What Makes You Unique?

By Jordan Ostroff · Law firm coach

There Are 1,300,000 Lawyers and 400,000 Firms. Why Should Clients Choose You?

Am I unique?

For me, I know the answer is yes, often to my detriment.

But for you and your firm, are you?

And if so, how?

If you immediately answered both of those questions, awesome. You can skip the rest of this newsletter and congratulations. If not, read on.

Because here’s the thing. I think we all agree that we should be unique. But how do we figure that out? And how do we present that uniqueness in a way that attracts our ideal client?

That’s what we’re talking about today.

Remember, 1,300,000 lawyers and 400,000 firms. Why you?

Why Is a Niche Important?

When you have limited time, money, and energy to spend on marketing, a niche helps you use those resources wisely. Or at least not waste as much of them as I once did.

For my niche, what do you think I would be better off doing for marketing?

A. Buying a billboard on I-4
B. Presenting to the local teachers union on five things they need to know about their insurance policy
C. Running ads to the richest zip code in my county

It’s B.

Sort of duh. But also sort of only duh because we spelled it out.

So if you do real estate law, sponsor the Realtor convention. If you do ultra high net worth estate planning, don’t just run Google ads to everyone.

Having this carved out is key to so many decisions. But now let’s take it a step further.

How Does My Niche Make Me Unique?

This is where the magic happens.

Because it’s not just where you market or how you market. It’s what you offer and how you say it.

Using us as an example again, for a “normal” car accident client, what is their biggest concern?

Money. Specifically, showing it to them.

That’s why, if your state is anything like Florida, most lawyer billboards have a giant image of how much money someone got for their case and very small text saying something like “all case outcomes are different based on the facts and circumstances of each case.”

That makes billboards great for volume PI practices.

But for us, that’s not my client’s biggest need.

My client is usually concerned about everyone else in their life.

How do they get the kids to school?
If they miss work, can they still afford the family vacation?
Who is taking grandma to her doctor’s appointment next week?

So that means we:

• Train our staff on how to get a rental car and where to find coverage in the policy
• Have car brokers we can connect clients with so they can get a new car quickly
• Make sure our onboarding drips explain property damage claims
• Designed our systems for virtual consults long before Covid made it mandatory

Boom. That’s three things most firms don’t do, and one thing everyone should be doing by now.

How Else Can We Be Unique?

We repeat this same thought process everywhere our ideal client has a very specific need.

It also helps frame our brand and the language we use.

That blue collar professional probably isn’t just working for the weekend. They may appreciate that we have fun as a team and value team building.

Hopefully they’re around my age, which means they like attorneys who are approachable and not always in a suit and tie. Fingers crossed they also enjoy bad puns, hence our Florida Man Facebook stories.

And while the firm page doesn’t curse, it’s fine if I do on my personal page or privately.

Lawyer marketing disclaimer: all of this is genuine and authentic to me, my team, and the firm.

That’s the real key. Finding the overlap between who you really are and what your ideal client actually wants.

This applies to where you market, how you market, what you say, how you charge, and what you offer.

So How Do I Figure This Out for My Firm?

Here are a few options.

1. Hire us to do it for you. I won’t call this the easy way, but it’s probably the easiest way.
2. Spend the time figuring it out yourself. Download our free resources, follow our social media, email me questions, set team meetings.
3. Work backwards. Identify the clients you liked the most and pay them to answer questions. Covering lunch is usually enough. Ask what you did right, what you could do better, and what they wish you offered.
4. Ask around. If you don’t have clients you liked, which happens all the time, find other lawyers in different states with similar niches. Set up a Zoom, send an Uber Eats gift card or a bottle of their favorite drink, and pick their brain for 30 to 60 minutes. They don’t need to do the same work as you. They need to have the same ideal client.

At the end of the day, try it out.

Test a new marketing plan. Change who you network with. Track the results. Tweak your follow up and check-in emails and see if engagement improves.

Have follow-up questions? As always, reply to this email and it comes straight to me.

You have my unending support. And also my backing when they say something a little too smart for their own good and it cuts you to the core. Amirite?

Keep Reading

For more on translating what makes your firm different into a clear niche, read Carving Out Your Niche, or browse the Leadership & Mindset newsletter archive.