Archives for December 2013

The truth about goal setting

December 31, 2013 by
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“You can’t handle the truth!” Okay, yes you can. I just wanted to yell and sound like Jack.

The truth about goal setting is that it is what you want it to be. Don’t want to set formal written goals? You don’t have to. Many successful people don’t. You want lots of goals or just one or two? Whatever floats your boat.

But whether or not you go through a formal goal setting process, it is important to know what you want. Someone once said, “you can have anything you want, just not everything.” You have to choose. You only have so much time and energy and resources.

So, what do you want?

Choose something you really want, not something you think you’re supposed to have or do.

How do you know the difference? When you think about it, it should feel good. Both the doing and the having. Because if it feels good thinking about it, you’ll be inspired to do it, you’ll enjoy the process, and you’ll get what you want with far less effort.

Over the years, I’ve written many articles dealing with setting goals. Here is a sample to help you:

The surprising truth about written goals

Why goal setting works

What’s the one thing you most want to accomplish this year?

Goal setting and the law of attraction

Instead of setting goals this year. . .

Once you’ve decided what you want, the plan for achieving it should come more easily. That’s because when you know what you want, you also know what you don’t want so you can eliminate certain things from you plan.

For marketing, here’s some help for creating that plan:

Marketing plan for lawyers: getting ready for the new year

Have a safe New Year’s celebration.

The Attorney Marketing Center’s products can help you earn more and work less.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Goal Setting, Marketing Plan

Slowing down to speed up: getting ready for the new year

December 30, 2013 by
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It’s time. The last few days of the year when the holiday craziness is nearly over, the tree and the lights are coming down, but the new year has not begun. This is the time when I tie up loose ends from the current year and get ready for the new one.

I’m sure you’re doing something similar. Or you will in the next few days. Much like we do in the days leading up to a vacation.

It’s called “slowing down to speed up”. We shut off the flow of regular business and look at things from a different perspective. Because we’re not consumed with taking care of clients and projects, we can better see where we are and make plans for where we want to be.

In addition to doing some goal setting and planning, I’m getting caught up on CLE and learning some new software I plan to use extensively next year. I’m also cleaning up my computer workspace, catching up on email, consolidating files and folders in “my documents,” and consolidating my Evernote tags.

Not difficult stuff. Kinda fun, actually. But important, because it will allow me to start the new year with fresh eyes and fewer distractions and, therefore, be more productive with “real” work.

At least it feels that way. And that’s why we do this year-end ritual, isn’t it? So that we’ll feel refreshed and empowered?

So, how about you? How are you getting ready for the new year?

If you’re planning to upgrade your Internet presence next year, you need this.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Law office management, Productivity Tagged With: ,

How to make next year better

December 26, 2013 by
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If you want to make next year better than this year, start by taking a look back at your practice over the last 12 months. Look at every new case or client and figure out where they came from.

Who referred them? How did they get on your list? What did you do to get them to call?

Do the same thing for repeat clients.

Also look at the quality of those clients. Some clients are better than others. They hire you more often, pay higher fees, and provide more referrals. Which of your new and repeat clients fall into the category of “better”? Where did they come from?

Grab your calendar, your bank statements, your website statistics, your notes and records, and take a mile high look at what you did last year and your results.

Look at your networking, speaking, writing, and blogging. Look at your keywords, your content, your offers.

What worked for you? What worked better? What worked best?

Look at your professional relationships. Who provided referrals or other help? Who referred more or better clients? Who provided you with important intangibles–support, ideas, friendship?

(Note to self: “Make sure to keep better records next year so the next time I do this analysis I’ll have everything in front of me.”)

You can see that some things you did this year worked great, many didn’t work at all, and most fell somewhere in the middle. The same with your relationships.

If you look hard enough, you will see that although a lot of things produced a lot of results (clients, money, subscribers), a few things produced the majority of your results. You may find that

  • Eighty percent of your results came from just twenty percent of your activities
  • Eighty percent of your referrals came from twenty percent of your clients and professional contacts
  • Eighty percent of your income came from twenty percent of your cases
  • Eighty percent of your new subscribers came from twenty percent of your posts, keywords, speaking gigs, ads, (etc.)

Or not. It doesn’t have to be eighty percent and twenty percent. But it is almost certain that a big percentage of your results came from a small percentage of efforts or sources.

Identify the activities that produced most of your results so you can do more of them. Identify the handful of referral sources that sent you most of your referrals or your best referrals, so you can strengthen your relationship with them and leverage those relationships to meet their counterparts.

If you want next year to be better than this year, you need to find what worked best and do more of it. To find the time and resources to do that, cut down on or eliminate things that didn’t work, or that didn’t work as well.

For me, one thing worked better than any other. My twenty percent activity was writing. The books, courses, and blog posts I produced brought me more traffic, subscribers, and revenue than anything else I did. Knowing this means I can make next year a better year by being more prolific.

I know where to focus. I know my priorities. I know where to spend my time.

How about you? What will you do more of next year? What can you cut down on or eliminate? How will you make next year better?

The Attorney Marketing Formula comes with a simple marketing plan that works. Check it out here.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , ,

Social media marketing for introverts

December 23, 2013 by
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I just took a CLE course about improving client communication. The instructor used the Meyers-Briggs assessment to explain how different people relate to the world. I’ve taken the Meyers-Briggs self-test several times in the past, but don’t always get the same results on all four of the functions or preferences.

One thing is clear, however. I am an introvert.

You might be, too. According to the instructor, while the general population (U.S.) is 49% Extroverts, 51% Introverts, among lawyers it is 43.6% Extroverts and 56.4% Introverts.

What does this mean? It means we process information differently from Extroverts. According to Wikipedia,

“People who prefer extraversion draw energy from action: they tend to act, then reflect, then act further. If they are inactive, their motivation tends to decline. To rebuild their energy, extraverts need breaks from time spent in reflection. Conversely, those who prefer introversion “expend” energy through action: they prefer to reflect, then act, then reflect again. To rebuild their energy, introverts need quiet time alone, away from activity.”

I started thinking about this in the context of social media. I know many people draw energy from sharing and conversing on Facebook and the like, but I do not.

In a physical social setting, you will usually find me off to the side of the room, speaking to one or two people I know, rather than meeting new ones. I’ll be thinking, observing, and soaking it all in. I’m not shy. I do a lot of public speaking. But for me, social media isn’t energizing, it’s enervating.

If I understand it correctly, Extroversion and Introversion aren’t about personality. Introverts and extroverts are often very much alike in many respects, it’s just that we have a different process for digesting and utilizing information and relating to the world around us. So perhaps it is an oversimplification to say that Extroverts like social media and Introverts don’t. It’s entirely possible that the way I feel about social media has more to do with my being a private person (or overly cautious) than anything else.

But the question remains, how can people like (you and) me, utilize social media in our work, specifically, in marketing our services?

I don’t think there is a simple answer. Some of us are more open to sharing and engaging than others. We may not love it but neither do we hate it. So we do it, because we think it has to be done or because we want to learn and grow.

I use social media to share content. I use it for research and to find people I want to meet. I visit Facebook regularly, to see what others are up to, and to get ideas. I share quotes and links to stories. I comment occasionally and “like” cautiously. But mostly, I lurk. There I am, on the side of the room, observing, thinking, taking it all in.

If you enjoy social media, God bless you. Your challenge will be to not let it take up too much of your time.

If you don’t love social media, but want to make the effort to use it, you can get some help. No, you can’t delegate “relationship building,” meaning using social media to locate people in our niche and build relationships with them, and while that is arguably one of the best uses of social media, it’s certainly not the only one. You can have someone manage your firm’s Facebook page. You can automate posts and tweets.

Social media can be an excellent tool for marketing legal services, but it’s not the only tool. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. People did business, found clients, networked, made money, and had a life, long before social media, the Internet, and smartphones.

Social media marketing for introverts is very much possible. Even the most private of persons can find ways to utilize it in their work. But nobody should feel like it’s something we must do or that we’re missing out on if we don’t.

Now, if you’re an Extrovert, please share this with everyone you know. Like, Tweet, Post, and Pin. And leave a comment on the blog. I’d like you to do the same thing if you’re an Introvert, but if you don’t, I’ll certainly understand.

Internet marketing for attorneys made simple. With or without social media.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Law firm marketing: why you need to zag when other lawyers zig

December 20, 2013 by
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Most lawyers are pretty much like their counterparts. We all do the same kinds of work for the same kinds of clients and get it done with the same degree of skill and efficiency.

At least that’s what most people think.

If you’re better than average, you need to let the world know. Brag a little. Strut your stuff. Prove that you’re the better choice.

If you’ve got a successful track record, awards, endorsements, testimonials, and the like, they should be featured in your marketing.

But what if you don’t? Or what if your accolades aren’t any more impressive than the next guy’s or gal’s? What if you’re just getting started in your law career? How do you stand out in a massively crowded field?

You need to be different. When everyone zigs you need to zag.

If you do what everyone else does, the way everyone else does it, you’ll blend into the fabric of lawyerdom, where everyone looks alike and smells alike, and you will get lost.

Instead, I encourage you to get creative about how you package and present yourself. The good news is that because most lawyers are bland and boring conformists, it doesn’t take much to stand out.

What do most lawyers in your market do? What do they look like? What kinds of fees do they charge? How do they package their services? What’s on their website? What’s not on their website?

What can you do that’s different?

It might be something as simple as wearing red socks or a green bow tie. Make it your signature. You’ll stand out and people will remember you. It might also define you in a positive way. “Oh, she’s the lawyer who always wears a rhino pin on her lapel. She must have thick skin and a hard head.”

It might be something as complicated as taking a controversial stand on an important issue, when doing so risks alienating a large segment of the market. You might relinquish your claim to half of the market, but in return, gain the lion’s share of the remaining half.

If most lawyers charge by the hour, you can stand out by offering flat fees. If most lawyers avoid sharing information about their outside interests, you might stand out by promoting photos of your antique cuckoo clock collection.

As you make plans for the coming year, think about what you can do to stand out from the crowd. I know that might make you nervous. Lawyers don’t like to take chances. And if we’re honest about it, we really don’t want to stand out, unless it’s to get noticed for our good work.

But you should. Go a little crazy. Throw caution to the wind. Get down with your bad self. Because if you don’t get noticed and talked about and remembered, it might not matter how good you are at what you do.

Don’t like bow ties? This shows you more traditional ways to stand out in your law firm marketing

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Filed Under: Image, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: ,

Marketing plan for lawyers: getting ready for the new year

December 19, 2013 by
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I’m being interviewed later today by a reporter for the Canadian Bar Association. She’s doing a story about what young lawyers need to do to prepare for the new year. I plan to tell her the same thing I would tell any attorney. Just follow these three simple steps:

STEP ONE: TAKE INVENTORY

The first thing you should do is to figure out where you are. A good way to do that is with a “S.W.O.T. Analysis”–figuring out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

THREATS

Are you in danger of losing a good client? Are unreasonably high expenses causing cash flow problems? Have you been accused of doing something wrong that’s hurting or may hurt your reputation?

If there are holes in your ship, plug them so you can continue your journey. Do what you have to do to eliminate threats and minimize potential losses, but don’t dwell on them. Deal with them and move on.

WEAKNESSES

Are you deficient in any areas of knowledge? Do you need to improve certain skills? Do you need more referral sources, more clients, or better clients? Are you attracting clients who can’t or don’t pay? Do you need to get better at getting retainers? Is your bookkeeping a mess?

Figure out where you are weak and then look for solutions. Take courses, ask other lawyers for help or advice, buy equipment, delegate or outsource the problem so you can focus on your strengths and opportunities.

STRENGTHS

What are you great at? Find something you excel at and leverage it to make it even bigger and better. Focus your time and energy on taking something that’s going well for you and build on it.

If you get good results with a certain type of client or case, you should focus on getting more of those clients or cases. That may mean eliminating other practice areas or turning away clients who don’t fit your ideal client profile.

In the marketing arena, if you are good at networking, do more of it. Ask your contacts to introduce you to their colleagues. Find a second networking group if you have the time or a better group if you don’t. Work deeper within the organization to gain even more influence. Volunteer for committees, take on more responsibilities.

If you like the Internet, create more content, learn about SEO and social media, do more guest posts, and start creating videos.

If you like to write, write. If you like to speak, speak.

Look at your skills and your preferences and focus on them. What do you do best? How can you do more of it and get even better at it? How can you leverage it to get an even bigger return?

OPPORTUNITIES

Make a list of people you know and like and brainstorm ways you can improve and deepen your relationship. They can lead you to new clients and new referral sources. They can provide you with advice and ideas. They can send traffic to your website, provide content for your blog or newsletter, and promote your event or offer.

Make another list of people you don’t know who sell to or advise your target market. Make plans to approach them to see how you might work together.

Go through your notes and files and collect all of the ideas you have recorded for marketing your practice, improving your work product, increasing your productivity, or increasing profitability. Put a star next to your best ideas.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE ONE BIG GOAL

Once you know where you are, the next step is to determine where you want to go. What do you want to accomplish next year relative to your practice or career?

Instead of writing down five or ten goals, as you may be inclined to do, I suggest you write just one big goal. Come up with as many candidates as you want to but then, choose one big goal that gets you excited.

Selecting one goal will force you to focus on that one goal, and nothing else. The odds are that many of your candidate goals are related to your one big goal and are, in fact, stepping stones on the path to reaching it. If your goal is to increase your net income to $250,000, for example, other goal candidates, e.g., “bring in six new clients per month,” are action steps you need to take to accomplish your singular income goal.

Of course you will have additional action steps. You don’t just bring in six new clients, for example, you have many things you need to do to bring in those clients. And that leads us to step three.

STEP THREE: WRITE A SIMPLE MARKETING PLAN

Why a plan? Because you need to know what to do, silly. Because come the first of the year, when you’re ready to get to work, you need a list of projects and tasks that will move you forward towards your goal.

Why simple? Because if your plan isn’t simple, you won’t do it. You’ll get bogged down in detail. You’ll spend more time working with your lists and planning your plans, and have little time to get anything done.

So, figure out where you are, then where you want to be, and from that, write a plan for accomplishing it. Keep in mind that the plan you start out with will almost never be the plan that gets you to your goal. That’s because plans change, circumstances change, and you will change. And that’s okay. Your plan will get you started, and getting started is the most important part.

The Attorney Marketing Formula comes with a simple marketing plan for lawyers. And a lot more stuff you need to know.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

What if paying referral fees to non-lawyers was legal and ethical?

December 17, 2013 by
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Okay, time to put on your thinking cap and take a stroll with me down imagination boulevard.

We know that paying referral fees to non-lawyers is illegal and unethical for most lawyers. Some lawyers flout the rules and pay referral fees under the table. Others, if they were honest, would admit that while they never have paid referral fees, they have been tempted to do so. At some point in our careers, I think most lawyers have at least wondered why the rules are the way they are.

Rather than debate that hot potato, I’d like to ask you to think about what it would be like if the rules were changed. How would your practice be different if it was legal and ethical to offer referral fees to non-lawyers?

For the moment, forget about whether or not you would offer referral fees yourself, think about what might happen if you did.

When you meet someone new at a networking event, for example, instead of courting them and building a relationship, hoping that one day they might send you some business, you could simply tell them what you do and what percentage of your fees you are willing to pay for a referral.

Do you think you would get more referrals?

Ya think?

Your contacts would have dollar signs dancing in their brains. They’d start promoting you to their clients and customers, friends and family. They’d beat the bushes looking for potential clients, wouldn’t they? They’d refer everyone to you, not to other lawyers who don’t offer a referral fee, or who offer significantly less.

You could quickly build an army of referral sources, people not just willing to send you business but actively looking to do so.

You’d be signing up new clients every day of the week. You’d have more business than you could handle. What will you do with all that money. . .?

Okay, snap out of it. This isn’t going to happen. Not in our lifetime, anyway. And we don’t want it to happen, do we? Okay, maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but it’s won’t, so forget about it.

Let’s sit down, catch our breath, have a cup of coffee, and consider what we’ve learned.

We’ve learned that people who have the ability to make referrals to us often don’t, and that most people who have referred business in the past could probably refer more.

Where does that leave us? Back at square one. Building relationships, practicing the golden rule, serving our clients and professional contacts. In other words, doing the things we’ve learned about marketing and building a practice.

Your clients and contacts can and will send you lots of business. They will beat the bushes for you and promote you to everyone they know, and they will do this without a financial incentive. Smother them will love and attention, give them more value than they expect, stay in touch with them, and give it time.

Offering cash would be quicker, it’s true. But doing things the old fashioned way works just fine.

The 30 Day Referral Blitz will quickly bring you more referrals without asking for referrals. Click here.

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Filed Under: Legal industry, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: , ,

Get more referrals with client appreciation dinners

December 16, 2013 by
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Client appreciation dinners are a great way to recognize your best clients and thank them for their loyalty. Basically, you invite them to a free dinner where you present awards and gifts, introduce them to other clients in their niche, and enjoy a good meal.

You might have guest speakers, who may be willing to co-sponsor the event. You might invite your clients to bring guests. Or you can keep the evening information-free and pitch-free and just have a good time.

A Facebook friend of mine, a Realtor, mentioned his firm’s upcoming “Top Referring Client Appreciation Dinner.” I thought that was a smart variation on the idea because his clients have to do something to get invited to the dinner.

There’s a little bit of competition involved. Clients hear about the event and want to come. After the dinner, they see photos on your website and do their best to get invited the following year. Those who do attend will work hard to make the guest list again the following year. They’ll also talk about the dinner to their friends and colleagues.

Of course it also allows the host to promote the subject of referrals to all of their clients indirectly, by simply talking about the dinner.

Nice.

When you recognize good behavior (referrals), you reinforce that behavior and it tends to be repeated. When you recognize that behavior publicly (dinners), many of those who didn’t get recognized (invited) will change their behavior so they can be included the next time.

The bottom line is that you get more referrals, not just from those who make the grade as “top referrers” but from everyone. Your top referrer may send you ten clients, but you may have 100 clients who send you one or two.

If you can’t or don’t want to do a client appreciation dinner (criminal defense lawyers, I’m talking to you), how about a dinner for professionals? Invite your best referral sources and recognize them for their efforts. You can do this even if you do sponsor a client dinner.

If a client or referral source appreciation dinner isn’t in your budget right now, consider a breakfast or luncheon. Or, invite your best referring client or referral source out to dinner, just the two of you, to say thank you for their support throughout the year. Next year, you can invite a few more.

Want another way to get more referrals without asking for referrals? Here it is.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: , , ,

Content marketing for lawyers made even simpler

December 13, 2013 by
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In Make the Phone Ring, my Internet marketing course for attorneys, I provide a comprehensive list of ideas attorneys can use to create content for their blog or newsletter. They can also be used to produce reports, presentations, articles, videos, and other kinds of content.

Whether you have my course or not, today I want to give you a homework assignment that will help you create ideas for content almost automatically. You see, it’s one thing to go looking for ideas when you need them. It’s something else to have those ideas coming to your in-box every day, filling your mind with raw material and providing you with a starting point for creating rich, timely and interesting content.

Your assignment is to subscribe to three types of newsletters (blogs, RSS feeds, ezines, etc.):

  1. Other lawyers. Find lawyers both in your field and also in other fields and subscribe to their newsletters or blogs. You may start out with seven or eight and then cut back to the best three or four. You’ll get ideas for your own articles, which may include commenting directly on theirs. You’ll also see how often they publish, how long their posts are, and what types of posts they write (case histories, news, commentary, etc.)
  2. Your target market. Read what your target market is reading–news about their industry or local community, for example. Also read the content produced by those who sell to or advise your target market–vendors, consultants, businesses, and other professionals. You’ll learn about the news, issues, causes, and trends that affect your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources. You may also identify new marketing opportunities as you learn about those trends and the people associated with them.
  3. Something different. Subscribe to content that interests you and has nothing to do with the law or your client’s industry. It could be hobby related or any kind of outside interest–tech, travel, food, sports, news. I get lots of ideas by reading outside my main areas of focus, and so will you. You’ll be able to create richer, more interesting content. And it doesn’t matter if your readers don’t share your interest. Not everyone follows sports, for example, but on some level, everyone can relate to sports analogies.

Content marketing for lawyers is relatively simple. Subscribing to other people’s content makes it even simpler.

Get Make the Phone Ring and get more clients on the Internet. Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Presentations, Public Speaking, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,

Email best practices for small business and professionals

December 12, 2013 by
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I’m an email bigot. I judge you by your email. Unfortunately, so do your clients. And other professionals. If your email practices are anything but professional, it is hurting you.

There are also some practical applications for setting up and using email effectively. Here is a short list of email best practices for small business and professionals:

  1. Work email (your fiirm). Use your work email only for official firm business, where you are required to do so. Use your own (professional) email for everything else, i.e., marketing. If you leave the firm, you lose your email address and all the contacts that go with it. The same goes for your email subscriptions.
  2. AOL/Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook, et. al. These aren’t appropriate for business or professionals. Don’t use your ISP, either. I have an email through my cable provider but I never use it. Not only does it sound unprofessional, if I ever change cable companies, I have to notify everyone of the change. Get your own domain name, you@yourname.com. You can still use gmail, et. al, as I do, and simply forward your professional email to your gmail or hotmail or outlook.com account.
  3. Your name. Use your name, either first or first and last, @ yourdomain.com. Don’t use anything cutesy (i.e., bighunklawyer@domain.com). That’s fine for personal email, but not for work.
  4. “From”. Set up your email so that your name appears in the “From” portion. There’s nothing worse than getting an email from someone who doesn’t identify themselves. And use your name, not your firm’s name. Firms don’t write emails, people do.
  5. Email signature. Make sure you put your name and contact information at the bottom of every email. Include your website. You don’t need anything fancy, but do show people how to connect with you and find out more about what you do.
  6. Disclaimers and disclosures. Keep these to a minimum. In fact, if you aren’t required to use them, don’t. They are off-putting and annoying. They make you look distrustful and boring. Nobody actually reads them. They probably don’t protect you. You’re killing electronic trees.
  7. Formatting. Don’t write emails that extend across the entire “page”. They are harder to read. Put a return after approximately 72 characters (mono). DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS. Keep sentences and paragraphs short. In fact, keep your emails short.
  8. Subject. The most important part of the email because if you don’t get people to open your email, it doesn’t matter what you say. Say something that lets the recipient know that there is something of value or interest inside.

I write about this subject periodically because I continue to see emails from professionals who don’t follow these simple basic principles. If you write to me, don’t tell me your name, and your email is booboo2785@aol.com, you can’t expect me to treat you seriously. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Here’s a good article on how to change your email address without messing things up.

Here’s a great way to get referrals quickly.

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Filed Under: Email, Image, Marketing legal services, Technology Tagged With:
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