The Write Rainmaker

Six Reasons Why Attorneys Should Not Hire Marketing Professionals With No Legal Experience

I have worked in law offices and corporate legal departments for more than twenty years. I have a very good grasp of litigation, and some knowledge of wills and estates, patent law, real estate, contracts, and transactional law.

I also know that until recently, lawyers were not allowed to market themselves or their services, so they are now trying to play "catch up" in this extremely competitive world.They are busily trying to represent clients, and have some quality family time whenever possible, and they usually don't have time to educate themselves about marketing.

It amazes me that marketing folks think they can market attorneys the same way they do everything else.

Here are six reasons why marketing for attorneys is different.

Law firms sell services and discretion, and that's a different ballgame than most companies. For instance, attorneys don't have "sales" - file one lawsuit at full price, get the next one free? Attorneys also can't run product demonstrations, frequency programs, or "try it before you buy it" programs.

Attorneys don't typically speak SEO but they don't want websites that choke on it. There is a large company that calls itself expert at marketing for attorneys, but in reality they are utterly clueless. (I am not going to name this company publicly, but email me and I will reveal their name.) This company designed a website for a friend of mine that is so filled with SEO-speak that the copy on many of the pages is nonsensical. SEO [Search Engine Optimization] is important, obviously. You want your firm to pop up quickly on a Google or Bing search. However, in the same paragraph describing the attorney as "personal injury expert attorney," "back injury attorney," and "Smith County's best personal injury back expert knee replacement expert attorney" gets ridiculous.

Attorneys don't like to be told they are stupid. This same huge company spent 30 minutes on the phone with an attorney friend of mine explaining basic marketing terms in a condescending tone like she was utterly clueless. They insulted her intelligence even to the point of trying to get her to commit to buying their services before actually quoting her a price on those services.

Attorneys trust other attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries far more than someone with only a marketing degree. I have answered ads for law firm marketing professionals who think that a kid right out of college with a marketing degree will know more about how to market a law firm than me, which is irritating. Someone with law firm work experience AND marketing experience is far more apt to gain an attorney's attention and respect.

Most attorneys do not LIKE to think about, talk about, or actually do marketing, and it's not something they like to spend time doing. I've only met 2 attorneys in the past 25 years who enjoy marketing. Most attorneys view it as a necessary evil, but it takes a backseat to real cases that need attention. If something needs to be filed in court to avoid a motion for contempt that will ALWAYS get done first, before a blog or writing a website page. AND THAT'S AS IT SHOULD BE.

So don't bother an attorney when he or she is really busy practicing law. Be patient.

Attorneys specialize in an area of law and they don't want to hear about others, when it comes to their own marketing. What would be the point? One company sent a friend of mine a bunch of blog ideas but they had nothing to do with the area of law in which he practiced. Why would a personal injury attorney blog about a big settlement in a civil rights case?? That illustrates so plainly where marketing folks are inept when it comes to marketing to attorneys.

 

So if you are an attorney, think about what you need and want from a marketing person. You want someone who really understands the type of law that you practice, and how that impacts your time. You want someone who understands how attorneys view themselves and why it's important for their website to reflect that. You want someone who can discuss your practice with you in an intelligent way, someone who speaks "legalese" and can translate it into regular talk.

I can do all that - a lot less expensively than the big companies that try to get law firm marketing business and have no clue how it's done.

Winning the Lottery

I was pleased to see that a lady in Americus won big, according to this AJC article - Georgia Woman Wins. 

If I won the lottery [which would be hard since I don't play] I wouldn't tell anyone. I bet this poor woman who won is getting calls from long-lost relatives all.the.time.

Seriously. 

I'd keep it to myself. I'd tell Mama, my son, and my accountant. Then I'd start calling hotels on the beach.

I remember reading a few years ago where an attorney at one of the biggest law firms here in Atlanta won the lottery. He planned to keep working as an attorney. 

That's the mindset of a lot of attorneys I've worked for over the years. A few million is a nice bonus, but no reason to stop work. 

The law firm he worked for doesn't need marketing help, though. They are routinely written up in national magazines, and they have a huge client roster. They are also considered one of the best places in America to work. Maybe so. I don't know. I do know a friend of mine who is an attorney worked there for several years and put in 100 hour weeks, under great stress, so he doesn't think it's such a terrific place to work...

Anyway, I digressed. 

If you're a business owner, not of a mega-business, but a small one, you need marketing. You need to get a solid toehold in the Google and Bing search engines. Why? Because most people surf the net when they want to find a vacuum cleaner repair place, or buy a special birthday cake. So you need to be findable by the search engines.

How do you get to the top of the web heap? Put content on the web. Write. 

Don't write drivel, either. 

You probably are shaking your head, thinking, my business doesn't run itself. I don't have time to do marketing. Well, OK. Do you have 10 minutes a week to talk to me? That's all it would likely take for me to stay in touch and be able to write high-quality blogs for you. In your voice. Touting all the reasons why someone should buy your doodads and not your competitor's doodads. Or thingamajigs. Or services. 

What sets you apart from your competitors? Is it quality? Service? A really cool logo?

It really doesn't matter what sets you apart, if nobody knows about you. 

Give me a holler. I can help.

 

How A Blog Can Help Grow Your Business

An excellent article called Blogging for Businesses gives a lot of reasons why small businesses can benefit from a blog. If you are a small business owner, here are some of the highlights of the article.

"Because the entries are short, and often full of links, they are more keyword heavy than standard articles often are. Blog posts are easy for your customers to read... so they are more likely to come back often to see what you might have to say or what has changed on your site."

Here are some more of the points it makes:

Blogs are easy and low-cost. [My note: Even if I am writing your blog for you, it will be low cost - less than the cost of running an ad in the local paper, in most cases.]

A blog puts a human face on a faceless business. You don't have to be super personal. For instance, you can blog about the new window display that getting a lot of customer comments, and post a photo of you in front of the display, smiling.

If you want to get a little more personal, you can tell folks why you are an admirable person, for example: "I raised $2,000 for my local animal rescue charity" / "I served in the Marine Corps for 10 years" / "I delivered a baby on the floor of the restaurant last week!" [OK, maybe the last one is a little extreme but you get the idea]

You can regularly tell customers about great deals [For example: "Get a 10% discount if you mention this blog next time you come in!"]

You can highlight where you are in town. Let's say someone wants an accountant that's within in a 5 minute drive radius from their house. You can make "Located in the heart of Decatur!" part of the blog's SEO [keywords search engines pick up on].

You can introduce new products or services and showcase them. Let's say you own a nursery. You can post a lovely photo of a plant you have marked down, and tell people something about it. 

                                                                                                                                            Photo credit: Mark Embry.

These are just a few reasons why having a blog for your business makes sense. Call or email me if you want to discuss how I can help.

How I Learned About Blogging

I was thinking the other day about how I learned to blog.It has been an evolving process over a period of years.

I adopted my daughter from Russia  in 2004 and all of my friends and family members wanted daily updates on her. I found myself typing long emails every night after she went to bed.

Finally, after talking to my friend Paul who is a computer whiz kid, I thought I will save a ton of time every day if I just write blogs that everyone can read. I started blogging on Typepad in early 2005, and it made life a lot easier. Everyone could keep up with how my daughter was adjusting to life in America, and I could get more [badly needed] sleep.

Then I got intrigued with it a lot more after I made my blog public, when I adopted my son Michael in 2007.  I learned some interesting things.

Like, if I put a photo up of, say, Kazakhstan churches, then someone doing a Google search for images of Kazakhstan churches will find my blog. I put the url on my email signature and that gets folks to read the blog.

There are tons of tricks.

I've watched my blog traffic increase exponentially since then. Now I get 200-400 hits a day, on The Crab Chronicles. I have loyal readers who read it every day. I have folks who read it occasionally. I write whatever blather comes into my head. I am not trying to write for search engines. I write because it's therapeutic and fun. But the search engines find me.

One thing I've learned is that folks like me who blog every day or so get a lot more time on the first page of Google. Doesn't matter if I write 100 words or 1,000 words, the important thing is that I refresh the content ALL THE TIME.

Most business owners don't want to blog. Even if they are good writers, they need to work on their business itself, not marketing.

For my friend James Radford, I write two blogs a week. I usually just do a synopsis of a news article that deals with the type of law he practices [plaintiff's employment law and civil rights law] and link back to the original article. At the end, I remind the reader that if they have a similar issue they can call James for a free consultation. It works.

James' business is going great, and he spends less than 15 minutes a week reading and approving my blogs before he posts them on his blog.

I still do paralegal work, part-time, so I know this for a fact: 98% of the calls I get from people wanting an attorney say "I found your firm on Google!"

So, the upshot is, you want Google to display a link to your website within the first few pages.

I can help.

This is my daughter shortly after she came home from Russia, and our dog Coco.

How Clients Find Attorneys

Years ago, clients found lawyers in the yellow pages, or by asking their neighbor or their brother-in-law. Sometimes they just drove downtown and looked around the courthouse.

But this is the 21st century.

Now, most people who need an attorney go to Google and type in "attorney + car accident" or "attorney + will needed" - etc. Then they call the first attorney that pops up whose website looks "right" to them.

If you're like most attorneys, you hired somebody to make you a website, grumbled about spending too much time on putting in all that stuff, and then breathed a sigh of relief when it was all finished.

Well, if you never touch your website guess what? Chances are it's not popping up when people search for an attorney in your field.

Writing new articles or blogs for your site makes a huge difference. Google and other search engines like websites that are refreshed often.

That's where I can help.

I've been a paralegal for 27 years. I've worked on a lot of different kinds of cases - car accidents, premises liability, slip and falls, employment matters, collections, etc. I've witnessed wills. I've sat and watched my attorneys in trial. I've prepared for trials.

I have written blogs for attorneys. I've helped attorneys plan marketing strategies.

SO - I am fluent in Legalese. I also know how it turns real people [in other words, non-lawyers] off. Here's an example:

Attorney: I need you to execute an instrument.

Real person: Huh?

Me: He just needs you to sign right there, so it's all legal and everything.

Real person: Oh thank you. The word execute makes me nervous. I don't like anything to do with executions...

Now, if you are looking for attorneys to hire you, speak Legalese. They will appreciate it. If you want a non-lawyer to hire you, use regular language.

Wait, you mean you don't have several hours to devote to writing blogs every week? You're too busy actually practicing law?

Call me. Or email me. I can help. [[email protected] / 770-630-1390]

Maybe your budget for advertising doesn't include a huge sign on the side of a bus. That's OK. I can help you out for a reasonable price. No contracts, no itemized nickel-and-diming you to death. Let's talk about it.