David M. Ward – Page 246

Do you make this mistake in marketing legal services?

June 24, 2015 by David M. Ward

I heard two radio commercials yesterday and IMH (but accurate) O, both made the same mistake. Listen up. This is important even if you don’t advertise.

One spot was mass tort. I don’t recall the other. Both ads used the same call to action. They told (interested) listeners to call a telephone number, presumably, to make an appointment.

What’s wrong with that? Isn’t that why the lawyers are advertising? Isn’t that how the listener with a legal issue is going to get the help they need?

Sure. But here’s the thing. For every person who calls, there are perhaps ten people who “almost” call but don’t.

The ad caught there attention, they have the legal issue, or think they do, they need help, but for a multitude of reasons, they don’t call.

Maybe they think their problem is different. Maybe they’re scared and not ready to talk to someone. Maybe they don’t trust you. Maybe they think they’ll have to pay. Or they knowÂ the consultation is free but think they will have to pay after that (and can’t afford it). Maybe they think the person they talk to won’t answer any questions unless they come to their office. Maybe they’re busy and can’t take time off work. Maybe they didn’t write down the phone number. Maybe their dog threw up and the next day they forgot to call.

Lost of reasons. But the ads give the listener only two options: call or don’t call.

And most don’t call.

What if there was another option? What if they could learn more about their issue and the possible solutions, find out about the law and procedure, and learn about the lawyer’s background and how they have helped lots of other people with this problem?

What if they could get many of their basic questions answered without having to talk to anyone? What if they could sell themselves on taking the next step?

What if the ads told the listener to go their website, where they could get all of this, and more?

Do you think some of the listeners would do that? And if the website does a decent job of educating them and making them feel comfortable with these lawyers and their ability to help them, do you think more people would call or use the email contact form?

If more people did that, do you think these lawyers would get more clients?

Look, some of the listeners to these commercials are going to go online anyway, to see what they can find out about the problem and possible solutions. Your ad reminded them to do that.

What will they find? Which of your competitor’s website will they land on? Which of them will they hire instead of you?

In marketing your legal services, yes, you should give out your phone number and tell prospective clients to call. But you should also give them yourÂ website, so that if they’re not ready to call, they can get to know, like, and trust you, so that when they are ready to do something, the lawyer they call is you.

Marketing legal services with your website. Go here

Filed Under: Advertising, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

It gets better and so will you

June 22, 2015 by David M. Ward

A bought a new desk chair recently. I spent more 90 minutes setting it up. I studiedÂ the instructions, identified all of the parts, and took my time assembling the chair, making sure I did it right.

I did do it right, and the chair worked fine, but after I started using it, I noticed there was a flaw in the material and I could see that the seat backing would eventually come undone. I took the chair back to the store and exchanged it.

Setting up the chair the second time was a piece of cake. I knew what all the parts were and where they went, and everything went smoothly and quickly. I was done in less than 30 minutes.

I was able to set up the chair in about a third of the time because I had done it before. I was confident about what I was doing. I didn’t have to study the instructions or take my time making sure I had the right screws for the right holes.

The first time we do something is usually the most difficult. Even if we have detailed instructions, we are unsureÂ and unsteady. We may come away with bloody knuckles or a bruised ego.

The first time I opened an office I was not very good at negotiating my lease. Over time, I learnedÂ what I could ask for, I knew market rates, and I had more experience and more confidence.

It was the same the first time I hired someone, the first time I appeared in court, and the first time I handled a big case and wondered if I should have tried for more than policy limits.

Writing your first article or blog post can be intimidating, painful, and slow. It may take you three hours to write 150 words. Do it again and it will be easier. Eventually, you’ll spit out a post in 15 minutes.

You may be all thumbs when it comes to networking. You don’t know what to say or do. You may think, “this isn’t for me,” but give it a few months; you mightÂ find out you’re actually pretty good at it.

Whatever it is, it gets better.Â And easier. And faster. You learn how to use the tools and implement the techniques. You learn from your mistakes. You do it again and again and eventually it becomes second nature.

Remember, there was a time when you couldn’t tie your shoes.

Don’t let your fears or inexperience stop you. If someone else has done it, the odds are that you can do it, too.

I know you know this. But sometimes, especially when you’re going through a rough period, you need to be reminded that it gets better and so will you.

Filed Under: Personal development

Using email in your marketing

June 19, 2015 by David M. Ward

I spoke with an insurance broker yesterday who is using email in his marketing. He was about to send an email to prospectsÂ he had spoken to who had asked him to “send some information”. He wanted my feedback about the email he had composed.

He started reading to me but I stopped him after the first sentence because it sounded like he was selling something, which of course he was.

He had cold called local businesses, seeking to make appointments to show his wares. I told him that when someone tells you to send some information, it usually means they don’t want to see what you have to offer, they want to get rid of you and this, they believe, is a polite way to do that. I suggested he consider a policy of not sending information (in this context).

A better alternative is to “drop by” the business and introduce yourself to the owner.Â It turns out that this is his usual method of operation.

And then I put on my metaphor hat and described the posture anyone in sales should adopt, and that includes lawyers. We sell too, you know.

I said, “You don’t want to be seen as the “sales person” who comes into the store or office through the front door and sits in the waiting room waiting for an audience with the decision maker. You want to position yourself as a colleague, a fellow business owner, who comes in the back door and doesn’t have to wait because he and the owner are on a first name basis.”

Anyway, when he read his email to me, I stopped him because it was just like every other sales letter business people receive every day and it’s not going to be read or do anything to help him get an appointment.

I told him that if you look and sound like a sales person, your email will get put in the “B” pile, with all the bills and spam and advertising messages, to be read later, or more probably, not at all. You want to be in the “A” pile, which is comprised of email from people you know. The “A” pile gets read.

“If you want to send information via email,” I said, “I would write one or two lines and say something like, ‘here’s the info I promised, Joe,” and provide a link to it on your website”. In other words, keep it short and sweet, like you do when you send information to a friend or business acquaintance.”

That will stand out more than anything you could say in a sales letter.

In order to close more business, you have to get more people looking at what you have to offer. In order to do that, you have to stand out from the crowd. The best way to do that is to go in the back door.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Email, Salesmanship

Are you busy? That’s a shame.

June 18, 2015 by David M. Ward

Being busy isn’t necessarily something to brag about. It’s not a virtue. In fact, it may well be a failing if you’re busy doing things that aren’t important.

It’s better to be productive than busy.

Being productive means you’re producing. Creating value for yourself and others. It means you’re not simply in motion, you’ve got to something to show for your efforts.

What do you want to produce? What results do you want to achieve?

Not someday, now. You can have dreams and long term goals but life is lived in the present, so what do you want to do today?

What are your priorities?

You should be able to cite a few things that you are focused on, and only a few. Because if there are more than a few, it can’t be called “focus”. When everything is a priority, nothing is.

“If you have 3 priorities, you have priorities. If you have 25 priorities, you have a mess,” one writer said.

You may have heard it said that you can do anything you want in life, you just can’t do everything; there isn’t enough time. Fill your day producing things that are important to you, your family, and your clients. If you do that, you will have a productive and happy life, even if you’re not that busy.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Personal development, Productivity, success

The truth about global warming

June 17, 2015 by David M. Ward

You want to know the truth about global warming? The truth is that no matter what the truth is, a lot of people have made a lot of money and gained a lot of political capital by shouting about it from the rooftops.

You can do the same in your practice.

Not about global warming, necessarily, although you may choose that as your cause. You could be on either side of the issue and make a lot of hay. But any cause will do.

You need three things:

A cause that has people on both sides
One or more bad guys (people, companies, groups, etc.) you can denounce, and
A passionate appeal for change, fueled by a heavy dose of fear

You can gain publicity, social media followers, supporters, contributors, and eventually, clients, by being the face and voice of something that gets people fired up.

Fear is essential. You’ve got to scare people or they won’t notice you or join your cause.

Pick something someone is doing and speak out against it. Launch a campaign against it. Tell the world about the evil that is being perpetuated and what will happen if something isn’t done about it.

Ideally, there will be a nexus between the cause and one of your clients or cases, or that is fundamental to your practice area. This will insulate you and give you the moral high ground in your role as an advocate.

It doesn’t matter whether the media loves you or hates you, promotes you or pans you. Any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right.

What matters is that you choose something that has legs and brings you enough supporters to make up for the ones on the other side of the issue that you will undoubtedly lose.

Okay, calm down. You don’t have to choose a politically charged issue like global warming and risk losing large swaths of your clients and friends. You can choose something less incendiary and do just fine.

You might find a local issue that is causing a stir, like the water shortages in California that are trending right now. Whose fault is it? What can be done about it?

You can gain fame and fortune by championing a cause that speaks to a constituency.

Choose a side and write about it on your blog. Stir the pot and see what happens.

Marketing is easy when you know The Formula

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Publicity

If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right

June 16, 2015 by David M. Ward

Do you enjoy practicing law? Do you look forward to going to work every day? If you do, great. If not, we need to talk.

The purpose of life is to experience joy. At least that’s what I believe. We’re not here to suffer or sacrifice endlessly, we’re here to experience our time on earth as the blessing it is meant to be.

Your work, your marriage, your social life, even your faith, should be fun. Or at least gratifying. If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.

I’m not talking about the little things you have to do to keep the wheels spinning. You may have to plunge out a toilet every once in awhile. Marketing may not be your favorite thing, but you have to embrace it to some extent because without it, you won’t be able to do the work you love.

Okay, I said “work you love” but I don’t really mean it. You don’t have to love your work to be successful at it. You just can’t hate it.

For some, work is an expression of their joy and their purpose in life. It defines them and pulls them forward towards a better future. For others, work is a means to an end. They enjoy it, but it’s not who they are.

And that’s fine.

There will always be things you don’t want to do. There will always be parts of your work that you would rather not do.

As long as most of your time is spent doing things you enjoy,Â you’ll be just fine.

My law practice wasn’t my life’s purpose. There were a lot of things I didn’t enjoy.Â But I focused on what I did enjoy: helping people (who appreciated it) and making money. That’s what I focused on. That’s what kept me going.

I delegated the things I didn’t like, or put blinders on and accepted them as part of the deal.

Eventually, though, the negatives outweighed the positives and I knew it was time to move on.

Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” Starting my practice was, at the time, a daring adventure. When the thrill was gone, I found a new adventure.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Personal development, success

Are you investing in yourself?

June 15, 2015 by David M. Ward

Among other things, The 80/20 Principle, one of my favorite books on the subject, tells us to “pursue those few things where you are amazingly better than others and that you enjoy most.” Do them to the exclusion of other things you’re not as good at.

Another author puts it this way: “Do very few things, but be awesome at them.”

To do this, you must work on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Figure out what you do best and find ways to do it even better.

I do a lot of writing. It’s one of my strengths. I invest in getting better at it by reading books and blogs about writing, watching videos, listening to podcasts, and making sure I work at it every day.

I also invest in tools that help me write better and faster. I’ve mentioned ScrivenerÂ before and told you that I now do all my long-form writing in it.

I got a new chair recently that helps me sit longer. It helps me get more writing done because I don’t need to take as many breaks.

Yesterday, I went out and looked at mechanical keyboards. (They’re in the “gaming” section.) I’ve been reading about these for awhile and I’m about ready to order one. I’m told they help you type faster and with fewer typos. They alsoÂ last longer than the rubber membrane keyboards found on most laptops and computer desktops. I like the tactile feel of these keyboards, and the clicky sound they make. (You can get ones that don’t make that sound, if you prefer.)

After that, I’ll probably look at external monitors. A bigger screen will allow me to look at two documents at one time, instead of having to switch back and forth. Maybe dual monitors is the thing.

For a long time now, I’ve been using the track pad on my laptop. I might start using a mouse again.

It’s all about getting that edge. Making a good thing even better.

How about you? What do you do best? How are you investingÂ in yourself to get better?

Filed Under: Productivity, success Tagged With: 80/20 principle, 80/20 rule, mechanical keyboards, Scrivener

Marketing is NOT just a numbers game

June 12, 2015 by David M. Ward

Attorney Bruce Stachenfeld writes that marketing is unpredictable and random. You don’t know who will respond to anything you do so the best thing to do is to have more interactions with more people.

Spend more time “out and about,” he says, interacting with more people, and let the results come as they may.

He’s right, but only to a point. You don’t know who will hire you, provide referrals orÂ introductions, or otherwise help you, so the more interactions you have, the more chances you have to “make rain”.

He doesn’t mention interactions with people via other methods–social media, speaking, articles, blogging, advertising, direct mail, and so on, but I assume he would agree that those count. Get yourself and your message in front of more people and you’ll get more business.

But it’s not that simple. It’s not just a numbers game. Not even close. Who you interact with, either personally or via another medium, is often more important than how many.

Dance with the wrong people and you’ll forever spin your wheels. Dance with the right people and you not only increase the odds of something happening, you increase the odds that when it does, it can happen on a much bigger scale.

If you are an estate planning lawyer and you want high income clients, doesn’t it make more sense to network with financial advisers who have well-to-do clients, rather than school teachers?

And then there is your methodology. The strength of your marketing materials, how your offer is packaged, how well your message is articulated and delivered, your follow-up sequence, your salesmanship, and many other factors, all affect your outcomes.

When you meet people, your interpersonal skills, grooming, likability, and other factors, are also key.

Stachenfeld, who has a math background, says,

“Mathematically, spending twenty-four working hours writing an article may not be as useful as spending those twenty-four hours doing other things, like contacting people to talk about ideas, getting together with them, calling others or even playing a round of golf.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

Maybe you aren’t that good at networking. Maybe you hate golf. And maybe the article you spent extra time crafting hits all the right buttons and you get ten new clients from it within a few days.

Marketing is a numbers game. Math is a part of it. But so is art.

How to get better results from your marketing

Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Networking, Referrals

Want to sell more legal services? Stop trying so hard.

June 11, 2015 by David M. Ward

According to a studyÂ by Twitter, tweets that don’t include a #hashtag or @ mention generate 23% more clicks than tweets that do.

Read that again. It’s important. Even if you don’t use Twitter for marketing.

“After missing Wall Street revenue estimates, Twitter released a study advising people on how to use one of its new ad units â€” direct response ads. While this study is geared towards advertisers, it may also prove to be good practical advice when posting any kind of tweet thatâ€™s designed to drive a specific result, such as clicking on a link to your website or sales page.”

The theory is that other clickable parts of a tweet are distracting users from clicking on the link you want them to click. Twitter’s Anne Mercogliano says this doesn’t mean you should avoid using hashtags completely, however:

â€œIf youâ€™re trying to join a conversation, you should absolutely use a hashtagâ€¦ But for driving for a specific click that youâ€™re looking for off Twitter, the less noise that you put in between [the better].â€

Why is this an important lesson even if you don’t use Twitter? Two reasons.

First, I agree that giving people too many choices can lower overall click-through rate–in your tweets, ads, emails, on your web pages, or any other form of marketing. If you giveÂ prospective clients in your office too many options for hiring you, for example, you may increase the odds of them choosing not to hire you at all.

(Or they might make a poor choice due to “decision fatigue”.)

The other reason for lower click-throughs is that prospects respond better to advertising that doesn’t look like advertising. If your tweet looks like an ad, a commercial effort rather than a friendly sharing of information, people are more likely to ignore it or see it as less trustworthy.

In other words, you’ll get fewer click-throughs if it looks like you’re trying too hard to get people to do something.

I’m not suggesting you avoid a call to action in your content. Not at all. You need to tell people what to do. But be aware that if you try too hard, especially on social media which has been traditionally been ad-free, you may get fewer people doing what you want them to do.

Sell more legal services online. Go here

Filed Under: Advertising, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Social media marketing