Legal

Background
LG, formerly known as Lawrence Graham, is a London-based business law firm with a global reach. It principally acts for UK and international public and private companies, pension funds, financial institutions, public authorities, shipping companies, small businesses and private individuals. The firm's business is divided into four principal practice areas: business and finance; real estate; dispute resolution; tax and private capital. As a firm, it prides itself on being ahead of the game and providing clients with relevant news and updates on changes in the law.

Requirement
In the summer of 2006, LG began to review how it communicated both internally and externally. LG is driven by its commitment to the environment and introducing ‘green’ work practices.  What was evident in 2006 was that all communication was conducted through hard copy; this could vary from mail drops on employee’s desks to the sending out of annual reports and white papers to clients. Although the type of communication was diverse, the common denominator was that everything was paper-based. It was clear that this needed to change.

Technology now allowed LG to disseminate information electronically and vastly reduce its dependence on paper. Naturally, this was no small undertaking as it required many lawyers to change the way they had historically worked. So, in terms of a new approach to delivering content it had to be fairly easy to use, demonstrate that it was more effective than previous channels and gain firm-wide acceptance.

Nicole Hunter, Business Development Executive, at LG said: “We were essentially looking for a solution which would save us time and money and allow us to communicate with our clients quickly and effectively. We were far too reliant on hard copies and as our culture is very green, a digital solution seemed the most appropriate way forward."

The Solution
After talking to a number of digital providers, LG decided to partner with Concep to develop an online marketing strategy. Concep Campaigner was chosen as the solution for delivering the digital communications programme. From the outset, it became clear that Concep Campaigner would be integral to LG’s future marketing programme, and would be used for sending out white papers, reports and information on legislative changes and invites to seminars, breakfast forums and parties.

The decision to work with Concep was timely as LG was also in the process of a re-branding. Therefore, the firm benefited from Concep’s design consultancy in relation to the creation of new email templates and the requirement for brand consistency across all external and internal communication. 

Hunter continued:  “As you would expect this type of technology is new to a lot of people and there is always a degree of cynicism when you try to introduce new working procedures. However, we have found that once lawyers have used Campaigner, understood it, and seen the practical benefits it brings, they become advocates and in fact want to use it whenever possible. Across the firm, the response has been very positive and in general our communication is now far more pertinent and efficient.”

Results
Since November 2007, LG has saved over £15,000 though the online distribution of newsletters, hot topics and seminar invitations. In addition, through the use of Concep Campaigner, LG can now measure the effectiveness of each campaign. For the first time it has access to a reporting functionality. The analytical abilities of Concep Campaigner provides information on delivery and click-through rates which allows LG to understand the success of each campaign and cleanse their data i.e. what email addresses no longer function, people moving jobs, etc.

Due to the success of using Concep Campaigner in 2006/07, LG has doubled the number of Campaigner email subscriptions from 50,000 to 100,000 in 2007/08. The desire to increase its bandwidth reflects how central the solution has become to LG’s communication strategy.

This year LG has also decided to use Concep Event as the platform for its annual Insolvency conference which is scheduled to take place on 10 November, 2008. Believed to be the biggest event of its type in Europe, with over 500 attendees, this will be the first time the conference logistics will be managed online; from a ‘save the date’ campaign, to attendee registration to the distribution of information packs. Ultimately, the decision to use Concep Event will reduce the amount of paper used and save the firm thousands of pounds in print costs.

Moreover, Concep Campaigner integrates seamlessly with Concep Event, so that when a client or prospect receives an invitation via an email he or she is transferred directly to a registration area.

In addition, LG became the first UK law firm to integrate its own CRM system with Concep’s solutions; ensuring that if a recipient updates their contact details via a mailer, the new information will automatically be transferred to LexisNexis InterAction.

Hunter concluded:  “Through working with Concep we have changed the way we deliver our marketing campaigns. We now have far more insight into their effectiveness and are able to provide clients with information in a format they are more comfortable with. In addition, we have reduced our environmental impact, which is very important to our firm ethos.”