Solo Practice

Staying Committed to Your Marketing Plan

By Garrett Worley

Marketing can be a frustrating, even depressing, endeavor. In a world of instant global communication, it seems reasonable enough that even the slightest marketing effort would bring instant results. Although technology has changed the way we communicate with prospective clients, it has not altered fundamental marketing truths.

One of these truths is that effective marketing requires persistence and commitment. Once you have designed a marketing blueprint that fits your practice, you must commit yourself to following that plan for months down the road. Initially, your marketing plan may have little or no impact on your bottom line. This isn’t because your plan is ineffective; it’s because it takes a while for clients to feel familiar with you and confident in the services you offer.

Blogging is a great example of long-term commitment to marketing. There is a good deal of hype surrounding blogs these days and that creates unrealistic expectations of what a blog can do (or more accurately, how fast a blog can achieve results). Blogs are an excellent marketing tool. They bring in highly targeted traffic to your website and convey an aura of expertise to readers. But results don’t come overnight.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net (a great resource for any blogger) addressed this issue recently. When the Wall Street Journal reported that Darren earned over $250,000 a year from his blogs, he felt that he should provide his readers with a dose of realism:

The average age of blogs in the Technorati Top 100 was over 3 years when I last surveyed it - while the occasional blogger has a fast rise to fame they are the exception. Building a successful blog takes a long time (it takes time to build readership, to work out how to monetize it etc) so take a long term approach and pace yourself.

Blogs can become very successful once they take hold. Adam Smith, Esq., a blog on the economics of law firms, generates over 300,000 page views per month. The key is to remember that such success doesn’t happen overnight. Adam Smith, Esq. creator Bruce MacEwen has put a considerable amount of time and effort into making his blog the premier source of information on law firm management and economics. With the same level of dedication, your blog might become the premier source of information for your practice area.

Blogging isn’t the only marketing tool, of course. Perhaps the biggest marketing mistake a law firm could make is to rely on only one tool to achieve it’s marketing objectives. Every marketing tool is complemented by others when you implement a mix of strategies. A website, a blog, print advertising, radio and television spots, word of mouth and other tools should be used in conjunction with one another to achieve the best results. Stay committed to the marketing mix that you have chosen and the results will become noticeable eventually.

So, how long does it take for a marketing plan to take hold? In his bestselling book Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson urges that it takes a minimum of three months for any marketing plan to achieve results. Some plans will inevitably take longer to gain momentum. As long as you are confident that your services are top-notch and that your marketing efforts make your target market aware of this as much as possible, stay committed to your plan.

Full post as published by Garrett Worley's Blawg on February 03, 2008 (boomark / email).