How to Get Even with a Lawyer
Who do you hate more, politicians or lawyers?
My vote goes to lawyers and it’s not even close.
And who are the worst lawyers? It’s gotta be those annoying charlatans on billboards, preying on the poor and vulnerable by marketing their services to sue anyone.
Why am I starting this post posing this question? Because a brilliant marketing ploy was just executed by an Alabama real estate agent where he mocked those annoying lawyer billboards and grew his business (without spending much money).
You gotta hear this one.
If you’ve ever driven a car around the South, you surely have seen hundreds, if not thousands of billboards for plaintiff’s attorney Alexander Shunnarah.
Marketers can tell you billboards are dead, but clearly it’s a successful strategy for this ego-maniac lawyer. I’m completely guessing here but I bet this guy spends $500k per month on billboards. It’s annoying, sure – but it’s his brand. And it works for him.
Now, let me introduce you to Matt Curtis. He’s the Huntsville-based real estate agent who decided to spend a little marketing money on ONE billboard, copy the exact brand of Shunnarah — and then use digital marketing to laugh, mock and showcase his idea. Click here to see it.
Brilliant.
This is what best-selling author and entrepreneur, David Meerman Scott, calls “NewsJacking”(download a copy of David’s book on Newsjacking here and access his other FREE resources here).
I’m sure David would even say that Matt executed this “Newsjacking” to perfection by being timely, saving money (on marketing design), and earning thousands of dollars in free advertising around his business.
Here are a few thoughts on how you can use “Newsjacking” in your marketing:
- Steal Matt’s idea and create your own billboard. Why not?! You can do the same thing with your business by identifying the annoying lawyer/law firm billboard in your community — and duplicate it.
- Draw attention. Post what you did and why you did it on social media and even consider spending some money to promote it. Remember, for this to resonate the same way, you have to be funny — just make sure it’s natural. If you’re feeling really lazy, you could repurpose Matt’s plan (but be sure to give him credit for the brilliant idea).
- Create some buzz. Alert the media in your community about your story/idea. Email, call and pound local, state news organizations (traditional and digital) and even regional magazine outlets with the story.
Bottom line: How can you not love an opportunity to have fun with your marketing AND grow your business at the same time? It’s every entrepreneur’s dream.
Phillip
PS — Do you want to grow your market share with voters, clients, or customers? Focus on the 3 R’s: Reputation, relationships, and referrals. It’s how we win in politics, it’s led to massive growth for our marketing clients and it’s how I 10x’d my company in less than 4 years. The boys from The Art of Charm Podcast and I discuss how it works with some amazingly easy examples: Listen to the episode.
PPS — If you know of anyone that will enjoy these types of writings, have them subscribe at PhillipStutts.com or just email me at ps@phillipstutts.com and I’ll add them to the list.
