There is no question that business cards are the most popular marketing tools for lawyers in Kenya. At least, I have never met an established lawyer who having no business card failed to say something about forgetting to carry them that particular day!
Business cards are a very versatile marketing tool for business for all seasons. Whether one is starting out or is already an established lawyer or just left bar school, a business card is a must-have. When starting out the firm you need business cards to reach and introduce yourself and your practice to colleagues, potential clients and supplies. Established lawyers and law firm partners use business cards to gain new business and ensure their contacts remain a heartbeat away from their clients. Business cards are also a powerful tool for impressing potential employers if you are a young law graduate just starting out.
A business card helps market your business and skill sets to your target audience. Business cards are also what existing cards give out when the refer prospects to your practice. As such, the design of your business card is a matter of life and death. It speaks volumes about you, what you have to offer and how serious you are at it. Needless to say, it is time to shun laser-jet computer print-out if you are still using such stuff for business cards!
A lawyer's business card ought to be designed in sober colours. Law is a conservative profession and, thus, you are limited in the designs that you can explore for your business card. Given advertising restrictions placed on lawyers in Kenya, one must avoid writing all over card the firm's practice areas except as is necessary. In fact, sloganeering may give the client the impression that you are just out to make a kill and not to offer quality legal services.
Here are tips on how to exploit the powerful marketing potential of business cards for the good of your law firm business:
1. Never leave your office without them. Whether your are going to a client meeting, or the Law Society of Kenya Lunchion, a CLE Seminar, or just for some golf with your buddies on a Friday afternoon, make sure you have your business cards with you. You never know when the opportunity to network with your dream client will come. Keep some cards in your card bonnet, your business folder, you carry home folder and at the office desk. Those cards come in hardy, for instance, when you forget your wallet home. Also, carry some business cards home and everywhere you are likely to meet people you may need to network with.
2. Observe proper business card etiquette. We all know the effects of having your card as the one to be handed out by ambulance chasers. Please avoid the obsession to just hand out the card. The point is to use the card to as an icing to a networking experience. It is advisable you first strike a conversation with the person you target to give a business card. Follow religiously the networking drill about getting to know what the person does and how you can be of help to him before you hand him your card!
3. Make the exchange of cards memorable. Whenever you give anyone your business card, ask for their card in return. Once you get the other person's card, take the opportunity to charm the person. For instance, you may look at the card for some seconds and make comments about the design of it. In alternative, you could comment about something you already know about the person or you have in common. The more sincere the comments, the better! Such comments help as memory refreshers when you decide to follow up on the person. Also, they help demonstrate your interest in the other person.
4. Be generous with your business cards. It is true business cards are a business expense. However, try and give them out to everyone who asks for them. Give your business cards even to family members and friends just in case they need to refer someone to you. When someone asks you for more than one card, just give them. You never know, sometimes all they want to do is refer your services to others.
5. Maximize all those accidental meeting. It is not all the time you meet your prospective clients when you expected to meet with them. Sometimes you meet your target clients in the streets while in the company of a friend who knows them and you get introduced. Take that time and hand out your card with a smile. Make a mention of your pleasure at meeting the person and how you would welcome an opportunity to get to know them better. I know the importance of this because as a research lawyer, I meet lawyers everywhere. I always make a point of making a lasting impression by handing out my card. You can imagine how effective the card will be when you have generously been introduced to the prospect.
6. Be at the right place at the right time. Effectively using business cards as a marketing tool is not rocket science. All you need to do is find the best place, occasion or event to meet and network with your target clients. Don't miss out opportunities to network and hand out your business cards. Your right place may be the professional forum that you have been invited or the charity dinner or even a church meeting. Just make sure you don't miss out and you are there at the right time. One of my clients has made it a habit to get to events the earliest. That affords him the opportunity to pitch his tent in a strategic place where the other attendees will find it difficult to avoid interacting with him. Needless to say, he uses those interactions to hand out his business cards. You may also consider soliciting a list of expected participants to a networking event earlier in advance to glean out the persons you wish to network and hand your business card to earlier in advance.
7. Follow up immediately. Whenever you exchange cards with a prospective client, make an effort to follow up immediately. For instance, if from the conversation with the person you gathered that s/he needs some information which is in your possession or available to you, send it out to him/her at the earliest opportunity. That way, you set the ball rolling in forging a give and take relationship that eventually increases your chances at further interaction and eventual client-lawyer relationship. But whatever you do, do not call the next day to 'sell' your services to the prospect! Rather, focus on building a relationship and do it even when you don't expect much in return.
8. Consider Business Cards as a part of wide-variety marketing effort. Business cards alone cannot sustain your law firm's business development needs. The best strategy is to use the business cards to supplement other marketing, publicity and business development efforts. For instance, your business cards will be a more effective marketing tool when handed out after you make a presentation in a seminar. Similarly, if you are a legal columnist in the local daily, more prospects will feel the need to ask for and obtain your business card.
Here is my last word about business cards as a marketing tool for lawyers: make sure your business card looks professional. Include your law firm's name, your name and the abbreviations of your qualifications, your office physical address, contact details and your website. Please leave out the slogan; they make you sound like a salesperson rather than a professional. Instead of listing your practice areas in the business card, make a point of mentioning your specialization every time you hand out your card to a new prospect. Also, consider leaving out your cell phone number from the business card. This could afford you the opportunity to make the recipient of your card feel important when you write down the number in the card before handing it over.
