Your clients won’t always need your services. It’s important they think of you when they do. Strive to have an ongoing conversation with all your clients, whether you’re actively working with them right now or not. Here are a few tips that could help keep your law firm’s name in front of your clients so you get more business.
Track your clients with Google News Alert. If you see them mentioned online, send them a note and let them know you saw them in an article. Congratulate them when it’s applicable. You’ll also learn more about them and their needs.
Follow them on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn. Again, if you know what your clients are doing, you’ll be better positioned to offer help.
Use Google Alerts to track topics that interest them. When you see something that could be of interest, drop the URL into an email and send it to your client. Simply say, “I saw this and thought of you.” It lets clients know they’re important. Or call them and mention an article or a trend you’ve noticed.
Send a note or card. A handwritten note or card is another way to remind clients of how important they are. You could write to celebrate the date they became a client or a strategic event like when you won a case.
Ask for referrals and testimonials. After you finish something with a client, ask if they know anyone who could benefit from an experience like the one they just had with you. For example, ask if anyone they know could benefit from working with a professional estate planning tramadol lawyer to protect their assets.
Tell them what you’re doing. If you hired a new attorney at your law firm or have branched out to offer new services or specialties, let people know. Mention it to friends and send it to your clients.
Create and send an email newsletter. If you’re not doing this, it’s not too late to start. You don’t need to bombard people with email, simply send a newsletter when you have something to say. Large law firms can segment clients and send newsletters to clients based on their interests. Small firms should simply send one newsletter to all clients.
Send reminders. An accountant wouldn’t let tax season go by without reminding you to file your taxes. What could you remind your clients to do? Reminders are a great way to start a conversation with your law firm’s clients.
Ask for feedback – You can ask for feedback in person, over the phone, via email or with an online survey or poll. It can sometimes be uncomfortable, but if you know what your clients really think, you’ll be a better lawyer.
Use feedback to provide stellar service and clients will keep talking to you.
See your clients and prospects. Face to face contact is becoming more and more precious, but it’s the best way to build trust and rapport. Ask your favorite client to lunch. Throw a holiday party or a “client appreciation” party and ask clients to bring a guest or two. Everyone there can help you build your business.
Be where your clients are. If your clients all go to one or two trade shows or conferences every year, you should be there, too. Be a presenter, have a booth or at least go as an attendee and network with other people.
Hold a seminar. Seminars and conferences allow attorneys to position themselves as experts in their practices. If you can’t present at an event, hold your own. You could even do a free conference call seminar. There are loads of free tools out there to help. Use freeconferencecall.com for example and share your screen quickly and easily with join.me.
Become a celebrity. This one is hard, but you can cultivate relationships with the press or pitch story ideas, speak on panels, write guest articles, or create your own podcast.
Give away stuff – Put your firm’s name on a coffee mug and give it to new clients.
And, finally, use social media. Tweet it, post it to Facebook and spread the news with Google +. The more you use social media, the more useful it will become.