Fear Of Bad Marketing Ideas
The Numbers
1. Time Magazine in their latest issue tells us: 60,746 – Number of people who took the law school admission test in October – the most ever and a 20% increase over October 2008.
2. 2008 stats on law students successfully passing the bar: ABA Approved law schools – 46,747 passed the bar first time, 6,439 passed on a repeat take. Total was 53,186 new lawyers entering the market for 2009.
In a down economy, many of the lawyers that couldn’t find jobs at existing firms are starting their own private practices. What this tells me is the importance of getting a sound marketing plan in place is more critical than ever before. An already competitive market is getting saturated with new lawyers. The firms that have a plan in place, are willing to try new methods, and invest time and resources into their marketing are going to thrive. Those that are tentative and unwilling to adapt will not.
Law Firm Marketing & The Fear Of Bad Ideas
One obstacle that many law firm’s face is the fear of making a mistake with their marketing. They are hesitant to try new ideas out of fear that it won’t work. One of the great thinkers on marketing, Seth Godin, wrote a terrific post on The Fear Of Bad Ideas:
A few people are afraid of good ideas, ideas that make a difference or contribute in some way. Good ideas bring change, that’s frightening.
But many people are petrified of bad ideas. Ideas that make us look stupid or waste time or money or create some sort of backlash.
The problem is that you can’t have good ideas unless you’re willing to generate a lot of bad ones.
Painters, musicians, entrepreneurs, writers, chiropractors, accountants–we all fail far more than we succeed. We fail at closing a sale or playing a note. We fail at an idea for a series of paintings or the theme for a trade show booth.
But we succeed far more often than people who have no ideas at all.
The point holds well for your firm’s marketing. You need to be open to try new ideas and trust that some will work and others will not. It’s important to be open to new opportunities, mediums, and avenues to market yourself. Following everyone else like a lemming will never help you stand out. It feels safe because you think to yourself, I won’t fail if I do what everyone else does. Perhaps you won’t fail, but you won’t reach new heights either.
Photo by AlmazUK
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