Legal Marketing Association
The Legal Marketing Association is an international organization composed of consultants, vendors, lawyers, marketers from other professions, and marketing students. It has a Western Canadian Regional Governing Board, with Vancouver’s own Susan Van Dyke of Van Dyke Marketing & Communications as the 2019 incoming President Elect. They are a tremendous resource for all areas of legal marketing. Follow their blog to stay current on news, trends and more
In terms of online presence, you should be able to learn a great deal about legal marketing by seeing what advice experts in the field place on their blogs and web pages — for free. Examples of their work allows you to gauge the impact of their work; awards allow you to determine what their peers are saying about them. Here is a sampling of those people and organizations that I and others, consider strongly influential.
Skunkworks
The team at Skunkworks have become a local tour de force for lawyers and law firms here in BC. Doug Jasinski, Marnie MacLeod and Jeremy Hessing-Lewis have all done their time in the legal trenches and speak the language of lawyers and marketing. Their blog and examples of their work are a good place to start to see what local firms have achieved in thinking about their marketing message.
Stemlegal
Steve Matthews and his group form a web development, publishing and strategy juggernaut for the legal profession. They are a local company with a national presence and influence. Steve is tireless — not only does he look after his legal marketing company, he manages slaw.ca — Canada’s online legal magazine, he runs lawblogs.ca — Canada’s comprehensive listing of Canadian Legal Blogs, legalpubs.ca — which tracks the latest in Canadian legal publications and runs ClawBies.ca — Canada’s annual legal blogging awards.
Fishman Marketing
Ross Fishman, although located in Chicago, has a strong presence here in Vancouver. His website is loaded with great advice and insights into the world of legal marketing. Review his numerous case studies to gain insights into his thinking and work. Subscribe to his blog to stay current on his innovative ideas.
The Rainmakers Blog
Stephen Fairley consistently receives accolades for perhaps the best legal marketing blog on the Internet. A recent post was one of my favourites: 5 Ways to Attract your Ideal Client. Another was: How to Determine Which Social Media Networks Work Best for Your Firm.
EVA CHAN
After practising advertising, marketing, and IT law at a national Canadian law firm for more than 10 years, Eva is now a social media strategist, consultant and trainer. More to the point, she provides social media-related services to lawyers and law firms. A ClawBie award winner, her blog evachanweb.ca/blog has articles such as Social Media Opportunities and Risks, How To Write an Engaging Social Media Post and Twitter tricks and treats (aka tips). She asks (and answers) such questions as: What One Thing to Advance Women in Law Will You Do?