Giant Flywheel
Any marketing or advertising program should have one goal in mind, bringing in more clients and revenue for the firm. However, I think some lawyers are getting confused about the difference between investing in advertising vs. investing in marketing for their firm. While both are important strategies, the approach, expectations, and the amount of time each takes to see results are different. Let me explain.
Perhaps I should start with my definition of each so that we are speaking the same language.
Marketing
I view a marketing plan as the entire system your law firm is implementing to get new clients. With a marketing plan, you are building equity in a brand and a presence that will continue to produce for your firm, month in and month out. This includes everything from your advertising dollars spent, your interaction with clients, your logo, your points of differentiation, referrals, and more. Your marketing will evolve, change, and grow over time.
Advertising
Advertising is a component of your marketing system. Advertising is more of an isolated campaign you are spending money on to get eyeballs and phone calls for your firm. You pay money to run ads where potential clients can find you. You get instant gratification because you get calls immediately (assuming the advertising is effective). Of course, once you stop paying, you no longer receive clients from these ads. Also, if you want more clients, it will cost you more money. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the way advertising works. As I mentioned earlier, this is one component of your marketing.
The Flywheel
A flywheel helps to stabilize something because it resists changes to it’s rotational speed. Think of your marketing like a giant flywheel. At first you can start rotating the flywheel, which is very heavy, at a very slow pace. You work really hard and invest time and effort into getting the flywheel rotating. Your returns aren’t fantastic at first, the flywheel is moving, but still somewhat slowly. At some point though, you hit a tipping point with the speed that the flywheel rotates. Now it is moving much faster and since it doesn’t change speeds easily, you exert less effort to keep it going fast. This is a great analogy for your firm’s investment in marketing. Although you must be patient as you build your marketing presence, once your marketing hits a tipping point, it begins to produce with less effort, time, and money. It works more reliably month in month out. It is a long term investment for your firm, but you must invest properly in your marketing and have the patience to get your “marketing flywheel” rotating.
If all you are doing is investing in your advertising, then you are not getting the flywheel moving very fast. When advertising costs increase or you can’t spend as much to advertise, your flywheel starts to slow down again and might even stop all together.
The larger point I wanted to make is that some lawyers say they want to invest in their online marketing, but in reality their expectations and patience level is more inline with someone expecting results from an advertising campaign. They want immediate and fantastic results without taking into consideration that it takes time to get the “marketing flywheel” going. They want a shortcut to getting it moving fast. However, the very definition of a flywheel is that it doesn’t change speeds quickly. There are no shortcuts to a solid marketing plan. It takes time, effort, resources, trial and error, and patience to do it properly.
Photo by kretyen
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