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Expecting magic vs. momentum in your legal practice

Magic Marketing ImageIn most professional fields, people seem to equate the word “marketing” with “magic”. Maybe you’ve unknowingly done it in your practice, too. You create a marketing plan, hire the appropriate staff members, run some campaigns and nothing happens.

Sound familiar?

I know the frustration of this from personal experience. Typically around the second or third month of working with a new client, this becomes the topic of our private coaching calls. They express concern that their phone is not ringing off the hook, no one seems to notice what they are doing and it feels like their money is getting wasted in the process.

They are striving for magic, not momentum.

After effectively talking them off the ledge, I’m able to teach them how REAL, relationship-based marketing works. Typically it’s front-end loaded, requiring a small investment of time to lay a foundation in which you are REGULARLY reaching out to prospects and potential referral sources in the community.

It’s a further understanding that you can’t just swipe a cold mailing list of financial advisors or CPA’s from the Internet, mail to them one time and expect business like crazy. Instead, it’s recognizing the Rule of 7 at play and making a plan to constantly stay in touch.

And, especially when it comes to internet marketing, it’s understanding that the website you spent ZERO time marketing in the past will not show up on page one of Google just because you posted a blog or two.

You have to do these things consistently, usually over a period of a few months before you can accurately gage results!

So back to my coaching calls. Once I’m able to help the client see that business relationships and momentum are not built overnight (much like relationships in real life!), it never fails that within the next 30-60 days I’m getting emails from the SAME EXACT CLIENTS like this:

“I don’t know what happened but the largest nursing home in my
community just called. Said they’ve seen my name all over the
place and I was also mentioned by someone on staff. They’ve
invited me to speak to their residents. I had two similar calls this week for smaller speaking engagements. I’ve had zero invites prior to this”.

“I’m finally starting to get calls from my website and ranking all over the place. And not just waste of time calls before, but these are actually quality cases. Amazing how this works”

“We engaged a very lucrative client today. She inquired about our services a year ago but put it on the backburner. I started sending my newsletter and after reading it for the past two months, she knew she had to come in and get everything taken care of. She thanked us for the push…but I should probably be thanking you for the same”.

I encourage you to take a cold, honest look at your marketing expectations today. Are you expecting magic or are you realistically focused on building momentum and long-term relationships?

It’s wise to expect some form of ROI (return on investments) but make sure you are allowing the proper timeframe for that to happen. Just like you probably wouldn’t agree to marry someone after the first date, you also need to allow for proper “courtship” and “wooing” before a client is willing to fork over $5,000-$10,000 on your services.

 

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.

CSI for a Poor Lead Generating Law Firm Website

CSIOne nice thing about attending the Planning for the Generations Symposium last month was the ability to sit down with attorneys and have in-depth conversations about what they felt was…or was not working in terms of driving new business to their law firm. 

By far, the biggest area of disappointment we heard had to do with their law firm website. 

Most told us they had spent big money to have a site designed, but it wasn’t driving leads. This was especially frustrating for attorneys who did not own their websites, but were hosted with big companies which charge hefty monthly fees to maintain and keep the site live. 

At the very least, they just wanted to see their website cover the costs of maintenance–but they were certain the site wasn’t even generating that much. 

Finding the Disconnect 

Whenever a client tells us their website isn’t bringing in new business, our first job is to identify the disconnect. Here are some of the questions we ask:

  • Is there a website MARKETING problem? Having a website and website MARKETING are two totally different things. It takes ongoing work to ensure your site is found by ideal clients. Is the site optimized for SEO? Is the attorney (or legal staff) blogging regularly? Is the site being promoted on social media or via Pay-Per-Click ads? All of these strategies can increase the effectiveness of your firm website and must be done on a consistent basis or you WON’T see results! 

  • Is there an ADMINISTRATIVE problem? Whenever an attorney tells us they aren’t getting calls from the website, we go into full-blown data gathering mode. What I typically find is that their phone is connected to a voicemail answering service (so they don’t actually know who is calling and where they are coming from)–OR the secretary is not asking each and every lead how they found the firm. Once we take care of these two very simple things, it then becomes clear that leads ARE coming in from the website….they just didn’t know it! 

  • Is there a CONTENT problem? Maybe you’re ranking on page 1 in all of the search engines, but people STILL aren’t calling your office. It could be that your content is unclear, overwhelming or has no real call to action. Perhaps it looks too generic and doesn’t display you as the expert you are. All of these issues can cause visitors to immediately leave and move onto to the sites of your competition. 

  • Is there a NICHE problem? More people than ever are searching for services online, but what if your ideal clients still aren’t there? Do you handle elder law? VA Benefits? Social Security? Many of your ideal clients may simply not know how to find you because they can’t use the web. In this case, it’s still important to have a great website, but you’ll need to focus your efforts on traditional advertising and offline marketing strategies, too.

Collecting The Data 

Until you figure out the answer to the questions above, you can’t really come up with a solid plan to increase the effectiveness of your website. Here are a few things to set up and start tracking to help you get to the bottom of these issues:

  • Google Analytics- You must have analytics installed on your site. You can’t make an educated plan of attack if you don’t know exactly how many people are visiting your site, where they are coming from, how long they are staying on your pages (i.e. if your content is not relevant or is overwhelming, they’ll bounce right off), what keywords people are using to find you and what the most popular pages on your site are. Google analytics gives you all of this data every single day–for FREE. 

  • Track all inbound calls- I know things can get crazy during the day, but every single caller must be asked how they found your firm. This can be done conversationally as your secretary works to gather more information and determines how you might be able to help them. Some secretaries may feel awkward asking this question until a potential client actually schedules an appointment, but encourage them to ask everyone regardless. 

  • Make sure your calls are being answered by a live person- You can’t do the step above if your calls are being forwarded to an answering machine. If you don’t have anyone to answer phones at this time, sign up for Call Ruby. I highly recommend their services. 

  • Ask people you trust to critique your website- Find out how they feel about your content, the layout and the first impression it gives them. Where do they feel confused? Overwhelmed? Turned off? You’d be surprised what an extra set of eyes can discover. When doing this just last week for a client, we found out  his homepage said he practiced in a completely different state and his phone number was wrong! Would you call that guy? And if you did–you wouldn’t even get through! 

  • Google yourself- Know where you are ranking for your top keywords (including your name!). If you can’t find yourself past the first few pages in Google, you are virtually invisible to potential clients. Time to do some SEO.

These are just a few steps we take when undergoing website analysis for a client. If you’re unhappy with the results of your website, I encourage you to do a little “tech CSI” and seek to uncover the answers to some of these questions. Your findings may make a huge difference in the business you are able to generate from your website and marketing efforts this year.

 

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.

Take a break from your legal marketing this Spring …(yes, really)

If you’d like to simplify your life and stop worrying about marketing this spring without having to jeopardize new clients coming in the door….

…then take a peek at the special we have right now on our Done-For-You monthly marketing packages for estate planning attorneys.

DFY SamplesWe know that you are so busy taking care of your business, servicing your clients and building referral relationships that your marketing sometimes takes a backseat to everything else going on.  That is why we created this program specifically for you.

These are high-quality, professionally done marketing materials with a proven track record of helping estate planning attorneys gain more clients, more page 1 search rankings, better conversions, newspaper and TV coverage, increased referrals, new speaking opportunities and more!

Each month, our DFY program includes:
•    A direct-response marketing campaign and step-by-step instructions on how to implement it (i.e. free reports, landing pages, postcards, brochures, follow-up scripts);
•    A press release and media pitch letter for maximum local publicity and SEO;
•   A weekly blog post professionally written and optimized to dominate the search engines (…for many DFY clients, our blog posts show up on page one in Google before any other page of their website!),
•    A done-for-you print newsletter to stay in-touch with clients by mail;
•    4 video scripts for video marketing; and
•    Area exclusivity!  We will not work with your competition.

It’s all of your marketing, professionally done for you each and every month, without theDFY Brochures aggravation or expense of hiring in-house staff.  All of the materials are delivered to you in editable format so that you can customize and edit as you see fit.

To head off March, we’re offering these marketing materials at just $797 per month–a $200 monthly savings off the regular price of $997.   There’s no time commitment either; try it out at the discounted price and cancel if it’s not for you. No worries, no hassles.

This is like hiring a part time legal marketing professional for your firm for only about $12 per hour, that is a huge savings while still giving you expert results.

This offer is only good until March 5th, so to learn more about the program and request exclusivity in your area, visit https://legalmarketingmaven.com/dfy

 

P.S.-  Please feel free to browse through our Portfolio photo gallery on Facebook to see real results that our clients are getting and samples of materials that you will receive in the program.

 

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.

 

Emergencies & Legal Marketing It All Boils Down To Systems

Emergency imageSpring time has arrived here in the Panhandle of Florida – it doesn’t last long, we move into summer-like weather rather quickly!  I’ve been enjoying the warmer weather with cool breezes by doing a little gardening, taking afternoon swims and working as much as possible out on my deck enjoying the fresh air.

As I’m sure you have heard this week, the south was hit hard with horrible tornadoes. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the South after the horrible storms that moved through leaving devastation in their path. I know from experiencing tragic losses during Hurricane Andrew how devastating Mother Nature’s fury can be.  I hope you and your loved ones were spared and my company will be donating 10% of our revenues next month to the relief efforts.

It makes me think about emergency plans, and my post that I did a while back on that subject, if you missed it you can read it here.  If you do not have an emergency plan in place for your business, I encourage you to do it, you never know when an emergency could strike, and as scary as it is we are seeing natural disasters becoming more and more frequent. ??Please feel free to leave a comment on that post or shoot me an email with any tips or resources you have for emergency plans, I’d be happy to compile them and share them with the readers.  I’m sure by putting all of our heads together we could come up with a plan that fills in most gaps!  Again this is all about creating a system that you would follow should the unthinkable occur .

Last week, I also interviewed Nate Hagerty and we discussed the importance of Social Media marketing and how to convert the time spent on those platforms into clients in the door.  If you missed the call, we have set up a replay page at http://www.lawyersocialmedia.com.  Nate gave his formula for successful implementation of social media marketing (it has proven results for his CPA firms) so be sure to go listen to the call if you have not already done so. I think you’ll also be very surprised by what Nate shared is the most important component of social media marketing – and I’m sure it isn’t what you think!

We also discussed what I feel is one of THE most important pieces of your marketing plan, and that is consistency!  Simply put, having a system in place so that you know it is getting done.

Nate and I did a little digging into some of the sites of the lawyers that registered for our call, both by signing up for their newsletters (for those that had them) and also by checking out their social media profiles (again for those that had them or we could find).

The results were that for most, when we signed up for a newsletter, we received a simple thank you note – sometimes – and that was it.  There were some social media profiles that were really doing a good job, but others that hadn’t been updated in a very long time, almost looking abandoned.

Is that what happens with your marketing?  You get gun-ho coming up with campaigns, putting yourself out there on social media, doing speaking engagements, etc…and then business picks up and you get busy doing the client work.  Leaving no time for the marketing, I call this the marketing merry-go-round.  I see it quite a bit, and it doesn’t have to be that way.

In order for your marketing to be effective it must be consistent.  You must be in front of your prospects all of the time, because you never know when they are going to decide that now is the time that they need your service.  And when they need that service you want them to call YOU not the new lawyer down the road that has suddenly gotten on their radar.  ??It’s all about relationships, and relationships have to have consistency.

They want to know, like and trust you and the like and trust factors sometimes can take a while to build.

Here are my suggestions (bare minimum) for keeping a consistent marketing plan going:

  • Weekly Email to your list
  • Daily Post on Social Media (not always about you but to drive conversation)
  • Monthly Print Newsletter (you need to be getting in the MAILBOX of your prospects)
  • Regular Videos – Multi-media marketing is important as it allows your prospects to “see” you and it is great for SEO
  • Monthly press releases – you probably won’t get picked up every month but keeping in regular contact with your local media with timely advice and articles establishes yourself as the expert, and when you are picked up and your prospects see you in the news it is certainly a credibility boost that money can not buy.
  • Blogging regularly – you must be updating a blog regularly if YOU want google to take notice of you, and let’s face it people are going to Google to find professionals to work with.

This can all be systemized so that it is happening on a regular basis without much effort from you at all.  I know this hard for a lot of lawyers to believe, but you have got to let go of the concept that YOU must do everything. Delegate these items to key team members.  If they need training we are happy to help or you can contact us to learn more about how we help law firms implement consistent, educational-based marketing into their firms.

If you are an Estate Planning or Elder Law attorney you may want to check out our DFY package that will give you all of the content you need on a monthly basis to begin getting a marketing system in place in your firm right 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.

Addressing Some FAQ’s

Wequestion mark‘ve had a ton of interest in the DFY materials that we have been talking about for the last few months but I’ve also received a quite a few emails and wanted to answer some of the frequently asked questions I’ve been getting.

Does Legal Marketing Maven also help with implementing the marketing materials? I don’t have enough time to do it myself.

Yes!  We are an implementation company!  The DFY packages were put together to help lawyers that have in house staff (or virtual teams that they are working with) so that they didn’t have start every month from scratch.  But we will happily put together an implementation package that meets your needs, just reply to this email and schedule a complimentary strategy session with me to explore those options.

Do all of your DFY materials focus on general estate planning (or focus on one particular niche)? I am an elder law lawyer, will it work for me?

Our DFY materials are eclectic and focus on estate planning for the young and old, we try to incorporate basic estate planning, elder law and administration into our materials each month because we believe your practice will benefit from serving clients in all stages of their life.

Do you have DFY materials for other practice areas? I am a bankruptcy lawyer and would love materials like this for my law firm.

Currently our DFY materials are only for Estate planning attorneys however, we are planning to launch 2 new practice areas this year.  If you are interested in these types of materials for your practice area please reply to this email and let me know what that is, it will help me determine which 2 areas we will roll out next.

If you need the services now, let’s schedule a time to chat about what your needs are and create a custom package that will meet your needs.

Does Legal Marketing Maven work with lawyers in other practice areas?

Yes!  We privately work with clients in a variety of practice areas – personal injury, medical malpractice, bankruptcy, business law and family law.  Our services span a wide range including but not limited to:

•    Development and execution of direct response marketing campaigns
•    Web writing, Copywriting and Blogging
•    Teleseminars and Webinars
•    Landing Pages/ Squeeze Pages
•    Email Marketing
•    Newsletters
•    Infusionsoft Management
•    Autoresponders
•    Search Engine Optimization
•    Social Media Marketing
•    Article Marketing
•    Reputation Management
•    Press Releases and Public Relations
•    Marketing of In-Person Events/ Conferences
•    Creation and Launch of Lead Generation Pieces
•    Product Launches

Do you have more questions, or 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 Easy Ways to Boost Your Law Firm’s Search Engine Rankings

Prospects are looking for you.  Chances are, there is someone in your local community right now who is looking for the exact services you provide.

Marketing is and always has been about finding people who need you.  The question is, how do you get found? The answer has changed quite a bit over the last several years.  Gone are the days when people searched for you in the yellow pages (No matter what the yellow pages ad salesman tells you!).

Instead, today’s consumer is looking for you online. They are seeking you out in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Therefore, it becomes clear that if you don’t have an active, consistent, and relevant online marketing strategy you are losing business.

Yet the question remains, “How does all this work?”

Simply put, Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines have advanced algorithms for which they determine which websites are the most appropriate based on the words typed into their search bar.  These algorithms are secret and constantly evolving. However, based on practical experience and search engine optimization (SEO) experimentation it is fair to state that they are also based on simple human logic.  In simple terms, this logic is based on content relevancy and how many other quality websites link back to you.

So with that said, here are three easy ways to give the algorithms what they want and ensure you are found when customers come looking for your services:

Content

Back in the day, people who called themselves SEO experts would cram websites full of popular but irrelevant keywords. The belief was that if you put lots of keywords on your site and you’d zoom to number 1 in Google.  But Google quickly got wind of these “black-hat” techniques and changed their algorithm.

Today search engines are constantly changing the game as far as how websites rank to avoid people taking advantage of the system, but one thing remains the same – you must have quality, optimized, content that will engage your readers.  And lots of it! It is critical that you post to your blog on a consistent basis and frequently – at least once per week.

That’s simply because the search engines value fresh content optimized with one or two quality keywords that naturally flow within the text.  And how do you know which keywords people are searching for?  We recommend trying your hand at Google’s free keyword tool found at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Takeaway Tip – Post to your blog at least once per week.  Make sure that you write articles that provide information that your potential clients are seeking and include targeted keywords so the search engines can find it and rank it appropriately.

Local Directories

Local results are becoming more and more common in online searches, and will continue to grow as a way that clients seek local services.  If you’re not familiar with local search, do a quick experiment in Google by typing in “estate planning lawyer near (your city)”.  You’ll notice results that link to a map above the regular search results.  These “local” results are generated by a different algorithm as the organic (or regular) results, as they seek to provide users with service providers near their desired location.

A quick way to get yourself included in such local search is to visit getlisted.org.  That will take you through signing up for several well-established data sources for local businesses like Google Local, Yelp, Bing, and Yahoo Local.  And don’t forget to optimize your profiles as well, as your keywords will dictate how you are found by local consumers.

Takeaway Tip – Go to getlisted.org and list your business in the most popular local search directors and do research to find niche directories.

Article Marketing

Article marketing is yet another way to get your information out to hungry consumers.  Not only is this a great way to gain positive public exposure, but it is a smart way to improve your search engine rankings.  When done properly, articles you post on syndicated article sites become “link bait” for other sites.  They also give you quality “link-backs” to your site—which leads Google, Yahoo or other search engines to believe your site is “popular” among consumers.  Think of links on your articles as little steps toward that number one ranking in Google!

The first thing you should do, even before you write the first word of your first article, is to do keyword research to determine what your potential clients are searching for.  Keyword research is the practice of balancing the popularity of a keyword or search phrase against the competitiveness of the keyword phrase. You certainly wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time and money targeting keywords and phrases that no one is likely to use in a search. Likewise, if 80 million plus results come up when you search for your keyword phrase you may have a difficult time getting ranked for that competitive of a keyword. So it is important to find the right combination of popularity and competitiveness.

Once you determine what keywords you should be using to allow your prospective clients to find you, begin writing articles that target such keywords– and lots of them.  You should be writing at least one article per week.  If you aren’t able to devote that much time to writing, it is possible to outsource this. (If you’re an estate planning attorney, our DFY service is s a good outsourcing resource.

Then once you have quality, keyword rich articles, it is time to submit them.  Look for article submission sites or article directories that receive a high volume of traffic and are considered authority sites by search engines.  Submitting to these sites will result in lots of free traffic to your site.

Finally, there is one more step to ensuring your site ranks well in the search engines and that’s being consistent with your search engine optimization strategy.   The steps above aren’t something you do once and never do again.  Instead, you must be working on your SEO strategy weekly to ensure your site ranks on page one (or close to it) when prospects come calling.

 

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.