Online Marketing Archives - Page 7 of 28 - The Attorney Marketing Center

Give it away, give it away, give it away, now

April 4, 2019 by David M. Ward

Some lawyers are concerned that if they give away too much information–through a blog or newsletter or other means–the people who consume that information won’t need to hire them.

“I’m paid for my knowledge and experience and I’m not going to give that away,” they say. “If they want information, they need to hire me.”

But here’s the thing.

It’s true that some people will take your information and never hire you. They’ll use that information and do the job themselves. But that’s a very small percentage of the whole and those people are unlikely to ever hire you anyway so you lose nothing.

Some people will do the job themselves, mess up–because they can’t do what you do even if you tell them how to do it, and hire you to fix their mess. You’ll get more business this way, not less.

And some people will see that it would be too difficult or time-consuming or risky to do the job themselves and hire you. They might not have done that had they not seen your information.

In other words, giving away information helps you get more clients because:

It educates prospective clients about the scope of their problem, the risks of ignoring it or trying to handle it themselves,

It demonstrates your knowledge, experience, and ability to help them solve their problem,

It distinguishes you from other lawyers who say, “If you want information, hire me,”

It attracts people who find your information through search or sharing, thus increasing the pool of prospective clients for your services, and

It sells them on choosing you because they get to hear your “voice” in that information and see what it would be like to have you represent them.

If you’re smart, and I know you are, you’ll give away lots of information, and let that information do most of your marketing for you.

What information you should put on your website

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Online Marketing Tagged With: content marketing, education marketing

3 simple ways to quickly create content

March 26, 2019 by David M. Ward

You need more content for your blog or newsletter or channel. You don’t have a lot of time. What do you do?

Here are 3 ideas:

(1) The simplest source of new content is old content. Find something you’ve written before and re-use it. Convert a blog post into a video or vice versa.

Or, re-write it. Add some new information or examples.

Done.

(2) Almost as simple is to re-write something written by someone else.

Find a blog post or article by someone in your niche, put it into your own words and add your own examples or stories. Or, summarize the other person’s article and comment on it–what you agree with, what you don’t, and why.

Done.

One more.

(3) Respond to comments or questions posted on your social media, blog, or in your email inbox.

You can get some of your best content this way because you’re responding to real people with real questions about things you’re already thinking about or talking about.

And, done.

Wait, what? You don’t have any comments or questions you can respond to?

No problem. Go find someone else’s blog or social media and answer one of their questions.

Now, since you don’t have a lot of time, I’ll shut up and let you get to work.

More ideas here

Filed Under: Email, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Writing Tagged With: content creation, content marketing

Stealing from other lawyers

December 29, 2017 by David M. Ward

Yesterday, I said you should plagiarize yourself, that is, take your previously written, recorded, and presented material and re-use or re-purpose it. I also suggested that you pay attention to the emails, documents, and other materials sent to you by other lawyers, and use it for ideas for creating your own materials.

Today, I’m going to take things a bit further and suggest you blatantly steal from other lawyers.

Now, don’t lose your lunch. I’m not going to tell you to do anything illegal, immoral, unethical, or unbecoming of a professional.

What I mean is this:

Go online and find content in your practice area that other attorneys are publishing–on their blogs, in guest posts, articles and anywhere else you can find it. Look especially for material that is getting a lot of traffic, upvotes (Medium), Likes, shares, comments, and so on. You might use a tool like Buzzsumo.

Once you’ve found some popular articles, look for ways to cover the same subject or idea in a different or better way. A few ideas:

Take a post by a lawyer in another state and write a version of that post for your state
Write a more in-depth article on the subject, or a shorter, more accessible summary
Write a version of the article for a different type of client or market
Link to the article and provide additional arguments, stories, statutes, or case law, to support the argument posited in the article and why you agree with it
Link to the article and show why you disagree with it or explain when and why things can be different
Take one section of the article and explore it in depth
Take something barely mentioned (or not mentioned) in the article but relevant to the subject and write about it
Interview or survey other attorneys or subject matter experts on the subject for your own article

Re-write the headline, optimize the headline and body for keywords you target, and you’ll not only have new content for your blog or website, you’ll have something you know is likely to bring traffic and engagement.

And you’ll never again say, “I don’t know what to write about”.

More ideasÂ here

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing

One day you might not need a website

October 23, 2017 by David M. Ward

When I started practicing there was no Internet, few attorneys had computers or even fax machines, there was no social media, email, or instant messenger. We talked to people in person or on the phone. Or we mailed them a letter.

Marketing was done the old-fashioned way: networking, speaking, writing, and referrals. Oh yeah, we also had the Yellow Pages.

Yes, I’m an old fart.

By the time I retired from active practice, most of my business came from repeat business and referrals. It took a long time to get there but when I arrived, it was nice.

My father would tell you a similar story. So would my accountant, who is still practicing. To the best of my knowledge, neither have ever had a website or social media account.

The point?

If you’ve built your practice to a point that it sustains itself and continues to grow through repeat referrals and referrals, mazeltov. You can do whatever you want.

If you haven’t done that, if you are struggling, or if you still have big plans and a lot of gas in the tank, you need to consider doing some other things.

For starters, you need a decent website.

Today, when someone tells a friend about you, that friend goes online to check you out. If you don’t have a website where you can tell your story, show the world what you do and why someone should hire you, that friend may wind up in some other attorney’s waiting room.

If you have a website but it looks like something circa 1998, or you use AOL as your email provider, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

I’m not saying you need a great website. Just one that looks like it’s from the 21st century with some good content. Get your own domain name. And make it easy for visitors to call, email, follow you, share your content, and sign up for your newsletter.

This is not difficult to do. Or expensive. And if you do it right, your website can do a lot of your marketing for you.

When someone searches for a lawyer with your qualifications, or when someone (that includes you) sends them to your website, it can show them what they need to know, answer their questions, overcome their objections, and persuade them to take the next step.

Nice.

One day, you might not need a website. Until then, you might want to turn off the Starsky and Hutch reruns and get to work.

If your website needs an overall, get this

Filed Under: Online Marketing

Live, from your office. . .

October 2, 2017 by David M. Ward

The other day I recommended not relying solely on live presentations but to record them so they can go to work for you 24/7.

It’s leverage. Do it once, use it over and over again.

But don’t stop doing live presentations.

I don’t just mean “live and in person”. I mean live online. Podcasts, hangouts, chats, webinars, and so on, that are presented in real time. There’s magic in something done live.

When you promote a recorded video, it’s harder to create a sense of urgency. You can say, “This will only be available until. . .” but you then lose the ability to get eyeballs on an ongoing basis. If you leave it up all the time, many people say, “I’ll catch it later,” but we all know that later often never comes.

When you do it live, however, you can promote it as a special event because it is special. You can say, or more likely imply “Never before and never again,” has this been done, creating an even bigger sense of urgency.

When it’s live, you can say, “Join me” or “Ask me anything” and thus provide more value and build a closer relationship with your followers. Or you can promote it by saying you’re presenting some new or timely information that shouldn’t be missed.

One of the biggest draws of a live event is that nobody knows what will happen. What will be said, what will be asked, what information will be shared for the first time? And let’s face it, one reason people watch live events is that they know it could be a train wreck and they want to see that.

One way to make your live events have more train-wreck potential is to have someone else speak with you. If you have a co-presenter, a panel discussion, you interview someone or have someone interview you, the likelihood of something noteworthy or cringeworthy happening is even greater. (You’ll also get the other speakers’ followers to tune in.)

Do some live events and watch your subscriber numbers and engagement soar. Of course, you should also record these events so you can use them again or make them available 24/7. But you might not want to mention that you’re recording it when you promote it for the first time.

Let your website do the heavy lifting: Marketing online for attorneys

Filed Under: Blogging, Leverage, List building, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Presentations, Seminars and webinars

Don’t just tell me about your legal services, tell me what problems you solve

July 31, 2017 by David M. Ward

People contact you and ask about your services. Or they find your website and have a look around. Some of those people are looking for X service because they believe that X is what they need. Other people don’t know what they need, they just know they have a legal problem.

If you’re smart (and you are), you’ll tell people about both the solutions (services) you offer and the problems you solve.

You have a “Services” or “Practice Areas” page on your website, right? If you don’t, uh, hello, McFly? If someone finds your website by searching for X, you want to show them that you do X, right?

Okay.

You should also have a “Problems We Solve” or a “How We Can Help You” page that describes the problems you solve, prevent, or mitigate, or the objectives you help clients attain.

Your “Problems” summary page should then link to pages where you present text and video content about those problems and the solutions you offer. You can then link to your specific “Services” pages(s).

Make sense? Sure. It also makes dollars.

Learn more about creating a website that sells

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

Prospecting for gold in your law practice

July 14, 2017 by David M. Ward

When my daughter was in grade school I went with her on a field trip to Sacramento. One of the events on the agenda was panning for gold in a stream that once teamed with prospectors. They spent their days sifting through water, dirt, rocks, and sand. The more “non-gold” they got rid of, the more gold they found.

There’s a marketing lesson in this for lawyers.

If you want to find more “gold” (bigger cases, better clients), you need to get rid of as much non-gold as possible, as quickly as possible.

Why spend your time and resources courting clients who aren’t a good fit for you?

Other lawyers filter out cases and clients they don’t want after they talk to prospects. What if you filter them out before you talk to them?

When you create a profile of your ideal client, make a list of clients and cases that aren’t ideal. If you handle plaintiff’s personal injury cases, for example, your second list might include fender benders and soft tissue injuries.

Then, create a page on your website and describe the clients who aren’t a good fit for you.

You’ll stand out for being honest and transparent. You’ll build trust and create higher perceived value for being selective. You’ll attract better clients who see that unlike other lawyers, you don’t take anyone as a client.

Be honest about what you don’t want. You’ll get rid of more dirt and find more gold.

Need help figuring out who you do and don’t want as a client? Get this

Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Online Marketing

What if I’m right?

June 28, 2017 by David M. Ward

I get it. The two reasons you don’t have an email newsletter or blog or, if you do, you don’t write or post very often:

You don’t have enough to write about, and/or, you don’t have the time to do it.

I say you do. I say you have plenty to write about, way more than you realize, and you have more than enough time to do it.

Give me a chance to prove it.

Set up a new notebook or file for this email/blog project, open a page and label it “ideas”. If you have any that come to mind, write them down. If you have other files with blog post or content ideas you’ve collected, add them to your new file.

Go through your hard drive, reading list, saved article files, and do the same.

Next, write down the questions prospective clients and new clients typically ask you–about the law, procedure or process, about their legal rights and options, about what you can do to help them.

You should be able to quickly write down ten or twenty questions.

If you find yourself running short, visit some online forums where people post questions for attorneys to answer, and see what’s being asked.

You can also visit article directories, other attorney’s blogs, and websites that feature legal content and see what visitors are asking in the comments. You can search your keywords on social media and see what people are talking about.

Okay, that’s enough for now. More than enough, actually. You should now have enough ideas to keep you busy for the next several years.

Will you have the time to use those ideas? Let’s find out.

Go through your idea list and pick one. It doesn’t matter what it is, just pick something you have an opinion on or experience with, or something that interests you that you think might interest others.

Now, write down three words or phrases related to that idea.

If you’re a personal injury attorney and you’ve chosen to write a response to the question, “How much is my case worth?” your three words might be, “damages, liability, and insurance,” for example.

Next, take your idea and your key words, set a timer for five minutes and start writing. You can type or use a pen or dictate but don’t stop writing (or talking) until the five minutes is up.

Don’t edit, don’t worry about grammar or punctuation, don’t slow down or stop. Just keep pushing your pen or pounding the keys.

For. Five. Whole. Minutes.

I don’t care how busy you are, you can write for five minutes.

When you’re done, you probably learned that

You have a lot to say about certain subjects
You can get a lot of words on a page in five minutes
You wind up with a mess but it’s not as bad as you thought

At least that’s what I found out the first time I did this exercise.

You now have the first draft of an email or blog post or article. Put it aside and re-write or edit it later. When you’re done, you should have a few hundred words, enough for a blog post or email.

Then, tomorrow, or next week at this time, do it again. Pick another idea, write down three words, write for five minutes, edit later.

Continue doing this until you have at least ten posts or emails.

Now it’s time to decide what to do with them.

You could start a blog. You’ll have ten weeks (or days) worth of material to post.

You could start a newsletter. You’ll have ten emails to load into your autoresponder.

Or you can gather up what you’ve written and turn them into an ebook or report.

The point is, you now know you can do this. You can write something in 30 minutes or less, including editing. (Okay, it might take longer at first but you’ll get faster.)

The only remaining question is, “Should you?” Will it be worth it for you to write something once or twice a week and post or email it? Will it bring in business?

There’s only one way to find out.

For more ideas, and more ways to get ideas, get this

Filed Under: Blogging, Email, Online Marketing, Writing

Are you making this expensive advertising mistake?

June 22, 2017 by David M. Ward

The other day I heard a radio commercial for a real estate broker. The show’s host said he’s the only broker he recommends and provided examples of some of the great results the broker has obtained for his clients.

The commercial ended with the host telling the audience to call the broker, provided the phone number, and repeated it.

The broker sounds like a real player, someone you should talk to if you’re thinking of buying or selling. But there was something missing. Something that could help this broker massively increase his income.

It’s a common advertising mistake. Sad because it is so easy to fix.

Here’s what I’m talking about.

There are three categories of people who hear this ad. The first category is the smallest but provides the most immediate revenue: people who like what they hear, pick up the phone and call.

The second category is the largest: people who will never call. They don’t own property, aren’t planning to buy property, have a brother in the business, and so on.

They’re not prospects.

The third category isn’t as big as the first category (those who call) but offers the most long-term profit potential. It consists of all of the people who were interested but didn’t call.

They didn’t have time to call. They’re not yet ready to buy or sell. They want more information. They don’t want to talk to someone who will try to get them to make an appointment.

Lots of good meat left on dem bones.

At some point, many people in the third group will be ready to call. Unfortunately, they won’t remember the broker’s name and will call the next broker who comes along.

The solution is simple.

Tell listeners to call OR visit your website.

At the website, they get tips about buying and selling, information about the market, hear more success stories, learn more about your greatness, and generally sell themselves on making that call.

If they’re still not ready, perhaps they will download your special report or planning guide, giving you their email and allowing you to stay in touch with them until they are ready to call.

Some won’t ever call (for a variety of reasons) but will tell their son or daughter, friend or neighbor, about you, and they will call.

Mr. Broker, by not giving listeners another option besides “call now,” you’re leaving a boatload of money on the digital table. Yes, you can continue running ads and appeal to people who are ready to call, but why not also begin a conversation with the ones who aren’t yet ready?

If there’s enough of them on your list, you may never have to run ads again.

Let your website do most of the marketing for you. Here’s how

Filed Under: Advertising, List building, Online Marketing