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Mediation Marketing Question & Workshop Debrief…
5 November 2006We had a great conference yesterday at the NJAPM (New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators) annual conference. It was the same day as the annual conference of the SCMA (Southern California Mediator Association).
I presented a marketing workshop in the afternoon which was a lot of fun — although a bit of a whirl wind as I tried to jam as much information as I could into an hour and ten minute session.
As always, we can learn so much from each other. I encourage people to really think about what it is they want to create and why. And then to be strategic and action oriented as they go forth to build something wonderful in the world.
The 7 Core Marketing Strategies that are expanded upon in the Mediation Biz & Marketing Success System Action Plan are relatively straight forward:
1. Speaking/Presenting
2. Writing
3. Networking
4. Internet
5. Referrals (word of mouth)
6. Direct Outreach/PR
7. Follow up and follow through
These are the means by which highly successful mediators build their practices.
Yet, before you begin marketing you must first be sure that you are confident in your service and have invested the time and hours into sitting in the mediator chair (or consultant or training) and worked toward creating Technical Mastery.
There really ought to be two camps of marketing within mediation marketing — those for mediators and consultant that work directly with the public or client (such as divorce, some family and some workplace disputes, government and other business to business situations). The other camp is mediating within the litigated case. The rules of the game are quite different in each camp. What works in one context will not necessarily work in another.
So, for example, when I generally say that advertisements don’t work, this may not necessarily apply to divorce mediators or people that work with businesses. Again, the art is in the application of the strategy.
Also, someone took issue yesterday with my comment that printed brochures are a waste of start up money. This mediator who worked out of New York worked within the insurance industry and he found that insurance companies and perhaps lawyers, asked him for a printed brochure they could keep. So, as we learned in law school, the right answer is often “it depends.”
While there may be general rules of application — every unique situation will have variables.
Which brings me to my next thought (which I think I’ll write about in another blog entry) — and that is testing your marketing. Ok, since we will leave that for another day…
Here’s a good question from a mediation marketer that is not living in a large city and is in an area where mediation has not been embraced by the business litigators in town:
“Where I live, mediation is used as a tool in divorce and custody cases. I want to do business mediation. How do I educate business owners as to the benefits of mediation? The president of our bar association stated at an ADR Committee meeting “Why would I mediate when I could make more money litigating?”, and working through the lawyers receives the same answer. Other than moving to a more forward-thinking area, what can I do?”
Fellow marketers, let our mediation marketer know your thoughts… I’ll post my thoughts in a subsequent post. Have any of you mediators had success in a smaller town like this?
We welcome your comments here!
NEVER GIVE UP!
Your partner in peace,
Kristina Haymes
Posted in Mediation Biz & Marketing Success System, Marketing Strategies, Practice Building Advice
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