The Attorney Marketing Center--Earn More. Work Less

15 minutes a day to build your practice

April 15, 2025 by David M. Ward

It’s difficult to carve out hours at a time for marketing. The good news is that you can accomplish a lot with just 15 minutes a day.

Between appointments, during lunch, at the end of the day, while you’re driving—snatch’s of time that even the busiest of practitioners can muster.

The trick is to make a list of these activities, in advance, so you can do them whenever you find yourself with a few minutes. Or better yet, schedule regular 15-minute marketing “appointments” with yourself on your calendar.

What could you do in 15 minutes? You could:

Call a client or two “off the clock” and say hello. (Yes, that’s marketing).
Email five referral sources/business contacts to (a) say hello, ask how they’re doing, or, (b) share some information about their industry or market, or (c) follow up with them after an event or meeting.
Edit/update a page on your website or your social media profiles.
Add or invite five or ten people to connect with you on social media.
Review three of your social media contact’s updates and praise them, ask a question, or share some information with them.
Brainstorm ideas for your next blog post or newsletter. Or outline or write your next blog post or newsletter.
Read my blog or other legal or business marketing blogs to find marketing ideas.
Read your clients’ industry or local market publications to find articles, news, or ideas to share with them.
Work on your WIP: article, book chapter, seminar outline, follow-up emails to your lists.
Explore potential new business contacts, add them to your list (and contact them later).
Invite (someone) to coffee or lunch.
Write and mail a thank you note.
Look at postings by writers, artists, consultants, or others to whom you might outsource some (marketing) tasks.
Update/improve the forms and checklists you use for marketing and management.
Ask ai to suggest keywords for your website or headlines for your articles or posts.
Read a few pages of a book about networking, blogging, writing, speaking, or practice management.
Practice your speech or what to say when people ask, “What do you do?”

You could also break up that big marketing project you’ve been putting off into 15-minute segments.

The key? Do something every day.

Not only will the time add up over the days and weeks, you will train your brain to think about marketing while you’re doing other things, and your subconscious mind will provide you with more ideas than you ever thought possible.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

The big lie about legal marketing

April 10, 2025 by David M. Ward

If you ask attorneys about marketing, many will tell you, “I don’t have time for marketing”. But this isn’t true. If you tell yourself this, frankly, you’re lying to yourself.

Because you do have the time.

Marketing doesn’t only mean going to networking events, conducting seminars, writing a blog or newsletter, or taking business associates to lunch. There are many things a lawyer does that qualify as marketing that take no time at all.

And you already do them every day.

Here are a few (in no particular order):

How you describe your services
Your fee structure and billing practices
The way you greet new clients at your first meeting
Your appearance (clothing, grooming, demeanor) and office
How long you put callers on hold
Your website (or lack thereof)
Your voicemail greeting
What you say in your letters and emails
Thank-you notes and what you write in them
The holiday cards you send
Your level of energy and enthusiasm for your work
Your retainer agreement
Your new client onboarding process
The confidence you inspire in people who meet you
The way you respond to inquiries via email or phone—what you say, how long you take to reply
The quality of your marketing documents
How often you stay in touch with clients and prospects
The causes and charities you support
The professionalism displayed by your staff
How encouraging you are when delivering bad news
How consistently you meet deadlines
Your sense of humor (or lack thereof)
Your smile (or lack thereof)
Talking about politics or religion with the wrong people or at the wrong time
Letting others do the talking while you do the listening
The stories you share to make your points and/or to comfort or encourage your clients
And the list goes on. And on.

It’s all marketing. Every bit of it.

You’re giving people an image and story about your practice, setting their expectations, and building trust. You’re showing the world what’s important to you and what it’s like to work with you.

That’s marketing. And it doesn’t take any extra time to do it.

Filed Under: Client relations, Law office management, Marketing legal services

Managing client expectations to sell more legal services

April 8, 2025 by David M. Ward

Prospective clients often don’t trust lawyers. They may have had a bad experience, friends or business associates may have shared their bad experiences, or decades of TV shows depicting lawyers as liars and cheats might have indoctrinated them.

So they often expect the worst from you.

Among other things, they expect you to be less than transparent about the value of your services and their strengths and limitations. They might expect you to charge top dollar for services they don’t need or could get elsewhere for a lot less.

You want to overcome their doubts and fears and get “the sale,” and make them happy so they hire you again and provide you with great reviews and lots of referrals.

To accomplish this, you should do your best to exceed their expectations. One way to do that is to “down sell” them.

They expect you to tell them they need your “big package,” which costs a lot but is necessary for their protection, yada yada, and they doubt you. When you instead tell them they don’t need that, that they can get most of the benefits they want and need with your “regular” package of services and save a bundle, they are surprised and probably thrilled.

Down selling is a simple and effective way to overcome a would-be client’s fear and skepticism and make them see you as one of the good guys.

You might be inclined to lead with your basic package to get them in the door and then show them your deluxe package or various extras. There are times when this is the right strategy.

But consider down selling instead.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Closing the sale, Increase your income, Salesmanship

One big idea

April 3, 2025 by David M. Ward

One big idea can change your life. Your idea could be a successful marketing method, a way to dramatically increase your productivity, a strategy for winning your current case, a transformative diet or exercise plan, or an investment idea that yields massive returns.

Big ideas are exciting. They motivate you to take action and often attract others who show up in your life at just the right time.

One big idea, YOUR big idea, is waiting for you to discover. How do you do that?

Yes, keep your ears and eyes open, read a lot, pay attention to what others are doing, and record lots of ideas, because having lots of ideas will eventually lead to your big idea.

In addition to “waiting and observing,” you can be more proactive about it.

Schedule a few minutes every day or several times each week for creating and collecting ideas.

I recently heard this idea from a consultant who has done this for decades and swears by it. He starts each day by writing 6 ideas. He says that by starting the day focused on generating ideas, “your mind is set on a more resourceful path, which fosters more creative thinking throughout the day.”

The more ideas you create, the better you get at creating ideas.

If you’re like me, you’re thinking this makes sense, but collecting 6 ideas every day sounds nearly impossible. And then you realize they don’t have to be great ideas or even good ones. They also don’t have to be your own ideas. You can steal them from books and articles and videos and blogs, like I did with this idea.

The key is to create the mindset and habit of regularly collecting ideas. Lots of them. Because quantity does lead to quality.

Try it. Tomorrow morning, you might go through my blog and write down 6 marketing or productivity ideas. Get your mind thinking about bringing in more clients or better clients, increasing your income or being more efficient with your time.

You may not use most of these ideas, or any of them, but you might use some. And who knows, one of those ideas might be your next big idea.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services, success

Risk reduction is risky

April 1, 2025 by David M. Ward

When it comes to aversion to risk, nobody holds a candle to lawyers. We’re trained to anticipate risks, protect against them, and quickly act to minimize damages when something goes wrong.

We do this for our clients and for ourself. It’s kinda our thing.

Risk management in any business or profession just makes sense. What doesn’t make sense are efforts to eliminate all risk, or helping clients do the same.

Why?

For one thing, it is an impossible task. As long as we’re in business (and alive), we can’t eliminate risk. It’s always there. It’s the nature of business. It’s a fact of life.

But even if we could completely eliminate risk, we shouldn’t. Because without risk, there can be no reward. Without risk, you “risk” becoming stale and boring and losing clients to competitors who aren’t.

If we eliminate all risk, we simultaneously eliminate new ideas and opportunities, which are, by definition, risky. If we’re unwilling to experiment with a new practice area, niche market, or marketing method, we’ll never enjoy the fruits of those efforts.

Without taking risks, our services look like every other risk-adverse lawyers’. Our advertising messages are stale, our articles say the same things said by every other lawyer, and nobody notices us. To protect yourself from mistakes and losses and criticism, you lose your competitive edge.

A business grows in proportion to the risks it takes and successfully manages.

Successful lawyers take chances, innovate, and refuse to (completely) play it safe.

Instead of trying to eliminate all risks, we should reduce our exposure to unreasonable risks, prefer risks with a sizable potential payoff, and be ever-vigilant. And advise our clients to do the same.

Intelligently manage risk. Don’t eliminate it.

Filed Under: Law office management, Marketing legal services

Why your subscribers and followers aren’t hiring you (and how to fix it)

March 27, 2025 by David M. Ward

Okay, there are lots of reasons someone might not hire you, starting with “they don’t need your services yet/anymore,” all the way to “they haven’t heard from you in a while and forgot about you.”

It could be your “open rate” (or lack thereof). You haven’t told them what to do, or told them often enough. Perhaps they don’t have a sense of urgency about their situation and “someday” is still a long way off.

Maybe they stopped reading your posts or emails (for a lot of reasons). Maybe you said something that turned them off. Maybe they hired another attorney who showed up at the right time or said the right things.

Maybe they’ve gotten used to getting free information from you and don’t see why they should pay now for your advice.

NB: Don’t stop the free information; do show them the benefits of hiring you or taking the next step.

Of course, there could be other reasons. Maybe they want to get to know you better—your style, your consistency, how you work with your clients—and the list goes on.

You need to pay attention to these things, but don’t obsess over them. There’s something else you can do that can take care of a lot of these issues.

Grow your list. Get more subscribers or followers.

New blood is the lifeblood of any business. New newsletter, blog, or podcast subscribers, friends or followers are more likely to hire you simply because they are new.

They’re new (recent) because they had a problem or an interest, went looking for a solution, and “found” you. They want to improve their situation and pay attention to what you say, unlike many on your existing list who may not.

New contacts are “hotter” than old ones.

More content and better messaging to your existing list can bring you new business. Growing your list might bring you a lot more.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Communication, Increase your income, List building, Marketing legal services

Do your clients love you?

March 25, 2025 by David M. Ward

Our yard needs updating and my wife and I got bids from several landscaping contractors. Many had reviews that talked about the contractor’s good work, beautiful designs, and reasonable prices. The one we hired had reviews like this and something else.

The winning contractor’s customers said things like, “He took care of everything,” “We didn’t have to worry about anything,” “We knew we made the right decision.”

Clearly, they weren’t just satisfied customers; they were fans. They didn’t just love his work; they loved him.

That’s what you want from your clients.

When your clients adore you and trust you, when they love you, you get a high percentage of repeat business, referrals, positive word-of-mouth, testimonials, and clients who are easier to work with.

Your practice thrives, and you don’t have to do a lot of marketing or advertising.

How do you make clients fall in love with you? Not just by working hard and delivering great results. Clients pay you well for that, and expect it.

Clients don’t fall in love with you because of what you do for them. They fall in love with you because of how you make them feel.

You make them feel appreciated and safe. They are in good hands and don’t have anything to worry about.

How do you accomplish this?

By how you speak to them, how you reply to their questions, what you send them, and what you do for them beyond your core work.

It’s staying in touch with them, smiling when they come into the room, and remembering the names of their kids.

It’s treating them like a cherished friend or a member of your family and making sure your staff does the same.

It may not be easy, but it’s not complicated. Show your clients you love them and they’ll show you the same.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations

Clients prefer hiring these attorneys

March 20, 2025 by David M. Ward

It’s a well-known maxim that bears repeating: “People prefer to hire and work with people they know, like, and trust.” That’s true even when those people are attorneys.

Actually, it’s even more true of attorneys because we sell personal services and work closely with our clients. Hard to please clients if they don’t like or trust you.

Now, besides being nice to our clients and delivering excellent outcomes at a reasonable fee, is there anything else we can do to enhance our client relationships?

Yes, and you probably already do it.

You stay in touch with your clients, right? Send them holiday and birthday cards, a newsletter, and let them know when you have a new article or video that can help them?

NB: If you don’t do these things with your clients and contacts, you’re missing out on one of the simplest and most effective ways to grow your practice. Just saying.

What else can you do to make your clients feel appreciated and help them remember that you’re still around?

You can send them a personal note. Not an email, a handwritten note sent in ye olde mail.

Say hello, thank them for their business and referrals, ask about their business or job, mention their spouse or kids, share something you recall about them or their case, and otherwise treat them as someone you care about.

You do care about them, don’t you?

“A personal note, for all my current and former clients? I don’t have time to do that,” you say?

Yes, you do. You can do what attorney Mike Alder does for his clients. I heard that every morning he writes 3 personal notes to clients and pops them in the mail. You can do that.

“It’s not worth the effort,” you say. Tell that to Mike. He’s built an injury and employment firm that has recovered over $3 billion for their clients. Let’s see, one third of a billion is how much?

Yeah, personal notes. And phone calls, too. And being a mensch and treating your clients like you care about them as people, not just clients.

That’s how clients get to know, like, and trust you.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Client relations, Marketing legal services

What are you doing today?

March 18, 2025 by David M. Ward

When your day begins, do you dive right in and get to work—going through files, making calls, talking to your staff, dictating letters—whatever’s on your desk, in your email, or demanding your attention?

Or do you work from a plan?

I suggest the latter.

I suggest your plan your day before it begins because a plan gives you clarity about what you need to do and, just as importantly, what not to do.

A plan gives you confidence that you are doing your most important tasks and have enough time to do them well.

A plan allows you to go from task to task without stopping to figure out what’s next, or getting distracted by whatever shows up.

Without a plan, you might become overwhelmed with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Without a plan, you might waste time working on things that don’t need to be done today, or at all, and make mistakes rushing to do things you suddenly remember.

A daily plan allows you to be more productive.

And it takes only 5 minutes.

Review your calendar. Prepare for appointments and meetings and calls. Go through your task list and decide what you will do today and what can wait until tomorrow—or next week.

When should you create your plan? Some like to do it at at night so they can start the next day without delay. Others like to prepare their plan in the morning (with a cup of coffee).

I usually make my plan the night before and review and update it the morning of.

More important than when you do it is that you do it.

And make it a habit.

One more thing. You also need a weekly plan. Take ten minutes on the weekend or Monday morning to review the past week and plan the week ahead.

And yes, make this a habit, too.

Filed Under: Productivity, success

Email marketing (isn’t) dead

March 13, 2025 by David M. Ward

In fact, it’s better than ever. And better than just about any other type of marketing an attorney can do.

It’s better because it lets you communicate directly with past clients, prospective clients, and people who can refer, endorse and recommend you.

You can’t beat the price, the ease of use, or the speed with which email can produce results. A simple click and in a few minutes or a few hours, a new client could sit across from you, filling out paperwork and writing a check.

Why do some people say email marketing doesn’t work? Because they haven’t done it right, or done it at all.

Email doesn’t work when the emails are poorly written, uninteresting, or fail to tell readers what to do next.

Email doesn’t work when sent to people who haven’t heard from the sender in a long time and don’t remember them or never knew them, e.g., spam, and people who don’t need or want legal services or know people who might.

Email doesn’t work if the emails don’t get opened because they lack a compelling subject line.

Email doesn’t work when they don’t give readers a reason to respond or don’t carry a sense of urgency.

Email doesn’t work when emails are sent too frequently, or, more likely, not frequently enough.

And, for a lawyer, email doesn’t work when it lacks professionalism and trustworthiness, e.g., they make the lawyer look silly or desperate.

On the other hand, when done right, email marketing is one of the best kinds of marketing a lawyer can use.

Done right means building an opt-in list, staying in touch with the list, and providing value to your readers.

That’s good news because you can do that without breaking a sweat (or your bank account).

Your email may be brief. You don’t need to write every day. You just need to say enough, and often enough, to stay in the minds and mailboxes of people who can hire or refer you, and give them reasons to do that.

Here’s how to get started:

How to make your phone ring

Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Newsletters