In June, we discussed What you can do to increase awareness for your law firm?
1. Discover what your brand is.
2. Use branding to create memorable and repeatable structures in the minds of your target audience.
Lets Continue…
3. Be of the community, not blasting sales messages constantly toward it.
Awareness and trust of your law firm’s brand can come from good advertising, but then the hard work starts. How do you interact with your local community? Are you personable online? Does your social media reflect what makes your law firm experience unique? Are you bringing some humanity to your practice? Are you sharing staff anniversaries or celebrating milestones?
Awareness isn’t just about grabbing attention; it’s about holding on to it.
Once you have your audience’s attention, how can you hold on to it? How can you turn attention into a relationship?
This is the real key to successful legal marketing. It’s backed up by actual humans, and it runs on people power, so it’s attractive to other people. So when it comes to gaining awareness for your law firm: Be responsive, be personable, and be human.
4. Consistency is key. Advertising and awareness is a game of repetition. In most marketing departments today, people want to move on to the next cool thing. They get tired of old colors. Everyone wants a rebrand. But really, staying “up-to-date” and fresh and relevant is not the goal of advertising. The goal is to build and refresh memory structures to keep the brand in the heads of all potential buyers.
Think of all the classic taglines and ads that are in your head right now.
Got Milk? National Dairy Council has been going strong with this ad campaign for over 20 years.
Just Do It. Nike has been rolling with that since 1988.
Wheaties has been calling itself “The Breakfast of Champions” for 89 years.
Claim your Free Law Firm Growth Strategy Session
The Cadbury Bunny Audition Commercial. They are still running that Cadbury Bunny audition TV spot, where all the different animals want to be the bunny. It’s not HD. The sound is bad. But Cadbury knows it’s more than an ad. The spot is a part of people’s lives, it means Easter, it means something to the audience, and more importantly, it means sales.
The secret to these successful branding elements is not that they are amazing, genius, untouchable manna from marketing heaven. No. It’s that these brands know repetition is the key to building awareness.
Chances are you’re tired of your ads. You’re tired of your marketing. You think it’s old and drab and uninspiring. But the truth is … you’ve seen it a million times, and most of your potential clients haven’t even seen it once.
Don’t count chickens before they hatch – advertising, establishing a memorable brand, and bringing lasting awareness to your firm takes time, and it’s always worth it. Growing a brand is a marathon, not a race. And what do you think your law firm competitors think?
Claim your Free Law Firm Strategy Session
5. Measure what can be measured, and accept what can’t. It’s a hard truth in the advertising and marketing world that sometimes the ROI is not 100% clear. Raising awareness for your firm may include advertising, organic posts, marketing, social outreach, podcasts, networking, tweets, staff meetings, surveys, videos, newsletters, strategies, campaigns, seminars, and significant investments of time, money, sweat, and tears.
So what’s the ROI on all that?
Shouldn’t you be able to draw a clear line from marketing efforts to revenue? And if you can’t, doesn’t that mean it doesn’t work?
Charles Gaudet, from Predictable Profits, has a wonderful video in which he explains that solid marketing strategies contain 80% measurable activities, (things that are direct response, strong CTAs, trackable, and scalable) and 20% non-measurable activities, (things that ensure awareness, strengthen relationships, or help to establish your brand over time). Measuring marketing’s effectiveness is an essential aspect of success, but knowing what to measure, and what can’t be measured, is the secret to staying in the game.
In conclusion
Law firms need to know that increasing awareness for their firms is not an overnight flight of fancy. You need to research the client experience at your firm and define your law firm’s brand through the lens of client experience. You need to build and create memorable brand assets that are unique and stand out. Your brand messaging needs to feel human and natural and supportive of your community. You need to recognize repetition is the key to raising awareness and commit to the effective frequency in every ad campaign. Finally, you need to know which marketing activities are measurable and which are non-measurable. If you can apply these tips at your law firm, you will be light-years ahead of your competitors and well on your way to growing a successful practice and establishing your law firm’s brand.
