You’ve got a long list of referral partners, former and current clients and prospective referral partners. Yet, if you don’t continually nurture and cultivate these relationships, they won’t even remember your name. This is a hard and cold truth.
Most lawyers ignore their referral partners and just hope for the best. This, my friend, is a recipe for failure. What if you could stay top of mind with hundreds, if not thousands, of your best referral partners? By staying top of mind with your referral partners with a monthly print newsletter, you are cultivating and nurturing your referral relationships in a way that nothing else can do. That’s why a print newsletter is marketing gold.
How to Stay Top of Mind with Your Referral Partners
Our law firm has 444 referral partners (e.g., lawyers who have referred at least one case during the last 5 years), but truth is, our referral partners wouldn’t refer new clients unless we continually nurture the relationships. But how do you nurture relationships and stay top of mind with 444 lawyers? There is only one way: a monthly print newsletter with actionable advice for marketing and managing a law firm.
You’re thinking, “I’ve tried a newsletter, and it didn’t work.” That’s right, nothing works for 4-6 months. It will take at least one year to get results from any marketing medium, but with consistency and patience you’ll find that a monthly print newsletter is your best marketing tool.
Follow the Leaders
South Florida injury lawyer, Craig Goldenfarb, Esq., gets it. Craig’s newsletter, “The Gold Law Report” is sent to 35k of his law firm’s current and former clients and referral partners. The Gold Law Report features stories about his law firm’s clients, personal stories about his employee of the month, and updates about his law firm’s charitable activities and the opening of a new office in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
With the print newsletter, Craig stays top of mind with his client base and referral partners, who feel a connection with his firm with each newsletter. Craig will tell you that his print newsletter is marketing gold (excuse the pun).
The newsletter of Virginia injury and disability lawyer (and marketing guru), Ben Glass, Esq., features the marketing tactics of successful lawyers and his best tips for growing a law firm.
St. Louis immigration lawyer, Jim Hacking, Esq., shares amazing stories of his immigration clients. The stories of struggle, hardship and challenge of immigrant families are compelling and heartwarming. Jim posts photos of his clients at their naturalization ceremony and with each story, he nurtures and grows his relationships with his followers and referral network.
Give Massive Value in Your Newsletter
There is just one rule: GIVE MASSIVE VALUE. Don’t worry about giving away your best secrets. You want to show up like no one else and there is no better way than a monthly print newsletter.
Your newsletter does not have to be large—it can be two pages. Tell your followers about your settlements, verdicts, speaking engagements, and your best tips for marketing and managing a law firm. Put the spotlight one of your best team members or share the success stories of one of your clients.
Your newsletter doesn’t have to be about the law. Share your best tips for nutrition and health, e.g., “An (Almost) Guaranteed Way to Lose Weight”. If nothing else, put a few photos of you and your spouse and kids and crossword puzzles (thank you, Lin McCraw, Esq. for this tip!)
3 Simple Tips to Leverage the Content from Your Newsletter Articles
Tip #1:Use the Content to Create a Weekly Email Newsletter: With each article, you can post the content on your website (www.UltimateInjuryLaw.com) and share your articles with email subscribers in a weekly email newsletter. Email newsletters are an effective way to build an audience of followers. With an email newsletter, you will nurture your relationships with your followers and friends on a weekly basis.
Our firm’s email newsletter has an open rate of 27% and about 2k subscribers. With each email newsletter that we send to our subscribers, we bring 500 visitors to our website for lawyers, www.UltimateInjuryLaw.com. The email newsletter virtually guarantees website visits for UltimateInjuryLaw.com.
Tip #2:Use the Content to Publish a Book: Organize the best content from your newsletter and after a year or two of creating content for your newsletter, you’ve got all the material you need for a book. New York Times best-selling book, “#AskGaryVee”, was nothing more than a compilation of Gary Vaynerchuk’s best blog posts.
A little, inside secret: my books, The Power of a System and The Law Firm of Your Dreams, are a collection of the best articles from my newsletters. Were the books hard to write? Not really. I already had the content from writing a monthly newsletter. I just organized the content by subject and voila!, the manuscripts were finished.
Tip #3:Share the Newsletters with a Mobile App: Archive your newsletters on a mobile (wwwCardTapp.com is excellent for mobile apps) and whenever you want to share your newsletters with a large group, send them to your mobile app. The mobile app will collect their names and email addresses so you can follow up with your new friends.
The 3 Most Common Mistakes Made by Lawyer Newsletters
Mistake #1:Using a Newsletter Program
Some lawyers make the mistake of hiring a service to produce a “canned” newsletter. The newsletter has their firm’s logo and perhaps a photo of the lawyer, but the content is provided by the newsletter company (“Without You Having to Write a Single Word”). Sounds easy, but it’s not worth your time or $.
Your followers and friends will know if the newsletter was not written by you. The “canned” newsletters will not resonate with your readers and will be tossed into the garbage minutes after their arrival. Don’t make this mistake.
Mistake #2:Putting the Focus on Your Law Firm
Some newsletters have little, if any, valuable content. These newsletters boast about the firm’s achievements, but what’s in it for your readers? If there is no valuable content, the newsletter will not be read.
Your content should be so valuable that your readers archive the newsletters in a binder, so they can review them over and over again. Give away your inside secrets and your followers will reward you with referrals.
Mistake #3:Taking the Safe Road
Many lawyer newsletters are generic and bland. Take a controversial position and fight for it, e.g., “Why Lawyers Suck at Marketing”. Will this piss off a few? Perhaps, but this just means your followers are paying attention.
A Super Star Team for Your Newsletter
Through trial and error I’ve found the “A” team for newsletters. This is how it works: I write the content for the articles and send the content to our graphic designer, Julee Hutchison, with a few photos of my kids doing goofy stuff. Then, my work is done.
Julee Hutchison does an amazing job formatting the articles and adding graphic design, and once I approve, a pdf of the newsletter is sent to our printing and fulfillment provider, Michelle Foster, of Help Without Hassle. The turnaround time? Usually 3-5 days from submission of the copy to mailing of the newsletter.
If you’d like to start a newsletter for your law firm, you might want to reach out to our newsletter team:
Graphic Design: Julee Hutchison, Hutchison-Frey, juleehutchison@yahoo.com, 970-327-4565, Placerville, Colorado
Printing and Fulfillment Provider: Michelle Foster, Help Without Hassle, michelle@helpwithouthassle.com; 620-628-4902, McPherson, Kansas
Without reservation, I can tell you that Julee Hutchison and Michelle Foster are the best team for a newsletter that you’ll find. The cost? $1.53 per newsletter, including graphic design, printing and first class mail.
My Challenge for You
Don’t start a newsletter unless you’re willing to commit to at least 12 months. Your newsletter won’t accomplish much in 4-6 months, but with some time and patience, you’ll discover that a monthly print newsletter is the most powerful marketing tool for staying top of mind with your referral partners.
Will anyone do this? Truth is, no one reading this will start their own newsletter. And that’s a damn shame, but keep in mind, if you market your law firm just like every other lawyer, you will be just like them: average. It’s time to show up like no one else.
