Ten Basic Marketing Steps A Process Server Should Take to Become Successful

You can't serve court documents if you don't have them in your hand.  To that end, one of the first rules of business a process server has to learn is this.  If you don't have a job, then your job becomes finding a job.  More succinctly, you need to market your services.

Here are some very basic steps to take to get you moving, some of which require some capital while others require just a little of your time.

1.  Advertise in the classified section of the local bar association newsletter.

2.  Order some quality business cards and put them in the hands of every court clerk that will take them.  When someone comes into the courthouse to file a lawsuit, they may not already have a process server in mind, and if they ask the clerk, then your card is right there at their fingertips.

3.  Obtain from your local bar association the member mailing list.  This could or could not be a little pricey, but now you have the names and addresses of all the attorneys in town.  Start mailing postcards to those addresses by the hundreds.  Be patient with this, though.  On average it might take sending your postcard to the same attorneys up to five times before they finally contact you. 

4.  You need a website.  Even if it is nothing more than a very basic online brochure of your services, an online presence is critical in the 21st century.

5.  Social Media Networking.  This falls in line with your website.  You may not have a large budget for setting up and driving traffic to your website.  So, a good way to establish a web presence that may also drive traffic toward your website is through the various social media networks such as Facebook, Linked-In, MerchantCircle, and several others.  Make friends and connections anywhere and everywhere you can, but most especially with fellow process servers, private investigators, and attorneys.

6.  Become a member of an industry association.  Membership fees are generally inexpensive, but the networking possibilities for B2B exchange of work with other servers in other locations throughout the state and the nation are golden.

7.  Become a corporate member of a legal secretaries or paralegal's association.  These associations exist throughout the United States and are a perfect opportunity for you to interact one on one with your key client demographic - legal assistants/paralegals.

8.  Sponsor an event with the local bar association.  You'll get exposure as a vendor and you will be amazed at how inexpensive it is to be a sponsor of an event.

9.  If you already have a client or two (or three), nothing works better than word of mouth.  So, first thing, do a superior job for those clients.  Second, take your clients some goodies -- chocolate works very well with legal secretaries -- or take them to lunch.  Show a genuine interest in them, not just as a client, but as a friend.  Remember, you are building a relationship here that could, over the course of many years, develop into a sizable stream of income, as well as the many, many referrals to other potential clients that these one or two clients will provide where they tout your services for you.

10.  Door to door.  Difficult and sometimes daunting, this one does work, but it is truly a numbers game.  The key here is to know that most likely the law firm you are cold-calling or visiting probably already has a process server to whom they are quite loyal.  You're not there to attempt to take the business away from that process server, but to offer to be the "back-up" in case their guy is too busy, sick, or on vacation.