Many lawyers spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars printing up attractive law firm brochures. But just because your law firm is professionally designed and printed doesn’t mean it will bring in business.
Most law firm brochures contain the following elements: lawyer bios, practice area blurbs, plenty of photography, and some basic contact information. The result: a boring brochure no one wants to read.
If the only reaction your brochure is provoking is “Oh, that’s pretty,” it has failed to deliver your marketing message. Rather than create a beautiful brochure that ends up in the trash, use these 3 steps to create a brochure your prospects will read and hold on to.
- Written content is the #1 priority – For many lawyers, the written content in the brochure is the last thing they think about. Before they even think about content, they are picking out the right pictures and asking designers for a mock-up of the layout. This is backwards. The marketing message and brochure contents should always come first. Everything else supplements and enhances the written content. If your brochure doesn’t communicate why prospects should hire your firm over every other law firm, it has failed. Nothing else matters.
- Craft a compelling marketing message – If you want prospects to read your law firm brochures, start with a compelling marketing message. Each brochure should introduce, explain, prove, and reinforce your marketing message. This is more than providing bits and pieces about your firm’s history, philosophy, attorneys and practice areas. It’s about focusing on a key problem prospects are having, identifying the problem, proving that problem exists, offering ways to solve the problem, and demonstrating that your services are the best way to solve that problem.
- Provide proof – The goal of your law firm brochure should be to get prospects to hire your law firm rather than going with another attorney. If your brochure doesn’t tell him why he should hire you, it’s just a waste of money. Proof means showing your prospects who you have worked with, what results you have gotten, and why you are best qualified to help your prospect solve his problem.
Anyone can create professional-looking law firm brochures, but only a small fraction of those people can write a compelling sales brochure that clearly explains why prospects should hire you over everyone else. Don’t judge a brochure based on how beautiful you think it is. Base your opinion on how well it makes its case. If you were presenting this story to a jury, would you convince them? Or are you lacking evidence so that you are only telling bits and pieces of your firm’s story?
Your law firm brochures should be written arguments for why someone should hire your firm as clearly, concisely and coherently as possible.
