Optimize Your Lawyer Billing Format for Marketing Success

Lawyer billing format for Marketing

i once knew a rainmaker we'll call him anthony who made marketing look easy he made all of us in the office think it was so natural for him one day at lunch a super senior partner came into the office and happened to sit down at the lunch table next to him i told him how impressed i was with anthony's marketing skills and how it came so natural to him the senior partner nearly spit out his drink anthony good at marketing ha he almost got fired because he couldn't market himself or the firm i was shocked all this time i thought anthony's marketing skills were natural talents but in fact they were learned behaviors that he worked at each day to perfect and make work for him but marketing can be easy and i'm going to prove it to you today so you don't have to struggle or climb that hill that anthony did hi i'm jessica aries a digital marketing strategist and trainer for lawyers and law firms i work with some of the largest global law firms and consultancies in the world if you're here to learn how to better market your firm or your practice then you're in the right place go ahead and hit the subscribe button and hit the bell so you can never miss a video the number one complaint i hear from lawyers is this i don't have time to market myself while you can stop worrying and stressing i'm not about to ask you to devote 20 hours a week to marketing i know better than that because i've worked with lawyers for over 10 years and know it's about simplifying marketing not overwhelming ourselves with marketing efforts so is there a way to make a super simple marketing plan that will actually work for you this year the answer is yes and i'm going to show you how to build it today and this video will cover the four steps you need to start developing a marketing plan you'll actually stick with plus i'll help you overcome a few common pitfalls i see lawyers make all the time so you don't make these same mistakes too if you're ready to get started then keep watching [Music] step number one start with who you want to target i can't tell you how many times i talk to lawyers who tell me they want to target everyone no you don't and i can prove it to you you don't want to target people who can't pay you right you liked getting paid as a lawyer right second you don't want to target someone who doesn't need your services for example if you're a diverse divorce attorney you don't want to target someone who is happily married unmarried and or divorced right third not everybody is going to want to work with you and that's okay believe it or not your strongest selling point is that you won't be the right fit for every single person on the planet and that's a good thing so stop telling me and everyone else that you're targeting everyone because you aren't instead get specific and clear on who you are targeting are they male female married divorced in their 30s a business professional own a home have a dog have kids don't ever want kids a veteran you get the point getting specific on who you're targeting is key to great marketing step number two create a clear and convincing message most of the time your goal is to convince a person to hire you for their legal issue right yet so many lawyers i know love to propose on the first date what do i mean by this i see so many social media posts on facebook instagram linkedin etc where the law firm or lawyer is asking their prospective client to become their client without first ever introducing themselves it goes like this gordon law firm we fight for you hire us today if you wouldn't propose to your spouse in this way then this isn't how you should market to someone you want as a client either first of all nobody wants to hire a law firm that doesn't fight for them isn't that the point of hiring a lawyer dare i say an advocate your job is to fight for your clients in fact you have a fiduciary duty to fight for them so scrap that language second your message is self-serving and doesn't explain why i should hire you this is lazy and bad and awful marketing at its best instead write for your audience try something like gordon law firm we help families navigate divorce without devastation contact us today to learn more about our services who would you rather hire the attorney who will quote unquote fight for you or the one who will help you navigate divorce without devastation understanding your client's true desires and their message is so important step three take your message to market this is the part where i see most law firms look to their peers and copy and paste their strategy and plan they say gordon law firm is posting on instagram so i should be too are you sure about that here's the thing copying and pasting someone else's marketing plan is a recipe for disaster you don't know if they have a savvy marketer helping them or complete and total newbie or idiot you can make a lot of presumptions about what platforms you need to post content to if you don't know where your audience is that's why we suggest looking at the data we suggest going to your website's analytics and the reports your marketing team sent you you know way back when and reviewing how people get to your website you may find that some of the traffic comes from search engines other traffic comes from social media and other traffic comes from referral sources knowing how the people who came to your website got there is key to taking your message to market we typically recommend in this phase you have a tiered approach to getting your message out to the marketplace we recommend you take a look at our previous video on building a marketing strategy for ideas on how to build awareness for your services nurture your audience and ultimately convert your audience from casual audience members to paying clients i'll link that video here step number four build a plan and stick to it the final step of growing your law firm using marketing is actually to build a plan and stick to it to be honest i see lawyers and law firms struggle with this the most they say to me that they want to post content on their social media platforms three times a week and they plan to email their contact list at least once per month but client work gets in the way and marketing falls to the wayside don't do this there's nothing harder to do than regain the trust of your followers when you've ignored them for months your prospective clients want to know you're consistent and reliable if you're hit or miss they will come to expect your services are too so show them that you're disciplined and you can nail your marketing plan even if it means making time when time is on short supply so did you learn something today did you realize your marketing plan doesn't need to be a hundred page document because it doesn't it can be as simple as a few jotted notes on a sheet of paper but if you want something more structured we created a handy downloadable worksheet download it below and if you found this video helpful would you go ahead and comment easy marketing below i want to know if i should keep making content like this and if you like this video please be sure to give it a thumbs up share it and spread it with other lawyers you may know who may need the help and don't forget to comment easy marketing below if you found this video helpful it really does help me know that this content is something you want to see more of [Music]