In our last GhostMarketer series article Six reasons to market your firm we looked at why you need a marketing plan to remain competitive. Now we turn to the how part.
Successful marketing needn’t cost a fortune – in fact many of the basics cost little or nothing! A great example of this is GhostMarketer which is part and parcel of your GhostConvey package.
Shoestring marketing is an old concept – tried and tested, and extremely powerful. Whether you have a large marketing budget or a limited one, follow the “6 Practical Steps” below to get maximum benefit for minimum cost.
In our next article we will look at "Targeted Marketing: Choosing your tools".
This is critical - you need to have a crystal clear idea of where you are going, or you will end up going nowhere! Set a clear, attainable goal, with a deadline.
e.g. "To maximise profits by increasing the level of new, good quality instructions (i.e. transfers over R3m) by 10% by end November 2016".
The more detail you give in your description the better - all of your marketing from here on will be aimed at communicating with this target market.
e.g. "Anyone likely to invest in immovable property (specify price range) in (specify geographical area) within (specify a time period)".
e.g. "I want my house to be transferred and the purchase price paid to me as quickly as possible, with minimal effort and expense on my part".
(Four possible avenues, and some practical suggestions, are given below - adjust and expand them to your firm's particular goals and circumstances).
A website: it needn’t be fancy or expensive, but it must project your professionalism. Keep it effortlessly updated with monthly newsletters via RSS feeds (we’ll show you how).
A LinkedIn page for the firm and for each partner/director/professional.
Check signage outside your offices – first impressions set the tone for every client visit.
Your offices – Reception and telephone answering are usually the first point of contact and should receive special attention. Task someone specific to take responsibility for incoming e-mail enquiries.
Branding – A strong corporate identity is essential and at its heart is your firm’s logo. Don’t try to make your own unless you are an expert (an amateurish logo is false economy). In a pinch it’s fine to just use your firm’s name as shown on your letterhead, but add colour to it for electronic communication (“e-colour” is free and very effective). Be sure to keep your branding consistent across all your client communications (e-mails, newsletters etc).
Create a basic database of all sellers, buyers and agents from every transfer, and add to it all potential new clients. We will show you how best to use your GhostConvey database to easily create segmented lists of contacts.
GhostMarketer: Use it to send targeted and scheduled messages to key segments of your database. We’ll show you how to set this up easily, with all your branding and contact details on each message.
LawDotNews: Client newsletters have been at the core of every large firm’s marketing plans for decades because they work. Useful, interesting articles and strong branding of your newsletters is essential – we’ll show you how with our effortless, low-cost LawDotNews newsletter system.
6.4 Keep in the "public eye"
(Not vital if you have the previous two steps covered, and low cost is essential - with new prospects, you need 6 to 11 regular repetitions of your name/branding before brand recognition kicks in).