Let’s face it, you can’t help yourself.
It’s just t-o-o easy.
Buy attention – paid advertising
Beg [for] attention – PR
Bug [for] Attention – direct or indirect sales
In colloquial terms these are all forms of push or outbound marketing.
Do you care?
You think they get results.
But when was the last time you did an audit of the ROI of your various forms of push marketing?
[It is conjecture but I don’t expect you know the ROI!]
Seth Godin has written extensively on how we have been become hooked on a diet of interruption based marketing. His free e-book Permission Marketing starts the ball rolling but his blog and several of his videos develops further the theme.
The triple B in the heading is an expression that I first cam across in a video by David Meerman Scott. It has stuck with me and I have used it many times in presentations I have given. It connotes how we have been seduced (and become) lazy in our marketing.
But, and it is a Big but, with the increasing choice in the market, we have become ever more discerning, and have learnt to switch off, unsubscribe or look elsewhere for our content.
Firms need to understand that the only way that they are going to successfully market to their audience is to focus on earning attention.
I don’t mean pleading with them but providing value laden information.
Where to start?
It might be stretching the point but to form a bond where they feel there is something of value to them which they can digest, understand and use.
Ask yourself this question:
“Where is the value in reading a website, even one that is updated with news (which normally means an update on a recent case)?”
Some firms have started to introduce various social media plug ins: Twitter, Facebook and YouTube but why?
Why have you got a Twitter feed that has no Tweets?
Why have you got a Facebook page that has no comments save for those of others employed by the firm?
And why do you have a YouTube channel where you are regurgitating what is on your website?
The starting point with any content is to ask yourself is it remarkable, WOW or memorable?
No, then don’t bother.
You need to break with tradition. The internal dynamic is your biggest article. There is no point extolling the virtue of developing an inbound marketing strategy if your last round of budget setting has included a marketing spend for outbound material.
Start small. There is nothing wrong with baby steps.
A blog may be too far at the moment, but regular and meaningful content on your website, combined with an interesting, conversational Twitter feed will start to earn attention. It’s bound to because let’s face it anything that makes a law firm feel normal, dare I say human, is bound to surprise quite a few.
This isn’t easy.
The default position is to advertise. And if it works then keep with it, but just imagine your advertisement appearing alongside a major retail brand. Who would you pick assuming that that is the way someone will make their decision to buy.
What about TV advertising? Can you really compete?
Start talking to your clients about what they want. Ask them what they would find valuable. And deliver it.
If you do focus on earning attention then chances are you will start to see an increase in traffic to your website, more client instructions and a deeper engagement with your clients.
Making Sense of Twitter
Lifting the Social Media Veil (at last)
~ Julian Summerhayes ~