Business development at law firms is branding 2.0

An interesting trend in legal marketing has sprung up recently. From conversations on the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) listservs to articles referenced on Twitter, commentary on blogs and invites for presentations and webinars, legal marketers are talking about spending less money on traditional brand awareness marketing and investing more time and money into business development and attorney coaching.

Of course, it’s not at all surprising that law firms would ramp up their business development efforts. After more than a decade of consistent growth, profits plunged in 2008 and layoffs and pay cuts followed close behind. Once the work stopped falling into their laps, a realization set in: attorneys don’t know how to market. They need to be taught business development skills – and fast – in order to hold on to existing clients and meet prospects. But something more is going on beyond the commitment to generating new business. What we’re seeing is not simply a change of focus from traditional brand awareness marketing to business development, but a rise in an entirely new kind of branding for law firms.

In the past, law firms and the companies they represent marketed their brand through print, radio and television advertising, direct mail and email campaigns. Now, Tivo, iPods, RSS feeds, spam filters and recycling bins are making it even easier for people to ignore these intrusions. Web 2.0 and social networking have ushered in a new kind of branding, one that is participatory, conversational and reciprocal.

Read the entire article at LawMarketing.com