What is Marketing Personalization?
Marketing Personalization is the process of creating communications tailored to your prospects based on their location in the client journey.
Not every prospective client knows how to solve their problem. It’s your job to explain with the right messaging not only how to solve their problem, but that there are services out there that solve the problem and you offer that exact service.
To do this, you’ll want to look in depth at your website analytics, your email marketing campaigns, and your social media marketing to determine if the messaging aligns with your prospect’s needs in that journey.
Let’s break this down into a simple analogy. You may know that you need a haircut, but knowing whether you should cut it yourself or hire someone to do it for you is a very different question than knowing you want to hire a stylist to cut your hair, but not knowing which stylist you should choose. This is where personalization can be extremely effective.
The Benefits of Marketing Personalization
Personalized Marketing makes it easier for your prospects to get the answers to their immediate questions and needs right away. And data supports that the more a prospect feels understood, the more likely he or she will trust you to help with his or her problem.
Remember that marketing is all about relationship building. And nearly half of all prospects will research their legal issue ahead of reaching out to the lawyer they are going to hire. This means having a clear plan around personalizing your marketing is important.
So the bottom line is this: A one-size fits all, cookie-cutter approach isn’t going to cut it with your clients, especially clients and prospective clients with niche needs that legal provides in abundance. You have to really dig deep and take personalized action.
Ok, that might sound scary, but it’s pretty easy, actually. To help you gain a better idea of what personalized marketing in legal looks like, check out these four examples:
Marketing Personalization for Your Law Firm Website
Conversion rates! We love to see those numbers climb, and a good way to move your prospective clients along their journey to your door is with personalization on your website. Creating personalized landing pages designed specifically for your specific target’s needs and use is an effective tactic. Using messaging and images that you know speak to your different prospective client bases, stressing their particular issues and delivering them a solution (spoiler alert: YOU are their solution) truly makes an impact and will help usher those prospects over to your client list.
Email Marketing Personalization for Lawyers
You know those impersonable, broadly reaching emails that go straight to your trash folder? Yeah, let’s talk about doing the exact opposite of that for your next email campaign. Remember those email segment lists we covered? Those are still relevant, and you should ALWAYS work with segmented lists when crafting marketing campaigns such as email. Sending targeted emails that include your prospective clients’ needs in business and sympathy for their unique situation shows them 1) you’ve really put in the work, and 2) you totally understand them… which is essential for converting your target audience to leads and clients.
Personalize Your Marketing Collateral
We know the hours and thought that go into creating the perfect firm collateral pieces you’re your firm overview and areas of practice. We also know that if you’re going to put that much time into something, you better do it right.
Instead of waiting until you get all those pretty pieces back from the printer and realizing right before a prospective client that your marketing collateral doesn’t really say what your prospect needs to hear, think through those prospects’ needs FIRST.
For instance, your international trade practice wouldn’t tout how incredible their export controls knowledge is to a prospective client that deals exclusively in imports, and your litigation group wouldn’t brag about their success in representing defendants in a wrongful termination suit when trying to win over a big in-house HR team. Not every client is the same, so not every piece of your marketing material should be the same.
Repurposed Marketing: Use What You Have
Again, this one is about being personal, and that often requires us to go out on a limb when courting prospective clients. Your practice group wrote a white paper that extremely topical to a prospective client’s needs? You’re speaking on a topic you know is important to one of your prospects? Reach out to the with that info. Not only are you showing them possible successful solutions to their problems, but you’re showing them that they are top of mind with you. You thought of them specifically.
A big mistake in legal marketing is thinking you have to come up with something new to tell prospective clients, but that’s not true. Dig deep into the archives of your social content, and find relevant material to share. Your firm’s newsletter from last year had a great article your prospect would appreciate? Send it!
Tailoring your content to your prospective client’s stage of awareness is personalizing your message to address not only how you solve problems, but that you have a solution and a service that can address the exact problem your prospect needs to resolve. This type of marketing is extremely powerful in helping your prospective clients understand what problems you solve, what services you offer, and why they should hire you over someone else. Keep up with us on social media to learn more about personalized marketing efforts, and reach out to your favorite digital marketing gurus for assistance with creating great client personas and tailored content that reaches them.
