Speaker 1: 0:00

I'm going to talk a little bit about Troy. He's located in Southern California and they have 10 offices around Southern California. Stream of revenue for him and these paid ads develop 26 new leads every single month and this helped maintain the revenue and the workflow for all of his associate attorneys in all of his 10 locations.

Speaker 2: 0:24

You're tuned into the Marketing Lawcast with James Campbell. Brace yourselves for game-changing digital marketing tips and exclusive interviews with industry gurus and top-tier attorneys, smashing the six and seven-figure barrier. It's time to drive your practice to success. Welcome to the Marketing Lawcast.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Hi everybody, welcome to today's masterclass Growing To and Beyond Seven Figures in Estate Planning or Elder Law. I'm your host, james Campbell. I'm the Chief Growth Officer for Integrity Marketing Solutions, and we're going to be talking about today is super important stuff as you're growing your law practice whether you're at seven figures or you're working towards that as one of your goals. Along that journey, you're going to come across and face challenges, challenges that you need to take on head on and not just divert. So I want to do today a go over some of the biggest challenges, the most pressing challenges that I see within our client base and that I've seen over my 20 years of working with estate planning and elder law attorneys as being things that are going to come up as you're working to grow your law firm. So I'm going to give an overview of what some of those challenges are and we're going to get into some practical ways to overcome those challenges and what the fruit can be of overcoming those challenges. So, once we have overcome them, what's on the other side of that? Why is it worth taking those challenges on head on? Let's go ahead and jump into today's training. Hey guys, why is scaling in estate planning or elder law practice uniquely challenging. There's a number of reasons, and the first one is that navigating this market that's also highly competitive can be difficult, and a lot of it's due to the rise of digital marketing People being able to optimize their site or run ads. Digital marketing guys has really leveled the playing field and it's also intensified the competition.

Speaker 1: 2:14

Clients searching online often compare multiple attorneys before they make a decision on who they're going to trust or who they're going to reach out to, which means that standing out requires more than just a basic web presence. Building trust in a digital space can be difficult. Whereas in days gone by we worked on referral relationships, we relied on word of mouth and sort of engaging with the community, and that was one of the ways that we built trust in earlier times. But now we're trying to do that all online Estate planning and elder law attorneys guys, those guys, those clients they want attorneys who convey empathy, who convey confidentiality and reliability and authority Qualities that can be challenging to communicate through the internet, like your website or email or Google or social media, and also shifting client engagement from sort of like the in-person methods the traditional methods like in-person seminars or really going out and having lunch with multiple referral sources each week, or hour-long free consultations. These types of in-person methods of building authority and becoming the go-to person are very expensive and very time consuming. You've got to be able to adapt. You've got to be able to adapt to these constantly evolving digital tools, the use of AI and everything that's out there. So staying ahead of the competition in digital marketing requires mastering the algorithms, knowing what SEO means today versus what it meant yesterday, and understanding what new platforms are out there that can help build authority, build trust, but they can also expand your reach.

Speaker 1: 3:59

For attorneys focusing on practicing law, keeping pace with these sort of rapid changes can really feel overwhelming, and that can be a challenge for firms as they're trying to grow, staying ahead of all of these evolving tools and evolving technology. There's also the issue of the challenge of targeting a complex audience. So clients that are in if you're in this method or this area of estate planning and elder law they often have the diverse, highly specific needs that are tied to family and financial and health considerations. So we're talking to people about stuff that's very personal and so generic marketing efforts simply like trying to sell a will or trying to sell a trust those messages they fail to resonate. This kind of underscores the need for hyper-targeted messaging that connects with people emotionally. We can't just expect to fill the void with education and think that that's going to be enough to build authority and credibility with that prospect base.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Another challenge that we're going to talk about today is delegating effectively to an associate attorney. So for those of you that are really trying to expand and are transitioning responsibilities to associate attorneys, guys, this requires not just training but also a maintenance of lead flow, or maybe even requires an increase in lead flow. This means you're going to have to become very efficient. So automating processes this kind of ensures productivity without sacrificing client satisfaction. So we're going to look at how we tackle these challenges throughout today's training.

Speaker 1: 5:39

First thing I want to talk about is the cost of a mismatched marketing partner or of having marketing that is positioning you in a commodity type of way where you look like a document peddler this type of marketing by other agencies. If you've hired people in the past that maybe said they understood estate planning but they worked with plumbers and dentists and electricians and the clothing boutique store, you know this can create a really bad taste in the estate planning or elder law attorney's mouth, and I say that you can be burned badly by agencies that don't fully understand what your audience actually needs, what they're looking for in a trusted partner. Guys, this leads to a wasted budget and poor results from agencies that really just lack the niche experience. And when we have this wasted budget and these poor results, we get a bad taste in our mouth about internet marketing in general and we retreat back to the in-person things and we sort of leave the internet as the redheaded stepchild. Many attorneys have invested a lot of time and a lot of money with agencies that just do not grasp the nuances of estate planning. And, guys, this leads to poorly targeted ads, poorly targeted messaging and just a wasted effort and wasted budget.

Speaker 1: 6:59

Let's move on a little bit here. So choosing the right marketing partner really matters, and so there's some things you need to look at. Obviously, integrity marketing we're the best suited for you, as this is where our expertise all relies. But you've got to look for specialization. Same as if somebody's trying to get their estate plan done Should they go to a general practice attorney or should they go to an experienced estate planning attorney? Where are they going to get the better outcome? So you've got to look for an agency that has exclusive expertise in estate planning, probate, elder law.

Speaker 1: 7:32

Guys, ims has over 30 years of experience serving firms just like yours. We have a deep knowledge not just of your industry and your profession but of your clients and what they need. You've also got to look for leadership and expertise. Our co-founder, kyle, is our president and he's a full-time practicing estate planning attorney and has been since 1985, since before the company was started. So we've been able to work within Kyle's practice and through Kyle's practice and then subsequently through our clients and the rest of those firms, to truly understand not just the industry at large but individual markets and how people react in those individual markets. So you've also got to look for proven results and check our case studies, because that's one thing that we put out there. We've got to be able to keep track of. What gets measured is what gets done. So measuring the growth, increasing qualified leads, improving search engine rankings, lowering ad costs all of these things lead to better results.

Speaker 1: 8:33

And look for tailored strategies, because it's not just a one-stop shop. You can't just put an ad out there to sell living trusts and think that that's going to revolutionize or even change your practice, it might be doing you a disservice or actual harm not only wasting budget, but making people think that you're the cheap attorney that sells trusts. You've also got to look for the reputation as a trusted partner. So look at the reviews of anybody that you're going to have run ads or create videos for you. Guys, what you do is very specialized. It's not the typical type of law practice. It's not the typical type of retail shop. You're dealing with people on a much more personal level, which means your marketing has to be reflected in that way.

Speaker 1: 9:17

The next challenge are firms that struggle to generate prospects for an associate attorney. We work really hard to build up the lead flow and the reputation of the firm, our website ranking, but and to do all that, we do that to hire on an associate attorney, but that can lead to difficulty maintaining productivity and profitability. So we've got to make sure that, when we bring on this new person, that they're increasing our revenue and not just becoming a liability for the company. So some things to help. I've been through this with numerous firms before and I'm going to talk to you about some of the things that can sabotage that relationship and some things that will help make it extraordinarily productive and effective for both parties. And the first thing is to define the firm culture. So you've got to clearly communicate the firm's values and goals during and after the hiring process. You've got to make sure that they are a cultural fit and there's ways to work through that. But we have to define that uniquely into our practice. We have to communicate that very well, that uniquely into our practice. We have to communicate that very well.

Speaker 1: 10:27

We also want to make sure that we're investing in training. So, for example, I have the total sales mastery sales training to help make sure that the associate attorney is actually conveying value to the prospects as they're coming in. We don't want them to sort of soil the reputation of the firm by not talking to people about the things of actual value, whether that be training for document preparation, whether it be training for what the client onboarding process is, what's the process that we move people through to sales training, but make sure that that person has clarity about what's expected of them. We've also got to foster collaboration. We don't want to foster collaboration. We don't want to put somebody out there on an island. So we've got to listen to the associate's goals and try to align them with the firm's objectives. This is going to encourage buy-in and sort of that long-term commitment. The last thing we want to do is build up some attorney in our firm to have them leave and become our competitor okay and open up a shop across the street. We want to bring this person into our family, right? We want to bring them in for a long-term commitment.

Speaker 1: 11:31

The other thing you want to do is make sure we have enough leads for these people. So if you're at the point where you can afford to bring on an associate attorney, you better make sure you have some budget allotted for advertising and filling that attorney's pipeline. Make sure that they have cases and clients to meet with. A great way to do that is to set up a webinar and an ad funnel to go along with that. So advertising to your on-demand webinar. This way you can dial in what your cost per lead is, what your cost per call is, what your cost per client is, and now you have a funnel from which to not only generate leads but generate the right kind of leads.

Speaker 1: 12:09

If you bring on a junior attorney who maybe isn't quite so seasoned as your associate, maybe they need more of the basic wills and trusts, not a lot of the tax planning or even the Medicaid or asset protection trust. We don't want to fill their plate with them. On the other hand, if we bring in somebody who is seasoned, who fully understands Medicaid, then we need to put an ad campaign or some sort of marketing funnel in place to fill the pipeline of those types of cases for that attorney. The other thing we want to make sure we do is implement and use our email campaigns. So being able to announce this new person, to be able to bring them up and build up their credibility, is going to be very important. But also it's going to be important in again filling the pipeline for nurturing relationships with clients and with prospects. And then also make sure that you get creative with your associate. Include them in social media or, if they have now taken over the role of meeting with clients and that's freed up your time, then you get into being creative with social media and video. Guys, if you do some of these things, you're going to make sure that you have a very successful transition of bringing on this associate attorney and don't fall down and start losing profitability along the way.

Speaker 1: 13:23

I'm going to talk to you about David Payne. David is an attorney in Missouri out of the Ozark area and David actually transitioned from a litigation firm to estate planning, Did this just a few years ago I think four or five years ago, something like that and his practice did well. In fact, he was overloaded and overwhelmed with the workload as a solo and he recognized that he was not going to be able to effectively scale his practice, keeping up with that pace and having that sort of responsibility for him to turn out all of the all of the plans. David came to us. We helped him with some of the marketing but we also helped him with training and kind of onboarding. So David found a couple of attorneys Jeff and Bill and David had been through my sales training when he first started his practice and thought it was extraordinarily valuable and seeing value that he brings to his clients and being able to present that value during his sales presentations. And he wanted Jeff and Bill to be on the same page culturally as what he was.

Speaker 1: 14:29

And Jeff and Bill completed the 12-week program. We met every week and debriefed clients, got them to where they had their sales process down pat and guys. What this did is it made Jeff and Bill feel very supported, felt like David had the best intentions for them, wanted them to be set up for the best possible result, and they ate that training up. They didn't miss one meeting. They got all their homework, so to speak, done each time and it was great In terms of hiring and onboarding.

Speaker 1: 15:00

We kind of gave David some ideas and some tips and some practical strategies to create a firm culture that emphasized collaboration and a client-centric service. It all starts with that sales presentation, but then how do we move people through that process? And by doing that and getting Jeff and Bill really clear on what all of that looked like as we ensured that it was this whole process for bringing them into the fold and having them have success was absolutely seamless. Then we supported them with some targeted marketing. So we developed some campaigns for the firm's more niche clientele, which in Missouri that's really farmers and landowners, and that really leverages David's expertise and community reputation. So Bill and Jeff were kind of echoing the same marketing messages that David was putting out there and built his reputation on, and this just expanded their lead flow and made that lead, that growth, consistent for all three attorneys and it really freed David up a lot. Let's look at what that did for David's firm. Just some of the results In terms of revenue, david surpassed a million dollars and actually hit 1.5 at the end of 2023.

Speaker 1: 16:17

He's on pace to hit $2 million this year at the end of 2024, and with those same attorneys. So just still the three of them. They've just gotten to where they have a well-oiled machine. They click David actually runs the office out of two separate locations, so it's two attorneys David and, I think, bill in one office and then Jeff mans, the office sort of on the other side of Springfield. And what this has done was it has expanded David's reach by having an attorney that could maybe be able to fill a new market sort of across town or you know, I think it's actually in a different county, but it include the perception of David's firm, so hiring these associates, it elevated David's firm, his firm authority and sort of showing him as the trusted experts. Clients really viewed the firm as being more established and more capable of handling complex cases. Not only that, but it sort of adds to the perceived value.

Speaker 1: 17:16

People expect plans to be a little more expensive when you have associate attorneys and you have a team working in multiple offices. What this did for David was provide him with a really amazing work-life balance. So David's been able to delegate some of these responsibilities. He's been able to see record months in terms of revenue and profitability without him having to break his back to make that happen. He said in one month he went on a two-week vacation and came back and they had their biggest month while he was gone, and that's exactly what he had wanted to have happen. So it allowed him to delegate stuff but at the same time maintaining his quality of service, productivity and profitability. So making sure that if you're going to bring an associate attorney on that, you do it right and don't miss the mark. It can be very expensive.

Speaker 1: 18:10

The third challenge I want to talk about is working with too many unqualified leads. Guys, unqualified leads, people that are only concerned about the cost or that are trying to pipe you for free information about the cost, or that are trying to pipe you for free information. This is extraordinarily unproductive, but it also deplenishes and drains your resources. So we're going to talk a little bit about how we adjust that, how we tackle that challenge when we're having lead flow but gosh, they're just not qualified. So here are some of the methods that we can use to increase the quality of our leads, because, guys, spending time with prospects who have no intention of hiring you is like the most expensive thing that you can do. Not only did you pay for the lead, assuming that you're using ads and paying for your marketing, you're paying for that lead to come through and then you're paying to meet with them, and then they're not paying you anything. So this can be a big drain for firms, especially as you're ramping up your marketing budget. So the first thing we have to do is refine your SEO strategy, and we have to refine it for high intent keywords. So you've got to be able to identify and optimize for keywords in your market that indicate readiness to act, such as the best estate planning attorney near me or a consultation with the best probate lawyer near me. Guys, when we optimize for this, this approach ensures that your website attracts users who are actively seeking your service.

Speaker 1: 19:44

If you've been to any of my trainings before, you've heard me talk about the buyers in pain. The buyers in pain are the people that the prospects that have recognized that they have a problem. They've already determined that that problem is worth solving and that problem is so big that they're less concerned about the price. They're more concerned about the problem getting solved. Those are your buyers in pain. Those are the ones that are searching these high intent keywords the best lawyer near me, things like that. So if you're not showing up for those terms, if you don't show up when somebody types in best probate lawyer near me, then the best probate leads are not going to you. The best probate leads are not going to you. The best probate leads are going to the firms that show up for those terms.

Speaker 1: 20:27

So, working on your SEO and constantly staying on top of that it's an ever-evolving part of digital marketing is your SEO. But staying up on that, working with your coach, with our team, to refine your high-intent keyword list and refine your strategy to attract those people, it's very important. And the other thing we can do is launch an on-demand webinar, creating educational webinars that sort of address your clients or your prospects' key concerns, things like the top five mistakes families make without an estate plan or the biggest pitfalls that families fall into without a plan, things like that. Use these to build trust and then pre-qualify leads. So if we can pre-qualify by helping people recognize what the true issues are and what the consequences of those issues are, and then those people reach out to us because they don't want those consequences. That is, a buyer in pain. That's who the webinar is designed to be marketed to and to convert.

Speaker 1: 21:29

The other thing you can do is use paid ads, but you've got to do so with sophisticated targeting. So, whether you're developing ads on Facebook and or Google, those campaigns need to be targeted specifically for the demographics of people that you really want to work with. We also want to look at targeting life events like new marriage or a death in the family, or a new baby was born or they moved, or we want to target specific geographic locations. People in some areas have more wealth than people in other areas. People in some areas have more retirees that may need long-term care planning than other areas. So we can develop sophisticated targeting for specific ads to specific people. Then we want to make sure that that ad copy speaks directly to the high intent clients with very clear calls to action. This may be crystal clear and very sophisticated with our ads, but when we do that, my friends, that's where the growth happens.

Speaker 1: 22:37

Another way to overcome this challenge is to create optimized content that is intended to convert. Again, working on some of those more pain points or outcome-based content pieces. We also want to publish blogs that are authoritative in terms of being optimized. We want to work on our FAQs, whether that's on a website or on our Google page. We want to create landing pages. That sort of address the common concerns that people have. We can run ads to those things. We can use that in email. We also want to have a clear call to action. An example would be book your discovery call and guide those high intent clients towards taking the next step.

Speaker 1: 23:18

What's the next challenge? It's if we're trying to grow in multiple locations. So many of you are thinking about either opening up a satellite office, or you have satellite offices, or you have full-fledged and staffed multiple locations across your city or across your state and you've had difficulty growing the reputation and the audience outside of your primary market. This is a common mistake or a common challenge? I wouldn't call it a mistake. It's a common challenge that firms face as they're trying to grow to or beyond seven figures. They're looking at how can I serve more people, how can I take what I've created and done so well in this location and replicate it in another, and oftentimes that is a very difficult process. So, then, the problem is being able to maintain your branding, your lead flow and your revenue across multiple markets. How do we address this?

Speaker 1: 24:17

Well, there are strategies to help us maintain consistency across multiple locations, and the first one is we got to streamline the local SEO efforts, which means we have to optimize for each location, and it's unique by market. Each location is going to be a little bit unique, and so we've got to look at what the keywords are in those markets. And then what are we trying to accomplish in that new location? Are we going to be more probate focused? Are we going to be more estate planning focused? Is this where we do all of our elder law work? Is that of this separate office? All of that should be taken into consideration when working on your local SEO efforts. But then we've got to work on your Google business profile, got to make sure that that's completed and consistently updated across all your locations. This plays into your SEO efforts with your citations, with your content, and it kind of goes into the next thing, which is your location specific content, your blogs, your service pages, your newsletters.

Speaker 1: 25:23

We need to start building up the credibility for these other locations in these content pieces. It needs to be specific for each region. We have to be able to highlight sort of the relevant services for that office location, whether it be probate or estate planning or elder law and we have to use language that resonates with those people locally. It's the same process that we've used, or that you probably used, to build up your original location. You can't think of your second location as your redheaded stepchild. This means you have to be able to invest into paid ads strategically. Use geo-targeted ads so advertise in the market in the area where you have that new location.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Your local service ads are a great way to start building your credibility and search results when you've just opened up a new location. So you've got to prioritize your high value regions. That's got to be super important while we stay competitive, especially if you're in a super saturated market, you also want to make sure that we enhance the user experience. So design a unified sort of, but also flexible website experience that allows users to quickly locate the office or the services nearest to them. So if you've added a new location and we're going to advertise or we're going to be marketing to build up that location, we also want to highlight that new location on the website. So the people that are from, let's say if you're, I'll use Kansas City because I'm familiar. If your office is in Overland Park, kansas, and your satellite office is in Independence, missouri, on the homepage we've got to make sure that the people from Independence recognize oh, I have an Independence Missouri experience available to me. They need to go to a page where they can speak about what that office experience is like. What people in Independence are typically worried about Is it more of a blue collar or a white collar area and speak into those uniqueness areas of the content.

Speaker 1: 27:20

Let's talk about how we've handled this for clients in the past and are handling it for them currently. I'm going to talk a little bit about Troy Werner and again you can download our case study and read more about Troy and his law firm and his experience with growing a law firm that has multiple offices. So a little bit about Troy. He's located in Southern California and they have 10 offices around Southern California and they're all in highly competitive markets. His big focus in most of those offices is probate and initially when he came to us, he was having a very difficult time generating consistent lead flow in any of his offices outside of his main offices and he had revenue goals that he wanted to get out of those different locations and he just wasn't getting that from his former agency. They just didn't understand. They were having to go back to Troy and Troy kept feeling like he had to inform them and educate the agency about what he was hoping to accomplish and they were simply throwing spaghetti against the wall trying to figure it out.

Speaker 1: 28:23

What we did for Troy was first a complete overhaul of his SEO. We looked at his keywords and made them more targeted towards probate, and not just the word probate but the terms related to probate that people type into Google that need a probate attorney, even though they may not necessarily be looking for or have the knowledge of needing of knowing that a probate attorney is somebody that can help them. They're just dealing with the issues related to probate. Somebody passed away. They got a letter, whatever the case may be.

Speaker 1: 28:56

We also did optimization to Troy's website. We wanted to make sure that we enhanced the user experience and made sure that if somebody visited the site where he has a location, that it was that would be more convenient for them, that that was the page that was shown to them in search results that they could find the page that was more tailored to them Google ads, local service ads and even some Facebook ads to help build the credibility and awareness of Troy's ability to help people throughout Southern California, not just where his primary location was. So what's some of the results from this? Well, if we look at the keywords like probate attorney, probate attorney near me or best probate lawyer, we reached the top three rankings for all of these terms, and then we were number one for a number of them, but we were in the top three for all of them, and this significantly increased the website's organic traffic. Website engagement we had 89,000 users and 219 website conversions. This was a massive increase over the year before.

Speaker 1: 30:07

In running his paid ads, we launched some highly targeted paid ads to attract more of the probate clients, which, for Troy, are a lucrative stream of revenue for him, and these paid ads developed 26% new leads every single month, and this helped maintain the revenue and the workflow for all of his associate attorneys and all of his 10 locations. I'll read Troy's review here. Partnering with IMS has exceeded our expectation. The increase in our probate leads across all our offices has been a game changer for our firm's growth. Guys, if you're opening up a second location or a third or a fourth, or your 10th in Troy's case here work with our team to make sure that you're getting the most out of that investment into that new location and that it becomes a profitable stream for you and not a challenge that you have to keep working on month over month.

Speaker 1: 31:06

All right, the fifth challenge here is when we can become very irritated. When we are trying to grow the firm Maybe we've reached that seven-figure mark and we've done so on the backs of our referral partners, our client referrals and those relationships that we have, and maybe a small portion of our revenue has come from the internet and when we are in that position where we want to grow, but we can see that online, there's these less qualified, less experienced attorneys that are outranking you, that are looking like they're more authoritative and better at estate planning than what you are. And not only is this a challenge that we have to address, we have to recognize oh my gosh, these five or six guys are all ahead of me or these 10 firms are beating me in SEO If my goal is to go from $850,000 in 2024 to 1.5 million in 2025. I'm not going to be able to get there, doing the exact same thing I did last year. I'm going to have to beat these people who are outranking me in the search engines, who are attracting and acquiring all of the high intent buyers in pain best prospects. We can't allow that to happen. We have to compete. It's a king of the hill type of a game.

Speaker 1: 32:28

So what are some methods that we can execute to dominate search rankings? Well, the first is implement advanced SEO tactics to improve your organic visibility. So we want to use SEO, keyword optimization, local SEO strategies, those high intent search terms to rank for high value terms, like best estate planning attorney near Kansas City or best estate planning attorney in Overland Park. We got to focus on creating a seamless user experience on the website and we also have to work on improving rankings and reducing the bounce rate. All of these things play into making sure that the high intent best prospects are comfortable in recognizing your authority and moving forward. We also want to look at PPC campaigns, so pay per click campaigns to sort of complement the organic efforts that we're putting into SEO efforts that we're putting into SEO, so launching Google search ads or local service ads, or both together, with a finely tuned targeting campaign to ensure that we appear at the top of those search results for the key services. So if we're really trying to go after probate, let's run some pay-per-click. Let's do our work on the SEO to make sure that we're building up our authority, let's also run some pay-per-click. If we pair this with continuous optimization, guys, that's where we really get the very, very low cost per conversion. That's where we maximize our ROI.

Speaker 1: 33:57

We also wanna publish content that's authoritative and optimized. So it starts with knowing what those keywords are. What keywords are we looking for, right, like what are the high intent terms in your market? Then we have to develop content, whether it be a blog or press release or a landing page on the website that's built to address the client's pain points. And while doing that, we also highlight your or the attorney's expertise, guys. This positions your firm as a trusted resource and improves rankings for those niche areas, whether it be probate or estate planning, or protect my assets or asset protection. If we can put these two pieces together, this is where we get that the best ROI your SEO, your content, your ads.

Speaker 1: 34:47

We also want to leverage your reputation management, so your reviews. We have to make an active push. We have to be intentional and consistent when it comes to asking for and receiving reviews on Google. So we have to ask for them consistently, especially from our satisfied clients, but even our referral partners. Guys, the more five-star reviews we have. Obviously, this boosts your online credibility, but a strong review profile not only improves your rankings, but it also convinces prospective clients to choose you over your competitors. We can just tell when we see our clients work hard and grow their review profile and grow the number of reviews that they have. Guess what? Their lead flow increases as well. So as your reviews increase, your lead flow will increase at the same time.

Speaker 1: 35:35

All right, the sixth challenge and we're getting ready to wrap up here, guys, so stick with me is if we're transitioning from litigation to estate planning. Transitioning from litigation to estate planning and I've had a lot of clients that have done this and been successful I've had some clients that have tried to do this in the past and have been unsuccessful, and we have to sort of pull them out of that. I have some very specific people that we're going to add to the case study. Thomas Lamone is one of them, who has made a phenomenal transition from a litigator to an estate planner, and the reason that it's difficult is because a lot of times we're uncertain how to remain profitable, like I want to stop doing the thing that's brought me money and now I want to do this new thing that I've never made money at before, or I've made very little money at, and that creates this level of anxiety that we just don't want to have.

Speaker 1: 36:27

So what are the things that we have to do? Is we have to draw a line in the sand or put our stake in the ground? First thing is we have to identify and address the market's needs. So check your local market right, like do that research, uncover opportunities. Like do you serve an area where you have a large law firm with an attorney retiring? Do you serve an area with a lot of retirees right? Look at where there may be gaps in estate planning services, where people may need help, and then highlight these opportunities in your marketing.

Speaker 1: 37:02

It starts with building your brand, so getting your stake in the ground, establishing your authority through your brand. So update your website and your marketing materials. Emphasize estate planning, use those words, but also showcase your expertise with content that's tailored to the common client concerns. This may be. The biggest differentiator that a new attorney that's transitioning can do is to make sure that you're not positioning yourself as someone who's brand new, someone who doesn't know anything, as someone who's going to do things cheap because they're new. I'm telling you, if you put yourself out there as I sell wills, I sell trusts here's my pricing on my website you're going to be the bottom rung. If you focus instead on solving people's common concerns, recognizing what those concerns are, then people will recognize your authority right away. They'll see you as someone who can solve that problem because you're the one who brought the problem up. Also, invest in things like training, for example, my total sales mastery sales training course. Understand the value that you bring to your clients and position yourself in terms of your pricing accordingly.

Speaker 1: 38:15

Guys, to wrap up here, there's a lot of challenges that come from trying to grow your law firm or from growing your law firm, and those challenges will be there as you continue to grow. But you've got to be able to take them on head on. Don't try to dodge them. We've got to just run right through them. So if you really know that you need to tackle some of these things, then book a discovery call with our team. Imsrockscom slash apply is the landing page to book that discovery call. Talk with our team. We'll get clarity on what challenges you're facing right now and we'll talk to you about how we can overcome them.

Speaker 2: 38:48

That's a wrap on this edition of the Marketing Lawcast. Thanks for joining us. Head over to imsrockscom for more growth-focused insights. If you're ready to skyrocket your firm's marketing, don't hesitate to book a free strategy call with our team right on our website. Here's to your success. See you next time.