Using Your Law Firm Premises For Marketing Purposes

If you still operate your law firm from premises, one of the best things you can do from a marketing perspective is to make the best use of these premises to promote your legal services.

Whenever I visit a new law firm, I can almost guarantee what I am going to find when I walk through the door. For those of you reading this, even if I have not visited you before, I would gladly make a bet that if I did I would find (or not find) at least three of the following:

  1. Outside the office, there will not be any bright illuminated welcoming signage
  2. There will be no friendly advertising posters with offers in the windows
  3. As I walk in the receptionist will be behind a nice high desk ensuring they are well hidden from new arrivals
  4. When I am sitting waiting to meet you I will have various options of reading materials, from newspapers to charity leaflets, and if I look really closely I will find one practice brochure which is several years out of date, or worse still a selection of Law Society brochures telling me that I should go to the Law Society website to find the right solicitor for me
  5. On the walls there will be old legal pictures which perhaps the lawyers find mildly interesting, but clients find depressing

With just some simple changes you can make your reception and meeting rooms amazing cross selling tools that will bring in an abundance of new business for you. The question is can you be bothered?

Your client welcoming areas should be generating a good handful of new instructions for you at least every month, but preferably every week. If you want to make your life easier, please before you spend anymore money on advertising or an amazing website from a website design company that knows absolutely nothing about generating new business for solicitors, make these simple changes and then you can use the extra profit costs generated to look at other marketing methods.

Outside Your Offices

Solicitors A Boards

Stand outside your offices and look at your client’s first experience of your business. Is it bright and welcoming? Is there a nice bright sign with your practice name and the word “solicitors” boldly on display? If there is lighting are the bulbs all working? If not replace them. You are solicitors and your attention to detail is what makes you good at what you do. But what impression does your client have of your practice if the outside of your buildings is shoddy?

Do you have an A Board outside your offices to stop people passing your office without realising how you can help them? If not, ask me about my preferred suppliers.

Reception

An old gripe of mine is solicitors that still shut for lunch. If you do and this is the most prominent sign on your front door, expect to lose plenty of business to your competitors. It takes no time to set up staggered lunch breaks. As the legal world becomes more and more competitive it is these small changes that will determine whether you remain in business.

Reception Desk

Generally these days money is not handed over the counter so there really is no need for a high imposing reception desk. The reception desk should be no higher than a normal desk and should be free of clutter and welcoming.

Selling More Of Your Services

You now have a captive audience. A client or visitor is sitting in your reception area for five minutes or more and they are in the frame of mind of all matters legal. So what should you give them to read? The Times, a Rugby Magazine, Country Life? NO NO NO. Whilst they are in your offices they should be allowed to read about one thing and one thing only – your business!

If you have any of the above, along with charity leaflets, other local business cards and brochures etc, remove them immediately. Are you in business for your business or someone else’s?

You need a selection of promotional materials. You need a general practice brochure, but you also need much more. You need legal information sheets, guides to making a will, moving home essential checklists etc. Anything which is related to the type of legal services that you provide must be available for your clients to read whilst they are sitting targets for you to sell to them.

Any practice where I have made these changes and provided a range of promotional materials sees an immediate return. The LawKits that I have designed that cover all areas of law and are written in client friendly language will produce new enquiries for you, have you bought your own branded LawKits?

Free Advertising Space

Lastly, what is on your walls? If you think about your target audience, those people sitting there waiting to talk to you, or thinking about instructing you, what is their frame of mind? Nervous, wary, unsure? All of the above? So how can you reassure them? What if you had several client testimonials printed off, professionally framed and dotted around reception. Would this help to convince them you were the right firm for them? Absolutely it would, so have you done it yet?

I know that implementing any of these changes will have an impact on your business, but implementing all of them will have a dramatic impact. So what are you waiting for?

6 Fastest Ways To Win New Law Firm Clients – Click to download now:>>

Ready To Take Action And See Results Now?

Please call 0117 290 8555 to arrange a mutually convenient time for a telephone discussion, Email me or complete a Free Online Enquiry. There is no cost or obligation. We will have a chat about where you are and where you would like to be and I will suggest some things you can do to get there quickly.

Law Firm Marketing

Case Study

“We’re busier and more profitable than ever before, but we’re also having more fun too.”

I came across Nick and Samson Consulting back when I was employed and looking for help to grow my caseload.

Unsurprisingly I found him on Google (he definitely has a knack for that platform!), while looking for a legal marketing expert, and ended up joining his Marketing4Solicitors group, learning from afar for several years.

His advice was smart, sound and – most importantly – it worked.

And that’s why when I came to start my own firm up three years ago, I pretty quickly ended up giving Nick a call and started working with him.

I had used another company to help me with some online marketing before that, and to be honest – it was an absolute disaster, costing huge amounts of money and not really delivering any tangible results.

I hoped that wouldn’t be the case with Nick, and I was right.

I brought him right into the business, getting him involved top to bottom, and I can honestly say that it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

His guidance quickly starting paying dividends, as he coached and mentored me on how to generate more interest and achieve more client instructions, as well as generally how to structure the firm in a way that was the most profitable and productive.

Three years in, and I’m over the moon with the impact that Nick has had on my business.

We’ve got a clear focus and a direction, we know why we do what we do, and most of importantly at all, we’re more successful.

We’re busier and more profitable than ever before, but we’re also having more fun too.

That’s one of the best things about working with Nick – the fact that the advice and guidance he gives is so holistic.

It’s not just about making money, although he has had a huge impact on that for us, but it’s also about helping me to enjoy my life, and growing my firm in a way that means that I have more money in the bank, but more time to enjoy life with my family too.

I guess that’s what makes him so different to others out there – he really does have my best interests at heart and I trust him implicitly.

It’s hard for me to convey just how good Nick is at what he does – before I started working with him, I thought I was pretty good with PR and marketing, but the truth is that in comparison to Nick, I really don’t know anything.

Nick really is a very, very smart guy, and when it comes to running a profitable legal firm, I think there are very few people who could touch him.

And that’s why I’m glad he’s on my team, and that isn’t just hyperbole – he really is a part of my team: any significant business decision I make is run by him first, because I know he’ll give me useful, tangible and practical advice that’ll result in the best outcome for me and the people I care about.

Before working with Nick, I felt like I was on my own, and the future of the firm was on my shoulders; to be honest it was quite a weight.

But now, I’m relaxed about the future, because I know that I’ve got Nick in my corner, one of the smartest marketing minds I’ve ever come across, and a truly honest good guy to boot.