20 Tips for Marketing Your Law Firm in Tough Times (Tips 1-5)
When economic times get tough, law firm marketing is often the first line item to be lopped from the budget.
That’s extremely unfortunate, because this is precisely the time when you need to increase the number of clients you’re serving; find new clients in new markets to serve and/or increase the amount of revenue you get from current clients.
And it’s only through law firm marketing that you can do all three.
So to help you and your law firm through these tough economic times, I want to share with you 20 tips for marketing your law firm. (My thanks to the Marketing Psychology Group for their article “20 Marketing Tips for Hard Times” that provided the ideas for these tips.)
With this blog post, we’ll cover Tips 1-5.
1. Know your target audiences—This translates to know your clients. What kind of legal cases do you want to get? What kind of person would need your help? You need to know what appeals to them in words, images and even in the results a client desires by hiring you as his or her lawyer.
This may also open up a discussion on what kind of business you want. Is your law firm successful by a volume number of cases? Or is your law firm successful through the quality of its cases and clients? Both business models work; however, the target audience—or client---is different for each method.
2. Know what each client group REALLY wants to buy—People don’t really buy a product or service; they buy to satisfy a specific set of personal motivations.
So what kind of lawyer do your clients want? Do they want a legal shark that will tear up the competition? Do they want someone to understand them and perhaps just find a way to settle the case out of court quietly?
3. Remember to sell to all who influence the buying decision—From a legal marketing perspective, you need to consider who will be involved in the decision to hire you. If you’re working with elder law cases, you’ll need to consider the elder’s children who are approaching your firm with a case. The client is ultimately the elderly person, but you need to also impress the children who are seeking an attorney on their parent’s behalf.
4. Use positioning to gain market share—You must not only give your potential clients reasons for buying the legal services, but also give them reasons for buying these services from YOU. You have to help them determine if they have a valid case and why you would be the best person to represent them.
5. Make your message clear—Because many people struggle to understand what their rights are, you should explain their rights to them through your legal marketing and in your discussions with them. Let them know what they are entitled to, whether it’s in a divorce, in a work situation or in filing for bankruptcy. Simplify it for clients so they can walk away knowing exactly what you want to do for them.
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