So much to do, so little time to do it. You may not like it, or be good at it, but you realize that marketing is critical for attorneys and you need to do it. 

And you need a plan

You can delegate or outsource many marketing activities, including a lot of the planning, but the important bits need to be done by you. 

Even if that means using otherwise billable time to do it. 

Much of the relationship building inherent in marketing professional services cannot be delegated. Clients hire and want to work with you, not a secretary or assistant. Or your partner. 

You can hire people to do things like following-up on your behalf, but you need to talk to the clients and prospects, at least at some point in the process. The same goes for referral sources and other business contacts. 

You can’t simply write a check and expect others to do everything for you. You need to be involved in the planning and execution. You’ll get better results when you do. 

If you don’t have any plan, where do you start? You start with where you are and what you know. 

It may sound daunting and it would be if you tried to do it all at once. You won’t. You’ll do it incrementally–one step at a time. 

Start by making an outline of the steps for each part of the process you use. What do you do that could be called marketing, lead generation, follow-up, or client relations? What do you tell prospective clients about your services, when and how often? What do you send to leads or inquiries and to existing clients? 

Write it all down. Write down what you do and identify things you don’t do but think you could or should.

If you advertise or do seminars, you might start there because you’ll have some quantifiable data to look at. What do you spend, what publications or keywords, how much business does that bring in? 

You might want to start with existing and former clients. What you do between engagements, during holidays, to remember birthdays, or to otherwise stay in touch and keep your name in front of people who have already hired you?

You could start with your newsletter subscribers or social media followers. What do you send them and how often? How many subscribers do you have and how has that changed in the last six months or a year? What subjects do you typically write or talk about and how much engagement does that create? 

You might start by identifying the steps you take to respond to inquiries or leads. What do you send them or say to them? What do you offer or tell them to do? 

It doesn’t matter where you start. What matters is that you start, because that will help you identify what you need to change or add or stop doing, even if you’re not sure what that could be.

Keep at it. Eventually, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s working for you and what needs to be improved. 

At that point, if you haven’t done so already, you might want to talk to marketing experts and see what they tell you to consider, or use an ai to give you additional ideas.

You’ll realize there are many options and variables and you’ll start making some decisions, some of which will be a waste of time but some of which could make a huge difference.

It’s messy and might take a long time. And, once you’ve done it, you’ll need to continue doing it because it’s a process, not a one-and-done event. 

The hard part is starting. It’s also the most important part so if you don’t have a plan right now, or know you need to update your existing plan, I encourage you to start immediately. 

Subscribe to the Attorney Marketing Letter. It’s free

Would you follow the advice of a medical doctor who smokes cigarettes? Years ago, maybe. Today, you’d hesitate to listen to someone who should know better. I know I would. 

I thought about that yesterday when I went to a gym to get information about signing up for strength training, something I’ve been thinking about doing recently. I met with a trainer who evaluated me and told me my options. In addition to her experience as a trainer and coach, she said she was a certified dietition and could advise me accordingly. 

I didn’t sign up with her. 

Unfortunately, she was not in good physical shape. She was more than moderately obese and, to my eye, clearly enflamed, ostensibly from a poor diet. 

I don’t want to hire someone who is a walking incongruity, any more than I would hire a physician with a raspy cough. 

What does that have to do with attorneys? 

Everything. 

No matter how much knowledge and experience you have, no matter how good you are at your work, if you don’t look the part, you can’t be surprised if clients don’t hire you. 

You’re advising them about buying a business, getting a good settlement, or protecting their assets. You have to look like you know what you’re doing or you’ll scare them off.

It reminds me of when I first started practicing and didn’t have a lot of money. I made sure clients didn’t see the beat up old car that got me through law school. I had one or two decent suits and made sure clients saw those, not the old stuff in my closet. 

When I met with a client, I didn’t let them see the tiny office I could barely afford, I always met them in the conference room. 

I looked successful and eventually I was. 

Which leads me to ask, are you doing anything that might cause clients and prospects to hesitate to hire you because you don’t fit the image they expect and want? 

If you do, you probably need to do something about that. 

Clients want a lawyer who knows what they’re doing and is successful doing it. Make sure you give them what they expect. 

You have to look the part. When you speak to them, or write to them, you have to sound like the expert they need to solve their problem or achieve their obective. 

And have lots of clients to prove it. 

If you don’t, am I telling you to fake it until you make it?

Damn right I am. 

“Stop talking about yourself”. That’s the advice we’re often told about marketing, but I don’t agree with it. Most lawyers need to talk about themself more, not less. 

But there is a limit. 

If you added a new article to your website or recorded a new video, if you’re writing a book or speaking at an upcoming event, if you were just hired by a well-known client, tell your subscribers and followers about it. 

And tell them why they should care. 

If they read your article or come to your event, what will they learn? How will they be better off? If you hired a new adminstrative assistant, how will this help you do a better job for your clients?

If there’s a benefit to your reader or follower, talk about it. That’s something they will definitely want to hear. 

Why should they care that you were just hired by a well-known client? You may be proud or excited but what’s in it for your other clients?

Sometimes, the benefit is implied. If a well-known company in their niche hired you, it suggests to your other clients that they are in good company. Clients want to hire attorneys that are in demand by other clients, especially when they are well-regarded in their market or industry. 

Okay, but what about sharing personal stuff? Nobody cares about what you ate for breakfast or where you went on vacation. 

Maybe they do. 

Clients and prospects and colleagues–the people who read our newsletter or blog or follow us on social, the people who hire us or refer others to us–want to know that we have a life outside of our work. 

But again, there’s a limit. 

If you did something or saw something on your vacation you believe will interest readers or followers, tell them about it. But make sure it’s interesting. 

Maybe it’s a lesson you learned about how things are done in a different country or culture, something you’ve never experienced or thought about before, and maybe your readers will be interested to hear about that difference. 

Why would anyone be interested in what you ate for breakfast? 

Well, maybe you tried a high-protein, low-carb meal on the recommendation of a friend who has lost a lot of weight or improved a medical issue by doing that and you’re encouraged. Maybe some of your readers will be interested in trying that because they have a similar challenge, or they simply care about you and want to know that you’re doing well. 

Sharing personal stories is fine. But make them interesting. Relevant. Or fun. 

And don’t go on an on about it.

People want to know things about you beyond your resume. Tell them something. Just don’t tell them everything.

Subscribe to the Attorney Marketing Letter. It’s free

Content marketing is a simple and effective way to market legal services. It helps prospects and the people who can refer them to find you, through search and sharing, shows them what you do and how you can help them, and shows them why they should choose you instead of other lawyers or firms who list their practice areas and services but provide little or no evidence of their knowledge and abilities.

It’s “education-based marketing” and has a long history of success in marketing professional services and other service businesses in a multitude of niches and markets.

But is it right for you?

Many attorneys say it won’t work for them because they don’t have enough time to do it, or they don’t have enough to write or talk about.

If that’s you, I urge you to try it, or, if you have tried it, try it again. Find a way to make it work because not only is it a simple way to bring in new clients, repeat business and referrals, it’s a great way to build your reputation as a leader in your practice area or market.

Even if you already have an effective marketing program in place and don’t “need” anything else, find a way to write or record something.

It doesn’t have to be brilliant. You don’t have to write journal-quality content, just a few words or thoughts or ideas relevant to the people in your target market or niche. A short message that lets you connect or re-connect with people you know and people you want to know is more powerful than you can imagine and takes less effort than you might fear.

Sending an email to 50 people is a lot easier than meeting with them in person, and nearly as effective.

You can write about subjects you’ve written about before (as I am doing right now); if it’s worth saying once, it’s worth saying again. And it doesn’t have to be original to you. Write about what other lawyers, experts, business leaders, authors, and others write or speak about. Tell why you agree with them or where you differ. What you liked about what they said and what you didn’t. Give your opinion, share your stories or thoughts, or just summarize theirs.

Or “steal” their ideas and write your own piece. Yes, you can. I do it all the time.

How often do you need to create or publish something? Once a week, or once a month, or even once in a while. Anything is better than “never”.

Hold on. Enough with all the questions. Instead of trying to figure it all out before you start, just start. Write something and send it to someone. Send it to one person. Someone you know or someone you want to know.

Can’t think of anyone? Send it to me.

Do it today. You’ll be glad you did.

There are times when you need to push a client to do something or stop doing something. There’s a deadline approaching, they’re dragging their feet and need to make a decision about something, new facts have come to light they need to consider but aren’t. 

Or they owe you money and you can’t continue working until they get current. 

You’ve told them, advised them, given them more time, but they’re not doing what they need to do. 

This isn’t just an issue with existing clients. It also exists with prospective clients who have a problem that isn’t going away. They need your services,  perhaps desperately, but don’t hire you, or apparently anyone else. You follow-up with them again and again but at some point, it’s clear they want you to stop. 

With clients, there is a relationship and you give each other the benefit of the doubt. With prospective clients, that dynamic doesn’t exist and the more you follow-up, the more they resist. Soon, things can get ugly.

Client or prospect, instinctively, or ethically, you want to push them. Remind them again, remind them more urgently, warn them, or otherwise push them to do what they need to do. And, it’s necessary and important, you should. The problem is, the more you push them, the more you run the risk of alienating them, or, in the case of getting them to pay you, appearing desperate. 

Not good.

You have to do what you have to do, of course, and if pushing them is what you have to do, you do it. But if you can, instead of pushing, it’s always better to pull. 

What does “pulling” mean? It means encouraging and suggesting and resasoning, not pressuring. It means building regular follow-ups into your management and marketing systems that, as much as possible, automate the process without making it look anything but reasonable and necessary. 

Instead of coming after the client or prospect and annoying them into compliance, you have a system that does most of the work for you, inviting, explaining, reminding, gently increasing the urgency and frequency of contact over time. 

It might also mean having someone else on your team contact them, someone who might be better at the job, but even just having a different person do the job could make all the difference.

If you don’t have to push, pull. Pulling makes you look like you know exactly what you’re doing and are doing it on their behalf. 

Pushing makes you look unprepared, adversarial, desperate. 

Nobody likes a pushy lawyer. Unless, of course you are that lawyer, you’re pushing the opposition on behalf of your client, and it’s working.

Get my best marketing tips and ideas in my free newsletter

You make it clear you don’t reduce or negotiate fees, ask questions about what they want or need, and suggest looking for ways to adjust the size and scope of the engagement. You give them a path to getting the services and benefits they need without compromising your value.

If they tell you other lawyers charge a lower hourly rate, you tell them they’re not just paying for the hours of work, they’re paying for your experience and abilities, suggesting that you are better positioned to get them the outcome they desire, or do it more expeditiously. 

And if it appears they simply can’t afford you, or don’t have the budget to hire you, you tell them you understand and offer to refer them to another lawyer you know who does good work and charges less. 

Sometimes, that’s all it takes for them to realize that you are the best choice. 

In every case, you maintain your posture and let the chips fall where they may. You don’t want “price shoppers”. Not every client is right for you, nor are you right for every client. If you do good work and have a good reputation, you should see most prospective clients saying yes. 

If you don’t, if many prospective clients say you charge too much or they can’t afford you, or hire you once but don’t return, you might be charging more than your market can handle, or your marketing isn’t effectively communicating the value you deliver. 

Adjustments might be warranted. 

On the other hand, if most prospective clients say yes, hire you, return, and refer other clients, you might not be charging as much as you’re worth. 

In which case, adjustments might be warranted. 

The market ultimately tells you how much you’re worth and the market is always right. 

Subscribe to the Attorney Marketing Letter and get these posts in your inbox

It sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Encourage first-time clients to hire you again, occasional clients to hire you more often. A plan that helps you increase revenue and decrease the expense and effort of attracting new clients–what lawyer or firm wouldn’t think that’s a good idea?

Maybe lawyers who think the whole idea smacks of commercialism, leaving a bad taste in their mouth. Maybe lawyers who see this as appropriate for a retail business, not a professional. “Are coupons and discounts next?”

Me? I say, “it depends”. It depends on how you do it. 

If you announce the launch of a ‘client loyalty plan” and promote the idea to your clients and prospects and to other professionals, you might be playing with fire. If you quietly embrace the idea, and carefully and selectively implement it, you might be onto something big. 

When a client gives you more business or otherwise demonstrates their patronage by providing you with referrals, testimonials, endorsements, invitations, and introductions, when they mention you in an article or quote something you said or mention something you did in their newsletter, when they hire you again for the third year in a row, when they invite you to speak at their networking event, why not acknowledge this and yes, reward them? 

Maybe return the favor and introduce them to someone they should know. Maybe hold off for another six months or a year on fee increases your other clients are getting because they’ve been with you a long time. Maybe provide them with an extra service you ordinarily charge for, or promote their business or event in your newsletter.

Or maybe volunteer (i.e., without being asked) to write a recommendation for their child’s college application, because they are a valued client. 

Show people you appreciate them. That’s the kind of client loyalty plan every lawyer should implement. 

Never miss out on great marketing ideas for attorneys. Click here

If you aren’t as productive as you would like to be, it might simply be because you’re bored. Work you once found interesting and challenging might now feel mundane and uninspiring. You’ve seen it and done it all and now you’re filling out the same forms you’ve filled out 100 times before. 

It’s hard to do your best work (and enjoy it) when you’re bored. 

Remember when you first started practicing? Everything was new, the work was difficult and exciting, and you never knew what to expect. The work was anything but boring. 

If you want to be more productive you have to find a way to recreate some of the excitement you once felt about the job. 

You have to change something. 

That doesn’t mean you need to start a new practice area, offer a new service, take on a new parter, or start a new marketing or advertising program, although those would likely do the job. You might simply change something about how you interview prospective clients, start doing exit surveys or asking clients for testimonials or reviews. 

Maybe it’s time to start outlining your book. Maybe it’s time to retire your Windows computer and get a Mac, or get a new writing program or task management app.

Anything will do. 

Maybe your library needs refreshing. Try handwriting your meeting notes instead of typing. Attend a different networking group, start exercising, or take acting lessons. 

My best advice? Do something that scares you. Something you’ve never done before. 

Because while it’s hard to be productive when you’re bored, it’s hard to be bored and unproductive when you do something new. And scary. 

Get my best marketing tips and ideas in my free newsletter

Being a good lawyer isn’t enough anymore. Good lawyers abound. At least that’s what many people think because it’s not easy to tell when one lawyer is “better” than another. And yet, you want your clients and prospective clients to believe that you are the best choice, at least for them.

How do you do that? 

The answer is to consistently give people more than they expect. 

They expect you to work hard, deliver good results, and treat them well. What else could you possibly give them? 

That’s what you need to figure out. It’s one of the best investments you can make in your practice. 

The top lawyers in any niche or market (or any profession) consistently do something “average” professionals don’t. They know they can’t be just like their competition, delivering average effort and average results. They know they can’t merely give clients the same level of service, or even ddeliver better results their competition.

Not if they want to be the best. 

The best lawyers go beyond “good” in every aspect of what they do, in specific, tangible ways. 

They don’t just do the work and deliver solutions. They don’t merely respond to inquires and answer questions. They let their clients know that they aren’t merely avaiable when the client needs or wants them, they can be relied on to proactively and enthusiastically communicate with their clients to tell them what they need to know or might need to know sometime down the road.

They also go beyond merely conveying information. They present that information in a context specific to that client’s business or life and experience. 

The best lawyers know their value isn’t confined to solving problems or doing competent legal work. It’s about taking care of clients on a personal level and always making sure those clients feel taken care of. 

Understood. Appreciated. Protected. 

One way they do that is by telling clients when they don’t have the right solution for them and helping them find another lawyer who does. Or telling the client why he doesn’t need a certain type of service he’s asked about, and know that you will contact them if and when that changes. 

Again, it’s not about the work, or about you; it’s about the client. 

When a client trusts that you always and completely put them first,your relationship transcends that of client and attorney and earns a level of trust that means you never have to sell them on hiring you, convince them to tell others about you, or explain the details about what you do and how you can help them. 

They trust you, they follow your advice, and never think about going anywhere else. You’re not just their attorney, you re a important part of their life.

Repeat business, referrals, and an abiding and often lifelong relationship is the result.

You become the top lawyer in your niche one client at a time. 

Never miss out on great marketing ideas for attorneys. Click here

When was the last time you took inventory of the people you know and associate with the most? Partners, business associates, other lawyers in your market or group you regularly speak with, or experts you hire to advise you. 

Who influences you? 

Maybe you’ve known them for years and rely on them daily. Or maybe you don’t know them personally but follow them on social, watch their channel, or read their posts. 

Be careful. They could be your undoing.

They could be decent people. Well intentioned and mean you no harm. You might like and trust them without question. But if they have bad ideas and you listen to those ideas, they could lead you down the wrong path. 

We’ve all seen law partnerships or business partnerships break up for this reason. Marriages and families, too. Someone followed someone’s advice or example and it destroyed what was once a good business or relationship. 

It’s called “the law of association”. We become like the people we associate with most. Sometimes, that’s good. Sometimes it isn’t. 

The message? We all have other people in our life who influence us and we need to spend as much time with the right ones. People who inspire us and set a good example for us. People who influence us in positive ways. 

And avoid (or spend less time with) the ones who don’t. 

No doubt you know this and agree with it. But it’s easy to forget something. It’s easy to forget that people change. Things happen. The people we know and are influenced by are themselves influenced by others. 

Which is why we must regularly take inventory of the people in our life. We might like them and trust them, even love them, but people change and we can take nothing for granted. 

Pay attention. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Watch what they do. 

As someone famously said, “Trust, but verify.” 

Subscribe to the Attorney Marketing Letter. It’s free