Archives for March 2013

Increase your income: offer a premium version of your legal services

March 29, 2013 by
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A simple way to increase your income without increasing your fees is to offer a premium version of your legal services.

If your basic service is $2500, you might offer a deluxe package for $2950 which allows clients to get additional services they will probably need down the line. They can get everything taken care of all at once and save a few bucks.

What options, extras, or “nice to have” additional services could you offer to new clients? The best time to present these extras is at the initial engagement when they are in a buying mood. They see that it’s “only a few hundred dollars more” and it’s an easier decision than if you went back to them later.

Having a deluxe version also allows you to offer prospective clients a choice between the two versions, which is better than offering them a choice between hiring you or not. No matter which version they choose, you have a new client.

You can create a deluxe version of your services by adding something to what you ordinarily do. Or, you can leave out something you ordinarily do and call that your basic package. So, if you ordinarily do A, B, C, and D, your basic package would now be A, B, and C and your deluxe package would include everything.

You could also create a deluxe package by including services from another lawyer. For example, your basic version may be a business start up package and your deluxe package might include an employee manual produced by an employment lawyer. If you are an estate planning lawyer, your deluxe package might include a mini-plan from a financial planner you work with.

A deluxe package doesn’t necessarily have to include additional services, however. It might be a higher level of service–quicker turnaround or priority handling, for example.

Offering a premium version of your services is a simple way to increase your income. Even if only a small percentage of clients opt for it, you come out ahead.

The Attorney Marketing Formula: The 6 Keys to Higher Income. Click here to learn more.

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Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Increase your income, Marketing legal services

How to find ideas for blog posts

March 28, 2013 by
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If you would like to know how to find ideas for blog posts, I’ve got an easy one for you.

Go to Google and type in a question related to your legal services. Before you complete the sentence, Google’s autocomplete mechanism (assuming you have it enabled) will provide you with a list of possible searches based on what you have written so far.

I did just that by entering in, “What is the difference between a will” and as you can see in the graphic below, Google gave me several options for completing my search request, to wit, “What is the difference between a will and a trust,” “What is the difference between a will and a living will,” “What is the difference between a will and estate planning,” and so on, based on what other people have searched for in the past.

How to find ideas for blog posts

Armed with this information, you can write a blog post that answers the very questions your prospective clients are searching for. Use one of these search phrases as the title of your article and you will increase your chances of being found in subsequent searches.

You can use the other search queries as key word phrases in your post, or write other articles with these titles.

This can help you find “long tail” search terms, meaning longer, more specific search phrases you can use instead of the more common, shorter and highly competitive phrases.

For example, you would have a hard time getting found by targeting the search term, “slip and fall.” There are too many lawyers competing for that phrase, in both generic search and in Adwords. But type in “slip and fall” into Google and you will find another suggestion: “slip and fall statute of limitations california”. Make that the title of your article (or bid on this term in Adwords) and you should have very little competition.

I used Google to generate the title of this post. I typed in, “How to find ideas for” and it suggested, “How to find ideas for blog posts,” and not “newsletter,” “ezine,” or “articles.”

Prospective clients are looking for information. Now you know an easy way to find out what they want to know so you can give it to them.

The law is complicated. Marketing is simple.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Presentations, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Pros and cons of starting a law practice

March 27, 2013 by
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I was reading some statistics about the failure rate of small businesses. The numbers are brutal. 50% fail in their first year. 95% are out of business within five years.

It got me thinking about the survival rate for a new law practice. I don’t know what the actual numbers are but it wouldn’t surprise me if you told me that 95% are still going after five years.

Then I got to thinking about why. What is it about the business model of a small law practice that allows for such a high survival rate compared to other small businesses?

If you’re thinking about starting a law practice, here are the pros and cons I came up with:

THE PROS

  • Lower start up costs. You have rent deposits, furniture and computers (which can be financed), but no inventory or expensive equipment, and you can start without any employees.
  • Lower overhead. Your biggest fixed costs are rent and insurance. As you grow, you can hire employees or outsource, unlike a restaurant which cannot operate without employees.
  • Lower marketing costs. You need a web site. You can bring in business by networking. You don’t need to advertise.
  • Higher margins. You don’t sell a $10 product, you sell a $5,000 product. You can break even with just one or two new clients a month.
  • Steady work (business clients). Business clients tend to have ongoing legal needs. (But see below.)

THE CONS

  • Limited time. There are only so many hours in a day available for you to produce work product. If you have employees, you must supervise them. You have to reach a certain size before you can justify hiring staff to manage staff.
  • Limited growth options. You can’t franchise. You can’t take on investors. Bank financing is more difficult without inventory or other assets as collateral. If you want to open additional offices, you must be willing to stretch your time even thinner.
  • Competition. There are more lawyers today and fewer clients (with money). You also have competition with legal form companies, paralegals, and legal plan companies.
  • Feast or famine. Business clients go out of business and take their legal work with them. Consumer clients hire you once and often never again.
  • Limited retirement options. It’s difficult to sell a law practice for a decent multiple. You usually have to carry a note and depend on the buyer’s ability to pay (and many of your clients won’t stay with the buyer).

So, what do you think? Did I miss any? Does it look like a law practice is a sound business model? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Learn how to earn more than you ever thought possible in your law practice. Click here.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Legal industry Tagged With: ,

Are you playing it safe in marketing your legal services?

March 26, 2013 by
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You don’t play it safe when you advocate for your clients. So why do you play it safe when you advocate for yourself?

In marketing, you must stand out. To stand out, you can’t play it safe, you have to be different.

Have you ever noticed how most attorney’s web sites look the same? Change the name and the photo and another attorney in the same practice area could take over the site without missing a beat.

How do you expect clients to notice you when you look like everyone else? Why should anyone choose you when you don’t show them how you are different?

Being different starts with including some personal information in your marketing. Share some of the things that define you as a person–your family, your hobbies, your crusades. Give the world a glimpse into the human being behind the professional.

Being different also means saying things most attorneys don’t say. Examples? Revealing how most law schools don’t prepare lawyers for the courtroom. Or how lawyers pad their bills. Or lawyer discipline. Or what to ask a lawyer to see if they are competent.

If you’ve never spoken about these things, you should. Your colleagues may not like it, but your clients will.

You can also be different by sharing your opinion on something controversial. Most attorneys straddle the middle of the road. If there’s something you believe strongly in, you should take sides and open your mouth.

Look at Donald Trump. He’s never afraid to say what he thinks. Did he earn a fortune because of this or in spite of it? I don’t know. But I do know that whenever he opens his mouth, he makes money.

The same goes for Ted Turner. And Rush Limbaugh. The more you hate them or laugh at them, the more they earn.

I’m not saying you need to go to these extremes. But you do need to take some chances.

Here’s the challenge: On your web site, or in your newsletter, say something you know will not sit well with someone. Nothing radical. Don’t start a fight. Just say something a little different or a little out of character.

Make a few eyebrows rise. Show people a side of you they’ve never seen.

It might not be what you say but how you say it. A coarse reference, perhaps. Or gansta slang, yo.

Click the send button. If your heart beats a little faster and you wonder if you’ve made a mistake, you know you’re doing it right.

You’ll find it liberating. Maybe even exhilarating. Possibly terrifying.

You might hear from someone who likes what you said. That’s good. You might hear from someone who doesn’t like it. That’s good too.

Communication isn’t solely about delivering information. It’s about touching people on an emotional level. Making them listen. And think. And feel. And respond.

If you get no response, the odds are nobody noticed. Try again. Push harder. Keep stirring.

Eventually, you may lose some people who don’t like what you say. That’s the risk. The reward is that there will many more who take their place, who love you and want to work with you and tell all their friends about you, in great part because you aren’t like everyone else.

If you want mediocre results, keep doing what everyone else is doing. If you want superlative results, you’ve got to take some chances.

Want more ways to be different? They’re in The Formula.

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Image, Marketing legal services, Writing

Stop complaining. Attorney marketing is not that difficult.

March 25, 2013 by
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Bitch, bitch, bitch. Enough already. You don’t know how good you have it.

I’m talking to the attorneys who whine about how hard it is to get clients but aren’t willing to do anything about it.

It’s not laziness. It’s ego. They’re too school for cool. They say marketing makes them uncomfortable.

You want more clients and you expect them to magically appear because you’re good at what you do?

Wake up and smell the empty bank account.

Being competent and working hard for your clients isn’t enough. Most attorneys are competent and work hard for their clients. If you want more clients to find you and hire you, you have to do more.

And it really isn’t difficult.

I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give you a list of things to do to bring in more clients. It’s a short list. Take a look and see what you think:

  1. You need to smother your clients with love and attention so they never even think about leaving and so they tell all their friends about your greatness.
  2. You need a web site with lots of high quality information, so people can find you through search and through sharing of your information, see proof of your capabilities, and sell themselves on hiring you.
  3. You need to stay in touch with the people who hired you before, reminding them that you are still available to help them and the people they know. And you need to stay in touch with people who don’t hire you right away so that when they are ready to hire an attorney, or they know someone who is, you are the one they call.

This isn’t hard, is it?

Love your clients. Educate prospects. Stay in touch with everyone.

Do these three things and you don’t have to do much else.

Now, ask yourself these questions:

  1. Is this something I CAN do?
  2. Is this something I have the TIME to do?
  3. Is this something I WANT to do?

I know you can do this. And it doesn’t take up that much time. The real question is, do you want to do this?

If you do, great! Let me know how I can help.

If you don’t, that’s okay, but please don’t complain. It makes me uncomfortable.

Marketing really isn’t difficult. Let me show you. Click here.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: , ,

What separates the million dollar attorneys from the rest?

March 22, 2013 by
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Why are some attorneys earning seven figures and others are just scraping by?

Are they smarter and harder working than the rest? Do they have better connections? Are they just lucky?

I’ll bet you think I’m going to say million dollar attorneys are better at marketing and promoting themselves than average earning attorneys.

But that’s not always true.

Sometimes, they really are just lucky. Or smarter. They often do have better connections.

Sometimes, those million dollar babies are more attractive. Better looking, whiter teeth, the whole shebang. Sometimes, they’re more attractive on the inside. People want to be around them, hire them, help them.

And sometimes, they’re crooked. They lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top. And then they go into politics.

Anyway, some attorneys earn big money and don’t know the first thing about marketing. They never needed to and they never will.

God bless ’em.

Now, what about the rest of us?

Most attorneys work hard and do good work for their clients. But that’s not enough to build a big practice anymore. It’s too unpredictable, and too slow. We can’t wait for things to happen, we have to make them happen.

Yep. Marketing. Getting our story told to more people. Sharing information with prospective clients so they know about the law and their options and can make better decisions. And treating people right so they want to hire us again and tell everyone they know about our greatness.

Marketing isn’t easy. You have to work at it every day. Not all day, but every day. Talk to someone. Write something. Read something. Do something.

Yeah, I’d rather be lucky. And better looking.

Maybe in my next life.

Marketing isn’t easy, but it is simple. Follow these instructions.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , ,

Who is your favorite client?

March 21, 2013 by
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In a previous post, I talked about how to get more clients like your best clients. I was referring to the class of clients who provide you with the most work, the most referrals, and the least amount of trouble.

Today, I want you to think about your favorite client.

Not your biggest or best client, necessarily, or the one who sends you the most referrals. I’m talking about the client you most like being around.

Identify them by name. Picture them. Think about them.

Why are they your favorite?

Is it their personality? Are they easy going? Do they make you laugh?

Knowing why someone is your favorite client will help you more easily spot people like them, if not actually attract them.

Do you remember where you met them? Networking? Who introduced you? Through an ad? In what publication? A referral? From whom?

If you were introduced to your favorite client through another client, for example, maybe you should be paying more attention to that mutual client. If you met them at a Rotary event, maybe you should spend more time at Rotary events.

But this exercise isn’t just about finding more clients like your favorite clients. It’s not just about marketing. It’s about appreciation. Counting your blessings. Feeling good about yourself.

You see, you would not have a favorite client if you didn’t attract them into your life. And you wouldn’t attract them if you didn’t have some of the same qualities that you admire in them.

Like attracts like. The things you appreciate about other people are things you appreciate about yourself.

So, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to call your favorite client and say, “I just want you to know that you are my favorite client.” Tell them what you like and appreciate about them. Go put a smile on the face of your favorite client.

And then give yourself a pat on your back for being so damn attractive.

Marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients. Here’s where to start.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With:

Lawdingo.com: how NOT to build your law practice

March 20, 2013 by
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Cue Rod Serling:

“Meet Jerry Finster, picture of a desperate lawyer. Don’t let his smile fool you. It is nothing but paint and plastic, a mask he wears to hide his pain. Like other lawyers, Jerry once had big plans for his career. But Jerry listened to some bad advice and now, he sells his soul in five minute increments to anyone with a question and a sawbuck. You’ll find Jerry in his booth at a place called lawdingo.com, where other desperate lawyers have set up shop. The sign over his booth says you can talk to him at 10, 12, 2, or 4. The truth is you can talk to Jerry at any time. He’s waiting for you now. If you want some cheap advice, go see Jerry. But don’t go looking for him on the World Wide Web. You can only find him in a place called The Twilight Zone.”

Perception is everything. If you look desperate (or even just hungry), in the eyes of the world, that’s what you are. There are, I am sure, many fine lawyers answering questions on sites like lawdingo.com, and I’m sure they are getting some clients. But is it worth it? I say no. You may get clients but you won’t build a practice, at least not one you want.

When I first started practicing, I volunteered one day a week at a legal clinic. I got a few clients out it (and a lot of real world experience). The people who visited the clinic didn’t have much money. When they hired me, they paid maybe twenty cents on the dollar. They needed help, I needed the money.

But I was careful. I never told my “real clients” about what I was doing at the legal clinic. They needed to see me as successful. I could look the part and build my practice on Wilshire Boulevard in Bevery Hills and nobody knew I was bringing in rent money from the legal clinic on Pico.

You can’t do that today. The Internet won’t allow it.

I could be wrong. (I’m not, but I guess I should say it.) See for yourself. Pretend you are a client looking for a lawyer. Browse through the listings of the lawyers on lawdingo.com and see what you think. (Could they have come up with a worse name?)

Click on the button to sign up as a lawyer. But before you fill out the form, imagine that your “real clients” find you on this site. What do you suppose they would think?

If you’re not desperate, the last thing you want to do is look like you are. If you are desperate, the last thing you want to do is look like you are.

There are better ways to build your practice. You’ll find them here.

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Filed Under: Image, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing Tagged With:

Do prospective clients read lawyers’ blogs?

March 19, 2013 by
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Of course they do.

They may not know that your web site is a blog or that what you wrote is a blog post. They may not know what RSS is or care about Google Reader’s impending demise. But when they have questions, they go searching for answers and when they find your blog post via Uncle Google or Auntie Facebook, they read it. If you answer their question, they’ll go read more of your content and about what you have to offer.

When they’re ready, they’ll call.

Prospective clients have questions. About their rights, about the law, about their options. They know how to use a search engine to find restaurant reviews and oil change coupons and movie times and they know how to use it to find answers to legal questions.

Give them something to find.

Answer their questions. Tell them about the law and their options. Tell them about other people like them who had the same problem and how it got resolved. You know what they want to know. What do prospects and new clients ask you when you speak to them? Write about that.

It’s true, they may never before had any interest in reading anything you wrote, and they may never again. But when they have a legal problem and they want a solution, they will read everything you have to say on the subject.

So yes, prospective clients read blogs. So do your existing clients, former clients, and others who may not need your services but know people who do. So if you don’t have a blog, now you know why you need one. And if you do, you know why you need to keep writing.

Marketing for attorneys made simple: Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

Gmail users now have another way to achieve inbox zero

March 18, 2013 by
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In my Evernote For Lawyers ebook, I described how I (finally) achieved “inbox zero”. In case you don’t know, that means my email inbox is empty. The short version of how I did it: I identified the important emails that needed a reply or further action or that I needed to save and then archived everything else.

If you’ve never experienced an inbox zero, you should try it. Looking at an empty inbox and knowing that you have everything under control is a great feeling.

Now, what about the important emails? No surprises. I forward them to Evernote where I tag them for further action or assign them to a project. This allows me to keep my email inbox empty.

But there is a niggling issue. To reply to the original email I have saved to Evernote, rather than starting a new email, I have to find the original email in my Gmail archive. Not terribly difficult, but I just leaned something that makes it so much easier.

It turns out that Gmail allows you to bookmark your emails. Every email has a unique URL that you can access from your browser address bar. By copying and pasting that URL into an Evernote note or other note taking app, you can retrieve that email by clicking on the url. If you are logged into your Gmail account, the bookmarked email will open, ready for your reply.

Gmail gives you other options for curating and retrieving emails. Labels, filters, and stars are all helpful. But there’s nothing faster or more accurate than clicking on a URL to find a specific email.

You can also use this function to bookmark emails you need for an upcoming meeting or event. Paste the URL into your todo app or calendar and everything you need is just one click away.

Do you bookmark your email URLs? How has this helped you become more productive?

Evernote for Lawyers shows you how to get organized and increase your productivity

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Filed Under: Email, Law office management, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , ,
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