Consider the context

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Every time you send an email, talk to someone, conduct a presentation, or otherwise seek to persuade someone to do something, you can’t deliver your message and expect everyone who hears or reads it to hear the same message.  

Because they won’t. 

It depends on the context. Your reader or listener’s prior experience, their needs and wants, their perception of you, and other factors make a difference. 

Especially the actual words you say and when you say them. 

The latter is based on a phenomenon known as “the framing effect” which says that people’s perceptions and decisions are influenced by how and when the information is presented to them. 

A product may be more appealing, for example, if the price is framed as a discount rather than the regular price. Your client may see an offer to settle his claim as more acceptable if it is made after a series of lower offers. 

Consider the context in which the other person will receive your message. And modify your message to suit that context. 

Some people won’t decide without hearing more information. Others might be overwhelmed and shut down if you give them more. 

How do you know what to do? 

You have to know your client (prospect, opposition, etc.) Which is why it is better to target niche markets. 

And you need to pay attention. Because the other person’s response to your message will often tell you everything you need to know. 

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Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman

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Wouldn’t it be great if the first time you talked to a prospective client about your services they said, “Where do I sign up?” 

It would, but they don’t. 

They usually want more information. Maybe a lot more. And they want you to explain things in enough detail that they not only understand it, they see that your solution is their best solution. 

Because they don’t want to make a mistake.  

They will have questions. As you answer those questions, they’ll often think of more. 

Getting them from not knowing to knowing, and from knowing to doing (hiring you) is a process, and it usually takes time.

The prospective client needs you to explain things again, in different want, so they can understand everything. 

And, no matter how good you are at explaining, not everyone “gets” it as quickly as others. Especially with something complicated (like the law) and scary (like the law) and expensive (like the law). 

When you’re sitting with the prospect, you can take your time explaining things properly, ask questions to make sure they understand, show them the paperwork, read their body language, and answer all of their questions. You can take as long as they need.

And you no doubt do all that. But it’s a different story when you’re communicating with them online. 

Putting up more FAQ’s, videos, and other information can help. But sometimes, all that information overwhelms or confused them, leading them to conclude they’re not ready to do anything.  

What can you do?

The answer isn’t to wait until their problem gets worse and they’re in enough pain to finally call. The answer is to stay in touch with them, via email. 

Send more information. Send them the same information stated in different ways. Send them more examples, use cases, and stories about others who had what they have and found relief by hiring you, or found relief by speaking with you (and then hiring you).

Don’t do this once or twice. Do it over and over again, for as long as it takes, because you don’t know when (or if) they will be ready.

Let your newsletter do the heavy lifting. Until they’re ready for you to get on your white horse and save the day.

Email marketing for attorneys

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The simplest way to get more (of anything)

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You want new clients. Repeat business. Referrals.

You want more people making an appointment, booking you as the speaker at their event, posting a review, signing up for your list, or liking and sharing your post.

Bottom line, you want more people to do something.

The simplest way to accomplish that? Ask them again.

Because they forget. Or aren’t yet convinced. Or need to give themselves permission to spend the money.

If you don’t ask again, if your messages (email, calls, conversations) are “one and done“ you are missing out on as much as 50% of the sales or “yesses” to whatever it is you’re asking.

Maybe more.

I know you know this makes sense. I also know you might not want to do it, or do it as much as you could, because (a) you don’t want to appear needy or greedy, or, (b) annoy anyone.

But think about this:

If you have something valuable to offer, something people need and want and will benefit greatly from getting, you need to do everything you can to help them get it.

If you don’t, how will you feel if something happens to them that might have been prevented or mitigated if you had followed up?

This doesn’t mean you should pound on people to sign-up. Just remind them, respectfully, but repeatedly, and keep doing that until they get it.

And guess what? They want you to do this.

They want you to tell them again. Remind them of the benefits and/or what they’ll lose if they don’t take action.

They appreciate being reminded of an approaching deadline. They appreciate that you respect them enough to stick with them while they figure out how and when they can sign up.

Sometimes, they need to hear from you again before they’re convinced of the seriousness or urgency of your request or offer.

Assume they didn’t get your previous message or got busy with other things. Assume they need to hear more reasons, more examples, or what more people say about your services.

Because they do. If they didn’t, they (might have) signed up the first time they heard from you.

Follow-up is essential to building your practice. And you need to do it.

The only thing you have to figure out is how often.

But you don’t have to figure that out in advance. All you need to do is figure out the next follow-up, and put that on your calendar.

The easiest way to follow-up is with email

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Don’t start with why

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In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek says that most companies today focus their marketing on their product and how it works when instead they should share why they do what they do.

You may recall hearing this idea if you saw Sinek’s popular TED Talk that first explained it.

The rationale is that if your market knows the intention behind your business, and they relate to it, you’ll be better able to connect with prospects and win them over.

I don’t have a problem with that. Telling your market (consumers, prospective clients, influencers, referral sources) your “why” is a great way to differentiate yourself in a crowded market. Where I have an issue is with the idea of starting with it.

You and I and our partners need to know why we do what we do. Our why gets us out of bed in the morning and drives us to work hard to achieve our goals. Our clients might like to know why we do what we do but it’s not the best way to get their attention.

The way to do that is to start with benefits.

Prospective clients want to know how you can help them. How you can solve their problem or help them achieve a desired objective. Until you tell them this, they’re unlikely to be interested in your story.

Start by telling people what’s in it for them when they hire you. The benefits. Once you have their attention and they’re interested, you can tell them why you do what you do.

It’s true that some companies successful reverse this. They begin with a branding message that identifies their mission, how they intend to change the world in an important way. But this requires a lot of capital and expertise and they have to get a lot of things right to make it work.

It’s much easier for you and I to start with benefits.

Your story might ultimately get prospective clients to choose you instead of other lawyers who don’t have one. But first you have to get them to pay attention.

The Attorney Marketing Formula

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I was wrong

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You’re reading this because you want to know what I was wrong about and why I’m sharing my “confession” with you.

Mission accomplished.

Well, almost. I haven’t told you what I was wrong about, or why admitting you were wrong is a good way to connect with your readers.

It’s good because people see you don’t pretend to be infallible. You’re a real person, just like them.

Warts and all.

It makes you likeable. Someone they can trust.

Confession is good for the soul.

Maybe you trusted a friend and should have known better. Maybe you recommended a certain app to everyone and had to backtrack when you found out it has a security flaw. Maybe you predicted something would happen on the world stage and you were dead wrong.

Show your readers the real you. Warts and all.

But you have to be careful. You don’t want to admit you were wrong about something irretrievably tied to your core competency.

It’s okay to admit you once hired a secretary too hastily, and she stole from you. It’s not okay to admit you settled a certain case because you didn’t think you had enough experience to take it to trial.

Capice?

In addition to admitting to a mistake, you can also admit to a weakness or quirk, or share a personal experience that humanizes you.

Maybe you like cherry pie a little too much (me!). Maybe you took your daughter to ballet class and had to ask one of the moms to do up her hair (me!) Maybe your sense of humor gets you into trouble a little too often (me!)

The more embarrassing, or humorous, the better.

Admit a mistake or a weakness (that isn’t too weird) and your readers will love you for it. Unless you eat all the cherry pie and don’t leave any for them.

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Converting contacts into clients

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You have a list. Business contacts, subscribers, followers, and friends. People who read what you write and listen to you when you speak. People who know, like, and trust you, or are on their way to doing that.

Now what? How do you convert these folks into clients and income?

Sending them information is good. And easy. Write about their problems and the available solutions, about their market or industry, about your services, and about other topics that will be of interest or value to them.

Keep doing that but realize that they can get most of this information at the library, surfing the web, or following other lawyers.

To convert these folks into clients and referral sources, to people who send you traffic, to people who look forward to hearing from and make a point of sharing your information with others, you need more than just information.

You need connection.

You do this all the time offline. You can do it with your digital contacts.

There are two things you need to do.

First, you need to know the people on your list or in your market. Who are they, what they do, and what they want (and not just legally speaking).

What makes them tick?

Study your market. And talk to the people in it. What are they excited about? What keeps them up at night? What is it like to walk in their shoes?

Because understanding is the first step towards connecting.

The second thing you need to do? You need to allow them to get to know you.

That means opening up about your personal life. Not everything, but something. Your life outside of work, your family, what you do for fun.

Let down your guard a bit and show people your human side.

Flaws and mistakes and struggles included.

Because that’s what people relate to. That’s what people will like and come to trust.

You don’t have to be an open book. Confess all your sins. A few details go a long way.

Do you have any photos or memorabilia in your office? Things visitors notice and ask about? Do you ever brag about your child hitting a home run in the big game? Do you ever talk about a tough case and how you (eventually) won it? A mistake in judgement you once made and the lesson it taught you?

In your newsletter, talk about the kinds of things you talk about in person. Let people see you’re just like them and they’re just like you.

That’s how you connect. And convert contacts into clients.

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The problem with story telling

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I once had a client who asked me to. . .

Yeah, a story.

You probably want to hear how it goes. But I’m not going to tell you that story right now, I’m going to give you some advice about story telling.

My first piece of advice is to do it. Put stories in your articles and presentations and conversations.

People love a good story, which means they’ll be more likely to read or listen to you when you tell one. They’ll be more likely to understand and remember your story, more than your other words, and remember you as the one who shared it with them.

Facts tell. Stories sell.

Second, talk about people your reader will relate to, and tell them three things:

What did they want? What did they do? What happened?

The essence of every story ever told.

Third, use “The Goldilocks Rule”: Not too much, not too little, just right.

People love stories, but they don’t have time to read them when they are impossibly long or there are too many in your emails or blog posts.

If they wanted to read a book, they’d read a book.

Which is why most of my emails and blog posts are short and sweet and yours should be, too.

The good news is that you can tell a good story in a few sentences.

Like the time a friend asked me to sign a letter she had written to her landlord, with my name and address typed at the top and filled with typos, and when I refused and told her I would write the letter, on my letterhead, she was hurt and thought I just wanted to ‘make money off her’.

One sentence.

I need one more sentence to tell you ‘what happened’.

What happened is she dropped the subject but never forgot that I ‘refused to help her’ (the way she wanted) and our friendship was never the same after that.

Stories don’t always have a happy ending.

Anyway, I’m done telling that story. I’ve got another one to tell you, but that will have to wait until next time.

If you related to my story, maybe remembered a time a friend or client asked you to do something you didn’t want to do, I’m pretty sure you’ll come back to hear another.

Which is what your readers will do when you tell them stories. But not too many or too long.

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Not many lawyers own their niche

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Wouldn’t it be nice to be the top dog in your niche? The lawyer clients listen to and want to hire above all others?

If you do, you should set your sights on doing something most lawyers never do.

Most lawyers are content with positioning themselves as an expert in their field. But every lawyer is an “expert,“ aren’t they?

The trouble is, people follow leaders, not experts. If you want to dominate your field, you need to lead your field.

How do you do that?

You do things leaders do. You speak and write and serve on boards and panels. You teach other lawyers (CLE) and are on a first name basis with influential people in your field and in your market.

And you build a reputation that attracts lots of referrals from lawyers and other professionals who know your name even if you don’t know theirs.

You should be working towards this, but it might take a minute. If you want to shortcut the process and be seen as a leader before the twilight of your career, there is something else you can do.

You can engage with your market and get them to know your name and what you can do to help them.

Email isn’t the only way to do that, but it is the simplest. It makes it easy to connect with prospective clients and professionals in your niche, and do it often.

When you are frequently “in the minds and mailboxes” of the people in your market, they get to know you and see you as a leader. Maybe ‘the’ leader.

Most lawyers are afraid to do this. They don’t email often because they don’t want to annoy their list or get spam complaints, or they’re afraid they’ll run out of things to say.

But those are just excuses.

You may say there are many lawyers at the top of their field who don’t communicate regularly with their market, and that’s true. But what did they do to get there? And how long did it take?

If you don’t have some of the advantages they had, or you don’t want to take as long as they did, start thinking about how you can get in front of your market as often as possible to establish your leadership immediately.

Email Marketing for Attorneys makes it easy

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Don’t show your clients how the sausage is made

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The law is complicated. Your clients hire you because they believe you can wade through that complexity and do things for them they can’t do for themselves.

Most lawyers are adept at making things more complicated than they need to be. And they make a lot of money doing that. But the lawyers who are adept at simplifying things do even better.

Your clients are busy. They’re scared or confused or have other things on their mind. They want to know that you will take care of them. Get the job done. They don’t want to know everything about how you do what you do.

Just like you don’t want to know how your car works, you just want to know that it does.

So, simplify things for them. Explain only as much as they need to know, and no more (unless they ask).

That goes for your bill, too.

Explain what you did, clearly and thoroughly, but keep it simple. Itemize your bill, but don’t bludgeon them with details.

They’re paying you to deliver a delicious sausage sandwich. Tell them the ingredients, but don’t show them how the sausage is made.

How to write a bill that gets paid

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How to make the law interesting to lay people

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When you write or speak about the law to a lay audience, you have several objectives:

  • You want them to understand their problem, their risks, and their options
  • You want them to know why they should talk to a lawyer
  • You want them to see why the lawyer they should talk to (and hire) should be you
  • You want to inspire them to take the next step

Before you can do any of that, you have to get them to read or listen. You have to get their attention with your headline or title, and make your article or presentation interesting enough to compel them to take that next step.

Here are some guidelines for creating more interesting articles and presentations:

  • Talk about people more than concepts
  • Talk about cure more than prevention
  • Talk about benefits more than features
  • Talk less about the law and more about “what this means to you”
  • Don’t warm up; get to the point and stay there
  • Assume they don’t know much; don’t assume they know nothing
  • Talk to them, don’t lecture them; ask questions to bring them into the “conversation”
  • More show, less tell; use examples and analogies that are familiar to your audience
  • Get them to feel something; use dramatic stories
  • Minimize and/or explain jargon
  • Don’t write about history or precedent unless necessary
  • Don’t tell them everything; be thorough but not dispositive

How do you know you’ve done it right?

Your audience will ask questions or make an appointment or go to your blog and read more.

Watch your email, your phone, your stats, and your bank account. If your content is interesting, your numbers are growing.

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