Law Firm Marketing: Internet Marketing for Rainmakers, Part 3 of 3
Here is the final in a series of three posts this week outlining the best practices for becoming a rainmaker on the Internet.
To read the first two, go here and here. I’ll list the first six strategies from the past two days and then continue with the final strategies for driving targeted traffic to your website through good SEO practices:
1. Know the keywords people use to search for your services.
2. Use keywords in your domain name.
3. Create compelling copy.
4. Add fresh content regularly.
5. Use video to keep visitors’ attention.
6. Develop educational tools and promote them on your website.
7. Submit your articles online. Submitting short educational articles on the Internet is one of the easiest, fastest, and cheapest ways to increase your visibility and the traffic to your website. There are literally thousands of directories on the Internet that will republish your article on their websites at no cost. Simply Google “article directories” for a list.
Key Action Steps:
- Keep your articles short—between 400 and 700 words. Remember, people don’t read online, they scan. Use plenty of bullet points, clearly differentiate sections, and keep your paragraphs short.
- Write for a specific audience. Keep in mind your ideal clients, and write the article for them—not for other lawyers. Tell a case study. Use an example. Make it practical, interesting, and personal, as if you were speaking directly to the reader. Never use legal jargon unless you explain it.
- Grab their attention with the title. Make sure your title is less than ten words, has a number in it when possible, and tells them how to solve a problem. The title must grab the reader’s attention from the start. For example: “5 Mistakes,” “7 Pitfalls,” “3 Steps,” etc.
- Tell, don’t sell. Focus your article on informing and educating your reader about a specific topic. Don’t focus on “selling” your services. The goal is to get readers to visit your website.
- Don’t be generic. Give your opinion or state your perspective. People are looking for answers, not just questions.
- Determine if your article is a good fit for the site. Some sites target business professionals, others target individual consumers. Some have sections for each group. If they give you the choice, make sure you select the category that is most appropriate for your article and that best represents your target market.
- Only submit to websites that allow you to include your contact information with a live link back to your website. If they are not willing to give you a live link back to your website, go somewhere else.
- Give people a reason to contact you. Offer them a special report at your website or something else that will give them an incentive to contact you.
- Create a Google Alert at www.google.com/alerts to help you track where your articles are posted to and when they come out (set either your name or the title of your article as the Alert).
- Manage your expectations. Writing and submitting articles to various websites will rarely result in a new client.
There are three major reasons why you should use this technique:
- It will increase your visibility on the Internet. The search engines love free information (which is what your article is).
- It will increase the number of visitors to your website through the direct links at the bottom of each article and by increasing the position of your website on the search engines.
- It will increase your credibility. When an important prospect searches for your name on the Internet and comes up blank, that doesn’t look good. Having several websites with your articles posted on them immediately increases your credibility to prospects investigating which lawyer they want to hire.
8. Take action fast. One of the hallmarks of a top rainmaker is the ability to take action fast. It’s easy to put things off. It’s easier still to stay a cynic. The real challenge is acting on what you have learned. Here’s my challenge to you: Write down three to five specific strategies you will start implementing in the next 30 days. Give yourself realistic time frames and find someone to hold you accountable. Then go out and take action.
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Announcing New Fall Rainmaker Retreat Dates!
If you're struggling to build your legal practice or want to learn a proven law firm marketing system for that has helped attorneys discover how to generate more referrals and find new clients fast then you owe it to yourself to check out a Rainmaker Retreat.
Here are the new Fall dates for our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats:
- October 8-9, 2010 New Brunswick, NJ
- October 22-23, 2010 Scottsdale, AZ
- November 5-6, 2010 San Francisco, CA
We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at our 2-day law firm marketing boot camp, the Rainmaker Retreat. Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.
Law Firm Marketing Tip: Delegation is Key to Your Financial Success
Law firm marketing is a struggle for most small law firms.
As an attorney in a small law firm or a solo practice, you cannot and should not try to do all your marketing by yourself. In any full blown legal marketing plan there are many moving parts, there is an expertise that must be applied to get the results you really want. Here are five keys to delegating when it comes to marketing for lawyers.
Key 1. Delegation is a learned skill. Attorneys must learn how to delegate certain parts of their law firm marketing plan, whether it's sending out letters, making follow up phone calls after a seminar, sending out your monthly newsletter, or building your law firm website. Your job as an attorney is to do two things: bring in new clients (be a Rainmaker) and bill them for your services (make money). Everything else is ancillary and should be delegated or outsourced.
Key 2. Delegation is not abdication. Delegating responsibility for a specific marketing project does not mean you completely abdicate responsibility. It doesn't mean you can't check in on the progress or hold people accountable for the results, I am not a proponent of abdicating responsibility for any major part of your law firm, especially one that makes you money like marketing.
Key 3. Trust is developed and must be mutual. In order to delegate your law firm's marketing plan you must have someone you can delegate to and you must trust them. You may not have anyone in your practice whom you trust enough to give the task of marketing your law firm. If not, then you have two choices, either hire someone or outsource your marketing to a law firm marketing consulting company that specializes in helping small law firms generate more referrals and find new clients fast, like The Rainmaker Institute, LLC.
However you decide to proceed you must realize that trust is developed over time and it must be mutual. You must believe the person entrusted with marketing has your best interests at heart and is competent. They must believe you will support their decisions and will not try to undermine their authority to make progress.
Key 4. Delegation is about control. Ultimately when an attorney says they can't delegate law firm marketing to someone else - I know it's about one thing -They have a need to control. To create a 7 figure law firm you must start to give up control. I have yet to meet a financially successful law firm where the partners micromanage everything. They have hired people they trust, they have trained them well, and they have implemented written systems to run the major parts of their law firm. If you're a "control freak," like a lot of partners, start with something small, like letting your web designer select the pictures on your new website, or hiring a professional copywriter to revise the copy for your law firm's brochure. Hire great, competent people, train them, and then let them do their job.
Key 5. Your lack of ability to delegate is your biggest obstacle to success, both personally and financially. Please read this again. It is critical you understand that you will kill any chances of achieving true and lasting success if you are unwilling or unable to delegate important tasks to your key people or outsource them to trusted law firm marketing consultants. We have worked with over 6,000 lawyers and have seen great attorneys limit their financial success because they were not willing to give up control and focus on what they do best: serve their clients.
As the old saying goes, sometimes we are our own worst enemy. When it comes to law firm marketing, delegation is the key to your financial success.
``I am extremely thankful I met Stephen Fairley and that I attended his Rainmaker Retreat. I more than doubled my firm's annual revenue in the year since attending the Rainmaker Retreat and implementing Stephen's marketing program. If you are willing to do the work, Stephen definitely has a proven method of driving new business into your firm. I endorse his program, it clearly worked for me." --Gordon R. Levinson, Esq. (Levinson Law Group, Carlsbad, CA)
Come join us in Vegas next week for our 2 day marketing boot camp. We will teach you over 62 proven strategies to find more clients and generate massive amounts of referrals (even in this economy). If your practice is hurting or you want to build a 7 figure law firm you definitely need to attend. For more information or to sign-up go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891
