Market your law firm like Harley does.

In this MarketingProfs.com article, Sean D’Souza looks at how Harley-Davidson's Harley Owner's Group (HOG) has energized the brand. The community of Harley riders that is probably Harley's best salesforce cost Harley next to nothing.

In 1997, Harley Davidson spent just $1 million on advertising. Before you say, “Oh, I don’t have a million,” look at Harley’s advertising budget for 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992... all the way to 1984. Zero. A big fat zero. All their money, squillions of dollars, went into creating an absolutely top-notch product. And then creating a community that would buy into the brand.

You don't have to be a big company to build a community of your customers. The article gives the following example many law firms could implement:

Katrina runs a little dress store in a town that boasts of less than 15,000 residents. Business can be cutthroat, especially with the big mega-stores within small business gobbling distance. Yet, Katrina’s done a “Harley.” Every month, Katrina heads out for coffee. And she’s not alone. In the quaint little cafe down the road, there’s a hubbub of excitement. Katrina’s customers are having a whale of a time. They’re laughing, chatting and tucking into cheesecake—while Katrina picks up the tab month after month. Do you see the word advertising anywhere? Printing of glossy brochures? Hundreds of dollars spent on publicity? All it costs is $2.50 for a coffee. Per customer. Per month. That’s all it takes. And Katrina’s community builds one customer at a time. Customers bring friends, friends bring friends and the dresses fly out of Katrina’s dress store.

If you are going to build a customer community, you don't have to spend a lot of money, but you will have to spend some time. Institutionalize the event. Make it like Southwest Airline's chili cookoff. I am planning my new firm's first customer appreciation event -- an outing to a Minor League Baseball Game. My cost is about $10.00 per person, which will include transportation and tickets. My dad and I will BBQ before the game in my office parking lot and we'll all take a bus to the game. I will invite fifty or so clients (and ask them to bring their family members, friends, and business associates) and one will be able to throw out the first pitch. For the cost of one yellow pages ad, I hope to have 100+ people talking about what a fun time they had because of my firm. What is your firm's signature event?

Speaking of Southwest Airlines, David has this post up on ethicalEsq about a law firm with Southwest Airlines-like focus on employee hapiness.