If you’re like most lawyers, you’ve probably wanted to learn more about marketing for a while. Relaxing summer days are the perfect time to catch up on your reading. This year, rather than packing a historical biography or mystery novel in your carry-on or beach bag, why not grab a legal marketing book?
The team at LaFleur wants to help you maximize your summer reading, so we’ve outlined some of our favorite marketing books for lawyers. We promise they’re more entertaining than your 1L civil procedure textbook.
Discover Some of the Marketing Industry’s Thought Leaders
There are countless marketing books out there. On one end of the spectrum, you’ll find dense, detailed books that are almost impossible to read. No one wants to read a treatise on their vacation. Conversely, you don’t want to waste your valuable time reading a puff piece that shills someone’s marketing company or rehashes a blog the author wrote five years ago.
We think these five marketing books are the perfect balance of information and quality, entertaining writing. They educate their readers but aren’t tedious or overly academic. Plus, each one of them is less than 300 pages long, so they won’t weigh down your bag.
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Arguably, this isn’t a marketing book, but it will definitely challenge many of your preconceived notions about your potential clients’ decision-making processes.
Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer at The New Yorker, is an insightful and award-winning journalist and researcher. In Blink, he studies how people make decisions and process the world around them. He comes to the conclusion that the best decision-makers aren’t necessarily the most deliberative. Instead, they know how to filter through information to identify the most important issues and factors. Learn how people’s intuition and decision-making processes will shape their view of your marketing messages.
Contagious: Why Things Catch On
Written by Jonah Berger, Contagious is a fascinating exploration of why things become popular or go viral. A marketing professor at the Wharton School, Berger outlines techniques that can improve your messaging and word-of-mouth marketing. With its combination of thoughtful research and compelling storytelling, you’ll be surprised how quickly you read this book. Plus, it will give you new insight into how you can maximize your legal marketing budget with viral messaging.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Al Ries and Jack Trout’s Positioning is a modern marketing classic. Its authors pioneered the concept of brand positioning, or the strategic framing of your brand’s identity and value proposition, in 1972. However, in our media-saturated, hyper-skeptical world, its message is even more important. We think this book is a must-read for anyone who has a niche legal practice or practices in a highly competitive area.
The Best Story Wins: How to Leverage Hollywood Storytelling in Business and Beyond
Matthew Luhn, the author of The Best Story Wins, has been animating and writing stories for more than 20 years. He started his career working on The Simpsons and was one of the first animators hired by Pixar. This engaging book explains how you can use storytelling techniques to improve your brand and foster client engagement. It can also help you understand the essential elements of a story and how you can use them to your law firm’s advantage.
Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter to You
Every company and law firm wants to be at the top of their prospective and current clients’ minds. However, a catchy slogan alone won’t be enough to achieve your goals — you’ll need to build relationships. Unfortunately, many lawyers don’t understand that creating and compelling, high-quality content is vital to their trust-building process. John Hall, founder of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that represents companies like Microsoft and AIG, provides his readers with a guide to building trust and relationships through their marketing content.
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Marketing Books That Focus on Legal Practices
A lot of legal marketing books aren’t much more than thinly veiled sales pitches. However, there are a few that provide valuable information that’s targeted towards managing partners and law firms. Here are several of our favorites.
The Game-Changing Lawyer: How to Land the Best Cases, Stand Out From Your Competition, and Become the Obvious Choice in Your Market
While the legal industry has evolved and grown, too many lawyers have clung to traditional marketing strategies. In The Game-Changing Lawyer, Michael Mogill, founder of one of the fastest-growing video marketing companies in the United States, outlines the essentials of a modern legal marketing strategy. This book explains core legal marketing concepts — such as the client journey, storytelling, brand differentiation, and the importance of video. Just as importantly, it’s written in approachable, plain English rather than techno-marketing babble.
Originate: Business Development for Lawyers
Did you take a business development class in law school? Neither did I. Originate focuses on Big Law, but law firms of any size can apply its concepts. Its author, Michelle Cotter Richards, doesn’t discuss specific marketing tools like PPC or on-page SEO. Instead, she explores the importance of a law firm’s value proposition, how to create legal client personas, and how to identify meaningful business development goals.
The Legal Marketing Fastlane
If you’re like most lawyers, you’ve heard of PPC and have probably even ran your own search, display, and remarketing campaigns. But many law firms don’t really understand pay-per-click advertising and how it works. The Legal Marketing Fastlane focuses on how an effective PPC strategy — which includes comprehensive keyword analysis, conversion-focused landing pages, and data analytics — can help you advance your marketing goals. This book also provides a good discussion of what to look for when you’re meeting with marketing agencies.
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Don’t Have Time to Read? Consider a Podcast
Not everyone wants to page through a book in their spare time. Thankfully, there a lot of great legal marketing podcasts out there (although we’re partial to LaFleur’s Legal Marketing Radio). Podcasts are a wonderful way to catch up on the newest trends in marketing and hear from some of your favorite strategists — all while taking a run, cruising down the road, or relaxing in a hammock.
Still Have Marketing Questions? Contact LaFleur!
I’ve you’ve read (or started to read) these books, and you still feel overwhelmed by your legal marketing options, it’s time to contact LaFleur. Our team is made up of experienced content writers, PPC strategists, designers, and developers — and we’ve been working with law firms since Day One. We’d love to learn more about your marketing goals and help you identify practical solutions.
You can reach us at (888) 222-1512 or by completing our simple online form.