So you’ve finally decided to start a blog.
Or contributing articles online.
Maybe even publishing a newsletter or ezine.
And almost the minute you make the decision, that nasty little gremlin we call “writer’s block” rears its ugly little head. You wake up in the middle of the night, tossing and turning, your foot tapping in the darkness…
What do I write?
I don’t have anything to say.
What if no one reads me?
Relax. You’ve got nothing to worry about. There is a never ending supply of topics to write about. You just have to know where to look.
1. Read the Local or National Newspaper
Print isn’t completely dead. It may be on life support but it’s still around. If you want to know what your prospective clients are worried about, check out the newspapers, both local and national. Look for trends in the lawsuits being filed in your area, problems facing local businesses, even pending legislation that will affect families.
Here’s a good example. One attorney I work with told me he had noticed a recent increase in the number of lawsuits filed in his area for non-compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. People were going into local businesses, making note of visible violations and then filing suit. Since he works with small businesses, telling the people on his house list how to make sure they were in compliance with the ADA was a great topic for a newsletter article for his practice. We put the article in his monthly newsletter and he got several new clients for review of the ADA standards and making sure they’re weren’t sitting ducks for a compliance lawsuit.
2. Client Satisfaction Surveys
You know those client satisfaction surveys you send out once a year and then file away and then don’t do anything with? At least the ones I hoe you’re sending out every year. Well, start doing something with them. Your clients are telling you what they need. It’s right there in front of you. Go through them. Notice any patterns as far as problems, legal issues, things they’d like to know more about. I would be willing to bet you’ve got at least one article in every survey. Take them out, dust them off and start writing.
3. Learning to Listen
You go to church. You go to Chamber of Commerce meetings. You coach your kid’s Little League team. At any of those events you’ve got a chance to put your finger on the pulse of what’s going on with your potential clients. Instead of just saying hello, shaking hands and then nodding like you’re actually listening to what’s being said around you, learn to really listen. Once you take an interest in what’s going on in your community, you’ll see problems that need to be solved. You’ll learn what’s keeping your clients up at night and how much they really need your help.
Once you know what they need, you can give it to them. Remember, people don’t call on lawyers because it sounds like a fun thing to do. Most of them will avoid you like the plague. They don’t call unless or until they really need help.
By watching what’s going on in your community, listening to what your current clients tell you they need, and paying attention to what the people around you are saying, you can position yourself to be the first person they think of when they decide they need a lawyer.
And one of the best ways to do that is by writing. So get busy and start a blog, contribute articles to publications you know your target market reads, establish yourself as the resident expert in fixing whatever problems your prospective clients have. You don’t have to be Hemingway. You just have to know what’s going on and let them know, in language they can understand, that you’re there to help.