Kirkpatrick Creative has the great pleasure of working with a client who understands the need for market positioning, aka “branding”. With the myriad of decisions, plans, and strategies that have to be deployed, it is important to keep first things first. And your law firm’s projection as an approachable brand within its advertising should always come first.
Fred Caddell—attorney and partner in the law firm of Nolan, Caddell & Reynolds in Fort Smith and Rogers, Arkansas—gave me some advice about law firm branding many years ago:
“Dan, you have to be approachable.”
This short, straightforward mandate has proven to be true time and again for every law firm marketing client that partners with our agency. Our most successful clients are the ones whose advertising makes people feel comfortable.
Attorneys can’t so much as hint at being a “hotshot” lawyer in advertising. Because as soon as you’re perceived as a hotshot, you lose your connection with your audience. A hotshot lawyer is a lawyer who cares more about numbers than people. Remember, no one likes to be condescended to!
Your prospective clients are people, and people shop for a “real” lawyer—smart; dedicated; living and breathing client advocacy—they all want that guy. If they sense even the tiniest bit of arrogance in your presentation of yourself and your law firm, you’ve lost their business, no matter how heavily credentialed you might be.
The key concept to remember here is that it’s a big deal for your prospective client to pick up the phone, call your law firm, and ask for a consult with some attorney who has fifteen letters after their name. Most people have never spoken to a lawyer in a professional context before.
Contacting you is “a hill to climb” for your client prospect… which is where that A-word from Fred Caddell comes back into play…
IF and WHEN your client prospect musters the wherewithal to talk to an attorney, you must look and feel like an attorney with whom it is easy to talk! Your prospective client should never have to fear rejection or be made to feel stupid.
They need, and deserve, professional advocacy from you, but if you appear un-approachable, know that you are wasting precious advertising business capital — otherwise known as money — trying to reach them.
Here’s how Fred applies his own advice in his law firm advertising:
Fred wears a tie on television. A tie is a proper indicator of his identity as a partner in the largest and most capable firm in Western and Northwestern Arkansas. He is a prominent citizen in his part of the world.
But Fred is more than a tie. Fred is also rolled-up shirtsleeves and a blazer draped over his chair. He donates money, supports local charities and volunteers his time. He hunts and fishes in all the local spots. Fred loves where he lives, and the community he lives with, and it shows. You can talk to Fred—it doesn’t matter who you are!
Fred is approachable. It is the first and most important piece of his firm’s brand positioning. Approachability is the tenant upon which he has built his very successful career.
I have found this to be an ironclad, universal truth: People do business with people they like. So relax, smile. Talk to people as if they’re people instead of trying to impress them.
You’ll be shocked by how much of an impact approachability has on the growth of your caseload and the expansion your law firm’s brand.