Caroline Garnham, founder of Family Bhive, looks at the marketing strategy of lawyers and trustees.

Editor's note: The following commentary is from Caroline Garnham, founder of Family Bhive. She looks at the marketing strategy of lawyers and trustees and uses the racy example of UK tabloid journalism. While this publication does not necessarily endorse the views of guest columnists, we are grateful for any chance to prompt readers' feedback. 

It is fascinating to observe how industries which serve the ultra high net worth clients market their services to this hard-to-reach audience. After 25 years as a private client lawyer, I stopped practising at the end of 2011 to work full time at Family Bhive.

This is a website which I launched for corporates wishing to promote their businesses to the UHNW community. It is a radical departure from how the different sectors market their services to the UHNW community.

Lawyers and professional trustees tend to market using B2B methods. They form relationships with other intermediaries over time, often taking as long as five years before winning new business. This is a form of using the old boy network and hoping that by being part of the "right set" you’ll be recommended for the beauty parade.

It is hardly surprising therefore that the industry body set up to represent lawyers and trustees, the Society of Estates and Practitioners, has been a runaway success in the last ten years. I served on its international committee for many years and spoke at their numerous conferences; I have witnessed its meteoric rise. STEP serves the marketing needs of these businesses very well, providing them not only with much needed CPD points, but also with a network of intermediaries with whom to develop a relationship in the hope of winning new business.

Although successful, B2B marketing is time-consuming, costly and uncertain. Networking is conducted in front of and alongside competitors, who are also pitching for the same referral business. However, this form of marketing is comfortable to many lawyers and trustees despite it being inefficient.

To use B2B marketing exclusively as a way to reach and eventually acquire high net worth clients is to ignore a very valuable asset, your existing clients. These clients can provide feedback on your service and can introduce you to their friends and contacts.

The notion of marketing to clients direct, inviting them to an event or even mailing them with a newsletter is, for many, uncomfortable, but is the basis of B2C marketing, which is after all what companies wanting very rich customers should be doing whether they find it comfortable or not. And rather than using the network of inefficient and possibly competing intermediaries,  it is far more effective to use your existing clients to get your marketing message in front of prospects.

What clients want

Family Bhive ran a survey of what clients wanted most from their lawyers and trustees. All demanded better reporting, better feedback. This highlights the danger for lawyers and private banks focusing exclusively on other intermediaries for new business, and ignoring how to improve their services for existing and prospective clients. Satisfied clients will be more “sticky” and more likely to refer their lawyer, for example, to their friends and contacts.

When I was a private client lawyer and wanting to have more clients, I found the traditional “old boy” use of affiliate professional business too slow and uncertain. I have tried, usually successfully, to attract prospective clients directly.

As an example, I began writing for the Financial Times as a contributor for tax and trusts in 1986. For the first few months I wrote a fairly dull piece, and given the lack of response became convinced that no one read my column. To change this, I became more bold, and was pleased to see it move from the bottom of a left hand page, to page 3, often at the top of the page and with a cartoon to illustrate it. (Editor’s note: “Page 3”, for the benefit of non-UK readers, is most famous at the Sun tabloid newspaper, as it features a picture of a semi-naked woman.)

After two years, I began to get enquires and in due course clients began to trickle in, but what was of even greater importance was the effect it had on my reputation. It came as a pleasant surprise, when Professor Hayten, who I held in high esteem, said on meeting me for the first time, that on buying the FT’s weekend edition, he always first read my pieces.

My name became known; increasingly enquiries came in from far and wide, many of which were from owners of substantial fortunes.

So, I was a page three girl with a difference…it took time for me to get the “wow” effect and a following, but it was very valuable coverage and I kept my clothes on.