attorney marketing

When Lawyers Spend More On This It Makes Them Happier!

The Question:

What is the best service for managing your email list?

What I Use And Recommend

Right now I’m using MailChimp, but it seems clunky. Honestly, it’s really a personal preference. I prefer the ActiveCampaign. I think ActiveCampaign is really easy to use. There’s also Aweber, which I’ve never used before. I’ve used MailChimp a little bit, but I’m really not very familiar with MailChimp.

For me, dollar for dollar, ActiveCampaign is the best service.

A Temporary Problem with Activecampaign

Now I say that, and I’m also very mad at ActiveCampaign right now because they’re having some issues with some of their automation.

…But It Won’t Be a Problem for Most Lawyers

A lot of my marketing is done through automation and the reality is that 99% of the lawyers out there will never use the amount of automation in their marketing that I use in my marketing.

If you’re just trying to manage your email list, then ActiveCampaign will probably do it for you. You probably won’t run into the same issues that I’m running into because of some of the automation stuff that they say they’re working on.

More Easy Options

MailChimp is an easy one. I really haven’t used it that often. I mean if you’re just trying to send down a random message here and there, you might even want to look at Constant Contact or Aweber. I think they’re all pretty good.

InfusionSoft is going to be way too complicated for most lawyers. You pretty much need a coder to make it work.

ActiveCampaign will probably do the job for you. ActiveCampaign and MailChimp are probably my two recommendations. Or check out Constant Contact. I hear Constant Contact is pretty good.

Why Constant Contact Might Be A Good Option

I know somebody who runs a business that sends out emails all the time and they’re not tech savvy whatsoever. And they use Constant Contact, so Constant Contact may be a very simple solution.

I’ve never used it myself. I’m just basing it on the fact that this person who knows nothing about computers whatsoever can do it. So it might be a good solution.

How Lawyers Can Get More Comfortable In Front of the Camera

Just do exactly what I do, which is providing value. That is the absolute most effective way to advertise. You will never see me run an ad saying, “Hey, let me do marketing for your law firm,” yet I get 50 to 75 inquiries every single month of people asking me to do marketing for their law firm. It’s because of all the value I put out there.

How It Works

I was talking to somebody right before this. They’ve been following me for a year. They’ve never spent any money with me, but they now have an opportunity to work with me in a coaching aspect, where I can help them. I’ve created so much goodwill that they already know that if they listen to what I say, and if I really dive in and help them personally, they’re going to get good results.

The Strategy

That can’t be done through just an ad. It’s a long-term strategy, but it’s really not that long term. The scariest part for me was the first three months that it took to get it off the ground. But, it’s just persistence and consistency. That’s all it comes down to.

You Have Two Options

The cool thing about it is that you can pay for marketing in two ways. You can pay with your time, or you can pay with money. Money means you’re just continually paying for Adwords and paying for leads. The problem with that is that the second you turn off the ads, all the leads go away.

Why I Prefer To Invest My Time

I prefer to pay for marketing with my time. What I mean by that is I take 5-30 minutes one day and do a live video. Every single one of these questions that I’m answering here will end up being chopped up and turned into a video. Therefore, I’ll get nine to ten videos out of this.

When you pay with your time, you spend five minutes a day, and you create a new video every single day. Then, you end up with so much content out there that whenever someone’s searching for anything related to your practice area, you get found for it.

You never know which video is going to get you a case. So, do everything like that. That’s what I like. I get people to contact me, and they say, “Hey, I was watching this video, and I saw this, and I had a question about this, and hey, I want to hire you.”

They’ll be talking about videos I don’t even remember creating. I don’t even know how many I have, probably over 200. When you look at this plus all my coaching stuff, I’ve got probably well over 500 videos that I’ve created.

I Built What I Have Over Time

I didn’t do it in one day, I’ve collected it. I, I’ve been working on it for the last year. I look back and think, oh my God, I can’t believe I created that many videos. I don’t feel like I created that many videos because I don’t spend that much time doing it. I’m just consistent, and I do it every day.

Every single piece of content that I put out there, every single piece of value, every single piece of goodwill, is like I’m fishing, and I’ve got another line in the water. Now I’m going to catch somebody.

The cool part about it is that those videos will always be there. If I recorded a video and ran it as an ad, and then I turned it off, or if I did run an ad and then I turned it off nine months ago, that ad would be long gone. Nobody’s ever going to contact me from that again.

But, I created a video nine months ago, and I can get clients from it a year from today. I can even get clients from it in five years. That’s one single video that I invested five minutes in. That’s why I like creating value.

I think Tony Robbins said that you get everything you want in life if you help other people get everything they want in life. It’s extremely cheesy, but I’ve found it to be very true that the more value you provide, the more you help people achieve their goals, the more your own goals will become achieved.

Anyone who’s read my book, How To Get More Law Firm Clients Without Losing Time And Money Or Getting Screwed By A Marketing Company knows that I say, create content like a broken record. But, a lot of times people aren’t necessarily sure how to create content.

I want to talk to you about a simple format you can use to create content for literally anything. It’s called “hook, story, offer.” I didn’t make this up, but I use it all the time.

The Hook

The hook is the thing that’s going to grab the readers’ or the viewers’ attention. If you ever pay attention to Buzzfeed or if you see newspaper headlines, you see that really big catchy hook that’s going to capture someone’s attention.

For example, I might say,” Hey lawyers, do you have an Avvo profile? If so, then you’re actually hurting your law firm, and you don’t even know it.” This has anyone with an Avvo profile wondering, “Wait a second, how am I hurting my law firm? He said they’re going to want to pay attention to what I have to say.”

If you’re targeting motorcycle riders, you could say, “Here are three ways that car insurance companies try to blame motorcycle riders in every single accident, regardless of who’s fault it is.” That’ll get any motorcycle rider’s attention quickly.  

Another thing you could do is this: “Here are four ways car insurance companies will try to trick every car accident victims so that they can pay as little as possible.” Anyone who’s been in a car accident is probably going to be interested in a title like that.

I hate using the word click-bait, but that’s what it is. It’s click bait. The reason click-bait exists is that we know that people’s attention spans are so small nowadays. You have to have some sort of big hook that’s going to get people to pay attention.

That’s why we want to start with the hook. It doesn’t have to be long. It’s just some sort of big headline that’s going to almost shock people or capture their attention.  

Lead With Credibility

The next thing you’re going to want is a very quick intro with credibility. Now you don’t want to put too much time into your credibility. I was talking to somebody yesterday about this, and they were saying, “Well, should I have Super Lawyers and Avvo and Martindale Hubbell and all this other stuff?”

The reality is no. You just need enough credibility that people will talk to you. If you say, “I’m going to talk to you about three ways insurance companies try to screw every single motorcycle rider who had an accident,” they’ll say, are you an attorney? And you say no. Then, they’ll ask, “Well, what’s your credibility?” You need a little bit of credibility.

Here’s what I would say if I were doing the Avvo thing. I would say, “My name’s Andy Stickel, and I’m going to show you exactly how, if you have an Avvo profile, you’re hurting your law firm’s website in the Google search.”

“My name is Andy Stickel, and I’ve helped thousands of lawyers all over the world get better results with their law firm’s marketing. Now if you have an Avvo profile… “

So you see what I did. I  had an intro and something quick that gave me credibility. Then, I moved right to the next topic.

The Story

The next topic is the story. This is the most important part of this entire thing. It should be the easiest because when you tell a story, people relate to the story much better than they relate to facts and figures.

For example, if you were to say, in 25% of motorcycle accidents, the car insurance company tries to say that the motorcycle rider assumed the risk because of the fact that they were riding the motorcycle. And that’s obviously not true.

But if you can say, “We had a client recently, his name was Bill, and he was riding down the highway, and a car was swerving in and out of traffic and clipped him, and Bill flipped over the handlebars of the motorcycle. He broke his arm. He had to miss all kinds of work. When it was time for the insurance company to pay for the medical bills, they denied the claims.

The medical or their car insurance company of the driver that hit him denied the claim and tried to say that because Bill was riding a motorcycle, which he was lawfully allowed to do, and he was wearing safety gear. He was following the law.

But, because he was riding a motorcycle, they’re trying to say that he assumed that risk and that he is liable or he is entitled to no coverage of any of his medical bills, which is absolutely absurd.

As a law firm, we had to represent him, and we said this is ridiculous. So, we took this matter all the way to trial, and we ended up getting this result and this result and this result. We put the insurance adjuster on the stand, and we did this, this, this and this. “

This is a much better story than just saying 25% of car insurance companies will try and deny your claim if you’re a motorcycle rider.

Make The Story Relatable, And Embellish It If Needed

What you should do is tell a story, and try to make it relatable. Now you don’t have to tell the real story or you can, I mean we’re not under oath here. You can create a story that’s interesting.

Somebody was telling me the other day that the reason Hollywood has to embellish a made-for-TV movie or movies that are based on a true story is because of the fact that real life is kind of boring.

Don’t be afraid to add some additional facts in there that can be used to prove a point and serve the benefit of the story. You’re trying to make an interesting story that proves a point.

Your Offer

Now at the end, where you want to tie it all together, is your offer. Now, your offer can be many different things. Your offer could be a free download. It could be a free cheat sheet, which I’m a big fan of. It could be a free consultation. It could be a free strategy session, or whatever you want your offer to be.

The key to making the offer is that the offer has to be related to the story, and the story kind of has to lead into the offer. But, the offer should not sound like you’re a lawyer trying to make an offer in the middle of those TV commercials that you see between Maury Povich and Jerry Springer at 2:30 in the afternoon. You need to make the offer, and you need to talk like you’re talking to a friend.

The Importance Of Talking Like You’re Talking To A Friend

If a friend of yours was in a car accident, or going through a divorce, or was arrested for DUI, you wouldn’t call your friend and say, “hey friend, I see that you’re having this problem. I saw you got a DUI. Call me Friday for a free consultation.” You wouldn’t say that.

You would say, “Shoot me the car insurance policy information. I’ll take a look at it and see what I can do.” You want to end it very simply like that.

With the motorcycle example, what I would do is say, “if you’ve been in a motorcycle accident, you need to make sure that your rights are covered. Believe it or not, you will have a better chance of getting more money with an attorney.

Even after the contingency fees and all that type of stuff, you’ll get more money and a better settlement, you’ll get a fair shake if you have an attorney. So if you have any questions, if you’ve been in a motorcycle accident, or if somebody you know has been in a motorcycle accident, and you have any questions whatsoever, shoot me an email.

Just send me a copy of your policy. We’ll hop on the phone for a couple of minutes, we’ll discuss your case, and I’ll evaluate everything for you. I’ll let you know what you should do. If I can’t help you, then I will point you in the right direction where you can get help.”

Consultation Vs. Strategy Session

That’s pretty much what you’re going to do during a consultation anyway, but you’re approaching it differently. You’re showing value, and you’re talking to them not like they are watching a TV ad, but you’re talking to them the way that you would talk to a friend.

Hook, story, offer is a really solid way to do any type of video marketing. Anytime you need to create content, read my book. Of course, I don’t know if you have my book or not. If you don’t have it, click the link in the video and I’ll give you a free copy.

All you have to do is enter your information, pay a small shipping and handling fee, and I’ll send a copy of this book to your front door, completely free.

If you’re just trying to create content, if you’re trying to come up with how to create content, then think of what’s the big claim. Then, think about what’s a story from anywhere in my career that I can use to back up this claim or prove this point that then leads into my offer. The offer could be a free strategy session.

Focus On What They’re Getting In Your Strategy Session

Another tip when you’re doing the strategy session is to tell them what they’re going to get during the strategy session. You almost want to make it sound like a stack.

If it’s a DUI, for example, you say, “During this free consultation, I’ll personally evaluate your entire situation. I will let you know exactly what the potential outcomes could be, what are your potential consequences of this arrest, and exactly how I can help you. If I can’t help you, then I’ll point you in the right direction to somebody that can.

Just call me, and I’ll give you a free strategy session. Let’s get through this together.” Use something like that. It’s a very easy way to make an offer.

A Quick Way To Create Content

Hook, story, offer, three words, just write them down anytime you want to create content.  I mean you can write one line right out of what your hook is going to be, then write out what your story’s going to be, and then make your offer at the end of it.

It works well because most people just kind of dive right into the offer, and it doesn’t work that way. But the hook gets him off the hook, gets him to pay attention. The story makes them emotionally connected and then the offer is going to drive them home and make them take action.

Hopefully, this inspired you to create content because it’s super easy to create content. I do it all the time. You don’t have to be good on camera. As you can see, I’m clearly not good on camera, but I still do it, and I’m still talking to you.

If you want to learn more about creating content, more about marketing your law firm, using kind of some unique methods that not a lot of people talk about, get a copy of my book. Like I said, completely free. Just click the link, cover a small shipping and handling fee, and I’ll shoot a copyright to your door.