With any task or project, you have to consider the results you want, how long it will take to produce those results, and any costs. You almost always wind up with good outcomes with two of these three factors and not so good with the third.
You can vacation in Italy (good) this weekend (fast) but it won’t be cheap. You can lose weight quickly and cheaply by fasting for a week but it won’t be good (healthy).
If you have a document to prepare you can do it yourself (good, cheap), but if you’re busy, it probably won’t get done quickly. You can hire someone to do it and they might do a good job and do it quickly but it could be expensive. Or, you could hire someone that’s fast and cheap but not very good.
It’s all about choices. Good. Cheap. Fast. Pick two.
So, let’s see how this works with marketing professional services:
- Blogging: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
- Advertising: Good, Fast, (but not Cheap)
- Networking: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
- Speaking: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
- Articles: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
- Social media: Good, Cheap, (but not Fast)
- Cold calling:Â Good, Cheap, Fast (but not a good idea)
Conclusions? Advertising can produce good results quickly so if you have more time than money and advertising is appropriate for your practice, you might include it in your marketing mix. Everything else is relatively inexpensive but good results usually take time.
Of course if you do it yourself (i.e., networking) you have to consider your time as an expense. It might not cost a lot of dollars, but if it takes up too much time relative to the results, it’s expensive.
Also, “good” is a relative term. You might get good clients from a given activity, but not a lot of them. Or, you might get a lot of clients but if they can’t or won’t pay what you charge, that’s probably not a good result.
It’s funny, the one thing lawyers don’t (can’t, won’t) do, cold calling, can actually produce good results quickly and cheaply. Fortunately, there’s something similar that you can do and it works even better: warm calling.
Call your clients and former clients and say hello. Fast, cheap, good results, almost guaranteed.
Marketing is everything you do to get and keep good clients. Click here for the formula.
