Here’s the latest legal marketing case study.
I admit that I’ve admired the marketing communications of Fisher Meredith for some time – particularly the series of small transport posters that appeared regularly at my local train station for many years that seemed to embed their presence in the community and enabled them to really punch above their weight in a competitive market.
So I was pleased to be invited to talk to Sophie Hainsworth, the new marketing executive who arrived from three years at KPMG into the firm’s new Holborn offices to mastermind the unveiling of the firm’s new identity and get a grip on the range of marketing activities.
About Fisher Meredith
Originally the firm’s main office was in Kennington (South London) and there was a further office in Richmond (West London). The founding partner, Eileen Pembridge, is a family lawyer and in the past a good part the firm’s work was Legal Aid funded. So they have done well to transition to a predominantly private practice and build a range of complementary consumer and commercial services.
And it’s an interesting array of services provided – the core family and children services for which the firm is best known, but also residential property, employment law, civil litigation and dispute resolution and perhaps more surprisingly, immigration law, police law and civil liberties.
For businesses, the firm provides commercial litigation, employment law, business immigration and support for a range of business and commercial issues including starting and restructuring businesses and commercial contracts. I like the strapline of “Life, law and more” to unite consumer and commercial services.
Interestingly, 68% of the staff are female and 74% of the 50 staff are involved in front line client servicing (i.e. fee-earners).
Outsourced digital marketing
Fisher Meredith uses the web and digital marketing support (particularly PPC – an immigration campaign started recently – and SEO) provided by Conscious Solutions agency https://www.conscious.co.uk/. The firm is pleased with the results as 70% of their online leads are generated by SEO. The firm is currently trialling Ruler Analytics software to better understand the online client journey https://www.ruleranalytics.com/ .
Call management is managed externally by MoneyPenny https://www.moneypenny.com/uk/
Design work for the new brand was completed by Ascend Studio http://www.ascendstudio.co.uk/
In-house social media
There’s been a strong focus on social media which is now managed in-house. Even more activity is planned here using a content management plan, an internal training programme and numerous platforms including Twitter, Facebook (including recent photos of the team participating in the charity London Legal Walk), LinkedIn, Google+ and Instagram (where they will be trying out paid adverts). Sophie is convinced that visual communication and creativity will increase in importance within the legal sector – her pet dog’s account has thousands of followers!
A variety of lawyers contribute regularly to the firm’s blog http://www.fishermeredith.co.uk/site/blog/fm-blog/ and there is currently a campaign to increase the number of on-line reviews that the firm receives.
Analysing the pipeline and client journey
But more importantly, Sophie has spent a fair amount of time analysing and building up a structured view of the firm’s marketing and sales funnel and how it integrates with the firm’s online and offline client journey maps.
Other activities
“The recent change of address led to an audit of our directory entries” said Sophie “and we found that we appeared in hundreds of cititations – so we have had to rationalise our approach and ensure that our messages are consistent with the rebrand”.
“We are confident that we are doing all the right things on-line, but sometimes there’s no substitute for face-to-face contact so we are working on an integrated conference speaking and networking programme, running alongside our online campaigns, to get our lawyers out and about and connected to the target consumer and commercial communities”.
They also plan a series of small property roundtables over the coming months.
“Worryingly efficient”
Sophie has only been in her role for a few months and works just three days a week – spending half her time in London and the remainder in Leicester which she regards as home. Despite many marketers finding that they are often at odds with the lawyers, Sophie gets on fine and reports into the management meetings. The partners report that she is “worryingly efficient”. She modestly puts her success down to a three tier time management system (weekly, daily and immediate priorities) inspired from an “Eat that frog” book.
Some other legal marketing case studies can be seen here:
Aaron & Partners http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-focused-newsletters-at-the-heart-of-client-relationship-and-events-programmes-at-aaron-partners/
Irwin Mitchell http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-irwin-mitchell-combines-dr-advertising-online-promotion-brand-building/
Keystone Law http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-improving-referrals-reward-systems-keystone-law/
Mills & Reeve http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-studies-strategy-relationship-management-bird-bird-dla-piper-mills-reeve-obelisk/
Mishcon de Reya http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-mishcon-de-reya/
Rayden Solicitors http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-hot-family-law-rayden-solicitors/
Thomson Snell & Passmore http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-how-thomson-snell-passmore-lawyers-grew-a-new-office-from-scratch/
Withy King http://kimtasso.com/legal-marketing-case-study-withy-kings-researchmedia-relations-campaign/
Please let me know if you’d like your legal marketing case study or business development campaign reviewed.
