Julian Midwinter & Associates has done extensive research among key consumers of legal services on the subject of newsletters. Here’s a quick summary of what we’ve found that works, what doesn’t, what clients value, and some techniques to ensure that your newsletters deliver maximum business development.

• General newsletter deliver poorer return than short, tightly-focused, single issue client advisories or newsflashes
• targeting client advisories or newsflashes on the basis of need or interest works best
• comprehensive, multi-page newsletters are still valued, especially if timely and incorporating incisive analysis
• “client alerts” which very briefly deal with a single issue, and outline advice about managing a risk or taking action, work well
• paper newsletters are better received when well-designed and produced
• eNewsletters are increasing in popularity over tree-Newsletters - particularly when in short, single-page, single-issue style.

To ensure your newsletter is well targeted, apply these tests (from the point of view of the recipient):
• why are you telling me this?
• Why now?
• Why should I care?
• What should I do about it?

You’ll probably find that your:
• single issue
• single page
• industry or area specific client alerts
• quick advisories and newsflashes

pass the tests above more often than full-blown, multi-subject newsletter.

Copyright 2001 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Good marketing starts with the word “no”. No, not the right client. No, not the right matter. No, not right fit for us now.In the same vein, great marketing is largely about finding your “sweet spot” - and finding ways to do lots of that work. Better still, only that work.

Maybe it will take a little effort to locate your sweet spot. Maybe it’s in-your-face-obvious.

Your sweet spot is:
• where you do your best, finest and most interesting work
• where you “click” with clients you enjoy and who appreciate what you do
• projects which aren’t too hard to get or painful to manage
• profitable
• a great place to make a professional future.

Possibly, your sweet spot is unique. More likely, your sweet spot is an opportunity for some sought-after differentiation.

What you do especially well, for clients who recognise and reward your work, is probably quite some way from what just any other similarly-qualified professional can do for them: mostly the further (more differentiated) the better (more rewarded).

It’s worth finding that special alignment of characteristics which causes a client or project to hit your sweet spot. Once you know what that magic combination is, look for work that fits the parameters and become braver and bolder with the words: “no, while I’d love to help you, it isn’t my ’sweet spot’ - let me refer you to a trusted colleague who’ll do a great job for you”.

That’s the precursor to a surge in your success and rewards.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

A marketing strategy often overlooked by professional practices is participation in industry based awards. Award entries are an opportunity for professional practices to promote their brand, highlight differentiation, and ultimately create or increase competitive advantage in the marketplace. Here’s what to watch out for when preparing a submission.

Common mistakes include:
• Not responding to all of the criteria
• Entering awards that are ill-suited to your practice
• Unclear responses where judges have to unravel content and images
• Entering a “standard submission” for multiple entries
• No data or evidence to back up claims
• Poor presentation.

Tips for award entries
• Format your entry around the ‘criteria and points weighting’
• Start preparing your submission as soon as possible, involving all appropriate team members
• Keep the response focused on a real need, perceived problem or an opportunity
• Enlist the help of clients where financial, statistical data or measurable results are available
• Start with bullet point responses to each question/criteria, and then flesh them out after further consideration
• Keep sentences and paragraphs concise
• Use images and charts where appropriate
• Get a second opinion. Ask someone impartial to view and evaluate the submission before you enter
• Always include an executive summary
• Do not exceed the word count
• Adhere to all rules and guidelines of each award.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Vague claims of greatness, history, longevity, size, pre-eminence, full-service, and so on don’t make much sales progress. Prospective clients reading proposals, tenders, or hearing a sales pitch are (mostly) unpersuaded by vague claims like this. Specifics sell.

Readers (or listeners) want proof - not just assertions. Give them what they want and need to be persuaded and sold.

Introduce proof from the outset. The more proof you can offer, the better. And, the earlier you offer a range of evidence, the stronger your impact. You’ll establish credibility early, and as your tender or pitch unfolds, you’ll be more likely to be trusted.

Proof is strong evidence from multiple sources.

Persuasive evidence includes :
• statistics
• case studies
• anecdotes
• flowcharts, process maps, and diagrams
• graphs and trend lines
• whitepapers and articles
• client lists
• project or deal lists
• client references and testimonials
• expert independent reviews.

If you don’t have persuasive evidence, then develop some.

A focus on proof will reduce possibilities of blandness - assertions tend to be bland and undifferentiated. If you cite evidence, you’ll avoid general “me too” claims of being “pre-eminent, full-service, cost-effective, client-focused” - that is, just like most of the rest of those who propose.

To write or pitch persuasively, use specifics to sell.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Each year, lawyers and other expert professionals are confronted with a series of decisions around listings and presence in myriad business and professional directories, and the Yellow Pages.  While most would prefer work to flow from our hard-earned reputations, stand-out profiles, or referrals from trusted network contacts, for many professionals, directory listings or Yellow Pages are necessary elements of work acquisition.

Yellow Pages remains an important general directory of business and trade services for many community members. Whether in old tree-ware form, or on-line, it’s a source for certain socio-demographic groups shopping for some legal services.

Yellow Pages plays - not at all - to many markets and psychodemographics.

As a doyenne of the advertising industry once said, 90% of all advertising is wasted - the trouble is, working out which 10% is effective.

Given how easy it is to make expensive mistakes, here are some Yellow Pages insights [framed in terms of legal services] to help you make better business development decisions.

While just about all firms are “listed”, a relatively small proportion pay for Yellow Pages advertisements.

Smaller law firms dominate the advertisements. Few take large, high-priced space.

Our sample research indicates that return on Yellow Pages advertising expenditure varies widely. Disappointingly few firms rigorously measure results and benchmark them against other avenues for work acquisition.

Law firms who have large, well-placed ads early in the listings report satisfaction with this choice but others who’ve made more modest investments are similarly satisfied. Quality of leads generated is mixed, regardless.

In the United States, research by the American Bar Association reveals that including photographs is especially effective and offering consumer information (such as lists of credentials) is the next best thing. Beware: reactions in other markets are not always in line with North American experience.

The clean, uncluttered “less is more” style of many modern graphic designers is probably not the most effective ad layout for this medium.

Local sampling indicates that private client services are more effectively promoted through the Yellow Pages than small business services. Services where a lawyer is needed “in a hurry” - for example, criminal law - or in an unfamiliar location, are good candidates for Yellow Pages promotion.

That same sample of law firms tells us that their Yellow Pages campaigns have increased their revenues together with increasing time they spend dealing with enquirers, screening for suitability, and “selling” themselves over the phone.

If you choose to invest in Yellow Pages, evaluate outcomes - quantitatively and qualitatively - and benchmark against the alternatives so you can refine decisionmaking with time.

Copyright 2006 Julian Midwinter & Associates

Just as you’re more inclined to reach for that bottle of wine with the gold medallion sticker, or that novel with a Pulitzer prize, so clients and referrers are subliminally influenced by the prestige and recognition bestowed upon you and your firm by awards. Even more so when awards are from a credible source.

Other benefits
Awards are nice to have for their own sake but have you considered these other benefits ?
• “proof” for your claims in credentials, presentations and tenders documents
• morale boosting for your team
• attracting first-rate job candidates to your firm
• an excuse to get in touch with your clients and referral sources to communicate the good news
• momentum - once you are recognised by one organisation you will often be invited to participate in other award competitions.

What to enter
Don’t just look at the main awards for your profession.
Think beyond the obvious to consider some other categories where you may have achieved excellence:
• innovation
• larger business awards, recognising diversity, family, friendly workplaces, flexible working conditions
• industry based awards that will resonate with your clients, for example industry association award for best professional firms
• young achiever awards
• women’s business awards
• employer of choice recognition
• corporate social responsibility
• equal opportunity awards
• environmental awards
• services export achievement
• international awards.

There are a great many opportunities to highlight and be recognised for your achievements. Best of all, awards are usually free to enter, and make you a lovable winner.

Copyright 2008 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

As I write eTips each week, it’s often the product of business development challenges and behaviours I’ve observed among our clients, or learned second hand. Now, I need your input on the eTips topics you find most relevant, how eTips can improve, and what you’d like more of.

This week, please take this brief, three to five minute survey, and tell me, and the whole JMA team, what you think.

As a thank you, you will be entered into a draw to win a bottle of fine wine.

Of course, if you have any queries or other comments, do get in touch.

Thanks for your support and important feedback.

Linda and the team at Julian Midwinter & Associates

Much marketing wallows in a sea of sameness. Enormous efforts are expended searching out small advantages in the quest to create differentiation among many apparently qualified, capable, and often similar professional service firms. Pursuing the holy grail of differentiation is often much less effective than going for the end game: impact.It’s an equation: insight + ideas + innovation = impact.

High impact is the product of:
• drawing on deep insights
• bright ideas
• lots of innovation.

You’ll gain great business development advantage when you:
• actively draw on deep understanding you’ve accrued about significant problems and business issues before your clients and target clients
• take a hard (and fresh) think about their challenges and opportunities to which you might make a positive contribution
• brainstorm to formulate some big ideas in response
• experiment with what may prove radically better ways to tackle the problem or work
• show the positive and measurable results your client can expect from your well-conceived and innovative service.

Rather than endlessly pondering minor points of difference which are unlikely to resonate with clients and prospective clients - or, worse, be meaningless and valueless to them - invest your efforts in increasing your impact, using our formula. We’ve proven it over and over.

Copyright 2008 Julian Midwinter & Associates Pty Ltd

Make sure you set yourself on a course for successful business development.

Listen - listen especially to unwelcome news. Listen to what your clients say. Listen to unpopular views, and listen extra carefully to what you don’t really want to hear.

Do the research - make sure you get as much input as possible on a subject. Disparate input will help you come to terms with the issues. You need a wide range of information from disparate sources to form a sound basis for the decisions you must make.

Make a business development plan - write it down and stick to it. A written plan communicated to everyone is much more likely to succeed than any amount of talk. Review progress against your plan.

Be prepared to make tough decisions - take responsibility for tough decisions. Good decisions are often lonely, and sometimes unpopular. You can’t depend on consensus to make the right decisions in marketing. You will be constantly faced with new opportunities - you can’t pursue them all.

So, be prepared to be tough enough to let an opportunity pass.

Copyright 2007 Julian Midwinter & Associates

Savvy players understand both the professional and personal benefits of being identified as a “leading light”. They leverage the value that derives from being truly in-demand and a “hot commodity”.

Following is a formula which will work to increase your market power and set you on the path to being more highly valued by your clients, your firm, and in the wider market.

Excel in what you do
• be the best in your field
• a reputation for technical excellence and special expertise is the best foundation!
• consider post-graduate education and research.

Be clear about the future you see for yourself as a leader in your chosen field.

Participate in your industry sector
• be active in relevant industry and professional associations
• develop a network of valuable contacts who will share their contacts, knowledge, and business with you.

Develop strong service relationships
• be service-oriented, accessible, responsible, visible, and ever-eager to please
• ask your clients to refer their contacts to you.

Develop your profile
• write articles, commentary, handbooks, checklists
• work on placing these in appropriate industry and professional journals, the business press, and on your firm’s website
• circulate copies to clients, industry contacts, and other experts in your area.

Speaking engagements
• industry conferences, professional forums and even your in-firm seminars present ideal opportunities to raise your profile
• circulate conference brochures (featuring you as a speaker) to clients, prospective clients, and all your industry contacts.

Develop a public profile
• promote your availability as an expert commentator to the media.

Research and publish in industry, academic, and professional circles.

Foster good working relationships within your team (at all levels) and with the other lawyers and experts with whom you deal.

Actively network
• the best networkers are good at sharing information and insights
• that way they pick up more information and news.

Provide advice and counsel “beyond the bounds” of the customary lawyer/client relationship
• become an adviser integral to the business success of your clients
• share your clients’ victories - and [pleasantly] surprise clients by sharing some of their “pain”.

Copyright Julian Midwinter & Associates