This is probably the biggest secret that I will reveal. It works 100% of the time. It is consistency.
A lot of law firm owners and even marketers are trapped into this issue. You might be guilty of this as well. Read on...
A Story About A Lawyer Marketing His Firm on Facebook
Imagine yourself going to a seminar about Facebook marketing. You learn all great technical details and new tactics of using Facebook. You get excited about a new way of marketing your firm, and start working on it. You start documenting your progress each week.
- Week 1. You develop your Facebook business page. You have a great looking picture of your staff, a well written biography and details about your firm. (Excitement level: high)
- Week 2. You send an email to your clients and friends announcing your new fancy Facebook page and ask them to become a fan of your firm. (Excitement level: high)
- Week 3. You start participating on Facebook by sharing relevant stories to your practice and engaging with your fans. You notice that this takes time and it is not that easy. (Excitement level: medium)
- Week 4. You continue to participate on Facebook, but your frequency of engagement drops. You realize that you have other things on your plate, and you will focus a little bit less time on Facebook. Then you go back to the seminar in your head and start questioning yourself about results. Where are all the masses of people who want to do business with my firm? Why haven't I seen a huge number of calls? (Excitement level: medium-low)
- Week 5. You are caught up on daily activities and postpone your time spent on Facebook. You have to go to court, call the IRS, and mail out the lien release form... The month passes, and your Facebook pages become dormant. The fans notice that you stopped sharing valuable information and decide to "unlike" you. You look at your stats, you notice a ton of red arrows indicating a drop in your Facebook fans and their engagement. You are disappointed and make a decision that Facebook marketing is a waste of time. (Excitement level: low)
Does that sound familiar? It's not only about Facebook marketing.
It's about being consistent on what you do.
Why Does That Happen?
- Doing one thing well and consistently is not easy. Especially when there is a new and exciting idea. You will enjoy it at the beginning. However, the reality is that it will become mundane and the excitement will go down.
- Another issue is that there are a lot of shiny objects out there. Marketers and other business experts are suggesting new ideas every day. You are consuming information like books, articles, videos, etc. This is a positive sign, however, it is impossible to implement them all, and too many new ideas take away the focus from what's important.
- Finally, we tend to lie to ourselves. We think that we can do it all. We think that we can implement this new idea in three hours; however, it takes us two days to do it. The issue with that is that we underestimate the work required to get things done. In the end, it is better to do a few things very well than a larger number of things in a mediocre fashion, or, worst of all, many things very poorly.
What Can You Do To Prevent This From Happening?
It's about being consistent.
- Be realistic with yourself. New ideas are exciting until they are not new any longer. Think about the idea, and evaluate whether you are willing to commit to it after the excitement is gone. Successful law firms don't engage in their marketing in spurts. They do it every day, every month, and every year. It is part of their operating process.
- Don't fall for the shiny objects. They come and go... and distract you from what's important. When you think about your law firm marketing think simple: 1) will this increase the traffic to my website? 2) will this convert that traffic into calls or web inquiries? If the new idea does not fall into these buckets, forget about it. Don't try to do it all yourself. Don't become a marketing manager. You have a practice to run. It requires a lot of physical and mental energy. Leverage yourself - work with a marketing company you can trust. Most likely they will have resources and process in place to do your marketing consistently. Your time will be better spent doing what you really know how to do—delivering top notch legal services.
Final Thoughts
Don't underestimate the power of consistency - it is what makes successful firms successful. Remember, all actions require time to see results and not all actions yield immediate results. It is a continuous process that requires tracking, measuring, and tweaking results for better performance.
Have you been trapped in the shiny object cycle and how have you overcame it?
