Reblogged From Here: Accident Attorney Video
As your business grows, be diligent about thanking customers. Often owners have the tendency to forget the most fundamental part of their company -- the customers. The risk with this is that the business can become just another faceless unit that the customer deals with. Bear in mind that obtaining new clients is tough now. It’s even tougher if people just buy from you when they just happen to be in the neighborhood. This is why people who have been around a while in the business industry will tell you that it is better to invest resources toward developing loyal, regular, repeat consumers, than to spend large amounts of revenue trying to attract new consumers.
To really hang on to your consumers, you need to invest a day or two monthly making courtesy calls and thanking your existing customers. If you actually don't have any genuine business to do on the phone with your clients just a friendly hi how are you, how was your last experience in the store will suffice. Your customers will be pleased that you took the time to acknowledge them while they were outside of your business environment.
Thanking your clients is often a disregarded gesture yet a very effective sales tool. There are a number of instances wherein a basic thank you to your customers will be quite valued.
Initially, when they purchase, thanking customers right at the point of sale is very well received. When was the last time a shop clerk actually thanked you for purchasing from their store? Do you keep in mind the last time a seller thanked you for shopping at their shop? This easy thank you could mean a great deal to the clients.
Second, when they call you relating to an issue or a service concern, some business don’t respond very well. They think, “Why should we thank a customer for grumbling?” What they do not recognize is that when people reveal the issue they had dealing with your business, they are providing you a chance to redeem and enhance your company or brand.
Third, acknowledge them when they refer other potential customers to your business. Some companies generate the majority of their consumers through recommendations. If you constantly overlook thanking the individual who has been referring you to others, eventually they may very well stop sending prospective clients to you. This could potentially be a big loss for your business.
Fourth, devoted, regular clients also should have a thank you. Sending a routine thank you card or note will be enough for most folks. It certainly doesn’t hurt to occasionally include a percentage off or a small free item as well.
There are numerous ways to say thank you. You can send out an email, write a note or card or perhaps thank them personally. An inexpensive card with handwritten comments can assist you in standing apart from your competition. You might even sponsor an event as a way of thanking customers. Keep in mind that globalization and the web means your customers can pick from thousands of shops at the touch of a button. Thus, remaining ahead of all possible competitors in the customer’s mind is very important. Yes, developing a thank you card program can take some time. However, the benefits of doing so are definitely worth it.
Originally Published Here: Thanking Customers – Is It Noticed?
When it comes to successful event marketing you have a ton of stuff to think about. You have to consider your target audience. Who are the people you want to see at the event, and how the event is going to be marketed to the public? You must be certain your target audience will be reached by the marketing you put in place. When it comes to marketing costs, if yours is a benefit event, bear in mind there may be some avenues of free advertising available to you. You of course want as many people to attend as possible. That is why you need to evaluate your marketing strategy from as many possible existing points of view and social groupings in the target community as possible.Utilize all your social media channels. Your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest followers ‘follow’ you for a reason. The good thing about these social media channels is they followed you voluntarily (just like your email list). so take advantage of that. Communicate with them, and let them know that you want them to be a part of what you are currently doing.
Be on the look out for possible event sponsors to cut costs and to widen your network reach. If a well-known, reputable brand wants to partner with you, explore that partnership because it may infuse a considerable amount of money to your budget. Also, have them promote the event to their own target audience, utilizing their own networks. That comes in with the partnership deal, so you win free event promotions as well.
Who says marketing lawyers has to be boring?
OK, there are a LOT of constraints put on the marketing lawyers can do, levied by the various bar associations. Some states are more restrictive than others. There are however many ways to break the mold and stand out even in the high traffic market of legal services. Take for instance the case of Austin, Texas attorney David Komie;
Austin attorney David Komie is using his head to help preserve Austin’s eccentric and colorful image.
When I say using his head, I mean that literally. Komie is the only attorney I’ve ever heard of who wears dreadlocks. In fact, he’s the only attorney he knows who wears dreadlocks.He has a band called the Dharma Kings. He’s the singer.
“I’m David Komie,” Komie tells the crowd in his video. “If you want an attorney that rocks, call me.”
Komie, who is in his 50s, says he’s been wearing dreads about half of his adult life. There have been times when he’s had to ditch the look, like when he was working in Atlanta representing insurance companies, or what he refers to now as “the dark side.” Insurance companies won’t hire an attorney in dreads, he says. But he’s got them now, and he’s keeping them.
Ann Handley from MarketingProfs recommended at the Avvo Lawyernomics conference, that attorneys step out of the shadows by getting more creative with their marketing content;
... she encouraged lawyers to be “bigger, braver and bolder” when creating content for marketing purposes.
“The biggest missed opportunity in marketing is playing it too safe,” Handley said. “That’s true even if you’re a lawyer.”
In fact, as Handley noted in a follow-up interview, lawyers can still be big, brave and bold in spite of restrictive ethical rules regarding attorney marketing. “Bolder doesn’t mean edgy or being way at the edge of risk,” Handley said. “Bolder means differentiating yourself through your marketing and how you sound to the folks you’re trying to attract.”
The whole "bigger, braver and bolder" theme does not necessarily mean louder and more obnoxious as some legal marketers seem to think. Some ads are appearing that seem like political attack ads attempting to smear the competition's reputation in the local marketplace. I'm not a fan of attack campaigns anyway but I would be especially wary of an attack campaign now with this being an election year. People get real fed up with attack ads in general and there could be some serious backlash from running any negative ads now.
Sometimes the way to stand out is to just be different. Instead of trying to out shout the competition, you need that golden pattern interrupt that gets people's attention and generates word of mouth advertising in the community. I think my favorite from the recent crop of ads I have seen marketing lawyers, is from the personal injury firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley in West Palm Beach, Florida. Donna Lane who has been involved in legal marketing for the firm since 2007 shares;
“The law-firm category here is just so cluttered,” she says. “They’re all saying the same thing.” Lane, trying to stand out, recently helped produce an ad that takes a different tack. No voices, just words flashing across the screen: “We get it. There are a lot of lawyer ads on TV. Seems all you hear are lawyers talking. So this 30 seconds of silence is brought to you by Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley.”
Lawyers being quiet on TV. That's different enough to get talked about positively in the community and, after all, isn't that what marketing lawyers is all about?
See More Here: Marketing Lawyers + Attorneys That Rock
I love the legal marketing business. The folks over at the 3 Geeks Law Blog nailed it with this analogy:
– think of legal marketers as you would your gardener. You want them to show up consistently, do a good job, cut the lawn, trim the hedges, maybe plant a new flower or two and when the summer rolls around, help you with a vegetable garden. Their job is to alleviate your burden of work, particularly if you know nothing about gardening and you entrust to them the curb appeal of your house and entrance way or the calm composure of your backyard. You are happy to pay them a nice wage, market value or above for the work they do. You want your gardener to be happy so he or she keeps coming back consistently and you don't have to retrain a new gardener on what color mulch you prefer or which flowers make you sneeze. But you also don't want them to complain to you about their career satisfaction or growth in the industry. Those topics make you tune out mostly because if you wanted to talk about the trials and tribulations of gardening you likely would have been a gardener.
Although that piece is written more from the large law firm with its own marketing department point of view, it is still very relevant in the freelance market as well. The law firm doesn't care what changes Google made or what hoops you had to jump through to get a particular marketing piece in place. Just make the phones ring. Keep a low profile, make the phones ring with qualified clients, and send me the bill. That works for me. I love making things happen away from the spotlight.
One of the first key improvements a firm can make to get the best "bang for the buck" in their marketing efforts is to make certain the user experience on the firm's web site is a positive experience.
When asked about what he considered to be among the most important factors of online legal marketing, Chris Dreyer, the founder and president of Attorney Rankings, a very successful law firm marketing agency said;
If I had to choose one area that lawyers should focus on to elevate their overall marketing efforts it would be to focus heavily on the user experience. UX has an impact on so many levels from SEO to how attorneys are perceived in the online and offline space.
He elaborated further by saying,
UX is more than just having a website that is well organized. It means creating an experience for visitors that leaves no doubt in their mind that the lawyer’s site they’ve come to is a leading source of information on the particular practice area they are interested in. It’s about having resources, tools, content, and useful information that is easy to find and that is practical, applicable and relevant to the pain a visitor may be feeling.
As with any business these days just having a generic web site is not enough to keep an internet shopper's interest. If you want to get the call from that potential client browsing your site, you need all of the things Chris mentioned, presented in a smooth pleasing format. Competition is fierce! Law firms of all sizes need to take advantage of any competitive edge that they can leverage and work toward a well rounded web presence not just a web site.
Sourced From Here: Legal Marketing Hoo-Ha
A Pattern interrupt is a technique to change a particular thought, behavior or situation. Behavioral psychology and neuro linguistic programming use this technique to interrupt and change thought patterns and behaviors.
Pattern interrupts apply to many things in life beyond marketing as demonstrated in the above Huffington Post piece. However, my opportunity to apply the concept was a last ditch effort to get my twice a week garbage pick up actually picked up on Tuesdays. Apparently, my local garbage service, "Smelly Kelly's", has different drivers on the route past my place during the week. Driver "A" does Tuesdays and Driver "B" does Fridays. The Friday guy always took the garbage. The Tuesday guy.... not so much.
