10 Marketing Don'ts For Your Practice - Part I/II

(We thought we'd start the Monday after this holiday weekend with several good laughs with the above video of 4 brief but hilarious commericals to kick off our two-part marketing series.)

Part I of II/ Marketing Don'ts

Anyone who has been in business for a while has probably learned a few marketing don'ts but it doesn't hurt to repeat them as we all tend to stray from our original advertising goals. This week we'll go over these basic marketing don'ts with a follow up next week of proven advertising do's.

10 Marketing Assumptions That Are Wrong For Your Practice

1. Current and prospective clients know what services I provide; (Generally, clients are aware only of the services that they are seeking. Teach them.)

2. Referral services will send me all of the clients that I need or can service; (No comment necessary to point out the fallacy of this presumption.)

3. My marketing materials don't need my photograph; (Especially in this technological age, people want to place a face to the professional they will contact.)

4. Clients will remember what I tell them, so I don't need to send any follow up correspondence; (Wrong. Regardless of the sophistication level, people hear what they want to hear.)

5. Clients will understand legal jargon; (Wrong again. Read above.)

6. Certain marketing methods are obsolete. (All advertising avenues work; it's your budget and message strength that will determine ROI.)

7. Complicated messages will make clients feel that they need my services more; (KISS - no offense intended.)

8. Graphics are unimportant in visual media placements; generic photos can be used. (Keep it real. Real pics of yourself, your staff, discreet photos of your office...)

9. People expect lawyers to not return phone calls promptly; they know attorneys are busy. (No, they don't and they don't care about any other matter other than their own.)

10. Keeping in touch with clients on a reasonable basis is a waste of time. (It'll also be a waste of money when you have to re-locate your own clients or take an extraordinary block of time to bring them up to speed after months or years of non-contact.)

Basically, it's your firm, your business and as such, you never stop selling yourself.

BNI Operatives: Street smart: Web savvy.

As always, stay safe,

Lina