Law Marketing 101 For New Attorneys
Law schools do not really give specific instructions on honing your skills in getting clients. So a lawyer knows the law and the intricacies of the legal practice; the other important skill he has to acquire is how to sell his practice – and his firm – to the public.
While it is inherent among many lawyers to be adept at marketing, there are still a number of those who aren’t as lucky, who need a lot of guidance before they can be competent in law firm marketing. I would like to quickly throw out a few guidelines that I think all successful law firms follow for good marketing. There are a lot more than what will be listed, though. On the contrary, it is a starting point that I wish I had when I was just beginning.
Perform Targeting
Notice how all the firms who are huge successes have very focused targeting tactics when it comes to getting clients. No matter how wide and varied the range of specializations a firm has, its size or the number of lawyers under its employ, targeting still plays a major role in their overall marketing programs. For instance, a major law firm would not necessarily target its marketing efforts on both capital markets and leveraged finance, even though it may be capable of handling both types of transactions. Law firms make use of extreme targeting in their attorney marketing because it gives the impression of being experts in that said area of specialization.
Being seen as an expert in a specific branch of law would give the public and the potential clients the impression that you are very knowledgeable and skilled in that area. You probably know that their matter is not as unique as they’d like to believe it is, but even so, any attempt to convince potential clients of that fact just means that they’ll probably never become actual clients. If you have established yourself and your practice to have the expertise that they especially require, then their assent and that signed contract is pretty much in the bag.
Getting in the Client’s Head
There should also be room in the marketing plan for the concerns of potential clients to be discussed and addressed. A lot of law firms try to use their marketing to impress potential clients with everything that they know and how good they are. High success rates and distinctions may impress potential clients, but that is not all they consider in making that final decision on whether to hire you or look elsewhere; they may have other concerns unknown to you.
One of these concerns is how many lawyers give the impression of not really taking their cases seriously. True or not, if you feel like this is a particular concern in your target market, make this a primary focus in your marketing campaign. It won’t matter if you are the world’s leading expert in your field of law so long as potential clients think that you won’t take them seriously or respond to their needs quickly. It is important to personally address the potential clients’ concerns and be responsive.
If, after much assessment, you decide you need more clients or that your marketing strategy needs more work, set aside some time to sit down on it and make a list of all the possible concerns of your potential clients according to their traits and characteristics. Identify those in the list that are considered the more serious concerns and work your way down, using them as your basis to modifying your marketing system.