Years ago, I read Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor in the case against Charles Manson. Bugliosi presented the timeline and documented the evidence in the case in meticulous detail.

But he didn’t just describe the facts and the evidence. He explained why it mattered. He put everything together into a masterfully persuasive account, as though he was again presenting the case to the jury.

I remember thinking, “nobody who reads this would have any doubts about what happened, or the correctness of the verdicts”.

That’s what we expect of a prosecutor doing his job. It’s also what we expect lawyers to do when advising their clients.

When you tell your clients what you recommend, you must tell them why.

It may be obvious to you, but it isn’t necessarily obvious to the client. Even when it is, telling them the facts and arguments you considered helps them to see why they should follow your advice.

I’m sure you do this (most of the time). You’re not like my father who sometimes grew tired of my relentless “why” questions and said, “Because I said so!” (Wait, your dad did that too?)

Anyway, I’m sure you tell clients why they should follow your advice, but do you do that in your marketing?

I’ve seen too many ads, blog posts, articles, videos, emails, presentations, and so on, where the lawyer doesn’t tell people what to do (call, email, fill out a form, etc.), or if they do, they don’t tell them why.

Tell people why they should call, download your report, or subscribe to your newsletter. Tell them why they need a lawyer, why they should choose you, and why they shouldn’t wait.

If you want to get more clients, tell people what to do. And why.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

In our community, mailboxes are uniformly displayed on wooden posts, four boxes to a post. After nearly twenty-five years, our post was looking shabby. My neighbors and I chipped in and hired a guy to repair and paint the post and replace the mailboxes.

He did a great job and we’ve recommended him to some of our other neighbors.

On a recent walk through the neighborhood, I saw some mailboxes that could use his services and I thought about what he might do to get more work. One thing he could do is create a flyer with before and after photos of his work. Those photos tell most of the story. “If your mailbox looks like this [before] and you want it to look like this [after], give me a call.”

How can you use this idea to sell more legal services?

No, not by taking photos of your clients. By using word pictures to describe their situation before and after they hired you.

On your website and in your marketing materials, describe how some clients “looked” when they first came to you, and how they looked at the end of the case or matter.

If you handle divorce, for example, you would describe your client’s marriage situation in sufficient detail to let prospective clients “see” it. Include the facts, the legal issues, the emotional turmoil, and what was at stake.

Follow that with a word picture of the client’s situation after you worked your magic.

It’s storytelling, pure and simple, something you should be doing in most of your writing but especially in your marketing documents.

Facts tell but stories sell.

The best stories are dramatic, of course, but with a little effort, you can inject some drama into even the most mundane or routine legal matters.

Give it a try. Think about a recent client and describe their before picture. What did they want or need and why? What was at stake? What did they fear? What might have happened if they didn’t hire you?

Then, describe the after picture. Resolution. Protection. Compensation. Peace of mind.

Before and after. Photos or word pictures. It’s the same formula. It works for marketing mailbox repairs and legal services.

Marketing is easier when you know The Formula