Many people believe that time is money. This old adage may be true for law firms that bill by the hour but even they can't argue with the value of relationships. In law firm marketing, relationships are EVERYTHING. Clients come to you in many ways but few are as valuable as the clients who come as referrals. This video explains.
If you want to take your law firm to the next level, shift your mindset from "time is money" to "relationships are money". It will not only give you clarity in your law firm marketing, it will help you prioritize your day.
You must demand a return on investment from your law firm marketing. Every dollar you spend should return a minimum of $1.01. This video describes how to measure the return on investment.
Measurement is the first step toward law firm marketing success. Once you measure it, you can manage it. If you cannot measure it, you should not do it.
Lead generation seems like a term right out of a sales training class. After all, salespeople follow up on leads. Lawyers don't sell. Right?
Wrong!
People have choices in who they use for legal services. You must find people who need what you offer and who can afford your fees. This is what lead generation is all about. This video provides some detail.
Legal marketing should help drive qualified clients to your doorstep. That aspect of legal marketing is called lead generation. Attracting more clients means finding out who needs your services and introducing yourself to them. Your legal marketing should help you do that.
Many attorneys confuse law firm marketing with salesmanship. While including a call to action with your message is necessary, the purpose of law firm marketing is to educate the prospective client. Education helps the prospective client understand why he needs you. Educational marketing helps build your credibility and it helps differentiate your law firm from all the others. This video provides a good explanation.
Your law firm marketing should educate the client in the reasons why he needs you. It should motivate the client to take action and it should differentiate you from everyone else who does what you do. This approach is not selling but it definitely will attract clients. That's what law firm marketing is all about.
The way you bill your clients can have a positive effect on your legal marketing. Legal marketing is all about relationships and presenting someone with a bill will often put a damper on your relationship with them. This video discusses how you can offer your clients both billing and payment options that will give you a competitive advantage.
Investment options for legal services are just one way legal marketing can help you build relationships with your clients. This can reduce or eliminate the negotiation game you play with clients when the bill is due. Legal marketing can extend to your billing and payment practices. Use them as an opportunity to create a competitive advantage today.
Meeting with potential clients is a necessary part of legal marketing. If you want to have good, productive meetings you need to prepare in advance. In this video (shot in the parking lot before an actual meeting) we discuss the four key components to legal marketing meeting preparation.
Asking yourself these four key questions before you go into the meeting will help you be prepared and focused.
Preparation is critically important to legal marketing. Following these steps will help you stay focused on your goals and the goals of your prospective client.
Special reports can be a valuable tool in your law firm marketing plan. Many lawyers think writing a special report will take too much time. This video outlines the four steps to writing a great special report.
Here are the eight steps outlined in the video. Be sure to watch the video for the details:
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 1: Go through things you have written in the last six months and select appropriate content.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 2: Put you content into list format.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 3: Edit the document for clarity and brevity.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 4: Write a summary for the beginning of the report.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 5: Write a conclusion for the end of the report.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 6: Hand out to non-lawyers for feedback. It is very important to get feedback from people who are in your target audience.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 7: Make any final adjustments to the special report.
Law Firm Marketing Special Report Step 8: Have the document copyedited by a professional.
Writing a special report is a great way to give your law firm marketing a jump start. Find a way to work it into your law firm marketing plan today.
One of the strategies many attorneys apply in their law firm marketing is the use of special reports. Publishing your own special report is a great way to attract new clients and give them a sense of your expertise. This video outlines the value of a publishing a special report as a law firm marketing tool.
Special reports can be used in law firm marketing in the following ways:
They can help you generate leads on line. The best way to do this is to give the special report to website visitors in exchange for their email address and permission to send them educational information in the future.
Special reports are great give away items after a speech. You can offer your special report to people who have come to hear your speak. Simply collect business cards at an event and email the attendees your special report afterwards.
Use your special report as an introductory tool. Special reports make great marketing collateral. They are far better than brochures and they help reinforce your message with your prospective client.
Special reports are great positioning tools. Sending your special report to a prospective client before you meet with him is a great way to position yourself as an expert in the mind of the client.
Special reports are one of the most valuable tools in law firm marketing. I encourage you to find a way to work them into your marketing mix today.
What does legal marketing have to do with a barbershop? About a month ago I told some friends the story of how I switched barbershops after three years. The story has an important lesson for anyone interested in legal marketing.
The moral of this story is: If you want your legal marketing to be effective, it has to be about the needs of the client. If you make your legal marketing about you, it will not only be ineffective, it will drive clients away.
Law firm marketing is constantly evolving. Sometimes evolution can actually make things easier for small firms and solo practitioners. That is definitely the case with video. Many attorneys have begun to incorporate video into their law firm marketing plans. In the video below, we discuss the value and the power of incorporating video into your law firm marketing.
Incorporating video into your law firm marketing will help you in five specific ways:
First: Video helps create a relationship with the prospective client. Writing can be an effective way to do this but video is a more intimate media. When you record a video and someone watches it on their computer screen, the viewer feels as though they are having a conversation with you. This is the next best thing to having an actual conversation.
Next: You can establish an emotional connection with someone who watches a video. Since video involves two different senses (visual and auditory) it is a powerful way to connect with people. They can feel what you feel. If you are passionate about what you do, they will be passionate about engaging you.
Third: Video is excellent for educational purposes. If you want to help people learn about your area of focus, there is no better media than video. Think back to your days in school and you will recall the teacher standing in front of the room. This educational value (and the credibility that goes with it) is priceless.
Fourth: Search engines love video. Since we are still in the early stages of video as a marketing tool, search engines are learning how to deliver video results. Right now, video is receiving preferential treatment. A good video will be more highly ranked than an all text website if they are both optimized.
Finally: The viral aspect of video is not to be underestimated. Your videos can and will be passed along to others. This is a great way for people to learn about your services. Someone forwarding a link to one of your videos to someone else is like having that person make an introduction for you.
Video is not just the latest thing in law firm marketing; it is the future of law firm marketing. Start getting familiar with it and work it into your law firm marketing plan now.
If you are serious about creating a legal marketing plan that keeps your law firm full, you need to learn how to delegate. Delegation is as necessary in legal marketing as it is in any aspect of business. This video provides you with five steps to effective delegation.
Step One: Tell Them Why
If you want someone to do a good job with a task, you must explain why that task is important. You want the person inheriting the task to emotionally invest in it. Telling them why the task is important is the first step in getting them emotionally invested.
Step Two: Define the Ideal Outcome
What is the goal? Help the person picture the results you desire. If they can see it, they can do it. Giving the assignee a clear picture of the finished product. This is critical to getting the task completed properly.
Step Three: Provide Recommended Steps
Give the person handling the task some initial guidance without micro managing them. Getting them started is important. Offering them some initial ideas is often helpful.
Step Four: Observe and Provide Constructive Feedback
Staying involved in the project (as an observer) in the early going is a good idea. Offering the benefit of your experience can be helpful. Make sure you keep all feedback constructive. Once you have delegated the task you want to be sure to focus on the outcome and not on the steps in the process.
Step Five: Check on Progress Periodically
Make sure you remain accessible to the person who has taken this task off of your plate. You want to be available as a resource in case they have questions. Checking in with the person who has the assignment is a good idea.
One of the keys to legal marketing success is to delegate as many tasks as possible to people who are qualified to handle them. Use this guide to get started.
Getting involved in a local group or civic organization is a great way to improve your local community while you grow your law firm. Legal marketing and civic organization leadership go hand in hand. This video explains.
Here is why assuming a leadership position is important:
Improves Credibility
People want to be lead. Your role in your community organization will help you achieve an elevated status in the mind of the people within the group. These people could very well be clients of yours someday.
Improves Visibility
If you want people to get to know who you are and what you do, accepting a leadership post in a community organization is a terrific way to gain that visibility. As a leader you will often be required to speak in front of groups, to write articles and to host meetings. All of these things enhance your visibility.
It Differentiates You
Many people do not get involved in the local community. Your involvement will separate you from everyone else who does what you do. Leadership further differentiates you. It helps set you apart. It shows stability and confidence.
If you have a desire to leverage your involvement in a community organization for legal marketing, you need to become a leader in that group. Business tends to flow to the leaders of organizations.
There are few law firm marketing strategies that can have as significant an impact as becoming a published author. Writing a book and having it published will impact your credibility and your visibility, and it clearly differentiates you from everyone else in your field. This video explains.
Publishing a book also helps in the following ways:
Speaking
As a published author you will receive speaking opportunities that are not available to other people. You can leverage these opportunities to build your database of contacts. This will help you get more business in the long run. If speaking is a part of your law firm marketing plan, becoming a published author will help you.
Media
The media loves authors. With a little effort you can get booked on local radio and quoted in the local papers. You may even be able to make a couple of appearances on local television.
Referrals
People will read you book and pass it along to others. Even those who do not read it will refer to you as "the author of that book". This can be a powerful implied endorsement.
Ultimately, there is no downside to making publishing an integral part of your law firm marketing plan.
There is a little used legal marketing strategy that can help you grow your law firm fast. This strategy is setting up your own referral network. This legal marketing video explains how powerful this can be.
Creating your own referral network allows you to aggressively contact lawyers in practices that do not compete with you and ask them to refer you business. It also provides you with outstanding resources for your clients. Investing in setting up a network like this will always provide a significant return.
Here is how it could work:
Let's say you are a probate attorney and you graduated from Hudson University School of Law in 1996. You could start the network by inviting all the law school graduates who from that year to an event. At the event you announce that you are forming a referral network and you invite everyone to apply. You then have them fill out a simple application and you interview everyone. You select people you believe would be a good fit for the network (who are not probate attorneys). You then repeat the process with lawyers in your local chamber of commerce and your local bar association, etc., etc.
Forming your own referral network is a fantastic legal marketing strategy that people in every practice area can use to their advantage.
There are only three ways to grow your law firm's revenue. No matter how great your law firm marketing, the three ways do not change. This video explains.
Find More Clients
This is where most law firms focus their marketing. It is the first thing we all think of when we think about law firm marketing. This is just one way to grow your law firm.
More Work With Existing Clients
This is an often overlooked area. If you work in a consumer practice area (like divorce or criminal law) you will think it is a rare opportunity to work with repeat clients. There are many ways to leverage your relationships to make sure you source other needs and those needs are referred to others. They will, in turn, refer business back to you.
Raise Your Fees
This is the best way to grow your law firm revenue. You do the same amount of work for more money. This is truly a beautiful thing.
You law firm marketing should assist you with each of these three ways to grow your revenue. If it doesn't, you should give me a call.
Most lawyers do not give business strategy even a single thought when go into private practice. Law firm marketing involves business strategy and execution. Like it or not, your law firm is a business. You are either following your own plan or you are at the mercy of the market. Law firm marketing helps drive clients to your doorstep. But there is a good chance that even if you work on your law firm marketing, you are doing it wrong.
Do you make these five deadly law firm marketing mistakes?
Deadly Law Firm Marketing Mistake 1: Employing on Only One Law Firm Marketing Method
Most lawyers find one way to get a client and then they continue to use that method to the exclusion of everything else. You should definitely stick with something that works but you should also find a dozen or more other things that work for your law firm.
Law Firm marketing diversity is critical to your success. If you want to grow your law firm you need to have several different marketing methods at work simultaneously.
Deadly Law Firm Marketing Mistake 2: Billing by the Hour
This is the law firm marketing mistake that is the most controversial. Lawyers are constantly hammering home the point that they are professionals. They say that they are a held to a higher standard than others in the workforce. Yet they set their own compensation in the same manner that a ditch digger or a dish washer is compensated - by the hour.
This deadly mistake not only limits the amount of compensation you can receive, it is not aligned with the best interest of the client. That is how it affects your law firm marketing. You spend lots of time, money and energy building up trust with your client and then hourly billing puts your interest at odds with theirs.
Deadly Law Firm Marketing Mistake 3: Not Focusing on a Clear Competitive Advantage
Why should a client hire your instead of any other lawyer? You must be able to provide a clear, distinct, client-focused answer to this question. If you cannot, you do not have a competitive advantage.
Most lawyers say the same thing when this question is put to them. They talk about fighting for the rights of their clients or the years of experience and education they possess or their awards and accolades. These things are easily replicable. You need to truly have some kind of a unique advantage that will resonate with your client.
Deadly Law Firm Marketing Mistake 4: Doing All the Work
If you do all the legal work yourself you have made a conscious decision to limit your income. There is only one of you and only 24 hours in a day. You will eventually hit a wall.
Set your law firm up for success. You must begin with a thought toward expansion and growth. If you don't think about the future you will be stuck in a rut at some point. The vicious circle of working hundreds of hours each month and capping your income will trap you.
Deadly Law Firm Marketing Mistake 5: Trying to be Everything to Everyone
The lawyer who tries to handle all issues can do none of them well. The most successful marketing strategy you can employ is to focus on one specific market niche and dominate it. If you do this you will be able to command a fee premium and you will grow beyond your wildest dreams.
Just about every lawyer makes these five law firm marketing mistakes. If you want to grow your practice and you want to do it now, changing these horrible business practices is a good start. If you need help, you can call me, Dave Lorenzo, 888.692.5531.
If you are searching for clients in a desperate frenzy your legal marketing may resemble an Easter Egg Hunt. That's the last thing you want. If you do it right, legal marketing should be a way for you to target the ideal client who will pay your ideal fee. This video explains.
Don't let your legal marketing become an Easter Egg Hunt! Match your message to your market and your Easter Eggs will come to you.
If you are a lawyer making $250,000 or more and you are ready to take your law firm to the next level you should hire law firm marketing expert Dave Lorenzo. Law firm marketing is complicated. It requires specialized knowledge. You spent significant money and time on law school but they did not teach you the most critical aspect of being a law firm owner: How to get clients as a lawyer.
Law firm marketing requires knowledge of psychology, persuasive writing, speaking skills, math, statistics, and the ability to educate. Most people are not born with this ability. Dave Lorenzo works with his clients to develop these skills.
Law firm marketing expert Dave Lorenzo has a specific process in place for non-client communication. This process is outlined in this video.
If you had heart disease, you would go to a cardiologist. If you had a brain tumor you would see a brain surgeon. When you need help with law firm marketing you should see a law firm marketing expert. Dave Lorenzo is that guy.
If you are ready to take your law firm to the next level, if you are ready to have more time at your disposal, if you are ready to find better clients, reach out to law firm marketing expert Dave Lorenzo today.
Learning how to find clients as a lawyer is difficult. If you want to jump start the process, law firm marketing expert Dave Lorenzo can help. Watch the video above one more time and then contact him. You will be glad you did.
Your fees say more about you than words ever will. Law firm marketing will help position you but your fees ultimately will determine how you are viewed by your client. This video explains.
There are three ways you can be positioned in the mind of your client. Here is how you can be viewed:
As a Low End Lawyer
This is the lawyer who prices himself at the bottom of the market. This strategy appears desperate and it is based upon the (false) assumption that volume is a good thing. Lawyers who compete solely on price always end up overworked, burned out and unhappy. This is not a good law firm marketing strategy for the long run.
As an Average Lawyer
If you charge what everyone else charges you will look like everyone else. The exception to this rule is if you have other differentiating factors that will set you apart and you want to grow your share of the market. The "market share" strategy is only effective in the short term. Eventually, you competitors will copy your strategy and everyone will look the same again.
Choose this law firm marketing strategy carefully.
As a High End Lawyer with an Exclusive Clientele
You should differentiate yourself well and charge more than anyone else would ever dare to charge. Your law firm marketing must communicate a clear competitive advantage. You must overwhelm your client with service. You must be a good lawyer.
If all of these elements are in place, this is the best strategy of all.
Your law firm marketing must be reflective of the position you hold in the market. If you are a high end lawyer, you cannot advertise on bus stop benches and roadside billboards. Everything you say and do in your law firm marketing either helps or hurts your positioning. Keep that in mind as you make your marketing decisions.
People always ask me how they get started writing their legal marketing plan. Well, before you start writing, you should do two things: 1) Watch this video. 2) Ask yourself the four questions below.
Here are the four questions you should ask yourself before you begin your legal marketing plan:
What do you want your law firm to look like in 3 years?
This question usually stops people dead in their tracks. Most attorneys have not given any thought to what their law firm will look like next month, let alone in 3 years. Take some time and really think about what you want your law firm to look like three years from today. Who will your clients be? Will you be making any additions to your team? What kinds of matters would you like to handle?
Getting this vision right is the essence of strategic planning. You cannot plan your marketing until you know who you want as your client.
How will this impact your life?
You work to live, you don't live to work. You need to have a solid understanding of how the structure of your law firm will impact your life. Will it make things easier? If so, how? Will you need to work long hours? If so, why? Will you spend more time with your family?
Who do you need to know to make this happen?
There is a great deal of information you don't currently know in order to fulfill the vision you have for your law firm. Just because you don't know how you will make this happen doesn't mean it is impossible. SOMEONE knows how to make this happen. Look for that someone. Even if you find several people with little pieces of the answer, you are much better off than you would be if you tried to go it alone.
Find out who can help then ask them to help you.
How will you get started?
Just figure out the first step. Don't try and plot your takeover of the entire world. Figure out what you can do first just to get going. After you figure out the first step, plan the second step and so on...
A legal marketing plan is a living document. It should grow as you grow. It should also help you grow. Start with these four questions and you will be well on your way to building the law firm you deserve.
