosophy so that it was directly in line with the types of personal injury claims we want to focus on.  We designed a new letterhead, new envelopes and new business cards, so that every single paper we send out promotes a cohesive brand voice.

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3) Embrace New Technology

In our case, embracing new technology meant improving our website. In this ever-digitally-evolving world, having a website that accurately represents your brand can be the biggest deciding factor for a new client’s decision to do business with you.

Clients today expect clean design and user experience when interacting with sites. If your website looks and feels like it’s outdated, that will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the consumer who is evaluating your firm for their case. In the world of personal injury law, there is enormous competition.  Each one of your peers will have a next-gen website that is responsive, streamlined and aesthetically impressive. If you want to compete for the high-end business, your firm has to have a high-end website.

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4) Create a Marketing Strategy

Now that you have a new site and a newly branded product, you have to develop a marketing strategy that will bring in the qualified leads you desire. This strategy encompasses managing many different marketing channels, such as search engines, social media, and even those old school methods that still prove successful, such as networking.

Search Engine Optimization

Once you’ve launched your newly designed website, you have to develop structures to bring traffic and clients to your website. Optimizing your sites for search engines makes it easier for new clients to find you. It can be a lengthy and complicated process, so it’s always best to discuss with professionals how to go about this, but it is the most cost effective and necessary means to bringing traffic to your new site.

Social Media

We all know how frequently people use social media. For the most part, we’re all on it all the time. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, Periscope and who knows what other platform will come out tomorrow. It’s necessary to have a presence on at least some of these platforms in order for your stakeholders to engage and build a relationship with your brand.

If used correctly, your presence on social media can help you reach a broader consumer base, educate your stakeholders, and better develop your brand identity.

Networking

Before you think all it takes is getting out there and introducing yourself to people, it’s important to understand that not everyone loves networking and not everyone is good at networking. Networking is a skill, and like other skills it will improve with practice. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and meet people!

Personal relationships are still an extremely vital key to getting new business. It’s not enough to stand up at a networking meeting once a month and say ‘I am a lawyer.’ Developing relationships and networks take time, effort, attention and genuine interest in other people in your professional sphere.

To improve your networking skills, we recommend developing an efficient and meaningful description of what you do that can be delivered in less than one minute. Once you have mastered that, come up with a few stories about how a client came to you with a problem and you solved that problem in a way nobody else could have. Train yourself to tell those stories quickly, clearly and efficiently. Practice these deliveries until they are second nature. Think carefully about how you want to promote yourself and what business you want to bring on.

Generally it is more effective to present yourself as a specialist in one field rather than a generalist. Go after the business you want the most. Most importantly take the time to find out who people really are beneath their title of attorney or CPA or banker. The deeper you know someone the more likely it is for business to flow back and forth. Lastly, give as much as possible and you will see that eventually, once relationships start to grow, so too will networking commerce.

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It took some time for us to learn ourselves that you have to continue pressing forward and adapting with the times to be an industry leader in your field. Follow these steps, focus on these categories for growth and change, and make sure you keep evolving with the times. Otherwise, you might get left behind.

We want to extend a thank you to our website development and marketing teams at ATAK Interactive and Equinox Strategy who helped us make these important decisions and develop our new marketing strategy. We highly recommend conversing with a team of experts in the digital field before continuing with this advice for best results.

Disclaimers:

The information in this blog post (“post”) is provided for general informational purposes only, and may not reflect the current law in your jurisdiction.  This blog is not intended to, and does not, create an attorney client relationship, an offer of employment or a guarantee of success for clients of The Drexler Law firm.  No information or representation contained in this post should be construed as an offer of employment, guarantee of success or the creation of an attorney client relationship with The Drexler Law firm, nor as legal advice from The Drexler Law Firm or the individual author.  No reader of this post should act, or refrain from acting, on the basis of any information included in, or accessible through, this post without seeking the appropriate legal or other professional advice on the particular facts and circumstances at issue from a lawyer in the corresponding jurisdiction.

There are time deadlines during which a case must be brought, according to your jurisdiction or state, and failing to abide by the jurisdictional statute of limitation rules can result in your case being time-barred.