When it comes to building your law firm’s book of business, marketing is always high on the list of effective strategies. But what makes marketing effective? And how can you ensure your law firm’s strategy is healthy?
Let’s first define marketing, cover the basics of what we call Legal Marketing Nutrition, and then unpack a few ways to bring these insights to your firm. Back in the day, marketing used to mean one thing; taking your sellable stuff to an actual market, like the one depicted here. Success was dependent on the product, but also how you corralled attention, how shrewd your understanding of the local culture/trends/economics, and how well you could communicate your value.
In the end, the fruit of your labor within the marketplace was evident by the goods and money exchanged, and the tallies and final counts at the end of the day. In today’s marketplace, success with marketing can be a little harder to define.
There are seemingly endless ways to deploy marketing initiatives; countless digital advertising and social media platforms to engage with, outbound/inbound, website, blog/newsletter, webinar/LiveStream, etc…
To add to the confusion, all of the items listed above are marketing tactics – they are not substitutes for an actual marketing strategy.
As stated in our Legal Marketing Nutrition Guide, a healthy marketing strategy balances tactics against two main goals; long term Brand Growth and short term Sales Activation. As the latest short term/sales activation campaign delivers less and less, most legal marketers choose to ignore the long term/brand growth side of marketing and continue to promote in quick and random spurts. Problem is, when the top minds in marketing science and research approached this issue, analyzing over 70 years of financial data from brands of every vertical, Ehrenberg and his colleagues discovered the effect on sales from a collection of short term wins never equated to long term financial growth.
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Phrased differently, without Brand Building initiatives in your marketing strategy, the successful outcomes from your Sales Activation campaigns will forever be diminished.
These days most people paying for marketing are so busy trying to activate sales, they don’t invest the time to build a brand, undercutting the effectiveness of their campaigns, exponentially.
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What is Legal Marketing Nutrition?
We believe that a healthy law firm marketing strategy balances Sales Activation campaigns, with Brand Building activities and practices that maximize longevity.
Our Legal Marketing Nutrition Guide cross-references 6 groups of common activities in marketing, with their impact on a spectrum between the two goals of marketing, Brand Growth or Sales Activation.
Foundation – We believe there is a foundation to marketing a law firm. At Consultwebs, we’ve found the most successful law firms have a solid foundation in call tracking, intake optimization, CRM software, strong partnerships, and a focus on client experience. Without these foundational marketing practices in place, the effects on the bottom line from more advanced business development activities will be weakened.
Nutrients – Just like there are vitamins in the food we eat, law firm marketing activities like good SEO, responsive website design, and a highly engaged social media can provide long term benefits for the health of your bottom line. The resulting bump in sales may not be felt tomorrow, but overtime, if you’re serious about SEO, the sales you experience going forward will be of higher & higher quality.
Fundamentals – Moving towards the Sales Activation side of the nutrition spectrum, we consider PPC/digital advertising and content marketing as fundamental aspects to a marketing strategy. Digital advertising for lawyers works, but it can be costly and competitive, and without the previous levels of nutrition properly addressed in your firm, the quality of cases and ROI from PPC will not be clear.
Campaigns – These are marketing activities that may feature branded components, but their function is to push potential clients to a call. If you solely sponsor scholarships or events, and have neglected to build your way to this step through the nutrition pyramid, then the impacts you experience on your bottom line will be severely weakened.
Boosts – Similar to delicious but unhealthy food items, we think marketing activities like gated content, webinars, and automated services, can give us the same amount of leads as a fully stocked marketing strategy, in half the effort. Knowing what we do about legal marketing nutrition, it’s clear that while you may need some of these activities, you cannot create a plan that features these alone. You can live off Twinkies, but you won’t live long and the quality of life you’ll have will be….squishy.
Quick Hits – Finally, there are activities like buying lists, having a video go viral, throwing all your money at PPC, paywall content, that can get your law firm results and fast. Think of these marketing activities in the same way you think of those little gel-strips marathon runners eat, everything you need to get to the next hour! While these are the most storied of marketing tactics, they are engineered to only work on a short term basis.
In Conclusion
Without a balanced plan that seeks to incorporate marketing activities that both build their brand and activate sales, any legal marketing strategy will be left hungry. To learn more, visualize your law firm’s marketing plan, and to get advice on how to make healthy marketing decisions in the new year, Get In Touch with us, or visit our Legal Marketing Nutrition Guide and get your law
ABOUT THE AUTHORTanner Jones
As Vice President of Business Development, Tanner Jones oversees all business development opportunities for Consultwebs and their clients. He has the privilege of speaking with virtually every law firm that contacts Consultwebs and working with them to determine how we may accomplish their digital marketing goals.
“We are proud to have built one of the strongest teams in the country, ranging from licensed attorney content writers, innovative social media consultants and award-winning designers to expert programmers and highly experienced search marketing consultants. We know that we are only as strong as our individual team members, and we hire accordingly.”
“Consultwebs has been in business since 1999 and has been singularly focused on law firm Web marketing. We do not dabble in other areas in which we lack talent and resources. We focus on what we know best: Internet marketing for attorneys,” Tanner says.
