The year everything changes

January 8, 2018 by
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15 minutes a day. You’ve heard me repeatedly preach and pound on that theme. I’ve told you that you can make a lot of progress towards your practice-building goals with just 15 minutes of marketing effort per day.

“Put it on your calendar, as an appointment with yourself,” I’ve said, “and keep that appointment. If someone wants to see you or talk to you during that time, they’ll need to wait until you’re done with your appointment.”

So, are you doing it?

If not, it’s a new year and it might be a good time for you to start.

I don’t know how I could possibly make this any easier for you—it’s only 15 minutes, after all—but I’m going to try. But you have to meet me half way.

Let’s start with some affirmations. This is you talking:

  1. “I want to get more clients, and better clients, and increase my income.” Go ahead and say that. Out loud. Click your heels 3 times, and say, ‘there’s no place like home’. Okay, you can skip the last part.
  2. “I understand that marketing is vital to the growth of my practice and I am ready to do it.”
  3. “I can work on marketing 15 minutes every weekday and I am committed to doing it.”

Are you with me? Are you ready to do this?

Remember, I’ve said (more than once) that you can start anywhere–sitting and thinking about marketing, reading about marketing, writing down marketing ideas, names of people to contact, or anything else. And, if you don’t know what to do, it’s okay to do nothing. Sit and stare at a wall. Just keep that appointment with yourself and don’t do anything else during that time.

Yes?

Okay. I think you’re ready for the missing piece of the puzzle. The key that unlocks the door to creating your new habit.

Get out your calendar. Not your task list. This is an appointment, remember?

Open to the week view and schedule a 15-minute marketing block, for tomorrow, as the first appointment of the day. Make it repeat every weekday.

The key is to make this your first activity. Before court or any other appointments. It’s important, right? You’re committed to it, right? So it should be done first thing. That way, you’ll get it done. You’ll also affirm to your inner child (the one who doesn’t want to do this) that it is important and you’re doing it.

Now, keep that appointment. Do it for two months and watch what happens. I promise, if you do that, you’ll see amazing things happen.

Make this your new habit of the new year and this will be the year that everything changes.

Key marketing strategies

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Personal development

One size does not fit all

January 5, 2018 by
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Your marketing has a personality. A style. In part, it is comprised of what you say to prospective clients and how you say it, but also things you don’t say because you presume prospective clients already know it.

That’s a dangerous presumption because not all clients are alike.

Some clients have a lot of experience dealing with legal issues and hiring lawyers. Others don’t. Some clients have deep pockets and understand how lawyers’ bill. Others have to dig deep to pay you and have trouble understanding why you charge $400 per hour when they earn only $25.

You have to understand these differences, and others, and groom your marketing and client relations playbook for each type of client. You need different content, different language, and different levels of hand holding.

You shouldn’t expect your clients to completely adapt to you and your ways; they are the client, you serve them, and you must be prepared to adapt to theirs.

“Know thy client,” I’m sure someone wise once said, and it’s good advice. It will help you attract good clients who will like you and trust you and hire you again, because they know that you understand them and care about making them happy.

Study your clients–their backgrounds, their industries, their cultures and personal lives. What do they know? What do they want? What are they afraid of?

Because one size does not fit all.

This will help

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Filed Under: Client relations, Copywriting, Marketing legal services

Any marketing is better than no marketing

January 4, 2018 by
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You have goals for the year. Resolutions. Plans. You intend to grow your practice, increase your income, and make this year your best year.

You’re ready to dig in and make it happen. Marketing is one of the big things on your list.

So you begin.

Three weeks from now, when the excitement and newness has worn off, when you’re bored or tired, when you’re not seeing results and you’re ready to give up, you need to remember something.

Any marketing is better than no marketing.

So do something.

Even if you hate it. Even if you’re terrible at it. Even if you give up after three weeks.

Do something. Anything. If you start, you may continue. Or you may learn something, about marketing or about yourself.

You might learn what doesn’t work (for you). You may confirm that you don’t want to do something ever again and free up some time and brain power for something else. You might mess up but learn from your mistakes and figure out how to do it better. You might get poor results, keep going, and finally have a breakthrough.

So choose something and do it. Something new or a new way of doing something you’ve done before.

Try it on for size. Maybe you won’t hate it. Maybe it will be okay. Maybe you’ll actually like it and want to continue. If so, great. If not, the effort won’t be wasted. Everything you do is an opportunity to learn and grow.

You may learn a new skill. Meet some new people. Write something you can use. Wherever you wind up, three weeks from now or later this year, you’ll be in a different place than you are right now.

And that’s why any marketing is better than no marketing.

So do something. Give yourself permission to stink at it. Accept that you might hate it. But pat yourself on the back for doing something.

Because any marketing is better than no marketing.

A simple marketing plan that works: here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

The 3 types of prospective clients

January 3, 2018 by
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There are 3 types of prospective clients you could target:

1) People who need your help (but don’t know it).

These people have a problem but don’t know they do. Or they believe the problem isn’t that bad, it will resolve on its own, or that they can fix it without an attorney.

Attorneys who target this type of client conduct seminars, post videos, write blog posts and social media posts, and do other things to educate people about the problem, the risks of inaction or self-help, the benefits of hiring a lawyer, the options for doing so, and the reasons why they are the best lawyer for the job.

It is a viable strategy but takes the most time.

To target this type of prospective client, the best course of action is to build relationships with prospective clients and especially the people who can refer them, before the client has a problem or is ready to hire an attorney.

2) People with a “felt need”.

It’s easier to market to people who know they have a problem and are prepared to do something about it. Your task is to show them the benefits of hiring an attorney and the risks of delay. As you do that, you’ll also show them that you have the knowledge and experience to help them with their problem and they will naturally be inclined towards choosing you.

Your best course of action is to build an opt-in list and stay in touch with these people. You should also educate your clients (and others) about your ideal client and how to refer them.

3) People who are actively looking for an attorney.

This is the most competitive and “expensive” option. Your task is to show prospective clients why you are the best choice. Show them how you are better or different from the competition.

An effective strategy here is to target specific segments of the bigger market (niche markets) and dominate those niches. Show prospective clients and referral sources that you focus on this market, have experience with the market’s needs and a proven track record of helping clients in that market solve their problems and provide for those needs.

Which of these 3 should you target? That depends on what you do and a host of other factors.

If you’re not sure what’s best for you, the best course of action, for now at least, is to combine strategies: target niche markets, build a list and stay in touch, educate people about their problems and the need for an attorney, teach people how to recognize your ideal client and how to refer them, and show people why you are the attorney they should choose.

For help sorting things out, get The Formula

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Stealing from other lawyers

December 29, 2017 by
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Yesterday, I said you should plagiarize yourself, that is, take your previously written, recorded, and presented material and re-use or re-purpose it. I also suggested that you pay attention to the emails, documents, and other materials sent to you by other lawyers, and use it for ideas for creating your own materials.

Today, I’m going to take things a bit further and suggest you blatantly steal from other lawyers.

Now, don’t lose your lunch. I’m not going to tell you to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical, or unbecoming of a professional.

What I mean is this:

Go online and find content in your practice area that other attorneys are publishing–on their blogs, in guest posts, articles and anywhere else you can find it. Look especially for material that is getting a lot of traffic, upvotes (Medium), Likes, shares, comments, and so on. You might use a tool like Buzzsumo.

Once you’ve found some popular articles, look for ways to cover the same subject or idea in a different or better way. A few ideas:

  • Take a post by a lawyer in another state and write a version of that post for your state
  • Write a more in-depth article on the subject, or a shorter, more accessible summary
  • Write a version of the article for a different type of client or market
  • Link to the article and provide additional arguments, stories, statutes, or case law, to support the argument posited in the article and why you agree with it
  • Link to the article and show why you disagree with it or explain when and why things can be different
  • Take one section of the article and explore it in depth
  • Take something barely mentioned (or not mentioned) in the article but relevant to the subject and write about it
  • Interview or survey other attorneys or subject matter experts on the subject for your own article

Re-write the headline, optimize the headline and body for keywords you target, and you’ll not only have new content for your blog or website, you’ll have something you know is likely to bring traffic and engagement.

And you’ll never again say, “I don’t know what to write about”.

More ideas here

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing

A simple way to build trust

December 27, 2017 by
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I don’t know if you know this but, uh, you’re not perfect. You can’t do everything, nor do you do everything equally well. Instead of trying to hide your weaknesses and risk sounding defensive when they are inevitably discovered, you’ll do better admitting them up front.

You know this is true in the courtroom. You tell the jury about the weaknesses in your case before your opposition does it. You know that this not only deflates their power over you, your transparency makes the jury more likely to believe you when you tell them about your case’s strengths.

Admitting your weaknesses also helps build trust in marketing.

Tell prospective clients the types of cases or matters you don’t handle, but let them know you can recommend someone who does.

When I went from a general practice to a 100% personal injury practice, I turned down or referred everything that wasn’t PI and watched my PI practice quickly grow.

Today, I freely acknowledge that I am not an expert in social media marketing. Far from it. In fact, in just about every interview I give, I make a point of telling the interviewer this, early in the conversation. When most other marketing ex-purts are telling lawyers they have to get on board the social media train, my position gives me a point of differentiation. (It also gives me an advantage among lawyers who don’t like social media and would rather not do it.)

Tell the world what you do, and also what you don’t do. Admit your weaknesses, turn down work that isn’t a strength, and watch your practice grow.

How to choose the right specialty for you

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Specializing

Looking for clients in all the wrong places

December 11, 2017 by
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When you’re new, starting to build a practice, you do everything and anything to bring in business. If you’re still doing that after you’ve been around awhile, you’re missing the boat.

When you’re new, the objective is to build a client base. Once you do that, that base of existing and former clients, prospective clients, and professional contacts you’ve made along the way is your best source of new business.

I’m not saying you should stop networking or advertising or creating content. I’m saying it shouldn’t be your main focus.

Focus on retaining existing clients. Keep them happy. Get them to hire you again. Make it easy for them to refer.

Focus on getting existing and former clients to hire you again and buy your other services. If you don’t have other services they need, promote the services of other professionals you know and ask them to do the same for you.

Focus on converting prospects into clients. Offer them an introductory deal they can’t refuse and if they’re not ready, stay in touch with them until they are.

Focus on getting your professional contacts to refer more often and to introduce you to their colleagues.

Focus on building stronger relationships with influential people you know, and new relationships with the people they know.

Focus on the people who already know, like, and trust you, instead of trying to convince strangers to take a chance.

Why do most attorneys focus elsewhere? Because they hear that it’s important to continually generate more leads, build a bigger social media following, network more, advertise more, speak and write more, so that’s what they do.

If that’s you, you’re working too hard. Stop acting like you’re new. All of the clients you could want, and more, are right in front of you.

If you want a simple marketing plan, get this

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services

It’s not about how much you know or how good you are at what you do

November 28, 2017 by
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Education marketing is about showing your market what they need to know about their legal issues and the available solutions. It’s about teaching them the benefits of taking action and the risks of delay.

That’s why you create content and deliver it to your target market. But if that’s all you do, you’re not doing enough.

Effective content isn’t about showing people how much you know. It’s not about showing them how good you are at what you do. It’s not about those things because effective marketing isn’t about you, it’s about your audience.

Your articles, posts, and presentations need to map what you know and what you do to the fears and desires, wants and needs of the people consuming your content.

Think about your ideal client. What keeps them up at night? What are they worried about? What do they fear might happen?

What keeps them going during the day? What are they working to achieve? What makes their sacrifices worthwhile?

Once you know what makes them tick, show them how you can help them get what they want.

You do that by speaking to them, not at them.

Engage them. Show them that you truly understand their situation–their problems, their pain, their desires–either because you’ve been in their shoes before or because you’ve worked with and helped people in that situation.

Tell stories about your clients and former clients who are like them. Describe their background, occupation, and legal situation. Use the terminology common to their industry or market. Use quotes from people they recognize.

Turn up the heat and acknowledge your reader’s pain. Dramatize their problems and warn them, in no uncertain terms, of what might happen if they don’t take action or they make the wrong decision.

Wake them up and shake them up and tell them what to do to get relief.

Don’t deliver a white paper, sell them on taking the next step. Because you can’t help anyone until they do.

How to write a report that gets prospective clients to call you

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

Focus, yes, but on what?

November 27, 2017 by
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Everyone tells you to focus. Be a master of one thing, not a jack-of-all-trades. I’m in that choir, singing that same hymn. You know we’re right and you want to focus. But on what?

Which practice area? Which target market? Which strategy?

Which project should you work on? Which task should you get done today?

Nobody has the answer for you. You have to decide for yourself. But how?

Should you use logic? Trust your gut?

Should you do what nobody else is doing?

Should you do what others do but do it better?

There’s really only one definitive way to figure out where you should focus and that is to try lots of things.

Look at 100 ideas. Get rid of 90 that don’t make sense or that don’t inspire you. Out of the ten that are left, run with the top three. That’s what Steve Jobs did and those three ideas became the company’s focus over the next year.

Experiment constantly. Test lots of variables. Don’t try one or two headlines or email subjects, try fifty. Don’t try five keywords, try 105.

Talk to more people, write more articles, give more talks.

When you find something that works well and feels right to you, make that your focus. At least for now. What works this year may not work next year. Something new may work even better.

Keep learning, keep trying new ideas and different ways of implementing them. And always, keep your eyes on the market. It will tell you what it wants and how much it will pay.

The formula for building a successful practice 

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, success Tagged With:

“New arrivals” might be great prospects for your services

November 21, 2017 by
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For obvious reasons, many real estate agents target new arrivals in town, both homeowners and businesses. You might want to do the same.

When someone moves to your city, there’s a good chance they don’t yet have an attorney. If you are first attorney to “greet” them, when they are ready to hire an attorney, you’ll be first in line.

If you handle real estate, family law, estate planning, or immigration, or you represent small businesses, new arrivals are a natural target market.

One way to get your name in front of them to is to create a booklet, guide, or checklist specifically for them. Your guide might provide a list of names and contact information for vendors and government agencies they need to notify of their new address:

  • Banks, PayPal, credit card companies
  • DMV, registrar of voters, TSA Pre
  • Federal, state, local taxing authorities
  • Insurance: health, renters/homeowners, auto, etc.
  • Online retailers, subscriptions, home deliveries, shippers
  • WHOIS (domain names), hosting, email providers

A checklist like this, provided “compliments of” your firm, will make a favorable first impression and provide prospects with an easy way to contact you to get more information.

Make sure you include another offer in your guide, for a report related to your practice area, available for download at your website. This will help you build an email list so you can stay in touch with the new arrivals.

You can advertise your guide or mail it. You can also provide free copies to local merchants, especially real estate agents, moving companies, builders, decorators, and so on, who can provide them to their customers and clients.

New arrivals also need other services–insurance agents, an accountant, landscapers, painters, and so on. You can offset some (or all) of your printing costs by including small ads in your booklet from these local merchants and service providers. Your advertisers may pass out copies of your booklet to their customers and clients.

This is a simple idea that you could put together in a couple of hours. It could bring you a lot of new business. It will also allow you to meet other professionals and business owners in town, giving you an opportunity to show them how you can help them and their clients or customers.

Marketing is simple when you know the formula

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Filed Under: List building, Marketing legal services
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