95% of marketing legal services is doing two simple things

November 18, 2025 by
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You can do more, but if you do these two things consistenly, you won’t have to.

They aren’t complicated, expensive, or time-consuming. They don’t require you to be clever or do anything unique.

How’s that for simple?

Two things.

First, you need to “show up”. That means keeping your name in front of people you know and people you want to know.

Clients, former clients, prospective clients, business and professional ontacts, family and friends.

You don’t have to contact them, although that’s always helpful. Showing up means getting people to rebularly see or hear your name.

That could be in their email, on social, at a networking or social event, or by seeing ads you run in publications they read.

Anything.

Each time they see or hear your name, they think about you. If they need legal help, it might prompt them to contact you. If they know someone who needs your services, it might prompt them to give them your name.

For a professional, “showing up” is 80-90% of marketing. Keep your name in front of people and the rest usually takes care of itself.

What about the other 10-20% of your marketing?

That’s also simple. The rest of your marketing is creating and dissemenating “information”.

Information about the law, legal problems and solutions and the benefits of hiring you.

Write it or record it and invite people to read or watch it.

Invite them to sign up for your newsletter, download your report, watch your video, or read your book.

Your information shows people (or reminds them) that you help people like them and shows them the benefits you offer.

Two simple things. Stay visible. Share information.

More: subscribe to the (free) Attorney Marketing Letter

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Referral marketing on steroids

October 23, 2025 by
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No matter what other types of marketing you do, referrals will always be key to marketing your legal services. Prospective clients contact you because someone they know and trust recommends you. They come to you pre-screened as to need, or at least interest, and the ability to pay.

The odds are they’ll hire you. You usually don’t have to do a lot to make that happen. 

And, not only are referred clients easier to sign up, they usually turn out to be better clients. 

There are other benefits to prioritizing referrals as a marketing strategy for a law practice. Among other things, that focus can also lead to more traffic to your website, more seminar attendees, more invitations to speak, and more subscribers and followers.

Because it’s based on relationships.

It’s an idea as old as marketing itself. And while many attorneys benefit do this, they usually “watch it happen” rather than taking steps to “make it happen”. 

What do I mean?

I mean, most attorneys don’t systematically identify other professionals and businesses that already serve their target market (and don’t compete with them), approach them, and propose a marketing alliance.

A mutually beneficial strategic relationship, leading to referrals and other benefits. You promote their products or services, endorse and recommend them, send them referrals and traffic and so on, and they do the same for you.

You help them build their business or practice; they help you build yours. 

Hold on, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that business people and professionals who might make a good strategic alliance partner for you already have referral relationships with attorneys and law firms in your market. 

They don’t need you. 

But they do.

Because the attorneys they currently work with often

  • Target different sub-niches, industries, or types of businesses or clients than you do
  • Offer different services or use different fee and billing arrangements than you do
  • Can’t handle, or don’t want to handle big cases, or may not want the mid-size or small cases you prefer 
  • Have conflicts of interest and can’t take every case or client 
  • Get busy and can’t handle all the work that comes their way
  • Retire, die, move, or get into trouble and are no longer available

They also might not have the same reputation, experience, or skill set you bring to the table, making you a better fit for their contacts.

And even if none of this is true today, tomorrow might be another story.

Which is why you should continually look for and get to know potential referral partners. 

It should be a cornerstone of your marketing. 

Routinely ask yourself, “Which business leader or professional in my market sells to, advises, or otherwise influences prospective clients who would be a good fit for my practice?”

Identify them, meet them, and show them how they can benefit by working with you. 

That’s the plan. 

Okay, I know what else you’re thinking. You’re thinking this is extremely difficult and time-consuming. It’s not worth the effort. 

It might be difficult, but it isn’t impossible. And it is indeed worth the effort. 

Not only can it pay off big time for you, but you don’t need dozens of strategic alliance partners, you only need a few. 

In fact, just one can make a tremendous difference. 

Not only can one new referral partner send you business, they can also introduce you to other professionals and businesses they work with who might also form a marketing alliance with you. 

Good referral relationships might not be easy to come by, but when they come, they can compound. 

Prove it for yourself. Do you have any business or professional relationships right now? Even one? 

Have a chat with them and ask them to introduce you to someone they know who might also want to work with you. 

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Filed Under: Marketing Plan, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing

“Thank you” is the next step, not the last

October 16, 2025 by
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The case is closed. The client’s happy. You got paid. 

Now what?

Yes, you say thank you. And send a handwritten thank-you note. And call the client the next day or the next week to see if they have any additional questions or issues.

But there’s a lot more. 

“Thank you” isn’t the end; it’s the beginning of what’s next. And you should have a process in place for making the best of it. 

This is the best time to get (or lay the groundwork for getting):

  • Additional work from the happy client; what else do they need or want?
  • Referrals from the client; who do they know who might also need your help or might want some information?
  • Additional referrals from the client or professional who initially referred the case or client to you
  • Testimonials from the happy client (and permission to share them).
  • Feedback: asking the client to fill out a survey and tell you what they liked best about what you did, how they were treated by you and your staff, and anything they think you could improve   
  • Social sharing: encouraging the happy client to post their great results, talk about how happy they are with your work, and making it easier for them to do that by proving templates, checklists, and showing them what other clients have said about your work on their social pages
  • A stronger relationship with the client, e.g., a celebratory lunch, photos, tickets to the ball game

This is also a good time to write notes about the case or matter, the issues or problems presented, what you did and how it worked out. These notes can be invaluable for sharing with your partners and staff and any advisors you might consult about what and how you’re doing. 

You can also use these notes in your content creation or marketing, e.g., as a success story in a blog post or article, to add to your ads and newsletter, or to reference on the “what we do” or “how we can help you” page on your website.

The end of the case is a special time, and most lawyers don’t take advantage of it. 

You can and should.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

A simple way to get more clients to say ‘yes’

September 4, 2025 by
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They’re interested. They know what you do and know they need your help. They (probably) want to hire you, but they don’t call or return your retainer agreement. 

What can you do to get them off the fence?

The answer is simple. Easy to do. And could double or triple your sign-ups (according to studies). 

What is this miracle strategy? Follow-up. Contact them again. Send them another letter, or email, or call.

Many (most) attorneys don’t. One email or conversation and they’re done. “If they want to hire me, they have my phone number” is the prevailing thought.

They don’t want to appear needy or pushy or bother the client. Or they followed up already and don’t know what to say to the client or prospect that they haven’t already said. 

But here’s the thing. You’re not being a nuisance by following-up with someone who needs your help; you’re doing them a favor. 

They contacted you or responded to you because they need your services but aren’t sure it will be worth the cost or if there are other options. Or they’re dealing with even more important, possibly urgent problems, and haven’t been focusing on this one. 

They might have forgotten your initial conversation, or gotten distracted. When they hear from you again, they remember their problem or need and remember that you could be the solution. 

Following up helps them decide to say yes. 

But you need a plan. 

Without a follow-up plan, when you follow-up randomly, you don’t know what to say or do, or when, or how often, or you get busy and forget to do it.  

To your detriment and to the detriment of the client. 

I can’t give you your plan, of course, because this will depend on your practice area, target market, deadlines, and other factors. But I can give you some guidelines. 

In general, depending on your services and the urgency of their situation, plan to follow-up at least 3 times. If possible, do these a few days to a week apart, to give the prospect enough time to consider your solution but not so much time that they lose interest or find another lawyer. 

Send these follow-ups at different times of the day, to increase the odds that they will see them, and for the same reason, use different media, e.g. email, regular mail, and, if appropriate, social media, phone or text. 

Never apologize for contacting them again. Remember, they need your help. 

Don’t limit your follow-ups to providing more facts or discussing the law. Stories and testimonials and emotional appeals can make a massive difference.  

If appropriate, consider offering different services and payment plans. 

Give them alternative ways to reply—filling out a form, calling your office to schedule a phone appointment or office consultation, calling your assistant with questions, or calling your cell. The more options you give them, the more likely it is they will do something and thus take the next step to hiring you. 

Test different approaches, timing, and offers. Track your results and be prepared to modify your plan. But don’t get caught up searching for the perfect approach. 

The most important element in a follow-up plan is that you do it. The second most important element is that you do it more than once. 

However flawed your follow-ups might be, doing them more could be all you need to double or triple your sign-ups.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing Plan Tagged With:

Networking for lawyers who hate networking

August 19, 2025 by
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Building a successful law practice often involves developing connections with influential people, resulting in referrals, introductions, and opportunities. As Jim Rohn used to say, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” If you don’t enjoy networking or haven’t been successful at it in the past, it might be because you’ve been networking with the wrong people. 

Who are the right people? Yes, professionals and business contacts who know the kinds of people who would be good clients for you, and the people who can refer them, but it’s more than that. The right people are people who inspire you. 

When we associate with people who inspire us, we feel inspired. If we associate with people who encourage us to do better, we do better. 

Not everyone who is doing better than you will inspire you, however. Their success might actually discourage you by setting the bar too high. You want to be selective and associate with people who not only have connections that are a good match for you but who encourage and motivate you to reach for the success you desire. 

Quantity doesn’t necessarily lead to quality. You can’t depend on finding the right people at a typical networking group meeting or by asking struggling business owners for introductions. 

A better approach is to put together a plan to meet the most influential people in your target market. 

That means doing a little research. 

Learn all you can about the leaders in your target market and don’t rush to connect with them. Give it time. The right opportunity to meet them will eventually reveal itself to you.  

In the interim, work on developing your authority and desirability as a networking contact. Work on your public speaking, publish articles, write a book, get some publicity. 

Get people talking about you. Become the person you would like to meet. When you do, networking will be easy for you because influential people want to associate with other influential people. 

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Filed Under: Marketing Plan, Networking

Fake productivity

June 10, 2025 by
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We all do it. Scroll through websites and call it research, update our task management system and call it productivity, try different apps and tell ourselves we’ll find one that’s better or faster than what we already use. 

We’re not actually being productive, we’re having fun and distracting ourselves from our daily burdens. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, all that playing and tinkering leads to ideas and improvements. 

Go ahead, ask me how many task management and notes apps I’ve tried before landing on my current favs. 

Don’t ask.

Fake productivity is okay. Unless we overdo it, or do it instead of doing things we really need to do. 

I’m not talking about our regular work. We usually get that done, because we have to. Clients are waiting, deadlines are looming, and we do what we have to do. 

I’m talking about the things we don’t have to do, but should. Big things that help us take our practice or career to the next level. 

Otherwise known as “deep work”. 

Deep work requires a lot of thinking, concentration, and hard work. We know we should do it but, too often, we can’t find the time or energy.

Marketing often falls into that category, unfortunately. Planning a series of seminars, writing a book, starting a blog or channel, for example, takes a lot of time and creative energy and are especially difficult when we try doing them at the end of a busy day, or on Saturday after a busy week.

Most advocates of deep work tell you to block out an hour or two each day, ideally in the morning when you (arguably) have the most energy.

Most professionals can’t do that. They have too much else to do. 

There is a compromise. Instead of scheduling an hour or two every day, schedule an hour or two every week. 

Chose a day. Choose a time. Put it on your calendar, and… do it. 

You can accomplish a lot in one hour. Especially when you make it a habit. When you do anything regularly, your subconscious mind continues to work on the subject during the rest of the week while you’re doing other things.

You have other options. Instead of an hour or two each week, you might schedule a half-day every other week. Or a full day once a month. 

Choose something, put it on your calendar, and… do it. 

Because doing nothing isn’t an option.

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Filed Under: Career satisfaction, Law office management, Marketing Plan, success Tagged With:

Prepare for the busy season before the busy season

June 5, 2025 by
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Busy season? Do lawyers have busy seasons? Sure. It may not be a certain time of the year, but lawyers clearly have times when they have more work than other times. 

Lots of work, new clients signing up, trials, meetings, travel, old clients who got in trouble…. 

Maybe an ad took off. Maybe they were in the news for something they did and got noticed. Maybe they got a few referrals, and those led to more referrals. Maybe they met someone at a party and became BFFs. 

Something happened, momentum kicked in, and they got busy. 

You’ve had busy periods, yes? You’ve also had periods when the phones were quiet and you were twiddling your thumbs, waiting for things to change. 

Don’t wait for anything to change. Prepare.

When things are slow, do something. Move. Shake your booty and make something happen. 

Create a seminar or update and promote your old one. Talk to your clients and professional contacts, see if there’s anything they need or if they know anyone who might. Run more ads or hire a consultant to help you improve your campaigns. Get out of the office and meet some new faces. 

While you’re at it, when things are slow, update your systems, forms, and templates, catch up on CLE, take marketing classes, research new markets, experiment with new strategies. 

If things pick up, great, you’ll be ready. If they don’t pick up, hopefully the energy you’re putting in will eventually pay off.

Every lawyer goes through seasons. You don’t know if they will be feast or famine, if or when they might occur or how long they will last. 

The only thing you know is that anything can happen and you need to be prepared.

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing Plan

Falling in love with marketing 

June 3, 2025 by
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Just about every lawyer in private practice wants the benefits of marketing—more clients, better cases, enough cash flow to hire competent talent (or outsource) so they don’t have to do everything themself. They all want the benefits of marketing, but don’t always like “doing” marketing. 

They have to force themself to do the activities, or they don’t do them at all. 

But some lawyers love doing those activities and don’t have to force themselves to do anything. They’re good at them and do them easily. Some lawyers enjoy marketing more than doing the actual legal work. 

If you’re not in that group, I have some good news. You don’t have to love marketing to build a successful practice. 

You can hire people to do (most) of it for you. You can partner with a rainmaker. You can hire an ad agency and write checks. 

Or, you can do what many lawyers do (and I recommend)–you can find one or two marketing strategies you enjoy, or at least don’t hate, and just do those. And yes, you can build a successful practice that way.

Notice I didn’t say you need to love those strategies. You don’t. Any more than you need to love all of your clients. 

You may love referrals but hate social media marketing. Stick with referral marketing.

You may enjoy writing articles and blog posts, but hate networking. Guess what? Don’t do networking. 

You may be a talented speaker but can’t find enough events in your niche or target market. Perhaps speaking will be something you do when the opportunity arises, but you’ll choose something else as your primary strategy. 

But don’t decide too quickly. You may say no to one strategy, not because you hate it, but because you’re not good at it. 

You can get better. 

Take a course. Even a no-credit CLE class might teach you a thing or two. 

Read business and marketing books written for businesses, not lawyers, and adapt. 

Hang out with rainmakers. Lawyers, yes, but do you know any successful accountants, investment advisors, insurance reps, or service business owners? Buy them lunch and pick their brain. Go with them to their events. Do what they do, watch and learn. 

You also might get better at marketing by doing what you’ve already done (badly, even) but doing it in a different niche—better suited to your abilities and personality. Marketing is easier and, therefore, more successful, when your clients like you and you like them. 

Keep trying. Have another go at something you didn’t like before, but this time, look for the rainbow: learn something new this time that might work better if you do it again. Meet new contacts. Or learn some ideas you “never thought about before”. 

Try a lot of things, give them a fair run, track your numbers and your time, and you’ll know what works and what doesn’t.  

And, let’s be honest, if you’re hungry and determined to make something work, you will. 

Because it has to. 

That’s how I got started marketing. I was terrible at everything I tried. But I was going broke and had to make something work. So I kept at it. 

Mission accomplished. 

I’m not promising you’ll fall in love with marketing, or even one or two strategies. You might not. 

But you might fall in love with what marketing can do and that, my friend, could be all you need.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

Focus on the unhappy

April 22, 2025 by
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In marketing, there are two types of clients a lawyer can target: 

  1. Those who are satisfied with their current lawyer or firm, or don’t have a lawyer and don’t think they need one, and  
  2. Those who are unhappy with their current lawyer, or don’t have one and know they should.

The second type has a problem you can solve. They want to hear what you can do to help them.

Ignore the first type. They aren’t interested. They have a lawyer they like and trust and are unlikely to switch to you, no matter how much “better” you are. Or they are okay with not having an attorney and aren’t interested in finding out what could happen without one. 

The first type is comfortable. The second is in pain. 

Always go for the pain. 

Target clients who know they have a problem and want to do something about it.

Pain doesn’t mean injury or damages, necessarily. It could also be a felt need. The estate planning client knows they are risking problems or expenses for their family if they don’t take steps to prepare for the future.

Target prospective clients who are unhappy with their current situation. They are motivated. Open to change.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t educate your market about what you do and how you can help them, or why you are the better option. Some of them will want to know more.

Be there when they want to know more, but don’t focus on them. 

Spend most of your time (and dollars) getting in front of people who are unhappy.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

15 minutes a day to build your practice

April 15, 2025 by
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It’s difficult to carve out hours at a time for marketing. The good news is that you can accomplish a lot with just 15 minutes a day.

Between appointments, during lunch, at the end of the day, while you’re driving—snatch’s of time that even the busiest of practitioners can muster. 

The trick is to make a list of these activities, in advance, so you can do them whenever you find yourself with a few minutes. Or better yet, schedule regular 15-minute marketing “appointments” with yourself on your calendar.

What could you do in 15 minutes? You could: 

  • Call a client or two “off the clock” and say hello. (Yes, that’s marketing). 
  • Email five referral sources/business contacts to (a) say hello, ask how they’re doing, or, (b) share some information about their industry or market, or (c) follow up with them after an event or meeting. 
  • Edit/update a page on your website or your social media profiles.
  • Add or invite five or ten people to connect with you on social media.  
  • Review three of your social media contact’s updates and praise them, ask a question, or share some information with them.
  • Brainstorm ideas for your next blog post or newsletter. Or outline or write your next blog post or newsletter.
  • Read my blog or other legal or business marketing blogs to find marketing ideas. 
  • Read your clients’ industry or local market publications to find articles, news, or ideas to share with them. 
  • Work on your WIP: article, book chapter, seminar outline, follow-up emails to your lists.
  • Explore potential new business contacts, add them to your list (and contact them later).
  • Invite (someone) to coffee or lunch.
  • Write and mail a thank you note.
  • Look at postings by writers, artists, consultants, or others to whom you might outsource some (marketing) tasks.
  • Update/improve the forms and checklists you use for marketing and management.
  • Ask ai to suggest keywords for your website or headlines for your articles or posts.
  • Read a few pages of a book about networking, blogging, writing, speaking, or practice management.
  • Practice your speech or what to say when people ask, “What do you do?”

You could also break up that big marketing project you’ve been putting off into 15-minute segments. 

The key? Do something every day.

Not only will the time add up over the days and weeks, you will train your brain to think about marketing while you’re doing other things, and your subconscious mind will provide you with more ideas than you ever thought possible. 

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan
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