Marketing legal services Archives - Page 15 of 128

Your best market

July 15, 2022 by David M. Ward

Of all the possible markets you could target, one is better than the rest. It’s easier and less expensive to reach this market, and likely to produce the most new business and profits.

People in this market require little or no persuading about the need for your solutions or your ability to deliver them. They are easier to work with, more likely to hire you for other legal matters, and more likely to send you referrals.

What’s more, the names and contact information of everyone in this market are readily available to you.

In fact, you already have them.

Yes, we’re talking about your warm market. People who know you and trust you. They’ve hired you before or know you professionally or personally. If you email, call, or knock on their door, they’ll answer and greet you by name, because they know you.

We should also include the people on your newsletter list, subscribers to your blog, and your social media connections, because while you might not know their name, many of them know yours.

It’s called your warm market, in contrast to your cold market, which includes everyone who doesn’t know you.

It’s much more difficult and expensive to market to the cold market. Yes, the cold market is bigger than your warm market, but that is its only advantage.

Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop marketing to the cold market and only market to your warm market. Some attorneys can and should do that. Some shouldn’t.

Some should market to both.

The question is, if you do market to both the warm and cold markets, how much of your time and resources should you dedicate to each?

Talk to your partners, accountant, and marketing people. Take a good look at your numbers, market trends, and your goals.

And don’t be afraid of change. Don’t stick with something because you’ve always done it that way or because most of your competition does it that way.

And ask yourself some questions:

If I could get most of my business through repeat business and referrals, would I want to? Or would I always want to keep a hand in the cold market?

Is this the time for me to go all out and build this thing as big as I can as fast as I can? Or am I happy where I am and satisfied with my current rate of growth?

What’s my plan for the next two years? Ten years? What does my gut tell me is right for me now?

I don’t know your numbers or goals or anything else about you but I can offer one piece of advice that worked well for me and countless others.

Focus on your warm market first.

Give your practice a solid foundation of repeat business and referrals before you venture into or expand efforts in the cold market.

Then, no matter what happens in the cold market, you will always have that foundation.

Unless you’re brand new, in which case, all bets are off.

Here’s The Formula

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

The attorney marketing paradox

July 11, 2022 by David M. Ward

You want to stand out from other attorneys. Get noticed so you can show people an advantage to choosing you.

But you don’t want to be so different that you scare off prospective clients.

So, you need to fit in. Look like a lawyer who does lawyer things. But if you only do that, if there’s nothing to differentiate you, you become a commodity. Just another option among many.

You give people no reason to notice you or choose you.

You want to stand out, but you also want to fit in. Look like an attorney, not an anomaly.

How do you achieve that balance? How do you stand out and at the same time fit in?

That’s what you need to figure out.

If you do anything different in your practice, make sure people know about it. Tell the world what you do that other lawyers don’t do.

And if you do nothing different, you can make it appear that you do.

How’s that?

If you do what everyone else in your field does, but the other citizens of lawyer-town don’t talk about that subject, when you talk about it, you own it.

For example, if you handle plaintiff’s personal injury claims and your competition doesn’t talk about all the things they do to investigate a case, and you do, the world will see that you are different and better.

Even if you’re not.

When you are the (only) lawyer who uses a 12-point checklist to ensure all the facts and evidence are collected and documented, you appear to offer your clients an advantage.

Yes or yes?

But there’s another way to stand out and also fit in.

When you look at your competition, you probably notice that not only do most of them appear to do the same things, they also tend to look and sound the same.

Like identical cousins, Patty and Cathy Lane. You can lose your mind.

But they’re not identical. One likes the ballet, the other rock and roll.

All of us were humans before we went to law school, and most of us still are. We can use our humanness to stand out and also fit in.

And it’s easy to do.

Don’t hide your personality or personal interests from the market. Let the market see that you like the ballet or rock and roll, and that while you do the same work other lawyers do, you are different individuals.

Market yourself first, your services second, and your firm a distant third.

Because people buy you before they buy your services.

How to stand out and fit in

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Help! I don’t know anyone!

July 7, 2022 by David M. Ward

You may be a new lawyer or moving to a new city or state. Or you might be at a point in your career where you realize you need to meet some new people.

There are a lot of things you can do; here are 3 of the best:

(1) Ask for introductions. Contact people you know and ask them to introduce you to a professional or business contact in your target market. Be specific about the type of people you’d like to meet, but not so specific they can’t think of anyone who fits that description.

Even better, ask them to introduce you to someone you know they (probably) know, someone influential you’d like to meet. If they hesitate to do that, ask them if you can use their name, and contact them yourself.

(2) Join something. Networking can be a drag, but it’s a good way to quickly meet some new people. Find organizations and groups in your target market, attend their meetings, introduce yourself to the leadership, and volunteer on a committee or two. You might meet someone who knows someone who needs your services or knows people who do.

You’ll also learn more about your target market and the people in it, and be able to use that in your marketing.

(3) Write something. A report, guide, or checklist that people in your target market might find helpful, and offer it to everyone you know and everyone you meet. It’s a great way to give people a “sample” of your expertise, and interest them in learning more.

One of the best things you can write is a book. Being an author, by definition, makes you an authority, and people want to hire and refer authorities. They also want to talk to them when they meet them, and interview them for their blog or podcast.

If you have a collection of articles or blog posts, cobble them together and self-publish your first book. If not, start typing. Or dictating.

Clients, and the people who can refer them, are everywhere. These strategies can help you meet them.

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking

Online marketing for attorneys made stupidly simple

July 6, 2022 by David M. Ward

You can complicate it, and many do, but marketing legal services online comes down to just 3 things:

Creating a list
Growing the list
Marketing to the list

“Creating a list” means setting up an autoresponder to capture email addresses of prospective clients who need a lawyer or are seeking information about a legal situation.

Why email? Because it’s the simplest and most cost effective way to build a list and it is incredibly profitable.

Michael Hyatt, bestseller author, and speaker said,

“I have literally built a million dollar business on the strength of my email list. 90% of my income comes from it. Even today, my email list is still my number one business priority-and asset.”

I’ll tell you the same thing about my business.

“Growing the list” is anything and everything you do to get people to visit your sign-up page and opt into your list.

And all of your marketing efforts should be focused on doing that.

People hear you speak, read your blog or article, hear about you from a friend, see your ad, or find you through social media or a search engine, and visit your page to learn more about you or what you offer.

At this point, many attorneys try to persuade prospects to call to schedule an appointment or ask questions. But most prospects aren’t ready to do that and want more information. You can direct them to your website to get that information, and that can work, but it is often better to do that after they join your list.

You want them on your list so you can stay in touch with them and continue to market to them.

Which is step three.

If you don’t have a list, all of your marketing is “one shot”. Prospects either contact you or they don’t. You can’t send them more information because you don’t know who they are.

When they are on your list, you can send more information about their legal situation, their risks and options, and what you can do to help them, and you can continue to do that until they’re ready to take the next step.

That might be months or even years down the road, but when they’re ready, they know who you, what you do, and have your contact information.

Staying in touch with your list can triple response to your marketing. It can also stimulate a lot of referrals.

Which is why you need to make email a cornerstone of your marketing.

Email Marketing for Attorneys

Filed Under: Email, List building, Marketing legal services

10 questions for you

June 29, 2022 by David M. Ward

In this post are 10 questions you might be asked in an interview. Review them and note how you might respond.

The questions can also prompt you to write things people want to know about you for your website’s “About” page, in your bio, or your introduction.

You can also use these questions to write 10 blog posts, telling readers about yourself and what you do.

The questions:

What does a (type) lawyer do?
What types of clients do you represent?
What’s your favorite part of your job?
Why should a client hire you instead of any other lawyer?
What’s your favorite marketing strategy?
What’s the hardest part of your job?
Have you had any unusual cases or clients?
What’s the most important thing you want new clients to know or do?
How is your work/the law different today than when you started practicing?
What book(s) are you reading right now?

These questions are necessarily generic. Edit, re-write, and add additional questions to your list to suit your practice and personality.

What do you want people to know about you and what you do? What would they find interesting? What do people ask you at parties?

Finally, you can use these questions when you interview another lawyer for your blog or newsletter. And you should do that because you’ll get some easy content and the lawyer you interview might reciprocate and interview you for their blog or newsletter.

I wrote a book based entirely on an interview I did with a very successful appellate attorney friend who does a great job marketing his services. Here’s the book; here’s what I did to write it.

Filed Under: Content creation, Marketing legal services Tagged With: interviews

Walk, don’t run

June 24, 2022 by David M. Ward

You want to get better at marketing (or anything) but you don’t want it to take over your life. You don’t want to spend days or weeks studying and doing what needs to be done.

You don’t have to.

In fact, you’ll learn more and be able to accomplish more if you don’t try to do everything in a short period of time but, instead, do a little every day.

10 or 15 minutes a day, but every day.

Put a daily appointment (with yourself) on your calendar, or a recurring task in your task app. Not once a week for an hour, because you might not do that, but you can do 10 minutes a day no matter how busy you are.

In 15 minutes, you can do a lot. You can read a chapter in that book you’ve been meaning to read. You can watch a video or two and take notes about what you learned and what you might do with it.

Not difficult, is it? But if you do it every day, you can make a lot of progress.

What else could you do during your 15-minute ‘appointment’? You could:

Write or re-write an email for your autoresponder
Outline your new presentation or book
Practice your presentation
Write a page for your new book
Brainstorm ideas for a new lead magnet
Edit your work-in-progress
Call a few former clients and ask how they’re doing
Visit some blogs to get ideas you can use in yours
Invite your best referral source to lunch
Invite someone you don’t know to coffee
Meditate and let your subconscious mind help you with something you’re working on
Take a tutorial on a new contact management app
Outline an article for your newsletter
Jump on social media and see what people are asking
Add more keywords to your PPC ad campaigns
Call a professional in your niche and introduce yourself
Email an author and ask to interview them
Draft a survey to send to prospective clients
Update a page on your website
Email your list and invite them to read your latest article
Email your list and invite them to submit questions for your upcoming article
Email your list and explain a recent ruling
Email your list and tell them a success story about one of your recent cases or clients

Yes?

You can also repeat these. Call a few today, call a few more tomorrow—and so on.

15 minutes. 10 if you’re in a hurry. But do something every day.

What do you think will happen if you do?

Why don’t you find out?

For more ideas for your newsletter. . .

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Marketing Plan

The easiest way to sell legal services

June 13, 2022 by David M. Ward

It’s funny, you’re in the persuasion business, but you don’t like persuading people to hire you.

You can “sell” a jury on finding for your client, negotiate a better deal for them, or write an article advocating for a social cause, but you are reluctant to use your persuasive abilities to get anyone to choose you as their attorney.

Seems like a waste of talent, doesn’t it?

But I get it. You don’t want to look like you’re bragging or desperate for work. You think it’s better for clients to choose you because someone else said you have a lot of experience, keep your promises, and deliver great results.

And you would be right to think this.

It is better to have someone else say those things. Because if you say it, people can doubt it; if someone else says it, it must be true.

Praise from third parties is the best and easiest way to sell your services.

What could be easier than getting some good reviews and quoting them or linking to them?

What could be easier than getting testimonials from satisfied clients along with permission to share them?

What could be easier than quoting other attorneys who speak about your good character, work ethic, and track record?

The answer is “nothing”.

Nothing is easier. Or better.

So, if you’re not doing this already, make it a priority to collect and use the positive things people say about you. Post them on your website, put them in your brochures and marketing materials, put them in your bio, and let other people sing your praises.

These aren’t difficult to get. But people are busy, so you need to prompt them.

When a client sends you an email thanking you for (something), tell them you appreciate their saying so and ask for permission to quote them. Disguise their name if need be, but showcase their words.

Send new clients a survey at the end of the case and ask them how you did. If they thought you were the bees’ knees, yep, ask to quote them. Or ask them to post a review online.

The next time you get a referral from a fellow professional, thank them and ask them why they chose you. When they say nice things about you, ask if you may quote them in your marketing.

If you already do this, do it more. Build a portfolio of praise from clients and professionals and put it front and center.

When you do, you should notice two things happening.

First, you should see more clients and business contacts willing to provide testimonials and positive reviews. It’s the bandwagon effect. The more praise you get, the more people want to jump on board.

Second, you should see a higher percentage of prospective clients signing up. When they see how much your clients like you and the work you did for them, they will be more likely to see you as the best option for them.

Because, while most attorneys have happy clients, they don’t have clients who are happy enough to put it in writing.

The Attorney Marketing Formula: it’s a formula, so you know it works

Filed Under: Closing the sale, Marketing legal services

Survival mode

June 10, 2022 by David M. Ward

What’s the minimum you need to earn to keep your practice going? To cover your basic overhead and take home enough to keep the home fires burning?

What’s the minimum you need to cover your “nut”?

Once you have a number, figure out what you have to do to earn that. The activities you need to do to be reasonably assured that you will continue to stay afloat.

Doing this will allow you to identify the activities that are important to your practice right now. What’s essential and what isn’t.

You might realize that if you continue to work with your current crop of cases or clients, you will generate enough work now and, via repeat business and referrals, enough work to keep you going for the foreseeable future.

Cool.

On the other hand, you might realize that while you’re okay right now, you’re not replacing cases or clients fast enough to sustain revenue and continue growing, and you need to do something about that.

Or you might realize that some of your practice areas, services or marketing strategies aren’t bringing in enough revue, at least compared to other things you do. You might see value in jettisoning them or changing them and freeing up resources that are better used doing something else.

Once you have a clear picture of your current reality, take stock of other options. Everything else you could do to create growth and build your future.

Doing this exercise will help you get clear about where you are, where you want to be in the next few years, and what you need to do to get there.

This will help you plan your future

Filed Under: Increase your income, Law office management, Marketing legal services

One of these things is not like the other

June 7, 2022 by David M. Ward

There are two types of prospective clients in the world. Those who don’t know you but will find you or be led to you when they need your help, and those who do know you but don’t need your help right now.

The first group—those who don’t know you—is a very large group, essentially unlimited; the second group is comparatively miniscule.

People in both groups may hire you. It might be years from now or it might be tomorrow. They also might never hire you, but know people they can refer.

If you could only market to one of these groups, which would you choose?

Would you choose the massive group that doesn’t know you from Adam or the small group who knows you well?

To answer that, you would have to consider the cost and complexity of getting your message in front of each group.,

Communicating with a small group of people who know you is as simple as emailing, placing a call, or walking up to them the next time you see them.

Easy to do, zero cost.

It’s just the opposite with the large group—expensive and/or time-consuming, but potentially worth it given their numbers.

You would also need to consider the element of trust.

The small group knows, likes, and presumably trusts you. They’ll read your email and take your call. If they need your help, they’ll probably hire you. If they know someone who needs your help, they’ll probably give them your name.

It’s a much different story with the large group to whom you are just a name in a directory or ad, or someone they’ve heard about but have questions, doubts, and fears.

This group might hire or refer you, but you have a lot of work to do before that happens. And while you’re in the process of doing that, they might be just as likely to hire someone else.

There are many other factors, but based on size, cost, and trust, which group would you choose?

The good news is you don’t have to choose one group. You can market to both.

Early in your career, or if you’re not getting enough work from the people who know you, you’ll no doubt invest more in the larger group of people who don’t. Eventually, when you’re busy and making bank, you might focus primarily on the group of people who know you, because why wouldn’t you?

Over time, your goal should be to increase the number of people who know and trust you and to deepen your relationships with them.

But, people die and retire, businesses go out of business, and good relationships sour. So it would be smart to continue getting your name in front of the masses who don’t yet know you, and continue to do that until you die, retire, or go out of business.

Enjoy the low-hanging fruit. But keep a ladder nearby.

How to choose your target market and ideal clients

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

They key to effective marketing

June 6, 2022 by David M. Ward

You want to bring in new clients and better clients and have them send you lots of referrals, don’t you?

Okay, no brainer.

You also want this to happen almost effortlessly, without requiring a lot of time or effort.

More empty-skullery

Now, you might think I’m going to give you a complicated formula for achieving this—a long list of things you have to know or do.

But I’m not.

I’m just going to give you one thing you need to do. Because if you embrace it and do it, it will bring you everything you ask.

I’m not exaggerating. It was the key to my success in my practice and my businesses. The “one thing” that made everything else work.

It’s not a strategy, technique, or tool. The key to effective marketing is simply understanding your market.

To know all about the market or niche and the people in it. What they want, what they need, what they talk about and worry about. Because the more you know your market, the more you’ll know what to say to them to get them to see you as the solution to their problem.

Not just one solution, the best solution.

The more you understand them and the world they occupy, the more easily you can relate to them and they to you. And the more likely they will be to say yes, give you all their legal work, and refer their friends and business contacts.

Study your market and the people in it. Learn about their fears and insecurities, their pain, their desires, their fears and their doubts.

Yes, it is that simple.

Of course, in order to know your market, you have to have a market. This will help you choose the right market for you.

Filed Under: Client loyalty, Marketing legal services Tagged With: Niche marketing