CASE STUDY: How We Helped One Lawyer Rank #1 On Google, Sell His Practice, And Retire in Hawaii

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Andrew Stickel

The Best Time To Reach Out For Law Firm Reviews

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This is a question that I am asked more than any other by lawyers. It is a major frustration. They ask: “I have asked my clients to leave me a review and they just didn’t do it. They said, yeah, absolutely, thanks, you got me this great settlement.” The point was the client got what they wanted and they were happy and they said they would be glad to give the attorney a review. But they left the office, and it never happened.

The Thrill Of The Moment

There is an international motivational speaker and organizational consultant, Simon Sinek who says you should not tell anyone your goal in life. If you have a goal to stop smoking, quit drinking, or to lose weight for example, and you share that goal, you get the same endorphin rush in your brain as you do when you actually accomplish the goal. Therefore you are less likely to complete the goal if you have already felt your reward.

How does this relate to your situation? When a client is in your office and they have just received their settlement check (or the outcome they were seeking) they are very happy. They are in the reward cycle of the brain. If you ask them at that time if they will leave you a review, they most certainly will agree. They are thrilled with you. But, when they leave your office, life kicks in. They are still happy, but they now have to carry on with their plans regarding the settlement. They have jobs and families. They feel relieved that lawyers, court dates, and dealing with the issue of the past can be put to rest. It doesn’t take long to forget their promise to you.

What’s In It For Me?

What’s in it for me? Even the sweetest person on the planet can be nudged into writing a review for a gift card to her favorite restaurant. We live in a society that can be driven by incentives. We are not suggesting that you pay someone for a five-star rating. Of course, you will have to check with your Bar Association rules. You cannot bribe people, but you can thank them. Be careful with your wording. A gift card or two for Starbucks or Outback Steakhouse is a nice thank you and it is impressive enough to get the ink flowing.

Food For Thought

Keep in mind what the case was all about. If you defended someone from a child pornography case or fought an embezzlement or drug charge, they may not want to have their name on the reviews. If the case you fought was against someone’s sibling or adult child, they may not want to answer questions from nosey people. Keep this in mind and suggest that they post anonymously.

We have a client in California that is a personal injury attorney, with 5 partners. A few years ago, in 2015, they went on an all-out campaign to contact every client they ever had. Their company picked up 48 reviews in 2-3 weeks. To this day, they still get constant calls because they have so many reviews. Reviews are that important.

When Is The Best Time To Call?

I would say call once or twice within the first month to follow up on the review. Be ready to offer an incentive. Be flexible. After that, there is no good answer as to when to call. You will need to set up your own schedule. Do not call so often that they block your number. But call from time to time. Keep it light and be cool. Their review is worth it to your company.

Note: Some attorneys offer the use of their laptop at their office to let the client get it over and done with while they are there and happy and allow them to collect their gift card. This is an easy way to take care of things. That allows the client to effortlessly find the place they need to be to type in the review with no searching.

Does Follower Count on Social Media Matter for Your Law Firm?

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The question

Do you have any tips for getting more Facebook friends, Facebook followers, and Twitter followers? My attorney boss really wants those numbers to go up. I really want to be more authentic with my comments and posts, but I’m worried about being too real. I know I need to represent the law firm professionally, so I hold back and it’s all just super boring. 

My answer

I’m not going to talk about Twitter cause I don’t do a lot on Twitter. Twitter overwhelms me. I’ve just managed to stay off of Twitter. I don’t do a lot with Twitter, so I’m not an expert on that. 

Now about Facebook followers and friends… If we’re talking about a business page — and I had a conversation with a client about this very thing this morning — it doesn’t really matter what the number of people is because the reach is so small. 

About engagement campaigns on Facebook

Facebook has become pay to play. So if it’s just a vanity game, then you can just run ads that are basically just an engagement campaign. 

I don’t ever do these because I don’t care about likes, but you can run a Facebook ad that is kind of an engagement campaign. If you go into the ads manager and you go into the different goals, there are different types: there’s reach, and there’s traffic, and then there’s engagement and different things like that. 

And I’m almost positive that within engagement or within reach, there’s a place in there where you can actually invite people to like the page. That means, you can run ads to get people to like the page. So that’s one way you can do it. 

I mean, don’t BUY likes. Definitely do not buy likes because that’s going to screw all your stuff up. 

A better way to get more likes

Here’s what I would do instead, if your boss really cares about it: I would probably create a really good post, a post that solves a problem.

So, for example, here’s one thing we did for a traumatic brain injury attorney: we created a guide that taught clients how to set up a GoFundMe campaign after an accident. A lot of times, people get into an accident and they need money because they can’t work. You know the drill. 

So we said: “Here is a step-by-step guide that teaches you how to set up a GoFundMe campaign so that you can get your friends and family to help out and cover some of your living expenses and medical expenses.” This is also helpful after a wrongful death type of situation. You see these things spring up all the time. 

So, we created a guide that shows exactly how to do that and we ran ads to that post and that post, because you’re paying for it, gets a ton of likes, a ton of comments and it’s actually useful. 

Compare this to a page that isn’t really useful

Compare that to s a Facebook page that just isn’t really useful. For example, my Facebook page — my Andrew Stickel entrepreneur business Facebook page — I really have no idea how many likes I have. I might have 10 likes, I might have a thousand likes, I have no idea because I just haven’t looked at it. 

I just don’t care because I know it doesn’t help me because the reach is just so small. Sure, you can spend this money on building up likes. And if you have just 5 likes, then maybe you should try to invest a little bit to get a couple of hundred likes on there, but it’s a point of diminishing returns. 

What you should do

If you do a good job and you provide value, then people will start liking you. If you put that guide out there, then people will like you. It’s just how it works. So, that’s what I would do. I mean, you can run the Facebook ads, you can ask people — but providing value is probably the best way to do it.

How To Find Divorce Law Clients on Facebook

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The question

How can I use Facebook to target divorce clients? How can I find the right audience? 

My answer

It’s really easy. Facebook has demographic targeting. So for example, if your message will be that you want to make sure that men don’t get screwed in a divorce, you obviously want to target men. 

Think about their questions

But instead I like thinking about what are the questions and what are the scenarios that are going through people’s heads right before a divorce. 

So they could be thinking, I don’t want to get a divorce because I don’t know how it’s going to affect my kids. Or I want to stay together for the kids. Maybe they have that mentality. Maybe they could be worrying that my husband or my wife is the breadwinner and I don’t know how I’m going to survive on my own.

They may think, I want to get out, but I feel trapped. Maybe they’re not sure if a divorce is right for them. So you have to figure out what all the questions are that they have and then put out guides that answer those questions. 

Answer the questions in the guides

So we did such a guide. It was my favorite thing I’ve ever done, and the lawyer got cold feet on this because it worked really, really well. But he got some, some heat for it also, just in the comments. 

Stop paying attention to the comments

By the way, stop paying attention to what people say in the comments on your Facebook ads. It’s like Joe Rogan said, you know what Michael Jordan doesn’t do? He doesn’t comment on YouTube and Facebook videos. 

No one who’s doing better than you in life is going to be sitting there making negative comments on your ads. So just ignore your comments. Just delete them and ban them and move on with your life. 

An example of a guide we did

Here’s one we did.., it was 13 ways in which children benefit from divorce. It’s a really controversial subject. But it was designed to find those people that were in that “stay together for the kids’ sake” mentality. Where they think that I want to get a divorce, I’m miserable, but I also don’t want my kids to go through the divorce thing. 

So what we did is we broke that false belief. We created an ebook. We found an article that was written by a psychologist. I’m talking about how children benefit from divorce and the benefits are that children thrive in an environment where the adults aren’t always fighting and you get more quality time with each parent.

So there are legitimate benefits. If they’re in a household where everybody’s happy, they’re going to be happier than they would be in a household where mom and dad both hate each other. So we did articles like that and it worked really well.

More examples that went well

Here’s another thing we did that went well… We created this guide, the wedding photographers guide, or five ways wedding photographers know that a marriage is doomed. We just put out content like that, five ways to pay for a divorce if you can’t afford one.

Another one… a divorce checklist: Is it time to start thinking about divorce? So you run Facebook ads for those types of things. You don’t run Facebook ads saying, are you looking for a divorce? Call me for a free consultation. Instead, start running Facebook ads for those types of content.

It gets them to start thinking about divorce and then you can follow up with different things like that. Usually, that’s the best way to do it. And then make sure that you’re using the Facebook pixel. It’s going to keep track of everyone who opts in. 

Build a list

Eventually, you’re going to have a list of 500 or a thousand people that have opted in and downloaded your free guide. And then you can do something called a lookalike audience. It basically says, look at all of these people that opted in to this free guide that were obviously interested in this subject.

Now go out and find more people like them. And Facebook will find more people that are just like the types of people that opted in. It works really, really well that way. It’s like magic! It’s the difference between going for singles and going for home runs. 

What not to do and what to do instead

Most people, when they run a Facebook ad, they’re trying to go for a home run. They’re putting an ad out and they’re saying, I’m a lawyer. Here I am. Hire me. Are you looking for a divorce? Call me today for a free consultation for your divorce. 

And that’s not how people work. Instead go for singles. What you want to do is basically you want to create a piece of content that basically just puts the idea in their mind that maybe staying together for the kids isn’t the best thing.

How to build their interest

And then you create a custom rule on Facebook. And then you have a rule that says, after they’ve watched this video, now show them that one. And that one may be, “Five signs it’s time for divorce.” 

And then, after that one, you show them another one. And maybe that one says, “Five ways to pay for a divorce… even if your spouse is the breadwinner.” And you start basically putting it in their mind and putting in their mind. And by using Facebook, you’re reaching back out over and over and over and over again to the people that have already shown interest in the first thing.

So if they’re interested, if they show interest in the first thing and then they show interest in the second thing and then they show interest in the third thing, then you can start showing them ads, almost like remarketing ads at that point. It’s almost like social proof.  

Connecting with them

When they do a download, you can send them a text message or something that says, if you have any questions about the download, let me know. I’ll be happy to answer them. 

And that usually turns into a free consultation. There are a lot of different ways to do it. I’ve got so many different strategies of how to get clients from Facebook. If you want to learn more about it, go to lawyermasterclass.com. 

I’ve got an hour-long training on there if you’re really interested in that. And that strategy where you provide value is something that I’ve worked really hard for, and it works really, really well.