Why the “List” is the Most Important Asset of Your Business

If you listen to conversations lawyers have with their colleagues, you'll hear most of them asking, "How can I get more cases?"  You've probably asked that same question.

But, that question misses the point.  To get the next case, you must deliver a message to the right person (injured) at the right time (after being injured but before hiring a lawyer).  Thousands of advertising dollars are wasted because most of the people who read your ad are not the right person at the right time.

The question that should be asked is, "How do I build my list?"  Your goal is to attract people to you, people who know you have something interesting and valuable to give to them so that you are the only person they think about when they need a lawyer and who will tell others about you.  Your marketing dollars will be used much more effectively when you enable an entire group of people - your raving fans - to act on your behalf to reach the right person at the right time.  Plus, your "list" is giving your "permission" for you to send your marketing message to them.

People list their "most trusted" to "least trusted" sources of information this way:

1. Husband/Wife/Partner                             5.Retailers
2. Friends                                                      6.Manufacturers
3. Work Colleagues                                       7.Government
4. TV News                                                   8. Advertising

 

You want people at the top of the trusted list to be in your list.  Aside from your family and friends and close community contacts, building the rest of the last takes some thinking and planning.  You first have to figure out how to spend your marketing money the right way to get the contact, and then you must do whatever you can to keep that contact within your sphere of influence.

 

-         Ben Glass