The Legal Marketer’s Gift Guide for Lawyers
A version of this article was originally published for The Legal Intelligencer here on Dec. 10, 2024.
The season of giving is upon us!
The period from Thanksgiving to New Year’s is full of opportunities for giving and receiving all kinds of presents, donations and tokens of appreciation.
There are a variety of holidays that involve gifts large and small — Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Festivus (the original Festivus, not the “Seinfeld” version, included small gifts, although we could consider the airing of grievances to be gifts). We are encouraged to participate in food, clothing and toy drives; give generously on Giving Tuesday; or consider end-of-tax-year charitable donations.
Gift-giving guides for every kind of recipient abound, from what to give the pickiest of relatives and friends to the best gifts for your office Secret Santa, Pollyanna or Yankee Swap. There are even gift guides for how to treat yourself while you’re buying for others (a trend I highly approve of).
In the spirit of the holiday season, I thought I would offer my own version: The Legal Marketer’s Gift Guide for Lawyers, a curated list of some of the best marketing-focused gifts lawyers can give themselves, their clients and others.
Here are a few of my favorites:
The gift of a great bio.
This gift is appropriate whether you’re a new lawyer fresh out of law school or a clerkship, a mid-career attorney focused on partnership or business development, or a seasoned legal practitioner looking to keep your practice energized with more and better work and clients. A great bio — well written, accurate and up to date — isn’t a luxury; it’s an essential. It’s not only a gift you give yourself but one that you give your clients, who are among the heaviest users of professional bios on law firm websites, and your referral sources, who rely on your bio to corroborate the personal recommendations they are making on your behalf. Your law firm colleagues, from the partners who staff matters and make compensation decisions to the marketing and BD professionals who need your bio for thought leadership, pitches and proposals, will also appreciate the gift of a current and comprehensive bio. For tips on how to get the best bio of the season, take a look at our blog on bios: “From Law School to Corner Office (and Beyond): Crafting an Effective Bio.”
The gift of LinkedIn mastery.
This legal marketing and BD essential makes an excellent complement to the gift of a great bio and is appropriate for lawyers at every stage of their career. A true marketing multi-tool, an optimized LinkedIn profile not only helps authenticate you and your credentials in the marketplace, it also facilitates networking with clients, prospects and referral sources and serves as an excellent channel for delivering all kinds of content and thought leadership directly to the audiences you want to reach.
Actively using your LinkedIn account also is a gift you can give to others, including responding to or engaging with content from your colleagues, clients and friends, which not only offers the gift of your professional insight and expertise but helps boost their content to your network and beyond, amplifying your firm’s content with likes and reposts or making introductions and connections within your groups and networks. Not sure how to get started on LinkedIn? There are lots of resources, including from the platform itself. Or take a look at our blog “LinkedIn Basics For Lawyers – A Three-Step Approach To Using LinkedIn To Boost Visibility.”
The gift of dedicated “marketing and BD time.”
“Do good work and clients will come” remains a somewhat pervasive idea among lawyers. But in a competitive legal services market where clients are facing ever-increasing legal spending and are more willing to shop around, and buyers of legal services do the majority of their research online before ever reaching out to engage, proactive marketing and BD are no longer optional.
In his book “Give to Grow” (consistent with the giving theme!), Mo Bunnell notes that the actions essential for “winning the work” are not the same as those necessary to “doing the work.” Bunnell stresses that it’s essential to prioritize the tasks in the winning work category, or they tend to fall to the bottom of the busy professional’s to-do list. This scenario resonates with just about every lawyer I know.
Devoting time everyday to marketing and BD tasks is the gift that will keep on giving — back to you. Not sure what to focus on? Start with my tips from last year at this time in our blog “Naughty or Nice? Tips to Great Legal Marketing in 2024, Regardless of Market Forecast.” Or if you’re looking for some quick, 10-minute tasks to get you started, check out “The 10-Minute Marketer — Quick and Effective Tasks for Marketing Success.”
The gift of knowledge.
In “Give to Grow,” Bunnell also points out that the “mindsets and moves” for winning the work are very different from those we use for doing the work. In law school, the focus is on the intricacies of the law and on thinking and writing like a lawyer. We don’t learn about the business of running a practice or firm or about marketing and BD. Lack of knowledge can be a real source of frustration for lawyers (and for the marketing professionals who work with them). Fortunately, there are many resources available to help you gain marketing and BD knowledge and skills. Start with the resources your firm offers, but also consider the many webinars, seminars, books and videos available on the subject. Your firm may offer the option to work with a coach, or you could find one on your own. ALM Media and Law.com offer some excellent marketing columns as well. If you’re interested in learning more about marketing and BD, take a look at our recent thoughts on “Why ‘Sales’ Shouldn’t Be Taboo in Legal Services” and “Marketing vs. Business Development: What’s the Difference and Why Do You Need Both?”
The gift of your insight.
Thought leadership, done right, is a gift of your authoritative insight. Whether delivered through speaking, writing articles or blogs, or appearing in videos or podcasts, thought leadership is about giving valuable, usable information to your audiences — clients, prospects, colleagues and referral sources. Think about the best gifts that you’ve received — the ones that you remember long after the holiday has passed. What makes them stand out? Most likely they were something that you wanted or needed, not something that the giver thought you should have or that would help you improve your life. They were given generously, without an expectation of reciprocity. And they felt personal; the giver wasn’t giving the exact same gift to everyone on their list. Following those same basic rules of good gift-giving can help your thought leadership stand out from all the mediocre content out there. Great gift-giving requires thought — and so does providing great thought leadership. And of course, giving great thought leadership consistently and over time gives you the gift of visibility. For more on gifting your insight through thought leadership, read my article “Putting ‘Thought’ Back Into Thought Leadership.”
Happiest of holidays — whatever holiday(s) you celebrate — and here’s to a prosperous 2025!
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