A year or so ago I emphatically rejected the idea of using shills to conduct paid word of mouth marketing for your law firm.  Why?  Because I believe that to be positioned at the top of your market you must endeavor to conduct all aspects of your business in an authentic and genuine manner.  I still believe that.

 However, I intend to further investigate the concept of paid word of mouth.  It is a hot trend in the advertising/marketing world and a burgeoning industry.  What is happening in many agencies is that armies of teen-agers are paid to go into internet chat rooms and promote products and services as well as movies and celebrities.  My big objection is that they do not reveal that they are paid shills.  Therefore, this particular application does not interest me.

There are a few more examples that I believe have better viability because there is an honesty in that the “workers” are obviously paid to promote the word of mouth.  For example, to promote USA Network’s TV series “Traffic” (about drug cartels) they hired a NY agency (Media Kitchen) to affix stickers with the show name, logo and air date to 50,000 real $1.00 bills and get them into circulation in bars in New York and Los Angeles beginning early January.

Trump’s show “The Apprentice” also utilized this strategy when they paid to have 5,000 fake $100.00 bills with Trump’s face handed out on New York City streets two days before the show’s premiere.

I am contemplating the potential for combining our Client Advisory Panels with motivated word of mouth initiatives.  However, I firmly believe that as we test this strategy it must be conducted in an authentic and genuine manner.  

Last week I had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas to speak to the Network Affiliates Group on the subject of Designing an Experience Your Clients Will Talk About.  The conference was held at The Wynn Hotel which is an experience in and of itself.  Steve Wynn certainly knows how to build hotels. 

In preparation for the presentation I surveyed the group on a number of topics.   Here are the key findings:

• 71% indicated that they have 10 or more brand ambassadors for their firm
• 53% categorized their employees as “highly motivated.”
• Only 35% stated that they have “excellent employee morale.”
• 47% believe that their client satisfaction is excellent
• 53% have very low employee turnover - that is lower than 5% turnover
• Only 24% indicated that they believe they have an “excellent system for hiring the right people.”
• I was happy to see that 65% have a right hand marketing person
• 59% conduct client satisfaction surveys
• Only 41% affirmed the fact that 80% of all decisions are made emotionally.  Some believed that number to be as low as 20%!
• Only 24% have a system in place to keep staff informed of firm progress, goals, challenges and successes

We had some great discussion and I want to thank Harlan Schillinger, Norty Frickey and Tammy Kehe for inviting me to come.  I always walk away having learned far more than I taught.

This month we added the component of qualitative research to our Client Advisory Panels and Wow - we are really excited about the feedback and excitement that we hear from our participants. 

Up until this point we have relied exclusively on quantitative surveys and although that has worked very well, we are engaging the clients significantly more having recently added telephone interviews as an option.  I have been pleasantly surprised by how many of our clients volunteer to be interviewed by phone.  It confirms for me the validity of this strategy as a way to find potential “influentials,” those individuals that love to give their opinions and share their knowledge.  And the rewards are twofold because not only are we engaging them, but we are learning a great deal from them.

If you have not set up a Client Advisory Panel in your firm, I strongly encourage you to consider doing so.

I have to tell you that I am pretty excited about the article I read in the New York Times this morning.  Here is how it starts:

“Some companies pay millions to have their logos on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s racecar, but others prefer to pay Brian Katz $500 or more a month for space on his Ford Expedition.

Mr. Katz, 32, of Manhattan, is one of the tens of thousands of motorists who have signed up to have their cars and trucks wrapped in advertisements in exchange for a stipend up to $800 a month.

These offers are becoming so popular that car owners have been willing to limit where they shop and abide by a code of conduct while they are behind the wheel.”

Wow!  I think this concept holds some real promise to be developed in conjunction with the “Client Advisory Panels” that I’ve been helping my attorneys put in place.

If you’d like to talk about this, give me a call!

Cindy Speaker, 610-692-3217