On Not Being Afraid to Ask for Help: Reaching out in Legal Marketing
Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Every time there is a tragedy or disaster — man-made or nature-made — we see the now famous Mr. Rogers’ quote about alleviating fear by looking for the helpers. This seems to really resonate with people and that is because it’s true. We can quell our fear by looking for those who can help us.

Typically, lawyers are among those who are the helpers. Which may be why it is so hard for them to ask for help.

There are many law firm marketing tasks that you can and should delegate or outsource because it’s simply not the best use of your time. There are also several that you should keep in your own hands, including cultivating relationships with clients and referral sources.

When it comes to outsourcing your law firm marketing and business development efforts, there is a five-step process we recommend our clients follow:

  1. Identify the marketing strategies and business development tools that will work best for your practice area.

  2. Analyze your firm’s realistic ability to effectively design and implement the plan using existing, internal team members.

  3. Select which strategies your firm will handle internally and which ones you want to outsource.

  4. Interview and select an outsourced legal marketing company that can assist you.

  5. Set realistic goals and benchmarks.

Once you have selected which marketing tools you want to use, the next step is to analyze your law firm’s current ability to design, develop, implement and maintain the marketing plan. You must be realistic! The worst thing you can do is try to do it all by yourself or force your staff to do it. If your plan is to “dump” a bunch of marketing activities onto an already overwhelmed office manager because s/he took a couple of marketing classes in college, then don’t be surprised when it implodes.

It takes years of dedication working with thousands of different attorneys, running test after test and trying dozens of different law firm marketing techniques with different practice areas to truly become an expert legal marketer! I would propose that it’s not something you can truly achieve an expertise in by practicing a few hours a week, any more than you can become an expert litigator by reading a John Grisham novel.

If you decide to hire a legal marketing company, be sure they meet these criteria:

  • They can point to other attorneys they work with;

  • They have a written blueprint for how they intend to generate and convert leads for your law firm;

  • They charge a flat fee that’s reasonable based on results;

  • They have clearly identified strategies to track and measure actual results.

 

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