Innovative Internal Marketing Ideas Help Gain New Clients

by Suemagazine

I ran across two terrific marketing ideas this week when I was interviewing women lawyers for an article I'm doing for SUE Magazine.

First of all, let me start out by saying that I really blasted away a book in one of our book reviews.  Frankly, we've been just too nice in the past.  (It's that old adage - never burn any bridges).  But I just couldn't take one more book, article, post or speech about the same old same old:  take another attorney to lunch; know your client; attend a seminar, or my very favorite:  work with your marketing department. Uh, well, yeah!  So I gave it a "Don't bother" rating.

I wanted something new.

The Marketing God must have heard me.  She must have been looking down on me that day. Interviewing several firms for an article, I learned about one firm who is launching a new internal website for women lawyers called Zealous Women.  (A clever title as the name of the firm is Zelle Hoffman.)  The website is a great tool to promote visibility for women in the firm - in other words, internal marketing.

Internal marketing within your firm is just as important as marketing yourself to clients.  The more your firm's attorneys know you, the more they assign you better clients, more sophisticated work and primo cases.  Internal marketing can make or break your career.

The Zealous Women website talks about the firm's women lawyers' successes, wins, struggles, new clients and more.  It's an effective way for women in the firm to get known, to reach out to others in the firm and to network, a sometimes difficult task for new associates.  They plan on expanding the website to include women clients, judges and other law related women such as the president of a children's organization who is a former lawyer.

The other excellent tool that a firm told me about was an electronic publication for women in and out of the firm.  The electronic publication (a magazine that flips pages and looks just like a magazine but is on computer) extols the successes of women in the firm.  It also has articles about leadership, marketing, developing a client base, time management and more.  It serves as an excellent marketing tool for clients as well.

As my dad used to tell me, "You just have to use your noggin."  If you are doing the same things that other firms are doing, you will run with the pack.  There will be nothing to distinguish you from the others. What makes a leader is someone who runs ahead of the pack and enjoys the journey.

If you've heard about other creative and innovative marketing ideas, let me know!  In these harsh economic realities, it's all in the packaging......believe me.