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Legal Marketing Blunders and Mistakes: 8 Common Marketing Mistakes that every Law Firm should addressMarketing blunders and mistakes are made by lawyers on a daily basis. Many legal marketing mistakes are made without lawyers even realizing what they are doing. Following is a list of 8 common marketing mistakes that attorneys make. Correct even a few of these legal marketing mistakes, and you will begin to see a drastic increase in the profitability of your firm: Marketing Blunder #1 - Lawyers who expect clients to knock down their door just because they are a brilliant lawyer. This is one of the biggest legal marketing mistakes that I see on a consistent basis. Practicing law is just like running any other business. No matter how good of a lawyer you are, if you don't tell people about how great you are (i.e. market your services), then you will not get any new business. You may get some referrals here and there from satisfied clients, but for the most part, you will be spending more time twiddling your thumbs than working on new cases. Marketing Blunder #2 - Lawyers that practice threshold law. Another way to describe this problem is a lawyer who has not adequately and articulately defined their ideal client. Lawyers who take any and all clients that come through the door with a pulse are destined for mediocrity (or the wrong end of a malpractice lawsuit). Whether you are just starting out, or have been in practice for many years, I advise all of my clients to concisely define exactly who their ideal client is. How old are they, are they an individual or corporation, what is their income level, what is their legal problem, etc. Too many lawyers become concerned that they will not have enough money to pay the bills at the end of the month, and therefore begin taking in every client that walks through the door. This is a huge mistake, and I strongly encourage you to think twice before you engage in this type of practice. Marketing Blunder #3 - Putting all your marketing eggs in one basket. I once read a story about a medical professional who went from city to city, opening up a new practice in each one. He would develop the practice to the point that it would generate over a million dollars in revenue, and then sell it. To get to this point, the owner had to generate 73 new clients each month. When asked what one thing he did that generated 73 new clients each month, the owner replied, "I don't have one thing that I do that generates 73 new clients, I have 73 things I do that generates one new client." And so it is with legal marketing. You must constantly remind yourself that you can't just have a website or a yellow page ad or a super referral source that jumpstarts your practice. Instead, you need to have all of these things and more so that you can keep your marketing pipeline filled with new potential clients. Marketing Blunder #4 - Bad customer service. No matter how great a lawyer you are, or how good your legal marketing is, if you provide bad customer service to your clients, then your overall marketing efforts will flounder. Marketing Blunder #5 - Lawyers that don't follow up. Failing to follow-up is a common marketing mistake that lawyers make. Conversely, one of the single biggest predictors of success in the lawyers that I come into contact with is their ability to successfully follow-up. Lawyers that follow-up with clients, referral sources, prospects, the courts, and almost anyone else will be much more successful than those who don't. Marketing Blunder #6 - Lawyers who don't know how to delegate. I've run into lots of lawyers that just don't want to spend the money to hire an assistant. They are pure "solo practitioners" and refuse to hire help. Perhaps they are scared of the cost, the taxes or just the headaches that come with hiring someone to help them out. However, if done right, hiring someone that you can delegate work to will payoff for your firm in the long run. Marketing Blunder #7 - Failure to charge for services. It's such a simple idea, yet so few attorneys adhere to it. Why is it that we have such a difficult time billing people for what we do? If I don't pay the guy who mows my lawn, he stops coming. So why is it that attorneys feel the need to continue working on cases, even when people owe us thousands of dollars? If you have fallen into this trap, then I challenge you to stop it, immediately. Whether it is providing free consultations or working on cases where client's owe you money, I challenge you to stop this practice. Check back frequently for more ideas about how you can begin implementing a system so that all your clients remain current on their bills. Marketing Blunder #8 - They stop marketing. This is the #1 legal marketing problem for the attorneys I work with. No matter what, you can never, ever stop marketing. I make it a rule that at least once a day, I do something to market my legal practice. Whether I call a referral source, post a comment to my blog, or go out to lunch with another attorney, every day I do something to market my law practice. These are just a few common marketing blunders and mistakes that I see lawyers make on a consistent basis. By addressing these mistakes in your legal marketing, you will see drastic improvements to your law firm profits and overall legal marketing strategy.
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