Today, market leaders see the marketing function in the law firm as important, but still technical. Marketers and communications specialists in the legal market are predominantly excellent professional middle managers. The function of the Business Development Manager is a completely different story. First, the function implies a deep understanding of the global legal market. Secondly, knowledge of legal business. Thirdly, knowledge of the capabilities and products of the company whose business is to be developed.
Difference between the director of marketing and director of business development
To summarize, the main difference between the director of marketing and director of business development in the following. Marketing Lead is working on the formation, promotion and reputation building of a legal brand. Marketer for a law firm may well be from another industry. Business Development Lead is engaged in building a system of contacts and relationships that law firm partners use to sell a legal product. Business Development Lead for legal business can only be from this industry or a very close consulting sector. Therefore, law firms move their most experienced marketers primarily to this position.
Lawyers work with very sensitive, confidential information that belongs to the client. This imposes a lot of restrictions and complicates work with many stakeholders. First of all – with journalists. With the exception of professional legal media, only top firms that work on major international public transactions (mergers and acquisitions, debt securities issues, IPOs, restructuring, investment projects) can regularly attend a wide media field. There are not many law firms on the market.
Fill the “lack of information about the reasons” can quality analytics or joint marketing efforts with the client (storytelling). Subject to the availability of high-quality content no difficulty in placing it in the media does not arise. Journalists and editors are interested in good expert material, and lawyers often sin by striving to tell the world not about the problem and its legal components, but about themselves and their uniqueness.
An effective tool is to develop long-term online educational and analytical services for clients and stakeholders. So far, mainly international law firms can boast of such promotions. What are the laws of marketing? And what does not work out of the classics for you? What marketing of complex services should be adopted by more “relaxed” industries?
Standard advertising does not work in legal marketing: neither outdoor, nor print, nor television, nor radio. It is difficult to talk about the effectiveness of digital campaigns. They can be effective only if the topic itself is of interest to the target audience. But here all kinds of communications work. The best option would be to connect to the process law firm marketing agency.
Due to the specifics of the sector, legal marketers are becoming very strong experts in crisis communications. On the background of the fact that a competent PR manager of any other company will go to a lawyer only when the crisis has already occurred or is obviously irreversible, will marketers of law firms always work with lawyers. They are able to skillfully choose words, pack a message around circumventing critical moments, build communication so as to avoid any risks in the legal plane.
How consolidated is the market for legal marketers? The market knows all the specialists in legal marketing and especially in business development. There are not many of them. Of these, business development professionals are even smaller. The market for legal marketers is just one of the few where demand far exceeds supply. To get an experienced specialist is a great success.
