A few years ago, I was asked the question, “What is relationship marketing, and where do you start when you want to build your business?”

Since we’re in a relationship business [spoiler alert], I’d hope that most lawyers reading this would be comfortable with the idea of engaging in relationship marketing, and how to translate that into business for your practice. But in case you’re not (or in case you want to put a more formal name to something you’re already doing in your practice), let’s talk about what it is, and how to use it.

Relationship marketing is using the tools at your disposal to build community, develop business, and engage in relationships that will ultimately strengthen your knowledge and practice. It’s essentially a more formal way of engaging in the “word-of-mouth” reputation building that you’re familiar with. But when we say “word-of-mouth,” we usually mean that you’re doing good work, and hoping that that’s sufficient enough that your clients will be happy with your work, and will then share that happiness with their other hiring colleagues and friends. That absolutely works, but why not be more strategic about it to ensure that you are developing new business?

In other words, why should lawyers care about relationship marketing?

Two key reasons – first, engaging strategically in relationship marketing helps you to identify trends and patterns with existing clients that will help you to serve them better and to keep them as clients, and second, it’s how you become more effective at developing business with potential clients.

To get started, listening is key, and there are many social (and other) tools to use to do this. Presuming that you’ve already identified who your target audience is, find out where they are and start listening. Some suggestions (not an exhaustive list):

  • Trade publications
  • Business journals
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Podcasts
  • Conferences (virtual and in-person)
  • Client visits (unbilled)

You don’t have to use all of these tools to be effective – the key to strategic relationship marketing is first having an understanding of who your key audience or audiences are, and then where they hang out. Those are the places that you want to be, both to ultimately engage with them, but also to listen so that you can identify the things that they care about, are worried about, trends, the influencers, etc.

Then, you can begin to engage. I like to use content marketing and curation to do this, but you can adapt it in other ways. So, for example, you might work to build community by authoring a blog and sharing your posts online, by pulling a question out to share and engage with your audiences. You might want to meet certain people in your industry, so you’d use your podcast to invite them on as a guest, and potentially take that relationship offline. Share other content that you find valuable as well – not just your own – and make sure to engage with those that respond, as well as others in the industry.

When you are strategic about the way in which you develop and evaluate your word-of-mouth reputation, you’ll be much more effective in keeping your current clients happy and securing more work from them, as well as bringing on new clients.

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Photo of Lindsay Griffiths Lindsay Griffiths

Lindsay Griffiths is the International Lawyers Network’s Executive Director. She is a dynamic, influential international executive and marketing thought leader with a passion for relationship development and authoring impactful content. Griffiths is a driven, strategic leader who implements creative initiatives to achieve the…

Lindsay Griffiths is the International Lawyers Network’s Executive Director. She is a dynamic, influential international executive and marketing thought leader with a passion for relationship development and authoring impactful content. Griffiths is a driven, strategic leader who implements creative initiatives to achieve the goals of a global professional services network. She manages all major aspects of the Network, including recruitment, member retention, and providing exceptional client service to an international membership base.

In her role as Executive Director, Griffiths manages a mix of international programs, engages a diverse global community, and develops an international membership base. She leads the development and successful implementation of major organizational initiatives, manages interpersonal relationships, and possesses executive presence with audiences of internal and external stakeholders. Griffiths excels at project management, organization, and planning, writes and speaks with influence and authority, and works independently while demonstrating flexibility in thinking, especially in challenging situations. She also adapts to diverse and dynamic environments with constant assessment and recalibration.

JD Supra Readers Choice Top Author 2019

In 2021, the ILN was honored as Global Law Firm Network of the Year by The Lawyer European Awards, and in 2016, 2017, and 2022, they were shortlisted as Global Law Firm Network of the Year. Since 2011, the Network has been listed as a Chambers & Partners Leading Law Firm Network, recently increasing this ranking to be included in the top two percent of law firm networks globally, as well as adding two regional rankings. She was awarded “Thought Leader of the Year” by the Legal Marketing Association’s New York chapter in 2014 for her substantive contributions to the industry and was included in Clio’s list of “34 People in Legal You Should Follow on Twitter.” She was also chosen for the American Bar Association Journal’s inaugural Web 100‘s Best Law Blogs, where judge Ivy Grey said “This blog is outstanding, thoughtful, and useful.” Ms. Griffiths was chosen as a Top Author by JD Supra in their 2019 Readers’ Choice Awards, for the level of engagement and visibility she attained with readers on the topic of marketing & business development. She has been the author of Zen & the Art of Legal Networking since February 2009.