AS A SOLO YOU ARE DOING ALL THE TASKS SHOWN ABOVE. YOU ARE NOT MAKING ALL THE INCOME YOU WANT AND YOU ARE PUZZLED WHY YOUR MARKETING DOESN’T SEEM TO BE WORKING.
Read on. This might just be the answer.
You probably already know the elements of a good marketing plan. Most of it is broken down in the illustration above. Yes, you need to strategize your plan to access your target market. Wait, stop right there.
- Do you really know your target market or are you reaching people who don’t want nor need your services?
- Are you reaching too broad a market and are confusing the people you do reach because they have no use for your service?
- Have you “niched” your services so that your market is identified accurately.
Let’s use an example so you will begin to see what I mean.
You are budding Probate, Wills, Trust Solo Attorney. By the way, this is one of the most difficult areas to market because many people don’t want to think about their death let alone do something about it!
So your plan is to center your marketing around reaching people of a particular age group. That is to say older people. Maybe 60 to 80 years old. So you spend big bucks advertising in AARP literature because you feel you are reaching the right age range. STOP. WHAT WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE?
First, it costs a lot of your marketing budget and may preclude using those funds for more lucrative avenues of marketing.
Second, you will be reaching millions of people who already have a will or who feel they have no need of a will or any after death planning.
Third, you probably have no credibility with these readers…..YET.
If, however, you wrote a brilliant article and AARP published it, you will have at least made a small dent in your credibility gap and it didn’t cost you a dime. It will be the first step in building a ladder of dynamic branding and can go on your website and be a base for further speaking engagements directed to exactly the people who might hire you.
Now you need to question your first assumption also. Is the 60-80 the correct group to target? Maybe not. It is known that new parents of babies have the revelation that they need to provide for these little humans for a very long time. What if they when they still have parenting duties after they are gone? Don’t they need some long range planning to secure their wishes for their kids? These may be a group you have overlooked because you haven’t been thinking outside the box. How about a brilliant article in Parent Magazine?
Are you beginning to see why the simple area of identifying your target market (s) correctly is vitally important to your entire marketing plan.
If you’d like to discuss your approach to marketing with me, give me a call and we can connect. I’ll be writing several more blogs on this highly misunderstood area that solos foul up….so stay tuned.