Unlocking Lawyer Success | Build an Expert Referral Base

Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. Welcome to another edition of Ask Evan. In today's episode, I'm going to answer a question from one of my newsletter readers, Han, who is a lawyer and is trying to grow her referral base for her practice and also be seen as an expert and get some leads potentially through the media and wanted my advice on what to do. So, Han, the most important thing I can see for lawyers, and I've seen a lot of lawyers grow their practice, is to get referrals from other lawyers. And the reason why it's important, I think especially for lawyers, is other lawyers can really give you ideal clients. So it's hard for the general public to kind of give you clients because they know you're a lawyer, but they may not know exactly what you do or the types of cases that you work on and the ideal clients. So say, oh yeah, I have a friend who's looking for a lawyer, and they'll give you the name. But it's not the type of law you do and they may not have a budget and all these kinds of things. So it's really hard to get referrals from general public. The great thing about other lawyers is that they can clearly understand what type of work you do. They know that, you know, the size of client that you work with. They can give you people who have the budget to hire you and it's really the best source of finding business through referrals is to get those other lawyers on board. So what I would do in trying to grow my marketing plan to talk to other lawyers and get them to know who you are, at least once a week try to set up coffee or lunch or dinner or event with another lawyer who might be a potential referral source for you. And you know, you can also send business to them as well. So it's getting that kind of relationship going where you know about their business, they know about you, and you can start potentially funneling business to each other. So at least once a week, try to set up one of those meetings to get to know some new people. On top of that, I'd also look at some of who your key connectors are. So who has referred business to you in the past? Who do you think could be ongoing sources And at least once a quarter, try to keep that contact going. So again, if it's coffee or lunch or dinner, if you're even just sending them gifts, what we'll do is send brownies to some of our key influencers once a quarter. So think about how you can just stay top of mind. You want a reason to connect with them at least once a quarter. And these are people who you already have a relationship with. So, you know, once a week, try to get new relationships going, and then once a quarter, try to manage those existing relationships, the ones that are giving you some fruit and giving you some leads. So it's still, I think, going to be your bread and butter. You're going to get your best leads from nurturing those relationships with other lawyers. If you want to go after the media, that couldn't hurt. There's a couple of ways to do it. We've had some good success getting into the media. The first thing I would do is try to build your own list. So look at your local area, see who's covering legal issues, and reporters are always looking for experts to come on and talk about the issues. So you could be that legal expert. Why couldn't you be that expert for the area of law that you cover? The second thing I would do is look at Google News Alerts. So for whatever, you know, law area you cover, you can enter in certain keywords, and anytime there's a story that comes up, you can be notified, and you can write to the reporter, introduce yourself, establish a relationship, talk about your point of view, what you have to say, and the next time one of those stories comes along, they might call on you to be that expert. And the third one that I would look at is PRLeads, and that's a paid service. Google News is free. The PR Leads is basically a service where reporters will submit their story ideas and they're looking for experts. So you know a story is coming up, you know they have a deadline, and they're looking for experts to come on and talk about, you know, whatever that idea is. So that could be a great opportunity to, again, introduce yourself to those reporters and get covered in the media. So I've used PR Leads successfully. I've gotten into the New York Times, Forbes, other big-name publications, so I know it works. But there is a fee to it. It's usually $100 a month. So hopefully that helps. I'd still focus in on that referral network, get those lawyers coming in, but going after media strategy could also help. And hopefully those strategies are helpful for you, hon. So if you guys like the video, thank you for tuning in. I'd love to see those thumbs ups if you can leave one under the video. And I'd also love to hear what you have to think if you want to leave a comment below. And stay tuned for the next episode.