Here’s the problem, there’s a nagging uncertainty about ‘high street’ solicitors' firms. There is a lot going on but you haven’t quite seen a specific challenge or threat to your firm. Whatever the threats are, you can’t quite clarify the problem in terms of how you run your firm because there’s not enough hard evidence to base business management decisions on. Your firm is busy, you’re profitable and the client enquiries are coming in to keep the firm going. You, your partners, fee earners and staff work hard to deliver a high-quality service to your clients. You know change is happening (Solicitors Regulation Authority, Outcomes-focused regulation, Jackson, etc.) that means you have to make some alterations to the way you work and run your firm.

However there’s a whole mass of words and opinions in print and online about what’s happening but you just can’t see it as a specific risk to your firm with an achievable solution.

What is it that the new competition, in the form of the Co-operative, QualitySolicitors, banks, insurance companies and other branded organisations, are doing that you can’t see which will mean changing the way you run your solicitors' business? The answer is, they are using direct promotions, (often called direct marketing) targeted so tightly that you don’t see it unless you are in one of their target market groups. What we can see are these comments taken from the Gazette’s LinkedIn discussion group on the very popular topic of QS that gives a brief glimpse of what’s going on.

…the WHSmith Legal Access Points… …I can tell you that in Newport… …over 2,500 households have already signed up - in Smith's - to the QS Legal Privilege Card scheme and now have a credit card-sized membership card for the scheme. That is 2,500 households right from the outset that are now very much likely to use the local QS firm than any other in Newport whenever they need legal services - and that's before the major advertising campaign commences. (QS chief executive Craig Holt's comments on a LinkedIn discussion group.)

Whilst that is a link with less that 2% of the local population, I’d suggest it’s actively promoted links with 2,500 more households than any local solicitors' firm. QS are doing the same in many areas of the country. This is alongside the Co-op which has millions of members with a membership card and there are other schemes and businesses doing the same. The Co-op also sends out a popular magazine that has promotions for their legal services in both editorial and advertising items.

That is alongside the direct mailing of letters and leaflets to publicise their offering. There are many more examples of this expansion of promotional campaigns.

What’s needed is to turn the nagging uncertainty about the future of ‘high street’ firms into hard management marketing plans for your firm. What is it you can do to compete with these high-budget, closely targeted, mass promotional campaigns before the enquiries to your firm trickle away? The answers will depend on the size and services your firm offers and there is no easy solution. One thing to remember is that any promotion of legal services by the big brands will expand the market and your firm can prosper in a growing market as long as you tell current and past clients (and therefore future matters) the benefits of using your firm’s services.

All the marketing and promotional techniques used by the new competition are available to you too. Common themes are focusing on the client’s future needs and how to organise the firm to serve them profitably. That will take management time and thinking to make it work in your firm.

If there’s something you can’t see creeping up on you, be prepared for a shock when it’s fully revealed. Rocket Lawyer and Legal Zoom’s entry into the UK market is just another example of unknown market competition, in the same way Direct Line changed the insurance market. In the end the consumers will decide, but they need information to base their choices on. Make sure your firm is telling your clients why they should choose you.

Alastair Moyes is a director at Marketlaw and co-author of Marketing Legal Services, the current marketing handbook from Law Society Publishing.