Copywriting 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

Sell your legal services in 60 seconds!

October 15, 2024 by David M. Ward

The world is awash in ads that sell products or services in 30 to 60 seconds.

Why can’t you do the same?

Why can’t you explain what you do and why someone should hire you in just one minute? In a TV or radio ad, on a web page, in a presentation, or face-to-face?

You can do that by sharing one to three benefits—the problem(s) you solve, the solutions you offer, and why the reader or listener should choose you as their attorney.

Yes, the person who hears your message will want more information. They’ll have questions, they may want to do so some research about their issue or about you, and you will almost always have to accommodate them.

But first, you need to get their attention and stimulate interest in learning more, and you can do that with a well-crafted 60-second commercial.

Not a paid ad, necessarily. You can do this with a conversation where you tell a prospect client (or someone who can refer them) WHY they should talk to you, go to your website, read your handout, or come to your seminar.

Start by making notes about the problems you solve, the services and benefits you offer and why a prospect should take the next step to learn more.

And pay attention to ads and presentations and web pages you see, to see how others do it and especially how they get your attention.

Then, talk to a marketing or advertising professional, see what they offer, and consider asking them to put together a “test” campaign for you.

If you’ve done your homework, you’ll have a good idea of what you want from them, and what you might be able to do yourself.

Filed Under: Advertising, Copywriting, Marketing legal services

Add these questions to your client intake form

August 19, 2024 by David M. Ward

By adding a few additional questions to your intake form your clients and prospects can help you improve your marketing.

Start with a few questions about where and how they found you.

Was it a referral? From who? How do they know them? What did they ask them? What did the referring party tell them about you or your firm?

Was it a search? What keywords, questions, or information did they use? Did they research their problem first or immediately search for an attorney? What did they find that prompted them to call?

Was it an ad? Where did they see it? What did they like about it? Did they see it more than once?

Did they find you via one of your articles or blog posts or presentations? What convinced them to take the next step?

You can ask them to fill out a form at their initial meeting but consider talking to them in person as you will get better answers, be able to ask follow-up questions, and assess their body language.

You’re not just looking for their responses, you want to note the words they use (and don’t use), their emotional context, and additional information they might supply about themself and their situation.

You want to know what potential clients think or do when they have a problem or desire, and what they do to find a lawyer who does what you do. You can use this information to improve your content—articles, presentations, emails, etc., improve your keywords and ad copy, and improve your conversations with prospective or new clients.

Pay attention to what they say and how they say it. One client might emphasize their concern about their injuries and damages; another might zero in on the amount of time they’re losing from work, a third might speak primarily about their pain and treatment.

It’s all important, but knowing what’s most important to your prospects and new clients can help you better relate to them and they to you.

Filed Under: Client relations, Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

Uncle!

June 14, 2024 by David M. Ward

In marketing legal services, we typically show people something they didn’t know or confirm something they thought they knew. We educate them about the law, the risks, the penalties, the options, and the benefits of taking action, i.e., hiring us.

Besides “telling,” we also persuade them by dramatizing what they know (or what we’ve just told them) by making the risks and penalties more formidable and urgent, and/or the benefits and relief more enticing.

We do the latter by providing more information, arguments, or examples, or agitating what we’ve told them by adding more fuel to the fire. Some copywriters call this “twisting the knife”.

We want them to feel more emotions, enough to tip the balance in favor of taking the next step. If they’re scared, that means scaring them more, but not so much that they shut down.

A little can go a long way.

The key is to talk about things they care about and make the threat or promise more likeable and believable.

The most important place to do that is in your headline or title. Show them you understand them and have something important for them, and they will be more likely to notice, click, and read your message.

In the body of your message, you continue to twist the knife.

Enough to make them cry ‘Uncle,’ but not enough to kill them.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services

Simple habits that will fix 97% of your problems

May 3, 2024 by David M. Ward

I stole the title of this post from a video that caught my attention. I’m sharing the headline with you as an example of a headline or title that works.

It works because it is bold and promises a valuable, albeit impossible sounding benefit. But even if I’m dubious about the headline’s promise, I’d still like to know what those habits are, wouldn’t you?

I’d like to know if I’m doing them and, if not, what it would take to start. And, if I already do them, is there a way I might do them better?

Effective titles promise a desirable benefit or make the reader curious about something that interests them. This headline does both.

But you don’t need to analyze every headline that makes you stop to get something out of them. Just note when something catches your eye, for whatever reason, because if it attracted you, it’s likely to do the same for others.

Sometimes, with modifications; sometimes, “as is”.

A headline that said, “3 simple habits that can fix up to one-third of your legal marketing problems” for example, would get your attention, wouldn’t it?

Pay attention to headlines and titles that speak to you. Collect them, learn from them, and repurpose them in your content.

Because the right headline, in the right context, will fix 97% of your legal marketing problems.

Filed Under: Copywriting

Compelling reasons to hire you

April 18, 2024 by David M. Ward

They need you. They want you. But that doesn’t mean they’re ready to hire you. A lot of things can get in the way between “interested” and “take my money”. It’s up to you to convince them to take the next step. Or more accurately, to provide them with sufficient facts and emotional appeals to enable them to convince themself.

For starters, that requires understanding their problem and how it affects them. Where is their pain? What do they fear? What is their objective and, if they don’t achieve it, what it will cost them and how will they feel?

If they don’t know this, you need to tell them. And provide examples of what happened to other people in their situation.

If they do know what can happen, tell them anyway, and invoke their emotions.

Remind them of the consequences and how bad things can get. And remind them that all is not lost, there are things you can do.

This may take a while. You should be prepared to tell them these things not once but repeatedly until they’re ready to act.

Vary your approach. One time, give them good news. Rainbows and furry animals. Next time, remind them that war is hell and paint a picture of the bloodshed that may ensure.

Use different examples and arguments. Bullet points and essays. The Yin and the Yang. If before you dispassionately told them “just the facts,” now you might get in their face with urgency and alarm.

And don’t stop. You can’t just send them a memo and expect that this will do the trick. You need to stay in touch with prospects (and clients), alternatively poking them and hugging them, and all the while, letting them know you’re ready to talk to them.

The words you use, your copywriting strategy, your tone, are all important. But nothing is as important as continually being “in their minds and mailboxes”.

This is where you hold an edge over your competitors. They may have a better track record or other reasons why someone should hire them, but most don’t stay in touch.

They don’t understand that marketing legal services is a process, not an event.

But you do. And that’s how you win.

Filed Under: Closing the sale, Copywriting

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

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

You can’t sell your services without answering three 3 questions

December 11, 2023 by David M. Ward

Prospective clients (and the people who refer them) won’t hire (or recommend) you unless you answer some fundamental questions about yourself and what you offer.

(1) Why should I give you any of my time?

I’m busy, I have problems and a life or business. Why should I download your report, watch your video, visit your website, or sign up for your webinar? Why should I listen to you or talk to you?

What will I learn? How will I be better off?

(2) Why should I hire you (now)?

What can an attorney do for me I can’t do myself?

What problems do you solve? What risks will you help me reduce? Why should I hire you now instead of waiting?

Will you save me money? Time? What other benefits will you help me get?

There are lots of attorneys who would like my business—why should I choose you? What do you do other attorneys don’t do? What do you do better or faster?

(3) Why should I trust you?

I don’t know you. I’ve been burned by attorneys in the past. Can you prove what you’re telling me?

What are your capabilities and experience? What resources do you have? What is your track record?

Do you have testimonials, reviews, endorsements, or awards attesting to your abilities and “service”?

When you address these questions in advance, you clarify need, increase trust, reduce objections, and get more prospective clients to hire you or take the next step.

Think of these questions as the agenda for all of your marketing and you won’t go wrong.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services, Salesmanship

Hope and opportunity

November 17, 2023 by David M. Ward

That’s really what you sell. Your legal services are merely a means to an end.

Clients want their problems to be fixed. They want to recover their losses and be protected against future harm. They want their pain to stop and the pleasure they seek to start.

And they want to know they have you by their side, fighting for them, defending them, advising them, and helping them achieve their goals.

Hope and opportunity. That’s why they hire you. And your presentations, articles, and conversations should feature these.

Clients aren’t especially interested in how you do what you do. They want to know that you can and will help them feel better and sleep better and be more prosperous. Clients choose you because of how you make them feel. They stay with you and tell others about you because of how you continue to make them feel.

In your marketing, talk mostly about the big picture, the benefits, and not so much about how you do what you do.

Other lawyers may point to their impressive track record, but clients will choose you because you did something those other lawyers didn’t do.

You made them feel good about themselves and their future.

Filed Under: Communication, Content creation, Copywriting, Marketing legal services