Holy shitakes, Evernote adds reminders!

May 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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Evernote announced today the addition of reminders on Mac, iOS, and their webapp, and promises to soon roll out the feature to Windows, Android, and other platforms.

This is big!

This long awaited feature is the missing piece of the puzzle for those of us who use Evernote for tracking our tasks and projects. We can now add a reminder to any note, include a date and time, and receive notifications via the app and email. For the first time, we can schedule future due dates (or “start dates”), without having to use a funky workaround.

If you have a document due in 60 days but don’t want to work on it right now, for example, you can set a reminder for, say, 45 days and forget about it. On the 45th day, you will be notified that it’s time to work on that document.

Which means you won’t have to put a reminder on your calendar or in any other reminder applications.

We are told they are working on many more features. I hope that includes multiple reminders. If so, then you can schedule the due date for 60 days hence, and a start date for 45 days. Recurring reminders would also be welcome.

I’ve just started using this feature but I can already say this is a very exciting addition to my number one productivity app. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Want to see my Evernote set up? Get my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

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Filed Under: News, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: ,

Why you should never tell your child, “Don’t run across the street”

May 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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Yesterday, I talked about Yahoo’s misguided promise to not screw up their acquisition of Tumblr. I said it was a bad idea because it calls attention to their prior screw ups and because it doesn’t tell the world where they want to take the company.

The language of the brain is pictures, sounds, and feelings. Saying, “we promise to not screw it up” is a poor choice of words because people “see” you doing the very thing you promise not to do.

If I tell you I saw a pink turtle, your mind will process my statement by creating a mental picture of a pink turtle. However, if I tell you that I did NOT see a pink turtle, you will still see a pink turtle. The brain can only process positive information. You can’t make a mental picture of NOT seeing something because the brain can’t process negative pictures, sounds, or feelings.

If you tell your child, “Don’t run across the street,” the message their brain sees is “run across the street.” You have planted the visual image of them doing the very thing you don’t want them to do. Instead, tell them to “stay on this side of the street” or “look both ways twice before you walk across the street.”

Sure, as adults we have the facility to translate the negation of a thought to its positive form, but the additional step involved in doing so means there is a lesser chance that the information you want to communicate will get through.

If you want to communicate more clearly, be conscious not to plant negative suggestions in others’ minds. Speak in the positive. Say “It’s a pleasure” instead of “no problem”. Use the words “Call me” instead of “Don’t hesitate to call.” Tell clients, “The trial will go smoothly,” and not, “Don’t worry about the trial.”

Tell people what to do rather than what not to do. And please, tell them what you will do, not that you “won’t screw it up.”

The Attorney Marketing Formula: How to Earn More Than You Ever Thought Possible. Click here.

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Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting Tagged With: ,

Yahoo buys Tumblr, promises “not to screw it up”

May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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So Yahoo buys Tumblr, the micro blogging platform for 1.1 billion and then announce that they “promise not to screw it up“.

That’s inspiring, isn’t it?

It says, “yeah, we know we’ve messed up before, but we’re going to try real hard not to do that again.”

I know, they want to assuage the fears of some 100 million customers they seem to know won’t be happy about the acquisition. But from a marketing standpoint, “we won’t screw it up” is not a good message.

Why call attention to your past screw ups? Why tell the world what you won’t do?

Can you imagine an attorney getting a big case and issuing a press release that says, “I won’t lose this one”.

Tell the world what you will do, not what you won’t. Tell the world where you are going, so they can see why they should follow.

Apparently, more than a few Tumblr customers don’t believe the promise and have migrated their blogs from Tumblr to WordPress.com. But while WordPress.com might have a track record of “not screwing up,” customers who depend on their blogs for business purposes should avoid the hosted WordPress.com and opt for WordPress.org, the self-hosted, open-source version that I and millions of other websites use.

With the recent demise of Posterous, millions of people found out the hard way what happens when your hosted website shuts down.

But shutting down the service that hosts your business website is only one of the ways a host can “screw up”. If Yahoo/Tumblr, WordPress.com, Blogger, or any of the other hosted platforms change something, customers have to live with those changes, even if they don’t like them. If they want to do something that isn’t allowed, they’re also out of luck.

I use WordPress.org because it is the best software for the job. I host it myself because I want complete control over what I can and can’t do.

And I promised myself I won’t screw it up.

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

What to do when your clients don’t follow your advice

May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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A few months ago, I did a “one time” consultation with the partners in a law firm. They asked questions about getting traffic to their website and signing up more clients. I looked at their site and told them what I recommended.

At the end of the call, I had a feeling they didn’t like what I told them and would not be following my advice. But hey, I told them what they needed to hear, not what they wanted to hear.

That’s what we’re paid for, you and I. To tell people what they need to hear, even if they don’t want to hear it. Hey, this ain’t politics.

But what do you do when your clients don’t follow your advice?

You try again. And, if this had been an ongoing consulting arrangement, that’s exactly what I would have done.

When a client doesn’t follow your advice, you bring up the subject again and tell them why you recommend the course you do. You ask them why they don’t want to do what you suggest, or why they prefer to do something else. You have a frank discussion. And you supply them with third party documentation (articles from other experts, studies, and testimonials), proving you know what you’re doing and that your way is best.

But whether it’s legal advice, or marketing advice, sometimes you can’t prove that your advice is the best advice. It’s a matter of judgment, instinct, and experience, not something you can look up in a book.

What then?

Well, aside from documenting your advice in writing (hey, gotta cover the backside), you have two choices. You can either go with what the client wants or you can withdraw. If you’ve done your best to convince the client to follow a course of conduct and they choose not to, there’s nothing else you can do.

If you go with what they want and it doesn’t work out, some clients will admit that you were right and change course. That is if it’s not too late. If the decision turns out to be fatal but you did your best to persuade them not to go that way, they lose. Too bad, so sad.

True, some clients will never see the light. They’ll find a way to blame you. And you will lose them as a client. Too bad, so sad. For them.

Clients. You can’t live without ‘em, you can’t bury them in the backyard.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations Tagged With: , , ,

What does your law firm voicemail message say about you?

May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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When someone gets your law firm voicemail, what they hear (or don’t hear) can be the difference between them leaving a message and dialing the next attorney on the list. First impressions are sometimes last impressions.

I returned a call from an attorney the other day and got his voicemail. Did I hear a business-like message for his law office? No. I heard an electronic voice telling me the person I was calling was unavailable, meaning he had not recorded a personal voicemail message. I wasn’t sure I had reached the right person and had to double check the number. I left a message, but had that uneasy feeling you get when you’re not sure if you’re speaking to the right person.

Granted, I may have been calling his personal cell, not his office, but still, it didn’t make a good impression.

If someone gets your law firm voicemail, it should tell them the name of your firm, so the caller knows they have reached the right number, your office hours, and invite them to leave a message. If appropriate for your practice, it should also state what to do after hours or in an emergency.

The message should be recorded by someone other than you and should be warm and business like. The caller should come away with the impression that you are professionals who pay attention to detail.

If someone calls your direct line, or cell, you should record a similar message. At least state your name, so the caller knows they have reached the right person.

One more thing. Listen to your message after you record it. Make sure there are no background noises. Messages that were obviously recorded in your car are not professional. And make sure you sound like you care. If you sound bored, distracted, or rushed, you’re telling callers they aren’t important.

My best tip: stand up and smile when you record your message.

Now, excuse me while I go listen to my voicemail.

Marketing legal services made simple: The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Image, Law office management Tagged With: ,

Is building a law practice a sprint or a marathon?

May 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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If marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients (and it is), then you would assume that building a law practice is a marathon, and you would be right.

It’s all of the little things you do, over time, not big things you do once or twice.

It is your daily habit of sending thank you notes or birthday cards. It is the way you always see clients on time and never make them wait. It is writing a blog or newsletter and consistently delivering valuable information in an interesting way. Any one of these “little things” might not make a difference by itself, but over time, your daily habits compound. One day, you find your practice has doubled and you don’t really know how.

But building a law practice can also be a sprint.

Let me explain.

Let’s say you are looking at your calendar for the next 90 days and mapping out what you’re going to do to get your name and face in front of your target market. You plan to line up some speaking engagements, publish some articles, and go to lunch with centers of influence you have identified.

Every week, you book something. You have two speaking engagement each month, a new article coming out once a month, and every Friday, you’re having lunch with another prospective referral source.

This is good.

But there’s another way you could approach this. Instead of spreading everything out over 90 days, what if you did everything over the next two weeks?

You speak every day. You have lunch with someone every day. All of your articles appear this week.

You cram in as much activity as possible over a short period of time.

Why? Because now, your target market sees you “everywhere”. In a two week period, they hear you speak, see your article, and hear your name mentioned by two people they know and respect.

You get noticed. People talk about you. And remember you.

This is why advertisers spend $20,000 to run a bunch of ads this week, rather than $1000 a week for twenty weeks. And why they will run those ads on TV, radio, in print, and online at the same time, rather than TV this week, radio next week, and print the week after that.

Whether you’re spending time or money, concentrating your expenditure in a short period of time allows you to make a bigger impact on your market.

A marathon is you dripping on your target market. A sprint is you opening a fire hose. Never stop running the marathon, but consider getting in a few sprints along the way.

You can build a big practice if you know The Formula. Go here.

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

If you only had $100 a month for marketing, how would spend it?

May 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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If you only had $100 a month for marketing, what would you do? Would you spend it on advertising? Join a networking group? Improve your website?

Want to know what I’d do? I’d spend it on myself.

I’d buy books and courses and takes classes and learn everything I could about marketing. Because the best investment a professional can make is an investment in themselves.

And, when I was a young pup of an attorney, just starting out and clueless about marketing, that’s exactly what I did.

I scoured the shelves of libraries and checked out everything I could find on marketing and small business. I visited bookstores once or twice a week and never came home empty handed. I talked to more experienced attorneys and asked them what they did to bring in business.

Of course learning is only part of the equation. If you want to bring in business, you actually have to do something. And so I did that, too. I tried all sorts of things and found out that I wasn’t very good at most of them. But because I tried lots of things, I found some that I was good at and actually enjoyed.

And that’s when things took off.

I found out I was good at writing and getting referrals from my clients, and that’s what I focused on. If I was starting out today, I would be doing the very same things but I would add one more: I would learn everything I could about marketing on the Internet.

So, learn everything, try lots of things, find one or two you like and are good at, and keep doing them.

But never stop investing in your education. Learn about advertising, even if you never advertise. Learn about sales, even though you are not sales person. Learn about networking, even though you’re shy.

Because while you may not DO what you learn, you will USE what you learn, somewhere in your marketing.

Continue (or start) your marketing education with this.

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

Stop sending me these emails!

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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I heard from a subscriber who was planning to sign up for my newsletter with a different email address but couldn’t figure out how to un-subscribe from her old email.

She knew she was supposed to scroll down to the link at the bottom of the email but when she hit some white space she thought it was the bottom of the email, stopped scrolling, and didn’t see the link.

It happens.

What I don’t get are the people who don’t know there is a way to un-subscribe. Like the one I heard from last week that huffed and puffed and said, “Stop sending me these emails!”

Lawyers.

Did he forget that he signed up? Did he not realize that he would be getting daily emails? Did he just lose a big case and need to yell at someone?

I don’t know. He didn’t say.

Here’s the point.

No matter how often you email your list, you will always have people who want to unsubscribe. Some think you email too often. Some are caught up in life and don’t read your emails and don’t know what they’re missing. Some haven’t heard from you in six months, don’t remember who you are, and think you are spamming them.

Lessons:

  • Provide value
  • Email often
  • Don’t worry about the ones who think you email too often. If you are providing value and they don’t appreciate it, they don’t deserve to be on your list.

Most people know how to remove themselves and you won’t hear from them. For the ones who don’t know what to do, it’s easy to remove them manually. I just scroll down to the bottom of the email they replied to and click the link.

As I’ve said before, you don’t want a list of 10,000 subscribers who don’t appreciate what you send them, don’t read it, and don’t hire you. Much better to have 200 who love what you say, read every word, and if they can’t hire you themselves, refer lots of their friends.

Anyway, every once in a while, you get a email like this one:

David,

Just wanted to let you know that I am unsubbing this email address from your newsletter ONLY because I thought the stuff you send is so good I ended up subscribing twice :)

Just to keep my inbox to a manageable I’m dropping back to just one subscription…though I must admit I was tempted to keep both just to make sure that I didn’t miss anything…

Good stuff!!

Best regards,

Dat’s what I’m talkin ’bout.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you how to get more clients and increase your income.

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters

Say these words, get more referrals

May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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If you’re doing a good job for your clients, most of them should be willing to send you referrals. But they won’t unless someone asks them for a referral (“What was the name of your divorce lawyer?”) or starts talking about their legal issue (“I think I’m leaving Joe.”)

Your clients are willing to send business. But they won’t unless someone asks.

Of course that someone could be you. You want to get more referrals, don’t you?

I know, you don’t like asking for referrals. (“Do you have any friends who are getting divorced?”) Fortunately, there is an alternative.

Here’s what you do (and say):

Step one: Write something your prospective clients would want to read. A report, article, or blog post. You could also do a video, webinar, or teleconference.

If you are a divorce lawyer, you would normally write something about the law for people who are considering a divorce, but not this time. (I’ll tell you why in a minute). This time, write something that would appeal to married people in your state. It might be a guide to property ownership for married people, or a legal guide for parents.

Step two: Send it (or a link) to your clients and ask them to read (or watch) it and let you know what they think.

Step three: Assuming you get positive feedback, ask your clients the following: “Would you do me a big favor? Would you forward that link to five or ten (married people/parents) you know? I would really appreciate it.”

You’re not asking them to deduce who they know who might be having marital problems. That would be uncomfortable for them and you would be uncomfortable asking. You’re simply asking them to share your information with married people or parents they know and if it’s good information, they will.

Of course some of the people they send it to will need your services. And if they don’t, that’s okay. At the end of your report or post, ask the people who read it to share it with married people or parents they know. Yep. Some of them will need your services.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. When you ask your clients to refer people to your report or post, you’ll be reminding them to think about the people they know who might need your services and you’ll be one step closer to some referrals.

Ask your clients to refer your information, not your services.

I told you marketing was simple. Learn more here.

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Filed Under: List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , ,

Marketing your law practice one hour a week

May 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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If you only have one hour a week for marketing your law practice, I would spend that time on the phone. Here’s how I would break it down:

  • Twenty minutes speaking to clients and former clients. I would call new clients to say thank you (in addition to sending them a thank you card) and current and former clients to see how they are doing. These people put food on your table and are your best source of new business. Speaking to them “off the clock” is a highly leveraged marketing activity.
  • Twenty minutes speaking to referral sources. I would call other professionals I work with, thank them for their recent referrals, look for ways I can do something to help them, and brainstorm ways we can work together to our mutual benefit.
  • Twenty minutes reaching out to other professionals. I would call people I don’t know, to introduce myself, find out what they do, and see if there is a way we could can work together to our mutual benefit.

A law practice is a people business. We talk to people to strengthen our relationships and cultivate new ones. If you can’t meet people face to face, the phone is the next best thing.

In some ways, the phone is even better than face to face because there is no travel time. So, with only one hour a week, I would smile and dial.

Of course if I had two hours a week for marketing, I would use the second hour to have lunch or coffee with people I know and people I want to know.

This shows you how to set up marketing joint ventures with other professionals. 

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Networking, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With:
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