What do you like best about being an attorney?

April 28, 2014 by
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It’s time to write another article for your website, blog, or newsletter. If you’re ready, say, “I’m ready!” and let’s get started.

The title of your post is: “What I like best about being an _______attorney in ________”. The first blank is your practice area. The second blank is your city or town. This will give you a title with some keywords prospective clients are likely to search for.

So, what do you like best about being an attorney? Your answer will give clients and prospects some insights into why you do what you do. They want to know what drives you because they want to hire an attorney who is passionate about what they do.

You might start your article by describing several things you like, followed by the one thing you like the most. You might describe a typical day, showing what you do and how you feel about what you do. Or a crazy day that tested you but ultimately defined you. You might talk about why you went to law school.

Whatever you like about being an attorney, make sure you tell the reader why. Sure, you like being able to help people solve problems, but why? Share a story about what you did for a client in the past, how it changed their life, and how this made you feel.

What about money? I say, don’t hide from the subject. If you do well financially and that’s something you like about your practice, say so. Clients want to hire successful attorneys. I probably wouldn’t make it number one on the list, however, unless you can also show how you use the money to make the world a better place by supporting charitable causes and the like.

If it helps, you might want to pretend that you’re writing this to a young relative who is considering a career in law. What would you say to show them that it’s hard, but worth it?

Give your readers some insights into what you do and why you do it. Clients hire attorneys they know, like, and trust and your article will help them do just that.

Want more ideas about content for your website? Get this

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Web traffic, Writing

Getting more bang for your content marketing buck

April 17, 2014 by
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If you have a website or blog, write a newsletter, or post anything on social media, you are engaging in content marketing. I just read an excellent article about the value of evergreen content for bringing a steady stream of traffic, in contrast to, well, non-evergreen content.

I’ve always been inclined towards writing evergreen content because I’m lazy smart. If you write about technology, as soon as it’s posted, it’s out of date. The same is true of many other timely and news-oriented topics. If you write evergreen content, however, it will bring traffic today and for years.

This doesn’t mean that one should avoid non-evergreen topics. They can bring a lot of short term traffic, which can lead to long-term followers and subscribers. When Steve Jobs abruptly resigned, I did a post that mentioned his resignation in the headline and got a big spike in traffic. I’m sure some visitors still read my blog today and that post still gets new traffic.

Evergreen content should be the foundation of your site, however. Make most of your content something people will always be interested in.

The article does a good job of listing what constitutes evergreen content (and what doesn’t), and it’s what you might expect. How to’s, authoritative answers to FAQ’s, and basic information that beginners search for qualify. Best of the year roundups, statistical pieces, and event-specific content don’t.

There are also some good suggestions for sharing evergreen content. I like the idea of creating an “evergreen hub” on my site, something I should have done a long time ago. This can take the form of a “start here” page or a “top posts” widget in the sidebar.

Anyway, you can access this article on this page. Let me know what you think in the comments to this post.

To learn more about online content marketing, get this. 

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Filed Under: Blogging, Newsletters, Online Marketing Tagged With: ,

Welcoming new businesses to your community

April 15, 2014 by
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My local Chamber of Commerce puts out a weekly email newsletter. It features upcoming events such as networking mixers, charity golf tournaments, and a meet and greet with our mayor. It also welcomes and lists new members. 

If I were still practicing, I would contact the new members, congratulate them on their new business, and welcome them to the community. If they aren’t a new business, I would congratulate them on joining the chamber.

If they are new, I’d ask if they are having a grand opening. If they aren’t new, I’d ask about any current sale or promotion. Then, I’d mention this in my newsletter and post it on my blog.

It doesn’t matter whether I handle business matters or consumer matters, or that they already have a lawyer. They have customers and vendors and business contacts who may need a lawyer, now or in the future. They joined the chamber to meet other businesses and some of those businesses might need a lawyer, or have customers who do.

I’d ask what kind of customers or clients they wanted and do my best to send them some referrals. I’d introduce the owner or manager of the business to other business owners and professionals in the market.

Do you think some of these business owners and professionals might also introduce me to other business owners and professionals they have met? Is it possible they might have some referrals for me? Do you think they might offer me some kind of special deal I could pass along to my clients and prospects?

Yes or yes?

How many other attorneys do this? Approximately zero. You can be the one and only.

You can start with a short phone call. Leave a message if you need to. Or send an email. Don’t pitch anything, just welcome them. If you speak to them, ask about their business. If you hit it off with them, meet them for coffee.

Marketing is easy. Lawyers are difficult.

Get The Attorney Marketing Formula and learn more about marketing legal services.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Networking, Newsletters, Referral sources, Referrals, Relationship marketing

Starting an email newsletter

April 11, 2014 by
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Quick, give me a legal tip. Something in your area of expertise you recommend I know or do.

Got it? Okay, write it down. Just the idea or title. Make a few notes if you want, but don’t spend a lot of time.

Congratulation. You now have the makings of an email you can send to your list. All you need to do is to take the idea and write three paragraphs that explain your tip.

Could you do this again? Could you come up with something for next week? A tip, a quick story, a recommended website? I’ll bet you could. Excellent. You have next week’s email.

You can post these on your website, too. Great! You’ve also started a blog.

Many attorneys hesitate to start a newsletter or blog because of the perceived immensity of the task. If you think in terms of a writing a few paragraphs, once a week, it shouldn’t appear so daunting.

You have a lot of knowledge you can share. Substantive law, procedure, advice. You don’t realize how much you know.

You also have a lot of experiences you can share. Interesting cases or clients, war stories.

You run a practice. People want to know about your employees, how you manage information, how you stay productive. What’s a typical day like? How do you open a new file? What do you do when you have a conflict? How do you keep track of deadlines?

You know other professionals who have information your clients want to know. You can ask them to share some of their knowledge with your readers.

You celebrate the holidays. Your readers enjoy hearing from you and sharing the joys of the season.

You have problems. People want to know how you deal with them.

You have goals. People want to hear what you are doing to reach them.

You have likes and dislikes people want to know about. Technology, books, movies, blogs and magazines.

Write something and send it off. Do it again next week. Pick a day when you’ll send your email and put it on your calendar. The whole thing, from start to finish, shouldn’t take you more than 30 minutes.

Now, once you’ve done this for a few months, you can take your backlog of emails and load them into an autoresponder. When someone joins your email list, they will automatically receive these emails. Once a week, they’ll get something from you, perhaps something you wrote months ago. You won’t have to write new emails if you don’t want to.

Starting an email newsletter isn’t difficult. Just start. One tip, one thought, and send.

For more ideas for your newsletter or blog, get this

 

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Filed Under: Blogging, Newsletters

Networking and your legal marketing plan

April 8, 2014 by
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If you do it right, networking can become a cornerstone of your legal marketing plan and one of your biggest sources of new business and career opportunities. But it can also be time consuming. 

One way to get more out of your networking is to use it as a springboard to finding content for your blog or newsletter.

Interview people you meet through networking and post it on your blog or in your newsletter. Do a profile of them or their business or practice, or promote their cause.

They get exposure, traffic, and new clients or customers. Your readers learn valuable tips from these subject matter experts. You get content for your blog that may bring you more search engine traffic.

And you get the gratitude of your new networking partner.

Their gratitude may lead to good things for you. Or it may not. Not all of people you feature in your interviews will reciprocate by interviewing you or sending you traffic or referrals. But some will.

These interviews can lead to other things. You can invite your networking partners to submit guest posts or articles for your blog or newsletter. You can explore other marketing joint ventures.

Go find some professionals, businesses, or vendors who sell to or write about your target market or community. You can find them online or in person. Reach out to them and ask questions about what they do. Then, ask for the interview. I can’t imagine anyone turning you down.

Wait, I’ll make it even easier for you. Start (this week would be good) by approaching someone you already know. Call your best referral source or business client and tell them you want to interview them.

What’s that? You don’t have a blog or newsletter? I guess you better start.

Learn how to create or grow a blog or website. Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Networking, Newsletters, Relationship marketing, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

Attorney newsletters: what do you write about?

March 24, 2014 by
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You see the value of staying in touch with clients and former clients. You want to start a newsletter or email list. But you hesitate, because you don’t know what to write about.

Your divorce clients don’t want to hear about all things divorce. They want to forget about it and move on. Your personal injury clients don’t plan to be in another accident. Why would they want to constantly hear about injuries and claims and trials? Estate planning clients might need to stay up to date with changes in the law or with the latest strategies, but every week?

If you have a consumer oriented practice, how do you write an attorney newsletter anybody would want to read?

That is the essence of an email inquiry I received last week.

The answer is to realize that your clients have different roles and interests and you can provide them with information related to those roles and interests.

Start with general consumer information and advice. Write about insurance, mortgages, debt, identity theft, taxes, saving money when buying a house, avoiding scams, building credit, repairing credit, leasing vs. purchasing, home appliance warranties, and a host of other topics.

But you’re a lawyer, not a consumer expert. Where do you get this information? How are you qualified to give advice?

You have several choices.

You can read and learn this information. I didn’t say you need to become an expert. You can learn just enough to share these ideas with your subscribers. You only need a few paragraphs per topic.

You can do a roundup of articles and resources you find online, and link to them. “If you’re looking for a way to. . . here are three articles you might like. . .” Add a few comments: “When I refinanced, I did exactly what this expert suggested, and here’s what happened. . .”.

You can reach out to subject matter experts in these areas and have them supply the information. They can write a “guest post” or article. You can interview them. Or you can ask them to supply something they’ve already written and allow you to quote from it (and link to it).

You can write articles describing your life as a consumer. Describe how you handled the purchase of a new car, researched contractors for some repair work to your home, or shopped around for a new insurance policy.

In addition to general consumer information, how about writing about legal issues outside of your field? Research and write it yourself or have another attorney write it. You can write articles for his or her newsletter in exchange.

What else. . . ?

How about. . . ANYthing?

Write about your personal life. What did you do on your last vacation? What’s going on with your search for the right college for your son or daughter? Have you seen any good movies lately? Read a great book?

Have you had an interesting case or client lately? Do have any clients who own a business?

And hey, the practice of law is local. What’s going on in your community? New stores opening? New restaurants you tried? A controversial rezoning effort? A scandal in the city counsel? Any interesting speakers at your rotary meeting?

Each time you add content to your website, you can mention this in your newsletter. Tell  what it’s about, provide a link, and describe who might benefit from that content. It might be your subscriber, it might be someone they know, so encourage them to forward your email.

In answer to the email inquiry I received about what to write about, I asked the attorney, “What would you talk about at a party?” You wouldn’t talk about the law (unless someone asked), you’d talk about the things people talk about at parties: life, kids, travel, food, art, community. Why can’t you “talk” about these things in your newsletter?

Your newsletter doesn’t have to be about your practice area. You can write about anything. Your newsletter is a mechanism for staying in touch with the people in your life. Each time they receive it, they are reminded of your name and how to contact you. They open and read your newsletter because you are a friend who shares interesting information. A friend who happens to be a divorce lawyer.

For much more on what to write about on your blog and newsletter, get this. Really. You’ll thank me.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Writing

How to protect yourself from freebie seekers

March 20, 2014 by
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For many people, a free offer is irresistible. They’ll sign up for your newsletter to get your free report or audio or other goody, with no intention of hiring you. In fact, many will unsubscribe from your list the first time you mention your paid services. Others will languish on your list and cost you money, as their collective numbers push you into a different cost tier.

Should you attempt to pre-qualify people before they join your list?

Generally, no. A bigger list is usually a good thing, even if it includes a large number of freebie seekers. So make your offer as inviting and easy to accept as possible. Don’t make people go through hoops to join your list.

Many will drop off soon. And the cost of keeping non-prospects on your list is acceptable because the easier you make it for anyone to sign up, the more who will, and that includes real prospects. If you make it harder to join, you’ll keep out the riffraff but also reduce the number of true prospects. And, you never know when someone might actually need your services, no matter what their original intentions.

There are some things you can do to pare down your list. You can periodically ask if they want to continue to be on your list. You can ask them to opt-in again. Or, you can sweep your account and remove subscribers who have not opened your (html) emails. But unless your list is in the tens of thousands, I wouldn’t worry about it.

Free consultations and free service offers are different, of course, because of the time factor. Here, you should at least minimally pre-qualify people before you see them. You can ask them to fill out a questionnaire, have them speak to someone in your office first, or briefly speak with them yourself on the phone.

In addition, make sure you post enough information on your website so that visitors can get most of their questions answered without speaking to you, and self-identify as a good candidate for a consultation.

Free is the most valuable word in marketing. Don’t let freebie seekers stop you from using it, um, freely.

The 30 Day Referral Blitz shows you how to write a kick-ass free report to build your list and drive referrals. 

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Filed Under: List building, Newsletters, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Attorney marketing in a nutshell

March 19, 2014 by
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Relax. Marketing really isn’t difficult.

Yes, you have to work hard the first few years in practice to establish a client base and develop some professional relationships, but once you do, you can leverage those clients and those relationships for the rest of your career.

Yesterday’s clients come back and send you referrals. Professional contacts send you business and introduce you to their counterparts. New clients and new contacts help your list grow, and the cycle continues.

That’s the way it always was. That’s the way it always will be.

The Internet lowers costs and gives you more options. But it can also become a big distraction. When you find yourself wondering what to do, go back to the fundamentals. Build a list and stay in touch with it. Contact former clients. Remind them you’re still here. Send them news and information.

What’s sad is that so many attorneys don’t get it. They don’t build a list, or stay in touch with it. They write big checks for advertising or consultants, instead of investing in their existing relationships.

The people you know, right now, are your biggest source of new business. Invest in them. Find ways to help them. Stay in touch with them.

I’ve hired attorneys before you never contacted me again. If I had a referral, I wouldn’t send it to them because I can’t remember their name.

Hello, is this thing on?

I’ll say it again. Attorney marketing is not difficult. Build a list and stay in touch with it.

You are on my list. I stay in touch with you. You buy my products and services and send me referrals and traffic. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. Of course you do this because I provide you with value. We have a mutually rewarding relationship.

What if I didn’t have a list? I wouldn’t be able to provide you with that value. I couldn’t stay in touch with you.

What if I never wrote to you? Would you remember me? Send me referrals or traffic? Not so much.

Yes, there are other things you (and I) can do to bring in new business. But nothing is more effective, less costly, or easier than building a list and staying in touch with it.

And that’s attorney marketing, in a nutshell.

Use your website to build your list. This is all you need.

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Filed Under: Client loyalty, List building, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Referrals, Relationship marketing

How to write a blog without writing a blog

February 26, 2014 by
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I get it. You don’t have a lot of time to write a blog. Even once a week seems daunting. But you know that having content online is a great way to highlight your capabilities and draw traffic, and you’d like to find a way to make it work.

One way to do this is to let others do the writing for you.

You could have your partners, associates, and staff do some or all of it. You could hire a ghost writer. (They’re not expensive.) Or, you could let other professionals write guest posts. Let’s talk about this one, shall we?

One way to do this is have five or ten other lawyers, consultants, experts, accountants, and so on, who each contribute a post every other month. They get exposure for their practice or business, you get content.

Some of those other professionals will undoubtedly notify their clients, subscribers, and readers about their new post on your site, and provide a link to it, which gives you exposure to their contacts. Of course you can offer to provide guest posts on their blogs, too, if and when you have the time.

If you don’t have enough other professionals who want in on this deal, no problem. You can easily find professionals online who would love to get exposure to your readers. Reaching out this way is a great way of networking with potential referral sources.

One thing you might want to do is add your comments before, during (by interlineation), or after the guest post. In other words, you introduce the guest blogger and his or her post and add your thoughts about how the post applies to your practice area or clients. This should take you very little time and will add value and context to a post that might otherwise seem a bit off topic.

First, make sure you flesh out your blog with ten or twenty substantive posts, written by you, about your practice area. Why? Because it’s your blog and you want to show visitors what you know and do. Also, you’ll be able to link to this content in your comments to guest posts. For example, if you handle employment law and have a guest post by a psychologist writing about how to handle a difficult employee, in your addendum to that post, you can link to your article about the legal implications of what employers might say or do.

Okay, one more idea. Ask one of your guest-post team if you can interview them. Have them give you five or ten questions to ask them, in advance. Record and transcribe the interview and post it on your blog. Easy content.

Of course it’s just as easy to have them interview you for their blog.

For more ideas on how to write a blog, get this.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Networking, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Web traffic, Writing

Content marketing for lawyers made even simpler

December 13, 2013 by
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In Make the Phone Ring, my Internet marketing course for attorneys, I provide a comprehensive list of ideas attorneys can use to create content for their blog or newsletter. They can also be used to produce reports, presentations, articles, videos, and other kinds of content.

Whether you have my course or not, today I want to give you a homework assignment that will help you create ideas for content almost automatically. You see, it’s one thing to go looking for ideas when you need them. It’s something else to have those ideas coming to your in-box every day, filling your mind with raw material and providing you with a starting point for creating rich, timely and interesting content.

Your assignment is to subscribe to three types of newsletters (blogs, RSS feeds, ezines, etc.):

  1. Other lawyers. Find lawyers both in your field and also in other fields and subscribe to their newsletters or blogs. You may start out with seven or eight and then cut back to the best three or four. You’ll get ideas for your own articles, which may include commenting directly on theirs. You’ll also see how often they publish, how long their posts are, and what types of posts they write (case histories, news, commentary, etc.)
  2. Your target market. Read what your target market is reading–news about their industry or local community, for example. Also read the content produced by those who sell to or advise your target market–vendors, consultants, businesses, and other professionals. You’ll learn about the news, issues, causes, and trends that affect your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources. You may also identify new marketing opportunities as you learn about those trends and the people associated with them.
  3. Something different. Subscribe to content that interests you and has nothing to do with the law or your client’s industry. It could be hobby related or any kind of outside interest–tech, travel, food, sports, news. I get lots of ideas by reading outside my main areas of focus, and so will you. You’ll be able to create richer, more interesting content. And it doesn’t matter if your readers don’t share your interest. Not everyone follows sports, for example, but on some level, everyone can relate to sports analogies.

Content marketing for lawyers is relatively simple. Subscribing to other people’s content makes it even simpler.

Get Make the Phone Ring and get more clients on the Internet. Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Presentations, Public Speaking, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With: , , , ,
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