19th January - How Video Gets You To Top On Google Check out the Google search results for Solicitors in Reading. Field Seymour Parkes are second in the organic listings (FREE) and also on the Google Local search results. (Get my Google Resource Report For Legal Marketing Services here) They have put videos on their site and this has helped them increase website visits by 1000% Why? Because one year ago they were not on page one of Google. So they may as well not have existed for 70% of internet searchers.. Billions of videos are being watched online. People find it easier to watch and listen than to read. (Shame but true). Are you getting yourself top Google rankings and more enquiries from video marketing? If not, you are leaving money out there that others are taking from you. TGI Friday Here's an inspiring video as lawyers head into the week end.. January 13th - Law Firm Marketing Demands Guarantees Todd Davis, the CEO of Lifelock, plastered his social security number on the top of his web site (it's 457-55-5462). Journalists asked CEO's of other "identity theft protection" firms to give their social security numbers and they all said "no". Lifelock gives you a $1 million insurance policy What guarantees can you give that makes it Because in a cynical world, guarantees give people the crutch they need "in case they make a mistake". And a guarantee is another unique buying point for your law firm. January 11th - Law Firms Waste Money On Adverts What are the greatest adverts you’ve ever seen? The best adverts I’ve see are those for For slippers, trousers and hearing aids. But you should study them. Because they are direct response “Write an advert for your law firm that kicks butt guide”. And remember when you do get an ad that works, January 2010 - Financial Facts Tell The Story Lots of solicitors are being made redundant. And many law firms are closing. And it comes as a surprise to many people that work in these firms. As you live with the consequences .And if you work for a law firm you must know the basic financial facts if you are to have If you are the Parnter in charge, provide your staff (Cut and paste). Do we have an annual business plan? Can we have a copy? How many clients do we have this year? How does it compare to the last 3 years? How much income from fees are we forecasting this year? How does this compare to last year? How much income in total is forecast for this yea r? Is there a monthly accounts document that can be shared with a snapshot of how we are doing each month? What will our profit before tax be for the year? How are any profits this year going to be used? How have we been affected by the recession? What areas are expected to expand and contract over the next two years? What plans are in place to allow this to happen effectively? Who is responsible for cost control? What areas have been identified where we can save money? How are salary increases worked out? What are our forecasted income, costs and pre-tax profit for the 2010/11? What is our average income per client in each department that comes to our law firm? (number of years x £ per year) What are the main threats to our profitability? What are the main opportunities for growing our profitability? This is the start of open-management. December 25th 2009 - Cross selling success for law firms. " If you aren't counting, you're just practising".
Please keep score with your cross-selling...
You'll get more cross selling done if you;
1. Make it part of the job - and explain why it's important
2. Keep score - reward people for cross-selling
3. Staff will then see it's important.
4. Make sure it's part of the questioning process for phone calls.
5. Coach all staff in cross-selling so they feel confident in doing it.
6. Put cross selling paragraphs on the bottom of everyone's emails.
7. Make sure links on the website cross-sell (with the right keywords in the links)
8. Make sure that you cross-sell in email and paper newsletters
9. Bundle products together so cross-selling is seen as natural
10. Have forms that people fill in and give to other colleagues with opportunities.
11. Have a follow up and feedback system in place to see who follows up well.
12. Have a budget in place to reward staff who pass on opportunities,
13. Reward internal referrals whether they turn into work or not.
14. Think about it. Action it. Test it. Refine it.
Cross selling is habit you must create.
And PROFIT from.
Has anyone ever given you a better list?
December 15th - Do You Want A Google Sticker For Your Solicitors? Let's face it. Google Rules. And if you aren't looking at a future that contains Google then you may not be looking at such a bright future. Google uses window stickers to help the most searched-upon local retailers forge online connections to their physical store/offices. Google has identified more than 100,000 local businesses in
the U.S. in 9,000 towns and cities across the nation that
are searched upon most often by users.
Each one of them will soon receive a window sticker
from Google featuring a scannable code.
Passers-by can then scan that code with any of
hundredsof mobile devices—including iPhone, Android phones,
BlackBerry and more—and be taken directly to that business's
Place Page on their mobile phone.
There, they can find reviews and coupons or "star" the
business as one they want to remember for later; soon,
they'll be able to leave reviews as well.
Google plans to send out more window stickers to
qualifying businesses in the future.
Make sure you are looking to the future now - not when it
has arrived. Here's a short reminder on what solicitors should do.
Time to get in line at Google's Local Business Center...?
December 11th - Sometimes We All Need A Reminder Every business has to make a profit over the long term to survive and thrive. Profit may not be the driving force, but it is the lifeblood. What is your firm's written plan to retain or grow profits? Do you have a written plan that you look at every day? Something that has your goals on it? And when you want to achieve them by? It amazes me how many people don't have any written personal goals that they are working toward. But then a lot of law firms don't have written goals either. Which is why this picture is a great reminder. If you don't have written goals that are Do one thing this week end. Write down what you want to achieve personally over the next 10 years, 5 years, 1 year and 6 months. Then create a plan of how to get there personally and professionally. You may be surprised with what you come up with. December 9th - Small Ads Can Work Small Adverts Can Pay Off In Newspapers. Legal marketing consultants don’t mention theseSexual Harassment at Work? 0844 502 1631 Injured at Work? 0843 218 3542 for compensation. Call this number to see how they work... December 8th - Take The Marketing Quiz Can you get 100% of the ten questions correct? Try out legal marketing quiz right here. December 5th - How Do You Manage Your Law Firm? If you manage a company you have huge influence over its success. Great managers deliver more sales, bigger profits and lower staff turnover. The fact is that you are only as good as your team.
In their book, First Break All the Rules, Buckingham and Coffman
report on Gallup Inc and how they researched what makes a great manager.
Gallup Inc. found 12 questions that employees answered captured
the most important information about whether management
of a company is good or bad.
Employees that gave a more favourable response
worked in higher performing companies.
These are the questions that employees answered and accurately reflected management and company performance.
1 Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2 Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work the right way?
3 At work do I have the opportunity to do my best, every day?
4 In the last 7 days have I received recognition for doing work well?
5 Does my manager or supervisor seem to care about me as a person?
6 Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7 At work do my opinions seem to count?
8 Does the mission or purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9 Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10 Do I have a best friend at work?
11 In the last six months has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12 This last year, have I had opportunities to learn and to grow?
These questions were answered by 105,000 employees
in 250 business units in 24 different companies.
With this research they then went on to find the good
managers and interviewed 80,000 highly rated managers.
Over and over again the researchers heard...
Great managers help each person become more and
more of who he or she already is.
“Manager as coach” is how it can easily be summed up.
The process of finding the right person for the right position
and them coaching them to a higher level starts with hiring.
When hiring, behaviour-based questions, (tell me a time when...) can indicate natural talent and interests, (which can then be coached).
Matching the right talent to the right job can have huge results.
Perhaps you could ask your legal firm employees these
12 questions once every six months?
Here's the word document you can cut and paste.
You’ll find out any obvious improvements that managers can make.
And you’ll find out what talents you have among your staff that needs to be coached and developed to maximise your success.
December 1st - Are Solicitors Too Clever? Someone told me once not to be the smartest REALLY easy to read. If a twelve year old can read it and understand it = good.
If you have to be a graduate to read it = bad
Paste your website text into
http://www.addedbytes.com/readability/
and you’ll see what grade level your text is.
It’s an American website so it works on grade levels rather than ages.
It's all to easy to think that everyone is as smart as you are.
But what sells more?
The Sun or The Telegraph?
PS The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level grade level of this paragraph is 4.94 The readability score is 85.4 out of 100.
Keep it simple...
November 27th - Are Legal Client Surveys Good? A legal marketing consultant recently questioned the value of client surveys. (For my thoughts on Total Quality For Law Firms download this) I disagree and these are the reasons why; Surveys can tell you what you are doing well or badly They can new highlight services clients want Use results to reward staff They can gather hundreds of testimonials They let clients contribute to your business building loyalty They show you care You can cross-sell your service, (careful!) They can act as a long-term barometer of improvements They centralise knowledge so everyone can learn They act as a motivational tool to do better Or a pat on the back for a job well done They can highlight which Partners are good at coaching staff There should be an incentive to return them.
Surveys should go out immediately a job is done.
They should go back to someone independent of the job.
And the clients must know a survey will result in action.
And at 30 pence per client to find out what they really think it's a bargain.
If that's not value from a legal client survey then I don't know what is.
Remember to download my ideas on Total Quality
November 23rd - Free Publicity For Your Law Firm Great news from a Great Legal Marketing member. Clutton Cox featured in a 10,000 circulation newspaper. It's an idea that you can easily swipe and deploy for your own firm. And if you want to know how he set up the promotion - But the genius part is actually DOING IT. Feel like being a genius in marketing your solicitors? November 20th - How You Can Make The Most Of Your Calls Want a simple tool that can help you get more out of your phone calls? Here's one that I use daily and you can use for your law firm. November 18th - Out Of Office Emails - Don't Waste 'Em Ok you legal marketing people. You are out for the day. You set up your "out of office" message. email you. And they get your message. "I am sorry I am out of the office. When I think of the hundreds of cross-sell, Look at your out of office message Can you improve it? Someone has emailed you. there. Especially if the whole firm does it! Free marketing for solicitors - again! November 16th - Send Price Shoppers To Other "Law Firms" On the Law Gazette Blog Pages there's been a discussion about conveyancing service and pricing. There's a great list of things that can go wrong with conveyancing listed, (the answers to which could form part of your marketing message) and some good advice on positioning your law firm against "conveyancing factories". (You wouldn't get a plumber to write your Will would you?) When someone calls you about conveyancing, or any other legal service, a great way to make sure that price is not an issue is to raise the price issue right from the start. This may seem counter-intuitive for most law firm marketing. Ask the question of your prospects, " We are not the cheapest on the market for conveyancing, As long as you have the testimonial proof and service to back up your claims this should eliminate price resistance and allow you to deliver a service that brings referrals in by the bucketload. November 5th - No One Remembers Solicitors Names More than 60% of the public cannot name a Quite a damming statement. But not unsurprising. See a marketing sequences for law firms video on this here. The whole thing about naming a brand is not as important as knowing exactly who to contact when you want to buy legal services. That's what you are interested in. Someone calling your law firm when they are ready to buy legal services. People buy when they are ready to buy, And it's not good enough that people are satisfied with legal services.
They have to be loyal.
(If you don't know the difference,
my wife may be satisfied, but I prefer her to be loyal.)
It's not about legal expertise (because that's a given).
It is about marketing, which includes your positioning and
communication of your expertise.
You have to know what it costs to get a prospect to your law firm.
What it takes to convert one.
How much you make from each client over a lifetime.
And then you start to understand marketing your solicitor services .
You can only convert prospects with a marketing sequence.
See a presentation video on this here.
Your law firm return on "investment in marketing" picture alters dramatically.
If you don't know the basics of marketing then you want to find out fast.
It's not just because Tesco will steal your market.
It's because you are leaving thousands of pounds of profit in pockets.
That could be yours.
That's why you have to keep in front of people all the time.
With a sequence so that you educate, persuade
and entertain your prospects.
They will come to you because they will actually remember your name.
And your phone number.
And mention it to their friends and family. (See more on referrals)
November 3 - Use The News To Sell Remember it's easier to get publicity and Two things caught my eye today searching on Twitter. (You can find out what people are thinking about Steven Gately, died without a Will = your chance to and.... Professor Nutt, the guy sacked by the There's always someone famous dying or October 29th National Make A Will Week - Every Week Are your prospects thinking about Wills this week? (See Telegraph article here.) I have also seen a promotion in my local Reading Post newspaper, The question I have is this.... Why wait until national Wills week to do a Flint Bishop have partnered charities Can You? For the price of a phone call and a follow up October 28th - Direct Mail Letters That Sell I f you know you have 3 clients that are similar how about trying to find some more? One way you can do this is by writing a sales letter. Let's say you have 3 charities you work for. If you can write to another 500 charities that are similar, with a persuasive letter and 25 respond then you have an immediate qualified 25 prospects. And it cost you £250 to send the initial letters. That's £10 a lead for your law firm. Here's my video thoughts on a letter sent to me to try and get me to buy. If you convert one from 25 you will probably make a return of at least 10 x the money you have invested. So why not try it? Here are some tips that will help you write better sales letters to market your law firm. There's another resource on direct mail for solicitors here. Send a letter with no offer and you’ll get no response - That's known in the world of marketing as a “waste of money.” If you do not get the results you need or response is flagging, check the offer first. “If you want to dramatically increase your response, dramatically improve your offer.” “Success in direct mail is 40% lists, 40% offer and 20% everything else. Before sending out a letter without an offer, think the letter “P”: only the Printer and the Post Office make money. A good direct mail letter is as direct and personal as the writer can make it. Even though it may go to thousands of people, it still talks to an individual. It’s a message from one letter writer to one letter reader. A sales letter should never be signed by two people. Two is a committee. It's impossible to make an emotional connection with a committee. Do not write “we” in your letter. Write “I”. This gives the sense that one is getting a letter written by a real person. If you are available anytime (24/7) for the call, or for more information, make sure that you are and tell them you are. They’ll appreciate you saying it, even if they don’t take you up on it. Turning a 50 pence letter into £2500 of business is a skill that you can easily learn. Just follow simple, proven and profitable systems. (Of course the 475 that don't respond will go into a marketing sequence remember...) October 25th - Celebrity Status = Trusted Resource "Boyd, I'm having my picture taken by the local Gazette newspaper on Monday morning!" I love getting emails like this. Someone that tries something different. And gets publicity. And sales. Remember, celebrity status = trusted source Someone should film you getting your picture taken or giving a seminar whenever it happens. There's nothing better than a video of a celebrity that works for you on your website to convince people to buy. And the reason they are coming to do a story on him? October 22 - Do You Want People To October 20th - More Testimonials Than Any Other Law Firm On The Planet
October 13th - Can You Use Humour To Sell Your Legal Services? Did you know that almost 60% of internet use is video? Did you know that most solicitor websites don't use video. Why is that? One of the problems is that solicitors aren't always comfortable with shooting a video, uploading it to a hosting site, such as YouTube, and then "embedding it" on their website. I guess it sounds difficult to do. And what about making movies that tell a story. Sounds impossible! But let me ask you...Can you type? Can you point and click and drag with a mouse? Because take a look at what you can do really easily with some free software. Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
Amazon.co.uk Widgets Here's a free book on "creating customer evangelists." It's a series of case studies of companies that put referrals at the heart of everything. If you don't have a 100% referral score, and by that I mean 100% of existing clients give you referrals you might want to do two things. 1 Read some of this book for inspiration You see, whilst last week I talked about customer lifetime value, (the amount £'s someone spends with you over their lifetime with you) I neglected the referral aspect. Getting a client at break-even can be ok if you get referrals (even if you are a one-off transaction type business). You have to make it frictionless for someone to give you referrals and be worthy of them. And you can only do this by finding out who is referring you and who isn't. And having a system in place that expects referrals and asks for them, in the right way. And you probably should reward the referrer and referred. Here's the book http://creatingcustomerevangelists.com/testify/testify.pdf If you aren't being pro-active on referrals there's good news. More money is just around the corner. Maybe just calling your clients a week, 12 weeks and 30 weeks after completing their case will enable you to prove you're worthy and get those referrals. Simple but I bet 99% of firms don't do it. PS - Thanks for the Google Magic purchases everyone! PPS Referral Network Building - The Ultimate List PPS A surveyor I know is aiming to get referrals from solicitors with.. "Refer Surveys To Me And If England Win The Rugby World Cup Want to know how? Click here
February 24th - What Does Groupon Teach Solicitors? You may have heard about Groupon.
It's a company that makes it money by sending offers to a large email opt-in list.
It profits by taking a share of the sales (25%).
It also stipulates that deals have to be 50% off normal price or some other "great" offer.
So Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s) that use Groupon can give away 75% of the price of their product.
IS THIS A WISE THING TO DO?
All SMB's should know about customer lifetime value.
This is the key to using Groupon.
It helps you to decide what price you can afford to sell your initial service at.
Ultimately even if you lose money on your first sale, providing you have a good marketing sequence you can turn a one-off into a long term client and get referrals.
FIND, GET, KEEP AND GROW.
Groupon can do the first two. It’s up to merchants to do the last two.
What's this got to do with you?
More and more media owners are moving to pay-per-performance models.
Even major directories are going this way.
And I am doing it at the moment with solicitors and local newspapers.
Law firms just pay per each call they receive rather than for space.
You too can try this with your local media. (Ask me how).
And secondly, this is a reminder email that client liftetime value is a huge indicator of profitability.
Getting a loyal client at break even and getting systematic repeat purchases....
That's a system that's worth something.
PS Marketing sequences video one
Marketing sequences video two
PPS I'm speaking to Groupon about a client in the Body Stress Release area...
Not sure if Groupon will do a Wills offer but I'll ask them and let you know.
February 22nd - Do Your Solicitor Clients Understand What Your Service Will Be? When someone buys something from you do you make it absolutely clear what will happen from that moment onwards? The reason I ask is because if someone doesn't know when they will receive your service and how it is going to be delivered, they will almost certainly have to check up with you. This takes up your time, makes the client unhappy What do you do to make sure someone understands what it is you will deliver as a service? I guess this is basic stuff, like answering the phone well and making sure everyone knows the portfolio of things you offer. But it's often the basics that are overlooked in life because a) people assume everyone knows and b) most people are only really concerned about their own job. The best thing you can do to improve how you There'll soon be a list of things you can do to convert more enquiries into leads and service your existing clients better. I guarantee it. In fact, get yourself a recording phone number from Admeter , put it on your website, and if you don't agree that it helps you win more business after 60 days, I'll pay your first month's charges. I'm an evangelist for tracking and recording calls and with my guarantee what do you have to lose? February 16th - Finding, Getting, Keeping, Growing Clients. Here's an interview I did for www.hireyourvirtualassistant.com - feel free to watch. February 15th - Your New Solicitor Services To Market
Someone complained to me the other day that they "didn't have any new services to market to their clients." I asked them if every client knew about every service they already offered? The answer was "No". "Then you have new services to market" I said. Watch the video http://screenr.com/KAA
February 9th - Second Opinion Services For Clients
I've been hearing clients talk about their experience with solicitors. (The beauty of call recording as research!) Many of them have explained they are not sure if they are getting the right service and advice. I think this is a natural response from some clients. They may have been expecting a different service when they engaged their solicitor. Or they may not have expected it to be "so expensive". Or they may have made the wrong choice of solicitor in the first place. Perhaps it's worth looking at making your services "checklist-able" so that clients know exactly what they will get. (Make sure you add in everything you do And secondly, perhaps it's worth creating a "second opinion" service on a fixed fee that reviews other solicitor's work. Ethically, some solicitors may not be comfortable about this. And I know there are some that specialise in going after other firms. But I know there are probably a percentage of clients that would like a non-confrontational second opinion, (and may transfer their business over to you). A belt and braces approach appeals to people. How you package this is up to you. It's common practise in many service industries to get a second opinion and the easier you make it the easier you'll get clients.
February 1st - Are You A Law Firm Marketing Expert?
January 27th - Solicitors Online Branding Is Serious
Have you checked your own online "brand" recently? After all Googling you is the first thing many people do when they talk to someone new for the first time. Try Googling yourself. What do you see? If you aren't happy about it you are going to have to do something. I did it to my name and found I'm ok with the results. I even found an article I wrote for Estate Agent Today which has been read more than 800 times that I'd forgotten about. http://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/news_features/Boyd-Butler-Blog2 And if you have no online presence at all that's great...you can create whatever brand you want starting this week. You can become the expert in your town/city before the summer holidays. Here's how http://goo.gl/Nys0n Take a look at Sole Practitioner Paul Hajek's results http://goo.gl/IWlKe Paul gets more business by having a good online personal brand. (He's getting so good he's now even teaching others how to do it!) Tip for employment law solicitors... If people can get sacked because they use Facebook and have inappropriate photos on their profile maybe you can offer a Social media update to your business clients? http://www.metro.co.uk/news/853472-facebook-photos-could-cost-teachers-careers?ITO=socialnet-twitter-button
January 21st - Solicitor Websites Work Better With Chat
How many people come to your website and leave without calling or emailing you? I confidently say it will be hundreds a year. So what are you doing about it? Perhaps you could gently encourage people to engage with you by using chat. Check out this short video http://screenr.com/L0E And if you want to add chat to your website give Toolkit Websites a call or maybe chat to Jack online?
January 19th - Solicitors That Use Video For Marketing
Here's a quick tip. Google loves videos. So do people. (They watch telly right?) And it only takes 4 minutes from uploading a video to getting it on to Google. Here's the proof http://screenr.com/3Bl Videos do work and you don't have to have an expensive camera and set up. One video I did has now had 491 views and it didn't cost a penny to do. Here it is... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39f8XaH_sVE And how about this as a way of telling a personal story... http://goo.gl/JnvLX I hope this has given you a few ideas about how to use video in different ways in marketing your law firm. on how I do these videos let me know. PS are you using Skype? It's a great way to have a face to face meeting with prospects without them having to visit you...very convenient.
January 14th - 105,000 People Cannot Be Wrong
I was reading in BBC Wildlife about the only animal (apart from humans) that prepares for war through pre-combat bonding. It's the green woohoopoe from sub-Saharan Africa. Before battles with other birds the leaders preen their followers, giving them a pep-talk at the same time and helping to build the team. Giving pep-talks is what great human coaches do. I know this because I used to work in football and saw what could happen when a coach made each player 10% better than before. Reading FC won promotion to the Premier League with a record points total. But don't just take my word for it. (Here's what 105,000 employees said about managers as coaches). 12 Questions You Must Ask Your Staff. I'm not one for form-ticking appraisals. But I think these questions help elicit the truth. And once you have an honest answer, you can give your honest coaching and leadership pep-talk. I wish I'd known this when I had 60 people to manage. It would have made life much better for all of us.
January 12th - My Predictions for 2011
Everyone is making predictions about what 2011 holds. And I thought I'd try and come up with some new ones. But guess what? My predictions for this year are the same as the last. So if you have a couple of minutes have a read and see if any of these ring a bell.
You can probably guess my 2012 predictions too...
January 6th - Today is the day of Epiphany
Epiphany is a religious ceremony.
But today I am using it as a word to describe the
"sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience." page and I'll even show you why you need to do it
January 3 - State of the Economy
Many people are fearful of 2011 and what it will bring.
Some people will take part in the Cycle of Doom.
You know, the one that sees you slashing costs, prices and profits.
And if you search Google for "Fear" you'll find there are 150M results.
But do you know what?
Your business is still only about three things.
1 Generating Leads
2 Converting Leads to Clients
3 Getting Clients to buy again
You just have to make sure you are going where the money is.
Because person A is still buying from person B.
Ferrari still sells out before they even make the car.
You have just got to give more value than what someone is paying you.
And make sure you are marketing to those that can afford to pay.
If you aren't doing this, change the sales and change your self to ensure you are.
Because more people search for hope than fear.
Which means you have a lot to look forward to if you can tap into this hope.
"it was the best of times and the worst of times."
The choice is yours.
December 15th - How Newsworthy Are You?
Publicity is FREE, powerful and will turn you into a local expert.
And your kids will love it too...
One of the best ways to get media coverage is to start sending out regular press releases to your local media.
It’s cheaper than advertising.
It’s probably going to be read by more people. And it’s powerful.
But where do you start?
The key is to think of all the things that are newsworthy.
You’d be surprised at what local media will pick up.
I've made a list of things that can get you coverage.
Click on the link below.
http://goo.gl/QTaVr
Send me your successes!
December 7th - Captain Compensation, NOTW style marketing
November 26th - Check your Google Preview out
November 24th - Getting A Systematic Referral System In Place For Solicitors
Here's the short video on referrals. (And a challenge later on).
http://screenr.com/KAA
Nothing is better than getting a pre-sold prospect to call you after being referred by one of your best clients.
So if there's nothing better why notAccountant | Financial Adviser | Printer | Web Design | Banking | Mortgage Broker | Graphic Design | Computer Support | Telecoms Provider | Office Supplies | Photographer | Insurance Broker | Electrical Contractor | IT Consultant | Marketing Consultant | Florist | Builder | Security Products | Architect | Cleaning Services | Signage Company | Travel Agent | Decorator | Business Advisor | Promotional Gifts Company | Interior Design | Surveyor | Telephone Systems | Car Sales | Computer Sales | Car Sales | Internet Services | Public Relations Company | Alternative Therapists | Events Organiser | Health Insurance Broker | Plumber | Office Machinery | Office Furniture | Car Servicing | Health and Safety Consultant | Will Writer | Estate Agents Residential | Commercial Letting Agent | Caterer | Landscaper | HR Consultant | Hotel | Employment Agency | Carpet Cleaner | Utilities Broker | Couriers | Car Hire | Car Leasing | Gardening Services | Wine Importer-Merchant | Mobile Phone Retailer | Jeweller | Book-Keeping |Removals/Storage | Secretarial Services |Personal Trainer | Hypnotherapist | Dentist | Private Doctor | Private School | State SchoolScreenR.com http://screenr.com/z8F
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November 19th - Can IFA's Refer Clients To Your Law Firm?
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November 17th - Accident and Injury Solicitors Check Out This Video
I'm a great fan of video. People have small libraries and big TV's.
So it makes sense to use video for personal injury cases when appropriate.
Accidents at work, vechicle accidents, and medical claims can all benefit from video.
This is a Scottish company's work. Email
justinadams@LAmedia.co.uk.
November 24th - Getting A Systematic Referral System In Place For Solicitors
Here's the short video on referrals. (And a challenge later on).
http://screenr.com/KAA
Nothing is better than getting a pre-sold prospect to call you after being referred by one of your best clients.
So if there's nothing better why notAccountant | Financial Adviser | Printer | Web Design | Banking | Mortgage Broker | Graphic Design | Computer Support | Telecoms Provider | Office Supplies | Photographer | Insurance Broker | Electrical Contractor | IT Consultant | Marketing Consultant | Florist | Builder | Security Products | Architect | Cleaning Services | Signage Company | Travel Agent | Decorator | Business Advisor | Promotional Gifts Company | Interior Design | Surveyor | Telephone Systems | Car Sales | Computer Sales | Car Sales | Internet Services | Public Relations Company | Alternative Therapists | Events Organiser | Health Insurance Broker | Plumber | Office Machinery | Office Furniture | Car Servicing | Health and Safety Consultant | Will Writer | Estate Agents Residential | Commercial Letting Agent | Caterer | Landscaper | HR Consultant | Hotel | Employment Agency | Carpet Cleaner | Utilities Broker | Couriers | Car Hire | Car Leasing | Gardening Services | Wine Importer-Merchant | Mobile Phone Retailer | Jeweller | Book-Keeping |Removals/Storage | Secretarial Services |Personal Trainer | Hypnotherapist | Dentist | Private Doctor | Private School | State SchoolScreenR.com http://screenr.com/z8F
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November 19th - Can IFA's Refer Clients To Your Law Firm?
___________________________________________
November 17th - Accident and Injury Solicitors Check Out This Video
I'm a great fan of video. People have small libraries and big TV's.
So it makes sense to use video for personal injury cases when appropriate.
Accidents at work, vechicle accidents, and medical claims can all benefit from video.
This is a Scottish company's work. Email
justinadams@LAmedia.co.uk.
November 24th - Getting A Systematic Referral System In Place For Solicitors
Here's the short video on referrals. (And a challenge later on).
http://screenr.com/KAA
Nothing is better than getting a pre-sold prospect to call you after being referred by one of your best clients.
So if there's nothing better why notAccountant | Financial Adviser | Printer | Web Design | Banking | Mortgage Broker | Graphic Design | Computer Support | Telecoms Provider | Office Supplies | Photographer | Insurance Broker | Electrical Contractor | IT Consultant | Marketing Consultant | Florist | Builder | Security Products | Architect | Cleaning Services | Signage Company | Travel Agent | Decorator | Business Advisor | Promotional Gifts Company | Interior Design | Surveyor | Telephone Systems | Car Sales | Computer Sales | Car Sales | Internet Services | Public Relations Company | Alternative Therapists | Events Organiser | Health Insurance Broker | Plumber | Office Machinery | Office Furniture | Car Servicing | Health and Safety Consultant | Will Writer | Estate Agents Residential | Commercial Letting Agent | Caterer | Landscaper | HR Consultant | Hotel | Employment Agency | Carpet Cleaner | Utilities Broker | Couriers | Car Hire | Car Leasing | Gardening Services | Wine Importer-Merchant | Mobile Phone Retailer | Jeweller | Book-Keeping |Removals/Storage | Secretarial Services |Personal Trainer | Hypnotherapist | Dentist | Private Doctor | Private School | State SchoolScreenR.com http://screenr.com/z8F
______________________________________
November 19th - Can IFA's Refer Clients To Your Law Firm?
___________________________________________
November 17th - Accident and Injury Solicitors Check Out This Video
I'm a great fan of video. People have small libraries and big TV's.
So it makes sense to use video for personal injury cases when appropriate.
Accidents at work, vechicle accidents, and medical claims can all benefit from video.
This is a Scottish company's work. Email
justinadams@LAmedia.co.uk.
