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I must be starting to get it when it comes to writing on a quasi-deadline. When challenged for time or ideas, make lists!
I’ve asked myself many times (and been asked, many times, by PR executives) how a lawyer ends up doing public relations and marketing. After all, as the old saying goes, “law school sharpens the mind…by narrowing it.” In spite of the common perception, legal writing (good legal writing, anyway) is tight, concise, and bereft of any words but those that persuade the judge or magistrate. I remember a wise and bellicose old partner at my first law firm. He’d stand all day at a drafting table (eschewing the traditional desk and chair)—from 8:30 a.m. until sometime between 7 and 9 p.m. Never sat down. Never stopped working. And one hell of a lawyer. But, to my horror (and benefit), this partner of over 30 years experience would often take me, a young associate, through the briefs I’d draft for his cases, reviewing them with me one…agonizing…word…at…a…time. And he’d use red ink. Lots of it.
I remember him shredding reviewing a brief of mine one day, when he came upon one of my more creative adjectives. Don’t remember what it was now. But it was exquisite. He stopped, raised one craggy eyebrow and looked at me. “What’s this?”
“Um…an adjective?” I replied warily. Wrong move.
“I know it’s a #@!$% adjective. What’s it doing in here?!”
“Um…modifying the noun next to it…?”
At this time, I’ll spare you the volcanic specifics of the response of this man, who had spent the last 30 years of his professional life obliterating the arguments of those unfortunate enough to oppose him in varied and sundry courts of law. Needless to say, it was piercing. It was memorable. It was a bit painful. And it amounted to this: if a word isn’t helping your argument, it’s wasting everyone’s time. That was the last unnecessary adjective I ever used in a legal brief.
Obviously, I tend to disregard this rule when I write this blog. But it’s a lesson I’ve come back to again and again when writing (or reviewing) marketing, advertising or PR copy.
And this isn’t the only thing I learned from the practice of law…
1. Before you launch it, be willing to ravage your own marketing…from plan to copy. When you’re putting together a marketing strategy, or even just ad copy, OBJECTIVELY put yourself into the shoes of the person you hope will read it or see it. (If you can’t do this, you probably should have someone else handling your marketing, your product development, etc.). Look, we all love our products and services. It’s painful to blow holes in the things we work so hard to build and sell. But trust me: if you can’t be brutally honest to your own marketing (and product) before it goes out the door, it will be dealt with in a brutally honest way by prospects and customers. Lawyers are trained to argue both sides of an argument well. It helps them prepare. Good marketers should be able to as well.
2. Practical solutions always trump theory. Litigation is a great example of this. As yet another old saying goes, “If you can’t argue the law, argue the facts. If you can’t argue the facts, argue the law.” Well, marketing needs to be practical too. If you’re marketing to a middle-aged demographic that barely understands what Twitter is, why are you launching your product through Twitter? Because everyone else is? Hey, I’m all for using new techniques…when they work. But if your shiny and ingenious plan is simply too cute for the customer, it’s basically just a piece for your own portfolio.
3. When scheduled for a face-to-face meeting, be on time unless a death was involved. Lawyers get sanctioned a few hundred bucks by a judge. Prospective marketing consultants or agencies get fined an opportunity to win new business.
4. When negotiating, the zero-sum game really is effective. Yes, there are times in both worlds when the gloves must come off. But if you’re pitching a news release, doing an ad buy, or whatever else involves some give-and-take, remember that the person with whom you’re negotiating has a higher purpose than promoting your company. That’s your job!
5. Be honest. Be honest. Be honest. ‘Nuff said.
So my answer to those who have asked, are asking or will inevitably ask me how a lawyer ends up in something as different as marketing or PR is this: they’re not so different. At their roots, the practice of law and the practice of marketing communications are really the practice of persuasion. Both are designed to influence opinions and bring about a change of behavior; whether that behavior is manifested in issuing a ruling or clicking through an ad to a landing page. The focus isn’t (or shouldn’t be, at least) on the attorney himself/herself. It should be on the jury or judge. And the focus in marketing shouldn’t be on one’s own company or product. It should be on the market and the customer.