In this digital age where social media reigns supreme, it is more important than ever that law firms pay close attention to their marketing and PR. Staying visible in the minds of clients or potential clients can often be the difference between success and failure, particularly for smaller or medium-sized law firms. Increasingly, marketing its services effectively online is how a law firm builds a relationship with the widest network of potential clients.
However, most law firms do not have the expertise required to market their services persuasively to the public. It is not cost effective for the smaller law firm to have an internal marketing department, so more and more law firms are outsourcing their marketing and PR to managed services providers who can provide a range of functions from IT and Human Resources to Professional Indemnity Insurance and marketing support.
The benefits of outsourcing your marketing and PR to a firm providing managed services are manifold. Here are some of the main advantages:
Efficiency
Developing a good marketing strategy requires time and experience. However, this is a slow process, and most law firms do not have the resources to develop these skill sets in-house. The requirement to hire and train marketing professionals vanishes when you can outsource your marketing needs to external professionals. A company that provides managed services to law firms will already have a strong team in place that can hit the ground running at a fraction of the cost of developing your marketing strategies in-house.
Cost
One of the main benefits of outsourcing marketing and PR services for the small to medium-sized law firm is the obvious economies of scale. An outsourcing services provider can assemble an experienced team of marketing professionals at a fraction of the cost of employing them in-house. It also eliminates the cost associated with staff turnover which can be prohibitively extensive for the smaller law firm. An external company will also have access to the best staff which will offset any reputational risk that might attach to hiring less experienced marketers.
Fresh Perspective
An outside perspective can be of immense benefit to your business. Within a small office, it can be surprisingly easy to succumb to groupthink. The day to day focus on the client’s legal needs means that many law firms are not sufficiently attuned to the current developments in marketing strategy and have outmoded ideas of how to market their services effectively. An outside firm providing marketing services is less likely to be bound by the restraints of office politics and can give a fresh and unique outlook while allowing the law firm to focus on its core competencies.
Return on Investment
Outsourcing your marketing needs results in a superior return on investment than if you were dealing with everything in-house. An external services provider will have specific deliverables to meet on an on-going basis. Such deliverables are much more challenging to achieve internally where there is the danger of stagnation and where staff will need to be paid each month regardless of whether the law firm has any marketing needs that month. An external provider will also have provided similar services to other law firms and will have the benefit of hard-won experience to guide them when dealing with the needs of your firm.
Access to the Best Technology
As digital marketing becomes the go-to solution for marketing professionals, more and more tools are available to ensure the most seamless process possible when marketing your firm online. An external managed services provider will have access to the latest technology, enabling it to tackle your firm’s marketing strategy immediately with little lead time.
In short, outsourcing your marketing and PR is highly advantageous to the small and medium law firm. A managed services provider such as Excello Libertas will have the necessary expertise to provide laser targeted marketing services and more, allowing you to focus solely on giving legal advice to your clients. Outsourcing support services can ensure a welcome reprieve from the myriad roles the modern law firm must fulfil. For many lawyers, the ability to focus purely on their client’s legal issues is a valuable commodity!
