Marketing legal services Archives - Page 8 of 134

Get more clients by making it easier for clients to contact you

August 26, 2024 by David M. Ward

You can get more new clients (and repeat clients) by making it easier for clients (and referral sources) to contact you.

Especially via email since this makes it easier for them (and for you).

The key? The contract form on your website. Encourage visitors to fill this out any time they have something to ask you or tell you. Tell them when you will reply, e.g., within 24 hours or 48 hours if it is a weekend, and what to do in an emergency.

Making it easier for people also means not requiring too much information on your contact form. Ask for the minimum, just enough for them to hold up their hand, which usually means just their email and question or reason for contacting you.

Don’t make them fill out a lengthy questionnaire (as I’ve seen some lawyers do). Don’t pre-qualify them before you speak with them. Don’t tell them what you will or won’t do or what you do or don’t need from them.

For now, you just want to know their name and an email address. You can get the rest later.

Yes, you will get a lot of inquiries that go nowhere. But you will also get a lot of inquires from prospective clients who fill out your form because you made it easy to do that, and your competition didn’t.

If you get inundated with inquires and you can’t handle the volume, well, that’s a nice problem to have. There are things you can do to mitigate this but it is likely to be more profitable not to.

Keep your form as simple as possible. If you need to talk to them, you can invite them to call or ask for their phone number so you can call them. You can also direct them to your FAQ page or an index of your articles.

Show people it is convenient to connect with you and more people will.

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

Add these questions to your client intake form

August 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

By adding a few additional questions to your intake form your clients and prospects can help you improve your marketing.

Start with a few questions about where and how they found you.

Was it a referral? From who? How do they know them? What did they ask them? What did the referring party tell them about you or your firm?

Was it a search? What keywords, questions, or information did they use? Did they research their problem first or immediately search for an attorney? What did they find that prompted them to call?

Was it an ad? Where did they see it? What did they like about it? Did they see it more than once?

Did they find you via one of your articles or blog posts or presentations? What convinced them to take the next step?

You can ask them to fill out a form at their initial meeting but consider talking to them in person as you will get better answers, be able to ask follow-up questions, and assess their body language.

You’re not just looking for their responses, you want to note the words they use (and don’t use), their emotional context, and additional information they might supply about themself and their situation.

You want to know what potential clients think or do when they have a problem or desire, and what they do to find a lawyer who does what you do. You can use this information to improve your content—articles, presentations, emails, etc., improve your keywords and ad copy, and improve your conversations with prospective or new clients.

Pay attention to what they say and how they say it. One client might emphasize their concern about their injuries and damages; another might zero in on the amount of time they’re losing from work, a third might speak primarily about their pain and treatment.

It’s all important, but knowing what’s most important to your prospects and new clients can help you better relate to them and they to you.

Filed Under: Client relations, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

The cost of marketing your legal services

August 16, 2024 by David M. Ward

Lawyers choose which marketing strategies to use based on a variety of factors, not the least of which is cost (money, time, other resources). But cost is a misleading factor.

It’s not how much we spend. It’s how much we earn in return.

We might think a certain ad campaign (or any marketing strategy) is “expensive” but if the ROI is high enough, it might actually be “cheap”.

If you spend $1,000 per month on an ad, for example, and it brings in $5,000 per month in net revenue, that ad is profitable. If you can continue to get that kind of ROI, you would want to invest as much as you can in as many ads as you can.

The same goes for seminars, mailings, video production, other content, or other marketing endeavors.

It’s also pertinent to hiring additional staff (or better staff), a bigger office, or even a better wardrobe.

Nothing is expensive if it pays for itself and helps you increase your profits.

You might be reluctant (or unable) to spend $50,000 per month on advertising, but if you’re getting a 5-1 return (and you can handle all the new business), you’d be foolish not to beg, borrow, and steal to get more money to invest in that slot machine.

There is a risk that you won’t continue to get a sufficient ROI, however, so you have to watch your numbers.

But many lawyers don’t. They allocate a monthly or quarterly budget for “advertising” or “marketing” and hope it pays off.

But that’s not how a profitable business (or practice) should be run.

Filed Under: Advertising, Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services

The simplest way to become the top lawyer in your field

August 14, 2024 by David M. Ward

You don’t have to outspend or outwork other lawyers in your field to get to the top. You don’t have to go to more networking events, create more content, increase your ad spend, or improve your speaking, writing, or interpersonal skills.

There’s an easier way, and it’s more likely to take you where you want to go.

The simplest way to get to the top is to choose a segment of your field or market—a niche—and dedicate yourself to it.

Instead of promoting your services to “everyone” who might need or want your legal services, tailor your message to your chosen niche.

Focus on their industry or market and the people in it. That doesn’t mean ignoring everyone else who might need your services, it means concentrating your marketing message and activities towards your chosen niche market.

Study that niche. Learn all you can about their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). Learn their stories and share them in your marketing. Use their buzzwords, reference their events and milestones, and notable legal issues.

And meet the leaders in their market and ask them to introduce you to others.

Why go to this bother? Because your goal is to stand out in that market. When someone in that niche, industry, or market has a legal issue, question, or case, you want them to think about you and reach out to you or think, “I’ve heard of you” when you meet them or they see your name.

If you do estate planning, you compete with thousands of other attorneys who do what you do. Instead of trying to show the world you are better, show up for the people in your niche, show them you “speak their language” by using their buzzwords, referencing their stories, and talking about problems and solutions that are important in that niche.

If you choose “health care professionals,” for example, you won’t talk about what other estate planning layers talk about, you might speak to them about medical/ethical/legal/tax issues for physicians and administrators and the need to protect their assets and plan their estates accordingly.

Dedicate a website or blog to that niche. Create content for that niche. See and be seen by key people in that niche.

When they see you understand their niche better than other lawyers and are actively working with their colleagues, clients, and contacts, as your name becomes well known, eventually, perhaps sooner than you think, you will become the expert in their niche, and the top lawyer in your field.

To choose the best niche for you (and how to approah it), The Formula will help

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: Niche marketing

The easiest clients to sign up

August 12, 2024 by David M. Ward

Not all (prospective) clients are created equal. Some are easier to sign up and are likely better clients than others.

The top three categories are:

Existing and former clients. Clients who have hired you once are the most likely to hire you again. Easy sale, zero marketing costs, and because they’ve worked with you before, they should be easy to work with. That’s the theory, at least.
Referrals. Someone they trust vouched for you and introduced them to you, so, if they need you and can pay your fees, they should be relatively easy to sign up. You don’t have to invest time or money to find them or court them so they are profitable, too.
Prospects. Leads, opt-ins to your newsletter or list, attendees at your presentation, consultations, people who answered your ad, were, at some point, interested in what you do and how you can help them. If you stay in touch with them, when they need your help (and are willing and able to pay for it), it should be relatively easy to get them to take the next step.

What about everyone else? Look for people who have hired an attorney in the past. They know the value of representation and advice, have a general idea of what it might cost and how long the work might take, and have experience working with attorneys and the legal system.

They should be easier to sign up than someone who has never hired an attorney.

But I’m sure I don’t have to tell you to watch out. Why are they talking to you if they have or did have another attorney? You need to know.

It’s one thing if there’s a conflict, the other attorney doesn’t practice the type of law they need or is otherwise unavailable. If there was a personal issue or their case is a stinker, well, that’s different.

They may be easy to sign up, but do you want to?

Filed Under: Closing the sale, Marketing legal services

A simple formula for attracting more clients

August 9, 2024 by David M. Ward

If you want to attract more clients, your job is simple. Share some of your knowledge, the benefits and solutions you provide, the way you do what you do, and how to get in touch with you, and put this where prospective clients will see or hear it.

Online, you can do that by writing articles, a blog, a newsletter, videos, or via advertising or social media.

Offline, you can do this via presentations, networking, speaking, advertising or direct mail.

Disseminate it wherever your ideal clients live, work, or “hang out”.

What are you good at? What benefits and solutions do you provide? Share this with people who need or want your help.

You can also share this with your clients and referrals sources so they can share it with their clients and friends.

As people discover you and read or watch or listen to your message, if they like what they see or hear, they will ask for more information and eventually hire you.

That’s how you attract clients.

But it takes time. Time for your audience to discover you, get to know, like and trust you, and decide to take the next step.

So keep showing them what you do and how you help your clients. Keep showing them your passion for your work. Keep telling them the benefits and solutions you offer.

And invite them to contact you to get more information or ask about their situation.

And they will.

The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services

Too much of this, not enough of that

August 5, 2024 by David M. Ward

It’s all important: Legal work, client relations (internal marketing), cold market (outside) marketing, community relations, admin, CLE, and more.

My guess is you prioritize billable work, but don’t always do enough of the marketing.

Including market research. Understanding your target market and the people in it. Including your competition.

I suggest you allocate time to study your competition. It can help you do everything else better.

Study the firms in your market or niche. See what they’re doing well and what they could improve.

Start with a visit to their website. Is it professional looking, up-to-date, and informative? Does it sell visitors on the value of taking “the next step”?

Look at the structure and content of their website, review their offers, sales copy, and lead magnets.

What do they do to get visitors to call them, follow them, sign up for their next event, or subscribe to their newsletter?

Do they have a blog? How often do they publish? How long are their posts? What do they write about?

Do they have a podcast, make videos, do seminars, or speak at live events?

How do they position themself in the market? What do they say about their capabilities? What services and niches do they focus on or do they not focus at all? What do they say about you (their competition)?

Spend a couple of hours reading their content, follow them on social media, and subscribe to their newsletter. Immerse yourself in their marketing and what they do to promote their services.

Make sure you also check out their reviews (and endorsements) and see what others say about them.

While you’re at it, see if you can figure out which keywords they target in their marketing.

Study your (strongest) competition. What can you learn, what can you do that they do, what can you do better?

Take notes and study them again next year to see what they’ve changed or added.

They are your strongest competition for a reason. Do yourself a favor and find out why.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Start before you’re ready

July 16, 2024 by David M. Ward

It’s not new advice, but is it any good? If you don’t know how to swim, should you jump in the pool and flounder about, or should you take some lessons first or find someone to show you what to do (and stay by your side while you do it)?

Jumping in the deep end without knowing how to swim or doing legal work you’ve never done without some help or preparation is ill-advised, but for many things you want or need to do, getting started is often the best way to do it.

If you’re procrastinating because you overwhelmed with everything you need to do, or you are a perfectionist and convinced that you shouldn’t start because you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re going to mess up, you don’t need to take a course or hire a consultant. You need to start.

Before you’re ready.

That’s how you get good at marketing.

Go to a networking meeting and talk to some people. Take out your first ad. Write an article or blog post. Record a video, even if you don’t have a script, a decent camera, or know anything about editing.

Do something. Anything. You might be terrible at it (or you might be a lot better than you expected), but in either case, you’ve started and are on your way.

You don’t need to have experience to get experience. You get experience by taking the first step.

So, when in doubt, start. Before you’re ready.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, success

Maybe you need some new friends

July 2, 2024 by David M. Ward

Not friends necessarily, business connections—influential people who can send you referrals, introduce you to key people in your target market, give you information or advice, or inspire you.

Your business network, which you should continually expand and improve.

Start by identifying categories of people you’d like to know. “Business leaders in the health care field,” for example. Then, make a list of candidates—names of people in that field—and learn as much as possible about them and their industry or market.

Then, find someone who knows them and ask them to introduce you. Or, reach out yourself, tell them you’ve heard good things about them, and want to introduce yourself.

Ask them something about their company or association or news about their industry. Ask questions. Let them do most of the talking. Listen and learn.

Follow-up with an email telling them you enjoyed meeting them.

What’s next?

You might see an article about the health care industry and send a copy to your new contact. Or write an article and send that.

You might follow up with a question, ask for advice, or invite them to speak at an upcoming event where you know the organizer.

If you meet someone else who knows them, you might compare notes. Learn more about the contact, what they do, who they know, and what they want. If you hit it off, you might invite them to coffee. Or that might come later. Months later.

Stay in touch with them. Be of value to them. Find ways to help them or someone close to them. Don’t ask for anything just yet. That time will come.

Or it won’t.

You don’t know what will happen and you might need to meet many people before you find one who clicks with you.

But one might be all you need.

Here’s how to do it

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking

What, are you chicken?

June 26, 2024 by David M. Ward

If you want your practice to grow, one of the best things you can do is stand out from other lawyers and firms.

Most lawyers and firms don’t.

They offer the same services, make the same promises, charge similar fees, and use the same marketing strategies. They look and sound and smell like everyone else.

Think about your competition. Very few stand out. They play it safe, because they think “safe” is smart.

I did that when I was starting out. I wanted to do what other lawyers did. I DIDN’T want to stand out. (That came later when I saw I was getting nowhere fast and needed to do something different).

You don’t have to do anything radical. Just different in a material way. Add a new service, offer an additional benefit, change your fee and billing structure. Or use different marketing strategies than everyone else uses, or do them differently.

It could be something as simple as changing up your writing style. That’s what I did. Other lawyers wrote formally, very lawyer-like (and boring), and I wanted to try something different.

I added some variety and spice to my writing, using a little humor and drama, shorter paragraphs and sentences, and went out of my way to make things interesting (not boring).

I got noticed. Opposing counsel commented, and seemed to be a little more willing to talk instead of firing missiles in my direction. My clients noticed and told me they enjoyed the new me.

You don’t have to do the same thing, but whatever you do, start small. Because if you don’t start small, you might overreach and be afraid to continue, or never start at all.

Try a new billing format, for example. Give it a test run. See how you feel about differing from everyone else (and differing from what you’ve always done), and see how others react. If you’re nervous about how your clients might react, start with new clients who don’t know what you’ve done before.

Let’s say you decide to communicate with your clients and prospects more often, via a newsletter, blog, podcast, or by sending them articles about their industry or market. If you already do these things, try sending them more often, adding your comments, or branching out to other subjects.

If other lawyers in your space don’t do these things (or do it much), you will stand out. Clients will see you as different. They’ll see an advantage in working with you, not just because what you send them or do is amazingly better, but because it is different.

Be different. You’ll thank me later.

Filed Under: Communication, Legal industry, Marketing legal services