All forms of marketing including marketing your legal services is persuasion. You must persuade individuals or groups to part with one of their most prized possessions: their money.

Marketing is a fancy word that means selling, and selling is a fancy word that means persuasion. You need to persuade to sell or market anything. As a business owner, you need to master the art of persuasion.

Before you say that you are not a good persuader, let me ask you how many times you persuade your kids to eat their vegetables, your friends to do you a favor or your spouse to buy something home. My guess is lots of times. The moral – We are all persuaders at heart.

But if you want to maximize your powers of persuasion, you need two kinds of insight – Insight into their prospects and customers combined with insight into your own legal service.

The starting point is to know who to persuade. Don’t think it trivial or obvious. Certainly you persuade prospective clients to engage you as their lawyer. But knowing who to persuade means more than that. It also means knowing what type of prospective clients they are. Are they single or married, about to be divorced, facing bankruptcy, having issues with the government, being unfairly treated, victimized in some way etc? When you know who to persuade, you are only part of the way home. You must also know what is important to them. Once you know this, then you know the hot buttons that ignite that person.

Now, not every persuasion attempt you make will work out the way you want. The key is to realize why some attempts succeed, to realize why some fail and to realize the difference between the two.

Once you realize that difference, you exponentially increase your power of persuasion. If you become a better persuader, you become a better salesperson. If you become a better salesperson, you become a better marketer. You become a guerrilla marketer – one who achieves conventional goals with unconventional methods.

As a guerrilla marketer, you are constantly learning from every experience. “What was the crucial insight that I used?” or “How did I use it?” Even if you fail you ask: “What insight should I have seen?” and “How did my attempt miss it?” Normally, failures are caused by persuaders failing to understand the person being persuaded. The deeper you walk into the head of your prospective client, the more persuasive you will become because of the scope of your understanding.

Here is what it means to have guerrilla persuasion: Knowing your clients and prospective clients so well that it’s a cinch to connect their goals with yours.

And this all boils down to research time and your own energy. An advertising expert, Claude Hopkins said, “The advertising man (or woman) studies the consumer. He/She tries to place himself in the position of the buyer. His/Her success largely depends on doing that to the exclusion of everything else.” The keys to persuasion are in shoes and eyes. Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes and see things through his eyes.

In conclusion, guerrilla persuading means connecting with consumers on the level of the mind and heart. The connection begins in your own mind – and it continues until a sale is made. Gentle persuasion can be as powerful as pressured persuasion. And all persuasion begins with connection.

As a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer, you must inspire confidence. People engage you as a lawyer because they have confidence in you. And there is one element that inspires confidence like nothing else ? credibility. But your credibility as a lawyer is not only about honesty or integrity. It also involves professionalism, authority, conscientiousness, expertise etc. Each of these elements is crucial to build credibility in the eyes of your clients and potential clients.

Small things make big impressions. Shabbiness in seemingly mundane things like your stationery, business cards, how you answer phone calls, answering machine messages, office decor, signage, company logo, premise location, packaging, brochures, business forms, website, staff attire etc give people the impression that you are amateurish. Amateurism equals low credibility. And amateurism in these areas points people to the possibility of amateurism in other areas, most crucially in your legal services. So as a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer, you cannot take chances. Every part of your business that comes into contact with a potential client or the general public is your marketing. Therefore, you have to tighten up these areas for they affect your credibility.

Everything you do either contributes to or erodes your credibility. When you put up an advertisement, write an article, list your business in a directory of lawyers, give a talk, offer free consultation, even when you make a phone call or do any of a myriad other things, each action must contribute to your credibility otherwise, it’s better not to do it.

As much as possible, take every opportunity to let your credibility shine through. Use recycled paper and state it as such on every sheet. Contribute to worthy causes. Give a free seminar. Solicit testimonials from previous clients and display them freely in your website, brochures or other promotional materials.

You could also leverage on certain things that work to your advantage to gain extra credibility. If you win a high profile case, make reference to it, put up a press release, reprint the newspaper articles and frame it up, include them into your website, brochures, newsletter, put them on your counter at the office. It’s okay to toot your own horn when it wins you credibility.

Have you seen advertisements that have the phrase, As seen on TV? That’s a powerful statement that enhances the credibility of the advertiser. If it is permissible you could put up an advertisement in a well-known publication like the WSJ. Then all your other marketing you could put in the phrase, As advertised in the WSJ. Immediately the credibility that people attach to the WSJ, they will attach to your business also.

So above all, gain credibility. It is the single element that will contribute to your legal business for years to come.

It is a monumental mistake to think that marketing ends once your client pays you the fees for your legal services. Sure, the case is closed and your client goes home.

But what does a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer do?

Follow up.

Your first question would be, What is there left to do? How about a thank you note or card sent 2 days after the payment of the check? How many lawyers have you dealt with that sent you a thank you card 2 days after you have paid him? Or 2 weeks, or 2 months later? Maybe none. A Guerrilla Marketing lawyer would.

But you would not stop there if you are a Guerrilla Marketer. You would also solicit a non-obligatory testimonial from your client about how you represented him or her.

Perhaps a month later (or at whatever time frame you deem appropriate), you would send another note, email or make a phone call to check up on your client just to see how things are since the close of the case. This would also be an opportune time to see if there are any questions on your client?s part and tie up loose ends. Even if everything is fine and there is no stone left unturned, this simple act serves to solidify the relationship you have with your client. And this will be beneficial for both of you in future. For you, relationship is the key to your business success. For your client, this relationship means there is always a lawyer he or she will turn to when legal expertise is required.

When you have a related service you can provide, an email or note goes out to your client. For instance, if you have been appointed as the lawyer for a new housing project, you could inform your client about this project. Perhaps he or she is in the market to buy a house. If the offer is suitable, your client gets a new house and you get more business. Better yet, include a form whereby your client can give names of 3 friends or family members who might be interested in this offer. By leveraging on your relationship with your client, you increase your market reach.

Alternatively, it may not be one of your services you may offer your client but one of your partners? services. Guerrilla Marketing lawyers are always forming smart partnerships with other lawyers or related businesses. These partnerships increase your exposure while keeping a lid on your marketing expenses.

Some facets of your legal business follow a regular cycle; for instance, tax submissions. If you represented your client on his tax issues, come the anniversary of the case, your client may once again need some legal advice on his current year’s taxes. As a Guerrilla Marketer, you should earmark the relevant dates and contact your client at the relevant time. Perhaps you could give him a discount on your fees. This would bond him or her to you for keeps.

And what about informing your client of your other legal services? Adoption, will writing, litigation, divorce, bankruptcy etc.

Through Guerrilla Marketing, your one-time client becomes a repeat client and more than that, he or she becomes a friend. And that?s the ultimate goal of doing business.

As a lawyer, you can conduct direct response marketing where you make an offer to your prospective client and solicit an immediate response to it. You want only one of two responses ? take up your offer or leave you his or her contact details if you do not already have it. You can do direct response marketing through your website or any other online publication. You can also do it through email (not spamming), brochures or any other means to get your message out to the public.

To make your direct response marketing effective, you need a few fundamental things:

An irresistible offer ? if your offer is not valuable, needed and reasonably priced then it will not motivate your prospective client to whip out his or her credit card.

The right audience ? making a great offer to the wrong audience would not yield good results.

A well-crafted message ? the words that carry your offer to the audience must clearly attract attention, create interest, induce desire and create urgency.

Accurate costing ? your costs must be kept down as far as possible so as not to exceed the revenue that can be possibly generated in your direct marketing.

A great reach ? all marketing is a numbers game. The more people you can get to see your offer, the greater the chances of a good response.

Your offer can be any aspect of your legal services that you choose to highlight. You could take advantage of certain seasons to offer your services that commensurate with the season. For instance, if it is the time of year for tax submissions, you could package you legal services for tax purposes and advertise this offer through direct response marketing.

Let’s focus on your offer and the message you write to make your offer. A good offer must have these characteristics:

It must be attention-grabbing and cause the recipient to open the message, be it an envelope, email or other forms of publication. The envelope or email subject line is the packaging of your offer. It has to create a good impression otherwise your potential client will not give it a second look. For helpful tips on how to get your envelope opened read my article,  Direct Marketing for Lawyers Guerrilla Style?.

Your offer must be focused on the recipient, not you. The offer must major on the benefits your potential client can expect. Count the number of  you and your in your offer. It must be at least twice the number of times you write we and our.

Be sure your sentences are succinct and easy to read. People can’t and won’t read complicated stuff unless necessary so your offer must be simple and straightforward.

Finally, your price must be attractive not a turn off. Make your price part of an extraordinary offer.

With these ingredients of an outstanding offer, you can make direct response marketing part of your overall marketing strategy.

Marketing your legal business can be done in a very gung-ho and aggressive style, but as a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer, you must never forget the human side of marketing. In fact, Guerrilla Marketing majors on the human touch. Never allow you business to become so high tech that it becomes low touch, meaning it fails to touch human lives. Every client to your legal firm is not merely a case, he or she is a human being first and foremost.

Here are 2 cardinal truths about marketing ? people prefer doing business with friends and you must create the friendship bond first before the business bond.

Hence when dealing with clients, potential clients or anyone in general, make sure you and your workers smile (even if you don’t feel like it), speak politely, make eye contact and remember people’s names. Whoever walks into your office anytime (including before or after office hours) deserves your undivided attention. Train your workers to stop whatever they are doing and attend to the visitor first.

Good telephone etiquette and techniques are also crucial to your business. Train your workers to smile when they talk over the phone (yes, it DOES make a difference to the tone), never leave a caller on hold for too long (not more than 30 seconds) and speak in a friendly personable tone of voice. NEVER argue with anyone, no exceptions. If you do need to put a caller on hold, as far as possible, take advantage of it by playing some messages regarding your firm or legal services or at least some pleasant music.

Make sure that you have a proper and comfortable reception area. Provide drinks for your visitors. Be generous to give away anything that may be of immediate help to people, like brochures or your newsletter.

Have a separate room where you can discuss issues with people seeking legal advice. This ensures privacy. When speaking to anyone about legal matters, be attentive and show genuine care and concern. Ask questions and be of service to the person.

Make it easy for people to do business with you. Accept all credit cards, have payment plans, reply to letters or emails promptly (within a day or two).

Train your office workers well in PR to enable them to treat people with friendliness, warmth and professionalism. The best time to ensure this is when you hire them.

These same attitudes should be in all your marketing including your website, blog, printed materials etc. These days, it is easy to include videos and audios into your website or blog. Doing this will add the human touch to these marketing methods.

Make warmth and humanness a part of the culture in your legal firm. Your clients will reward you with not only onetime but referral business

In your legal business, there are 2 realities you must be aware of. One is that competition is getting more intense. The other is that businesses are increasingly connected in various ways. As a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer, you need to know how to use these 2 realities to your advantage.

How?

By using Fusion Marketing.

When you see the term ?Fusion something-or-other? such as Fusion Restaurants, Fusion Drinks etc it means a blend of two or more separate but related products to form one new product. It’s a relatively new concept but very effective. The key to its effectiveness is to find the correct combination of products to amalgamate.

Likewise, in marketing you can deploy a similar tactic, Fusion Marketing. What happens in Fusion Marketing is that your advertisement is placed in the context of another related but non-competing business. Now let’s apply it to your legal business.

Suppose you have a website or blog for your law firm. You could advertise your legal firm in a Real Estate website where you offer services to draw up relevant documents. Of course, nobody would allow you to do something like that for free, so you have got to reciprocate the action by doing something for the Real Estate company. It may be placing a link to his website on your blog or something else of value to him.

Fusion marketing is not limited to only exchanging advertisements. You could post content of value on a related website with a link back to your own website or blog. You could add a content-packed comment on an online forum about legal matters or you could write a series of articles and offer them free to webmasters or online newsletter owners for them to publish on their websites with the condition that no amendments are made. This gives your legal business more exposure while adding to the quality of the website where your content is displayed. That makes it a wonderful win-win situation.

Joint ventures are another form of Fusion Marketing. If you could team up with 2 or 3 other legal firms, you could jointly offer the public a range of services with each firm specializing in one particular legal service. You could explore various combinations of Joint Ventures, such as each firm targeting one geographical area or segment of the population.

For legal firms, other related but non-competing businesses you could do Fusion Marketing with are financial consultant firms, tax consultants, accounting firms, investment firms, brokerages, investment banks, insurance companies and finance companies. Put some thought into this and try Fusion Marketing, Guerrilla style.

If you could choose only one, would you rather your legal business be efficient or effective? Many people confuse one with the other because they cannot tell the difference. But there is a world of a difference between these 2 elements. Can you be efficient without being effective? Yes, because you can be efficient in doing the least important things and end up not being effective. But can you be effective without being efficient? No, because being effective means you are doing the essential things right and that makes you efficient. Therefore, which is more essential? Being effective.

There is a management principle that is known as The 80/20 Principle that states that 20% of people do 80% of the work in any organization. You can apply that to numerous other situations, too like 20% of your clients generate 80% of your revenue, 20% of your legal firm’s employees produce 80% of the work, 20% of your work time produces 80% of your work, 20% of your prospective clients are likely to become clients and so on. To be effective is to focus your efforts on finding that 20% in everything pertaining to your legal business and enhancing what it produces. It means majoring on the major and not the minor, learning to keep the main thing the main thing.

As a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer, your job is to find out 4 crucial aspects of your legal business:

Which 20% of your marketing methods are bringing in 80% of your clients.
Which 20% of your clients give you 80% of your income.
Which 20% of your workers produce 80% of the work in your office.
Which 20% of your goals gives you 80% of your results.

When you determine these 4 aspects, you should look for ways to enhance their productivity. Put more effort into the 20% of your marketing methods, expand on them and invest more money into these methods.

Make the 20% of your clients happy by giving them special treatments or generous discounts on future business they do with you. You could also leverage on them by asking them for referrals because they are obviously happy with your services. Furthermore, by intentionally focusing more of your marketing on this 20% of your clients, you reduce your marketing expenses.

Likewise, reward the 20% of your workers and celebrate their productivity rather than doing things for everyone in the office. As long as you are fair in rewarding diligence and results, you can give the 20% what is due to them for their work.

Finally, target the 20% of your goals and objectives that are really taking your business to a higher level. Re-evaluate or discard the goals that are not worth pursuing. Be selective on a limited number of goals and focus on them.

A Guerrilla Marketing lawyer is not just efficient but more importantly, you are effective.

As a Guerrilla marketing lawyer, you must realize one thing ? the only thing constant in this world is change. Change happens whether you like it or not. Hence if you do not keep up with the changes, you will be left behind. Guerrilla Marketers always keep up with the changing times. How? By continuously learning.

Never in history have we had so much information readily available to so many people. With the availability of the Internet, you could learn more in one hour sitting at your computer than you could in one full week going to the library 30 years ago. With such an abundance of information and such ease of learning, it is no excuse for you to be ignorant or lacking in knowledge. In your legal business, lack of knowledge may be disastrous to you.

But just because the information is available, does not mean you should acquire it.

You should take learning seriously but do so with 2 very important conditions. These 2 conditions are likened to the 2 rotors in a helicopter. In a helicopter, the main rotor is to provide lift to the helicopter for it to take off vertically. When the blades turn, they force the air above them to flow faster than the air below them, thus creating lift. Likewise, the first condition to your learning as a lawyer is focus. You focus on learning the right things.

There are 2 types of knowledge you need to learn ? experiential and academic. Experiential learning comes from your daily dealings with clients, potential clients, your own workers, associates, fellow lawyers and generally keeping your ears to the ground. In academic learning, you acquire knowledge about the latest laws passed, developments in the legal fraternity, marketing techniques and key issues about the marketplace. When you acquire the right experiential and academic knowledge, you are one up over your competitors (like being lifted as a helicopter does).

The secondary rotor of a helicopter is located at its tail. It is to enable the helicopter to turn left or right. Thus, the second condition of your learning is application. As a Guerrilla Marketer, you do not just learn, you apply what you learn. Taking action on what you know will steer your legal business in the right direction.

The best form of application of knowledge is to pass it on to your clients either in the form of freebies or your legal advice and services.

Information is the currency of our times today. Acquire the right kind and apply it to propel your legal business forward in the right direction.

Have you heard of this one? People don’t care how much you know, till they know how much you care?. Lawyers sure know a lot. But this saying holds true for everyone, perhaps more so for lawyers. Let me share with you a true story from the hotel industry.

On a stormy night long ago, an elderly gentleman and his wife entered the lobby of a hotel in Philadelphia. Do you have any rooms available? asked the man. The hotel clerk, a young man with a friendly smile made a quick check and replied, I’m sorry sir, there are 3 conventions in town and we’re all full up. But just as the elderly couple was turning to leave, the clerk continued, Sir, I can’t send a nice couple like you out in the rain at 1 o’clock in the morning. Would you like to sleep in my room? It’s not like the hotel suite but it’s comfortable enough. The couple hesitated but the clerk assured them, Don’t worry about me, I’ll be just fine. And with that, he arranged for them to sleep in his room in the hotel for the night.

The following morning, as the elderly man was paying the bill, he remarked to the hotel clerk, You know, a fine young man like you should be the manager of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I’ll build one for you. The clerk looked at the couple and they all laughed. Then the couple left. The clerk never gave the elderly man’s remark a second thought.

Two years passed and one day, the clerk received a letter from the elderly man. In it he wrote about that rainy night in Philadelphia two years ago and enclosed a round trip ticket from Philly to New York requesting the clerk to visit him and his wife in the Big Apple. When the clerk arrived in New York, the elderly man met him and brought him to the corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue. There stood a magnificent new building with red bricks, turrets and watchtowers that reached for the sky.

The elderly man pointed to the building and said, That, young man, is the hotel I have just built for you to manage. The young clerk could hardly believe his ears. You have got to be kidding, he blurted out. At that, the elderly man smiled.

I can assure you, I am not.

It was certainly for real. You see, the elderly man was William Waldorf Astor and the building was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the most glamorous hotel of its day. And the young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt.

Why do I share this story with you? The reason is obvious. As a Guerrilla Marketing lawyer, you must not only care, you must show that you care for your clients.

So how do you show that you care for your clients? There is one simple rule of thumb from where everything you do for your clients emanates ? Clients have needs and expectations. Meet their needs and exceed their expectations always.

Following this philosophy, you would stay in touch with your clients (read my article, Follow Up your Legal Clients the Guerrilla Way), ask them questions and act on their answers to further improve your services, send them helpful free information, observe birthdays and special occasions where possible. Make your office layout, website navigation and communication system (like phones and answering machines) user friendly. Hold get-togethers between clients and your staff where applicable (a client appreciation dinner, perhaps?) and have regular sessions among workers to brainstorm more ideas on how to care for your clients.

Guerrilla Marketing is not only about making profit but more importantly about caring for people. Get this right and the profit will come naturally.

Do you want to know the secret to your legal business success? Find out what clients want and give it to them for free.

Hold on! Before you think I’m out of my mind, let me explain.

In the business world, there are givers and there are takers. Those who give never seem to lack whereas those who take never seem to have enough. Strange, but true.

So let me qualify my statement above. I am not suggesting that you do nothing for profit and change your legal business into a charity. But what I suggest is to find ways to be generous and give. And not give just pittance, but give things of value to your clients and potential clients.

Also, do not give with ulterior motives or try to kill two birds with one stone like give away T-shirts with your company name and logo embossed on it. If you do give away items for personal use like T-shirts, pens, mouse pads, calendars etc, you should not make it too obviously advertorial or sales-y. Give out of the generosity, not duplicity of your heart.

Do not surreptitiously include the cost of your freebie into your fees either. Your clients would be able to spot over-inflated fees (they know how to compare prices). Furthermore, if your gift is not a luxury item, you should absorb the cost. The goodwill that you gain is worth far more than the cost of the gift to you.

Besides the obvious pleasure of your clients and potential clients, what does giving generously achieve for you? You will be known as one who over-delivers. You do not just offer legal services but you bend backwards to add value to your services by what you give for free. You will also get more referrals from your clients as your freebies are distributed, used and sometimes passed on by the recipients themselves.

As a lawyer, the most commonsense freebie you can offer is legal information. This can come in the form of your newsletter, brochures, an online or physical report, answers to FAQs, special tips etc. The right information is worth more than any other freebie and sometimes worth more than money to your clients or potential clients. Furthermore, if you focus your informational gift on one particular area of legal services, such as tax, bankruptcy or divorce etc, then you will gain the reputation of being a specialist in that field.

So make generosity part of the DNA of your legal business because when you sow, you will also reap in return.