Doing a New Marketing Program

Last week, one of my former Solutions Forum members came back to talk to one of my groups about how his marketing program for his Law Tigers (maybe you’ve seen his ads) in the years since we reviewed and validated what he thought was going on in the launch and shortly thereafter. There were several lessons to be learned:
1. Patience! The more the idea departs from industry norms (his was the first firm to try to differentiate injury law from standard personal injury law), the longer it may take to be accepted. It’s now been nine years since he first launched, and it took a while before the idea of franchising the concept caught on.
2. In his case, understand what you’re franchising: in his case, a method of isolating motocycle injury cases that can be successfully prosecuted (and a central evaluation facility), ad methods that work and other metrics to illustrate how the practice is doing.
3. Developing a sense of trust among the injured that the firm is going to take care of them through their legal process. Trust for lawyers among injured, even if they’re clients, isn’t automatic.
4. Trust among the franchisees that each franchisee isn’t out just to feather his/her own nest, but will help in multistate cases.
5. Development of marketing methods, beyond the original TV and motorcycle events. Dealers now request a presence, which led to Point of Sale tents and keychain cards. Web site marketing is important, and social media marketing is beginning to be important.
6. The Law Tigers were the first differentiated personal injury law firm, and their first mover advantage has held up because of continuous innovation in marketing methods. Name recognition is now very high in their segment.
7. Because of the expense in starting a region, the franchise isn’t for the faint of heart without big checkbooks. Underfunded franchisees have failed.
So, the takeaways are be patient, be prepared to spend more on launch than expected, and don’t look for overnight success.