How to Create a Divorce Marketing Campaign Strategy

When auditing divorce and family law firms’ marketing campaigns, we regularly return with questions of why. Why are you targeting certain individuals while not excluding others? Why aren’t you presenting an offer or value proposition in your ad copy? Why are you advertising on a specific platform?

 We don’t ask these to be intrusive, it is because a well-thought-out marketing campaign strategy is required to have a positive return on investment. In our experience, following the core fundamentals of marketing remains the best strategy to developing a highly successful marketing campaign. That is where our name Cardinal Concepts is from in fact.

Anyone who took a Marketing 101 class is likely familiar with the M’s of Marketing which is a great structure to follow. There are many varieties from the three M’s up to seven which is why we’ve made our own adaptation. With this framework, we actually start at the end goal.

Start With the Mission

Understanding the business mission or end result must be the starting point as this will be the primary KPI (key performance indicator) of your campaign. The campaign mission can be things like client acquisition, consultations scheduled, webform submissions, calls, video views, engagement, and impressions.

While law firms can find value in marketing campaigns that drive awareness it is our recommendation to focus on campaigns that have a more direct correlation to revenue to start.

Defining Your Target Market

Putting your advertising in front of your ideal customer is key which is why creating a well-defined target market is one of the most critical steps in your campaign creation. A target market is a segment of people defined by geographic, demographic, sociographic, and behavioral traits.

At Cardinal Concepts, we take a sniper approach by creating the smallest viable audience. What is the smallest viable audience? This term was coined by Seth Godin as the smallest group that could possibly sustain your work.

Here’s an example of how this works. If you are a family law attorney looking to acquire child custody cases, you might say parents in the state you’re administered to practice are an appropriate audience.  Instead, take it much further to create the smallest viable audience. Let’s assume your average custody case requires a $5,000 retainer so you can specifically target household incomes in the top 50%. Beyond your state or even city targeting, you can focus on geographic pockets of wealth such as specific neighborhoods. Next, instead of targeting men and women, you can speak to a specific parent, the father or mother, about the different challenges they face in a custody case. From there you can narrow even further with behavioral information. You can quickly see how you can go from a broad audience to a highly targeted, smallest viable audience.

Crafting a Compelling Message

When writing ad copy, it is important to have a compelling message that resonates with the consumer. With this smallest viable audience in mind, you are able to more closely address their specific needs and provide the solution to their problems.

If you’re not a copy writer and struggle to come up with creative that engages prospects, try using one of these formulas.

PAS: Problem, Agitate, Solution

• Problem: Provide a problem you know your readers have
• Agitate: Use emotion to agitate the problem, making it seem worse
• Solution: Offer the reader a solution to the problem

AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

• Attention: Getting your reader’s attention
• Interest: Generate interest and curiosity
• Desire: Provide something they desire the most
• Action: Get them to take action

It is important to keep in mind that you are not the only law firm advertising. Differentiating your firm, brand, and messaging is necessary to stand out in the crowded media space.

Selecting the Best Media Outlet

Where you place your advertising is the next decision to make. While Google and Facebook dominate the digital space, they are not the only options. When evaluating your options, you want to select that platform that best supports your mission and form of advertisement. You will also need to research which media platform gives you the greatest ability to deliver your message to your market.

While it may seem best to spread your ads across as many platforms as possible, that will not result in the most cost-effective use of your advertising budget.

Making the Most of Your Money

Your money is hard-earned so don’t waste it. When it comes to a new advertising campaign, we suggest to start small, analyze initial results, optimize, and scale up. From there you can eventually reach a point of market domination making it much more difficult for your competition to enter the space.

Before spending a dollar, you will need an understanding of some basic metrics. Take your average case value and subtract your overhead costs to determine what your profitability is per case and ultimately your break-even. This is what allows you to perform informed tests to reach scale.

Measurement of Your Mission

It now comes full circle where you go back to your mission and primary KPI to evaluate your performance. Pairing the final result with profitability will inform you if you have a successful marketing campaign on your hands.

A lot of thought and work goes into a successful divorce marketing campaign. If you would like to discuss strategy and execution, schedule a free strategy session with CEO David Crum, Esq. and the Cardinal Concepts team of legal marketers.