David M. Ward, Author at The Attorney Marketing Center

Marketing plan for lawyers: getting ready for the new year

December 19, 2013 by David M. Ward

I’m being interviewed later today by a reporter for the Canadian Bar Association. She’s doing a story about what young lawyers need to do to prepare for the new year. I plan to tell her the same thing I would tell any attorney. Just follow these three simple steps:

STEP ONE: TAKE INVENTORY

The first thing you should do is to figure out where you are. A good way to do that is with a “S.W.O.T. Analysis”–figuring out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

THREATS

Are you in danger of losing a good client? Are unreasonably high expenses causing cash flow problems? Have you been accused of doing something wrong that’s hurting or may hurt your reputation?

If there are holes in your ship, plug them so you can continue your journey. Do what you have to do to eliminate threats and minimize potential losses, but don’t dwell on them. Deal with them and move on.

WEAKNESSES

Are you deficient in any areas of knowledge? Do you need to improve certain skills? Do you need more referral sources, more clients, or better clients? Are you attracting clients who can’t or don’t pay? Do you need to get better at getting retainers? Is your bookkeeping a mess?

Figure out where you are weak and then look for solutions. Take courses, ask other lawyers for help or advice, buy equipment, delegate or outsource the problem so you can focus on your strengths and opportunities.

STRENGTHS

What are you great at? Find something you excel at and leverage it to make it even bigger and better. Focus your time and energy on taking something that’s going well for you and build on it.

If you get good results with a certain type of client or case, you should focus on getting more of those clients or cases. That may mean eliminating other practice areas or turning away clients who don’t fit your ideal client profile.

In the marketing arena, if you are good at networking, do more of it. Ask your contacts to introduce you to their colleagues. Find a second networking group if you have the time or a better group if you don’t. Work deeper within the organization to gain even more influence. Volunteer for committees, take on more responsibilities.

If you like the Internet, create more content, learn about SEO and social media, do more guest posts, and start creating videos.

If you like to write, write. If you like to speak, speak.

Look at your skills and your preferences and focus on them. What do you do best? How can you do more of it and get even better at it? How can you leverage it to get an even bigger return?

OPPORTUNITIES

Make a list of people you know and like and brainstorm ways you can improve and deepen your relationship. They can lead you to new clients and new referral sources. They can provide you with advice and ideas. They can send traffic to your website, provide content for your blog or newsletter, and promote your event or offer.

Make another list of people you don’t know who sell to or advise your target market. Make plans to approach them to see how you might work together.

Go through your notes and files and collect all of the ideas you have recorded for marketing your practice, improving your work product, increasing your productivity, or increasing profitability. Put a star next to your best ideas.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE ONE BIG GOAL

Once you know where you are, the next step is to determine where you want to go. What do you want to accomplish next year relative to your practice or career?

Instead of writing down five or ten goals, as you may be inclined to do, I suggest you write just one big goal. Come up with as many candidates as you want to but then, choose one big goal that gets you excited.

Selecting one goal will force you to focus on that one goal, and nothing else. The odds are that many of your candidate goals are related to your one big goal and are, in fact, stepping stones on the path to reaching it. If your goal is to increase your net income to $250,000, for example, other goal candidates, e.g., “bring in six new clients per month,” are action steps you need to take to accomplish your singular income goal.

Of course you will have additional action steps. You don’t just bring in six new clients, for example, you have many things you need to do to bring in those clients. And that leads us to step three.

STEP THREE: WRITE A SIMPLE MARKETING PLAN

Why a plan? Because you need to know what to do, silly. Because come the first of the year, when you’re ready to get to work, you need a list of projects and tasks that will move you forward towards your goal.

Why simple? Because if your plan isn’t simple, you won’t do it. You’ll get bogged down in detail. You’ll spend more time working with your lists and planning your plans, and have little time to get anything done.

So, figure out where you are, then where you want to be, and from that, write a plan for accomplishing it. Keep in mind that the plan you start out with will almost never be the plan that gets you to your goal. That’s because plans change, circumstances change, and you will change. And that’s okay. Your plan will get you started, and getting started is the most important part.

The Attorney Marketing Formula comes with a simple marketing plan for lawyers. And a lot more stuff you need to know.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: Canadian Bar Association, marketing plan for attorneys, marketing plan for law firm, planning for the new year, SWOT Analysis

What if paying referral fees to non-lawyers was legal and ethical?

December 17, 2013 by David M. Ward

Okay, time to put on your thinking cap and take a stroll with me down imagination boulevard.

We know that paying referral fees to non-lawyers is illegal and unethical for most lawyers. Some lawyers flout the rules and pay referral fees under the table. Others, if they were honest, would admit that while they never have paid referral fees, they have been tempted to do so. At some point in our careers, I think most lawyers have at least wondered why the rules are the way they are.

Rather than debate that hot potato, I’d like to ask you to think about what it would be like if the rules were changed. How would your practice be different if it was legal and ethical to offer referral fees to non-lawyers?

For the moment, forget about whether or not you would offer referral fees yourself, think about what might happen if you did.

When you meet someone new at a networking event, for example, instead of courting them and building a relationship, hoping that one day they might send you some business, you could simply tell them what you do and what percentage of your fees you are willing to pay for a referral.

Do you think you would get more referrals?

Ya think?

Your contacts would have dollar signs dancing in their brains. They’d start promoting you to their clients and customers, friends and family. They’d beat the bushes looking for potential clients, wouldn’t they? They’d refer everyone to you, not to other lawyers who don’t offer a referral fee, or who offer significantly less.

You could quickly build an army of referral sources, people not just willing to send you business but actively looking to do so.

You’d be signing up new clients every day of the week. You’d have more business than you could handle.Â What will you do with all that money. . .?

Okay, snap out of it. This isn’t going to happen. Not in our lifetime, anyway. And we don’t want it to happen, do we? Okay, maybe we do, maybe we don’t, but it’s won’t, so forget about it.

Let’s sit down, catch our breath, have a cup of coffee, and consider what we’ve learned.

We’ve learned that people who have the ability to make referrals to us often don’t, and that most people who have referred business in the past could probably refer more.

Where does that leave us? Back at square one. Building relationships, practicing the golden rule, serving our clients and professional contacts. In other words, doing the things we’ve learned about marketing and building a practice.

Your clients and contacts can and will send you lots of business. They will beat the bushes for you and promote you to everyone they know, and they will do this without a financial incentive. Smother them will love and attention, give them more value than they expect, stay in touch with them, and give it time.

Offering cash would be quicker, it’s true. But doing things the old fashioned way works just fine.

The 30 Day Referral Blitz will quickly bring you more referrals without asking for referrals. Click here.

Filed Under: Legal industry, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: legal ethics, referral fees, referral fees to non-lawyers

Get more referrals with client appreciation dinners

December 16, 2013 by David M. Ward

Client appreciation dinners are a great way to recognize your best clients and thank them for their loyalty. Basically, you invite them to a free dinner where you present awards and gifts, introduce them to other clients in their niche, and enjoy a good meal.

You might have guest speakers, who may be willing to co-sponsor the event. You might invite your clients to bring guests. Or you can keep the evening information-free and pitch-free and just have a good time.

A Facebook friend of mine, a Realtor, mentioned his firm’s upcoming “Top Referring Client Appreciation Dinner.” I thought that was a smart variation on the idea because his clients have to do something to get invited to the dinner.

There’s a little bit of competition involved. Clients hear about the event and want to come. After the dinner, they see photos on your website and do their best to get invited the following year. Those who do attend will work hard to make the guest list again the following year. They’ll also talk about the dinner to their friends and colleagues.

Of course it also allows the host to promote the subject of referrals to all of their clients indirectly, by simply talking about the dinner.

Nice.

When you recognize good behavior (referrals), you reinforce that behavior and it tends to be repeated. When you recognize that behavior publicly (dinners), many of those who didn’t get recognized (invited) will change their behavior so they can be included the next time.

The bottom line is that you get more referrals, not just from those who make the grade as “top referrers” but from everyone. Your top referrer may send you ten clients, but you may have 100 clients who send you one or two.

If you can’t or don’t want to do a client appreciation dinner (criminal defense lawyers, I’m talking to you), how about a dinner for professionals? Invite your best referral sources and recognize them for their efforts. You can do this even if you do sponsor a client dinner.

If a client or referral source appreciation dinner isn’t in your budget right now, consider a breakfast or luncheon. Or, invite your best referring client or referral source out to dinner, just the two of you, to say thank you for their support throughout the year. Next year, you can invite a few more.

Want another way to get more referrals without asking for referrals? Here it is.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: client appreciation dinners, client appreciation events, client appreciation ideas, client dinners

Content marketing for lawyers made even simpler

December 13, 2013 by David M. Ward

In Make the Phone Ring, my Internet marketing course for attorneys, I provide a comprehensive list of ideas attorneys can use to create content for their blog or newsletter. They can also be used to produce reports, presentations, articles, videos, and other kinds of content.

Whether you have my course or not, today I want to give you a homework assignment that will help you create ideas for content almost automatically. You see, it’s one thing to go looking for ideas when you need them. It’s something else to have those ideas coming to your in-box every day, filling your mind with raw material and providing you with a starting point for creating rich, timely and interesting content.

Your assignment is to subscribe to three types of newsletters (blogs, RSS feeds, ezines, etc.):

Other lawyers. Find lawyers both in your field and also in other fields and subscribe to their newsletters or blogs. You may start out with seven or eight and then cut back to the best three or four. You’ll get ideas for your own articles, which may include commenting directly on theirs. You’ll also see how often they publish, how long their posts are, and what types of posts they write (case histories, news, commentary, etc.)
Your target market. Read what your target market is reading–news about their industry or local community, for example. Also read the content produced by those who sell to or advise your target market–vendors, consultants, businesses, and other professionals. You’ll learn about the news, issues, causes, and trends that affect your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources. You may also identify new marketing opportunities as you learn about those trends and the people associated with them.
Something different. Subscribe to content that interests you and has nothing to do with the law or your client’s industry. It could be hobby related or any kind of outside interest–tech, travel, food, sports, news. I get lots of ideas by reading outside my main areas of focus, and so will you. You’ll be able to create richer, more interesting content. And it doesn’t matter if your readers don’t share your interest. Not everyone follows sports, for example, but on some level, everyone can relate to sports analogies.

Content marketing for lawyers is relatively simple. Subscribing to other people’s content makes it even simpler.

Get Make the Phone Ring and get more clients on the Internet. Click here.

Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Presentations, Public Speaking, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With: content marketing for attorneys, content marketing for law firms, content marketing for lawyers, how to get ideas for a blog, Internet marketing for attorneys

Email best practices for small business and professionals

December 12, 2013 by David M. Ward

I’m an email bigot. I judge you by your email. Unfortunately, so do your clients. And other professionals. If your email practices are anything but professional, it is hurting you.

There are also some practical applications for setting up and using email effectively. Here is a short list of email best practices for small business and professionals:

Work email (your fiirm). Use your work email only for official firm business, where you are required to do so. Use your own (professional) email for everything else, i.e., marketing. If you leave the firm, you lose your email address and all the contacts that go with it. The same goes for your email subscriptions.
AOL/Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook, et. al. These aren’t appropriate for business or professionals. Don’t use your ISP, either. I have an email through my cable provider but I never use it. Not only does it sound unprofessional, if I ever change cable companies, I have to notify everyone of the change. Get your own domain name, you@yourname.com. You can still use gmail, et. al, as I do, and simply forward your professional email to your gmail or hotmail or outlook.com account.
Your name. Use your name, either first or first and last, @ yourdomain.com. Don’t use anything cutesy (i.e., bighunklawyer@domain.com). That’s fine for personal email, but not for work.
“From”. Set up your email so that your name appears in the “From” portion. There’s nothing worse than getting an email from someone who doesn’t identify themselves. And use your name, not your firm’s name. Firms don’t write emails, people do.
Email signature. Make sure you put your name and contact information at the bottom of every email. Include your website. You don’t need anything fancy, but do show people how to connect with you and find out more about what you do.
Disclaimers and disclosures. Keep these to a minimum. In fact, if you aren’t required to use them, don’t. They are off-putting and annoying. They make you look distrustful and boring. Nobody actually reads them. They probably don’t protect you. You’re killing electronic trees.
Formatting. Don’t write emails that extend across the entire “page”. They are harder to read. Put a return after approximately 72 characters (mono). DON’T WRITE IN ALL CAPS. Keep sentences and paragraphs short. In fact, keep your emails short.
Subject. The most important part of the email because if you don’t get people to open your email, it doesn’t matter what you say. Say something that lets the recipient know that there is something of value or interest inside.

I write about this subject periodically because I continue to see emails from professionals who don’t follow these simple basic principles. If you write to me, don’t tell me your name, and your email is booboo2785@aol.com, you can’t expect me to treat you seriously. Wake up and smell the coffee.

Here’s a good articleÂ on how to change your email address without messing things up.

Here’s a great way to get referrals quickly.

Filed Under: Email, Image, Marketing legal services, Technology Tagged With: email best practices

Ron Burgundy promoting your law practice?

December 11, 2013 by David M. Ward

Advertising works. Even silly campaigns like the one Dodge is running featuring fictional newscaster Ron Burgundy, played by actor Will Farrell, as spokesman. Sales of the Dodge Durango were up 36% in November versus last year, thanks to these ads and the tie-in with the upcoming sequel to the 2004 hit movie, Anchorman.

Why do these ads work? There’s nothing new being said about the Durango. And the Ron Burgundy character isn’t a car expert, fictional or otherwise. It works because people recognize the character, talk about the ads, and think about the Durango when they are in the market for a new vehicle.

Most lawyers don’t use celebrity endorsements in their advertising, but they could. It’s not as expensive as you might think to hire a former sports figure or B-list actor. In fact, there are agents who specialize in booking their clients for just this purpose. I recall seeing former Los Angeles Dodger’s stars Steve Garvey and Ron Cey doing local TV ads long after they were retired from playing.

Also, you don’t need someone whom “everyone” would recognize. You can hire someone who is well known in your niche market. The former head of a trade association, for example.

But let’s say you don’t want to hire anyone. Hell, let’s say you don’t want to do any paid advertising, (or aren’t allowed to). What then? You can still leverage the celebrity of famous people.

My friend, attorney Mitch Jackson, regularly interviews famous people for his video podcast. These videos bring traffic to his website and bolster his reputation as someone who is successful enough to have famous people willing to “take his call”. In essence, their appearance on his “show” provides an implied endorsement for his practice.

How did he get some of these folks to agree to an interview? I’m sure he’ll tell you he just asked them. Celebrities, speakers, authors, professionals, and entrepreneurs need exposure. I love being interviewed. It free advertising, easy to do, and lots of fun.

If you don’t have a podcast, video or otherwise, you could interview well known people for your blog or newsletter. Who do you know who is famous, if not to the world, within your target market? Do you have a famous client or friend? If not, do you know someone who does?

If nobody comes to mind, ask yourself, “Who would I like to know? Who might my market like to hear me interview? What semi-famous person has a list of followers or fans who would be good candidates for my services?’

Another thing you can do is piggyback on a charitable cause. Invite celebrities to come to an event you are involved with, lend their name to it, or promote it to their social media channels. Celebrities love to be seen associated with causes they believe in.

You don’t need a direct endorsement for your services to benefit from a celebrity’s name recognition. Even mentioning that you met a well known person at an event you attended has value. Hey, you don’t even need to talk to them. Just take selfies with famous people and post them online.

Do you have a marketing plan for next year? Start with this.

Filed Under: Advertising, Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Publicity, Web traffic Tagged With: celebrity endorsements, Dodge Durango, mitch-jackson, podcast, Ron Burgundy, Spreecast, Will Farrell

Using a script in a presentation

December 10, 2013 by David M. Ward

Last night, I did a twenty minute presentation on a conference call. It’s one I’ve done many times before. I know the material well enough to deliver it without notes.

This time, I did something different. I wanted the presentation to be more succinct, so I wrote a script. After all, it’s not a live presentation. Nobody would know that I’m reading.

But now, I don’t think that’s true. Using a script in a presentation affected my delivery. I thought I sounded stiff, yes, like I was reading. A few times, when I went off script to embellish a point, I could hear the difference. I felt relaxed and just talked, and that sounds different.

After any presentation, most people don’t remember what you said, they remember how you made them feel. And you make them feel something not so much by the words you use but by your delivery. If you sound unnatural, as you do when you read, (unless you are a professional actor), it loses something. When you speak from the heart, your audience can feel your passion and be affected by it.

Afterwards, I received calls and texts praising the presentation, and this from people who have heard me deliver it before (sans script). They asked if I would do it again, so others could hear it, so I know I covered the right material–not too much, not too little, and for that, I give credit to the script. But next time I do it, I’m not going to use a script. I’m not going to wing it, either. I’m going to take my script and create a series of bullet points and work off of that.

I realize the presentation will probably be a bit longer than I’d like. I’m sure I’ll wander off on a tangent or two. But this way, I’ll cover everything I want to cover, in the right order, and be able to talk to the audience, not read to them.

Filed Under: Presentations, Public Speaking, Writing Tagged With: scripted presentation, using a script to deliver a presentation

Taking inventory and getting organized

December 9, 2013 by David M. Ward

Most people have way more “stuff” in their life than they need or want or even know they have. I was reminded of this over the last few days while setting up my new laptop.

I went through the old hard drive, making a list of programs to install on the new drive, and realized I didn’t recognize half of the program, and others I never used. There were many programs I didn’t install on the new drive. I mean, how many pdf makers and readers does one really need?

I’ve organized documents and folders. Put things in a more logical order. The new machine is lean and uncluttered. I can see what I have and find what I need. It feels good to be on top of things.

So now, I’m looking at other things in my life I can inventory and organize. December is a good month to do that. I’ll start with my projects and someday/maybes, so I can make decisions and set goals based on what’s important rather than what happens to be in front of me.

Why not do the same?

An easy place to begin is with your physical environment–closets, drawers, desks, the tool shed, the trunk of your car. What can you get rid of? As you eliminate things you don’t use, you make room for new and better things.

In the office, you might organize forms, form letters, and templates. Get rid of or update the ones that are obsolete or that you don’t use. Do the same for books, email subscriptions, and blog feeds.

How about taking inventory of your clients? Some are more valuable to you than others. Which ones can you ask to find another attorney? Which clients should you give more attention to?

How about your friends? Are there people in your life who enervate you? Cut down on how often you see them, or resolve to not see them at all. Do you have a friend you don’t see often enough? Now you’ll have more time for them.

Do you belong to too many groups? Support too many causes? Have too many hobbies or take too many classes? By cutting down on some, you can do more with the ones that matter.

Take inventory of the people and things in your life and pare things down to a more manageable number. Organize what’s left so you can access it more quickly. You’ll be better able to see what you have, what you need, and what you want to accomplish in the coming year and beyond.

Taking inventory and getting organized is a process of deciding what’s important so you can focus on it. When I’m not sure whether or not to keep something, I ask myself if it can be replaced. If not, I’ll hang onto it and look at it again some time down the road. If it can be replaced, out it goes. Usually.

If you’re too busy to take inventory of everything right now, take inventory of what needs to be inventoried. Make a list of possible areas of your life you’d like to streamline and organize. Then, tackle one area each month. By next year at this time, you’ll be a lean, mean, organized machine. With lots of room for new stuff.

Learn how I organize my digital life in my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: evernote-for-lawyers, getting organized, getting rid of clutter, taking inventory

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

December 6, 2013 by David M. Ward

I don’t know if Joni Mitchell’s The Big Yellow Taxi was the first song to use the lyric, but it’s the one I remember: “Don’t it always seem to go/That you don’t know what you’ve got/Till it’s gone”.

And it’s true. We don’t know how good we have it until we have it no more.

Our health is probably the best example. Most people take it for granted. You don’t realize how well off you are because you’re never sick or injured. One day, something happens. That’s when you appreciate what you had. It’s the same when a loved one dies or a relationship breaks up. You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

It also works the other way. We don’t always know what we’re missing until we get it.

My new laptop arrived yesterday. The old one was slow and noisy and I figured it was on it’s way out. But I never realized how bad it was until I started using the new one. It’s almost silent. It’s quick. The screen is much brighter. What have I been doing to my eyesight? I never realized how bad the old unit was. I didn’t know what I was missing.

Another Thanksgiving holiday has come and gone. We dutifully gave thanks for the good things in our lives. We shared our appreciation with people we love and care about. And then we were done. Okay, check that off the list. Back to work. See ya next holiday.

We need to give thanks every day. For the big things and the small things. For our health and our relationships, for indoor plumbing, for our baby’s smile, and for new laptops.

And we need to stop complaining about what we don’t have.

The new computer keyboard is different. The delete key is in a different place from what I’m used to. The down arrow is smaller than I like. Some people will see these as problems and focus on them. I see them as differences and I will adjust. Some people say Windows 8 is bad. I say it’s just different and I will get used to it.

Think about what you have and be grateful. You’ll get more of it. Because we get what we think about.

Thank you for being a part of my life. We may have never spoken, but I know you are there and I appreciate you.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Inspiration, Personal development Tagged With: appreciation, joni mitchell, law of attraction

A high school class that has earned me a fortune

December 5, 2013 by David M. Ward

I took a typing class in high school. I think we learned on Remingtons, ancient mechanical monsters that made typing a labor-intensive chore. The keys would get stuck, corrections were slow and frustrating, and typing line after line of “f-f-f-space, j-j-j-space” barked out by our instructor made the experience anything but enjoyable. But I learned to type.

Still, in my practice, I used a dictation machine and had a secretary do the typing. Even on a fast and forgiving IBM Selectric, typing was frustrating and it was better to let someone else do it.

Not anymore.

Today, with the computer I am able to type quickly and errors are no bother at all. I can get the words down “on paper” as soon as I think them. There’s no need to have someone else do the typing. In the time it would take to dictate, I can have it done myself.

I think that’s true of many attorneys today. But not all. Many attorneys never learned how to type, or if they did, they don’t do it well. If that’s you, I encourage you to do something about it. Take a typing class. There are many available online. Increase your speed and accuracy.

For the record, we’re talking about “touch typing” here–typing without looking at the keyboard. The two-finger jab, no matter how fast you are, doesn’t cut it.

The other day, I wrote about the value of practice for improving our skills. Typing is a skill with a huge return on time invested. The thought of spending 40 hours practicing typing may seem ridiculous when you bill $400 an hour, but it’s not ridiculous at all if it allows you to save 30 minutes a day for the rest of your career. You’ll be in the black in less than 90 days.

And, what if improving your typing skills allows you to lower your secretarial costs?

The idea is to “slow down so you can speed up.” Invest time to learn, practice, and improve. There is a cost, but there is a greater return.

I bought a new laptop last week and it arrived a few minutes ago. It’s my first experience with Windows 8 which I hear is not very intuitive. If I can’t figure it out, I’ll go online and learn what I need to know. I’ll take a class if I have to. Or. . . I might just trade that sucker in on a Mac.

Want more referrals? Quickly?Â Here’sÂ what to do.

Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Personal development Tagged With: practice, typing