In today’s world, businesses are constantly evolving to fit new customer needs and to keep up with changing consumer demands. One of the biggest evolutions is how businesses market themselves. Today, legal professionals look to have a greater impact on a company’s bottom line, so they must find innovative ways to attract potential clients.
Accordingly, when creating a marketing plan for your law firm, you must keep in mind that the approach you take will fundamentally change how you engage with your audience. As the name suggests, Marketing is about marketing your business to generate profit, and although you might see it as just a buzzword, your marketing strategy will dictate the approach you take to generate these profits. Here’s a breakdown of the process, including what you should know, what you need to do, and what you can expect to see happen.
Know Your Audience
Before you start marketing your law firm, you must know who you are targeting. Are you aiming your marketing efforts at existing clients or are you trying to attract new ones? In order to answer this question, you must consider your existing customer base as well as any potential new customers that may come your way. For instance, if you notice that your existing customers are mostly men between the ages of 30 and 50, you might want to consider focusing your marketing efforts on this audience. Knowing your audience’s demographics and psychographics can help you tailor your content to appeal to them.
In addition to demographics and psychographics, you should also know your audience’s interests and hobbies. Do they like to go to the movies or do they prefer to stay at home and watch TV? What type of content do they prefer—news articles, videos, or something in-between? These questions will help you determine how you want to approach your content.
Understand the Value Proposition
Simply put, a value proposition is a statement that describes a product or service and its unique selling point. In marketing, a firm’s value proposition is its unique selling point or USP. In simple terms, the value proposition for a law firm is the combination of the following:
- The name of the law firm
- Its location
- The types of cases it handles
- The quality of its staff
- The accessibility of its services
- How it structures its pricing
- And last but not least, its promise of a speedy resolution
The idea behind your value proposition is to provide potential clients with a clear picture of what they’ll get should they choose your law firm. At the same time, you must also ensure you communicate the value proposition in a way that is actionable and memorable. In other words, you want to ensure that when someone hears or sees your value proposition, they immediately understand what it is that you offer, and as a result, choose your law firm. Your value proposition should not be confused with your pitch—your pitch is the synopsis of your value proposition!
Determine Your Target Audience
As mentioned above, you can use demographics and psychographics to help you determine the target audience for your law firm. These are the individuals who will most benefit from or be interested in what you have to offer. For example, if you are targeting people who live in Los Angeles, you might want to consider featuring videos of Los Angeles lawyers discussing various legal topics. Videos of famous actors explaining legal concepts in easy-to-understand language might also pull in the right audience. Of course, you can’t please everybody, but you can certainly try.
Content Is King
The content you use to engage with your audience will depend on the platform you use to reach them. For example, if you have a Blogger blog, you might want to consider using a ton of short, snappy articles to draw in potential clients.
On the other hand, if you have a LinkedIn group, you could use a variety of content that is longer and more detailed.
Ultimately, it’s all about what works best for your firm. You can use the same 20-point checklist to help you determine what works best for your firm.