David M. Ward, Author at The Attorney Marketing Center

Why you’re not getting more referrals (and what to do about it)

July 9, 2024 by David M. Ward

Referrals are the Sina Qua Non of a professional practice. No doubt, you get referrals, perhaps a lot of referrals, but I promise, you can get more.

Maybe enough more to pull back on (or eliminate) your other marketing strategies, because referrals are extremely profitable and relatively easy to get.

If that sounds good, I suggest you begin by figuring out why you’re not getting more referrals.

The simplest way to do this is to survey your clients, especially at the end of the case or engagement. Ask them about your legal work and the “customer service” provided by you and your staff.

What did they like, what do they think could be improved, and why?

You need to know.

They may have misunderstood something or expected something different. They may have had a bad experience with someone on your staff. They may think you did a good job but had an issue with some minor aspect of your service that is bothering them.

After they fill out the survey, talk to them to learn more. You may not be comfortable hearing negative feedback, but it is important to hear it because it will allow you to improve your services and client relations and thus get more referrals.

Besides improving your service, there are other reasons you might not get as many referrals as you could. Here are a few of the more common reasons:

Your clients are satisfied with your services and willing to send you business, but don’t have the business to send. The solution is to target other types of clients and markets.
Your clients may not know who would be a good referral for you. Teach them about your practice areas and the kinds of clients you serve or want to serve.
Your clients may know people who need your services, but think you’re successful and busy and don’t need or want more work. The solution is to educate them that your practice was built on referrals and you appreciate receiving them.
Clients might not know the value of referrals. Make sure they understand that the referred client gets help without taking time or risk shopping around, the referring client gets the satisfaction of helping a friend, and you get a new client without advertising or networking in the cold market.
Your clients may be uncomfortable making referrals. Make it easier for them to do it by telling them what to tell the referral about you and how you can help them, and also what to tell you.
Finally, you may not be getting as many referrals as you could simply because you haven’t shown enough appreciation for past referrals. Make sure you thank your clients who send you referrals orally and by sending them a handwritten thank you note.

Referrals the lifeblood of your practice. This is how you get more of them.

Filed Under: Referrals

Your practice isn’t growing? Here’s why.

July 3, 2024 by David M. Ward

Uh oh, more homework. But essential if you want to get more clients and better clients, increase your income, and build a more successful career.

Here’s the thing. Your practice is a reflection of the decisions you make, and those are based on what you know, what you believe, and what you do.

Yep, it’s all about you.

Here’s the other thing. If your practice isn’t growing, it’s because you’re not growing.

Ouch.

Maybe it’s because you’re so busy doing client work you haven’t had time to do “inner work”.

Find the time. Your future depends on it.

Yes, you can get help. Your staff, outsourcing, ai, partners, consultants. But ultimately, it all comes down to you.

Because it’s your practice, your reputation, your future.

And while you can get help, you can’t outsource your life.

What’s your homework? Reading books and taking courses and talking to people who have achieved what you want to achieve. Brainstorming ideas, deciding which ones to work on, then working on them.

Not really that difficult. But necessary.

Because if you want your practice to grow, you have to grow.

Filed Under: Personal development

Maybe you need some new friends

July 2, 2024 by David M. Ward

Not friends necessarily, business connections—influential people who can send you referrals, introduce you to key people in your target market, give you information or advice, or inspire you.

Your business network, which you should continually expand and improve.

Start by identifying categories of people you’d like to know. “Business leaders in the health care field,” for example. Then, make a list of candidates—names of people in that field—and learn as much as possible about them and their industry or market.

Then, find someone who knows them and ask them to introduce you. Or, reach out yourself, tell them you’ve heard good things about them, and want to introduce yourself.

Ask them something about their company or association or news about their industry. Ask questions. Let them do most of the talking. Listen and learn.

Follow-up with an email telling them you enjoyed meeting them.

What’s next?

You might see an article about the health care industry and send a copy to your new contact. Or write an article and send that.

You might follow up with a question, ask for advice, or invite them to speak at an upcoming event where you know the organizer.

If you meet someone else who knows them, you might compare notes. Learn more about the contact, what they do, who they know, and what they want. If you hit it off, you might invite them to coffee. Or that might come later. Months later.

Stay in touch with them. Be of value to them. Find ways to help them or someone close to them. Don’t ask for anything just yet. That time will come.

Or it won’t.

You don’t know what will happen and you might need to meet many people before you find one who clicks with you.

But one might be all you need.

Here’s how to do it

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking

It’s okay to break the chain

June 28, 2024 by David M. Ward

Don’t break the chain is a mantra about building habits by steadfastly refusing to miss a day or week or whatever schedule you commit to. It was popularized by Jerry Seinfeld who, at the beginning of his career, committed to writing at least one new joke every day, followed by making a big X for his wall calendar. Those check marks formed a chain, giving rise to the statement, “Don’t break the chain”.

Good advice. We build habits by what we repeatedly do and being accountable to doing them makes it more likely we will.

The problem is, Seinfeld has denied saying this or even doing it. No matter, it’s still good advice. When we’re tired or busy and don’t feel like doing the task, reminding yourself to not break the chain can help you maintain the habit.

I do it with my writing. Every week day, I write and post an article. I’ve been doing that now for several years and I’m glad I do.

But I’ve also broken the chain.

When I do, sometimes, I re-post something I wrote and published in the past. Sometimes, I don’t. Because I know that if I miss a day (and break the chain), I can just start again (and I do).

You can, too.

If you miss a day or week of writing, hitting the gym, calling a prospect or client, or depositing money in your precious metals saving account, it’s not the end of the world.

Just start again.

What’s important isn’t having a perfect record. It’s that if you miss, you care enough to start again.

Your intention counts. If you regret missing a day, the habit still exists. If you don’t at least think about missing the day, you weren’t serious about making it a habit.

Don’t beat yourself up when you miss. Just start again.

New day, new chain.

Filed Under: Personal development, Productivity Tagged With: habits

What, are you chicken?

June 26, 2024 by David M. Ward

If you want your practice to grow, one of the best things you can do is stand out from other lawyers and firms.

Most lawyers and firms don’t.

They offer the same services, make the same promises, charge similar fees, and use the same marketing strategies. They look and sound and smell like everyone else.

Think about your competition. Very few stand out. They play it safe, because they think “safe” is smart.

I did that when I was starting out. I wanted to do what other lawyers did. I DIDN’T want to stand out. (That came later when I saw I was getting nowhere fast and needed to do something different).

You don’t have to do anything radical. Just different in a material way. Add a new service, offer an additional benefit, change your fee and billing structure. Or use different marketing strategies than everyone else uses, or do them differently.

It could be something as simple as changing up your writing style. That’s what I did. Other lawyers wrote formally, very lawyer-like (and boring), and I wanted to try something different.

I added some variety and spice to my writing, using a little humor and drama, shorter paragraphs and sentences, and went out of my way to make things interesting (not boring).

I got noticed. Opposing counsel commented, and seemed to be a little more willing to talk instead of firing missiles in my direction. My clients noticed and told me they enjoyed the new me.

You don’t have to do the same thing, but whatever you do, start small. Because if you don’t start small, you might overreach and be afraid to continue, or never start at all.

Try a new billing format, for example. Give it a test run. See how you feel about differing from everyone else (and differing from what you’ve always done), and see how others react. If you’re nervous about how your clients might react, start with new clients who don’t know what you’ve done before.

Let’s say you decide to communicate with your clients and prospects more often, via a newsletter, blog, podcast, or by sending them articles about their industry or market. If you already do these things, try sending them more often, adding your comments, or branching out to other subjects.

If other lawyers in your space don’t do these things (or do it much), you will stand out. Clients will see you as different. They’ll see an advantage in working with you, not just because what you send them or do is amazingly better, but because it is different.

Be different. You’ll thank me later.

Filed Under: Communication, Legal industry, Marketing legal services

3 questions readers want to know about your article

June 24, 2024 by David M. Ward

Everyone who sees your article, video, podcast, report, or other piece of content asks themselves 3 questions to determine if that content is worth their time consuming:

What is the subject?
What will I get out of reading it?
How long will it take me to read this?

First, they read your headline or title, to learn the subject of your article. They can’t read everything and will choose subjects that are relevant, important or interesting.

Second, they ask what they (might) get out of reading the article. They consider the subject and what they know about you. Have they gotten value out of your previous content? Do they see you as an authority on the subject? Do they like reading what you write?

Third, they decide how long it will take for them to read your article, based on the length and complexity of the information. This helps them decide to read it immediately or save it for later when they have more time.

And they make those decisions quickly.

Therefore, do your best to

Know your audience. What do they need and want to know? What problems do they want to solve? What information do they want you to provide?
Focus on crafting a title or headline that conveys the benefits of reading the article
Make your content easy to read (short sentences and paragraphs, simple language (mostly)
Consider where your readers see your content, i.e., on your blog, social media, Medium, or in their email
Consider a mix of brief articles that can be skimmed, and longer, comprehensive articles

Finally, writing often is more important than writing brilliantly. Your job is to keep your name in front of your audience and remind them what you do and how you can help them. Do that regularly and when they need your help, or know someone who does, they’ll see you as the best choice.

Filed Under: Content creation

What do you like best about this article?

June 21, 2024 by David M. Ward

What would you like me to change? How often would you like to hear from me? What topics would you like me to cover?

Just a few of the questions you can ask the readers of your blog or newsletter via a survey or poll.

You can find out if they think you publish too often or not often enough. If they like the topics you write about or want to you write about other subjects. If they have questions about the subject or any other subject.

And they’ll tell you.

You’ll get valuable feedback about what you’re doing, ideas for future content, and learn how often your readers want you to post or publish.

Maybe you need to make some improvements. Or maybe you’re doing things just right.

But be careful. You won’t always get the truth.

Readers often say things they think they should say (or they think you want to hear) rather than what they really think or want. So take everything with a grain of salt and look for patterns.

If a significant percentage want you to write shorter pieces or publish less often, or they want you to write a follow-up to your last post, you should at least consider it.

The goal is to find out what they want so you can give it to them, get more engagement with your content, grow your following, and ultimately, get more clients.

You can do this with surveys or polls or by simply asking readers to reply to your email or add a comment to your blog post. You can use Google Forms, plugins provided by your web host or newsletter service provider or by WordPress.

You can ask simple yes or no questions, multiple-choice questions, or fill in the blank questions.

When they reply, you’ll learn more about what your audience wants in terms of your legal services, get ideas for future content, and grow your subscriber list as readers share your content with others.

And yes, you can do that without using additional software. Just ask readers to reply to your email or add a comment to your blog.

Even if only a few readers reply to your questions, everyone will read them and your replies or follow-up posts where you report the results of your poll (if you do that), all of which makes it more likely that your readers will respond to a future poll, or decide they need to contact you about their issue because your poll prompted them to do that.

Make sense?

If it does, reply to this post and tell me you’re going to ask your readers a question or two in your next post.

See, as easy as that.

Filed Under: Blogging, Newsletters

When should you publish (and how often)?

June 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

What are the best days for you to publish blog posts or other content? Which days get the most “opens,” sign ups, forms filled out, clicks and engagement?

Check your stats.

You might find that Tuesday gets far more opens than other days of the week, in which case you should consider making Tuesday your publication day.

But, there’s a problem. You typically need enough subscribers to see enough of a statistical variation to matter, and most lawyers don’t.

If your list is relatively small, other factors besides the day(s) of the week can affect opens and other metrics. So which day(s) you publish might not be important.

How often you publish is another story.

Publishing once a week will bring better results than publishing once a month. The more often you show up in their inbox, the more your subscribers will get to know you. If they like what you write, they will read most of your messages, look forward to them, and act on them.

So, publish as often as possible.

Once a week is good. Depending on your market and practice area, two or three times a week, or even every weekday as I do, is (usually) better.

It allows you to build a relationship with your readers, and that can make all the difference. It’s better to have 100 subscribers who like and trust you than 10,000 who aren’t sure who you are.

Won’t you get more opt-outs if you publish more often? Probably. But you’re not writing a newsletter for everyone who happens to be on your list. You’re writing for the ones who love you and can’t get enough of you.

The ones who read you because you teach them things they need or want to know. Because you inspire them, give them ideas, make them laugh, and otherwise lighten their burdens and make their life better.

You don’t have to write brilliant or lengthy articles or posts, or give away the store. You simply need to provide value and publish often enough to stay in your subscribers minds and hearts.

How to write an email newsletter that builds relationships

Filed Under: Email, Newsletters, Relationship marketing

Common sense email marketing

June 18, 2024 by David M. Ward

Everyone gets unsolicited email and I’m no exception. It’s usually from complete strangers but sometimes it’s from people I know (or knew), who apparently believe that because I know them, or subscribed to their list at some point or bought something from them in the past, it’s okay to continue to send me offers even though I opted out or never opted in.

It’s not okay. It’s annoying, and doesn’t make me want to do business with them. No matter how attractive their offers might be.

Why do they go to the bother? Because they get enough response to their offers to be profitable and not enough complaints to deter them.

Word to the wise. Don’t be that guy. Don’t send unsolicited commercial email, even if it works.

For one thing, it may violate the rules of professional conduct and anti-spam laws in some countries.

It’s okay to send a personal email to someone you don’t know, inquiring about or inviting them to something you have reason to believe might interest them, but don’t sign them up for your newsletter or put them on an email list.

But also don’t be that guy who refuses to offer free information (or services) because you don’t want to be tarnished with the same brush as those spammers. Offering free information or services to people who ask for it is not only a respectable way to market your services, it’s a great way to market your services.

It can help you get more inquires or leads, more sign-ups for your seminar or followers for your channel, help you build a bigger and more responsive mailing list, and bring you a lot of new clients.

Just use a little common sense. And treat people the way you’d like to be treated.

Always tell people what you will do with their email when they sign up, e.g., subscribe them to your newsletter or send them your report, and also what you won’t do, e.g., spam them or sell their email address to third parties. Tell them you respect their privacy and they can opt out at any time.

Your prospects and clients will respect you for respecting them, and reward you for it.

Email marketing for attorneys

Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

Use more legalese, not less

June 17, 2024 by David M. Ward

Many experts tell you to “speak like your prospective clients speak,” mirroring and matching their language, word choices, and style, so they will more easily understand and relate to you.

They say that most people don’t have a legal background and might be confused and/or intimated by your use of legal terminology and references.

Basically, they’re saying “don’t talk like a lawyer”.

I disagree.

Prospects are looking for a lawyer or looking to learn something that might lead to hiring a lawyer. They expect you to act and speak like a lawyer, and if you don’t, they may think you don’t have the requisite experience and gravitas they’re seeking.

In addition, using appropriate legal terms will help people searching for those terms to find you.

So don’t eschew Latin and legal terms-of-art. But make sure to explain what those terms mean and use examples and stories to give them context that might be important to your reader.

You want your reader to understand you but you also want them to know you understand them. So, also make sure you speak like them.

Localize your message by using your target market’s terminology and references. Mention the names of well-known people in their industry or market, for example, as well as problems and solutions that are familiar to them.

Do both and not only will your readers and listeners better understand your message and how it applies to them, they will be more likely to see you as a better choice for them than other lawyers who don’t speak their language.

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Writing