A lot of general marketing advice, including specific attorney marketing advice, advises that you should try as best you can to "differentiate" yourself, your law firm, and your practice.
This is a TERRIBLE way to think about any form of marketing. Here's why:
At its root, marketing is about getting inside the head of your client. As an attorney, you need to be thinking about the needs of your potential legal clients. What are they anxious about? What are their most common legal issues and questions? What are they looking for in legal counsel?
All of these questions help you to better market yourself as an attorney, because you can preemptively answer their questions and concerns, and they'll feel like you already know how they're thinking and feeling. (And to a degree, you will already know how they're thinking and feeling). This makes your potential clients more comfortable in hiring you and actually makes you a better attorney, because you've put yourself in their shoes.
Trying to differentiate yourself may not seem much different from the type of marketing I've just described, except for one thing. When you try to differentiate yourself as an attorney, you automatically start thinking about what you're good at, what you know, and why you're better than other attorneys. Do you notice anything common to all of those thoughts? They're all about YOU rather than about your potential clients.
Anything that causes you to think about attorney marketing in a way that focuses on yourself means that you're spending less time thinking about and from the perspective of your potential clients.
It's a small distinction, but it's something that every attorney and law firm should keep an eye on.
Showing posts with label attorney marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attorney marketing. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
What kind of marketing do you need???
There are a million book and sites out there, either dedicated to attorneys or not, that will offer you 5, 7, or 10 tips on how to improve your marketing. Some of these books and sites offer decent tips and suggestions, while some of them are complete rubbish. You've probably read some of both, correct?
If you're like most attorneys, then you've even tried following much of the advice that you've read or been told, with varying levels of success. I know because I've been in your position as an attorney (or with a law firm) trying desperately to get more clients. It's not easy.
The problem, though, is not that you are listening to the wrong advice. The problem is that you likely don't have a well-thought-out and coordinated system of marketing in place. It's the system that is the key.
Attorneys and law firms can get clients in many, many different ways. Traditionally, referrals from past clients or colleagues have been a huge source of clients, and that continues to be true even today. However, no attorney needs to get clients in any one particular way. What you do need is a plan.
When I talk about systems for my clients, it's really nothing more than a cohesive plan that has been broken down into small, concrete steps that my client can follow on a day-by-day or even hour-by-hour basis. The last thing you want to be doing in your marketing is floating around from one idea to another. "Perhaps today I'll try advertising in magazines, even though my focus yesterday was on search engine optimization."
It's not that you can't attack multiple marketing routes, even at the same time; on the contrary, I have many successful clients who do just that. But what they don't do is wake up each morning trying to decide what to do that day. They already know, because they have a system in place.
Before you run off and build your own system for attorney marketing, let me give you one important tip. Your system can change, but it should change at most once per week. You should sit down every Sunday night and try to figure out what you might need to tweak about your marketing plan, and if you think a lot of change is necessary, then by all means, change it. However, when Friday morning rolls around, you should be sticking to whatever plan you landed on Sunday night, and you should have been doing so all week.
I hope this helps, and future posts will talk a bit more about specific systems, but in the mean time, GET GOING!!
If you're like most attorneys, then you've even tried following much of the advice that you've read or been told, with varying levels of success. I know because I've been in your position as an attorney (or with a law firm) trying desperately to get more clients. It's not easy.
The problem, though, is not that you are listening to the wrong advice. The problem is that you likely don't have a well-thought-out and coordinated system of marketing in place. It's the system that is the key.
Attorneys and law firms can get clients in many, many different ways. Traditionally, referrals from past clients or colleagues have been a huge source of clients, and that continues to be true even today. However, no attorney needs to get clients in any one particular way. What you do need is a plan.
When I talk about systems for my clients, it's really nothing more than a cohesive plan that has been broken down into small, concrete steps that my client can follow on a day-by-day or even hour-by-hour basis. The last thing you want to be doing in your marketing is floating around from one idea to another. "Perhaps today I'll try advertising in magazines, even though my focus yesterday was on search engine optimization."
It's not that you can't attack multiple marketing routes, even at the same time; on the contrary, I have many successful clients who do just that. But what they don't do is wake up each morning trying to decide what to do that day. They already know, because they have a system in place.
Before you run off and build your own system for attorney marketing, let me give you one important tip. Your system can change, but it should change at most once per week. You should sit down every Sunday night and try to figure out what you might need to tweak about your marketing plan, and if you think a lot of change is necessary, then by all means, change it. However, when Friday morning rolls around, you should be sticking to whatever plan you landed on Sunday night, and you should have been doing so all week.
I hope this helps, and future posts will talk a bit more about specific systems, but in the mean time, GET GOING!!
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