How do collaborative lawyers market themselves to clients?

Rob Parker gave us a very interesting presentation on how the North Hampshire Collaborative Lawyers POD go about marketing.

The POD consists of about 30 members of whom there are Solicitors, a Barrister, IFAs and Therapists.

One of the issues identified early on by the POD was that they would often have a case where their client was interested in collaborative but the spouse or partner did not have details of other collaborative lawyers in the area.

A leaflet was put together with photographs of all of the POD members. This would then be given to the client to hand to their spouse or partner. This has been a great success. The leaflet is updated every couple of years and the last print run cost about £600.00 which spread across the pod amounted to about £46.00 per firm.

The leaflets have also been handed out to the local Relate Officers, GP Surgeries and other potential referrers.

The POD have also been undertaking publicity in the local papers with features on the back of DR Week and Divorce Week.

They also do posts on their LinkedIn account after POD meetings. They do not yet have a twitter account.

The POD website is hosted by Resolution as a micro site free of charge.

The POD regularly arranges presentations from potential referrers, such as IFA’s, Relationship Counsellors and Accountants. This makes the meetings more interesting and also spreads the Collaborative word in the local business community. POD members have also been to Relate and assisted them with their training.

Rob advised that it is important to keep talking about the Collaborative practice to everyone we meet and keep the enthusiasm going.

There then followed a very helpful exchange of ideas between all attending as to how people go about marketing Collaborative.

One attendee referred to a radio interview she gave during a Divorce Week which led to a new contact.

Others referred to videos for their websites and then putting those on to LinkedIn and also the possibility of putting these on Resolution’s E-News. Another POD used the video as an excuse for a launch and invited potential referrers.

Another member had organised a Divorce Retreat where 15 potential collaborative clients had spent 2 days at a hotel attending presentations from different experts.

It was agreed that Accountants were a good source of referrals as couples often go to their Accountants first when a relationship breaks down. It was also mentioned that hairdressers and nail salons are often places where people tend to open up about relationship problems.

One suggestion was that individuals put short videos on the website as to explain how each individual works. This gives the client a potential connection with that individual.

There was also mention that Resolution does not appear to provide a database for family consultants and this needs to be looked at.

All in all a very interesting presentation by Rob which led to a useful discussion and exchange of ideas. I will certainly take these back to my POD.