How You Can Conquer Online and Offline Marketing

Whether you’re new to law firm marketing or you’re a seasoned vet, tackling the many challenges can be hard and time-consuming. But as you’re trying to deal with all of the chaos while simultaneously trying to learn marketing, it can all be very confusing and overwhelming. But what if I told you that it’s EASY to learn marketing?

While you might think that I’m crazy, I know it’s true because I’ve been there.

I’ve been in the thick of it all, trying to breathe when it seems like there’s no air.

I’ve been confused about marketing; didn’t know where to start, and looked every direction trying to find an answer.

Throughout my many years involved with law firm marketing, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. I know a trusted process for conquering law firm marketing the right away.

And I know this process for both online and offline marketing.

In this post, I’ll dive into some key strategies for how to conquer online and offline marketing. I’ll then explain a pretty amazing promotion I’m running that you definitely want to hear about.

Understanding Marketing

A huge reason why law firm marketing isn’t a strong suit for many is because they don’t really understand marketing to begin with. Check out these key concepts that you MUST remember:

Marketing Isn’t an Expense

It’s vital that you understand that marketing should NEVER be an expense. You should rather think of it as an investment. When marketing is new, it’s an INVESTMENT in your learning, relationships, and profit margin. Established marketing is an INVESTMENT in your profit margin.

If profit margin isn’t in your marketing equation, then your plan needs to GO!

Avatars

When developing marketing plans, it’s important to have avatars. These are theoretical people that we will consider as your ideal clients. As you’re developing your avatars, you should consider their:

Demographics

These are personal characteristics such as age, race, sex, income, household size, etc.

Psychographics

These relate to characteristics on a deeper level such as lifestyles, behaviors, interests, etc.

Create a Marketing Funnel

This step involves creating a marketing funnel, which is the process for how you will move prospects from awareness to actually becoming a client. There are six key areas of a marketing funnel that you’ll want to track. This includes:

• Impressions: How many opportunities there are to see your message.
• Leads: The number of impressions that take action on your message.
• Viable leads: Leads where you can offer help.
• Scheduled: The variable leads to schedule an appointment at your office.
• Show up: How many scheduled leads show up to the office.
• Retained: Client data such as demographics and psychographics.

Experiment With Your Marketing Plans

As you’re developing your plans, the key is to experiment as much as you can. You’ll want to develop multiple hypothetical situations and put your plans to work.

Pivot As Needed

As these plans are being developed and tested, you should have a quarterly review where you ask yourself: What’s more important, the goal or the objective?

If the goal is most important, you’ll want to pivot your plans and make changes. If the objective is most vital, you’ll want to stay the course and add on certain elements. Even if the goal is not attained, you’ll want to stay the course, keep pressing forward, and pivot as needed.

Marketing Categories

To really understand law firm marketing, you should understand the key strategies for both online and offline marketing. But the vital factor here is that BOTH are needed to have the largest impact on your law firm. Be sure to always test small, fail fast, note success, rinse, and repeat!

Offline Strategies

Offline marketing relates to traditional legal marketing. Take a look at some key offline strategies below:

Networking Events

When approaching networking events, you always want to go with a plan. It’s also important to meet without food, and to always offer business and ask for business!

Speaking Engagements

During these meetings, be sure to choose your BEST audience and CAPTIVATE rather than educate.

Publishing Articles

This strategy involves writing about something you KNOW very well. Some key takeaways include:

• Pick an intended audience
• Send to referral sources and ask for business
• Send to former clients and ask for business
• Send to local community leaders and businesses and ask for business!

Billboards

Don’t even mess with these; they’re a waste of money!

Announcements

Always entice the reader by offering MORE MORE MORE.

Trade Shows

Trade shows are where you want to captivate relationships. Be sure to:

• Have great signage
• Bring print brochures
• Have a FUN gimmick
• Collect emails
• Seek referral relationships and PNC’s

Paper Newspaper

With these paper newsletters, you’ll want to:

• Provide value
• Feature input from others
• Express gratitude for referrals
• Use newsletters to show you’re dynamic

Online Strategies

Online strategies are vital for your law firm marketing efforts. Take a look at some key strategies below:

Search Engine Optimization

If you want to succeed on the internet, then SEO is your best friend. However, you must understand that it’s a process that takes time. If you’re in the early stages of your development, then expect 6-9 months for your search rankings to get to the top spot on Google.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

This is a short term strategy that helps you get clients NOW. The PPC process involves A/B testing, staying active, and working alongside SEO.

Social Media Marketing

This strategy involves efforts made on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, and more. You’ll want to focus on providing multiple touches and exponentially increasing reach over time.

Click Funnels

Click funnels take people on a journey that helps to gather vital data. This helps them to engage with your brand, increase engagement with your company, and boost the chances of making a purchase, all while your law firm collects key data.

Podcasting

Podcasting really helps to gain authority on a subject, and they also help to support online strategies overall. Be sure to interview someone or be interviewed on a subject where you’re an expert.