Attorney Marketing Blog

Are you fond of wasted opportunities?

As an estate planning attorney, you know that you have the chance to market yourself in far broader ways than a lot of other practice areas (i.e., personal injury, where you never know when an accident will happen).

But… have you truly mastered how to take advantage of this opportunity and make it work for your firm to stop wasting marketing dollars each quarter?

Imagine this: You’re entered in a sprinting race with a strong advantage – you get to start running 15 seconds before everyone else! With an outcome that can vary based on a few seconds, this is a huge benefit, and everyone is expecting you to take 1st place. However, you’re wearing shoes that are three sizes too small! Your advantage no longer matters because the discomfort from your shoes leaves you unable to perform to your full potential, and you fall behind.

One of the most prominent challenges estate planning attorneys face is marketing and client acquisition. Many estate planning attorneys find that they have a hard time attracting new clients and growing their practice.

(If you’re an estate planner, this probably won’t come as much of a surprise to you; if not, consider that estate planners sometimes market themselves to clients who are on their deathbed).

If you can figure out how to take a subpar client acquisition process and turn it into one that’ll keep the calls coming in all-day, congrats, you’ve got your advantage back on track to accelerate your firm’s growth.

So, how do you go about acquiring new estate planning clients and overcoming the rest of the hurdles that come your way?

One way is to join or participate in a coaching program specifically designed for attorneys. A coaching program can be beneficial for attorneys because estate planners discover how to fine-tune their marketing messages and begin to expand their client base. Tactics that you may have thought could never work for your law firm might have more to offer than you think.

What are the Missing Pieces for Estate Planning Law Firms?

When it comes to marketing your law firm, it can take time to fully see what type of marketing works and what doesn’t.

However, just because you tried something ten years ago and it was a flop doesn’t mean that you can’t see results if you tried again today. (Take, for example, QR codes. If you tried using them a decade ago, you wouldn’t see much of a result because it wasn’t as common to use them. But today, almost everyone has used one at least once at a restaurant!)

So… what are some marketing methods that should consider opening (or re-opening) the door to this upcoming year?

• Don’t Reduce, but Re-use and Recycle: The content that you create can often be reformed to work in many ways. For example, the next time you record content for a YouTube video, have that audio transcribed to be used as a blog post too!

• Build a Stellar Referral Program: While not all of your new leads will come through referral sources, it is good practice to have a system in place for giving and receiving referrals. For example, what incentive or gift are you offering to your referral partners as thanks?

• Automation to Build the Bridges: You don’t have to do everything on your own. And there’s new technology and software released every single day that guarantees that. Consider using an AI copywriter to get Facebook ads and articles out the door even faster.

• It’s All About the Follow-Up: Do you have a great CRM platform (we like Infusionsoft aka Keap) to build campaigns, schedule emails, track notes about each client, and more? One of the most important features is to have a follow-up email sequence built to reach your leads over and over again, in case they don’t make a decision the first time.

What Can a Coaching Program Offer Estate Planning Attorneys?

Businesses joining coaching programs is no new thing. Top business owners who are dedicated to the growth of their company are, more often than not, part of one or more mastermind groups. Your lack of growth to the level that you want for your law firm is not solely dependent on if you are the perfect leader or not. You may just be missing out on an opportunity that many others like you take advantage of.

You’ll discover that you don’t have to work as tirelessly hard as you think. In fact, attorneys that are a part of coaching programs often report that they spend less time doing “grunt” work and more time working on what actually makes them happy and leads them to the life that they want.

With coaching, estate planners can overcome the many common attorney challenges. Speaking one-on-one or in a group setting with a coach helps you to focus on your target market, messaging, and goals; provides a forum for accountability to help maintain focus; assists with business planning and goal setting; and offers support from estate planning experts.

As an estate planning attorney, here are some ways that your practice can benefit from being a part of a coaching program…

• Discover how to attract new clients with marketing techniques and leave them so satisfied, they can’t help but refer you to friends and family.

• Get over common estate planning hurdles with a skilled coach by your side and a group of peers who have been through it before

• Get tips on different forms of content that resonate with potential customers and learn how to create your perfect avatar client.

• Discover out how to boost your conversion rates so that the phone is always ringing

• Implement ways to present yourself as the go-to expert in your field and throughout your community

• Discover how to use social media for promotion and save thousands a year from avoiding failed marketing campaigns

• Step away from the chaos of the “grunt work,” and start working ON your business instead of IN your business

Attorneys who are members of a coaching program like the HERO and ICON programs have access to resources, templates, and constant support that can help them grow not only their estate planning business but to build and develop a superstar team.

The programs also offer estate planners the opportunity to learn from their peers, who may have more experience in a particular area or are currently going through the same hurdles as yourself. Imagine being able to sit face-to-face across from other high-performing and well-respected attorneys such as yourself in an environment that actually leads to change and implementation.

If you’ve been struggling just to get started with all of the big ideas you have, a DIY-approached coaching program will give you the push you need and make it 10x easier to get the ball rolling on these projects to start seeing actual results in your practice.