Legal Practice Pro» lead generation

3 Compelling Reasons Why Marketing Your Law Firm Should Begin With Lead Generation

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:00:43 +0000

You’re sitting in your office and the phone rings, or that annoying little ping signals you’ve got an email. It’s a new potential client! Stop the presses! All work halts! Why? Because when a new client contacts you, it means you’re on the precipice of making money. This is what marketing your law firm is all about. But is that the right way to do business?

Lawyers, especially those in historically direct response fields such as bankruptcy, personal injury and criminal defense, typically get the client when there’s an immediate need. I get rear-ended and wind up in the emergency room, so I start looking for an attorney to represent me. But as I’ve said in the past, it would be so much better if I, the client, met my lawyer before I needed any help. In that way I wouldn’t have to scramble at the last minute – my choice would already be made in my head.

For the lawyer, it makes sense as well. When you’re marketing your law firm, your goal is to be the first attorney someone thinks about when they think about a lawyer. There’s always a steady stream of people who are interested in learning a bit about the attorney’s services. It’s called lead generation, and it’s what makes the business world go around.

Those leads go into a database of names and contact information, always kept updated and close at hand. Whenever the lawyer’s got something to share – news, information, what have you – the database is leveraged so that not only are as many people notified as possible, but also the right people. People who care.

Lots of my colleagues in the bankruptcy bar look at me cross-eyed when I talk about lead generation as the supreme means of marketing your law firm. They think about their clients as “one off” sources of business, people who leap into the waiting arms of a bankruptcy lawyer when absolutely necessary and then never again. But it ignores the reality of a person’s life – the act of leaping is usually made after the decision to leap.

So why is lead generation the most effective way of marketing your law firm?

Dip A Toe Into The Water Without Getting Soaked

There’s someone who, as I write this, is neck-deep in debt. They’ve got the credit card companies at the door, foreclosure looms, the car’s going to get towed away. They’re looking at options, but aren’t ready to make a final decision on what they’re going to do. In this information gathering phase of the process, people want to get as much data as possible without making a firm commitment to anything. They need some time to digest it all, make the right choice for their own situation, and do so in a time and a place that is most convenient for them.

Using a simple lead generation strategy you can reach out to those people and provide them with information that they can review on their own time, without any pressure or time commitment. It also lets you keep your calendar free from those who are looking to bend your ear but not really go anywhere in terms of legal representation. Everyone wins.

Cut Out The Crap

If you’re doing TV, radio or paid online advertising then your message is being seen by thousands of people each day. The problem is that they’re seeing your message once and only once. If they see the message and decide not to take the drastic action of hiring your law firm, the only way for you to get in front of them again when they’re ready is to spend more money.

When you’re using lead generation as part of your law firm marketing strategy you’re identifying those people who are interested in learning more about your services. No longer do you need the barrage of paid ads to get in front of them a second time – you’ve got their email address, snail mail address, or whatever you’re collecting. Couple that initial piece of information with a regular newsletter or content update and you’re sure to be in front of them when they need your help.

Know-It-All Beats The Show-Off

If I’m looking to buy a car, who am I going to buy from – the sales person with the nicest suit, or the one who knows the most about cars? If I’m looking to get the best automobile for my money, I’m going with the one who knows a thing or two about cars. The show-off may look great, but in this exercise I’m not looking to buy a suit.

So, too, in the world of legal marketing. There are lots of really slick looking websites, blogs, TV ads and the like out there for attorneys. Some are cutesy, some are classic, and others are just over-designed to the teeth. But if you strip away the fancy graphics and professional spokespeople, there’s only so much you can say in a 30-second spot or on a single page of text.

Sure, there’s blogging and other content marketing strategies. But they all depend on getting someone to visit your site again and again. Unless you’re spending money to lure the repeat traffic, you need to have a reliable way of getting the prospective client back.

A compelling lead generation effort solves these problems handily by providing reliable information, thereby establishing you as the lawyer who is the premier authority in your field. Your prospective client, this stranger, is suddenly enamored of the depth of your knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding their problem. Nothing else matters anymore. No other lawyer can hold a candle to your expertise.

Practicing What I Preach

Lead generation has been a cornerstone to my own law firm marketing for quite some time. From consumer bankruptcy to debt collection abuse and foreclosure defense, I’ve put into place various strategies that continue to feed my law firm with a steady stream of new clients each day. Clients who come to me pre-sold, more concerned with how quickly they can get in to see me than with my fees. Tire-kickers are a thing of the past.

So, what’s your take on lead generation?

Photo credit: Steve Crane (flickr)

What If You Met Your Client Yesterday?

Jay Fleischman — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:27:37 +0000

As lawyers, we focus on building our business by seeking out people in need of help. We market our legal practice with whatever means we deem appropriate – websites, TV, radio, newspaper, even social media tools – and focus on getting out the message that relates directly to our practice area.

We talk about bankruptcy, divorce, criminal law, estate planning, whatever. But we talk about our solution, hoping that our audience needs that which we are selling.

People who sell hammers look for people who have a bunch of nails. Makes sense, right?

But what if you met your client yesterday? Before the marriage started to crumble, before the job loss or unexpected medical condition, before taking that fifth shot of whiskey and getting behind the wheel of the car on a dark and stormy night?

If you had met the client yesterday, they’d already know about you and trust you by the time they needed your help. You’d be a friend, a trusted resource. And because you met the client the day before they needed you, the relationship would have been built on something other than marketing your law firm.

Consider this:

A consumer bankruptcy lawyer offers free budgeting seminars to residents or his or her community, offering information on personal finance (no pitch for bankruptcy services). At the end of the seminar, the lawyer offers attendees the opportunity to get on his mailing list to receive a freebie newsletter about personal finance issues. Among the topics covered are debt problems, but this is just one of many subjects discussed in the newsletter.

The seminar is marketed through local schools, houses of worship, and community centers. For an hour each month, the lawyer stands in front of a room of strangers and gives a standard (though informative) presentation about personal finance. Gives a few tips, shares some resources, and collects names.

Over time, the seminars begin to attract attention. Maybe the lawyer tells a news reporter about them (failing to do so would be a bad idea, in fact). The lawyer takes the presentation and uploads it as a series of videos on YouTube so people can share it with friends and family members who aren’t able to attend in person.

Next, the lawyer creates a fan page on Facebook for attendees to gather and ask questions. The lawyer puts up more information over time, including links to blog posts of interest. Before each seminar a tweet goes on on Twitter, alerting the world of this upcoming, free, no-pitch seminar.

Maybe 4 people show up in person each time. Maybe 5. Maybe even 10. And perhaps a few people view the videos on YouTube, passing them along to a few close friends.

One day, someone loses their job. They’re in trouble. Who do they call?

The lawyer who’s been talking with them about money all along, who hasn’t tried to pitch them on bankruptcy, who’s become a trusted and reliable local source of information.

All because the lawyer met the client yesterday.

So let me ask you, dear reader – how could you meet your client yesterday?

Photo courtesy of yelnoc.

The Most Important Skill In Legal Marketing Is

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:08:10 +0000

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.

Are You A Guru Or A Servant?

Jay Fleischman — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:07:36 +0000

Over at LawFirmBlogging, a parable of sorts about the guru and the servant. Of course, it’s a parable about positioning your firm (and yourself) as either to “go to” person or the lawyer who gets the job done with customer service. I think it’s interesting that the author draws a distinction between one who is perceived as being the one who handle the tough cases and the one who is the professional equivalent of the “nice guy” (I can tell you, no man ever wants to be called a “nice guy,” specifically because it’s usually coming from a girl as she declines a romantic advance).

I think it’s possible to be both the guru and the servant; with a reputation for doing the tough work, the guru is able to place a monetary premium on his or her services. Combining that with a reputation for excellent customer service, the guru can increase referral and retention rates. The lawyer who acts solely as the servant, on the other hand, is forced to charge market rates (or less) and makes his or her money up in sheer volume of clients.

So how do you position yourself as the guru in your law firm marketing efforts?

This is the question that plagues many bankruptcy lawyers, especially in the face of massive competition from not only other bankruptcy lawyers, but from non-lawyers who are looking to pick up new business from the ranks of consumers who are overwhelmed by bill problems. Everyone promises free consultations, payments plans, evening and weekend appointments, and the like.

The answer is in differentiation, but doing so in such a way as to show your expertise. The best, easiest and cheapest way of doing this is through what is currently called content marketing. In the old days it was called “education marketing,” “lead generation,” and a host of other things. For my part, I like to call it showing your stuff (but not in a “dirty old man” way).

When you show your stuff to the public, you establish firmly that you’ve got stuff to show – and that you know how to use that stuff. For example, I can tell you that I’m the best bankruptcy lawyer to ever walk the streets of Manhattan … but unless I show you that I’ve handled X number of Chapter 13 cases and Y number of Chapter 7 cases (I don’t handle Chapter 11 cases, ripped that part out of the book the day I got it) then you’re not likely to believe me.

Now let’s say I show you a PACER printout of every case I’ve handled. And a petition filed for a really tough case. And the Discharge of Debtor in that same case. And a letter from the client telling me that I saved him from jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge by helping him get out of debt before he lost his mind. And a series of articles or blog posts written about how to handle bill problems.

Are you impressed with me yet? Am I likely to gain your trust and confidence to the extent that you will be more likely than not to hire me rather than some other bankruptcy lawyer down the street?

I am great not because I tell you that I’m great, but because I can show you what I know. That leads YOU to determine on your own that I am great.

A quick task to accomplish? It can be, but often it isn’t the case. A satisfying task to accomplish in terms of cementing your market leadership position? Absolutely.

Now go out there and figure out how YOU can be the guru in your market.