It’s Better to Be Different than It Is to Be Better

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In marketing, we often hear that we need to be better than our competition and if we can’t be better, be different. One expert says being different is actually better than being better.

Tsufit (that’s her full name) was an attorney who started a second career as an entertainer. Today, she helps professionals develop their personal brand. She says, “It’s better to be different than it is to be better. If you focus on creating differences and distinctions between you and everyone else, you don’t have to focus on boasting or showing that you’re better.”

Tsufit says that in building your brand, you don’t want to come across as too perfect. “Drop the excessive professionalism and simply be yourself,” she says. Showing your vulnerabilities makes you more credible, she says.

Tsufit also says that the biggest mistake in personal branding is “not standing for anything, not having a slice of the market that is yours and yours alone.” “If you say you’re for anybody, you’re really for nobody because there’s no way to find you among the sea of other people who do what you do.”

Wise words from someone who has obviously followed her own advice. You can read more about her in this profile.

If you want to know how to be different, get The Attorney Marketing Formula

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WTF: Cussing in email, blogs

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Last week I got an email from a subscriber who disapproved of my use of the word “bastard” in a blog post. He referred to it as a “strong cuss word” and thought I should refrain from using such terms.

That surprised me. I don’t consider that a strong cuss word. I’m not even sure it’s a cuss word anymore, at least in most circles.

I think I monitor my language pretty well. I don’t use four letter words in my posts and emails. But coarse language does have its place in communication. If used appropriately and not overdone, it can add color and contour to our writing and speech.

So, at the risk of pissing off some of my subscribers (oops), I don’t plan to change anything.

On the other hand. . .

If most of my subscribers told me they didn’t approve of my language, I would be foolish not to listen. If you want to stay in business, you have to pay attention to your market.

But you can’t listen to everyone who is unhappy with something you said.

At the end of the day, you have to be yourself. You will attract people who like you “as is”. They may not like everything you say, but if they read something that bothers their sense of propriety, you have to assume they will let it go. If they don’t, it’s their loss, not yours.

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Business cards and attorney websites

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Awhile back I wrote a report about business cards–what should go on them, how to use them, that sort of thing. A few attorneys who read the report asked me whether they should put their photo on their business card as they had seen real estate agents and others do. They wanted people to remember their face after a networking event, for example, but thought that kind of card might be unprofessional, especially in court.

I pointed out that they could have more than one card. They could have a plain, traditional card to give to lawyers and judges, and a card with their photo, a slogan, a list of practice areas, and anything else they might want, to give to others.

They could have several cards, in fact, each one tailored for a specific target market. If they ride a motorcycle, for example, and want to target bikers for their personal injury practice, they could have a card that shows them riding.

What’s true of business cards is also true for attorney websites.

You don’t have to limit yourself to one website.

Your could have a main website (or page on your firm’s website) that is plain and professional, to show lawyers and judges, and other websites for other purposes. You can have websites with content optimized for different keywords. You can have websites for different practice areas or different niche markets. You can have a personal blog, where you write about your personal life, causes, and hobbies.

You can have more than one business card, more than one brochure, more than one youtube channel, and more than one website.

The most effective marketing is targeted marketing. The more focused and specific you are, the more your message will resonate with a specific market.

If you want to learn more about attorney websites and Internet marketing, get this.

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Stop giving clients what they pay for

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Do you give your clients fair value? In other words, if they pay you 00, do you give them 00 worth of legal services?

If your answer is yes, stop it. Stop giving clients what they pay for and start giving them more.

Lou Vickery said, “Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more. They did all that was expected of them and a little bit more.”

When you give clients a little bit more than they pay for, more than they expect and more than they may even deserve, you really do stand out. Most attorneys don’t give more. And many attorneys give less. At least that’s what the public perceives, otherwise attorneys wouldn’t continually be described as expensive.

Have you ever been to Five Guys Burgers and Fries? When you order any size of fries (great fries, by the way), you get waaay more than you pay for. At least it seems that way because there are more fries in the bag that have spilled over from the cup than there are in the cup.

Their fries aren’t cheap. In fact, compared to other fast food places, one might say they are expensive. But because they give you more than you expect, and because they are really great tasting fries, you come away feeling good about the experience.

Stop giving clients what they pay for and start giving them a little bit more.

Marketing is easy when you know what to do. Here’s the Formula.

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Sharing personal information online

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Look at your website and social media profiles. Are you sharing personal information online? You should be.

No, don’t be reckless. But don’t hide everything about your personal life, either.

Prospective clients, referral sources, and other people who find you online want to know what you are like. You, not your practice. What kind of a person are you? What motivates you? What do you do for fun?

People prefer to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Personal details help people get to know you, like you, and trust you. A few details about your personal life can give them a sense of what it would be like work with you.

Your photo is a must. They need to see what you look like.

Post a few details about your background, hobbies, or outside interests. Tell them a story that illustrates what’s important to you, perhaps why you went to law school or how you were affected by a particular case.

Personal information can also give people reasons to like you. You like country music. You grew up in a small town. You like to cook. When a prospective client sees that and thinks, “me too!” they connect with you.

But even if they don’t share your background or personal interests, they can appreciate that you are a well rounded and passionate human being, not just a legal technician.

Share a few details about your personal life, but not too many. Too much information can work against you.

You may enjoy playing Words With Friends, but if you tell people you have 32 games going, they may think you are weird or not serious about your work.

Don’t talk about your sex life, dating life or health problems. Do talk about your kids, your family vacation, and your love of sports.

Avoid politics and religion, unless you are marketing to people who share your politics or religion and you don’t care about losing everyone else.

It’s okay to mention that you like to have a glass of wine with dinner. Don’t talk about sleeping it off on a friend’s sofa.

Humor is tricky. If it is in good taste and truly funny, it’s a good thing. Too much of a good thing can make you look unprofessional.

Sharing personal information online or with your clients and professional contacts will bring you more business. You may want clients to hire you because you’re really good at what you do but if they hire you because they like your smile or you went to the same college, that’s okay, isn’t it?

Learn more about sharing personal information online in Make the Phone Ring.

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The secret to success in the courtroom, boardroom, and new car showroom

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If you want to win more trials, negotiate better deals, and make lots of money so you can buy new cars, the secret has just been revealed.

According to a study of over a billion Tweets during sporting events, being confident makes you more popular than being right. “The more opinionated [the tweeters] were, the more influential and trustworthy they were perceived to be,” the study found.

I’m not surprised. People are attracted to confident people. They listen to them and want to follow them.

I am a little surprised, however, by the researcher’s correlation of “loud” and “confident”. “Despite professional pundits and amateur fans making a similar amount of correct and incorrect predictions, the tweeters who ‘yelled’ louder were seen as more trustworthy and had more followers,” they said.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear people “shouting,” I see it as a lack of confidence. When you have the facts on your side, you don’t need to shout. But maybe that’s not true on Twitter where you have to make noise so you can be heard above the incessant chatter.

In the real world, I have occasionally raised my voice slightly to emphasize a point in a negotiation or in oral argument. It is done sparingly and it is very brief, no more than a word or two. Mostly, I rely on a calm and sober recitation of the facts. I’ll bet you do, too.

Maybe that’s why many attorneys aren’t loving social media. We’re too self-conscious. We want to win friends and influence people but we don’t want to shout to do it.

Fortunately, there is another way to be popular on social media. According to another study, referenced on the same page, “Twitter users who posted positive, easy-to-read messages that contained news and other factual information, gained 30 times more followers than grumpy, self-centred [sic] tweeters.”

So, if you want more friends and followers, and you want to win more arguments and more trials, be confident, stay positive, and share valuable information. And if you are inclined to shout, make sure it’s not about you.

Want to attract more good clients? Click here to learn how.

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Yahoo buys Tumblr, promises “not to screw it up”

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So Yahoo buys Tumblr, the micro blogging platform for 1.1 billion and then announce that they “promise not to screw it up“.

That’s inspiring, isn’t it?

It says, “yeah, we know we’ve messed up before, but we’re going to try real hard not to do that again.”

I know, they want to assuage the fears of some 100 million customers they seem to know won’t be happy about the acquisition. But from a marketing standpoint, “we won’t screw it up” is not a good message.

Why call attention to your past screw ups? Why tell the world what you won’t do?

Can you imagine an attorney getting a big case and issuing a press release that says, “I won’t lose this one”.

Tell the world what you will do, not what you won’t. Tell the world where you are going, so they can see why they should follow.

Apparently, more than a few Tumblr customers don’t believe the promise and have migrated their blogs from Tumblr to WordPress.com. But while WordPress.com might have a track record of “not screwing up,” customers who depend on their blogs for business purposes should avoid the hosted WordPress.com and opt for WordPress.org, the self-hosted, open-source version that I and millions of other websites use.

With the recent demise of Posterous, millions of people found out the hard way what happens when your hosted website shuts down.

But shutting down the service that hosts your business website is only one of the ways a host can “screw up”. If Yahoo/Tumblr, WordPress.com, Blogger, or any of the other hosted platforms change something, customers have to live with those changes, even if they don’t like them. If they want to do something that isn’t allowed, they’re also out of luck.

I use WordPress.org because it is the best software for the job. I host it myself because I want complete control over what I can and can’t do.

And I promised myself I won’t screw it up.

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What does your law firm voicemail message say about you?

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When someone gets your law firm voicemail, what they hear (or don’t hear) can be the difference between them leaving a message and dialing the next attorney on the list. First impressions are sometimes last impressions.

I returned a call from an attorney the other day and got his voicemail. Did I hear a business-like message for his law office? No. I heard an electronic voice telling me the person I was calling was unavailable, meaning he had not recorded a personal voicemail message. I wasn’t sure I had reached the right person and had to double check the number. I left a message, but had that uneasy feeling you get when you’re not sure if you’re speaking to the right person.

Granted, I may have been calling his personal cell, not his office, but still, it didn’t make a good impression.

If someone gets your law firm voicemail, it should tell them the name of your firm, so the caller knows they have reached the right number, your office hours, and invite them to leave a message. If appropriate for your practice, it should also state what to do after hours or in an emergency.

The message should be recorded by someone other than you and should be warm and business like. The caller should come away with the impression that you are professionals who pay attention to detail.

If someone calls your direct line, or cell, you should record a similar message. At least state your name, so the caller knows they have reached the right person.

One more thing. Listen to your message after you record it. Make sure there are no background noises. Messages that were obviously recorded in your car are not professional. And make sure you sound like you care. If you sound bored, distracted, or rushed, you’re telling callers they aren’t important.

My best tip: stand up and smile when you record your message.

Now, excuse me while I go listen to my voicemail.

Marketing legal services made simple: The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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The only good lawyer is a dead lawyer

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In case you haven’t noticed, a lot of people don’t like lawyers. Hey, a lot of lawyers don’t like lawyers.

But why?

Because we help bad people get away with bad things? Because we’re mean? Because we earn a lot of money for doing nothing?

I guess there are lots of reasons. Most of which we can’t do anything about. But there’s one reason we can do something about.

A lot of people say they don’t like lawyers because we can’t be trusted. We lie. We don’t keep our promises. We say one thing and do another.

A lot of people think this. As long as they do, the legal profession will continue to be looked down upon and lawyers will have a harder time winning our clients’ trust.

What can we do about it? We can start by making sure we always keep our promises.

The other day I had a phone appointment with a lawyer. I called at the scheduled time, as we had arranged. The lawyer was “in with a client”. I was told the lawyer would call me back.

But he didn’t.

An appointment is a promise. Two people agree to meet or talk and they schedule it in their calendar. When someone doesn’t show up, they break that promise.

So, here’s the thing. If you want people to trust you, you have to do what you say you’re going to do. If you have an appointment, you keep it. If you say you’re going to call someone or you say you’re going to do something, you do it.

There is no gray area. There is no best efforts. As Yoda says, “Do, or do not. There is no try.”

If there is an emergency, okay, people understand. But you’ve got to tell them.

If you need to re-schedule, okay, that happens a lot. But you’re got to tell them.

Otherwise, they think, “flake”. “Doesn’t keep promises”. “Can’t be trusted”.

And people don’t want to hire lawyers that can’t be trusted.

Have you noticed how a lot of Texans who use the word “lawyer” intentionally pronounce it “liar”?

Now we know why.

If you want to learn more ways to build trust, get this.

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