The power of a good marketing database
How many people do you know? How many of them know you are a lawyer? Do they know anything about your firm? Would they come to you first with their legal matters? Building your database is crucial to making sure that people know who you are and what you have to offer.
In our experience, law firm marketing is most effective when you can reach the people and businesses who you have already had contact with. They might only know a bit about who you are, but you have your foot in the door. What you need to do now, is wedge that door open, and let your current and potential clients see more of who you are and what you do.
With email newsletters to people you already know, you can reach your target audience with information about your firm and the legal problems you can help with. Sure, the people receiving your newsletter might not have a legal problem now. But they might have one next month, or next year. They might know a friend, a colleague, a neighbour or a relative that is looking for a lawyer. You want to be the first law firm that comes to mind in their moment of need. And to be that law firm, you have to remind them that you’re there – that’s why you need to build your database.
By building your database and communicating regularly with those people and businesses in your database, you are giving your firm the best chance of being ‘top of mind’ when those people need a lawyer. So, to get the word out to as many people as possible, it is imperative that you build your database.
Building your database
If knowledge is power, how much do you know? Well, you might already know more than you think. There are some simple ways you can build your database with information you already have. For example, all those email addresses sitting in your Outlook contacts list. Why not try harvesting your contacts in Outlook?
And each time you make a new contact, be sure to add them to your database. If you pick up someone’s email address in the course of a matter, don’t just jot it down on the inside cover of the file – get into the habit of adding that valuable information to your database.
With a few easy steps, you can even get your database to practically build itself. Does your firm website prompt visitors to sign up for your newsletter? Does your Facebook page have a ‘call to action’ button, encouraging people to subscribe? You’d be surprised how effective these simple tools can be for growing your database.
If you need a hand setting up a call to action, harvesting your Outlook contacts, or if you want to know more about building your database, we can help.
How is your law firm client database looking?
With a well maintained client database you can simply and effectively reach your target audience with email newsletters and other targeted marketing. Building your database can be as simple as adding a sign-up invitation to your website, a call to action to your Facebook page, or making sure new information is captured and entered on your database when it enters your firm.
So now you know the how and why of building your database, why not set aside some time to work on it? Maybe you already have a database, or maybe you are just starting to build. Either way, your database is one of your most important assets, so it is important that you give it the attention it deserves.
Of course, we understand that most lawyers would rather spend their time being lawyers than working on marketing. If this is you, then Lift Legal can help. Why not get in touch to see how we can help you to build your database?
