In today’s fiercely competitive world proper marketing of a business is paramount for its success. This is true for the legal profession as well. More and more attorneys and law firms are setting office in the US everyday and competing with each other to garner business. It is, therefore, crucial for law firms to promote and market themselves to stay in business.
Marketing is a specialised job and law firms are ill equipped to do the job themselves, besides, they have little time to focus on it. Also, marketing as an industry is fast evolving and trends change very rapidly. It is not possible for law firms to keep themselves abreast of the latest marketing techniques. It is here that the role of law firm marketing consultant come to fore. These consultants have expertise in their field to professionally handle your marketing efforts and save a lot of your time and money. However, hiring a marketing consultant won’t solve all your marketing issues as there are pros and cons to it. There are certain things you must keep in mind when you decide to hire the best law firm SEO company or marketing consultant.
Educate Yourself
Most consultants you talk to about your marketing needs will try project themselves as experts in their area work and use jargons that would be difficult for you to understand, and use all means to convince you that they are best suited for the job. To avoid falling into their trap, it is important that you have some basic knowledge of the advertising and marketing world. This will help you in better understanding what they propose to do. Also, understanding consumer buying behaviour is an important aspect in planning a marketing strategy. For attorneys who are absolute novice or naive in the marketing world, The Hub Spot is a good resource.
So, do your homework properly before you set out to hire a law firm internet marketing consultant.
Analyze What You Need
Carefully evaluate your current marketing status. New business in the legal profession mostly comes from referrals and word of mouth, and perhaps you have done quite well in this area. But you may be lacking as far as online marketing for law firms is concerned. Digital marketing needs concerted effort and you may not be adept at it. You need to understand what your strength and weaknesses are.
There are different ways of attracting new clients and you need to focus only on those areas where you are falling short. Also, what you want to accomplish by hiring a consultant is very important; whether it is just to increase your client base or you also want to enhance your fees by projecting yourself as better than others. These are questions that you should evaluate and discuss with a prospective consultant before hiring one.
Set a Budget
Hiring a consultant has a cost attached to it. It is an investment on which you expect to get reasonable return in the long run. Depending on what your goals are and how much you can afford to pay, you have to decide how you would hire a consultant-flat rate, project based fee, or on retainer basis. There are advantages and disadvantages of each form, and it is up to you to decide which one would suit your needs most as marketing campaigns do not always give immediate results. Also, you must keep in mind that the marketing effort doesn’t guarantee the desired result and you should, therefore, be able to absorb the loss.
Explore Different Agencies
Once you have evaluated your needs and goals, and decided on the amount of money you want to spend, it’s time to scrutinize different agencies. There are numerous marketing agencies in the market but you need to focus on those that specialise in law firm marketing. You should evaluate their track record and also look at how they were marketing their own services. After analyzing different agencies, short list a few of them that you think would be most suited to your needs.
Have an introductory meeting with each of the short listed agencies to discuss your requirements along with your budget and how they plan to market your law firm. Ask them to submit a marketing proposal based on your requirements and the budget.
Select an Agency
Review the marketing plans and proposals, and the financial bids of each one of them. There would be several good options before you to choose from. Carefully evaluate the plans and how they propose to execute those plans. Also consider the duration of the marketing campaigns and the cost attached to each one of them. Do a cost benefit analysis of all the proposals to arrive at a final decision to select a particular agency.
Conclusion
There are various aspects of marketing and every agency may not be equipped to handle all of them. Some specialise in traditional form of advertising and marketing while some others in digital form. Depending on your requirements and budget, you have to decide what kind of law firm marketing consultant you want to hire and then select an agency accordingly.
