I'm sure you read the story about the blogger in a defamation case who got hit with a $2.5 million judgment because, the judge said, she is not a journalist and was not protected by the state's shield laws.
Interesting story. Important subject.
You read the story but did you make any money with it?
Attorneys can easily leverage a story like this to get more media attention, more traffic to their web site, more prospects, more referral sources, and more clients. And I'm not talking about the attorneys who handled the case itself, I'm talking about you.
Interested? Here's all you have to do.
First, write a two or three page report summarizing defamation laws in your jurisdiction. You don't have to practice in this area to do this, Uncle Google will help you, or you can ask an attorney friend who does (and tell him about this idea so he can do it, too).
In your report, mention the case about the blogger. Offer your opinion. Include a few citations, maybe a few resources.
Now, go back to Uncle Google and ask him to give you a list of bloggers in your target market(s) who are in your state or province.
Next, contact these bloggers (a personal email will do) and tell them you wrote a report for bloggers about how they can protect themselves against lawsuits like the one in the news. Offer to send it to them, free of charge. Tell them they are welcome to send it other bloggers they know and care about. (If you know the blogger, you could just send them the report in your first email).
In one day, you can get your report into the hands of dozens of people who every day write and influence the people you are targeting for your services. You have provided value to the blogger on a personal level, and asked nothing in return.
Where can this lead? Interviews, hosted webinars for their readers, guest posts, referrals, introductions, you name it.
It doesn't matter if you don't practice tort law. If you do, that's an added benefit, but the point of this effort isn't to show these bloggers you can help them in this particular area of the law, it's to meet them.
Now, what else could you do with your report? Here are a few ideas:
- Send it to local media with a cover letter letting them know you are available for interviews.
- Call or email your clients and contacts: Who do you know in (your area) who writes a blog? Tell them you have a report that can help them.
- Offer it through social media; post a video on youtube, opining on the story and linking to your report; offer it via forums, chat groups, listserves, and other areas where bloggers and people who know bloggers congregate.
- Contact local blogger groups, business groups (anyone who has a blog), and offer a lunch talk.
- Write about it on your blog or in your newsletter.
- Take out ads and offer the report, as a "public service".
- Send it to lawyers in your practice area in states or provinces where you don't practice. Tell them what you're doing with the report in your area, invite them to do the same in theirs. (If you have to ask how this could help you, forget about this idea.)
- Do a presentation at your bar group's next function on how you used a news story to market your services.
You get the idea.
Oh, and you don't need a news story to do this, you can write about anything that affects people in your target market or they people who influence them.
It's about providing value in a leveraged way. It's simple and it works. And if your report goes viral, it could help you take a quantum leap in the growth of your practice.
For many attorneys and law firms, newsletters bring in a lot of business. If you don't have a newsletter, here are ten reasons you should:
- To get more business from current clients. A newsletter is an effective way to let clients know about your other services and show them how they can benefit from those services, without being "salesy".
- To get repeat business from former clients. People who hired you once will hire you again–when they're ready.
A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with them until they are. - To add value to your services. A newsletter can provide an added benefit for clients. Give clients "subscriptions". Put a price tag on the newsletter but send it free to current clients.
- To educate prospects. A newsletter that provides prospective clients with valuable information helps them make better decisions, allows you to demonstrate your expertise, and provides a mechanism for staying in touch with them until they are ready to hire you.
- To generate word-of-mouth referrals. Newsletters have pass-along value. A good newsletter will be shared with an average of three other people, even more online.
- To build your contact list. You can offer visitors to your web site a subscription to your newsletter in return for providing their email (and other contact information). When speaking or networking, you can offer to send your newsletter to people who provide you with their business card.
- To establish expertise and credibility. Your writing helps prospects, publishers, reporters, meeting planners, and referral sources see you as the expert you are.
- To provide content for, and traffic to, your web site. Your newsletter can drive traffic to your web site or blog. Your newsletter content can be re-used as content on your web site or blog, generating additional traffic from search engines and social media.
- To shorten the sales process. People who respond to your newsletter are better informed about what you do and pre-sold on your ability to do it, in contrast to people who come to you via advertising.
- To serve as a networking tool. Your newsletter is a tool to reach out to other professionals. You can interview them for an article, conduct a survey, ask them to write an article, or ask permission to put them on your mailing list.
A newsletter requires an investment of time, and possibly some capital, but the return on that investment can be substantial. If you want to grow your practice, a newsletter is one of the most highly leveraged marketing activities you can do.
Filed under Increase your income, Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Networking, Newsletters, Referrals, Web traffic by 
The Attorney Marketing Center web site launched in 1998 and transitioned to a blog in 2007. At that time, I wrote an article detailing the change, David's Website Diary, and promised updates. To be honest, I forgot about the article and didn't update it until today.
Sorry, but you didn't miss much.
From a technological standpoint, not much has changed since I switched to the blog format. I've changed the color and layout and added some new plug-ins, mostly having to do with social media integration, but not much else.
My site has grown because I focused on creating content, not on the latest bells and whistles. Content creates value for visitors, allows you to demonstrate your expertise, and brings traffic from search engines and from word of mouth. And so the number of subscribers to my newsletter has grown and the number of blog subscribers has grown and I have continued to sell products and services.
Do you need a blog? If you want to get more clients online I think you do.
A blog has several advantages over a static web site. As you update your content, search engines are notified and they bring visitors. As those visitors see the solutions you provide, they may (a) take the next step toward hiring you, (b) connect with you by subscribing to your newsletter or your blog feed or commenting on your posts, or (c) tell others about you via social media.
Your blog allows prospects and referral sources to see you "in action". Your content is not just puffery about how great you are it is an exemplar of your abilities. As visitors become familiar with your style and hear your "voice," as they get to know and trust you, your preeminence grows, your traffic grows, and your client base grows.
You can set up a blog yourself in about an hour. WordPress makes is easy. There are many free and inexpensive "getting stated" videos available and you can hire people inexpensively to do it for you. Contact me if you would like some referrals.
Once you have your own blog, you control it; you don't have to wait for tech support to do updates for you, you can do them yourself. It's as quick and simple as using a web browser. And, other than paying for hosting (under $10/month), it's free.
What about content–do you have enough to say? Trust me, you have enough. There is an endless amount of material you can supply. Everything from posts about the law and procedure in your practice areas, success stories you helped created, general business (or consumer) advice, guest posts from experts (referral sources) in allied fields, and much more. A post can be as short as a few paragraphs and as simple as you commenting on something you found on another web site or blog or in the news. And you can outsource content creation, too.
A blog may seem to be a big commitment but think of it as the front door to your online office. You won't be there 24/7 but your presence will be. If you write an offline newsletter, publish articles, or do any public speaking or networking, you are already doing the things that are done online through a blog.
If you have a web site, you have something you can point to and that's good. But you have to do the pointing. If you want free traffic, you need a blog.
Filed under Blogging, Communication, Email, List building, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Technology, Web traffic by
I talk to a lot of lawyers who tell me they don't have time for blogging or marketing on the Internet (or any marketing, for that matter). You've heard me say it before, marketing is the most important part of building a law practice.
I don't care how good you are at practicing law, if you don't have (enough) clients, you're going to starve. And while your reputation and the natural referrals that flow to you as a result of doing a good job for your clients cannot be discounted, if you aren't regularly engaging in marketing-related activities, you're making a big mistake.
Marketing will bring you
- More clients
- Better clients
- Better paying clients
- More time (by hiring and/or outsourcing more lawyers and staff)
- Writing and speaking assignments (that further build your reputation and bring you more clients, better clients, etc.)
- Do I need to go on?
In the online world, you need (a) quality content, in (b) sufficient quantity, to attract (c) more traffic to your web site. People come, they see you as an authority who offers value (good content), and they (a) hire you, (b) refer clients, and/or (c) opt-in to your newsletter or other lists whereby you can stay in touch with them until they are ready to (a) hire you, or (b) refer clients.
But that's just for starters. The traffic you generate to your blog who like what you have to say will tell others about you and your blog and those others will, in turn, (a) hire you, (b) refer clients to you, and (c) opt-in to your lists whereby you can stay in touch with them until they are ready. . .
And (and this is the big point) those visitors do the same. On the Internet, the growth of your web site and your practice is geometric, as this recent article explains. More begets more and if you're not leveraging this opportunity for growth, you are missing out.
And so instead of saying, "I don't have time. . ." you should be asking, "How can I find the time. . .", because once you've made that transition, you will find the time. We all have 25 hours a day (God gave lawyers one extra hour) and we cannot manage time, all we can do is manage our priorities. When your priorities change, so will your schedule.
Filed under Blogging, Increase your income, List building, Online Marketing, Referrals, Time Management, Web traffic by
[mc src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8" type="youtube"]The social media revolution[/mc]
Filed under List building, Networking, Online Marketing, Referral sources by
Bill Cosby is purported to have said, ""I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Have you found that to be true? I have. I'll give you a recent example.
I just launched a new website, PassiveIncomeForLawyers.com. Passive income is a hot topic and in a very short period of time, the site got a large number of visits and subscribers. Several attorneys have already joined me in the program. I've heard from many others who have said nice things about the program itself and about the way it is presented. The feedback has been very positive. Of course you usually don't hear from people who don't like something. They usually just quietly go away. But I did get the following email from one attorney:
"Please take me off of your miserable site. At first I thought you were legitimated, now we are getting the mass marketing crap. Passive income my ass! You wouldn't know passive income if it hit you in the face. And what's with the long winded motley fool type advertising site. Un professional. Get lost."
I didn't reply, I simply removed him from the subscription list, and deleted his email. But then I got to thinking about what could be learned from his response and I retrieved the email. After all, this is not just anybody; according to his email signature, this individual is a partner in a firm of at least five lawyers. I presume he is influential. He may or may not be interested in something I offer, but I'd like to think he would reject the offer, not the person (me). But not only is he not a fan, he was so angry, he took the time to embarrass himself with this email.
From a marketing perspective, what should I do? He was turned off (to say the least) by the sales-y copy on my web page, although I have to wonder why he filled out the form to subscribe if he was so offended. Should I assume that others would be, too, and change it? Should I try to please the ones who don't like what he calls "long winded motley fool type advertising," even though most people find it acceptable and the site is successful? The Motley Fool folks seem to be doing okay.
But if I create something that is less of what he does not like and it dramatically reduces the number of subscribers, I haven't done myself any good, have I? So no, I shouldn't try to please everyone. That truly is a formula for failure, and it's an important marketing lesson.
Marketing is about metrics. You do something, measure the results, and compare those results to something else. It's called testing, and it's crucial to the success and profitability of any marketing campaign. So, I will create other versions of the web page and compare the results to the ones produced by the current one. Whichever version produces the highest percentage of conversions (subscribers) will become the "control," against which I will continue to test, seeking to best that control. But one does this to improve results, not in an effort to please anyone, let alone everyone.
You can't please everyone anyway, and you'll only hurt yourself if you try. So, as you design your marketing messages, intelligently consider the ethical standards of your bar association and your own sense of propriety, and perhaps the concerns of your spouse or partners, but beyond that, do what works best, and what works best is what brings in the most results.
Filed under Copywriting, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Wealth, Web traffic, Writing by
At last count, 564 subscribers to The Prosperous Lawyer newsletter have downloaded the free ebook from websmartlawyer.com I mentioned a few days ago. Apparently, a lot of lawyers have or want to have a web site to help them build their practice. If you didn't get your copy, here is the link.
In reading the author's discussion of search engines, optimizing web pages, and generating search traffic, I started thinking about how all lawyers should have a web site but many undoubtedly hesitate to get one because of the enormity of the task of generating search engine traffic. If you feel that way, forget about search engines for the time being and get a web site anyway because it provides other valuable benefits.
A web site is a mechanism for prospective clients and referral sources to get to know, like, and trust you. It sells you and your services and operates 24/7, at almost no cost to you. Browsers can spend as much time as they want, getting to "know" you through your web site, learning more about what you do, and for whom you do it, and discovering everything else they might like to know that could bring them closer to calling and making an appointment.
Your web site can be (should be) a resource of valuable information, helping clients and prospects to better understand their legal situation and the options that are available to them, as well as demonstrating your experience in helping others with similar issues. This can result in new business, repeat business, and referrals.
Your web site allows you to "cross sell" your other services to clients who may not know "what else" you do.
It provides a mechanism for building your email list, allowing you to communicate more frequently (and at less cost) with clients, prospects and referral sources.
And it is a resource for networking with other professionals. Your clients may be among the 25% of Amercians who don't use the Internet, but I assure you, your prospective referral sources are not. Your web site and online newsletter give you a reason to reach out to those professionals, perhaps to have them write "guest articles" for your newsletter or blog, or to participate in an online survey.
Now don't get me wrong, you do want search engine traffic. It's free, it's targeted, and it's a brilliant way to build your practice. But there are other ways to get visitors to your web site, beyond search engines. Here are a baker's dozen:
- Put your website on your business card, stationery, brochures, and in your email signature. (I hope you're not still using your personal email address. Instead of lawyerjoe[at]sbcglobal.net, it's much more professional looking to use yourname[at]yourdomain.com. It also allows you to "brand" your domain with every email you send. If you don't already have your own domain name, get one immediately.)
- Use a "resource box" at the end of articles you write; list your contact information, including your web site
- Put your web site address in your bio, and your introduction for speaking engagements
- Write articles and post them in online article directories (e.g., www.ezinearticles.com, et. al.)
- Post comments on others' blogs or in online forums or list servs, and link to your web site
- Write press releases and submit to www.PRlog.com or www.PRWeb.com
- Advertise offline: newspapers, magazines, TV/Radio, direct mail, etc.
- Advertise online: ezines, Google Adwords & other PPC, www.craigslist.com, etc.
- Provide an appropriate testimonial for a product or service you use, with a link to your site
- Submit your site to online niche directories
- Buy a domain name related to your niche that is already receiving traffic and forward it to your site.
- Create an Amazon.com profile and submit reviews for books and other products
- Create an ebook and list in on the free ebook sites; contact others who serve your target market and offer to provide this as a free resource to their clients (just like the author at websmartlawyer.com)
Filed under List building, Networking, Online Marketing, Web traffic by
This Labor Day weekend, many will attend parties and meet new people. Social (or business) gatherings are an opportunity to expand your network of contacts, all of whom could be potential clients or referral sources.
If you have something planned this Labor Day weekend, before you go, I know you'll check your wallet or purse, making sure you have plenty of business cards on hand. But if you're like most people, the opportunity to connect with new people will come and go. You will neither pass out cards nor collect any.
You'll meet people and politely discuss sports or the weather or how tasty the hamburgers are, but you won't get their contact information and they won't get yours.
But you don't have to squander this opportunity. All you have to do is ask three simple questions:
First, introduce yourself and ask for their name. "I'm David, what's your name."
Easy enough. Now you know their name and they know yours. Use their name a few times so you don't forget it three seconds later, as we so often do.
Second, ask them what they do.
You can first ask how they know the host or how they are otherwise connected with the event, but then ask them what they do for a living.
"So, what do you do?"
Also easy.
Ask a follow up question or two and let them tell you all about what they do. When they are done, most people will ask you what YOU do. On the rare occasion when they don't, just go on to the third question.
Third, ask for their card. "Do you have a card?"
When they give you their card, give them yours.
Voila, instant contact.
If they don't have a card with them (and many won't, especially at a social function), give them one of yours and ask them to write their information on the back.
"Write your contact information here." At least get their email address or web site.
It will help if you offer them a reason you are asking. If appropriate, tell them you might run into someone who could use their products or services. Or, simply tell them you would like to stay in touch.
Any reason will do.
Your objective at any social or business function is not to pass out your card (although that's good, too), it is to find out something about the people you meet and capture their contact information so you can stay in touch with them.
To accomplish that, all you need to do is ask three simple questions.
Have a great weekend!
Filed under Business cards, List building, Networking by
How to get free content for your blog
First, don't assume you need to spend hours writing your posts. As I've written before, a post can be a few paragraphs that take just a few minutes to write. It can be as simple as taking something you read online and adding your comments. Tell why you agree, or disagree, link to another post that provides a different viewpoint or additional information, or share a story from your practice that illustrates the points in the article.
For longer posts, you have several alternatives:
One of the best ways to get original content for your blog is through guest posts. Someone else writes the post in return for a byline and link to their blog.
The benefits to you are
The benefits to the guest blogger are
Now, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. If guest posts are a good way to get exposure and traffic, why not offer to do some guest posting yourself? Find blogs that write for your target market and offer to do a guest post. Here are 21 tips for landing guest posts.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of guest posts is that they allow both parties to make a new connection. This can lead to referrals, introductions, advice, interviews, endorsements, networking and cross marketing opportunities.
Start looking for blogs that reach your target market. Invite them to write a guest post for your blog or offer to do the same for theirs.
Tags: blog, blog-free-content, blog-images, blogs, cross promotions, free blog content, free-content-for-blog-2011, free-content-for-blogs, getting content for your blog, getting traffic to your blog, getting-free-guest-posts, guest blogging, guest posts, how-to-get-content-on-your-blog-free, how-to-get-free-content-for-blog, how-to-get-free-content-for-your-blog, how-to-get-free-original-content, how-to-get-original-content-for-post-in-blog, Referral sources, the-best-way-to-find-free-commenting-blog
Filed under Blogging, List building, Marketing legal services, Web traffic, Writing by David M. Ward