In a close election it is undecided voters who carry the candidate or cause to victory. One of the biggest blocks of undecideds are “low information” voters–people who ordinarily don’t pay much attention to politics until a few weeks before the election.
Another block of undecideds are supporters of third party candidates who, at the last minute, realize their candidate doesn’t have a chance to win and are open to choosing another candidate.
In most consumer-based law practices, prospective clients are “low information voters”. Unless and until something occurs in their life (divorce, accident, arrest, lawsuit, etc.), they won’t pay much attention to anything you might say. They don’t have a problem (that they are aware of) and they aren’t in the market for an attorney.
In a business oriented law practice, prospective clients are often “third party supporters”–they have an attorney they are reasonably happy with and aren’t looking to switch, at least for now.
In either case, your prospective clients aren’t interested in what you can do for them. They won’t notice your ads or ask their friends for a referral. There’s no impending event that forces them to pay attention.
But eventually there will be. Your objective is to be there when that occurs.
Your strategy is to put mechanisms in place that allow you to be found and recommended when prospective clients are finally in the market for an attorney. Depending on your practice area, target market, and personal preferences, this might include:
- A strong Internet presence–blogs, search engine optimization, social media connections
- Referral strategies–equipping your clients and professional contacts with information they can disseminate
- Search-based advertising–classifieds, PPC, directory ads
- Networking–meeting those who are in the market and the people who can refer them
Position yourself to be found when prospective clients realize they have a problem and go looking for a solution. This is usually more profitable than targeting “pre-need” prospects–people who don’t yet have a problem or aren’t ready to do something about it.
However, you may also want to target pre-need prospects who have a problem but don’t fully understand the risks or their options. Estate planning seminars, for example, can be effective at persuading “no need” and “vaguely aware of a need” prospects into becoming paying clients.
The best plan is to target all three types of prospects. Focus primarily on those who are looking now, but don’t ignore those who will be looking later.
The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you six key marketing strategies for getting more clients and increasing your income.
