Law and Justice

Posts Tagged ‘Market’

Your law firm’s best marketing tool is your client base. “Reality-based” marketing is taking the lead over campaigns that once dedicated millions to hiring paid celebrities to promote your services. Why? Clients are “real” people who can tell “real” stories about how your business helped them, inspired them or offers the most desirable services.

Adopt a system for ongoing interviews with past and present clients that will help you shape your marketing message, personalize it and win your firm new business.

In addition to creating a powerful marketing tool, you also will have established a system to continually improve or expand your services. Don’t just ask clients what they like about the firm; ask them how you can make things better for them if they don’t like your firm, or ask if you should expand services.

Major law firms will spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on full-time or outside personnel to create and conduct client reviews, and much more incorporating findings into marketing tools. If you’d be willing to use some sweat equity and not dip into your budget, then solo attorneys and smaller law firms can capitalize on their client reviews that were successful.

5 Easy Steps to Market Client Reviews

1. Adopt a client interview system. The 500-lawyer firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll (www.ballardspahr.com) in Philadelphia hired a full-time “client interviewer” this year, utilizing the services of a veteran journalist to conduct regular interviews of existing clients to learn how to improve services. The goal was to capture unbiased results. Solo entrepreneurs and small law firms can use this approach without incurring the additional expense of hiring another full-time staff member by taking steps to ensure that a client questionnaire is unbiased in the questions asked, and open-ended to allow clients to volunteer comments.

2. Integrate positive client responses into your marketing campaign. Personal testimonials are a powerful marketing tool, and clients you interview can become your chief selling point. It’s not enough to only ask clients what they like or do not like about your small firm; ask if there was a problem that was solved for them. With their permission, fine-tune their response into two to five paragraphs, and post this information with a photograph (to further personalize your client testimonial) on your Web site and in your brochures and other handouts.

3. Integrate client testimonials into your advertising campaign. The 13-office firm Sedgwick, Detert Moran & Arnold (www.sdma.com) was a first-place winner this year at the Legal Marketing Association’s annual award ceremonies in Boston for its promotional series of internal posters that became external marketing materials. The “Women’s Forum” campaign featured on client and attorney relationships with breezy copy and attention-getting photographs of lawyers and clients.

4. Make client reviews part of your long-term marketing mix. The time you invest in capturing client reviews and using them as marketing tools can also become a strong addition to your annual reports and to permanent features of your Web site with special sections designed to focus on client testimonials.

5. Update client reviews every year. Every year, update client reviews. Your goal is to seek additional reviews from new clients, and also to revisit clients already interviewed for new comments and new insights on how to make your client interview process better. You can determine if you are providing the services your clients really want, while getting their active feedback and simultaneously building trust and loyalty while using your marketing to create new business.

With the astounding growth of the online world, it has become absolutely necessary for every personal injury attorney to have an internet marketing strategy.

The basic idea behind law firm marketing on the internet is to be found wherever your prospects are looking. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project’s recent “Internet Impact” report, 73% of all American adults are online. That means that unless your law firm is using internet marketing to its advantage, you are missing out on an incredible amount of new business!

Consider your law firm’s target market and have a look some of the study’s more specific findings:

88% of 18-29 year-olds go online

84% of 30-49 year-olds go online

71% of 50-64 year-olds go online

80% of adults with a household income of

between $30,000 and $50,000 go online

86% of adults with a household income of

between $50,000 and $75,000 go online

91% of adults with a household income of over

$75,000 go online

The widespread adoption of the internet has made it possible for you to become more visible than ever before while also giving you the opportunity to position yourself as a personal injury lawyer that can be trusted.

In today’s world, when somebody is looking for a personal injury attorney, they no longer refer to the phone book or the local paper; they turn to search engines such as Yahoo or Google. Unless your law firm is ranked well in the search engines or has a healthy pay-per-click program, you won’t be found.

Even if somebody isn’t looking for a personal injury attorney, but simply searching for information about injuries and the law; your law firm can still be found through other methods of internet marketing, such as article marketing or blogging. These strategies will allow you to build trust in case they need a personal injury lawyer at a later time.

Another great thing about internet marketing is that it’s one of the least expensive methods for your law firm to reach its key prospects. Creating a website is a one-time fee, article marketing and blogging are free, and paying for hosting is dirt cheap. In fact, even pay-per-click campaigns can be much more affordable than offline advertising. The bottom line is this: if you’re looking for a strong return on investment, you will certainly be pleased with internet marketing!

Instead of searching for clients high and low, go where they are searching when they need a personal injury lawyer… go online!

If your law firm is not growing (or worse yet, shrinking) and your revenue stream is down to a trickle, it’s high time to start being proactive with your marketing. One of the most important aspects of successful law firm marketing is the ability to clearly define and demonstrate the services which you offer. Put yourself in the shoes of your client for a moment. If you are not employing proven legal marketing techniques to tell them what you have to offer, why should they buy from you? If you don’t tell prospects how you are different from your competitors they will assume you are basically the same and start shopping you on price.

After many years of studying effective law firm marketing strategies, I have seen a common problem. Many attorneys communicate with prospective clients in a way clients do not understand. One of the biggest mistakes a lawyer can make is to use “legal jargon” when speaking with prospects. No one wants to feel stupid and would rather save face than risk embarrassment by asking you to define what you believe is a “common legal term”. Effective marketing for attorneys relies on your ability to be understood; without a clear understanding of what you can do for them, most clients will head for the nearest exit.

As a lawyer, you must uncover the words and phrases your clients use to describe their goals, challenges and problems. You must cross their “language barrier” before you can begin to entice them to learn more about how you can help them. For example, unless they have experienced it most people don’t know the difference between Chapter 7, 11, and 13 bankruptcy. Nor do they know the difference between a will, living trust, and an estate plan.

Here is a simple exercise which will help you accurately demonstrate your product and services:

1. Write down the terms and language you use to describe what you do to another professional in your field.

2. Now, write down the key words and phrases your clients use to describe your services to you. (If you can’t complete this step, start asking your clients and listen to them as they describe their problems.) Your ability to succeed in law firm marketing will rely, in part, on your willingness to write down the key words and phrases your clients are using and committing them to memory.

These two lists should be very different. If they overlap by 50% or more, you are probably not listening closely enough to prospects and clients. It is recommended that you go back to square one and ask more questions, listening more intently, if you expect your legal marketing efforts to be effective.

Review your current marketing materials closely.

Are they filled with terms from your list or your client’s list?

Which list of words predominate your legal marketing material, like your website and brochure?

Do your materials read like you are primarily addressing other attorneys or your prospects?

Is your marketing material filled with legal jargon and in-depth technical descriptions of your services? If so, remove them.

Could the “average man/woman” on the street pick up this material and know exactly who your ideal client is and how you can help them in thirty seconds or less?

Failing to cross your prospect’s language barrier is a common mistake seen in all forms of legal marketing. By spending the necessary time to analyze and update brochures, marketing materials and ads you will greatly improve your ability to connect with prospects and convince them to hire you.