Three Practical Marketing and Biz Dev Tips You Can Immediately Put into Practice
Let’s get right to it. In today’s post, I’m sharing three tips that will help you get an immediate return on your marketing and business development investment.
Pick a tactic. Start acting upon it. I’m confident you’ll achieve positive results.
80/20 Your Contact List
The 80/20 rule applies everywhere, and your list of business contacts is no exception.
Out of 100 people in your network, 20 will be responsible for sending you 80 percent of new business and referrals.
If you drill down ever further, you’ll probably find that it's even fewer who really matter.
If you're feeling stuck when it comes to business development, it may be due to overwhelm. You're viewing your network as one big monolith.
It’s too big of a puzzle. There’s no way to make sense of 1,842 contacts in Outlook. Where to even start?
As with most things, start small.
Make a list of just 20 people in your orbit who send you work or have the potential to. Every business day, reach out to one person on your list.
Keep it simple—an email, phone call, link to an article or handwritten note will do. Your outreach only needs to take a few minutes.
By the end of the month, you'll have had direct contact with the people who have the highest potential to help grow your practice.
The next month, do it again. It may seem hard to keep up this consistent pace at first, but stick with it.
You'll soon start seeing results from your efforts. When that happens, you won't want to break your streak. It will become habitual. And your practice will grow.
Think big. Act small.
Invest in Your Existing Clients
What would happen if you sent a handwritten note to a different client every day?
What would happen if you remembered your client’s daughter’s 10th birthday and sent a bouquet of flowers?
What would happen…
If you made a reservation for your client and her husband at their favorite restaurant for their anniversary and picked up the tab?
If you referred business to your client instead of asking for referrals?
If you showed up to root on your client’s son at his Little League game?
If you donated to your client’s favorite cause before being asked to?
If you appeared at your client’s office unexpectedly with hot coffee for her team?
If you called for no other reason than to ask how your client was holding up?
What would happen? You’d have a client—and loyal advocate—for life.
It's easy to forget that the job of cultivating a relationship isn't done once the engagement letter is signed. That’s the point at which the meaningful work really begins.
Clients come for the expertise. They stay for the experience.
Specifically, the experience of being treated like a valued human being whose lawyer is invested in their wellbeing and success.
No marketing campaign, cutting-edge website or holiday party for the masses can compare to the impact of small, personalized gestures.
Use LinkedIn to Generate Marketing Opportunities Off LinkedIn
Start leveraging the "hub and spoke" model of marketing legal services on LinkedIn.
Envision a bicycle wheel. There's the center hub that holds everything together and the spokes that connect the hub to the rim.
Treat LinkedIn as your hub. It's where your profile resides. It's your means to reach and grow your network. It enables you to share content at scale.
Your LinkedIn hub is strong when it's geared toward a market niche. For example, I serve the legal industry. It's easier to make connections and create content that's resonant with this audience because I'm speaking directly to it. You can do the same in your niche.
While LinkedIn is an important hub, there are many marketing spokes to consider that are off the platform—podcasts, publishing opportunities, speaking gigs, PR and networking events, to name a few.
What's often missed is that LinkedIn is the best place to find and capitalize on these "spoke" opportunities.
Identify and develop relationships with the gatekeepers—the podcast hosts, reporters, and event organizers—in your niche on LinkedIn.
Connect. Show up in their feeds with thoughtful content. Engage with their content. Establish yourself as a thought leader. They'll take notice.
Your LinkedIn activity will generate off-platform opportunities.
Good Luck!
Please let me know how these marketing and business development tips work for you. I love hearing feedback from readers. Email me at jay@hcommunications.biz and if we’re not already connected on LinkedIn, find me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayharrington.
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Jay Harrington is president of our agency, a published author, and nationally-recognized expert in thought-leadership marketing.
From strategic planning to writing, podcasting, video marketing, and design, Jay and his team help lawyers and law firms turn expertise into thought leadership, and thought leadership into new business. Get in touch to learn more about the consulting and coaching services we provide.