Developing the marketing habit

July 15, 2016 by
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When an activity become a habit, it becomes automatic; you do it without thinking about it. Eventually, through repetition, you get better at it and you get better results.

That’s true of the exercise habit, the reading habit, and the marketing habit.

In James Clear’s recent article, The Scientific Argument for Mastering One Thing at a Time, he offers some observations about developing new habits, based on research:

1. You are 2x to 3x more likely to follow through with a habit if you make a specific plan for when, where, and how you are going to implement it. This is known as an implementation intention.

2. You should focus entirely on one habit. Research has found that implementation intentions do not work if you try to improve multiple habits at the same time.

3. Research has shown that any given habit becomes more automatic with more practice. On average, it takes at least two months for new habits to become automatic behaviors.

Conclusion: it’s best to focus on one specific habit, work on it until you master it, and make it an automatic part of your daily life. Then, repeat the process for the next habit.

I have long preached the value of working on marketing every day for 15 minutes. I’ve said that you should schedule those minutes in your calendar as an appointment and keep that appointment. I’ve said, “you can use that time to do anything related to marketing, even if you’re only reading about it or thinking and making notes”.

But Clear suggests that you have a specific plan for working on your new habit. Is doing “anything related to marketing” specific enough?

When you are first establishing the habit, I think it is. Blocking out the time and doing something every day is the new habit. Being able to do anything gives you the flexibility to be bad before you get good.

Once the 15-minute habit is firmly a part of your routine, however, your plan should become more specific.

If you want to develop the habit of finding and reaching out to professionals with whom you can network, for example, work on that during your 15 minutes.

And only that.

Clear’s other points tell us to work on one new habit only, for at least two months. Once you have established your new habit, you can move onto others.

When I committed to writing daily emails, I wasn’t sure I could do it. Now it is automatic. It’s a part of me. I don’t have to think about it, I just do it.

My new habit has paid me many dividends, so, once you have developed your 15-minute marketing habit, if you’re looking for another habit to work on, you might want to work on writing.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development Tagged With:

How do you know your email marketing is working? 

July 14, 2016 by
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You’ve started an email list or newsletter. How do you know your email marketing is working?

Well, you’re getting more clients. Year-to-year your numbers are growing. If you pay close attention, you realize that your growth is accompanied by less effort because frankly, writing emails is about as easy as marketing gets.

If you’re doing it right, you’re also hearing from subscribers who thank you for your emails. They like your tips and have benefited from them and shared them with others. They tell you that when your email arrives they read it first thing. They look forward to your emails because they know they contain valuable information, and even more, they are fun to read.

Note to self: make emails fun to read.

If you’re really doing it right, they tell you that you are the only lawyer they read, or that they only read a few lawyers’ emails and yours is definitely one of the few.

You also get questions they’d like you to answer. It’s called engagement. It’s also called giving people what they want, not what you think they want or need.

I know these things because I hear them from you. I appreciate your feedback and kind words. I also appreciate you for buying my products and hiring my services, and for sharing with me the results you are getting because of my advice. I also appreciate your telling other lawyers about me and my site.

All of these things come from or are greatly enhanced by my email marketing.

Now, how do you accomplish these things?

Frequency. Write as often as possible. Once a month is not often enough. Once a day isn’t too often.

Consistency. Whatever schedule you choose, stick to it.

Value. Give them information they can use. Tips, links, reviews, resources, ideas, examples, explanations, how-tos.

Entertainment. Make them smile, tell them stories that make them ask, “What happened next?”

Personal. Talk about the people in your life and the things that happen to them, and to you.

Relatable. Don’t talk about your BMW if your subscribers primarily drive Toyotas.

Original. Tell them things they don’t ordinarily hear from lawyers.

Surprising. Don’t be boring or predictable.

There, that’s not so difficult, is it? (See that, I asked you a question. That’s another thing you should do).

But don’t hide your wares. Don’t be shy about telling them to hire you or take the next step. Do it often. Every email isn’t too often.

They need to hear this. They expect it. And as long as you are also delivering value, they don’t mind it.

If you believe they need what you offer and will be better off by hiring you, you owe it to them to do whatever you can to help them get it. So tell them what to do, remind them why, and remind them what might happen if they don’t.

Your clients will be grateful that you helped them finally do what they knew they needed to do but didn’t. They’ll be glad they chose you because, through your emails, they believe they know, like, and trust you. They’ll be glad to know that if they don’t need you today, you’ll be there tomorrow when they do.

And you and your bankbook will be glad that they’re glad.

Email marketing will make your phone ring. Here’s how

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

What makes content shareable?

July 13, 2016 by
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You’re ready to write a blog post, article, or social media post and you want your subscribers and followers to share it. What should you write that will make that more likely to occur?

We know that sex and scandal and other tabloid-esq topics sell, but that’s off the table. Humor and human interest (kittens, babies, sports, games) are highly shareable, and you can write about those things occasionally, but only occasionally.

What then? News? Opinion? World events?

Sometimes. But your best bet is also the simplest. Write about your area of expertise.

Write about legal problems and solutions. Write about the law and procedure, the timeline and processes, the benefits of taking action and the risks of waiting too long. Describe your services and the pros and cons of each.

Answer the questions prospective clients and new clients frequently ask you. And write about the questions they should ask you but often don’t.

Show people what it’s like to work with you by describing what you do and how you do it.

Write about your clients and how you have helped them. Write about people you know who didn’t get help and are now paying the price.

Educate people about what they can do themselves. Teach them when they should talk to a lawyer and what questions they should ask them.

Write about solving problems, preventing problems and mitigating consequences when problems occur.

If you have a consumer-oriented practice, you can also write consumer-related topics such as buying the right insurance, saving money, retirement, taxes, etc. You can also write about issues and developments in your local community.

For a business-oriented practice, write about marketing, management, productivity, and issues and developments in your target market’s industry or niche.

No matter what type of practice you have, you can also write about personal development because everyone reading what you write is, unarguably, a person.

This is the kind of content that people will share with friends and colleagues and co-workers and family, because they know they need it or they know they would benefit from it.

And that’s all any of us could ask.

More ideas for creating shareable content that will make your phone ring

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Social media marketing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

Out of sight, out of luck

July 12, 2016 by
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One of the main reasons people who could refer you business don’t do so is that they “don’t think about it”. They’re busy and have other things on their mind. Unless they have a legal need, they don’t think about you or your services.

Out of sight, out of luck, me bucko.

You can change that, and get more repeat business and referrals, by doing the following:

1) Stay in touch with them

The easiest way to do that is via email. One of my subscribers, an associate in a firm that severely limits his ability to do any marketing, told me that he now emails his clients and prospects and referral sources every two weeks.

He writes about legal matters, and also about what he’s doing in his practice and, I suppose, in his personal life.

He’s staying “in their minds and their mailboxes” and getting repeat business and referrals, and lots of it.

He tells me, “It has worked like a charm. When you write email blasts “right where they live” you are reaching out to them, and many think it is personal. You establish your credibility. You establish a reputation.”

2) Talk about referrals

Another reason you don’t get as many referrals as you could is that you’re not talking about referrals. There are many ways to do that, but one of the simplest is something I suggested to the lawyer mentioned above: put a blurb at the bottom of your emails asking the recipient to forward it to their friends, colleagues, etc., who might like to receive his updates. Spell out what those people should do if they want to be added to the list.

People read your wisdom, tacitly endorsed by the friend or colleague who forwared it to them. They like what they see and want to see more. They ask to be added to your list. You stay in touch with them and they hire you and send you referrals.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

You can make this work better by using an autoresponder to manage everything and offering an incentive to join your list–a report, ebook, or a collection of some your best prior articles–but you don’t have to.

3) Make it easy to refer

Many clients and contacts come close to referring but don’t do it because they don’t know what to do. Do they tell the referral about you and give them your number? Do they send the referral some information about you, and if so, what should it be? Do they tell you about the referral? If they do that, what will you do?

Of course, when it comes to making it easy, “forward this email” is about as easy as it gets. Your contacts don’t have to refer people to you, they can refer them to your content and then your content refers you.

Get this if you want to learn how to get more referrals

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Referrals

If IKEA managed your law firm

July 11, 2016 by
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Yesterday afternoon, my wife and I visited IKEA. Among other items, I bought a side chair for my home office. This morning, I opened the box and looked at the instructions for setting it up.

Note to self: never look at instructions before having coffee.

I’m sitting here now, coffee mug at hand, remembering the other IKEA furniture I’ve set up. As intimidating as some of the instructions have been, I never once failed to set up anything, and I’m not what anyone would call handy.

IKEA sells millions of items that need to be set up, to millions of people who aren’t handy, many of whom don’t speak English. Or Swedish. They do it by providing caveman-simple picture instructions that spell out everything. No words, just big, easy-to-understand drawings of all of the parts and what to do with them.

If you don’t understand something, they tell you to call to get help. Yep, they use pictures to explain that, too.

Now, do you think your clients would like this kind of help when they buy your services?

Yes they would. They would like to know exactly what you are doing with their case and exactly what they should do and not do. They don’t want to have to call you to explain everything, but they like knowing that if they wanted to, they could.

You need written, detailed, dead-simple instructions for every service you offer, and for every stage of those services. You can’t use pictures, and you probably need to translate everything into other languages, but this is definitely something that should be a hallmark of your practice.

Think about it. When you prep a client for a deposition, you talk to them and explain what’s going to happen and what they should and shouldn’t do. How much of what you tell them registers and is remembered?

You probably role-play with them. You may show them videos that demonstrate the process. That’s all good, but they should also have written, detailed instructions they can refer to, with plenty of if/then statements, explanations, and examples.

If an IKEA rep had EXPLAINED to me how to set up my new chair, even if he role-played with me, without written instructions in front of me, I’m not sure I could set the thing up. Even if I could, I know it would take longer, I would make mistakes, and the entire experience would be a stressful mess.

IKEA does a lot of things right but do you think one of the reasons people buy from them instead of other retailers is that they make things easy? If you make things easy for your clients, do you think some might choose you instead of other lawyers who don’t?

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Filed Under: Law office management

You don’t know what you don’t know

July 8, 2016 by
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New computer arrived and it’s faster than hell. I had no idea that apps and sites and pages could load that fast.

The hard drive is faster, the processor is faster, and it has twice the RAM. I’m sure being new also has something to do with it.

The last time I saw this happen was the last time I got a new computer. “So this is how the rest of the world lives,” I thought.

Anyway, this isn’t about why you should consider replacing your old equipment with something new. It’s about not knowing what you’re missing in your life until you actually experience it.

Like the first time you hire someone who is really good at their job. I once hired a temp who was so fast and competent I begged her to work for me full time. She didn’t, but she set the standard for everyone who followed.

Or the client who is scared to death to hire a lawyer and finds out you’re not scary and you can truly can help them and they are so relieved they want to cry.

We don’t know what we don’t know and the only way to find out is to try a lot of things.

When it comes to marketing and practice management, read everything you can get your hands on and try as many things as time permits. One idea, one technique, one tool, one contact, could change everything.

But you’ll never know unless you try.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development, Technology

Do you have a back-up plan for your practice?

July 7, 2016 by
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My hard drive started making a noise so I ordered a new computer. I also ordered a new external hard drive for back- ups. And yes, I also back up to the cloud.

So I’m good. If disaster strikes, I’m ready.

Going through this process made me think about back-up plans for other areas of my life. I have multiple sources of income but I’m working on new ones. I don’t rely on one marketing method, so if something went awry, I could lean in on the others.

How about you? Do you have back-ups for your machines, your marketing, and your sources of income? Do you have extra food and water at home?

If something bad happens, will you be ready?

In the marketing department, most lawyers get most of their new clients through referrals. At least they should. And when you think about it, referrals have their own built-in back-up plan because referrals come from, or should come from, dozens of individuals–former clients, existing clients, professional referral sources, friends, and so on. If one decides they no longer like you, you still have others.

Referral sources die off, however, and need to be replaced. And you should never rely on referrals just happening, even if they presently do. You should work at making them happen, consistently and in ever-increasing numbers. There are ways to do this, as detailed in my several courses on referrals.

Okay, you’re with me. You regularly do things to stimulate referrals. You’re getting most of your new clients from referrals and that number is growing. Or at least you’re working in that direction.

Good. But what’s your back-up plan?

Yes, a back-up plan for your back-up plan. What else do you do to bring in business? What else will you start doing?

Suggestion? A content-rich website. Just make sure you back that up, too.

How to get more client referrals

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

It’s time for me to confess

July 6, 2016 by
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I have a confession to make. I don’t like marketing. Never have, never will.

That may sound crazy coming from me but it’s true. So if you don’t like marketing, that’s cool. We’re on the same page.

What I like is what marketing can do. The new business it brings. The lifestyle it affords.

I like knowing that because of marketing, I will never have sleepless nights worried about where my next client will come from, or if they will come at all.

And, compared to some of the other things I’ve had to do in my career, marketing really isn’t difficult. Or time-consuming. Or expensive.

At least it doesn’t have to be.

And hey, marketing lets you use the very skills that made a career in law attractive to you: writing, speaking, thinking, planning–using your brain instead of your brawn. And let’s not forget that marketing also allows you to help more people.

So hate on it, if you must, but find a way to do it. Because marketing is your friend. Even if you don’t like your friend and wish you never had to see her again.

Marketing is easier with this

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Is your online presence costing you business?

July 5, 2016 by
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Our washing machine is failing so we’ve been shopping for a replacement. My wife spent lots of time reading reviews before making her selection. Unfortunately, the one she wants is slightly too big for the space occupied by the current machine. There is a cabinet overhead and the lid of the new machine wouldn’t clear it.

We went to a store to see if there was anything we could do. We talked to a friendly sales person and asked about switching the positions of the washer and dryer, which would solve the problem (our dryer is front loading), and the sales person told us that they do this all the time.

Only they don’t.

According to another sales person at that store, due to legal concerns, their installers won’t move the dryer. We would have to buy a new dryer, which we don’t need. He also pointed out some other issues with respect to the position of the existing hookups.

Was the first sales person telling us what we wanted to hear? Was the second sales person being overly cautious?

We didn’t know so went to another store and asked the same questions.

That sales person told us there should be no problem switching the machines, but he would check with their installers and let us know.

His shirt indicated that he was the head of the department and we wondered why he didn’t already know the answer to this question. In addition, he made absolutely no eye contact with us while he said “no problem.” My wife and I walked away thinking we couldn’t trust him.

Now, do you think prospective clients go through a similar process when they are shopping for a lawyer?

Yes indeed. And if they don’t trust you, they won’t hire you.

If a lawyer doesn’t have a website, many clients will pass them over, even if the lawyer was referred by a friend. In addition, according to one study, 75% of consumers say that not having a professional email address (you@yourdomain.com) is an important trust factor.

I’ve mentioned this before. If you have a generic gmail or hotmail or aol email address, you’re probably losing business.

Prospective clients don’t hire lawyers they don’t trust and if you don’t want to lose business, you need to tick as many “trust” boxes as you can. Start with your online presence, which is what they see first. Your website doesn’t need to look snazzy, but it should look professional, be easy to navigate, and have lots of good content.

And when they come to see you, make sure you make eye contact and tell them the truth, not what you think they want to hear.

The 9 elements of an effective website

 

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Filed Under: Email, Online Marketing Tagged With:

What to do about freebie seekers

July 1, 2016 by
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We all get people asking us for free advice. It goes with the territory. But sometimes it gets to us, as a friend of mine expressed in a recent email:

“Hi David –

Do you get requests to provide free advice?

I’m feeling insulted by professionals – many of them strangers – expecting me to provide free advice.

I hear “I just want to ask a few questions” or “I don’t have money to pay you” and the like.

Am I putting the wrong vibe out there? Or, is it a universal problem?

What do you think?

Thanks for your input.”

I said, “So you’re asking me for free advice about what to do about people who ask for free advice?”

Okay, having a bit of fun, but isn’t that what she’s doing? Even if we are friends and even if she is only letting off steam and looking for me to tell her this is normal (which is it), her request makes plain how easy it is for people to ask for free advice.

That’s just the way it is.

I get these, too. Are we putting out the wrong vibe? I don’t know but I don’t worry about it.

In fact, it’s a good thing. It means that people feel comfortable reaching out to us. It means they value our advice, yes, even if they are unwilling or unable to pay for it.

So don’t let it get to you.

The question isn’t how many people don’t want to pay, it’s how many do. Are you making money? Are most of the people who contact you willing to hire you? When they do, are they willing to pay top dollar?

Focus on them and you will attract more of them.

And hey, just because someone emails you doesn’t mean you have to respond. Or explain why you charge for your services, or why you charge as much as you do.

If you do respond, point to the page on your website that explains your policies, enumerates the services you offer, and tells them what to do to hire you or take the next step.

Or ask them, as I often do, “Do you want to book a consultation?” I usually don’t hear from them again.

Be firm. But be nice. Because today’s freebie seeker might be tomorrow’s paying client.

And if you are inclined to respond substantively, as I am doing here, turn your response into a blog post or article, as I am doing here. Think of it as your compensation. Because you don’t work for free.

How to use your website to weed out freebie seekers

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:
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