As I mentioned recently, a common question we get here is about how quickly some of the more organic strategies we implement take to “work” (a term which seems to mean different things to different people).
Inevitably faced with the realistic answer, some lawyers simple want – or need – faster results.
We need clients now. Cash now. Results now. Otherwise we're stuffed.
This can be… a little stressful. And it's not that easy.
A Couple of Thoughts about Urgency
Firstly, the obvious answer is to try and prepare your marketing program by implementing a strategy now, so that you don't at some point in the future sail through the door one day and think “crikey we don't have any clients and I'm almost out of money – panic!”.
Of course some incidents will leave you in this situation whether you planned for it or not. Perhaps the senior partner died and you ended up in charge of a firm well before you had imagined. Perhaps external forces have come to bear on your life that require you to gear up faster.
But then we need to ask an honest question: why do you need results right now? Is it just that you're hoping there is some marketing easy button you can push which will pop out warm leads for your practice every day? Because that's not really how it works.
The truth is to speed up your marketing results you're going to have to invest one of two things:
- time
- money.
Investing your Time
Before the days of “just post on instagram and your marketing dreams will come true”, the principles of being known, liked and trusted still applied. The only difference was the mechanism by which those goals were achieved.
And if you want to speed up your marketing results, then one simple (but not easy) way to do it is to take unbelievable amounts of action.
What do I mean?
I mean finding every single business in the area and literally telephoning them, emailing them, messaging them to reach out and arrange a meeting.
I mean finding every single mum's group where there could be potential divorce work for you, joining them, and participating in 100 discussions a day.
I mean using the locality search on Instagram and reaching out to 100 people a day via direct message.
I mean posting on LinkedIn 8 times a day and offering 48 comments each day on relevant material.
What's the common thread? You're attempting to create massive opportunities for relationship development. You're meeting people, having discussions and offering people an opportunity to say yes to what you have to offer.
Notice I'm not saying you should do the traditional “cold call” method where you have a pre-prepared sales pitch. I'm saying you're reaching out to start a whole bunch of real relationships – so don't do it like a putz.
Is it guaranteed? No.
Will you get a huge amount of rejection? Yes.
Will it provides lots of potential for growth in the short term? Yes.
Investing your Money
If you heard “ads” when I said “investing your money” then you're completely correct.
Ads can work.
The downside? They cost money.
And if you're in a crunch you're going to be reluctant to spend real money for the potential of a result through ads. That's especially the case when gathering data on ads can take a little while before they start functioning well.
But if that's not an impediment, here's what you'll need:
- A pitch – is it a product, a download, a phone call, a meeting? What precisely is it that you are steering people to with your ad? More often than not it's a “free consultation” style thing for most lawyers where your readers fill in a form or call a number and get access to a lawyer who can help them with X;
- A landing page – you need a page which is specifically designed to be the place that your ad clickers land. For reasons that aren't immediately clear, lots of law firm ads seem to steer people to their home page. That is a terrible idea. A landing page is a short, sharp value proposition which speaks directly to the people you are advertising to. There should be a strong call to action (“call this number” or “fill out this form” or whatever) and a clear statement of benefit, written in language that your target people are going to like. This, of course, isn't that easy.
- Ad copy a creative – depending where you are advertising you need something to say. This might be through video, images, or text – but either way please don't make it sound like every other lawyer.
- Ad platform – Google, social media. They will happily take your money to run ads.
Of course the better you know your potential clients, the better you execute the above steps, the less you will spend on ads and the more likely you will find it financially viable.
But making money by spending a pile on ads isn't as easy as some people would have you believe.
But Ideally… Don't Rush
Ideally you want to build on a marketing strategy that is well thought out, organic and follows best practice. It shouldn't consume a disproportionate amount of your time or money (but can often, and should, consume some).
But if you need to be in a hurry for a time – then those are you main options.
