Boutique Law Firm – London (BLF)

Annie had used BLF and was waxing lyrical about them to her friend who just happened to be our CEO’s wife. Annie said that BLF were so lovely, not at all like the impression people have of law firms and lawyers. Annie knowing that her friend’s husband was “into all that internet stuff” might be able to help BLF become more well known and to help them do more business.

The meeting was setup. BLF were using a digital marketing guy who (according to BLF) is the go to guy in legal marketing. (Funny, I thought that was us!)

They were spending £2500 per month and they were averaging monthly invoicing from this online activity of just over £18,000 monthly.
BLF were quite happy with these returns, however they did feel somewhat neglected by the “expert” who whilst wooing them to sign up with his services, was to coin the words of the Senior Partner of BLF “all over us like a cheap suit in the rain and then once the contract was signed, we didn’t hear from him again but for a mechanical delivery of the monthly invoice”.

BLF had expected that said consultant was going to be helping them build their business, by sharing tips and tricks learned in other firms. BLF had expected the consultant to be one of their on-call advisors, like a business mentor or BDM (Business Development Manager). It didn’t go that way at all.

We offered BLF an opportunity to have their online presence audited and we gave an undertaking that they would receive a report showingif their online presence and website were running on all eight cylinders as a smooth well engineered money-making machine or if it needed a tune-up. If all was good then no problem, carry on with the Go To man for legal marketing. If however we find clear omissions and neglect then you might want to consider swapping over to us, and get to see what a real DMA can do for you as well as being your BDM.
That was agreed, and off we went to do what we do best.

To be brutally honest, almost every DMA will find fault and omissions in the work of another firm when they ae trying to win over a new client. They almost always suggest a completely new website as a starting point. We take great pride in not playing that game. When we do an audit we serve up the good and the bad, and within the bad, we make it clear how much real difference fixing it might make. We are far more focused on seeing if we can fix things, make a noticeable difference by means of improvement, and seeing if we like the client. We never work with clients that we don’t like – it really is that simple!

Anyways, long and short of it, BLF were absolutely lovely, and to their detriment at that time, completely hopeless at running a profitable business. They were doing more pro bono work than any firm their size, in fact any three firms their size. They had heart, conscience and an incredible track record of never losing a legal case. Don’t misunderstand this! They didn’t always get the win first time, but never lost an appeal.

So we did the audit. They were being taken for a ride! There was absolutely no work being done on their behalf and their consultant was taking liberties with their trusting good nature. The other option of course might have been that he just didn’t know what to do to make BLF shine online

We pointed out the herd of elephants in the room, and BLF became our clients. They exercised the termination conditions and the Go To guy went off without even the slightest struggle or re-pitch to save the client. How strange!
BLF gave us the £2500 per month and after month five of our involvement, BLF never invoiced less than £43,000. BLF also now have an excellent BDM at their beck and call 24/7 in the shape of our CEO who is helping them grow and diversify.
BLF are now very much the Go To law firm for their niche, and that is seen clearly by how they dominate the search engine results. Business has never been so good, and they still do too much pro bono!