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Marketing, Messaging, Technology

Thanksgiving: How to Treat Your Best Referral Sources

Since many law firms rely almost exclusively on referrals to generate business, it’s essential that those law firms tend to the care and feeding of their best referral sources.  But, lots of lawyers tend to take referrals for granted, and just assume that they’ll keep on coming in, even if they don’t do anything to maintain the sources of those referrals.

But, even the healthiest of referral sources can drop out of your program, if you ignore them for too long.  So, here are a few ways to make sure that your best referral sources stay that way.

-First off, (literally) reward them for referring you cases.  Some law firms keep gift cards on hand, to hand over when a referral is made.  Others send an end-of-year flower arrangement, or a collection of candies.  This is probably the most overt way to make sure that your referral sources seem cared for.

-Next, make sure that you stay in touch with your referral sources, in at least a couple ways: First, maintain contact with your best referral sources, so you can talk to them about how your business is going, and tell them about your evolving clients needs.  Second, send them marketing messages on a recurring basis, whether it’s adding them to your enewsletter list or even creating a specific drip campaign for referral sources.  Keeping tabs on your referral sources both in-person and online is really useful for ensuring future business.

-Lastly, you should make an ongoing effort to educate your referral sources about the kinds of clients you’re looking.  Even if your requirements don’t change, it’s useful to keep reminding the people who send you cases, and about the kinds of cases you want.

Staying on top of your referral sources, means that your baseline business revenue should remain stable, as you add new referral sources and marketing channels.

Messaging, Marketing

All Saints Day: Hallmarks of Good Clients

The quest for most lawyers is to acquire the best possible clients, who always pay in full.  I know, right: from your lips to God’s ear.

But, how do you know if a client is a ‘good’ client, before working with them?

Just as you can look for ‘red flags’, indicating that clients would be a poor fit for you law firm, you may be pleasantly surprised by some attributes of your potential clients, which will make their hire by you ‘no-brainers’.

What does that list look like?

-Potential clients who are inquisitive about the legal process, but aren’t bossy about what they want you to do, likely better understand your role as a guide into the legal system, than the sort of client who wants you to just bend to their wishes all the time.

-Potential clients, who are inquisitive about the payment process, and the total cost of representation, aren’t potentially bad clients – they’re just asking the right questions.  You can start to worry if they begin to hunt for discounts.

-Potential clients who have reasonable expectations, and don’t rush you, are likely to give you some space to breathe, when you do start to represent them.

-On a related note, potential clients who aren’t asking you to do things before the attorney-client relationship is agreed to, have a good understanding of how the attorney-client relationship works – and have a certain level of respect for your work, even before it’s begun.

-Potential clients who do things for you when you ask for them during the intake process (like scheduling appointments, paying fees and signing things) are likely to become the sorts of clients that get you things when you need them, when you start representing them.

Better to find out in advance, about who your best clients will be.  And there are clear markers that will help you to identify them.

Messaging, Marketing

Boo Hoo: Scary Clients to Avoid

Effectively vetting clients is one of the more important things you can do as a law firm owner, because those bad clients can haunt you for years and years.  The best policy is to never take them on.

But, what are the signs you should be looking for?

Here’s a list of potential clients to avoid:

-Potential clients who have worked with more than 1 other lawyer, especially with respect to the matter they want to hire you for.

-Potential clients who ask for discounts, or don’t pay promptly.  (Asking a lead to pay for a consultation is a good way to test their bona fides.)

-Potential clients who seem to think they understand the law better than you do.

-Potential clients who ‘overshare’ on the web, including via social channels.  (A thoroughly modern  problem.)

-Potential clients who contact you incessantly, including outside of work hours, with the expectation of an immediate response.

You’ll likely be able to develop a larger list of ‘red flags’, unique to your own experience – but, this catalogue can become a good starting point for you, in your quest to better vet your leads.

Messaging

Talk It Out: Communicating with Potential Clients About Communicating with You

Lawyers generally like to avoid upfront conversations about money and communications, as they try to cross the finish line to signing on new clients.  The reason, probably, is that they feel that that will slow up the process of conversion.  And, that’s possibly true – the less time you spend talking about those things, the more likely it is to speed up the conversion process, because you’re removing a couple of hurdles.  Of course, that can lead to problems later on.  In terms of pricing, no one likes to be surprised by terms; and, while you might get lucky, with a client willing to pay a heretofore unseen rate, chances are there is likely to be some pushback.

And, you’ll probably regret your decision to not be forthright about addressing client communications, when you get your first 3 am text.  Yeah, it happens.

But, the fact of the matter is that lawyers have more power over their representation models than they think; they just need to speak it into existence – literally.

That’s why it’s so important to talk about communication preferences at the outset of the representation, so everyone is on the same page.  And, ideally, that is done via direct communication, and backed up by a clause in, or an addendum to, the engagement agreement.

You can also solicit client feedback on communication preferences, if you prefer to offer a more dynamic solution.

But, the point is that, if you want your clients to use certain communication parameters in the course of the attorney-client relationship . . . you just have to ask.

Marketing, Analytics, Messaging, Technology

Image Conscious: Your Text and Audio Content Needs Vibrant Scenery

Reading, at any great length, seems to be a habit left behind in the 20th century.  Most of us treat reading copy like Leopold Bloom abuses newspaper advertising in an outhouse – which is probably where he would have listened to the turn of the century Irish equivalent of podcasts (whatever that would have been).

Ain’t nobody has the attention span to read deeply anymore, which is why video and audio content is so popular.  Of course, video content has a massive advantage – in that it presents images to the world: moving pictures, which still captivate.

But, with text, and with audio – you need to entice your audience.  And, the easiest way to create that enticement is to attach images to your content.  Images, especially on social media services, lead to more view and more clicks.

The good news is that, if you’re blogging, most websites will allow you to upload a ‘featured image’, which you can attach to your blog post, and which will be visible on social media platforms.

Need images?  Check out Unsplash, for royalty free options.  Or, try Canva, to create your own.

After all, the internet is your canvas: make it more beautiful.

Oh, and intriguing.

Remember that a large part of the Mona Lisa’s appeal is that she’s smirking.