Legal marketing in general

Marketing in general

Marketing (noun) - "The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising."

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." - American Marketing Association - What is marketing?

In general, marketing is a link between a society's material or service requirements and its patterns of response. Marketing satisfies these needs and wants through information exchange, distribution and delivery, and building relationships. Marketing is a process of communicating the value of a product or service to end users or customers, and selling, one way or another. Marketing is not limited to for-profit businesses. Non-profit businesses, civic organizations and government units are also involved in marketing to inform, engage and deliver goods or services.

Legal marketing

The proper focus of legal marketing is to establish and maintain a relationship between an individual lawyer and a client. It is not the same as selling soap or hamburgers. The relation between a lawyer and her client is based upon trust and respect. In some instances a client's life or death, or fortune, is in a lawyer's hands.  It's a heavy responsibility.

Typically, a lawyer gains new clients through personal contacts, referrals and word of mouth. Due to the ever increasing number of lawyers over the years, the competition for new clients has intensified. Solo lawyers and small firms suffer competitive disadvantages due to more limited resources and less division of labor. On the other hand, with less bureaucratic overhead and institutional inertia, smaller law offices can more quickly adapt to changing market circumstances.

In either case, reputation and public perception in everything!

Advertising and selling

Paid advertising is one possible tool used in the marketing process. In legal marketing, advertising is regulated through the various states' rules and processes relating to lawyer's professional ethics. Different states have different rules and requirements.

Selling is an ubiquitous part of marketing as its ultimate goal. Selling legal services, as such, is a largely neglected topic, both in the realm of lawyer's professional ethics and also as a subject of practical application.

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Tom Fox

Somerset, Kentucky