Greetings everyone! When I hear from potential law firms this statement, "I will try marketing for 30 days!" I immediately know one of the following is true. They do not understand or know the true nature of marketing or just trying to get a 30 day peep show to duplicate. Which ever the case, there will not be any long term business. Marketing is about building relationships with your target audience. When an attorney can obtain confidence, trust … Read More

via SweeThorn Marketing & Design

The first time I heard this parable, I was working in the marketing department for the Mississippi Credit Union System. I had the pleasure to meet one of the top motivational speakers, Mr. Willie Jolley. As part of the marketing team, my job was to ensure he got from point A to point B through parts of a 3 day convention. There were several things he said in route and also in the lobby of the convention, however this parable from him set the core … Read More

via SweeThorn Marketing & Design

Greetings,

The avenue of marketing that is most effective for attorneys not well-known and have not placed themselves in the public eye as an authority is direct mail.  Direct mail is not seen as a classy or acceptable marketing avenue by attorneys, however I believe most have marketed this way when first opening their own firm.

Standard marketing and advertising techniques do not apply to direct mail in this medium. Most shun the phrase “get creative”, but that is the key phrase in capturing a handsome share of the potential clients or target audience attorneys seek.

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This weeks Q&A:

How did we gather the names after CREATING and purchasing a docket not usable for profit?

We always looked for creative avenues while other firms took the easy road. The easy way was to buy the Hinds County docket that had all city arrests compiled and wait for the names to be published to the online jail docket. After requesting an unusable for real profit docket to be printed for the masses of other firms, we had to act fast. The online docket is always a day behind and all we had to do was mail the day we acquired the information while other firms waited for “the easy”. They waited for the on-line docket with the excuse of saving time and money.

I have a different view of how much should be spent on marketing and I believe the effectiveness of your marketing is more important than the cost. For instance, if you spend 2500 a week on marketing and a serious manager/attorney and collected 8,000 in the same week, you probably would consider that effective and inexpensive marketing.  I do.

Back to the answer to the question, we take the time to go to every city jail and collect every bit of information we can. The firms that do it the easy way would consider this a waste of time because some jails may not arrest more than 2 people daily. So, why waste gas for 5 or 6 names? Let’s ask William Shakespeare, “What’s in a name?” It only takes one name to take care of your entire payroll.

Why should legal marketers pay close attention to all DUI charges? Subscribe in the top right corner and be alerted to my next post.

Lisa Henry, A Real Guerrilla Marketer

Greetings,

I legal market for criminal defense attorneys in Mississippi. Over the years many have asked about how it’s done and what makes what you do so special.  So this BLOG will fill in the blanks.

Marketing for criminal defense requires detailed work. Ok! I have heard the thoughts and concerns of attorneys and their staff about just how “DETAILED” can it really be. The details are the difference in firms that try this form of marketing and either believe with “proof” it does not work, while others swear by it. My niche WAS direct marketing by using direct mail to market people who have been recently arrested. All jails must keep a record of people arrested and that is where the names and addresses came from.

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This POSTS Q&A:

The question asked most in different ways, using various phrases has been, “Anybody can get the jail docket, fold and stuff envelopes and mail them. Why are you so special and expensive?”

Marketing is war plain and simple and making the phones ring is the goal of a legal marketer, so why not investigate and improve on the details that seem so simple.

Another question asked mostly by Jackson attorneys is, “How did you get clients to call from Hinds County?” We just did not acquire the names from the Hinds county docket and fold and stuff envelopes alone. We maximized our opportunity by calling and requesting that the Hinds County docket printed weekly and given to all firms print certain arrest charges. The complete docket is never printed. The names are selected by jail staff and this duty, at one time, was rotated. (The county printed only one docket and made copies to give out. Wow! Important info to fight a war.) If you were the first firm that called and specifically asked for misdemeanors, other firms, that KISSed this process, paid for a list with only a few felonies. Where is the money in criminal defense? Felony cases.

We maximized the simple and were the only hat in the ring meaning we were the first and sometimes the only one to reach a potential client’s mail box. (A potential client who was arrested and charged with a felony)

One of the questions asked when a potential client called was, “How many letters did you receive from other firms?” We enjoyed hearing just yours.

How did we gather the names after CREATING and purchasing a docket not usable for profit?

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Lisa Henry, A Real Guerrilla Marketer