2018

by David SomerfleckCopyright 20181/1/2018 V.3

Law Firm Marketing Discovery Workbook: Getting in Motion

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Digital Marketing Discovery Workbook

Why?

Getting clear about why your firm or practice exists will help clarify goals and design a focused online marketing plan in order to build strategies that will achieve objectives.

Use the following questions to help you brainstorm your “why.”

Exclude revenue from your “why” as that is a given.

1. Why does your practice or firm exist - beyond the obvious? 2. What greater purpose are you trying to achieve? 3. What changes are you trying to affect in your clients, in the community, or in

the field? 4. What problems are you trying to help your clients solve and why are those

problems important to them? To you?5. What do you want to share specifically and why?

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What?

What products and services do you bring to market in order to achieve your “why?"Think about your current suite of products and services and try to identify those that have the most impact on your clients and their businesses and families.

If you do not currently offer products, what is your reasoning against doing so?

Is it due to not knowing what to offer or how to offer it? Is it not wanting to for other, less specific reasons?

A legal product can be a book, course, "evergreen" marketing content, email series (or course), or other. It simply means something you can offer prospective clients to establish credibility and expertise.

1. Which products are most profitable and generate the most referrals? 2. Now, which services are most profitable and generate the most referrals?3. Which services do you enjoy delivering the most? Of those, which services

deliver the most ROI? List your products and services in order of value in terms of helping you achieve your “why.”

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Who?

To identify who your ideal client is, ask yourself this question: who stands to benefit the most from your products and services?

This “who” will be the most profitable and the best source of referrals for your business.

Use this formula to bring your “who to life:"

Physical description + what they want + their biggest problem + how they buy + the best way to communicate with them.

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Goals

Identify 5 SMART goals that will help your firm or practice better deliver those products and services that are the most valuable to your “why.”

SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time Bound.

For example, “increase our mailing list” is not a SMART goal. “Increase our mailing list by 500 subscribers who have expressed interest in

product X or service Y by June 30” is a SMART goal.

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Attract

Define the biggest problem or frustration your marketplace has and the tools you have in your toolkit to help them.

For example, an accounting firm might identify the biggest problem the client has as staying compliant with complex taxation legislation, and one of the tools they have is a taxation compliance audit, or business health check.

You will more than likely have multiple tools in your toolkit that you can use to help your marketplace with different problems.

List as many tools as you can. These tools will most likely be products and services you sell, or “segments” or “snippets” of those products and services.

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For example a business startup health check might include a worksheet that the small business owner can fill in.

The worksheet on its own might be a tool you can offer your marketplace to help them.

These “tools” are going to provide the inspiration for all of your content.

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Once prospects in your marketplace are visiting your website to consume the content that you have produced, you need to capture as many leads as you can.

The best way to do this is to offer those visitors something for free in exchange for their email address and possible contact information. (Statistically, the faster and easier forms are to complete, the more leads you will get through them).

Brainstorm ideas for things you can give away that will add value to your marketplace and further position you as a trusted source of information.

Worksheets, checklists, spreadsheet templates, blueprints, calculators, overviews, summaries, budget planners and any other type of downloadable activity-based tool usually work the best.

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Nurture

Now that you have captured somebody’s details it is time to nurture that relationship by offering more value and beginning a conversation with them.

This is usually done through a series of follow-up emails that further assist your prospect.

For example, a series of 3 to 5 emails teaching your prospect how to use the tool they just downloaded is a great place to start.

Brainstorm ideas for your nurture sequence.

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Convert

The reason most leads do not convert into customers is because they are not sure what to do next.

Identify your onboarding process and brainstorm how you can take this process online, and then simplify as much as possible so that the client or customer can clearly see how they are taken from Point A to Point B. For example, a small law firm might offer a startup business review session and place an application form on their website with a payment option for a new client to book this session.

Part of your email nurture sequence should clearly state to your leads how they can engage your services or buy your products.

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Measure

It is possible to measure almost everything our website visitors and email subscribers do through online metric software such as Google Analytics and email marketing software like Mailchimp. The problem is there is too much to measure and you can end up feeling overwhelmed by all the data.

Each organization has one “magic metric” that, if improved in the next 90 days, will add the most value to the business.

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It could be visitors to the website, lead capture conversion rates, lead to client conversion rates, click through rates from your emails, or any number of other metrics.

Identify your “magic metric” based on your goals and your current situation.

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Achieving Objectives

We want to build a solid foundation upon which to develop a robust marketing plan, with different levels or tiers to address unique approaches and resolve specific problems.

One way to create a strong plan is to create a SWOT Analysis by examining the playing field. A SWOT Analysis is simply a study undertaken by an organization or business to identify its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as finding external opportunities and threats to its growth.

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Strengths

1. What advantages does your firm or practice have that others might not? One example might be having more bilingual staff than others locally, or more diversity than others locally or more experience in a particular field.

2. What do you do better than anyone else or local competitors you may know?3. What unique resources can you draw upon that others cannot?4. What do friends, family members, co-workers, supervisors, and others see as

your core strengths?5. What should be in place for you to "make the sale" every time? 6. What is your business' stand out point, its Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

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Weaknesses

1. What could you improve? Examples could be: incomplete website that's not delivering leads or has poor content or no SEO or won't work on phones. Another could be not enough billable hours, too much time spent chasing false leads, etc...

2. What should you avoid?3. What are people in your market likely to see as weaknesses?4. What factors lose you sales?

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Again, consider this from an internal and external perspective: Do other people seem to perceive weaknesses that you don't see? Are your competitors doing any better than you?

It's best to be realistic now, and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible.

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Opportunities

1. What good opportunities can you spot?2. What interesting trends are you aware of?

Useful opportunities can come from such things as:

1. Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale.2. Changes in government policy related to your field.3. Changes in social patterns, population profiles, lifestyle changes, and so on.4. Local events.

Tip:

A useful approach when looking at opportunities is to look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities. Alternatively, look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating them.

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Threats

1. What obstacles do you face?2. What are competitors doing you would like to also do?3. Are quality standards or specifications for your job, products or services

changing?4. Is changing technology threatening your position?5. Do you have bad debt or cash-flow problems?6. Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten your practice?

Tip:

When looking at opportunities and threats, be sure that you don't overlook external factors, such as new government regulations, or technological changes in your industry.

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Pause

If you've made it this far, it's not stopping. It's a pause, because you're at a new point of beginning. It's time to review, revise any answers if you have new insights, and get together for a huddle. It's now time to look over your answers, follow-up on developing our direction and course, start filling in the blank spots.

Our next step is to devise a more concentrated deliberate plan for moving forward. This includes developing a digital marketing plan along with different levels or tiers of support.

An example of this approach would be (as is done in mid-to-large marketing agencies), developing a comprehensive marketing plan based on stated client objectives and goals. Then to ensure achieving a primary goal and related secondary goals (that really have to be achieved en route to the main goal), we develop strategies to enable us to achieve the larger marketing plan. Just as a house has support beams and columns, an effective plan needs strategies by which we can reach the end goal.

Read to take development to its next level? Get in touch using one of our contact forms or call us to schedule a follow-up consultation today!