The hard part of marketing legal services isn’t the work. The work is easy, and you can do it in as little as 15 minutes a day.
No, the hard part is not knowing if what you are doing will actually bring in business.
If you knew that making the calls, writing the emails and articles, and networking with prospective clients and referrals sources, for example, would eventually pay off, you’d keep doing them, wouldn’t you?
Sure. But you don’t know. You’re driving blind.
Marketing legal services is like driving in the dark without headlights. You can’t see where you are and you can’t see where you’re going. You have to trust that you’re on the right road and that you will eventually get to your destination.
How do you keep going for six months or a year without meaningful results? How do you trust that what you’re doing will actually work?
You start by doing your homework.
You don’t merely jump on the marketing idea of the day and hope for the best. You find successful lawyers in your field and model them. You read their blogs or books or courses, or you spend time with them, and learn all you can about what they did to build their practice.
If it worked for another lawyer in your field or market, it can work for you. Â It might not work as well for you. It may take you longer. But you know that if you do what they did, you will eventually get to the promised land.
Continue studying other lawyers, and also other professionals and business owners. Continue to read marketing books. Immerse yourself in knowledge. Jim Rohn said, “If you want to be successful, study success.”
Be prepared to tweak and refine your activities. But don’t stop what you’re doing because you don’t see any results or you think you’ve found something better. The odds are that the people you study achieved their success by mastering the basics. Follow their lead. Master the mundane. You can add new ideas later.
One more analogy?
Marketing legal services is like making popcorn. You add the kernels to the oil and put it on the stove, but nothing happens right away. You leave it alone and eventually hear the pop of the first kernel. Then, more popping, faster and faster, and before you know it, the pot is overflowing.
The same thing happens with marketing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, then something, and eventually, boom!
Once you have a plan, keep at it. Work your plan every day. Don’t stop and start.
You won’t get a big bowl of popcorn if you take the pot off the stove every other minute. You won’t get a big bowl of clients, either.
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