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Issue 24

Finding and Choosing Professionals on the Web

By Joe Walsh and Sue Stock Allison

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Issue 23

Conceiving and Raising Brands

By Burkey Belser

Lately—well, in the last 20 years or so—we’ve noticed many of the brands we’ve created go astray. All the money, time and effort spent in creating the brand is forgotten, as the brand grows older. Recently—well, in the last year or so—we’ve determined to take a close look at this drift in order to help our clients sustain their brands.

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Issue 22

Marketing Hope Is Alive and Well:
Top Firm Marketers Reveal Their Plans for the Year Ahead

By Burkey Belser and Sue Stock Allison

We surveyed AmLaw 200 marketers and found that there is a planned uptick in some marketing activities on the horizon for the coming months, including some surprises. Read the full article as it first appeared in the ABA's Law Practice magazine.

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Recent Posts

Finding and Choosing Professionals on the Web

By Joe Walsh and Sue Stock Allison

Posted on 03/24/10 at 3:35 pm

In less than 15 years, the Internet has fundamentally changed the way we do things: The way we shop, stay current, gather information, build relationships and networks, and do business. B2C marketers have reacted dramatically—reallocating budgets to invest in new ways to get found and connect with their buyers online.

B2B service marketers and, especially, professional service marketers, have been slower to adapt their marketing strategies to this new brand world.

Why? Because they do not believe executive-level buyers use the Internet to find or connect with lawyers, accountants and consultants. This erroneous belief can be put to rest based on a new research study of executive-level decisionmakers.

Research that calls for new interactive strategies
A newly completed survey by professional services branding leader Greenfield/Belser and its sister organization, The Brand Research Company, puts a spotlight on how, where and what executives search for online as they consider professionals and firms to advise them.

The findings are drawn from an online survey of executive-level buyers of accounting, consulting and legal services across the U.S. The study is called Finding and Choosing Professional Service Providers on the Web. The survey findings constitute a clarion call for offline marketing efforts to be integrated with online strategies.

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Healthier Communications

By Joe Walsh

Posted on at 9:15 am

Whether you like the landmark U.S. health care bill or feel otherwise about the legislation (and politics behind it), BBC’s online reporting of the news does a fine job of using information graphics to frame and explain the problem. Follow this link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8580192.stm; and have a look at the series of three illustrations at the bottom of the article. The BBC has chosen to deliver substantive information graphically—a lesson for B2B marketers who strive to reach busy executive decisionmakers. Too often, these communication efforts are presented simply as endless narrative—in print, online, in face-to-face PowerPoint and in pitchbooks. A mistake, we believe.

We’ve long advocated a USA Today scanning-reader style—now emulated by all media outlets—where charts, tables and graphs are combined with photos, illustrations and words to deliver key messages. Why? Because we have no more readers, only scanners. Honoring this fact is both respectful and courteous. And when it comes to the web, this approach is also healthier since eyes tire reading buckets of text online. You can learn more about our perspective by listening to our webinar, Designing the Interactive Experience, on YouTube.

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Just released! Digital Marketing 2010

By Burkey Belser, Gayatri Bhalla and Joe Walsh

Posted on 03/22/10 at 4:28 pm

Download your copy of Digital Marketing 2010, our latest research on Finding and Choosing Professionals on the Web.

Webinar series
Earlier this month, Greenfield/Belser (and The Brand Research Company) completed a three-part webinar series on digital marketing. View the seminars on YouTube from your own desktop:

Finding and Choosing Professionals
Designing the Interactive Experience
Pioneering the Digital Relationship

Select “Play All Videos” to play each video in the playlist in succession.

Contact us
Have a question? You can contact us a variety of ways:

Call us at 202.775.0333 to request a tailored seminar on digital marketing for your organization.

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Three Questions That Will Change Your Business in 2010

By Burkey Belser

Posted on 03/16/10 at 3:42 pm

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to visit Charlotte, NC (thanks to my friend, Bob Silvy) to join the publisher’s retreat of the American City Business Journals. (That’s right. Your local business journal. There are 53 nationwide.) Three of us took the podium representing banking, real estate and legal, three of the leading sources of ad revenue for the weekly journals. I was legal. And we were all asked, basically, “What’s happening out there? What should we expect to come?”

Interesting questions. From a marketing point of view, the Great Recession simply yanked marketers out of the ground like mandrakes (a term from Harry Potter). For a long moment, management just flailed around, screaming, “biz dev! biz dev!” Everything comfortable and familiar about marketing and marketing channels was dislodged. But in this past year, I believe something truly magical has happened. Forced from our familiar patterns, hanging there in the air, we began to look around and recognize that perhaps we could and should do things differently. These are the questions that I turned around and put back to the publishers at the business journals:

1. How are you relevant? In a 24/7 world, what is the role of a weekly paper? You’re not a weekly paper? Big deal: How are you relevant?

2. What business are you really in? Publishing? Well, technically. But what the business journals do better than any other local business medium is to be the center of the business conversation around the movement of money. Business moves where money moves. Thus, perhaps their new goal should be to be recognized and valued for facilitating that conversation. How are you facilitating the conversation?

3. How can you leverage that across a network of 53 papers? Answer two and three and there’s a new business model for the American City Business Journals.

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LMA “Your Honor Award” Winners Announced

By Burkey Belser, Gayatri Bhalla and Joe Walsh

Posted on 03/11/10 at 4:01 pm

This just in! We extend congratulations to the following clients for being named “Your Honor Award” winners by the Legal Marketing Association:

  • Choate Hall & Stewart LLP (Events, 3rd place)
  • Gesmer Updegrove LLP (Website, 1st place: View video of the announcement here.)
  • Hemenway & Barnes LLP (Identity, Honorable Mention; Firm-wide, office or practice group brochure, 2nd place)
  • Lewis and Roca LLP (Advertising, 3rd place)
  • Nixon Peabody LLP (Practice development, 2nd place)
  • Steptoe & Johnson PLLC (Announcement, 3rd place)

Last year, nine of our clients were awarded the following distinctions:

  • Choate Hall & Stewart LLP (Events, 2nd place)
  • Clifford Chance LLP (Recruiting, 2nd place)
  • Faegre & Benson LLP (Website, 3rd place)
  • McMillan LLP (Identity, 3rd place; Events, 1st place; Advertising, 1st place)
  • Nixon Peabody LLP (Market research, 3rd place)
  • Practising Law Institute (Identity, 2nd place)
  • Poyner Spruill LLP (Firm-wide, office or practice group brochure, Honorable Mention)
  • Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox PLLC (Website, 2nd place)
  • WeirFoulds LLP (Website, 1st place; Announcement, 1st place)

Congrats to all our award-winning clients. To learn more about our work, click here.

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Third Webinar (Part 3 of 3): Posted on YouTube!

By Gayatri Bhalla

Posted on 03/08/10 at 2:02 pm

Our latest webinar, “Pioneering the Digital Relationship,” is now available in segments on YouTube.

On March 3, Gayatri Bhalla presented this third and final webinar of our three-part series on digital marketing. She discussed how a digital strategy—using tactics such as search marketing and social networking—can amplify your brand message and reach the right prospects and clients at the right time. More specifically, attendees learned how SEO, SEM and social media would play a role in their firm’s future.

Be on the lookout for Digital Marketing 2010, which will be sent to registrants of our webinar series.

Connect with us and others that participated in this webinar:

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Nixon Peabody Finalist in LMA “Your Honor Awards”

By Sue Stock Allison

Posted on at 12:06 pm

Last year Nixon Peabody was a finalist in the LMA “Your Honor Awards” (YHAs) for their Image and Awareness Survey that provided tremendous strategic guidance for the firm’s marketing and business development efforts. This year Nixon Peabody submitted its Client Loyalty Program, which has provided demonstrable ROI in support of the firm’s tactical client value efforts—it, too, has been selected as a finalist.

“Our lead attorney said…the client told her “at least three times he was thrilled to have participated and have had the opportunity to provide feedback.” - Nixon Peabody

“I sincerely appreciate that Nixon makes this effort and does it through a professional. I think it’s very important, and I applaud them for doing it.” - Nixon Peabody client

“I view this interview as a very valuable sign that they want the work and I greatly appreciate that.” - Nixon Peabody client

Clearly Nixon Peabody’s research efforts, led by Mark T. Greene, Ph.D., the firm’s CMO, are providing significant value for the firm and its clients.

Stay tuned…

Nixon Peabody will receive the firm’s YHA award this week at the LMA’s annual conference in Denver. Congratulations to Mark Greene, Melissa Croteau and the entire Nixon Peabody marketing team!

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Bodman LLP Wins LMA Midwest Your Honor Awards

By Scott Bourdeau

Posted on 03/04/10 at 12:44 pm

Congratulations to our client Bodman LLP for winning two first-place awards at the annual Legal Marketing Association Midwest chapter awards banquet in Chicago last week. The firm’s new website and the 2009 biennial review took top honors in their categories.

The Midwest chapter includes 300 firms in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa. Bodman held the distinction of being the only Michigan firm among the 2010 award winners.

The judges called the biennial review “a piece with stunning graphics that demonstrates high-tech speed and innovation. The piece makes you want to look at it and play with it…[it is] fun, innovative and memorable.” The judges also praised the shared look and feel of the biennial review and website and called the site “attractive and easy to navigate.”

Way to go, Bodman!

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Next Webinar (Part 3 of 3): Pioneering the Digital Relationship

By Burkey Belser and Gayatri Bhalla

Posted on 03/01/10 at 5:25 pm

Join Burkey Belser and Gayatri Bhalla for the final webinar of our three-part series:

Pioneering the Digital Relationship
Wednesday, March 3; 2:00–3:00 PM EST

During “Pioneering the Digital Relationship,” we’ll discuss how a digital strategy—using tactics such as search marketing and social networking—can amplify your brand message and reach the right prospects and clients at the right time.

You will learn:

  • How SEO, SEM and social media will play a role in your firm’s future
  • And more.

Register Now!
Reserve your webinar seat at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/645706218

Connect with others participating in this webinar:

  • RSVP and post questions on Facebook
  • Post questions and follow the webinar on Twitter.
  • Use/follow the hashtag #GBLTD

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