Editor's blog | Affinity marketing is not just for large firms

Chancery Lane has been running campaign after campaign to raise the profile of solicitors. These have helped the profession feel better about itself - it's good for morale at a time where most firms are feeling so uncertain about the future. Whether the phones have been ringing on the high street as a result is far from certain. For firms looking to generate leads, there is a more efficient and faster way.

Affinity has been going since well before the Legal Services Act and it doesn't involve the headache of applying to the SRA to set up an alternative business structure. From the consumer's perspective, it comes in the shape of an add-on to services offered by their membership organisation, trade union, or car insurance policy. For law firms providing the service, it is maturing into a business model in its own right, and for practices keen to expand beyond their strict geographical reach, it could be a lifesaver in the new legal economy.

Take Thompsons, for instance, which has been offering legal assistance services to numerous trade unions for decades. Or Parabis, which is behind Legal Essentials, the legal assistance scheme launched by over-50s organisation Saga in October last year. It has also proved a success for Pannone's Affinity, the Manchester firm's white labelling arm, which last week reported a 400 per cent rise in conveyancing instructions.

ABSs are yet to create the expected big bang but the few new entrants are certainly trying things out. In May, Admiral finally bought road traffic accident specialist firm Lyons Davidson. Compare The Market owners, BGL Group, took over another road traffic specialist, Minster Law, in June. And having bought legal consumer website Everything Legal in 2011, legal expenses insurer DAS treated itself to a law firm, CW Law, in March this year. All of these have the potential to seriously erode your personal injury business.

Outside the personal injury area, the list includes Co-op Legal Services, which has ambitions to scoop up a huge chunk of the lower-value family work. Irwin Mitchell have a number of affinity partnerships with the likes of Asda. And Parabis - again - have just set up an ABS law firm with Direct Line to service a range of legal expenses insurance products.

Affinity has been embraced successfully by these larger firms, but it is a scalable concept that all firms can exploit. Many already do, in their own way, practice affinity.

Des Hudson's suggestion this time last year that law firms should consider teaming up with funeral services providers may sound both like a gratuitous attack on the Co-op and perhaps unpalatable too. The reality is that convincing a client to walk through your door - or check your credentials on your website - is time-consuming and expensive. Word of mouth remains a major channel for new business but competitors with recognisable brands are one step ahead. This is where affinity comes in. Partner organisations have ready access to potential clients, so let them do the marketing for you. As they seek to widen the range of benefits they offer, they will look to you to deliver the legal services side. They need you as much as you need them.

If you think your firm is too small, local consortia could be the answer. The reassuring starting point is that clients see solicitors as their first port of call when faced with legal issues, as LSB and Consumer Panel research has consistently showed. The market structure is changing but the market itself is not shrinking. Affinity could be one very useful way of bridging the gap between you and your clients. From the local anglers' association to the local chamber of commerce, the list of local organisations you can work with is nearly endless. Not to mention the local estate agent - like you, independent and determined to remain so. You probably already know them all. Now you need to get just a bit closer; they will probably welcome your approach too.