Advertising

We asked advertising guru Norm Muse how he turned Marlboro from a woman’s cigarette into the world’s leading cigarette brand and he responded, “A great ad campaign.”

Effective advertising tells a compelling story. It draws in the readers with drama or emotion, curiosity or humor, and makes them feel that your firm understands them and can be trusted. It leaps off the page with vivid words and pictures, and is immediately noticed and remembered.

Done well, advertising can be one of a law firm’s most potent weapons, distilling the essence of a vibrant multifaceted organization into a single image and a few words. It can make you famous, drive traffic to a website, or motivate a call. If it truly stands out, it can intrigue readers and compel them to seek more information about that firm. At Fishman Marketing, that’s what we’re known for, advertising and branding that puts professional-services firms on the map.  We help make good firms great, and turn great firms into market leaders.

Branding

Joe Flom, Skadden’s brilliant and strategic managing partner, called Virgin Group’s Sir Richard Branson his all-time “personal hero” because “From Branson I learned the value of a brand.”

Flom’s development and strategic execution of the powerful Skadden brand helped separate the firm from its high-powered competitors. Done well, branding works. A strong brand is arguably a marketer’s most potent weapon.  More than an attractive logo or clever tag line, an effective brand enables some firms to charge much higher hourly rates than equally skilled firms down the street because clients perceive they’re getting more value for every hour worked.

We’re pretty confident that Fishman Marketing has helped more middle-market law firms become market leaders than any branding company in the world.

If you want to raise your rates, or get better cases or deals, your firm’s reputation and market position must merit it.  That’s not a function of your technical skills; it’s about your reputation, i.e. your brand.  A brand is simply the market’s perception, and perception is created by marketing.

Fishman Marketing has helped build brands for over 200 law firms and practices worldwide, generating countless millions of dollars in additional revenue. We’ve done so in as many ways as we’ve had clients, emphasizing their unique culture or style, or leveraging their history or practice.  We’ve helped them dominate industries or geographic regions, or showcased their client service or quality of life.

Law and professional-services firms come to us seeking additional revenue or profitability, or to attract the top laterals or law students.  Some want to burnish their reputation before seeking a merger candidate, or lock in their market position as the go-to firm for a certain subspecialty practice. Most frequently, the firms just want to figure out who they are or what their marketing message is, before updating or overhauling their website.  They feel like they have something to say, they just don’t know how to say it, or need more strategic images to make it meaningful.

That’s where Fishman Marketing comes in.  Our skilled team will help identify the message and create a powerful design to convey that persuasively to the marketplace. Our brands often become our clients’ strategic plan, identifying who they are, their unique selling proposition, and the audiences to convey that to.

Web Design

A great website can help you stand out, but not if you look the same as everyone else. That is, does your website have a skyline or column? Perhaps a globe, handshake, light bulb, chess piece, smiling lawyers, or any of the many other overused icons of our industry.

A website overhaul is one of a firm’s few opportunities to climb above the competition.  It can be the hook to develop market dominance ― a powerful, winning strategy.  Savvy firms don’t squander this chance by creating a slightly prettier version of the same old thing.

Your website should tell all visitors what to expect when working with you, what sets your firm apart and makes your firm or practice special.  It should help them see why they need to hire you, instead of the high-quality firm down the street, and at a higher hourly rate.