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REVEALED! The “Secret Sauce” of Marketing

We often come across law firms that are unintentionally throwing their money away using what we call “shotgun marketing.” Shotgun marketing works like this:

  1. You look at your calendar for the next several months and discover that you have a LOT of time on your hands. Where are the new client appointments? Panic sets in.
  2. You quickly throw together some type of marketing campaign.
  3. You execute that campaign and wait for the it to work – with no client appointments.
  4. The campaign brings in a flurry of potential clients. Whew! You now have a decent amount of meetings for the next two months.
  5. You bask in the glory of your success and thoroughly enjoy your client meetings.

id-10077222Two months go by, and then…

1 You look at your calendar for the next several months and discover that you have a LOT of time on your hands. Panic sets in.
2. You quickly throw together a marketing campaign…..

On and on and on it goes…

Shotgun marketing is very flawed. This feast and famine is no way to run a business. The good news is that there is an easy answer…

Consistency.

Your marketing needs to be consistent to keep the flow of new client appointments coming in. Keeping your pipeline full will increase your number of new clients. No more months of panic!

Here’s how to achieve consistency:

  1. Plan your marketing a year in advance. (I can almost hear your audible gasp!) Yep, a YEAR in advance. Just set up your marketing calendar and select a theme for each month. It’s sometimes fun to plan around holidays or national observations. For example, since Veterans Day is in November, plan to reach out to VA groups, hospitals, and people who provide services to veterans and invite veterans to your office for free basic wills. This will also help you get the word out about other services you have to offer.
  1. Schedule time for your marketing. Now that your marketing calendar is filled out, schedule a monthly marketing development meeting with your marketing person, the marketing agency you work with, or, in the case of solos just starting out, just yourself. In this marketing development meeting you will plan the steps of your marketing campaign. Make sure that you are planning at least 3 months in advance so you have time to develop and execute your campaign.
  1. Create your marketing material. It is possible that you can do this step yourself if you have some knowledge, but a lot of lawyers depend on others to develop the materials you will need for your campaign. If you have someone who does marketing in your firm, delegate this task to him or her. If you need help, hire a marketing agency. Believe me, having someone who knows what they are doing will save you endless hours of grief and frustration.
  1. Execute your marketing. This is when you’ll complete the steps in your marketing campaign. You’ll do things like get your ad in the paper, make phone calls, create and monitor your Facebook ads or whatever steps that you identified for your campaign. Again, this is another place where you should delegate if at all possible. This will save more of your time for client work – and because you are consistently marketing you will need it!

Many lawyers mistakenly believe that consistent marketing will take too much time and cost too much money. But, with advanced planning you’ll spend less time than you think and you’ll see a steady flow of billable work – no more periods of famine!

There you have it! You now know the secret sauce of marketing. Having a consistent marketing schedule really will change the way your law firm operates for the better. There will be less stress for you and more money flowing into your firm.

We have a select number of private clients for which we serve as their marketing department, as well as a “Done for You” marketing program where we send you professional and fully-tested marketing material automatically every month, ready for you to customize and execute. Schedule a no-strong virtual cup of coffee with me to talk over which of these programs is right for you!

This is a little personal, but there’s something in it for you, too.

I don’t know about you but Spring is my absolute favorite time of year…even when we have April showers move in for a few days. Everything is coming back to life (yes, I live in Florida, but up here in the Panhandle we do have seasons). And, we are entering the 2nd quarter of the year where everyone seems to get a burst of energy to get things moving in their business.

I love spring so much that it’s the season I chose to get married in.  Tomorrow would have been my 23rd wedding anniversary. So now, along with my anticipation of the season, there is also some sadness that comes at this time of year since Nick lost his battle with cancer.  Although, I’m learning to focus on all of the good times with my husband and the fact that I was so blessed to have found my best friend to spend 20 years of my life with.

Without a doubt, the work that we do for our Estate and Elder law attorneys not only comes from my many years experience as a senior paralegal and office manager of a top estate planning firm, but even deeper than that, I’m inspired by my personal struggles and “hard knock” lessons I learned while caregiving and preparing for end-of-life transitions with my husband, mom, dad, and mother-in-law over the past 10 years.

It is truly my passion to help attorneys reach as many people as possible with the message of solid estate planning and the importance of developing a lifetime relationship with a lawyer that will be there for them and their families, no matter what happens in the future.  It makes all the difference in the world when facing such challenging times.

If you’re reading this note right now, chances are you share my vision…and I love that.  I want to support you in reaching as many people as possible in your community! So in honor of my anniversary and my husband’s memory, I am going to lower the price on our DFY program by $200 a month for anyone who signs up in the next week. This is our dedicated marketing program that will put effective materials and campaigns in your hands each month to reach more families and local individuals with the important message of what you do.

Here’s where you can get all of the details about the program at your own convenience: https://legalmarketingmaven.com/dfy.

If you choose to join us, the discounted price will lock in for the entire time you are in the program. To get started, simply fill out this Authorization Form.  If your geographical area is already taken, you will not be charged and we will contact you ASAP to let you know.

That said, if you have been on the fence about signing up, now is the time to go ahead and lock in your territory because we do not work with competitors! And, remember, there are no long term commitments.  You can cancel at anytime without pressure or headaches.

Have questions? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee where we can talk determine if the program is a good fit for you and your practice.

 

Search Engine Integration: A “New” Concept That We Recognized Years Ago

It’s good to be validated.

Not that we needed it, but it is a good thing to find a widely-respected publication affirm the very advice that you have been giving for years. That happened to us recently when the online publication Search Engine Watch published an article about the future holds for effective marketing.

In short, the article points out the fact that “being found” is much more than writing articles with the appropriate keywords and meta tags. It is about integrating SEO tactics into marketing. What this means is that it is simply not possible to focus heavily on one aspect of marketing and expect it to be effective.

This is not news to us at Legal Marketing Maven. Even back in the day when everyone else was pushing rankings, we recognized that this was just a small part of a commanding online presence. We recognized that marketing tactics should be looked at as holistic, integrated approach and not individual parts. It was with this idea that we developed our Done-For-You marketing program.

We recognized a long time ago that an effective marketing program only works if you include Branding, PR, and demonstration of thought leadership through articles, videos and social participation. We put a package together that allowed estate planning attorneys to easily implement this marketing strategy on their own and managed to keep the cost very low.  That was 2 and ½ years ago.

Are we tooting our own horn here? Probably. But, sometimes when you are leading the pack you should let people know about it.  In fact, we hope you are doing the same!  Toot away!

 

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.

3 Ways to Get the Most Out Of Your Attorney Coaching Program

Over the years we’ve worked with many lawyers who have easily spent 6 figures on coaching and mentoring services to get their law firms off the ground.  A lot of these  coaches are really great. The attorneys come away with a great understanding of what marketing needs to be done, yet they fail to see results. When we’ve worked with these  attorneys and peeled back the layers we typically see the same disconnect.

The attorney doesn’t have a marketing problem; they have an IMPLEMENTATION problem.

What we’ve found is that the knowledge and strategies that they’ve paid 6-figures to learn isn’t being implemented because there is an expectation that everything they learned can be done in-house.  We’ve identified 2 common reasons why this isn’t happening for them.

  • The attorney never finds the time to implement what they’ve learned on their own. They have discovered that creating and implementing marketing takes quite a bit of time.
  • They turn marketing over to their staff that did not have the benefit of the coaching or mentoring. They simply do not have the know-how to move forward creating technical email marketing, direct response marketing and online marketing campaigns.

The good news is there are solutions to these issues. You can get the benefit of great attorney coaching programs and get things implemented.  Here’s a little help.

1. Involve key team members in your coaching and training programs.

If you go to a marketing or practice management event, bring your staff! The extra cost will be well worth the benefit of having the team all on the same page and receiving the training that you have gone out of your way to receive. You can’t do it all yourself but you also can’t expect your staff to be mind readers or overnight gurus either…so bring them!

2. If you are a solo and don’t have staff, you must start blocking time to work ON your business and not just in it.

Having all of that knowledge in your head and doing it sporadically when you can find the time is not going to bring results. If you want your pipeline full, you need to set aside regular time to implement your marketing campaigns. Block off an hour to make phone calls and touch base with new referral sources. Set aside a Saturday morning to write your email newsletter and print newsletter for the month. If you don’t start intentionally making time for it, it will never happen.

3. Get a head start by getting help.  

We created our Done-For-You program to get you over the barriers. We give attorneys and their teams a “head start” on creating their marketing each and every month.  As much as you may hate marketing, it’s a necessary evil and has to get done if you want new business.  With a program like DFY, you don’t have to worry anymore about more starting from scratch and expecting your team to be marketing gurus and wasting hours that should be better used servicing your clients. We create the campaigns, have everything designed by a professional designer, write the blog posts, do  the newsletter so all you are doing is editing and making tweaks where you see fit.  It’s easy for you and easy for your team, and it is affordable!  Take a look.

If you’ve felt frustrated by the lack of clients coming in the door, don’t blame your coach or mentor. Just take the necessary steps to turn all of the terrific training into
reality and make it happen!

 

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.

Does the Rule of 7 Apply to Law Firm Marketing?

ConsistencyIf you’re not consistent, you’re non-existent

If the marketing for your law firm is not producing the ROI or results you want, you may have a problem with being consistent.

Consistent marketing isn’t just slick sales lingo from a marketer or advertising rep. trying to get more business from you.  In order for people to know, like and trust you, they have to hear from you regularly.

If you’ve never heard of the “Rule of 7”, it’s an old marketing adage that says a prospect needs to see or hear your marketing at least 7 times before they’ll take action and buy something.

If you think about this in light of your own buying habits, you’ll probably find it to be true.  How often do pick up the phone and call a high-end service provider based on a one-off advertisement coming from someone you don’t know?

But when you start to hear from someone regularly…and then maybe a friend or a independent 3rd party (like the local news media) drops this service provider’s name too, your relationship with the company can quickly move from ice-cold to warm and receptive.

Now consistent marketing doesn’t mean you have to buy expensive ads in local magazines or the yellow pages every single month, either.  That may work for your particular business, but here’s a few other places where you can increase your marketing results by committing to consistency:

•    Email newsletter- Pick a frequency that you are comfortable with and start sending your email newsletter regularly.  If you decide to send it bi-weekly on a Friday, make sure it goes out bi-weekly on a Friday!  Be a consistent presence in your prospect’s inbox.

•    Social Media- Building a presence on social media requires consistency! With so much happening on sites like Twitter and Facebook, you can’t expect to post an update once a month and get noticed!  At the very least, commit to posting and interacting on your channels at least once or twice a day.

•    Blogging- Great SEO results depends on posting regular content.  You don’t have to post daily–but shoot post on your blog at least once or twice a week.

•    Follow-up- There MUST be consistency in your follow-up!  Every client and every prospect needs to be hearing from you the exact same way, every single time.  If you’re not sure how to put a consistent follow-up strategy in place, or you’d like do train your staff how to  follow-up more effectively with the prospective clients of your firm, grab our free audio training on follow-up in the law firm here.

These are just a handful of places where implementing consistent marketing can maximize your efforts. Take the next 60 days, try our advice and track your results. We guarantee you’ll see a much greater return for your marketing dollars!

 

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.