David M. Ward, Author at The Attorney Marketing Center

Learn, do, teach

May 31, 2022 by David M. Ward

Want to get better at marketing your legal services? Find a lawyer and teach them what you’ve learned. Mentor them and guide them from where they are to where they want to go.

We learn the most when we teach what we know because we have to make sure we understand the information and can explain it to someone who doesn’t.

We also have to have done what we’re teaching.

Learn, do, teach.

You’ve already learned a lot. Probably more than you realize. You’re reading my newsletter and, presumably, other newsletters and blogs. You’re taking notes, thinking about how you can use the information, writing down questions and ideas to explore.

But what have you done?

Have you started a newsletter? Are you talking to other professionals about a marketing alliance? Have you sent your information to your clients they can use to identify people who might need your help?

Whatever you’ve done or are in the process of doing, you can start teaching it. When you come across something new, something you’d like to learn, ask yourself, “How could I teach someone what I’m learning?”

What would you tell them? Show them? Ask them to do?

Teaching can mean writing about it. Or speaking about it. Or talking to someone one-to-one and explaining the idea.

You’ll be able to inspire them by telling them what it was like for you when you got started, and what you did to get good at it. And, as watch them and answer their questions, you’ll also inspire yourself. You’ll realize how much you know and can do and then push yourself to do more.

Okay, it’s time. Think about a lawyer you know who might like to know what you know. It’s time to rattle their chain.

How do you bring up the subject? Ask them a question about what they’re doing. Or forward them one of my emails and ask them what they think.

If you’d prefer to talk to a stranger, visit a forum where lawyers talk about marketing and join in the conversation.

What’s that? You don’t feel qualified to teach or mentor anyone about marketing?

Listen up:

You don’t need to know everything about a subject to teach it. You just need to know (and have done) more than the guy or gal you’re teaching.

See ‘ya in the teacher’s lounge.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Mentors & Coaches

If God wrote your blog post

May 27, 2022 by David M. Ward

You sit down with your favorite hot beverage, ready to write your blog post, only to find that it’s already written. You look at the blinking cursor and the words on the page and realize that during the night, God himself wrote your post.

What do you suppose the Lord would write? The eleventh commandment? A call for world peace? Would He demand something? Explain something? Promise something?

I don’t know. All I know is that whatever He wrote, it would be important. His words would be magnificent and would change the world forever.

I also know that anything you or I might write will never be that good, or that important.

What we write isn’t unimportant. We inform and inspire people. We help them gain clarity and make better decisions. But while we might like to think so, our blog posts and articles aren’t earth-shattering or history-making.

Most people will read what we write, learn something, smile or groan, and get on with their day.

So, if you haven’t written a blog post lately, if you’re on your 27th edit, if you’re searching for the perfect words for your perfect message, stop all that fussing, publish that sucker, and get on with your day.

Your worlds won’t change the world, although they might change the life of someone who reads them.

But don’t think about that or you’ll never get the thing done.

How to write blog posts that make the phone ring

Filed Under: Blogging, Content creation, Writing

What if your clients have no more work for you?

May 26, 2022 by David M. Ward

What would you do if you woke up tomorrow, looked at your client list, and realized it’s shrinking? You have fewer cases and clients than last year. You’re signing up fewer clients, billing less, collecting less, profiting less.

It’s not something you want to think about it but you must. Because anything is possible.

Your business clients might merge, go out of business, or put projects on hold. Your ads might stop producing like they used to. The economy might worsen, referral sources might die or retire, or a better-financed competitor might muscle in on your turf.

Whatever the cause, your reality might be radically different.

What will you do?

Grab a pen, ask yourself some tough questions, and write down some answers.

Yes, do it now, because you need to get out ahead of it.

Look at your numbers and compare them to a few years ago. Look at your goals and ask yourself if your current numbers and rate of growth will help you achieve those goals.

Examine your current sources of business, your marketing channels, your key relationships, and all of your marketing assets.

Examine your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Then, make some decisions about what you’re doing.

What needs to go? What needs to be refreshed? What’s working and should be expanded, and what can you do to accomplish that?

Then, look at what you’re not doing.

Look at other markets, practice areas, niches, marketing methods, strategic alliances, and other opportunities that could provide significant upside.

While you’re at it, also look at the expense side of the equation. What could you do to reduce costs, increase profit, and build a war chest to prepare for what’s ahead?

Once you have a plan, start working on it. Never stop working on it. Because your future is what you make it.

The Attorney Marketing Formula will help you create your plan

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Thinking is working

May 25, 2022 by David M. Ward

Writers say this a lot because they think a lot. They think about what they’re working on and how to improve it and they think about new ideas they might want to use. This is their process.

So when someone accuses them of goofing off, they might take offense. They know they are working—because they’re always working, even if they’re not putting more words on the page.

Hey lawyers, why can’t we do the same? Thinking is part of our process, too.

We don’t have to always do things people recognize as productive. We don’t have to get off our duff and call someone, write something, or review something.

We can stay on our duffs and think.

We can go for a walk or a drive, take a long bath, meditate, listen to music, or go outside and get some sun on our face, and let our brain do its thing.

No guilt. No justifying. No agenda. Just thinking.

Because thinking is working.

One suggestion, though. Make sure you have something with you to record your thoughts. You’ll want to see them again, to see what you thought and note what you thought about what you thought.

Throughout his life, Jim Rohn kept a journal. He said it wasn’t a diary, just “a place to record ideas”.

If you’ve ever had trouble keeping a journal, maybe you were asking too much of it. Maybe it would be easier and more valuable to you if you thought of it as simply a place to record ideas.

Because we both know you have a lot of them.

Filed Under: Productivity, success

The key to marketing a general practice

May 24, 2022 by David M. Ward

The key to marketing a general practice is simple: don’t do it.

You’ll get much better results marketing each practice area or service separately, because most prospective clients are looking for solutions to specific problems.

When they need a divorce lawyer, they search for “divorce lawyer” not “general practice”.

They want an expert. Someone who eats and breathes divorce law and is the best of the best at that. . . not “everything”.

Don’t confuse people by marketing all of your services in the same breath. Tell them about divorce issues, and share stories about divorce clients you’ve helped. Let them see you as the divorce lawyer they’re looking for.

Yes, that means more work and more expense—websites, content, ads, keywords, and marketing collateral. But that’s what you have to do if you want to compete with lawyers who “specialize”. Or appear to because they market each practice area separately.

You can ALSO have a website and marketing collateral that features all of your practice areas, but that’s more about branding and reputation.

If you want traffic and leads, if you want to build your email list, fill seats at your events and your waiting room with new clients, market one practice area, service, or solution at a time.

There are exceptions. Practice areas you can combine and market together. Estate Planning and Elder Law, Personal Injury and Workers’ Comp, and Business Transactions and Business Litigation, for example.

But maybe you shouldn’t.

If you get a lot of referrals from other lawyers (or you want to) and they see you do the same thing they do, they might be reluctant to refer clients to you.

If you handle PI, maybe you don’t want to refer comp clients to a firm that handles comp and PI.

Just sayin.

More on this subject in The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Specializing

How to make the law interesting to lay people

May 23, 2022 by David M. Ward

When you write or speak about the law to a lay audience, you have several objectives:

You want them to understand their problem, their risks, and their options
You want them to know why they should talk to a lawyer
You want them to see why the lawyer they should talk to (and hire) should be you
You want to inspire them to take the next step

Before you can do any of that, you have to get them to read or listen. You have to get their attention with your headline or title, and make your article or presentation interesting enough to compel them to take that next step.

Here are some guidelines for creating more interesting articles and presentations:

Talk about people more than concepts
Talk about cure more than prevention
Talk about benefits more than features
Talk less about the law and more about “what this means to you”
Don’t warm up; get to the point and stay there
Assume they don’t know much; don’t assume they know nothing
Talk to them, don’t lecture them; ask questions to bring them into the “conversation”
More show, less tell; use examples and analogies that are familiar to your audience
Get them to feel something; use dramatic stories
Minimize and/or explain jargon
Don’t write about history or precedent unless necessary
Don’t tell them everything; be thorough but not dispositive

How do you know you’ve done it right?

Your audience will ask questions or make an appointment or go to your blog and read more.

Watch your email, your phone, your stats, and your bank account. If your content is interesting, your numbers are growing.

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Presentations, Writing

Selling legal services, et. al.

May 20, 2022 by David M. Ward

Let’s clear this up once and for all: Lawyers sell legal services.

There, I said it.

It doesn’t make you a salesperson, but you can’t deny the fact that when someone hires you, a sale takes place.

The more of your services you sell, the more you earn. Pure and simple.

But that’s not all you sell.

Clients pay for your legal services, but what they want and expect you to deliver, what they really pay for, are solutions to their problems.

They hire you to get the benefits you deliver.

Get better at selling those solutions and benefits and you will sell more of your services.

Hold on. We’re not done.

You also sell clients the “experience” of working with you. How your clients feel having you in their corner, how you treat them and make them feel appreciated, and everything else under the ‘client relations’ banner.

Do a good job of this and your clients will stick around, return, and tell others. Mess up and they won’t.

It’s all selling.

But before clients can see any of this, before they hire you, there’s something else they buy (and you sell).

Your reputation.

You’re judged by your record of accomplishments and the things people say about you.

Even when your reputation is stellar, you still need to sell it because many clients can’t discern this. To most clients, we all look alike.

It’s called “reputation management” but it’s really just more selling.

I’ve got one more for you. Something else you sell.

You sell information.

About the law, problems and solutions, the how-to’s,—via your articles and posts, reports and books, presentations and other content.

Clients don’t pay for this information but you need to sell them on reading or listening, because this information shows them you know what you’re doing and can deliver the solutions they want.

Get better at selling this information and you get more leads and prospective clients contacting you, pre-sold on hiring you.

In fact, if your information is good enough, it will do most of the selling for you.

Which is why I repeatedly tell you to create a blog and newsletter.

Filed Under: Client relations, Content creation, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship

If Ernest Hemingway wrote your blog

May 19, 2022 by David M. Ward

Hemingway was a master of lean writing. If he was in charge of your newsletter or blog, he would probably tell you that ‘less is more’—that you will often be more effective in your “story telling” and persuasion by writing fewer words.

As long as you choose the right words.

To prove his point, it was rumored that Hemingway wrote the following short story, consisting of only six words:

“For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”

A powerful and poignant story that captures the readers’ imagination and makes them want to know more.

In just six words.

My posts and articles aren’t that brief, or that good, and I’m not suggesting you should use this as the standard for yours. My point is that your blog posts and articles can convey big ideas in small spaces.

A few hundred words are plenty. A few paragraphs might be all that you need.

Make most of your posts short enough that they can be read in a minute or two. If you use the right words, your readers will gobble them up and hunger for more.

How to write newsletters that bring in repeat business and referrals

Filed Under: Blogging, Newsletters, Writing

How well do you know your clients?

May 18, 2022 by David M. Ward

Some lawyers do their best to get to know their clients on a personal level, not just during the pendency of the case or matter, but thereafter.

Some lawyers don’t.

The first group may be described as adopting a “relational” approach to building their practice. The latter group, those who do the work and move onto the next client, are said to take a “transactional” approach.

The advantage of a relational approach is that it tends to lead to long-term relationships, which are more likely to result in repeat business and referrals. The lawyer also may get to know the client’s personal and/or business contacts, leading to additional clients and opportunities.

The disadvantages are that it takes time to build relationships, as well as interpersonal skills and being comfortable with a higher degree of transparency.

The transactional approach avoids those disadvantages, but tends to miss out on some of the advantages.

Bottom line, the transactional approach looks at the short-term—the size of the case or the number of billable hours, while the relational approach focuses on the long-term and the lifetime value of the client.

Is one approach better for you than the other? Or should you consider a hybrid approach, as many lawyers do? Many lawyers adopt a transactional approach with most clients and build relationships with their best ones.

Because there are only so many hours in a day.

I recommend a slightly different approach.

I recommend building relationships with all of your clients, just not all in the same way.

Because there are only so many hours in a day, I recommend staying in touch with all of your clients via email, and investing personal time with your best clients.

You absolutely can build relationships with your clients (and others) via email.

You can and you should.

To learn how, get my course on email marketing for attorneys

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations

New clients need TLC

May 17, 2022 by David M. Ward

They may be sharp. Sophisticated. Tough as nails. But new clients don’t yet know your wicked ways and could benefit from a little hand holding.

That goes double for clients who aren’t all of the above.

So, you give new clients lots of information, about you and how you work,and about their case and what to expect.

You tell them what’s going to happen, explain what happened, and spell out what will happen next.

And you encourage them to ask lots of questions. But you don’t wait for that, you contact them often and keep them informed.

You show them you’ve done this before and will take good care of them.

But while you want them to know everything they need to know, you don’t want to overwhelm them.

Don’t send them everything all at once.

No firehoses allowed.

One way to slow your roll is to space out your onboarding email sequence so they don’t get everything on day one.

You might send them an introductory email that thanks and welcomes them, gives them some basic information, and makes them feel good about their decision to hire you.

A follow-up email sent in a day or two can provide them with more information, a checklist or timeline, and links to articles on your website they might want to see.

Subsequent emails, over the ensuing days or weeks, can supply more details and resources, and lots of encouragement.

You might want to number the first few emails. If you plan to send them four emails in the first few days or the first week, for example, number them “1 of 4,” “2 of 4, “and so on, so they know what to expect.

Make sure the final email in your initial onboarding sequence explains when they will hear from you again about (a) their case, and (b) other information—about the law, other legal matters they need to know about, how to’s, recommended resources, and more.

You know, your newsletter.

How to use an email newsletter to build a more successful law practice

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Email, Law office management, Newsletters Tagged With: New clients