One of the biggest mistakes attorneys make in their marketing (or any other) communication with clients, both online and offline, is trying to impress people with their intelligence. Using ten dollar words and legalese does nothing to bring in business. Your prospects want to know something about the real you and how you can help them. Not that you have a vocabulary straight from the pages of Webster’s.
If you have trouble figuring out exactly how to talk to non-lawyers, try this…
Imagine yourself at a backyard barbecue with your next door neighbor. This is the neighbor who owns a small sandwich shop in the strip center in the neighborhood. Now, imagine that this person has asked you a question about some legal issue that he’s currently dealing with in his business. Chances are that many of your prospective clients are in similar business situations.
Does your conversation sound like a legal brief? Of course not. It sounds like two friends having a conversation over a cold beer while the burgers are on the grill. Now, try to remember that when you get ready to write your next blog post or ezine article. Or, if you’re smart and you have someone else write them, judge their work on this standard.
Not that you have to be completely casual but remind yourself that your reader is probably just like your next door neighbor. They don’t know anything about motions for summary judgment, estoppel or Sarbanes Oxley and don’t care. They want to know that you can help and, just as important, they want to know something about you. They want to know that you’re the person they want to handle their legal problem.
While it’s easy to remember that people buy based on emotion in other businesses, it’s hard to remember that this principle applies to law firms as well. You may be the most brilliant legal mind of this century with an educational pedigree that boggles the mind. But if your clients can’t relate to you as a person, they can just as easily take their business elsewhere. They may not get your pedigree but they can get the same result and have an advisor that they like and can relate to in the bargain. And that personal connection and the goodwill that comes with it are worth more than a Harvard education in the long run.
The next time you’re getting ready to write a blog post or an article or some other client communication (be it for marketing or not), take a minute and put yourself back around the grill with your favorite neighbor. How would you tell him what you trying to say?
And then say it just like that.