Part of a series - Create Your 2010 Law Firm Marketing Plan in 5 Simple Steps: Step 4.1
Previous entries detailed steps including creating a niche, conducting a SWOT analysis, and creating a Unique Competitive Advantage for your law firm.  This post continues this series.

Here is where you list all of the different law firm internet marketing techniques and legal marketing strategies you will use to identify prospects and land new clients. The good news is that there are only 7 different strategies you can use. Also, depending on: 

•  your practice area
•  your target market
•  your financial resources
•  your geographical location

and other variables, some will invariably be more or less effective for you.  The strategies are ranked in order of more effective to less effective in finding prospects and converting them to clients.

Part of a series - Create Your 2010 Law Firm Marketing Plan in 5 Simple Steps: Step 3.5

A Unique Competitive Advantage (UCA) answers the question, “Why should I hire you?”  With so many competitors and choices today, your law firm marketing strategy must clearly differentiate yourself and your law firm.

Using the information, research and analysis you did for the SWOT sections, outline how you will position yourself and your services.  Here are some good questions to get your legal marketing thought processes started.

As the New Year begins, now is a good time to take stock of where we are, and where we want to be.  Your law firm marketing plan is not exempt from this review process, and I encourage you to take a careful look at all of your legal marketing, including your internet marketing for your law firm.

To that end, I would like to call your attention to an article in the December, 2009 issue of GPSolo, published by the American Bar Association. 

The article, Law Firm Marketing 2.0: Internet Marketing for Rainmakers, is something that I wrote out of a firm conviction that most internet legal marketing plans could use some strengthening in their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords. 

New Year’s Resolutions are a time-honored way of setting goals for the new year.  They often center on personal issues – weight loss, exercise, relationships etc – but let me suggest that you add creating a  solid, well-crafted law firm marketing plan to your New Year’s Resolution list this year.

Your law firm marketing plan should include all of the following components:
Referral sources – who are the people who refer business to you?  Who are the people you would like to refer business to you?
Internet marketing – what does your internet presence look like?  Your website, online-mentions, your page ranks in key search engines?
Blogs – do you have a blog?  Is it current with relevant content?  Is it written with keywords in mind to bring traffic to your site?
Social media – are you actively managing your Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sites to create the best possible face for your firm?
Public relations – are you creating news releases and stories that point the media to you as an expert?  Cultivating a relationship with the media takes time and expertise.  But it is a worthwhile investment.

Take advantage of the resources you will find here and at The Rainmaker Institute website.  Come to one of our Rainmaker Retreats or invest in some materials from the online store to gather the resources you need for your law firm marketing plan to help make 2010 a  year to remember.
*************************************************************************************
Looking for more Rainmaker Institute wisdom?

Previously, I described how to develop a targeted marketing plan and how to create and service a niche market.  This post continues those thoughts.

Here are 4 examples of Ideal Target Markets:

Business Attorney for Small, Privately Held Business Owners

• CEOs, Presidents, VPs, General Managers
• $2M—$100M in annual revenues
• Privately held companies with 20—1,000 employees
• In the hi-tech, telecommunications or software development industry
• Are headquartered within 20 miles of my office
• Are challenged with protecting their IP, want to grow nationally or internationally, looking to joint venture with or license their IP to larger companies

Commercial Real Estate Purchase & Development

In our previous post, I discussed what your ideal target market and client might look like.  This post continues that thought and moves into a discussion of creating a niche marketing plan.

To Niche or Not to Niche? Should you focus on a particular niche or let the niche find you-see what types of client you attract. There are different schools of thought on this topic. You may fall into the pro-niche or the no-niche camp or find that you, like me, prefer a combination approach.

Why Niche Your Practice? It's certainly helpful to be able to concentrate your marketing efforts in a particular area. Instead of limiting you, it can help position and focus you. You will have targeted marketing materials and a clear Unique Competitive Advantage, UCA, or elevator speech. Selecting a niche doesn't mean that you can't work with other clients outside your target area. A niche can also help with name recognition and branding. You'll develop a reputation as being the attorney to contact for certain challenges. You'll be more memorable to people you meet and will increase your chances of getting referrals. If someone can't describe what you do/who you do it for/ and how they benefit, they won't be able to make a compelling case for why someone should call you. It can be more comfortable in the beginning when you are building your practice to specialize in an area you know well and with a segment of the population that may mirror yourself. For instance, if you have extensive management experience, you may want to target other managers.

1. Identify Your Ideal Target Market
If the truth is told, this may be THE MOST IMPORTANT SECTION of your law firm’s marketing plan. You can have the highest quality service, the biggest offices, or the most associates, but if cannot clearly identify who your “ideal target market”—the perfect person/company for your service—you will never build a successful law practice!

It is virtually impossible to spend too much time or energy learning about who your ideal target market is. You want to discover everything you can about them because this can give you the extra edge you need to rapidly attract paying customers and win out over your competitors.

You may have more than one ideal target market for your services. If so, you should complete this for each of them, but try to limit yourself to no more than 1 or 2 target markets because more than that can quickly become overwhelming.

When Developing a Profile of Your Ideal Client Consider:

Stop Ignoring Your Referral Sources
Why do attorneys believe they can neglect and ignore referral sources without it having a detrimental impact?  Top attorneys invest their time and money courting and building relationships with referral sources and go out of their way to make a big deal when someone makes a referral to them. 

On a regular basis, carve out time to meet with all of your referral sources face-to-face.  Out of sight and out of mind is certainly a truism you cannot afford to personally experience.

Aggressively Pursue Ways to Resell, Cross Sell and Up Sell Clients
Now is not the time to be reserved or squeamish about selling. You need to be looking at every avenue available to resell former clients.  Cross sell them on other services your firm can offer and up sell them from an entry level service to a high-end, fully customized one.

I was speaking with an attorney last week who thought the very idea of up-selling someone into a higher end service borders on ethical misconduct.  Hmmm… that sounds like a great way to go out of business fast.  The most expensive thing you can have in your law firm is a one-time client. 

Create Category of One
On a recent call with our Mastermind Members (This is select group of attorneys who meet with John Bisnar and me for coaching and consulting. Look here for more information.), we were discussing how to create a unique competitive advantage and position your law firm against larger competitors.  One of the best ways to do this is by creating a category of one.

For example, yours is the only law firm in Orlando who handles over 1,000 personal injury cases every year and still requires every client to meet face-to-face with an attorney.  At every other large personal injury law firm you only get to meet with a legal secretary or a paralegal.

Here’s another: you are the only criminal defense specialist in San Francisco who is a former Golden Gloves champion.  Find a way to create a Category of One, then tell prospects what that means to them and why they should care.

Hire Only Superstars
Right now there is more top talent on the market than ever before and you can get them for a lot less than you could even two years ago.  I was just speaking with Darrin Mish, a top tax attorney in Florida (www.GetIRSHelp.com).  He mentioned placing an ad on Craigslist recently for an associate and receiving over 100 applicants in a matter of hours. 

Two weeks ago I posted some thoughts on how discounting your price can be a path to slow-payment, hassle, repeated requests for reductions in fees and ultimately non-payment.  Today I want to expand on those thoughts.

One of the maxims that still holds true today is “You get what you pay for.”  In many areas of life, it is true.  The cheap toys and tools available in the discount bins at the dollar store often do not have the service life span that higher-quality, and more expensive products enjoy.  That perception is deeply embedded in American consumer culture, so use it to your advantage.

We have all seen the studies of cars where the price and quality are not always directly linked.  Some brands have a reputation for higher quality that is undeserved or based on older thinking, yet they continue to charge prices that seem to be too high for the value received.  We have also seen the studies where high quality items were discounted, and the consumer viewed them as inferior to the higher-priced items.

Legal services are much the same way.  If you discount your rates, prospective clients are more likely to think your service is of a lesser quality than that of attorneys who do not discount.  Regardless of the quality of the service, the perception will rule the day.