How much is your marketing budget?

April 26, 2016 by
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How much do you budget each month for marketing? If the answer is “zero” you might want to re-think that because it means you’re doing all of your marketing yourself or you’re not doing it at all.

While marketing professional services cannot be completely outsourced or delegated, there are many tasks that can.

And if something can be delegated, it should be.

So you need a marketing budget to hire talent, buy tools, and generate traffic to your websites. You should also have funds available to take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

Just as a separate bank account for savings makes sense, it’s good to have a separate bank account for marketing. It’s also wise to fund your account with automatic deposits from your general business account.

You should set up this account even if you’re not yet sure how you will spend the money. Putting $100 or $200 a month into your marketing account (to start) will not only allow you to have the funds available when you decide what to do, watching your fund grow every month may “force” you to find ways to spend it.

My daughter gave me a gift card for my birthday and I immediately deposited it with Amazon. I haven’t spent it, but it’s burning a hole in my digital pocket. Knowing the money is there means that every time I log into Amazon I go looking for something to buy.

The same thing will happen as you accumulate funds in your marketing account.

Knowing you have the money available, you’ll think about marketing more often. You’ll consider doing things you may have previously rejected or put off. When you’re busy doing legal work, your subconscious mind will be working on marketing ideas, and prompting you to take action.

What about budgeting time for marketing? After all, so much of marketing professional services–networking, speaking, relationship building, (some) writing, and other things you can’t delegate–require your time.

Yep, you can budget for this, too. Just as you can set aside regular time for personal development (e.g., 15 minutes a day, an hour a week), you can (and should) do the same for marketing.

Don’t dabble with marketing or try to do everything yourself. If you want to build a successful practice, you have to invest in it. I can’t tell you how much to budget for marketing but anything more than zero is a good start.

Get a marketing plan with this

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Filed Under: Marketing Plan

If I could save time in a bottle

April 25, 2016 by
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You know the wisdom of putting money into a saving account or retirement account each month, and not touching it. In five or ten years, or twenty, you’ll have a sizable nest egg.

If you’re not doing this already, the easiest way to start is to have your bank automatically deduct a certain amount each month and move it to a savings account. When it’s done automatically, you don’t think about it.

It’s a simple way to “pay yourself first”.

Start small if you must, with an amount you won’t miss. Even $25 or $50. You can increase the amount down the road.

Saving money isn’t difficult when you pay yourself first. You just have to start.

Now if it were only possible to do the same thing with time.

What if you could put away an hour or two each month, to be used at a later date? You wouldn’t miss those hours, and in five or ten years, you’d have enough time saved up to be able to take major vacations, retire early or spend time with someone you love.

Okay, that’s not possible. But you could do the next best thing.

What if every month you invested a few hours in yourself? It’s called personal development. The more you do, the more valuable you become. If you do it regularly, in a few years you may be good enough to earn fifty times what you earn now. A few years more and you may have enough money and passive income to be able to do whatever you want with your time.

If you do it regularly, in a few years you may be good enough to earn twenty times what you earn now. A few years more and you may have enough money and passive income to be able to do whatever you want with your time.

But first, you need to invest time to work on yourself. The easiest way to do that? Automatically.

Use your calendar to schedule time for personal development. You can schedule 15 minutes a day, or an hour a week, but whatever you do, you should do it regularly and automatically.

Without thinking about it.

If you calendar an hour every Friday at 4pm for personal development, you must keep that appointment with yourself.

Read, watch training videos, learn something new. Spend time with people who can teach you things about business and life. Learn from them and observe them so you can model their attitudes and behaviors.

If you do this regularly, the time you invest in personal development will have a tremendous payoff down the road. Five years from now, you’ll look back at the person you were when you began your journey and you’ll be glad you decided to pay yourself first.

Get good at getting referrals

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Filed Under: Personal development

Thinking is hard but it pays well

April 22, 2016 by
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If you have multiple practice areas or offer a variety of different services, which one or ones do you promote?

Your best sellers? Your weakest? Your most profitable?

Do you lead with a low priced “entry level” service, seeking to create a new client, and then offer additional services through upsells and on the back end? Or do you lay out all of your wares up front and let the client choose?

If you advertise, which service(s) do you feature? Or do you offer information to build your list and talk about specific services only after they subscribe or inquire?

What do you highlight on your website? When you speak or write, what examples do you use? When someone asks you about your work, what do you say?

If you are a family law attorney, handling divorce and adoptions, but you’re not getting much adoption work, do you double your efforts and promote that or do you continue to advertise and promote divorce? Or do you do both?

Even if you have one practice area and offer one service such as plaintiff’s personal injury, you still need to decide where you will focus. Do you list a variety of different injuries, types of torts, or causes of action, or just one?

These are things you need to think about because they are fundamental to your “brand” and to how you conduct your marketing activities and spend your marketing dollars.

They are, of course, also an argument in favor of specializing. It’s a lot easier to make decisions about where to advertise or network or speak when you offer fewer services to a smaller segment of the market.

But I’m not going to bust your chops about that today. I’m just going to remind you to spend some time pondering these things and making some decisions.

You thought I was going to give you the answers? Sorry. No can do. It’s too complicated. There are too many variables. You have to answer these questions yourself.

All I can do is ask the questions and encourage you to explore your options.

I can also point out that the ultimate way to answer these questions is to test and measure your results.

Run ads for two different practice areas or services and see which one brings in the most inquiries or leads, which one converts to the most dollars on the front end, and which one results in more profits long term.

So you advertise your divorce services and your adoption services and see.

Testing allows you to make a decision based on hard evidence. That’s the “science” of marketing.

Of course marketing is also an art. Don’t ignore your instincts or your heart. If you think your market is ready to learn more about adoption, or you’re passionate about the subject, go for it. Even if the numbers don’t add up.

For help sorting things out, get this

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Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Specializing

Write it once, use it forever

April 21, 2016 by
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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

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

Who are you? Who who who who?

April 20, 2016 by
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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

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Filed Under: Image, Marketing legal services

Um, could you be more specific?

April 19, 2016 by
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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

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

How to get your clients to advertise your firm

April 18, 2016 by
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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.

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Filed Under: Advertising

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

April 15, 2016 by
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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

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

By the inch, it’s a cinch

April 14, 2016 by
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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

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Filed Under: Personal development Tagged With: ,

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

April 13, 2016 by
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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.

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Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With:
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