Educating prospects is the key to winning new clients consistently. The more you can educate prospects about the value you provide, the more likely they will be to hire you.
Consider who is most likely to hire you: the prospect who spends 5 minutes on the phone with you inquiring about your fees or the prospect who comes to your office for a 30-minute consultation and painstakingly explains his problem, shows you all the documents you requested, and carefully evaluates the solutions you offer.
You can use this principle before you interact with prospects one-on-one by creating a compelling and complete attorney marketing message.
What is a Marketing Message?
Your marketing message is how you communicate with your target market. It involves everything you say in your advertising, on your website, through broadcasting, seminars, and any other external communication.
At its heart, your attorney marketing message is your 15-second elevator pitch that explains who you work with, what problems you solve and why prospects should do business with you instead of other attorneys.
Each additional brochure, article, newsletter, conversation or communication enhances that message to give prospects a clearer picture of who you are, what you do, and how working with you will benefit them.
Your prospects want information, not a sales pitch, and the more information you can provide them before that initial appointment, the less time you will waste on prospects who aren’t a good fit for your services.
How To Create A Powerful Attorney Marketing Message
While it would be nice if everyone we talked with hired us, the reality is you will never have a 100% close rate. That said, the best marketing messages make a complete case for why your prospect should hire you – which will increase the likelihood that those who do contact you will be highly qualified to hire you.
Most marketing messages don’t work for a few reasons: either (a) they don’t give prospects enough information to make an informed purchasing decision, (b) they are so complicated that prospects don’t understand the value the lawyer provides, or (c) they offer no sense of urgency for why your prospect should take action to solve his problem now.
If your prospect is confused, overwhelmed, or simply doesn’t appreciate how you can help him, he won’t take action. So what do you need to create a powerful marketing message?
- A clearly defined target market – The best marketing messages are specific to a group of people who all share a similar goal or problem. If you have multiple practice areas, you will need to create a different marketing message for each.
- Appeal to your prospect’s self interest – Your prospect will only hire you if he understands how he will benefit from working with you. How can you help prospects solve their problem or achieve their goal? What does he stand to lose if he doesn’t address his issue in the near future?
- Explain how you differ from other lawyers – People hire you because they see why you are different from other lawyers, so emphasize your competitive advantages. What can you offer that is above and beyond what other attorneys provide?
- Build trust – People may hire you because they know, like and trust you – but they also have to believe you can do the job competently. Use clear, simple language to answer frequently asked questions, explain how you’ve helped other clients in similar situations and if your ethics board allows, offer testimonials or letters of recommendation to prove your credibility.
5 Components of a Compelling Marketing Message
One of the quickest ways to waste money marketing your legal services is by using a complex, jargon-filled marketing message. If you don’t make your message clear, concise, and easy to understand, it will fail to attract prospects to your business. A compelling law firm marketing message has these 5 components.
- Define the problem – What is the key pain, frustration or problem your prospect is having? Identify and explain it clearly. Prospects won’t hire you until they understand what their problem is, why they need to take action to solve it now, and what might happen if they put it off.
- Provide evidence for the problem – Your prospects are skeptical and may think you are identifying problems so that they will hire you for a fee. You have to take time to educate prospects that this problem does exist, it is serious, and if they don’t fix it, bad things may happen in the future.
- Identify solutions – Once you have identified a problem, give some examples of how people might solve the problem – or even better, how their key competitors solved that problem. What do you recommend?
- Provide evidence for your recommendation – Noticing a trend here? You identify a problem, then prove it. You identify a solution, then prove it. People are skeptical. The biggest issue your marketing must overcome is disbelief. People won’t believe you. They think you have your own best interests at heart, so you are only identifying problems to find more paying work for yourself. When you recommend a solution, try to find objective, third-party information to show the solution works.
- Build your own credibility – Obviously the point of this exercise is to get prospects to agree they have a problem then hire you to solve it. Design your marketing message and materials to show why you are the best lawyer to help them solve this legal challenge. What experience do you have? What results have you gotten? Make the best case you can for why they should hire you over another attorney.
When crafting your attorney marketing message, put yourself in your prospect’s mindset. “What’s in it for me?” What are the primary benefits they receive when they hire you to solve their problem?
