Marketing is, just like the practice of law, ever-evolving and incredibly complicated. As a lawyer, you've been to school and spent many years learning and refining your legal practice. The time you've spent learning marketing likely pales in comparison, so it shouldn't be any shock if you find marketing to be both daunting and stressful.
There are a ton of sites out there (many not very good at all) that will give you a variety of tips on how to get starting marketing your law firm and/or your legal practice. What I would prefer to do is steer you away from some of the major pitfalls I see too many law firms and attorneys make. These are mistakes that I constantly see from even well-established firms that have been marketing for years.
- Not Focusing on a Particular Practice Area or Client-Type: By far, the biggest pitfall I see in law firm marketing is trying to market and/or advertise for every possible practice area and for every possible type of client. To illustrate the problem with this type of marketing, imagine that you're someone who needs a lawyer to handle a landlord-tenant issue. You've seen Law Firm A on TV advertising their expertise in litigation, injury law, tax matters, intellectual property, and, OH, landlord-tenant issues. On the other hand, you just read an ad in the newspaper about Law Firm B who focuses exclusively on landlord-tenant issues. Who would you be more likely to call first? Potential clients want to know that you're an expert focused on their problem, not on every possible legal issue. Your marketing must reflect this desire.
- Not Focusing on One Type of Marketing: There are a lot of types of marketing that work for a lot of different attorneys. Television, print ads, online advertising, search engine optimization, billboards, and many other types of marketing all have loads of potential. However, if you being by trying all of them, then you're going to fail at all of them. There is no marketing medium that is easy. They all take time and energy to learn and refine. If you want to be successful at any of them (and also to save some money along the way), then pick one that you think will work best for you and stick with it until it's working for you. Then move on to another medium.
- Not Overseeing a Marketing Firm or Consultant: There are a lot of great consultants and firms out there who will provide you with awesome marketing services. I consider myself one of them. However, there are also a lot of firms that don't provide great service. Moreover, even good firms need your oversight and feedback. They need to communicate with you to figure out how things are going and whether what they're doing is working for you or if you want to change directions. Don't check in just once a year and assume that things are going OK, because they won't be, even with the best of marketing consultants.
