Client Newsletter

Winner: GodwinGroup and Butler Snow

Campaign: Best Client Newsletter 2008

As a Jackson, Mississippi-based law firm specializing in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, Butler Snow provided clients with high-value counseling, a strategic billing structure and proven results, but its work was largely unknown beyond its community of current clients. An added challenge: The firm's small size created the misconception that it couldn't keep up in the fast-paced locations of its target audiences.

To elevate the visibility of its good work and, in turn, enhance its client retention strategy, Butler Snow partnered with GodwinGroup executives and set out to create a communications vehicle that would communicate the firm's leadership in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

An Injection Of Culture Begets Visibility

That communications vehicle turned out to be a recurring client newsletter, dubbed "ProTe Solutio (Solutions for You)," which showcased Butler Snow's unique culture and structure. The newsletter's context and design educated the firm's existing pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare clients in various areas of healthcare business and litigation law, but it also reinforced the depth of the lawyers' expertise.

Though originally intended for existing clients, the team realized the newsletter would also have to compete for recognition at the highest level of in-house corporate counsel, and it had to do so amid a deluge of information that continuously arrived at the likes of Merck, Wyeth and Johnson & Johnson. To create a compelling publication, then, the executives developed a design that expressed credibility and expertise at the highest level.

High Quality = High Praise From Clients

The strategy of communicating Butler Snow's leadership in the pharmaceutical and medical sectors through a high-level client newsletter resonated with the target audience. Clients such as Merck expressed their appreciation for such a high-quality, tangible publication.

To further affirm its success, the now-monthly publication also won an award of excellence from the Southern Public Relations Federation.