The failure of firms to communicate a genuine difference between themselves and other firms.
In the UK there are maybe 10 firms, 20 at most, that can claim to be full service firms with any degree of credibility. To be a genuine full-service firm you need to have market-leading expertise in all the major practice areas. Despite the fact that it is impossible for a firm with less that 100 fee-earners to get anywhere close to full services, most firms still position themselves as generalists, and cite the same ‘benefits’ as every other firm.
It’s a shame that most firms still position themselves as generalists, since most do actually posses unique expertise that they could use as leverage. Consider geographic expertise, types of client you are best suited to serve, or practice area in which your firm has exceptional experience.
Firms would do well to capitalise on this expertise and communicate this through their marketing activities on- and off-line.
The failure of law firm websites to optimise their content for search engines.
A little experiment is in order to prove this point. I took ten fairly niche practice areas and entered them into Google adding the word ‘law’ to form a search phrase like ‘media law’. Of those ten searches, only two gave links where law firm’s websites came up in front page results.
Firms are clearly not effective in optimising for search engines. I suspect that there are three reasons for this:
Since there aren’t many firms doing it well, early investment in this area may lead to long-lasting advantages that will be difficult for competitors to catch up with.
The failure of law firm websites to produce reader-centered content.
Articles, press releases, and other know-how publications are widely employed tactics. In fact, I’m not aware of any firm in the top 200 that isn’t publishing one or more of these kinds of information on a regular basis.
Given that everyone is doing it, this kind of content isn’t a source of competitive advantage merely by its presence.
Firms must work hard to make their material relevant to clients and prospects. Don’t be selfish in your writing. Successful content is written from the readers point of view, not that of the firm. Be generous. Educate, guide and inspire. Impress your readers with generosity, and the quality of your analysis.
Along with your article, a short friendly notice stating that the content is for general use only is best practice. You can link to a more detailed legal notices page if need be, and don’t forget to add to a link to your contacts page so the reader can easily engage you for specific advice.
The failure of law firm websites to present information in an integrated way.
Amongst other material, law firm websites typical have sections for: people, services, practice areas, articles and newsletters, and press releases.
Lots of firms say that they put people at the centre of what they do, that the quality of their people is the thing that sets them apart from the competition, yet they don’t manage to put people at the centre of the law firm’s website information architecture.
on the ideal law firm website design should enable you to find an article on a topic that interests you, find out which partner wrote it, see a press release outlining the particular matter being discussed, see other lawyers in the team, see the matters they worked on, choose the right person for your needs and hire them. The lawyer should be the thing that ties all the other information together.
The failure of law firms to use the website for lead generation by capturing contact information from visitors.
A good lead generation strategy allows you to collect information from pre-qualified interested people so that you can nurture them to become clients.
While publishing an email newsletter is fairly common, the topics are often too broad to be useful and it can be difficult to know what exactly your readers are looking for. Firms should consider publishing on a range of topics and asking visitors to subscribe only to the topics they are interested in. This approach is essential for large firms, but smaller ones will benefit from building a targeted mailing list too.
The failure of law firm websites to find new ways to deliver and market their services.
Law firms are traditionally slower to innovate than businesses in other industries. There are very few firms offering truly innovative ways for clients to access their services. This could be because of the long standing rule that law firms must be owned and managed by qualified lawyers. This rule significant limits the opportunities for firms to attract the best talent in disciplines outside law, and also limits their ability to raise finance for costly infrastructure projects.
We expect to see a significant rise in the degree to which firms innovate as non-lawyer investors get involved in the running of firms as a result of the Financial Services Act coming into force in 2011/12.
This is a failure to nurture and encourage new talent to any great depth.
Taking the first steps towards a career in law can be a daunting prospect. Some firms are good at providing information for recruits of university age and older, but information is not so abundant for bright young people of school age, and older people thinking of a career change.
Mature recruits from other industries are frequently shown to add a richness to practice groups that helps them win business and deliver tangible benefits to their clients.
Targeting younger people could also be beneficial, enabling the firm to have some influence over the development of the talent pool in the future. Firm should invest in these groups with micro-sites and information services tailored to their particular needs.