In his last blog, Robert Armstrong talked a little bit about the haphazard way most legal practices approach their marketing activities. This is a shame, since marketing truly is the lifeblood of any business, and law firms are no exception.

What if your marketing system needs an overhaul? The following five-step system can make an immediate difference in your firm’s marketing efforts:

1. Write down specific, measurable, time-bound goals. These are the only kinds of goals that are truly valuable because they are the only kinds of goals that are actionable.
2. Start with the end in mind.
• Find out where your firm’s revenues are now.
• Identify your revenue goal for 2012.
• Break down the categories of work you did this year, identify how much revenue you generated for each category, and determine the number of clients each category represented for your firm.
• List your 2012 revenue goal for each category.
• Divide that number by 12 to get a monthly revenue goal.
• Identify how many clients you’ll need per month to meet the revenue goal for each specific category. 
3. Play the body count game – how many people do you have to be in front of to reach the numbers you wrote down for Rule 2? The more people who attend one of your seminars, read your marketing materials, or otherwise come into contact with you as part of your marketing strategy, the more clients you’ll ultimately have by the end of the year. It all boils down to numbers.
4. Maximize your marketing channels. You need multiple channels – forget buying a Yellow Pages ad and waiting for the clients to pour through your door. The key is to come up with a system that implements multiple marketing activities that suit your personality, your staff, and your marketing budget. A few ideas:
• Arrange seminars for prospective clients.
• Appear as a CLE speaker.
• Endorse private seminars for a local insurance agent or financial planner.
• Publish radio or television ads.
• Send out monthly e-Alerts to your centers of influence.
• Send a three-year amendment letter to your existing estate planning clients.
• Have a family seminar to educate the children of your existing clients about estate planning.
5. Schedule next year’s marketing activities now. The schedule should be on a huge plastic wall calendar where everyone in the firm can see the plan and be part of it. Then, set deadlines, delegate responsibilities to your staff, and hold everyone accountable by having weekly marketing meetings.

It sounds like a lot of work, and if you have not implemented a focused marketing strategy before now, it will take some getting used to. However, before long, you’ll begin to reap the rewards of planning your marketing and taking steps to stay on track. Trust me, the rewards are extraordinary!

Sanford M. Fisch
CEO & Co-Founder
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com