Most attorneys in marketing their firms and attempting to get new business have one message to new clients: call me. they want that person to pick up the phone, call them, schedule a consultation, and then retain. This approach has one potentially fatal flaw:

The potential client may not be ready to hire a lawyer yet!

In effect, you know that they need a lawyer, but they just don’t realize it yet.

Your Potential Clients Are on a Journey

We always want to rush the process, but our potential clients out there don’t want to be rushed. They are on, what American advertising advocate E. Saint Elmo Lewis called “the moving parade of interest.” But the good news is, like every parade, it has a starting point and an ending point. The ending point is, of course, them hiring you. But that doesn’t mean you can disregard all the points in between.

When creating marketing copy for your law firm, especially content for your website, you need to have some that address each stop in the journey. This will bring you to their attention way before they actually start looking for a lawyer, so that you can build authority and trust in advance. In this way, when they’re ready to hire someone, they will already know you and trust you, and see you as the only choice.

For example, they may have been involved in an auto accident, but right now they just want to know how to deal with the insurance adjuster. Give them that information and help them with their immediate problem. Map out that person’s path from the accident itself to them hiring you to bring suit and write content that talks about every step on that path. You can even suggest the next step through a link to another article at the bottom of the first one!

The Proper Path of Motivation

Saint Elmo talks about how, in order to be motivated to retain you, a potential client must progress through his AIDA model: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. They must progress from being aware of your service’s existence to being interested enough to pay attention to its benefits and advantages, to having a desire to get that benefit. The fourth stage, Action, comes as a natural result of movement through the first three stages.

When writing each piece of content, keep these three points in mind to spur them into action.

Attention. First, you have to grab their attention. This means using good keywords that will help you in the search results and get you on the first page. In addition, it means writing compelling headlines that will grab the attention of the potential client when they are searching for the information they are looking for on that stage of their journey/parade. Then make sure in the content that it is clear that you have the solution to their problem and how you can help.

Interest. Once they get to the content in your website, keep them interested. Make the language engaging, understandable, entertaining, and informative. This means not only speaking specifically to their problem, in their language not yours, but also generating interest in the solution that you can provide. Be clear on the benefits of your services and, more importantly, the benefits of the benefits.

Desire. An interest in your services is one thing, but in order for them to retain you, they have to want your services. They have to come to the conclusion that yours is the only solution to their problem. People make decisions emotionally, and then justify them logically. Speak to emotion in presenting the solution rendered by your services.

So, once they know about your solution, are interested in how it could help them, and have the desire to get it in order to solve their problem, they will take action and retain you.

It’s Not Always That Easy to Do

Writing compelling marketing content for your law firm isn’t easy; it’s hard work! I have been writing content for my law firm web site for over a decade! Put my experience and expertise to work for you. I can audit your web site and provide you with actionable tips to amp up its effectiveness. Just click here to schedule an initial call to discuss it further.

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