Attorney Marketing So Good The Competitors Can’t Keep Up
The title says everything you need to know.
If you truly want to dominate attorney marketing you must be a master at executing on a plan. I am talking about simultaneous execution not just doing one thing at a time.
Your marketing has two different goals.
First: You want to do everything possible to attract and retain clients. You should master the basics and then move on to the more advanced techniques. Executing these with precision is key.
Next: You should intimidate your competitors. You want them to think that it is impossible for them to keep up with you. You want them to think it is impossible to even try.
It is the second component that I am focusing on today. As an example, I will give you some of the marketing initiatives I execute on a monthly basis:
I write a daily blog post here on the Rainmaker Lawyer Blog. My first blog post was written over two years ago. I have taken a couple of days off, here and there, but overall I have been pounding the keyboard a few days each week for two years. That gives me a huge presence on the Internet.
I also write a blog post on a different topic each and every day over at Legal Marketing For Lawyers. This content is supplemented with video but there is still a good deal of content up there.
We record a video every weekday and post it on The Rainmaker Lawyer YouTube Page. Over 1 million people have viewed my videos.
I update my Facebook page at least once each day and I include on of my videos up there.
On a weekly basis, I attend a local networking group meeting in Miami. This happens to be one of the top groups of its kind in the world (as measured by dollars of business developed). I have a leadership role in that group.
I also write and distribute a weekly newsletter via email each week. This is called the Rainmaker Minute and it is sent each week on Wednesday precisely at 12PM.
On a monthly basis I write and distribute a printed newsletter to clients and VIPs. This newsletter is my way of keeping people updated even if they do not have on line access to the things I publish.
Keep in mind that this is just a portion of my marketing activity. It does not include some of the secret stuff that I don’t want my competitors finding out about. It also doesn’t include some of the experimental stuff I have not perfected yet.
What does this mean for you, an attorney marketing his services to the world?
It is illustrative of the amount of marketing that a sole practitioner (I have one employee, an assistant) can accomplish while still running a functioning practice (I have a marketing firm with more than 100 active client engagements).
The bottom line on all of this is that attorney marketing can be a competitive advantage on many levels. If you were doing all of this, or even half of it, how many more clients would you have right now?
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EmailLaw Firm Marketing is Your First Step Toward Freedom
Sometimes success can be overwhelming.
Many of the lawyers who implement my recommendations find themselves inundated with new clients inside of a year. This success leads to additional recommendations that are much harder to follow.
Meaning: I instruct busy attorneys to hire associates to take care of most of their clients (do the legal work) and simultaneously to increase the fees they charge clients who work directly with them. The associates should bill at a lower rate than the partner - who presumably has significantly greater experience, skills, knowledge and some kind of unique ability.
A good portion of my clients resist acting on this advice. This resistance stems from two specific fears:
1). Attorneys fear they will lose the clients they currently have and
2). They fear appearing different when compared to everyone else who does what they do.
Both of these fears inhibit the growth of the law firm. Both are as deadly as a bullet fired from a gun.
Here’s why:
Raising fees for new clients may result in a decrease in volume. The clients who choose not to pay your fee do not appreciate the value of working with you. They do not want the guidance and support of a true expert. Rest assured new and better clients will fill the vacuum created by the absence of these shortsighted individuals.
Appearing different is what marketing is all about. Your difference is a competitive advantage.
Most attorneys are sheep marching silently and compliantly into the slaughterhouse of the fee-cutting-client. If you provide more value, and you present that value in a unique way, you stand out from the flock. Not only do you avoid slaughter, but you establish ownership of your own flock. And if you are smart, you harvest wool from your sheep multiple times instead of slaughtering them once.
But this is old news. You have heard this from me before.
Yet you did not take action.
I realized something important a couple of years ago. I was speaking at an event and I was passionately advocating that attorneys raise their fees and fire problem clients. After I was finished with my speech, an attorney came up to me and informed me that she wanted to do everything I described. She wanted to attract valuable clients for life and she wanted to charge premium fees and she wanted to have an exclusive practice with fewer, more valuable clients.
But she didn’t know where to start.
She did not know what the first steps were or how to take them.
That was my fault. I had not been clear about specifically how to make this change in your law firm and develop the practice you deserve.
So I made a change. I did something I had never done before.
I took the information I use to help my clients get started and I packaged it into a system that not only shows you what to do but how to do it. I felt like this was my responsibility. I wanted to give you a cost effective way to get off to a fast start in building the law firm you truly deserve.
This is the exact system, with the exact recommendations that I follow. It works. In fact, I guarantee that it will work for you.
If you want to take a look at it, you can find it by clicking on this Legal Marketing Fast Start link.
Why does this fast start system work?
Because it allows you to make small, incremental changes to your law firm marketing each day. You move at your own pace.
Of course the faster you act, the more clients you attract.
If you seriously want to improve the quality of the clients you attract and you want to grow your law practice and you want to develop the kind of law firm you deserve, you need to take action.
What are you going to do today to take your practice to the next level?
Take that first step now. I want to help, but it really is up to you.
Please note that the reason I want you to visit http://LegalMarketingFastStart.com now is because the investment in this system will increase dramatically in a couple of weeks. If you have ever thought about making a quantum leap in your law practice, now is the time.
Law Firm Marketing Increases the Value of Your Practice
How Does This End For You?
Have you given any thought to what will happen when you decide to retire?
Even if you have a couple of decades before this becomes a reality, now is the time to think about THE END.
Why?
Because everything you do influences the value of your law firm. This is especially true of your law firm marketing.
Over time, you may accumulate some assets that your law firm will own. Some of these will appreciate and some will depreciate. But the most valuable assets you have are your client database and your business systems. Let’s take a brief look at each of those to see the value they provide.
Business Systems
Ideally, your law firm can (and does) run efficiently whether you are there or not. Everything from client intake to some of the basic services you provide should be automated and scripted so that they can be handled effectively and efficiently without you. On most cases, the input you provide should be limited to development of case strategy and marketing strategy. The execution of the day-to-day tactics (both operational and marketing) should be left to your team. (On cases where clients have specifically asked for you, a premium fee should be charged and you should work the case personally).
These systems not only make the office run smoothly, they also provide you with better quality of life. That is what the attorney who eventually purchases your law firm will pay for. This is a tremendous advantage.
Client Database
Included in your database of past and current clients is your database of referral sources. All of the people in this database are folks who know you, like you and trust you. And they are not shy about sharing your information with people who ask for it.
This is valuable because it provides an ongoing revenue stream for the future owner. In most cases, when an attorney starts a new law practice, they have to start from scratch. In the case of your law firm, someone taking over can simply continue to communicate with the client and referral database and they will enjoy the same stream of referrals you have, for years to come.
Realizing that these two areas provide the most value for your law firm is one thing. Doing something to create and increase value from these areas is something completely different. This involves work. That means:
1). Creating systems that make the day-to-day operation of your law firm foolproof and
2). Developing and nurturing your client/referral source database.
Law firm marketing does not just make things easy for you now; it helps you prepare for the future. You should be building equity so that your life’s work can provide you with a significant return when you are ready to sell.
Pick Up the Pace and Get Your Website to a Better Place
If you are interested in SEO for law firms in legal marketing listen up.
Daily blogging will get you higher rankings in search engines. Google has just made sure of this with its latest update. As I highlighted right here at Rainmaker Lawyer in this bog post on Search Engine Optimization and Law Firm Marketing, updating your blog frequently will definitely have a positive impact on your search engine rankings for your keywords. This has become particularly relevant after the June update to Google’s algorithm.
So given this new information (don’t believe me, read credible internet experts here and here) why aren’t you updating your blog several times each week?
In case you need more persuading, here are the benefits of updating your blog frequently:
Interaction with Potential Clients and Referral Sources: Frequency of communication is critical to the development of any relationship. If you update your blog three to five times each week you are developing a more intimate relationship with your reader. This is a huge benefit. People do business with people they know like and trust. As communication frequency increases, so does trust.
Better Traffic: People will not read everything you write. If you produce more content, people will have more choices as to what to read. This is a good thing. With more choices, you are likely to keep people on your website longer.
In addition, the people who do read your content everyday will be great website visitors and will likely become referral sources or clients. This is because they visiting to hear what you have to say. At first they may visit your blog because they have an interest in a specific topic. After a while they may just be interested in your opinion on anything. This is how good relationships begin. Developing relationships is the object of law firm marketing.
Better thinking: Writing frequently (daily is preferred) is a great way to organize your thoughts. If you write every day, you will be forced to be organized in your thinking and in sharing your ideas. Both of these are good things for lawyers and law firms.
In many, many ways updating your website content daily will help strengthen your brand, your blog and your business. If you are serious about law firm marketing and serious about search engine optimization for law firms you must find a way to update your blog every day.
Great Legal Marketing and Accessibility Are Not Compatible
Many lawyers pride themselves on being available 24 hours a day, seven days per week for clients and prospective clients to call them.
If you are one of those lawyers, this is your wake-up call.
Being available all the time is not perceived as excellent service. It is perceived as a desperate attempt to get any client possible. In the case of existing clients, it is perceived as doing anything and everything possible to keep the clients you have.
Think about it from the client’s perspective:
If you are good, one of the best, in your area of practice, you should be busy, very busy. If I call your office and your assistant says:
“Mr. Smith has client meetings all day today. Can I schedule an appointment to have him return the call tomorrow?” How does that position you?
Think of it this way: You call the heart surgeon to ask a question about your medication and his assistant says:
“Hold on, he’s right here” and she hands him the phone. What if he answered the phone himself?
A great surgeon spends his time with patients and in surgery. If he has time to a take unscheduled calls he must not be busy. Not busy means not good.
If you want to be accessible and if you want to capture the client at their time of greatest need, have SOMEONE answer the phone 24 hours a day but always schedule a return call from the attorney or from the expert (you).
I know, I know, the criminal attorneys who read this are shaking their heads. They are saying it is their business to answer those calls in the middle of the night. Maybe. But think about the kind of client placing that call to you. If that person is your ideal client, then fine, take the call. But think about the kind of practice you will have if that is the intake process for the majority of your clients.
If you must handle those clients, have a junior attorney field the call and handle the bond hearing. Then you take the case from that point forward. The best attorney only gets up in the middle of the night for a select few clients.
The bottom line on accessibility: The best person in any field is also the busiest and also has total command of his schedule.
Are you the best? Would you like to be perceived as the best?
If so, give some thought to how you manage access to your law firm’s most valuable asset, you.
Legal Marketing is a Responsibility and Not a Luxury
Too many lawyers think of marketing as something that can be done with time left over at the end of the day/week/month. Or they think of it as something that can be done when all the pending matters with pressing deadlines are handled and there is nothing else to do.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Marketing is the most essential part of your law practice.
Why?
Because nothing happens until a client hires you.
Like it or not, you must know how to attract, engage and retain clients. And that is the very definition of marketing for lawyers.
You can be amazing in a courtroom. You can be a fantastic negotiator. You can draft the best documents, motions and pleadings but if you cannot attract clients you are sunk.
This makes marketing a responsibility…your responsibility.
Where is your next client going to come from? What kind of matter will he bring you? How much will you make this month?
If you cannot answer these questions, you are not living up to your marketing responsibility. Good marketing will help you provide definite answers to those questions each and every month.
End the uncertainty. Learn how to develop a marketing plan and how to follow a winning marketing strategy.
Embrace it and it will help you live the lifestyle you deserve.
The Truth About Self Promotion and Lawyer Marketing
Are you a good lawyer?
You can be the best lawyer since Clarence Darrow but if nobody knows who you are and if nobody knows what you know, you will starve.
The only way to be certain that people will know who you are and what you know is to tell them.
Yeah, sure, you can take some pro bono work; do a good job, and hope that somebody notices. You can also go to work in a big firm and slave away for a decade or so and hope to have the freedom to select your clients one day.
Or you can be smart.
You can work on stuff other people are afraid of, do a good job, and tell everyone about it.
Here are some simple truths about working as a lawyer today:
Truth 1: Working in a big firm is the equivalent of slave labor. If you take a job in a big firm you will go unrecognized and under rewarded.
Truth 2: Working for someone else is ok as long as you get the full breadth of experience you need to be successful. This means you have to be free to make decisions on cases. You have to be free to select the cases you will work on. You have to learn by getting bloodied in the real world.
Truth 3: Marketing is essential to building relationships and relationships are essential to long term success. You must promote yourself. You must put your talent on display every chance you get. Sometimes you will look like a jackass. But more often than not, you will get noticed.
Truth 4: If you do not define yourself and your law practice, somebody else will. People will occasionally talk about you. If you do not dictate the terms of the conversation, you will not be happy with the reputation you develop.
Why have I chosen this day and this time to put these seemingly unrelated thoughts together? This is exactly the conversation I had with a highly successful lawyer this morning. They were thoughts formulated over a 30 year career.
I asked one question:
Given your success and experience, what would you tell a lawyer graduating from a top law school today?
I find it interesting that Lawyer Marketing and self promotion were top of mind when a successful lawyer provides career advice. There are a lot of soggy old lawyers who will not like that. After all, if you just be a good lawyer business will come…right?
The Easy Way to Select a Niche Market For Your Law Firm
Much of my work focuses on helping lawyers position themselves. Our goal is to make them stand out from the crowd. This is no easy task as lawyers do everything possible to look, sound and act just like other lawyers.
I want lawyers to be perceived by their clients as experts in a specific, focused area of law. This is a powerful and highly effective strategy for those who choose to employ it.
Why is this so effective?
Well, for too many reasons to enumerate here but it starts with the fact that an expert can always command a fee premium and an expert is always in demand. Think about the Heart Surgeon at The Cleveland Clinic and your Family Doctor. Who makes more money? Who is in such demand that people from all over the world fly in to see him for his opinion?
Quite frankly, I do not want to sell you too hard on this strategy because it is a huge competitive advantage for the lawyers I work with. But I am willing to give you a step-by-step process you can use to develop your own specialized, niche market focused, law firm marketing plan.
These six factors are the keys to developing a law firm that will allow you to call the shots. If you get these things correct, you can effectively set your fees at will and select your clients as you see fit.
Factor 1: Who You Work With
Marketing to everyone is the kiss of death for a lawyer. Marketing to everyone in a specific, focused area of practice is slow but still certain death. Marketing to everyone in very specific, focused aspect of the law in a specific focused practice area is the key to success.
Example:
Criminal Defense Attorney – Not specific enough
Criminal Defense Attorney with Expertise in Handling DUI Cases – Better
Criminal Defense Attorney with Expertise in Handling DUI Cases and a History of Getting Great Results for Repeat Offenders – Best
Second Example:
Intellectual Property Attorney – Not specific enough
Intellectual Property Attorney Focused on Licensing of Business Methods – Better
Intellectual Property Attorney Focused on Licensing of Business Methods for Service Businesses – Best
Factor 2: What You Do
You must have an approach the client perceives as unique. The experience of working with you must be different than the experience of working with every other lawyer who does what you do. There is something that makes your law firm different and special. You need to highlight that in your marketing.
Factor 3: When Your Clients Need Help
Timing is a critical component of establishing a niche marketing plan for your law firm. You must be present in the mind of the prospective client when he needs help. If this factor does not exist, you will not be successful no matter what you try.
Example:
A divorce attorney focuses his practice exclusively on working with doctors and dentists. He partners with financial planning professionals and delivers seminars on the importance of having a prenuptial agreement before entering into a marriage. Each month he sources between 6 and 10 new prenups with this marketing strategy. Who do you think these people call when they need a divorce attorney? By focusing on prenuptial agreements this lawyer has his name in front of the doc when the marriage falls apart. His timing is perfect.
Factor 4: Where You Can Find Them
Your ideal clients have to be easy to find and they must be easy to communicate with. Targeting undercover CIA agents is not a good idea. You need to be able to source your target clientele in at least five different ways (with dozens of sub variations).
This requires research and it requires creativity.
Factor 5: Why They Should Work With You Now
This factor has two components to it. It involves selecting you, and making a call to you now. This means you must have a compelling message with a direct, powerful call to action. You must be tastefully forceful at convincing the client to get out of his comfortable chair, put down his remote and walk a mile through a snow storm to come work with you.
That is an exaggeration but it demonstrates the kind of effort it takes to get someone to make a move…now.
Factor 6: How To Reach Out To Them
This is about using a message delivery device (also known as media). If you want your prospective client to move, you need to reach them with the right message delivered in precisely the right way with the right media.
These six factors are literally the keys to the castle for lawyers. If you want to build a law firm that is truly special, a law firm that will allow you to take control of client attraction, this is how to do it.
If you want more details on how to structure your marketing to build this kind of law firm, call my office for an appointment today. 888.692.5531
Doctors Don’t Bill By The Hour: Why Do Lawyers?
How many hours did It take to do your heart bypass?
Imagine if doctors charged by the hour.
Would you want the fast version or the slow version of bypass surgery? Would the doctor drag your surgery out to make more money? Would the doctor have an incentive to keep you sick so he would see you more often and spend more time with you each time he saw you? If the doctor wanted to see you weekly for the six weeks following the surgery would you be suspicious of his motivation? What if the doctor wanted two of his colleagues to scrub in and help him with the operation, would you be suspicious of his motivations?
Give those questions some serious thought.
Now think about how billing works in your law firm.
When a client comes to you with a problem, a serious problem, what do your billing practices say about the way you address that problem?
Now I have just one more question for you:
If you felt the least bit uncomfortable with the doctor analogy above, how do you think your clients feel when they come to you with a serious issue and you start punching a time clock?
Marketing for Lawyers Is All About Execution
Good ideas area dime-a-dozen. I literally trip over a good idea at least once each day. But the good idea is worthless if it is not implemented.
Over the past few years many people have asked me about the value of working with a coach who helps with marketing for lawyers. There are a number of factors that contribute to that value. One of the most powerful of these factors is accountability for marketing execution.
You see, it does not matter if I ask my clients if they have implemented the ideas we develop for them. The mere fact that I COULD ask and the fact that I MIGHT be disappointed if they tell me they did not execute, is often enough of an incentive for them to put forth that extra effort.
Some of my clients say that I provide a helpful kick in the rear end. In reality, I provide the POSSIBILITY of a kick in the rear end and that is all it takes to keep people motivated.
Who is kicking you in the rear end to make sure you implement your marketing plan?
