International marketing strategies for law firms targeting the Middle East
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Law Firm Marketing Strategy
International marketing involves firms' marketing mix decisions across international boundaries. On the other hand, international marketing involves an operating marketing strategy to capture the markets across national boundaries. However, intense global competitions within the international business environment require firms to employ effective marketing strategies to capture international market shares. (Alansari). A clear and focused international marketing strategy requires firms to understand markets they are intending to target and operate. However, international marketing strategy for legal professionals in the Middle East needs building a strong brand loyalty that is difficult to challenge. (Doole, & Lowe).
Essentially, professional law service firms are built around senior attorneys who have built professional skills, and success of individual attorneys is built not only on the marketing strategy, the success depends on how attorneys market their career. Attorneys possessing a skill set in the international financial market practicing with international firms and operating in multiple geographical locations could market themselves concurrently.
Objective of this paper is to discuss the international marketing strategies for the International Law Firm targeting clients in the Middle East. The presentation will focus on a marketing strategy for an attorney intending to offer expertise in the Middle East. The paper ranks the marketing strategy by their level of importance to assist the law firm to enjoy market advantages in the Middle East.
1) Participating at industry events in the Middle East
The most important marketing strategy for the law firm is to participate at industry event in the Middle East. Essentially, participating in the industry events is an effective marketing strategy to establish a strong market presence in the legal services in the Middle East. Typically, the legal professions continue to grow because of the presence of many financial companies in the regions. Over the years, the Middle East has become a dynamic spot for many financial institutions, and many industry leaders and senior executives are likely to attend the industry events. Some financial institutions such as JP Morgan, HSBC Investment bank, Nomura Securities, Warburg Dillon Read, and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson are increasingly expanding their financial portfolios in the region. Thus, participating in the industry events will assist our law firm to develop a strong brand portfolio in the region. By participating in the industry events in the Middle East, our law firms will be known among the large and medium financial institutions in the Middle East.
3) General press coverage (Financial Times or Khaleej Times
Our law firm will also use the general press coverage in the Khaleej Times and Financial Times for marketing strategy to attract market attentions in the Middle East. Globally, the daily readership of Financial Times reaches approximately 2.2 million. Moreover, the FT.com has more than 4.5 million registered users, over 600,000 paying users as well as 285,000 digital subscribers. However, the Financial Times has only 12,704 readers in the 8 Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar, and Jordon. (Hague, 2013). Contrarily, the Khaleej Times sells approximately 80,000 copies daily in the Middle East. Thus, this paper suggests that our law firm should publish general press coverage in the Financial Times to take advantages of large number of readers in Financial Times. Using the press coverage in the Financial Times, our law firms will be able to capture the attention of large and medium financial institutions having special business interests in the Middle East. The directors and managers of financial institutions of large international banks, large investment banks, International Private Equity Funds and large Private Equity Funds having financial interests in the Middle East subscribe to Financial Times readerships daily. Thus, we should implement press coverage at least once in a month to catch the attention these financial institutions. The strategy will assist our company to enjoy effective market advantages in the Middle East.
4) Participation at Organized Industry Events in London or outside the Middle East
Our company should also participate at organized industry event in London to catch the attention of large and middle financial institutions in London. Typically, London is a global financial hub and events organized in London attract large number of big and medium financial institutions. Our firm will take the advantages of the presence of these financial institutions to introduce our legal services since some of these institutions might be having interest to establish their financial portfolios in the Middle East. However, our marketing target will focus on large and medium financial institutions, mutual funds, and corporate organizations attending the events.
5) Legal directories and industry rankings
Our firm will submit our website in the following legal directories and industry rankings that attract the most traffic:
BestLawyers.com
ChambersAndPartners.com
Legal500.com
LawyerCentral.com
SuperLawyers.com
LegalMatch.com
Martindale.com
Nolo.com
Lawyers.com
Justia.com
Avvo.com
FindLaw.com.
The legal directories are listed based on their level of traffic, and we will concentrate on the legal directories enjoying the most traffic.
6).Targeted e-mails describing legal developments
Our firms will also use email-marketing strategy to describe legal documents. Ong & Wang argue that email marketing has become an effective tool for business marketing due to its low costs. Moreover, email marketing provides a convenient method to reach target customers. (Ong, & Wang). Typically, our firm will take advantages of email marketing to reach large number of financial institutions across the Middle East and other financial institutions that may have financial interest in the Middle East.
7) face-to-face meetings with key individuals
Our organization will also use the face-to-face meeting with some directors and mangers of large and medium financial institutions to market our legal services. Although, we may not be able to reach a large number of people with this marketing strategy, however, the marketing strategy will assist our company to reach an important people within financial circle.
8) Use of social media Networks to updates leLal Developments
Our firm will also take the advantages of social media to enhance our market advantages. Within a contemporary business environment, social media assist in sharing opinion, activities and information. Moreover, social media assist business organizations to share business objectives with prospective customers thereby gaining market advantages. (Peltier, & Naidu). Despite the marketing advantages that could be derived from social media, large percentages of local large and medium financial institutions in the Middle East have not yet taken the benefits of social media. Nevertheless, many European and American financial institutions located in the Middle East have pages in the top social media social such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Thus, our firm will provide update on legal development in the top social media to improve our marketing advantages.
9) Search optimization of the content-based-material prepared by the Attorney showing the Expertise
More importantly, we will show our legal expertise by preparing legal content materials and submit them in different search engines. We will also use optimization technique to improve our ranking in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.
10) Client entertainment (sport events/dinners/cultural events)
We will also use client entertainment to get to know our clients. The strategy will assist our company to retain our client and introduce new services to our clients.
11). Teach at client site
Finally, we could also teach our clients some legal teaching services. The strategy will assist our company to continue relationships with our clients.
Conclusion
The paper discusses different marketing strategies that our law firm could employ to enjoy market advantages in the Middle East. The paper identifies that participating at industry events in the Middle East is an effective marketing strategy. Moreover, the paper points out that our company should submit articles in the industry journals to enhance our brand portfolio in the Middle East.
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- Alansari, A.A. Public relations in academic libraries in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Library Management 34(1/2): 68-82. (2012).
- Doole, I. & Lowe, R. International Marketing Strategy, Analysis, Development and Implementation, (5th Edition ) USA, Seng Lee Press. (2008).
- Hague, A. Financial Times’ Average Daily Global Audience (ADGA): Methodology April 2012 – March 2013. Financial Times. United Kingdom. (2013).
- Ong, C. & Wang, S. Managing Citizen-initiated Email Contacts. Government Information Quarterly, 26 (3): 498–504. (2009).
- Peltier, J.W. & Naidu, G.M. Social networks across the SME organizational lifecycle. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.19(1,):56-73. (2012).
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