Legal PR experts warn solicitors need to wake up to outside threat
Too many law firms are still stuck in the past, still marketing the same way they did a generation ago warns one of the UK’s leading legal Public Relations experts.
Nolan PR has said news that unregulated sellers of legal services are establishing themselves at the top of Google and other internet searches should be a warning to regional leading law firms.
The comments come after research carried out by the Legal Services Board showed many solicitor firms were excluded from the first page of Google in response to basic legal searches such as ‘legal help for divorce’ or ‘where to go for legal advice on a will.’
“These kind of searches often brings up results for unregulated organisations, which are running rings around many law firms,” warned Mike Nolan, Director of Nolan PR, which handles Public Relations and marketing contracts for many law firms throughout England.
The research estimated that the unregulated sector accounts for up to 30% of total sector turnover.
“As a public relations and marketing firm that predominantly works with law practices we can hardly say that the results are surprising,” said Mr Nolan.
“Many law firms are still playing catch up with many of the new players who entered the market after the advent of so called Tesco law,” he added.
He said the lack of marketing savvy was endemic with many traditional high street firms.
“We’ve had countless conversations with some very decent sized firms who still adopt a very 1980s attitude to their marketing,” he said. “A failure to embrace the different ways people shop for legal services now is behind many problems the high street lawyer faces.
“Web searches and social media recommendations are now major avenues for business and to prosper traditional firms have to polish up their act, which means investing in marketing in the way the unregulated new players are,” he added.
“The future remains bright for the practices willing to adapt. We hope this LSB report will make many more sit up and take action.”
PIC: Mike Nolan, Director of Nolan PR
Press Enquiries: Tel 01564 822861 / 07505 133302
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