Page 6 - Palm Beach Vol 6 No 2

An Eight-Step Process
to Develop Your Marketing Plan in 2017
By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC
Believe it or not, you learned the process of how to develop a marketing plan in
So, let's get back to basics. In order to motivate lawyers to de- velop, then implement a marketing plan, I needed to streamline a cumbersome process and take the pain out of marketing plan- ning. By boiling the process down to eight steps, my hope is that you will dedicate some of that post-holiday downtime to plotting your future.
Step 1: Your Contacts — Identify the top 10 contacts you have in each of the following categories. ese individuals will rep- resent 20 percent of your contacts, with whom you will spend 80 percent of your marketing time:
law school. Let me explain. Developing a marketing plan is just like conducting the discovery upon which you create the case strategy, or pursuing due diligence be- fore you create “deal points” for an acquisition.
Step 2: A-Level Criteria — Make a list of the traits and attri- butes your best clients have in common. Sometimes it helps to think of challenging relationships that frustrate you and record the oppo- site behaviors. en repeat the process for your referral sources:
6 | www.AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com
• Past Clients.
• Current Clients.
• Prospective Clients.
• Referral Sources (both to you and from you).
• Traits of my Best Clients.
• Traits of my Best Referral Sources.
Step 3: Know What Makes You Unique — Step back and record your answers to the following questions:
• Why do my clients hire me?
• What type of feedback to I receive from satis ed clients?
• What do I want my clients to say about me when they refer me? • What expertise do I have that most lawyers don’t?
Step 4: To Whom Are You Marketing? — Take a mo- ment to de ne your target audiences. Identify speci c types of cli- ents, referral sources or industry groups most likely to value your knowledge. Once you know your target audiences, proactively plan to consistently get in front of these groups:
• Describe an industry many of your clients belong to.
• Based on past clients, what types of companies would you like