The first thing I must take for granted in this exhibition is that I have no advanced studies in legal marketing, far from it. What I want to say is that what I am going to present is my own experience in the matter, and as I have empirically learned, in my modest understanding, what can be useful and what is not useful in this matter, and how to combine knowledge and legal studies with a discipline such as marketing, which until 2006 was completely unknown to me.
As a parenthesis I must confess that when I was asked to present on the subject, I began to investigate "seriously" on this matter, in order to be prepared and to be able to explain with some knowledge of the cause. Thus, I read many authors on the subject in various books and articles, and I come back to the conclusion that there is no better teaching than experience, and you learn very well from your mistakes because failures translate into useless expenses, and consider Sitting that there is no better lesson learned than when the mistake touches your pocket. In addition to the fact that what the doctrine establishes in a certain region or country does not necessarily apply in another, since many factors such as custom, idiosyncrasy, laws, and many other circumstances must be taken into account.
I close parentheses.
I once read somewhere a very simple phrase, but it is a great truth and I think my friend, colleague and countrywoman Magaly García could not have been more accurate when she launched it (I think it was in an article or an interview that she did an important Peruvian newspaper). The phrase is the following: "The best marketing is your own work". (I am not sure that the quote is textual because my memory does not help me, but that is the idea). And indeed, according to my modest understanding, it is the first and main rule of legal marketing: your work. It is worth saying that you know the subject (for something you call yourself a specialist), that you answer clients' queries and requirements quickly and efficiently, seriousness (by seriousness I mean, for example, never issuing an invoice to the client for a service that does not has been previously communicated and approved by it),Proportionality in professional fees (competitive rates, not to exceed or above, but not much below), honesty (advise the client on the shortest and least onerous way that leads them to solve their problems, and not the opposite); etc. It is clearly evident that Magaly and my good friend Jorge, from the Peruvian studio Allende & García, are applying this principle very well, otherwise their firm would not have grown what has grown in such a short time (with a few years of foundation the firm is top 10 in specialized studies in Intellectual Property in Peru). Congratulations friends!honesty (advising the client on the shortest and least burdensome way that leads them to solve their problems, and not the opposite); etc. It is clearly evident that Magaly and my good friend Jorge, from the Peruvian studio Allende & García, are applying this principle very well, otherwise their firm would not have grown what has grown in such a short time (with a few years of foundation the firm is top 10 in specialized studies in Intellectual Property in Peru). Congratulations friends!honesty (advising the client on the shortest and least burdensome way that leads them to solve their problems, and not the opposite); etc. It is clearly evident that Magaly and my good friend Jorge, from the Peruvian studio Allende & García, are applying this principle very well, otherwise their firm would not have grown what has grown in such a short time (with a few years of foundation the firm is top 10 in specialized studies in Intellectual Property in Peru). Congratulations friends!otherwise your firm would not have grown what has grown in such a short time (with a few years of foundation the firm is top 10 in specialized studies in Intellectual Property in Peru). Congratulations friends!otherwise your firm would not have grown what has grown in such a short time (with a few years of foundation the firm is top 10 in specialized studies in Intellectual Property in Peru). Congratulations friends!
Now, although it is the first and fundamental law of legal marketing, work itself is not the only principle that we must take into account in order for our practice to grow and prosper, if this is the case, we would have to end this spiel, and not we are not even close. But while it is not the only rule, it is so important that it would be useless to strictly apply the rest of the rules and principles if we do not apply this fundamental principle with relative success. And the same thing works in reverse: you could only apply this rule without knowing or using any other principle, and you will reach the top with certainty: Do your job well and this fact will reverberate so much that it will be like an overwhelming snowball that the more turns round to the bottom and turns into a bigger ball,to become an avalanche of snow that does not at all or anyone.
That said, we will go on to try to elucidate other aspects and principles to follow in legal marketing.
I usually attend conferences of my legal specialty around the world, and once I was invited to speak on a certain topic: standing in front of my colleagues (most of whom are friends or acquaintances in practice), I felt strange in the conference room, as everything was new to me, and I must confess that although I travel a lot to various IP conferences, I never usually go to the colleagues' exhibitions (which does not mean that I am not interested in the academic aspect, much less, nothing is further from reality), but perhaps I give a lot of importance to networking, and I am ashamed to admit that while the conferences are taking place, they will see me sitting in the nearby classrooms in "tête a tête" meetings with colleagues trying topics of mutual interest to our firms,or paying bills for the excellent work that colleagues from different countries have provided to my clients, or what is better, receiving payment for an account crossing that was, happily and finally, in my favor. By this I mean that networking is an especially powerful tool in legal marketing, unlike a legal article that you can write and publish in an important magazine, or a radio or television interview that you are lucky enough to do on TV programs. great audience and rating, in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger and stronger with the passing of the years.or what is better, receiving payment for a cross account that turned out, happily and finally, in my favor. By this I mean that networking is an especially powerful tool in legal marketing, unlike a legal article that you can write and publish in an important magazine, or a radio or television interview that you are lucky enough to do on TV programs. great audience and rating, in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger and stronger with the passing of the years.or what is better, receiving payment for a cross account that turned out, happily and finally, in my favor. By this I mean that networking is an especially powerful tool in legal marketing, unlike a legal article that you can write and publish in an important magazine, or a radio or television interview that you are lucky enough to do on television programs. great audience and rating, in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger and stronger with the passing of the years.By this I mean that networking is an especially powerful tool in legal marketing, unlike a legal article that you can write and publish in an important magazine, or a radio or television interview that you are lucky enough to do on TV programs. great audience and rating, in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger and stronger with the passing of the years.By this I mean that networking is an especially powerful tool in legal marketing, unlike a legal article that you can write and publish in an important magazine, or a radio or television interview that you are lucky enough to do on TV programs. great audience and rating, in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger and stronger with the passing of the years.in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger with the passing of the years.in a conference you deal directly with the person, you know him as he is and in various situations, whether formal or informal, you live with your partner and a connection arises between the two, a link that becomes stronger with the passing of the years.
However, I hope that what I have just pointed out is not misinterpreted: I do not mean that writing specialized articles, or appearing on radio or television is far from bad, but rather that it is different (although a very powerful tool as well, it is a way of exposing yourself massively, and that thousands or millions of people see you, since in a conference there will always be a limited and reduced number of attendees).
In my case, I had to open my firm in October 2005, after almost 18 years of experience working in the field of intellectual property, but without having to worry about these “marketing” aspects, since it is not a matter for the junior lawyer to worry about. from a law firm. I opened my studio with a single client, a close friend with the nickname “el chino”, who hired me more for doing me a favor than out of necessity, and whose orders were obviously minuscule. I rented a small office of 40 or 50 square meters in the Miraflores district, in the province of Lima, where I learned various extra-legal functions (since I myself was the function of telephone operator-receptionist, sheet holder, assistant, filing cabinet, sweeper, etc etc.,etc… (My tone of voice used to drastically change to soprano when I received one of the few calls a day… "WTO Lawyers & Consultants, good morning…"). It is worth saying that there were no customers, but they did feel like working and doing things well. The next thing was how to fill the 8 hours of workday, without clients and yes some unemployed friends (due to lack of need and who are wearing their nicknames of Attila) who worried one to go to the beach, or to the Casino, or go anywhere but the office, of course. My answer was the same categorical answer as always: "I CAN'T, I'm working", which provoked ridicule from my friends: Working? But if they don't have a paltry client, or "working or warming up the chair." But there I was,ignoring the unfortunate comments and complying with my 8-hour workday (work hours, 9am to 1pm, 1pm to 2pm refreshment, and 2pm to 6pm). And what I did back then (year 2005), something that could no longer be done today because it would be considered SPAM, was to enter the largest number of search engines (there are hundreds of thousands around the world), and enter the data of the newly formed firm, with a website, contact information, etc. Obviously entered the free search engines, as there are also those that charge to enter your data. And it is so that the constancy in the entry of these data (8 hours a day for many months) made the name of the firm was positioning itself in GOOGLE, until it became top 5 in positioning, just entering in English “law firm in Peru",in French "avocats au Pérou", or in Spanish "lawyers in Peru", so that our name would appear on the first page. And with this, visits to the website multiplied by one hundred percent, and the first clients began to appear, mainly from ASIA.
So, summing up so far we have that tools in legal marketing are work well done, networking, publication of books and legal articles, appearance on radio or television, positioning of the website in search engines (especially Google).
In relation to radio and television interviews, this is a topic that will not depend on ourselves, as it is not something that is hired but rather we must wait for an invitation from this media outlet, which can sometimes never come. But, although it may seem like a contradiction, the better you use the aforementioned marketing tools, the more chances you have of being a regular guest of these media.
In 2006 there was a media problem with one of our typical dances in Peru, the marinera, and that involved our neighbor to the south: Chile. As you will understand, the rivalry is such that whenever a problem arises, however small it may be, but that involves our neighboring country, the issue reaches disproportionate levels of audience, and this is obviously taken advantage of by radio and television networks. What the news was saying was that a Chilean citizen (who eventually turned out to be a Peruvian citizen) had applied to his name for the registration of the “MARINERA” mark in Chile in class 41, and that apparently he would be granted that right.
The day after the news broke, I received several phone calls, emails and contacts through my website from the main media in Lima, inviting me to interviews in the morning, evening, Sunday newscasts, as well as recorded radio interviews.. Obviously I accepted each and every one of the invitations, but intrigued why it was that overnight, I had so many invitations from different media at the same time. Obviously, the first was the situation of the "problem" with the southern country, the second, that it was a matter of my legal specialty; which is fine, but like me there are many colleagues with equal or greater experience and knowledge on the subject.But it was not necessary to be Einstein to realize that the mass contacts arose through the internet: investigators of television channels resorted to the first and main tool to investigate a fact: GOOGLEAR (neologism with good chances of being included by the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language). And the result that the machine threw at them was my name or the name of my signature everywhere, obviously with the contact details available.
The topic was no more than an anecdote, but it served as an excellent showcase to expose myself in different media, and explain in pedagogical terms what the topic was about: In a live interview we contacted the applicant, who alleged the fact that the request had been submitted in good faith to defend the interests of the Peruvian State in Chile, which is hardly credible, by the way.
During the interview the following dialogue emerged:
Me: Good morning madam. I note from the questions asked by Mr. Higuazaki that you allege that, as a Peruvian, what you have done is apply for the MARINERA mark to preserve the rights of the Peruvian State in Chile, but that you will later transfer the expected rights of the mark to a Peruvian State institution, such as the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CULTURE: the question that arises is the following: will this transfer be free or onerous?
Applicant: Well… uh uh… how do I tell you…
Me: The question is simple: Do you expect a payment from the Peruvian State for the transfer of the brand?
Applicant: No.
Me: Good, in that case we can proceed with the procedures right now. It turns out that due to these coincidences in life, our firm has as attorneys in the Peruvian government, who are also good friends of ours, so I will call you right now to be contacted to sign the corresponding documentation.
Applicant: No, you cannot because I travel to Lima early tomorrow.
Me: Better yet, we are waiting for you here and we do it through my signature, which without having been formally hired by the Peruvian State, I am sure that the government in office will not oppose this initiative.
Applicant:
The Peruvian citizen had abruptly cut off communication.
The next day we received a call from the representative of one of the largest plastics and balls companies in Peru, with whom I had the opportunity to work on some issues in the past in the other office, but since I stopped working there I lost him the trail. The first thing he told me was that he saw me on television, that I was quite well, and then that he was pleased that I had chosen to become independent in private practice, so he wanted to meet with me to discuss topics of mutual interest. The topics of mutual interest turned out to be the hiring of our services, which has been happening until today.
The creation of the corporate brand: logo and brochure, in addition to a friendly website, is an important aspect to consider. The logo is rather an aspect that goes through aesthetics and good taste more than some other objective element, but it is important because it is the showcase and entrance door of the firm, so a simple and original design is recommended, something that differentiates them from the competition and that identifies them as a brand. The brochure and the website should contain as much information as possible, but which is relevant and may be of interest to the potential client. For this we must put ourselves in the shoes of the client to understand their main need, and from there start building the website and the brochure and upload the relevant information but that is not excessive or boring as irrelevant.Hiring a good designer who quickly understands what is being asked is essential to build a good IT team at the firm.
There are a number of marketing strategies that are innovative in our Latin American countries, but have been successfully applied for years in some developed countries such as the United States. This indicates that the recipe that can be a success in a certain region does not necessarily have to be in another.
In 2008, returning from a conference in the United States and after admiring the way law firms promoted themselves with posters on public roads, as if they were selling a product and not a legal service (both of a nature completely different), I decided to “innovate” and do what I had seen outside, here. I had no idea how expensive it was to put up signs on public roads, so I only opted to place two signs for 4 months, one close to the Lima Public Records Office, and the other on an avenue that leads to the Trademark Office (INDECOPI). The poster, with a green background (corporate color of the firm), in addition to the name of the studio and the logo contained the following motto: “Your problems do have a solution; their ideas do have protection ”.
There was no other law firm in Lima that would be promoted in that way, so it was definitely innovative, but the result was disastrous: a significant investment had been made in an advertisement that, in our environment, no potential client would take seriously, so obviously the result was total loss and the experience that, in legal marketing as in many other things in life, what results in one society should not necessarily result in another.
Another topic that seemed innovative to us, already in 2011, was the idea of exhibiting at business fairs, where the firm would have a stand, some models to distribute information to visitors, and a large amount of printed material, gifts, candies and chocolates with the signature logo. The issue is that information came to my hand about a business event where the main companies in the country would be present, and since one point that we had always wanted to overcome at the firm was to increase the national portfolio (at that time the proportion among foreign clients and nations it was around 95% for foreign customers versus 5% for national customers), a fact that we wanted to start reversing, especially due to the economic situation in Peru of sustained growth.We were sure that such an idea was really innovative in Peru for a business fair and we would not find any competition at the event, so we started working on the erection of the stand, printed material, information and various gifts. On the opening day, we were very surprised to see another law firm, Clarke & Modet Peru, among the exhibitors, led by my good friend Claudia Fernandini, with a stand much larger and more impressive than ours, which He taught that innovative ideas for exposing legal services are increasingly present in the minds of lawyers. That day we congratulated Claudia for the initiative.printed material, information and various gifts. On the opening day, we were very surprised to see another law firm, Clarke & Modet Peru, among the exhibitors, led by my good friend Claudia Fernandini, with a stand much larger and more impressive than ours, which He taught that innovative ideas for exposing legal services are increasingly present in the minds of lawyers. That day we congratulated Claudia for the initiative.printed material, information and various gifts. On the opening day, we were greatly surprised to see another law firm, Clarke & Modet Peru, among the exhibitors, led by my good friend Claudia Fernandini, with a stand much larger and more impressive than ours, which He taught that innovative ideas for exposing legal services are increasingly present in the minds of lawyers. That day we congratulated Claudia for the initiative.what taught us that innovative ideas to expose legal services is more and more present in the minds of lawyers. That day we congratulated Claudia for the initiative.what taught us that innovative ideas to expose legal services is more and more present in the minds of lawyers. That day we congratulated Claudia for the initiative.
A tool that we consider very harmful and pernicious for those who apply it is the sending of unsolicited mass mailings, which is known as SPAM. Although we must recognize that in the beginning we used this alternative, and that is how we got the first clients, we believe that currently this practice is widely used and completely discredited, which means that whoever receives unsolicited email will have an attitude of rejection rather than acceptance towards said message, since the majority of consumers will have a negative predisposition not only towards the mail itself but towards the company that sends it.
Different is the case of sending individualized cover letters, which although it is a practice that we did not use many years ago, is not so frowned upon and it often happens that the data is saved for when they are required. Our firm receives hundreds of letters of introduction from firms around the world per month, and in principle they are all answered, thanked and then filed in a database for an eventuality in the future, although we must admit that until now we have not hired the services of any company that contacted us like this, this does not mean that in the future it will not happen.
In relation to social networks, Twitter, Facebook and LindedIn, among others, we do see a lot of potential, especially in the latter, and from experience we can say that we have started working with good firms that, after a long time of interaction, we We realized that the beginning of the contact was through LinkedIn.
Belonging to specialty associations is very important, but it is also important to belong to groups of lawyers that make up a network, which exists in all shapes and sizes, such as Lex Mundi, MSI Global Alliance, among many others. In our case we are part of a few, but the one that excites us the most and to which we dedicate our greatest energies is one formed by a group of Latin American lawyers and friends named IP Latino, made up of one firm per country and through which we sell ourselves as an offer of global legal services from Latin America to the world. Although the topic is still an idea that is gradually taking shape, we hope that soon we can be talking about a reality.
Through associations, one enters specialty directories, travels to congresses and increasingly expands their universe of contacts.
In 2009, an association that brings together IP lawyers in Latin America held its annual congress in the city of Lima. A custom that was becoming widespread was that the host law firms made a welcome cocktail to all our foreign colleagues, and this is how we received a call from one of our Peruvian colleagues who organized this event to propose to enter as hosts of this agape, like 15 or 20 other firms. We thought that being one more was not our thing, so we appreciated the kindness of the proposal but we did not accept it, because in our plans it was to exclusively organize a welcome cocktail at the hotel hosting the event, the same day but at different times (The cockail of the Peruvian firms was on Saturday from 9.30 pm to 12 pm),and ours was the same day from 6.30 pm to 9.30 pm).
On the day of the event, typical Peruvian drinks and food were offered, typical dances from the Costa, Sierra and Selva, and as a gift, at the end of the event, a leather card holder with a fabric with Peruvian motifs, and a copy of a prestigious magazine English specialty, where a 3-page article written by me had appeared.
Many years later, in Buenos Aires, he had lunch with an Argentine colleague, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that when he took out his card holder to pay the bill, this was the same one that had been given to him at our 2009 event: We both laughed wanting.
As a conclusion we can say that Legal Marketing is a discipline that strategically helps law firms to attract more and better clients and retain them, and that among its tools there are, among many others, those that we have been highlighting throughout this exhibition.
The marketing strategy will completely differ in the case of a small, medium or large office, but what is certain is that no matter the size of the law firm, you will always need to use marketing as a tool if you do not want disappear in the future and be devoured by competition.
