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.
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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. 

The first two posts focused on follow-up and marketing practices.  This post continues those thoughts.

Speed to Market Wins Every Time
If I had to choose, I will bet on the law firm that consistently uses three simple marketing strategies over the firm that takes three months to write a long, detailed annual marketing plan.  Plans do not win the game!

Attorneys are notorious for over planning everything.  This is a fatal mistake when it comes to marketing.  Your plan should only be focused on what actions you are going to take in the next 90 days. Keep it simple and focus on taking action now.

The first part of this series focused on the need for prompt follow-up.  Today’s blog moves onto other marketing topics.

Done is Better Than Perfect – Especially with Marketing
When it comes to marketing your law firm 90 percent is good enough!  Don’t wait until you have the perfect brochure to start handing it out.  Get your website to the point where it’s good enough and then launch it!  You can always fix the shading of the photo on the About Us page at a later time. 

I have encountered far too many attorneys who mentally torture themselves going over the copy for their website or brochure five or 10 times because they are so concerned about how it reflects on their law firm.

Everyone is cash-conscious these days.  If you’re like most attorneys in small and solo law firms, you’re working harder than ever before just to get the same amount of business.  Here are 21 specific strategies to help you bootstrap your way to marketing success.

The Fortune is in the Follow up!

This bears repeating:  The Fortune is in the Follow Up!  I was speaking with an estate planning attorney who had a meeting with a very wealthy individual about two weeks ago.  It went great.  The attorney made a proposal to the prospect for a comprehensive estate plan and quoted him a fee around $5,000.  He believed the prospect would sign-up