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Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. Law Firm Marketing Reality Check For many years I thought marketing was about selling things to people. I thought it was about telling people how great my service was, explaining how smart I was, showing them the benefits of hiring me and then closing the deal. That’s what many of the books I read on marketing told me to do. Boy was that a big mistake. Over time I came to learn that marketing professional services, particularly law firm marketing, is not about benefits and closing the deal. Marketing in professional services is about three things. Those three things are: 1). Building a Relationship with Your Prospective Client/Referral Source 2). Educating the Prospective Client/Referral Source 3). Differentiating Your Law Firm from All the Others Here’s what I mean: Building a Relationship This is the primary purpose of attorney marketing. Working with a lawyer is a personal decision. The prospective client must know you, like you and trust you before they will work with you or refer you. You get people to like you by being yourself in your marketing. Law firm marketing is not like being in court and it is not like writing an opinion letter. It is about creating authentic relationships with people who may not use your services or refer you for years. Being yourself means using common language and conveying information in a natural way. If you blog, write in exactly the same way you speak. If you are giving a talk to a group of executives, do not use legal jargon. Speak like a human being. When you are networking, talk about life and not about the law. People want to trust their lawyer but they also need to like him. Be yourself and be interested in your client’s life outside of the matter you are handling. First develop a relationship and the business will follow. Education is a Great Law Firm Marketing Strategy This is an important component of your marketing but you need to be careful about how you do it. You want to teach your referral sources and prospective clients about what you do and about the law but you do not want to come off as condescending. You do this by presenting your information within a story or a case study. Nobody appreciates a lecture but everyone loves a good story. Teach people how you can help them by telling them a story that illustrates your learning objective. Differentiation Many people use common characteristics as points of differentiation. Look around the Internet and you will see this. Things like, being a former prosecutor or being a former judge, 30 years practicing law, graduate of Harvard Law School, etc. Those things are important and they should be included in your marketing but those things are not enough. Here are a two ways to truly differentiate your law firm. Differentiation Through Communication Set up a system and a schedule for communication with your clients. Give them regular (weekly, biweekly or monthly) updates on their case. Schedule these calls, send these emails, even if there is nothing new to report. Do this because this is important to the client. But schedule it in advance. Then explain to future clients (and to referral sources) that you have this process in place. The number one reason lawyers get fired is because of a failure of communication. Show the client right from the beginning that you are different in this area. Differentiation Through Your Fee Structure Look at how your competitors are charging their clients and do the opposite. If they are charging hourly, immediately move to a flat fee model. If they are charging a flat fee you must figure out how to include more services (or a longer term relationship) in your flat fee agreement. This is not a race toward becoming the cheapest lawyer in town. It is a race to providing the best value. You can charge more than everyone else you just have to provide more value to justify that fee. Communication and fees are two of the easiest ways to differentiate your law firm from the others. There are hundreds more. Find some and use them in your marketing. Law firm marketing is not the same as marketing a box of detergent. Do not get the two confused. Law firm marketing is personal. You must make sure you give it the time and attention it deserves. Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/law_firm_marketing_reality_check/