Sorry, but there is no silver bullet to instantly transform an estate planning and Elder Law firm from lackluster to powerhouse. Even the most amazing website and videos won’t overcome a flawed intake process or poor work product. But, joined together, a handful of marketing strategies, combined with best practices and quality legal representation and you’ve got the ticket to success. See how many of these pieces make up your law firm:
Online marketing that syncs with your firm’s message. A website, blog, social media and responsive design that all represents the values of the practice sends a clear message to clients: here is a professional practice that has its act together. Prospects don’t worry about you dropping the ball, because everything about the firm that they see communicates a positive message of getting things done the right way.
External events on a regular basis. You don’t show up at one conference and then hunker down for the rest of the calendar year. Prospects and clients see you at events in your local community and you report back to your target publics about your participation at national events. Visibility in the real world is like proof of life on your blog: it shows you are actively engaged and present.
Tracking systems in place. It is impossible to know what needs improving if you don’t know what’s not working. Tight cash flow or empty calendars indicate a problem, but hold no clues to solutions. Using an E2 CRM provides relevant information. Are prospects not becoming clients? Are you losing them to the intake process, or is there a failure to capture and convert leads? To fix a problem, you need to define it first.
A visual identity that communicates your brand. Nothing confuses a prospect more than an estate planning law firm that has a great website, but they are handed a clipboard with messy intake forms and a poorly designed brochure that doesn’t match the website when they arrive at your office. Today’s legal services consumer expects professional service practices to have the same level of branding as every other professional. Mismatched visual identity may not matter to you, but it matters to your prospects.
Internal systems that perform. You may not think of your internal systems as part of your marketing strategy, but they are critical to your success. If your document management system, calendar and billing functions all operate at peak levels, chances are good that work flow moves forward in a productive manner. That means that clients get their work on a timely basis and, equally important, billing takes place on a timely basis. Poor internal processes cannot overcome the best work product.
When it all works together, you end up with an estate planning law firm that helps your clients, generates profits, and gives you the satisfaction of work well done. No one element stands alone. To learn more about how IMS helps our clients achieve this and more, call James at 877-352-2021 x 80.