There’s an old saying in marketing: the riches are in the niches. Defining a clear niche for your legal services is not just about narrowing your focus; it's about sharpening your edge in a competitive market.

In this post, we’re going to show you how to use AI to quickly define your niche, the ideal clients for that niche, and the topics they’re most interested in.

Why Do You Need a Niche?

Clients often seek specialized knowledge that aligns with their unique challenges and needs. By carving out a specific niche, you can position your firm as the go-to expert in a particular area.

You can also tailor your services and marketing strategies with greater precision. This targeted approach means your messaging, content, and solutions will be highly relevant to a specific audience, increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion. Clients, particularly those facing complex, niche-specific issues, are more likely to choose a firm that demonstrates a deep understanding of their particular concerns, rather than a generalist that might not grasp the nuances of their situation.

Specializing in a niche also allows for more efficient use of resources. As you streamline your practice around a more concentrated set of issues, you’ll be able to develop expertise, systems and processes tailored to the specific needs of those specific clients. Additionally, a clear niche facilitates networking and referral opportunities within a specific community or industry, as other professionals are more likely to refer clients when they know exactly what your firm specializes in and can trust in your expertise.

So how do you define your niche?

Today’s tip: Use AI as a powerful shortcut for refining a niche and developing marketing content they’ll love!

The key to getting decent results from AI is to give it (the AI technology) a persona and a collection of information to support it, so it can create an answer that is specific to your needs. Once you get that answer, you can use it as your “first draft” to build something truly unique. 

Whether you’re looking for a little help building content for your website to build education for your niche, writing tailored emails to different segments, or creating social media posts that are optimized for engagement, this tool is one that once you know how to use it can be incredibly powerful.

Your Action Item: Quickly create a list of possible niches for your legal services using the following prompt with AI, adapted for your particular specialty. 

Below we’re sharing a series of prompts and responses (edited for length) so that you can see how to get started with AI. You’ll see how we set up the technology to pull out the best information and then expand on that information through continued conversation. 

Example: You’re a Wills & Estates Lawyer who wants more work from people with a family business. That’s a pretty broad niche. Here’s how you can use AI to help:

I gave this prompt: Acting as a world-class marketing coach, and understanding that I am a lawyer in a small firm that has a wills and estates practice, and I want to work with individuals who have family businesses and want to protect their family legacies for future generations, create 5 ideal target audience ideas for where I should focus my marketing to create more sales. I am specifically looking for the exact niche market I should search for, delivered back in bullet points.  To get started, ask me these 3 questions: what industry sectors do I perform best in? What size of family business should I target? And geography, where should I look for my ideal clients? Once you have the answers, please deliver back my ideal audience ideas in bullet-point form.

ChatGPT responded by asking me the 3 questions. I answered:

I have the most experience working with families that own farms and helping those families minimize the tax consequences of transferring farms and building generational wealth. I prefer to work with small family-run organizations with farms with revenues of over $500,000. I am located in central Alberta and am open to serving clients across the prairie provinces.

ChatGPT returned 5 possible target audience ideas:

Thank you for providing detailed insights into your expertise, preferences, and geographical focus. Based on your experience with farm-owning families, preference for small family-run organizations, and openness to serving clients across the prairie provinces, here are five ideal target audience ideas for your wills and estates practice:

1. Small to Medium-Sized Family Farms in the Prairie Provinces…
2. Agricultural Entrepreneurs in Transition….
3. Sustainable and Organic Farm Operators….
4. Agritourism and Value-Added Farm Businesses with Diversified Income…..
5. Agricultural Associations and Cooperative Members….

I liked the idea of family farms with diversified income, so I asked:

Provide me with 5 topics that family farms with diversified income streams (number 4 above) would be most interested in learning about, in terms of their estate planning.

ChatGPT returned 5 expanded topic suggestions:

For family farms with diversified income streams, such as those involved in agritourism or value-added products, there are several key topics that would be particularly relevant and beneficial in terms of estate planning. Here are five topics that would likely capture their interest:

1. Succession Planning for Diversified Farm Operations….
2. Tax Implications of Diversified Farm Income….
3. Asset Protection and Risk Management….
4. Estate Planning for Non-Farming Heirs….
5. Business Structure and Estate Planning….

Offering workshops, seminars, or consultations on these topics can help you connect with family farms that are navigating the complexities of estate planning for their diversified operations, providing them with valuable guidance and positioning yourself as a trusted advisor in this niche area.

I asked it for marketing channels and referral sources. It returned a list of possibilities for each.

I asked it for an outline for a webinar that would be of interest to families with non-farming heirs: 

Please provide me with an outline for a webinar that addresses the complexities of estate planning when some heirs are involved in the farm business while others are not, particularly in diversified operations where the business's value and operations may not be easily divisible.

It provided the outline.

In just a few minutes, ChatGPT helped me refine a niche, identify potential clients and the topics they’d be interested in learning about, and outline a webinar I could use to market my practice. With a few more prompts, I could have asked it to create outlines for articles or write social posts, quickly building out marketing content I could use to grow my business. 

AI output is never going to be perfect. You’ll need to do some fact-checking and editing. But it’s a great start and a huge time-saver. 

This is just one example of how you can harness the power of AI in your practice. Stay tuned for more AI-related tips in the weeks to come. In the meantime, if you have questions about how to find your niche and grow your audience book a free call with us. 

P.S. If you’re ready to amplify your work this year, don’t miss our upcoming webinar on March 13, Work in Your Power Zone! We’re going to teach you how to build workflows that unlock the potential of your law practice. Register here.