Legal Marketing Is Necessary
Legal marketing is necessary. If you want to be successful as a lawyer you need clients. There is no debating that fact. There is no other way to get clients other than through legal marketing. Yet lawyers debate the necessity of legal marketing constantly. Let’s get something straight, if you are a lawyer and you ask someone to work with you, that is legal marketing. If you ask someone to refer you business, that is legal marketing. If you win a case and you tell someone about it, that is legal marketing.
For those of you who are sticklers, here is a definition of marketing from Webster’s Dictionary: Marketing is “the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.” You are promoting, selling and distributing your service if you hand out a business card. Every lawyer is involved in legal marketing in some way. Period. End of debate.
The law is a profession and a business and as such legal marketing is highly regulated. This is a good thing. As a society we want people to have the best representation available. Legal marketing helps them make an educated choice. In fact, legal marketing is necessary for clients to make the best choice. If lawyers weren’t listed somewhere (yes, even a listing on your local bar association’s web site is marketing) people would not have every opportunity to make a good decision.
My grandfather always said that anything worth doing was worth doing well. Until law schools start teaching you how to attract clients, you have to learn somewhere. You can try to figure it out on your own, but that’s precisely the reason most attorneys have a limited income. Legal marketing is both an art and a science. It involves psychology, math, ethics, statics, and advanced writing skills. You can’t pick it up on the street and hope to be as effective as someone who has studied it for a lifetime.
You spent $100,000 on law school. Why won’t you spend 25% of that learning how to attract the clients that can help you recoup your investment? Isn’t it time you stopped limiting your earning potential?
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EmailHow Do Clients Find Attorneys?
These days there are more ways than ever to find an attorney. The most common way a client finds an attorney will vary by practice area. Below is my (highly unscientific) list of top five ways clients find attorneys.
Internet Search: This is one of the top two ways clients find attorneys these days. If you are in a law practice area that focuses on consumers, there is a good chance that your clients will look for a lawyer on line.
As an attorney you need to have a website and update the content regularly. You may also want to learn a little about the many different elements that go into search engine optimization. Since most consumers (and many businesses) do not do thorough research on a lawyer before hiring him, you may be out-positioned by many of your (inferior) competitors. This does not mean you give up on improving your website ranking. It just means that you will need to put more effort into this area if it is competitive.
Referral: This is the best way for a client to find a lawyer and it is one of the top two ways for lawyers to be found. A referral from a client is like gold and a referral from another attorney is almost always money in the bank.
The way to strengthen the quality of the referrals you receive is to give great referrals to others and follow up like crazy. If you are constantly in touch with your client base and your base of referral sources, you will always be “top of mind”.
Speaking Engagements: Giving a speech at a conference is a great way to develop relationships with potential clients and potential referral sources. It conveys a sense of authority and credibility. If you work the crowd correctly, you can add hundreds of names to your mailing list while strengthening your personal brand.
Articles: Writing articles is a terrific way for potential clients to find an attorney. Getting your article published in a trade magazine or in an industry journal will enhance your credibility and generate leads.
Expert Commentary in the Media: Being an expert commentator in the local media can be helpful in being found by potential clients. If you are the “go to person” for any news outlet you will have enhanced credibility and you can leverage that through your newsletter and on your blog.
In addition to these five ways, there are dozens of other ways clients find lawyers. The key to being found is to add as many people as possible to you database and keep educating them through your newsletter and other regular forms of contact.
A Tale of Two Lawyers
On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same law school. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both loved the law and both clerked for prominent judges while in law school. Both of these young men were filled with hope for the bright future that lie ahead of them in their career as lawyers.
Recently, these men attended their law school’s 25th reunion.
They were still very much alike. Both were happily married. Both had three children. And both, it turned out, had gone into private practice in the suburbs of a big city.
But there was a difference. One of the men was billing a low hourly rate, doing tedious, repetitive work and barely making enough to pay his bills. The other was the Managing Partner of his own boutique law firm, earning great money and taking only the clients and cases that intrigued him.
What Made The Difference?
Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference in people’s lives? It isn’t a native intelligence or talent or dedication. It isn’t that one person wants success and the other doesn’t. It is one little thing that clearly separates those who live an average life from those who live lives of freedom and independence.
That one little thing is confidence.
It’s confidence in the ability to attract new clients. It’s confidence in the ability to handle he work effectively and efficiently. It’s confidence in commanding a fee premium because you have significant expertise that client’s want, need and will pay for.
Most people don’t have this confidence. But they should.
The reason they don’t have this confidence is because of human nature. If twenty people say you’re great and one person says you stink, which person do we remember? We remember the one person who provided the negative feedback. Always. It’s the way we are all wired.
How do successful people get past this?
The successful attorney has developed a system for getting past this negative feedback. The attorney who controls his own destiny has developed a way to block out the negative feedback and focus solely on the positive so his confidence will soar.
The successful attorney has learned that negative feedback (I am talking about unconstructive, personal attacks) is more about the person GIVING the feedback than about you, the intended target. That’s right, it’s about them.
With a little practice and a little self training you can break through the confidence barrier that is preventing you from experiencing the success you deserve. I have recorded a five minute video that demonstrates three techniques to help you break through this mental barrier. These are the same techniques world class athletes use to enhance their performance.
These are also the same techniques I use to help my clients quote higher fees, take on only quality clients and ignore the negative people who are out there trying to bring them down.
Here’s the video:
Enjoy the video and enjoy the success that comes from being confident in your tremendous ability!
In Legal Marketing You Can’t Fake Class
This past weekend I was driving along a major highway in Miami and I saw a billboard with the big fat face of a local attorney holding a traffic ticket in his hand. This was definitely a candidate for the legal marketing hall of shame. The headline on the billboard read:
“Don’t Pay That Ticket!”
This is the same guy who sends out ridiculous flyers in the mail to people who get traffic tickets. He looks like a total goofball.
I am wondering if this is what this guy had in mind when he went to law school. Did he say to himself:
“When I graduate with all of this knowledge I want to go out and make myself look like an ass to get some people in to my law firm?”
This is the kind of legal marketing that makes lawyers look bad and makes people think I am the Dean of Clown College.
When it comes to legal marketing you need to ask yourself one question:
“If my mother sees this ad/article/direct mail piece/speech would she be proud to admit I was her son (daughter)?”
If you hesitate at all when you answer, you should not use that legal marketing vehicle.
Law Firm Marketing Universal Truths
Since most people agree that law firm marketing is now a necessity, I am often asked if I will share some tips on how successful law firms market their services. I usually do not give out much information when people ask this question. After all, why should I give away what others have paid for and earned?
What I am comfortable doing is revealing five universal truths that make a big difference when you are implementing a law firm marketing plan. These facts are true regardless of your marketing tactics.
Law Firm Marketing Truth 1: Do Something Every Day
Since the success of law firm marketing lies in the consistency of implementation, doing something every day makes good sense. Dedicate a specific amount of time to law firm marketing each day. Even an hour will work. During this time, focus all of your energy on law firm marketing. Don’t read email. Don’t answer the phone. Don’t clean the office. Just focus on one specific law firm marketing activity.
Appling a focused, daily effort to law firm marketing will make it seem like less work over the long term and the effort will multiply your success.
Law Firm Marketing Truth 2: Develop Systems
You cannot implement a successful law firm marketing plan alone. Everything you do must be driven by a system. For example: You can write the articles for your newsletter but formatting it, printing it and mailing it out to your list is something that should be automatically done once the newsletter is written. You should be able to turn this entire process over to someone else and have it handled. There should be a system in place for newsletter production. In fact, there should be a system in place for everything in your law firm marketing plan.
Law Firm Marketing Truth 3: Measurement Matters
You must be able to measure the results of every law firm marketing activity. If you can’t measure it, don’t do it. You need to be able to continuously improve your law firm marketing. If you cannot measure a specific tactic, you cannot improve it.
Law Firm Marketing Truth 4: Test Everything
Do not spend a huge amount of money on anything unless you test it first. This is just common sense. You must test your message, your target market and the media. You must be able to determine what the results will be before you deploy any law firm marketing tactic. You should never take a shot in the dark.
Law Firm Marketing Truth 5: Be Patient
Success with law firm marketing comes over time. You must be patient. If you consistently make an effort to grow your law firm, you should see begin to see results in six months. Law firm marketing is a marathon not a sprint. You must be invested (emotionally) for the long haul.
These are the five universal truths to law firm marketing. If you follow them you will reduce your frustration as you grow your law firm.
My Big Email Experiment
Can you just shut down your email? If you do, will the world end?
Earlier this year I made a resolution only to check my email once a week. Well, that turned out to be a disaster. By the time I got to my inbox I had over 2,500 messages waiting for me. My clients began calling and asking if I had passed away and my Blackberry became so overloaded it stopped counting the number of unopened messages in the mailbox.
This has to stop.
Most of the email messages I receive are not from clients. They are from people who want something. Usually they want something for nothing. And they always want to waste my time.
Here’s what I am going to do about this:
I have set up an auto responder that will go out to everyone EXCEPT my clients. It says that I do not check email any longer and it offers a website with my alternative contact information.
This will go into effect on the first of next month.
Some people may get angry but ultimately, my clients will receive better service.
I will let you know what happens.
Lawyer Marketing Consultant Choices
If you are a lawyer looking for a marketing consultant you have lots of choices. Lawyer marketing seems to be a topic that is gaining interest these days. The downturn in the economy, big law firm layoffs and the growing popularity of the Internet and Social Media have driven lawyers to ask for help with marketing.
As the number of lawyers looking for marketing assistance increases, the number of people who are willing to take their money is also increasing. This means selecting a lawyer marketing consultant just became more difficult. While there are many excellent, qualified people who can help you with marketing your law firm, there are also people who are peddling garbage. These people make us all look bad.
Here are the people to watch out for as you seek assistance with lawyer marketing:
Social Media Coaches
Anyone who tells a lawyer that social media is a standalone marketing strategy is a charlatan. Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn and other social media tools can play a role in marketing but they need to be integrated with the marketing fundamentals and your overall strategy. Social media is just media. There are two other aspects involved in good lawyer marketing: Your message and your target market.
Social media coaches are usually “one trick ponies”. This means they know how to get you 1000 friends on Facebook but they can’t tell you what to do once you have them.
Business Coaches
If you want to learn about how to build a law firm from the guy who works with the local Deli Owner and the local Car Mechanic than a business coach is a good choice for you. Hiring a business coach to learn about lawyer marketing is like using a hammer to drill a hole in a piece of wood. I guess it can work but it is not the best alternative.
Business coaches apply set methodology to each client. Everyone is working with the same template. They use their “system” as a differentiator but ultimately it doesn’t work for professional services, let alone highly regulated, high profile lawyers.
You can compare a lawyer hiring a business coach for help with marketing to a patient with a brain aneurism going to a podiatrist. Seeking help is the right thing to do but you will be working with someone who is focused on the wrong end of the problem.
Part Time Lawyers
These people really bother me. Most often, they go to a marketing seminar and they buy some kind of kit in a box. They then spend a weekend adapting that material to the practice of law and they offer themselves out as an expert in lawyer marketing.
Here’s a question: If they were so good at lawyer marketing, why would they want to share that information with you? Wouldn’t you think they would use their great marketing prowess to build their own law firm? Why do they need a part time gig selling stuff to lawyers – like Amway or Tupperware?
Former Lawyers
These folks are the worst. They used to be lawyers and they couldn’t cut it or they were disbarred. Now they are holding themselves out as experts in lawyer marketing. How do these people expect to have any credibility at all? They are frauds, plain and simple. They are not truly successful law firm marketers because they have little to no experience in marketing and they are no longer lawyers.
Who Should You Hire?
You are probably expecting some kind of pitch for my services now. You will not receive one. I take on less than 20 new clients for one-on-one coaching in any given year, so I am not the ideal choice for most people. Instead I recommend you go through this website with a fine tooth comb and implement some of the ideas you can find here. They are free and there are over 500 pages of them. You can also visit:
Watch all the free video tips on that website. Combined, these websites will give you better information than most of the people listed above.
You don’t have to spend money for help with lawyer marketing. You just need to do a little research and take some action.
Lawyer Marketing and the Internet: Three Ways
There are three ways to use the internet for lawyer marketing: The Right Way, The Wrong Way and No Way at all. There are lawyers out there doing all three. Here are my brief thoughts on each way of using the Internet for Lawyer Marketing:
No Way at All
I start with the most obvious opportunity. About 50% of the lawyer population doesn’t even have a website. Maybe they think they don’t need one. Maybe they see it as an expense. Maybe they think they just can’t compete with the large law firms on the Internet.
Even if a website helps you get one more client because they read your biography on line, the website is worthwhile. Forget about lawyer marketing, how about lawyer commonsense? Every lawyer needs a website.
The Wrong Way
About 40% of attorneys have a static web page they use as their website. They put something up in the Internet a few years ago and they forgot about it. The site probably has the attorney’s biography and some photos on it. It probably has some information about where the attorney’s office is located. It may even have a photo or two. But there is nothing about the client. There’s no educational material. There’s no information about how the client can get help. The website is all about the attorney.
The Right Way
About 10% of all lawyer websites have educational information on them. They are vehicles that clients use to find out about solutions to their problems. These websites are updated regularly. Clients return to these sites again and again not only for the information but also to keep up with the lawyer’s opinions on a variety of issues.
Clients who visit these websites feel as though they have a relationship with the lawyer. They do not hesitate to call and to refer other people to him.
Lawyer marketing is about building relationships. Your website should help build and strengthen your relationships with the people who are looking for information in the area of law where you practice. If you do not have a website you are missing out on a huge segment of potential clientele. If you have a website and it stinks, you are probably driving prospective clients away.
How Lawyers Make Money with Law Firm Marketing
The title of this article is a little deceiving. Most lawyers come to this website to find information on how to get more clients or on how lawyers make more money. Some lawyers find this website because they are searching for information on law firm marketing. If you came here because you are looking for ways lawyers make money with law firm marketing, you are in for a surprise.
Lawyers make money by practicing law.
Law firm marketing is simply communicating with your clients and prospective clients in a way that will help you develop a relationship with them. It is these relationships that will make them feel comfortable enough with you to bring you their issues.
Law firm marketing can help make sure everyone knows about you. Law firm marketing can help shape the perception people have of you. But law firm marketing is a vehicle. It is not the journey and it certainly is not the destination.
There is no Relationship Between Being Good and Getting Paid
There is an epidemic running through the legal community right now. It is a wave of emotion the size of a tsunami. It is tall and it is turbulent and it is breaking over the heads of great lawyers everywhere. Maybe the economy caused it to swell to the point where it cannot be stopped. Maybe it is just the confusion caused by so many Big Law Firm Associates turned out into the street by the once nurturing, paternalistic culture that coddled them until they could pimp them out. Maybe it is the cold meritocracy that the legal profession has become now that the Great Recession has taken a bite out of inflated billing. Whatever it was, the earthquake that spawned this tsunami of emotion has come and gone and left devastation in the aftermath.
All of this metaphorical crap is intended to say that there are some good lawyers complaining that they have no work. They are complaining louder now than at any time in the past.
They shake their heads at the young punk lawyer who learned to manipulate the Internet to help him get his message in front of people who hire him. They wag their fingers at the guy who hustles around from TV station to TV station to give commentary on the latest case in the local news. They wring their hands at the personal injury attorney who sends his clients reprints of his verdict announcements. And they mutter under their breath as the young girl just three years out of law school gets yet another speaking engagement with the local business association.
In the legal profession there is no relationship between being good and getting paid.
There is a correlation between creating relationships and getting paid. That is what legal marketing is all about. Your website, your newsletter, the speech you give, the article you write, your video on Youtube, all of those things create a relationship with your prospective client. This relationship is what it’s all about. In order to create the relationship you need to do four things:
One: Stop Complaining
Yeah, you are a good lawyer. Congratulations. You are probably the best lawyer nobody knows about. Now what? Shut up and do something to change that.
Two: Learn What Your Clients are Feeling
Hiring a lawyer is an emotional decision. Logic is used to justify the decision after the fact. Show your client that you understand the position he is in. Help him feel confident in you by educating him about his situation. Lose the legal speak and start talking to him like he is a human being. Ask good questions and then LISTEN to the answers.
Three: Structure Your Marketing to Speak to the Client
Nobody cares where you went to law school if their mother just died in a medical malpractice incident. Nobody cares about your AV rating if the repo man just took away their car. Nobody cares about your status as treasurer of the local Elks club when they are being sued for a million bucks. They just want to know if you can help them out of this mess they are in.
Four: Help People See the Real You
If you want to be a search engine pirate and have some guy in the Philippines link your website to every other website on the planet go ahead. The message on your website will still need to resonate with your clients in order for you to get hired. If you want to go on TV, go ahead. You are still going to have to appear competent in order for it to do any good. If you want to speak at local events, contact the event coordinator and give them an outline of your talk. It will still need to be relevant to the audience.
My point is simply this: You need to do some form of marketing in order to make a living as a lawyer. My preference is that my clients do ethical, educational based marketing because it makes them look like professionals. Nobody will know how good you are if they do not know how to find you. Get up and get going. You have waited long enough.
