Legal Marketing Secrets

How Many Touches Do You Need

Many clients ask – how many times do I send out my mailing / advertisement or other piece to get a client to act? This question is relevant across marketing disciplines, whether you use direct mail or any other outbound method. Many lawyers are looking for a exact number.

How many touches do you need?  My gut says 7-8 over an 8 week period.  The touches should include market based data showing how you’re thinking of them with info that can help them and the benefits you can provide.

After this time, try to get them into your database for repeat market based articles. Eventually, they’ll need a lawyer and guess who they’ll call.

 

Social Media and Legal Marketing --Should you Jump in?

"Social networking" is the simple act of expanding the number of people you know by meeting your friends' friends, their friends' friends and so on.

In fact, many of us today use Twitter and Facebook to promote our existing and upcoming businesses. And people looking to connect with other business-associated contacts usually move to sites like LinkedIn, but one need to understand that social media is beyond Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogs.

There’s also Bebo, Friendster, Hi5, Habbo, Ning and hundreds of other sites.

The question is how and should you use these to market your practice.  The answer is you have to, the real question is how?  Since I’m no expert, my suggestion is to hire a person or company that can get you up and running and posting.  You can’t deny that the numbers of people on these sites are staggering so you really have no choice but to have a presence.

Me, I’m still trying to figure remember my password to all these sites.

Legal Marketing is Personal

I haven't written for some time since my family had a medical emergency last year and it shook our world to the core.  During this time, you really find out who your friends are and who you can count on to help.  And sometimes, we all need help.

So what does this have to do with legal marketing? 

To me,a lot.

Legal marketing and business development is not selling soap or a one time transaction.  It's more like a doctor-patient relationship...you got to get personal, empathic and show some emotion with your clients.  When you do, you'll prove that you're not just a lawyer who wants their money; but a friend, an advisor, a trusted parter...who cares.  Once you reach that level with your client, he/she's your client for life.

So how's the legal economy doing ?

So how's the legal economy doing after 2 awful years?

According to a report released by consulting company Hildebrandt and the Law Firm Group at Citi Private Bank, law firm profitability is expected to grow modestly in 2012, however, this year may prove
to be even more challenging than 2009, the report found. One consequence of the uncertain climate has been the decrease in the number of associates employed at firms and younger lawyers
having a really difficult time.

Another article noted that the U.S. economy added 243,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, with the legal services sector adding back 1,000 jobs in January, the Labor Department announced.

What to make of these somewhat conflicting signals?

Not sure, but my advise is to keep your expenses low, stay focused on what you enjoy, execute on your marketing plans and continue to provide outstanding service…

the rest of it is just noise. 

 

Marketing is a Learned Trait --Listen to the Experts

With a slowing economy you know you should be getting your ass in gear to market your practice more effectively. 

And as you know, I have over 140 experts and other tools to help you do just that...where you can listen to these experts as often as you like.

I wanted to let you know about another learning opportunity that's very similar to my Expert Audio Series.

Autotech has a series of audio summaries from great marketing books that you can purchase for $189. You can check it out at:  http://www.audiotech.com/dms/marketing-collection.php?

Should you purchase my Expert Audio Series rather than these book summaries….ABSOLUTELY!

But since my goal is to help you get and keep more clients and create more wealth and freedom in your career, I just thought you should know about this.

 

A Different Spin on Networking

Of all the marketing strategies you can use, networking represents the most effective method for growing your business. Ironically, to many of us, networking and building relationships are often seen as the most uncomfortable form of business development. In fact, the very idea of networking can bring forth feelings of anxiety, fear, and dread to even the most outgoing and confident professional. Shaking hands at useless and annoying networking events, mixing sweaty palms with pigs in a blanket, all in one massive business card swap is often seen as a total waste of time. Each person you meet trying to “sell” you.  Many of us would much rather visit a dentist for root canal surgery than attend a networking event.

But the fact remains that nothing gets done and your goals will never happen without the help of other people.  Dale Carnegie, the father of human relationship training, in How to Win Friends and Influence People said that financial success is due to 15% of one’s technical knowledge and 85% to skill in human relationship management.

One networking idea for introverts was described by Srikumar Rao in “Are You Ready to Succeed.”  Rao suggests you pick 5 people that appeal to you and for which you would like to cultivate a relationship. Write them a letter letting them know what you admire about them and state a specific way you can be of help or use. You might even consider sending a letter of congratulations on a promotion or award. One highly successful attorney I know would consistently send out letters of congratulations to people he read about in the paper and trade magazines. After a few years, his network exploded as did his business. This type of tactical networking requires less game playing and serves to form a network around you.

Try it and see what happens! 

 

Marketing is all About Mindset

Many of the experts I interviewed for my Expert Audio Series complained that many lawyers don’t listen or follow through on the best laid marketing plans. 

Why is this?

As a lawyer you think critically and are highly judgmental.  What’s really at play here is human nature.  Even though we're critical thinkers, primarily we're still run by our emotions.  That means that we're viewing the pain of marketing (it’s beneath our standing, appears to be begging, fear of failure or criticism, etc) as greater than the pleasure of winning (more clients, more money, freedom, cases we care about, etc).  Thus, we procrastinate, don’t follow up or just stop all together.  We’re all motivated to avoid pain more than moving towards pleasure.

Releasing these negative feelings and your mindset are more important than any marketing tactic.

One idea to conquer this emotional block is to see you as a 50 year old with kids in college, and helping care for aging parents.  You’ve just been fired, lost your biggest client or been de-equitized!  Now what?  You would figure it out as any warrior would do, with a survival instinct.  The only difference would be the time you’ve wasted.

Another idea is to vision how better you’re life and career would be if you had more clients, less stress, added more value, making a bigger impact, helping more people, making more money, and having more pleasure in your career. 

Figure out what you’d enjoy by having the positive things, and move towards creating that inspiring motivation.

 

Soft Patch for Legal Marketing

Recently there has been a rash of negative news on the legal market.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the legal industry has experienced 4 straight monthly of losses, while firms deal with a slowing economy.  Graduates can’t find legal jobs, and The New York Law Journal's annual NYLJ 100 shows a lack of growth in even the 100 largest private firms.  What’s more the outsourcing industry is putting pressure on law firms and legal departments as Pangea3, the Indian legal process outsourcer bought by Thomson Reuters last year, opened its first U.S.-based service delivery office in Dallas.

It’s really hard to figure out whether we’re in a recovery, a soft patch or headed towards another recession.  And if you’re feeling the pinch, just think about your clients.  They concerned as well as demand for services and products are down across the board.

You can only control so much in this crazy environment.  My suggestion is to pay a lot of attention to your current clients. The success of your clients needs to be your ultimate business goal. And for this to happen you need to look at every single thing you do for your clients and ask how you can do it better and with more impact...even in non-legal areas.

Help them succeed and your marketing will get results beyond what you currently can imagine…even in these challenging times. 

What Legal Marketing is Not

I hope you’re well and enjoying the spring weather, unless of course you have allergies like me.

The dictionary defines “marketing” as the act or process of buying and selling in a market.

Let me give you some thoughts as to what marketing is not…

1. Marketing is not about you.
2. Marketing is not something you do when revenues are down or you lost a key client.
3. Marketing is not effective unless it’s tied to a vision or a dream.
4. Marketing is not quick.
5. Marketing is not effective unless tied to measurable results.
6. Marketing is not something you do in a vacuum or outside of a “system”.
7. Marketing is not solely something you do to get “new” clients.
8. Marketing is not selling.
9. Marketing is not a brochure or a fancy website.
10. Marketing is not something solely devoted to the “logical” part of your brain.
11. Marketing will generally not “close” the deal.
12. Marketing is not something you do at your desk.
13. Marketing is not sleazy or a waste of your time.
14. Marketing is not something you delegate to someone else.
15. Marketing is not the last thing you should do after all of your work is done.
16. Marketing is not effective unless you’re passionate about what you do and the solutions you provide.

Just a few thoughts.

Stay well.

Legal Marketing and Valentine's Day

While writing my book and interviewing hundreds of legal marketing experts, I have come across many unusual tactics to get publicity and business.

But one really caught my eye this past week, when I learned that Rusty Webb, a divorce lawyer from Charleston, W. Va, recently awarded a women a free, uncontested divorce, not including costs, (cheap o) on Valentine’s Day.   

Loretta T. of Huntington was the lucky contest winner due to her compelling story about her husband and why she deserved to win the contest.  “Ms. T. was ecstatic when she learned that she was the winner.” 

Each year on Valentine’s Day, Mr. Webb gives away a free divorce to the person whom he considers most worthy based upon the compelling story they make via internet application to the firm’s website: rustywebb.com.  This is the fourth year of the giveaway.

This story reminds me of a billboard for a divorce firm out of Chicago that went up a few years ago with a blunt message: "Life's Short. Get a Divorce.''

The billboard, sponsored by Fetman, Garland & Associates, Ltd., a firm that specializes in divorce cases, featured the six-pack abs of a headless male torso and tanned female cleavage heaving forth from a black lace bra. They eventually were forced to take down the ad, but they certainly got a lot of publicity before it was removed.

So what does this say about legal marketing? 

I’m not really sure…

except next year...

I won’t forget to  get my wife flowers on Valentine’s Day!