What I learned about marketing (and creating wealth) in Cancun

June 16, 2008 by
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My wife and I just got back from a week in Cancun. We were at a five-star resort, courtesy of a company I work with in another business. They have twelve restaurants and everything is truly first class.

The thing about this resort is that everything is included in your stay. Eat all that you want, drink all that you want, and never reach for your wallet or sign for your room. We had room service every morning and ordered just about everything they had on the breakfast menu (and ate everything, too).

The menus have no prices on them. It doesn’t matter; order whatever you want.

There is no tipping. Everything, from the chartered bus ride from the airport, to baggage handling to rides in golf carts to get around the sprawling grounds, are taken care of.

I could go on about how well we were treated, the amenities and so on, but I want to make a point. Two points, actually.

First, while I was there, I thought about how relaxed we were not having to think about how much anything cost. Sure, I can afford the estimated four thousand the trip probably cost, but it’s still refreshing to not have to think twice about what anything costs or how much to tip someone. And I thought about how that applies to marketing legal services.

What our experience did was reinforce the efficacy of "flat rate" billing for legal services. When your clients can have your services without having to wonder or worry about how much you’re going to charge them for that ten minute phone call or for the photocopies or for bringing in a law clerk to take notes during your meeting, they are much happier clients. They’ll be more inclined to hire an attorney who "takes the risk out of the deal" and they are happier and easier to work with throughout the engagement, all because there aren’t any surprises and they know they won’t be nickle-and-dimed.

The second thing I thought about was how a stay at a resort like this is good for reinforcing a "wealth mindset." If you want to be wealthy, getting a taste of what wealth is like provides your subconscious mind with an example of what you are seeking. The good feelings one associates with not having to look at prices on the menu, for example, are worth experiencing. Do you still look at prices on the menu? Do you do that first? What would it be like if you didn’t have to do that anymore?

If Cancun isn’t in the cards for you right now, find something small that is, something you can treat yourself to (and pay in advance for) that will give you a taste of what it is like to have financial freedom. Or, do something that doesn’t cost anything. Go to an art show, for example, and pretend you can buy anything there without giving it a second thought. Relax and imagine how good it will feel to be able to actually purchase anything on display. If you can get to a place of feeling good about that, if you can "have" the life you seek in your mind, that is the first step towards achieving it in reality.

Unfortunately, most people have trouble doing that. It’s not that they can’t use their imagination any more. It’s that when they do, they think negative thoughts that aren’t conducive to attracting wealth. They think about how much things costs and how unlikely it is that they could buy it. They become self-conscious about the experience, thinking they must look foolish or they are wasting their time. Instead of thinking about what they want, they think about (and attract) what they don’t have and what they don’t want and thus, they wind up getting more of what they don’t have and don’t want.

How do you get to the point where you can truly relax and enjoy the experience of imagining having the life you want? How can you think about having what you you want instead of why you don’t have what you want? You start with where you are and what you are thinking and how those thoughts make you feel.

If thinking about buying a $20,000 painting makes you feel bad (because you can’t afford it now and don’t know how you’ll ever be able to), then reach for a thought that feels better when you think it. If thinking about "buying it now" doesn’t feel good, perhaps thinking about "buying it someday" will feel better. If that thought feels better than wherever you are right now, think about that, and from that vantage point, you will have a basis for continuing to think better feeling thoughts until you literally think your way into manifesting your desires. It starts in your mind and with your feelings and while you may not be able to control whether or not you can go to Cancun right now, you have 100% control over what you think and how you feel.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development, Wealth Tagged With: , , , ,

Should your law firm have a marketing committee?

April 15, 2008 by
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Marketing professional services cannot be done by committee. It’s something professionals should do. That means you should market "you". Assistants can help with administrative tasks, scheduling, and so forth, but building a law practice means building relationships and that’s something you cannot delegate.

Besides, it’s not the firm that should be marketed. It’s you. Clients don’t typically say, "call my law firm" when they refer you; it’s "call my lawyer" every time. Okay, larger firms can engage in activities that brand the firm’s name and establish good will in their target markets, and a committee would be appropriate for that purpose, but it’s still the individual attorneys that bring in the clients.

On the other hand. . . there are ways a marketing committee can play a role, even in a small or mid-sized firm. A committee can help coordinate the marketing efforts of the individual attorneys, for example. Newsletters, seminars, speaking engagements, mailings, public relations and advertising could well be done more effectively, and at lower cost, when attorneys aren’t duplicating each other’s efforts.

Here are a few other ways a committee could serve and assist the individual attorneys:

  • Bringing in trainers and consultants to help the attorneys improve marketing skills
  • Providing technical assistance with graphics, printing, web sites, event booking
  • Clearance of ethical questions
  • Coordination of cross-selling efforts
  • Decisions about the firm’s design issues (letterhead, decorating)
  • Recognition of attorneys for meeting goals

A committee can’t do the marketing for you. But, like a good secretary, it can certainly make you look good.

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

Referrals mean better clients, bigger income for lawyers

April 2, 2008 by
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Where did your clients first find out about you? Chances are it was one of the following:

  • They were referred to you
  • They saw an article you wrote or heard you speak
  • They met you at a networking event
  • They saw your ad
  • They saw an article about you or saw you on the news
  • They found your web site via a search engine

Whatever brought you clients in the past is probably something you should continue to do in the future.

Do it in more places, do it more often, do it better, and you should bring in more clients.

But no matter what other marketing strategies you use, the cornerstone of your marketing efforts should be based on getting more referrals.

Referred clients are the best clients. As a general rule, they come to you pre-sold. You don’t have to convince them to hire you, to pay what you ask, or to follow your advice.

Referred clients tend to be better clients, too. They are less likely to complain and more likely to come back to you again and again. And, because they were themselves referred, they are far more likely to refer other clients to you.

Lawyers who get a lot of referrals tend to have the most profitable (and enjoyable) practices.

Use other marketing methods to bring clients to your attention if they suit your style and budget. But build your practice on a foundation of referrals.

Referrals from clients are the easiest to generate. But while clients may be the most willing to refer, there are usually limits as to how much–or how often–they CAN refer.

Non-client referral sources may have the ability to refer you a lot of business, but they may not (yet) be willing to do so.

You need strategies to deal with both situations.

For clients, the simplest strategy is simply to stay in touch. Clients who don’t have anyone to refer to you today may have referrals tomorrow. Your objective is to be "in their minds and their mailboxes" when that occurs.

For non-client referral sources–attorneys, other professionals, business owners, and so on–don’t count on merely letting them know what you do. You may get some referrals that way, but your best sources are likely to come only after you have built relationships with key centers of influence.

Building those relationships doesn’t necessarily depend on your ability to refer them business. Do it if you can, but if you can’t, you can either

  • Build a personal relationship, based on friendship and common interests, and/or
  • Help them professionally in other ways. For example, while you might not be able to refer them much business yourself, you can introduce them to some of your colleagues who might be able to refer them business.

Relationship marketing means helping others first, without demanding or expecting anything in return. It means finding out what prospective referral sources want and looking for ways to help them get it. Put aside what you want for now, and help others, FIRST. Try it and watch what happens.

Zig Ziglar said, "You can get anything you want in the world by helping enough people get what they want."

Shameless plug: The number one resource for lawyers who want to build a referral-based practice is my own, "Referral Magic" marketing course. More than 5,000 attorneys worldwide are using Referral Magic to get more clients and build a successful law practice. You can learn about The Referral Magic Marketing Program on this page.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A good slogan (tagline) can be worth its weight in gold

March 11, 2008 by
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Most slogans I hear fail to accomplish their purpose: to communicate a cogent, benefit-rich, memorable marketing message. Although attorneys usually don’t use slogans, the ones I’ve heard have almost always been bad. An attorney in Los Angeles has a slogan that works, however. Miles Berman, the self-proclaimed “Top Gun Dui” attorney, uses the following slogan as the tagline for his frequent radio commercials: “Because friends don’t let friends plead guilty.”

Why does this work? First, it plays on the familiar public service slogan used to promote the use of a designated driver, “Because friends don’t let friends drive drunk”. Berman’s version is tied to something that has been drilled into our heads by millions of dollars in public service advertising, and is thus familiar. In addition to being familiar, it’s relevant. Both slogans deal with different aspects of the same issue. And because it is familiar and relevant, it is memorable, the ideal of any slogan. Finally, the slogan does what few slogans ever do, it promises a benefit. In telling the listener not to plead guilty, it suggests that there are alternative solutions, and all they have to do to get them is to call the “Top Gun Dui Defense” attorney. Very effective.

Eric Swartz is a consultant who bills himself as “The Tagline Guru.” His web site presents the benefits of a good tagline and advice on how to create one. He also has a list of “The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948.” I remember most of these, and you will, too. Good examples of taglines that have created household brands.

You don’t need a tagline, but if you use one, use one that works.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Two-headed client gets whiplash reading lawyer’s retainer agreement!

February 25, 2008 by
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Gary Halbert was one of the greatest copywriters of all time. He wrote some of the most successful headlines, ads, and sales letters in the history of direct marketing, earning millions for himself, and billions for his clients. The headline that brought you to this page is my homage to his talent (how can you NOT read this?), based on a fake headline he wrote for one of this clients.

Halbert, who passed away last year, believed that in advertising, the headline is everything. I agree. An ad with a bad headline but brilliant copy will never be read. A mediocre ad with a GREAT headline, however, will pull far greater response simply because more people are reading it. 

Headlines are not just in ads. The title of your article or report is a headline. Same for your brochure. The title of your seminar is a headline. So is the opening line in your presentation. The “re” in your letter is a headline. And the “P.S.”

What goes at the top of your web page? That’s a headline. What’s the first thing you say when you call a potential referral source to introduce yourself? Yep, a headline.

Halbert, who styled himself, “The Prince of Print,” sometimes spent 80% of his time on a piece crafting the right headline. When you get the headline right, everything else seems to fall into place. Get it wrong, and nothing you do thereafter seems to work.

My love for copy writing began when I subscribed to The Gary Halbert Letter in the late 1980’s. I read and re-read every word he wrote. He was also the inspiration for the sales copy I wrote to promote Referral Magic marketing program and my own newsletter, The Attorney Marketing Letter. Copywriting is the highest paid skill in marketing, but I consider it essential for any kind of marketing, and that includes marketing professional services.

Copywriting can be learned. I used to write like a lawyer but I trained myself to write copy that sells. It is a skill that has earned me millions. One of the best investments you can make in your career is in studying and applying the lessons of the great masters of copywriting. There is, of course, no better place to start than by reading the back issues of Halbert’s newsletter. Fortunately, all of them are posted online at the web site that survives him, TheGaryHalbertLetter.com. I encourage you to spend some time reading through this treasure chest of brilliant lessons in copywriting. But I have to warn you: Don’t start unless you have several hours available, because once you start reading Gary Halbert, you won’t be able to stop.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Writing Tagged With:

Direct mail to lawyers, seeking referrals. Good or bad idea?

February 20, 2008 by
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I received a letter from a probate lawyer who is seeking referrals from large PI/Med Mal firms who need guidance in wrongful death and minors’ compromise cases. He and his partners had compiled a list of law firms and written a letter they intended to “mass mail”. The letter introduced the probate firm, described their capabilities, and requested referrals. He asked for my opinion of this strategy and letter.

I liked the idea of targeting specific kinds of cases from specific firms, (assuming they had reason to believe those firms didn’t have in-house capability to handle those matters), but I didn’t think their plan to mass mail letters would be effective.

One-shot mailings like this are unlikely to generate any business. About the only chance you have is to reach someone at precisely the time when he or she has a case they need help with and they don’t have anyone else to refer it to. While that could happen, it makes more sense to begin to build relationships with lawyers (anyone) who DON’T need your services at the moment and do what you can to be the one they think of when they do.

Marketing, especially referral marketing, is a process, not an event.

Here are some of my additional comments and suggestions:

** If you’re going to contact a cold list, you need to do something to get a response so that you can continue to stay in touch with them and win their trust, over time. I’d recommend offering to send a “Free Report” that educates them on the issues they need to be aware of so that (a) they can do a better job for their clients and (b) be better able to avoid malpractice. This will be a benefit to them and position you as an expert. You can also offer a free phone review of their case. If the list is short enough, you could SEND the report and make a second offer to get them to respond (so you can stay in touch). The second offer could be a second report, a checklist, a form, or anything else.

** I’d suggest that you find people you already KNOW who can refer you to the people on your list, OR to people who may know them, OR to people who may know people who know them. Then, you can contact these lawyers with the name of a mutual contact. Much more effective.

** I’d also consider working towards having a colleague (in this case., another med mal lawyer) write (sign off on) a letter in which they endorse your services to their fellow practitioners. They’ve used you, they recommend you, they trust you, etc. This is the strongest kind of letter you can send.

** Letters do a have a place, but, I’d prefer to see you call. You want to build relationships with these potential referral sources, and to do that, you need to talk to them.

Find a reason, and call. The reason could be because you want to interview them for an article, you’re doing a survey for your newsletter or blog, to invite them to your free seminar, to offer them a copy of your new report or a subscription to your newsletter. It could even be to simply introduce yourself and find out more about what they do.

You’ll hit it off with some of them and follow up with coffee or lunch. You only need a few good ones to start, then you can leverage those relationships to gain introductions and endorsements to others.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What is the key to success?

February 15, 2008 by
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Bill Cosby is purported to have said, ""I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Have you found that to be true? I have. I’ll give you a recent example.

I just launched a new website, PassiveIncomeForLawyers.com. Passive income is a hot topic and in a very short period of time, the site got a large number of visits and subscribers. Several attorneys have already joined me in the program. I’ve heard from many others who have said nice things about the program itself and about the way it is presented. The feedback has been very positive. Of course you usually don’t hear from people who don’t like something. They usually just quietly go away. But I did get the following email from one attorney:

"Please take me off of your miserable site. At first I thought you were legitimated, now we are getting the mass marketing crap. Passive income my ass! You wouldn’t know passive income if it hit you in the face. And what’s with the long winded motley fool type advertising site. Un professional. Get lost."

I didn’t reply, I simply removed him from the subscription list, and deleted his email. But then I got to thinking about what could be learned from his response and I retrieved the email. After all, this is not just anybody; according to his email signature, this individual is a partner in a firm of at least five lawyers. I presume he is influential. He may or may not be interested in something I offer, but I’d like to think he would reject the offer, not the person (me). But not only is he not a fan, he was so angry, he took the time to embarrass himself with this email.

From a marketing perspective, what should I do? He was turned off (to say the least) by the sales-y copy on my web page, although I have to wonder why he filled out the form to subscribe if he was so offended. Should I assume that others would be, too, and change it? Should I try to please the ones who don’t like what he calls "long winded motley fool type advertising," even though most people find it acceptable and the site is successful? The Motley Fool folks seem to be doing okay.

But if I create something that is less of what he does not like and it dramatically reduces the number of subscribers, I haven’t done myself any good, have I? So no, I shouldn’t try to please everyone. That truly is a formula for failure, and it’s an important marketing lesson.

Marketing is about metrics. You do something, measure the results, and compare those results to something else. It’s called testing, and it’s crucial to the success and profitability of any marketing campaign. So, I will create other versions of the web page and compare the results to the ones produced by the current one. Whichever version produces the highest percentage of conversions (subscribers) will become the "control," against which I will continue to test, seeking to best that control. But one does this to improve results, not in an effort to please anyone, let alone everyone.

You can’t please everyone anyway, and you’ll only hurt yourself if you try. So, as you design your marketing messages, intelligently consider the ethical standards of your bar association and your own sense of propriety, and perhaps the concerns of your spouse or partners, but beyond that, do what works best, and what works best is what brings in the most results.

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Filed Under: Copywriting, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Wealth, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

How would you advise this lawyer?

February 11, 2008 by
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An attorney who is struggling to build his practice asked for my help. Here’s a snapshot of what he told me:

  • He is also a CPA and former IRS agent.
  • He works three days a week as the controller for a major corporation, two days a week in his own practice.
  • He prepares 75 tax returns per year, and plans to advertise around tax time to get more (but has had limited success advertising in the past).
  • He has several PI and contract litigation cases.
  • He does unlawful detainer appearances for a paralegal firm.
  • He has tried direct mail (unsuccessfully) to build a bankruptcy practice.

Okay, now what would you tell him if he asked you for help? Would you tell him he’s spreading himself too thin and that he should choose one or two things and concentrate on those?

Of course. That’s exactly what I told him.

How can you possibly expect to have great success in anything when you do so many different things? Especially when you work at it only two days per week and compete with attorneys who do the same things full time?

I told him to first decide where he would like to be in five years, and then to look at what kind of work he enjoys. You can be successful doing just about anything so why not make it something you like? The chances are that what he enjoys and what he’s good at are the same thing, and that’s probably what he should do.

After speaking with him, my guess is that if he’s honest with himself, he would choose preparing tax returns. Now, I can think of three very good reasons why this is not the best choice:

1. Massive competition
2. Seasonality
3. He’s overqualified

But if that’s what he enjoys, that’s probably what he should do. His passion will help him overcome the challenges. He’ll develop a reputation for being the best at what he does and neutralize his competition. He’ll do corporate returns throughout the rest of the year, or build his practice so big that he doesn’t need to work the rest of the year.

If he’s happy and rich, does it really matter what his qualifications are?

There’s another point: why couldn’t he figure this out for himself? The answer is he could have, but when you are so caught up in making a living, sometimes you can’t think straight. It’s work, work, work, and there’s no time for reflection or planning. The wheel keep spinning and you can’t get off.

There’s an expression that comes to mind that applies not only in this situation but for all of us sometimes:

"Slow down to speed up."

What that means is we all need to periodically stop what we’re doing long enough to evaluate where we are and where we want to go. Will doing what we’re doing get us there? Is there a better plan?

Notice that you slow down "to" speed up. That means something. It means that if we’re not going in the right direction, if we have too much on our plate, our subconscious mind knows it and holds us back. Slowing down to re-evaluate allows us to get clear on what we’re doing, and it is that clarity that allows us to move more quickly towards what we really want.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Marketing legal services, Productivity

How to get a competitive advantage over other lawyers

January 31, 2008 by
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A great way to stand out in a crowded field is to do something nobody else is doing. Nobody sends postal mail any more and that’s exactly why you should.

Everyone is moving online. Yes, you must have a presence online. In fact, that’s where you should concentrate most of your marketing muscle. But there are great fortunes to be had by those who use old fashioned paper and envelopes and stamps to communicate with clients and prospects and referral sources.

The volume of direct mail is way down. What that means is that your prospect’s mail box is emptier than a few years ago. As a result, when your client gets your newsletter in their mailbox, it won’t get lost in the clutter. Compare that to their email inbox, where they are inundated.

Your printed and mailed message means much more to them, too. They can hold it, they can sit in their favorite chair and listen to your words spoken from the page, or throw it in a briefcase to read on the train. Yes, they can do all that by printing your email or pdf, but it’s not the same. It lacks some of the warmth and personality of something actually delivered to their mailbox.

Just as there’s a big difference between an email that says "thanks" and a hand-written, personal thank you note sent by mail, you can get the essence of that difference with a printed newsletter or other message.

Also consider the retention factor. If you write a good newsletter or report and get it into the hands of clients and prospects, they’ll be more likely to hold onto it if they don’t have time to read it now. And, if they do read it now and it is good information, they’ll be more likely to hold onto it for future reference. By contrast, I’ve got emails I’ve saved in my inbox for years, but I’ll never find them.

What about "pass along"? Well, it’s easy for them to forward your email message to a large number of people, but what will those people do with the message? Probably not read it and probably not hold onto it, either.

There is a greater cost to putting things in the mail, and more labor, too. But the question isn’t the net cost of one medium of communication versus another, it’s net effectiveness. Return on investment.

Don’t stop sending email, but do consider starting (or re-starting if you have let lapse) a postal mail campaign to keep your name and message in front of the most important people in your business life. You’ve often heard me say, "They may not be able to hire or refer today, so stay in their minds and in their mailboxes until they do." Today, they have more than one mailbox and you should be in both.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Communication, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing Tagged With: ,
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