When it Comes to Marketing, Small is Powerful

By Jordan Furlong

There was a time, not that long ago, when small firms and sole practitioners had almost no chance against big firms when it came to marketing. Thanks to their deep pockets and established brands, large law firms dominated in areas like advertising, event sponsorship, and the sort of name recognition that drew reporters to interview their lawyers like moths to a flame. “Small-firm” was considered, in marketing terms, to be small-time.

It’s remarkable how much has changed over the course of just the last decade. Now, when it comes to marketing, it’s at least a fair fight regardless of the size of your firm — and in some ways, small-firm and solo lawyers have the advantage over big firms, especially those that cut their marketing budgets in an effort to preserve partner profits in the wake of the recession.

Smaller firms feature many elements, including flexibility, specialization, and personalized service, that are perfectly suited to the diverse, long-tail, million-channel marketplace of the 2010s. Whereas large firms are burdened by the need to be all things to all people, an effort guaranteed to drain resources and blur messages, solos and small firms can use their size and narrow focus as advantages.

Here are just a few ways in which smaller firms can gain the upper hand in marketing.

Zero in on your audience. The risk of being all things to everyone everywhere is that you wind up being not much to anyone anywhere: this is the danger that all large full-service firms constantly face. As a small-firm practitioner, you don’t need to worry about that, because your size has already forced you to narrow the scope of your market.

Either you’re only providing a very small number of specialized services to a big market (e.g., contingency and fixed-fee software patent litigation defence), or you’re providing a range of services to a very small and specialized market (e.g., divorce and estate planning services in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre region of Pennsylvania). Specify your audience to the finest degree possible, and keep it always at the forefront of your planning.

Start blogging and Twittering. The blog is the single most important development in the history of small-firm marketing. A highly optimized, regularly updated, and (most importantly) well-written and content-rich blog creates a footprint for small-firm lawyers many sizes larger than the firm itself. Some of the most widely read and respected law blogs today are produced by small firms and boutiques, and they’re invariably very focused and specialized.

Likewise, make Twitter your powerful and completely free worldwide circulation department. Big firms with thousands of mailing addresses on file can’t compete withe the viral circulation of web links by millions of Twitter users. Distribute your own work via Twitter, but more importantly, link to news and articles of interest to your narrow client base and place those in your Twitter stream too: make yourself an authoritative source of information in your chosen area.

Pursue niche media opportunities. Big firms are constantly pursuing media appearances in nationwide newspapers, magazines and online news sites. Let ‘em: that’s not the market for you. Instead, identify the leading media providers for your client base, whether it’s a very specific industry or a very specific geography. Circulation size isn’t nearly as important as whether the people who buy services like yours rely on these periodicals.

Once you’ve identified the publications, go back and read the last six to eight editions to understand what they provide and to whom. Contact the editor, initially by email then by a follow-up phone call, identify yourself, and ask for 20 minutes to talk about their periodical and how you could help provide value. Show you’re interested in their periodical for its own sake, not as your personal marketing vehicle, then broach the subject of interviews or columns. The editor will be impressed that you’re looking to meet her needs, not just your own.

Create and share short videos. There’s no better audition material for an interview pitch, by the way, than to be able to point an editor or producer to your five-minute video offering practical guidance to clients. It demonstrates that you’re articulate, engaging and concise — three terms that people typically don’t associate with lawyers.

Videos don’t require recording studios and expensive equipment anymore: the video camera you use to record your kids’ birthday parties is usually up to the task of recording you or your small- firm partners taking five minutes to explain preventive steps clients can take to avoid the most common legal problems that walk through your door. Post these videos on your website, upload them to YouTube, link to them on Twitter — that’s a powerful production and distribution system at very little cost.

As a small-firm lawyer, you know you’re always short on time and resources, and you may sometimes find yourself wishing for a big firm’s marketing department. But your budget and market constraints can actually work to your advantage: you’ve already achieved the kind of focus necessary to create an effective marketing campaign. Low-cost, high-tech, scalable, niched marketing opportunities and vehicles abound: all you have to do now is take advantage of them.

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