Everyone knows Lady Gaga. She’s brilliant at marketing. Wearing a dress made of meat or having sparks shoot out of her chest: those are the kind of outrageous stunts that reach her buyers.
Lady Gaga may not know anything about plaintiff law, but many of her methods transfer very well to any business - including a plaintiff practice. Standing out in a crowded world is the ultimate goal. She’s an example for you if you have your own clients to attract.
She Runs a Very Successful Business
The first lesson from Lady Gaga is that she’s not just a performer. She runs a very successful business. She grossed $90 million in 2011 as both an artist and a company selling a brand of entertainment, promotion and performance. She has Haus of Gaga fashions and a company selling Glam lipstick, to name just two. Behind the wild shows is someone who cares about profit.
Are you building a business, or are you busy surviving?
Which trials or negotiations would you highlight if you wanted to show off and create your own greatest hits album of your work?
What would be the encore of a successful performance from you?
Do you ever get the chance to show off in front of big crowds of potential clients?
In Lady Gaga’s music, she knows who she’s writing to. Her glam rock sound is sprinkled with melodies simple enough that you’ll catch yourself singing them. Her lyrics speak to people who feel they don’t belong. Have you ever felt like an outsider yourself?
With marketing, you need to figure out the type of people you want as clients. Picking which people you like to represent is very different from deciding which services to promote.
Lady Gaga always offers something new. She knows that fans expect her to surprise them, so she’s always pushing for the next original idea. People can’t wait to see what she’ll wear next: what wild new costumes will she come up with? She’s worn a cage on her head, 11-inch heels, and a see-through dress made of bubbles.
What is new in your practice? Customers don’t care about what a business was 20 years ago: What matters is what the business is offering now. One example is Louisiana lawyer Chad Dudley. His personal-injury site has an Injury Law Legal News section updated nearly daily. Headlines have covered a JetBlue pilot found competent to stand trial, or a suit claiming 1-800-GET-THIN clinics endangered patients.
Natural Talent
Did she come out of the womb singing with a microphone in her hand? No, she developed her natural talent. She started playing piano at 4. She wrote her first song at 13. She was performing in public at 14. At 19 she formed a band in New York. She was invited to Lollapalooza at 21 and by 22 had her first hit album, The Fame. She’s made the most of her gifts.
Every lawyer is good at something. Ask yourself what you’re really talented at, and then expand that.
Which kind of cases have brought you the highest return? Railway accidents? Employment? Drug side effects?
Which legal skill are you the best at? Oral argument? Discovery? Negotiation?
Which kinds of marketing feel more natural to you? Networking? Seminars? Articles? Social media?
Make Them Your People
The next lesson to borrow from the pop star is that you can’t market to everyone: you have to choose a group of people and make them your people. Lady Gaga has built her name by focusing on one group: people who feel like outsiders, or ”little monsters” as she calls them. Her fans dress like her for her concerts because they adore her.
Chad Dudley also benefits from community involvement. He runs a Summer Blood Drive, an Autumn Alzheimer’s Walk, a Holiday Toy Drive and a Back to School Supplies event. Residents appreciated his activities, and his involvement has worked for him.
If you want free publicity to fill your waiting room, borrow this tactic that ambitious business owners have used for years: Pick up the phone and talk to the press. Don’t forget to return reporters’ calls when they start to call. Get to know the individual journalists.
Lady Gaga is number one on Twitter, with more than 24 million followers. She posts her tweets herself. She has over 46 million Facebook Likes. If your social media is smart, you can become your category’s Lady Gaga on Twitter or Facebook.
She also used the press: early on, she began to reach out to music bloggers to get press. That outreach is partly what led to her early success.
You don’t need a meat dress or a cage on your head to draw attention. Lady Gaga’s marketing approach has delivered. The singer doesn’t stand still: she’s always changing to keep the public interested. Now is the time for you to do the same, because when you see new clients start walking through the door, you’ll be glad you did.
About Delancey Street
Delancey Street is a premier, and award winning, business debt settlement company that helps business owners nationwide. Our goal is simple: help you escape debt in a safe and legal manner. Based out of New York, we can help in 49 of 50 states. We tell you how it is; because your business and future is on the line.
