Trying to rethink your firm’s marketing approach? Start with a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. A SWOT analysis will help you establish where your firm excels and where it falls behind. Strengths and weaknesses are internal, such as your intake staff, while opportunities and threats are external, like the economy.

When doing a SWOT analysis, it’s important to remember that it is from the perspective of the person doing the analysis. What an attorney sees as a weakness may differ from what a member of the intake staff finds to be a weakness. Here are some ways you can utilize a SWOT to increase your firm’s profitability.

Strengths

Strengths are just as they sound. Where does your firm stand out above the rest? Maybe you have 20+ years of legal experience or have paralegals that go above and beyond. These are all areas that you find your firm differs from others. You can use your strengths and incorporate them in any marketing campaigns.

If one of your firm’s strengths is your success rate and client satisfaction, request some up-to-date testimonials to use in your next marketing campaign or on your website. See if some past clients will also post a Google review to increase the likeliness of someone contacting your firm online.

Weaknesses

Weaknesses are areas your firm needs to improve upon. Once your weaknesses are identified, the goal is to ultimately turn them into strengths. Weaknesses can range from an outdated intake script or a lack of experienced staff. What is holding back your firm from growing? What aspect of your firm are you least likely to highlight when talking to someone else? For example, if a weakness is your intake staff, try creating a script for them. This is a simple fix that may help you sign more clients after they call your firm looking for legal help.

Opportunities

Opportunities are factors outside of your firm that may help motivate you to grow. Perhaps another local firm closed or you now have more revenue to expand your marketing budget. If you can’t think of any opportunities off the bat, ask where you’d like to see your firm in 5 years, and what you could do to get there? How do you usually generate leads, and is there more room for growth? What is happening in the industry outside of your firm? For example, if the SSA continues to increase its average Social Security disability payment, now may be a good time to invest in additional SSD lead sources.

Threats

Threats consist of external factors could negatively impact your firm. Has a local competing firm just expanded? Do the firms in your area have larger marketing budgets than you? Be aware of what is happening around you and what may negatively impact your business. When a threat is identified find away to counteract it.

If a threat is that a new, competing practice has opened nearby, identify how to not let if impact your business. Maybe you will need to increase your marketing efforts or increase your cases. PPC is particularly expensive for personal injury firms, so if new competitors enter your advertising space you may need to consider other marketing options.

Putting It All Together

Once you’ve completed your SWOT analysis, you should gain a better understanding of your firm’s strengths and areas for improvement. The next step is to now take what you’ve learned and devise a plan to sign more clients. Use your strengths to capitalize on opportunities and try improving your weaknesses to help eliminate threats.

Perhaps you found that one of your opportunities is that you want to increase your focus on Social Security disability and that one of your strengths is your top-notch intake staff. This strength can only help this opportunity become a reality. Similarly, you may find your weakness is your lack of marketing and a threat is a larger firm in your area. By increasing your marketing efforts, the larger firm may become less of a threat as your practice becomes more known.

If one opportunity for your firm is to increase your caseload, consider lead generation. Call us at 617.800.0089 to speak with a member of our team about our Social Security disability, personal injury, workers’ compensation and employment law leads.

Source: www.businessdictionary.com/article/632/using-swot-analysis-to-develop-a-marketing-strategy/