Fake productivity

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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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Prepare for the busy season before the busy season

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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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Falling in love with marketing 

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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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Focus on the unhappy

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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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15 minutes a day to build your practice

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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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Maybe it’s time to put your marketing on a diet

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Have you ever found marketing overwhelming? You don’t know what to do, what to change, and what else you add to improve your results? 

Of course you have. 

One way to sort things out is to put your marketing on a diet. Specifically, an “elimination diet”. 

In the dietary world, an elimination diet is “a short-term eating plan that removes certain foods that may cause allergies or digestive reactions, then introduces them one at a time to determine which foods are well-tolerated and which are not.” 

With your practice, you stop some or all (elimination) of your marketing, add things back one at a time, and measure your results. 

What’s working? How much time does each strategy take? What are your expenses and your return on investment? 

And which strategies feel right and come naturally to you, compared with others that you have to force yourself to do? 

You may find that some things you’ve been doing are too expensive (e.g., certain ads) or time consuming (e.g., networking). You may find that some things work better than you thought and you should expand them, or realize that adding more follow-ups or changing the order of the follow-up messages might improve results.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking you don’t want to stop doing things that are working, and that’s fine. Keep them and eliminate the things that aren’t. 

Or, the things you don’t like or aren’t good at.  

If you eliminate something and have second thoughts, or find you have more time to implement them, you can always re-start them. 

This process gets you thinking about what you’re doing instead of working on autopilot and allows you to make better decisions.

Which leads to better results. 

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The simplest way to become the top lawyer in your field

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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

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Have you lost your edge?

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If your practice isn’t growing, it might be because you’re not doing the things you did when you started out, or you’re not doing them the way you did before. 

You’ve become complacent. And lost your edge.

Fortunately, you can switch back to the way things were. But to do that, you need to get out of your comfort zone and be willing to take some risks. 

Risks that you might fail. That you might lose money or embarrass yourself. Or you might not like doing the work, and then what?

But you can do this. It’s not like the work is inherently difficult. You don’t have to dig ditches or work for peanuts like I did starting out, taking cases that paid total fees of $300 and doing things I was not (yet) good at, or things I hated.

Don’t dwell on the negative. Give it a try.

It might be rough and make you question life, but (surprise) it might not. You might find it more fun than annoying, more invigorating than daunting. 

Begin by making some goals. Make them big, nearly impossible; so big they make you laugh. 

Why?

Well, when you were new, you might have been desperate (like me) and willing to do anything, put up with anything, risk everything, but now, if you’re not desperate and the fear of failure and becoming homeless isn’t driving you, you need different motivation. 

To wit, big, hairy, crazy goals that put a smile on your face. That might be just what you need to let go of your resistance, get out of your comfort zone and get to work. 

But tell no one. Make a pact with your ego to make something happen first, and then you can surprise anyone who might care.

Then, make a plan. Choose a target market, ideal client, and one or two marketing strategies. Grab your calendar, schedule time for marketing and practice development, and put one step in front of the other.

One more thing. No matter how hard it might be, it will be infinitely easier than it was when you were new. You have experience, now, professional contacts, and satisfied clients willing to work with you and refer others.

Compared to the old days, it will be a cakewalk.

This will help

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Marketing fundamentals for attorneys

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There are lots of ways to market legal services but (news flash) you don’t have to do all of them. A few basics are all you need to build a successful practice and if I were you, that’s what I would focus on.

You can do more, but wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to? 

Okay, what are the fundamentals I’m talking about? 

  1. Repeat business. Serve your clients well, make sure they know about all the services and benefits you offer, and stay in touch with them before, during, and after their current case or matter. 
  2. Referrals. Teach your clients and professional contacts how they benefit when they refer others to you and the easiest and best way(s) to do that. You can ask for referrals, but it’s usually easier (for you) to mention that a case or client you’re talking about (in your newsletter, for example) was referred to you and how much you appreciate your client or colleague for doing that. 
  3. Third party validation. Make sure your clients, prospects, and professional contacts see the benefits other clients got by hiring you. Gather reviews, testimonials, endorsements, and success stories, and feature them in all of your marketing content.  
  4. Build relationships. All of your clients and professional contacts should hear from you regularly, via your newsletter, holiday message, or personal email. Spend personal time (in person or on the phone) with your best clients, referral sources, and closest professional contacts. 
  5. Lead generation, not branding. If you do any advertising, direct mail, networking, writing, speaking, blogging, or any other marketing to the “cold market,” i.e., people you don’t know), don’t make it “one shot”—capture their email, stay in touch with them, tell them more about what you do and how you can help them (and people they know), and never stop doing that. 

The key to building a successful practice is maximizing the lifetime value of your clients, and these fundamentals are how you do that. 

The Attorney Marketing Formula

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Reverse marketing

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When I opened my practice, I looked at my skill set and experience, choose services to offer, and went looking for clients who needed those services. 

That’s how most lawyers (and businesses) do it. It’s also why they struggle. 

It’s much easier and more effective to do things in reverse. 

What I should have done (and eventually did) is to first choose the clients and market I wanted to serve, and only then choose services to offer them. It’s more efficient that way and much more likely to be successful. 

For one thing, you don’t have to hold yourself out to “everyone” and let “everyone” decide if what you do is right for them. Knowing what types of clients and markets you want to work with, you can (and should) tailor your marketing to the specific needs and wants of those clients and markets. 

Do you want to work with small businesses and professionals, big businesses, or consumers? Which industry, market, or niche? 

Do you want to work with clients who want premium service and will pay more to get it, or clients who want low cost, no frills services?

Do you want to work with clients who have lots of legal needs or clients with fewer but bigger matters? 

Figure this out first and then figure out what to offer them and how to package and promote it. 

You’ll have a lot less marketing overhead, a lot less competition, and a much higher “closing” ratio. You’ll also attract more word-of-mouth and referrals and build a much more lucrative practice. 

Use your existing “best” clients and markets and create a profile. Based on that, create content for your website, blog, or social channels, and marketing documents and offers, with examples, stories, and industry-specific language that will resonate with the people in that market.  

You’ll attract clients that are a good fit for you, and “weed out” clients who aren’t.  

You’ll also attract more referral sources and opportunities (speaking, networking, writing, joint ventures) who see you as a good fit for them and/or their clients. 

Market in reverse. Life will be good.

How to choose your ideal client and target market

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