The Attorney Marketing Center--Earn More. Work Less

Why are some lawyers more successful than you?

January 25, 2024 by David M. Ward

You’re good at what you do. You work hard. Your clients love you. So, why do some of your less capable competitors do better than you?

Does it come down to better marketing?

That’s a good bet.

They might have embraced marketing sooner than you did and have more experience. They might use strategies you don’t use or execute them better. They might have better professional contacts or a bigger email list.

Your clients love you, but maybe their clients love them more and they get a lot more repeat business and referrals.

Maybe they advertise, and you don’t. Have deeper pockets or a better team of advisors.

Maybe it is a combination of factors—little things they do or do better than you.

Or maybe it’s none of the above. Maybe they just got lucky.

You know what? It doesn’t matter. What matters is what you can do to become more successful.

I have two suggestions:

Keep trying. Try new ideas, strategies, and methods. And improve things you already do. Get more help, give it more time, invest more money, study, practice, and learn from others.
Relax. Don’t be upset that you’re not as successful as the competition, or that it’s taking you longer. Don’t strain or struggle. Don’t force yourself to do things you aren’t good at or hate. You’ll get there. You’ll find the right combination. Things that make use of your talents and interests and style.

Success leave clues, not a blueprint.

Filed Under: success

Talk less

January 23, 2024 by David M. Ward

All of the marketing and advertising you do is merely a prequel to having a conversation with a prospective client.

During that conversation, they want to know what you think about their situation or question; they want to know if you can help them; and they want to know what it will take for you to do that.

So, you ask questions. And listen.

You listen so you can diagnose their problem or need and tell them how you can help them and what it will cost. If they like what you say, they begin to trust you and move closer to taking the next step.

But they might not be ready. They might have more questions.

Questions are good. It means they’re interested.

But the key to reaching agreement isn’t for you to do all the talking. They key is to get them to do most of the talking.

Which means asking them more questions.

You want them to tell you more about their situation, what they want and what they fear. As you validate what they say, through your words and body language (and additional questions), they see that not only are you knowledgeable about their situation and capable of helping them, you want to.

But don’t let them wander. You must control the conversation by narrowing the scope of their questions and keeping them focused on the solutions they need and want. Answer their question and ask your own:

Does that make sense? Is that what you want? Would (this) be better for you or would (that)?

When you see that they might be ready to take that next step, ask a “closing” question. If you’ve answered their questions and told them what you can do to help them, your closing question might be as simple as, “Are you ready to get started?”

Talk less. Listen more. They’ll tell you what they want—and what you need to say to get them to say “yes”.

Filed Under: Closing the sale, Salesmanship

Create content about what you do

January 22, 2024 by David M. Ward

Your clients, prospective clients, subscribers, friends and followers, and even your business and professional contacts, want to know about you and your work.

Even more than they want to know about the law.

In fact, unless someone currently has a specific legal issue or question, or has a client or friend who does, they probably don’t want to hear you talking about the law.

It’s boring.

It’s people who are interesting. And you are one of those people.

Tell them about your typical day, the kinds of clients and cases you handle, your staff, how you stay productive, and even the software you use.

Tell them how you do research, the forms and docs you depend on, and how you get new business. (Perfect opportunity to talk about all the referrals you get—and plant a few seeds for your readers).

They want to hear what you like about your work, and what you don’t. They want to know about your favorite case, and about your “client from hell”.

You may think what you do is dry and uninteresting, but you’re too close to it. What you find humdrum is fascinating to others.

However… don’t make your content all about you.

You also need to talk about the law. Because some people find you by searching for a legal topic, and when they do, they want to know everything you can tell them.

But more than you or the law, your content should be about your reader.

Their issues, their industry, their market, and the people in their industry or market.

Yep, talk about clients and prospects and the people in their world. Because there is nothing more interesting to your readers than reading about themselves.

Email marketing for attorneys

Filed Under: Blogging, Content creation, Newsletters, Online Marketing

The “one thing” every lawyer can do to build a more successful practice

January 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

I often refer to the “Focusing Question,” posited in the book, The One Thing: ‘Ask yourself, “What is the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary”.’ My usual advice for lawyers, of course, is to improve your marketing.

And I’m not going to change my mind about that today.

There’s nothing more important or remunerative than getting better at bringing in new business and keeping it.

But there is something that is a close second.

If you’ve read me for a while, you won’t be surprised to hear me say it is, “improve your writing”.

Yes, many lawyers have brilliant practices or careers without being talented writers. Trial lawyers might be good orators, for example, business lawyers, good negotiators or networkers, and those skills can more than make up for any deficiency they might have with a pen or keyboard.

But any lawyer can be even more successful if they are also good writers.

But you know this. You’ve heard me talk about it enough. About how improving my writing helped me build my practice and several successful businesses.

For one thing, writing is a key component of marketing. Yes, you can delegate or outsource much of your writing, and many successful lawyers do, but for instructing those writers (and/or ai) about what you want done, and making sure you get it, there is no substitute for having some writing chops yourself.

Besides, the most effective writing you do will come from you. And only you.

Improving your writing will help you create better content, achieve greater engagement with your clients, your social media crowd, and your professional contacts. You’ll get more repeat business and referrals and build your professional reputation, all with the power of your words.

Improving your writing will also help you create better content and better work product, and do it faster. If it now takes you two hours to write an article, but you can get to where you can do it in 30 minutes, would that be valuable to you?

Writing is also a competent in thinking, planning, and strategizing. The more you write, the better you become at formulating ideas and plans.

So, how do you get better (and faster) at writing? By writing. You can benefit from reading books and taking courses, but there is no substitute for putting your butt in the chair and pounding out words.

Hold on. I know you already do a lot of writing. It’s a big part of what lawyers do.

Do more.

Write something other than your regular work and do it every day, even for 5 minutes. “Free write” to limber up your writing muscles and let your words pour out onto a page. Don’t worry about how good it is. Nobody will see it until you show it to them, and for now, you don’t have to do that.

Write a journal, scribble a half page of ideas, or re-write your notes about something. The idea is to move your hand and spit out words and do that as often as possible.

When I started, I did it first thing after I rolled out of bed, yes, before coffee. With my brain half awake, I was less critical and learned to write freely and naturally.

Was it any good? No. That came later. But it came, and if you keep at it, it will come for you.

Filed Under: Writing

The last piece of work I do every day

January 18, 2024 by David M. Ward

Years ago, I used to plan my day in the morning. Check the calendar, to-do list, and the pile of documents, letters and files I need to work on.

Today, I do that the night before.

“Plan tomorrow before tomorrow begins,” became my motto after I heard the wisdom of doing that from an expert in productivity and tried it. It’s made a big difference.

I start my day knowing what to do, when and for how long

I’m not trying to plan my day in the morning when my energy is high and is best used doing the actual work.

If something unexpected comes up during the day, I don’t stress about it. I either fit it in, or more likely, (calmly) schedule it for another day.

I’m more realistic about my tasks and time

When I wrote my task list in the morning, I usually put down too many things I “planned” to do. I focused on being busy, not productive, and usually finished the day with a lot of tasks undone.

Now, I take a moment to reflect on my day and imagine myself doing those tasks. I’m more mindful and selective about what I do and have more time to do my most important tasks.

I’m also more likely to start my workday doing something important instead of whatever is at the top of the list.

Planning and executing are different. I execute better (more quickly, more thoughtfully, with fewer mistakes, and less likely to get distracted) when I’m not also doing the planning.

I’m less likely to procrastinate

Not only do I have a schedule for the day, planning it the night before allows me to break down the various steps and schedule those as well.

I know what I will do first, and what I will do after that, and because each step is smaller, I’m more likely to do them.

I don’t feel guilty about relaxing in the evening, or compelled to get to work first thing the next day

Once I’ve planned my day, I go “off the clock”. I take it easy, watch videos or shows with my wife, read, play a few word games, and do other things humans do.

Similarly, in the morning, I don’t feel in a rush to get to work.

Sometimes, I get to it. Sometimes, I don’t.

I might do some light admin work in the morning before I do my “deep work”. Or I might watch some frivolous videos and do nothing meaningful at all until I’m ready for “work mode”. Either way, because I have a plan, I don’t stress about starting my day.

I sleep better

According to one study I heard, spending five minutes in the evening writing a task list for the next day often makes it easier to fall asleep.

I don’t toss and turn as I remember things I need to do the following day. I’ve already decided what I will do and recorded it.

Yes, sometimes I remember things I neglected to schedule, but my phone is always nearby and I can record a quick reminder. But because I know I have a well-planned day, I can forget about it until the morning.

I’m more productive

By making a schedule the night before instead of “the day of,” I may or may not get more work done, but I almost always get my most important work done.

Planning your day in the morning is okay. It’s better than starting the day without a plan. But planning my day before it begins has been (to use an overused term) life-changing for me.

And I recommend you try it.

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: planning

Running out of ideas?

January 17, 2024 by David M. Ward

If you ever have a difficult time coming up with ideas for your newsletter or blog or social media posts, I have a very simple solution for you. Not the only solution, of course. There are many sources of ideas. But when it’s crunch time and you’re looking at a blank page and a deadline, this should be your “go to”:

Find something you wrote (or said) before and write it (or say it) again.

You may notice that I do this all the time. In fact, the subject of this post is something I’ve written about more than a few times. I don’t feel guilty about that and (if you do it) neither should you. Because not only is it good for us to be able to repeat ourselves, it’s also good for our readers.

Here are 4 reasons:

Repetition is the mother of learning. Hearing an idea more than once helps the reader or listener understand and remember that idea.
Hearing that idea again may prompt the reader to actually do what they have learned but aren’t doing, or stopped doing.
Many subscribers or followers may not read what we have written. They were busy, didn’t think they needed the information, or didn’t open the email or visit your blog.
Many subscribers are new and never saw your article or post.

One more reason: the preeminence of fundamentals.

In my case, it’s much more important to remind you why you should prioritize referrals in your marketing, and tell you (again) how to get them, for example, than to tell you my latest strategy for keeping notes.

Okay, repetition for the win. But… a few guidelines:

Spread it out. Don’t write about the same idea 3 times this month, write about it 3 times this year.
Use (different) stories and examples to make your points, to keep it interesting and give your readers something different they might relate to and remember.
Vary the style and length of your articles and posts. One time, you might have a lengthy and comprehensive article, the next time you might rhapsodize about a portion of the same, or simply refer to the idea parenthetically as part of another article or post.

Finally, if you’re really in a pinch, it’s perfectly fine to write nothing new but simply copy and paste your old article as though it is new. (You may find this especially handy when you’re going on vacation).

Most readers won’t notice and those who do won’t care.

Email Marketing for Attorneys

Filed Under: Blogging, Newsletters

Does quantity lead to quality?

January 16, 2024 by David M. Ward

In the old days, when we sent out our newsletter via the postal service, every subscriber cost money. There was good reason to do our best to control the size of our “mailing” list by removing bad addresses and troublesome subscribers.

Today, in the digital world, there is virtually no such thing as “too big” or “too many”.

Almost.

There is still a cost to acquire and maintain our list, and while this is usually not prohibitive, we need to consider the cost of our time answering questions and building engagement, plus any additional costs for providing incentives for signing up e.g., a copy of your book, a free consultation.

Since we don’t sell chewing gum, for most lawyers, the added cost of maintaining a bigger list is usually worth it.

If you have 5000 subscribers, and it turns out that only 500 are good prospects and eventually hire you or refer a client, it doesn’t matter if 4500 aren’t interested, don’t have a case, can’t pay you, refer no one, or don’t even read your newsletter.

The cost of maintaining your newsletter is relatively insignificant compared to your potential return.

Besides, you never know when a “bad” prospect might become a good prospect, or meet someone who is.

Which is why, unless your list is extremely large and the costs of maintaining it are prohibitive, don’t worry about how much “dead wood” is on your list, or invest a lot of time or money to remove them.

However, if you want to “clean your list” and eliminate subscribers who are unlikely to become a client, here are a few ways to do that:

Narrow your focus. Don’t make your newsletter (blog, etc.) about “the law,” make it about your practice area(s). Don’t target “business owners,” target specific industries or professions.
Offer fewer freebies. Many, perhaps most, subscribers sign up primarily to get the bonuses you offer as an enticement to subscribe. Offer fewer bonuses, or tone down your rhetoric about the benefits thereof, and you’ll get fewer subscribers.
Make them “qualify”. Ask questions about their industry, problems, needs, or interests as part of the sign-up process. The more you ask, the fewer will subscribe.
Tell them how often they’ll hear from you. If you email once a week or daily and they think that’s too often, you’ll get fewer subscribers.
Periodically ask subscribers if they still want to continue getting your newsletter. Make them reply in the affirmative to continue getting it. Or, track your “opens” for a few weeks and remove the ones who aren’t reading your messages.

Conversely, and more importantly, if you want more folks on your list, do the opposite. Build your list as big as possible. Quantity does lead to quality.

Email Marketing for Attorneys

Filed Under: Newsletters

What makes your marketing go viral?

January 12, 2024 by David M. Ward

Good question. But I’m not sure anybody knows the answer.

Yes, the message (document, site, article, slogan, image, opinion, etc.) must be easy to share. And yes, it must be worthy of sharing. But what does that mean?

Interesting? Helpful? Weird? Funny (or fun?)

Should it feature something relevant to the recipient or could it just fall into the category of “human interest”?

I don’t know.

I just know that it happens, and when it does, it can get a lot of attention. Maybe that attention will lead to something good for the person who shared it. Or maybe it won’t.

Which is why I don’t think we should spend a lot of time trying to figure out what makes something go viral, or trying to light a fire to make that happen.

If it’s funny or interesting (enough) it will be shared. Organically. If it isn’t, there isn’t a lot we can do to be certain of that happening.

But what do I know?

One thing I do know is that if we have something we’d like to be shared (and potentially go viral), we should ask the people we share it with to share it.

Ask them to Like (and share) your post. Ask them to forward the link to your article. Ask them to tell people about your new seminar or new book.

But don’t just ask them to share, tell them with whom they should share it.

If you know any lawyers who practice xyz. . .

If you have any friends or followers who could benefit from abc…

If you know anyone who might find this interesting…

By limiting your request to a sub-set of everyone they know, you get the recipient to think about the people they know who fall into that sub-set, and that can stimulate more sharing.

On the other hand, it might not. Because what the hell do I know?

Do you know any lawyers who are into marketing? Please share this post with them. Maybe they can straighten me out . . .

Filed Under: Online Marketing

Approachable you?

January 11, 2024 by David M. Ward

Do you think your clients and prospects and professional contacts see you as friendly, open, and easy to talk to, or relatively impersonal or distant?

It makes a difference.

You don’t have to be everyone’s best friend, but the more likable and approachable you appear, the more likely it is that you will be approached.

You’ll get more prospects inquiring about your services, asking questions, making an appointment, and hiring you. You’ll get more people signing up for your newsletter, following you on social, and telling others about you.

When people meet you, read your newsletter or articles or your posts on social (by you or by others about you), when they read the “About” page on your website or your clients’ reviews, what do they think about you?

When you’re not in the room, how do you suppose they describe you?

Image is fundamental to the success of a professional because, to a great extent, it determines how comfortable people are about approaching and hiring you.

So, how do you appear to be approachable, especially if this doesn’t come naturally to you?

The simplest way to do it is to use a conversational tone in your writing, presentations, and conversations.

Don’t write in the third person or formally. Loosen up. Write (and speak) simply and plainly, as though you were speaking to a friend.

Well, almost. There is such a thing as being too informal, sharing too much personal information, and appearing less than professional.

Be professional, but friendly.

Get readers involved in the conversation. Ask what they think, what they have done, or what they want to know.

And don’t make everything about you. Tell stories about people you’ve helped, not just the outcomes but some of the process, so readers can see what it would be like working with you.

And smile. In your photos and in person.

Show the world you are approachable by showing them you are a real person, a nice one at that. The kind of person they would like to know even if they weren’t looking for an attorney.

Filed Under: Image

Bad breath

January 10, 2024 by David M. Ward

If a prospective client doesn’t connect with your presentation or sales material, if they don’t relate to your “style” or approach, if they don’t like what you’re saying or how you’re saying it, it will be difficult for you to convince them to take the next step.

Which is why you need to do whatever you can to speak to your prospects in a way they understand and accept.

To do that, you need to know as much about them as possible.

Before the presentation or conversation, do your homework. Research their industry or business, have them fill out a form on your website or in your waiting room, and ask lots of questions to learn about their background and experience, what’s important to them, and what isn’t.

You want to know how they found you, who referred them, how they know them, and what they told them about you.

You want to know the search terms they used to find you, what they read or listened to on your website or elsewhere, and what convinced them to make an appointment.

Watch their body language. Are they nodding, taking notes, watching and listening, or fidgeting in their seat and looking at the door?

Get them talking. Ask questions, see if they understand and accept what you’re saying.

Everyone has a different “buying” style. Some want you to lead with the big picture—the benefits, risks, the timetable, and cost. The details can come later.

Others want to know everything now.

Some want to get to know you before they listen to what you offer. They want to see that you understand them (not just their legal matter) and care about helping them, not just the work.

Some want just the facts. Some want to hear about other people you’ve helped. Some want to know what you do, some want to know how you do it.

Some want you to guide them in making a decision. Some want to have a conversation.

If you have a standard presentation and talk to every prospect the same way, you’ll get some who like your message and hire you on the spot, and some who don’t like you and tell you they have to think about it (but don’t).

Figure out what’s best for each prospective client—and give it to them.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Salesmanship