The Attorney Marketing Center--Earn More. Work Less

Get more clients by making it easier to get more clients

December 30, 2019 by David M. Ward

‘Twas a big year in Amazon land. One big reason is that they make it so damn easy to buy from them.

It’s something we all need to do.

In the new year, I encourage you to make it easier for people to hire you and refer clients to you.

On your website, make it easy to find information about the law, your services, and you. Make it easy to find your contact information and the sign-up form for your newsletter.

Make it easy for clients to hire you by offering different services or “packages” for different budgets, and different payment options.

Make it easy to say “yes” to you by offering more social proof–reviews, testimonials, success stories, endorsements, awards.

Make it easy for people to send you referrals by describing your target market and ideal client, and explaining the best (and easiest) ways to make referrals.

Make it easy to stay in touch with clients and prospects and referral sources by instituting a routine process for updating your files with their latest contact information.

For more ways to get more clients and increase your income, get my latest: The Encyclopedia of Attorney Marketing book series.

Amazon has made this easier by posting pages for the entire 5-volume series:

Print version

Ebook version (with “easy” one-click buy button).

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services

New Year’s resolutions are a ‘no go’ zone for me

December 27, 2019 by David M. Ward

A long time ago, I wrote New Year’s resolutions.

Not anymore.

Because they focus on the negative.

Things we need to fix. Defects in our character, poor habits, problems with what we do (or don’t do).

If we resolve to exercise more, for example, we tend to focus on overweight, out of shape, lacking in energy, and so on.

Resolutions call attention to our negative aspects and when we dwell on them, we attract more of the same.

Because we get what we think about.

So, instead of resolving to fix something or do better at something or stop doing something that doesn’t serve me, instead of focusing on what’s wrong, I focus on what’s right.

I write a list of positive aspects, things I appreciate about my life.

You might want to do the same.

Write down what you like about being an attorney. About your practice, your partners, your employees, your colleagues, and your clients.

Write down what’s working well for you in marketing your practice. Write down what you did well with a particular case or for a particular client.

Write down what you like about your personal life–your family, friends, community, hobbies, interests and your spiritual life.

Write about books or movies you enjoyed, apps you love, your favorite restaurants, investments that have done well, projects you’re looking forward to starting or completing.

Write about things that make you happy. Things that make you smile or laugh out loud. Things that make you proud.

When you focus on the things you appreciate, the positive aspects of your life, you get more of the same.

No resolutions necessary.

On my list of things to appreciate: you.

Thank you for your patronage, your support, your ideas, your comments and kind words–they mean a lot to me.

I look forward to an exciting, prosperous, and productive new year.

Join me?

Filed Under: Inspiration

What’s your DMO?

December 26, 2019 by David M. Ward

Many people use the last few days of the year to plan their next year. If you’re among them, one thing you might want to do is create (or update) your DMO.

Your “Daily Method of Operation” is a list of essential recurring tasks, and a process for handling other things that comes your way. Your DMO helps you make progress on your top priorities and minimize distractions and omissions.

Your DMO might include a list of tasks you want to do every day or on certain days of the week, and lay out the order in which you will do them.

It might include a list of tasks for starting your day and another list delineating how you will end it.

At the start of the year, you can only lay out general plans about how you will use your time–the “big rocks” of your day. One of these should be scheduling time to look at your calendar and list of projects so you can plan the bulk of your day.

One thing you’ll discover is that no matter what your DMO includes today it will surely change tomorrow.

And that’s okay.

Because the value of planning your DMO–or anything else–isn’t in the plan, it’s in the planning.

The Attorney Marketing Formula includes a simple but effective marketing plan

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: planning

My CPA didn’t send me a Christmas card

December 23, 2019 by David M. Ward

My CPA didn’t send me a Christmas card this year. And I’ve been his client for 35 years.

No, nothing’s wrong. He’s never sent me a Christmas card. Or emailed me to wish me happy holidays. Or sent me anything that’s not strictly business.

And that’s fine with me.

He does a good job for me, we speak once a year, and as far as I’m concerned, we’ll continue to do that as long as we’re both breathing.

No doubt you have clients who feel the same way about you. They’ll stick with you through thick and thin.

The only question you have to ask yourself is if all your clients feel that way.

Probably not.

Some are new and don’t know you well enough. Some need hand holding. Some are really into the holidays and are disappointed if they think you forgot them.

And some are having a rough time and would appreciate some holiday cheer.

If you don’t send cards or emails, you’re probably fine with most of your clients. But there will always be some who fall into another category.

And then there’s your list of prospective clients who don’t know, like and trust you enough just yet and hearing from you could make a difference.

You can’t communicate too often with the people in your life, even those who are committed to you.

But don’t send cards because it’s a good marketing tactic. Don’t send them because you want to keep them happy.

Send them because it makes you happy.

Email let’s you stay in touch with everyone. Here’s how to do it right

Filed Under: Communication

How’s that ‘weekly review’ thing going?

December 20, 2019 by David M. Ward

No matter what kind of productivity system we use, we can all agree that some kind of weekly review is a good idea.

Examining what we’ve done recently and planning out what to do next just makes sense. A well-planned life is a well-lived life, or something like that.

But. . . it’s so easy to fall off the wagon. (Ask me how I know.)

If you’re thinking about re-starting your weekly review, or cleaning up a list that has become unwieldy, I have a few ideas that might help.

If it’s been awhile since you did a weekly review, if you routinely ignore the appointment in your calendar, scheduling a different day and time for your review might help you jump start a new habit.
If this is your first day back, don’t try to do everything at once. Limit yourself to reviewing a segment of your list, e.g., current projects, “this week” or “this month,” or limit yourself to a 10-minute perusal to get your feet wet. Easy to start, easy to continue.
Consider setting up two new tags or labels: “Defer to do” and “Defer to review”. This will allow you to move tasks and ideas out of sight (for now), giving you more visual space and mental clarity to deal with more important or immediate tasks.
If your someday/maybe list is massive, give yourself permission to aggressively delete items. If that makes you nervous, move them to a “probably never” list, and tell yourself you will “probably never” look at that list.
If things are totally out of control and you dread getting started, consider the nuclear option: set up a new inbox, move your entire list into it, and start from scratch.
Another idea: choose a new app or system and re-enter everything manually. It makes you re-consider what’s important and helps you create a more manageable list.
Once you’re back on the wagon and your lists are in decent shape, consider adding a brief “daily review” to your schedule. A few minutes at the end of the day can help you keep your lists tidy and reduce the amount of time needed for your weekly review.

If you use Evernote for your lists, my book can help you get organized

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: getting things done, gtd, weekly review

You’ll get more referrals if you do this

December 19, 2019 by David M. Ward

This is one of those things that might sound simplistic. Something you already know and do.

Don’t underestimate it. Because it invokes a very basic but powerful aspect of human nature. And because it works.

If you want to get more referrals, look for ways to remind people that other people send you referrals, and you appreciate it.

I’m not saying you should ask for referrals–just let the people in your world know that other people in your world send you business and/or tell others about you (your website, your content, etc.)

And you’re grateful for it.

I just got a “Happy Holidays” email “card” from my dentist that did just that. It included a holiday-themed image and a message from his-and-her nibs (my dentists are husband and wife).

The message said the usual things, “We’re grateful. . . honored to serve you. . .thank you. . . wishing you happy holidays. . .”.

Sandwiched in the middle of the message was the following:

“We appreciate the many referrals that you have made to us of friends and family, coworkers and neighbors. Your referrals are truly the greatest compliment and a testament to your trust in us! We strive to always reciprocate that trust by taking great care of your oral health with the highest level of care and service.”

In other words, they get a lot of referrals from their patients, and they appreciate them.

Note that they also mentioned who was referred–friends and family, coworkers and neighbors of their patients–suggesting that we (the recipient of the message) might have some of these people in our lives.

Simple, subtle, and effective.

Something every professional can do.

Not just during the holidays but all year long.

I do most of my marketing via email. You can, too.

Filed Under: Referrals

New: The Encyclopedia of Attorney Marketing

December 18, 2019 by David M. Ward

I just published The Encyclopedia of Attorney Marketing, a 5-volume compilation of blog posts and newsletters that first appeared at The Attorney Marketing Center.

They are available as both Kindle ebooks and in print:

Volume One: General Marketing and Practice Development
- Kindle
- Print
Volume Two: Client Relations and Referrals
- Kindle
- Print
Volume Three: Online Marketing
- Kindle
- Print
Volume Four: Productivity
- Kindle
- Print
Volume Five: Professional and Personal Success
- Kindle
- Print

The Kindle versions are enrolled in Kindle Unlimited so you can read them that way.

Take a look, buy yourself something to read, or buy something for your favorite attorney, and let me know what you think.

Filed Under: News

Your success comes down to this

December 17, 2019 by David M. Ward

One of the biggest misconceptions about an attorney’s success is the idea that their legal services are the most important part of the equation.

They’re not.

Clearly, your services are important. But not the most important factor.

It’s not the outcomes you deliver, either. It’s not the benefits you offer. It’s not value or your reputation or any of the things that make people trust you and have confidence in your ability to help them.

Although these are important, too.

The most important factor in your success is something else, and it’s right under your nose.

It’s you.

Your personality. The way you speak, the way you make people feel about their case and their future.

And how you make them feel about themselves.

It comes down to this:

When you make people feel good, they want you by their side–advising them, protecting them, and working with them.

Before a client buys your services, they buy you.

Thats why you have no competition. Because there is only one you.

I can teach you how to get in front of more people. I can give you things to say and do. I can help you improve what you’re already doing.

The rest is on you.

It starts with your values. What you believe about yourself and your world, what you deem important.

The essence of who you are.

Your values determine your attitude–how you feel about your clients and how committed you are to serving them.

Your attitude affects your activities–your work, sure, but also the way you treat your clients and prospective clients–all of the things that constitute “client relations”.

Your activities determine your results. How people feel about your work and about you.

And how they feel about themselves for choosing you.

It’s all about the relationship

Filed Under: Client relations

Just slip out the back, Jack

December 16, 2019 by David M. Ward

Paul Simon’s song, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, is about letting go of over-thinking and fear and getting on with your life. You don’t need 50 ways to do what you’re thinking about, you need one way.

Pick something.

Just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. You don’t need to be coy, Roy. Just get yourself free.

What do you know you need to do that you’ve been putting off?

Let’s pick a subject at random. Oh, I don’t know, how about “marketing”.

There must be 50 ways to get more clients. Pick something.

Don’t get hung up on all the options and the how-tos.

That’s just your fear talking, telling you it doesn’t want to do anything.

There are great things waiting for you on the other side of that fear but you need to take the first step.

You know you need to improve your website. Where do you start?

Maybe you start by looking at what other attorneys are doing with their websites.

Maybe you get a book or a course or talk to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Maybe you print out the main pages from your site and make some notes.

Pick something and do it.

There must be 50 ways to improve your website, 50 ways to get more clients, 50 ways to increase your income.

Pick something and get on with it.

Marketing online for attorneys

Filed Under: Marketing Plan Tagged With: procrastination

“I thought I was being considerate”

December 13, 2019 by David M. Ward

David Gaughran is an author and I’m on his email list. His latest newsletter issues a warning to those of us who write a newsletter, and those who want to.

He tells how he made a pact with his readers, telling them that if they signed up for his list, he would promise not to email them until he had a new book coming out.

“I thought I being considerate. I thought it would attract more people to my list. . . I thought most readers wouldn’t really care to hear from me in-between releases, and that I’d run out of things to say. . . I was wrong–so very, very wrong.”

What happened?

“People forgot who I was. Open rates fell. . . fewer and fewer were clicking and less again were buying. Reviews were dropping. Sales were increasingly tepid. It was a cascading clusterfudge of exponential fail.”

Emailing your list occasionally, e.g, only when you have an announcement or something “important” to say, is not the way to build a responsive list.

What is a responsive list?

A list that looks forward to hearing from you and reading what you write.

A list that comes to know, like, and trust you because of what you write, and then hires you or re-hires you.

A list of people who may never need your services (or need them again) but know people who do and refer them to you.

A list of people who tell others about your events, your videos, your articles, and your newsletter, and thus help you build your list.

Not a list of people who forget who you are or that they signed up on your list.

Gaughran has seen the error of his ways and is changing his approach. If your list isn’t responsive, or isn’t as responsive as you’d like, you might do the same.

It’s not difficult. Write something your list wants to read and send it to them often.

If you’d like to learn how to do that effectively, and why it’s a lot easier than you might think, head on over to this page to learn more.

Filed Under: Email, Newsletters