OK, so you’ve just launched your new website, started advertising on television, created a new yellow pages ad or held a successful networking event. Because of your efforts, you’ve met a few potential referrers or prospective clients. So what’s next?
Often, the inclination is that once you’ve completed a marketing activity, your marketing efforts are over for the time being, and you can get back to the real business of “being a lawyer.” A few years ago, if you had a good reputation, were on the board of the local Bar Association, and made a modest effort at networking, chances are, you had a steady stream of new cases and clients, and you didn’t need to do a whole lot of marketing to make the phone ring. Marketing your firm on an intermittent basis worked fine. But all that has changed over the last few years with the advent of lawyer advertising, tort reform, and the sheer competition for cases and clients.
The mindset now cannot be “I’m advertising on TV”, or “I was just elected President of my local Bar” and “therefore, I don’t need to focus on my marketing.” But, unfortunately, we often talk to attorneys who are too busy with trials or depositions to focus on their marketing plan- even though they are unhappy with their case load.
Marketing your law firm and your services is something that you must focus on continuously. It must be a regular topic of conversation at your weekly partners’ meeting, and must be given due attention by your firm’s senior decision makers. Ensuring that you will have a strong case load in the future is every bit as important as strategizing over the cases that you currently have. Just ask your competitors who, right now, are trying to figure out how to get more clients – at your expense.