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.

2) Articles published in Industry Journals

Articles published in industry journals are another marketing strategy that out law firms will employ to enjoy marketing advantages in the region. For example, our company should publish several articles on corporate finance, and financial market in the Middle East. Moreover, our firm could publish series of legal and financial market articles that cover Islamic financial laws on:

Trends, fundamentals, as well as opportunities in Islamic Finance.

Islamic financial markets and banking practice in the Middle East.

Financial planning

Corporate finance,

Risk management,

Housing finance.

Investment strategy,

Islamic social finance,

Regulatory and legal issues.

Publishing articles on Islamic financial market on different industry journals will assist our firm to attract market attentions. Moreover, the marketing strategy will assist our company to build a corporate brand identity in the region, which will assist in enjoying market advantages. The strategy will also assist in targeting large financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank, and International Investment entering complex financial transactions in the Middle East and large and medium funds such as International Private Equity Funds, as well as asset managers investing in the Middle East. These financial institutions will require the services of law firm with skills set in financial transactions to prepare legal documents that will protect them during financial institutions. Thus, our law firm will take the advantages of the legal services required by these financial institutions to expand our market advantages. However, these articles will be published in English; and we will use a skilled translator to translate our published articles into Arabic.

3) General press coverage (Financial Times or Khaleej Times

Our law firm will also use the general...

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…