Communication Archives - The Attorney Marketing Center

The most important part of your marketing message

November 4, 2024 by David M. Ward

Marketing experts advise you to tell your prospective client, reader or listener, what to do.

Tell them to call and ask for an appointment. Tell them to click, download, read, or watch, tell them to sign up, and you should. Telling people what to do makes it more likely they will do it, and more likely, therefore, that you will get a new case or client, subscriber or follower.

Don’t leave it for them to figure out what to do; tell them. And tell them why.

What are the benefits of doing what you’re asking? How will they be better off? What will they learn or get or be able to do?

Telling them what to do is important. Telling them why is the most important part of your message.

People do things for a reason. A benefit they want or need. Just as you shouldn’t leave it up to them to figure out what to do, you shouldn’t leave it to them to figure out why.

Even if it’s obvious, tell them anyway. Tell them that getting your information or advice might help them avoid an expensive lawsuit, for example. Or that hiring you might be the quickest and best way to make their painful problem go away.

Talk about their legal problem and their pain. Because people will do more (and pay more) to solve a painful problem or difficult situation than they will do or pay to prevent one.

Tell people what to do and why. Especially if “why” means the end of their painful problem.

Filed Under: Advertising, Communication, Copywriting

Transparency is overrated

August 2, 2024 by David M. Ward

Prospective clients, people who read your articles or listen to your presentations, want to know what you do and how you can help them.

Tell them what, not how.

It’s okay to speak about your process in general terms. A few words about how you’re different and better. But keep the details to yourself.

It’s your intellectual property and you don’t need to share it.

What about paying clients? Aren’t they entitled to know?

Not really. They’re paying for your efforts and results, not your methods. So don’t tell them “how” unless you want to.

In your next article, blog post, or presentation, give folks the big picture, get them excited about the results you can get for them, but just as the magician doesn’t share their secrets, you shouldn’t share yours.

As author William Zinsser put it, “Readers should always feel that you know more about your subject than you’ve put in writing.”

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Presentations, Writing

Invert your pyramids

July 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

Some prospective clients want to immediately know everything about what you can do to help them. All the details, the entire process, and as much proof as you can provide.

Others don’t.

When they first encounter you, most people simply want to know if you have something to say they want to hear. If looks like too much work to find out, they often don’t stick around.

One solution is to write shorter pieces so visitors can see at a glance what you have for them.

For longer pieces, the simplest thing to do is to fashion your marketing documents and website content with an inverted pyramid. Newspapers used a journalistic style to do this, with the most important information at the top, followed by increasingly less important details.

Use a headline to capture attention and give readers the big picture and follow that with the “Five Ws” (who, what, when, where, why) in descending order of importance. This way, the passing reader can quickly get the gist of your message and move on if they aren’t interested, while others, with more interest in your subject, and more time, can continue reading and learn more.

In the digital age, you have other options than they did in the 1800s when the inverted pyramid structure was first used. You can link to additional pages, use call-outs, charts, photos, and other visuals such as larger or colored fonts, and other graphic flourishes, to call attention to elements you want to emphasize, “hide” others from immediate view (and link to them), or “stage” how and when certain information is delivered to the reader.

Pay attention to how bloggers and online publishers make it easier for their readers to consume their content and emulate them.

No matter what you do, if you want more people to read your words and decide they want to talk to you about representing them, follow this rule of thumb: don’t tell them everything at once.

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

It’s easy to mess this up (and easy to fix)

July 18, 2024 by David M. Ward

Look at the multitude of emails in your inbox. Without opening each email, can you tell who sent it?

If you recognize the name of the sender, or other identifying information appears in the “subject,” you probably do. If you don’t, what do you do?

Do you open the email and read it to find out who sent it? Do you delete it? Or mark it as SPAM and then delete it?

Ah, but if you delete it, you might miss something important. If you mark it as spam, this will hurt the sender’s “reputation” in the eyes of email service providers, and affect their email deliverability rate.

Why should you care? Because the same thing can happen to you if you do the same things they do.

Recently, I signed up for a newsletter from a reputable company I wanted to hear from. I got their welcome email, followed by several follow-ups.

So far, so good.

Then I got an email from the same company, but the “sender” was a different person. I didn’t recognize their name and deleted it.

A few days later, I got another email from someone else at the company whose name I also didn’t recognize.

And this continues.

It’s annoying and I’m “this close” to unsubscribing, in which case, everyone loses.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Send your email to clients, prospects, subscribers, and colleagues with your name as the sender. Not your firm’s name, not the name of someone else in the firm.

You.

Recipients see your name, recognize it, and let you into their inner sanctum (if they deem you worthy).

Problem solved.

Email is a personal medium. A sender and a recipient. And through that process, a relationship begins. As you nurture that relationship, it gets stronger, providing your recipient with additional value and information, eventually leading to new business for you.

If you send your email from different names, people get confused about who’s contacting them and that relationship often never develops.

Make it easier on yourself and your recipients by sticking with one sender’s name. Ideally, yours.

Email marketing for attorneys

Filed Under: Communication, Email, Newsletters

Long time no see. Let’s fix that.

July 15, 2024 by David M. Ward

Your best clients, closest friends, strongest business contacts, people who know, like, and trust you and with whom you communicate most—your “strong ties”—are often your primary source of referrals and opportunities to grow your business.

What about everyone else?

What about former clients and business contacts you haven’t spoken to in a long time? People who know your name but aren’t now actively involved in your life? Experts say these are your “weak ties” and if you’ve been around for more than a few years, there are far more of them than your weak ties.

And they represent a potential bonanza of business and prosperity for you.

They can provide you with valuable information about your (their) market, introduce you to people you’d like to know, send traffic to your website, promote your content and events, provide you with a testimonial or endorsement, and otherwise help your practice grow.

But their value isn’t so much what they can do for you, it is how easy it is for you to get them to do it.

You don’t have to spend time or money to identify them, and meet and get to know them. You just have to reconnect with them. You don’t have to win their trust, you just have to kindle it.

And it can be as simple as digging out their contact information, reaching out and saying hello.

Is that it? Just call or write and say hello?

Yes.

Acknowledge the passage of time, ask how they’re doing, and wish them well

You can do more. You can also send them something, perhaps an article you found (or wrote) and thought might interest them. You can offer to meet and buy coffee or lunch, or invite them to your upcoming event. Or find out what they need or want and help them get it.

What’s next? Perhaps you’ll get together with them and continue the conversation. Or invite them to sign up for your newsletter so you can keep in touch. Or simply calendaring a few months and contact them again.

You might not need to do anything else.

How about contacting them and finding out?

Filed Under: Communication, Increase your income, Relationship marketing

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

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

Too long; didn’t read

April 16, 2024 by David M. Ward

Lawyers tend to write articles and documents and memos and cover letters and emails… that are too long. They seek completeness and accuracy and to persuade someone of something, but often wind up doing anything but. Their writing is often long-winded, repetitive, boring, and ultimately persuades no one.

Search engines favor longer articles. But to be effective, they have to be well written. If they are, in terms of sales, long copy usually pulls better than short copy.

What can you do? Learn how to write long copy effectively or hire someone to do it for you. One takes time and practice, the other takes money and the good sense to invest it.

But that’s not the end of the story.

Yes, write long when you’re selling something (your services) or want to make love to Miss Google. But it’s okay to write short copy in your blog or newsletter, on social, in email, and for other purposes. In fact, it is often the best thing you can do.

Writing shorter pieces allows you to write more often. Your audience hears from you more frequently and is more likely to read what you wrote. That gives you more opportunities to “speak” to them and remind them about what you do and how you can help them.

You’re able to be in their minds and mailboxes more often, leading to more new clients and legal work for you.

This is a short message. If you got this far, it means you read it. We connected. That’s good.

Something else. Not only does writing longer articles mean you connect with your audience less frequently, your readers often save those longer articles to “read later” and we all know that later often never comes.

Yes, they do see that you emailed them again or published another post and that has value even if they don’t read your message. But it’s better if they do.

Ultimately, the best thing to do is to write both long and short articles, posts, and emails, and let each do their job.

How to start and write an effective email newsletter

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Writing

How do you know what prospective clients really want?

April 11, 2024 by David M. Ward

Sure, you can ask them. During a meeting or consultation or over coffee. You can also look at their website or blog, read their book, listen to their presentation or interviews, or send them a survey or questionnaire.

The problem is, people often don’t tell us what they really think or want.

Some don’t know what’s possible or have trouble articulating what they need
Some tell you what they think makes them look intelligent, more successful, or a better person
Some tell you what they think you want to hear
And some play everything close to the vest and don’t tell you much of anything

If you really want to know what people want, we’re told to watch what they do. What do they purchase, who do they hire, what do they invest in? But even this can be misleading or give you an incomplete picture.

One of the best places to find out what prospective clients really want is to watch what they do on social media.

See what they talk about, comment about, or ask. See what they’re excited about or complain about. Yes, there is a lot of pretending on social, but people often get emotional about things they want or don’t want, let down their guard and reveal what’s really on their mind.

But perhaps the best way to find out what prospective clients really want, and one of the simplest, is to talk to the person who referred them to you. There’s a good chance they know.

Which is yet another reason why you should prioritize referrals as a source of new business.

How to get more referrals from your clients

Filed Under: Communication, Referrals

Tell ‘em about the client who said no

April 9, 2024 by David M. Ward

Or waited too long to say yes and got burned. Or hired a lawyer with less experience and lost the case. Or didn’t follow your advice and had to spend thousands more to have you fix it.

Your words of warning or advice might go in one ear and out the other. So don’t just tell them, show them. Paint a picture in their mind, visually depicting what happened to other clients.

For example, if you have a client or prospect who says, “I need to think it over,” you might respond with something like this:

“I had a client say the same thing to me, but unfortunately, he didn’t ‘think it over’. Now, every time he opens his mailbox, a pile of collection letters falls out. Two weeks ago, Sherrif’s deputies knocked on his door and served him another lawsuit, and last week, his car was repossessed. Now, he has to ask his brother-in-law to drive him to work.”

Word pictures show people what’s at stake and give them a mental image that won’t let them forget it.

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting