LMA works with clients to create an effective strategic marketing plan and helps them put it into action. Properly executed, it will help you build brand awareness, trust, and credibility; improve conversion rates; and skyrocket your ROI. When the plan properly matches your firm’s abilities with the market’s wants and needs, the sky’s the limit.
All these benefits (and more) are possible thanks to personalization. While a marketing plan is a high-altitude look at where you are, where you want to be, and how to get there, personalization will grease the gears of your growth machine.
What is Personalization?
Personalization in marketing refers to the process of creating relevant, individualized interaction based on the information your firm learns about its consumers. The actions based on this information have a lot of potential, because clients expect a unique customer experience based on their own desires. According to recent customer analysis:
- 80% of consumers said they are more likely to make a purchase when businesses provide a personalized experience.
- 91% said they are more likely to do business with companies that remember, recognize, and provide them with relevant recommendations and offers.
Why Does Personalization Work?
To put things into perspective, think back to when you went to a business and they called you by name or remembered your accomplishments or preferences. It feels nice to be recognized! Being treated well, treated like an individual – not just another face in the crowd – inspires positive feelings and loyalty, which connect you to a business.
You want to reward those who treat you well, so you tell your friends about this business. You come back again and again. Your current and potential clients are no different. Your firm should work toward a more personalized customer experience.
Where to Start?
Know your potential clients better and communicate on issues that concern them.
Here are some ideas to get the process started.
1. Market segmentation
Most firms start with a buyer persona, a profile of a potential client the firm wants to serve. In it, you can include information like demographics and interests. This is a great starting point, but you can take it up another level with segmentation.
Segmentation is the process of using data to re-organize broad customer personas based on shared characteristics. For example, you can divide audiences in line with their different habits or their level of interaction with your firm. Let’s look at a real case scenario.
Let’s say Bob and Linda are both interested in your family law firm. Linda is going through major life changes, including the possibility of filing for a no-fault divorce or legal separation. She is searching the web for questions like, “What are the legal grounds for a divorce?” or “What’s the cost of divorce, and how long does it take?”
Bob is already in the divorce process but is looking for more information on property and business division. He searches the web for questions like, “My ex-partner and I own a business together. Do we need an outside expert to evaluate its worth?”
Bob and Linda are interested in the services of a family law firm, but they have different wants and needs.
- Linda is at the initial stages of gaining awareness and gathering information. She is comparing and contrasting your firm with other firms.
- Bob is aware there’s a problem and needs more specific actionable steps. He is perhaps checking more specialized pages on your website.
To start creating a killer personalized strategy that meets the desires of users like Bob and Linda, take a step back to analyze and organize your existing customer data. You can start by dividing audiences according to the four different types of market segmentation.
2. Demographic segmentation: (Focuses on the who)
This is the most straightforward segmentation. It classifies the audience by age, gender, income, level of education, profession, etc.
- Psychographic segmentation: (Focuses on the why) Segmenting different personalities and interests. You can define the audience by hobbies, personality traits, values, beliefs, and lifestyles.
- Geographic segmentation: (Focuses on the where) This includes grouping people according to their location (county, cities, regions, etc.).
- Behavioral segmentation: (Focuses on the how)Gather this data through your website analytics and additional marketing channels. Check for the customers’ spending habits, click behavior, browsing habits, level of loyalty to your firm, and any other ratings/reviews they’ve left. You can learn their time spent on your site, pages visited, referral source, exit intent, and the number of sessions.
3. Craft tailored messages with your content
After learning more about prospects through segmenting, use that information to create content that effectively targets all the audiences you seek with tailored messaging. There are many ways to perfect your content, but we’ll focus on a website and email strategy because these two channels are some of the top ways you can control your voice to capture and nurture different kinds of leads.
- Converting CTAs: Adding calls to action in the first person enhances the user’s perspective rather than the business’s perspective. Plus, first-person CTAs have a 90% better conversion rate! Make sure to add words like “me, my, I, you.” Make it all about the client.
- Add content recommendations according to their interests: Use your existing data to show content that most likely interests them. Since Linda is at the early awareness stage, you can offer more content about what divorce entails, the process, basic legal issues, etc. Bob’s at a different stage, so he could be directed to blog posts, web page content, or a video that details how property/business division works. He should be invited to consult with your experts.
- Personalize emails and landing pages: Think of your website landing pages and emails as the red carpet you roll out for clients. Once you segment the audience, you can create different landing pages according to their needs. You could also create an email series and landing pages in line with past behavior on your site, geo-location, and any other segmentation. There’s no single approach for this. Just remain flexible and test different versions to get the best response possible (A/B testing). The possibilities are endless!
- Timing your content: Be there “at the right place, at the right time.” People are more likely to engage with your emails and other content on some days and times than others. According to email marketing data: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays have a higher open rate. As for the timing, the middle of the day works best. However, feel free to test other days and times. Just like emails and landing pages, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s a matter of A/B testing to find what works best.
- Set up trigger emails: Trigger emails, also known as behavioral or transactional emails, are automatically sent when an event occurs or a website visitor takes a certain action (like signing up for a seminar or filling out an online form).Trigger emails have a 152% higher open rate compared to traditional emails.
4. Add relevancy
Potential clients have plenty of options to pick from. How many other law firms in your area perform similar services? These prospects, if they’re smart, are looking for an attorney they can trust, who’s the best fit for them and the help they need. They’re not looking for the cheapest option. (If they are, you don’t want them as clients)Show you’re the best choice by tapping into what your prospects are truly after. Relevancy helps you communicate how well your practice fits their wants and needs.
Besides seeking the best option, clients want to feel respected, seen, and heard. Today, they are more inclined to try many brands and services and stick to a brand if and only if their needs are constantly met. Harvard Business Review points out that businesses shouldn’t focus on a customer archetype (a buyer persona) but rather segment audiences to meet them at the right place, at the right time.
Due to the immense control and choice clients have over their purchasing journey today, Harvard Business Review suggests businesses meet the different buyers through Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
- Purpose: Clients feel your firm shares and advances their values.
- Pride: They feel inspired to use your services.
- Partnership: They relate to you, and they can work well with your team.
- Protection:Make consumers feel secure when they do business with you.
- Personalization: Clients think your services are constantly tailored to meet their needs.
Build an Ongoing Relationship by Making Your Firm’s Communications and Your Services More Personalized
Adding personalization to your communications and approach to your clients will help you stay relevant and reach more prospects. It can also move you to a more client-focused mindset.
Although we have shared here some top action steps toward personalization, it requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach. If you want to learn about how your firm can offer personalized content, communications, and services that’ll recharge your clients’ experience and connect more calls and cases, let’s talk. Just as you offer personalized services to your clients, we need to know more so LMA can personalize our services to you.