Laura Lee Sparks
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Laura Lee Sparks
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Legal project management systems can be a great way to increase efficiency in your law firm, which leads to more clients and more revenue. Introducing project management strategies to evaluate your practice, identify strengths and weakness, and implement a plan for strategic growth may be one of the best investments you could make in your law firm. But as with any practice management change, you’ll have to get buy-in from your staff. Here are 5 tips for presenting legal project management to your staff in order to get the best outcome possible:
Guidance
Let’s face it, even if your staff needs help in becoming more efficient, it doesn’t mean that they’re completely incompetent – in fact, no one knows how your law firm works better than your staff. That’s why any project management approach should not be about teaching your staff things they already know, but more about guiding them to the path of more efficient outcomes. Acknowledge that your staff is aware of the basic tenets of project management, and explain that you’re merely putting their knowledge and experience into a more structured and streamlined approach in order to become more efficient and effective.
Simplicity is Key
Don’t try to achieve grand goals all at once, or take up copious amounts of work time on training sessions. Instead, focus on the simple aspects of the practice that you can turn around and make more efficient through proper project management. In fact, in order to get better buy-in from your staff with this approach, you should come to your staff and ask them what they need help with or what processes they’d like to see improved.
Concentrate on One Thing at a Time
As stated before, simplicity is key. That means you should focus on improving just one process at a time when engaging in project management in your law firm. This way your entire staff can focus on improving one aspect of the firm without losing track and getting caught up with other projects. Once this pattern sets in, your staff will become more efficient at identifying issues and – more importantly – discovering effective solutions.
Follow Up
Track your staff’s progress and follow up with them so your project management strategies don’t fall through the cracks. It’s very easy for new initiatives to fall by the wayside, especially when there is a glut of day-to-day work to contend with, but it’s important to stay on track in order for your law firm to grow.
Discuss and Debate
The most valuable information you’ll receive during the project management process is the feedback from your staff. Allow them the opportunity to discuss and debate the effectiveness of their undertakings and learn from what they’re saying. However, it’s extremely important to make sure that discussions and debates have a positive focus and that the end goal is about improving your law firm – there should never be a discussion or debate that ends without a resolution.
Would you like to learn more about implementing project management strategies in your law firm or discuss how we can save you time on your marketing? Schedule a no-strings virtual cup of coffee so we can discuss how you can become more efficient and gain staff buy-in!
Constantly having to replace employees who quit is a huge drain on your time, money, and patience. Training team members only to have them leave within a year can be painful and demoralizing, and your practice will suffer because of it. Below are some things to think about if you want to keep your employees happy and reduce turnover:
Compensation: The Be-All End-All?
When asked, most employees say that compensation is the most important factor when staying at job. And it is – but it’s not the only factor. Make sure you’re paying your employees a decent wage for the type of work they’re doing, and compare the wages you pay with what your colleagues pay their employees. If you notice that you’re paying much less than everyone else, you might want to consider upping your pay scale before your employees become their employees. But like I said, money isn’t the only factor. I’ve heard stories about plenty of employees who were making decent money at their law firm jobs, but left because they just couldn’t deal with the stress, felt like they had no work-life balance, or didn’t get any additional benefits like flexible PTO. Find out what’s important to your employees (besides money) and do your best to provide it. You can only work within reason, but it will mean a lot to your employees if you go the extra mile trying to provide them with a good workplace environment.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Don’t wait for the exit interview to ask employees why they’re leaving; instead, conduct interviews with current employees to ask them why they’re staying, what might motivate them to stay longer, and what might make them leave. You’ll get valuable information on your strengths and weaknesses as an employer, and you’ll be getting it straight from the people who it applies to. Most importantly though, you need to act on this information where possible, because in a year from now, it could be the difference between a stay interview and an exit interview.
It’s the Little Things
Small gestures of kindness can go a long way for your employees. Does it seem like one of them is having a bad day? Take a couple minutes to ask how you can help or even just give some encouraging words. Do your employees come in early or stay late consistently in order to keep your firm running smoothly? Buy them lunch or dinner to let them you know you appreciate it. You never know how much a tiny gesture will mean to someone, so it’s a good idea to always be aware of what’s going on and how you can help, even in the smallest of ways.
If you have more questions about lowering turnover in your office or you are interested in implementing some of the strategies listed above, please feel free to schedule a no-strings virtual cup of coffee. We can also talk over how we can help you save time on your marketing.
The Joy of Delegating
No one needs to tell you – lawyers are busy people, especially if they run their own practice. Sometimes, they’re so busy running their practice, they don’t get to spend too much time doing what they got into law to begin with: helping people achieve the best outcomes possible and providing peace of mind that their affairs are in order. And that’s where delegating comes in.
Building a confident, cohesive team that you can depend on to run your law office while you focus on helping your clients will put you on the path to success. In order to do that, though, you need to learn which tasks you can delegate and choose the right people for the job. Here are some of the key tasks you’ll want to delegate in order to build that successful law firm you’ve always dreamt of:
Accounting
One of the most important tasks to delegate in a law firm is accounting. Why? Because that’s how you get paid! I don’t know how many lawyers I’ve spoken to who are constantly seeing clients, but their cash flow just doesn’t reflect that fact. Managing invoices, accounts payable, trustee accounts, and payroll is a huge task – especially on top of all the legal work that comes along with being a lawyer. Hire a bookkeeper – full-time, part-time, or even virtual –and you may see an increase in your finances and, just as important, a decrease in your stress levels.
Phone Calls and Paper Work
How much of your day is spent taking phone calls or filling out paperwork? A competent administrative assistant can definitely help in this regard. You need someone who can handle difficult phone calls, answer a wide range of questions (and also know when not to answer a question), and take care of the mountain of paper work that comes with running a law office. If you’re running your office on a budget, consider hiring a virtual receptionist to pick up the phone for you.
Intakes
Separating the good potential clients from the bad can be a time-consuming process, and one that requires a person skilled at intakes. You don’t want to bring in every person who calls – you’ll spend all your time in initial consultations that never go anywhere. And obviously, you can’t be TOO picky otherwise you’d never see any clients. A good intake specialist can make or break your business, so fill this role carefully.
HR
You went to law school to become a lawyer, not a manager. Let someone else handle employee disputes, vacation requests, and all the other little day-to-day things that keep you from focusing on the practice law. Give them enough input so they know how you want your firm to run, then let them have at it!
If you want to talk more about delegating tasks in your law office and freeing up your valuable time, along with how we can save you time on your marketing, then schedule a no-strings virtual cup of coffee with me and let’s chat about how many hours we can save you each month.
“You have to spend money to make money.” That’s a well-known saying and there’s a lot of truth to it. I’ve worked with law firms for MANY years and I see these same 5 mistakes over and over. All of these mistakes start out as good intentions, but the good intentions never make it through to full implementation which results in a losing investment. The list is shared with you to help you avoid, or correct, your good intentions gone wrong.
1. Hire a great receptionist, but never train him to close the deal
You place ads or hire recruiters to find the best candidates. You take your valuable time reading resumes and interviewing them. You bring the best candidate on-board paying a competitive salary and benefits. Good job! You did all of the right things. But, if you fail to train him to “close the deal” with prospects who call your office, you might as well toss all of that money and time spent out of the window! Your receptionist, or whoever answers your phone, should be fully trained to be able to talk to prospects and convince them to make an appointment with you. Make sure that this person understands your ideal client’s pain points and can describe how you can help them. Good customer service is great, but being able to talk about your services and persuade them to make an appointment is invaluable.
2. Not following up on workshops, seminars or presentations
This one really causes me pain. I know that workshops and presentations take a lot of time and effort. Finding the presentation and workshop opportunities, advertising the event, the costs of the workshop such as food or hand-outs, not to mention the time it takes for you to prepare, is really expensive! So many lawyers bring a list of names back to the office and hope they’ll call the office and make appointments. You stopped short of what you need to do to get the best bang for your buck. It is critical that you follow-up with these people. They are obviously interested in your services or they wouldn’t have taken their time to attend your event. For whatever reason, many people will still drag their feet about calling your office to schedule a time to see you. You need to properly finish this process with a well thought out follow up plan. You might schedule a series of calls or you might choose to follow up via email or snail mail. Or better yet, do both!
3. Not using CRM properly
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can be pricey. Make sure that you are taking full advantage of your system. It’s easy to use CRM for contact management, but you need to use the powerful tools many of them have that can automate your practice management activities as well as your follow up activities. Setting up a CRM and the automated systems takes time, but you really aren’t getting your money’s worth if you invest in one and don’t take the time to use it to its fullest extent.
4. Advertising with brochure ads
Advertising takes money. You need to spend money on a designer who will create your ad and then the fees of the publication to place the ad. Advertising can reap great rewards, but only if you have a fully developed strategy. Many law firms pay big bucks to place ads, but the ads are just all wrong. If you have an ad that only provides your name, contact information and a list of services you provide, you are wasting your money. Before you do anything else, develop your marketing strategy and make sure it includes non-threatening ways for them to take another step toward you. For example, you could create a free report and offer that through your ad. They are more likely to go to your website and download a report than to call your office right after seeing the ad. When they download the free report, make sure to collect their email address and other contact information so that you can follow up with them.
5. Learn tips and not implement
With the power of the internet, you now have scads of great law firm marketing tips at your fingertips. If you follow this blog, you know that I provide tons of tips and tricks that you can easily implement. If you haven’t already, sign up for our 21-Day Marketing Bootcamp and you’ll see what I mean. But, don’t just stop at reading – implement! Take steps, even small ones, every day to grow or tweak your marketing. Don’t just learn it, DO it!
If you would like to learn more about legal marketing AND be held accountable for taking those consistent steps to implement, check out our Inner Circle Accountability and Private Group Coaching Program. In fact, here is a coupon that will discount the month fee to $97 – just enter SAVE at check out.Our group is lively and fun and best of all, I will hold you and your team accountable each month to achieve consistent and measurable growth. This is the perfect group for you if you need help and encouragement to get things going and keep them going.
There are a lot of ways for law firms to get marketing wrong. But, there is one critical mistake that law firms make that makes me a little crazy. When I see it, I get that same feeling that you get when someone rakes their nails on a chalkboard. I call it the “premature marriage proposal.” It’s like meeting someone for the first time, not knowing if you are good for them or if they are good for you, and just blurting out, “Will you marry me?”
Let me explain…
Take a look at a few attorney ads and you’ll see what I mean. Most attorney ads are really brochures. They are filled with phrases like “We do this,” and “We do that.” Then, in big bold letters at the bottom they say, “Give me a call TODAY!”
News flash most prospects….they aren’t going to.
To most people, calling a lawyer’s office is scary. It takes a lot before someone is willing to call the office and schedule an appointment. They aren’t going to schedule an appointment just because you told them to. They need to know more about you and how you can help them before they take the step of coming into your office.
Advertising is expensive! Be sure that you do it right. Before you throw your money away on brochure ads, stop and think about your strategy first, then develop baby-steps that will guide your prospects to your front door.
Here’s an example:
You decide your strategy is to target motorcycle drivers who’ve been injured due to negligent drivers. The trick is to give them a step that is easy and less intimidating than coming into the office. Address their pain points. Answer the questions you know they have. They may be wondering, “Do I have a case?” or “Should I call my insurance company first?” or any number of things. Speak to them about these things by offering a free, downloadable report. Explain the pros and cons of their choice so they understand it really is in their best interest to work with you. You should also be ready if they still need more encouragement by developing a follow-up sequence that provides even more information – easily done with an automated email follow-up sequence.
I challenge you to take a look at any ads you are running right now and to put yourself in a position of being someone who really doesn’t want to see you. I know that sounds strange, but with this mindset you can determine if you are jumping to the marriage proposal too soon. If so, take a step back and think more about the courtship. Woo your clients rather than demand. You are spending too much money to not make sure that you are in the best position to convert prospects to clients!
If you would like to learn more about “wooing” prospects, sign up for our free 21-day Day Legal Marketing Bootcamp. It’s filled with ideas about how to reach your clients in a multitude of ways and concrete steps to take to produce results.
It is still early in the year and many of you are still dealing with ice and snow, but now is the time to think about spring! In the spring, you’ll see a flurry of activity around high school graduations. Families are focusing on their young adults’ impending graduation and it is the time when the “rubber hits the road” for parents regarding paying for college. That would be a great time to jump in and offer some help to parents in the form of a scholarship. Scholarship winners will benefit by the added boost of funds and you’ll benefit by the positive exposure you’ll receive in your community.
Creating your scholarship opportunity doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming, but you should get started now. (Before your competition beats you to it!) Here is what you need to do:
Develop the guidelines
You’ll need to decide what criteria you’ll use to select the winning students. We’ve done this with our clients and we find that asking each applicant to write an essay is ideal. You should pick a topic that is something people care about and is relevant to your practice. For example, if you are a personal injury lawyer you could ask students to write about how losing a young person to drunk driving impacts the community. (Sadly, almost every community has at least one of these stories.) If you are a business attorney, you could gear your scholarship towards business students asking them to explain how their knowledge of business has helped them overcome a personal challenge. The sky is the limit when it comes to the topic of the essay.
Contact the schools
Once you have the criteria set, you need to reach out to your local high schools to let them know about the scholarship. We’ve had great luck with sending a letter to high school principals and counselors. Be sure to include the criteria and let them know that you would be happy to attend their senior awards ceremony to announce the winner personally. (Extra exposure!) Once you have sent the letter, be sure to plan a follow-up series of phone calls. In many cases it won’t be necessary to call them because they’ll call you back immediately. Most schools look for as many scholarship opportunities as possible! But, high school principals and counselors are very busy people so you may need to follow up by phone. You could do this personally or you could delegate that to someone in your office. Just be sure that you do follow up. This will increase your chances tremendously!
Promote the opportunity
You’ll find that scholarship opportunities spread quickly among the high school senior community. You can extend this even further by offering to pay for an ad in their high school paper (generally, very inexpensive!) and you can publish the scholarship opportunity on your website and social media channels.
And the winner is…
One of the benefits of your scholarship is that it is open to everyone. The student doesn’t have to be the best athlete or musician or even the best student. This opens the door for students who might not otherwise be eligible for other scholarships. And, even though you may offer scholarships as low as $500, this could make a tremendous difference to them. You can rest assured that you are making a positive impact while you are increasing your presence in your community. It’s really a win-win.
This is just one of the law firm marketing methods we brainstorm with the attorneys in our Law Firm Marketing Inner Circle and Accountability group. If you’d like to join this group and get more easy-to-implement marketing ideas directly from people who already had success with them – join us today.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Clients find you online. Period. The days of skimming the yellow pages for an attorney are gone. You know this. But, being online means a lot more than just having a website. It means writing and sending e-newsletters, engaging social media and online advertising. Improving your social media presence is a topic that comes up quite frequently in the LM2 Inner Circle. The lawyers in the group and I talk about different online marketing tactics – what’s worked and what hasn’t. One of the tactics that find to be the most successful is blogging.
There are many reasons why blogging for lawyers works so well. One of the top reasons is to improve your search engine optimization (SEO). People need to be able to find you when they search for your services on Google. Regular consistent blogging with using quality keywords will help optimize your website and then improve your chances of Google listing you at the top of the list. Many people know this and simply write with this in mind. This means they stuff their blog posts with keywords like “drunk driving arrest” or “business litigation” and write with the search engines in mind. This is a mistake. The search engines might get your potential clients attention, but it is your content that will keep them.
The lawyers that are truly successful with online marketing know that their blogs should be an educational resource that serves a need in their community. They write for clients, not search engines. They provide information that helps them with their problems. By doing so, they are seen as leaders in their practice areas and it demonstrates that you care about them since you are answering their most burning questions.
Writing blog posts doesn’t have to be daunting. Just think of the most common questions that you get and schedule an hour each week to write a post – 250 to 300 words will be just fine. You might even be able to write 2 blog posts in that hour. At minimum, get 4 new articles per month on your blog. That 1 hour per week will return big dividends!
Blogging is just one of the topics I cover in the 21-Day Legal Marketing Bootcamp. Sign up today for this free course where you’ll get one easily digestible marketing lesson on creating and implementing the most effective online legal marketing strategies.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
With 2016 just around the corner, many of us are thinking about our New Year’s resolution. Well, about 45% of us are making them according to statistics. If you are like most Americans, getting fit and healthy is at the top of that resolution list. However, the number of people who managed to stay focused is infinitesimal. In fact, 1 in 3 will ditch that vow by the end of January. The top reasons that people give for this is being “too busy” but most likely they weren’t committed to their goals in the first place.
Even with this abysmal track record, we encourage you to make a resolution. Resolve to get your marketing organized and consistent. You may not need a resolution if your marketing is already consistent and it bringing a steady flow of clients to your door. So, three of you can stop reading this article right now.
Now, for the rest of us…
You simply must get your marketing system in place. Don’t fall into that trap of doing a bit of marketing, getting a few clients in your pipeline, and then ignoring marketing again because you are busy with client work. This up and down is no way to live – and certainly no way to run a successful law firm.
I get it. The thought of developing a marketing plan for the year is overwhelming. Okay then, set quarterly, monthly, or even daily goals. How about this resolution, “I will touch base with one potential referral source every business Monday.” Doable, right?
Breaking an overwhelming project down into smaller chunks makes anything doable. Deciding that you will write one blog article per week, can be done right? A quick 250 to 500 work article about how you can solve a client’s pain point should be simple for you.
The hardest part may be getting started. Sit down with a calendar and plot out assignments that can be carried out to you or an assistant. Here are a few ideas:
Once you have a plan, be sure to follow it! Wherever possible, delegate, delegate, delegate!! You don’t have to do it all. Consistency really is the key to keeping a steady flow of clients.
You may not keep that resolution to lose 5 pounds, but you really should keep the promise you made to yourself – your law firm is depending on you!
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Are you one of the many lawyers running online Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns to try and boost business for your law firm? If so, you’ll want to take a second and read this article to learn more about ad blocking, which is a trend that’s changing the landscape of digital marketing.
Ad blocking is a way to basically tune out pop-ups, banners, and other intrusive ads that can ruin your web browsing experience. Ad Block Plus is the most popular ad blocking plug-in, as it can be downloaded for free right from their website. In fact, Ad Block Plus claims it is the most popular web browser extension in the world. However, Ad Block Plus has been shown to be a bit overzealous when it comes to which ads the extension blocks: Google AdWords, Facebook ads, and Twitter ads have all been affected. Thus, if you’re currently spending money on any of these PPC campaigns, you may be at risk of not reaching your target audience and, depending on the specifics of your campaign, you may be charged for ads that no one is even seeing.
So what can be done to combat this new trend? As of this writing, advertisers and developers are working on ways to make ads un-intrusive by focusing a better user experience and creating ads that are less bulky and do not take up a lot of bandwidth, since these issues were the the whole reason ad blocking software was developed. AdBlock Plus is also working with Google and Twitter to find a solution to this issue, though whatever solution is reached will likely cost those companies extra money – and that cost will presumably be transferred to you, the ad buyer. However, none of these solutions are imminent, meaning some extra steps need to be taken in regards to your law firm’s digital marketing strategy.
While PPC marketing can get your law firm to the top of Google searches through paid means, there’s a very good chance potential clients will not see your ads. Instead, a marketing strategy that relies on content and SEO rich blogs will help your law firm rank higher on search engines and will be visible to your specific audience. Organic searches are not affected by ad blockers, and the content you offer will be beneficial to your audience, who may then share it with others who may be in need of your services. Blogs, YouTube videos, and ebooks are just some of the many marketing materials you can use to get around the ad blocking trend.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Guest Feature Article
Molly Hall & Laney Lyons
We have written about how ineffective and destructive “Come to Jesus Meetings” are – how they inspire fear but don’t solve problems, thus can’t provide lasting change. Trust me on this, because I can call a Come to Jesus Meeting with the best of them.
But I got a strong reminder just this week that there is a better way.
My company had a client service issue where a mistake was made. And I realized as I worked through it that having a “Come to Jesus Meeting” with my team never crossed my mind.
When you know without a doubt that your employees have tremendous integrity and work ethic, and truly care about your clients, you have no desire to dump any of the emotionality of a situation on them. You communicate clearly what happened and the consequences to the company, then you move to problem-solving. In fact, instead of dumping the emotion on your employees, you try your best to support them.
(Dumping doesn’t necessarily mean you are being mean or harsh. Dumping is just passing on the emotion – it might be you gravely explaining the seriousness of the situation and allowing everyone to sit with that, or showing your nervousness about the possible consequences and pleading with them to do better. None of that helps.)
An employee who does care will already feel AWFUL about the mistake and will be nervous to have upset you and the client. You will have to deal with an employee whose confidence is shaken. Your biggest opportunity to be a leader is at this moment.
In this situation, I talked with the client who was upset. I listened, apologized, and expressed that I understood the concern. Then I explained that I wanted to meet with my team and talk with them about what happened and how we can improve our process to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I then spoke to my team, having all the information about what happened and how it happened. I didn’t need to drag them through the emotional experience. I calmly explained what happened, I conveyed the client’s perspective and reason for being upset, and I suggested an adjustment to our process that would greatly reduce the possibility of it happening again. I also asked the employee who was mainly at fault for her suggestions, and I assured her that I believe in her and understand that mistakes happen. I made it clear that I know it was completely unintentional, but that we simply need to constantly look for ways to improve our processes to reduce the possibility of mistakes.
My employee is an adult. I don’t need to burden her with the emotion and “story” of what happened. She is not a child. I don’t need to ask her, “Why did this happen?” It was obviously unintended. She cares about our clients as much as I do. And she has integrity – she will in fact be MORE upset than I could possibly be about making a mistake. My job, as her boss, is to support her, empower her, encourage her and help identify process changes that improve the client experience.
Scared employees make more mistakes. Scared employees don’t share ideas or innovate. Scared employees usually end up leaving you. Don’t scare them – empower them, support them, and encourage them.
And when you have employees with integrity and work ethic, employees who care about how you are helping clients, they WANT to improve. They want to make a difference, and a Come to Jesus Meeting serves no purpose.
Wouldn’t you rather work with a team that focuses on improving?
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
You’ve likely heard time and time again how important it is to have a print book or downloadable e-book when marketing your estate or elder law practice.
Of course it positions you as an authority, looks great in the eyes of professional partners and always perks up the ears of the media.
But… if you’re like most lawyers I know, there’s just ZERO time in your life get something meaningful typed out and into print.
Even writing an e-book can be a challenge…and you may feel that because the content requires a ton of legal expertise, its not something that you can easily delegate to your team for the sake of “saving time.”
Well if you are struggling in this area, I want you to know that the LM2 TEAM has the legal background you are looking for and we have an awesome selection of e-books that are available to the lawyers we work with!
Just this month, we released our 25 + page Caregiver Guide. Not only is it professionally written and graphically designed, but we also give you EVERYTHING you need to market your new “book,” including:
This is one of my FAVORITE campaigns we’ve ever created and its received rave reviews from every client that we’ve given it to so far!
That’s because the book itself is written in such a way to not only support the needs of caregivers, but to show them just how much easier their job/life can be when they have a great estate planning attorney on their side. Essentially, the book sells YOU in a non-pushy and empowering way.
Because I have been a caregiver for most of my adult life and feel this campaign is so critically important to get out into the local communities, I am making the FULL package available for $695 just until the end of the week.
You do not have to join our monthly program and I will give you all of the pieces a la carte.
Just so you have a point of reference, the cost of having the e-book alone designed by a high-end graphic designer in an EDITABLE file (like we are providing you so that you can customize the material as you see fit!) is WELL OVER the cost of this entire campaign. That doesn’t factor in the copywriting, editing and marketing support!
This is a labor of love for me and the materials have COST ME lot more to create than it will cost you to get the campaign live on your website and implemented in your practice. Don’t miss the chance to snag everything at such a discounted price.
If you would like to get started, contact me and let me know. If your area is available (we don’t work with competitors), I will then email you back the link where you can download all of the campaign pieces. Easy peasy!
P.S. If you would like to talk about some of the other e-book campaigns we have available on many topics related to estate planning and elder law, schedule a no-strings virtual cup of coffee with me. I’d love to talk over how we can help with your marketing!
A common complaint I hear from attorneys is that they are diligently DOING marketing, or what they believe to be great marketing, and they are just not seeing any significant results or ROI from their efforts.
As someone who managed law firms for 20 + years, I understand how frustrating this can be. When you have employees to pay, expenses to take care of, and oh, let’s not forget about your own paycheck too, having the phone fail to ring…and worse, throwing a ton of money at something that is not bringing in any results can really hurt and sting.
I want to keep this article realistic and admit upfront that not every campaign you run will work, and you should be prepared for a few misses here and there. For example, what is working for other firms may not work for you because your demographic is different, it’s not a practice area you feel totally comfortable with and so on.
But when you are CONSTANTLY missing the mark on your marketing goals, that is a huge problem. And I’d venture to say that 99% of the time when I review marketing that isn’t working, it’s not the medium that’s wrong, it’s the MESSAGE. The attorneys are simply failing to lead with a powerful principle known as “What’s In It For Me” in their letters to referral sources, print ad campaigns, networking attempts and so forth.
In order to be great at crafting an effective marketing message, you have to learn how to uncover and tap into the unspoken desires of your target market so that you are able to hit their deepest pain points and offer solutions to what matters most TO THEM.
Think about the marketing that YOU respond to. Think about the invitations to host collaborative events that YOU jump at the chance to participate in. You usually don’t have to wade through a ton of B.S. before you find out how YOU can benefit. Go even deeper and think about what exactly it is that is driving you in each situation. Maybe it’s:
Marketing that compels and incites action will not only hint around at these selfish desires, but will position the company or person crafting the advertising as the answer to the problems you face.
Let me give you a recent example. A client showed me a letter that she crafted to go out to senior organizations to have her come in and speak about Veterans Benefits Planning. In the letter, she simply introduced herself, came out strongly with some information on her expertise (she IS a noted leader in her field, but that message just got lost in the mix), and included a few bullet points on what she could teach on.
The message was ignored by everyone she sent it to. Why? Because it was all about HER and failed to explain what was in it for THE FACILITY DIRECTORS to take on the time and expense of hosting a workshop and having her come in to speak.
When I got her on the phone, I started working with her to drill down deeper on WHY having her in to speak would be beneficial for THEM. Turns out, many of the seniors in her area are unable to move into facilities because they don’t yet qualify for Medicaid, or all of the Medicaid beds are full and the seniors just don’t have enough money to private pay. They are simply hanging out on waitlists until their financial situation changes.
The pain point for the facility then would be getting these people OFF the waitlist so that they can fill their non-Medicaid beds and bring in more income. They are, after all, a business too.
We redrafted the letter to lead with this key point… that by teaching on VA Benefits Planning, our attorney would be able to help those who are on the waitlist, who also happen to be wartime veterans, begin to collect additional income through the VA so that they have a better chance of private paying to receive the care they need. Win for the senior and WIN for the facility!
So, was the letter effective? You bet. She had calls from directors right away to meet for lunch and talk further about her proposal.
I hope you can see the difference in how these two letters were framed. One led with why she was so special and her expertise while the other lead with why having her in would make good financial sense for the FACILITY and their seniors on the waitlist.
As you create your marketing, be sure to go back and look it over with the “What’s In It For Me” principle in mind. Are you addressing your target audience’s needs, wants and desires… or are you simply concerned about your own?
A few simple shifts in this area can uplevel your marketing dramatically. Give it a try and track your results. Please also feel free to send me some of your materials if you are in need of an honest critique.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Yelp is a web site that allows consumers to rate businesses, and its influence is undeniable when it comes to marketing your law practice. When a potential client is choosing an attorney, there’s a pretty good chance he or she will check their reviews on Yelp before deciding. In fact, according to the Managing Editor of Software Advice, Yelp is the site that the majority of those surveyed turned to first when looking for attorney reviews. That means that you want to leverage the site as a means for getting new business in the door.
Lawyer marketing has always relied on word-of-mouth and referrals. A great thing about Yelp is that it provides both in one place. Not only that, but the consumer only has to leave a review once, and it remains there to influence decisions for anyone who is looking for a lawyer. Rather than asking friends for referrals and hoping for the best, consumers are now much more likely to hop online and see what perfect strangers have to say. The kicker, though, is that research shows that 79% of consumers trust these online reviews just as much as they do personal recommendations!
There are dedicated lawyer review sites out there, and while it’s certainly not a bad idea to have reviews posted on them, they should probably be a lower priority in your lawyer marketing plan than Yelp. That’s because many, many more people will turn to Yelp when searching for a lawyer to represent them. The site has a lot of name recognition and is highly trusted by those who use it.
It’s possible that your clients are already reviewing you on Yelp, so you will likely want to take a look to see what’s being said. This can be hard, as bad reviews can hurt the ego, but it’s still necessary to know if they are out there. If nothing else, it will give you an idea of what improvements you may need to make. You may also be able to respond to negative reviews in positive ways to take some of the sting out of them. (A word of warning: Do NOT become defensive or combative on these sites. It never works out to the business owner’s advantage!)
The best way to get good reviews is to ask for them. This should become a basic part of your legal marketing plan. When finishing up with a client, let them know how much you would appreciate a positive review on Yelp. Even if there are some negative ones on there, a large number of positive reviews will raise your average rating and will make it clear that complaints are the exception, not the rule.
It’s easy to think of “social media” as being all about Facebook, but the truth is that there are so many other platforms for individuals to share their thoughts, ideas, knowledge, and recommendations. Yelp is a pretty powerful tool for doing just that.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
One of the greatest frustrations clients have with their lawyers centers around the issue of communication. Many people lament that they never hear from their attorney until it’s time to write another check. Even if that’s not really the case, the “perception” of such can quickly make a client standoffish… always questioning your time and your motives.
Who wants that as the start of a business relationship? At the same time, you don’t have the time to “chat” or answer questions all day. And really, it’s equally frustrating that clients would EXPECT that of you.
What’s the attorney to do?
Well, I’ll tell you a super easy way to cause your new clients to “stand down” and put away their negative ammo… attitudes (particularly the bad ones):
Start sending the PERFECT welcome email when someone engages your firm.
Sounds simple, right? In reality, it is.
Within 24 hours of a client coming in to meet with you, there needs to be at least one email that goes out, from the ATTORNEY, that personally welcomes the client to your practice and sets positive expectations up front. Here are a few points you may want to cover:
· Your gratitude for the client choosing you as an attorney. You realize it’s not an easy decision to make and you look forward to earning their trust.
· An introduction to EVERYONE on the team who may have a hand in their matter. This is your chance to EDIFY EDIFY EDIFY your team members and let your clients know they are in wonderful, capable hands. Let them know that the team will be responsible for keeping in touch with the client regularly and answering any questions they may have so that the client is NOT resentful if every call does not come from you, the lawyer.
· Clearly walk them through how to proceed if they have a question and what to expect. Each office has their own unique processes and nuances, so let them know how yours works.
· Provide the client with links to any helpful articles, blogs or materials that they can be reading to learn more about the legal journey they are embarking on. It will help them to feel more apart of the “team” and the overall process.
· If you have a newsletter or email newsletter, let them know exactly when they can expect to hear from you (ex. Until we meet again in the office, I’ll be communicating with you bi-weekly via my newsletter. I’ll be sending you helpful tips that I think you can benefit from, and you will have the opportunity to reply over email if you have any questions.”)
Truth is, it doesn’t take much to make the lawyer-client relationship a less adversarial one. Simple little gestures, like sending the perfect welcome email, will work wonders in showing your clients that you are different from all of the rest.
If you don’t have a great welcome email in place, sit down this afternoon and draft one. Give the copy to your assistant and ask him or her to ensure it goes out from an email address with your name on it after every client comes into meet with you. The results will be immediate and you’ll significantly cut down on client drama in your practice!
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
If you are struggling to find the time to keep in touch with your clients and/or prospects, might I suggest you start sending a regular newsletter with great content and promotional materials for your firm?
When I start working with a new client, I pretty much insist that they start sending at least an electronic newsletter to their database. My absolute preference is that a client sends BOTH an ezine each month (or bi-weekly) and a print newsletter by mail. I want to be infiltrating the prospect’s inbox AND their mailbox whenever I can!
The reason I insist on mailing newsletters is that they WORK. Newsletters are cost effective, they keep you at the top of mind of your client/ referral base and they provide something of value to the people receiving them. With a simple mailing your clients and prospects feel nurtured, attended to and empowered by the great material you are sending them each and every month.
That’s just some of the benefits that the CLIENT experiences. But what about YOU?
When my attorneys give me a breakdown of where their business is coming from each month, it NEVER fails that they are brining in new business directly from their newsletters.
Think about it: when your content is written in such a way that is intriguing and informational, people will forward your electronic newsletter to their family and friends. Or they’ll save a print newsletter and hand it to a loved one to check out. You are making it easy to share your services with others and new business will often come in as a result.
Same is true when you are promoting workshops and seminars. Again, many of our clients get a good number of sign ups from their newsletter mailings. Whether it’s old prospects that are finally convinced that they need your help and raise their hand to attend, or new leads who have been forwarded your content by their family or friends, sending a newsletter is a really effective way to put butts in seats for your events!
If you are not sending newsletters in your practice, let me urge you to make this the month that you start!
If you don’t have anyone on staff who can handle creating a newsletter for you from soup-to-nuts, including writing a personal note from the attorneys to keep your readers hooked on your content and opening your materials each and every month, let’s chat!
We specialize in electronic newsletters, print newsletters, advertising inserts and complete management of your electronic database systems (i.e. Infusionsoft, iContact) to create beautiful HTML content emails. We also handle printing and mailing.
I’d be happy to send you a sample of some of our most recent client mailings if you would like to see for yourself what we can do for you and your firm.. Just email me and I’ll send you the goods!
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
I talked to an attorney this week who wanted to get some more reviews posted online from happy clients following the completion of their legal services.
He was thinking about setting up a “Review Station” in the firm where clients could spend a few minutes at one of 5 dedicated computers he would set up in the office and leave feedback about their attorneys before leaving. He felt this would get around the issue of clients forgetting to review the firm when they got home… and that the reviews would be mostly favorable because he was “striking while the iron was hot” when clients were pleased with their service.
While in theory the idea of having a review station or a few dedicated iPads in the office for reviews is a great plan, it’s just not doable. Why? You run the risk of not getting your reviews published, or worse, your entire account shut down.
The idea of “Review Stations” is nothing new to Google. One business owner recently wrote the following post in the “help” section online:
“We work really hard at doing the right things with our customers and in doing so we feel we earn the right to ask for them to review us on Google Places. As of 2 weeks ago our reviews stopped showing up. We offer the use of our computers to make it convenient for the customer to write a review. Are we being penalized for having reviews come from the same IP address? We do business with thousands of people every month, so it is not unreasonable to have a very small percentage actually leave us excellent reviews.”
The Google team had a swift response to why reviews may not be showing up anymore:
There have been a lot of questions about reviews lately in the forum, and we wanted to address some of the more common ones.
1. Where did my reviews go?
Edit, December 12: Please note that the Review content policy now states that business owners or employees should not review their own businesses. We also discourage review stations or kiosks set up at your business location that are solely for soliciting reviews.
The same information is also found on the Review Guidelines for Google Plus. The “conflict of interest” subheading specifically mentions Review Stations again by name:
Sites like Yelp are even STRICTER about soliciting for online reviews. They discourage the mere act of ASKING for reviews. You can read more about that HERE.
Policies such as these have been put in place to stop folks from gaming the system. A recent study shows that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they would a personal recommendation. It is important for the Googles and Yelps of the world to put safeguards in place to help ensure people are only reading accurate and unbiased reviews of the companies they are investigating.
So, what’s a business owner to do? How can you get more reviews without getting in trouble?
1. Don’t think you can get around this. It can be tempting to think you can “trick” the system and Google, Yelp, etc. would never know. Reviews are tracked by IP addresses, so if multiple reviews are coming from one computer, there is a chance that all of your great reviews will suddenly disappear or your account will get shut down all together. I have seen this happen! Don’t take the chance, it’s not worth it!
2. Make it easy as possible for people who ARE willing to leave you a review on their own time. We make sure to put icons to review sites such as Google + and Yelp on one central page on our clients’ websites. There is nothing wrong with telling people that you have a page where it’s really easy to leave their feedback with one click of a button. When it’s easy to do and minimally time consuming, clients are more apt to take the time to help you.
3. Keep an eye on your profiles. While it may take you time to gather a bunch of great organic reviews, one bad review from a cranky client or prospect can really tarnish your online marketing efforts. Take the time to watch out for such posts and respond whenever possible so that other people reading the review can see that you addressed the situation and that perhaps the reviewer was just a bad egg!
As long as you keep within the Terms of Service, online reviews are definitely something you WANT and need. Again, it’s no secret that prospects often read such reviews before making a buying decision, so the more great ones you have, the better! Just be sure to ask for them in an ethical way to protect your accounts and the integrity of your firm.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Networking Tips to Market Your Law Practice
The legal profession is a competitive one, and each law practice needs to determine how best to market their services. As with any other type of business, networking can be a key to unlocking new and repeat business, not to mention those sought-after referrals. Make your legal marketing more productive with these networking tips:
· Make a point to network with other lawyers in non-competing fields. Once you’ve developed a relationship based on mutual trust, mutual referrals just make sense. Bonus Tip: Also network with professionals in other fields, as there are plenty of opportunities for referrals that way, too!
· Be a helpful resource. Instead of always looking for the payoff, make a point to use your skills and abilities to help others succeed at their goals. They will remember the role you played and be happy to tell others about it.
· In addition to offering help to others, make sure you follow through. If you tell your doctor that you will make an important introduction for her, that needs to happen as soon as possible. You will show yourself to be reliable, as well as providing her with what she needs. Bonus Tip: Follow through is important, but follow up is important, too. Check back in with your doctor to make sure the introduction happened and see if it provided the desired result.
· Always support your brand when networking. Your brand should revolve around who you really are, not some idea that you want to project. This allows you to be yourself in your interactions, and that kind of authenticity makes a big difference in the fruits of your networking endeavors.
It’s true that most lawyers didn’t go through years of school, testing, and practice so that they could become expert networkers. They want to be lawyers! The fact of the matter, however, is that you must market your law practice in order to stay in business. Networking is a vital part of any lawyer’s marketing plan.
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.
Lawyer Marketing Strategies: Direct Mail
As a strategy for marketing law firms, direct mail has been around forever. It was there before business websites, e-newsletters, and social media. Considering the convenience and low cost of digital marketing methods, many lawyers find themselves wondering if direct mail is even a good strategy for marketing a law practice in today’s world.
In a word, yes. Direct mail marketing might not seem as modern as the other strategies listed (which are also good strategies, by the way), but it’s still around for the simple fact that it works. We’ve told you again and again that the best way to succeed as a small law practice is to take care of the clients you already have. This keeps them coming back, as well as referring their contacts to you.
However, it’s impossible to overlook the need to cultivate new prospects, and that is where direct mail marketing really pays off. Direct mail allows you to target potential new clients based on a variety of factors such as income level and geographic area. One direct mail piece can reach thousands of potential clients at once, and it does it in a way that people don’t find particularly intrusive. According to a study done by Epsilon, 70% of participants reported that they prefer direct mail to email when receiving unsolicited information!
Another advantage of direct mail is that it’s less likely to get lost in the shuffle than email. For one thing, you can make a direct mail piece completely unique. Skip the boring form letter and find cool and unusual ways to market your law practice by using different types of paper, dye-cut brochures, interestingly folded documents, and so much more. A surprising direct mail piece can really capture potential clients’ imagination and is more likely to be kept for reference than an unsolicited email that would probably get no more attention than is necessary to hit “delete.”
Remember, prospects (and everyone else, it seems) can receive hundreds of unwanted emails a week. Because it’s an easier approach, many law practices rely on it far too heavily for marketing. That’s certainly not to say you shouldn’t use email to market to current clients, but it’s not necessarily the best path to take to reach new folks. On the other hand, it’s been found that direct marketing pieces can also bolster your email marketing. Consider sending a unique direct mail piece to current clients letting them know to watch their email inbox for an upcoming offer, and you’ll likely find that the open rate on that future email outpaces most of your others by a long ways. Similarly, you can use your direct mail piece to invite prospects to log on to your website in order to access a special promotion.
Law practice marketing is certainly a different beast than it was 20 or even 10 years ago. That doesn’t mean, though, that the old-school marketing techniques don’t still have their place in your strategy!
Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.