Legal Marketing | Attorney Marketing | Marketing For Lawyers

If you want to attract more clients as a lawyer you need to keep you communications messages simple. Do not try to dazzle people with your brilliant command of big words. Make sure you are easy to understand.

This video explains the concept:

Really intelligent people can break difficult concepts down into easy to understand messages. You should strive to master that skill.

If you make things easy to understand, you will get hired more often.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone who was more focused on their Blackberry or iPhone than they were on you?

Your clients have had this experience...with you!

If someone has taken the time to come to a meeting with you alone or with you and a group of people, you owe it to them to "be in the room" which means, well, watch this video:

Being in the room means paying full attention to the people with whom you are meeting. It means leave your Blackberry or other electronic device in the car. It means focusing on the client and the matter at hand.

One of the most important aspects of legal marketing is listening. You must listen first and emotionally engage the client second.

If you want to be great at law firm marketing you must embrace change. There are three ways to make positive changes in your law firm marketing.

This video details the three ways to create positive change quickly.

As is outlined in this law firm marketing video, you can:

• Sell Different Services
• Sell To Someone Different
• Sell Your Services Differently

Those are the tree ways to implement positive change in your law firm marketing. Which of them will you employ?

We have enlisted the help of Video Master Gerry Oginski to help lawyers learn how to shoot video. Gerry gives you a terrific overview on how to set up a video shot that will look great and engage the audience.

This is the perfect starter video for the lawyer who wants to get started with video but doesn't know how to begin.

I encourage everyone to visit lawyersvideostudio.com to learn more. Whether you are a beginner or a pro, you must give Gerry a call. He has everything from one stop solutions to a distance learning program that will help even the novice attract clients with ease. His phone number is: 516-487-8207

Thanks very much to Gerry Oginski for taking the time to make this video for us. We really appreciate it.

By the way, Gerry is also an OUTSTANDING New York Personal Injury Attorney. You can find his law firm information at: www.oginski-law.com

There is a video about a great case he recently won right on his law firm's home page. I encourage you to check it out and call Gerry with any questions. His phone number again is: 516-487-8207

Many people have asked me about shooting videos and getting them on line. The questions I receive fall into two categories:

Process - How do you do it?

Content - What do you say?

Let's briefly talk about each of those areas.

Process

People regularly ask me about the process of making and publishing video as a part of their law firm marketing plan. If they want equipment and process oriented specifics, I tell them to call Gerry Oginski at Lawyers Video Studio. He will help you get started quickly.

But if you want to try video out to see if it is right for you, simply go to your local electronics store and get a Flip Camera. You can push the red button and get going in about five minutes.

In my case, I use a Flip for my daily videos and I use a Kodak Zi8 for the DVDs I record for my clients. The difference is that the Zi8 allows me to plug in a microphone. I also have a small backdrop I use for my YouTube videos. This helps keep my firm name and website in front of my viewers.

Keep in mind that I am focused on delivering great content and not so much on the appearance of the video. I am simply using video as a different media to get my message through to my clients and prospective clients.

Content Development

There is an acronym I like to use when describing how to create great content for any educational program in your law firm marketing plan. The acronym is P.O.K.E. It stands for Personality, Opinion, Knowledge and Entertainment. This acronym is particularly relevant to video in law firm marketing.

Let's take a look at each element of the P.O.K.E. acronym and see how it applies to our objectives with video.

Personality

You must be yourself in your law firm marketing videos. If you try to be overly stuffy or if you try to imitate a celebrity you may have seen on television, you will look foolish. Just act natural and do not come off as over-acting.

Opinion

Your clients and future clients want your opinion. They want to hear what you have to say and they want to know where you stand on controversial issues. They will respect your opinion but first they have to know what it is. Do not be shy about sharing your thoughts with them.

Knowledge

Demonstrate your knowledge to your audience. Do not do this in a showy way. Simply discuss the issues using the facts and you will come off as smart and knowledgeable on the subject matter.

Entertainment

People must want to watch your video. You should be at least mildly entertaining. If being entertaining is not in your personality, try your best not to annoy or talk down to the audience.

Law firm video should be just like having a conversation with a client. That is one of the main reasons I do not use post production editing in my videos. I think that a fancy opening or overly-produced music will wind up taking away from the experience. Just imagine a client walked into your office and asked you a question. Now push the camera button and answer it.

In case you have not noticed, video is a very big deal on line. Youtube is the second most popular search engine on the planet and video results are regularly appearing on the first page of Google universal search.

If you have not found a way to leverage video as part of your law firm marketing plan, you better get with it. There is still time to use on line video as a competitive advantage for your law firm but you need to hurry.

In case you still have doubt about what video can do for your law firm marketing, take a look at these five benefits:

Video Creates a Natural Relationship Between You and Your Prospective Client

Video (particularly on-line video) gives the viewer the sense they are having a one-on-one conversation with you. This intimate experience builds trust and it can help people get a good feeling about you.

Television personalities talk about this all the time. Millions of people think they are friends with Oprah and Jay Leno because they watch them on television and they feel as though the celebrities are speaking directly to them. This effect is magnified on the Internet because of the "on demand" nature of the communication. You can have a conversation with your client every time he pushes the play button.

Video is a Passive Visual Media

People are lazy. Reading is a visual media but it is an active media. The reader has to actually do something in order to receive your message. With video, the viewer only needs to click the play button and they can receive you message immediately. They do not have to expend any energy. It requires little effort.

Demonstrations are Easy

If you want to demonstrate a concept or encourage people to take notes or present a graphic, video is the way to go. It can help you involve your audience in a way that other forms of media cannot.

You can easily engage three senses of each viewer. They can see you on video, they can hear your audio and they can take notes (if you encourage them to do so by using slides and graphics).

You Can Be More Persuasive

When you do a video presentation people can feel your passion. They can see the expression on your face and they can hear your voice inflection. This is the next best thing to actually being in front of them live. You can be at your persuasive best in a video and you can do it over again if you are not happy with the way you present your case.

As you can tell, I am a big proponent of the use of video as a tool in a law firm marketing plan. I use it myself. If you need help with law firm marketing give me a call. But if you want a turnkey way get into video, visit Gerry Oginski at Lawyers Video Studio. He offers a great service that will get you started with online video without lifting a finger.

There are few things more important to law firm marketing than follow up. Most of the clients you will attract will come to you from your follow up systems. Today we are going to talk about the basic elements of any follow up system in your law firm marketing plan.
There are five critical elements to any type of follow up community. These elements must all be present in order to effectively convey your message. Below are each of these elements with a brief description.

Frequency of Communication

The more often you communicate with someone the more likely they will be to trust you. Your follow up messages should be frequent and consistent. You cannot communicate with someone too frequently. Let me stress this point: You cannot communicate with someone too often. If your message contains the other elements listed below, and it is interesting, it will be welcomed.

Establish an Authoritative Tone

People want to be lead. In your field of expertise you should offer no apologies for taking and direct, authoritative tone. Let people know you are confident in your ability to help them. Do not be shy about helping people with the information you share.

Provide Educational Information

You must help the client or prospective client understand their situation. That often means giving them information to provide context. This information should be educational in nature and it should not be boring. Do you best to keep things simple but make sure the basics of the situation are understood.

Highlight the Pain

Most people do not have a strong enough sense of urgency. To help them take action you need to highlight the pain they will face if they do not take action. This is critical. They must WANT to avoid this pain. They must WANT to get as far away from it as possible.

All too often I hear people talk about what the client NEEDS to do. But if the client doesn't WANT to do it, it will never happen.

Include a Strong Call to Action

You must also include actionable next steps in your communication to the client or prospective client. You must tell them what to do, when to do it and why they need to do it now. And then you should repeat it.

These elements can (and should) be included in your communication regardless of the vehicle used to convey the message. You will find these follow up elements in all forms of law firm marketing like: Direct mail, magazine or blog articles, speeches, workshops and seminars, media interviews, newsletters and many more.

Do not let a communication opportunity with an existing client or prospective client pass you buy. Make sure each of the follow up elements described in this law firm marketing video are included.

There are three things that must be included in any law firm marketing campaign. These three things are critical to success. This video outlines all three.

The three things that must be included in any law firm marketing campaign are:

The WIFM: This acronym stands for: What's In It For Me. If course this is from the perspective of the client. All marketing campaigns must be designed with the client's interest in mind. If you are not approaching marketing from the client's point of view you are making the mistake that dooms most marketing to failure.

The Call To Action: You must tell the prospective client what to do, when to do it and how to do it. Give them some specific action to take. If they are left to guess, they will do nothing.

The Follow-Up: How will you follow-up with the prospective client once he responds? What action will you (or your team take)? You must have specific answers to these questions and the action must be systematized.
These three things are critical to the success of any law firm marketing campaign. If they do not exist, your success will be limited.

Credibility is a critical factor in legal marketing. If you would like to build your credibility with your clients and prospective clients, one of the best things you can do is educate them. This education must be done in a careful and tactful way. This video explains.

Educational marketing and legal marketing are one-in-the-same. Here's why:

Your client must know and understand the depth of the problem. If the client has no idea about the seriousness of the issue he has no incentive to solve it. A good lawyer will help educate the prospect on exactly how bad things are now and how bad they can get. The first piece of the legal education is in helping the client understand that there is a problem.

Your client must understand why he needs a lawyer to solve the problem. These days, there are a lot of options to hiring a lawyer. Legal marketing is not just about getting the client to agree there is a problem; it is also about getting them to agree they need a lawyer.

Once the client understands he has a problem, and he needs a lawyer to solve his problem the final step is to get him to agree he needs to select you as his lawyer. Most people lead with this step. This is wrong. This is the final piece of the equation (when it comes to legal marketing).

As you can probably tell, educating your clients through legal marketing is a multi-step process. In order to get to the point where the client views you as the best possible option, you must first educate him.

Every attorney should have some form of follow-up contact with people they meet. Email is one of the ways my clients educate their prospective clients. Implementing a follow-up system that uses email marketing is a good idea. This video explains why.

There are three significant benefits to email marketing for lawyers. They are:

1). Email marketing is cost effective. What does it cost to send out an email? Next to nothing. And the return on investment could be huge.

2). Marketing with email is personal. Even though you are sending email to many people, each email can be personalized and you can receive the responses yourself. This is an excellent way to build a relationship.

3). You can develop a system for your email marketing. This is critical. You can set up your email to be delivered whenever you want it to go out. It is not dependent upon you.

Overall email is an excellent marketing media for lawyers. I highly recommend using it weekly to educate your prospects and clients.

The rules governing the use of testimonials in legal marketing vary from state to state. Some states do not restrict the use of testimonials, others are highly restrictive. The video below offers five different ways lawyers can use testimonials in legal marketing and be compliant in most states.

A word of caution: It is up to you to review the rules that pertain to your specific location before you implement the ideas contained in this video.

Here are the five ways we discuss in the video:

1.) Use the testimonials on your website behind an email opt-in
2.) Add testimonials to any free reports or white papers you write
3.) Include testimonials to a new client orientation kit
4.) Add testimonials to your newsletter
5.) Include the reading of a testimonial in a speech introduction

Testimonials are the most powerful form of marketing available. Use them as much as is legally possible in your legal marketing.

Have you ever wondered how some lawyers attract clients effortlessly while others have a difficult time just finding one? One of the secrets to the success of law firm marketing experts is persuasive copywriting. In this video I share the formula for persuasive copywriting in law firm marketing.

If you want to take your law firm marketing to the next level, use this persuasive writing formula today.

In case you still have not added a newsletter to your legal marketing, this video describes an actual client success story. A printed newsletter that is mailed once each month is one of the best ways to stimulate referrals from clients it is essential to any legal marketing campaign.

Add newsletters to your legal marketing plan today. Start small if you must. Pick out just 200 clients, former clients or friends and relatives. Write an informative newsletter with a couple of articles and send it out via the Postal Service. In a few months you will notice that you seem to get more referrals. You'll also notice people coming into your office with the newsletter in hand, referencing things you have written.

Many lawyers think they must demonstrate how smart they are with their legal marketing. They use lots of jargon and they write and speak at a level that only (some) other lawyers can understand. This is a mistake. Your clients will relate to you if you speak their language. This video describes what I mean.

As we have discussed many times, legal marketing is about building relationships. If you want to build a good relationship quickly you should speak the language your client speaks. This means writing like a normal person when you post articles on line or in print.

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.