In a May post Seth Godin lists 30 things that every good marketer knows. He concedes there could be more. His list is worth a look.
In this post, I want to comment from a law firm perspective on ten he mentions:
*Marketing is far more than advertising, which is just one tool or tactic in your arsenal. (Yet most bars cluster nearly all marketing under “advertising” – usually Rule 7. No wonder many lawyers have thought they were one and the same),
*Products that are remarkable get talked about. (In the case of legal services, if they are delivered promptly, without surprises, and in an efficient manner, they indeed will be talked about and the lawyer who delivered them),
*Marketing is the way your people answer the phone, how your bills look, how you deal with client concerns. (Marketing is everything a firm does in delivering legal services to clients),
*View marketing as an investment, not an expense. (Often, the failure to do so is why some law firm marketing programs are ineffective or worse, a waste of both time and money),
*Clients don’t buy what they need, rather what they want. (They may want a certain type of estate, or lawsuit, or agreement, when in fact they NEED something very different. And it is the lawyer’s job to change their want into what they really need),
*Good marketers tell a story, and effective stories match the worldview of your audience. (Clients are more likely to hire a lawyer they relate to, and feel comfortable with. A good story will help do that),
*Choose your clients. Fire those that hurt the story you can tell others. (Unfortunately, too many lawyers don’t like what they are doing, or the clients they do it for. See earlier post here. So, start marketing the work you like doing to desirable clients), and
*One disappointed client is worth ten delighted ones. (I realize this is a little harder for us lawyers to accept, since, what the heck, we got ten happy ones don’t we? Unhappy campers will tell ten others the old saying goes, but one happy client may or may not tell other people at all. Remember they expect to be happy for the fees they pay.)
As Seth points out, “[o]bviously, knowing what to do is very, very different than actually doing it.” Amen to that.