Marketing For Lawyers - Mistakes Attorneys Make--and How to Avoid Them, Mistake #6
.jpg)
MARKETING MISTAKE 6:
Focusing On Services and Features Instead Of Benefits and Results in Law firm marketing
Marketing Mistake #6 is focusing on services and features rather than benefits and results. I came across law firm websites the other day that listed on their home page more than 20 different “packages, programs, and services” along with all the different pricing structures they offer to businesses.
This is ridiculous! People don’t care about the different programs and packages you offer. If the truth was told, they don’t really care that you're licensed, certified, registered, or accredited.
They expect everyone they work with to be competent, just like they expect every product they buy to be a quality one. When it comes to doing business with you, your clients only care about three things:
The Benefits they receive.
The Value they perceive.
The Results they achieve.
Highly-successful attorneys don’t sell their services as part of their law firm marketing plan. Instead, they focus on selling the benefits they offer, the value they provide, and the results they achieve.
Your service is simply the tool or the process you use to solve problems and to achieve the results. Don’t focus on the process of small law firm marketing—focus on the results, the benefits, and the value you bring to the situation.
Let's say you're an attorney who in your marketing your law firm targets high net worth females. Instead of saying you “help people prepare for their retirement,” focus on the value you provide and benefits you offer by stating:
“I work with high net worth females to help them create a comprehensive financial plan, allowing them to feel safe and secure about their retirement years while providing for their children so that they can continue to lead healthy, productive, and confident lives.”
As an attorney who specializes in small business employment law, don’t focus on creating a comprehensive list of all your services. Clearly identify your ideal target market, small business
owners with revenues of $5MM to $50MM, recognize their points of pain, and tell them how you help them resolve their pain.
“Our law firm concentrates in helping small business owners avoid 20 common mistakes when hiring and firing employees and limit their risk of facing costly litigation or negative press.”
******************************************************************************
If you weren’t able to attend the recent Rainmaker Retreat we have the 2 Day Marketing Boot Camp for Attorneys Live on CD. Set includes 6 audio CDs and a 70 page PDF Marketing Manual. Over 6,000 attorneys from hundreds of law firms across the country have discovered how to generate more referrals and find new clients by simply applying our Rainmaker Marketing System. Click here to order
Marketing For Lawyers - Mistakes Attorneys Make--and How to Avoid Them, Mistake #5
.jpg)
MARKETING MISTAKE 5:
NOT TESTING AND RETESTING YOUR LAW FIRM MARKETING EFFORTS
Not testing your marketing efforts is like going through an entire jury trial but neglecting to hear the verdict. Here's a great little litmus test to apply to your lawyer marketing efforts:
If you can't measure it, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.
I recommend you try to measure your every marketing effort and if you can't measure it, you probably shouldn’t be doing it because you can never be sure about your results other than basing them on a feeling or your intuition.
In marketing for attorneys - Every marketing effort you make should have at least one to two things you are testing. For example:
Let's say you own an accounting firm and you want to do some direct mailings. You decide as part of your marketing plan to send out 1000 postcards to prospects on your mailing list to invite them to contact you.
Develop two postcards with two different headlines:
• Postcard 1 says: “Every year most small business owners overpay 22% on their federal taxes due to errors made by their accountant. Call today for your FREE report on 10 common mistakes accountants make that cost you money.”
• Postcard 2 says: “Last year the IRS conducted audits on 425,729 small businesses that cost the average owner 276 hours of their time and $9, 223 in legal and accounting fees. Call today to receive your free 75 question checklist and how to audit-proof your business in 5 easy
steps.”
• Then divide your mailing list into two groups of 500 each and track the results by putting a different code word on the bottom of each group of postcards. When prospects contact you to receive their free report ask them for the code word to track which headline produces better results.
You can use a similar strategy for many different marketing tactics. For example, if you're offering a discount for your product in a newspaper ad—try offering a percent off the retail price for two months, then try offering a specific dollar amount off for two months and track the results. Or if you use email and law firm Internet marketing strategies, create two different landing pages on your law firm websites with two different offers and see which one “pulls in” more prospects to your email list.
Always look for ways you can test your efforts, but don’t introduce too many variables at once because if you're trying to measure three or more variables you can never be sure which one is responsible for the results.
******************************************************************************
Step your law firm marketing strategy into high gear. Register for your private consultation today. A Private Consultation is just the beginning to what could be one of the best decisions you have ever made for your practices and yourself! Here are 3 ways to register for your Private Consultation:
- Call 888-588-5891
- Email Diane, Director of Client Relations at Diane@TheRainmakerInstitute.com
- Click here to purchase online.
When you register by email or online someone will contact you within 24 hours to set up your appointment.
Marketing for Lawyers - Mistakes Attorneys Make--and How to Avoid Them Mistake #2
.jpg)
Law Firm Marketing MISTAKE 2:
TARGETING THE WRONG MARKET
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see among attorneys especially in small law firm marketing—targeting the wrong market. Identifying and targeting the right market for your services is the most important thing you can do marketing your law firm to ensure the success of your practice. If you don’t target the right market, nothing else you do will matter.
Let me give you an example.
As a law firm marketing consultant I was talking with a lawyer in Chicago and asking her about her target market. She said that her target market was small business owners who were too small to need in-house counsel or who couldn’t afford the high priced downtown lawyers. They needed someone who understood the legal issues small businesses face and who offered them a flexible payment plan.
I asked her, “Do you know how many small business owners there are here in Chicago?”
“No,” she replied.
I stated, “Recently, Crain’s Chicago business magazine reported there were over 300,000 small business owners here in Chicago.
“Now, I've never been very good at math, but for the sake of illustration, let's say that only 50 percent of those business owners needed or wanted your services, that’s a pretty large task trying to reach 150,000 prospects even once.”
Marketing research has shown that it takes seven “touches” before a prospective client becomes a client. The Law of 7 Touches is based on research that found it takes an average of 7 to 10 meaningful touches EVERY YEAR to move someone through the cycle from not knowing anything about you to being ready to buy from you.
This is just the average, not a guarantee, because in hypercompetitive markets, like legal services, it often takes many more touches than that. In addition, it also takes consistency.
There are also ways you can speed up this process and create multiple touches all at once by being highly-targeted in your marketing materials; using technology like law firm internet marketing, law firm websites and using mail delivered by the post office.
In general, only 3 percent to 5 percent of your target market is ready to buy at any given time. Therefore, it’s how you reach the other 95 percent to 97 percent that will make or break your business. You must consistently be in front of your prospects to be at the top of their minds when they are ready to buy.
Now that you know The Law of 7 Touches, you can better understand why it’s so vital to narrow your target market in your law firm marketing plan. Remember the story I told about the Chicago attorney who targeted small business? Well, according to The Law of 7 Touches, you multiply this lawyer’s 150,000 prospects by a factor of 7, maybe 10. That means she would need to produce 1 to 1.5 million meaningful touches every year. Considering both her time and money, there is no possible way a typical solo practitioner could do that and smart business owners who are also smart marketers won't even try.
*****************************************************************************
Do you want to know what will move you to the front page of Google faster than anything else? Join us on August 5th for a 60 minute webinar led by Kevin O’Keefe, President and Founder of LexBlog and learn how blogging will really make a difference in your practice. Click here to learn How to attend this Session and Receive Your Digital Audio Clip...
