If Rod Serling narrated your marketing story

August 4, 2026 by
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A picture of two attorneys. The first attorney works hard at marketing. They talk to a lot of people, share good content on a blog or in a newsletter or on social media, advertise or network to meet more people in their niche or market, and continually build their list of prospective clients, subscribers, and business contacts. 

Prospective clients call, follow their posts, read their articles, opt-in, respond to their ads, make appointments, and the attorney gets new clients. 

Unfortunately, those prospective clients don’t always hire them, or don’t have a lot of work for them, or can’t pay for the work they need done. 

The first attorney makes a living but, sometimes, only just. 

The second attorney also talks to a lot of people, shares content, builds their list, gets calls and regularly speaks with prospective clients, but unlike the first attorney, a high percentage of those prospective clients are glad they found them and glad to hire them. They have lots of work for the attorney, liberally provide referrals and introductions, and willingly pays the higher fees the attorney deserves. 

The first attorney gets clients from their marketing. The second attorney gets more clients from the same effort and they are usually “better” clients. 

What’s the difference? Why does one attorney get better results from their marketing? 

One reason? The first attorney “chases” clients and the second attorney “attracts” them. 

If you want to get better clients and better results with your marketing, never chase clients. Make them come to you.

How do you do that? 

Mostly, by believing you can. You’re very good at what you do, one of the best, and you can get most or all of your business from clients who seek you out and ask you to represent them. 

That belief gives you the posture you need to attract those clients. 

Marketing isn’t just about what you do, but how you do it. How you do it comes from belief in yourself. Even if you aren’t the best, you conduct yourself like you are.

In your content marketing, you provide helpful information and (gently, not urgently) invite them to get more. You give them examples of the kinds of work you do and problems you solve, show them (not tell them) you’re good at your job,  and tell them what to do to get that additional information or take the next step. 

Clients are more likely to believe in you when they see that you believe in yourself. You are confident. Calm, cool, collected. The successful professional in demand by others.

That means you don’t “warn” them or use emotional appeals or “fear of loss” more than is appropriate. You don’t push them. You give them the facts, show them what you have done for others, and let them decide to move forward or not. 

You attract clients by inviting them to look at information, ask questions, and raise their hand if they want to take the next step. You follow-up regularly, with additional information and new success stories. You stay in touch with clients and prospects and professional contacts, even though you’re busy (and want them to know that). You are successful, in demand, and don’t need more clients, but for the right one, you’ll consider it.

That’s posture.

In a nutshell, clients want to hire the attorney who can help them but might not be available. 

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Overcoming marketing overwhelm

July 30, 2026 by
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You’ve read the books and blogs, watched videos about marketing professional services, attended seminars, listened to podcasts, and subscribed to more than a few newsletters about legal marketing. 

You have a long list of ideas, things to do to bring in more clients and better clients and increase your income. That’s the good news. Too often, it’s also the bad news because with so many ideas and options, with a long list of tasks on your marketing todo list, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and do nothing. 

Ask me how I know. 

You have clients and cases to work on. You don’t particularly enjoy most of the things we call marketing and often have to force yourself to do them. You don’t want to hire more people or spend more on advertising, but you know you need to do something to build your practice and you are willing to do it, you just don’t know what “it” is. 

I have a solution. A way for you to cut through the overwhelm and resistance and make progress. 

The first step is to gather up all of your ideas and notes and lists and put them in one place. Create a master list of things you could do, might do, want to do, and (you believe) will do (eventually).

Put everything in one big pile. Get everything out of your head, out of your drawers, off your desk, off your legal pads, out of your computer files. 

Go through that pile and make a master list of tasks and projects and ideas. Or get your favorite ai to do it for you. 

It’s still overwhelming, I know, but less so than when you had notes and notebooks and files everywhere. You’re making progress. 

Okay, you have a list. It’s messy and long and unorganized but it’s a list. 

What’s next? 

Next, read through your list and put a star or symbol or tag next to anything that stands out to you as urgent. 

If there is an upcoming event you need to prepare for, an inquiry to respond to, an email or phone call you need to do,  a bill to pay, a problem with your website, anything that shouldn’t wait, take care of them. Do it or delegate it. You’ll feel better.

But this is marketing, not legal work, so there’s probably not a lot that’s urgent.

What about everything else?

You might think I’m going to suggest prioritizing your remaining list in terms of importance, Eisenhower Matrix or Priority Matrix style. If you can, have at it. If it’s still overwhelming, you don’t know what’s truly important, or you just don’t feel like going through this process, there’s something else you can do. I think you’ll like it.

Read through your list, quickly, and choose five to ten things you would like to do this week. 

Not twenty, five or ten. Not things you think you should do, things you’d like to do.

Later, you’ll zero in on what’s important. For now, pick five to ten things you’d like to do–because they seem fun or easy or quick wins. Theis will help you get started, and getting started on something you resist doing (e.g., marketing) is key. 

Let’s recap. 

You’ve made a master list, taken care of urgent matters, and made a list of five to ten things you’d like to do this week. 

You’ve sorted out your week. The next step is to sort out your day. 

Go through your list for the week and choose one task for today. Just one. Okay, two if you must, but one is great. 

Do that one task today. Look at you, you’re marketing. 

If you finish that task, you can go back to your week’s list, or, if that’s complete, your master list, or your “inbox” and choose something else. 

I follow this process for all of my tasks, not just marketing. Each week, I choose six tasks I want to do for the week, one or two I want to do today. (These are my most important tasks. I have separate lists for routines, etc.)

This system works for me. I get a lot of important tasks done. Try it and see for yourself.

Overwhelm, marketing or otherwise, will be a thing of the past.

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Filed Under: Marketing Plan, Productivity Tagged With:

Promote trial

July 28, 2026 by
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No, not that kind of trial. Trial as in the way many apps are sold in the App store: “Download our app and try it before you buy it”. Customers try the app, see how it works, decide they like it and buy it. For many developers, a free trial results in more sales and higher profits. That’s why so many companies offer them. 

And then there’s the legal world. Most lawyers don’t let anyone try before they buy. Clients either hire them or they don’t. 

The risk is on the client and if a competitor offers any kind of free trial, many clients will hire them instead. 

But that doesn’t mean lawyers should always offer a free trial, or even free consultations. They work for some practices and niches but may not work for yours. Or they might work but you might not be comfortable offering them. 

Fortunately, there are other ways to get clients to try you before they hire you. And you may already use some of them. 

Trial can be accomplished through free seminars, a newsletter, writing articles, blogs, and books. You might offer free downloads (forms, checklists, case studies, or other resources) on your website. You might do podcasts or videos or get interviewed by experts or influencers on their podcast or channel.

Prospective clients read or hear you speak about their legal situation or their industry, learn about solutions and opportunities that are available to them, and get a sense for what it would be like hiring or working with you. 

They get a sample of what you offer, even though they haven’t actually hired you.

If they like what you say, and how you present it, they are more inclined to hire you than they might be if you required them to pay you first.

Free content, free consultations, free seminars, or even just a brief conversation with you could help let clients (and referral sources) try you before they buy you. 

If it does, you might have a great way to bring in a lot of new business, and you don’t need an app to do it.

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Content creation, Increase your income, Marketing legal services

How to create a marketing plan that works for you

July 23, 2026 by
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So much to do, so little time to do it. You may not like it, or be good at it, but you realize that marketing is critical for attorneys and you need to do it. 

And you need a plan

You can delegate or outsource many marketing activities, including a lot of the planning, but the important bits need to be done by you. 

Even if that means using otherwise billable time to do it. 

Much of the relationship building inherent in marketing professional services cannot be delegated. Clients hire and want to work with you, not a secretary or assistant. Or your partner. 

You can hire people to do things like following-up on your behalf, but you need to talk to the clients and prospects, at least at some point in the process. The same goes for referral sources and other business contacts. 

You can’t simply write a check and expect others to do everything for you. You need to be involved in the planning and execution. You’ll get better results when you do. 

If you don’t have any plan, where do you start? You start with where you are and what you know. 

It may sound daunting and it would be if you tried to do it all at once. You won’t. You’ll do it incrementally–one step at a time. 

Start by making an outline of the steps for each part of the process you use. What do you do that could be called marketing, lead generation, follow-up, or client relations? What do you tell prospective clients about your services, when and how often? What do you send to leads or inquiries and to existing clients? 

Write it all down. Write down what you do and identify things you don’t do but think you could or should.

If you advertise or do seminars, you might start there because you’ll have some quantifiable data to look at. What do you spend, what publications or keywords, how much business does that bring in? 

You might want to start with existing and former clients. What you do between engagements, during holidays, to remember birthdays, or to otherwise stay in touch and keep your name in front of people who have already hired you?

You could start with your newsletter subscribers or social media followers. What do you send them and how often? How many subscribers do you have and how has that changed in the last six months or a year? What subjects do you typically write or talk about and how much engagement does that create? 

You might start by identifying the steps you take to respond to inquiries or leads. What do you send them or say to them? What do you offer or tell them to do? 

It doesn’t matter where you start. What matters is that you start, because that will help you identify what you need to change or add or stop doing, even if you’re not sure what that could be.

Keep at it. Eventually, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s working for you and what needs to be improved. 

At that point, if you haven’t done so already, you might want to talk to marketing experts and see what they tell you to consider, or use an ai to give you additional ideas.

You’ll realize there are many options and variables and you’ll start making some decisions, some of which will be a waste of time but some of which could make a huge difference.

It’s messy and might take a long time. And, once you’ve done it, you’ll need to continue doing it because it’s a process, not a one-and-done event. 

The hard part is starting. It’s also the most important part so if you don’t have a plan right now, or know you need to update your existing plan, I encourage you to start immediately. 

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Would you take medical advice from a physician who smokes?

July 21, 2026 by
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Would you follow the advice of a medical doctor who smokes cigarettes? Years ago, maybe. Today, you’d hesitate to listen to someone who should know better. I know I would. 

I thought about that yesterday when I went to a gym to get information about signing up for strength training, something I’ve been thinking about doing recently. I met with a trainer who evaluated me and told me my options. In addition to her experience as a trainer and coach, she said she was a certified dietition and could advise me accordingly. 

I didn’t sign up with her. 

Unfortunately, she was not in good physical shape. She was more than moderately obese and, to my eye, clearly enflamed, ostensibly from a poor diet. 

I don’t want to hire someone who is a walking incongruity, any more than I would hire a physician with a raspy cough. 

What does that have to do with attorneys? 

Everything. 

No matter how much knowledge and experience you have, no matter how good you are at your work, if you don’t look the part, you can’t be surprised if clients don’t hire you. 

You’re advising them about buying a business, getting a good settlement, or protecting their assets. You have to look like you know what you’re doing or you’ll scare them off.

It reminds me of when I first started practicing and didn’t have a lot of money. I made sure clients didn’t see the beat up old car that got me through law school. I had one or two decent suits and made sure clients saw those, not the old stuff in my closet. 

When I met with a client, I didn’t let them see the tiny office I could barely afford, I always met them in the conference room. 

I looked successful and eventually I was. 

Which leads me to ask, are you doing anything that might cause clients and prospects to hesitate to hire you because you don’t fit the image they expect and want? 

If you do, you probably need to do something about that. 

Clients want a lawyer who knows what they’re doing and is successful doing it. Make sure you give them what they expect. 

You have to look the part. When you speak to them, or write to them, you have to sound like the expert they need to solve their problem or achieve their obective. 

And have lots of clients to prove it. 

If you don’t, am I telling you to fake it until you make it?

Damn right I am. 

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Filed Under: Communication, Image

Bad marketing advice for attorneys

July 16, 2026 by
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“Stop talking about yourself”. That’s the advice we’re often told about marketing, but I don’t agree with it. Most lawyers need to talk about themself more, not less. 

But there is a limit. 

If you added a new article to your website or recorded a new video, if you’re writing a book or speaking at an upcoming event, if you were just hired by a well-known client, tell your subscribers and followers about it. 

And tell them why they should care. 

If they read your article or come to your event, what will they learn? How will they be better off? If you hired a new adminstrative assistant, how will this help you do a better job for your clients?

If there’s a benefit to your reader or follower, talk about it. That’s something they will definitely want to hear. 

Why should they care that you were just hired by a well-known client? You may be proud or excited but what’s in it for your other clients?

Sometimes, the benefit is implied. If a well-known company in their niche hired you, it suggests to your other clients that they are in good company. Clients want to hire attorneys that are in demand by other clients, especially when they are well-regarded in their market or industry. 

Okay, but what about sharing personal stuff? Nobody cares about what you ate for breakfast or where you went on vacation. 

Maybe they do. 

Clients and prospects and colleagues–the people who read our newsletter or blog or follow us on social, the people who hire us or refer others to us–want to know that we have a life outside of our work. 

But again, there’s a limit. 

If you did something or saw something on your vacation you believe will interest readers or followers, tell them about it. But make sure it’s interesting. 

Maybe it’s a lesson you learned about how things are done in a different country or culture, something you’ve never experienced or thought about before, and maybe your readers will be interested to hear about that difference. 

Why would anyone be interested in what you ate for breakfast? 

Well, maybe you tried a high-protein, low-carb meal on the recommendation of a friend who has lost a lot of weight or improved a medical issue by doing that and you’re encouraged. Maybe some of your readers will be interested in trying that because they have a similar challenge, or they simply care about you and want to know that you’re doing well. 

Sharing personal stories is fine. But make them interesting. Relevant. Or fun. 

And don’t go on an on about it.

People want to know things about you beyond your resume. Tell them something. Just don’t tell them everything.

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Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Marketing legal services

Content marketing: is it right for your practice?

July 14, 2026 by
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Content marketing is a simple and effective way to market legal services. It helps prospects and the people who can refer them to find you, through search and sharing, shows them what you do and how you can help them, and shows them why they should choose you instead of other lawyers or firms who list their practice areas and services but provide little or no evidence of their knowledge and abilities.

It’s “education-based marketing” and has a long history of success in marketing professional services and other service businesses in a multitude of niches and markets.

But is it right for you?

Many attorneys say it won’t work for them because they don’t have enough time to do it, or they don’t have enough to write or talk about.

If that’s you, I urge you to try it, or, if you have tried it, try it again. Find a way to make it work because not only is it a simple way to bring in new clients, repeat business and referrals, it’s a great way to build your reputation as a leader in your practice area or market.

Even if you already have an effective marketing program in place and don’t “need” anything else, find a way to write or record something.

It doesn’t have to be brilliant. You don’t have to write journal-quality content, just a few words or thoughts or ideas relevant to the people in your target market or niche. A short message that lets you connect or re-connect with people you know and people you want to know is more powerful than you can imagine and takes less effort than you might fear.

Sending an email to 50 people is a lot easier than meeting with them in person, and nearly as effective.

You can write about subjects you’ve written about before (as I am doing right now); if it’s worth saying once, it’s worth saying again. And it doesn’t have to be original to you. Write about what other lawyers, experts, business leaders, authors, and others write or speak about. Tell why you agree with them or where you differ. What you liked about what they said and what you didn’t. Give your opinion, share your stories or thoughts, or just summarize theirs.

Or “steal” their ideas and write your own piece. Yes, you can. I do it all the time.

How often do you need to create or publish something? Once a week, or once a month, or even once in a while. Anything is better than “never”.

Hold on. Enough with all the questions. Instead of trying to figure it all out before you start, just start. Write something and send it to someone. Send it to one person. Someone you know or someone you want to know.

Can’t think of anyone? Send it to me.

Do it today. You’ll be glad you did.

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Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services, Newsletters

Pulling is better than pushing

July 9, 2026 by
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There are times when you need to push a client to do something or stop doing something. There’s a deadline approaching, they’re dragging their feet and need to make a decision about something, new facts have come to light they need to consider but aren’t. 

Or they owe you money and you can’t continue working until they get current. 

You’ve told them, advised them, given them more time, but they’re not doing what they need to do. 

This isn’t just an issue with existing clients. It also exists with prospective clients who have a problem that isn’t going away. They need your services,  perhaps desperately, but don’t hire you, or apparently anyone else. You follow-up with them again and again but at some point, it’s clear they want you to stop. 

With clients, there is a relationship and you give each other the benefit of the doubt. With prospective clients, that dynamic doesn’t exist and the more you follow-up, the more they resist. Soon, things can get ugly.

Client or prospect, instinctively, or ethically, you want to push them. Remind them again, remind them more urgently, warn them, or otherwise push them to do what they need to do. And, it’s necessary and important, you should. The problem is, the more you push them, the more you run the risk of alienating them, or, in the case of getting them to pay you, appearing desperate. 

Not good.

You have to do what you have to do, of course, and if pushing them is what you have to do, you do it. But if you can, instead of pushing, it’s always better to pull. 

What does “pulling” mean? It means encouraging and suggesting and resasoning, not pressuring. It means building regular follow-ups into your management and marketing systems that, as much as possible, automate the process without making it look anything but reasonable and necessary. 

Instead of coming after the client or prospect and annoying them into compliance, you have a system that does most of the work for you, inviting, explaining, reminding, gently increasing the urgency and frequency of contact over time. 

It might also mean having someone else on your team contact them, someone who might be better at the job, but even just having a different person do the job could make all the difference.

If you don’t have to push, pull. Pulling makes you look like you know exactly what you’re doing and are doing it on their behalf. 

Pushing makes you look unprepared, adversarial, desperate. 

Nobody likes a pushy lawyer. Unless, of course you are that lawyer, you’re pushing the opposition on behalf of your client, and it’s working.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Closing the sale, Communication, Marketing legal services

What do you say to a client who tries to negotiate your fee?

July 7, 2026 by
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You make it clear you don’t reduce or negotiate fees, ask questions about what they want or need, and suggest looking for ways to adjust the size and scope of the engagement. You give them a path to getting the services and benefits they need without compromising your value.

If they tell you other lawyers charge a lower hourly rate, you tell them they’re not just paying for the hours of work, they’re paying for your experience and abilities, suggesting that you are better positioned to get them the outcome they desire, or do it more expeditiously. 

And if it appears they simply can’t afford you, or don’t have the budget to hire you, you tell them you understand and offer to refer them to another lawyer you know who does good work and charges less. 

Sometimes, that’s all it takes for them to realize that you are the best choice. 

In every case, you maintain your posture and let the chips fall where they may. You don’t want “price shoppers”. Not every client is right for you, nor are you right for every client. If you do good work and have a good reputation, you should see most prospective clients saying yes. 

If you don’t, if many prospective clients say you charge too much or they can’t afford you, or hire you once but don’t return, you might be charging more than your market can handle, or your marketing isn’t effectively communicating the value you deliver. 

Adjustments might be warranted. 

On the other hand, if most prospective clients say yes, hire you, return, and refer other clients, you might not be charging as much as you’re worth. 

In which case, adjustments might be warranted. 

The market ultimately tells you how much you’re worth and the market is always right. 

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Closing the sale, Fees and Billing

Do you have a ‘client loyalty plan’? Should you? 

July 2, 2026 by
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It sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Encourage first-time clients to hire you again, occasional clients to hire you more often. A plan that helps you increase revenue and decrease the expense and effort of attracting new clients–what lawyer or firm wouldn’t think that’s a good idea?

Maybe lawyers who think the whole idea smacks of commercialism, leaving a bad taste in their mouth. Maybe lawyers who see this as appropriate for a retail business, not a professional. “Are coupons and discounts next?”

Me? I say, “it depends”. It depends on how you do it. 

If you announce the launch of a ‘client loyalty plan” and promote the idea to your clients and prospects and to other professionals, you might be playing with fire. If you quietly embrace the idea, and carefully and selectively implement it, you might be onto something big. 

When a client gives you more business or otherwise demonstrates their patronage by providing you with referrals, testimonials, endorsements, invitations, and introductions, when they mention you in an article or quote something you said or mention something you did in their newsletter, when they hire you again for the third year in a row, when they invite you to speak at their networking event, why not acknowledge this and yes, reward them? 

Maybe return the favor and introduce them to someone they should know. Maybe hold off for another six months or a year on fee increases your other clients are getting because they’ve been with you a long time. Maybe provide them with an extra service you ordinarily charge for, or promote their business or event in your newsletter.

Or maybe volunteer (i.e., without being asked) to write a recommendation for their child’s college application, because they are a valued client. 

Show people you appreciate them. That’s the kind of client loyalty plan every lawyer should implement. 

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Law office management, Relationship marketing
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