Today’s post comes from an article by Tom Trush, and yes, he gave me permission to reprint this article. Tom’s articles can often be found bundled in Trey Ryder’s email alerts. Trey is one of the best education-based marketing mavens around. He knows how to improve lawyer’s marketing messages and this article by Tom is a great one. Take a look.
USE THIS EMERGENCY MARKETING STRATEGY TO GET MORE QUALIFIED INQUIRIES
by Tom Trush
Including today, there are 41 business days remaining in 2009. [This was written in October, 2009]
If this year started like most, you probably had high hopes for your marketing efforts.
Maybe you wanted to revamp your website … get a blog up and running … dive into social media … start a direct-mail program … organize a client reactivation plan … or just maintain better contact with your current clients.
Regardless of your initial plan, now is when you should evaluate your efforts because you can still make adjustments. If changes are in order, here’s a strategy to help you replace lost time:
This approach involves attracting and engaging your target audience by delivering knowledge. Instead of offering your services, you’re about to get a step-by-step approach to delivering high-quality, valuable content your prospects crave.
Your first step is to determine a common problem your prospects have related to your services. This can be done by compiling the questions people frequently ask you.
For example, let’s say you offer family law services. Now I know nothing about family law, but I realize prospects and clients face a myriad of issues: divorce, custody, alimony, child support, visitation, property division, and many more.
I’m sure others share my confusion. In fact, a Google search for “family law divorce” reveals 8,670,000 results. That tells me there’s demand for this information.
So now that we have a topic, we can create content by simply compiling tips.
6 Important Steps When Preparing to Divorce … 9 Thoughtful Ways to Help Your Children During Your Divorce … 5 Divorce Mistakes to Avoid … Smart Ways to Reduce the Expense of Divorce …
Someone knowledgeable in family law and divorce could provide information that fits any of these titles. You could do the same thing if you brainstormed titles about topics you’re an authority in.
Once your content is written, the hard part is done. Now you make your tips article available to as many qualified prospects as possible.
The Internet makes this task easy and cost-effective.
Start by putting your tips article on your website and blog (yes, you should have a blog). This step is a no-brainer because you want your information available to prospects who visit your website directly or use the search engines.
(IMPORTANT: As you post more tips articles on your website or blog, prospects will want more information. So feed that hunger for knowledge by delivering insight in exchange for a name and e-mail address. That way you can maintain contact with your visitors using e-mail.)
Next, submit your tips article to free directories such as EzineArticles.com (http://www.ezinearticles.com <http://www.ezinearticles.com/> ). Not only does EzineArticles.com get tremendous traffic (which results in more eyeballs on your information), but posting your tips article here makes it available for others to use in their newsletters, websites, e-mails, and so on.
When you create quality content, your tips article will get picked up by information publishers. This is a big benefit because your knowledge gets shared with new audiences without you spending additional time, money or resources. And, because there’s always a link to your website at the bottom of your tips article, you’ll drive more traffic to your online home.
After this step, consider people who prefer viewing video — rather than reading text. Since YouTube is now the #2 search engine in the world, there’s a good chance your prospects use it.
You can read your tips article as a video script. But if you don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera, use Camtasia or Screenflow (for a Mac) to make a video from content you record off your computer screen.
Once you have your video, you can post it on YouTube. Or, for an even greater reach, use a free service such as TubeMogul (http://www.tubemogul.com <http://www.tubemogul.com/> ) to post on numerous video sites at the same time. Of course, include a link to your website at the beginning of your video description.
Now that your information is available online in several places, it’s time to use social media. My two favorite tools are Twitter (http://www.twitter.com <http://www.twitter.com/> ) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com <http://www.facebook.com/> ). After spending some time building followers/friends and developing relationships on these social networks, post a link to your tips article.
This simple step will result in instant traffic to your website — and you can do it repeatedly for the same article.
By now, you can understand how just one tips article can get you extensive exposure. But the best part is the knowledge you share acts as an online marketing piece that works 24 hours a day, 7 days week.
Imagine what happens when you duplicate this marketing strategy.
And these steps are just a small sample of what you can do with tips articles. You can also use them in your newsletters … autoresponder series (one of my personal favorites) … direct-mail efforts … eBooks … podcasts … e-courses … brochures … news releases … webinars … teleseminars … and more.
There’s a lot of information in this article, and I understand it can seem overwhelming. The good news is you can automate some steps. If want to see examples of any part of this strategy in action, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 602.305.6755.
Get Tom’s free guide, “7 Simple Secrets to Pulling in Prospects with Magnetic Marketing Materials,” at http://www.tomtrush.com/freereport.
Related posts:
- How An Open House Helped Me Improve My Attorney Video
- Attorneys: Here’s a List of Web Video Companies You Need To Know About
- Attorneys – Talk is Cheap, Good Video Production Isn’t
- 5 Benefits of Using Video to Market Your Legal Services
- Video Marketing For Lawyers – If You Had $20,000 to Market Your Law Practice Would You Spend it on..
