Undecideds win close elections and build law practices

October 30, 2012 by
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In a close election it is undecided voters who carry the candidate or cause to victory. One of the biggest blocks of undecideds are “low information” voters–people who ordinarily don’t pay much attention to politics until a few weeks before the election.

Another block of undecideds are supporters of third party candidates who, at the last minute, realize their candidate doesn’t have a chance to win and are open to choosing another candidate.

In most consumer-based law practices, prospective clients are “low information voters”. Unless and until something occurs in their life (divorce, accident, arrest, lawsuit, etc.), they won’t pay much attention to anything you might say. They don’t have a problem (that they are aware of) and they aren’t in the market for an attorney.

In a business oriented law practice, prospective clients are often “third party supporters”–they have an attorney they are reasonably happy with and aren’t looking to switch, at least for now.

In either case, your prospective clients aren’t interested in what you can do for them. They won’t notice your ads or ask their friends for a referral. There’s no impending event that forces them to pay attention.

But eventually there will be. Your objective is to be there when that occurs.

Your strategy is to put mechanisms in place that allow you to be found and recommended when prospective clients are finally in the market for an attorney. Depending on your practice area, target market, and personal preferences, this might include:

  • A strong Internet presence–blogs, search engine optimization, social media connections
  • Referral strategies–equipping your clients and professional contacts with information they can disseminate
  • Search-based advertising–classifieds, PPC, directory ads
  • Networking–meeting those who are in the market and the people who can refer them

Position yourself to be found when prospective clients realize they have a problem and go looking for a solution. This is usually more profitable than targeting “pre-need” prospects–people who don’t yet have a problem or aren’t ready to do something about it.

However, you may also want to target pre-need prospects who have a problem but don’t fully understand the risks or their options. Estate planning seminars, for example, can be effective at persuading “no need” and “vaguely aware of a need” prospects into becoming paying clients.

The best plan is to target all three types of prospects. Focus primarily on those who are looking now, but don’t ignore those who will be looking later.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you six key marketing strategies for getting more clients and increasing your income.

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

Marketing legal services like a Grandmaster

October 1, 2012 by
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In the game of chess there are strategies and there are tactics. Strategies are the plans–how you will gain space or material that leads to a winning advantage. Tactics are the battles–the maneuvering of your pieces and exchanges of material that allow you to execute your plan.

Marketing legal services is very similar. You create a plan and you execute that plan. Your plan might be to get more referrals from your professional contacts by strengthening your relationships with them. Your tactics might include sending them referrals, taking them to lunch, and inviting them to join you at your next networking meeting.

In chess, the best strategies aren’t created randomly, they emerge by observing the board. You look at your strengths, where you have an advantage, and build your strategy around these advantages. If there aren’t any advantages, you look for differences in your positions and use those differences to create your strategy.

The same goes for marketing legal services. You may not have any significant advantages over other attorneys, but you do have differences:

  • Your background, outside interests
  • Your knowledge and experience
  • Your style and personality
  • Your professional contacts
  • The size of your client list
  • Your web site
  • Your lists (email, mail, directory)
  • Your awards
  • Your publishing credits
  • Your content (articles, reports, books, audios, etc.)
  • Your niche market
  • Your experience
  • Your social media network
  • Languages spoken
  • And so on

You can use these differences to create a marketing strategy.

If you are an “Ambassador” at your local Chamber of Commerce, know how to make and publish youtube videos, or you are personal friends with a prominent blogger, these can all become a part of your marketing strategy.

Where are you different? What do you know how to do? Who do you know? Don’t take those differences for granted. They may not seem significant to you but they can be enough to create a winning strategy for marketing your services.

The Attorney Marketing Formula shows you key strategies for marketing your practice. Click here for more information.

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Filed Under: Leverage, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

How to be successful today, and also tomorrow

September 14, 2012 by
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In a previous post, “The one thing you need to know about success,” I noted the dichotomy between the premise that success is predicated on doing what you like doing (and avoiding what you don’t like doing) and studies which show that the ability to delay gratification is an accurate predictor of future success. I suggested that these conclusions aren’t really in conflict because thinking about your future success can be as enjoyable, if not more so, than the actual achievement.

Blogger Derek Sivers writes about the delayed gratification study and agrees that “future focused” people (i.e., those who can delay gratification) are the most successful, but notes that they may miss the enjoyment of the present. Similarly, too much focus on the present “can rob life of the deeper happiness of accomplishment.”

For true happiness, Sivers notes, we need to be flexible:

The happiest and most effective people are balanced: equally high in future-focus and present-focus, and viewing the past as positive. When you have work to finish, be future-focused. When your work is done and it’s time to relax, be present-focused. During family holidays, be past-focused to enjoy family customs.

He also says that our focus changes depending on our circumstances. “Cavemen needed a full present-focus at all times to survive in the wild and find food each day.”

When I started practicing and had no money and no clients, my circumstances forced me to delay gratification. I had to learn how to “survive in the wild and find food each day.” Like the caveman, I was not focused on the future, I was focused on eating. You can’t think about a five year plan when your rent is due next Tuesday.

If you want a marketing plan that really works, today, not five years from now, pick up a copy of The Attorney Marketing Formula. You’ll thank me later.

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing Plan, Personal development, success Tagged With: , , , ,

New marketing course shows attorneys how to dramatically increase their income

August 27, 2012 by
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The Attorney Marketing Center has released The Attorney Marketing Formula, a new course for attorneys who want to increase their income but don’t have a lot of time for marketing.

The course is based on the work of attorney David M. Ward, founder of The Attorney Marketing Center. “Every day I talk to attorneys who could dramatically increase their income by leveraging their existing talents, assets, contacts, and opportunities. This course shows them what to do and how to do it.”

More and more attorneys have realized that marketing is essential to their success. Unfortunately, their efforts often produce poor results. Ward says one reason is that they are using tactics without mastering the strategies that make them work. “It doesn’t matter which techniques you use–networking, social media, blogging, advertising–without the right strategies, you’re not going to get optimal results. The good news is that with the right strategies, almost any technique will work.”

The course presents strategies in six key areas: focus, value, trust, money, people, and time. “Implement one strategy,” Ward says, “and you’ll increase your income. Implement all six and the results will be staggering.”

Busy attorneys will be glad to know that marketing doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Significant progress can be made in just 15 minutes a day. “If you’re doing the right things and doing them consistently, you can build a big practice without working harder. “Using the strategies in this course,” Ward says,” I was able to quadruple my income and cut my work week from six days to three.”

The course brings everything together in a bonus module that helps attorneys create an effective marketing plan.

The Attorney Marketing Formula is $79. For a limited time, it is available at the introductory price of $59.

For additional information, visit The Attorney Marketing Formula.

David M. Ward practiced law for more than twenty years. He is the author of several marketing programs for attorneys. His blog, The Attorney Marketing Center, provides free tips and resources for attorneys who want to earn more and work less.

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

What would you do if you lost all of your clients and had to start over?

August 7, 2012 by
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I was a guest on a panel of experts taking questions from a group of business owners. One asked, “What would you do if you lost all of your clients and had to start over?”

In response, I asked, “What would you do if you didn’t?” In other words, do what you did to build it the first time. Go back to basics. Stick with what works.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the flavor of the day. The latest social media platform, software tool, or psychological technique. But these are almost always distractions. Let someone else try them. You stick with the fundamentals.

Jim Rohn said, “There are no new fundamentals. You’ve got to be a little suspicious of someone who says, “I’ve got a new fundamental.” That’s like someone inviting you to tour a factory where they are manufacturing antiques.”

I had to start over once. I got out of practicing law to pursue a business. After two years, I came back. But I had no clients and we had moved to another county where I didn’t know anyone. I had to build my practice again, from scratch.

In some ways it was easier the second time because I knew what I was doing. In other ways, it was harder because I knew how much effort it required. But I did it, by going back to basics.

Jim Rohn: “Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”

What exactly would I do if I was starting over? I answered that in my post, If I were starting my law practice today, here’s what I would do to bring in clients.

If you have lost everything and have to start over, don’t dwell on the loss and don’t look for short cuts. Roll up your sleeves and get to work.

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

New law practice: How do I get the word out?

July 2, 2012 by
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I got an email last week: “Do you have suggestions for getting the word out on new (solo) law firms”

Q: Press releases to big city newspapers?

Unless your announcement qualifies as news, these are unlikely to get printed. If you are semi-famous or you’re planning to do something very unusual in your law practice, a press release might get picked up. Otherwise, probably not.

If you want to go this route, your best bet is to send them to niche publications: small town newspapers (where you grew up or your dad was well known), blogs or magazines in a market where you have a connection, that sort of thing.

Q: Mailing announcements to the Bar list (of business attorneys) and/or business owners?

Announcements mailed to other lawyers or business owners are a waste of time. They don’t know you and they don’t care that you’re opening your own office.

You could mail something they would care about: a free report that helps them protect themselves or their clients or earn more in their business or practice. A postcard that offers a report like that, and sends them to your web site to get it, would cost a lot less than actually mailing the report. It could bring lots of traffic, opt-ins, and eventually, some business. However, even post cards are expensive and you need to know what you’re doing.

This can be a viable way get clients, but for a new practice with limited funds, it’s not the best place to start.

Q: Hiring a service to send email announcements to the Bar list and to our own contact list?

Emailing to people you don’t know (i.e., Bar list) could get you into trouble for spamming. There are legitimate “opt in” lists available where people have given permission to receive email, and there are services that will provide these lists and do the emailing for you, but you would be wasting your time and your money.

Again, they don’t know you and they don’t care about your announcement.

However, emailing or sending announcements via regular mail to your own contact list is a great idea.

You should definitely send an announcement to the people you know. Friends, family, people you know from college and law school, and former employers. If you have a connection of any kind, put them on your list.

They do care about you and what you are doing. They will read your announcement. They may respond and wish you the best of luck. At some point, they may also send some business.

Here are my three “rules” for announcing a new law practice:

  1. Send your announcement to everyone you know; don’t bother with strangers, unless you have a very good reason to do so and the budget to pay for it.
  2. An announcement is okay; a letter is much better. Write a semi-personal letter that gives the who, what, where, when, and why of your announcement. Why are opening your own office? What do you want to accomplish? Who are you looking to help? What will you do for them? People will look at an engraved announcement for three seconds and then throw it out. Those same people will take their time reading a heart-felt letter on plain paper or in an email. They will remember your story and may even share it with others.
  3. Don’t rely on a one-time mailing. Follow up your announcement with additional communication–a newsletter, calls, invitations to your grand opening, personal visits. Stay in touch with them, remind them again and again about what you do and for whom you do it, and ask for their help.

Even if there are only 100 people on your initial list, these are the people to whom you should announce your new practice. They do know you and they are willing to help.

They may not be able to send you any business (right now), but they can help promote your web site, like your page, or distribute your new report. They can help you get the word out.

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Filed Under: Communication, Law office management, List building, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Press release, Publicity, Relationship marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get prospective clients to see you as the ONLY attorney to choose

June 11, 2012 by
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Imagine you are looking for a new accountant. You’ve collected information about several candidates, but you haven’t spoken to any. You’ve narrowed your list to three accountants you plan to contact.

You call the office of the first accountant and tell the receptionist you want to talk to Mr. Roberts about possibly hiring him. You are told that you will need an appointment and you set one up for the following week.

You have a similar conversation with the second accountant’s office, but in this case, you are transferred immediately to Mr. Green. He tells you about his background and practice. He’s friendly and open and you schedule an appointment to meet with him as well.

You call the third accountant, Mr. Jones, and are transferred to his personal assistant, Sally. She asks you some questions and also sets up an appointment with Mr. Jones.

So far so good. Three decent candidates. You’ll meet all three in person within the next ten days and you hope you can choose the right one. You start making a list of questions you will ask when you meet.

You check your email. There’s a message from Sally, Mr. Jones’ personal assistant, thanking you for your call and confirming your appointment. Attached are some documents for you to review before you meet:

  • A letter confirming your appointment, directions, and parking instructions.
  • A F.A.Q. brochure about Mr. Jones, his firm and staff, fees, payment options and other basics a prospective client would want to know
  • Three articles by Mr. Jones, one about saving time and money with bookkeeping, one on how to minimize taxes, and one published in a bar journal about tax issues lawyers need to know that will help with do a better job for their business clients.
  • Another article, an interview of Mr. Jones that was published by a prominent CPA Journal
  • Three back issues of Mr. Jones’ newsletter
  • A booklet of testimonials from Mr. Jones’ clients, including several attorneys, and endorsements from other CPAs, financial planners, and a professor of taxation
  • Mr. Jones’ CV listing his education, experience, awards and honors
  • A two-page questionnaire to be filled out in preparation for your appointment, about your practice and your tax and accounting needs

Every page includes links to Mr. Jones’ web site. There you find additional information, articles, blog posts, white papers, and back issues of his newsletter. There is also a link to subscribe to his ezine via email and links to connect with him on social media. You follow several links and see he is connected to many attorneys, including many whose names you recognize.

The next day, you get an email from Mr. Jones himself. He says he’s looking forward to meeting you the following week, encourages you to fill out the questionnaire, and says he has already visited your web site to get some preliminary information about your practice.

Mr. Jones invites you to send him additional information about your practice that you would like him to see, and any questions you would like him to address.

The next day, in the postal mail, a hand written note arrives, signed by Mr. Jones. It says, simply, “I’m looking forward to meeting you next Wednesday.”

Over the next few days, you get two more emails from Mr. Jones.

The first is an article written by one of his other clients, a lawyer who practices in the same field as you. The email says something nice about this lawyer and Mr. Jones says he thought you might like to read the article, that a lot of his clients have found it helpful.

The second email contains a checklist Mr. Jones gives to all of his clients and a report that shows how to use it to save time and better prepare for tax time. The email invites you to contact Mr. Jones if you have any questions. The email is signed “Bob”.

Next week rolls around and two days before your appointment, you get an email reminding you of the appointment and asking you to either send your questionnaire in advance or to bring it with you.

The next day, the day before the appointment, Mr. Jones’ assistant calls you with a courtesy reminder. She asks if you have any questions, reminds you that they have free parking, and says she and Mr. Jones are looking forward to seeing you.

You haven’t even met Mr. Jones but you already know: he’s the one. You will probably meet with the others, just to be sure, but unless Mr. Jones has two heads and a forked tongue (and maybe even if does), he will be your new accountant.

What can be learned about this experience?

  • Mr. Jones used a “shock and awe” campaign to overwhelm you with reasons for choosing him over any other accountant. Even if you never read the documents he sent you, you are impressed by his diligence and thoughtfulness and convinced he has the requisite experience.
  • The personal touches he adds to the process made you feel good about him. He treats you like a client before you became one. He shows you respect, like you are a valued individual, not a name on a file folder.
  • He provides social proof (articles, testimonials, endorsements) of his experience with and commitment to attorneys as a niche market for his practice. He makes you believe he understands what you do. He shows you that he has helped others like you, suggesting that he can do the same for you.
  • He uses content (articles, blog posts, etc.) to do the heavy lifting. It proves he is good at what he did, without him having to say so himself.
  • It doesn’t take a lot of time to do what he does because almost everything is written in advance and he and his staff obviously use a checklist to manage most of the process.
  • He doesn’t do anything you couldn’t do. You may not have all of the documents he has, but you can start with what you do have and add more later.

I’m sure you can imagine what Mr. Jones will do when you arrive at his office, during the appointment, and after the appointment. Marketing is actually very simple: Treat people like you would like to be treated.

Take some time to outline the process for communicating with a prospective client for your practice. What can you do to show them what they need to see and hear so that they fall in love with you?

Done right, they will “know, like, and trust” you before they even meet you. You won’t just be the best choice, you’ll be the only choice.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Closing the sale, Communication, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Social media, Specializing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If I were starting my law practice today, here’s what I would do to bring in clients

May 7, 2012 by
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If I were opening a law practice today, my “marketing plan” would be very different than it was when I opened my office thirty-plus years ago.

The Internet changes everything.

So. . . here’s what I would do:

I would start by setting up a web site to showcase what I do. It would be my online brochure as well as a mechanism for networking and lead generation. It would be an information hub, the center of all of my marketing activities.

My web site would be a self-hosted WordPress blog so I could update it without depending on anyone else. I would spend less than $10/yr. for a domain, and less than $10/mo. for hosting.

I would keep things simple, with a clean, professional look. I would favor quality content over bells and whistles. The look would say, “competent, confident, accomplished and approachable,” because that’s what I would want if I was looking for an attorney.

I would add articles and other content to the site, to provide value to visitors and generate search engine traffic. I would continue to add content, seeking to make my site the most comprehensive in my practice area. When someone needed an answer, everyone would point them to my site.

I would make it easy for visitors to contact me through the site and I would encourage this. I want people to ask questions. My answers bring me one step closer to an appointment and a new client. Their questions and my answers would also give me fodder for new content.

I would add testminonials and success stories to the site, providing social proof of my capabilities and add a dramatic aspect to otherwise dry material.

I would set up a lead capture system, using an autoresponder to deliver an online newsletter. I would encourage visitors to subscribe so I could stay in touch with them. Over time, I know they will become clients, provide referrals, and generate even more traffic to my site through their social media channels.

Once my hub was set up, my focus would be to drive traffic to the site and grow my list. I would start by leveraging my existing contacts, telling them about my site and the benefits of visiting. I would ask them to spread the word to the people they know.

Every piece of printed collateral, including my business cards, would include a link to my web site. Every email I sent would link to the site. Every article I wrote would include a resource box and a link to my site.

I would become active in forums and on social media. I would do some networking and speaking to meet new contacts and to stay up to date with the news in my target market.

I would look for other professionals who target my market and propose writing for each other’s blogs and newsletters. If they were physically near me, I would meet them for coffee and explore other ways we could help each other.

I would regularly email to my list, notifying them of new content on the site and sending them other content I found that I thought they might like to see. I would stay in touch with them so that I would be “in their minds and their mailboxes” when they needed my services or encountered someone who did.

I would let people know I appreciate their referrals and thank those who have provided them in the past. I would suggest other ways they could help me, i.e., forwarding my emails to their friends and contacts, promoting my seminar or other event, or introducing me to people they know that I should meet.

I would look for ways to provide added value to my list and even more so to my clients. I would give them information and advice, but not necessarily in my practice area or even anything legal.

I would smother my clients with attention, exceeding their expectations in every way possible, because I know the best way to build a law practice is with referrals from satisfied clients and other people who know, like, and trust me.

Wait. . .  the Internet doesn’t change everything. Marketing is the same today as it was thirty years ago. The Internet just makes it easier, quicker, and less expensive.

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Filed Under: Client relations, Email, Image, List building, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Referrals, Social media marketing, Technology, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Great advice on starting a new law practice (or growing your old one)

April 10, 2012 by
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Marketing legal services is simple. A lot of common sense, really. You don’t need a bunch of high tech solutions or a complicated process. What you need are people.

An article in today’s Forbes Magazine tells the story of a Los Angeles lawyer who started her own practice in the summer of 2010 and in less than two years built a successful estate planning practice.

In, How I Got My First Client and You Can Too, attorney Sonia Tatiyants outlines what she did to get her first client and beyond.

She didn’t advertise or build a powerful web site. She didn’t have the money to do that, even if she wanted to. What she did is decidedly low cost and low tech. She began by contacting everyone she knew to announce the opening of her new practice.

It doesn’t get simpler than that.

By the way, if you’re not new, find a reason to contact everyone in your database and remind them that you are still here. Someone on your list needs your services, or they know someone who does.

Tatiyants followed that up by starting a lunch group where she could network with other estate planning attorneys. She also networked with “like minded, driven, entrepreneurial individuals. . .,” who collaborated with her and became a source of referrals.

Taking things a step further, Tatiyants also realizes that her clients can not only send her referrals, they can become a source of business for the professionals in her network. In positioning herself as a “trusted advisor,” her clients and contacts look to her for referrals when they have a problem or need. She refers them to the other lawyers, CPAs, financial planners, and insurance agents in her network.

She also understands the importance of keeping her clients happy. One way she does that by making sure they know what to expect with their case. By managing their expectations, her clients don’t get frustrated with delays or when they get something in the mail.

Finally, she understands that for her practice to continue to grow she needs to put systems in place that will allow others to do administrative tasks so she can focus on the lawyering (and marketing).

Great marketing advice for new lawyers and old. Even lawyers who are very old.

But there’s something she left out of the article that I know every lawyer would like to know. How did she get featured in Forbes magazine?!

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Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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