Marketing legal services Archives - The Attorney Marketing Center

Maybe it’s time to put your marketing on a diet

March 6, 2025 by David M. Ward

Have you ever found marketing overwhelming? You don’t know what to do, what to change, and what else you add to improve your results?

Of course you have.

One way to sort things out is to put your marketing on a diet. Specifically, an “elimination diet”.

In the dietary world, an elimination diet is “a short-term eating plan that removes certain foods that may cause allergies or digestive reactions, then introduces them one at a time to determine which foods are well-tolerated and which are not.”

With your practice, you stop some or all (elimination) of your marketing, add things back one at a time, and measure your results.

What’s working? How much time does each strategy take? What are your expenses and your return on investment?

And which strategies feel right and come naturally to you, compared with others that you have to force yourself to do?

You may find that some things you’ve been doing are too expensive (e.g., certain ads) or time consuming (e.g., networking). You may find that some things work better than you thought and you should expand them, or realize that adding more follow-ups or changing the order of the follow-up messages might improve results.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking you don’t want to stop doing things that are working, and that’s fine. Keep them and eliminate the things that aren’t.

Or, the things you don’t like or aren’t good at.

If you eliminate something and have second thoughts, or find you have more time to implement them, you can always re-start them.

This process gets you thinking about what you’re doing instead of working on autopilot and allows you to make better decisions.

Which leads to better results.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

How to get more testimonials (and why you should)

March 4, 2025 by David M. Ward

Testimonials for your services help you sell more of them. Prospective clients read your web page, email, or ad, learn all about your services and offer, and are interested.

But they’re not sure. There are many other lawyers and firms who do what you do. How do they decide who to choose?

They look at what your other clients have said about you.

Other than a direct referral, nothing makes a stronger case for choosing you than testimonials.

Problem is, testimonials rarely show up on their own accord. You have to ask for them because people are busy and don’t think about testimonials, or don’t think you want or need them.

But many will provide them if you ask.

When a client thanks you for getting them a good outcome on their case, or says something nice about you or your staff, that’s a good time to ask.

Be direct: “That’s so good to hear. Would you mind if I mention that on my website?”

If they hesitate, tell them you won’t use their name, just their initials or first name and last initial. It’s not nearly as good as their full name (and photo, city, company) but better than no testimonial.

Much better.

If a client praises you or thanks you via email, or posts it on social media, ask if you can use a screen shot (and blot out their name and email address).

One of the simplest and most effective ways to prompt your clients to supply testimonials is to survey them. You can give survey forms to clients at the end of their case, mail them, or post them online and link to them in your newsletter.

If you do seminars, pass out surveys or evaluations at the end. Attendees aren’t recommending your services, but that’s okay. They’re recommending the quality of the information you provided, and describing your thoroughness and personality.

Prospective clients would like to hear that.

If you’ve published a book related to your practice, look at the (good) reviews. These are public and you can screen shot them and use them, (but it’s best to ask for permission).

Another way to prompt for testimonials is to ask clients if they will recommend your firm to friends or business contacts. Thank them, give them some business cards to pass out and ask what they will say about you. Write that down and ask if you can mention that in your marketing.

When you have several testimonials in hand, package them up and send them to clients, subscribers, and prospects, and mention how much you appreciate hearing these great comments.

Your satisfied clients, your subscribers and social media followers, appreciate your work and are willing to provide testimonials.

All you have to do is ask.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: testimonials

If you want more clients, read this NOW!

February 27, 2025 by David M. Ward

Effective marketing of legal services, or anything else, does 3 things:

It gets the prospect’s attention and stimulates DESIRE for something they want, a benefit, and sets the stage for taking the next step.
It tells them what to do—the ACTION you want them to take. You want your prospects to call, fill out a form, email, subscribe, watch a video, read something, or take some other action.
It tells them WHEN to do it. Ideally, you want them to do it NOW. “Immediately, if not sooner,” as my grandfather used to say. Tell your reader or listener to take immediate action, or as soon as possible, because people are busy and think they’ll do it later, but of course, “later” never comes.

The title of this post told you to read it now and gave you a good reason, i.e. to get more clients. Since you’re reading these words, it did its job.

It got attention, stimulated desire, and prompted you to take action. Three keys to effective marketing.

Write these down (now, so you don’t forget) and use them in all aspects of your marketing.

Unless you’re not interested in getting more clients.

Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services

3 questions that can increase your income

February 25, 2025 by David M. Ward

Why do clients choose you instead of any other attorney? You need to know.

What’s important to them? Why did they search and find your listing or profile? Why did they hire you?

In short, what is their motivation?

The more you know about their motivation, the better able you’ll be to improve your marketing message and appeal to your ideal client.

Fortunately, you can figure out most of this out by asking just three questions:

What outcomes are prospective clients looking for?
What is their top priority in choosing an attorney or firm? (Experience, size, resources, accomplishments, location, recommendation or referral, fees, etc.)
Have they hired attorneys before and what was their experience with them?

Talk to or survey current and former clients and ask them. When a prospect contacts you, see if you can deduce the answers to these questions through their questions and comments, or just ask them.

Demographics (age range, location, income level, etc.) can help you target the right prospects (and avoid the wrong ones). But to get those prospects to call, make and keep an appointment, and hire you, you need to know their motivation.

The Attorney Marketing Formula

Filed Under: Communication, Copywriting, Marketing legal services

Your perfect client

February 18, 2025 by David M. Ward

I can’t tell you what type of client is right for you and your practice. But you should be able to tell me.

You should be able to describe them in terms of their legal issue, of course, but also by their industry or market, their financial strength, their experience with lawyers, the volume of work they can provide, and many other factors.

You should be able to describe your ‘ideal’ client.

Clients who will eagerly hire you, pay what you ask, give you lots of work, stay with you for years, and recommend you to their friends and business contacts.

I can’t tell you who they are, but I can tell you who they aren’t. They aren’t “anyone” with a legal problem you are qualified to handle. Because no matter how good you are at what you do, you’re not going to appeal to everyone.

Some prospective clients want to work with a big firm. Some prefer a sole practitioner.
Some prioritize low fees. Others are willing (and able) to pay more for more experience or premium service.
Some want a lawyer close to their home or office. Some are comfortable working remotely.
Some want a lawyer who speaks their primary language. Others will hire a lawyer who has an employee who can translate for them.
Some want a lawyer or firm that specializes in a specific practice area. Some want a firm with multiple practice areas.

And the list goes on.

You may want to appeal to everyone with a legal problem you are qualified to handle because it means a bigger market. But from a marketing standpoint, it’s a bad idea.

Because you won’t appeal to everyone.

And if you try, you will weaken your marketing message and lessen your appeal to your ideal clients.

Your ideal clients see your marketing message and immediately identity that you are speaking to them. If your message doesn’t do that, a prospective client will assume you’re not the right lawyer for them.

It comes down to this: if you want to attract an abundance of ‘perfect’ clients, your marketing should instantly communicate that you are the ‘perfect’ lawyer for them.

And you can’t do that when you try to appeal to everyone.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

You and only you

February 13, 2025 by David M. Ward

You’re not merely good at your job, you’re the best in your marketplace. That should be your mindset and marketing message.

You’re the best lawyer for the job. The only lawyer your clients should choose.

Yes, it borders on arrogant and is open to dispute. But it is the very message your clients want to hear, the very message that will attract them to hire and refer you.

Clients want to know they’re getting the best advice possible. Not just good advice, the best.

They want to know that you will take care of them, work hard for them, and competently and completely solve their problems. And do it better than anyone else.

You want them to know you are the best lawyer for the job, and hiring anyone other than you would be a colossal mistake.

To accomplish this, you have to believe it’s true. If you don’t, if you think you’re good but not necessarily better than anyone else, it will show.

If you don’t believe you are the best of the best in your market, you need to work on that. You need to improve the quality of your services, add more value, work harder, or target a different market, one that is aligned with who you are and what you offer.

Or all of the above.

So that when you say you’re the best, you believe it, because it’s true.

When you believe it, your clients will believe it and you won’t have to use clever marketing (or lie) to be seen as the best choice.

You, and only you.

Filed Under: Communication, Image, Law office management, Marketing legal services

Wouldn’t you like to know?

February 6, 2025 by David M. Ward

Curiosity is one of the most powerful marketing strategies there is. Prospective clients want information about the law, their risks, potential costs, their options, and the best way to handle their situation. That’s why they find your website, watch your presentation, or contact you.

Many lawyers provide that information.

They write detailed articles, liberally post FAQs, and answer as many questions as possible, thinking the more information they provide, the more likely prospective clients will be to take the next step.

Unfortunately, it often does the opposite. Too much information often is too much information.

You should provide a basic level of information, so they can see what’s at stake and that you have the knowledge and experience to help them, but anything you do beyond that can hurt your marketing efforts.

Marketing should ignite curiosity, not satisfy it. Tell prospective clients enough to inspire them to call or email or make an appointment, but not so much that they don’t have to.

And don’t do what many lawyers do: tell prospective clients next to nothing.

We’ve all seen attorney websites and ads that are merely a list of services or practice areas. That’s not enough.

Give prospective clients enough information, examples, and stories to inspire them to take that next step.

Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services

Don’t target newbies

February 4, 2025 by David M. Ward

There are two kinds of clients in the world: those who have hired attorneys before and those who haven’t. I suggest you focus on the former.

You want to appeal to clients who understand what lawyers can do for them and why they are worth their seemingly high cost.

You don’t want clients who need to be educated about everything or continually need you to hold their hand. You want clients who know what they want, and how to help you do the best job for them.

You want clients who can pay top dollar for your services, have lots of work for you, and know other sophisticated clients they can refer. You don’t want clients who have to wait until payday to cover the check they just wrote you, or regularly ask for more time to pay your latest bill.

Yes, there are more “beginners” out there. But there are also more attorneys competing for their business.

Tailor your marketing strategies, your fee structure, your image, your website, your articles and blog posts and other content o appeal to experienced clients.

Everyone else?

Accept them as clients if you want to, but don’t target them.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: clients, target market

Attraction marketing

January 30, 2025 by David M. Ward

It’s better to have prospective clients find you and contact you rather than the other way around. When clients come to you, they’ve seen or heard something they like about you, which makes your job much easier.

It’s called inbound or “attraction” marketing. It’s good for your bank account and your ego.

The most successful attorneys and firms use it to attract clients and cases, subscribers and followers, and inquiries from professionals, meeting holders, publishers, and content creators seeking to connect.

The most successful attorneys attract business by making themselves attractive.

My blog is one example.

Lawyers are attracted to my blog for marketing tips and resources and then contact me to hire me, or forward my posts to their colleagues and business contacts who do the same. I don’t have to do any advertising or “outbound” marketing to accomplish this; clients et al. come to me.

There’s nothing wrong with “outbound” marketing. Do it if you want to or need to. There’s nothing wrong with advertising, networking, speaking, and other marketing strategies, many of which I use from time to time. But there’s nothing better than inbound marketing.

Inbound marketing brings you more clients with less expense and effort. Those clients are often more “qualified” to hire you, having heard or read some of your wisdom, or being tacitly vetted by the clients or professionals who refer you.

It’s a more effective and profitable way to bring in good clients.

Good clients prefer it, too.

They prefer to find you via a referral from someone they trust, by finding your blog or article or video or by hearing you interviewed by a professional or other influential person on their blog or channel.

There are many ways to find new clients, but it’s almost always better to have them find you.

How to get maximum referrals

Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services, Referrals

3 ways to get more clients to sign up

January 28, 2025 by David M. Ward

A prospective client watches your presentation, reads your ad or email, or talks to you about their case or matter. They see the need and value of your services, they can afford them, they’re interested, but, alas, they don’t sign up.

Maybe they have a good reason, or maybe they just want to think about it.

What can you do?

The simplest answer is to give them more information. Tell them more about their problem or situation, how bad it is and how it could worsen, more about their options, more about your skills, more about the benefits you offer, and more about how they will feel once you help them solve their problem or achieve their aim. You can also give them more proof—testimonials, success stories and your bona fides.
You can use “scarcity”. You only have a few appointments available this week, or only five more special packages (bonuses, bundles) for new (or returning) clients.
You can use a deadline—they must respond by a certain date to get the special offer or get an appointment.

All three options play on the prospect’s desire to improve their situation or their “fear of loss.” Both are powerful mechanisms for motivating clients to take immediate action instead of thinking about it.