David M. Ward, Author at The Attorney Marketing Center

Are legal services necessary during a pandemic?

March 24, 2020 by David M. Ward

Your services may be needed right now but many people who need them aren’t buying.

They’re watching their dollars and unless they have an urgent need to hire an attorney, those dollars are likely to be spent on something else–or on nothing at all.

So, right now, your marketing should primarily be focused on “after”.

After things get back to normal, after people are working again, after the kids are back in school, when people realize they need to talk to a lawyer, you want to be the one they choose.

What should you do now? Not much.

This is not the time to be making special offers or promoting anything.

Just be there.

Use email and social media to connect. Provide information, share stories, and let people know you’re around if they want to talk to you.

Don’t change who you always were and always will be–adviser, advocate, neighbor and friend.

If you ordinarily advertise or use direct mail, scale back for now but think twice before stopping completely. You may find there is still enough business available to cover your costs, allowing you to keep your name in front of your market.

Finally, now would be a good time to pick up the phone and call some of your clients and professional contacts.

Ask how they’re doing and wish them well.

Because personal connections are always the best kind of marketing, but especially now when everyone is hungry for human connection.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Don’t make this mistake with your clients and contacts

March 23, 2020 by David M. Ward

A few months ago I got an email from a guy I haven’t heard from in years. He is the developer of a piece of software I bought five or ten years ago and have long since forgotten.

He name sounded familiar–it’s unusual–so I read the first paragraph of his email and recognized the name of the software.

So, why was he writing? Yep, to sell me something. A new service he was offering, completely unrelated to software.

Haven’t heard from him in years, not even about his software, and now he wants me to fork over $500 for a one-time “coaching session” with him?

Not kidding.

How is he even qualified to offer this service? What’s he been doing all these years? Who are you again?

Yeah, don’t do this with your clients and contacts. Stay in touch with them, build or strengthen your relationship, and then you can offer them something. Even something new.

Otherwise, who are you again?

Now would be a good time to contact everyone. Update them on changes to your office schedule or policies, share your thoughts about social distancing and quarantining, and why you are hopeful that everything will be over soon.

And, if you did this already, send them another email, to update them again, or to share legal information or general consumer or business information they might find useful.

Keep your name in front of them, because some of your clients and contacts need your help right now, or know someone who does, and if they don’t, they may soon.

And you want them to feel warmly towards you when you contact them again, instead of asking, “Who are you?”

Email marketing for attorneys

Filed Under: Email, Newsletters

A small habit that yields big results

March 20, 2020 by David M. Ward

No doubt you understand the value of planning your day before it begins. You sit down at your workspace or pick up your phone, check your calendar, check your lists, and decide what you’re going to do that day.

You make a short list for the day and work from that list. Planning in advance frees up the rest of your day to focus on doing the work.

When I do this I get a lot more done, but more importantly, I get the most important work done because I am much less likely to get distracted by the multitude of tasks that are less important.

If something urgent comes up that needs my attention, I can do it and immediately return to my list. I may lose time doing the urgent task but I don’t lose additional time figuring out what to do next.

It’s on my list.

Keeping that list in front of me, which I do, also keeps me on task.

Planning my day before it begins has helped me and many others. If you’re not doing it, give it a try.

But that’s not the “small habit that yields big results” I promised.

The small habit is this: “plan your day the night before“.

Before you end your day, take a few minutes to create your list for the following day.

That small change can make a big difference because when tomorrow arrives you can get right to work. Most people have more energy early in the day so the work you do early is likely to be better and go more quickly.

The rest of your day may not be as productive, but your day is a success because you got your most important work done early.

Ready to take a quantum leap in your practice? Click here

Filed Under: Productivity

How To Come Up With a Yearâ€™s Worth of Content in One Day. Sort of.

March 19, 2020 by David M. Ward

If you have some downtime right now, a great use of that time might be to create a backlog of content for your blog or newsletter.

If you write a weekly post, you could knock out enough content for at least the next few weeks.

If that’s too much, the next best thing is to use the time to find ideas.

Look at your competition’s content. Look at blogs written by or for your target market. Look at general consumer or business publications for ideas that might be useful or interesting to your target market.

In a few hours, you could come up with hundreds of ideas.

All you need to do is write down a sentence or two, a quote or interesting fact, a few points you want to cover, and a link to the article or post that inspired you.

But don’t stop there. Once you have one idea, think about how you could expand it into ideas for additional content.

Let’s say you come across an article about legislative changes in your field and you want to write about those changes–what they are, what they mean, what you think about them, or what the reader needs to do to comply with or take advantage of them.

You could do a second article sharing feedback about the changes from some of your clients. Or comments about the changes from a fellow lawyer or allied expert.

Another article might be about additional changes you’d like to see that weren’t addressed in the legislation.

If you like this idea but don’t have enough time right now, spend an hour making a list of possible sources you can peruse later. Explore a legal blog directory, for example, and capture links to some that look promising.

Where do you start this process? On your hard drive. Find all of your old content and think about what you could do to reuse or re-purpose it.

You might have a paper or presentation you could republish in your newsletter. You might update an old blog post, expanding on something you wrote before, amending your opinion, or providing additional examples. If it’s been awhile since you first published it, you could even re-publish it as is.

Take some time to dig and find ideas. When things get back to normal, you’ll be glad you did.

For more ideas for content than you can shake a stick at, and advice on how to use them, my email marketing course has you covered.

Filed Under: Blogging, Email, Newsletters

Stalking lawyers for fun and profit

March 17, 2020 by David M. Ward

When it comes to marketing and practice building, most lawyers get a lot of things wrong. But they get some things right and if you want to compete with them, and beat them, you need to know what they’re doing.

The simplest way to do that is to study them. Make a list of successful lawyers in your practice area (they don’t have to be in your local market) and go to school on them.

Visit their website and blog, read their posts and articles, note what they say and how they say it, see what widgets and other elements they include on their site and which ones they don’t.

Sign up for their newsletter and study that, too. What are they writing about? How often do they publish? How long are their emails?

Study their social media footprint. Which platforms do they use most, how often do they post, who do they follow and who follows them, what do they post about, and what do they do to stimulate engagement or encourage followers to take the next step?

Study their posts and articles that have the most engagement (shares, comments, re-Tweets and Likes). You’ll get a boatload of ideas you can write about and if those subjects resonated with their readers and followers, there’s a good chance they will resonate with yours.

Listen to their podcasts. Look for interviews they’ve given to the press or to bloggers or vloggers. Look for clues about other marketing they do–speaking, networking, advertising, referrals, public relations, and anything else.

One thing you’ll undoubtedly notice is that most attorneys do what others lawyers do, and when it comes to marketing, that means “not much”.

Study what they’re doing, so you can emulate what’s working (not copy it) and see what you can deduce isn’t working so you can avoid it.

You won’t learn everything you need to know by studying other lawyers but you’ll learn more than you know now. And you might find a kindred spirit (who doesn’t compete directly with you) to whom you can reach out to share ideas and referrals.

To learn how to get more clients with your newsletter, go here

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Newsletters

Something good about COVID-19

March 16, 2020 by David M. Ward

One good thing about what’s happening right now is that it gives you plenty to write about in your newsletter or on social media. Your clients and subscribers will appreciate hearing from you, especially if they’re staying home from work.

For starters, you could write about what you’re doing to protect yourself, your staff, your clients, and visitors to your office.

One firm sent me an email describing a few things they’re doing, including following social distancing practices in the office, disinfecting after each visit, and conducting appointments via Zoom.

You could summarize and opine about the latest news coming out of DC, your state, and your local community. What’s going on that they might have missed and what do you think about it?

You could offer advice about how to get your money back due to event cancellations.

You could provide advice about estate planning, a topic many people seem to be especially interested in (or need to know about) right now.

(If you don’t do estate planning, ask a fellow lawyer to provide you with information you can pass along to your clients and subscribers.)

More than information, your clients and subscribers want to see that you’re calm, cool, and collected. That you’re prepared but not panicked and that you’re there for them if they need you.

Most of all, they want to hear you say that everything will be okay.

If you don’t have a newsletter, now would be an excellent time to start one.

Filed Under: Client relations, Email, Newsletters

Under pressure

March 13, 2020 by David M. Ward

Sometimes, we feel it when we’re starting a big trial or entering into a high-stakes negotiation. Sometimes, it’s when we’re dealing with an unhappy client. Sometimes, it’s not any one thing but the culmination of a lot of little things.

But there it is. And there it will always be.

How do you deal with pressure in your practice, or in your personal life?

Do you have a process you follow to steady yourself, prepare for unwanted contingencies, and reduce risk?

I just read what a brain surgeon does to achieve peak performance under pressure. It’s sound advice for any professional.

And, if you’re feeling under pressure right now, take a few minutes to listen to David Bowie and Freddy Mercury singing Under Pressure.

It’s could be just what the doctor ordered.

Filed Under: Inspiration

What I told my daughter about the Coronavirus

March 12, 2020 by David M. Ward

My daughter said she was getting nervous about Coronavirus.

My advice? Stock up on basics, use common sense when you’re out, and don’t watch the news.

Because that’s what my wife and I are doing.

And because, what else can we do?

We’re not worried. Because that doesn’t help.

Just concerned. And cautious.

The virus might turn out to be worse than others. Or it might not. Nobody knows anything yet, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

When the weather warms up, things might look very different.

Unfortunately, like a virus, panic is also contagious, and right now, panic seems to be causing more harm than the virus itself.

So, when family or clients mention the subject, the best thing we can do is show them a level head.

When this blows over, and it will, we’ll all feel a lot better because we survived, and because we didn’t contribute to the chaos.

Keep calm and carry on.

Filed Under: Inspiration

How to get a better response to your next email

March 11, 2020 by David M. Ward

One thing I see a lot in email newsletters from lawyers (and others) is a cornucopia of requests and options.

“Click here, call now, share this link, sign up here, reply and let me know. . .” and the list goes on.

You know what usually happens when you do that?

Nothing.

Because when you give readers too many choices or too much to do, they usually shut down.

Nobody has time to do everything you ask them to do. They barely have time to read your entire email.

So, if you want a better response to your newsletter or a private email, ask for just one thing.

Every email should have an objective. If you want the reader to do something, ask specifically for that single action and nothing else.

Focus the reader on doing what you want them to do with a single call to action. You can ask for something else in your next email.

Which means your emails shouldn’t be “about” a multitude of your practice areas or offers. They should be about one problem and one solution.

If for some reason you must have multiple topics or calls to action within a single email, put them into separate paragraphs and use numbers or bullet points to demarcate them.

Just don’t expect as much response to any of your offers or calls to action.

It’s okay to include additional links in the footer of the email or in your signature, for social media sharing or to link to specific pages on your site, but don’t make your email topic or the call to action about that.

For best response to your next email, write about one subject and tell your readers the one thing you want them to do.

To learn more about writing effective emails, go here now.