Most lawyers who get into mediation or other ADR services don’t do it because they love to market their services, according to Diana Mercer, Esq. of Peace Talks Mediation Services, Inc. in Playa del Rey, CA. For many lawyers, marketing has a pejorative feel to it; marketing feels unprofessional for a professional service industry. Yet, because so much of the public is unfamiliar with the types of services that ADR practitioners offer, lawyer-mediators need to find an authentic, comfortable way to market their services and mediation programs.
For most of lawyers, it’s been a long journey since they resolved to become peacemakers. Once you open your office it doesn’t take long to learn that clients don’t magically appear. The question is how to make your commitment to peacemaking feel as authentic for your prospective clients as it is for yourselves. How can you design marketing plans that convey the benefits of mediation and your own sincerity in a way that is also designed to sell your services?
Developing your signature style and discovering your own identity as a mediator are the key elements to begin your marketing. After that, marketing falls into two categories, one of which works and one of which doesn’t:
- Spending lots of money (doesn’t work) and
- Spending lots of time (works really well).
Chronologically, you also divide your time into two categories:
- Finding new prospective clients and
- Making sure they become actual clients.
The trick is to be yourself while marketing and how to choose marketing techniques that will work for you and your practice. For your marketing to work...
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