Not everyone in your target market needs your services right now. Not everyone is ready to hire you. Not everyone has someone they can refer.

Someday? Sure. Just not today.

So when they talk to you or read your blog post or email, a lot of what you say goes in one ear and comes out the other.

They may hire you (again) someday. They may love you like a brother. But if they don’t need your services right now, they probably aren’t interested in hearing you endlessly talk about what you do.

What if you talked about something else once in awhile? What if instead of talking about what you do and promoting your practice, you promoted someone else?

Do you know any real estate brokers? Anyone you think highly of and openly recommend? How about promoting them?

Write a post or article about them. Interview them. Put one of their cards in the envelope when you mail invoices and attach a sticky note saying something nice about them. Put a link to their website on yours.

When you hear someone talking about buying or selling property, tell them you know a great broker. When you speak with another professional, bring up the subject: “By the way, if you have any clients looking to buy or sell property, I have a great broker I can recommend”.

You could promote any professional you know, any contractor, car dealer, insurance agent, or small business. Do you have a VA you use and like? A graphic artist, video whiz, or website developer?

They don’t need to be a client, just someone you know and trust.

Why wouldn’t you do this? If you would recommend them when anyone asks for a referral, why not recommend them before anyone asks?

The people you talk to (who don’t need your services right now) may be looking to buy or sell a home. When you bring up the subject of a good broker, they may be all ears. They’ll appreciate you for helping them find someone and remember you when they do need your services.

They’ll also appreciate you for talking about someone other than yourself.

Oh yeah, the broker you promote? They’ll appreciate the hell out of you. And maybe they’ll promote you, too.

If you want other lawyers to recommend you, get this

Over the weekend I bought a piece of software I first looked at several years ago. I wasn’t ready to buy it back then, or maybe it wasn’t ready for me, but that was then and this is now.

I got it, set it up and fooled around with it all weekend. I’m happy. Yay me.

A few thoughts.

First, I didn’t go looking for this. I happened to find it again when I was looking at something else. I got lucky and so did the developer.

I was lucky because the software will help me save time and make money.

They got lucky because I found them again and I might not have.

I wasn’t on their email list so they couldn’t stay in touch with me and sell me on their product. They couldn’t tell me about updates and new features, prompt me to watch videos to help me see how I could use it, build trust by showing me reviews, make me special offers, encourage me to tell others, and all of the other things you can do when you have clients and prospects on an email list.

Had they done that, I might have purchased this a year ago. I might have told others about it, on my blog and newsletter, and on social. I might now be ready to buy something else they offer, aka “repeat business,” or recommend their product to other people I know, aka “referrals”.

Lesson: get thee an email list and stay in touch with folks.

Second, I found the software (again) not through search but while browsing through a site that recommends software in different categories. I recognized the name as something I had looked at before and took another look.

Lesson: find sites, blogs, directories, et. al., that sell to or advise your target market(s) and do something with them.

Show them what you do and how you can help their customers, clients, subscribers and visitors. Offer to write articles for them. See if they want to interview you. Comment on their blog posts. Share their products and services and content with your subscribers.

Your clients will appreciate you for telling them about things that can improve their life and the people who sell the products and run the sites will see you as someone they should work with and promote.

Third, I didn’t find this product through search, but I might have. Not by searching their name (I didn’t remember it until I saw it) but by searching keywords related to what the software does.

Lesson: use keywords on your site(s). Don’t obsess over it, don’t pay companies exorbitant sums to work voodoo magic, just use those keywords in your content.

That’s all for now. I’ve got to get back to playing with my new toy.

Turn your site into a client magnet

Some professionals host events for marketing purposes—a party, picnic, seminar, fundraiser, golf tournament, and so on. They invite their clients and prospects and encourage them to bring their friends.

It’s a form of “member get a member,” an old-school marketing strategy that still works today.

But suppose you don’t have the funds to do this, or the time to organize it? Or you don’t know how to put it all together?

You can start small and host a “get acquainted” event in your conference room. Serve some food, pass out some information, and go from there.

Or you can piggyback on someone else’s event.

One way to do that is to find a professional a business that targets your market and is holding an event and talk to them about joining forces. You might pay for half of their convention booth, for example, or pay a fee to have them pass out your free report to passersby. You might offer to speak about tax issues at their investment seminar. Tell them that in return, you’ll promote their event to your clients.

Or you can do it informally.

Perhaps a Tony Robbins event is coming to town and you plan to attend. Announce to your list that you’re going and invite them to join you. Encourage them to invite their friends or clients who might also want to attend.

The more the merrier.

There may be 3000 people at the event but your group of 20 can get together at the breaks, go to dinner together, meet and compare notes. You get to meet some new prospective clients or referral sources, without doing anything more than promoting someone else’s event that you were already planning to attend.

You could do the same thing with a golf tournament: “a bunch of us are going to play. . . come join us and invite your clients and prospects. . .” You might spice things up by offering your own prizes–whoever has the most people join them, the lowest scoring foursome, or a random drawing for your group, for example. Or give everyone who comes some kind of freebie or special offer.

Every summer, our city has a “concert in the park” series with music and food. If there’s something like this in your area, you could promote it. “Join me, it’s going to be fun! I’ll be near the hot dog stand and I’d love to see you. Bring your neighbors and come say hello.”

Keep your eyes open for events someone else is doing and think about how you can piggyback on those events. If nothing else, it gives you an opportunity to contact your clients and prospects (to tell them about the event) and keep your name in front of them.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

Four or five years ago a business partner bought me a magazine subscription as a gift. After a year, the subscription ran out. I didn’t renew it but I continued to get the magazine each month, and still do.

It’s no secret why the publisher continues to mail the magazine to lapsed subscribers. They earn most of their money through advertising, renting their list, and selling other products. The more “subscribers” on their rolls, the more they earn.

Business 101.

So how can you use this strategy to build your practice? What can you give away that will bring you more clients and more revenue?

How about your services?

Do you have (or could you cobble together) a free service that is likely to lead to paid services? Example: a free simple will package, because a certain percentage of those new clients will need a trust or other services.

More examples: first hour free, first collection case free, free incorporation, free consultation.

Like the magazine publisher, it’s not how much you give away, it’s how much you earn on the back end.

Onward.

Do you volunteer time on committees or to raise funds for a cause? If not, you might look into doing that, not just because you want to help the organization or cause but because you get something in return.

You get to meet people who can hire you, refer you, or introduce you. You get invited to write or speak or be interviewed, exposing you to other people’s clients, customers, and subscribers. You get to be seen in the public eye, associated with a worthy cause.

Yes?

Okay, what else can you give away?

Information. Reports, books, videos, blog posts, articles, and so on. Give them away and get traffic to your website, new social media followers and newsletter subscribers, and new clients who consume your content and sell themselves on hiring you.

Give away lots of information and get lots of traffic to your website, new social media followers and newsletter subscribers, and new clients who consume your content and sell themselves on hiring you.

They read, they like, they call. They also share with other people who need your help.

So yeah, free is a viable marketing strategy for lawyers. And yeah, that’s free advice I’m giving you.

Legal marketing made simple

Marketing is hard. I don’t have the time. It takes too long to get results. I don’t like [marketing activity]. I’m not good at [marketing activity]. I tried [marketing activity] and it didn’t work. I already do [marketing activity]; I don’t need to do anything else. I’m not a sales person.  I don’t need marketing, I get clients by being a good lawyer.

Wow. You really don’t like marketing.

And yet. . . you want to get more clients and increase your income.

You want to buy nice things and send your kids to good schools. And maybe not work so hard so you can stay healthy and live longer.

Remember free time? You had it once for about two weeks before you started law school. Yeah, some more of that would be nice, wouldn’t it?

And let’s not forget retirement. Crazy, I know. But still. . .

Let’s cut to the chase. You want money and the time to enjoy it. You can have them. Through marketing. That’s how I did it. That’s how you can do it.

What’s that? You say marketing is hard? You don’t like it? You don’t have the time?

Enough with the whining.

Okay, let’s make a deal. If I can show you how to make marketing a little easier, would you agree to do some?

Sweet.

Let’s start with something simple. Like sending birthday cards to your clients. You know, the people who help pay your mortgage?

Yeah, those people.

You already do that? Well look at you, you sly devil. You’re marketing. I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be our secret.

Just to make sure, you sign the cards yourself, right? In blue ink so the client knows it’s a real signature? Maybe add a personal note, like, “How did Joey do on that test?” so they know you’re thinking about them and actually wrote the card yourself?

I know, it’s hard. You might have to sign three or four cards a day. Risk getting paper cuts and glue poisoning from licking all those stamps. Yeah, use a real postage stamp, not the meter. And hand-write the name and address on the envelope. No labels.

The personal touch. Showing your clients you know who they are and you appreciate them.

Yes, that’s marketing. A few minutes a day. But oh so powerful.

Marketing is easier when you know the formula

In law school, you learn the law, not how to practice law. You learn that by doing it.

Studying, answering questions under the glaring eye of your professor, and taking tests are important. But only when you start clerking do you begin to learn what it means to practice law.

You watch other lawyers negotiate, argue motions, and take depositions. You draft documents, talk to adjusters, and sit with clients and fill out forms. You immerse yourself in the environment of a real-world practice and do many of the things that lawyers do.

When you pass the bar and take your first job as a lawyer, you do more and learn more. If you open your own practice and have to sink or swim, that’s when you learn the most.

Learning how to practice law is a process and it takes place over time. The same is true of learning how to manage and grow your practice. Unfortunately, not much (or anything) about that is taught in law school. You won’t learn much from clerking, either.

Hiring and supervising employees, billing, insurance, compliance, and 101 other things, but especially marketing, without which you won’t have a practice, all require time to learn and become proficient. It’s up to you to learn it on your own.

And yet, most lawyers don’t take the time to learn these things. They dive in and see what happens.

That’s how I did it. There were no courses on marketing when I began practicing. Very few books. No consultants, at least none that I could afford. I didn’t know any lawyers who were willing to take me under their wing and teach me what to do.

I learned marketing by doing it. And you know what? That works, too.

Today, there are more options that make things easier. Lots of books and courses. You can learn how to set up your own website by watching youtube videos and complete everything in less than an hour. You can hire people to teach you what to do and to do much of it for you.

But you have to do something.

Don’t let a lack of experience stop you. As soon as you know enough to start, start. You’ll figure out the rest as you go along.

Don’t let fear stop you. As Mark Twain said, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.”

But do something. Because you learn how to practice law by doing it.

Start your marketing with the Attorney Marketing Formula