Power Up Your Marketing: Know Thy Enemy!
Marketing in a vacuum is one of the surest signs of failure for your law firm. In order to compete in your legal market, you need to know what your competitors are doing. I don’t say this in the sense that you need to know what they’re doing so that you can copy it, but you need to know what they’re doing in order to formulate a better strategy for competing with it.
Know thy enemy. If you haven’t Googled “best [your practice area] attorney near me,” then you need to stop what you’re doing right now and do it. The first thing you were going to see two things: 1) how endless the choices can be for your potential client; and 2) that you look the same as all of the others (assuming you are listed with them).
After you have done that, select those in the search that you see as your biggest competitors and click through to their sites. Make a thorough review of what they are doing. Are you doing anything in your marketing that they are not? If not, you need to find something.
Monkey See, Monkey Do Marketing
Doing what everybody else is doing is something my colleague and successful Virginia attorney Bob Battle calls “monkey see, monkey do marketing.” If you do the same thing as your competition, you are by definition average, and your potential clients will not be able to see the difference between you and everyone else in your market. They may just go to whomever is cheapest.
Standing out requires deliberate and strategic efforts to build authority and trust, and I have talked about how important it is to build your authority. The good news is, most small firm lawyers are too lazy to do the hard work.
Building a Personal Brand
Building a personal brand is a powerful way to establish authority. But how do you do that? Here are some benefits and potential pitfalls.
Authenticity: People today want to establish a personal connections with brands. A personal brand allows for genuine and authentic marketing, so your brand needs to reflect who you really are, not some manufactured image that you think will impress potential clients. They are more likely to establish a connection with you if you’re marketing projects authenticity. Is your competition being authentic? If not, you have an opportunity here.
Credibility: Building authority in your practice areas, and building a brand around it, creates credibility. It also establishes you as a thought leader, which in turn builds trust. This will make you stand out.
Differentiation: This is a byproduct of a strong brand. Your authentic, incredible brand, built on strong authority, can help you stand out in a crowded market. Your marketing needs to be crafted in such a way that you become known in your market for something MORE THAN “[your name] is a great [your practice area] lawyer.” Looking closely at what your competition is doing will help you form a strategy for differentiation.
Unique Selling Proposition (USP): This is what it is at the heart of everything. Why should that potential client hire you as opposed to any other firm in your market? What makes you the obvious choice? This is your unique selling proposition. This needs to be communicated effectively in order to be successful. You need to answer these questions with enough specificity to create powerful and effective marketing.
Storytelling: As I’ve written about before, people love to hear a story. Storytelling should be used on your “About” page talking about yourself, on your case results page in talking about how you secured a win for a client, or as a way to illustrate a particular legal point or answer to a frequently asked question. The great thing is, no one can steal your story because it is unique to you. Is your competition telling stories?
Educational Marketing: The majority of your potential clients are searching for answers on the Internet to their legal problems way before they ever start looking for a lawyer. Having content on your site that answers frequently ask questions or articles that discuss the topics that your potential clients are looking for, can attract potential clients to you earlier on. In my experience, many law firm websites do not do this. They may have a rudimentary blog, but is seldom robust and written in a language other than legalese.
If you give your potential clients the information they are looking for in a language that they understand, you will build authority and distinguish yourself sharply from your competition. You become the knowledgeable resource when they are ready to hire a lawyer.
Becoming an Expert in Your Niche: Is your competition casting a wide net? Are they trying to be everything to everybody? Being a generalist and today’s legal market can be dangerous, as people are looking for recognizable experts in the very field of law that they need. Being a generalist makes you look like everybody else, and fails to distinguish you from the others. Niching also helps to build authority.
Set aside some time in the next couple of weeks to Google your competition and take a look at what they are doing online. Make a list of what they are and are not doing and then formulate a plan based on the above suggestions that will help you stand out and compete more effectively for potential clients.
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Do you need help doing a “threat analysis” on your competition in order to create a marketing plan that will get you an edge in your market? I can help! Just click on this link to schedule an initial, no obligation call with me to discuss your situation and what value I can bring to the table.
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