So, several of you asked for specific recommendations for the items that I mentioned in my post about setting up your own studio and shooting web videos to market your practice.

So, I am revealing all of the specific items I am using to shoot videos to promote my own law practice.  I will give the recommendations to my e-zine subscribers in this week’s issue of the Profitable Practice.   It’s free and you can sign up in the side bar.

Shameless, I know.  But, it’s good and valuable information and you can’t beat the price.  And if you don’t like it, you can sign up, get the recommendations and unsubscribe at any time.  So, if you are not subscribed yet, do so before Thursday morning to receive my recommended resources for shooting your own web videos to promote your law practice.

And, if you don’t want to subscribe you can still find the generic list of items you need to shoot your video here.

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What is social media anyway? And, how can it help you in your law practice?  This video by Common Craft explains it in plain english.

Social media sites are not going away.  Lawyers will be slow to adopt. But, those that take advantage of social media early will have a definitive advantage in marketing their law practice.

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Google has just announced that they have made a major improvement to their Keyword tool. Now, when you use the Keyword Tool to search for relevant keywords for your website, you’ll be able to see the approximate number of search queries matching your keywords that were performed on Google and their search network.

The announcement can be found on Google here.

This tool will now be invaluable as it relates to any pay per click campaigns you run to market your law practice. But, it should also be extremely helpful for your search engine optimization efforts for your practice as well.

UPDATE: Here is the link to the Google Keyword Tool

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Several lawyers have asked me about the podcasting post I made recently. They are curious about how to use audio and video on the web to attract clients. Many of the questions related to how I am making my own videos to market my law practice.

I recently made a few purchases to assemble my own “video studio” in my office. I thought I would share with you what you need to easily create your own videos to use to market your practice. It really is easier than you think. Of course, as I get mine added to my own sites, I’ll let you know so you can see how they turn out.

In the meantime, here are the several items you must have to create videos to market your law firm:

(1) a camera (does not have to be fancy, HD or anything like that),

(2) a tripod (I recommend a “fluid head” tripod),

(3) lights (this is critical; don’t rely on the overhead lights - get a basic light kit),

(4) external microphone (the camera’s internal mic is not sufficient),

(5) editing software for your computer (for the Mac iMovie will work, for the PC Windows Movie Maker does).

(6) a topic - that is your practice area - start with FAQs.

That’s it. Start shooting.

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I hope you have a great 4th of July.  I’ll be grilling with family pool side and generally trying to relax a couple of days.  For me, the marketing and business side of the law practice is really not work.  So, I will also spend some time doing some marketing tasks, namely work to finish the book I am writing on Alabama divorce.  I’d like to get that done and sent to the publisher so I can add it to the marketing mix for my law practice.

How about you?  Will you work on your marketing or is this 3 day weekend all play?  If the work feels like play, which is it?

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Looks like the new Firmware for the iPhone (as well as the new 3G version of the Phone) will both be released on July 11. There were some rumors that the firmware update might release early. But, Mac Rumors seems to think otherwise.

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Why should lawyers care about audio and video podcasting? Well, here are four reasons: content, distribution, traffic, and conversion.

Content - It is simpler than ever to create and post audio and video content to your website. This is important because…

Distribution - Once you create the content and post it to your website, you can also distribute it to various directories (such as www.youtube.com for your videos) and other distribution channels such as the itunes podcasting library. This is important because…

Traffic - The increased distribution will attract more traffic to your website. The good news about this increased traffic is…

Conversion - The video content will help you convert more of these new visitors. It is “sticky.” It is interactive. It involves your visitors. All of which helps you convert more of them to paying clients. Which is, after all, the point of having the website in the first place.

So, video and/or audio podcasting should be a part of the marketing plan for every lawyer. It is especially helpful to solos who can implement and execute this type of technology more quickly than bigger firms ever will.

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If you’ve followed this blog any length of time, or if you subscribe to my e-zine, The Profitable Practice (you can do so in the side bar), then you know I advocate that lawyers follow a fixed fee, value pricing model.  I believe that model to be superior to an hourly billing model.  If you haven’t already done so, I invite you to read my white paper on the subject, titled Pricing for Maximum Profit.  It is available under the resources section of this blog.  In it I discuss ways to command premium fees and how I use the fixed fee value pricing model in my own divorce practice.

In this article, however, I want to emphasize the importance of setting fees in your law practice on the high side of your market.    I believe that your goal should be to charge premium fees for premium service.

As a new lawyer, I had difficulty quoting higher fees.  I was afraid that my prospective clients would not pay me unless I was right in line with what others with similar experience were charging.  As it turns out, the problem was not with my clients, it was with me.  The problem was a self image problem.

I have since learned that you will never get paid more than you think you are worth.  That may sound like psycho-babble.  Perhaps it is.  But, it is still the truth.

If you are doing the things in your practice that you should be doing (e.g. choosing a niche, being the expert in that niche, providing exceptional client service, etc.) then you’ve earned the right to charge more for your services.  But, unless you believe that, your prospective clients never will.

And, here is one more reason for you to believe it: you never want to compete on price.  There is no doubt that you can build a business entirely by offering the lowest price.  But, why would you want to?  Would you rather have 4 clients paying you $25,000 each, 100 clients paying you $1,000 each, or 1000 clients paying you $100 each?

Of course, the question is rhetorical.  But the answer is instructive.

Additionally, when you compete only on price, all someone has to do to take a client is to offer a lower price.  When you compete on EXCELLENCE, VALUE, GUARANTEED SERVICE, etc. it is much more difficult, if not impossible for a competitor to steal your clients.

Of course, there is another point about price.  Your prospect believes “you get what you pay for.”  If that is the case, do you want to hold yourself out as the “low price lawyer”?  Put another way, do you want to be the Mercedes of law firms or the Hyundai of law firms?  The Nordstrom’s or the Dollar Store?

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I am pleased to announce my new Practice Growth System.  This program is specifically for divorce and family law attorneys only.  The program contains everything you need to run an extremely profitable divorce practice.  Some of the components include: referral marketing systems, keep in touch programs done for you, integrating value pricing into your practice, creating client attraction tools, developing your prospect kit, operating systems and much more.

This is an implementation program.  We do not just give you ideas.  We do them for you or walk you through doing them yourself (depending on the level of the program you choose).

If you are interested send me an e-mail for more information.  This is an AREA EXCLUSIVE PROGRAM.  Some geographic locations are already taken, so contact me immediately if you are interested.

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So, Jack and I were ready to discuss the “moment of truth” - that point where your prospective client is in your office for a consultation and has to decide whether they sign a contract to engage your services or not (assuming you have decided you want them as a client).  All of the lead generation and follow up activities that we’ve implemented thus far are meant to get qualified prospective clients to meet you with the expectation that they will engage you as their lawyer.

I explained to Jack that there are a number of ways to mess this up, and many lawyers do.  Many lawyers have trouble simply getting the client to take that ultimate action (what sales people call closing).  As Zig Ziglar says, “timid sales people have skinny children.”  But, we did not want Jack to come off as some type of pushy sales person that tries to “close” his clients.  I explained to him that he did not need to worry about that - I did not do that in my own law practice, and don’t expect him to do so either.

The fact is that you must be confident enough in your knowledge, skills and abilities to convert a prospect to a client.  But, the most effective way that I have seen to convert prospects to client is to “pre-condition” them such that they want to be your client before they ever come meet with you.  There are many ways to do this so a full exploration is beyond the scope of this brief article, but here are a few:

1. be the expert - when you know your stuff, it shows in your confidence and demeanor.
2. be known as the expert - publish, speak, get pr and media coverage.
3. promote your client list as an exclusive club - you don’t just accept every case that walks in the door (or you shouldn’t) so make sure that fact is explicit in your written marketing materials and in your conversation with prospective clients.
4. use social proof - if your jurisdiction allows, utilize testimonials and case studies in your marketing materials.
5. send a prospect kit to client’s in advance of their meeting that incorporates each of the preceding four strategies on this list.

As Jack and I worked on this process for his firm, we developed an impressive prospect kit as well as scripts that the staff would use when setting the appointments and that he would use during the client interview to make sure we took full advantage of each of the strategies listed above.  We began tracking his conversion percentage (the numbers of prospects that hired him divided by the total number of consultations he had) when I first started working with him - so we had a few months worth of data to compare.  I assured him that utilizing these strategies would result in a significant increase in the 34% conversion rate that he had experienced so far.

Coming Next: Lesson 7 - Client Delight:The Ultimate Retention and Referral Strategy 

Links to the other articles in this series can be found at the Lawyer Marketing 101, et. seq. post.

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