Easy way to get fresh content for your blog or newsletter

February 12, 2013 by
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Last night, I hosted a one hour conference call for one of my businesses. There were six speakers, each of whom spoke for a few minutes. My job was to introduce them, let them share their story, and ask a few follow-up questions.

Easy.

We got good feedback on the call. People liked the stories and the information. Told me I did a great job. Hey, I just asked questions. Someone else lined up the guests.

Anyway, if you’re looking for an easy way to get some fresh content for your blog or newsletter, here’s what to do:

  1. Contact one of your referral sources (or a professional you would like as a referral source) and ask if you could interview them for your blog or newsletter.
  2. Jot down five to ten questions, things you think your readers would want to know about the expert’s area of expertise.
  3. Interview them on the phone, in person, or via email. Post the audio or a transcription on your blog or newsletter.

Easy.

Your readers get valuable information from a subject matter expert. You get content for your blog or newsletter. The expert gets exposure to your list.

What’s next? The expert interviews you for their blog or newsletter, of course.

Marketing is easy when you know The Formula.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: ,

Is your web site boring? Try these quick fixes

January 31, 2013 by
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Many competent and successful attorneys are, frankly, a bit dull. They live in a world of dry facts and esoteric knowledge and in that world they may be brilliant, but clients don’t usually live in that world.

The truth is, if your web site is boring people won’t read your content. If they don’t read it, they won’t know what you can do to help them. And trust me, they won’t call to find out.

How can you improve your writing? One of the best ways is to study good writing.

Think about your favorite web sites, the ones that aren’t boring. The next time you visit, save some of their articles and study them. Read them several times, slowly. Read them out loud. Copy them, by hand. Then, create an outline of the article and use it as a template for your own.

Now, what can you do right now to improve your web site’s content? Here are three quick fixes:

  1. Don’t write, speak. Dictate and record your thoughts and transcribe them. You’ll have a more natural, conversational first draft. You’ll be more likely to say what you want to say and leave out the boring bits. You could also record your content on audio or video and post that on your web site, along with a transcript.
  2. Put people in your posts. Stories breathe life into writing because they engage human emotions. Readers relate to the people in stories and keep reading to “find out what happened.” I’d much rather read about your client and what happened when he didn’t follow your advice than to only your advice.
  3. Make it visually appealing. Many people don’t read anymore, they scan, so give them something scanable. Use more white space and photos. Shorter articles, shorter paragraphs, and shorter sentences. Use bold headlines, sub-heads, and bullet points. By scanning, they’ll get the gist of what you’re saying and for now, that might be enough.

Don’t stop with quick fixes, though. Writing is one of the most valuable skills any attorney can have and worth the time and effort to improve. Read books or take courses on writing, copy writing, and sales. Make writing a daily habit. The more you practice, the better you will get. And, if you have more money than time, hire an editor or writing coach. Their feedback will help you get better.

You may be boring but your writing doesn’t have to be.

If you aren’t open minded, don’t buy this course.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Online Marketing, Writing Tagged With: , ,

How to get targeted traffic to your web site by commenting on others’ blogs

January 25, 2013 by
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As a group, attorneys don’t seem to post a lot of comments on blogs. It’s not that we don’t have anything to say. We’re friggin blabbermouths when we’re getting paid for it.

Guess what? If you do it right, you CAN get paid for posting comments. You’re paid in the form of traffic back to your web site from people who read your comments and think you have something intelligent to say.

If your web site is doing it’s job, those people see something they like on your site, opt into your list, and let you court them. Eventually, they hire you.

The key to getting targeted traffic is to choose the right blogs to add comments. You might have an opinion about the legality of claiming a fake girlfriend, but unless you market to a sports niche, your comment on ESPN.com isn’t going to do you much good.

To get started, here’s all you have to do:

  1. Make a list of blogs in your target market. If you target Enterprise software developers, American couples seeking to adopt Russian babies, or diamond brokers in New York City, Uncle Google will help you find the blogs they read.
  2. Note the blogs that accept comments and a link back to the poster’s web site. Not all do. The ones that don’t accept comments might prove useful, however, if they accept guest posts, that’s another way to get targeted traffic.
  3. Subscribe to the RSS and comment feeds. Learn what you can about the kinds of articles posted and the frequency and nature of their comments. A blog with lots of comments is probably going to have more people reading your comments. Also pay attention to the style of the comments and the sophistication of their readers.
  4. When you read a post that is worthy of your two cents, add a comment. Reference the post, tell why you agree or disagree, and offer something of value to the discussion. Tell readers about resources you have found on other sites. Demonstrate your expertise, knowledge, and especially, your experience in the particular niche. When you say, “I represent several diamond brokers. . .” within your comment on a blog for diamond brokers, you will get noticed.
  5. The best way to link back to your site is to link to an article you wrote on the subject being discussed or something related. Tell readers why they should click through to read your post, e.g., “I just posted an article with 27 do’s and don’ts for adopting Russian babies.” If nothing else, your web site link appear when readers hover over your name above your comment.

Post a comment a few times a day or a few times a week and you should see traffic coming to your site from these blogs. And because it is targeted traffic, it doesn’t have to be a swarm to be profitable.

Marketing is easy. Clients are waiting. Start here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Why a detailed outline may not save time in writing

August 10, 2012 by
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I just read an article that says you can write faster if you do a complete outline before you begin. I say that’s not always true, at least for me.

The author says a simple outline might be a series of questions–who, what, where, why, and when. A complete outline will answer those questions. With the questions and answers in hand, logically organized, you will have enough material to write faster than you would with just a simple outline.

Basically, she recommends thinking through what you want to say before you say it.

That’s often good advice. But sometimes, it’s not.

This blog post is a good example. I started with the idea that I wanted to say something about outlining, but I didn’t know what I wanted to say. It wasn’t until I started writing that I could see what I thought.

When you don’t know what you want to say, rather than forcing yourself to think it through, (a very left-brained process), just start writing. Let the right side of your brain, your creative mind, tell you what you think. It’s called freewriting. Just start typing or moving your hand across the page and see what comes out.

That’s how I wrote this post.

If you do know what you want to say, sometimes a short outline is all you need. That’s what I use for most of my blog posts. I jot down four or five points I want to cover and get started. It wouldn’t be worth it to take the time to create a detailed outline, nor do I believe it would make for better writing.

What takes the most time is crafting the opening and ending. You’ve got to get the reader’s attention and leave them with a memorable twist or marching orders. You can’t outline these. I often re-write openings and endings several times in order to get them right.

For longer writing, a detailed outline makes sense, and sometimes I use them. But sometimes, longer writing is nothing more than a collection of shorter writing and a detailed outline isn’t needed.

I just completed a new course and I did create an outline. Some parts were very detailed. Others were very brief. What I found is that the writing I wound up with is very different from the writing I imagined (and outlined) when I started.

Writing is like that sometimes. A creative journey. No maps, no GPS. You just fill up the tank, and go.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Newsletters, Presentations, Writing Tagged With: , , ,

How to use someone else’s blog post to get traffic to your website

August 9, 2012 by
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You read lots of blogs, right? For work, for news, for fun. You might think most of it isn’t something of interest to your clients and prospects. But you might be surprised at how much of it is.

Your clients and prospects are interested in lots of things that can make their lives better. They want to make more money, cut expenses, protect their credit, and get a better return on their investments. They want to get their kids into college and plan for retirement. They want to know how to be safe when they travel.

No matter what your clients are, they are also consumers.

So when you see an article entitled, 6 Things You Should Never Say to a Police Officer, and share it with your list, you’re providing them with value. The next time they see something from you, they’ll be more inclined to read it. And the next time they need a lawyer, they’ll be more inclined to think of you.

When you come across a post that’s interesting or useful, you probably do share it via social media. But when you share a link to a story and someone clicks on that link, it will take them to the website with the original story. Wouldn’t you prefer to have them go to your website?

Why not write your own article on the subject and share that link?

People will come to your website to read your article (and then onto the original), but by coming to your website first, they may see something else you wrote and be reminded that they need to hire you. When they share your link with their friends and followers, those folks will also come to your site first and hire you, sign up for your newsletter, or see something else they want to share with their friends and followers.

If you are a criminal defense lawyer, an article on what not to say to a police officer is a natural. You can add your comments, agree or disagree, and tell stories about your clients who messed up. What you have to say could be even more interesting than the original post.

If you are not a criminal defense lawyer, you can still comment on an article like this. You might have a personal experience you can share or know someone who has. You can ask a criminal defense lawyer for his take on the subject and add his comments or stories. A quick search may lead to a another article or two you can link to.

A blog post doesn’t have to be authoritative. It doesn’t have to be long. A few short paragraphs are fine. Tell your readers you found something you want to share, and why you like it (or don’t).

If there is a connection with what you do, yes, that is better. Your post will be longer and readers will stay on your page longer to read it. Your post will also be more valuable. That can only lead to more sharing and more appreciation.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client loyalty, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Take inventory of your marketing to save time, save money, and improve results

July 11, 2012 by
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Taking inventory of your marketing can help you gain clarity about where you are and make it easier to get to where you want to go.

Here’s how to do it:

Pick a period of time in the past. Six or 12 months will do. Write down how many new clients you took in during that period, who they are, and the amount of income those clients have or will generate for you.

So far, so good.

Next, look at the names of each of those new clients and write down where they came from. You need to know whether they were referrals (including self-referrals, aka repeat clients), or they came from some other source.

You can break this down any way that makes sense for your practice, but I suggest something like the following:

  1. Referrals from clients (including self-referrals)
  2. Referrals from professionals, others; networking
  3. Online (Blogging, SEO, social media, webinars, articles, etc.)
  4. Paid advertising (PPC, direct mail, display, radio, directory, ezine, banners, self-hosted seminars, etc.; if you do a lot of adverting, you should break this up into different categories)
  5. Other (Public speaking, publicity, writing (i.e., trade pubs), etc.)

Okay, now you know where the business is coming from. What now?

Here are my thoughts on how you can use this information:

  • Most of your clients should come from referrals. If they don’t, ask yourself why and what you can do about it
  • If you’re not getting business from some of your marketing activities, or they are too expensive relative to the business they bring you, consider eliminating those activities.  For example, if blogging and social media take up a lot of your time but you’re not getting the clients from it, why do it? Use that time for something that is producing.
  • There will be some cross-over or ambiguities. For example, blogging may not be producing a lot of traffic, inquiries, and new clients for you but it still has value as authoritative content you can show to prospects who come to you via referrals, or to add value for your clients.
  • If something is working for you, do more of it. You can find more time for networking, for example, by reducing or eliminating some or all of the time you spend on (whatever is not working). If advertising in trade publications regularly brings in new clients, increase your media buys in trade publications.
  • Before you cut anything, consider the “back end”. For example, you may be breaking even on advertising (or even losing money) but if you are able to get referrals from the new clients that are produced by that advertising, you’re still earning a profit.
  • If you aren’t in the habit of recording where your clients come from, you need to start. Instruct whoever answers the phone to ask everyone, “Where did you hear about us?” and add a line to your new client intake form.
  • Track these numbers going forward so that you can periodically take inventory and see where you are.

A friend of mine says, “You have to inspect what you expect”. He also says, “You have to slow down to speed up.” Take his advice. Once or twice a year, shut off the phones and email and take inventory. It will help you save time, save money, and improve your results.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Blogging, Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Networking, Productivity, Public Speaking, Referrals, Social media marketing, Time Management Tagged With: , , ,

Engage your clients and prospects by explaining the news

June 29, 2012 by
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So we have some health care news. Now what?

Your clients and prospects are wondering what it all means. What do they have to know? What do they have to do? What will it cost them? What’s next?

This is a great opportunity to provide some answers. Leverage news events like these to add value to the lives of the people who follow you. They will appreciate you for sorting it out for them and the next time you write, tweet, post, or otherwise open your mouth, they will be more likely to pay attention.

If you don’t know what to make of everything yourself, there’s plenty of help available. Here’s an article that explains, “How Will the New Health Care Law Affect Me?” Here’s one about, “How Your Business Will Be Affected.” You can use articles like these as a starting point to write your own summary.

You don’t need to write a comprehensive legal analysis (unless your clients are in the health care field or are affected more than most). Give them the who, what, where, when, and why.

But be careful with the why. If you get political, you may alienate a lot of people who put food on your table.

Show people they can trust you. Give them the facts. Help them understand.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Image, News, Newsletters Tagged With: ,

Three Tips For Your Next Speaking Gig

June 28, 2012 by
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At breakfast this morning I reminded myself that I did not yet have a topic for today’s blog post. When that happens, I usually dig through my backlog of ideas (saved in Evernote) and unread articles and blog posts (saved in Instapaper). Instead, this morning I began with a title.

Actually, not the whole title. I wrote down, “Three Tips for. . .” and went back to my eggs.

My subconscious mind came to the rescue. It reminded me that earlier this week, I had given a luncheon presentation. There must be three things I could share about public speaking.

The first one was easy. It was something I didn’t do but will do the next time. The other two I nailed.

So here are my three tips:

Tip number one: Meet the audience before you begin.

Had I done this, I would have learned that one of the guests was an attorney. I could have tailored my remarks to him. I might have engaged him with a question or two. Another guest was a real estate agent. I could have incorporated her background in one of the examples I used in my talk.

It’s usually not possible to meet everyone but meet as many as you can. I knew I was addressing business owners and professionals, but had I met some of them in advance, I would have been able to provide more relevant context (examples, stories) and generally deliver a better talk.

Tip number two: Don’t depend on A/V.

There was no projector available at this location, so I could not use slides. No problem. I knew my talk and could deliver it without any visual aids. In my opinion, this makes for a better presentation because the audience focuses on you instead of the screen.

Use slides if you have to. Avoid them if you can. No matter what, you need to know your subject well enough so that you can deliver it when there is no projector, no electricity, or the bulb burns out.

Tip number three: Have some friendly faces in the audience.

A speaker is only as good as his audience. We draw our energy from the people in the room. If you are addressing a group of dullards, people who don’t smile, don’t laugh at your jokes, and don’t respond when you ask for a show of hands, I don’t care how good you are, your talk will suffer.

My wife was with me. I can always count on her. One of my business partners was in the front row and he has good energy. When I looked at him leaning forward in his seat and smiling at me, it not only helped me, it helped the others in the room who took their cues from him. I had him “keep score” every time one of my “jokes” got a laugh and this added to the fun.

So those are three tips gleaned from this week’s presentation. Okay, I just thought of one more. If you’re doing a lunch presentation, start off by asking for a show of hands: “Did anyone order a salad?” Apologize and tell them you asked the restaurant to leave out the tomatoes. “They’re way too easy to throw at the speaker.”

Make people laugh and they will like you and your presentation. Even if you don’t have any slides.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Public Speaking Tagged With: , , , , ,

Why clients don’t appreciate their attorneys (and what to do about it)

June 12, 2012 by
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An attorney mentioned to me that clients often don’t appreciate what attorneys do for them. He said, “. . .[B]ecause they can’t see what we do or because they believe that it’s just templates and forms, [they think our] fees should be low and that we don’t really do much for our fees.”

We shouldn’t be surprised that clients feel this way. After all, we sell an intangible service, something you can’t look at or hold in your hands. We deal in ideas and paper and much of the hard work goes on in our brains.

And attorneys are expensive. When the client earns $30 an hour and you’re billing $300 an hour, or when you get $3,000.00 for “a few letters and phone calls,” you can see why they don’t appreciate what we do.

A detailed accounting of your work helps them see how much effort you put into their case or matter. But this can backfire if they don’t understand why you had to do what you did.

The solution is to teach your prospects and clients as much as possible about what you do. Educate them about the law and procedure. Teach them about their options, the risks and the contingencies. Show them the process and the paperwork.

The more they know, the more they will appreciate what you do for them.

Write articles and blog posts. Tell war stories that illustrate what can go wrong. Provide interviews, Q and A’s, and FAQ’s.

Record videos that walk them through the documents in a typical file or a pile of depo transcripts, tabbed and notated. Give them copies of the full opinions you quoted in your motion, highlighted and with your notes in the margins. Give them copies of everything that comes into, or out of your file.

And explain everything. What is obvious to you is not obvious to them. What you do every day is something they’ve never seen before.

Tell them why you choose A instead of B. Explain why you used to do C (which is what other attorneys do) and why you no longer do it that way.

Don’t hold back. Teach them enough so that they could do all of it, or parts of it, themselves. They won’t even want to try and they will begin to appreciate how hard you job really is.

They won’t understand everything and they don’t have to. They simply need to see that what you do is a lot more than they thought it was.

Educating prospects and clients is also one of your most potent marketing strategies.

When you teach people about what you do, and other attorneys don’t, you have an advantage. All of that information positions you as knowledgeable and experienced. It also positions you as generous. “If he gives away all of this information free, I can only imagine how much he does for his paying clients!”

Educate the market. Provide lots of information. Teach them what they need to know about their legal matter and about what you do. More often than not, they’ll choose you as their attorney and instead of questioning your fees they’ll thank their lucky stars you agreed to represent them.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Fees and Billing, Marketing legal services, Newsletters Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

3 smart ways to create content your prospects really want to read

June 5, 2012 by
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Have you ever struggled to come up with ideas for your blog or newsletter? After you read this blog post, you’ll never have that problem again. Even better, you’ll be able to create content your target market actually wants to read.

It makes no difference whether you have a static web site, a blog, an ezine or a paper newsletter. There are three proven ways to find out what people want to know. You can use these strategies for any kind of content–seminars, webinars, white papers, articles, audios and videos–and come up with the perfect idea every time.

CONTENT CREATION METHOD NO. 1

Let’s start with the most obvious way to find out what your target market wants to read: asking them.

You can email (or write) your list, or ask via your blog or through your social media channels, to find out what people want to know. A free online poll service like Surveymonkey makes it easy.

When a lot of people say, “I want to know X,” you can be fairly certain that this will be a popular topic for a blog post or newsletter article.

For best results, give people a choice of topics: “Do you want to read about A or B?” “Rank these five titles in order of preference. . .”. Of course, this means you will have to come up with the titles you are asking them to choose between so you might want to start your inquiry with one of the next two methods.

CONTENT CREATION METHOD NO. 2

Every day, your target market searches online for information and solutions. A keyword tool like Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker.com will tell you precisely what words are being searched for and in what volume.

You should have a list or spreadsheet of your keywords and phrases. If not, using a keyword tool will help you get one started. Searching on words like, “Los Angeles divorce lawyer” will lead you to related words and phrases to add to your list.

You’ll also be able to see the volume of searches for each keyword, and the number of web sites that use them, i.e., your competition.

Although optimally, you want a combination of a high number of searches and a low number of competing sites, the purpose of this exercise isn’t to find the best keyword deals for you to bid on, it’s to find keywords that allow you to create content people want to read. Therefore, for writing purposes, it doesn’t matter how much competition you have for those keywords.

Nevertheless, if you can find variations of high-ranking keywords with low competition, i.e., “Certified family law specialist Torrance,” instead of “Los Angeles divorce lawyer,” you will increase your chances of getting search engine traffic, especially if  you use those keywords in the title, in subheads, in the text itself, and in the image tags.

CONTENT CREATION METHOD NO. 3

In school, we were punished for copying off of someone else’s paper. In marketing, copying others can get you a gold star.

The simplest, and arguably the most accurate way to find out what your prospects want to read is to look at what they are reading on other blogs. If a particular topic is popular on the blog of another lawyer with a similar target market, you can be fairly certain that topic will be popular on yours.

Create a list or spreadsheet of your competition’s blogs and add the urls of the posts they’ve published recently. Then, look at each post and note how many tweets or Likes those posts received. If they don’t have buttons for Twitter or Facebook, type the URL into twitter to see the number of re-tweets or mentions. You could also find a non-competitive lawyer, i.e., in another state or province, and ask them which of their posts is getting the most traffic.

Now you know exactly what your target market wants to read and you can write content related to those topics. Don’t plagiarize the post. Write your own unique content, a different take on the subject, your own stories and so on, and change the title.

For example, if a lawyer is getting a lot of re-tweets and shares for a post entitled, “How to get joint custody in California,” you could write a post with the title, “Strategies for men seeking joint custody in a California divorce.”

With all of these methods, the key is to first let the market tell you what it wants, then go create it. You’ll save time, you’ll never run out of ideas, and you’ll always give people content they really want to read.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,
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