LegalMatch Marketing for Attorneys

Email Marketing for Law Firms

Which marketing channel delivers the highest return on investment (ROI)?

1. Social Media
2. Content Marketing
3. Mobile Marketing
4. PPC / Search
5. Email Marketing

It’s true. Email marketing has been cited by marketers as delivering the greatest ROI for over 8 years. If you are diving into digital marketing, email marketing needs to be a priority.

Unfortunately, most attorneys do not utilize email marketing. Well, the numbers are in, and it’s not a question of if you should be implementing an email marketing campaign into your overall marketing strategy, but when and how soon.  

The American Bar Association even published an article with its recommendations for email marketing.  They include Mail Chimp, Vertical Response, Constant Contact, and Myemma.  Reviews.com lists the top FREE email marketing services as Benchmark, Mail Chimp, and Vertical Response.

There are a number of ways you can nurture your prospective clients back into your sales funnel:  

• Curate relevant content based on the area of law they inquired about.  
• Inform prospective clients of the other various areas of law your practice handles
• Send holidays greetings
• Drip campaign: A drip campaign is a series of emails crafted to guide a prospective client to particular action. In this case, calling your office for an appointment.  

They can be sent out automatically and on a schedule. LegalMatch saves you from the complicated and time consuming task of compiling an email list. Email addresses are being provided to you on a regular basis and email marketing helps you make the most of every opportunity. Remind clients that you are happy to review a case for them or their friends or family to determine it’s a fit. Remind them of which areas of law you handle, and if it is in an area of law you do not handle, remind them to post their case on LegalMatch. Send them articles from your blog. Ask for referrals.

To make email marketing work, you have to give it time, effort and commitment. Monitor your campaigns. Track their success. Try new approaches and messages.  Convey your Value Proposition.  Do you provide excellent service? Transparent, flat fee pricing?  Cost estimates?  Convenient client friendly unbundled legal services?  Experience?  Aggressive advocacy?  Reasonable and affordable payment options?  Develop and tell your story.  LegalMatch provides you with the audience. The rest is up to you.

Authored by Cesar Gomez, LegalMatch Marketing Manager

Lawyer Burnout

Anyone that was able to become licensed by a state bar is a highly motivated, intelligent and competent individual. However, despite this fact lawyers are people with personal lives that can impact their judgement and lead to poor performances on behalf of their clients. One of the most common factors that impact an attorney’s performance is burnout. The practice of law is one of the few professions that encourages conflict between its members. Brain surgeons, for example, are not attempting to craft ways to make brain surgery more difficult for brain surgeons.  

The law, however, is different. A District Attorney wants to put criminals in jails, but a criminal defense attorney wants to prove the person the D.A. is trying to put in a jail is not a criminal. Therefore, both sides will come up with ways to make the other side’s job more difficult by crafting arguments that the other side is wrong.

This inherent conflict leads to burnout, because lawyers for the most part are perfectionists that want to win, but very few, if any, lawyers win all the time. Furthermore, in substantive litigation a lawyer will lose at least one motion, which will create uncertainty as to whether or not they will win their argument. The uncertainty of losing a case, motion, etc., looms over any attorney’s heads until the litigation is complete. Therefore, the adversarial and uncertain nature legal practice creates a perfect recipe for lawyer burnout.

If you become burned out, then you may be unable to adequately represent your client and could make poor decisions related to your case. One of the ways to detect burnout in an attorney is by ask how many cases you are handling and how many people work in your office. If a solo lawyer is handling 100 cases with nobody else in their office, odds are this attorney already is or will soon be burned out. Another way to detect burnout is to determine if you have some hobby, interest, or passion other than the law. If a lawyer is continuously engaged in the adversarial and uncertain nature of legal practice with no outlet, you will burn out.

It is well known that burnout exists in the legal profession and numerous programs exist to prevent it, but it remains a common occurrence. The legal culture tells attorneys to push the issue aside and not complain. Therefore, many lawyers believe slowing down or seeking help is a sign of weakness, but in reality, it is a sign of strength. A burned out lawyer is not helping anybody and pushing through problems to do poor work is harmful to both counsel and client.

Therefore, lawyers should take a personal inventory of their cases and not take on more than they can handle. Additionally, lawyers should find something outside of their work to occupy their time and be sure to not let work take over their life. Although all attorneys will have 14-16 hour workdays, doing this on a continuous basis is unsustainable and will hurt both you and your client. For these reasons, it is important to consider whether you have the capacity to handle a new case.

Authored by Ryan Griffith, LegalMatch Legal Writer and Attorney at Law

Unbundling Your Legal Services: The New Way to Provide Legal Representation

Unbundling services, also known as providing limited scope representation, is a new trend in the legal field, spurred on by the willingness of the general population to still pay for certain services while also unable to afford a “soup-to-nuts” plan. While some lawyers have been jumping at providing unbundled services like airlines searching for new extra “perks” to charge for, many lawyers seem to find the idea of offering limited scope representation repugnant. Even if you fall into the latter group, you should at least give it some serious thought before completely turning your nose up at the idea.

What Does It Mean To Unbundle Services?

In the broadest sense, to unbundle your services means to simply offer specific services separately. This is in sharp contrast to what is still considered to be the traditional offering of legal services, which is full scope representation. Traditionally, a lawyer would assist a client from an initial consultation all the way through the legal matter being finally resolved at trial or a settlement conference. With unbundled services, a lawyer only performs specific tasks during specific steps of a legal process, such as only writing a demand letter or simply providing representation during a settlement negotiation.

Why Should I Unbundle My Services?

It may be scary to think about unbundling your services. After all, it is a completely new way of doing things and may involve a new way of billing your clients. However, there are very good reasons why you should consider unbundling the legal services that you offer.

1. Attract more clients. In light of the economic downturn and the increase of legal self-help websites such as Legalzoom, most people are choosing to save money by engaging in “do it yourself” legal work. This is primarily because they feel that they cannot afford full representation, and they may not want full representation. By offering unbundled services, people are more inclined to hire you for the specific task they want to have accomplished, knowing that they will not be wasting money on services that they feel that they do not need. Also, just as with more tradition arrangements, a client may end up hiring you for more than what they initially wanted. A simple representation at a mediation session may turn into representing the client in a trial if the mediation fails. 
2. Earn more money. If you offer certain unbundled services at a fixed rate based on a general time estimate, you may find that you occasionally perform the task at a slightly faster rate than usual for the same amount of money. Also, by only performing certain tasks for a client, you can avoid wasting time on unbillable tasks that often pop up during full-scope representation.
3. Avoid unpleasant tasks. You may absolutely love the area of law that you practice in, but there may also be certain tasks in that area of law that you would rather not perform. By unbundling your services, you can avoid performing certain less pleasant tasks in your practice area without having to give up practicing in that field.

Tips for Unbundling Your Services

If you do decide to unbundle your services, here are some basic tips to help you get started:

• Check with your state’s rules of professional conduct to see what services you can and cannot unbundle, as certain states only allow you to unbundle services that are related to non-criminal matters. You should also take some time to familiarize yourself with any rules related to withdrawing yourself as legal counsel in a limited scope representation scenario.
• Figure out which services that you perform on a regular basis that you feel you can offer as a stand-alone service. Some lawyers may feel comfortable offering most of their services as unbundled services, while others may choose to offer a few of their services as singular services.
• Calculate how much time a single task, such as drafting a response letter or writing interrogatories, generally takes you and how much you would usually charge for that amount of time. This allows you to provide an accurate estimate on the cost of that task as an unbundled service.
• Draft a standard limited scope of representation agreement for each of the services that you intend to offer as an unbundled service. This can be tweaked for each client depending on the complexity of their situation, but it should give you a good idea of how to explain to your client just what each service entails.
• Limit your initial consultation to just what the client wants to hire you for. There is no need to spend time discussing other parts of the client’s case unless they want to hire you to handle other tasks for them as well. This also helps to avoid any confusion as to the extent of representation that you are providing.

Good luck in your venture into this brave new world of limited scope representation.

Authored by Kristen Johnson, LegalMatch Editor

Are You Offering Payment Plans Yet?

A recurring theme that we hear from our LegalMatch member attorneys is that collecting timely payments from clients can often be challenging. Many of these clients are well meaning, hardworking average every day Americans that are struggling to make ends meet. 

Others, for one reason or the other, are not good candidates for financing. As the proprietor of your business, you must determine:

• which clients are good candidates,
• what reasonable payment expectations should be,
• and what best practices are to ensure compliance. 

Vetting Willingness and Ability to Pay

During an initial telephone consultation, you should be listening empathetically to the client’s explanation of their legal and factual position.  If you fail to impart empathy and concern, discussion of legal fees is moot, since that client will likely be looking in another direction for someone they feel is trustworthy and cares about their case.

But during that conversation, you could ask questions that lead you to an informed conclusion of a client’s willingness and ability to pay. Many clients are seeking free legal advice. While answering a few basic questions may be warranted, oftentimes the best advice is that you need to pay a lawyer to engage your matter as an advocate on your behalf. Getting a client to make the leap from acknowledge this reality, to actually signing a retainer agreement and hiring you, can be made easier when you have the confidence of knowing you have affordable payment options for clients who need them.

Part of the process of converting an opportunity into a closed engagement is a frank discussion, generally during a follow up in person consultation, that outlines what the client needs, what you are offering to do for the client, and what expectations are with regard to compensation.

Most clients are unable to write a check for thousands of dollars in retainer, on the spot. And some clients that are able to do so, are not willing to do so because it exposes them to the possibility that they may be tethered to an lawyer they no longer wish to do business with, because they have exhausted funds allocated for legal services by paying for work not yet completed up front. 

Once you and a client who needs or wants financing have agreed to move forward, you can go the extra step of asking for a credit report in order to provide you with a greater sense of comfort before offering financing to a potential client. 

Ethical Considerations

In a recent article published by The Lawyerist, written by experienced criminal law attorney Russel Hilton, “I am not aware of any ethical problem with a client voluntarily bringing in payments, and I have not found a problem with arranging a fair auto-drafting payment plan. Just make sure everything is disclosed to the client in writing.”  The New York State Bar ethics committee recently issued an opinion clarifying that lawyers may enter into arrangements whereby clients give advance authorization to charge their credit cards. However, once a bill is disputed, an attorney may not thereafter charge the credit card. In short, while all signs point to automatic credit card processing as being a viable and ethical option to consider, always check with your local bar.  

Legal Services Credit Card Processing Companies

That being said, don’t be surprised if you find your state bar is already partnering with a legal services credit card processing company. LawPay alone purports to partner with 40 state bars.  There are others as well, including PaySimple, Chargify and Fusebill, but only LawPay seems to have established relationships with various State Bars.

Payments and Interest

Payment plans should be reasonable and affordable.  Asking a client to over extend themselves is a recipe for disaster and opens the doors for having them potentially default.  Keep their income and expenses in mind, and charge an amount you mutually agree that they can afford to ensure compliance. 

Russel Hilton charges 10% interest on any amount financed, to compensate for the risk of financing and delayed payments.   But you could choose to charge less, or even nothing at all.  0% interest financing would be a great incentive for potential clients. 

In Closing

Without question, most attorneys would like to see their full service charges paid up front before any work begins. In the real world, most people are either unable or unwilling to do so, for a variety of reasons. This is nothing more than a safe approach to closing potential business that you would have previously had to turn away, for lack of having a structure in place to accommodate them. 

Having a payment plan process in place, and engaging a service provider to assist you in your automatic payment acceptance initiatives will save you from having to chase clients around every month, begging for payments on work already performed. Many businesses offer some method of financing, rather than turn away clients and business. In this regard, the business of practicing law is proving to be no different. 

Authored by Cesar Gomez, LegalMatch Marketing Manager

The Best Practices for Lead Management

Lead management, the process of determining whether phone calls or emails are viable cases, isn’t something law schools teach. It’s why many attorneys take a trial-and-error approach to lead management once they start practicing—which includes trying to handle this task on their own. This causes many attorneys to questions why other attorneys in their legal area are getting more clients. 

Lead Management is about Identifying, Educating, Engaging and Qualifying Potential Clients

Engaging in lead conversation takes a marketing mindset. The first step is identifying a potential client’s interest in hiring a particular law firm. Chances are the individual hasn’t contacted one, but many different firms in the area. This is a critical time in lead generation. An individual completes a contact form or Legal Match referral form because he wants help immediately.

Some kind of response is necessary to convert the lead within the first hour of receiving a person’s information. According to the National Law Review, after the first hour passes without hearing from a law firm, the chances of turning that potential client into a client decreases by 10 percent. The person will move on to the next law firm on the list.

Response time involves the moment between a potential client completes a contact form until a firm’s representative contacts him. A simple auto response will provide the “I care” reassurance a potential client needs until the contacted by a firm’s representative. The auto response should be made within a couple of seconds of receiving the contact form.

A representative usually has five minutes to contact the individual. This is the “get them while they are hot” approach. The rate of lead conversation decreases dramatically as time passes.

The Art of Making the Initial Call

The second step is making the initial contact. Contact can made at any time, right? Wrong. Think of potential clients as judges with specific tee times. Interrupt their golf game and an attorney may be permanently blacklisted. Clients are just like that. There are times they aren’t available or aren’t interested in talking with a firm regardless of whether they need help immediately.

Research shows that following a firm should make initial contact during these times:

• Tuesdays and Wednesdays
• Between 1 pm to 2 pm and 4 pm to 5 pm

It’s possible that 4 pm to 6 pm is a good time to reach a potential client. The worst times to make contact are early in the morning.

Many Representatives Give up Too Soon 

Let’s say the unfortunate occurs. The firm’s representative calls and doesn’t get an answer or the client wants a call back later. Many representatives will make an attempt to contact one or two additional times. Then they give up on the individual altogether. Studies show persistence is key to converting an interested client into a real client.

In lead management, persistence means making multiple calls. A representative should always make at least six attempts to contact the individual.

Make the Conversation about the Lead, not the Firm

Sure, the potential client wants to know about what the firm can do for him. However, the representative must make the call about the individual by:

• Asking the right questions
• Recording the information in a central location. This prevents the individual having explain circumstances again when receiving another firm call.
• Finding the right time for him to meet for an initial consultation

Keep in mind, the lead may not be ready to commit. Maybe he’s waiting on another law firm or just wants to weight his options before hiring an attorney. Lead conversation may require nurturing. Nurturing means to send pre-program emails or frequently calling to convert the lead into a client. This may need to be done multiple times to ensure successful lead management.

Lead management doesn’t have to feel like studying for the bar examination. The best practices includes response time and persistence. When done right, it will convert a lead into a client.

Authored by Taelonnda Sewell, LegalMatch Legal Writer

Welcome Feedback from Clients to Improve Satisfaction

Everyone wants to be appreciated for their hard work, but while praise can be encouraging, it’s not nearly as constructive as addressing faulty areas directly. Even though constructive criticism may be hard to handle, only honest feedback will truly help improvement.

Create a client survey that each can fill out upon completion of their case. You may want to avoid making sections for negative feedback, but being the best means allowing and understanding how clients really feel.

Start with an easy survey like the one below, and change it over time to reflect different needs.

Example:

On a scale of 1–10, please indicate your level of satisfaction with the following:

(1 = Very Satisfied, 10 = Very Dissatisfied)

1.       The frequency with which you received updates from your lawyer regarding your

   case.

2.       Your lawyer’s ability to achieve desired results for your case.

3.       The accessibility of your lawyer.

4.       Your lawyer’s knowledge of the law relating to your legal case.

5.       Your lawyer’s level of professionalism.

6.       Your lawyer’s personality and behavior.

7.       Your overall experience at this firm/practice.

8.       Would you hire this lawyer again? Y/N

9.       Would you recommend this lawyer to a friend or colleague? Y/N

If you are interested in more specific client feedback, which is always valuable, consider adding an area at the bottom or on the back of your survey for clients to free write. This will allow clients to explain their choices and address issues that may not have been covered by your questions.

Some clients may be hesitant to add constructive criticism if not prompted, so adding a question such as: “In what areas can the lawyer or law firm improve in and why?” is beneficial.

As a bonus, you can show your good reviews to other potential clients, feature them on your website, or add them into your practice’s other marketing avenues.

And your bad reviews?

Learn from them, and make necessary changes. Your practice in turn will be stronger than ever.

Managing Flaky Clients

A good lawyer will make it a point to send out confirmation e-mails or call clients ahead of a scheduled meeting. Doing so will deter the client from cancelling last minute, and will show how truly invested you are in the case.

Let the client know that yours and their time is very important, and a speedy case is beneficial to both parties.  If they are serious about their legal matter, they need to respond to the confirmation e-mail within 48 hours of the appointment. If they do not, you should fill the slot with another appointment with a committed client.

In doing these steps, you eliminate time wasted on flakey clients, and make space for clients who really do need your legal expertise. In a worst-case scenario, you’ll have a client who has forgotten to confirm come in anyway. It is important to still act professional in these cases, and politely let the client know they need to confirm in the future.

 

Creating Strong Client Relationships

Create stronger relationships with your clients by implementing these tips into the daily operations of your legal practice:

1) Humanize Yourself

Clients and lawyers tend to see each other as being on separate social, economic, political, and intellectual levels. Often, clients are intimidated by their lawyer’s professional status and will in turn treat them differently. The distance this imagined hierarchy creates can hinder clients from hiring lawyers or creating an honest relationship with them.

Try your best to make a genuine effort and level yourself with your client. Interact with them as if they are a colleague, and they are less likely to feel intimidated by you. You may find that communication becomes easier and more natural for both of you by taking this approach.

2) Only Be a Lawyer

People seeking attorneys sometimes expect more than just legal services. They can turn you into their psychiatrist, their priest, and even their doctor without you realizing it. You will end up exhausted trying to juggle all the roles they expect you to fill.

To ensure clients stick to only their legal problems, it’s important for you to make your role perfectly clear—right from the beginning.

It is acceptable to let needy clients know that you have other cases to work on. Don’t let one emotional client take up all your time. Be honest with your clients and create boundaries as soon as possible. If they disrespect the boundaries, let them know right away. 

3) Be Wary of Everlastingly Unhappy Clients

Sometimes, no matter the outcome of the case, you’ll run into clients who will never be content. No matter what you do or how hard you work, this type of client will blame your services, blame the courts, and complain about their situation, refusing any and all solutions you propose. Unfortunately, the only resolution to this problem, is to not take on these clients in the first place. Learn to spot problem clients right away and learn to say no; your stress level will decrease dramatically.

Keep an eye out for these warning signs:

• A client who is demanding.
• A client who believes they know more about the law than you.
• A client who has very high and/or unrealistic expectations.

For more legal marketing tips from the LegalMatch marketing team, follow us on LinkedIn.

Tips on Keeping a Personal Injury Record

Keeping proper records for a personal injury case is essential for success. Sufficient records help win cases; without a solid base of records, the opposing counsel can gain leverage against your client. Also, a failure to maintain and protect proper personal injury records can risk client confidentiality and implicate privacy breaches as well.

For instance, personal injury cases may involve the client’s medical records, which are subject to specific rules in terms of client confidentiality. Dealing with medical records involves walking a fine line between discovery disclosures and client privacy.

Ideally, personal injury firms and practitioners will have a set, systematized way of organizing and storing personal injury files. However, these are often not formalized and may simply be an amalgamation of habits and routines built up over the years. Here are a few personal injury record issues to look out for:

• Unforeseeable Events: Files can get lost in unpredictable situations like fires or natural disasters. Be wary of where you keep your files, and always keep copies in separate locations from the originals.
• Online and Internet Security: Storing files online or on a cloud is a newer phenomenon that must be approached with care. Cloud security is still a newer issue and you’ll want to be sure your files are stored securely. You may need to hire an IT professional for guidance with technical aspects of practice.
• Transmissions of Files: Similarly, you will want to watch when and where you transmit any electronic records related to your client’s case. Not all internet connections are secure; for instance, you’d want to be wary of sending sensitive information while logged into the Wi-Fi at your local coffee shop or at a private residence.
• Upkeep of your Archives: Proper archiving habits can help keep your records free of clutter and unnecessary documents. Eliminating unnecessary files can help avoid errors related to record-keeping.

Personal injury cases can involve many documents, including police reports, medical and hospital readings, video and photographs, and many other types of evidence. Successful command of evidence in a personal injury case is heavily dependent on the ability to store and locate records and documents in an efficient and streamlined way. Some practitioners may be unfamiliar with this process; others may handle record storage entirely by themselves. In any case, it’s always a good practice to manage client records in a conscientious way.

 

 

5 Mistakes Lawyers Make When Marketing

Mistake #1: Thinking One Size Fits All

Marketing is essential to any law practice. But no single marketing strategy is best for all lawyers. Search Engine Optimization or pay-per click campaigns may benefit a trusts and estates lawyer serving. But for a general practitioner, optimizing search may only bring a flood of tire kickers.

Random marketing campaigns are rarely successful. To achieve the greatest return on investment of time and resources, an effective marketing strategy should identify the target market and integrate your personality traits.

Mistake #2: Not Having a Consistent Online Presence

As a lawyer, a remarkable reputation is one of the most valuable assets to have. While lawyers carefully cultivate offline reputations, they often do not give the same level of attention to their online reputations.

Whether online marketing is part of your strategy or not, you almost certainly have an online reputation. Many websites automatically aggregate information about you from public sources, including your education, firm, practice areas, and experience, packaging it into a searchable profile. This information may be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date.

Whether potential clients find you through online marketing, the Yellow Pages, or through an offline referral, most will take the time to Google your name or your firm before contacting you. Taking the time to create a law firm website, keeping your bio up to date, and making sure information on other websites is accurate will help confirm the image you have crafted offline is reflected online.

Mistake #3: “Networking” Without Building a Network

Most lawyers will say their best cases come from referrals. Recognizing the value of a referral network, many lawyers attend “networking” events; bar functions, or cocktail parties, only to leave without having made any meaningful connections.

Building a productive referral network involves forming relationships built on trust and mutual respect. These relationships are usually formed naturally, without the expectation that they will result in new business.

Some of the best ways to start building a network is to simply become involved in activities that bring you in contact with different people. This can include joining an amateur Shakespeare troupe or coaching your son’s soccer team. Choose activities that would be meaningful even if they never generate business.

Mistake #4: Using Social Media to Advertise

Done well, social media can be a platform for building your firm’s brand, reputation, and industry recognition. But social media is not a traditional advertising medium. Lawyers should avoid sending weekly Twitter blasts along the lines of: “Injured…lost your job? We’ll fight for you!”

Traditional advertising is a one-way communication: A Ford television ad shows it’s newest family sedan and boasts about its fuel economy and high safety rating. But social media is not a one-way medium like television. It is a platform for exchanging and sharing information, ideas, and experiences. Trying to shoehorn an advertisement into a social media post risks alienating your intended audience.

Social media is not for everyone. Creating social media content requires time and long-term commitment. But if you enjoy writing, then blogging about a legal issue that interests you can demonstrate your knowledge and passion for your practice area. If you are a voracious consumer of Internet content, using Twitter to share links or make witty observations about a recent news story or court decision can help shape your brand.

Mistake #5: Not Recognizing Clients as Referral Sources

Happy clients are proud of their lawyers and will recommend your services to their friends and family, effectively merging their networks with your own.

Many attorneys, not recognizing their clients’ potential as referral sources, may work hard to get clients, but then fail to deliver quality services. They may be late returning phone calls and emails, go to court unprepared, or not take the time to listen to and address their clients’ principal concerns. These actions will ensure an existing client will not act as a future referral source.

By honoring your legal skills, delivering above and beyond your clients’ expectations, and keeping in touch with your clients after the conclusion of your representation, you can tap into a steady stream of new business. 

How Can LegalMatch’s Marketing Services Help?

To date, more than 3 million cases have been posted at LegalMatch. By becoming a member attorney at LegalMatch, you can immediately receive access to the cases posted in your local region and in your preferred area of law.

Become a member with LegalMatch today by visiting www.legalmatch.com/attorneys. You can also contact us directly by calling (866) 953-4259.

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