Legal Marketing Strategies: The Legal Specialization Model
When it comes to legal marketing strategies, there are five main components emanating from an “action” core that I discuss in my Rainmaker Retreats, like you see below. In today’s post, I will discuss these five and their core in a bit more detail.
Expert Positioning: Media and Market Specialization. To differentiate yourself from your competitors, you should develop an expertise and begin positioning yourself as that recognized expert, by using the media and by targeting a specific practice niche.
Create Your Success Team. Every successful attorney recognizes the importance of having a quality team that supports their success. You should consider who you need on your team; how to find them; and how to train them to help you grow and prosper.
Automate Your Marketing System. To free up your time and your staff’s time and to ensure that your marketing is on-going, it’s important to automate all that you can, by using technology and the Internet.
Building Your Platform. Your “platform” is the number of people you communicate with on a regular basis (prospects, clients, and referrals sources). The size of your platform is directly proportional to the size of your bank account. There are several proven methods for increasing the size of both.
Referral Relationships and Networking. There are several different strategies to find referral sources and a process for actively cultivating those resources.
Action Orientation. Knowledge without action is just . . . well, knowledge. Nice to have, but ineffective in helping you achieve that lifestyle law practice you desire. So you need to put this knowledge into action and the sooner, the better.
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Are you trapped into working more and more, while enjoying your life less and less? There is a way out. It’s called the Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take so you can better market your small or solo law practice. For more information or to sign-up for the next one, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.
Legal Marketing Strategies: 15 Ideas for Keeping in Touch with Referral Sources: Ideas 11-15
Our legal marketing strategy for all this week is discussing 15 ideas you can use to keep in touch with your referrals. Today we’ll cover Ideas 11-15
#11. If you’re really into social media, try www.Twitter.com, a microblogging site. You can post updates on your status, but it limits you to only 140 characters. You can see how I use it and follow me on Twitter at: www.twittter.com/stephenfairley.
#12. Send them a gift. It doesn’t have to be something large, but once a quarter or every six months (not necessarily around the holidays) send them a good book you just red, a bottle of wine or a gift basket. Ask their assistant for some ideas on what they like.
#13. Bring a group of them together for a luncheon. Ask three or four of them who are non-competitors to join you for lunch and introduce them to each other. This is a great way to be known as a connector. Have lunch at a local restaurant or in your conference room.
#14. Offer them a seminar at your office or their office. If you have a service you could provide them or their staff, set up a complimentary seminar for them, perhaps over lunch.
#15. Rank your referral sources based on specific criteria so you know who you should spend more time with.
A = Referral sources who have the exact same target market as you and have already sent you at least 1 great referral. Spend most of your time cultivating these relationships.
B = Referral sources who have a very similar target market and have great potential to send you great referrals. Consider holding a joint marketing event or seminar to assist them in making the referral to you.
C – Referral sources have some potential, but may serve a different market and have not referred anyone to you yet.
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If you think . . . you can’t make more money and have the time to enjoy your life . . . you’ve never been to a Rainmaker Retreat. If you’re a partner in a small law firm or are on your own and want to grow your practice while enjoying the lifestyle you deserve, you owe it to yourself to attend a Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take to better market your practice. For more information or to sign-up for the next one, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.
Law Firm Internet Marketing Strategy: 3 Ways to Build Your Million Dollar List (Part 2 of 3)
In the last post, I outlined 3 law firm Internet marketing strategies to build your million dollar list:
Strategy #1: Build.
Strategy #2: Borrow.
Strategy #3: Buy.
In that post, I focused on Strategy #1: Build. Today our legal marketing topic is: Strategy #2: Borrow.
Strategy #2 is a combination of law firm Internet marketing and face-to-face meetings to help you build your million dollar list. Here are the 7 steps for you to take:
- Identify your target market.
- Select specific industries or professions that have connections with your target market (e.g., accountants, financial planners, other attorneys who don’t do what you do.)
- Create something tangible – your freebie – an eBook, an audio recording, etc.
- Meet with 3 – 5 potential Strategic Referral Partners (SRP’s) a week.
- Set-up a customer relationship manager system: crm.zoho.com
- Keep in touch with them every 30 to 60 days.
In the next post, we’ll conclude our law firm Internet marketing strategy discussion by discussing Strategy #3: Buy.
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Would you like to know more about getting increasing your referrals? Then come to Los Angeles April 24 & 25th to attend The Rainmaker Referral Intensive. For more information and to register, please call 888-588-5891.
The 5 Biggest Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make in Advertising
Advertising is critical to the survival of your law firm, but not all advertising is equally effective. In these competitive times you cannot afford to waste your precious time and money making any advertising mistakes, so I’m going to share with you “The 5 Biggest Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make in Advertising” so you can avoid them – and prosper.
1. Most ads are not meaningful. In a day your prospective client sees more than 5,000 ads, so your ad must be unique enough to catch attention.
2. Mass advertising is expensive. When you advertise, you need to obey the Law of 7 Touches. It takes exposing your ad to your prospective client 7 times before he or she is willing to do business with you. So you have a tremendous up-front cost. Added to that, you should expect to receive, in revenue, a minimum of 5 times of what you spend.
3. Ads are not effective in encouraging people to “take action.” And that’s what counts: the action your prospect takes to do business with you. Without that, your money and time is wasted.
4. Most law firms lack follow-up systems. You may have designed a great ad, it’s precisely-targeted and people respond. But then, nothing happens. Nothing happens because you lack a system to follow-up with the leads that come from your ad campaign. And the money is in the follow-up.
5. No tracking of real results. This is just as bad as not having a follow-up system. Without tracking real results, you have no idea what works and what doesn’t. And that means you’re likely burning through cash without much to show for it.
To learn more about this law firm marketing topic, and others, I encourage you to attend my 2-day law firm marketing boot camp called The Rainmaker Retreat. (See details below.)
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Are you trapped into working more and more, while enjoying your life less and less? There is a way out. It’s called the Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take so you can better market your small or solo law practice. The next Rainmaker Retreat is scheduled for Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th in Las Vegas. Register early and receive $200.00 off your registration fee and $800.00 worth of bonuses. To register or for more information, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call .
10 Topic Ideas for Press Releases
One of the many effective law firm marketing techniques is submitting press releases, especially ones that have been deliberately written to be picked up by search engines, helping you drive more potential clients to your website.
However, I’ve often found that my clients struggle with coming up with topics, month after month. So here are 10 topic ideas for press releases:
- Tie your idea in with current news events.
- Tie your idea in with how this affects local politics or the local economy.
- Issue a special report that people can get for free at your website.
- Discuss a big case that just settled.
- Announce newly-hired attorneys joining your firm.
- Announce an award you just received. (Business person of the year, for example.)
- Announce pro-bono work you’re doing.
- Issue a protest about a specific topic.
- Discuss how a legislative change will affect your clients. (For example, if you’re an estate planning attorney, briefly discuss how a change in the estate laws will affect people like your clients.)
- Announce special events, like a firm’s anniversary.
These are just some of the ideas you can use in a press release. To learn more about this law firm marketing topic, and others, I encourage you to attend my 2-day law firm marketing boot camp called The Rainmaker Retreat. (See details below.)
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Are you trapped into working more and more, while enjoying your life less and less? There is a way out. It’s called the Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take so you can better market your small or solo law practice. The next Rainmaker Retreat is scheduled for Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th in Las Vegas. Register early and receive $200.00 off your registration fee and $800.00 worth of bonuses. To register or for more information, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.
4 Ways to Niche Your Practice
These days in the legal profession, it’s especially true you can’t be all things to all people. Not only do you have incredible competition but you’re also facing very savvy legal consumers.
So what’s a small law practice or solo practitioner to do?
Niche your practice. And here are 4 ways to do it:
- Service Niche: labor/employment, complex litigation, immigration, healthcare, IP, etc.
- Industry Niche: transportation, construction, energy, real estate development.
- Geographic Niche: LA-based, Southern California, region around Chicago, Mexico.
- Specialty-Market Niche: privately held companies, Fortune 500, physicians, white collar executives, blue collar construction workers, Spanish-only speaking, developers, commercial lenders.
I encourage you to take some time to seriously consider how you can niche your practice. It’s the way to stand above the competition and to attract more of your ideal client, helping make your practice more lucrative and your life more enjoyable.
(This law firm marketing tip – and many others – I present at the 2-day law firm marketing boot camp called “The Rainmaker Retreat.” To attend my next one, see below.)
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Tough times call for tough action. This is especially true today in small law firm marketing, when the competition is fierce, the client dollars tight and your bottom line precious. Get battle-ready now with a two-day marketing boot camp called the Rainmaker Retreat. You’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take to better market your small or solo law practice. The next Rainmaker Retreat is scheduled for Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th in Las Vegas. Register early and receive $200.00 off your registration fee and $800.00 worth of bonuses. To register or for more information, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.
Will You Choose Success - or Resign Yourself to Failure?
These economic times are like few others we’ve seen. Everywhere you look, there seems to be bad news. Considering this tsunami, one choice you could make is to close your eyes, hunker down and hope for the best for your law firm, that it will somehow weather the storm.
But ask yourself, “Is this my only choice?”
And I would answer you: “No! Certainly not!”
You do have another choice. You can choose to take action, finding the best path during these uncertain times. To help you, here are 3 key points to keep in mind with two courses of action for each:
FAILURE: Cutting back on the level of your customer service.
SUCCESS: Ramping up your level of customer service. Think of this as part of your unique competitive advantage. Look for ways to stand out form other law firms in how you treat prospects and clients. People may forget what you did for them, but they’ll never forget how you made them feel.
FAILURE: Slash your marketing budget.
SUCCESS: Continue investing in marketing. Done properly, marketing is not an expense; it is an investment. With many of your competitors running for cover, there’s no better time to increase your marketing budget. If you haven’t been actively marketing your practice, don’t wait! There will be winners and losers in this time of economic crisis. Your actions today will determine your fate tomorrow.
FAILURE: Neglect yourself.
SUCCESS: Take care of yourself. It can be tempting to double your working hours to make up for the lost revenues; however, what you really end up doing is burning the candle at both ends and then burning out. Those of you who are following me on Twitter (www.Twitter.com/stephenfairely) know that I take regular vacations. In fact, I took the entire month of December off.
So, take a deep breath, exhaling slowly. Focus on what you can do, using these 3 tips as guides. Then do it!
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Tough times call for tough action. This is especially true today in small law firm marketing, when the competition is fierce, the client dollars tight and your bottom line precious. Get battle-ready now with a two-day marketing boot camp called the Rainmaker Retreat. You’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take to better market your small or solo law practice. The next Rainmaker Retreat is scheduled for Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th in Las Vegas. Register early and receive $200.00 off your registration fee and $800.00 worth of bonuses. To register or for more information, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.
Take Control of Your Future--NOW
When it comes to doing law firm marketing, by all means avoid the “shotgun” approach by doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a press release here, a blog post there. Each of these is a powerful marketing tactic and a vital part of your marketing strategy; however, to truly get the most out of them in practice development dollars you need to organize your time. After all, you can always make more money, but once time is spent, it is gone forever.
Therefore, the key to moving forward with your practice throughout the year is directly related to finding ways to more fully automate your practice, including a solid follow-up plan, press releases, blogs, newsletters, autoresponders and webinars.
It can seem overwhelming at first, but it’s not difficult when you have a plan, draw out timelines, have invested your time and money in the right campaigns and, most important, know where you have been and where you are going.
It’s not going to happen accidently. Despite your busy days, endless phone calls and mountains of paperwork, marketing proactively and deliberately is something you can no longer ignore. Recent advances in technology can help you boost your bottom line and simplify and automate your practice as the legal profession is becoming more and more competitive.
(In my next post, I will give you an easy way to create an effective follow-up system for something that we all have—other people’s business cards.)
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You’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take to better market your small or solo law practice when you attend a Rainmaker Retreat, a two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms. So if you’re a partner in a small law firm or are on your own and want to grow your practice while enjoying the lifestyle you deserve, you owe it to yourself to attend a Rainmaker Retreat. The next Rainmaker Retreat is scheduled for Friday, March 27th and Saturday, March 28th in Las Vegas. Register early and receive $200.00 off your registration fee and $800.00 worth of bonuses. To register or for more information, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call .
