The other week, I wrote about the Five Essential Elements of a Law Practice, one of which is Marketing. I know, I know. Lawyers and marketing have a complicated relationship. Although we couldn’t advertise until the late 1970s, more and more states are broadening their position on how lawyers promote themselves. While I’m not here to get into the weeds of specific ethics regulations or advertising rules, I do want to step back and talk about marketing as a whole since so many lawyers (understandably) shy away from it.
Marketing is defined as1:
mar·ket·ing
/ˈmärkədiNG/
noun
- the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
In its essence, marketing is simply communication about the services you provide as a lawyer and how they help the client. It’s making a public statement about who you are and how you do business. It’s a website, a billboard, or an article that describes what you do and the value you provide.
While there are many different platforms to market on, any collateral about your law practice should communicate the following:
- Who your client is
- What problem you solve for them
- How you solve that problem
- How solving the problem will impact the client
- Who you or your law firm is
Sure, a fancy slogan or catchy graphic is clever, but if you don’t clearly communicate the basics, your marketing won’t be effective. In fact, it will be forgettable because it takes too much work for the potential client to figure out. So, keep it simple. Stick with the basics. Remember, marketing is just communication (we’re good at communicating, right?) and that communication should be simple and clear.
If you want to dig in more and learn how to clearly communicate with your marketing, the
1Thank you, Google.
How are you currently marketing? Does your collateral communicate clearly and simply to potential clients? If not, how can it be improved to remove the noise?
