Emotional Marketing
One thing we always need to keep in mind is that as a general rule people make decisions with their guts more than with their heads, i.e. how they FEEL about something makes a huge difference. As humans, our tendency is to use logic to justify the decision that feels right.
As a lawyer I have learned that even judges and juries make decisions as much based on how they feel about a case as on cold legal logic. When I was in law school, we had to read many, many court decisions on all kinds of issues. One of the things I noticed in those decisions was that it seemed to make a big difference how sympathetic the parties where. If the case involved little old lady versus big corporation, little old lady would tend to win. If the parties were reversed, the legal principle might well be decided the other way around.
Therefore effective marketing needs to appeal to people’s emotions. If we made our car buying decisions on a purely rational basis, there would be about 5 choices out there. Maybe a one person vehicle, a basic sedan, a van for larger families, a small truck, and a large truck. The fact is, when we go car shopping, we are evaluating a number of emotionally based factors – color, image, sportiness, etc. Many SUV’s are purchased by people that never intend to go off road, high performance cars by people who always drive the speed limit, and pickups by people who have very little need to haul anything.
If you want to grow your Collaborative practice, your message about it has to RESONATE with your potential clients. Dry facts about how the process operates is not going to do that. You need to think about what the biggest fears of your potential clients are. Are they afraid of the pain of divorce, of uncertainly about their future, of losing connection with their children? Your message should help them understand how your services and the Collaborative process are going to HELP THEM FEEL BETTER. If a potential client understands how you can lessen their pain and help them find a solution that meet their needs, then they will want to get in to see you as soon as possible.