Law Firm Marketing Basics - Start by Building your Marketing Plan

Planning is the foundation of any good Law Firm Marketing.  It goes without saying then that building your marketing plan is the first step.  As you read through this website, I encourage you to take notes, print out articles of interest to you, and start to think about what your legal marketing is going to look like.  Click here for an example of a sample Law Firm Marketing Plan.

The best legal marketing plan is unique and tailored to your individual practice.  I've often seen marketing guru's talk about the "4 P's" - product, pricing, promotion and place.  Of these four ideas, I consider "product" to be the most important.  Product is what you sell.  As an attorney, you sell legal services.  Talk about professionalism, ethics, and the "practice of law" all you want, but at the end of the day, you are here to sell legal services.  What type of legal services is up to you.  When you first start thinking about law firm marketing, I encourage you to think long and hard about the type of legal services that you sell, in other words, what is your product?

Pricing is the next "P".  Most marketing experts will tell you that you need to price your product at a level that the market is willing to pay.  Most lawyers will look at what all the other attorneys are selling their legal services for, and price themselves accordingly.  I think that this is one of the biggest mistakes that lawyers make.  (Read more about why in my page on Marketing Mistakes that Lawyers make).  Instead, I counsel lawyers to decide how much money they want to make, and then set their price accordingly.

Place and Promotion are less important in the grand scheme of law firm marketing, because of the advertising restrictions that we are burdened with as attorneys.

So... What are the Most Important and Effective Components of a Law Firm Marketing Plan?

In my experience, before you can build your marketing plan, you must answer the following questions:

• What is the Legal Service that you will sell?
• Who is your Ideal Client, and How are you uniquely situated to solve their problem?
• What are your Ideal Referral Sources - How will you develop relationships with them?
• How will you maintain Top of Mind Awareness with current and former clients?

What is the Legal Service that you will sell?

Every attorney should have a "niche".  With the exception of small town general practitioners (who don't have enough people to service a niche practice), most attorneys should concentrate in one area of law.  And within that one very specific area, most attorneys can find another area to specialize in (provided the market will support it).  For example:  Lots of attorneys practice Family or Domestic Law.  They hold themselves out as an attorney who will handle divorces, child support cases, paternity actions, guardianships, etc.  If you specialize in the area of Family Law, you could also specialize in the area of divorce or guardianship.  That doesn't mean that you don't handle the other cases when they come your way, but by limiting your law firm marketing to only divorce cases, you will differentiate yourself from everyone else.  So, think about what your "niche" practice is, and remember to be specific.

Who is your Ideal Client, and How are you uniquely situated to solve their problem?

After determining exactly what legal services you will sell, you must write down what your ideal client would be.  Some factors that you should consider include: age, earning capacity, corporate or individual clients, willingness to take your advice, amount of hostility towards the adverse party (if appropriate), and ability to pay your legal bill.  In my law practice, I use a "Client Intake Matrix" to help me grade potential clients from "A" to "D".  If a prospect scores out at less than a B, I will not take them on as a client.

Once you have determined what your ideal client looks like, you will need to focus on their needs, and how you are uniquely situated to solve their problem.  This is very important and should not be overlooked.  Marketing as a whole is the process of surveying the "market" to determine what is needed by potential clients, and then delivering on that need.  Law Firm Marketing is no different.  You must determine precisely what it is that your prospective client needs, so that you can deliver it at the exact moment when it is most needed.  The best way to accomplish this is through information marketing, which will be discussed on a separate web page.

What are your ideal referral sources, and how will you develop relationships with them?

Referral marketing should be an extremely important part of your overall marketing plan.  As with any other service related business, the business of practicing law is highly dependent on maintaining a consistent stream of referral business.  Referred clients are higher quality prospects, who are less sensitive to price, and are already presold that you are the best attorney for them.  Maintaining relationships with appropriate referral relationships is key to this portion of your law firm marketing plan.

Before you go out and start contacting a list of potential referral sources, it is important to... you guessed it, have a written plan.  Not only do you need to target the best quality referral sources who frequently come into contact with your ideal client, but you must also determine, ahead of time, how you will develop relationships with these people.  Disclaimer:  In most jurisdictions, you are not allowed to directly contact referral sources to solicit referrals.  Check back often, as I will be devoting an entire page to how you can contact these sources ethically.

How will you maintain Top of Mind Awareness with your potential referral sources and current and former clients?

There are several ways that you can maintain Top of Mind Awareness with referral sources, and current and former clients.  With referral sources, you will need to always be "pinging" them.  In other words, you should have their phone numbers set in your phone, their email addresses saved in your computer, and ticklers in your calendar to remember to contact your referral sources on a regular basis.  In addition, you should be planning annual or semi-annual events that you can invite your best referral sources to, or you could publish an Ezine or regular newsletter that you would send to your referral sources.  Many of these ideas can also be carried over to maintain relationships with your current and former clients.  One attorney I know makes a call list of ten current or former clients each weekend.  At some point every Saturday or Sunday, he will call everyone on his list to check in and make sure they don't have any questions about their case.  In the case of former clients, this is a great way to let them know he is still there for them, even if he isn't billing them for the call!