It’s not surprising that when it comes to effectively marketing a law firm, all the banter is about “online.” I get that, because 85% of our work with law firms in Australia and the United States sits there. However, does the more traditional ways of positioning your practice still work?
A little over a year ago, we pitched the idea of publishing a high-end magazine to long-standing client Best Wilson Buckley, a fast-growing specialist family law firm recently acquired by Shine Lawyers.
Why? Because as my hero, Marty Neumeier would say, that when it comes to positioning brands, at the very heart of it, it’s all about doing a zig when the others zag. In fact, Marty wrote a book with that title you should read it.
Essentially his thesis is that radical differentiation is the key to a successful brand and is key to creating lasting value for shareholders and consumers. He opines that brands die out because they are unable to keep their zag and eventually camouflage in with the rest of the other teeming mass of brands.
In the context of publishing a magazine, it was simply the “Zag” while all the other competitors are zigging, but it never would have happened if the firm wasn’t up for it. This was critical because you don’t embark on a publishing regime of 4 quarterly substantive editions lightly. It’s an immense amount of work, both on the part of the firm and of course, my design team.
The magazine was aptly titled, “CrossRoads,” and would not only be a beautifully aesthetic and wonderfully tactile read, it would be a body of client-focused family law content but supplemented by other related articles, from food, to health, to finance etc etc.
We wanted the publication to be at home in coffee shops, cafes and restaurants and be truly, an interesting read to a wide-ranging demographic, not necessarily just those immersed or about to be immersed in a family law dispute.
“Crossroads” has been hugely successful for the firm, measured by not only feedback, but now of course, with plenty of external contributors wanting to be a part of it. It’s distributed widely and it always fascinates me where the magazine turns up.
It’s been another great example for us as law firm marketing designers, that when there is a distinct brand strategy by a firm to be continually positioning, seeking out new ways to really engage with their community in different ways, extraordinary things happen when you all come to the table in the spirit of co-creation.
The Autumn edition is now on our design boards and it just keeps on getting better and better!
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Dan Toombs
Lawyer & Founder, Practice Proof
Dan Toombs is a lawyer, law reformer and founder of Practice Proof. Admitted in 1997, he built his first career inside the legal profession — practising law, leading legal organisations and driving law reform — before building the marketing, technology and AI practice he has now run exclusively for law firms for 20 years.
In that time, Dan and his team have helped law firms grow from single offices into multi-office and national practices, ASX-listed brands and acquisition targets. That experience gives Practice Proof an unusually deep understanding of both sides of law firm growth: what happens inside a legal practice, and what it takes commercially to make one grow.
Thomson Reuters featured his law-firm marketing advice as early as 2014, on positioning firms to win business online, websites and social media. He is also the founder of FirmRanker, which researches how AI systems discover and recommend law firms. Dan is a Winston Churchill Fellow and Australia Leadership Award recipient, with national recognition for his work in law and human rights.
If you want to know what 20 years of growing law firms could bring to yours, talk to Dan and the Practice Proof team.