Marketing plan for lawyers: getting ready for the new year

December 19, 2013 by
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I’m being interviewed later today by a reporter for the Canadian Bar Association. She’s doing a story about what young lawyers need to do to prepare for the new year. I plan to tell her the same thing I would tell any attorney. Just follow these three simple steps:

STEP ONE: TAKE INVENTORY

The first thing you should do is to figure out where you are. A good way to do that is with a “S.W.O.T. Analysis”–figuring out your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

THREATS

Are you in danger of losing a good client? Are unreasonably high expenses causing cash flow problems? Have you been accused of doing something wrong that’s hurting or may hurt your reputation?

If there are holes in your ship, plug them so you can continue your journey. Do what you have to do to eliminate threats and minimize potential losses, but don’t dwell on them. Deal with them and move on.

WEAKNESSES

Are you deficient in any areas of knowledge? Do you need to improve certain skills? Do you need more referral sources, more clients, or better clients? Are you attracting clients who can’t or don’t pay? Do you need to get better at getting retainers? Is your bookkeeping a mess?

Figure out where you are weak and then look for solutions. Take courses, ask other lawyers for help or advice, buy equipment, delegate or outsource the problem so you can focus on your strengths and opportunities.

STRENGTHS

What are you great at? Find something you excel at and leverage it to make it even bigger and better. Focus your time and energy on taking something that’s going well for you and build on it.

If you get good results with a certain type of client or case, you should focus on getting more of those clients or cases. That may mean eliminating other practice areas or turning away clients who don’t fit your ideal client profile.

In the marketing arena, if you are good at networking, do more of it. Ask your contacts to introduce you to their colleagues. Find a second networking group if you have the time or a better group if you don’t. Work deeper within the organization to gain even more influence. Volunteer for committees, take on more responsibilities.

If you like the Internet, create more content, learn about SEO and social media, do more guest posts, and start creating videos.

If you like to write, write. If you like to speak, speak.

Look at your skills and your preferences and focus on them. What do you do best? How can you do more of it and get even better at it? How can you leverage it to get an even bigger return?

OPPORTUNITIES

Make a list of people you know and like and brainstorm ways you can improve and deepen your relationship. They can lead you to new clients and new referral sources. They can provide you with advice and ideas. They can send traffic to your website, provide content for your blog or newsletter, and promote your event or offer.

Make another list of people you don’t know who sell to or advise your target market. Make plans to approach them to see how you might work together.

Go through your notes and files and collect all of the ideas you have recorded for marketing your practice, improving your work product, increasing your productivity, or increasing profitability. Put a star next to your best ideas.

STEP TWO: CHOOSE ONE BIG GOAL

Once you know where you are, the next step is to determine where you want to go. What do you want to accomplish next year relative to your practice or career?

Instead of writing down five or ten goals, as you may be inclined to do, I suggest you write just one big goal. Come up with as many candidates as you want to but then, choose one big goal that gets you excited.

Selecting one goal will force you to focus on that one goal, and nothing else. The odds are that many of your candidate goals are related to your one big goal and are, in fact, stepping stones on the path to reaching it. If your goal is to increase your net income to $250,000, for example, other goal candidates, e.g., “bring in six new clients per month,” are action steps you need to take to accomplish your singular income goal.

Of course you will have additional action steps. You don’t just bring in six new clients, for example, you have many things you need to do to bring in those clients. And that leads us to step three.

STEP THREE: WRITE A SIMPLE MARKETING PLAN

Why a plan? Because you need to know what to do, silly. Because come the first of the year, when you’re ready to get to work, you need a list of projects and tasks that will move you forward towards your goal.

Why simple? Because if your plan isn’t simple, you won’t do it. You’ll get bogged down in detail. You’ll spend more time working with your lists and planning your plans, and have little time to get anything done.

So, figure out where you are, then where you want to be, and from that, write a plan for accomplishing it. Keep in mind that the plan you start out with will almost never be the plan that gets you to your goal. That’s because plans change, circumstances change, and you will change. And that’s okay. Your plan will get you started, and getting started is the most important part.

The Attorney Marketing Formula comes with a simple marketing plan for lawyers. And a lot more stuff you need to know.

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Filed Under: Goal Setting, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

Some perspective on marketing legal services

November 25, 2013 by
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You often hear me say, “marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients”.

Everything.

In terms of time, it’s mostly the little things we do every day. It’s the way we greet our clients and make them feel welcome. The emails and letters we send to former clients to stay in touch and remember them during the holidays. The articles and blog posts we publish to educate people about the law.

Marketing is also bigger things. Creating a new seminar or ad campaign. Scoping out and joining a new networking group. Recording new videos for your website.

And everything in between.

Most of the little things take little or no time to learn or apply. They are a natural extension of your values and personality, not the application of technique. Treating people with respect is part of who you are, not something you learn in a book.

Creating content for your website requires some time, but not an inordinate amount, given that it’s mostly writing things down you already know and do.

Bigger projects require more time and resources, it’s true, but you don’t do them every day. You outline a new presentation, create the slides or handouts, rehearse, and you’re done. Maybe it took you a week or two, but now you have a new marketing tool in your arsenal you can use over and over again.

Bigger projects can serve you long term. Getting involved in a new networking group, for example, takes extra effort initially, and may take months to bear fruit. But that group could eventually become a major source of new business (and friendships) for you, and last for decades.

Do something marketing related every day. 15 minutes is good. Reach out to a few former clients or other professionals with a note or email and watch what happens. Once a month or so, work on a bigger project. A 30 Day Referral Blitz, for example.

Whenever possible, invest your time and resources in creating things with a “long tail,” like new relationships, new content for your website, and new ways to grow your email list.

Marketing legal services doesn’t have to be daunting. If it is, you’re not doing it right. Sure, there are new things to learn and new things to do, but mostly, its about attitude.

If you’re struggling in your practice, start by examining your attitude towards marketing. If you don’t like marketing, if it’s something you force yourself to do, you will continue to struggle. If there are things you like and things you don’t, great–do more of the things you enjoy and are good at.

Marketing is a lot like lawyering. It takes place mostly in your head.

The Attorney Marketing Formula comes with a marketing plan.

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Productivity Tagged With: , , , ,

Advertising for attorneys who don’t advertise

November 21, 2013 by
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It’s raining and there was a collision in front of my house this morning. Naturally, I grabbed some business cards and ran outside. Just kidding. I don’t do that anymore. Just kidding. I just put on my tee-shirt that says, “Auto accident lawyer” in big print and asked if everyone was okay. Just kidding. I don’t own that shirt anymore.

Yikes, I just remembered, when I passed the bar someone gave me a tee-shirt that said “Da Lawya” on it. For realz.

Anyway, it’s good to let people know what you do for a living. The more people who know, the more chances there are that someone will want to hire you or refer someone they know.

So let’s talk about attorney advertising.

Not the usual kind of advertising. Not the kind you may not like or may be forbidden from doing. Something different. Easy. And free.

There are two steps:

Step one: Contact two people today you don’t know, either online or in person, and ask them what they do for a living.

Step two: Repeat step one daily.

That’s it. Approach two people a day, introduce yourself, and ask what they do. They’ll answer. Then, they’ll ask you what you do. You tell them. Done.

After that, who knows. Someone might need you right away, but it doesn’t matter. There are lots of things you can do to continue the conversation and build a relationship.

So maybe that’s not really advertising, it’s networking. Whatever. It works. And it’s easy. And you don’t need a tee-shirt.

Marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients. Start here.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Business cards, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Networking, Social media marketing Tagged With: ,

Marketing legal services: minimal effort for maximum return

November 14, 2013 by
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Would you do any marketing if you didn’t have to?

I’m not talking about “internal” marketing–treating clients well, staying in touch with them, creating an environment that is conducive to referrals–I’m talking about external marketing–ads, social media, speaking, writing, videos, networking, and all the other things everyone says you need to do to bring in new clients.

I wouldn’t.

Why spend the time or money if you don’t have to?

If you didn’t have to do any external marketing, imagine how that would feel. No guilt about what you’re not doing, no forcing yourself to do things you don’t want to do.

If you don’t like social media, guess what? You’re off the hook. Go spend the time cranking out more billable work. Or take up a hobby. If you do like social media, you can do it for fun, not because you need to bring in business.

The same goes for speaking and networking. Do them if you enjoy them, stay home if you don’t.

If your internal marketing is working, you’re getting repeat business and referrals without any additional effort.

The phone rings and people want to hire you. You don’t have to find them, convince them, or cross your fingers and hope they have the money. When they call, they’re pretty much ready to go.

Nice.

On the other hand. . . (yeah, the fine print). . . I can’t promise you that internal marketing will always bring you enough new business. Your clients may want to send you referrals, for example, but not know anyone who needs you right now.

And. . . even if your internal marketing bring you plenty of new business, there’s nothing wrong with bringing in more.

So. . . in order to hedge your bets, you might want to do some external marketing.

What do I suggest? What is the best use of your limited time? What has the biggest potential return for your effort?

A content-rich website.

Because when someone is referred to you, the first thing they do is go online to check you out. No website and you scare them off. And, if your website is nothing more than a listing of your practice areas and contact information, it’s not enough to show anyone why they should choose you instead of any other attorney.

“Content” means information, not about you but about the prospective client. He’s searching for answers. He’s looking for proof. Your content provides those answers and that proof.

And it’s so easy to do.

Start by writing down ten or twenty questions clients and prospects typically ask you about your area of expertise. Then, answer those questions. Talk about the law and procedure. Describe the risks and the options. Point them towards the available solutions. Include some stories of cases or clients you’ve had, to illustrate your points. Post these online on a website or blog.

Now, when someone goes online to check you out, they will see that you know what you are talking about and that you have helped other clients to solve these problems. You haven’t just told them what you do, you’ve shown them.

In addition, when people go to a search engine, looking for information about their legal issue, your content brings them to your website. The same thing happens when people share your content with their social media contacts.

Marketing legal services (externally) really can be this simple.

If you have a website, add content. A single article you post today could bring you new business three years from now. If you don’t have a website, start one. Add some content to get it started and once a week or so, add more.

While it’s not quite “set it and forget it” marketing, it’s about as close as you can get.

If you need help starting or growing a website or blog, this is what I recommend.

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Online Marketing, Productivity, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,

How to get better clients

November 13, 2013 by
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A lawyer emailed wanting to know how  to get better clients. He said he is in a slump. “People come see me but they don’t have the money to retain our services. It’s been a tough month. What can I do?”

Are there any lawyers in your market who do what you do and have clients who can afford to pay their fees? If not, you need to change practice areas or move. If the business isn’t there, it isn’t there.

On the other hand, if other lawyers in your field are getting paying clients, then it’s not the market. The work is there. You just have to get those better paying clients to come to you instead of those other lawyers.

Start by looking at what those other lawyers are doing. Study them, as I mentioned yesterday. What are they doing that you’re not doing? What are they doing better than you are doing? What are you doing that they don’t?

Do they specialize? Specialists generally earn more than general practitioners. One reason is that clients prefer to hire specialists. They are also willing to pay higher fees to a specialist. If these other lawyers specialize and you don’t, you have to consider doing so, or at least disguising the fact that you don’t. One way to do that is to have separate websites for each practice area.

How much do they charge? More than you, less, about the same? Most attorneys compete for the bottom eighty percent of the marketplace. The most successful attorneys target the upper ten or twenty percent, which obviously includes people with money.

How do they bill? Hourly? Flat fees? Blended? How big of a retainer do they get? What do they do to make it easier for their clients to pay?

Look at their website. What elements do they have that you don’t? Can you do something similar? How can you improve on what they have done? What are you doing on your website that they don’t do that might be hurting instead of helping you?

Valuable information, yes?

Also look at what you are doing. Look at the better clients you have attracted over the last year or two (the ones who have money). Where did they come from? If they came from referrals from your other clients, for example, figure out what you did that precipitated those referrals and do more of it.

In addition, look at what your better clients have in common. Industry, occupation, ethnicity? Where can you find more like them?

Also look at the people who are contacting you who can’t afford you. Where are they coming from? Whatever it is that you are doing to attract them, stop doing that. And screen them out before they come to see you. For example, you might quote your minimum fee package on the phone or on your website. This way, if they can’t afford this, they won’t call or come to see you.

I don’t know what you’re doing now to market your services but whatever it is, there are always other things you can try. It might be helpful to get out a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle, and on the left side of the page, write down everything you are doing that could be considered marketing. On the right side, write down things you aren’t doing, including things you used to do but abandoned. Keep adding to the list on the right and try some new things. Create a simple marketing plan.

In addition, look for ways to improve what you are doing. If you are networking, for example, consider finding a different group and/or working on your follow-up.

Finally, seek some perspective on your current situation. You say you’re having a bad month but everyone has bad months. Next month could be great. If it is, don’t rest on your laurels. The best time to ramp up your marketing is when you’re busy, not when you’re in a slump.

If things continue to be bad, don’t panic. It’s nothing five new (paying) clients can’t fix. You can turn things around quickly. Cut overhead to give yourself some breathing room and get busy with marketing. You have the time for it, right? That’s one of the advantages of a slump–less work means more time for marketing.

Think about getting some help. Get a workout partner. Hire someone to point you in the right direction and/or coach you.

Whatever you do, don’t dwell on the bad. Think about where you are going, not where you have been.

If you need help with your marketing, contact me and let’s talk. 

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Mentors & Coaches, Online Marketing, Specializing Tagged With: ,

Why you need to think outside the box

October 31, 2013 by
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Your Uncle died. It’s sad, but he was 102 and lived a good life. In his Will, he left you $1,000,000, but there is one condition. You only get the money if you spend it all on advertising your law practice.

You can spend it on any kind of advertising you want. Magazines, newspapers, direct mail, TV, online banner ads–whatever you want. You can spend it all at once or set up a monthly budget. But you must spend all of it in one year or less. (This is starting to sound like a movie.)

If you already advertise, or you have always wanted to, you’re probably dancing around the room right now. Imagine how much business you could bring in with that kind of ad budget!

If you don’t advertise, and have never seriously considered it, would you consider it now?

It’s free money! This could be a life changing opportunity for you. A million dollars, spent wisely, might bring you five million dollars in business.

(If advertising isn’t permitted in your jurisdiction, pretend that it is.)

So, what do you say? Would you say, “No, advertising isn’t appropriate for my practice. I’ll have to pass”? Or would you figure out a way to do it that was appropriate?

If you would figure out a way to do it, if you would spend your Uncle’s million dollars on advertising and you have never considered advertising before, I’d like to know why. Why would you spend someone else’s money but not your own?

Too risky? You don’t know how to do it? You don’t have the money?

You may not have a million dollars to spend on advertising, but do you have $1,000? One or two good ads might bring you $10,000 in new business. So, why haven’t you tried advertising before, or even considered it?

Okay, I’m not trying to talk you into advertising. My point is to get you to think outside the box about marketing your services. Ask yourself, “what am I not doing that might work for me?”

Marketing (anything) is about trying lots of things and seeing what works. You get rid of what doesn’t work and do more of what does.

If you don’t know how to do it, find out. Read, hire someone, or find other attorneys who are doing it and model them. If you don’t have the time, get some help. If there is cost involved, test it on a small scale.

And. . . don’t give up on something the first time it doesn’t work. You may have to do it longer before it does. Study, practice, and try again.

You are a better attorney today than you were the day you were sworn in, aren’t you? Marketing works the same way.

Need a marketing plan? You get one free with The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Personal development

Marketing a law practice 15 minutes a day

October 28, 2013 by
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One of the biggest challenges with marketing a law practice is finding the time to do it. Fortunately, there are many marketing-related tasks you can do in just 15 minutes.

For example, in just 15 minutes you can expand your network. Here’s how:

  • Go through your desk drawers and find all the business cards you have accumulated. Also find address books and contact lists (professionals, business owners, prospects, etc.)
  • Look for these people on LinkedIn and add them to your network; update the invite email that goes to them with a personal reference (e.g., where you met)
  • Do the same thing with your other social networks, adding Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc., to LinkedIn, or vice-versa
  • Once you have done this, spend 15 minutes a day commenting on your contacts’ posts, asking questions, or sharing resources (your own and others).

Marketing a law practice doesn’t have to be complicated, expensive, or overly time consuming. The key is to commit to doing something every day, even if it’s just 15 minutes.

Want more traffic and more referrals? Offer your contacts something they can share with their contacts. Here’s how.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Social media, Social media marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Simple, inexpensive, and oh so powerful marketing for lawyers

October 9, 2013 by
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How would you like to have five or ten local businesses or professionals passing out your report, brochure, or other propaganda to every one of their customers or clients?

Okay, here’s what you do:

  1. Make a list of categories. What type of business or professional has customers or clients in your target market?
  2. Make a list of candidates. Go online and find websites of businesses and professionals in those categories in your market. Put a star next to the names of those who have a newsletter, blog, mailing list, or social media followers.
  3. Contact each candidate and tell them you have a proposal that could be to your mutual benefit. Basically, you’re going to hand out their literature to your clients and prospects and they’ll do the same for you.
  4. Create a handout. This could be anything with your name and contact information on it–a brochure, report, coupon, gift certificate, free consultation offer, or anything else. Have them do the same.

Print the handout. Create a pdf version, too, for email lists and website visitors. On your handout, add a different code for each cross-promotion partner, so you can see which ones are sending you the most business.

Now, all you have to do is pass out each other’s literature. When your supply gets low, notify your partner so they can provide you with more, and of course, you want them to do the same.

Okay, that’s the idea. Simple, isn’t it? But very effective.

You may have to contact ten or twenty candidates to find a few who understand the power of this idea, but you only need a few. Why? Because a cross-promotion carries with it the implied endorsement of the cross-promotion partner (so make sure you choose good quality businesses and qualified professionals). A handful of partners passing out your information to hundreds of people every day could bring you more business than you can handle.

Marketing for lawyers doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. Cross-promotions allows you to leverage the lists of other professionals and businesses, bringing targeted traffic to your website and hot prospects to your phone.

For more ways to get traffic and clients by leveraging OPL (other people’s lists), get this.

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Filed Under: Advertising, List building, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Online Marketing, Referral sources, Referrals Tagged With: , ,

New report shows attorneys how to quickly get more referrals

October 3, 2013 by
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The Attorney Marketing Center has announced the release of a report that shows attorneys how to quickly get more referrals. “The 30 Day Referral Blitz” is an expanded and updated version of a report previously available only to author David M. Ward’s consulting clients.

“Lawyers are often told that the way to get more referrals is to ask for them. The problem is, they don’t like asking. The 30 Day Referral Blitz gives them an alternative,” Ward says.

Not only does The Blitz show lawyers how to get referrals without asking, it shows them how to do it quickly. “A ‘referral blitz’ is a concentrated burst of activity that takes place over a 30 day period. After a few hours of prep time, The Blitz can be done in as little as 15 minutes a day,” Ward says.

The original version of The Blitz was slower and more expensive. It required lawyers to use regular mail and the telephone. The new version takes advantage of the speed and reach of the Internet and email, making it easier, quicker, and more economical. “You can do The Blitz every month, if you want to,” Ward says.

The 30 Day Referral Blitz shows lawyers how to get referrals from existing clients, former clients, and other contacts, including professionals and social media connections. For more information, visit The Attorney Marketing Center or this page.

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Filed Under: Increase your income, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, News, Referral sources, Referrals

Marketing legal services with a rifle, not a shotgun

September 24, 2013 by
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Most attorneys use a shotgun in their marketing. They spray marketing pellets far and wide, hoping to hit anything that flies by. Because they aren’t focused, they spend too much time (and money) and are often frustrated with their results.

The most successful attorneys use a rifle in their marketing. They aim at carefully selected prospective clients and referral sources. They may not always hit something, but when they do, the usually win the big prize.

Let’s look at two estate planning attorneys seeking to build their practice through networking.

Attorney number one goes to a networking event at his local Chamber of Commerce. He meets as many people as possible and comes home with 20 or 30 business cards. He sends everyone a “nice to meet you” email and waits to see what happens. And waits. And waits. Because everyone he met is busy, and also marketing with a shotgun, not much happens.

Attorney number two focuses on professionals in the health care industry, so he attends a networking event sponsored by an association of health care professionals. Before he goes, he does some homework. He finds out who will be speaking at the event, and gets a list of the event organizers and committee heads. He Google’s these people’s names, visits their websites, and sets up files on three people he wants to meet at the event. He knows where they work, what they do, and what’s important to them.

At the event, he meets with his chosen three. He takes notes about their conversations. He hits it off with the administrator of a big hospital, in part because they know some of the same people.

The attorney sends follow-up emails to his three. He notes that one belongs to another organization which has a meeting scheduled in two months, and makes a note to ask him if he will be attending that meeting.

The attorney calls a physician he knows whose name came up in his conversation with the hospital administrator. He tells him about his meeting and asks a few questions about the administrator, adding this information to his notes. He says something nice about the administrator.

He does more research on the administrator and his hospital. He finds out which law firms represent the hospital. He subscribes to their newsletters. He does the same thing for the hospital’s insurance brokers, accounting firms, and some of their major suppliers. He sets up Google alerts for these firms and their partners or principals, so he can stay up to date on any news.

He calls the administrator and leaves a voice mail message. He says he enjoyed meeting him and says he spoke to the physician they both know and told him about their meeting. He says the physician said to say hello.

He emails a copy of an article he just wrote for a health care web site to the three people he met at the event. Because he took notes, he is able to add a personal note to each email, mentioning something they talked about at the event.

Okay, you get the idea.

Attorney number two is focused. He doesn’t try to meet everyone, he is selective. He does his homework and he follows up. And because he’s not “targeting” everyone, he has the time to do it.

Attorney number one may get some business from his Chamber of Commerce network. But attorney number two is networking with heavy-duty centers of influence in a niche market. Because he specializes in that market, those centers of influence will notice him and eventually, provide him with referrals and introductions to other centers of influence in that market.

Marketing legal services with a shot gun can make you a living. Marketing with a rifle can make you rich.

Want help choosing the right niche market for your practice? Get this.

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Networking, Referral sources Tagged With: , , ,
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