← Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
Building a Modern Marketing Engine for Law Firms and Professional Services with Michael Lourie of Driver Media Worldwide 5-12-26
00:21:17
Loading summary
Transcript26 lines
- [00:00]
A
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Ranger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:30]
B
Great companies aren't built on average talent. In private equity backed high growth businesses, the right operator changes everything. Onward Headhunting partners with founders, operators and investors to build elite finance strategy and operations teams. From early hires to exit ready leadership, we deliver the talent that drives outcomes. If you are scaling or transacting, go onward. Visit onward headhunting.com or find us on LinkedIn to learn more.
- [00:57]
C
This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by a remarkable leader, the founder, the CEO of Driver Media Worldwide. We're joined today by Michael Laurie and Michael's going to tell us about the company, about what they do, some of the focuses today, what's working, what's not working, and a lot more. Michael, can you take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself and about Driver Media?
- [01:26]
D
I'm happy to Scott. Thanks again for having me. This is extremely meaningful. Michael Laurie I run a boutique, nimble digital marketing agency, Driver Media Worldwide. I come from a marketing background. I'll say quickly that I go so far back when it comes to email marketing that in the old days when I was kind of going door to door, if you will, peddling our email marketing platform. One of the objections I used to get is our patrons don't use email, which again, kind of indicates how far back I go in this industry. But I've been in marketing for many years and about, I don't know, five or six years ago I started my own team and we focus on serving as the outsourced marketing department, if you will, for many different businesses. I like to say we major in law firms and we minor in basically every other type of business. And again, our fit is working with companies that need marketing. They know it works, they'd like to get more leads, more visibility, more branding, frankly, more revenue. But they're not going to hire someone full time. They're not in the position to do it. They're not budgeted, they don't want to, you know, any other reason you can, you can think of so they Outsource it to us and we take care of of everything. We're basically kind of an extension of their team.
- [02:58]
C
Thank you. And Michael, are there targets of types of law firms that you work with? Like, certainly. We see some firms are out marketing every place. Certain types of firms, some in other ways and other professional services firms. Tell us a little bit about the types of clients and the types of work you're working with.
- [03:14]
D
Yeah, happy to. It runs the gamut, I'll be honest. We work with a PI, obviously, personal injury. We work with insurance law subrogation as a subheading of insurance law. We have a bankruptcy firm in Boca Raton we work with. We work with a firm of about 15 or 20 attorneys in beautiful Providence, Rhode island, that focuses on litigation, corporate law. So it really, again, it runs the gamut. What's interesting is because as I indicated, we're an extension of their team. We learn a lot about these practice areas, the ins and outs, the target audiences, perhaps most importantly. So it's a great question, but when it comes to, you know, types of law, again, practice areas, where we accommodate
- [04:01]
C
many of them and talk about the different practice areas, because certain practice areas, if you look at the big personal injury firms, they're often looking at direct response, lead generation, you know, some branding, some of these huge billboards up where they're looking for branding, but they're also looking for, aside from a lot of direct response, how much the work today that you folks do, do you think of a sort of direct response lead generation versus marketing and branding and what's the mix?
- [04:32]
D
Yeah, again, a great question. We're all about lead gen. I'll say that I come from a sales background, which is why I enjoy talking. I try not to talk too much on that note, but I come from a SAL background. I say that because of two. Two reasons. One, I like the fact that it's very black and white, right? Either you make sales, you get deals in, or you don't. We apply that same logic to our services when it comes to our marketing clients, meaning all we care about at the end of the day is bringing deals in the door, leads, engagement, etc. So everything that we do, whether it's a website or a LinkedIn post, which I'm sure we'll get to a. A graphic. The goal, the end goal is engagement with the end user. I mean, I like to say, and our team has this mentality of the eye of the tiger. Again, what is going to move the needle for our, our clients. So on that note, we really do focus on a lot of B2B. Right. So not a lot of B2C. You know, in some cases with our PI firms, of course it's a mainly if not solely B2C but really it's a lot of B2B meaning we have the target audience, we set up with a client and we forgive the phrase attack that target audience, whether it's organic posts or paid reach, etc. So I hope that answers your question.
- [05:59]
C
I'm going to ask you a question. You're a Wesleyan grad and Wesleyan is not a household name to everybody. But if you are familiar with really elite great elites of bad ones come a bad word today but really brilliant smart people. Wesleyan is, is a place for that. I mean brilliant brilliant people that went to Wesley that I knew that that are just really, really smart top level academics. How many people from Wesleyan ended up in sort of the outsourced marketing world? The marketing area, it seems like the. An unusual fit for an English and film major from Wesleyan. And has that given you great opportunity to be in a place where you're both very gifted in sales but also really smart and able to break down these target markets?
- [06:49]
D
I mean, my ego can only take so much. Scott, I mean, I will say, I'll say quickly, thank you for that preface about Wesleyan. I'll say the ultimate cliche, which is probably not a cliche in this day and age, which is nowadays I'm not getting into Wesleyan. I mean I think that the baseball helped, the contacts I had perhaps helped. But again, nowadays I would not be admitted. That being said, what a phenomenal question. I think in some cases my double major in English and film has helped me in my marketing career because I'm sure you know that a lot of the times there's copywriting, of course we're the content kings because so much about what we do is creating content for our clients because they're too busy running the railroad. And of course we, we involve and we weave in a lot of video content to our, to our posts and, and, and to our services as you can imagine. So I think in some ways, even though I'm a frustrated film fanatic and, and, and cinephile, if I may, I think that that a lot of what I learned at Wesleyan has informed my career in marketing. And I'll say very quickly, knocking on wood, one of my early clients, a law firm up in beautiful Boston, Sloan and Walsh. The only reason I'm bringing them up is because of Wesleyan, because I got my foot in the door the managing partner attended Wesleyan. He actually did, wasn't there when I was there. He graduated a year before that I, before I entered, you know, as a freshman. But that's the only reason that one of my key accounts is an account is because of that college connection. So that is a phenomenal question and I don't think thought about it till just now that again, the double major of English and film has really helped me in my career, especially with what I'm doing now, particularly.
- [08:43]
C
I mean so much of the world today is around these video clips, other kinds of things and having the natural sort of almost being native in it makes it so much easier to translate into actual workable things for customers and clients.
- [08:54]
D
No doubt. I can't say enough that I'm, like I said, a frustrated, you know, kind of mini IMDb like I'm. There's nobody I've met since who is as into film as I am. So yes, of course I have those regrets, like maybe some of us do about I should have gone down the path of LA and Hollywood, et cetera. But you know what I, what I'm doing now and producing and executing and frankly helping clients to like I said, move the needle, increase the revenue. It's very rewarding. I'll say again quickly on that note, two Thursdays ago and I get copied in on not all of the inquiries from our clients, but some of them. I get those, you know, contact form emails. One of our clients, in one day, one day, this was two Thursdays ago, received four leads which, which again to my point, incredibly rewarding. And that's, that's our ultimate goal, right?
- [09:49]
C
That really is the business at the end of the day, people. Years ago you talk about original email marketing. Email marketing was always sort of intended to be more closer to lead generation. But general marketing used to be branding these big, big shops. We've probably both read ogle via marketing at some point and so forth in today's world is much more lead generation. And is there a direct cost benefit to the client who you're working with?
- [10:15]
D
No doubt. The beauty of what digital marketing has kind of provided, if you will in this day and age is being able to kind of track down to the penny the cost of lead generating. Right. Like for example, we post a lot organically, you know, and a lot of your view viewers or listeners, if you will know the difference between organic and paid reach. Organic is just posting on a LinkedIn page, you know, a website, et cetera. But LinkedIn sponsored ads is no less than astounding because you can target market. Of course, the days of spray and pray are long, long over. I mean, it is just I never cease to again be amazed at being able to set a target audience and to, you know, deliver a video or a graphic with the messaging that's going to resonate with that target audience. So it's kind of interesting, now that you're saying it, there's such a kind of a combination of creativity, of messaging, of branding, but also mathematics is involved because like I've alluded to, we can really track to the penny the cost of a client acquisition. And I frankly love that. I mean, I'm a kind of a frustrated mathematician to some degree. You know, years ago, not to bore your audience, but I was, you know, kind of. We had a family business years ago, and my mother became ill, so I kind of by default took over the business and I was doing accounts receivable, the accounts payable, and there was obviously some math involved in reconciling every month. I loved it. So I kind of applied that thinking to Legion and it is, it's rewarding and most of the time it works, which is, which is tremendous for my
- [12:01]
C
clients and seeing that actual cost benefit. Let me ask you this question about clients that you work with. Some of them may start with the traditional spray, spray and pray, or throwing all kinds of mud against the wall and hoping that things stick and their success is 1 out of 200 because they're really just all over the place versus targeted marketing. How often do you work with customers and if you're working with that, don't have clarity about their ideal customer, don't have clarity about their target market. And can you help them to sort of further define their target market, who they're really trying to reach?
- [12:40]
D
We relish in that. You know, I will say that, you know, I take for granted that the large majority, if not all of the clients that I've worked with haven't even thought about LinkedIn sponsored ads. Not, not to say that it's the panacea and not to speak too much about it, but that is rewarding. Like, again, we have, we open up doors to our clients. We say you need to not only think about SEO, but also AIO in this day and age. So we are, we wear a lot of hats. We are, again, like, of course, alluded to the fact that we're the outsourced marketing department. We're an extension of their team. I'll say quickly that we were invited, my colleagues and I were invited to multiple client holiday parties. That means the world, that means everything to us, that they think about us as part of the team. So they want to involve us in events that they host. So that was incredibly rewarding. But also the fact that we not only execute on marketing campaigns and lead generating campaigns, but we introduce and educate. We might want to again test out the waters with a meta ad. We want to test the waters out with a LinkedIn spot, sponsored ad, an A B test, that type of thing. These are things that we bring to the table, to the client, the typical client that we work with. I like to joke that they're too busy to tie their shoes and they're getting busier in some part because the leads we're generating for them. So it is our job to fill in the blanks, to be proactive, to recommend, to suggest, and then we execute on those ideas that they say yes to. I'll say quickly too, and this really isn't rocket science, but part of our services involve a weekly call. I bring it up because it is incalculable how important that weekly call is. It's not just going over the to do list, which is pretty important, of course, but also to brainstorm, to talk about what the next thing we want to do is. You know, how are things working, what isn't working and we can adjust accordingly.
- [14:48]
C
Thank you. And that regular touching base, you know, people have gotten today so comfortable with texting and emailing versus actually talking. And that that weekly touching base is so important to really being connected to your clients and making sure that you're actually adding value into brainstorming and thinking, isn't it?
- [15:08]
D
I cannot say enough. Like I keep going back to the word incalculable. That, and I say it often, I'm transparent on these calls. I had a client call this morning at 9:30. We covered 20 or 20 or 22 items. I mean, it is. You're right, it's a touch point. It is like the list is endless. I mean, again, like I mentioned going through the to do list, brainstorming and things maybe come up on the call that normally wouldn't have come up just kind of sitting at your desk alone. I don't take that for granted. The fact that talking it out with a client, you know, ideas spring from that. I'll also say that what I try to do when I can is at least on a yearly basis, at minimum go to the actual law firm or business place of business. You know, let's do a State of the Union. I create A, you know, five or six or 10, you know, slide deck, talk about the results again, brainstorm. What should we do next? Here are some, you know, kind of innovations that we can bring to the table. Maybe we should do a podcast, you know, that type of thing that we are responsible for filling the blanks on. Because again, I cannot say this enough, especially with attorneys, as you can imagine, that time is literally money. So, you know, the attorney mentality, not to generalize, but, you know, literally, if they're not spending their hours billable, billable hours, then it's a waste of time to some degree for them. So it's up to us and our team to, like I said, fill in the blanks, be proactive, be intuitive, and our clients really appreciate it.
- [16:48]
C
No. Fantastic. And take a moment, Michael. There's so much I'd like to talk to you about. I know we've got limited time, but take a moment on how the LinkedIn world works and what you see working there, what you're doing with your customers or your clients there. Tell us a little bit about that.
- [17:05]
D
Again, I keep going back to the word incalculable. I mean, LinkedIn, again, not the panacea. Like I said, LinkedIn sponsored ads is not this panacea either. But it's becoming, you know, it has, isn't becoming. It's gotten to the point where if you're not on LinkedIn, you may as well not exist. I mean, you could think about it, right? Nowadays, if, let's say, you, someone. I think this is the case with you, if I may, when we were talking about having me as a guest on this, this show, I think you checked out my LinkedIn page, right? And if my LinkedIn page had been shabby, not updated, maybe it doesn't have a banner image that's going to kind of color your thought process about Michael Laurie of Driver Media. So my point is, in the old days, you know, whatever, 15, 10 years ago, if someone referred another professional, they would go to the website, right? Let me check out the website. Let me check his or her bio page out. Even then, you weren't sure if it's going to be, if it was updated or, you know, you know, up to date. But nowadays that behavior has shifted. The LinkedIn page is the, the destination that professionals check out first. And the other interesting thing, too, that I don't take for granted, is that the web page, the bio page of a website, it's not interactive, like you can't follow it. You can follow a LinkedIn page, and if you're going to follow a LinkedIn page, you want to make sure that that page is not only up to snuff and polished and professional, but it is posted upon. Right. So again, my pet peeve, and this is what we try to assist with in our travels, is that you have an attorney or professional, that they have a LinkedIn page, maybe they have 400 followers, 500, 300, 600, whatever it is, and they've never posted. That is doing a disservice not only to the professional, but to their audience because their audience have said, listen, I want to follow you, Michael Laurie, I want to follow your LinkedIn page. I want to see what you're up to. Heck, I might want to use your services at some point. So if you don't post and reach out to that audience, then the audience feel, you know, maybe a little bit cheated because they, they want to follow you. So that's, that's the, that's the missing kind of the missing piece. And what we try to fill in for our clients is we not only try to update and polish their page, but we want to post upon in our regular basis. So it's proactively reaching out to their audience.
- [19:43]
C
Take a moment, Michael. I know we've got time for one more question.
- [19:47]
D
Sure.
- [19:47]
C
Talk a little bit out. When you were building your business to begin with, how clear were you in defining your targeted customers, your pro, what you're looking for? How did that develop and how did you get better and better that as you were developing your business?
- [20:04]
D
I chuckle because it's a work in progress. Right. But I think that again, not to put all my eggs into the, to the Sloan O. Walsh Basket in Boston, but that helped, I mean understanding over time and again, still learning, always learning, always adapting the behavior of the law firm, of the attorney. Right. Like I've alluded to the fact that they are insanely busy getting busier and that we need to step up and like I've said, be proactive. So that, that really helped us to understand the flavor, the behavior, the thought process of the law firm. Again obviously that varies per law firm, needless to say, but the overall industry is somewhat consistent. So that really. And then of course introductions and oh, you should use driver, they're so good. And you know, as you know, attorneys talk and they refer and they share. So that's really been helpful. Like I said, we work with non law firms, but that seems to be our sweet spot. Not to again belabor, but because we speak the language, we get it, we understand and we can adapt to their needs, their wishes. And their, most importantly, perhaps their target audience.
- [21:15]
C
Thank you so much, Michael. What a pleasure to visit with you again. Michael Lowry, the CEO, the founder of Driver Media Worldwide. It's remarkable what you've built. Just incredible. I hear you. I'm being a frustrated mathematician, a frustrated filmmaker, but you've done phenomenally well in what you have chosen as your actual business and profession. So congratulations. Pleasure to visit you. Just fantastic, Scott.
- [21:42]
D
Thanks again for having me. Much appreciated, sir.