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How Law Firms need to adapt their marketing post Covid-19 During the initial stages of the Covid-19 crisis many lawyers paused or reduced their marketing activities because they were worried that - if they promoted their services to help those affected by the crisis - they might be seen as taking advantage of the situation.
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YOUR MARKETING MUST BE AIMED AT WHAT YOUR CLIENTS PERCEIVE TO BE THEIR CURRENT NEEDS
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But how can you update your marketing to be appropriate and relevant for the current situation without appearing opportunistic? Here’s my guide to the 3 important criteria you need to meet:
ATTRACTING CLIENTS IN THE CURRENT CLIMATE
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If not, marketing is the most obvious way to increase your visibility and attract these enquiries to you (and away from your competitors). But if you adopt a ‘business as usual’ approach to your marketing, and continue with your previous strategies and messages, it could backfire. Your old marketing messages may seem out of touch with the current situation – meaning that (at best) they will be ignored, or (at worst) you could be criticised for only focusing on your own need to ‘sell’ your services.
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Your marketing must be aimed at what your clients perceive to be their current needs. This means something they both need and actually care about right now (despite, or because of, Covid-19). Take data protection advice, for example: business owners probably don’t care (at the moment) about having a review of their policies to be able to tick a “compliant” box. But if they are trying to move their business to an online model they do care about making sure they have the right policies in place to allow them to do that safely.
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Since the need for legal services is continuing (and in some areas, growing) then the question becomes: is your firm visible enough to be attracting a big enough share of these enquiries?
1. Current needs of your clients
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However, there have been many individuals and businesses with a greater need for legal services during this time. During March 2020 some high profile firms were already reporting an increase in enquiries for wills and Lasting Powers of Attorney. And, as furlough was announced (a word few of us had heard prior to March), employment lawyers had the opportunity to help clients with new challenges. It's also likely that, in the coming weeks and months, there will be increased demand for advice in areas like contractual disputes or family matters arising directly from Covid-19 and the ensuing lockdown.
marketing messages – it’s about repeating the (right) message in different ways until you find what works. A final thought: you might feel that stopping or reducing your marketing until everything is back to ‘normal’ is the safe option. But what’s the true risk of doing that for your firm, your staff, and ultimately your clients? With these three elements in place you can continue marketing your legal services effectively during and post Covid-19 and successfully attract new client enquiries. To discover more about how to attract more clients and increase your fee income and profits (during and post Covid-19), come to my FREE online session ‘The 3 Step Accelerator Plan For Law Firms’. Register here: www.thebusinessinstructor.com/plan
Current Needs
2. Context of your message The way you promote your services must be appropriate in the context of what’s going on around us. This means that promoting yourself with the usual “We can help with xyz, call us today” is unlikely to work. Not only could it appear tone-deaf to what’s happening in the world, but it might even seem like you are trying to cashin on people’s problems. Instead, you need to take the approach of ‘give before you ask’, which means providing value before you ask someone to pay for the next step. But at the same time you must avoid giving so much information to your prospective client that they don’t see the need for further help, or will think they can do it themselves.
3. Consistency of marketing It’s not enough for someone to hear or see your marketing message once. They need to see it enough times – and at the right time – to be motivated to pick up the phone and speak to you. But you don’t need lots of different pieces of content or
About the author: Michelle Peters (The Business Instructor) is a former practising solicitor and the creator of the Profitable Practice Programme for sole practitioners and small firm owners who want more clients and to increase their profits without working more hours. In addition to working privately with lawyer clients, Michelle frequently runs webinars and workshops to help lawyers identify what is slowing them down from having more of their ideal clients and higher profits, and what to do about it. Michelle is also the author of the No.1 BestSelling Book ‘The Client Magnet Strategy for Lawyers’ which is available on Amazon, or you can download the first four chapters FREE here: www.thebusinessinstructor.com/book
