Marketing legal services Archives - Page 50 of 129

Marketing defined

May 17, 2018 by David M. Ward

I found it on Flakebook. A one-sentence statement that sums up the essence of marketing (selling, advertising, presenting, arguing a motion, summation, convincing your kids to do their homework, etc.)

It said: “When pitching, answer “Why” a lot.”

Yep. That’s it.

Tell people why they need a lawyer. Tell them why they should choose you instead of anyone else. Tell them why they can trust you.

Tell them why they should sign up for your newsletter, come to your event, or read your latest post.

What is good. How can help. But unless you tell them why, that is, spell out the benefits they get for doing what you’re asking them to do, the rest doesn’t matter.

(Note, telling your kids, “Because I said so” isn’t a good option. Just saying.)

Why is telling them why so important?

Because it’s not always obvious. Or because they may not believe it. Or because they knew it but forgot.

Tell them why because they may be in denial about their situation or because they’re not (yet) in enough pain.

Tell them why so they will spend the money, provide you with their email, or show up at your event and get the benefits (protection, results, information) they need.

That’s why.

This will help you get more clients and increase your income

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

How to get better prospects

May 16, 2018 by David M. Ward

If you produce content (blog posts, articles, videos, etc.) that bring a preponderance of poor quality prospects–freebie-seekers, broke people, people who need “convincing” or hand-holding, and so on–I have a suggestion.

A way to bring in higher quality prospects. People with money. People who know they have a problem. People who clearly see that you can help them and who want that help.

Sound good?

Here it is: Convert some of your free content into paid content.

Instead of free webinars, for example, offer a low-cost webinar, perhaps in the $20 to $50 neighborhood, something that doesn’t require a big decision but does require a commitment.

You’ll get fewer participants but the ones who show up will be serious prospects.

Here’s the catch. Since they’re paying, you have to deliver somewhat more value and tone down the sales pitch. People are tired of having to sit through twenty minutes of pitching in a one-hour webinar but they’ve been conditioned to expect it so they often sign up and don’t show up.

When they pay, they show up.

And when they show up, they pay attention and get to see that you really know your stuff. Which means some of them will hire you on the spot.

You’ll have lower costs, too, because you won’t need to maintain a high capacity webinar system or expensive funnel system to maximize your numbers.

You can do the same thing with live seminars. Instead of renting a room in a hotel, maybe you can do seminars in your office conference room.

While you’re pondering the possibilities, also consider creating some paid videos, reports, ebooks, and other content. A paid newsletter, perhaps.

Free content works. But sometimes, paid content works even better.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

Filed Under: Marketing legal services

Your passion is more valuable than you think

April 27, 2018 by David M. Ward

Following on yesterday’s post about making a career out of your passion (if possible), attorney John R. writes to lament that despite his best efforts, he cannot find a way he can do that with his passions: woodworking and golf.

If you find yourself singing a similar song, I have a suggestion I think you’ll like.

Take one of your passions and make it your target market.

Use your knowledge, experience, and love for the subject, to market your legal services to prospective clients and referral sources who inhabit that market.

I don’t know a lot about woodworking but I’m sure it is composed of a wide variety of individuals and businesses: vendors, machine and tool manufacturers, raw materials suppliers, distributors, and retailers.

People who sell wood furniture and art. People who run conventions, write books and blogs and sell instructional videos.

There are insurance brokers, real estate brokers, accountants, and financial planners, who sell to or advise wood mills, hardware and furniture stores, and others in the chain of distribution.

And many others who share your passion.

It’s a big niche, or rather a collection of related niches, and it’s yours for the taking. Focus your marketing efforts on this niche. No matter what your practice area, there are people in it who need your services or can refer people who do.

Speak and network at their events. Write for their publications. Let them know you’re “one of them”.

Soon, you will dominate that market, or at least carve out (sorry) a large enough chunk to keep you busy many times over.

You may not make your living turning a lathe or sanding shelves but you’ll do the next best thing. You’ll get to spend time talking to and helping other people who share your passion.

This will help you find the right target market for you

Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: target marketing

Nobody owes you jack squat

April 18, 2018 by David M. Ward

You’re a lawyer. Big flippin deal. So are a million other people. You have a fancy degree and a fancy office but as far as clients are concerned you charge too much and barely do anything for the big bucks you demand.

What’s so special about you? Why should I hire you instead of any other lawyer? Why should I pay you all that money?

In fact, why should I even visit your website or listen to you talk? Talk is cheap. What are you going to tell me that I won’t hear from every other lawyer with a fancy office?

This is what you’re up against my little droogies. Nobody trusts you. Nobody believes you. Nobody owes you the benefit of any doubt.

This is your ultimate marketing challenge and you must never get complacent.

You want clients? You have to earn them. Prove to them that you can do the work they need and prove to them that you will do what you promise.

Repeat clients? Just because you helped them once doesn’t mean they will come back. You have to stay in touch with them. Because people forget and because other lawyers tell them they can do a better job or do it cheaper or faster.

Referrals? Clients don’t know you want them. They think that if they send you business you won’t have time for them. They’re lazy and don’t know what to do. You need to tell them why referrals are good for everyone and tell them what to do to make them happen.

Nobody cares what you want, they care about themselves.

Assume nothing. Tell them everything. And prove it, again and again.

Because nobody owes you anything.

How to talk to clients about referrals

Filed Under: Marketing legal services Tagged With: building trust

Digging for gold on your hard drive

April 13, 2018 by David M. Ward

You have a list. People who know who you are and are willing to listen to what you say.

If you call them, they’ll talk to you. If you write, they’ll read your letter or email. If you meet them in person and they recognize your face or name, they’ll say hello.

Your list may take many forms. It may be in a database, contact management app, or email autoresponder. It may be on paper, buried in the bowels of your closed files. It may be online, stored on the servers of various social media platforms.

But your list exists and it has value.

How much value? I don’t know. All I can tell you is that your list is much more valuable than a list of people who don’t know who you are.

Yes, I’m harping (again) on the need to stay in touch. I don’t feel right unless I do that at least once or twice a month. But today, I’m simply going to encourage you to dig out your list and organize it.

The first thing to do is segment your list into different categories. Use a code or tag or label so you can contact the people on your list with different messages or offers, and on a different schedule.

You won’t talk to current clients, for example, in the same way you would talk to professionals you met once at a networking event.

Anyway, divvy up your list as appropriate to your practice. You might do something like this:

Current clients
Former clients
Prospective clients you’ve met (e.g., free consultations, meetings at networking events, attendees at your presentations, etc.)
Professionals, business executives, centers of influence, you’ve worked with.
Newsletter subscribers
Social media friends and followers
Etc.

You can further segment your list into sub-categories. Your client and former clients, for example, could be classified in terms of annual billing (you to them), types of cases or engagements, frequency, recency, background, industry, and so on.

Your list of professionals might be broken down by specialty, their target markets, number of referrals they’ve made to you (and you to them), mutual clients or contacts, boards or organizations they are connected to, and so on.

Your prospect and email lists can be coded to identify the nature of their inquiry, if and when they’ve attended your events, and other information.

Once you’ve done that, you can create a plan for staying in touch with everyone.

Is all this worth really necessary? Only if you want to get more clients, bigger cases, more referrals, more traffic, more introductions, and build a more profitable practice more quickly and at much lower cost.

Okay, you hate me. I understand. You want that but this sounds like too much work.

Fine. Start with your former clients, going back five years. Email them something. I don’t care what it is. Say hello. Say you’re updating your records. It doesn’t matter.

Two paragraphs.Â What have you got to lose?

The better question is, what do you have to gain?

Keeping in touch with your listÂ

Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services

C’mon, you know you want to

April 11, 2018 by David M. Ward

Can you approach someone you don’t know but want to speak to via email? Yes, you can. Just make sure you send a personal email, not a “form letter”.

Your first order of business is to get the email opened. A great way to do that is to write something that makes the recipient curious.

Like (I hope) the subject line of this email did you.

But then you and I “know” each other. I can be a little playful. If this was the first time I communicated with you I would (probably) not use that as the subject. Instead, I might use something like this:

â€œQuick question”.

I got an email with that subject not long ago and yes, I did open it.

Because I was curious.

This may not suit you, however, or your market. What then?

Well, you don’t want to appear too familiar. So “Hey there. . .” won’t make the cut.

You can’t bore someone into opening an email. So forget about using “I hope you’re doing well”.

And you don’t want to come off like you’re selling something, so, “May I send you some information about our xyz services?” is a dog that won’t hunt.

So what can you say to make ’em curious?

I’ll tell you tomorrow.

Okay, cheap trick. Having more fun. I’m not going to tell you what to say. That’s something you have to figure out.

If you were writing to me, what might you say to get my attention and make me curious to read your email (other than “Quick question”)? What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Do you have an accountant? If he didn’t know you from Adam, what might you say to make him curious?

(“This is about your wife” would get your email opened, but. . .)

Start paying attention to (unsolicited) emails you get that make you curious enough to open. Write down the subject they used. Spend time brainstorming other ideas.

Put your list away for a week or two. When you come back to it, you’ll see a lot of subject lines that make you cringe and say, “Oy vey, what was I thinking” but you may also see a few gems.

Go ahead and try one.

C’mon, you know you want to.

Build your practice online

Filed Under: Copywriting, Email, Marketing legal services Tagged With: unsolicited email

How do you transition from lawyer to successful lawyer?

April 6, 2018 by David M. Ward

Comes a question from a new-ish attorney who works for a firm in Kenya and wants to know how to transition from learning the law to applying what she’s learned and “thinking like a fee earner”?

It starts with acknowledging that practicing law is both a profession and a business and that you must wear both hats. Of course, that’s literally true when you go out on your own but its also true when you work for a firm because if you don’t bring in clients, you might find yourself replaced by someone who does.

It sounds like my Kenyan friend understands this. So, what’s the next step?

The next step is to educate yourself. Take classes, read books and blogs and newsletters on marketing and management. Learn something about sales. And work on your communication skills. Meet other lawyers who are one or two steps ahead of you and find out what they did to get there.

If you’re thinking about going out on your own, build a war chest. Save every penny so that if and when you make the leap you’ll have more staying power and more options.

On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for making the leap before you’re ready.

When I opened my own office I was hungry. Literally. I needed to bring in clients or I couldn’t pay for groceries. I had burned my boats behind me and to survive, I was forced to do anything and everything to bring in business.

Necessity is the mother (and father) of invention.

In retrospect, a lack of money wasn’t the biggest issue, nor was it a lack of experience. The number one challenge was a lack of contacts. So, if you do nothing else, focus on building a list of people who know, like, and trust you.

Do that and you’ll be golden.

Start your education with this

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, success Tagged With: starting your own practice

Only you can prevent legal problems

March 23, 2018 by David M. Ward

Remember Smokey the Bear PSAs promoting campfire safety? Among other things, he told us to make sure the fire was out (instead of letting it go out on its own), because, he said, “Only you can prevent forest fires”.

Preventing forest fires isn’t a difficult sell. Simple tips and reminders to be careful, presented by a cute cartoon animal, and (as far as I know), the campaign worked.

Preventing legal problems, on the other hand, is a much harder sell.

“Do this to prevent that,” you say. Yeah, but it’s expensive, say your clients. And I have time. And I don’t want to think about this right now.

It is much easier to sell a cure.

“You’re in trouble? I can save you,” you say. Where do I sign?

When someone has a legal problem, they are in pain. They want to alleviate that pain. Getting their attention and convincing them to hire you is a much easier task than trying to sell them a way to prevent the problem in the first place.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. Just that you need to understand that its more difficult to sell and adjust your marketing accordingly.

If you sell prevention, give prospective clients more evidence of what can go wrong. Agitate the problems. Tell them more horror stories. Play on their fears.

And give them more time.

Prospective clients need time to digest your message, yet another reason why you need a list. They also need time to see their peers and colleagues experience the problems you are warning them about and the consequences of ignoring those warnings.

I saw a book being advertised this morning: “5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great”. If I was advising the author, I would tell her she would sell a lot more copies if the title was, “5 Simple Steps to SAVE Your Marriage”.

Fix your marketing problems with this

Filed Under: Copywriting, Marketing legal services

How to warm up a cold approach

March 20, 2018 by David M. Ward

By far, the best way to approach a new business contact or prospective client is to have a mutual contact introduce you. When you identify someone you’d like to meet, go through your list of contacts to see if you know someone who knows them, or might know someone who does. Ask for an introduction or permission to use their name.

If you don’t know anyone who can introduce you, you can still approach them. But it will take more effort.

Whether you contact them by email or by phone, your initial objective is the same: to get their attention and stay out of the slush pile.

A few do’s and don’ts.

DON’T

DON’T pitch anything. Save that for later; probably much later.
DON’T ask for anything, e.g., a guest post, a link, etc.
DON’T brag about yourself; in fact, say almost nothing about yourself, focus on them
DON’T lie or exaggerate
DON’T ask them to read something or do something; they’re busy, just like you

DO mention your mutual friend or contact. How did you get their name?
DO reference something you have in common (a mutual interest, cause, target market or industry, practice area, background, etc.)
DO mention something you like about something you heard about them or read, (their article, post, video, interview, etc.
DO tell them why you’re contacting them and what’s in it for them; give them a reason to listen
DO keep your message brief; get to the point
DO make the next step easy (ask them to reply, tell them you’ll call, tell them to watch their email)

So, what is in it for them? Why are you contacting them?

Here are some good options:

To offer information that will help them or their clients, or information about something that interests them
To discuss a mutual interest (an industry or local issue, similarly aligned clients, proposed laws or regs, etc.)
To invite them to speak at your meeting, to interview them for your newsletter, to participate in a panel discussion, etc.
To introduce yourself, learn more about what they do and how you might work together to your mutual benefit

To learn more about how to find and approach people you don’t know, and what to offer them, get this

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Referral sources, Relationship marketing Tagged With: Introductions

I challenge you to double your income

February 13, 2018 by David M. Ward

Are you satisfied with where you are in your career? I hope not. I hope you’re doing well, of course, but you’re hungry for more.

If you’re complacent, that has to change. It’s time to find another itch to scratch.

I have a challenge for you. You can set the time frame but I’ll give you the goal: to DOUBLE your income while cutting your work hours in HALF.

How does that sound? Scary? Crazy? Or exciting as hell?

I can’t imagine you wouldn’t want this to happen but I can see how you might question if it is possible.Â So start there. A new project. To find out if this goal is possible for you and what you need to do to make it happen.

Do you know (or know of) any lawyers who earn twice as much as you do? Sure you do. But do any of them work half the hours you work? That might be a little harder to deduce because “busy” is how professionals define success.Â So, make that a part of the project. To find the “Tim Ferriss” of the legal world.

Contact some higher-earning lawyers and ask about their schedule. You can start with me. When I was practicing, in a short period of time I quadrupled my income and simultaneously cut my work week down to three days.

I know, I know, your practice is different, the competition is greater, the world is a different place. To which I say, “Hell yes, it’s different. For one thing, you have the Internet. It’s easier to scale up your income today than when I did it.”

Doubt me if you wish. Then, go prove me wrong.

If you’re nervous, don’t attempt everything at the same time. Start by working on the income side of the equation. Once it starts going up, work on cutting the hours.

On the other hand, you might be better off doing them together.

I think I was able to increase my income so quickly because I simultaneously cut my hours. Working less forced me to think outside the box I had been living in, to work smarter and do bigger things.

I did it because I was miserable. I had to change my life. If you’re not in the same place I was, it might be harder for you because you might be unwilling to take chances and endure the discomfort of change.

It comes down to this:Â To double your income and cut your work in half, you have to either be fed up or fired up. If you’re content right now, you need to find something outside of yourselfâ€”a cause, someone you want to helpâ€”and do it for them.

Fed up or fired up.

That’s my word for the day. Let me know if you accept my challenge.