What’s wrong with this attorney’s newspaper ad?

April 22, 2013 by
Share

An attorney’s newspaper ad just appeared in our local paper. Take a look and tell me what you think.

Here’s the ad:

Law Offices of
ATTORNEY’S NAME

7 lines of information about the attorney’s (30 years) civil and criminal trial experience and his recent move to our area.

“For more information regarding the law in your specific case, please contact my office for a free consultation by phone or at my office.”

Law Offices of
ATTORNEY’S NAME
ADDRESS
ADDRESS
TELEPHONE and FACSIMILE
E-Mail

The ad includes the attorney’s head shot.

So, what do you think? What’s good? What’s bad? What’s missing?

Let’s start with the good.

He does present an OFFER (Free Consultation) and a CALL TO ACTION (“Call my office”).

That’s good.

He could improve his offer by telling the reader the benefits of the consultation (i.e., “Find out your rights and options, so you know what to do. . . get all your questions answered,” and so on). He should also let them know that there is no cost (yes, even though it is a “Free Consultation,” tell them again) and no obligation.

He could improve the call to action by writing his phone number BIG AND BOLD in the same sentence. “Call my office at [phone]. . .”. Even though it is spelled out below in his contact information. Don’t make people look for it.

He mentions his experience and that’s good. Including his photo is also good for this type of ad.

Now, what about the bad.

There are two things missing from this ad and they are big. Really big.

First, the headline. Or rather, the lack thereof.

You can’t use your name for a headline. Well, you can, but it’s a mistake. Why? Because unless you are famous and your name is something that people will recognize and be drawn to, your ad isn’t going to catch anyone’s attention.

Nobody cares about you. They’re busy and have their own problems and lives to lead. They’re not going to notice your ad.

Okay, some people will notice it. The ones who read the paper cover to cover every week will probably glimpse at the ad because it’s new. But most people won’t. More importantly, most of the people who need a lawyer won’t. And if they don’t notice the ad, they won’t read it and if they don’t read it, they’re not going to call.

What should be in the headline? Well, the attorney does civil and criminal litigation, so how about something that speaks to people who have been sued or arrested and don’t know what to do.

Like this:

Sued? Arrested? Find out your legal rights and options–FREE!

Okay, not brilliant, but can you see how this identifies the people this attorney is targeting? And promises a benefit?

If you’ve been sued or arrested and you’re turning pages in this newspaper, a headline like this is going to flag you down. It says, “Hey, you there with the big hairy legal problem, here’s something good for you.”

Because your lawsuit or arrest is very much on your mind right now, you stop turning pages and look at the ad.

The headline did it’s job. It got your attention and promised a benefit. So now you read the first line of the body copy. If that grabs you and promises a benefit, you keep reading. Then you see the offer for a free consultation and you might call.

Without a headline, it doesn’t matter how compelling the body copy or how great the offer because nobody will see them because they never stopped to read the ad.

Your ad is only as good as your headline.

Okay, what else is missing? Take another look and see if you can spot it.

Of course. No website.

Not having a website is unacceptable today. Guaranteed disqualification in the eyes of many prospective clients. Why? Because all they have to go on is a few self-serving words in an ad. No proof. No details. No reason to trust.

There’s no helpful information that might begin to answer their questions. The only way to get more information is to call.

If you are the only attorney in town, they would have no choice. But you’re not. A quick visit to Uncle Google or Auntie Bing reveals that there are hundreds of attorneys who do what you do, right here in my area code. And they have websites. I can go read all about my problem and their solutions, and find out things I want to know before I call.

So, prospects see your ad without a website and either (a) cross you off the list because you are a dinosaur, or (b) go online to search your name and, finding nothing, cross you off the list.

In other words, the only ones who might call are fellow dinosaurs, a species that is quickly dying out.

Actually, there are two additional clues in the ad that this attorney is living in a different century. They are both in his contact info.

The first is the word “Facsimile”. Go ask your 25 year old neighbor if he even knows what that word means.

The second is the attorney’s email address, which I didn’t include. It’s hisnamelaw@netscape.net. Yes, Netscape. Didn’t they help Al Gore start the Internet?

Obviously, the attorney doesn’t realize how antiquated this makes him look. Somebody should send him a telegram and let him know.

Marketing for 21st century attorneys. Click here to upgrade.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Technology Tagged With: ,

Google Adwords for attorneys? Read this first.

March 4, 2013 by
Share

An attorney who reads this blog asked me what I thought about attorneys using Google Adwords to get clients for a law practice.

I’ve done a lot of advertising over the years, including Adwords, both as an attorney and in my attorney marketing business, and overall, I’ve had positive results. But I don’t recommend Google Adwords for most lawyers, at least not until they have many other ducks in a row.

Here’s what I mean.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, advertising of any kind can be a huge financial sinkhole. There are lots of things you have to get right and if you don’t, you’ll get poor results or spend way too much money for the results you do get. True, with Adwords you can get started with a small investment (e.g., $50 or $100) and you aren’t locked into a long term contract. But it’s far too easy to get caught up in the game of trying to make make your ads work, and that can be a very expensive game to play, especially for attorneys who might pay up to $50 per click.

If you don’t have the budget and the stomach to play that game, you should probably stay on the sidelines, at least for now.

In other words, don’t start with Adwords (or any advertising), to get traffic to your law firm’s web site. Start by building organic traffic by posting high quality content. Use referral marketing, social media, speaking, writing, networking, and other means to build your practice, before you even think about advertising. Once you have a sold base of clients and lots of disposable income to invest in further expansion, then you can consider advertising to provide an incremental increase in that income.

You might use Adwords short term, to test headlines and offers, however. Invest a couple hundred dollars to test several different report titles, for example, and see which one gets the highest response. When you know which one pulled best, you’ll know which one to use for your report.

Advertising is only part of the challenge. You may have great ads that pull lots of traffic, but is it targeted traffic, appropriate for your practice? Are they looking for a lawyer or just free information? At $50 a click, you need to make sure.

In addition, you must have effective landing pages. You may be getting lots of the right traffic but if they don’t opt-in or call you when they get to your site, it is all for naught.

You also need to be able to handle those leads and convert them into appointments. Someone needs to be available when they call and that could be long after business hours. And whoever takes the calls must be good at closing the appointment. The goal isn’t traffic and clicks, it’s appointments and clients.

If you do want to try Google Adwords (or Facebook ads or any other kind of Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Action advertising), here’s what I recommend:

  • Make sure Adwords is right for a practice like yours. Do your ideal clients use search engines to find lawyers? Do they click on paid ads? Do you have high enough margins to justify the per client acquisition cost of advertising and associated overhead?
  • Learn all you can about Adwords. Start with the Google Adwords help center. Read books and blogs and take courses.
  • Start small. Open an account with no more a few hundred dollars and be prepared to lose it all. Take a break and evaluate your results.
  • Start with bids on low volume key words: “brain trauma law south bay” should cost a fraction of what you’ll pay for “Los Angeles personal injury attorney”.
  • Be prepared to roll out your winners and pull the plug on your losers. You must spend enough on your ads, however, to get enough clicks so you can quantify the difference.
  • Be prepared for constant monitoring, testing, and tweaking. You will need to know which headline, displayed in response to which key words, and sent to which landing page, is producing traffic that opts-in or calls. Then, you have to compare those results to other combinations, so you can maximize results and minimize costs.
  • Don’t expect that what works today will work tomorrow. Or vice versa. Advertising is never “set it and forget it”. You can never stop testing and making changes.
  • Get help. Hire consultants to design and track your campaign, and write your ads and landing pages. Let them do what they do best so you can do what you do best.

I’ve spent millions of dollars in advertising over the years and I love what it can do. If you get the pieces right, there is no faster way to bring traffic to a web site (aside from having something go viral, and that’s something you can’t control.) And yet. . . I’m not doing any advertising right now. I don’t want to work that hard.

What are your experiences with Google Adwords? Please share in the comments.

If you want to get more clients without advertising, you need The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Technology, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , ,

Marketing your legal services with the right posture

January 21, 2013 by
Share

Lawyers don’t cold call to sell their services. Aside from the ethical issues it’s bad posture.

You don’t want to chase clients, you want them to chase you, yes?

Last week I saw a posting on a forum where “people with work” and “people who want work” meet. A woman in Los Angeles posted, “I need an attorney to do an ex parte”. (That’s all it said.)

Two attorneys replied. One said, “I am very familiar with many kinds of ex parte motions (reviewed them, as a law clerk, at Los Angeles Superior Court, for 8 years). Feel free to call me for a consultation. xxx-xxx-xxxx.” The second one said, “Can you please call me at xxx-xxx-xxx for details? Maybe I can help! Thanks.”

What’s wrong with this picture?

  1. The “best” clients usually don’t hire lawyers by posting on a job board, and
  2. The “best” lawyers usually don’t get clients by responding to posts on a job board.

But work is work and if a young lawyer can get some business this way, so be it. When I was starting out, I got a few clients (and a whole lot of experience) by volunteering at a legal clinic. Not great posture but my other clients never knew, unlike a job board on the Internet where everyone can see.

The problem is that lawyers who respond to these postings tell the world they need work. Successful lawyers with more business than they can handle would never look at a job board, let alone respond to a posting.

If you want the best clients, you have to have the right posture. People need to see you as busy, successful, and highly sought after. The busier and more successful you appear, the more people want to hire you, yes?

Yes.

They’ll also pay more to have someone like you as their lawyer. That’s a good thing.

Be the pursued, never the pursuer.

But what if you are just starting out and you do need the work? What do you do?

Here’s what I would do: Get someone else to reply to the posting. A friend, a good client, another attorney. Anyone but you.

They say nice things about you, offer a testimonial or otherwise endorse you and your abilities, and recommend that the job poster call you. If they can add something about how busy you are, even better.

Not only does your posture as a successful professional remain intact, it is enhanced because what someone else says about you is always more powerful than what you say about you.

Didn’t your mom tell you it was important to have good posture? I think this is what she was talking about.

For more on creating the right posture, get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Image, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

Is your law firm listed on Yelp? You might be getting reviews and not know it

September 27, 2012 by
Share

When my wife is checking out a new restaurant or other local business, she often checks the reviews on Yelp. If they have a poor rating she usually moves on. She may also use Yelp’s directory to find businesses in our area. She found a great auto service business that way and we’re very happy with them.

If you target consumers or small businesses, prospective clients may be checking you out on Yelp. If you have a listing, it’s one more place people searching for an attorney can find you.

The thing is, clients can post a review about you even if you don’t have a listing. You might want to do a search and see if anyone has. While you’re there, create an account so that you can post your details and contact information. This article points you in the right direction.

Once you have an account, you can add your photo, additional details, and special offers (i.e., a coupon, a free report or video, etc.). You can engage with people who post reviews.

The listing is free and it’s easy to set up an account so there’s really no reason not to. Tell your (satisfied) clients to post their reviews. You may or may not get new clients from the directory, but if anyone hears about you somewhere else and goes to check you out on Yelp, you’ll be ready.

Are you listed on Yelp? Have you gotten clients from your listing? Let me know in the comments.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,

Selling legal services like Apple sells iPhones

September 24, 2012 by
Share

I went to the Apple store this weekend. As you can imagine, it was packed, buzzing with people who were playing with iPads and Airs and Macs. They were asking about the new iPhone 5. And they were buying.

After the Apple store, I went to a Windows store on the same floor of the mall. Like the Apple store, it was spacious and nicely laid out. There were lots of toys to play with and friendly employees to answer your questions. But unlike the Apple store, there were very few customers. The store was almost empty.

Why the difference?

Nobody needs an Apple product. Everything you need in a computer or tablet or phone you can get from another company, usually for less. So why is Apple poised to become the first trillion dollar company in history?

Marketing.

Apple knows that people buy what they want, not what they need, and so Apple doesn’t spend time talking about how their products are better or that over time, you’ll save money buying a Mac versus a PC. They don’t say Apple is safer or has a shorter learning curve or make a fuss about the quality of their customer service. They know these things are important and they don’t ignore them, but they also know that these aren’t why people buy Apple.

People buy Apple because it’s cool.

But legal services aren’t cool. Nobody stands in line at the door of a law office. This is why Apple is about to become the first trillion dollar company and your firm isn’t.

But you can learn something from Apple and apply it to your marketing.

Apple doesn’t try to convince people they need a computer, a smart phone or tablet. They target people who are already looking for a computer, a smart phone, or tablet. They appeal to people who want the “best” (coolest) and are willing to pay for it.

You should do the same.

Focus on people who know they need a lawyer and are trying to choose the right one. Focus on clients who want the “best” and are willing to pay for it.

Yes, you can also educate your market as to why they need the type of legal services you offer, but spend most of your time and energy on the low hanging fruit: the ones who know they need help and are ready to get it.

Then, show them why they should choose you. Give them all of the reasons. Show them why you are the Apple of legal services. They may not stand in line outside your office but they will want what you offer and pay top dollar to get it.

Want to know how to get clients to choose you? Read The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Marketing legal services Disney style

September 21, 2012 by
Share

Disneyland is 40 minutes from me. I think the last time my wife and I went was when our daughter was little, probably twenty years ago. In our mailbox yesterday was an advertising piece from Disneyland. It’s a big booklet filled with nothing but photographs of people having fun at the park. Kids with big smiles and adults looking like kids.

There are very few words in the booklet. No offers, no statistics, no information. Just pictures. But those pictures tell the story. They say, “come back to Disneyland and have fun like these people,” and that’s all they need to say.

Marketing legal services isn’t the same as marketing “The Happiest Place on Earth”. But why can’t lawyers share a little happiness? Instead of delivering a pile of dry information and dreary forecasts, why not show people what their life will be like after they get our help?

Colorful pictures of people having fun, probably not. But colorful stories of people enjoying peace of mind, security, and freedom are always appropriate.

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

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , ,

How to grow your law practice by laughing at stupid people

September 13, 2012 by
Share

NYC Mayor Bloomberg has done it. He convinced the board of health to pass a ban on sodas and other sugary drinks being sold in public venues in cups bigger than 16 ounces. The vote was 8-0, with one abstention, the latter a doctor who said the ban doesn’t go far enough.

Can you believe the arrogance of these people? “We don’t care what people want, we know better. It’s for their own good.”

Can you believe the stupidity of these people? Like nobody is going to figure out that they can order two 16 ounce Cokes and call it a day.

As a lawyer, you can write about how this won’t pass constitutional muster, you can file lawsuits, or you can get angry and join protests, and many lawyers will.

Me? I’d have some fun with it.

Yes, it makes me angry to watch the erosion of freedom and common sense in our country. But I’d rather laugh than cry.

So, if I practiced in NYC, I might hand out 17 ounce cups with my firm’s name and phone number on it, and offer free re-fills at my office. I might sponsor a soft-drink drinking contest, like Nathan’s does with hot dogs. I might make a Youtube video where I offer to sue the city on your behalf if you get injured on your way for yet another refill.

Have some fun and get some clients. And thank Mayor Bloomberg for making NYC a healthier place to live and work. After all, laughter is good for your health.

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services, Publicity Tagged With:

Get more client referrals by giving away a $6 t-shirt

August 30, 2012 by
Share

I had a client once who liked me so much she showed up at my office one day with a gift. It was a t-shirt she had made up that said, “My Attorney is David M. Ward” printed in big letters on the front. She had one made for me and one for herself.

Imagine your happy clients going shopping or taking the kids to soccer or ballet, wearing a shirt with your name on it. Do you think this might start some conversations? Can you see how you might get some referrals?

You can buy imprinted t-shirts in quantity for a few dollars a piece. You can be “professional” and print your name, a slogan or practice area, and your web site in the breast pocket area. Or you can do something whimsical like my client, with big, block letters “bill board” style. Or something in between.

Give away the t-shirts to all your clients. Prospects, too. Give them extras for their spouse and kids.

You would be surprised how many people will wear them, even if only to run errands or go to the gym. They’ll advertise your firm and get people asking about you. New clients can’t be far behind.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you how to earn more than you ever thought possible. To learn more, click here! 

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , ,

The most important question you can ask a new client

August 28, 2012 by
Share

How many new clients did you get last month?

If you don’t know the number, either you didn’t get any new clients or you’re not keeping track.

You need to keep track.

You also need to keep track of where they came from. Who referred them? Which keyword did they use to find your website? Which ad did they click on?

You need to know how every new client made his or her way to your doorstep. That’s why the most important question you can ask a new client is: “How did you hear about us?”

You need to know so you know what’s working. Are your ads pulling or are you throwing your money away? Which ad is working better? Are you getting clients through your efforts on social media or are you wasting your time? Which social media platform is working better? Which posts?

John Wanamaker, who owned department stores in the early part of the twentieth century and spent a fortune on advertising, once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Department stores do “brand advertising”. They don’t usually track response. Although they can do focus groups and track coupons, they don’t know with any degree of accuracy if what they are doing is working. You won’t have that problem if you ask, “How did you hear about us?”

Don’t just ask new clients, however, ask everyone. If they call your office, if they contact you through email, if they show up at your door, ask them.

In my office, our new client intake form had a space to record the name of the person who referred the new client. We kept track, so we knew who to thank. It also allowed us to bring up the subject of referrals with the new client.

We had a form next to the phone to record the name of the referring person or the phone book or other ad that prompted them to call. We tracked them after the call, to see if they became a client. In this way, we learned which of our ads generated new business and which ones didn’t. (Some brought a lot of calls but not a lot of clients.)

Today, there are other options for measuring response to ads and traffic to our web sites. But nothing beats asking, “How did you hear about us?”

Share
Filed Under: Advertising, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Referrals Tagged With: , , , , , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »