Why You Need to Make Yourself Unique

Sometimes I get clients who focus on specific areas of the law but they want to be everything to everyone.  They don’t think this way and they certainly don’t express themselves this way but their marketing is either designed to target everyone or it is sending mixed messages. Often these clients are just starting their own business or law firm, they want to cast a wide net to get clients so they end up with a scattered approach in their marketing strategy and campaigns. No matter how good you are, you can’t be the answer for everyone. Trying to be everyone’s solution leads to your audience being confused, confusion leads to nervousness and nervousness leads to indecision.  For most professionals and especially attorneys, focusing on a niche or a few legal areas is a much better marketing strategy.

If you happen to be credentialed in a specific area, then your most effective marketing campaigns and ads will focus on that area.  Your marketing content and images need to reflect the specific area you want to promote. A simple example of not doing this would be a high-end marketing campaign that promotes you or your firm as an Estate Attorney.  The ad looks great and the reader clicks through to your website. What do they see…pictures of your office that show children’s toys and books. Now your potential client is confused, your ad promotes estate law but your office looks like a family law office. You’ve just damaged your credibility without realizing it. The truth is that you may practice family law too but if you are promoting yourself as an estate attorney you need to make certain your ads will direct the audience specifically to that area on your website. 

This sounds easy but is difficult in practice!  It is natural to want to get every potential client you can find with your marketing, but this strategy always fails. By focusing on your unique niches and marketing to the audience that is most likely to benefit from your practice, you will ultimately have much greater success with your marketing.

When you’re promoting a niche within your profession make sure your website, social media and digital marketing all send the same message to your audience.  As a professional you are your brand.  Mixed messages are confusing and plant the seeds of doubt about your abilities to your audience.  Another benefit of promoting yourself in a niche is the ability to charge more for your services. Frequently businesses who promote themselves as generalists end up marketing based on price which is a race to the bottom against your competition.  Focusing on a niche makes you a rare commodity and you can command higher fees.

If I haven’t convinced you to market yourself within a specific legal field, then you can do the next best thing and market your approach as special, for example, “We cater to nervous first-time legal clients.” To be successful and gain clients in today’s market you will need to focus your approach and make yourself “special” in some way.