Setting up your Law Firm Marketing - A Systematic Approach
I'll get into this more in later posts, but if you're serious about your law firm marketing, then you need to have a system set up. By a system, I really mean 2 parts: (i) a set of goals and (ii) very specific, assigned tasks with deadlines to reach those goals.
To begin, you really need to sit down (with your partners and associates if you have them) and come up with a definite plan of who you're going to target and what kind of marketing you'll use to target those potential clients. Get everyone involved, as it will make it more likely that they'll then buy into actually carrying out the marketing plan.
After you've got a definite plan, the most important step is to delegate tasks to different people and set realistic but aggressive deadlines. Each task should be very insular and specific, so "get 1 real estate client" is pointless because it has no specificity about the actions that are to be taken. Much better would be "attend the local real estate networking event on February 20th and come back with 3 contacts to follow up with." Even if this doesn't lead to a single client yet, it's a definite step to take, and it has a definite timeframe.
To begin, you really need to sit down (with your partners and associates if you have them) and come up with a definite plan of who you're going to target and what kind of marketing you'll use to target those potential clients. Get everyone involved, as it will make it more likely that they'll then buy into actually carrying out the marketing plan.
After you've got a definite plan, the most important step is to delegate tasks to different people and set realistic but aggressive deadlines. Each task should be very insular and specific, so "get 1 real estate client" is pointless because it has no specificity about the actions that are to be taken. Much better would be "attend the local real estate networking event on February 20th and come back with 3 contacts to follow up with." Even if this doesn't lead to a single client yet, it's a definite step to take, and it has a definite timeframe.
Where will your law firm find new clients in 2012?
It's a new year, and as always, everyone is looking forward and making resolutions. The past few years have been relatively slow for many businesses here in the United States, and, more than ever, many people are focusing their New Year's resolutions on finding new clients and customers for their businesses.
Law firms, just like every other business, have faced increasing difficulty over the past few years when it comes to finding new clients. Obviously, some firms do better than others in terms of new clients, but many lawyers are struggling to make ends meet. Fortunately, there are ways of getting ahead of your competition, both locally and in your field, if you know where to look.
Law firms, just like every other business, have faced increasing difficulty over the past few years when it comes to finding new clients. Obviously, some firms do better than others in terms of new clients, but many lawyers are struggling to make ends meet. Fortunately, there are ways of getting ahead of your competition, both locally and in your field, if you know where to look.
Throughout much of the past century, attorneys and lawyers have focused on getting clients through outbound marketing techniques. Lawyers have pitched themselves to businesses who need their services, they pay to advertise in periodicals that potential clients are likely to read, and the advertise on TV and radio, hoping that potential clients will hear them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of these types of marketing, and they've worked quite well for a lot of law firms for a long time.
However, there's a better way. Inbound Marketing is the new standard in marketing, and it's been made possible largely by revolutions in technology. Today, more than ever, consumers are using the resources at their fingertips to seek out the products and services that they need. Even when consumers are in brick and mortar stores, they often use their mobile devices to compare prices and look up reviews. The end result of this use of technology is that consumers are both more savvy and are also more active in their selection of goods and services.
Law Firms are no different in this respect. Potential clients of law firms are using the internet and their mobile devices to search for and read reviews of attorneys and law firms that they are thinking about hiring. In addition, if someone is facing a legal problem, they will likely use the internet to look up advice regarding that particular legal problem. But how does this help you?
If you have a good game plan in place, you can use all of this to your advantage. In particular, you can place your law firm in a position online where it will be highly visible when potential clients are searching either for legal services or for answers to their legal issues. In either case, your visibility will allow your law firm to capture many of these leads and turn them into actual clients. |
As with any business, the end goal for your law firm should be to help as many clients as possible. Everything else (whether it's money or just helping people) will follow. In addition, having more potential clients allows you to be selective in the types of clients that you take on, which only increases further your ability to control your own legal practice.