07 March 2016
If you’re a lawyer who has recently started exploring ways to expand your practice, you would have had issues choosing a particular direction.
Where do I start off?
Are all strategies equally effective?
Well, the truth is, the path you need to adopt depends upon your practice. However, there are some well documented best-practices, like a marketing plan, that can get you there faster.
A marketing plan is a fundamental tool to growyour practice. Investing time, money, and enthusiasm in marketing activities without a proper plan is like going on a holiday with a car loaded with suitcases and not knowing what to do at the next intersection. The more detailed the plan prepared in advance, the faster and more enjoyable the trip!
But how do you draw up a marketing plan for your practice?
Here's the basic structure:
Part one: Analysis
Analyze your practice area: What are the current trends in your area of expertise? Do you have new competitors? Are you encountering new customer demands?
Don’t just think about it. Grab a pen and paper and write it down:
My Strengths
1…….
2……
My Weaknesses
1….
2….
My Opportunities
1….
2….
Threats to my practice
1….
2….
There! You now have a 360 degree view of your practice, which is called a SWOT analysis in marketing parlance.
Now that you have a clear idea of your own practice, as well as the professional community within which you are building it, it is time to draw up a plan to align your offerings so as to make them more attractive to your prospective clients.
The Value Proposition
Customer Profiling
Try drawing up representations of your typical clientele, emphasizing their motivations, concerns and personal fears while hiring a lawyer. Add their likely requirements, average revenue potential, etc. Keep doing it until you have clear and helpful customer personas.
Now that you know who is bringing in revenue, and who is likely to waste your time, start positioning your practice towards the productive segments.
Positioning
What place do you intend to occupy in the minds of your paying clients? How do you create a better perception of your services so that it stands apart from the competition?How do you avoid the non-productive clients? Answer these questions and you get a pretty good idea how to "position” your practice in the local community. Keep fine-tuning it.
Pricing
Define the fee-structure of your practice, considering the value that you’re going to deliver to your clients.
Promotions
Now that you have clearly defined an advantageous market position and an optimized fee structure for your practice, it is time totake it to your prospective clients. While you have a range of options to promote your practice, the easiest and fastest way is to go online.
Get your own legal practice website
It is easy, and what’s best, it pays for itself within a short time frame.
A professional website canget you quick visibility in Google, and as soon as someone searches for you in your practice area, your website will show up high in search results.
However, for most lawyers, a website is an expensive and cumbersome project since it involves bringing together designers, content writers, web coders, hosting, etc. and making them all work together.
Not anymore, with pre-built izmoweb legal websites. Everything that you require on your legal website is already built in, including professional legal content and design. In fact, all you need to do is upload your name, location, and contact information.
Get started with social networking
Social media can give great returns if you have a little time every day to spend on it.
To begin with, start your Facebook page and Twitter account. Then start befriending and following your community. Spend a few minutes everyday conversing about a legal victory in court, or other interesting legal news.
Don’t ever forget a birthday or anniversary. You can also retweet or share other interesting social conversation.
Avoid controversy if you are not exceptional in managing it. A slip can prove to be very damaging to your reputation.
Remember to occasionally promote your professional website on social media. Your website is the anchor of your online practice, and it is important to drive potential clients there.