Write it once, use it forever

April 21, 2016 by
Share

I’m sure you have a welcome letter you mail to new clients. You probably also use some kind of “memo” or form to accompany mailed documents, along with check boxes to indicate what the recipient should do (e.g., sign and return, review, etc.)

Form letters save time and reduce the risk of errors or omissions and I encourage you to create them for all aspects of your practice.

Gmail has a feature called “canned responses”. Outlook and other email applications have something similar. They allow you to create email templates or “form letters” you can use instead of composing an original email each time, or copying and pasting paragraphs or whole emails from another document.

Go through your “sent” emails for the last 60 or 90 days and look for “frequently sent emails,” whether originated by you or sent in response to an inquiry. Flag them for creating canned responses.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • I got your email (and will reply soon/this week/after I review your questions)
  • Thank you (for coming in, calling, returning documents, for your help)
  • Here’s what to do/expect (what happens next, watch your mail, please call me, don’t forget to send us)
  • Answers to FAQs (hours, parking, fees, practice areas. Provide answers and/or direct to pages on your website)
  • Marketing inquiries (do you accept advertising, guest posts; I’m available for interviews)
  • Checking in (with clients, former clients, networking contacts)
  • Nice to meet you (after a networking event, introduction, phone conversation)
  • Announcing (new content on your website, firm news, new laws/regs)
  • Promoting (your newsletter, your ebook, your seminar, your podcast or youtube channel)
  • Reminders (next appointment, court dates, due dates)
  • It’s time to review (your lease, trust, corporate docs, agreements, legal status)

In addition to complete emails, you can set up a “library” of frequently used paragraphs, links, and subject lines.

While you’re at it, don’t forget to set up different “email signatures”.

For prospective clients, your signature might promote a free report or free consultation, invite them to connect with you on social, or invite them to review specific pages on your website. For existing clients, your signature might invite them to sign up for your “clients only” email list or cross-promote other services offered by you or your firm.

Using canned responses, form letters, and checklists might save you 30 minutes a day, or more. How much would that be worth to you over the course of a year?

Leverage is the key to earning more and working less. More

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , ,

Who are you? Who who who who?

April 20, 2016 by
Share

I used to talk about how clients use the yellow pages to choose an attorney. I said it was often a matter of chance because the client would open the book and see page after page of listings, most of which looked and said the same thing.

In fact, most of the ads were interchangeable. Take the name and contact information from one attorney’s page and swap it for another attorney’s page and nobody would be the wiser.

And that’s true today when it comes to websites. Or TV ads, brochures, articles and blog posts, and everything else most attorneys put out into the world.

It’s all the same. Most attorneys in a given practice area offer the same services and make the same promises and nobody stands out. Clients might as well close their eyes and point to the first page or listing or article they see. At least that’s how they feel about it because there are scant reasons provided for choosing one attorney over the others.

You need to give people those reasons.

Tell them why you’re different and better and why they should choose you instead of your competition.

But there’s something else you should do. If you want to stand out you need to show people not just what you do but who you are.

People want to know if you’re someone they will like and trust. They want to know what it would be like to work with you.

Because people buy YOU before they buy your services.

So talk about yourself. On your website, blog, newsletter, in interviews and ads, talk about your background, family, and hobbies. Show them what you look like and sound like. Mention your favorite sports team, and your favorite type of restaurant.

Share your views on popular topics in your niche market or community. Tell them your philosophies for building your practice, your exercise habits, or your favorite productivity apps.

Talk about what you did for a living before law school, or what you studied in school. Do you play a sport? Are you a big Star Wars fan or do you prefer Star Trek?

Don’t firehose them. A photo or two, a paragraph or three, is all you need.

Show them who you are because who you are is unique, even if what you do is not.

More on how to stand out–here and here

Share
Filed Under: Image, Marketing legal services

Um, could you be more specific?

April 19, 2016 by
Share

I got an email today that had a link to an article with this headline: “Don’t make these 5 common legal mistakes”.

Not bad. It makes the reader want to know what those mistakes are so they can see if they’re making them. It appeals to curiosity and promises a benefit. It also invokes fear because if these are common mistakes, there’s a good chance, the reader thinks, that they’re making one of them, and because these are legal mistakes, they could cause serious grief and financial loss.

But while this is a good headline, it’s not good enough. Not today, anyway.

Most consumer and general business publications have this type of article and your reader has lots of other pressing things on his or her mind.

So no click.

The headline isn’t good enough because it’s not specific enough.

Let’s say I’m a good prospect for your practice and you wrote this article. If your headline promised to show me, “5 common mistakes made by California homeowners,” I might lean towards clicking because I am a California homeowner. Your article might earn my attention because it is obviously targeted to me, rather than “everyone”.

But it could be even more specific, and thus almost irresistible. If it promised to reveal “5 common mistakes made by California homeowners when filing their tax returns,” since that’s on my mind right now, I would almost have to read your article.

My point is that most headlines (email subjects, etc.) aren’t specific enough to cut through the morass of messages that come across everyone’s field of vision on a daily basis. Specifics will almost always get you more clicks and eyeballs.

It’s true that the more specific you are, the more you will appeal to a smaller number of possible readers, but that’s the point. The readers you do appeal to will be more likely to respond.

I’d rather have ten people read my article than 100 who thought about it but didn’t. I’d rather have five people who would make a good client for my practice read my article than 50 people who wouldn’t.

So, with all things marketing, as with all things legal, your challenge is to find the sweet spot so you can maximize your results.

You don’t need (or want) to appeal to “everyone”. You want to appeal to your ideal client, and you want him or her to immediately understand that that’s exactly what you’re doing. To do that, you have to be willing to give up everyone else.

This will help you identify your ideal client

Share
Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Writing

How to get your clients to advertise your firm

April 18, 2016 by
Share

Would you spend $30 on a client who agrees to advertise your firm?

If so, how about giving your new clients a collared polo or golf shirt, with your firm’s name and website on the breast, as a welcome gift?

If you hand out 100 shirts this year, that’s 100 people walking around town advertising your firm. Your clients aren’t a passive billboard, however, they are interactive. People will ask them about the name on their shirt and your clients will say nice things about you.

If you get one or two new clients this way, you’ll cover your investment. The rest is pure profit.

Of course, that’s just for this year. Most people continue to wear clothing after one year, especially if it still looks good on them. And every year they wear it is more “free” advertising for you.

Yes, you could buy $10 t-shirts instead, but some people don’t wear t-shirts and t-shirts are unlikely to hold up as well. But t-shirts can work, too.

Make sure you give shirts to your staff. If you have casual Fridays, office parties, or other firm events, everyone should wear them. You too.

You can give shirts to former clients, networking friends, and people in your office building you’re friendly with, especially if they work in an office that targets clients and customers who would be suitable for your practice.

You could also order a smaller quantity of more expensive “Tommy Bahama” style shirts and use those for special clients or special occasions (e.g., awards, milestones).

Have fun with this. Take pictures of people wearing your shirt and put them on your website. Hold drawings or contests and offer a shirt as one of the prizes.

Oh yeah, in case you’re wondering. . . I take an XL.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising

How much cash should you have before you open your own office?

April 15, 2016 by
Share

I just heard from a lawyer who works for a firm and is thinking of going out on his own. He wants to know how much he should have in savings before making the leap.

Well, you need some cash–but a lot less than you might think.

You don’t have to invest in inventory. You don’t need to hire anyone until you have clients. You can get into an office with a couple months rent.  And if you plan to advertise, you don’t have to buy TV time or billboards, you can start with a small budget and scale up.

In other words, you don’t need a big pile of money to open your own practice. What you need is some cash on hand to pay your bills until the practice is producing enough income on its own.

But how much?

Six months? A year? Two years?

I don’t know. I don’t have a formula. But I can tell you this: it’s better to have “too little” than “too much”.

A big pile of money in the bank takes the pressure off of you. You can take your time. Be selective. Relax and do things “right”.

And that’s the problem. If you don’t have to hustle, you probably won’t.

When I opened my first office, I had almost no money in the bank. I sold my childhood coin collection to buy some (cheap) furniture and pay the first month’s rent on a small office. I bought an IBM Selectric typewriter with nothing down and payments of $43.43 per month. I bought some stationery, cards, pleading paper, legal pads, file folders, and pens. I had enough left over to cover a couple of months rent and basic expenses.

I was open for business, but I didn’t have any. No clients.

I took out a cheap classified ad in the local bar journal, seeking overflow work and appearances. And I hustled my rear end off to bring in some clients of my own. At first, I took anything, including work I hated and was barely qualified to handle. Most of my clients paid me next to nothing because that’s all they could afford and I took it because I needed whatever they could pay.

Every month was a struggle to cover my bills. It took five years before I figured things out, but I made it.

I made it because if I didn’t bring in business, I didn’t eat.

Looking back, I don’t know what would have happened if I had had lots of money at the start. Yeah, I do. I probably would have gone through it, thinking I had lots of time, and only then would I have had enough pressure to make things happen.

Your situation is different. You have more experience as a lawyer than I did. You know more about marketing than I did. And you have the Internet, which allows you to ramp things up more quickly. But you also have more competition than I did.

The bottom line on making the decision to open your own practice has little to do with how much money you have at the start, and everything to do with your drive and determination.

How bad do you want it?

If you’ve got lots of energy and you’re willing to work harder than you’ve every worked before, if you’re prepared to do whatever it takes to make it, you’ll make it.

Or you won’t. There are no guarantees. No paycheck, no benefits. Nothing. You have to build it all.

It’s called risk, but risk is the path to reward.

Make sure you have a marketing plan before you open your own practice

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, success Tagged With: ,

By the inch, it’s a cinch

April 14, 2016 by
Share

I saw a quotation the other day that is a testament to the value of personal growth. It said, “You don’t overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself better”.

Jim Rohn said, “Don’t wish for fewer problems, wish for better skills”.

If we want to achieve more, we need to become more because we don’t necessarily get what we want, we get what we are.

As we increase our skills and knowledge, we can handle bigger problems and achieve bigger goals. But is personal growth the only path to success? Are there no shortcuts, no ways to bypass the rigors of personal growth?

I think there are. I think we really can overcome challenges by making them smaller.

If you have a big problem right now, break it down into a series of smaller problems that are easier to solve. Break down your big goals into a series of smaller goals that are achievable now.

Let’s say you have a goal to double your income in the next two years. Traditional thinking says that to earn that kind of income you must first become the kind of person who earns that kind of income.

But maybe you don’t.

Maybe you could double your income by getting some better-paying clients or bigger cases. Maybe you could partner up with another lawyer who’s better at marketing than you. Maybe you could change practice areas, open a second office, or finally take the plunge and do something about that website of yours.

Am I saying we don’t need to work on personal growth? Not at all. For long-term success, it’s imperative. Think about the many lottery winners who go broke in a few years because they weren’t millionaires on the inside, they simply had millions of dollars in the bank.

What I’m saying is that while you’re growing and developing, look for ways to break up big problems and big goals into smaller ones. Because by the inch, it’s a cinch.

Attorney marketing made simple

Share
Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: ,

How to make yourself do something you don’t want to do

April 13, 2016 by
Share

I know about that thing you’re supposed to be doing. I also know it’s not getting done. No, I didn’t speak to your wife, I just know. You’re dilly dallying. Avoiding it. Procrastinating.

You know you should do it, but you don’t want to. So you don’t.

No worries. I’m here to help.

The first thing I want you to do is to write down this thing you don’t want to do. Former CEO and author Max de Pree said, “The first job of a leader is to define reality,” so get busy and put it in black and white. You don’t have to show it to anyone, but if we’re going to get this thing done, we need to know what it is.

Have you written it down? Good. Now look at it and imagine being able to put a check mark next to it, or crossing it off your list.

What’s next?

Well, you know it’s important, and you know you’d like to get it done. But you need some convincing to do it.

Maybe you should hire a lawyer.

Wait, you are a lawyer. How about hiring yourself to argue the case for “doing it”?

You’re an advocate, so advocate. Write a demand letter to your other side (the side that doesn’t want to to it) and demand that it be done.

Present the arguments, the facts, the logic. Describe all of the benefits of getting it done. Describe the negative outcomes if you don’t.

Make the case for going to a networking event once a week, starting a newsletter, or adding content to your website. Tell yourself why you should, and give it all you’ve got. Your client is depending on you.

If you think it will help, sweeten the deal by offering a bonus. Promise yourself the rest of the day off, for example, if you get this thing done. Put a deadline on accepting the deal, and a non-negotiable start date and time. Add liquidated damages in case of default.

This may sound silly, but it’s not. Not for something important. You already know the reasons why you should do this thing. You just have to talk it through. No more hiding from it, burying it on a to-do list and moving it from week to week. It’s time to do it.

So yeah, hire yourself to advocate and negotiate the deal. You’ll be the best client you’ve ever had, and if you win this case, you might earn the biggest fee you’ve ever received.

Share
Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With:

How to turn business contacts into referral sources

April 12, 2016 by
Share

Okay, so you know a lot of people. You’ve got their names and contact information in a database or contact management system, along with some notes about what they do. You suspect that many of these people are able to send you referrals or otherwise help you build your practice.

But most of them don’t.

In fact, you never hear from most of them. Why is that? Because [. . .drum roll. . .] they never hear from you.

Yeah, it’s that simple. They might be willing to send you business. The primary reason many of them don’t is that they don’t think about you.

But that’s easy to change. If you do nothing more than commit to regularly staying in touch with your business contacts, you’ll go a long way towards activating a fair percentage of them and turning passive contacts into active referral sources.

Staying in touch allows you keep your name in front of your contacts. When they have someone who needs your services, that alone might earn you a referral.

I say “might” because there are a lot of other reasons why someone might not refer. You can go a long way towards further increasing the odds of getting them to do something for you if you do something for them first.

That “something” doesn’t have to be a referral. It might be sharing information with them about a prospective client, news about their target market or industry, marketing ideas you think they could use, or even a personal favor.

How do you know what you can do to help them?

You ask.

In addition to staying in touch with your business and professional network, en mass, through email primarily, you should also call at least one member of your network each week.

Get re-acquainted. Ask how they are doing, and how you can help. What are they working on? What do they need? What do their clients need? If it’s not something you can help them with directly, you might know someone who can.

Are they looking for a software solution? Websites in their niche that accept advertising or guest posts? Are they working too many hours because they don’t know how to find and hire a virtual assistant? Do they simply need a word of encouragement?

No matter how busy you are, you can call one business contact each week. Do that, ask them how you can help them, and watch how many ask how they can help you.

For more ways to turn lawyers and other professionals into referral sources, get this

Share
Filed Under: Referral sources Tagged With: ,

ROFLMAO: Can attorneys use humor to build their practice?

April 11, 2016 by
Share

When was the last time you laughed so hard your belly ached?

When I asked myself that question I immediately thought about Seinfeld. It made me laugh then, and it still makes me laugh today.

Seinfeld masterfully touched on human foibles while avoiding the politically correct and overtly sexual themes we see today. Nobody got hit in the nether region. Nobody got political or lampooned traditional values. Nobody said or did anything that made you want to cover your kid’s ears.

Instead, we had bits about parking in New York, tanning beds, postal workers, and a library cop.

I still laugh whenever I think about Elaine, who couldn’t believe something Kramer was telling her, saying “Get out!” and giving him a shove that sent him backwards through the open door. Or Kramer buying the set from The Merv Griffin Show and conducting his own talk show in his apartment, complete with guests, bumper music, and commercial breaks.

If you were a fan, no doubt your remember your favorite bits: Soup Nazi. Festivus. Shrinkage. How about Elaine dancing? Or any dinner with the Costanzas?

Maybe you weren’t a fan of the show, or never saw it. I’m sure you have TV shows that make you laugh. You can use these to forge a stronger bond with clients and prospects who share your appreciation for those programs.

I know a criminal defense lawyer who has a stand-up comedy act, and while he doesn’t tell jokes in the courtroom or the office, he uses humor to connect with his clients and contacts. We can all do that to some extent.

Did you smile when I recalled a few of my favorite Seinfeld bits? If you did, perhaps you felt a little more connected to me as you recognized something we have in common.

Many lawyers don’t have much of a sense of humor, however. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. (See what I did there?) But while not every lawyer can BE funny, every lawyer can share things that are funny.

So what am I saying? I’m saying you don’t have to avoid humor just because you’re a professional. You can and should use it, judiciously, to connect with people.

Go ahead and share that funny cat video on social media. When you speak with a client, ask her if she watches a certain show, and if she does, mention a character or situation that makes you laugh.

I know, this is more difficult today. When a family friendly program like “Full House” gets rebooted and uses sexual situations and political slights, you know we’re not in Kansas anymore. So be careful.

Make sure everything you reference is “appropriate for all audiences”. You don’t want to mention something that makes your clients think less of you just because you admitted watching it.

Keep the raunchy shows and the politically oriented shows to yourself, and find something everyone can enjoy.

If you can’t find anything suitable for prime time, you can always mention a show about nothing.

Share
Filed Under: Client relations Tagged With:

The simplest way to get more referrals

April 8, 2016 by
Share

You want simple? You can’t handle simple! Okay, maybe you can.

So I’ll tell you the simplest way to get more referrals, but on one condition–that you tell your lawyer friends about me. All you need to do is send them to The Attorney Marketing Center. They’ll thank you, and I will too.

If you’re reading this in an email, go ahead and forward it to them. Click, address, done.

Will ya do it? Great. Then I’ll go ahead and share with you the simplest way to get more referrals.

In fact, I’ve already done it.

I asked you to “tell your lawyer friends about me” and mentioned my website. And that’s all you need to do.

When a client is in the office, at the end of the appointment say, “Tell your friends about us,” and hand them some business cards.

Could getting referrals really be that simple? Of course. But if you want to complicate it a bit, you could make your request a question: “Would you tell your friends about us?” When they answer that they will, as you may already know, it makes it more likely that they will do it.

Could you do this on the phone. Why not? Could you do it in an email or mention it in a blog post?

Sure. Like I just did.

Want more? Get Maximum Referrals

Share
Filed Under: Referrals
« Previous Page
Next Page »