Cheryl Leone, Catalyst Group Inc. and
Ken Hardison, Senior Partner 
Hardison & Leone, L.L.P.

INTRODUCTION

Competition among lawyers has grown over the past ten years at a more rapid pace than ever before. The old days of doing a good job for a client are not a guarantee of future business. The days of generation after generation of the same family using the same law firm is fast fading. This is due partly to the fact that we have a more mobile society, smarter more sophisticated consumer. Clients are much smart and more savvy and know where to go to find out information. The lawyer of today has to think like the lawyer of tomorrow!

The day of the solo general practitioner is slowly dying. More and more, the practice of law has become so complicated and changing on such a rapid pace that it is nearly impossible for one attorney to be competent in all the different areas of law.

In order for an attorney to survive and grow in today's environment he must make a conscious decision that he has to market himself or his practice.

Three Phases of Marketing

In order to be successful in marketing your law firm, there are three major phases that you must go through. They are:

• Planning
• Launching
• Maintaining

The first phase of planning involves several factors. As discussed earlier, you must have a specific, clear, and concise idea for a strategic plan on what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish this plan. You must ask yourself several questions: who, what, and how.

First, who are you trying to market to? For example, in a personal injury practice, we have found that the people most apt to hire a personal injury attorney are between the ages of 18 and 45. They are usually blue-collar workers on the lower socioeconomic class and have less education. We have also found that women call an attorney more often than a man for injuries even if it is the man (husband or boyfriend) who is hurt. If your market was estate planning then you would. of course, be hitting a completely different type of demographic and would be looking for upper-income people between the ages of 40 and 60. In your planning mode, you would also decide what is the most cost-effective advertising to attract this demographic. For example, we know that older people read newspapers consistently more than the younger generation whereas the younger generation seems to listen to the radio and watch TV. Also, the younger generation seems to be more amenable to the internet and website advertising.

The second phase is launching. After you have developed a strategic plan on who you want to reach and how you are going to reach them, then you must execute the plan. Launching requires actually rolling up your sleeves and getting down to the nitty gritty of purchasing and placing ads and so forth.

The third phase, which we think is one of the most important, is the maintaining. You cannot run an ad or any kind of advertising one time or over several weeks and expect it to give you an immediate return. You must have patience and maintain your plan and carry through with it until your marketing reaches your targeted audience at least 21 times. Most business nationally allocate 3% of their past year's revenues for marketing. I believe for lawyers this is not sufficient. However, whatever your budget, the main thing is to make sure it is cost-effective.

TRAITS FOR SUCCESSFUL MARKETING

We have found that there are four main traits for successful marketing that a law firm and their principals must adhere to. They are:

• Patience 
• Aggressiveness 
• Imagination 
• Sensitivity

Patience is probably the most important trait for successful marketing. As previously stated, you cannot expect immediate gratification from your efforts in marketing…it takes time. There is a general rule among marketing circles that it takes 21 exposures to a person before they become completely responsive to your marketing vehicle. This, however, it not always true for every type of marketing. For instance, direct mail gets an immediate response on way or the other. Marketing through TV, radio, display ads, newspapers take longer to see the full effect of money spent on this media.

Aggressiveness does not mean that you have to beat people over the head with your ads or out spend everybody else in your market. Aggressiveness means you must be driven in your pursuit of marketing potentially new clients and never give up when there are dips in the return on your investment.

Imagination is also important so that you do not do what everyone else is doing. You must stand out! When the first 800 numbers came out using call letters (ie, 1-800-INJURED), everyone thought it was ridiculous. However, somebody's imagination (by thinking outside the box) paid off great dividends. Many law firms are reluctant to pay the big licensing fees to use these numbers on a daily basis although it has been proven through research that a lawyer will get 25% more calls if he uses one of these types of 800 numbers in their ads. The question becomes whether or not it is cost-effective.

Sensitivity means you must be sensitive to your market place. What works in Charlotte, North Carolina might not work in Mayberry, NC. Results of a recent national survey of why lawyers lose clients gave the following reasons: 

• 1% die 
• 3% move 
• 5% dislike the probable outcome 
• 24% have some dispute that does not get adjusted 
• 67% feel that they were treated discourteously, indifferently, or were not given good service

Thus, you must be sensitive to your client's needs and wants. The above survey results illustrate that good client service and being sensitive to your clients needs is one of the main ways to keep clients and get referrals from prior clients. It's been my experience that if you do a good job and meet the needs of your client even though the results are not exactly what they anticipated or wanted, they will refer new clients to you because you care. It has often been said that a satisfied client will tell 2 to 5 people; a dissatisfied client will tell anywhere from 10 to 20 people.

Consistency is also an important trait for successful marketing in a law firm. It cannot be sporadic. Beginning something and stopping after 30 days will cause you to lose momentum. It is also a waste of the money you spent the first 30 days because it is better to spend the same amount each week or month over a longer period of time than to bunch it all together in one short period.

WEAPONS FOR MARKETING YOUR LAW FIRM

• Good Client Service 
• Cross Selling - Letters 
• Return Phone Calls 
• Client Surveys 
• Clubs and Associations 
• Niche 
• Identity - what sets you apart from other law firms. 
• Accept Credit Cards 
• Phones - hold background message 
• Create a Client Data Base - mailing list 
• Newsletters 
• Education-Based Marketing / Seminars 
• Logo 
• Stationery 
• Business Cards 
• Newspaper Clippings - send to clients 
• Thank You Notes for Referrals - handwritten 
• Birthday Cards for Clients 
• Newspaper - Press Releases 
• Newspaper - Classified Ads 
• Invest in a Great Receptionist 
• Email Newsletters 
• Cable TV 
• Radio/Talk Shows 
• Yellow Pages
• Websites 
• Calendar Magnets 
• Christmas Cards 
• Brochures with Testimonials 
• Have Attorneys Publish Articles

SUMMARY

It is evident that you can do effective marketing with very little cost. You can initiate a small budget of $1000 per month, or a budget as high as $100,000 per month. It all depends on what you want to accomplish and how much risk and perseverance you have.

Marketing takes time and it takes commitment. Otherwise you are throwing your marketing dollars out the door. There is a plan for every firm - you just need to decide what makes sense for your firm and then do it.

Unless today's lawyer thinks about tomorrow, he or she will never prosper. Continued new cases are the life blood of any firm and can be generated in such a manner as to make a "for profit" firm a smart marketing firm.