Create Your 2014 PROFIT Marketing Plan

Did you know that October is International Strategic Planning Month. And let me tell you something... if you think it's just about setting goals, you're mistaken.
Goals cannot stand alone - otherwise they seem like far fetched, never-gonna-happen dreams that always seem out of reach.

Ever wonder why some people have so much - from successful businesses to lavish vacations to second homes? They know how to identify and move forward toward a goal. But they aren't special. They're just working their plan, and you could be, too.

Did you know that the quality of your goal has a direct result on the viability of you actually getting it?
Earlier this week I spent some time planning out my MAP (Marketing Action Plan) for the next 12 months (January- December 2014). I can see exactly what Offline and Online marketing activities I will be doing on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and quarterly basis. It's so important that we take the time do to this in our businesses, which is why every month, I am offering a VERY limited number of 'Business Acceleration' sessions, so you can discover what you need to create your own strategic business plan.

I also had two, almost identical, conversations with my long term clients, last week. They were both frustrated with not getting results from online marketing. A lot of lawyers spend a whole lot of money on website and a whole lot of time on social media, and they banging their head against their computer wondering “Why don’t I have enough clients?”  And you know what the problem was? It was down to them not having a plan in place, so they didn't know what tasks to do to market effectively.

So in the spirit of business planning, this week's brand-new article shares with you 7 Simple Steps to Market Your Law Firm.


Legal marketing is the lifeblood of a law practice yet we lawyers are not taught how to market. And, as a consequence, lawyers spend a huge amount of time thinking about how they can develop legal business, trying one thing after another. And often one marketing idea sounds so good that the lawyer runs with it without consideration of a strategy, an overall plan, to develop legal business. Wasted time and lost income are the result.

7 Simple Steps to Market Your Law Firm

1. Learn the general principles of marketing - The foundation for successful business development - What
you actually “do” and the specific actions you take to market your law practice. It is a logical step-by-step process.

2. You need to be clear about your particular law practice; what areas you practice in, or want to practice in, how much business you have now in each area and how much business you want in each area.

3. Determine who will be the ideal client for you. Create Your 2014 PROFIT Marketing Plan

Remember, different practice areas may have different ideal clients. Consider the marketing tools that will work the best for attracting your ideal client and which ones will fit well with your personality. Set your marketing time and money budget.

4. Create a written marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy. It can be a Word document or set up via an online task management website.

5.The important thing is that you set out clear legal marketing goals with the specific action steps necessary to reach each goal. You also must include the start date and due date for each action step.

6. Use a written goal tracking system to coordinate your marketing activities and keep you on track.

7. Follow the marketing plan consistently. It is tempting not to market when you have plenty of legal business. That is a mistake. Some types of legal marking, such as networking, require a significant amount of time to develop prospects. A week that goes by without marketing is a week lost forever. A poor marketing plan followed consistently will outperform the best marketing plan followed inconsistently.

Take Action:

I encourage you to take a look and evaluate your own marketing efforts with an eye to rethinking how you are marketing currently. With the time constraints lawyers face together with increased competition from fellow lawyers and, you must be strategic in planning your business development efforts.

Once you have become clear on the long term vision for your law practice and determined the gap between your current practice and the law practice you want you are ready to create the legal marketing plan.

The best investment you can make in your law practice is to put in the necessary time and effort to develop a comprehensive, clear, and focused legal marketing plan.

If you want a Business Acceleration session of how you can use this in your business, please Click here to schedule a call with me.