In the heady world of marketing, there are two tribes – each playing with a different set of rules:
- Consumer Marketers that focus on building aspirational brands and drive consumer choice to increase sales of anything from ‘The nations favourite washing powder’ to Louis Vuitton luxury goods
- Business to Business (B2B) Marketers that focus on refining their value proposition to make their offer stand out and show the prospective buyer why it will be a better investment to get help from you. Take accounting software – Could be done with a spread sheet but using an accounts package such as SAGE will be quicker, more reliable and save in auditors fees.
So for marketing of legal services, which rulebook applies? Perhaps the answer is a bit of both. For sure legal services can be marketed through aspirational brand development. A strong logo that communicates your values, a nice office, a prestigious address all adds to you ability to win business and maintain your fee structure. But what is your value proposition?
Value proposition
You may ask what this means. When a business make a purchase decision it is typically rational rather than emotional and rational decisions are based on information. Your value proposition is a set of succinct reasons for why your ideal client should do business with you regardless of the colour and size of your logo. To be clear about you value proposition is essential for effective marketing regardless of your service offering or target market. Without this clarity you can waste a lot of marketing energy with little or no return. Can you give a clear and succinct answer to each of these questions? Unless you can, then you are not ready to instruct your marketing provider.
- Who are your current and who are your ideal clients?
- What are your best selling service and which of your services stand out?
- How do you charge – do you win or loose business on price?
- Why should your ideal customer buy from you?
The best answers are those that help you stand out and help prospects realise that doing business with your will give them a benefit over and above other alternatives. Unless you are very unique, or have a monopoly offer, these questions are not easy to answer. However by paying attention to these your marketing effort and expense will be directed towards your most valuable targets and will have much increased impact and return.
For more information on effective marketing: www.getbusinessresults.co.uk/effective-marketing_c42.aspx
