Marketing legal services Archives - Page 113 of 134

Private Coaching For Lawyers (New Year Special)

January 3, 2013 by David M. Ward

Would you like some help getting the new year off to a good start? If so, I have a special offer for you.

It’s a private strategy session with me. You and I, on the phone, discussing your practice, your goals, and your marketing.

What will talk about? Well, what do you need help with most?

Your web site or blog (or how to start one)?
Choosing the right market(s)?
Setting goals? Clarifying priorities?
Networking, advertising, social media, speaking?
Building your list? Getting more traffic?
Getting more referrals?

During the call we will review what you are doing now, where you want to be this time next year, and how you are going to get there.

You can ask me anything. And if you don’t know what to ask, I’ll ask you questions and give you my advice.

Here’s the deal. . .

These sessions are normally $500 each.

As a special for the start of 2013, I’m offering a very limited number of “New Year strategy sessions” for the discounted price of $250 per session.

I’m limiting the number because (a) I expect there to be a boatload of interest right after the new year, and (b) I have many thousands of subscribers and limited time.

If you want to grab a slot, here’s what to do:

Book your private strategy session by clicking here
Email me with your contact information and let me know you paid to lock in a slot for one of these sessions.

I’ll email you back to confirm and to set up our call.

I look forward to helping you make 2013 your best year ever.

If you want to learn how to create a marketing plan that really works, click here.

Filed Under: Goal Setting, Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, News Tagged With: loan-lenders-to-people-with-bad-credit-record-in-durban

If J. Paul Getty were managing your law practice

December 21, 2012 by David M. Ward

Billionaire J. Paul Getty, once described as the richest man in the world, wrote a book describing how he made his money. In “How to Be Rich,” he offered three keys to wealth:

Be in business for yourself
Have products in demand
Multiply your efforts through other people

If you are self-employed or work for a firm that compensates you for helping the firm grow, you are “in business for yourself”. If you offer services your clients want and are willing to pay for, you have “products in demand.” And if you have employees, you are “multiplying your efforts through other people”.

But if J. Paul Getty were managing your law practice, he might point out that while you are doing the right things, you might not be doing them enough.

If you are doing any work in your practice that could be delegated to someone else, you’re losing money. You should do “only the work that only you can do” and delegate everything else, he would tell you. â€œIâ€™d rather have one percent of the efforts of 100 people than 100 percent of my own efforts,” he said.

Once he had you leveraging the efforts of the people who work for you, I think Getty would turn his attention to the efforts of people who don’t work for you: your clients and professional contacts. They may not be getting a pay check from you but every one of them can help your practice grow.

The quickest path to “multiplying your efforts through other people” is to get more clients to send referrals.

Getty made most of his money in oil and understood the power of leverage. The more wells he drilled, the wealthier he got. Your clients are like oil wells. The more of them who refer, the wealthier you will become.

But Getty didn’t stop there. When he found a well that produced oil, he had his engineers look for ways to increase the yield from that well. He didn’t settle for a well that produced 100 barrels a day when that same well might product 200 barrels a day.

Your clients work the same way. If a client is sending you one referral a month, you should look for ways to get that client to send you two referrals a month.

If J. Paul Getty were managing your law practice, he would tell you there’s oil in your client and contact list and while you will hit many dry wells, if you drill enough, you will also hit some gushers.

Download The Attorney Marketing Formula to learn more ways to multiply your efforts and your income

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Referrals Tagged With: david-ward-blog-attorney, getty-said-leveraging-people

Marketing legal services at the XMAS dinner table

December 20, 2012 by David M. Ward

Ah, Christmas dinner with the family. A time to celebrate the holidays and enjoy a good meal. You’ll find out who got engaged, who got divorced, who had a baby, and who has passed. You’ll eat way too much and fall asleep on the sofa. You’ll laugh at your brother’s ridiculous sweater, and pretend to laugh at your Uncle’s bad jokes.

You’ll wait for just the right moment and then, you’ll hand out your business cards. “In case you run into someone who needs a lawyer,” you’ll say.

Clever, huh? Leverage the family dinner to get some new clients. Hey, why not–it’s family. You can ask the family to pass out your cards, right?

No. They already hate you because you make so much money and think you’re so smart. Okay, maybe they don’t hate you, but you still shouldn’t pass out cards. Not because it’s “bad form” at the Christmas dinner but because it’s “bad marketing”. It’s not going to get you any business.

Your family already knows what you do. They have your phone number. If they run into someone who might need you, they’ll tell them. Besides, they still have the cards you gave them last Christmas.

So what’s better? What should you do at the family dinner?

Nothing. Relax. Enjoy the evening. Have fun.

Your best marketing tool isn’t your card, it’s you. The fun, likable, overeating, asleep on the sofa you.

Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and plan your after-holiday marketing

Filed Under: Business cards, Marketing legal services, Networking Tagged With: httpwww-attorneymarketing-com20121220marketing-legal-services-at-the-xmas-dinner-tableutm_sourcefeedburner

Christmas cards are for wimps

December 19, 2012 by David M. Ward

When was the last time you wrote your clients?

No, I don’t mean sending a Christmas card, the same one you send to all your clients. I mean a real letter. With real words, not a holiday sentiment written by someone else.

A letter from you (not your firm), not to promote anything, or remind them to update their Will or do their fourth quarter Minutes. Just to say hello. Or to send them an article you thought they might like.

I know, you’ll get back to me on that.

Not long ago, this might have been a big project. Expensive, too. You don’t have that excuse today. Email makes it simple, and virtually free.

If you don’t have an email list for your clients, you need to. Make this your numero uno marketing project. At the top of your list. With a gold star and three exclamation points!!!

Because if you don’t, you won’t write your clients, at least not as often as you should. And if you do, you will have a mechanism for “fundamentally transforming” your practice. English translation: make a boat load of money.

An email list, and regular contact with it, to your clients, prospects, and professional contacts, is critical today. You want repeat business? Stay in touch with your list. You want referrals? Stay in touch with your list. You want traffic to your web site? Stay in touch with your list. All you need is a few minutes to write something and then click a button to send.

That’s the easy part. The hard part? Wanting to do it. See, I know you want the business. What I don’t know is if you believe me when I tell you that this is one of the best ways to get it.

If you’re afraid they don’t want to hear from you, you’ve got to get over that. Send them something interesting, valuable, or inspiring, and they will be glad you wrote and look forward to your next message. Stay in touch with them and when they need your services or know someone who does, they won’t go to a search engine to find a lawyer, they’ll go to their email inbox and find your number.

Lawyers are complicated. Marketing is simple.

Filed Under: Client relations, Email, List building, Marketing legal services Tagged With: christmas cards

Do you have long term goals? That’s your problem

December 18, 2012 by David M. Ward

A wealthy business friend of mine does a lot of speaking to other business owners. They come seeking to learn how they can reach the levels of success he has attained. On the subject of marketing, he usually asks the audience, “How many of you have long term goals?” Hands are proudly raised. “That’s your problem. You’re thinking about long term when you should be thinking about today.”

He tells them the only thing that matters is how many times your company’s story is told today. How many people hear about what you have to offer. What can you do today, right now, this afternoon, to get your story told?

Of course tomorrow you’ll do the same thing. That’s how a big business is built–one day at a time.

My friend will acknowledge the need for planning beyond “today” but he says too many people spend all their time planning and not enough time doing. “You don’t have to read your car’s manual to know how to make it go,” he says.

My friend says success is about mastering the fundamentals. He coaches junior football and says, “We teach those kids how to pass, punt, block, and tackle. You get good at those four skills. That’s how you win games.”

Building a successful business or law practice works the same way. You learn the fundamentals and practice them. You get good at a few things.

You don’t have to know everything about marketing or bookkeeping. You don’t need to have the latest technology. And you don’t have to read the manual.

Unless, of course, it’s mine.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, success

Please retweet this!

December 5, 2012 by David M. Ward

A fundamental precept in marketing is that you get a higher response when you tell people what to do. Tell them to buy, tell them to sign up, tell them to call, and more people will.

The infographic below, about The Art of Getting Retweets, has some interesting stats about the best days and times to tweet, optimal tweet length, and the use of urls and hashtags for maximum retweetability. It also offers compelling statistics that support the efficacy of telling (asking) people what to do:

“Please retweet” has a 51% retweet rate followed by “PleaseRT” which has a 39% retweet rate. Using neither of the two yields only a 12% retweet rate.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

Frequency of asking for a retweet must be a factor. Someone who constantly asks for a retweet, like the boy who cried wolf, probably doesn’t get a lot of retweets. It is the rarity of this request that undoubtedly gets people’s attention and compliance.

Although it is not stated in the infographic, it is also well known that a higher response occurs when you also tell people why they should do what you ask. This may be due to associated scarcity and fear of loss implied in a statement like, “Buy now before our prices go up,” but there’s evidence that that’s not the only reason.

I read about one psychological study involving a long queue at a copy machine in a college library. A female “student,” holding a sheet of paper, asks the person at the front of the line if she can cut in. When she gives them a reason for needing to cut in line, she gets a significantly higher percentage of the subjects to agree. What was remarkable about the study is that it didn’t matter what reason the student gave for asking to cut in line. Even when the “reason” was as empty as, “. . .because I need to make a copy. . .,” she got a higher response.

So telling people what to do and giving them a reason, no matter how weak that reason may be, will increase response.

Put this in your notes because you should should have this in your notes.

(Did you?)

Buy The Attorney Marketing Formula. Excellent reason: You’ll get more clients and increase your income.

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Writing Tagged With: retweets, tell prospects what to do, Twitter

Why every attorney needs to have a global presence

December 3, 2012 by David M. Ward

You only practice in one state or province or country. You can’t do legal work outside of your jurisdiction. So why should you pay attention to anything elsewhere? Because we live in a global society.

Every day, people move into and out of your city. New arrivals in your city will need an attorney. Some research attorneys before they move. If someone in Los Angeles is being transferred to New York where you practice, they might find you online long before they arrive in town.

Others will ask their attorney, CPA or other professional (in LA) if they know any lawyers in New York. If you have a relationship with those professionals, there’s a good chance that you’ll get the nod. But even if you don’t have a relationship, many professionals will go online to find an attorney in another city to whom they can refer their client.

It happens all the time, even when nobody is moving. People ask people if they know an attorney in LA or NY or Houston or Miami, because their aunt or cousin or business partner has asked them and they thought you might be able to help.

When you send referrals to attorneys in other parts of the country, or other countries, those attorneys will be inclined to send their referrals to you. The same is true of other professionals and businesses.

A law practice is a local business but from a marketing perspective, it is also a global business.

No matter where you practice, you need a strong online presence. You never know when someone in a country you’ve never heard of might be looking for an attorney in your town.

You also need to reach out to professionals and businesses in other parts of the world so that when a client or professional contact asks you if you know a real estate agent, insurance broker, CPA, or lawyer in another city you can give them a referral.

The more referrals you give, the more you will eventually get. But where do you start?

Well, you could pick a city and pick a profession and ask your contacts if they know someone in xyz who does abc, or you could go online and find someone yourself. Then, when someone asks for a referral to someone in xyz who does abc, you’ll have someone. But this is too slow. I suggest you do things in reverse.

Start by announcing to your clients and contacts that you have connections throughout the country–in law, real estate, banking, insurance, and businesses of all kinds. Encourage them to come to you when they need a referral or know someone who does.

When someone asks for a referral, go find someone. The urgency of having someone who needs that referral will force you to find someone fast. But now, instead of merely introducing yourself and saying you hope the two of you can do some business together some day, you’ll actually have someone ready to refer.

It’s called “working smarter” for a reason.

Want to know more ways to work with other professionals and get more referrals? Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and find out.

Filed Under: Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Networking, Online Marketing

Marketing takes up too much time? I wrote this post in 15 minutes

November 29, 2012 by David M. Ward

In the interview yesterday, (replay), I said that if you (the viewer) got nothing else out of my comments, I hope you are inspired to commit 15 minutes a day to marketing. Even if all you do is sit and think, or write down ideas, or read some articles. I said that if you do that, eventually you will pick up the phone and make some calls or write something that could be considered marketing-related. Like a blog post, article, or email.

You can do a lot in 15 minutes.

I wrote this post in 15 minutes. Sure, most of my posts take longer but I have the time. You might not. That’s okay. Short posts are fine.

How do you write a blog post in 15 minutes? You start with an idea and write it down. In this case, “writing a blog post in 15 minutes”. You open up something to write in. I write my posts in Evernote. And you begin writing. Put down your thoughts. Share a couple of tips or resources. Give your opinion on something related to your area of expertise.

Three or four paragraphs and you’re done. I’m at 200 words at this point. My posts are usually in the 300 to 500 word length. Length isn’t critical, as long as you have said what you need to say.

Then, edit. Make sure the thoughts flow. Not hard, really (pauses for a sip of coffee, reads. . .). Looks pretty good. Time to publish. Copy and paste into WordPress. Add some tags and hyperlinks and I’m done for the day. Elapsed time: 14 minutes.Â And what do you know, this post is now just over 300 words.

If you missed the interview yesterday, you can watch the replay here. It was about an hour so you might have to watch over the next four days. If you don’t have time, just order The Attorney Marketing FormulaÂ and call it a day.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Productivity, Time Management Tagged With: attorney-marketing-blog, Spreecast

In marketing, WHEN someone reads your message may be more important than what it says

November 28, 2012 by David M. Ward

It’s true. Timing is everything. To wit:

Two days ago, a business owner found out his biggest distributor is 120 days delinquent. If they don’t pay him, the business owner may not be able to pay his suppliers. He’s upset and wants to know what he can do to collect on the account. He is a prospect for your services.

He sees your ad and plans to call you. But first, he places a call to the distributor and talks to the accounts payable clerk. She assures him that they were having a temporary cash flow issue. This has been resolved and payment in full will be mailed in a few days. The two companies have done business for many years and the business owner is satisfied. He calms down. He doesn’t call you. He is no longer a prospect.

Yesterday, the business owner talks to a mutual friend who tells him he’s having the same problem with the distributor. In fact, he hasn’t been paid in over six months and has turned the account over to an attorney. Now our business owner is nervous. He can’t take any chances. He must take action. He is a very motivated prospect.

Just before he calls you, the owner of the other company calls him, apologizes, and tells him not to worry. He was indeed having a cash flow issue but he has just been approved for a loan and will have the funds within ten days. He promises to clear up his account. Our business owner is relieved. He didn’t want to take action against his biggest client. Ten days is acceptable. He doesn’t need a lawyer.

This morning, the business owner finds out that the distributor has just been indicted for fraud. He has been accused of running a Ponzi scheme for the last several years. He has stolen millions. Nobody is going to be paid, at least not without a fight. The business owner is desperate. He needs your help. Can he messenger over a check?

Timing truly is everything. Someone may be a prospect this morning, ready to write you a big check, and not interested this afternoon when his problem seems to be resolved.

Suppose our business story took place over a period of months, not days. And suppose our business owner saw your ad once, three months ago, when he didn’t need you, but didn’t see your ad today when he was ready to hire you?

This is why you continue to advertise, to mail, to network, to write. This is why you continually stay in touch with your list, reminding them that you are still there, still ready to help. Not once but over and over again. Not today but forever.

You never know when a prospect’s “buying window” will open or how long it will stay open. Keep your message in front of them. Stay in their minds and in their mailboxes because when their window opens, you want to be the one they see.

I’m being interviewed today. Join us (free) at 2pm PT and bring your attorney marketing questions.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services