Gone are the days when lawyers just put up a signboard at their premises, hand out business cards, sit back and wait for clients to beat a path to their door. In the 21st century, you have to fight to survive in business because people have a million distractions calling for their short attention spans.
This is where 360 Guerrilla Marketing for lawyers comes in.
It is called such because it entails marketing to your prospective clients from all directions, using as many means as possible so long as it makes a profit for your business. It’s important to understand that your potential clients are in the market for your legal services only briefly so if you do not put your business within their radar screen in that short window of time, someone else will.
Guerrilla Marketers use marketing methods that are versatile and varied. These methods need not be expensive; in fact some are free. So what are some of the methods of this multi-pronged Guerrilla Marketing approach?
Firstly, every Guerrilla Marketer is always contactable and approachable. Your legal business is a people business so it?s no point acting like a hermit. You must be checking your emails daily, have your pagers and cell phones on, have a working snail mail or P.O. Box address. You are available to your clients via your Website (which should have a means to contact you) and have phones, fax and answering machines for your business. Your response time to clients? inquiries or complaints must be on par if not above industry standards.
Secondly, a Guerrilla Marketer would always make it a point to be where people are. You get involved in your local community and connect with prospect in non-business situations. Sometimes, big business transactions are conducted over coffee or tea. You would join social clubs to meet people, offer your services or free consultations where possible. Besides that, you may give free talks to local groups interested in your topic of expertise. This way you brand yourself as an expert in your legal field. This may even lead to a joint venture with another organization in some way. You maintain good relationships with media people who can give you good publicity when you need it.
Thirdly, every Guerrilla Marketer understands the power of leverage. You will have a referral system for your existing clients and always invite them to share their testimonials about your services. You would send questionnaires to prospective and existing clients to obtain feedback to improve your services. You look for relevant newspaper columns or magazine publications you could contribute to and thereby leverage on their distribution and readership. You are in constant touch with the leaders in the legal fraternity for the latest industry information. At times, you may network with these leaders in some way or form.
Fourthly, a Guerrilla Marketer knows the power of online and offline advertising. Setting up a website or blog is the minimum that should be done to establish online presence. You should find ways to grow an online mailing list such as by giving away a freebie in exchange for people?s email addresses. You would be active in forums and link with people through social media. You will advertise your services through videos, podcast, press releases and list your website in directories and link to it through articles and blog and forum posts.
Offline advertising is also plentiful. As a Guerrilla Marketer, you would utilize those which are permitted by the Bar Association to advertise your services. Putting up your own external and internal signboards, printing calling cards, advertising in relevant journals or magazines or running classifieds, printing brochures are all options to advertise offline. You would also stay in touch with prospective and existing clients through postcards and standard mailings.
360 Guerrilla Marketing leaves nothing to chance. You explore all possible avenues to get your services in front of as many potential clients as possible, then track the effectiveness of each method you use. Those which do not give you any bang for your buck are discontinued while you ramp up those that are really worthwhile and effective.
