You want to market your practice – whether you’re a bankruptcy lawyer, an immigration lawyer, or a lawyer who represents chinchilla farmers (I’m sure there are lawyers who do that sort of thing) – and you listen to all the big legal marketing gurus to learn what you need to know. And the big, fancy-pants consultants (the good ones and the bad ones) all say the following:
- differentiate
- target your best prospects
- get online
- blog
- blog some more
- use social media to get more clients
… and a host of other really good ideas. Some tell you what to do, others (like me, in Practice Pro Monthly) show you exactly how to do it with a paint-by-numbers approach to marketing tactics. All good ideas depending on your frame of mind.
But above and beyond all of it, there’s one thing – and ONLY one thing – you need to know in order to market your practice.
The good news is that there’s only one thing to learn. The bad news is that it’s really hard for lawyers to do it.
That thing?
Learn how to write like a human being, not like a lawyer.
Why? Let’s dissect this one for those of you playing along at home:
Blogging: When you create a blog, you need to write blog posts. In order to entice people to read those posts, you need to be able to write in a way that doesn’t make them fall asleep. Write stuff they understand and that connects with them so they stick around.
Ebooks And Special Reports: Again, you’ve got to write this stuff – it doesn’t magically appear. Write a technical book filled with talk about fraudulent conveyances and exceptions to discharge? Great Sominex replacement.
Email Autoresponders: Your prospects get a bazillion emails every single second (well, it feels like it). They don’t have the time or the inclination to read drivel that sucks. If you write a good subject line and your email content continues that trend, you won’t suck so much.
Website: If you feel like talking about yourself in the third person, that’s cool … for Seinfeld characters (anyone remember Jimmy, who liked Elaine?) … but not for you. And again, discussions couched in legalese and jargon are a really bad idea.
Letters: Tell ‘em what you want them to do (or not do) in clear, concise language that they understand. If you do, they’re likely to pay more attention.
The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is this – if you can’t string a sentence together in a way the prospect or client understands then you’re sunk. Period.
Remember, I don’t care if YOU understand what you’re writing about. The prospect or client matters, not you. If you like it, that’s nice – but it doesn’t pay the mortgage.
