By Nancy Roberts Linder of Nancy Roberts Linder Consulting
Marketing your law practice is all about focusing time and resources on initiatives that work -- meaning those activities that have proven visibility building, client development and client relationship management components. Lawyers have a variety of choices when it comes to effective marketing activity -- but planning is essential to ensure your client development time and resource investment is paying off.
Activities That Work
One of the first things to understand is that the client development activities that really work are all centered around one central theme: relationship building. One of the biggest mistakes lawyers make is thinking that paying for activity that does not require them to get outside the office and meet people is effective. The practice of law is relationship based -- the essence of the attorney client relationship is that you actually have to interact with your clients and referral sources -- essential for building trust, rapport, referrals and in many cases, repeat business.
A Marketing Plan is Essential
To be successful in client development you need to have a plan -- a plan for the types of clients you want to develop or people you want to meet that could become important referral sources. Planning provides a roadmap for accountability as well as a tool to measure the impact your marketing efforts are having on your firm’s b...
