Write Your Way to New Business by Writing for Magazines
One of the best ways for attorneys to get their name out and to position themselves as experts in their field is to get published. We live in a multitasking society. Doctors and lawyers are writers, fitness experts create vitamin supplements, and dog trainers get their own TV shows. One of the great things about being an attorney is that you’re already credentialed. You don’t have anything to prove. Use your legal credentials to your advantage and write your way to new clients.
People like experts. When the chips are down and potential clients are hunting for an attorney, they want someone who seems to really know their stuff. If your name is continually referenced within your niche market, this can only lead to more exposure and more business. The bottom line is that as an attorney, you have to market not only your law firm and its services, but yourself as well.
Don’t feel squeamish about this. Done the right way, marketing yourself does not diminish your reputation. On the contrary, it builds your reputation to the point where you will be turning clients away because your firm is in such high demand.
The Basics
Magazines need freelance writers and they love ones that come with credentials. If you notice that many of your clients make the same mistakes, maybe not having a living will or something along those lines-something that relates to a wide audience, write about it. Again, you have legal credentials, so you are already one step ahead of the competition. You can hire another writer to do some of the leg work for you if you truly can’t find the time to do it yourself, just make sure that you follow it up by putting your own personal touch on it. It needs to feel like it was written in your voice, with your unique style.
As a matter for fact, you should work to develop your own personal writing style. If someone follows articles that are written in your legal field, over time, you want them to be able to tell which ones probably came from you. This can sometimes be difficult for attorneys. They’re used to writing things that are going to be read because they are critical to a legal case. Writing in a way that needs to be interesting to keep readers engaged can be a challenge. Don’t be daunted. Ask friends, family, anyone who is not a lawyer to read over your work to help you determine if it is interesting and accessible.
Getting Ideas
Study articles and books written by other lawyers. The goal here is not to try to copy or repeat what they’ve done, but simply to help generate ideas. Watch the news. If there are stories or themes that keep reoccurring, ask yourself if there is a legal element that you discuss. Your writing does not need to exactly correlate with a legal case or a particular legal issue. Think of it as looking at everyday tasks through a legal lens.
Where to Publish
This is where you pitch your story idea to the magazine editor and detail your plan for writing it. First, decide on which magazine you’d like to pitch your idea to. While there are numerous national magazines that accept work from freelance writers, there are also a multitude of regional magazines or trade magazines that may be a good place to get your feet wet.
One of the best places to start is Writer’s Digest. You can buy one in almost any major bookstore in America, or you can get all the information online with a paid membership. Going online for the information is often the best plan because the information is regularly updated. There you’ll find lists of thousands of magazines, some with readerships as small as 25,000. Remember that your main goal is to get clips that you can send out to clients and to others to increase your credibility.
Please click continue reading for more about writing for magazines.
Print
EmailWrite Your Way to New Business by Writing a Book
One of the best ways for a lawyer to build his own personal brand is to write a non-fiction book. Getting published gives current and potential clients the sense that you’re an expert and that you’re well established in your niche. All attorneys should be working to position themselves as experts. There are a myriad of ways to do this like blogging, sending out e-newsletters with tips and ideas, and so on. However, writing a book goes a long way in establishing yourself as an expert attorney in your field of law.
Before you throw up your hands and say that with running a law firm, there is no extra time, remember that you can utilize the services of a ghostwriter if needed. Just make sure to edit the work so that it comes across as sounding like it actually came from you and that it represents what your law firm stands for.
Ways to Generate Ideas
What’s happening in the world? What are some popular, legally irresponsible trends that you see going on around you? Think of ways that you, as an attorney, can contribute to the national or community dialogue on issues that relate to a wide audience. Almost anything that you have an opinion about can be transformed into an interesting, publishable work.
When you go to parties or take your children to school and people find out that you’re a lawyer, what kinds of questions do they ask you? The answer may be the topic that you should write about. You can also simply ask people. Ask your non-lawyer friends what kind of general legal questions they’d be interested in having answered and would they read a full length book on the topic.
Once you have an idea, think about whether or not your topic is something that would be useful for one article or is it something that you could write on and on about. Just like you have a niche market as an attorney, you can have a niche market as a writer. You may come up with a topic that you can write volumes about either because your interest in it is vast or because the topic itself is intricate and detailed. If you feel that you can right on and on about your topic, then you could write several magazine articles. Having already written magazine articles will help convince potential publishers that you know how to write, that you have an understanding of the issue and that you may even have a built in audience who is interested in hearing more from you on the subject.
The Non-Fiction Book Market
In today’s market, an attorney who wants to write a non-fiction book actually has a decent shot at finding someone to publish it for them. One of the great things about the non-fiction book market is that people like to own more than one book on the same topic. For instance, someone interested in learning more about the legal ramifications of living with their significant other but not getting married, might purchase several books on the topic in order to study it from different angles. So, even if someone else has already published a book on the area that most interests you, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still write a book on the same subject with different content. As a matter of fact, if the other book was successful, then you already know that there is a market for your subject area.
Writing a Non-Fiction Book
When thinking about your writing a book, think outside of the box. You can write a traditional, hard cover book or you can write an e-book. You can even decide to write a hard cover book, but to self publish it. Remember that freelance copywriters can be hired to ghostwrite a book for you as well. This can be arranged a few different ways. You can do the research, jot down or record some thoughts, and then have the writer craft them into a readable, user friendly book. Or, you can think of the main topic for the book, decide on what you want each chapter to cover, and have a copywriter do the research and the writing for you.
Click continue reading for more
A Law Firm’s Call to Action
Your law firm has developed a multi-faceted marketing campaign, including a website full of rich and interesting content. However, the clients are not coming. The reason for this strange phenomenon may be in the message that your law firm is sending, or not sending, to potential clients. One of the most important aspects of your law firm’s marketing campaign is its call to action.
A call to action is essentially a message that is part of an ad or on your website that motivates potential clients to do something. What the “something” is will be decided on by you and the members of your law firm.
In today’s society we are all bombarded with information. Much of this information is sales oriented. Most of us have become accustomed to tuning out what doesn’t matter. Every now and then, when an ad actually speaks to a need that we have as consumers, we are often too overburdened to take the necessary steps to get in touch with the company or firm.
This is where a call to action comes in. A call to action is a way of giving potential clients a reason to do something now. A good call to action should spell out what action you’d like to see your potential clients take.
Suggestive Calls to Action
Law firm calls to action range from general and somewhat subtle to the very specific and detailed. A few examples of rather subtle law firm calls to action are: “Don’t wait, call us today” or “Don’t put off settling your account with the IRS for even one more day.” Firms who use these types of messages are encouraging the client to contact their office, without providing them with a specific deadline. However, it is implied that their situation will improve if they get in touch with the firm soon.
In corporate America, calls to action will often use humor or contests as part of their call to action. However, attorneys must always remember that their potential customers are probably dealing with something that is no laughing matter. Choose a call to action that acknowledges the concern that potential clients might be experiencing.
Logo Based Calls to Acton
Some law firms choose to incorporate their call to action into their logo. Two examples would be “work with the best” or “settle for nothing less”. Both of these statements encourage the potential client to decide that they will not settle and that they will use your firm for their legal needs.
Logo based calls to action can have their drawbacks. If you do an extensive ad campaign, potential clients may start to tune out the message.
Another drawback is that potential clients may become more familiar with the phrase than with the actual name of the firm. This becomes a problem if at some point you decide to rebrand your firm. You may have to remove the phrase that consumers recognize the most when they think of your law firm.
On the other hand, if you are having such strong name recognition, you might not be in the position where you need to rebrand anytime soon.
For more click continue reading.
How My Lawyer Became an Author and You Can Too
There once was a time when I was fascinated by celebrities.
Of course, that was well before the onset of the perpetual pop culture environment we live in today. But still, notable people are interesting. I’ve been especially taken with authors and poets. There’s an air of authority with people who do a good job shaping words into pictures, ideas, dreams…
That’s the reason I met and hired Harvey, my new attorney, because he’s written a book. I figured if I needed to be represented on a sticky little matter of delinquent taxes, I might as well be represented by an authority. Harvey’s written a short book on negotiating with various taxing authorities so I gather he must be an expert. As it turns out, he’s really good at what he does.
I got fairly close to Harvey the lawyer as we worked on my legal issues. And since I’ve always been curious about writers I asked him how he came to write the book titled, How YOU Can Negotiate a Deeply Discounted Tax Settlement. But Harvey didn’t have much to say. He actually brushed off my question with a casual answer that went something like, not much to it.
I guess some people are shy.
Well, Harvey was able to negotiate a deep discount for my tax liability and we’ve actually become fast friends. It seems we have quite a bit in common. I always fancied myself as a writer and thought it might be cool to hang out with someone who had written a published book.
But I found something out about my friend and attorney that at first was just a little disappointing. It seems that Harvey didn’t write How YOU Can Negotiate a Deeply Discounted Tax Settlement at all. It was actually ghost written by a professional writer. I asked Harvey what was up with all of that and he explained it to me. It didn’t make me feel a whole lot better but at least I understand where he’s coming from now.
Harvey explained to me that it isn’t enough to just be a good or even great attorney because there’s fierce competition in the field.
He says that successful attorneys and others in general need something distinctive that allows them to stand above a crowded competitive field. There are many ways to achieve this and writing a book was one that appealed to him. The only problem is, Harvey claims to be a terrible writer. I tend to doubt that but I do understand his point.
So how does an attorney who is a terrible writer become a locally famous author?
Page 1 of 1 pages
