In marketing legal services, we typically show people something they didn’t know or confirm something they thought they knew. We educate them about the law, the risks, the penalties, the options, and the benefits of taking action, i.e., hiring us. 

Besides “telling,” we also persuade them by dramatizing what they know (or what we’ve just told them) by making the risks and penalties more formidable and urgent, and/or the benefits and relief more enticing. 

We do the latter by providing more information, arguments, or examples, or agitating what we’ve told them by adding more fuel to the fire. Some copywriters call this “twisting the knife”. 

We want them to feel more emotions, enough to tip the balance in favor of taking the next step. If they’re scared, that means scaring them more, but not so much that they shut down.

A little can go a long way. 

The key is to talk about things they care about and make the threat or promise more likeable and believable. 

The most important place to do that is in your headline or title. Show them you understand them and have something important for them, and they will be more likely to notice, click, and read your message. 

In the body of your message, you continue to twist the knife. 

Enough to make them cry ‘Uncle,’ but not enough to kill them. 

Notice I didn’t tell you what “this” is. You want to know what it is, don’t you? So you started reading. And thus, illustrate the power of this principle—curiosity.

Humans are curious creatures. And you can use their curiosity to get them to do what you want them to do.

Prospective clients want information. They want answers. They want to know what can be done to solve their problem and achieve their goal. Which is why they visit your website, read your posts, sign up for your newsletter, watch your videos, and sign up for your seminar. 

It’s also why they contact you, make an appointment, and keep it.   

But hold on. You can’t rely on their innate “desire to know” to get them to do what you want them to do. You have to build on their curiosity. Make them hungry enough to take action. 

How? By not telling them everything they want to know. 

Hold back. Tell them some of the basics, but don’t tell them everything. 

Most lawyers know that but don’t always do it. They want to impress the prospective client with their knowledge and experience and wind up telling them too much. Too much information, too many answers to frequently asked questions, too much detail.

They don’t have to take the next step if you’ve already told them everything.

Many lawyers do the opposite. They don’t tell them enough. They tell them their practice areas and accomplishments (in an ad or directory listing or website) and nothing else. They assume this is enough to compel prospective clients to call or write or fill out a form. 

But it’s not. They want more. 

Your challenge is to tell them enough so they see you have the information and solutions they need and want, but not so much that they don’t need to take the next step.

Make them curious. Don’t satisfy their curiosity. 

Maybe. But the average lawyer is, by definition, average and unless you can delineate what you do better than other lawyers, you can’t call yourself better. Just average. 

Do you get better outcomes for your clients? Give them more value? Help them in ways that go beyond your core legal services? 

What. Exactly. Do. You. Do. Better? 

I know that’s a tough call. Start by noting what you do differently, meaning that your competition doesn’t regularly do. 

I know, that’s also tough, because many attorneys do what you do and you do what they do. Same laws, same procedures, same basic process, and very much the same outcomes and deliverables. 

It’s true. 

Still, if you want to stand out and show prospective clients an advantage to hiring you (instead of them), you need to give them reasons. 

Why should they hire you “instead”?

You need to figure that out. Don’t worry. It’s not as difficult as you think. Because in marketing, “different” is often seen as “better”. 

So, what do you do that’s different? 

It doesn’t have to be big and amazing. It could be as simple as your process for investigating a new case and setting up a new file (for example). 

What’s so special about that? Maybe nothing. Probably nothing. Your competition probably does the same things you do (questions, research, investigation, forms, first steps, etc.)

But while you (and your competition) see how you open a new file as small and commonplace and not worth mentioning, it can be a big deal to your clients who don’t know what you do and why it’s important.

By providing a few details about what you do, and why, something small and commonplace can be a big deal.  

Clients don’t know all the steps you take, the forms you use, the procedures you follow, and the benefits these confer. 

So, tell them. When you do, what’s commonplace and boring to you (and your competition) becomes important. 

And gives you an advantage. 

And, if you describe what you do when you open a new file and your competition doesn’t (because they assume everyone does it and it’s not worth mentioning), in the eyes of your prospective clients, you “own” that advantage. 

Which is why you start by researching your competition, to see what they do (and don’t do), and what they say (and don’t say) about it.

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