Four or five years ago a business partner bought me a magazine subscription as a gift. After a year, the subscription ran out. I didn’t renew it but I continued to get the magazine each month, and still do.

It’s no secret why the publisher continues to mail the magazine to lapsed subscribers. They earn most of their money through advertising, renting their list, and selling other products. The more “subscribers” on their rolls, the more they earn.

Business 101.

So how can you use this strategy to build your practice? What can you give away that will bring you more clients and more revenue?

How about your services?

Do you have (or could you cobble together) a free service that is likely to lead to paid services? Example: a free simple will package, because a certain percentage of those new clients will need a trust or other services.

More examples: first hour free, first collection case free, free incorporation, free consultation.

Like the magazine publisher, it’s not how much you give away, it’s how much you earn on the back end.

Onward.

Do you volunteer time on committees or to raise funds for a cause? If not, you might look into doing that, not just because you want to help the organization or cause but because you get something in return.

You get to meet people who can hire you, refer you, or introduce you. You get invited to write or speak or be interviewed, exposing you to other people’s clients, customers, and subscribers. You get to be seen in the public eye, associated with a worthy cause.

Yes?

Okay, what else can you give away?

Information. Reports, books, videos, blog posts, articles, and so on. Give them away and get traffic to your website, new social media followers and newsletter subscribers, and new clients who consume your content and sell themselves on hiring you.

Give away lots of information and get lots of traffic to your website, new social media followers and newsletter subscribers, and new clients who consume your content and sell themselves on hiring you.

They read, they like, they call. They also share with other people who need your help.

So yeah, free is a viable marketing strategy for lawyers. And yeah, that’s free advice I’m giving you.

Legal marketing made simple

Marketing is hard. I don’t have the time. It takes too long to get results. I don’t like [marketing activity]. I’m not good at [marketing activity]. I tried [marketing activity] and it didn’t work. I already do [marketing activity]; I don’t need to do anything else. I’m not a sales person.  I don’t need marketing, I get clients by being a good lawyer.

Wow. You really don’t like marketing.

And yet. . . you want to get more clients and increase your income.

You want to buy nice things and send your kids to good schools. And maybe not work so hard so you can stay healthy and live longer.

Remember free time? You had it once for about two weeks before you started law school. Yeah, some more of that would be nice, wouldn’t it?

And let’s not forget retirement. Crazy, I know. But still. . .

Let’s cut to the chase. You want money and the time to enjoy it. You can have them. Through marketing. That’s how I did it. That’s how you can do it.

What’s that? You say marketing is hard? You don’t like it? You don’t have the time?

Enough with the whining.

Okay, let’s make a deal. If I can show you how to make marketing a little easier, would you agree to do some?

Sweet.

Let’s start with something simple. Like sending birthday cards to your clients. You know, the people who help pay your mortgage?

Yeah, those people.

You already do that? Well look at you, you sly devil. You’re marketing. I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be our secret.

Just to make sure, you sign the cards yourself, right? In blue ink so the client knows it’s a real signature? Maybe add a personal note, like, “How did Joey do on that test?” so they know you’re thinking about them and actually wrote the card yourself?

I know, it’s hard. You might have to sign three or four cards a day. Risk getting paper cuts and glue poisoning from licking all those stamps. Yeah, use a real postage stamp, not the meter. And hand-write the name and address on the envelope. No labels.

The personal touch. Showing your clients you know who they are and you appreciate them.

Yes, that’s marketing. A few minutes a day. But oh so powerful.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

In law school, you learn the law, not how to practice law. You learn that by doing it.

Studying, answering questions under the glaring eye of your professor, and taking tests are important. But only when you start clerking do you begin to learn what it means to practice law.

You watch other lawyers negotiate, argue motions, and take depositions. You draft documents, talk to adjusters, and sit with clients and fill out forms. You immerse yourself in the environment of a real-world practice and do many of the things that lawyers do.

When you pass the bar and take your first job as a lawyer, you do more and learn more. If you open your own practice and have to sink or swim, that’s when you learn the most.

Learning how to practice law is a process and it takes place over time. The same is true of learning how to manage and grow your practice. Unfortunately, not much (or anything) about that is taught in law school. You won’t learn much from clerking, either.

Hiring and supervising employees, billing, insurance, compliance, and 101 other things, but especially marketing, without which you won’t have a practice, all require time to learn and become proficient. It’s up to you to learn it on your own.

And yet, most lawyers don’t take the time to learn these things. They dive in and see what happens.

That’s how I did it. There were no courses on marketing when I began practicing. Very few books. No consultants, at least none that I could afford. I didn’t know any lawyers who were willing to take me under their wing and teach me what to do.

I learned marketing by doing it. And you know what? That works, too.

Today, there are more options that make things easier. Lots of books and courses. You can learn how to set up your own website by watching youtube videos and complete everything in less than an hour. You can hire people to teach you what to do and to do much of it for you.

But you have to do something.

Don’t let a lack of experience stop you. As soon as you know enough to start, start. You’ll figure out the rest as you go along.

Don’t let fear stop you. As Mark Twain said, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

But do something. Because you learn how to practice law by doing it.

Start your marketing with the Attorney Marketing Formula