Got 'private client' on your advertised list of services? You've committed the first crime of legal marketing, says Nick Jervis
I meet hundreds of solicitors every year and in almost every case they advertise their services using printed media. Some advertise weekly, others monthly and some annually, but they all use advertising to promote their services.
Sadly, another thing they have in common is that they all usually advertise their legal services really badly. The good news for you is that I have developed a system to make sure that you make the most of each and every pound of advertising spend you make.
Profit margin
The reason most law firm advertising does not work is simple: first, lawyers are not trained to write advertisements and, second, they will generally not pay anyone to help them. I find this funny sometimes, but mostly disappointing, as a well-written advertisement should pay for itself many times over. For example, if you spend £100 advertising your legal services you should be able to generate at least £300 or more in fees from that advertisement.
If you advertise and you do not achieve this, you really are wasting your money. However, if you can achieve this week after week, or month after month, you end up putting a lot more profit costs into your bank account and end up with a more profitable practice.
I want to focus this month on some basic mistakes made by solicitors when advertising their law firm, and then next month I am going to share with you my secret formula which enables me to write successful advertisements for solicitors time and time again.
Mistake number 1 – It’s not about you.
The first mistake is always the same. I am sorry to break this to you, but your advertisement is not all about you, so putting your firm name and logo at the top of the advertisement is not the way to go here. The problem with this is that your client is not interested in your firm or your logo. They are only interested in their needs and their challenges in life.
So the first part of your advertisement has to be about your clients. What is their problem or need and how can you help them? If you can work this out, your prospect should go on to read the rest of your advertisement. Fail and they don’t read any further.
Mistake number 2 – Lists are for shopping.
Mistake number two deals with the middle section of the advertisement. This is where you should expand on your clients’ problems or needs established in the headline above, and explain how you can fix this problem for your client and why you are the only law firm your client should choose.
Sadly, the middle content of nearly every advertisement that I see for a law firm is a list of their services, usually along the lines of:
“We can help you with:
• Moving house
• Accident claims
• Divorce and family matters
• Private client.”
I have deliberately replicated some other common mistakes in this fake advertisement. First, the list of services is not in alphabetical order (which is the only sensible way to list them if you insist on listing services), but usually are in the order of importance in terms of fees earned by that firm.
This is usually true on law firm websites too (quickly go and check yours now – if the list of services is not alphabetical, you really must change that). From a client’s perspective, an alphabetical list is the only logical solution, so do it this way if you are going to list your services (but hopefully you will not after reading this).
The other point is that I have entered legal terminology in the advert by including ‘private client’ (very on point for this website of course). However, while many law firms list ‘private client services’ in their advertisements and on their websites, this really doesn’t mean anything to their clients.
You can talk about wills, trusts or probate, but you should never use private client or other legal jargon when advertising your services to potential clients as it simply will not resonate with them.
Mistake number 3 – What’s in it for me?
Quoting a Culture Club single (showing my age as an 80’s music fan), most solicitors then move on to make mistake number three. If you have managed to keep your potential client’s interest until this point you must finish by doing something to ensure that they take action, yet so often a phone number is simply plonked at the end of the advertisement.
Sadly that just is not enough. Everyone is busy, so you need to go out of your way to encourage your prospects to take action and get in touch with you.
The good news is that you can fix all of these problems very easily. I have written a formula that I use when writing all of my solicitors’ advertisements, and which I am going to share with you next month on the PCA blog, so do not despair, help is just a few weeks away...
Nick Jervis is a solicitor (non-practising) and the managing Director of Samson Consulting, a law firm marketing consultancy. For more information on advertising legal services visit https://www.samsonconsulting.co.uk/advertising-success-for-solicitors.html