Legal Services Marketing Tip
Use easy Web capabilities to develop "client pools"
With the first quarter of 2008 underway, it's useful to establish a few simple marketing goals for the next couple of months. When asked by attorneys for effective, but easy steps to take to build a practice, I usually ask about his or her database that covers existing and potential "client pools."¹
A client pool is a marketing segment or niche which encompasses your current and potential clients, as well as "influencers" who often play a role in recommending legal services for a particular client pool.¹ Let's assume your practice is generally health care oriented, litigation services perhaps, with related business administration, estate planning and maybe regulatory compliance services. Your target client pool includes physicians, specialists and group practices of all sizes, administrators and business managers. Influencers in this pool might include professional and trade associations, journals, publications, as well as secondary influencers like insurance, accounting, and data processing consultants.
The goal is to establish frequent communication with this targeted "client pool" using an economical electronic, Web-based newsletter, or "practice update." The first step in this process is organizing a thorough database of all key contacts, by type, within your client pool. Attend related meetings and seminars, keep business cards, and gather lists from every source -- associations, publications, individual and group Web sites, etc. You can use any email program to manage your personal database, and a simple word processing template provides a functional newsletter shell.
Content comes from your experience, knowledge of existing clients, research, and current information usually available in abundance online. Bookmark key professional, local, government and business support Web sources as you become aware of them, and edit the information (and sources) into your newsletter to keep your clients and potential clients informed of developments and possible legal implications. As long as the information is reasonably timely, informative, and (most important) easy to read, your "updates" will be noticed. (It takes patience and time -- four or five issues -- before the "updates" will be regularly accepted and read by a significant percentage of your database.)
Frequency is also an important consideration. One newsletter a month is probably the optimum in most practices, with occasional "special commentary" if a new issue, case, or law arises. Don't be afraid to feature an appropriate photograph of yourself, or to announce where you will be speaking in the coming month. Also, information gathered for client updates often provides excellent content for press releases for distribution to applicable media, as well as content for speeches at conferences and seminars.
Client pool database management and frequent communication is a practical, economical and highly effective discipline for reaching clients and potential clients (and their "influencers") with appropriate information about you and your services.
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Robert Philbin, contributing editor, nichenews.com
Notes
¹Defining an effective, profitable client pool is another (more complicated formula), which plays into a larger, firm wide marketing plan. The approach discussed here pertains to an individual attorney and his or her personal communications network.
Robert Philbin is CEO of Hershey Philbin Associates, a marketing communications firm specializing in legal and professional services marketing. For more information on how your firm can increase billings and develop new business, please contact Hershey Philbin Associates at (717) 975-2148. Initial consultations are offered at no cost.