I got an email from an attorney who wanted to hire someone to do all of her marketing for her. She said she’s “not good at marketing and not interested in it.” She doesn’t realize it but she’s already engaged in marketing. Every lawyer is.
Every time you say thank you to a client or referral source, you’re marketing.
Every time you hand someone you business card and ask for theirs, you’re marketing.
Every time you have a meal with someone, you’re marketing.
You may be doing it poorly, or getting poor results, but it’s marketing nevertheless.
Marketing is defined as, “everything you do to get and keep clients”. Key word–“everything”. All of the little things you say and do, the warmth of your handshake, the sincerity of your smile. It all counts.
You do yourself an injustice when you conclude that marketing is something you can hand off to someone else.
You can hire people to assist you. They can do most of the behind the scenes work. They can advise you, create your ads, run your blog, and promote your seminars. They can set up meetings with people on your behalf.
But you have to be at those meetings.
Building a law practice means building relationships and that’s not something that can be delegated.
If this is an anathema to you, if you are terminally shy or you just don’t like people, you’ll be a lot happier finding a partner who is good at what you don’t enjoy. Let him or her be the face of the firm, while you do what you’re good at.
But guess what? You’ll still be marketing.
Every time you say thank you to a client, you’re marketing. Every time you give someone your card and ask for theirs, or have a meal with someone, you’re marketing.
You can’t escape. Everything means everything.
If you want to improve your marketing, you should read (and apply) The Attorney Marketing Formula.Â
