| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
How to Put Law & Order into Marketing Your Legal Practice
First in a series of three articles Regardless of your law firm's focus - criminal, civil, corporate, family, business, etc. - the greatest challenge most small to mid-size firms face is the lack of a strategic and disciplined approach to business development. Relying on referrals does not a strategy make! And waiting to get serious about marketing until that major case is wrapped up is way too late. Whether you're frustrated with past marketing efforts that have been expensive, time-consuming, and haven't paid off?or you think you can't afford to take a sophisticated, results-driven approach to business development like the big firms do, guess again. While your firm may not have its own in-house marketing expert on staff or the generous marketing budgets that the larger firms enjoy, you can systematically and affordably attract more clients than you ever thought possible. It just takes a thoughtful strategy that leverages the laws of marketing, and an ordered approach to stay on track. Laws of Marketing First and foremost, marketing is NOT about brochures, websites, advertising or cold calls. These things may or may not be tools that make sense for your firm, once you've leveraged the laws of marketing. There are two basic laws of marketing1 that must be mastered by professional service providers who want to stop wasting time and money on ineffective marketing efforts. They are: 1. Build your base (carefully craft your message) 2. Reach out to your market (build and nurture relationships) Here's a quick look at what each of these laws requires? Build Your Base. This law means spending thoughtful time defining your firm's niche, developing language that grabs your prospects' attention, articulating what makes your firm stand out from other firms offering the same services, demonstrating your value, and illustrating your firm's authority to deliver better than all other choices. Unfortunately, 90% of professional service firms ignore the law of "build your base" and rush to communicate about their firm without a carefully articulated message. This leaves your target audience unconvinced or, at best, confused about how your firm can serve them better than all others vying for their attention. Invest a little time in building your firm's base, and you'll be ahead of most of your competitors. Reach Out to Your Market. This law involves developing and implementing a system of strategies to build and sustain relationships with your target market and current clients. They are executed both offline and online. They are done systematically and repeatedly. They work in synergy to create an unstoppable buzz and attraction to your firm that takes on a desirable life of its own, once you've put them in place. These strategies include things like networking, direct outreach (personal or mass mail), PR, articles and speaking, keep-in-touch systems, using technology to attract, develop, and retain relationships; tapping centers of influence, developing joint ventures, launching a client relationship strategy, using a customer creation system, pursuing a relationship selling strategy, introducing a win-win fee strategy, and developing next-level strategies for current clients. Orderly Conduct This is the hard part for most law firms...making marketing happen is a function of carving out the time from precious billable hours - not an easy task! However, you can do it, especially if you take a disciplined and orderly approach to staying on track. This means you have to? Get focused. Schedule a meeting with key decision-makers in your firm to discuss making a commitment to marketing. You don't have to make any major decisions at this first meeting, except determine how much time you can commit weekly to your firm's marketing efforts. Start small (2 hours per person) and put it in your schedules. Then schedule your next marketing meeting to discuss the results of your homework, the attached Are You Ready for a TurningPointe? marketing assessment! Get organized. Use the results of the marketing assessment to stimulate discussion about where to start. At this point, if you've not done market strategy and planning before, call in an expert. It'll save you lots of time in the end, since you'll START with a strategic marketing plan that makes sense for your firm and is realistic to implement. Some basics to consider when developing your plan include: ? Keep it simple; don't take on too much at once. Spread out your deadlines. ? Identify a mix of short-term, easily implemented goals and longer-term, harder-to-implement goals. Build in some quick "wins" for an immediate return on your investment. ? Prioritize but be flexible; be willing to change dates or put things on hold when other marketing priorities make sense (which means you don't stop, you just shift). ? Identify the obstacles (people, time, money, lack of expertise, etc.) that could derail you and plan tasks for how to overcome them. ? Plan for how to make marketing a reward, not a punishment. Build in rewards for people who take time from billable hours to market. Stay on track. At a minimum, guard one hour every week for a status check on your marketing plan - even if you're a solo practitioner, that means making an appointment with yourself! The mere act of focused thinking or discussion about marketing every week will make an enormous difference in your ability to attract more clients. Once you have a smart plan in place that's realistic (see Get Organized, above), all you have to do is focus on taking one step at a time, then another, and another. Each small marketing task builds momentum and before you know it, you've implemented a major goal. The key is to keep moving?or if you stop, get restarted. It also helps to have "accountability" to an outside party, who keeps you on track through regular telephone and in-person coaching sessions. The Defense Rests So your practice has a stellar track record of client victories, you do good work that you care about, and you know your contribution makes a positive difference in the lives of your clients. What if you could reach more clients than you ever thought possible with all that you offer? Apply the laws of marketing through an ordered plan of action that keeps you on track, and you will. Case closed. References 1 Middleton, R. Laws of Marketing TeleClass. Action Plan Marketing, Inc. 2003. (c) 2004 TurningPointe Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Mail Orders Most Common Mistakes THE GREAT MAIL ORDER MYTH There are a number of totally unrealistic beliefs about the mail order business. To belive in any of them can be dangerous to your pocketbook. Marketing Flat? Is It Your Plan or Your Vision? 60+ hour workweeks, cash flows that constantly keep you up at night, stress and more stress again. Payroll due in two days (where the heck is that going to come from?) Does this sound like your business? Is your business a job with the most fickle, disloyal boss of all. The Top Ten Ways to Get Beyond Networking And Generate Cash-Building Exposure Gain the exposure you need to succeed with these ten tips:1. Present yourself as a specialist and/or an authority in your field. Collecting Customer Data The Easy Way Market research is a critical component of any marketing strategy. There are many expensive sources of customer information available today. Identifying, Creating and Using Your USP? What's your USP? Don't know, or worse still, you've never heard of it.USP is an acronym for Unique Selling Proposition. The Death of Product Packaging as We Know It. It used to be you that if you had a great product you put it in a package and voila! . . 4 Sales Strategies with Your Trade Show Exhibition Booth Trade show booths can act as an excellent source for generating sales enquiries in the short run. Companies are able to demonstrate their products or services and get instant enquiries at the booth which on timely follow up can result in sales. Great Marketing is Like Making a Great Movie KNOW YOUR AUDIENCEThe Oscars will be handed out soon, and it's a perfect time to keep this in mind: If you're a business owner or manager, it's wise to think of yourself as a great film director who's telling a story. Having directed films, stage, television, and stage productions we noticed that the principles of great directing or filmmaking apply exactly to great marketing. Fertilizer For Your Grassroots Marketing Looking for a great way to drive traffic to your business? No million dollar ad budget last time you checked? The solution may be to harness the power of grassroots marketing.Grassroots marketing is simply taking the unconventional approach to getting people interested in what you offer. Direct Marketing Puts Information In The Buyer's Hands Direct marketing is advertising from a manufacturer or front-end supplier directed to the ultimate consumer of a product or service. Another way of looking at direct marketing is selling to a consumer directly, whether is from a printed magazine campaign, TV or radio spot, or from a direct mail package. After The Mailing Is Done, What Happens Next? If you're doing any sort of marketing effort, whether it's getting news coverage or sending a postcard, you must be prepared for what happens next. If you're sending postcards promoting your business, and you have people working for you, tell them that you sent the card. The Marketing Recipe: Money, Marketing and Me - 3 Keys For Success You have a great product or service? Now, how should you market it?You have to make others know about what you have to offer. There is no good in having a great idea if you don't know how to sell it, right?Your motivation is financial independence (MONEY); you establish a quality product (your service), and you go out into the harsh competitive world and sell it (MARKETING) while you also sell yourself (ME)!Here are a few tips and a real example which you should keep in mind in order to prospect. Translation and Your International E-Commerce Strategy Most businesses realize that they are simply a click away from any corner of the globe. Well, actually two if you include the Yahoo! search a potential customer does to access your shopping cart. Using Flyers In Your Business If you are not using flyers in your business you are missing out. Flyers can be used to sell your product, promote your product, promote your services, and in a number of other areas. Whats In It For Me? Sometimes, one of the most difficult things to teach beginning sales professionals is the difference between features and benefits. All too frequently, sales people list their product or service features, without articulating how those features will ultimately benefit that prospect or customer. How To Be A First Class Marketer? Did you now how to follow up a new customer with less phone calls?First thing for you to know that you only have about 5 minutes for first follow up in the phone. The rest of that is a meeting arrangement. The X Factor So you've invested more time than you ever believed possible on your website and in optimizing the pages for the search engines. Having sacrificed weekends and holidays, you've ensured that your site ranks in the Top 10. The Easiest Marketing Plan Youll Ever Find When it comes to marketing there's simply too many choices. I often find clients are totally perplexed about which marketing tools they should use and how to use them. Marketing Strategy - Whats Your System? Where Do Most of Your Clients Come From?Is it from your marketing and sales system?When I meet people for the first time and they understand that I'm a marketing consultant, I'm frequently asked, "Where do most of your clients come from?" Many times I believe the question is asked innocently enough. But, quite often I feel like the person asking wants to know if I have a magic answer that might work for them. Go Guerrilla Jay Conrad Levinson coined the term guerrilla marketing, which I define as low-cost, creative and typically self-implemented public relations techniques.Here are a few thoughts that might spawn some ideas for your own business.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
