Don’t sell the service, sell the appointment

July 18, 2018 by
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Many lawyers promulgate a marketing message (ad, email, web page, article, etc.) with a call to action that says little more than “hire us”.

That’s okay if you’re talking to people who are ready, willing, and able to hire an attorney. But most people who see that message aren’t.

Some aren’t sure they have a legal problem. Some aren’t sure they need an attorney. Some think they can wait. And just about everyone doesn’t yet know, like, and trust you.

What’s the answer? Don’t try to close the sale with your first impression. Use that to get them to the next step.

Don’t sell your service, sell the appointment. Get them into the office so you can diagnose their problem, show them their options, build trust and persuade them to hire you.

But selling the appointment at stage one may also be too heavy a burden. You’ll probably be more effective selling your report or ebook or seminar, to get them to opt-in to your list. From there, you can sell the appointment.

But wait. You have to get their attention, first. Offer them some free content, on your website, on youtube, or on others’ blogs (as guest posts or interviews). Let your free content sell the report you give them when they opt-in. Let that report and the accompanying emails you send them sell the appointment.

It’s called a marketing funnel. You start broad (with free content) and sell them on taking the next step. And so on. Until they’re sitting in your office and handing you a check.

Some prospects will skip steps. Some will speed through the steps and hire you the first day they hear your name. All good. But most will need to go through the process, so make sure you have a process for them to go through.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:

What? You STILL don’t want to do it?

July 6, 2018 by
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Yesterday, I talked about coming to grips with doing things you don’t want to do. Like marketing.

Basically, I talked about sneaking up on a task and giving it a big hug, until it feels familiar and you can give it a go. But there’s another way to do things you don’t want to do.

Do them anyway.

Who says you have to feel like it? Who says you have to like it? You have work to do so do it.

You may have legal work you don’t “feel” like doing. You do it anyway because if you don’t, your clients leave you, sue you, and complain about you. You can’t pay your bills. You lose your license. Your home. Your spouse.

There’s no choice here, you do the work.

With marketing, it’s different. Or so we tell ourselves. If we don’t do the work, we don’t lose, we just don’t gain.

Of course, that’s not true. If you don’t do any marketing, eventually you will lose everything.

Fear of loss is powerful. That’s why we do our legal work even when we might not want to. The desire for gain doesn’t motivate us in the same way.

That’s why we have to create habits and routines for marketing, why we have to hold ourselves accountable to others, why we have to block out time on our calendar for marketing (even five minutes a day), and why we have to force ourselves to do it.

But not forever. Eventually, we see that marketing isn’t that bad and it really does work. Eventually, we come to like it.

Or we don’t. But we do it anyway.

Your clients want to send you referrals

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing legal services Tagged With:

When you don’t want to do something, try this

July 5, 2018 by
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Let’s rap about the stuff you’re “supposed” to do but don’t want to. Okay, too many things. Let’s limit it to marketing.

Actually, I’d like you to make a list. Write down all of the marketing tasks you can think of that are currently in your no-go zone.

You don’t want to do networking? Write that down. Social media sucks? Add that to the list. Blogging, asking for referrals, webinars, public speaking, email, direct mail, advertising, cross-promotions, convention booths, sponsoring sports teams. . . and the list goes on.

Look at the items on your list, one by one, and write down the reasons you don’t want to do them. What is it about each strategy that gives you heartburn? Or, is it that you don’t think you’re any good at it or you’re convinced it won’t work for you?

Don’t skip this part. Write down why you don’t want to do it.

Next, write down the answer to this question: “If I DID like this [was good at this/got results with this], what are the possible benefits?”

If you liked networking, for example, what could it do for your practice or career?

Write this down, too.

The purpose of this exercise is to get you to confront the things you don’t want to do in a rational manner. The goal is to take something you don’t do now and find a way you can do it.

Pick one strategy on your list and learn more about it. Read, watch videos, and explore the different ways people (lawyers) are using these strategies and getting results.

See if you can find someone who will let you see their content creation process–what they do to write and publish an article, for example. See if you can find someone who will let you tag along to their next networking event.

We all talk ourselves out of doing things we don’t want to do. This exercise is meant to help you talk yourself into giving it a try.

There’s a big world of possibilities out there you’re currently not doing. How might your life be different if you could find one possibility and make it work for you?

Marketing 101

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Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing legal services

What if you’re not better?

July 3, 2018 by
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Many lawyers have a marketing message that says, “choose me, I’m better”.

If you are better, and you can prove it, bravo. Go with that.

If you’re not better, or you can’t prove it, I suggest you tell the world how you are different.

What do you do that other lawyers don’t do? What do you do differently?

You’ll be giving prospective clients a way to notice and remember you. “Oh, she’s the lawyer who rides a motorcycle to the office.”

Ideally, whatever difference you promote will also contain a benefit for clients. It will show them why they should choose you.

Yes, while showing them how you are different you will also show them how you are better.

But the “difference” you promote doesn’t have to make you better. It might just help them remember you.

If you ride a motorcycle and you handle PI cases, specializing in motorcycle collisions, you’ve both different and better. If you’re a corporate lawyer who rides a motorcycle to the office, people will remember you because most corporate lawyers don’t do that.

If you’re not better, be different.

This will help you figure out how

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Talent is overrated

June 19, 2018 by
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Sia is one of my favorite singers and songwriters. She is amazingly talented. I’ve heard that she will often write a song in a matter of minutes. Not just any song, a chart-topping song, for her or for one of many A-list performers.

Talent on loan from God.

So yeah, the chick is good. How can anyone, songwriter or performer, hope to compete with her?

In my opinion, they can’t. She’s too good.

They have to do what lawyers have to do when they are surrounded by bigger firms and more talented lawyers.

Jim Rohn had the answer. He said, “You make up in effort what you lack in skill.”

Outwork them.

There’s something else you can do. You can work smarter. Do things others can’t or won’t do.

Target niche markets and dominate them. Associate with smart people or people with great connections. Use leverage to get more done with less effort. Find the next big thing, get in early, and ride the wave.

Work hard or work smart. Because you can’t compete with talent on loan from God.

The plan

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

A simple way to cut your marketing costs

June 18, 2018 by
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When you’ve heard advertising spots on the radio or TV and even online, you’ve probably noticed that after a new ad has run for awhile, you start hearing a shorter version of it. The original spot may have been 30 seconds or one minute; the shorter version might be ten seconds.

The shorter version has the same message and offer but leaves out a lot of details. Advertisers will often run the long version for several weeks, followed by the shorter version for a period of time. They might then run the long version again, or run a mix of short and long ads.

Obviously, advertisers do this to save money. But aren’t the shorter ads less effective?

To some extent, yes. People who haven’t heard the longer version won’t hear all the details and thus won’t be persuaded to take the next step. But regular viewers/listeners have heard the longer version, and for them, the shorter version serves as a reminder to do what they “almost” did when they heard the original ads.

The shorter ads also prompt listeners to pay attention to the longer ads the next time they run.

If you don’t advertise (and never plan to), note that this concept can be applied to other kinds of marketing.

All marketing comes at a cost: money, time, or both. If you create content, for example, you either take some of your time to do that or you pay others to do it for you. Creating (or ordering) a mix of long and short content can reduce your costs without a commensurate reduction in effectiveness.

If you invest a total of four hours a month at networking events or engaging on social media, you might be able to get the same results (or close to them) by cutting out an hour or two.

Instead of writing 750 words once a week for your newsletter, you might get just as much engagement and results by writing 750 words (or 500 words) once a month, and 250 words the rest of the time.

This idea can be applied to direct mail (e.g., letters vs. postcards), printing brochures (e.g., full color vs. two-color or black and white), and any other marketing where your target market will hear from you more than once. Take the savings and spend it, or re-invest it in more ads, content, and so on.

Need more traffic? Subscribers? New clients? This will help

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Filed Under: Advertising, Law office management, Marketing legal services Tagged With: , ,

No, you don’t have to do everything

June 12, 2018 by
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Marketing. Not your cup of tea. And yet you know you have to do something to bring in business.

If you’re holding back because you think there’s too much to do, you can relax. You don’t have to do it all.

In fact, you just need to do one thing.

Pick something you’re not terrible at and focus on it. Do it regularly. Invest time and resources in it. Study it and get better at it. Make it your thing.

Because if you’re good enough at it, it may be all you need. For now, anyway. Later, you may add something to the mix.

So, what shall it be?

Writing a newsletter? Speaking at luncheons? Networking with prospective clients? Networking with other professionals?

How about webinars? Youtube videos? Pay-per-click ads?

Maybe you’d like to write a book and use that to build your reputation and get more traffic to your website.

Maybe you’re good at working with clients and earning their trust and loyalty. Great. Do more of that. Be the best lawyer in town at making clients fall in love with you.

Yep, that’s marketing.

Because marketing is everything we do to get and keep good clients.

Short and sweet attorney marketing plan

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Are you bludgeoning prospective clients?

June 8, 2018 by
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I saw this headline yesterday: “5 Privacy Apps You Need to Install IMMEDIATELY”. I wondered what would happen if I didn’t install all 5 apps immediately. Or ever.

I didn’t install any of them. I didn’t even read the article.

What I can say, I like living dangerously.

Actually, I get “imperative fatigue” with all the articles and posts and emails mandating what I need to buy, do, or read.

32 must-have extensions, 27 must-see websites, 21 essential books to read right now. . .

Enough. I can’t keep up. I don’t want to keep up.

If this kinda thing annoys you like it does me, if your eyes glaze over when everyone tells you all the bad things that will happen if you don’t fall into lockstep with everyone else, if you find yourself avoiding articles like these, well, guess what? Your clients do, too.

So don’t do this to them.

In your marketing, presentations, and conversations, don’t smother them with too many problems, too many options, or too many things they MUST do (immediately), OR ELSE.

They’ll shut down. Stop listening to anything you say.

Slow your roll. Be different. Instead of clubbing them over the head, seduce them.

When everyone else tries to force-feed them a complete meal, give them a tasty appetizer. Instead of showing them your entire menu, talk to them about one of your signature dishes.

Invite them to take a bite and see what they think. If they like it, you can show them the rest of your menu.

In marketing, your number one task is getting the prospective client’s attention. Because if they don’t read what you wrote or listen to what you said, they’ll never become a regular at your restaurant.

Marketing made simple

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Filed Under: Communication, Marketing legal services

Don’t show all your cards to prospective clients

June 5, 2018 by
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You have an appointment with a prospective client. You plan to tell them everything you will do to help them with their problem. You’ll describe all of your services and give them a list of the many deliverables they can expect.

Before you tell them everything, you might want to hold something back.

Instead of telling them about A, B, and C, maybe only tell them about A and B. Because if you spill your guts the first time you speak with prospective clients, you won’t have anything left to offer them later.

  • To offer as a bonus for signing up TODAY (e.g., at your seminar, this week only, etc.) instead of waiting
  • To get them off the fence when they want to think about it, talk to someone, or otherwise put it off
  • As an incentive: buy A and B, get C, at no additional cost
  • As an upsell (an optional service they can also “buy”)
  • As an unannounced bonus, to surprise them with after they sign up

You hold things back when you negotiate on behalf of clients, right? Same concept.

If you don’t have anything you can hold back, create something. A voucher they can use on another matter or a service provided by another professional.

Hold something back. You never know when you might need it.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

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Filed Under: Closing the sale, Marketing legal services

Want to see me take the hot pepper challenge?

May 29, 2018 by
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My wife showed me a video of a guy taking the hot pepper challenge. Seeing if he can ingest some of the hottest peppers in the world. The kind that burn your guts and makes you feel like you’re dying. The kind that sometimes leads to a trip to the emergency room.

It turns out there are a lot of people taking this challenge, including people like Kelly Clarkson.

So, what do you think? Would you like to see me do a video taking the hot pepper challenge? Watch me puke my guts out and regret the day I was born?

Thanks for asking but, uh, nope. Not me. Not in a million years.

Anyway, it appears that the hot pepper challenge is trending and we can leverage that trend without ever having to participate in it.

Lawyers can write, post, tweet, link, share, etc., about potential liability for manufacturing and selling products that can send a customer to the hospital. Or getting a friend to take a dare.

But you can leverage this trend (and just about any other) without talking about legal issues.

Mention the trend on social media. Offer your opinion. Link to a video or article. Put keywords in your posts so you’ll get picked up by search engines.

A few years ago, I wrote a post that featured Steve Jobs in the title. I think it was shortly after he died and everyone was talking about him, praising his accomplishments, and so on. His name was trending big time. Not surprisingly, my post (with his name in the title) got more traffic than anything I’d ever posted before.

What was the post about? I don’t remember and it doesn’t matter. His name was trending and a lot of folks came to my site to read what I had written.

Obviously, trends don’t last. They come and then they are gone. But while trends don’t last, some of the people who subscribe, follow and connect with you do.

Earning more without working more: not a trend

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With:
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