Articles From the Team

Legal recruitment agencies and USPs

Unique selling points (USPs) are something that every business is keen to promote. As lawyers, I’m sure the firm or company you currently work for has its own USP. Perhaps it’s the type of work you do, the sectors you work in, the awards you’ve won, or the working environment. In many cases, it’s a combination of all of these things.

USP is a marketing concept - first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern of successful marketing campaigns in the early 1940s. The campaigns in question made such unique propositions to customers that they were convinced to switch suppliers or use a different brand. The power of advertising grew through the 1950s and ‘60s with developing media and the introduction of colour TV and paid advertising.

Fast forward another sixty years and we have the new digital era. What’s changed? We still have big brand advertising and TV adverts, but we have a whole array of additional advertising. On our smartphones, through social media, Facebook, Instagram, at sports events, gigs; basically everywhere in everyday life! It even influences politics - recent statistics reveal the amount of paid targeted advertising used in the Leave and Remain campaigns.

So how do companies stand out in the current digital market? Using the legal industry as our focus, how do law firms differentiate themselves from one another? Over the last ten years, the firms that have thrived appear to be the ones who’ve managed to keep up with the rapid changes in digital innovation – accessing new and existing clients through smart and savvy websites and digital marketing, but also through listening to what their clients and employees want.

In a time where everything is so accessible, easy and consumer driven, the power is in the hand of the consumers. This means that law firms have to listen more – employees want flexible and agile working, a friendly and positive working environment and positive culture, more comprehensive and flexible benefits and clients want specialist lawyers who understand the way their businesses have changed, for example - fintech, energy, IT specialists.

So, if you’re a lawyer in 2019 looking for a new job, what do you want from your legal recruiter? Do you want someone who dabbles in a number of different sectors? Or do you want a specialist who’s worked as a lawyer previously - in the location you’re interested in? Would you choose the recruiter who works with a few firms and covers a range of different roles or the recruiter who works in vertical markets and specialises in specific practice areas?

At BCL Legal Birmingham, we firmly believe in our USPs:

• We are the largest specialist legal recruitment team outside of London
• We only recruit for legal and we work in vertical markets
• We are the preferred supplier to all firms in Birmingham
• Technology and innovation is at the centre of everything we do
• We are passionate about doing the best job possible for our clients and candidates
• We support each other and work as a team