The Attorney Marketing Center--Earn More. Work Less

Wake up, I’m not done yet!

July 19, 2019 by David M. Ward

If you ever do presentations, from the stage or in the courtroom or boardroom, you probably know that your audience tunes out after 10 minutes or so, unless you do something to keep their attention.

An article suggests ways to do that: putting people (stories) in your presentation, using visuals (videos, photos, props, demos), and inviting questions to engage the audience.

My thoughts:

Yes, stories are important. They help illustrate your points and add an emotional element to your message. Every presentation should include them.

Visuals are important and there are many ways to do them.

I used to do a presentation using an overhead projector and a movie screen. I showed the audience slides with charts and bullet points and photos and I wrote on plastic transparencies, all of which were projected on the screen.

One night, the bulb in the projector burned out and we had no replacement.

What did I do?

I made fun of myself for being unprepared and finished the presentation without visuals.

The audience watched and listened raptly, to see if I could do it with just words, and, no doubt, to see if there would be another gaffe.

The incident provided its own visual.

Of course, you can also convey a visual element with colorful words, examples, and stories. Some of the best presenters I’ve known never use slides or visuals, they do everything with their words.

Today, I actually prefer presenting without slides, et. al. I am the visual.

I hope you noticed that instead of merely talking about visuals, I told a story.

Now, about inviting questions from the audience. . .

This is not always possible, due to time constraints, nor advisable. People ask strange questions and it’s often better to handle them in private, not in front of the room.

Instead of inviting questions, I usually ask questions. For example, “With a show of hands, how many of you. . .” or “Did you ever do X? If you did, you probably found. . .”

It gets the audience involved and avoids the risk of having someone ask, “What time will this thing be over?”

Use stories in your newsletter; this shows you what to do

Filed Under: Presentations, Seminars and webinars Tagged With: public speaking

Dealing with social media marketing overwhelm

July 18, 2019 by David M. Ward

I read an article recently about what it takes to get started on YouTube. The article provided a list of things you need to do or skills you need to learn:

Editing videos
Speaking in front of a camera
Mastering camera settings
Lighting
Graphic design or photography for thumbnails
Learning how to optimize YouTube videos for Search
Posting “best practices” on Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms
Researching trends and topics
Understanding and using YouTube analytics data (to rank higher, get more traffic, etc.)

You know, the basics.

You may have some or all of these skills (and equipment), or be willing to acquire them, but if not, you may look at this list and say, screw it.

Because you don’t have time to do all that. Or you don’t want to do all that. Or you don’t want to be in front of the camera.

You want to build your practice and everyone says that social media is the place to go so you look at doing podcasts. Gotta be easier, right? No camera.

You do some research and find that there’s nearly as much to learn and do.

You look at Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and other platforms and find them nearly as complicated or time-consuming.

How about blogging? To do that the way “everyone” says you should do it also requires a serious commitment of time and effort.

It’s all too much, you say. But don’t give up.

You don’t have to learn everything or do everything from day one.

You can start by posting screen-capture videos on YouTube–just you talking and showing the front page of your website and providing a few minutes of valuable information.

You can post content on a WordPress blog without worrying about SEO or keyword research or any of the other things bloggers do.

You can set up social media accounts and post or re-post anything, even if you don’t know what you’re doing.

You can dip your toe in the social media waters, using what you already know and the skills you already have, and not give a flying fig about everything else.

Start where you are, with what you have. You can learn about keywords later.

I do most of my marketing with email

Filed Under: Social media marketing

If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave

July 17, 2019 by David M. Ward

I heard a public service radio spot featuring advice from Smokey Bear and the need to make sure your campfire is completely out before you walk away. “If it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to leave,” Smokey advises.

That’s the takeaway. The nugget listeners should remember. In my opinion, it’s better than the traditional, “Only you can prevent wildfires (previously “forest fires”).

It’s better because it doesn’t lecture us about preventing forest fires, (yes, but how?), it reminds us to make sure our fire is out and provides a simple way to do that.

Easy to remember, easy to do.

Anyway, it got me thinking again about tag lines and slogans, something most attorneys don’t usually adopt but perhaps should.

A slogan or tag helps people understand what you do and how you can help them. It helps them remember this so that when they have a legal situation, they think about you. And it gives them something they can tell others about you.

He’s the lawyer who. . . , She helps people with. . ., They’re the law firm that. . .

My website has the tag line, “Earn more, work less.” That’s what I want visitors to know, remember, and tell others about me and what I offer. It’s simple, easy to understand and contains important benefits.

Tags or slogans don’t need to be brilliant, and this certainly isn’t. But it does the job.

Give some thought to creating a tag or slogan for your practice. Ask yourself, What do I want people to know about me, remember about me, and tell others about me?

Once you have something, take it for a test drive. Share it with your staff or a lawyer friend. Add it to your email footer. Survey your clients.

But don’t take what anyone says as the last word on the subject. Friends may tell you “it’s great” because they don’t know what to think or they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

The best place to test it is with prospects. Someone who doesn’t know you or what you do. If they hear your tag and ask you to tell them more about your services, you may just have a winner.

For more advice on building your practice, go here

Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: Slogan, tag line

Did you celebrate National Simplicity Day?

July 15, 2019 by David M. Ward

In honor of Henry David Thoreau’s birthday, July 12th was National Simplicity Day, a day to celebrate a simpler, uncluttered, and slower pace of life.

Who knew?

I didn’t before I watched a video that mentioned it and challenged viewers to use fewer apps and online tools in our work.

The hosts mentioned 3 apps they use every day in their business and how those apps replaced other apps they had previously used, simplifying their work process and saving time and money.

I thought about my use case. I have many apps and online tools at my disposal but only a few I use every day. I’m re-reading The 80/20 Principle and thought about how I get 80% (ish) of the value of these tools from only 20% of them.

I could eliminate many of the rest–the ones I use only occasionally or haven’t used in a long time.

How about you?

How many apps, programs, and online tools do you have in your arsenal? How many do you use regularly? How many of the others could you eliminate?

Okay, apps are easy. Here’s something that’s a bit more complicated:

Which of your cases or clients or practice areas contribute a preponderance of your income or projected income? Could you safely eliminate the ones that don’t?

I asked myself that question many years ago when I had a general practice. I took a leap of faith and jettisoned everything that wasn’t related to the one practice area that was producing best for me, and my income and happiness skyrocketed.

Thank you, Henry David, for showing us the value of keeping things simple.

This is my primary marketing tool

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: simplification

Solved: The chicken came first

July 12, 2019 by David M. Ward

If you spend enough time online, you wind up seeing things like this:

“Scientists finally concluded that the chicken came first, not the egg because the protein which makes eggshells is only produced by hens.”

I always wanted to know that, didn’t you?

Full disclosure (because this is dangerous information): I didn’t do any research to see if this is true so if you share this at a networking event or in a blog post and it turns out to be fake news, you could wind up with egg on your face (ahem).

But that’s a risk I’m willing to take, as evidenced by the fact that I’m using this nugget (ahem) in the title of this post.

Which leads me to something else I saw online–a question about blogging: “Do you write the headline first, as you go, or after you’ve finished writing the blog? Does it matter?”

Having written more than a few blog posts and articles and emails and books and ads and other things requiring a title or headline, including the all-important “Re:” in letters, I think I’m qualified to weigh in on this.

But it will be a lawyer-like answer: sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. And no, it doesn’t matter.

Sometimes I start with an idea, sometimes I start with a headline/title. Sometimes I keep the original headline/title, sometimes I change it.

So there.

It doesn’t matter because what’s important isn’t where you start, it’s where you finish. Use whatever you have to get the idea out of your head and onto “paper” and then fix it.

Unless it doesn’t need fixing.

Sometimes, the headline you start with is just right. Like the one I used here. I could have made it a question and not answered it until the body of the message but I thought this was just click-baity enough to make you want to read it.

If you’ve read this far, I guessed right.

Yes, I guessed. Writing isn’t like chicken eggshell protein analysis. It’s art, not science.

I’m off to ponder that while I eat some hard-boiled eggs and toast. (In case you’re wondering, the bread came before the toast.)

More of my writing brilliance (and snarkiness) right here

Filed Under: Email, Writing

System-driven

July 11, 2019 by David M. Ward

Pilots use pre-flight checklists. Juries follow jury instructions. You use a checklist (or program) each time you open a new client file.

In my practice, I had forms (and form letters) for everything. They helped me get new hires up to speed quickly. They helped us run a tight ship because everyone knew what to do.

Systems make our work easier and more likely to get good results. They make sure we don’t miss steps and we do the work efficiently.

Systems (workflows, checklists, forms, methods, etc.) document best practices for recurring tasks. It takes time to create them but it’s time well spent because you can use them over and over again.

I encourage you to take inventory of the systems you currently use and look for ways to improve them.

What can you cut? What could you add? How could you make it better?

Then, consider systems you don’t use but should.

Talk to colleagues and see what they do. Talk to your staff and see what they suggest.

Consider creating some simple scripts or checklists for how the phone should be answered, how a client should be greeted at the front desk, how to get more prospects to make an appointment, and how to talk to clients about referrals.

To start, schedule one hour a week to work on this. Involve your team. Do this for 30 days and then schedule one hour each month to do the same.

If improving your systems allows you to save just one hour per week, every week, how much would that work out to in a year?

Enough to buy pizza for everyone at your next meeting?

Don’t forget to document your systems for marketing

Filed Under: Productivity

I’m okay, you’re okay

July 10, 2019 by David M. Ward

Remember that girl in school who sat in the front row, took copious notes (with excellent penmanship), and raised her hand so often the teacher stopped calling on her?

She always turned in her homework on time. And she always got an A.

I hated that girl.

If you were that girl, sorry, I didn’t really hate you. I was jealous of you. You were so organized. You made everything look easy. You made the rest of us goof balls look bad.

You followed the rules and never got in trouble. I didn’t like following rules and looked for loopholes. You behaved. I made jokes in class and threw spit balls at the teacher in the lunchroom.

You got awards. I got sent to the Principal’s office.

I thought you were a goody two-shoes. You thought I was a loser.

We were both given the same set of rules. You followed all of them, I followed some of them. You worked hard. I looked for shortcuts. You behaved. I acted out.

And yet. . . we both turned out okay.

We both became lawyers. Had successful careers. Made a contribution. We just took slightly different roads to get here.

You followed GPS. I winged it. You got here on time. I got lost a couple of times (I’ll never admit it–I’m a guy), but here I am.

Let’s drink a toast to the past and celebrate our differences. And give thanks that school’s out for summer. Oh, right, you’re taking summer school. Figures.

Filed Under: Just for fun

Do you look like an attorney?

July 9, 2019 by David M. Ward

I was running errands with my wife and we parked so she could run into the market for a few things. After a few minutes, an older woman with a foreign accent came up to my car window, told me she was parked nearby and another car hit hers. She wanted to know what to do.

“What, do I look like an attorney?” I thought. Wait, that’s silly. She’s not from the US and is just being careful.

I told her to exchange information, get the other person’s insurance info, take a photo of the damage, and so on. She said there wasn’t much to see but she has a Tesla and you never know.

She thanked me and went back to her car.

I thought about what happened and asked myself if I would have done anything different if I was still practicing. Like handing her my card and telling her to call me if she had any questions.

That’s what you would do, right? Even though there weren’t any injuries. Even if you don’t handle personal injuries?

You’d do that because it’s a nice thing to do and because the woman might have other legal issues you could help her with.

You’d do that because she might have another accident some day, or know someone who does. Even if you don’t do PI, you know PI lawyers and would make a referral.

You’d do that because passing out a card (with your website on it) and telling people to call you if they have any questions is marketing 101.

You’re nodding your head in agreement right now, right?

Good. Now, just one more question. Do I look like an attorney?

Need a simple marketing plan? Here ya go

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

The key to earning more and working less

July 8, 2019 by David M. Ward

If you want to earn more without working more, or earn more and work less, the simplest way to do that is to find ways to use leverage in your work.

Leverage means getting more with less. Less time, less capital, less effort.

When you hire an employee, you’re using leverage. When you create a checklist that allows you to get your work done faster or better or with fewer errors, you’re using leverage. When you conduct a seminar and deliver your message to 100 people at the same time, you’re using leverage.

Leverage also means using what you’ve got to get more of what you want. It can help your practice achieve compound growth.

When you win a big case or land a big client, your income grows. Featuring that win in your marketing can bring you new clients who choose you as their lawyer because you win big cases or represent big clients.

That’s leverage.

Use what you have to get more of what you want.

You have a base a clients. You can leverage that base to stimulate more referrals.

You have knowledge and experience. You can leverage this to improve your services, your marketing, and your productivity.

You have business contacts. You can use these relationships to meet new contacts and discover new opportunities.

Why work hard when you can work smart? Why spend a fortune in time and capital when you can get bigger results with less?

Leverage allowed me to quadruple the income in my practice while simultaneously reducing the number of hours I spent in the office.

If you want to grow your practice quickly, leverage what you have to get more of what you want.

This system shows you how to do that.

Filed Under: Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services