Establish a Novel Field of Practice to Gain a Significant Competitive Edge in the Legal Services Industry

 Establish a Novel Field of Practice to Gain a Significant Competitive Edge in the Legal Services Industry

When promoting legal services, it's better to be particular than broad. If you're an attorney, the same holds true when deciding which legal services to highlight in your marketing campaign.

You come across as a generalist to potential clients and referral sources when you practise in multiple areas of law. Frequently, they fail to recall your expertise in any certain field. Your picture is hazy in their minds.

Contrarily, when you focus on a certain subset of the law, your clients and referral sources will be familiar with your work. The picture you captured is crystal clear. For this reason, it is advisable to narrowly define your specialisation so that potential clients and referral sources perceive you as an expert in a certain field, even if your practice area or service offerings are expansive.

Focussing on a smaller subset of your industry makes it easier to become known as an expert in that field. Customers, potential customers, and people who can recommend you will remember you better if you make your services easy to remember.

Your law firm's success is directly proportional to the depth of your speciality and the efficacy of your marketing strategy. The sky's the limit when you zero in on a specific speciality, that much is true.

So, how can one "specialise" when they are competent in numerous areas and perhaps interested in many more?

No brainer.

It was daunting to begin my marketing career (a long time ago) because there were so many new abilities I would need to master. I really doubted that anyone could pull off the simultaneous creation of effective advertisements, publicity, seminars, and newsletters.

Looking back, I now see the larger picture, see that the fundamentals are the same everywhere, and my perspective on marketing has changed significantly over the past three decades. I now know how a single individual may learn to craft an effective marketing message and then spread it through many channels.

Consequently, I make use of a plethora of resources nowadays, such as advertisements, seminars, newsletters, tapes, websites, and more. Education-Based Marketing, however, encompasses all of these methods.

To carve out a special place in the market and make money doing it, follow these steps:

First things first: figure out what kind of law you want to be a lawyer in. Would you like to work in family law? Wills and trusts? Business dealings?

The second step is to figure out who you want to be your client. Are you interested in collaborating with well-off clients? Business owners? Medical professionals? Or just those customers that have certain service needs?

One way to think about a legal practice is from the perspective of the services you intend to offer. Another perspective is that of the people you hope to assist, or the customer. Alternatively, you may offer both kinds of services to the same kinds of customers. Now that you have a clear idea of who you want to help and what you can provide them, it's time to put it all down on paper with your clients/services statement. Following that:

Level the playing field (Step #3). A common gripe among solicitors is the monotony of working in virtually the same practice areas across different firms. You may easily find a dozen solicitors practicing personal injury law, estate planning or divorce on any given city block.

Yes, the generic label does help potential clients choose the right counsel for their case. On the other hand, the generic label perpetuates the idea that all solicitors practicing a certain area are same simply because they wear the same badge.

Refrain from conforming to the standards set by other solicitors, the market, or tradition. Establish a specialisation. Reach new heights. It only makes sense to level the playing field in your favour if you're going to put resources into marketing.

Fourth, choose a name for your speciality or area of expertise that is factual and descriptive. Customers purchase advantages, not characteristics, according to an old marketing cliche. Still, a benefit title says nothing and makes people suspicious, so don't use one when calling your niche. I aimed for a term that adequately characterises my work when I termed it education-based marketing. I could have come up with a wacky title like Power Marketing, Marketing That Works!, Brilliant Marketing, or even something even more absurd. My goal, though, was to find a word that would do justice to my marketing approach while yet being easy for my potential customers to grasp. Therefore, marketing that is centred around student learning.

Pick a name for your speciality that accurately and truthfully represents your work. Be careful that your new name encompasses all of your intended services. Using a certain name could lead potential customers to believe you just offer that one type of service, when in fact you are capable and eager to expand your offerings outside that one field. Thus, you should aim for a niche name that gives the idea of a specific emphasis while being general enough to encompass all your interests.

Step #5: Promote with all your might. From a competitive standpoint, a new speciality is useless if your prospects are unaware of it, fail to grasp it, and do not perceive it as a significant advantage over your competitors. Nobody will care if your prospects don't perceive a reason to choose you rather than your competition, even if you're the only lawyer in that niche and the only one utilising the term. Consequently, your marketing strategy should centre on your new specialisation. The next step is to let potential clients know why they need you—a specialist lawyer in your field who specialises in the types of legal services you provide.

Step 6: Make sure all of your marketing materials reflect your new specialisation. Make sure everyone knows about your powerful niche that you created if you truly believe in it. Your website, advertising, marketing, brochures, and seminar materials should all highlight the significance of your niche. The greater the interest in your area, the more credibility potential customers will give it. More buzz about it from potential customers and rival businesses. The more tangible it gets. Prospects quickly start to recognise it as a real speciality, rather than a word you coined while drunk. When that happens, your speciality goes from being a concept to a reality—which, from a marketing perspective, is essentially the same thing.

In terms of marketing, it's best to narrow your focus to a specific field of law. When you carve out a specific niche for yourself, you put yourself in the best position to compete. Be careful to strike a balance between being too general and alienating to potential customers by focussing on a specific niche that encompasses all the services you intend to offer.

DO NOT RUSH Into These Decisions; Instead, Give It Your Full Attention. Try coming up with other speciality phrases and seeing how your friends and clients respond. Find out if certain specialised names are appealing to them or not. If you want to know what the specialised name signifies, ask them. Your niche's success or failure is highly dependent on the name you give it. Proceed with caution and good judgement when you make this choice.

The term "education-based marketing" was initially used by me in 1984. I continue to utilise it even after 22 years because (1) it precisely defines my work, (2) it is my sole form of advertising, and (3) it is the reason my potential clients employ me. A good niche will pass that test.

Now create one for yourself so you can out-market other solicitors who are also vying for success in the legal industry.

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