Practice Management

Six reasons to market your firm

You run a successful conveyancing practice with a loyal client base. Why should you bother to market your firm and its services? Let’s start with the sad story of Mike and Jenny.

A familiar story
You’re at a function. You bump into your old clients Mike and Jenny and get chatting. The conversation drifts to the beautiful home for which you registered a bond for them 10 years ago and you are surprised to hear that they sold up last year. “Who” you ask with some chagrin “handled the transfer?”

You may or may not have a close enough relationship with your clients to ask them directly why they appointed Bloggs Attorneys down the street as their conveyancers but the fact is that in the excitement and stress of a property sale it’s easy for your clients to be lured away from you. It happens all the time - memories fade and although Mike and Jenny experienced your firm’s great service 10 years ago, they didn’t even think of you when the Sale Agreement was put in front of them for signature.

Don’t let that happen to you. There are many ways to protect your firm from loss of clients (and to gain new ones) and over the next few months we’ll explore how we can help you with GhostMarketer and our range of LawDotNews Services.

Here’s why it’s so important -

6 good reasons to market your firm and its services

1. It’s 2015 and your competition is marketing against you
Lawyers no longer shrink from marketing as unnecessary, or unprofessional, or expensive. In 2015 it’s an essential element in every firm’s business plan and even small firms are actively marketing (or planning to) – for the stats see our analysis of the 2014 LexisNexis survey Your Competition is Growing.

2. Your clients need it
Having a loyal client base is one thing, retaining it in the face of increasingly fierce competition is another. Providing excellent service is certainly the first step but it just isn’t enough today. Your clients need constant reminding of who you are and what you do. Without it, you will fade from “top-of-mind” to “Oops, sorry, we forgot all about you”. Client retention is your firm’s life-blood; don’t neglect it.

3. Your competitors want your clients – take theirs instead
Client acquisition – it’s the only way to consistently grow profit, whether you’re after new clients or just better clients and better instructions. Base your marketing plan on a solid, professional Internet presence. Then tell your target market who you are and what you do. And remember that whilst “word of mouth” is a great way to acquire quality new clients, it only works as a referral-generator when you remain constantly top-of-mind with your existing clients.

4. Conveyancers have a unique opportunity
Every transfer you handle puts you in close touch with at least one Seller, a Buyer (many of them if you are acting for the developer of a complex) and usually also an Estate Agent or two. That’s a unique opportunity – to convert one client into many, just by keeping in touch with them.

5. Mine your existing client base
Marketing isn’t only about retaining and acquiring clients. It’s also about mining your greatest asset – your existing client base. Keep telling your clients all about new opportunities, new threats, new services you can offer them. Keep inviting them to contact you for advice and assistance.

6. Marketing needn’t be complicated or expensive
At one time, marketing to be effective took a huge marketing budget and a marketing department dedicated to polishing your brand and boosting your visibility. For many larger firms that still pays off handsomely.

But in the Internet Age there are also a plethora of low-cost, simple marketing tools available to you – take advantage of them and you have a significant competitive advantage.

In our next article we’ll look at a simple, effective, easily-implemented marketing plan using GhostMarketer and our LawDotNews suite of services.

More articles in the GhostMarketer series by LawDotNews -

Article 1:  Are you using GhostMarketer yet?
Article 3:  Shoestring Marketing
Article 4:  Targeted Marketing: choosing tools
Article 5:  GhostMarketer - Getting started
Article 6:  Client newsletters
Article 7:  Branding: The basics
Article 8:  Marketing mistakes
Article 9:  The proof of the pudding

Contact us on 086 110 5904 (or email info@dotnews.co.za) for more on your free set up on the GhostMarketer platform and other LawDotNews services.

Jack Crook, Director at DotNews is well known to law firms as the author of LawDotNews. Jack’s legal qualifications (LLB Lond and LLB Rhod) are supplemented by many years of practical experience in law, in marketing his own firm, and in helping other small and medium sized professional firms to prosper by using simple, low-cost, effective marketing strategies.

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