Take a good look at all the lawyers you know who are successful in comparison to those who are struggling. What do you see?

Often one of the most noticeable differences between these two groups of lawyers is that the rainmakers of the profession have primed and developed their client base in a meticulous manner.

Clients didn't just fall out of the sky, but instead, they were incubated from marketing. This, dear reader, is the golden opportunity we strive to educate viewers about during one of our CPD-accredited legal marketing webinars.

Marketing, without a doubt, can not be understated in its importance to lawyers in private practice.

Marketing: it’s necessary

For those who are oriented purely on jurisprudence and the merits of legal cases: you must understand that your job, by virtue of existing in the realm of private practice, necessarily makes you a salesman of your own work.

If marketing is something you truly loathe (the promotional element), then it’s possibly in your best interest to find work as in-house counsel with corporations or local governments in order to avoid the legwork involved about puffing your name up against the competition. Because make no mistake: in today’s world of increased competition of new lawyers entering the field each year, this is what is needed.

Even big law firms want to know your marketing capabilities

Most law schools, with all their grandeur and ivory-league backscratching, fail to teach lawyers secondary skills necessary to survive as a lawyer. Financial management, practice management, and the marketing of oneself are puzzlingly left out of the equation in many law schools.

Nevertheless, even if your goal is to succeed in a large firm, one of the first things you may be asked by Human Resources is how much portable legal business you have available.

“What can he/she bring to the table?”

Whoever it is who is doing the hiring will be wondering this as they interview candidates. What’s your answer going to be?

At uLawPractice we regularly hold webinars specifically on this topic. You can visit that section of our website by clicking the link below.

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uLaw’s “Big 4’ LEGAL MARKETING TIPS

-Get the basics settled. Do the time and learn what the principles of legal marketing is. Get an idea of Bx, Ux, etc.

-Tailor your marketing to who you are and what it is you’re providing clients. The user and branding experience needs to be seamlessly integrated with what you’re selling to clients, which is of course remedies to their legal predicaments.

-Start drafting a plan. It doesn’t have to be difficult whatsoever; just commit your plan to the written word so it’s sitting there, looking at you in the face instead of floating away in your head as you drift from one task to another. Perhaps one of the best ways to keep this from happening is to use practice management software to stay on top of what you’re doing. But what's necessary is that your goals are realistic and the steps needed to get the job done are clearly highlighted.

-Stay diligent, even when business is good. This is an important one, and lawyers fall prey to notions of false security just because the money is good at the time. But things change and clients sometimes move on and its best to be prepared and connected with a good network of clients. Even if your marketing plan is extremely basic, it will succeed if followed in comparison to an elaborate plan that is abandoned the moment it’s drafted. SO, bottom line, stay committed. And don’t bite off more than you can chew.

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