The simplest way to improve your marketing

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There’s a simple way to get more people to read what you write, listen to and engage with your message, and contact you to learn more. 

But most lawyers don’t do it. Or do it enough. 

Most lawyers do a good job of presenting facts and logic, and that’s certainly important, but you can’t rely on the left side of a reader’s brain when you want to persuade them to do something. For that, you want to stimulate the right side of their brain, i.e., their emotions. 

The best way to do this is to tell stories. 

Tell them about someone they can relate to and what happened to them. A client, a friend, someone you heard about, or even yourself. Tell them in your articles, blog posts, emails, and presentations. Tell them when you’re talking to them on the phone or in your office. 

If you want bring in more clients and keep your clients coming back, if you want your clients talking about what you do to their friends or business contacts, include stories in everything you write or say. 

Stories dramatize the facts and make readers feel the fear or other emotions of your “characters”. 

Facts tell but stories sell. 

Besides making the logical case for hiring you or following your advice, tell your reader or listener about people who did or didn’t follow that advice.

The best stories involve people who are “like” your audience, with a similar background or circumstances. You want clients and prospect to see that the people in your stories are “just like them”.  

Stories don’t need to be lengthy. A brief anecdote or mention is often enough. Neither do stories need to be overly dramatic. You can use irony or satire or a bit of fun to make your case.

Clients and prospects often want to do what you’re telling them and are just looking for an excuse to do it. A simple story with a happy ending is often enough to give them that excuse.

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The fortune is in the follow-up

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Some attorneys are terrible about returning phone calls and replying to emails. 

Don’t be like them. 

Clients hate “not knowing” if you received their message and if you (or someone on your behalf) will reply. When they don’t hear from you, it makes it look like you don’t care about them—so why should they care about you? Or continue to hire you. 

You should have a standard policy of returning calls and replying to emails within one business day, or to at least confirm receipt of their message and tell them when you will reply.

Be as specific as possible without promising more than you can deliver. Make it a pledge. Put it in writing. Put it on your website. Put it in your “new client” kit. 

And apologize if you occasionally mess up. 

I’m guessing you already do this to some extent. Your clients know they can count on you, which is one reason they stay with you and refer others to you. 

So work on memorializing and improving your follow-up policies. Keep your clients well-fed.

That’s not all. You should also have a policy for replying to prospective clients who contact you.

Ad leads, referrals, website inquiries, networking contacts—timely follow-up is arguably even more critical. 

Why? Because you know your existing clients will probably forgive you if you don’t return their calls immediately. You can’t expect the same from prospective clients. 

They’ll just call someone else. 

So, you need a plan. 

What to do when a prospective client calls and has questions. What you will say, what you will send them, what you will do after the initial call or email, and when.

Especially when. Because the clock is ticking. 

Map out a series of follow-ups—when you will call again, what you will say, what you will offer.

And when you will follow-up after that.

Don’t leave it up to the prospective clients. It’s up to you to call again, and don’t stop calling, until they hire you or tell you to stop. 

Because the fortune, your fortune, is in the follow-up. 

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The power of risk reversal

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In the 1980s, a lawyer friend and I started a real estate seminar business. We took out full-page ads and invited people to come to our office in the evening to hear about buying real estate with “no money down,” something my partner had had extraordinary success doing. 

We charged $150 for the initial seminar, and at the end, invited attendees to sign up for our primary program, which required an investment of several thousand dollars. 

This was during the real estate seminar boom, and we did extremely well. 

One key to our success was offering a 100% money-back guarantee. At the end of the initial presentation, if they didn’t feel what we taught them was worth the cost, all they had to do was tell us they weren’t happy and we would refund the fee. 

We had thousands of attendees and only a handful asked for their money back. 

We also offered a guarantee on the primary program. If they did what we taught them to do to find properties and didn’t earn a profit of more than they paid for the program, we would likewise refund their investment. 

Only one or two clients requested a refund. 

The business worked because we were good at what we did and made things “risk-free” for our clients. They were satisfied or they paid nothing. 

You might offer something similar in your law practice.

You might “guarantee” the first hour or two, or the initial document you prepare. Your clients are happy with your advice or your work or they pay nothing. 

When prospective clients see you stand behind your work and there is no risk to them, when clients know they can hire you with total peace of mind, your bold and unique promise is likely to attract many clients who might otherwise hesitate to hire you. 

Clearly, risk reversal won’t work for every law practice but it might be worth considering for yours.

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What to do when you get a bad review

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It happens. A client is unhappy about something you did or didn’t do and posts a negative review. And those reviews can hurt you.  

But bad reviews are a fact of life. No matter how good you are and how hard you work to keep your clients happy, you can’t please everyone all of the time. 

So, what can you do? 

  • Don’t ignore these reviews. Contact the client immediately. Take responsibility, apologize, promise you’ll fix things, and then fix them. Once you’ve made amends and fixed what needs fixing, ask the client to update their review. 
  • If necessary, and the review platform allows it, consider responding to the review with an explanation. Show readers you care and have made improvements or are in the process of doing that. But be careful. A vindictive client might not let it go. At least prospective clients will see that you made the effort. 
  • Encourage clients to talk to you about their concerns early and often. Let them complain privately instead of waiting to tell the world. Consider scheduling regular phone calls to review “how you’re doing” and learn what you can  improve. 
  • Ask your happy clients to leave reviews. Get enough of those and you might “bury” the bad ones. 

Finally, learn from your reviews, good and bad. Find out what you’re doing well so you can do more of it, and what you need to change to keep clients better informed and happy.

Client feedback is always important. Negative feedback can be invaluable. 

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Specialization 2.0

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Many lawyers specialize in one or two fields of law and that focus has benefits. Continuing education and law firm management is less demanding, marketing and advertising is less time consuming and expensive. They also tend to get more referrals from lawyers in other practice areas who don’t see them as a competitor.

But there is still plenty of competition. 

My father had a general practice, and did well, but I think he would have done even better if he had chosen one or two practice areas and stuck to his knitting. 

If you wrestle with the specialization question, know that there is another way to specialize. You can specialize in the clients you work with instead of (or in addition to) your field of law.  

For example, you could work only (or primarily) with professionals, business owners or leaders in an industry or market, or in an ethnic or social community. 

By specializing this way, you get to know more about their industry or market and understand their problems and goals better than other lawyers. You speak their language, so to speak, and develop relationships with the leaders in that market. 

In time, you become known as an authority in that market, and other authorities seek you out.

When that happens, building your practice is a lot easier and a lot more remunerative. 

How to choose a specialty and get the most out of it

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Which type of legal marketing has the highest ROI?

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It’s not what you’re thinking. It’s not advertising, networking, social media, blogging, or speaking. It’s not even referrals, although that’s a big part of it. 

Many lawyers don’t think of it as marketing, but it is. The smartest and most profitable kind of marketing a lawyer can do.

And here it is in a nutshell:

Give your clients more value than they pay for and expect. 

Don’t roll your eyes. . .

Yes, it takes times and energy to do this. You’re giving away what might otherwise be billable hours, your knowledge and advice. 

So there is a cost. But if you do it right, it’s not an expense, it’s an investment. With an astronomical return. 

When you give clients more than they expect, they fall in love with you. As a result

  • You increase client retention. Clients aren’t tempted to hire another lawyer or firm, even if that lawyer or firm has significantly lower fees. This means the lifetime value of your clients is much higher than what most lawyers get. They are relatively immune to leaving and this is true no matter what the state of the general economy or your clients’ industry or local market.
  • Higher retention means you get more repeat business. It also means your clients are likely to give you more of their legal work, not just some of it.
  • Stronger client relationships mean you can charge fees commensurate with the higher value you deliver. 
  • You also get more referrals from your clients and their business contacts to “repay” you for all the added value you deliver.
  • You develop a reputation for proving excellent service and, through word-of-mouth, attract better clients who hear about you. You also attract bigger cases and more business opportunities.
  • Your reputation allows you to attract more professionals and business contacts who want to work with you.
  • Your enhanced reputation makes your other marketing easier, more effective, and more profitable. Overall, you have lower marketing costs, better results, and higher profits for you.

Surprise and delight your clients. They’ll be happier and so will you.

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You don’t need to be a brilliant lawyer to be brilliantly successful

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Average is good enough. 

If you’re reasonably competent, deliver value to your clients, and you’re not an asshat, that’s all you need to bring in a steady stream of clients and make a great living. 

Well, almost.

You also need to be good at marketing. 

Look at your competition. What do you see? I’ll tell you what you see. You see average lawyers with excellent marketing beating excellent lawyers with average marketing. 

Your marketing doesn’t have to be amazing. You don’t have to write a lot of big checks. But it needs to get a lot of things right.

Your marketing needs to

  • Get the right prospective clients to find you
  • Get them to view your website and read your marketing materials
  • Get them to understand what you can do for them, and why you are the right lawyer to choose
  • Get them to contact you
  • Get them to meet with you
  • Get them to hire you
  • Get them to pay you in full and on time
  • Get them to hire you again (and again)
  • Get them to send you referrals
  • Get them to give you an excellent rating or review

It’s all about marketing.

So, in the upcoming year, do yourself a favor and pay more attention to your marketing. 

Here’s a good place to start

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Separate the planning from the doing

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I used to call it a “weekly review” but now I call it “weekly planning” because I don’t just want to look at what I’ve done, I want to figure out what I need to do next. 

Whatever we call it, why do we do it once a week instead of more often? Because we need some quiet time to step back from our busy week to reflect on the big picture. During the week, we need to focus on getting the actual work done. 

Planning requires a different state of mind from doing. 

When we’re planning, we’re relaxed and thinking about the future. When we’re doing the work, we’re focused on making the calls, drafting the documents, and negotiating the cases. 

It’s better to break up the planning and the doing into two separate tasks, and do them at different times. It’s more efficient that way and produces better results. 

If you’re writing an article, for example, choose the topic a few days or a week before you do the actual writing. This allows your subconscious mind to “think” about the article ahead of time and find better arguments and examples that make your article easier to write and more effective. 

Whether writing an article, planning your week, or starting a new project, give yourself some space between the planning and the doing. 

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Offer of (social) proof

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You’re good at what you do. You’re a “trusted advisor” and deliver good results for your clients. Great, but can you prove it? 

It’s probably awkward for you to say you’re the lawyer people should choose but it’s a different story when someone else says it. When a client refers a friend or business contact to you, for example, they’re telling their friend or contact that you’re good at your work and can be trusted to do a good job for them.

Which is why referrals are so powerful. 

Referrals are a form of social proof and while they are often the best form, there are others and you should use as many as possible:

  • Testimonials (written or recorded) from satisfied clients
  • Success stories about your cases and engagements
  • Endorsements by other lawyers and industry leaders
  • Reviews on legal blogs or other publications
  • Media coverage of your firm or a case you successfully handled
  • Sharing via social media of articles and posts by or about you 
  • Being photographed in the company of (some) famous people
  • Being interviewed by notable podcasters, bloggers, and reporters

Because these also tell the world you’re good at what you do. 

Social proof gets people to pay attention to you and influences prospective clients who see or hear it, or people who can recommend or refer them to you. Social proof is an effective way to increase your exposure and name recognition, build your credibility, and get more people to visit your website to find out more about what you offer. 

It works by tapping into basic human tendencies like the desire to follow the crowd (the “bandwagon effect”) and/or the fear of missing out. 

Social proof can also help retain clients who might otherwise be lured away from your firm. 

Bottom line, the more social proof you have, the more successful you’ll be.

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Referrals earn referrals

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It’s simple. You get referrals by giving referrals. Send clients or customers to your business clients and contacts and they’ll do the same for you. 

I’m sure you do this when the opportunity presents itself and you “think about it”. I’m suggesting you think about it regularly and go out of your way to find referrals to give.

It starts by getting to know your clients and contacts beyond their legal profile or situation. Learn about their business and industry, find out what they do, for whom do they do it, and why they do it better or differently than their competition. 

And then, promote them. Tell people about their business, practice, or organization. 

And do it proactively. 

Don’t wait until you hear that someone needs their products or services, pass out their flyer, brochure, or business card or do the equivalent online. 

Talk about their business to everyone. Ask if they know someone who might need what they offer. Consider featuring them in your newsletter or blog.

If you’ve hired them yourself and liked what they did for you, write or record a testimonial for them.

Be an ambassador for their business. 

They’ll get more clients or customer, sell more products or services, and the people you refer to them will get products or services they need and want. 

You? You get the gratitude of both of them and, eventually, a lot more referrals.

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