John O. Cunningham has worked as an attorney, a legal reporter and a marketing and communications consultant and is especially well suited to write an article on why lawyers seem so resistant to the business of promoting their business. John was inspired to write the article from a Linkedin group discussion, but writes about his top 10 reasons why attorneys hate marketing along with some tips on how legal marketers can overcome each objection.
The article appears on Legal Marketing Reader. Thanks John for writing another popular law marketing article.
Click to read: Why Attorneys Hate Marketing and What You Can Do About It
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John’s whole post is great, but I think that the following excerpt really nails it on the head:
“Find a way to explain to lawyers that advertising is not marketing. The discipline of marketing is essential to ALL organizations that rely on revenue to survive. Why? Marketing is the study of why your clients buy your services, what services they buy, when and how they make buying decisions, what they are willing to pay for your services, what would make them buy more, what other services they want from you, what causes them to defect and what causes them to recommend you to others. In short, it is the essential understanding of how your cash register rings.”
When I first became an attorney, trying to get the principal at our law firm, my father, to develop and execute a marketing plan was like pulling teeth; he thought of marketing as advertising. I think once many attorneys understand this crucial distinction, convincing them to develop and actually execute a marketing plan will be much easier.
If a law practice is plenty busy through referrals and word of mouth and doesn’t need additional sources of clients, good for them. However, the industry is competitive. A strong well-rounded marketing plan can really get a law firm noticed so that when someone is in need of your services, they know who to call.
This post touches on something that attorneys and other professional forget. To run a great practice it’s not enough to be a great lawyer. Every attorney is a small business, and as such has to invest their resources in marketing.