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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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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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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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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Jack was already getting leads. He was surprised to already be receiving e-mails from prospective clients that had found his blog on the search engines. Additionally, his referral system had already paid dividends when one of strategic alliance partners (a marriage counselor) sent him a referral. He was happy that things were already starting to happen. I assured him that this was only the beginning and that we needed to get follow up systems in place to take maximum advantage of each lead he received from his lead generation activities.

I explained to Jack that the next step was to put in place a systematic follow up system to stay in touch with those that contacted him as well as with his referral sources. I grabbed my Levenger legal pad and made a list of some of the different ways he might consider for keeping in touch with his prospects, clients and referral sources. They included the following:

1. Hand written thank you notes
2. Typed follow up letters
3. Personal phone calls
4. Printed (offline newsletter)
5. E-mail newsletter (e-zine)
6. E-mail courses
7. His blog’s RSS feed

As we began discussing these methods, Jack began to get a concerned look on his face. He finally admitted that he thought this sounded like a lot of work. I told him that some of them took more time than others, but that the return on investment of that time would be tremendous. I also pointed out that much of it could (and should) be automated, outsourced and/or delegated.

He was game. After we discussed the various ideas, he decided he would utilize his blog for constant communication with prospects (and to boost his search engine rankings). Additionally, he would offer an eCourse on his blog to capture prospects’ contact information and get their permission to market to them (by sending educational information on an ongoing basis). Because his is a divorce practice, he was concerned about his prospective clients’ spouse’s finding out about them communicating with him. We were able to work around that by writing some copy that would pop up on the site before they were able to request the eCourse which explained the importance of a “spouse proof” communication channel.

Additionally, we mapped out a monthly keep in touch program for his current and former clients which included a quarterly direct response newsletter, some holiday cards, and an occasional mailing of educational material. In all, the clients would receive something from him every month. Finally, he also decided to mail a separate monthly newsletter to his primary referral sources.

Note: Jack outsources his monthly mailings to his clients and his referral sources (including both newsletters) through Lawyer Profit Systems. We set up the eCourse on an autoresponder. Once it was all in place, his actual time involved would be supervisory except for an occasional personal note.

The fact that he would be in constant contact with his prospects, clients (both current and past), and his referral sources would give him top of mind awareness as well as a distinct advantage over his competition.

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

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If you don’t have a “keep in touch” system to proactively communicate on a regular basis with your clients, former clients and referral sources, you should have one.  But, that is the subject of another article.  Even those lawyers that don’t have such a system, will often send a Christmas or Holiday Card in December.

My advice is don’t.  Send a Thanksgiving card instead.  Why?  Well, how many Christmas cards did you receive at your home and office last year?  And, how many Thanksgiving cards?  That’s why.

You want to stand out.  You want to be different and unique.  And, it’s the perfect occassion to tell your clients and referral sources thanks for their contributions to your business.

And, lest you think I’m posting on this subject to early, note that you need to be mailing them in about five weeks!  Oh, and thanks for reading my blog.

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I just finished meeting with a new client in a nasty custody case.  She is paying me $10,000 to represent her in defending the motion to modify filed by her ex-husband.  She has a good case, and the law is on her side.  The interesting thing is that she had another lawyer representing her.  I know this other lawyer - he is competent, and experienced - 30+ years in the business.  And, although he doesn’t practice family law exclusively, he has done plenty of it to know what he is doing.

So, why did she fire him and hire me (something I initially tried to talk her out of doing)?  Apparently, he told her no less than three times, “I’ve never seen anything like this in 34 years of law practice.”  He was referring to some of the underhanded tactics that the opposing party and lawyer were pulling to try to get custody and how the opposing lawyer would not return his phone calls.  I’m not sure why he told her this.  Maybe he really hadn’t seen it before (I’m not sure how that could be) or maybe it was hyperbole.  But, as she said, that is not what she wanted to hear coming from her lawyer.

Sometimes we don’t think about our language and how even the most innocuous comment might affect our client’s perception.  There is a lesson here (a $10,000 lesson).  Make sure you get it - act like you’ve been there before.

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