Peer to Peer Magazine

69 WWW.ILTANET.ORG Positioning Legal Marketers for Strategic Business Growth FEATURES Large or small, your law firm is facing the challenge of how to remain competitive amid a changing legal landscape. A bevy of factors — ranging from turbulent economic conditions to an ever-increasing set of client demands — is forcing your firm down a path of re- examining its business model. Critical to your journey is a strategy for business growth, both in new business development and better serving existing clients. In fact, more than two-thirds of law firms are increasing their emphasis on marketing and business development efforts. One of the prevailing catalysts for this investment, according to a joint research study by Bloomberg Law and the Legal Marketing Association (LMA), is the fact that law firms are facing mounting internal pressure to generate revenue. With this accelerated investment, marketing and business development professionals continue to play a much broader role. Traditionally tasked with very specific communications roles, such as social media and event management, today these professionals find their seat at the table to be much more strategic. Their scope of responsibilities is highly business-oriented, ranging from pricing to strategic planning to client-relationship management, among others. Established Experience As marketing and business development professionals are being asked to do more, these individuals have never been in a beer position to succeed. While many have been previously employed at law firms, it is just as likely that they have come from outside the legal industry. In fact, roughly 41 percent of legal marketing and business development professionals are coming from different industries, according to the Bloomberg Law/LMA study. The majority of these professionals are coming from service organizations (27 percent), not-for- profit associations (13 percent) and media/publishing (10 percent). Having this breadth of experience could bode well for their expanded role, as traditionally marketers in other industries are the ones who carry out such strategic activities as pricing, planning and relationship management for their organizations. This could help explain the expanding role of legal marketers within law firms. The Tools To Compete The current reality facing every business, regardless of industry, is the demand to do more with less. For marketers and business development professionals, the roles they are being asked to embrace include: » Practice/process improvements » Practice/business planning » Competitive intelligence » Firm strategic planning » Aorney coaching/training » Client service/relationship management 41 percent of legal marketing and business development professionals are coming from different industries. Legal Marketers: Previous Organization Employment Professional Service Organizations 27% Not-for-profit Associations 13% Media/Publishing 10% Other 28% Government 3% Academic Institution 6% Accounting Firm 7% Independent Consultant 7% Source: Data compiled from a joint research study by LMA and Bloomberg Law, April 2016

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