Engage your clients and prospects by explaining the news

June 29, 2012 by
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So we have some health care news. Now what?

Your clients and prospects are wondering what it all means. What do they have to know? What do they have to do? What will it cost them? What’s next?

This is a great opportunity to provide some answers. Leverage news events like these to add value to the lives of the people who follow you. They will appreciate you for sorting it out for them and the next time you write, tweet, post, or otherwise open your mouth, they will be more likely to pay attention.

If you don’t know what to make of everything yourself, there’s plenty of help available. Here’s an article that explains, “How Will the New Health Care Law Affect Me?” Here’s one about, “How Your Business Will Be Affected.” You can use articles like these as a starting point to write your own summary.

You don’t need to write a comprehensive legal analysis (unless your clients are in the health care field or are affected more than most). Give them the who, what, where, when, and why.

But be careful with the why. If you get political, you may alienate a lot of people who put food on your table.

Show people they can trust you. Give them the facts. Help them understand.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Image, News, Newsletters Tagged With: ,

Marketing legal services the Evernote way

June 27, 2012 by
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You know I’m a big fan of Evernote. I use it all day long for everything I do in my work and in my personal life. I detailed my use in my Evernote for Lawyers ebook.

I’m also a fan of how Evernote does their marketing. They use a “freemium” model–giving away their apps and service for free, believing that users will fall in love with the product and sign up for the paid service.

Their free service is not stripped down. It has everything most people would want. The paid version provides additional capacity and features.

Evernote understands that the more people who use their free service, and the longer they use it, the more who will subscribe and pay.

Evernote does not advertise. They rely on word of mouth–satisfied users sharing their experiences with the product.

Their model works. Evernote has some 40 million free users and 1.4 million paid subscribers. They have recently achieved a billion dollar valuation.

Attorneys who offer free consultations are following a similar marketing model. The more free consultations they give, the more paying clients they get. Some attorneys take things a step further, offering not just free consultations but free services to get prospective clients to “try before they buy”. If you offer a free will, for example, a certain percentage of clients will want to upgrade to a trust or other paid services.

Evernote does not pressure users to upgrade. They provide upgrade links in their desktop, web, and mobile apps, but users are reminded to upgrade only when they try to use a paid feature or go beyond their free monthly usage limit.

There’s something attractive about a company that doesn’t push you. They give you value, lets you know there’s more available, and leave it up to you to come to them. Contrast that to what many companies do: they push, they chase, they sell.

I don’t know about you but when I’m chased, I usually run the opposite way.

Evernote provides value through their service and also through their blog and newsletter. Their blog provides tips and uses for making Evernote more useful and it’s fun to read.

Marketing consultant Jim Connolly wrote today about Evernote’s newsletter, contrasting it with other newsletters that do little more than sell. He says Evernote’s newsletter gets it right for three reasons:

  1. Their newsletter actually contains news
  2. Their newsletter makes Evernote more valuable
  3. Their newsletter doesn’t push

Connolly and I agree that providing valuable content that enhances the user experience with the product is effective in making the case for upgrading without ever asking users to do so. Their approach attracts us, instead of pushing us away with sales pitches and an abundance of links.

Attorneys deal with issues that don’t always allow for such a laid back approach. If it’s in the client’s best interests to push them to take action, a little push is not a bad thing. Nevertheless, I think we can all learn from Evernote how to be more attractive and let people sell themselves on hiring us.

People like to buy. They don’t like to be sold.

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Filed Under: Communication, Image, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Why clients don’t appreciate their attorneys (and what to do about it)

June 12, 2012 by
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An attorney mentioned to me that clients often don’t appreciate what attorneys do for them. He said, “. . .[B]ecause they can’t see what we do or because they believe that it’s just templates and forms, [they think our] fees should be low and that we don’t really do much for our fees.”

We shouldn’t be surprised that clients feel this way. After all, we sell an intangible service, something you can’t look at or hold in your hands. We deal in ideas and paper and much of the hard work goes on in our brains.

And attorneys are expensive. When the client earns $30 an hour and you’re billing $300 an hour, or when you get $3,000.00 for “a few letters and phone calls,” you can see why they don’t appreciate what we do.

A detailed accounting of your work helps them see how much effort you put into their case or matter. But this can backfire if they don’t understand why you had to do what you did.

The solution is to teach your prospects and clients as much as possible about what you do. Educate them about the law and procedure. Teach them about their options, the risks and the contingencies. Show them the process and the paperwork.

The more they know, the more they will appreciate what you do for them.

Write articles and blog posts. Tell war stories that illustrate what can go wrong. Provide interviews, Q and A’s, and FAQ’s.

Record videos that walk them through the documents in a typical file or a pile of depo transcripts, tabbed and notated. Give them copies of the full opinions you quoted in your motion, highlighted and with your notes in the margins. Give them copies of everything that comes into, or out of your file.

And explain everything. What is obvious to you is not obvious to them. What you do every day is something they’ve never seen before.

Tell them why you choose A instead of B. Explain why you used to do C (which is what other attorneys do) and why you no longer do it that way.

Don’t hold back. Teach them enough so that they could do all of it, or parts of it, themselves. They won’t even want to try and they will begin to appreciate how hard you job really is.

They won’t understand everything and they don’t have to. They simply need to see that what you do is a lot more than they thought it was.

Educating prospects and clients is also one of your most potent marketing strategies.

When you teach people about what you do, and other attorneys don’t, you have an advantage. All of that information positions you as knowledgeable and experienced. It also positions you as generous. “If he gives away all of this information free, I can only imagine how much he does for his paying clients!”

Educate the market. Provide lots of information. Teach them what they need to know about their legal matter and about what you do. More often than not, they’ll choose you as their attorney and instead of questioning your fees they’ll thank their lucky stars you agreed to represent them.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client loyalty, Client relations, Communication, Fees and Billing, Marketing legal services, Newsletters Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

3 smart ways to create content your prospects really want to read

June 5, 2012 by
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Have you ever struggled to come up with ideas for your blog or newsletter? After you read this blog post, you’ll never have that problem again. Even better, you’ll be able to create content your target market actually wants to read.

It makes no difference whether you have a static web site, a blog, an ezine or a paper newsletter. There are three proven ways to find out what people want to know. You can use these strategies for any kind of content–seminars, webinars, white papers, articles, audios and videos–and come up with the perfect idea every time.

CONTENT CREATION METHOD NO. 1

Let’s start with the most obvious way to find out what your target market wants to read: asking them.

You can email (or write) your list, or ask via your blog or through your social media channels, to find out what people want to know. A free online poll service like Surveymonkey makes it easy.

When a lot of people say, “I want to know X,” you can be fairly certain that this will be a popular topic for a blog post or newsletter article.

For best results, give people a choice of topics: “Do you want to read about A or B?” “Rank these five titles in order of preference. . .”. Of course, this means you will have to come up with the titles you are asking them to choose between so you might want to start your inquiry with one of the next two methods.

CONTENT CREATION METHOD NO. 2

Every day, your target market searches online for information and solutions. A keyword tool like Google Keyword Tool or Wordtracker.com will tell you precisely what words are being searched for and in what volume.

You should have a list or spreadsheet of your keywords and phrases. If not, using a keyword tool will help you get one started. Searching on words like, “Los Angeles divorce lawyer” will lead you to related words and phrases to add to your list.

You’ll also be able to see the volume of searches for each keyword, and the number of web sites that use them, i.e., your competition.

Although optimally, you want a combination of a high number of searches and a low number of competing sites, the purpose of this exercise isn’t to find the best keyword deals for you to bid on, it’s to find keywords that allow you to create content people want to read. Therefore, for writing purposes, it doesn’t matter how much competition you have for those keywords.

Nevertheless, if you can find variations of high-ranking keywords with low competition, i.e., “Certified family law specialist Torrance,” instead of “Los Angeles divorce lawyer,” you will increase your chances of getting search engine traffic, especially if  you use those keywords in the title, in subheads, in the text itself, and in the image tags.

CONTENT CREATION METHOD NO. 3

In school, we were punished for copying off of someone else’s paper. In marketing, copying others can get you a gold star.

The simplest, and arguably the most accurate way to find out what your prospects want to read is to look at what they are reading on other blogs. If a particular topic is popular on the blog of another lawyer with a similar target market, you can be fairly certain that topic will be popular on yours.

Create a list or spreadsheet of your competition’s blogs and add the urls of the posts they’ve published recently. Then, look at each post and note how many tweets or Likes those posts received. If they don’t have buttons for Twitter or Facebook, type the URL into twitter to see the number of re-tweets or mentions. You could also find a non-competitive lawyer, i.e., in another state or province, and ask them which of their posts is getting the most traffic.

Now you know exactly what your target market wants to read and you can write content related to those topics. Don’t plagiarize the post. Write your own unique content, a different take on the subject, your own stories and so on, and change the title.

For example, if a lawyer is getting a lot of re-tweets and shares for a post entitled, “How to get joint custody in California,” you could write a post with the title, “Strategies for men seeking joint custody in a California divorce.”

With all of these methods, the key is to first let the market tell you what it wants, then go create it. You’ll save time, you’ll never run out of ideas, and you’ll always give people content they really want to read.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,

The best way to open and close your emails and letters

May 11, 2012 by
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“Dear Reader:”

Doesn’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy, does it?

“Dear Friend,”

A little better. And note that a comma is less formal than a colon.

“Dear George,”

Much better. Speaking to an individual. Nothing sweeter than the sound of one’s own name. But “Dear” is a bit old fashioned in an email.

“George,”

Arguably the best way to open an email. Much better than “Hey!” although it’s okay to use something like that for informal messages with people you know really well. Of course if you know the recipient really well, you could skip the salutation altogether and just get right to the message. Perfectly acceptable in email today.

What if you’re mailing to a big list of people? A lot of cc’s or bcc’s or your email newsletter?

Of course you must consider to whom you are writing and the context of the message. You don’t want to be unprofessional, but email is generally considered a less formal medium so a less formal greeting is almost always appropriate. If you don’t know which salutation to use, consider omitting it. You’ll probably be just fine.

What about signing off? “Very truly yours,” or “Regards”? “Sincerely,” or “All the best,”?

I usually sign my emails with “All the best,” followed by just my first name. Friendly, personal, informal. Or I just put my name with no close. With people I email to a lot, I often put my initials (just to be different) or no close at all.

Your emails should be a natural extension of who you are, but also reflect the context of your relationship with the recipient. Use whatever feels right to you, but lean towards informal. Formal messages put distance between you and the reader, and you generally want to bring them closer.

Snail mail is more formal than email, of course, but a personal salutation and warm closing will go a long way towards reaching out and connecting with your reader. “Dear Mr. Jones,” or “Dear Joe,” is much better than, “Dear Client:”.

If you’re sending something to opposing counsel and you want to be businesslike and maintain posture (and a little distance), you’ll probably continue using whatever you use now. With clients and prospects and colleagues, anyone with whom you have or want to have a closer relationship, a less formal and warmer approach is warranted.

Finding the right salutations and closings begins with greater awareness. Over the next few days, take a few minutes to review the emails and letters you send and receive. What do others do? How do they make you feel? What do you do and what affect do you think they have on your readers?

Chances are you won’t make many changes with letters and emails sent to counsel or insurance carriers, nor do you really need to. But there’s probably a lot you can do with letters to clients and friends.

What salutations and closings do you use in your emails and letters? Have you considered any alternatives?

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Filed Under: Client relations, Communication, Email, Newsletters, Writing 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: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get more clients to choose YOU as their attorney

April 30, 2012 by
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You have a list of prospects, don’t you? These are people who get your newsletter or ezine, who read your blog, or with whom you otherwise communicate on a regular basis.

Some will hire you. You don’t have to say or do anything special. When they are ready, they will call.

Others will never hire you. No matter what you say or do. It doesn’t matter why they won’t hire you, that’s just the way it is. They can help you in other ways: referrals, traffic to your web site, Likes and follows.

Then there are the “maybes”. They may hire you, they may not. The fence sitters represent the biggest potential for you. What you say and do can influence them to get off the fence.

How do you get more people off the fence and dialing your number?

One way is to make an offer. Something that compels them to act.

One of my subscribers sent me the ezine he sends to his list. In it is an offer he makes to the “new clients” who lurk on his list. His offer: “Mention this newsletter and we will credit one hour of billable time against your first monthly invoice.”

Simple. You have to become a new client to take advantage of the offer. From the attorney’s perspective, it’s certainly worth one hour of credit to get someone to become a first time client.

Is he giving away that one hour credit to people on the list who would hire him anyway? Yes. But it doesn’t matter. It’s small potatoes. He earns much more by getting the fence sitters as new clients.

But let’s be honest, a one hour credit is only mildly enticing to someone who might have to pony up $10,000 or $20,000 to hire you. It’s not going to get someone who isn’t ready to hire an attorney off the fence. What it might do is get someone who is ready to hire an attorney to choose you instead of any other attorney.

You must assume that yours isn’t the only newsletter your prospect reads. If you’re the only one offering a one hour credit to new clients, however, when the fence sitter is ready to hire someone, it could tip the balance in your favor.

For prospects who aren’t ready to hire an attorney, you will have to do more than offer a one hour credit. How do you convince someone who isn’t ready? I’ll cover that tomorrow.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Closing the sale, Copywriting, Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If I could use only ONE marketing tool

March 27, 2012 by
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I started this post intending to make the case in favor of email as my favorite marketing tool. There’s no question that it is one of the most effective ways to deliver messages to people who can hire you or refer someone who can. It’s (almost) free, almost everyone has an email address, and email is still more popular than social media.

With the click of a button, you can send out an email to hundreds or thousands of people, and almost as quickly, get orders or phone calls and appointments.

Strange that so many attorneys (most?) don’t use email in their marketing, at least not as much as they could. Or should.

You may have a list of people–clients, former clients, and business contacts–but if you’re not communicating with them on a regular basis, you’re not going to get their business. They forget about you, or they forget how to contact you, or they’re just not motivated to contact you because. . . you haven’t contacted them.

The point of having a list, indeed, of all of your marketing efforts, is to stay in touch with people. Or as I put it, “. . .to be in their minds and their mailboxes so that when they are ready to hire a lawyer, or know someone who is, there you are. . .”.  Email is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch.

So, I was going to say email is my favorite marketing tool, but that’s not quite accurate. Nope. My favorite marketing tool is. . . a sales letter.

Lawyers may not call it that. We’ll call it a newsletter or information or anything but a sales letter (because we don’t sell, right?)–but whatever you call it, and however you disguise it, if it’s designed to get someone to do something, it’s a sales letter. My favorite marketing tool.

A sales letter is words, on paper (or electrons), that communicate a message and an offer or a request. People read it and call for an appointment, Like your web page, or sign up for your seminar. You can send it by postal mail, or by messenger. Hand it to someone in person, or deliver it via fax or text message. You can post it on your blog, web page, or on Facebook.

Oh, and guess what? Every time you talk to a prospective client on the phone or in person and you tell them about your services and what you can do to help them, you’re delivering a sales letter. A spoken sales letter.

Do yourself a favor and write it down, so you can send it by email.

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Relationship marketing, Salesmanship, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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