Here’s a sign I saw outside a pub in The Wirral (we were visiting my husband’s family):
(In case you can’t see the image, it says “Beer Shortage Soon – Panic Buy Here!!“)
It made me chuckle.
It wasn’t just a witty play on the petrol shortage panic-buying going on at the Shell garage directly across the road (and everywhere else in the country).
It was also a great example of Education-Based Marketing (EBM).
EBM doesn’t just say “Here’s what we have to offer“.
EBM says, “Here’s why you need it” or “Here’s why you should want it”.
In this case, the pub’s marketing was clearly tongue-in-cheek about the ‘need’ to buy beer. (And most people don’t need educating in order to want to buy it!)
But for legal services, EBM is a vital technique to help more of your ideal clients understand either:
- why they need legal help in the first place (e.g. for wills/LPAs, shareholders’ agreements, employment contracts), or
- why they need the level of legal expertise you provide (e.g. for litigation, conveyancing, M&A) rather than a less qualified, and perhaps lower-priced, competitor.
When your marketing helps your target clients understand more about why they need your help, or why they should want the level of expertise you provide, they might not chuckle, but they will instruct you.
Take action
Have a look at your current marketing – website pages, brochures, articles, social media posts, adverts in the local press – and ask yourself “does it do enough to educate my target clients about why they need my help or why they need my level of legal expertise?“
If not, you know what you need to do.
If you’d like help to create the right kind of Education-Based Marketing, my book ‘The Client Magnet Formula For Lawyers’ will show you how to use EBM to attract more of your ideal clients. It’s available to buy on Amazon but you can also download the first 4 chapters for FREE.
If you would like to see examples of how other lawyers have used EBM to increase their client enquiries by between 30% and 1500% (even during the pandemic), I recommend you attend my webinar ‘The Profitable Practice Accelerator For Small Law Firms’). It’s free to attend.
For more in-depth help, you could join me at my online workshop ‘Profitable Practice Growth Secrets for Small Law Firms’ where we’ll identify exactly what kind of EBM will attract your ideal clients. Plus, you’ll learn the skills and tools to help more of your target clients say ‘yes’ to higher fees, and create a growth plan for more clients and increased profits without working more hours.