|
Should your firm buy a table at a charitable or bar function?
Should you put an ad in the dinner program? If your firm
does this what can be done to maximize the value of your
investment?
Over the years, our law firm marketing effectiveness
surveys have shown that nearly 70 percent of firms use
tables at charitable and bar events for marketing purposes.
Nearly 40 percent report they receive cases, directly
or by referral, as a result of contacts made at such
events.
Of course, existing and potential clients and sources
of referral need to be in attendance for the event to
make marketing sense. Obviously, there is no way to
determine exactly who is going to be at the event in
advance. But a quick review of the members of the governing
and advisory boards of the sponsoring organization will
give you an idea of who is likely to attend. If the
directors, advisors and obvious supporters and suppliers
to the sponsoring organization—and those they
will attract and invite to the event—are the kinds
of contacts that will help your firm’s marketing
you should attend.
(And, after the event, the people you and other lawyers
meet should be added to your firm’s mailing list
to ensure ongoing contact.)
It’s bad form to buy a table (often with your
firm name prominently displayed on a sign above the
centerpiece) and have empty seats for everyone to see.
So, only buy a table, or half table, if you can fill
the seats with lawyers from your firm who WANT to be
there. Charity dinners are not for everyone, so if only
one or two of your lawyers want to attend, scale back
the number of seats you buy. If you know other lawyers
in other firms who are referral sources (or clients)
who like these types of events, you can buy seats and
invite them as your guests at your table. Or, if you
know a non-competing firm might like to split the cost
of a table, consider buying an entire table, obtaining
the right to a dinner journal ad in the process, and
sell off several seats to the other firm. This is not
tacky. Many firms do it. (I buy seats at a law firm’s
table every year at a leading bar event. They get the
ad rights, with my help, and my wife and I get a seat
at a good table in the middle of the room rather than
by the back wall, which is where I would sit if I bought
individual tickets.)
An ad in the dinner journal is a nice touch. Try to
make it entraining or memorable. Use professionals to
create it. For example, at a recent ACLU dinner we created
a simple ad with headline: “One legal bill is
more important than any other we have ever seen.”
Beneath it appeared the Bill of Rights and underneath
that was our client’s logo. Our client reported
several people came up to them during the event and
remarked about the ad. It served as a conversation icebreaker.
Top
Bob Weiss is a law firm marketng consultant
with a national practice based in Denver. He is president
of Alyn-Weiss Marketing/Public Relations, Inc. and can
be reached at 303-298-1676 or weiss@prdenver.com.
|
