You don’t want to attract people who can’t afford to hire you. You also don’t want to attract clients who have gone through several attorneys before you and “can’t seem to find the right one”.
But you also don’t want to attract prospective clients who are completely happy with their current firm and not looking for anyone else.
You want to attract your “ideal” clients, those with the right combination of needs and wants and temperament, who are looking for the help you provide and are willing and able to pay for it.
You may occasionally work with a client who isn’t ideal, i.e., tolerate them, but you shouldn’t target them.
You should target your ideal and focus on them in your marketing.
Start by taking inventory of your current and former clients. Make a list of positive attributes you want to attract, i.e., attributes exhibited by clients you’d like to clone if you could, and another list of negative ones you want to avoid.
Create a profile of your ideal clients’ industry or market, their problems and goals, their financial strength, and other factors that define what makes them ideal.
You want more clients who are like your best clients; this is what they look like.
What then? How do you find them?
The best way is via referrals. People tend to associate with people much like themself. People in their market or industry or neighborhood. People in their age group or who have similar interests. People they know, like, and trust.
And the businesses and professionals they work with or patronize.
Whatever it is that makes your ideal clients ideal, referred ideal clients makes them better.
Because they come to you pre-screened and pre-sold.
Yes, there are other ways to find ideal clients, and they may provide you with bigger numbers. Advertising in a trade publication, for example, might generate a lot of leads who fit the profile you seek. But there’s no easier or more profitable way to bring in ideal clients than through referrals.
