4 Questions to Ask Before Outsourcing Your Legal Marketing
Saturday, December 6, 2014

Let me begin by acknowledging that I have a big dog in the outsourcing fight, since legal marketing for law firms (primarily small firms and solos) is what I do.  But I don’t believe that outsourcing is an all or nothing proposition.  There are some things you should hand off, and others you should not.

Outsourcing, In House Arrows

A couple of the things you should never outsource include giving seminars or speeches to promote your firm and building meaningful relationships with your referral sources and clients.

Many attorneys struggle with whether or not they should outsource their legal marketing.  Only you can make that decision, but here are four questions you should consider while you are pondering the question:

Is this something I love doing?  If you love to write — and are good at it — then authoring your own newsletters, blog posts or other content is probably something you could do for yourself.  If you hate it, then you should outsource it — but only to a provider who knows your area of the law and with your supervision.

Is this something that only I can do?  Obviously you are not the only person who can do legal marketing, but you need to weigh your own expertise against the expertise you can access from another source.  Most attorneys want to focus on what they do best:  practice the law.

If I don’t outsource, am I sacrificing quality?  Legal marketing done poorly is worse than not doing it at all.  It’s a bad reflection on you and your firm, and doesn’t bring you new business or help you forge new relationships, which is the primary purpose.  If you keep your marketing in-house, be sure you can deliver on the quality you would expect from an experienced, professional source.

Will doing things myself take away from work I should be doing?  You probably didn’t go to law school to practice legal marketing, and it can consume a lot of your time if you decide to take the DIY approach.  Just be sure that by doing your own legal marketing you are not sacrificing quality when it comes to serving your clients and doing what you should be doing to grow your firm.

If you do decide to outsource some or all of your legal marketing, here are some important things you should look for in a provider:

  • They have experience working with attorneys;

  • They have a written blueprint for how they intend to generate leads for your law firm;

  • They charge a flat fee that’s reasonable based on results;

  • They have clearly identified strategies to track and measure actual results.

Bar rules state that an attorney is “responsible” for whatever is communicated on their behalf–whether it’s online or offline.

Just as no bar requires only attorneys to answer their phone, likewise no bar requires only attorneys to blog or post to their online social media platforms. This becomes a training issue. Whoever is communicating on your behalf, whether it’s on Facebook, your blog or over the phone, must be trained how to do so in a professional and ethical manner.

The bar does hold you responsible for the communication that’s done on your behalf and that’s why it’s so important to be very careful whom you outsource or delegate those tasks to. You want to be sure they have extensive experience working with law firms and they are very familiar with what you can and cannot say to a prospect. I get very nervous when attorneys tell me they “saved a lot of money” by hiring a part-time intern to manage their social media or other marketing tasks instead of paying more to hire a pro with extensive experience in the legal industry.

 

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