Do you make these mistakes in marketing your law practice?
There are two mistakes you can make in marketing your law practice and unfortunately, most attorneys are guilty of both.
What are the two mistakes?
- Not having a marketing plot, and
- Not executing that plot.
As a result, most attorneys don't do any marketing, at smallest amount not with any consistency. Let's face it, if you don't have a plot–a list of projects and tasks and a schedule for carrying out them–any marketing activities you do will be sporadic and isolated. You'll never breed momentum or sustained progression.
Having a cool web site (or any web site) may be excellent for your ego but if you don't have any traffic to it, that's all it will be. Traffic doesn't happen by itself. You need a plot and you need some endeavor or that traffic will never materialize.
Don't get down on yourself. The problem isn't you. It's not a lack of self-discipline, poor organization, or terrible habits. You aren't bone idle and you don't need to get motivated. What you need is a better plot.
You need a plot that is
- Simple (so you can do it), and
- A excellent fit (so you want to do it).
If you want to do something and you believe you can do it, you will do it. You won't have to force yourself to do things you don't want to do, you'll do it because you delight in it.
In his remarks to the 2005 Stanford graduating class, Steve Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is fantastic work. And the only way to do fantastic work is to like what you do." A friend of mine puts it this way: "When you like what you do and do you what you like you'll never work another day in your life."
If you don't delight in being a lawyer, common sense says to either change careers or find some aspect of practicing law you do delight in. That might mean a uncommon practice area, uncommon clients, or a job with a uncommon firm. If you don't, you'll never be pleased and you'll never do "fantastic work." The same can be said for marketing.
The excellent news is that there are lots of ways to market legal services and you only need one or two. You don't have to be excellent at networking AND writing AND seminars AND getting web traffic AND social media AND referrals. Pick something that sounds excellent to you or feels right. For once in your career, place logic up your sleeve and listen to your gut.
Maybe nothing feels right or maybe you don't know sufficient yet about the uncommon options. That's okay. Make no decisions, take a step back and simply learn. Read, observe, see what others are doing. Soak it all in and eventually, you'll find something that's a excellent fit.
And then, you need a plot. We'll talk about that tomorrow.