10 Principals of Law Firm Marketing

This list compliments of the Rainmaker Institute...

• People: Identify your target market. Analyze the characteristics of your best and worst clients and determine why they need your services. Look for a niche you can serve.
  
  
• Product: Pinpoint what services you provide and how you can best present these to your prospects. Put yourself in their shoes. Ensure they know exactly what services they will receive.
  
  
• Positioning: Study the competition. Learn why you are different from your competition and educate your prospects about why they should hire you and no one else. This convinces clients to do business with you and no one else.
  
  
• Packaging: This is an important marketing strategy. Project an image that makes people want to work with you. Think about the image that best represent you and creates interest in prospects.
  
  
• Place: Make sure that a prospective client can find you when they need your services. Build an online presence. Try networking with other professionals. Give presentations or seminars. Determine which methods work for you when finding new clients. Make your marketing plan an efficient machine.
  
  
• Price: Compare prices with your competitors. Be prepared to strategically explain to clients how they benefit by using your services. Find out where you are on the pricing ladder. Learn how to merit top fees while retaining clients.
  
  
• Promotion: Learn to differentiate good prospects from bad ones to maximize the effectiveness of promotions. Develop a set of questions that qualifies which prospects are good for you. This helps determine what kind of prospects are attracted by your law firm marketing methods.
  
  
• Persuasion: This is where you turn prospects into clients. Ensure your "buying process" produces the results you desire. Learn to nurture long-term relationships with clients.
  
  
• Performance: Look at client turnover rate to determine what steps are needed to take to keep your best clients. The most expensive thing you can have in your practice is a one time client. Find ways to obtain repeat business from your current and former clients.
  
  
• Plan: Create a written marketing plan for your law firm. Be sure to include: your target market, the challenges they face, the solutions you provide, why you are unique, the strategies you will use to reach them, roles and responsibilities, time frame for achieving your goals, and a way to measure your success.