Legal Marketers: Your Role in Developing New Services

Legal marketers are indispensable for creating new services within their firms. With a strategic approach, they ensure new offerings meet market demands and the firm’s goals. Using a structured process helps get everyone on board and make informed decisions based on thorough analysis, rather than gut feelings.

The Credibility Challenge

Legal marketing professionals often face the task of proving their credibility within their firms. It's vital for them to show their strategic thinking and take ownership of the marketing domain. By following some structured steps, marketers can showcase their expertise and influence in driving the firm's success.

Why a Strategic Process Matters

Thinking through the process of creating new services helps us make smart, strategic decisions backed by data. It gives us a structured way to be innovative while also minimizing risks and increasing our chances of success. Let's take a careful look at the important factors legal marketers should consider when they're just starting to develop a new service.

Critical Criteria for Evaluating New Services

Market Demand

Understanding market demand is crucial because it ensures that the new service meets actual client needs and fills a gap in the market. To achieve this, conducting comprehensive market research is essential. This includes surveys, client feedback and competitive analysis. It is key to prioritize services with strong evidence of demand and potential for growth.

Alignment with Firm Goals

It's necessary to ensure new services support the firm's strategic objectives and long-term vision. To do this, evaluate how the proposed service aligns with the firm's mission, values and business goals. Make sure that it complements existing services and enhances the firm's market position.

Resource Availability

Resource availability is a foundational factor for successfully developing and implementing new services. Assess the financial, human and technological resources required and plan resource allocation to avoid overextension. Allocating adequate resources is key to ensuring the success of new initiatives.

Competitive Landscape

Understanding the competitive landscape is essential for effectively positioning a new service and identifying opportunities for differentiation. To implement this concept, it is necessary to conduct a thorough analysis of competitors offering similar services. It is also crucial to identify the unique selling points (USPs) that set your service apart and address any shortcomings in your competitors' offerings.

Client Feedback

Client feedback is incredibly important, as it provides direct insights into the needs and expectations of our clients. To gather this feedback, we should engage with key clients through interviews, surveys and focus groups. By utilizing their input, we can refine our service offerings to ensure that they meet and exceed client expectations.

Risk Assessment

Assessing risks enables us to identify potential issues early on, allowing us to be proactive in developing strategies to mitigate them. To apply this, we should conduct a comprehensive risk assessment that considers market, operational and financial risks. It's important to develop contingency plans to address any potential challenges that may arise.

The Numbers Game

Ensuring a service's financial viability is vital for its long-term sustainability. To achieve this, analyze the projected costs, revenues and profitability, and ensure that the new service contributes positively to the firm’s financial health.

Implementation Feasibility

When prioritizing these criteria, consider the following approach:

1. Give the highest priority to market demand and client feedback, as these directly impact the service’s relevance and acceptance, therefore maintaining a client-centric focus.
2. Ensure alignment with firm goals and competitive landscape analysis to support the firm’s long-term strategy, thus emphasizing strategic alignment.
3. Assess resource availability, financial viability and implementation feasibility to ensure practical execution, taking into account resource and financial considerations.
4. Incorporate risk assessment throughout the process to anticipate and mitigate potential challenges, therefore addressing risk management.

Advanced Evaluation Techniques

As you continue with the project, you should think about implementing advanced evaluation techniques. These could include conducting a SWOT analysis to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the new service. Additionally, you may want to consider launching small-scale pilot programs to gather real-world feedback and make any necessary adjustments before a full-scale launch. Another important aspect to consider is utilizing data analytics to continuously monitor service performance and client satisfaction.

Embrace Your Role

Legal marketers play a crucial role in driving the development of new services within their firms. Your strategic approach and expertise are essential in ensuring that the firm's offerings meet market demands and support its long-term vision. What’s more, your ability to secure buy-in from key stakeholders can greatly influence the successful implementation of new initiatives.

Learn More About Marketing Management and Leadership with the Third Edition of the LMA Body of Knowledge The content in this feature correlates with the Marketing Management and Leadership domain in the LMA Body of Knowledge (BoK). Dive deeper and access the latest edition of the BoK online. The Third Edition of the LMA BoK showcases enhanced expertise across every domain, introduces new competencies in Client Services, Communications and Technology Management, features more advanced skills across all domains and broadens coverage of competitive and business intelligence skills. Plus, it emphasizes a stronger commitment to nurturing diversity, equity, and inclusion across the entirety of the BoK. Learn more.