A lot of mistakes made by lawyers when it comes to marketing and business development are pretty simple, and simple to overcome. They just must be recognized and dealt with. A reader sent along an email, which led me to an article by Kenneth Hardison of the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Managing Association (PILMMA) that was short, to the point and worth sharing.
His 7 mistakes include:
- Failure to differentiate (your ads from all the rest),
- Failure to differentiate (your firm from others);
- Lack of consistency (in the look, feel and message in your marketing materials);
- No marketing plan (tied to specific, identified strategies and a budget);
- Not tracking marketing results (i.e., determining where your clients are coming from and why, and doing more of that);
- Procrastination (due to a fear of failure or whatever. I agree with Hardison’s suggestion that getting a partner, business colleague, or a coach will help overcome this); and
- Lack of buy-in by everyone (lawyers and staff) to the marketing strategy.
These mistakes are pretty basic, but can be killers that can undermine any firm’s marketing and business development efforts.