September 29th - Halifax Legal Target Great Legal Marketing Owner

Sounds a bit sinister? Well I guess it could be.

Because when I opened my inbox this morning
someone from Halifax was trying to sell me a Will.

And do you know what?
I've wanted to get one for the last 5 years...
so now maybe the time is right.

Some of the lessons to be learnt from their approach
are; communicate, an offer, that's clear and beneficial,
make it personalised and....let's see if they continue to market it -
because the sequence is everything...

Would I use their service?

Would their email and website suck me into and make me buy?

Click to see the video o see what I think.

Read more...

September 24 - 3 Million Wills Written

Oh yes. He's gone and done it.
Partnered up with a great organisation.
That will do his company no end of good.
And it didn't cost him a penny.

And not only has he done it with Oxfam but he's
also got the BMA and Breast Cancer Care.

Access to 3 million people and 500 transactions a month.

There are probably other law firms out there doing the same thing.

I hope so.

Alan is one of the people who gets the
Great Legal Marketing email newsletters.

But I bet he's also someone that does something with them.

Do you?

Alan gave me permission to let everyone know about this deal.

I wanted to ask his permission because he's got a system
that is very valuable.

And it can easily be copied.

In fact, the idea of marketing partners is very old.

The only way it has remained a secret is because of the knowing-doing gap.

You know you should do it.
But you don't do it.

And there are always so many reasons, (excuses) not to.

Aren't there?

Don't say I didn't mention partner marketing for
solicitors to you...it's been here all along.

Remember "if it's not your job, then maybe it's your opportunity?"

And Alan, if you're reading this,
buy yourself a present. A DVD,
a nice restaurant meal, oh..and happy birthday.

Read more...

September 23 - Video presentations for lawyers made easy

Making best use of time, (slaying the time vampires)
is paramount for all of us.

There are lots of technologies coming out that
are free and simple to use that help us in the cause.

They can also be highly effective.

Whether it's video conferencing rather
than travelling hundreds of miles, or
doing something once so that it can
be used again and again.

Take screen casting, where you record what's
on your screen and then send the video to your
prospect or client.

You can use a service such as screenr.com
which automatically tweets (Twitter) your
stuff for public viewing or not, the choice is yours.

The other technology is www.jingproject.com.

It's a great way of producing short powerpoint
with narration videos for your website or for
giving updates of key points by video rather than letter or call.

It could even be used as a video newsletter ;-)

See my marketing videos for solicitors using Screenr

Read more...

September 18th - Personal Testimonials For Solicitors via Linkedin

I am a regular contributor to the Law Gazette blog forum.

And this week there are a few things I mentioned.
One is a comment about Linkedin.

One good thing about Linkedin is that people
type in your name on the internet and discover more
about you via your Linkedin page.

You are being Googled .

Marketing is really about who knows you so it
makes sense to take advantage of Linkedin.

Of course I don't mention everything on the
Law Gazette blogs.

Hell, I'd have no reason to do this legal marketing website if I did.

One of the great things about Linkedin is
that it makes it incredibly easy for solicitors
to get personal testimonials.

If you are on Linkedin and you don't have 5 testimonials
take this challenge.

Ask one person a day, starting today,
to give you a testimonial.

If you want more ideas on testimonials for solicitors go here

(if you want a short email course worth £487 on how to
get testimonials for solicitors then email me today

Make sure that your title is search engine friendly
in Linkedin i.e. that when your name appears on
Google when someone types in your name,
the right title appears in search results.

E.g. Landlord Law Expert rather than just Solicitor.

Read more...

September 14th - People Buy When From Solicitors They Are Ready...

I've been trying a little marketing testing with a solicitor
in the South West.

It involves putting an advert in a local newspaper in Reading,
directing calls through to his Bristol practice and offering Wills by post.

It's looking promising. One of the key elements
though is the way the calls are handled,

(I listen to the calls as they are recorded) and the

follow up marketing sequence that the solicitor has in place.

I expect most solicitors don't have a follow up marketing
sequence for prospects.

And you are probably asking what it is.

It's simply a way of solving the problem
that most prospects only buy when they are ready.

And that's not when you want them to.

The stages of pre-contemplation, contemplation, liking,
trusting, learning, communicating and deciding over a
period of days, weeks and months before they part with their cash.

And if you don't have something that takes them
through this process then you are likely to end
up with a lot less business.

So make sure you have a marketing sequence
in place for your prospects.

And if you don't have one, get in touch and I can help you.

By the way, if you want to run the advert in your
local paper, let me know.

I'll even include a trackable phone number
so you can judge the results for yourself.

Read more...

September 1st - Co-operation or Competition for Law firms?

"Why should I bust a gut, I'm not a legal partner
so I ain't gonna earn more out of doing this!"

That's something you hear in all firms. It made me think of the "up or out" system within law firms.

If you are good enough you make partner
and share in the success. If not, you're part of the "rest".

At least that's how it seems to many people that work as lawyers.

If there's a them and us culture in your firm it means that people are not co-operating. It's more likely that they are competing.

Many people assume wrongly that competition
brings out the best in people.

And the Darwinian "survival of the fittest" is often
used as a scientific justification of this type of approach.

But does competition really help your law firm internally?

When someone wins - someone loses.

And 99% of people have been taught they
if they are not winners they are losers.

And if you lose how does it affect you and your staff?

If the answer is negatively then you are duty bound to find an alternative.

And that is co-operation.

Co-peration is win/win.

It's coaching staff so that you can transfer knowledge,
it's finding best practise and disseminating it, it's scheduling work
so that everyone gets interesting things to work on.

It's not having favourites, it's saying someone
is different not better, it's helping not hindering.

Think about how Amazon allows co-operation between
store owners and buyers.

Or how Linux allows programmers to co-operate on open source software.

Or how Betfair lets punters bet against each other.

There's an old football saying that there is no i in team.

So if you aren't referring internally, working with business
as partners or simply taking the time to help each
other then you are probably over-competing.

Try a bit of un-learning.

Try a bit more co-operation in your law firm.

Put on your next management meeting the words...

How Can We Co-operate More In Our Firm
And Externally With Partners To Make Our Business Win Win?

And make sure you invite all staff to contribute with
their ideas as to how you can market your solicitors firm better.


PS It is not the case that Darwin coined the term "survival of the fittest".

When you think about it his theories demonstrated that by co-operating
in distinct niches animals had the best chance of surviving.

was the exploitation of these niches that was observed.

What niches can you law firm thrive in?

Read more...