The Top 25 Law Marketing Cliches to Avoid.
As a whole, lawyers are very literal, often too literal for good marketing. As a result, many firms simply opt for the obvious icons that represent the general concept of “Law,” just like most of their closest competitors. The logical rationale seems to be, “Well, if everyone else is doing it this way, it must be right.” But that’s wrong.
Your marketing should set you apart, help you stand above the crowd. And doing exactly what they do buries you in the anonymous middle. Sure it’s safe, but ”safe” doesn’t help generate revenue.
That is, if your website home page shows a skyline or column, you’ve immediately convinced everyone who sees it that (1) your firm is mediocre, and (2) there’s nothing worth reading inside. If you want to claim to be a high-end, A-tier firm, then you must look like it, and a photo of a handshake, map, or pen resting on a document won’t cut it. No exceptions, unless you’re, say, Wachtell or Cravath.
So here they are, the 25 most typical and tedious clichés law firms use (and what they actually convey to the average reader):
The fact that you immediately recognized all or most of these, and perhaps laughed embarrassingly at a few, proves that these images have lost their impact. So, if you’re using any of these in your marketing materials, from website or blog to print ads or brochures, stop immediately.
Either change your tag line to “Average skills. Average price.TM” or, preferably, come up with something that really sets you apart. Create something else, something great. Something that helps you stand out in a way that generates real revenue. If you can’t do it, hire someone who can. But it must be done, it’s important.
Figure out who you really are, then build your marketing around that.
June 8, 2011 update:
This irreverent post got a lot of traffic, mentions, retweets, and forwards.My favorite mention, not surprisingly, comes from Non-Sequiters, in Above the Law:
“Here are 25 legal marketing cliches to avoid… or only use ironically, amiright?”
Related articles:
- The Most Important Question to Ask Before Redesigning Your Website
- Fostering Good Marketing – Jones Foster.
- The 20 Best Law Firm Tag Lines. Is your firm "Committed to Mediocrity TM"?
- How do you market a law firm in a smaller city, state, or country?
- Great Website Design Isn’t PRETTY. It’s EFFECTIVE.
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Accountants have their own cliches. In addition to the standard "professional services" ones like the diverse conference room, lobbies, buildings, and dart boards, instead of gavels they have images of international currency, tax forms, banks/vaults, adding machines/calculators, and others.
The difference is, most accountants still think these work just fine…
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Since our training is now virtual, we're considering showing a room with no people in it. Whaddya think?
Great post, my friend.
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I think that's a good idea, Mike. And it has the added benefit of implying that (1) everyone stops work at 5:00, and/or (2) your people turn over too frequently to use their actual photos.
I'm a former BigLaw accountant interested in the accounting side of practice management (getting my CPA license this summer), and I loved this post. When I graduated law school, legal marketing had so many "taboos." When I see ads with smiling lawyers, I always assume I'm looking at professional models. Anyway, thank you.