Is marketing boring (and does it matter)?

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Are you bored with your marketing? Are you doing the same things over and over again, lost in the routine, feeling like you don’t want to do it anymore?

Yeah, that sounds boring.

But we all do things we don’t enjoy, don’t we? We do them because we have responsibilities, or because we like the results we get more than we dislike the routine.

If your marketing is boring but you’re making a fortune or you’re accomplishing worthwhile goals, does it matter?

On the other hand, who says our marketing has to be boring? What if you loved marketing and looked forward to doing it–wouldn’t you get even better results?

Indeed.

But how? How do you un-borify marketing?

The answer is different for everyone, of course, but here are a few thoughts.

First, your routine may be boring but people can be interesting. Maybe you don’t need to change your routine, you need to change your people.

Find a different crowd to network with. Target a new niche market. Get rid of the clients with boring problems and replace them with clients with exciting problems.

Second, it might not be what you do, it might be how you do it. What if you improve your skills?

Maybe you find networking boring because you come home with a bunch of business cards and not much happens after that. What if you got better at making things happen?

Third, maybe it’s as simple as trying something different.

Make a list of all of the things you do or have done in the past that could be considered marketing. Make another list of things you’ve never done, or did before and gave up.

What if you could find a strategy that wasn’t boring?

All you need is one.

This will help

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Are lawyers pessimists?

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Elbert Hubbard said, “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”

That sounds good but I think it depends on what you do for a living.

I’ll explain.

I woke up today thinking, Why is it that engineers often make good entrepreneurs and lawyers often don’t?

Both groups are smart, analytical, and precise. We both work hard and put in our dues.

So, what’s the difference?

I’m going to take a guess and say it is that engineers focus on finding ways to make things work, while lawyers focus on finding things that can go wrong.

Engineers are optimists. Lawyers are pessimists.

Engineers believe that there is a solution and keep working until they find it. Lawyers solve one problem and expect to find more.

Engineers expect to fail many times before finding the solution. Lawyers are built differently. We avoid risk because we want to avoid failure.

Engineers succeed by making lots of mistakes. Lawyers succeed by finding lots of ways to avoid mistakes.

I’m probably wrong about this. Or am I just being pessimistic?

Marketing online for attorneys

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No jail can hold our clients

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I saw an article today about why folks may want to create a family motto, something that fosters unity and inspires the kids. Of course, I immediately thought about how this could apply to a law firm.

Off the top of my head, I can think of two mottos for law firms, both DUI defense lawyers who have done a lot of advertising: “No Cuffs” and “Friends don’t let friends plead guilty.”

So, how about your firm?

Hmmm, for a family law firm: “When you can’t take it anymore, call us”. Hey, not bad.

How about immigration: “They’re here. We can help them stay.” I think that might actually work.

Landlord/tenant (evictions): “30 days means 30 days.” I like it.

I’m on a roll.

Insurance defense: “Our JDs can increase your ROI”.

PI: “Insurance companies hate us.”

Anyway, even if you don’t advertise, give some thought to creating a motto or slogan for your firm. It can help you conceptualize a key benefit you want to convey to prospective clients.

Or, create one for internal use only. C’mon, it’ll be fun.

I’ll start.

Litigation: “Will sue for food.”

Start ups: “Legal obstetricians: We help you give birth to your great idea”

IP: “We help you ‘Ink and Grow Rich'”

Okay, that’s enough from me. Your turn.

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How?

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I saw a quote today that provides a valuable lesson to everyone who markets professional services:

“Don’t just sell the thing you do. Sell the way you do the thing you do.

“Why is this so valuable? Because services are intangible. People can’t see what they get when they hire you.

Of course, you must tell prospective clients what will happen when they hire you. Tell them how their situation will be improved, how their problems and pain and risks will lesson, how they will be able to sleep better at night.

Clients don’t hire you to write documents and talk to other lawyers–they hire you to get results.

But since other lawyers do what you do, if you want to stand out, you should also tell people how you do what you do.

Show them a picture.

Tell them about the information you collect, the questions you ask, the steps you take to move things from point A to point B and beyond.

Show them what it will be like having you as their attorney.

Your competition does essentially the same things you do but they’re not you. Your style, your habits, your personality, are all a part of what you do. Show people what that looks like.

Don’t just sell the thing you do. Sell the way you do the thing you do.

This will help

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Frustrated, overwhelmed and disillusioned

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Somethings wrong. You’re working hard but spinning your wheels. You’re stressed out and you don’t know what you’re doing wrong.

Am I incompetent? An imposter? A fool?

Maybe. But probably not. That’s probably your frustration, overwhelm, and disillusionment talking.

More likely, you’re simply trying to do too much.

I’ve been there. Early in my practice. Ready to pull my hair out because I was working hard but not making any money.

I hadn’t heard about The Pareto Principle–the 80/20 rule–and the power of doing less to accomplish more.

But something told me I had to start taking things off my plate, and I did.

I eliminated or delegated things that weren’t working (or that I hated), no matter how “promising” they seemed or how much I wanted them to work, and freed up time and mental energy to do the few things that were actually working.

The “20% activities that produce 80% of your results”.

What happened? Besides being scared to death that I was cutting out too much and doing too little, my income went up.

Because I was focusing on (and getting good at) a few things, instead of trying to do “everything”.

I was earning more and working less.

One of the things I focused on was marketing. Ah, but not all kinds of marketing. I focused on a few strategies. One of these was learning how to bring in more referrals.

You can learn how to do that, here

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Have you taken your vitamin today?

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Back in the days when vitamins were first making their way into our collective consciousness, companies that made “multiple vitamins” would promote the simplicity and ease of taking “one a day”.

You don’t have to figure out which pills or what dosage to take, just take our “one a day” pill.

In fact, some companies still do this. They know that the easier it is for customers to do, the more customers will do it.

And that makes sense.

Of course, I see a parallel between taking vitamins and marketing legal services.

If I make it easier for you, you’ll be more likely to do it.

Yes or yes?

So, here’s your “one a day” marketing vitamin:

Once a day, connect with one person.

You could call a former client, to say hello, or send him an article you thought might interest him.

You could follow-up with a prospective client, to see if they have any additional questions.

You could call a professional contact, to schedule coffee, compliment their new article, or see what they’re up to.

One a day.

It doesn’t sound like much but for many attorneys, it’s more than they do now.

The key is to make a habit. Take your vitamin every day.

A simple but effective way to improve the health of your practice.

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Boom, baby, boom

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I’m talking about Baby Boomers. Tens of millions of people who might need your legal services and probably have the money to pay for them.

How about that as a target market?

Yes, even if you don’t do estate planning or elder law or anything typically associated with older folk.

Because older folk get divorced. File bk. Get arrested. Start businesses. File patents. Sue and get sued. And God knows they get injured.

But here’s the thing: even if they don’t, they have family and friends who do.

You accept referrals, don’t you?

Boomers are also sought after by other professionals (financial planners, retirement planners, investment advisors, et. al.). When you target Boomers, you will have something in common with those professionals, which means you can network with them and tap into their other clients.

Put this on your to-do list: talk to Mom and Dad about their generation (or, look in the mirror and talk to yourself about your generation) and start paying attention to this market. 

Tens of millions of potential clients are waiting for you. (You do offer a senior discount, right?)

Need help choosing your target market? Here it is

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Read this for just 30 seconds

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I read an article about the scientific basis of procrastination  (short answer: we do it because it makes us feel better), and how to stop it.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that one of the keys to overcoming procrastination is to get started. According to research, any progress we make can be a big motivator to keep going.

Of course, getting started is often the hardest part. One way to do it, according to the article, is to “make getting started ridiculously easy”.

Here are 5 ways to do that, including one I’ve never heard of:

  1. Organize it. Gather your notes, open a new file, put a date on your calendar, set up a new “project” template, make a list of steps, etc. Any one of these means you’ve started.
  2. Talk to someone about it. Explain the task to a partner, or friend, ask for feedback or suggestions. Talking about it means you’ve started. It also means someone you know will probably ask you “how’s it going”.
  3. The Salami Technique. Carve up the task into tiny slices, things that you can do in a few minutes.
  4. Use a timer. Give yourself five minutes to work on it. You can do a lot in five minutes.
  5. Sit and think about it. According to the author of the article, “I start by just thinking about the task for a while, until I’m drawn in and can’t help working on it.”

The last one sounds intriguing. I imagine that sitting and thinking about something you’ve been avoiding gets you to start it because doing “something” is better than doing nothing.

Will any of these help you complete a task you’ve been avoiding? I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure they’ll help you get started.

Procrastinating on marketing? This will help you start

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What if I could?

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A while back I saw this post on Flakebook: “If you had to reach your five-year goals in 6 months, what would you need to do now?”

What a great question. 

We assume that five-year goals will take five years to achieve and so we plan and operate accordingly. This question forces us to think outside that damn box.

Let’s give this some context:

If you knew you only had six months to live and you wanted to earn $500,000 in (additional) cash to leave your family, what would you do?

Hold on while I put on my philosopher’s hat.

If you don’t believe you could earn an extra $500k in five years, how could you possibly believe you could earn that in six months? You need a different goal, right?

“What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve,” Napoleon Hill said, the key word being “believe”. We need a goal we believe is possible.

Really?

Does this mean we can never have big goals? Do we have to settle for what we believe is possible?

That’s no fun.

Maybe the point of this exercise is to ask “impossible” questions, to see where it takes you.

Questions that force us to dig deep into the creative recesses of our minds to find ideas we never knew we had.

Questions that force us to become better observers and researchers, to discover what other people are doing that we never thought was possible for us.

Questions that force us to ask, What if I could?

What if you could double your referrals this year?

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Finding your inner Stormtrooper

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Just read an article in the ABA Journal about an Arizona lawyer who loves Star Wars and “dressing up or ‘cosplaying’ as a Stormtrooper.”

She attends conventions, marches in parades, and belongs to an international organization of thousands of fans who have fun and raise money for charities. She also does some legal work for her local chapter of the organization.

Some lawyers would say that dressing up is unprofessional. Some would say it’s a waste of time.

I would say, nicely done.

C’mon, she gets to get out of the office and spend time with people who share her passion. She gets to raise money for hospitals. And, instead of building her network at boring Chamber of Commerce meetings, she’s building her network doing something she loves.

Not to mention getting an article in the ABA Journal about her.

I did a coaching call yesterday with a lawyer whose practice needs a shot in the arm. One thing we talked about is getting out of the office, doing something different, and meeting some new people.

I don’t know if he’s a Star Wars fan but I hear the Rebel Forces are recruiting.

Marketing your practice starts with The Formula

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