Ten Points Experts Should Consider in Marketing Themselves
The start of a new year is one of the best times to review your marketing plan and to ensure that you are effectively presenting yourself to potential clients that will yield results for the rest of year. To assist you with this process, we’ve put together a list of ten simple pointers that could enhance your overall presentation. Seasoned experts will find these tips to be mere reminders but for new expert witnesses, we hope that this will start you off on the right track.
1. Effectively communicate your qualifications
Attorneys hire you based on your qualifications and experience and in most cases, the more of it, the better. Therefore, make it easy for them to quickly tell how much experience you have without having them do the math.
Consider summarizing the number of years you have been in your profession or have worked as an expert, number of cases in which you have been retained, percentage of plaintiff to defense cases, number of times you have testified in deposition or court, licenses or teaching credentials that you hold. Provide clear, concise statements of your expertise. Make your CV readily available to potential clients through multiple mediums such as fax, mail, email and through your website (if applicable). Always ensure that all information is up to date.
2. Distinguish yourself
In certain disciplines, there can be a fair amount of competition between expert witnesses. Think about how you can stand out from other experts by focusing on the finer details. Do you have extensive expertise within certain facets of your discipline? Have you completed research or written articles on certain subjects? Do you speak other languages? Have you worked on unique cases? Consider making these pieces of information available in your marketing material.
3. Provide references
Always have professional references ready. These can be in the form of a list of clients with whom you have had a good working relationship with, letters of recommendation and testimonials. As much as possible, try to include names of attorneys whose cases you have testified well on. This will tell your potential client that you have experience testifying in court. Be sure to provide current information for all references, especially their phone numbers and/or email addresses.
4. Brand yourself
Include your logo or photograph in your marketing materials. A photograph helps put a face to your name and helps your potential client to visualize you as an expert providing testimony, so invest in a quality portrait of yourself.
5. Make it easy for clients to reach you
Ensure that you include all pertinent contact information in all marketing literature including cell numbers and alternate office locations (if applicable), email address and/or website.
6. Think about your travel rates
Consider making your travel rates negotiable on a case-by case-basis. Some attorneys hire an expert based solely on their location especially if their case is a small one or if there are many similarly qualified experts in that particular discipline. Providing a discount on travel rates could land you a case over another expert who does not give breaks on their travel rate.
7. Create a web presence
In this day and age, having a website or webpage is an extemely useful tool in getting your name out there. Consider creating a simple yet attractive site or page to publish your CV, case summaries, references and other information. A voice or video file helps personalize your web presence. Many online expert witness directories, including Calif-legal.com, provides these publishing tools to experts with the purchase of an affordable annual listing.
8. Networking
Join expert witness organizations or professional organizations. Get to know other experts. There are times where experts will refer one another to attorneys with whom they are working with, as cases sometimes call for experts in more than one discipline. Consider using networking tools on the internet. Some popular sites include linkedin.com and ecademy.com which are geared towards business networking more than social networking.
9. Scope of marketing
Do you take cases nationwide or only in specific states? Think about how to better target the geographic regions in which you qualify as an expert or accept cases. For instance, California construction experts are often retained by firms in Nevada due to the smaller number of qualified or specialized construction experts that actually reside in Nevada. Do some research to find out if someone with your area of expertise would be well received by attorneys in a different state due to demand.
10. Cost of marketing
Consider putting together an annual budget for marketing yourself. As there are so many channels of marketing, try to allocate your dollars to span various forms such as print advertising, direct mail and online marketing through expert witness directories or search engine submissions.
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