Niche Marketing Tactics that any Lawyer can use to help Differentiate themselves from their Competitors

There are a number of legal niche marketing tactics that lawyers can use to differentiate themselves from their competition.  Here are just a few niche marketing tactics that you can use to differentiate your law firm:

• Offer an Astonishing Guarantee - As lawyers, there are ethical rules (and realistic unknowns, i.e. juries) that prohibit us from making guarantees about the quality of our work, or the outcome of litigation.  As a result, most lawyers are loathe to use any type of guarantee in their advertising.  However, if a prospective client requests information directly from you, then in most jurisdictions, your advertising is exempt from all bar rules except that it cannot be misleading or deceptive.  Click here for more information on how you can get prospects to request information from you via a good internet marketing strategy.  Why is a guarantee so powerful?  Because an astonishing guarantee serves as a way to reduce your prospect's risk if they choose to hire you. 
  
  Making any type of guarantee is bound to make lawyers nervous.  Heck, we have a hard enough time promising anything to anyone - let alone making a guarantee.  However, if you make a guarantee that no other lawyer would make (trust me, they aren't), then you will accomplish two very important things.  First, you will differentiate yourself from all the other attorneys that are out there competing with you, and second, you will force yourself and your staff to deliver excellence to your clients.  Not only will an astonishing guarantee turn heads, but it will also generate enormous buzz about you and your practice.
   
• Make an offer that no other lawyers are making - An excellent legal niche marketing strategy is to make yourself known as the lawyer that makes an offer that no other law firms make.  An excellent example would be to hand out 4 business cards to each new client (or existing clients).  Write the client's name on the back of the business card.  For each prospect that is referred to your office, and brings in one of these business cards, you will credit a certain dollar amount to the client's bill.  In this way, you could develop a niche as the "earn your retainer back" lawyer.
   
• Solve a problem that no other lawyers are addressing - One of the number one complaints about lawyers is that they do not return phone calls, and they don't communicate with their clients.  Capitalize on this - focus your communication with prospects on how you will promptly return phone calls, or send every piece of correspondence to clients to keep them informed about the progress of their case.  Or, advertise that you send out monthly reports to client's with their bill apprising them of the status of their case.
   
• What value do you provide to your clients? - Many attorneys do things that they, and their clients, merely take for granted.  You should be including these juicy little nuggets in your advertising.  Perhaps you have systems in place that allow you to handle cases more efficiently.  You could trademark these systems, advertise their benefits to prospective clients, and perhaps even license these systems and sell them to other attorneys.  This is a simple and effective niche marketing tactic that you can employ to attract new clients and raise more revenue for your firm.
   
• Don't forget customer service - Another thing that most attorneys are notoriously bad at is customer service.  You could easily differentiate yourself or your firm by providing "over the top" customer service.  Again, you can build systems into your practice that will help to distinguish you from other attorneys.  The result will be an incredible amount of word-of-mouth or referral marketing.  The best way to do this is to over-deliver on your first customer contact by giving the prospect more than you promised, giving them a gift, or giving away another service for free.
   
• What are your competitors forgetting? - Another great niche marketing tactic is to look for things that your competitors are not offering, and then offer that service.  There are so many legal areas that no attorneys are handling, or that they are unwilling to handle.  Another great example in Florida is workers compensation.  Several years ago, the appellate courts in Florida made it very difficult for attorneys that handled worker's comp cases to continue to profitably handle these cases.  Consequently, lots of attorneys that used to handle these cases are now referring them out.  The attorneys who have decided to continue handling only these cases are doing very well for themselves because 1) they are the only attorneys that handle them; and, 2) they can pick and choose the best and most profitable cases.
   
• Payment terms - My practice is comprised of predominantly divorce cases.   Most attorneys that handle these cases charge a nonrefundable engagement fee.  There are a few attorneys that accept refundable retainers that they place entirely into their trust accounts.  By doing so, they are accepting payment terms that are completely different from what other attorneys are doing.  Combine the refundable retainer with a 30 day money back guarantee if the client changes their mind about the divorce, or finds a lawyer they like better, and you have several very crafty and powerful niche marketing tactics!

These are just ways that you can separate yourself from your competition by using niche marketing tactics.  I challenge you to brainstorm and try to find others that can help to differentiate yourself from other attorneys in your market.  I hope that by now you can start to see the advantages to niche marketing.

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