The Attorney Marketing Center--Earn More. Work Less

One of these things is not like the other

June 7, 2022 by David M. Ward

There are two types of prospective clients in the world. Those who don’t know you but will find you or be led to you when they need your help, and those who do know you but don’t need your help right now.

The first group—those who don’t know you—is a very large group, essentially unlimited; the second group is comparatively miniscule.

People in both groups may hire you. It might be years from now or it might be tomorrow. They also might never hire you, but know people they can refer.

If you could only market to one of these groups, which would you choose?

Would you choose the massive group that doesn’t know you from Adam or the small group who knows you well?

To answer that, you would have to consider the cost and complexity of getting your message in front of each group.,

Communicating with a small group of people who know you is as simple as emailing, placing a call, or walking up to them the next time you see them.

Easy to do, zero cost.

It’s just the opposite with the large group—expensive and/or time-consuming, but potentially worth it given their numbers.

You would also need to consider the element of trust.

The small group knows, likes, and presumably trusts you. They’ll read your email and take your call. If they need your help, they’ll probably hire you. If they know someone who needs your help, they’ll probably give them your name.

It’s a much different story with the large group to whom you are just a name in a directory or ad, or someone they’ve heard about but have questions, doubts, and fears.

This group might hire or refer you, but you have a lot of work to do before that happens. And while you’re in the process of doing that, they might be just as likely to hire someone else.

There are many other factors, but based on size, cost, and trust, which group would you choose?

The good news is you don’t have to choose one group. You can market to both.

Early in your career, or if you’re not getting enough work from the people who know you, you’ll no doubt invest more in the larger group of people who don’t. Eventually, when you’re busy and making bank, you might focus primarily on the group of people who know you, because why wouldn’t you?

Over time, your goal should be to increase the number of people who know and trust you and to deepen your relationships with them.

But, people die and retire, businesses go out of business, and good relationships sour. So it would be smart to continue getting your name in front of the masses who don’t yet know you, and continue to do that until you die, retire, or go out of business.

Enjoy the low-hanging fruit. But keep a ladder nearby.

How to choose your target market and ideal clients

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

They key to effective marketing

June 6, 2022 by David M. Ward

You want to bring in new clients and better clients and have them send you lots of referrals, don’t you?

Okay, no brainer.

You also want this to happen almost effortlessly, without requiring a lot of time or effort.

More empty-skullery

Now, you might think I’m going to give you a complicated formula for achieving this—a long list of things you have to know or do.

But I’m not.

I’m just going to give you one thing you need to do. Because if you embrace it and do it, it will bring you everything you ask.

I’m not exaggerating. It was the key to my success in my practice and my businesses. The “one thing” that made everything else work.

It’s not a strategy, technique, or tool. The key to effective marketing is simply understanding your market.

To know all about the market or niche and the people in it. What they want, what they need, what they talk about and worry about. Because the more you know your market, the more you’ll know what to say to them to get them to see you as the solution to their problem.

Not just one solution, the best solution.

The more you understand them and the world they occupy, the more easily you can relate to them and they to you. And the more likely they will be to say yes, give you all their legal work, and refer their friends and business contacts.

Study your market and the people in it. Learn about their fears and insecurities, their pain, their desires, their fears and their doubts.

Yes, it is that simple.

Of course, in order to know your market, you have to have a market. This will help you choose the right market for you.

If your accountant managed your law firm

June 3, 2022 by David M. Ward

Remember the last time you called a company about your order, your payment, or your account and what it took to get to the right department? Remember the joy of wading through a phalanx of options and when you didn’t find what you wanted, choosing any option, hitting “0” or shouting out “customer service” so you could talk to a human being?

God forbid you made a mistake and had to start over.

Who decided this is the right way to treat customers?

An accountant. Or committee thereof.

Bean counters counted the beans and realized that it was a lot cheaper to use automation than to hire humans to talk to people. No doubt that’s true. But what they didn’t “account” for is how frustrated customers might be battling the automated devil.

Or how much business they would lose when frustrated customers gave up and bought their wares somewhere else.

They also didn’t think about the other side of the equation. They didn’t consider how much goodwill and loyalty they could engender, and how much additional profit they might derive, by eating the expense of providing some old-fashioned hospitality on the phone.

I’m not saying automation is bad. Just that management should consider not just the savings, but the cost.

How much is it worth to ensure that a customer returns to your store? How many new customers might find you when existing customers share their positive experience with you via reviews, social media, and word of mouth?

I’m not just talking about the phone. There are many areas of customer service where a company should consider spending more to make more.

That goes for law firm, too.

I encourage you to consider spending more to make clients feel welcome and appreciated and giving them an exceptional experience with your firm. Look for “pain points” and areas of friction your clients and prospective clients might experience and put some money on the line to fix them.

But don’t just fix them. Turn those pain points into your areas of strength.

It might give you a competitive advantage over other firms that listen too much to their bean counters and don’t listen enough to the people who pay them.

The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations

Focus on what you can control

June 2, 2022 by David M. Ward

With marketing, or anything else, there are things you can control and things you can’t. Do your sanity a favor. Don’t focus on, measure, or worry about things you can’t control.

You can’t control how many prospective clients will book an appointment after they see your presentation or read your email. But you can control how many presentations you do and how many emails you send.

You can’t control how much traffic you’ll get to your blog or how many visitors will share your content. But you can control how many posts you write.

You can’t control how many bloggers will say yes to your offer to write a guest post. But you can control how many you ask.

I know, you want to sign up more clients, get more followers or subscribers, and put more butts in seats. You want to get more referral sources, bring in more six- and seven-figure clients or cases, and live the freak’in dream.

But you can’t control any of that. You can only control what you do, not what you want to happen as a result.

You can ALSO set a results-based goal—to sign up 5 new clients this month, for example—but keep that in the back of your mind.

In the front of your mind, and in your daily or weekly planner, focus on how many ads you’ll run, how many emails you’ll write, or how many people you’ll talk to.

Here are lots of things you can do

Filed Under: Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity

Wait, I’ve got more research to do

June 1, 2022 by David M. Ward

Let’s pick up where we left off yesterday, specifically the “do” part of “learn, do, teach”.

I have a theory that says, “the more you research and plan, the less you do,” because there’s always more to learn and better plans to create.

I know. I am regularly plagued by research-itis and the only cure I’ve found is to put down the books, pick up the axe and start chopping.

Old Abe said he would spend four hours sharpening his axe and one hour chopping down the tree (or something like that) but what he didn’t say was, “When the axe is sharp enough, commence chopping.”

But that’s surely what he did and we should do the same.

When you’re “sharp” enough,“ start the project. Write and send the email, plunk down some cash and run a few ads, get in front of an audience and start presenting—and see what happens.

If you don’t like the results, or you want to improve them, do more research, revise your plan, and resume chopping.

Ah, but how do you know if you know enough to start?

Here’s a rule of thumb that might help you:

If you’ve been thinking about doing something for more than a few days, you probably know enough to commence chopping.

This will help

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

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