Eight ways to use audio recording apps for marketing

February 7, 2013 by
Share

I was reading some of the reviews for Dictamus, the dictation app I use on my iphone. Many lawyers and physicians extol its virtues, saying things like, “best on the market, ” “replaced my 0 dictation equipment,”and “I use it every single day.”

I don’t dictate to a secretary these days, but I do dictate to myself. My phone is always with me so it’s very convenient to capture notes or ideas on the fly. I also dictate entire articles, letters, and other longer documents, using Dictamus’ “insert” function to insert new thoughts into the middle of already recorded sentences. Yep, just like  the old cassette and belt dictation machines I used to use.

Anyway, I started thinking about how audio recording apps (any app will do) can be used for marketing. In addition to the obvious use of recording ideas for articles, people to call, things to do, and dictating complete articles, emails, and letters, here’s what I came up with:

  1. Networking: record details after meeting new contact (where, when, what you talked about, etc.)
  2. Interviews with subject matter experts for podcasts, or transcribe for written articles
  3. Record audio track to add to video slide presentation
  4. Practice your next presentation
  5. Record consultations with prospective clients, give to them as added bonus
  6. Create audio book to sell or give away for lead generation
  7. Record brainstorming sessions with partners, staff
  8. Record consultations with hired consultants, live trainings, teleconferences, or webinars

Do use audio recording apps (or digital recorders) for marketing in your practice? What do you do? Which apps do you use? Please add to the comments.

Want more marketing ideas? Of course you do. Click here.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

Marketing legal services by offering digital document signing

January 30, 2013 by
Share

Technology allows us to get legal documents signed without ever printing them. This post on the Evernote blog shows how to do that with two free apps, Docusign and Evernote (or Box, Google Drive, Dropbox).

I have Docusign and several other apps like it. I have pdf’s emailed, open them in the app, sign them, and send them back. It saves time, paper, postage and/or the cost of a messenger. And saving a copy in Evernote allows me to access those documents everywhere. (For more on how to use Evernote for storing client and other documents, check out my ebook, Evernote for Lawyers: A Guide to Getting Organized & Increasing Productivity).

If you have a tech savvy client, they can download the app to sign and return the documents to you by email. If you don’t, or if you need to explain the document to the client before signing, you can meet with them and have them sign on your tablet.

Offering digital signing is a benefit to you and to the client. If you offer it, you should promote the fact that you do. Make a big deal out it. Let clients and prospects know what you do, how it works, and how it saves them time and money.

Even if other attorneys do it the same way, most of them don’t promote it. When you do, you will “own” that benefit in the eyes of your target market.

To stand out in the crowd, you must show people how you are different. Click here to learn how.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Technology Tagged With: , ,

What would Steve do?

January 22, 2013 by
Share

I was reading an article remembering Steve Jobs more than a year after his passing. The author provides “Ten Life Lessons” from Mr. Jobs that we can all learn from and apply in our lives. A lesson like, “You don’t beat the competition at their game. You redefine the game,” reminds me that Steve Jobs was an incredible leader. He defined the future, where things should go, and then he took us there.

Jobs thought differently, and he encouraged us to do the same. Even Apple’s advertising at one time encouraged us to do so. So when you’re faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem or you’re looking to redefine your game, ask yourself, “What would Steve do?”

If you’re having an issue with one of your employees who isn’t doing his or her job, you might ordinarily give them some time to see the light, offer some additional training, or have a heart to heart talk. If you ask yourself, “What would Steve do?” however, you might berate them and/or fire them on the spot. The lesson, “Don’t tolerate bozos around you,” confirms what most people know about Steve’s lack of patience with under-performing employees.

Am I saying you should chew out your employee? No. But you should consider why Steve would have. It might serve to warn you that the problem is potentially more serious than you think. The employee might improve, but they also might do irreparable harm if your other employees see them getting away with less than excellent performance.

Thank you, Steve, for reminding me to think about the problem from a different perspective.

One of the benefits of reading biographies about successful people, in business, sports, politics, and other fields outside of our own, is that they allow us to see our problems through different eyes, and thereby, find solutions we might otherwise never find. Albert Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

Einstein also said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” so use your imagination for a moment and think about this: If Apple had acquired your law practice, what would Steve Jobs have told you to change?

Steve never read The Attorney Marketing Formula, but I imagine he would approve.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Personal development Tagged With: , , ,

I wouldn’t fire this guy, I’d promote him

January 17, 2013 by
Share

In school, if you paid someone to write your paper or take your test, you got in trouble. A big F. “No soup for you!”

So naturally, when you get a job and you pay someone else to do the work for you, you should also get in trouble, right? Fired on the spot!

Not so fast.

Isn’t that what we call “business”? Don’t we do this in a law practice?

We have customers or clients who pay us but our employees do a lot of the work. Maybe most of the work, if you look at the hours. And our clients don’t care, as long as the work gets done and is of sufficient quality.

That’s how we earn a profit. We’re “working smart”. We have leverage.

So, let me ask you, if you found one of your employees was outsourcing his work, what would you do? If he hired someone else to do the work and earned a profit on the difference between what you paid him and what he paid to get the work done, would you have a problem with that?

Assuming the work was high quality and no confidential information was shared, of course.

A software developer at Verizon was just discovered doing this very thing. He earned six-figures in his job and paid a Chinese firm ,000 to do the work. He spent his day surfing the web, playing games, and posting on Facebook.

When his employer found out, they fired him.

Me? I would have given him a raise and a promotion.

The work done by the Chinese firm was considered first rate. Praised for it’s quality, in fact. And always on time. The fact that someone else did it is irrelevant.

The man was lazy but very clever. He should be praised for his cleverness, not punished for it.

During World War II, a brilliant German military strategist described his criteria for managing personnel:

“I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent — their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy — they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent — he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief.”

The author (there is some question as to which of two men actually said it) thought that someone who is “clever and lazy” is qualified for the highest leadership duties, “because he possessed the clarity and composure necessary for difficult decisions.” They are “natural delegators,” always looking for simpler, easier ways to do things. They “focus on essentials, and despise ‘busywork’.”

If the developer at Verizon worked for me, I’d slap him on the back and ask him to show me other ways I could get a six-figure job done for only $50,000.

But no, his boss was probably embarrassed by what he did. “Clever and diligent,” no doubt, and had to fire him.

All our lives, we’ve been told that laziness is a sin. We’re punished for it in school and on the job. We’re told that hard work is a virtue. But it’s not true. Hard work, for the sake of working hard, is the sin. If there’s an easier way to do something and we ignore it, we squander God’s gift of time.

You owe it to yourself, your family, your employees, and your God, to find the easier way, the better way, the more leveraged way to get things done. You’ll earn more and have plenty of time to play games and post on Facebook.

Leveraging time is one of the six keys in The Attorney Marketing Formula

Share
Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage Tagged With: ,

Are you planning to make any changes this year? Before you do. . .

January 16, 2013 by
Share

So this year I’m planning to make some changes. How about you?

I’m looking at things that didn’t work well and eliminating them or looking for ways to make them better. I’ll get more information, ask for help, or try things a different way.

But I’m not going to spend a lot of time on that. No sir. Instead, I’m going to look at the things that did work and do more of them.

You should, too.

For example, if last year you got a lot of referrals from a letter you sent to your clients, maybe you should think about sending them another letter. If you got a lot of sign-ups for your newsletter when you added a couple of videos to your web site, you should probably think about adding more videos. Or, if you met some good new referral sources on LinkedIn but none on Facebook, it sounds like LinkedIn is where you should spend your time.

Most people focus on fixing what’s wrong. They work on their weaknesses. The smarter, more leveraged strategy is to work on your strengths.

Don’t ignore your weaknesses. But don’t spend a lot of time on them.

Homework:

Take a few minutes and write down three things that worked well in your practice last year. Then, look for ways to do them again or do them bigger or better or more often.

Find the spark in your practice and pour gasoline on it.

Have you read The Attorney Marketing Formula? Click here to find out what you’re missing

Share
Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity Tagged With: ,

What did I do to piss you off?

January 15, 2013 by
Share

We’ve had the same gardener for the last eight or ten years and we’re very friendly. Last week, out of the blue, something was different. My wife greeted him as usual but got little more than a grunt in return.

My wife was puzzled. Marcos is usually very talkative and engaging. Now, he wouldn’t even look her in the eye.

My wife thought she might have said something that angered him. Maybe he was disappointed with his Christmas bonus. Whatever it was, she’s been on edge all week, knowing that this morning she might have to have it out with him.

He’s here now. My wife just came back in the house. She talked to Marcos and he was his usual jolly self. No problems. Everything is fine.

Last week? He was probably just having a bad day. Or didn’t feel well. Whatever it was, he’s over it now.

But here’s the thing–when you’re having a bad day, you can’t let your customer know it. Especially if you make the customer think she may have something to do with it.

How about you? Do you let your clients know it when you’re having a bad day? If you can’t hide it when you’re in a bad mood (or worse), you shouldn’t talk to clients. Have someone else do it until you recover.

But here’s the other thing–you can’t let your employees see you like that either. You may think that because you pay them you can let your guard down. Not a good idea.

Your employees need to see you at your best. It’s not fair to saddle them with your burdens. If you’re having an off day, it’s okay to let them know, maybe ask for some time, but even if they know it has nothing to do with them, nobody wants to be around Mr. Grumpy Pants all the time.

Putting on a pleasant face comes naturally to my wife. If she’s upset about something or having a bad day, you would never know it. When she went to talk to Marcos this morning, he never knew there had been an issue.

Me? I have a harder time hiding it. That’s why I did my best to hire naturally upbeat people. Then I married one of them.

Get more clients and increase your income. Click here to find out how.

Share
Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management, Personal development Tagged With:

Don’t make me come over there and S.W.O.T. you!

January 14, 2013 by
Share

Relax. I’m not going to hit you.

S.W.O.T. is simply a tool to help you with your marketing. It’s an analysis of your Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. It can give you a clearer picture of where you are and help you get where you want to go.

Before you create a plan of any kind, it’s important to know what you’ve got to work with. Your current reality.

So you sit down with pen and paper or spreadsheet or text editor and you make a list. You can do this for just marketing or for all aspects of your practice.

Start with your STRENGTHS and WEAKNESSES:

  • Knowledge (Legal, marketing, market data, trends)
  • Skills (Trial, writing, closing the sale, presenting, negotiating)
  • Habits (15 minutes of marketing every week day, personal thank you letters to all new clients)
  • Assets (Contacts, marketing documents, lists, personnel, testimonials, reputation, location)
  • And so on

Your web site might be a weakness or a strength. Or it might be a strength in some areas (i.e., great content) and a weakness in others (i.e., low or low quality traffic). If you advertise, the low rates you have negotiated might be a strength but your copy might be a weakness.

Start recording everything you can think of. What you’re good at and what you need to improve. Talk to your staff, your clients, and other lawyers who know your practice and see what they think. You may be taking for granted something about yourself that is a strength. And, let’s face it, third parties almost always see our weaknesses more clearly than we do.

Next, make a list of OPPORTUNITIES. To some extent, these are derivative of your strengths and weakness. A weakness you want to eliminate, for example, is an opportunity to improve results in that area. Capitalizing on a strength is an opportunity to compound results.

Other opportunities might include contacts you have not yet followed up with, creating a new seminar, or joining a networking group.

Finally, write down any THREATS. If you depend on advertising and another firm is dominating the airways with their ads, this could be considered a threat. If one of your big clients might be thinking of hiring another firm, that is obviously a threat to your income. Anything that poses a challenge and could lead to loss should be identified and added to your list.

Now you have a snapshot of your current reality, and a list of projects to work on this year.

This will help create a marketing plan that really works.

Share
Filed Under: Goal Setting, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development Tagged With: ,

Is it time to put your practice on a diet?

January 11, 2013 by
Share

Yesterday, I did a strategy session with an attorney who was thinking about getting out of practicing law. After several decades of practicing, he said, “I don’t have the enthusiasm for my practice I once felt. I’ve had difficulties staying focused on my practice and delivering my work product in a timely fashion.”

In other words, the thrill was gone.

He does tax and estate planning, trust and estate administration, and tax compliance. Much of his malaise was centered on a feeling of being bogged down in administrative minutia. As a sole practitioner, there was simply too much to do and too much to keep up with and he was overwhelmed.

I asked him if there was any part of what he does that he liked. He said he enjoyed working with individuals and helping them with estate planning. I said, “If you could have a successful practice doing nothing but that and none of the other things you’re currently doing, how would that be?” “That would be great,” he said.

Problem solved.

He didn’t need to get out of practicing. He needed to put his practice on a diet.

By getting rid of practice areas (and clients) that weighed him down, he could have a leaner, more robust practice doing what he enjoyed doing. I told him there was more than enough business available for the kind of estate planning he liked and that he didn’t have to do anything else.

Many attorneys suffer from “practice bloat,” a term I just made up but which seems to accurately describe what happens over a period of years. You start out lean and mean, excited, and enjoying the process of building your practice. At some point, you take on additional practice areas because the work falls into your lap or because you want to have another profit center or something to fall back on. In time, your practice no longer resembles the one you started. You have too much to do, too much to keep up with, and you start falling behind. At this point, many attorneys start thinking the law is not their calling and they start looking for something else.

Some attorneys start out doing too much. I did. I took anything that showed up. I thought I had to because I needed the money. Soon, I was overwhelmed and frustrated, convinced I’d made a mistake in becoming a lawyer.

In both cases, the answer is to put the practice on a diet.

Get rid of practice areas you don’t enjoy. Get rid of clients who drive you crazy. Get rid of work you’re not good at but continue to do because “it’s part of the job”.

The vacuum you create by getting rid of things that do not serve you will soon be filled with work that you love and are good at. You’ll breathe life into a moribund practice, attract new clients, and increase your income. Most importantly, you’ll look forward to going to work every day.

There are more than enough clients available who want and need what you love to do. If your practice is bloated and the thrill is gone, it may be time to put your practice on a diet.

Does your practice need fixing? A new focus? Do you have marketing questions? I can help.

Share
Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Dealing with stress, Law office management, Marketing Plan, Specializing Tagged With: , ,

Digitize your life with Evernote’s “Paperless Challenge”

January 10, 2013 by
Share

When I want to find something stored in “My Documents” on my Windows machine, I have to open and close a lot of documents to find the one that has what I’m looking for. When I want to find something stored in Evernote, I rely on its ability to search through the entirety of those documents to find what I need. Very fast, very accurate.

Finding something in paper files are even more challenging, of course, and that’s one of the reasons so many people are “going paperless.”

If you’d like to join the crowd, Evernote is conducting a “Paperless Challenge” to help you. It started January 8 but there’s no reason why you can’t get started right now. Make sure you download Jaime Rubin’s “Paperless Challenge Checklist” to use as a guide.

Lifehacker just posted a comprehensive article, “How I Went Completely Paperless in Two Days.” I think two days is a bit ambitious for most attorneys due to the amount of paper in our possession, questions about security issues, and our innate resistance to change, but even if it takes two years instead of two days, it’s worth it. I’m not yet completely paperless but my file cabinets are empty, I’ve trashed dozens of boxes of paper collected over thirty-plus years, and we get very little (important) postal mail these days. I’m well on my way to digitizing and simplifying my life.

Speaking of security issues, this article has a summary of some of the options. (Hat tip to Robert Oschler, developer of the forthcoming Evernote search client for Windows desktop, BitQwik.)

Finally, my own Evernote for Lawyers ebook discusses security issues and how to deal with them, as well as helping you through the process of going paperless.

By the way, even if you don’t use Evernote these resources can still help you in your quest to reduce or eliminate the paper in your life.

Did you know: Evernote for Lawyers has a chapter on using Evernote for marketing.

Share
Filed Under: Law office management, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do you charge wealthier clients higher fees for the same work?

December 27, 2012 by
Share

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Staples website quotes different prices for the same merchandise based on where the user is located when he visits the site. Staples said this is based on how close the visitor’s location is to a competitor’s store and various costs of doing business, but it appears to also be based on the customer’s ability to pay.

In New York, for example, certain products are priced higher in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. By contrast, the same items sell in Brooklyn and Queens at a discount. These price differences come despite no more than 20 miles separating any two locations.

In other words, a Manhattan resident would save money on an item simply by driving to Queens and making the purchase there either online or through a mobile device.”

Apparently, this is not an uncommon practice among retailers.

It’s not illegal but is it “fair”? More importantly, is it smart business?

I think it is smart, and also fair. The retailer is entitled to charge whatever the market will bear. It’s called “free enterprise”. Where it gets dicey, however, is when customers learn about these practices and object to them. A retailer may win the pricing battle but lose the loyalty war.

Of course a savvy customer who knows about this practice might play the pricing game, logging onto web sites from different locations, to see which one gives him the lowest price.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this in terms of legal services. Is it smart business for a lawyer to charge different fees to different clients based on their ability to pay? From a business standpoint, I say why not?

If your clients don’t know (and there are no legal or ethical restrictions on doing so), why shouldn’t a lawyer be able to charge what the market will bear? Some attorneys routinely do precisely that. They size up a new client by their clothing or car or occupation and quote a fee commensurate with what they think that client can afford.

I can’t recall ever charging a client a higher fee because I thought he could afford it, but in looking back, had I thought about it, I probably would have. I sometimes charged clients lower fees, either because I wanted to help them out or because they were steady clients and I wanted to reward them for their allegiance. If there’s nothing wrong with this, there should be nothing wrong with charging some clients higher fees. Of course, by definition, charging some clients less means some clients are being charged more.

What do you think? Is there anything wrong with charging some clients more than others? Have you ever done it? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Getting ready for the new year? The Attorney Marketing Formula will show you what to do to make it a great year.

Share
Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Fees and Billing, Law office management Tagged With: , ,
« Previous Page
Next Page »