I can't remember how much I told you about this law firm marketing idea I was given by someone (who I will be mentioning soon I think - he has great ideas and is in the business of legal marketing - I just want to be sure that he knows I'm talking about him so he knows I'm helping him out) but it's pretty out of the box, and it goes something like this.
Call a sign shop and have a banner made up that says "Lawyer" on it centered left to right and top to bottom. And big. When I did it I also put my law firm website in much smaller font centered but at the bottom of the banner. I think it give you a little bit of legitimacy. People can google you right there and make sure you are legit.
Now, get a table, some chairs, and some clip boards. Make a "client information sheet" that asks for their name, email address, phone number, and a brief description of their problem. Take your law degree and your law license off the wall. Make a sign that says "Have a Legal Question. Have it Answered Here Free."
Find a local flea market or farmers market and go sign up. When the market opens, put up your banner, your law stuff, and talk to people when they come ask you questions. When you can't help them because you don't practice that area of law, offer to direct them to someone you know and trust that can help them solve your problem. Do this again for three more weeks.
When the market is done hopefully you have some leads for yourself and some leads for others. Now take those leads and send them out to your fellow attorneys, letting them know that they are pretty good leads and you got them for them just because you like them. And in due time you will see that the people at the market will become your clients and your fellow attorneys will start sending you clients.
I tried this out last weekend. I went down to the local Farmer's Market, which attracts upwards of 4,000 people every weekend, and set up my booth. People came up and talked, asked questions, took my card, and gave me some leads to both give out and keep for myself. I even got a client out of it. And I'll be back again next week to do the same.
One thing I realized this as doing as I was out there was getting out in front of people and letting them know you are there. So often we get locked up in our office waiting for the phone to ring or waiting for the internet rankings to update to see if we are higher when we should be out beating the street and generating our own leads. Now, this obviously doesn't mean soliciting business, but it is more than proper to let people know what you do and invite them to ask you questions (this is what billboards and websites do, after all). And you'll see that when you meet people that even if they don't have a problem you can help them with at that time, even the 30 second conversation has started a relationship with them that hopefully they will remember if they ever do need your services.
So, what do you think about my idea? Anyone going to give it a shot? The great thing about it is that all it really takes is your time. And anyone starting a law practice usually has plenty of time. The registration for my market was $40, so I spent just about that for 8 hours of face time in front of 4,000 people. That's not too bad, if you ask me.
UPDATE - 10/07/09: I don't have any excuses, but I failed to follow through on this for the full four weeks. It was July, I was playing a lot of golf, and it was annoying to wake up at 6:30 in the morning and go down there and set up shop. Which is leading me to another post I'll be writing shortly called following through on your law firm marketing efforts. As the name implies, it is about following through on your law firm marketing efforts. I plan on picking this back up again in the coming weeks to see if I can generate some more business. In the mean time, if you have the energy, give it a shot. I was impressed by the reaction people gave me.
No comments:
Post a Comment