Are you a good lawyer? That’s not a trick question, you’re supposed to answer ‘Yes’ (if you answered ‘No’, get another job). So if you are a good lawyer, why aren’t you earning as much as some other lawyers? Of course, money is not the only yardstick for success, but it sure wouldn’t hurt to have more of it, right? The fact is there are many good and very clever lawyers but they don’t make as much money as others who are not as good or clever as they are. Why?
One of the reasons is poor marketing.
But with Guerrilla Marketing, you hold in your hand the keys to galvanize your business to attain humongous success beyond what you have attained thus far. As I stated in my previous article (‘Why Small is Beautiful’), you don’t have to be a big player to succeed. Neither do you need lots of money. But you do need to be competent as a lawyer. No one is going to engage you if you don’t know your stuff. That’s why I said that if you’re a bad (incompetent) lawyer, get another job or you’ll be dead in the water. In fact, Guerrilla Marketing speeds up your demise because the client discovers your competence (or lack of it) so much faster.
As a Guerrilla Marketer, you are much more aware of marketing than the typical lawyer. It is not surprising that less than 10% of law firms have utilized all of these marketing methods – a Website, canvassing, personal letters, free reports, email signatures, circulars and brochures, signs on bulletin boards, classified ads, outdoor signs, direct mail, organizing seminars, sponsoring events, public relations, advertising specialties like imprinted ballpoint pens, advertising in the yellow pages, newspapers, magazines, radio, television and billboards. Some of these methods may not be allowed by your professional body (such as the Bar Association), nevertheless some of them may be worth a try. Guerrilla Marketing entails you evaluating each one of the methods plus others and then using the best combination of them to market your legal services after weeding out those that do not work.
Guerrilla Marketing means examining every opportunity to solve people’s problems and latching on to it. The more your business solves people’s problems, the more successful you become. For example, time is a universal problem nowadays. People do not lack money as much as they lack time. So if your legal skills can save time for people, you will be in high demand. In order to solve people’s problems effectively, your business need to be focused on one core idea. And all of your marketing must flow out of this core idea. Remember in Guerrilla Marketing, marketing is not just limited to advertising; it involves your opening hours, stationery, location of your premises, your Website, your emails, everything. All these should be an extension of your one core business idea.
Guerrilla Marketing simplifies the complexities of business. Try encapsulating your business into a few sentences, then further distilling it into a succinct sentence of 7 words or less. Here’s an example. An owner of a computer training company wanted to teach people how to use the computer for various tasks like word processing, accounting, generating spreadsheets etc. He knew one of the main phobias people have would be the fear of the technical aspect of using the computer. He had advertised his services but received little response. So he decided to write down his entire business concept. His first draft went like this, “I will alleviate the fears that people have concerning computers so that they recognize the enormous value and competitive advantages of working with computers”. He then reduced his business statement to a brief 7 word sentence, “I will teach people to operate computers”.
This brief statement clarified his entire business concept for himself, his sales force and prospective customers. He later used this to rename his company “Computers for Beginners”. These 3 simple words expressed the notion of overcoming technophobia, stated his core business and attracted lots of customers. Succinctness leads to clarity and clarity to success. That’s Guerrilla Marketing.
