Lawyers, hear me. While it’s true that you can perform your services for anyone with certain legal problems, if you target your marketing to “everyone,” you’re making a mistake.
Not everyone will hear your message, let alone relate to it. Not everyone will be ready, willing, and able to hire you. Not everyone will be able to provide you with repeat business and referrals, which you should know by now are the sine qua non of a successful practice.
When you target everyone, you target no one.
Instead of targeting everyone, define and market to the clients you define as ideal.
You’ll get more clients and better clients when you do.
You may not want to narrow the field, because you don’t want to miss out on someone who might hire you or refer you. But if you’re willing to let go of people who aren’t your ideal, you’ll more than make up for any lost business from the people who are.
Because the narrower you define your target market and ideal client, the easier and more effective (and profitable) your marketing will be.
You’ll get more clients with less effort. You’ll spend less time and less money to find them (actually, have them find you), deliver your message, and convert them into clients.
Those clients will also pay you more because they know you are the one everyone in their niche is hiring and talking about.
More good news.
Targeting an ideal client (instead of “everyone”) doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t reach others. You will. Other people will hear about you and make their way to your door.
Take their money. Tolerate clients who aren’t in your target market.
But don’t target them.
Spend your time and money and tailor your marketing message to a laser-focused ideal client.
Who is your ideal client? That’s what you have to figure out.
To start, ask yourself, “Who is NOT my ideal client?”
I’ll help you start your list:
- People who don’t live or work in a jurisdiction where I am licensed
- People who don’t hire lawyers
- People who don’t have/won’t spend money to hire a lawyer
- People who are hard to work with, e.g., they’ve previously hired and fired (or been fired by) several lawyers on the same matter
- People who aren’t married (if you’re a divorce lawyer); yes, they might get married some day, and they might have referrals for you, but we’re looking for your “ideal” client
And go from there. (And yes, “people” includes businesses.)
You can define your ideal client by age, industry or profession, and many other factors.
And you should.
The more specific you are, the more likely you’ll be to be sought after and hired by clients who are a great match for you.
To learn how to choose a target market and ideal client for your practice, pick up a copy of The Attorney Marketing Formula.
