Motivation is the difference between all of the possible clients you could ever have and all of the clients who actually contact you. Too many marketing strategies focus on the firm or attorney and not the client and the client’s needs. To be truly effective in your marketing you must determine your client’s unmet need, understand why they are there, then motivate them to take action with your firm.

Motivation 101

Lets review the basic concepts of motivation so you can reconsider your message, tag line or approach with your clients. There are four basic drivers of motivation: affiliation, power or achievement, uniqueness, and self esteem. While this may seen elementary, consider the various definitions and completely different tactics you would use to support different motivation.

Motivated by Affiliation

A person who is motivated by affiliation needs to be in the company of other people. This is typically relevant to products that are consumed in groups and alleviate loneliness such as teams, sports, bars and social networking. So while you are probably not attempting to sell baseball caps where you could advertise a certain team, you could approach this concept thinking about the people who do not want to be left out. Provide visual cues to support the idea that your product or service is the thing to have or do. Appeal to the Fear of Missing Out.

Motivated by Power or Achievement

If your potential client is motivated by power or achievement they value personal accomplishment. They place a premium on products and services that signify success because these items provide feedback about the realization of their goals. This seems like an ideal concept for attorneys working with estate planning. In this case, your products or messages should provide evidence of their achievement.

Motivated by Uniqueness

The motivation for uniqueness is when a consumer feels the need to assert their individual identity. This is typically seen with products that accentuate a consumer’s distinctive qualities and gives them a feeling of not being the same as every other consumer. To support this motivation it is important that you display that you are uniquely able to solve their issue. The most obvious way would be to create unique visuals for an immediate initial impact so you do not have the same logo, website, and approach as every other attorney in your practice area.

Motivated by Self-esteem / Self-concept

Finally, the motivation of self-esteem and/or self-concept relates to the belief people have about themselves and their own attributes. People are motivated to do things to avoid embarrassment, failure or rejection. For example, if you are a criminal defense attorney you have two options with this motivation. You can highlight the shame and embarrassment that their crime could inflict, or you can  highlight the remedy to the situation (your services).

While these may be seemingly simplistic concepts they are critical starting points to any good marketing campaign. Understanding your potential client’s needs and the forces that drive people to consumption can be complicated. Tapping into motivation can lead to a better understanding of what drives your clients and a more targeted marketing approach.

(photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterjon/344323226/)

Get Your Clients Motivated is a post from the law firm marketing blog, Lawyerist.com

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