This post is based on an article in Professional Marketing magazine (March 2019) https://www.pmforum.co.uk/pm-magazine/pm-magazine.aspx which looked at a legal marketing case study for Royds Withy King private client wealth proposition. It was written by Robert Pinheiro, the firm’s Senior Marketing and CRM Manager. I was particularly pleased to see the firm’s success having worked with both Royds and Withy King prior to their merger in June 2016.
The challenge in niche marketing
The Smith & Williamson 24th annual law firm survey indicated that specialist sectors (niches) were the biggest opportunity for law firms over the next three years. For information on segmentation see: http://kimtasso.com/back-basics-importance-segmentation-personas/
Royds Withy King had a strong private client practice with specialisms in heritage assets, art law and racing and bloodstock but lacked visibility in the market place.
Developing a value proposition
The firm’s research revealed that high net worth individuals’ wealth gave rise to added complexity – particularly where they owned businesses. The firm formed an internal Private Wealth steering group and set about identifying the value proposition (differentiation), the target audience and how to communicate internally and externally.
A proposition was built around reputation management, senior executive employment, heritage assets, international divorce, non-domicile tax and management buy-outs (MBOs).
Developing a new product
The firm thought about ways to help clients with legacy management and an exclusive legal management portal, Life Safe®, was created. This allows people to keep a secure record of all their important documents, digital assets and treasured possessions in an ultra-secure (double encrypted), online vault.
Documents that can be stored include: Wills, Lasting Power of Attorneys (LPA), pre-nuptial agreement (PNA), property and trust deeds, contracts and legal documents as well as passports, insurance policies, share certificates and property and investment portfolios.
Life Safe® can also be configured to issue alerts for renewal dates and deadlines. It also provides an at-a-glance wealth overview to assist with financial management.
Identifying the target market
The target market was high net worth individuals (HNW), business owners and City professionals who needed help managing their business and personal wealth curves.
- Phase one targeting (at launch) was high net worth individuals, business owners, City professionals and referrers.
- Phase two targeting was farmers and landowners, sporting professionals (such as rugby players) and international high net worths.
- Phase three would be linked to the firm’s sector programme
Internal communications programme
There were regular internal communications through the firm’s new intranet and updates were issued in the build up to the external launch.
There was a series of internal roadshows across the firm’s regional office network for all staff. There was a comprehensive toolkit detailing what is private wealth, the value proposition and key features and benefits of Life Safe®. This was supported with case studies of complex work and guidance on how to use the CRM system to identify high net worth clients.
Post launch the team developed a series of Private Wealth “Top Trump” cards which came up with a scenario and identified a series of triggers to help with cross-selling.
External communications campaign – Referrer engagement
There was a series of soft launches showcasing the proposition and Life Safe® to referrers (gatekeepers to high net worths) – using their feedback to refine the offering. These referrers had been identified by interrogating the CRM and anecdotal information.
The marketing and BD team produced bespoke marketing collateral and resources that resonated with the target audiences.
The referrer engagement strategy was rolled out across the regions with a dedicated private wealth BD referrer champion in each office so that strategic relationship would be built and the firm could position itself as the ‘go to’ firm for more complex work.
There was an on-going campaign using a monthly know-how newsletter giving opinion-led thought leadership to referrers to help keep them “ahead of the curve” in their business and personal lives. Joint marketing initiatives were also developed.
External communications campaign – Media relations
Press releases and case studies were prepared by the PR team to build profile, demonstrate credibility and drive engagement.
Key industry publications such as City Wealth and e-Private client were targeted and more specialist publications were researched.
The firm’s “Ahead of the curve” branding is all about anticipation and looking at current problems in a different way and Life Safe® is an innovative development of this strategy.
In April 2019, Royds Withy King announced it had been named as a leading private wealth law firm in the UK by leading industry publication, eprivateclient.
Further information on Life Safe® here https://www.roydswithyking.com/privatewealth/life-safe/
Related blogs on private client marketing
http://kimtasso.com/marketing-professional-services-to-high-net-worth-clients/
http://kimtasso.com/developing-a-private-client-practice/
http://kimtasso.com/private-client-marketing-five-thoughts-heads-department-2017/
http://kimtasso.com/seven-thoughts-on-private-client-marketing-june-2015/
http://kimtasso.com/key-challenges-developing-sustaining-private-client-practice/
http://kimtasso.com/private-client-marketing-digital-and-traditional-methods/
http://kimtasso.com/elderly-grey-silver-mature-or-hyperactive/
http://kimtasso.com/legal-market-research-lexisnexis-bellwether-2016-report-highlights/
http://kimtasso.com/mischcon-de-reya-a-law-firm-that-seems-to-have-got-it-right/
http://kimtasso.com/marketing-to-the-elderly-for-lawyers-and-accountants/