Market smarter and get stronger leads Times are uncertain at the moment but your marketing shouldn't be.
Times are uncertain at the moment but your marketing shouldn't be.
Though businesses are looking positive and Australia is getting back to normal, you never know when your city may go back into lockdown. That's why it's important to get your name out there and secure quality leads. However, many firms struggle to do this.
What might these firms be doing wrong? Statistics from ALPMA in 2019 suggest that 43% of legal practices in Australia do not believe their firm has the ability and business development (BD) programs in place to adapt to a changing industry and this was before the pandemic. Consequently, their lawyers are unable to establish lasting, genuine relationships with prospective clients, and some of them may not even have clear-cut leads-to-sales processes.
Firms need to make some strategic adjustments to their marketing and BD plans in order to thrive. Here are some suggestions that can help:
How much time do you spend on clients that are unlikely to convert? When your legal practice is in its early days, you may think you need to take any lead that comes your way. However, your law firm can only grow if you're committing your marketing resources, including time, money, and expertise, to leads that are going somewhere. Usually, failure to establish close relationships with prospects makes it difficult for law firms to figure out when an opportunity is ripe. It may seem like you don't have the time to make this connection, but by being attentive and spending just a little extra time on clients either on the phone, over video call, or in person your conversion rate is likely to be a lot higher.
A small or new law firm may not always have a lawyer whose reputation precedes them. If you're a sole-practitioner, you have to give a great first impression when you meet or talk to a prospect during preliminary consultations, or it's unlikely they will choose you. However, potential clients don't usually enlist legal representatives based on their technical expertise and experience alone. That's why it's paramount to have BD and marketing skills on top of your mastery of law.
For example, people tend to enlist lawyers that are likeable, confidence-inspiring, and persuasive. These are skills that with a small amount of work, you can master in no time.
Multi-practice law firms have the luxury of marketing teams to develop specific marketing and BD manuals for particular practice groups, rather than stick to a one-size-fits-all strategy. But you aren't a multi-practice law firm. Think of what makes you unique or approachable and lean into it. Especially with isolation measures coming and going, it might be time to shake up how you market your firm. If you cover different practice areas, think about what these different types of clients want to achieve and market that specific aspect to them. Unique client segments barely have the same objectives when they approach lawyers for representation and you shouldn't market to them on the assumption that they do.
For years email been one, if not THE most powerful marketing tool around. It's quick, has enormous potential for reach and most importantly it's free. Many people avoid it as they are worried that potential clients will see marketing emails as spam. However, building up a reliable mailing list over time can do wonders for your inbound leads.
But what do you email to these potential clients? As we talked about earlier, sole-practitioners have a lot on their plate as it is. However, if you're making time to regualarly put out blogs and other content on your website or social media channels, you already have a good content base for your emails. Short descriptions of the content can be written with a link that leads to it. Doing this will greatly improve the reach of your content and increase the likelihood of attracting new clients.
Email can also be used to send out offers to potential clients. However, it's important to ensure that your method of gathering email addresses is in accordance with you regional legislation, generally that will require you to have a form in which people can opt-in to receive marketing content from you.
Measuring the performance of your various marketing and BD strategies can help distinguish between what's working and what's not. You may want to analyse each marketing method, channel, and media you're using, from social networking sites and search engine optimisation (SEO) to email and Pay per Click (PPC) campaigns. This can be done relatively easily from the various social media platforms analytics tools as well as Google Analytics.
To track ROI, focus on both quantitative measurements (such as revenue and conversions) as well as qualitative indicators like professional ratings and client feedback. If you're getting good client feedback, don't be afraid to ask for testimonials to be featured on your website and social platforms, there are many tools that allow you to make easy video testimonials, such as VideoAsk. Based on the analysis, you may boost results and business development by increasing the budget and time for marketing programs with the highest potential for ROI growth.
Finally, ensure that all the data and contact information you're gathering is being stored in one central location. mattero allows you to store all contact information of matter-related parties in one easy to access web-based platform. This will help you stay up to date on your new enquiries to ensure you aren't contacting the same person multiple times.
Starting your own practice is a big step, but by carefully planning out your marketing and BD activities, you can greatly improve your chances of success.
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