David M. Ward, Author at The Attorney Marketing Center

Yes, you do have time for marketing

November 6, 2012 by David M. Ward

One of the most common reasons lawyers give for not marketing (or not marketing enough) is that they don’t have the time. Of course I don’t agree with that. There’s always time. You can make substantial progress in marketing your practice in as little as 15 minutes a day. I don’t care how busy you are, you can “find” 15 minutes a day.

You know this is true. And you also know that marketing is important to your success. So if you ever find yourself saying, “I don’t have the time,” you know that’s just an excuse. The real real reason is that you don’t know what to do, or, you don’t want to do it. So you tell yourself you don’t have the time.

If this sounds at all familiar to you, I have a suggestion. A place to begin.

Put 15 minutes on your calendar each work day. Call it “marketing time”. Make it an appointment, with yourself. Tell your secretary that you are busy at that time and not to book anything else for you. If a client calls and wants to talk to you during that time or come in to see you, you have to say no. You’ll talk to them 15 minutes later. You already have an appointment at that time. It’s your most important appointment of the day, and you can’t miss it.

Will you do that? Will you commit to a 15 minute appointment every day? Good. You’re on your way.

Now, what do you do during that time? If you don’t know, I suggest you start out by reading this and other marketing blogs. Just read. Take some notes. Write down ideas.

You will probably find a lot of things you don’t want to do. But you will also find some things you do want to do. DoÂ this for a couple of weeks and you will have plenty of ideas you’ll be itching to try.

Once you try them, and once you see some results coming in, you won’t have to “force” yourself to keep your 15 minute appointment. In fact, marketing time may become your favorite appointment of the day.

One of the six key strategies inÂ The Attorney Marketing Formula is leveraging time to get more results from less effort. You can read all about it on this page.

Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity, Time Management

Goal setting and the law of attraction

November 5, 2012 by David M. Ward

He never said, “The Law of Attraction,” but when Earl Nightingale recorded “The Strangest Secret,” that’s what he was talking about. Throughout history, the phenomenon has been described in many ways, but they all mean the same thing: “We become (attract) what we think about.”

So if you think about money all the time, you should attract plenty of it, right? In theory. But in practice, when we think about money, we’re usually thinking about the fact that we don’t have enough, why we need it, and why it has eluded us. We’re not thinking about “more money” we’re thinking about the absence of more money and that’s exactly what we attract.

We attract what we think about.Â Think about wellness and you attract wellness. Think about illness (or, more properly, the absence of wellness), and you attract illness.

if this concept seems like “new age” folly to you, think about it in terms of what we know about the human brain.

Our subconscious mind cannot distinguish between reality and imagination. If you walk up to a closed door and hear the sound of a roaring lion on the other side of it, you will have a physiological response to that sound (fear, rapid heart rate, sweating, etc.) and you will hesitate to open that door.Â If you believe the lion is clawing his way through the door, yourÂ subconsciousÂ will inject adrenalin into your bloodstream and give you the urge to flee. It will direct more blood to your leg muscles to make that easier.

You will haveÂ the same response to the sound of the lion whether it is made by a real lion or a recording.

Your subconscious mind works to protect you and your perception of reality.Â Our nervous systems plays a role. In a previous post about “Why goal setting works,” I said that the Reticular Activating System (RAS) filters the stimuli around us, making us more aware of threats and opportunities.

If you think about getting more money, yourÂ subconscious, in conjunction with the RAS, helps you spot opportunities, wake up earlier, and remember to smile when you meet the right people.Â On the other hand, ifÂ think about your lack of money, your subconscious mind will guide youÂ towardsÂ behavior that is consistent with that reality. You will find yourself missing opportunities, or sabotaging them.

What does this have to do with setting goals? Well, we are told that, “A goal without a deadline is just a dream,” so when we set goals, we are told to set a date for their accomplishment. The deadline starts the clock ticking and whenever we think about the goal, that ticking clock reminds us to get to work.

That sounds like the right idea, but in the context of the Law of Attraction (or it’s physiological equivalent), the impending deadline may actually cause us to attract the opposite of what we want.

Here’s what I mean.

Let’s say your goal is to earn an additional $50,000 in the next 12 months. If you believe that this is possible and you have the resources and plan to accomplish this, fine. But too often we set goals that are out of our reach and instead of rising to the occasion, we fail to accomplish them.

You start thinking about why your goal is difficult to achieve. You think about all of the things that could go wrong. You might think, “I don’t have enough time,” “I don’t really know what I’m doing,” or “I’m not going to be able to do this by myself.” You’re not thinking about reaching your goal, you’re thinking about not reaching your goal, and “not reaching it” is what you attract.

In setting my own goals over the years, I’ve found that “what” and “why” are more important than “how” and “when”. When I think about what I want and why I want it, it feels good. As long as I stay with that feeling, I move forward. When I think about how I’m going to accomplish my goal, or when, those good feelings often dissipate.

So, should we set our goals low enough that we’ll be assured of achieving them? No.Â It may feel good to accomplish them, but if the bar is too low you won’t be accomplishing much. The answer is to set goals that you really want, but not let yourself get caught up in their achievement.Â Today I focus more on what I want and less on how I’m going to get it. I don’t get hung up on deadlines. I trust that my subconscious mind will take me where I want to go and that I’ll get there at the right time.

I let my feelings guide me. If what I’m thinking feels good, I keep going. If it doesn’t, I change what I’m doing or I change my thoughts.

Some say this is God’s hand at work. Others stick with the physiological explanation. Some say the Law of Attraction is the answer. I don’t know how it works. I just know that when I listen to my instincts, I’m almost always guided in the right direction.

I still have goals. But I don’t let my goals get in the way of my dreams.

If your goal is to increase your income, get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Personal development Tagged With: earl nightengale, goal-setting, goals-law-of-attraction-deadline, law of attraction, law-of-attraction-deadline, law-of-attraction-goal-list, the-strangest-secret

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

November 2, 2012 by David M. Ward

In 1988, Don’t Worry, Be HappyÂ reached number one on the Billboard music charts, a position it held for two weeks. Bobby McFerrin’s a cappella hit had us singing (or whistling) along, buoyed by it’s upbeat message. Right now, there’s a whole lot of worrying going on in the world and it might do us all some good to listen once again.

“In every life we have some trouble. When you worry you make it double. Don’t worry, be happy……” (lyrics)

A long time ago, I eliminated the word “worry” from my lexicon. Worry is not a helpful word, or emotion. All it does is make you anxious. Today, I might be “concerned” about something, but never worried. I find I can deal more clearly with things when I’m not caught up in the emotions surrounding them.

Worrying about a problem will never fix it. Creative thinking, asking for help, taking action–these can fix a problem, but not worry. So stop it. Stop worrying about your problems. Get yourself a big box and put all your worries in it. Set that box on fire. Burn it up. You don’t need what’s in it, so get rid of it. (At least put it in storage. You can come back later if you really miss your problems.)

“I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” –Mark Twain

While you’re at it, throw into your box all of the things you worry about that aren’t problems. Stuff that never happened and probably never will. That includes all of the “missed opportunities” that nag at you. All of the shoulda’s, coulda’s, and woulda’s.

What good is it to worry about your web site and all of the search engine traffic you’re NOT getting, for example? Let it go. Stop thinking about it. In fact, what if you never had to think about SEO again? How would that feel? You wouldn’t have to think about it or read about it or spend money on it.

Release it. Let it go.

There are other ways to get traffic (and clients) that have nothing to do with search engines. Sure, it’s nice when you get them through search but wouldn’t it be nice to know you don’t have to depend on it?

Relax. Everything will be fine. Don’t worry. Be happy.

“Here is a little song I wrote
You might want to sing it note for note
Don’t worry be happy

Now that you’re feeling better and you have more free time, you can explore SEO if you want to. But only if you want to, not because you have to. No worries, no “have to’s,” just an opportunity. Do it or don’t do it.

Make a list of things you’re thinking about right now. Projects, ideas, things you have to do. Make sure you add anything that you’re worried about. Get them off your desk and out of your head. That alone feels good, doesn’t it?

Then ask yourself, “How many of these things could I cross off my list?” If you can’t cross them off, label or tag them with “someday/maybe” and file them away, out of sight.

Spend your time thinking about things that are important, and things that feel good when you think about them. No, you can’t ignore your responsibilities or pretend you don’t have any problems. But you don’t have to worry about them, either.

Need clients? Don’t worry. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and be happy.

Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Inspiration, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: dont-worry-about-the-problems-that-arent-yours

How to write something when you don’t know where to start

November 1, 2012 by David M. Ward

It’s November and you know what that means? NaNoWriMo!

What’s that? You don’t know about National Novel Writing Month? I wrote about it last November when I shared some thoughts about “Writers’ Block”.

You may not aspire to be the next John Grisham, but if you’ve ever struggled to write something you’ve never written before, and you don’t know where to start, I have a possible solution.

When I was in high school, my parents had a friend who created several TV shows, wrote screenplays, non-fiction, and music. He also did some acting. Anyway, he didn’t have a musical background, but he wrote some very clever songs. One day, my father asked him how he did it.

He said he took an existing song he liked and used it’s structure as a template. He changed it, note by note, until he had an original piece that was nothing like the one he started with, except maybe in length, key, and tempo. (Since he couldn’t read music, he recorded himself humming his new tune and had someone transcribe it.)

For the lyrics, he took the original words and changed those word by word, or he found another song he liked and changed those words to create a new song to go with his new music. He used the same technique for creating screenplays.

Instead of writing from scratch, he re-wrote something that was already written. He didn’t plagiarize or steal ideas. He took the original, pared it down to it’s skeleton, and added new flesh and sinew to give life to a completely new creation.

Now don’t get me wrong, the guy had talent. Lots of it. He simply used his note/word-changing technique as a starting point. If I ever write a novel, that’s exactly how I will start.

After all, isn’t “getting started” the hardest part of doing something new? Once you have a first draft, you can make it better. But so many aspiring writers never get started so they never have a first draft they can improve.

If you wanted to use this technique to write the first draft of a novel, find one you like (in the appropriate genre and voice, i.e., “first person detective”) and create a “step outline”–a sequential list of the plot points. Note the number of major characters, when they are introduced, and their role (i.e., friend who encourages, villain, love interest, and so on). How many chapters are there? How long are they? When does the crime take place? When do we meet the hero?

Now you have a story skeleton, but of course it’s for someone else’s story. Your job is to change things, point by point, element by element, to write your own.

Your setting will be different. San Antonio instead of San Clemente. Your characters will be different. If the victim in the original was an insurance investigator who is murdered to cover up a fraudulent claim, your victim might be an accountant who knew too much about his crooked client’s business activities.

You write your own novel, using the structure of the original, but nothing else.

Now I didn’t say yours would be a good novel. That’s easier said than done. But your novel will at least be the right length, number of characters, and have the requisite elements in it. You’ll have a workable first draft.

You can use the same technique to write something much less ambitious, like an article or report. Decide on a topic you want to write about and find a model. How many paragraphs? How many main points? How many bullet points? Use this as a template.

Doing something new is much easier when you have a place to start. Fortunately, you don’t have to invent the place the start. You can follow someone who already finished.

Would you like a template for marketing your legal services? Use this

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Newsletters, Productivity, Writing Tagged With: NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, procrastination, writers block

The most important part of a live presentation

October 31, 2012 by David M. Ward

Last night I did a one hour presentation. At the end, I was introduced to a young man who had been in the audience. The gentleman who introduced him told me what the young man liked best about the presentation: my suit.

Not my content. Not my delivery. Not my jokes. My suit.

I didn’t know if I should take this as a compliment or an insult. Didn’t he like what I said? After all, he was there for information, not a floor show.

Granted, it was a nice suit and I was wearing a very spiffy red tie, but what about what I said? Did I. . . blow it?

Not at all. He was persuaded by what I said and wanted to take the next step. He just liked my suit.

I thought about this and realized that while content is important, it’s not the only thing you have to get right in a presentation. People look at your appearance. They notice the lighting and sound quality, the music, even the coffee. All of the little things are important and you have to get them right.

A month from now, if this young man thinks about last night he’ll probably remember my suit. Not my name or anything I said. My suit and my snazzy tie. That’s the image he’ll remember. Someone else might remember a song they liked, the hostess’ smile, or a story I told that evoked a pleasant memory.

People rarely remember what you said. And that’s okay. What you say isn’t the most important part of the presentation. The most important part of a presentation, what people remember long after it’s done, is not what you said, it’s how they felt when you were saying it.

When you give your next presentation, whatever the objective–a verdict, a new client, or a response that says “tell me more”–don’t rely solely on your content, however logical and persuasive it might be. You have to get all the little things right, too. Do what you can to make people feel good about you, about what you’re saying, and especially, about themselves. Use humor if you can. Tell stories. Make sure the coffee is good. And wear a nice suit.

The Attorney Marketing Formula really works. More clients, more income. Hey, it’s a formula.

Filed Under: Communication, Marketing legal services, Presentations

Undecideds win close elections and build law practices

October 30, 2012 by David M. Ward

In a close election it is undecided voters who carry the candidate or cause to victory. One of the biggest blocks of undecideds are “low information” voters–people who ordinarily don’t pay much attention to politics until a few weeks before the election.

Another block of undecideds are supporters of third party candidates who, at the last minute, realize their candidate doesn’t have a chance to win and are open to choosing another candidate.

In most consumer-based law practices, prospective clients are “low information voters”. Unless and until something occurs in their life (divorce, accident, arrest, lawsuit, etc.), they won’t pay much attention to anything you might say. They don’t have a problem (that they are aware of) and they aren’t in the market for an attorney.

In a business oriented law practice, prospective clients are often “third party supporters”–they have an attorney they are reasonably happy with and aren’t looking to switch, at least for now.

In either case, your prospective clients aren’t interested in what you can do for them. They won’t notice your ads or ask their friends for a referral. There’s no impending event that forces them to pay attention.

But eventually there will be. Your objective is to be there when that occurs.

Your strategy is to put mechanisms in place that allow you to be found and recommended when prospective clients are finally in the market for an attorney. Depending on your practice area, target market, and personal preferences, this might include:

A strong Internet presence–blogs, search engine optimization, social media connections
Referral strategies–equipping your clients and professional contacts with information they can disseminate
Search-based advertising–classifieds, PPC, directory ads
Networking–meeting those who are in the market and the people who can refer them

Position yourself to be found when prospective clients realize they have a problem and go looking for a solution. This is usually more profitable than targeting “pre-need” prospects–people who don’t yet have a problem or aren’t ready to do something about it.

However, you may also want to target pre-need prospects who have a problem but don’t fully understand the risks or their options. Estate planning seminars, for example, can be effective at persuading “no need” and “vaguely aware of a need” prospects into becoming paying clients.

The best plan is to target all three types of prospects. Focus primarily on those who are looking now, but don’t ignore those who will be looking later.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you six key marketing strategies for getting more clients and increasing your income.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: attorney-marketing, lawyer-marketing, legal marketing, Marketing legal services

Why good attorneys achieve mediocre results

October 29, 2012 by David M. Ward

An expert, addressing a group of lawyers starting their own practice, offered this advice:

“Your goal, if you expect to have lots of happy clients and turn a sweet profit, is efficiency. That means creating systems, for instance, that eliminate double and triple entry of informationâ€”client information, case information, conflicts informationâ€”and looking for systems that save you time and reduce paper and administrivia [sic].”

I agree that efficiency is important. You should use systems and tools that eliminate redundancy and waste and allow you to maximize your time and effort. I credit much of my success to developing these systems and using the right tools. But while efficiency is important, effectiveness is far more so.

Efficiency means “doing things right”. Effectiveness means “doing the right things”. The difference is crucial.

You can be inefficient (i.e., sloppy, slow, distracted, riddled with mistakes, etc.) and amazingly successful in your career, if you are doing the right things. I know people who waste a lot of time and money and don’t get a lot of things done but are at the top of their field because they get the important things done.

I know others who are very efficient but achieve no better than mediocre results in their careers because they are efficient at the wrong things.

It’s far more important to choose the right practice area, for example, than to have the latest software. You’ll earn more by focusing on marketing instead of accounting. Your amazing library isn’t nearly as valuable as your amazing client relations practices.

Many attorneys achieve mediocre results because they major in minor things. They master the details but forget the big picture. They’re climbing the ladder of success, only to find that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

Yes, you want to be good at what you do. Just make sure that you’re doing the right things.

If you want to be effective AND efficient, get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: effectiveneness, efficiency

Why lawyers should target clients who WON’T hire them

October 26, 2012 by David M. Ward

Are you planning to upgrade to Windows 8? I’m not. At least not right now.

I use Vista on my PCs. It’s not the most feature rich or trouble free, it’s certainly not the fastest, and in no way would anyone say it’s the best OS. But it works. So why switch?

If I switched, I might find that like any new software, Windows 8 has bugs or conflicts or other issues that cause me headaches. Why take the chance? I remember thinking the same thing when Windows 7 came out.

So, for now, I’ll stay where I am.

Guess what? It is this same mindset that keeps your clients from “upgrading” you. They’re used to you. You’re working. You may not be the best, but they don’t want to risk switching because your replacement could be worse.

So unless you’ve screwed up,Â your clients will probably stay with you. If you haven’t neglected your clients, they’ll probably return. Inertia keeps me from upgrading my software and it keeps clients from “upgrading” you.

But what works for you also works for other attorneys. Their clients will also stay put. So, if your marketing strategy is based on getting clients to switch firms and hire yours, you’re going to have a tough time of it.

However. . .

Eventually, some of those those other attorneys will screw up. At that point, their clients will be open to hiring another attorney. You should be there when that occurs.

But how do you do that? How do you get in front of prospective clients at precisely the moment when they are again “in the market” for a new attorney?

You have two options:

1. Advertise. Keep your marketing message in front of your target market. When someone is ready to change lawyers, they may (finally) notice your message and respond.

2. Build relationships. Network with prospective clients in your target market, even though they are happy with their current attorney. Be “number two” on a lot of lists and when “number one” screws up, dies, or retires (or has a conflict of interest), there you’ll be.

There’s a lot of money to be made signing up clients who are ready to upgrade their attorney. Just make sure your version is bug-free.

GetÂ The Attorney Marketing Formula and learn key marketing strategies for getting more clients and increasing your income.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services

Another lesson from Apple: how to get clients to pay higher legal fees

October 25, 2012 by David M. Ward

Yesterday, I wrote about Apple’s pricing strategy with the new iPad Mini. Instead of competing with other tablets for the low end of the tablet market, they’re letting other companies duke it out while they target the more profitable high end. The same is true for their entire product line.

Apple fans are willing to pay more for Apple products (and stand in line to get them) because they believe it’s worth it. They believe they get more value for their dollar.

Style is certainly one aspect. So is functionality. But more than anything, I think what appeals to Apple users is ease of use.

Apple’s slogan, “It just works,” is arguably responsible for converting legions of PC users, frustrated with complicated, buggy, and virus prone machines to the Apple brand. True or not, the impression Apple’s marketing team has created is that with Apple products you won’t have continual crashes or blue screens, and you won’t have to take a class to learn how to use it. You just turn it on and it works.

And that’s exactly what Apple’s customers want.

Well guess what? That’s what your clients want, too. At least the clients you should be targeting. They want to know that when they hire you, you’ll get the job done.

They don’t want complications. They don’t want to know the boring details.Â They want the peace of mind of knowing that when they hire you, they’ll be in good hands. If you can give this to them, they’ll pay you more than what other attorneys charge.

Now I know many attorneys will cynically argue that their clients are very price conscious and won’t pay a penny more if another attorney will do it for less. And that’s true–THEIR clients are price conscious and won’t pay a penny more. But that’s not true of all clients.

Didn’t the PC world say the same thing about Apple when their prices first became known? “Why would anyone pay double for something just because it’s nicer looking?”

The answer was, and still is, because “it just works.”

You can follow in Apple’s footsteps. Target the higher end of the market for your services. Show them that when they hire you, everything is taken care of for them. They won’t have to worry about getting a bill filled with surprises, or an attorney who doesn’t explain things or return their phone calls. Show them that “you just work” and they’ll pay you more. Because it’s worth it to them.

Learn how to earn more than you ever thought possible. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Filed Under: Attorneys fees, Fees and Billing, Image, Increase your income, Marketing legal services Tagged With: Apple it just works, attorney-marketing, lawyer-marketing, legal marketing, legal-fees

What Apple’s new iPad Mini can teach lawyers about pricing legal services

October 24, 2012 by David M. Ward

So everyone is buzzing about Apple’s new iPad Mini. Comments abound about the features, or lack thereof, but the number one topic of discussion is price.

Many predicted (hoped?) Apple would price the Mini in line with what Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Google are pricing their tablets, in the neighborhood of $199-$249. They said that in so doing, Apple would crush the competition and own the small tablet market. Instead, the lowest priced Mini is offered at $329.

Many observers are questioning Apple’s strategy. How can they compete with tablets priced so much lower?

The answer is they’re not even trying.

Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis, told The Verge, “I think what Apple has done here is create a new category of premium small tablet.” The writer Greengart spoke to summed up Apple’s strategy thusly: “[I]t appears Apple is simply opting out of the low end of the market altogether, much like it’s done with personal computers.”

Greengart continues: “I don’t think this puts Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Google out of business, but it means that those three — and anyone else entering that market segment — are all competing against each other for the budget consumer.” [emphasis added]

Apple is letting everyone else compete for the low end of the market while it offers a premium product to the smaller but more profitable segment of the market that is willing to pay a premium price.

This is exactly what lawyers should do.

Most lawyers offer the same services at the same prices to the same prospects. Everyone looks the same and says the same things. Nobody stands out. Everyone is average. And so the average lawyer gets average results from their marketing and earns only average income.

The better strategy is to offer higher quality services to those who are willing to pay for them.

Marketing is easier because you have something better to offer. Marketing is less expensive because you’re not trying to deliver your message to everyone. Other lawyers can’t compete with you because they don’t offer what you offer. And your income is higher because your clients are paying more.

You may not have Apple’s resources or “sex appeal” but you can follow the same strategy they do. Let other lawyers fight over the masses while you offer a better “product” to a smaller, more profitable segment of the market.

Most lawyers will never do this. They won’t offer premium services and, frankly, don’t even know what that means. That makes it so much easier for you.

How does Apple compete with Google? It doesn’t. How do you compete with other attorneys? You don’t.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you how to offer premium services and get premium fees.

Filed Under: Fees and Billing, Image, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With: Apple, apple-not-trying-to-compete-on-price, ipad mini, ipad-mini-legal-office, legal-fees