Legal marketing case study – Royds Withy King private client wealth proposition and new product Life Safe®
Posted on: April 19, 2019
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/
Related Posts
- Lawyers finally start considering an holistic approach to serving their clients
- Rural market - Lawyers follow surveyors and agents
- Marketing a wills and probate business
- Marketing professional services to High Net Worth clients
- Developing a privately funded family law practice
- Probate Practitioner’s Handbook - Marketing wills, probate and other private client services
- Legal marketing case study – Mishcon de Reya
- Reflections on the CLT Private Client Management and Marketing conference
- Twitter use in top UK law firms
- Mischcon de Reya – a law firm that seems to have got it right?
- Statistics for your environmental analyses
- Digital PR case study – Brecher Solicitors: from food to law to property blogging
- Advanced social media use amongst lawyers, accountants and surveyors
- Digital PR – What do you do if defamatory material about your business is published?
- Innovation in small law firms
- Case study (Law firm marketing) - Mishcon de Reya
- Legal Marketing Case study - Withy King's research/media relations campaign
- Conference review: CLT’s “Managing and marketing a profitable private client practice” 2013
- Legal marketing case study: Focused newsletters at the heart of client relationship and events programmes at Aaron & Partners
- Legal marketing case study: Irwin Mitchell combines DR advertising, online promotion and brand building
- Cross selling – the dream versus the reality
- Key challenges when developing and sustaining your private client practice
- Property marketing case studies – Relationship management at DTZ, GVA, JLL, Knight Frank and Savills
- Law South Conference 2015 – “Achieving extraordinary client engagement” with empowerment, value, disruption, disobedience and psychology
- Legal sector research: Highlights from “The Age of the Client” by LexisNexis
- Seven thoughts on private client marketing (June 2015)
- Where do I start? Business Development for Lawyers (MBL Private Client Training July 2015)
- Marketing to the elderly – for lawyers and accountants
- Legal Marketing Case Study – Rix & Kay thought leadership in the later life and care sectors
- Four insights from developing a private client practice – Analysis, Objectives, Targeting and Internal Communication (June 2016)
- Legal market research – LexisNexis Bellwether 2016 report highlights
- New lead generation and intelligence system for targeting high net worth private clients – An overview of NETZ
- Legal marketing case studies – Digital marketing at The Law Society Law Management Conference 2017
- Client Experience Management CEM – Two research reports
- Developing a private client practice – 10 insights (July 2017)
- Legal case study – Anatomy of a law firm merger (Ross & Craig and DMH Stallard)
- Private client marketing - Competing in the digital era
- Private client marketing – Five thoughts from heads of department (2017)
- Legal marketing case study: Social media in business development and relationship management: A guide for lawyers by Kim Tasso (Book review)
- Help your lawyers understand and engage with social media effectively
- Book Review: Malcolm McDonald on value propositions – How to develop them, how to quantify them (by Malcolm McDonald and Grant Oliver)
- Intapp leads the way with client lifecycle management (CLM) solution
- A strategy for developing more private client work
- Key takeaways from “How to manage and grow your private client practice” (Feb 2020)
- Structured programmes for Referrer Relationships
- Book Review: The Legal PR Guide – Gaining buy-in to law firm media relations
- Nine reflections on thought leadership (2019)
- 14 pragmatic steps to improved referrer management (London and Manchester 2019)
- Accountancy marketing case study - How KPMG influenced £35 million in new business by blending digital and offline media
- Managing Partners’ Forum Awards 2020 – Marketing, client service, innovation, learning and culture change
- Book Review - Marketing technology as a service – Proven techniques that add value by Laurie Young & Bev Burgess
- Highlights from a referrer management workshop (2020)
- Book review – Advanced Marketing Management: Principles, skills and tools by Nikolaos Dimitriadis, Neda Jovanovic Dimitriadis and Jillian Ney
- Professional Services thought leadership update - FTI, Bidwells, Grist and Fieldfisher (November 2020)
- Managing and growing your private client practice (January 2021)
- How do I run an internal marketing focus group (e.g. a sector group)?
- Conference report: “You haven’t heard it all before” Professional Marketing Forum conference September 2019 (Innovation, procurement, campaigns, creativity, assertiveness)
- Back to basics – The importance of segmentation and personas
- Future Marketing Manager – A checklist for success and how to get promoted
- Marketing planning in a nutshell
Category: Accountants, Kim's Blog, Lawyers, Marketing, Strategy
Tagged: Awards, branding, Business relationships, Campaign development, Campaign Management, Campaigns, Case Study, Communications, CRM, Cross-selling, Differentiation, Employment, Extranet, Family Law, Family lawyers, Farmers, Farming, Financial Management, High New Worth, HNW, Innovation, Internal Communication, Internal stakeholders, Intranet, Know-how, Law firm merger, Law marketing, Lawyers, Legal, Legal Marketing, Marketing, marketing case study, Merger, new product development, New service development, newsletter, Newsletters, Niche marketing, Portal, Private client, Private client lawyers, Private client marketing, private wealth, Product Development, Referrals management, Referrer engagement. Know how, Referrer management, Rural, Rural marketing, Sector marketing, Sectors, Segmentation, Service Development, Tax, Technology, Thought leadership, Value proposition
Share This