The holidays are a great time for lawyers to forge a very special bond with prospects, referrals sources and current clients simply by saying THANK YOU and showing gratitude for their loyalty to your firm.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “GREAT! I’ll just send a quick email to everyone on my list saying Happy Thanksgiving and call it a day”….but I’m going to challenge you to take things up a notch and really get personal this year.

Before you do anything, I want you to really experience the energy of gratitude.  Close your eyes for a moment and bring into your body the immense gratitude you feel for all of the clients who hired you and paid your fees this year.  Let yourself really feel how thankful you are for the food they put on your table, the car payments they made, and everything you were able to enjoy as a result of their choice to work with you over all the other lawyers they could have picked.

From that place of gratitude, come up with a way to uniquely express your thanks.

If you are feeling stuck, here are some of my best suggestions:

* Send a personal email to your clients, referral sources and even your leads and prospects.  From your heart, share how you have been able to make a difference in the world and feel great about what you do thanks to the clients who chose to work with you.  Let people into your life on an emotional level.  If you have an email broadcast service, you can do this automated.  Just make sure it has the capacity to personalize the message with the receiver’s name.  If you don’t have an email broadcast service or a database of client emails, put this on your list of must haves for 2010.

* Send out a voice broadcast.  If you’re not familiar with these, they’re similar to the robocalls you get during election time and I know that sounds weird, but clients really seem to love them! I know quite a few attorneys having great success with this during the holidays and their easy to set up.  I’d set it so it only calls during the day and leaves a message on the voice mail. Also, make sure to listen to it after it’s recorded and that you sound happy and upbeat.

* Drop a card in the mail. Thanksgiving is a great time to send holiday cards so they don’t get lost in the holiday card mess.  For extra impact, write a personal note that speaks specifically to the person you are writing to. At least do this for your best clients and referral sources.

The bottom line is you need to do SOMETHING to express your gratitude this holiday season.  Remember, in this new economy, the little extras go a long way, so take a moment and do something that’s good for your soul and your business.

And to you I say THANK YOU so much for being you and being willing to step outside of the old, outdated way of doing things and into a new vision of what it means to be a lawyer and run a business.

It is my absolute pleasure to serve you and I am so grateful to be able to do it,

The new world of Web 2.0 has made things a bit like the Wild Wild West in terms of law firm marketing.  Everything’s new, there’s no guidelines and quite frankly, it can be a bit scary at times.  I understand.  I was once boggled by the myriad of opportunities too.

But, you must take the time to understand your options.

In today’s world, with more choices than ever, your law firm will never have a steady stream of prospects calling if you are not marketing.  And let’s be honest, marketing can be extremely time consuming, has a steep learning curve and typically requires a lot of expensive trial and error.

Fortunately, once you figure it out, business (and life) becomes much easier.  And when you have the one-two punch of attracting the right prospects and engaging over 80% of the ones that call your office, now you’ve got a real business. [ed note: if you aren't engaging over 80% of the prospects who call your office, you are wasting a whole lot of your time & most of the money you spend on your marketing.]

I can definitely understand the desire to outsource a substantial part of your lead flow.  Who wouldn’t want someone else to handle what is for many of you the most difficult part of your business – getting the phone to ring?

In response, companies have sprung up that claim they will get your phone to ring by leveraging the power of the internet. Not all companies are the same though.  Here’s what you should look for when you are engaging any outside legal marketing company to help with your marketing:
1.  Pay for results only.

Pay-for-results or (pay-per-performance) means you only pay if you get results.  But, not all results are the same.

Beware of the companies promising to get your website to the top of the google or other search engines. That’s not necessarily the results you want or care about.  Sure, they can get you to the top of google for certain keywords, but are those the keywords your prospects are searching for?  What about all the other searches?  And, what happens when people get to your website?  Is your website primed to convert looky-loos into your clients?  If your site is like most lawyer sites I’ve seen, no.

If you are not prepared to make the time and money investment in building a website that converts (we can cover that another day), you may want to look for a company that is going to deliver you qualified contacts.

2.  No long-term contracts.

Look for a provider that doesn’t require you to sign a long-term contract.  If it’s pay-for-results or pay-per-performance, why require a long-term contract?  Either you are getting the contacts or you aren’t.

3.  Screening that benefits you and not the provider.

I’ve heard a rumor that some pay-for-performance companies screen the inquiries and cherry pick the best cases for themselves or their buddies. I understand this is most common in the personal injury arena and can’t confirm it, but watch out for it if you are 1 of 5 or 6 attorneys getting contacts in a specific area.  Look for a company that delivers you ALL of the contacts that come in for your specified area without room for discretion about which of the contacts you get and which you don’t get.

If you use these guidelines before you choose a company to outsource your marketing to, you’ll have very little, if any, risk.

And, while you know I’m a big fan of outsourcing so you can be the lawyer you’ve always wanted to be, don’t rely on outsourced marketing as your only source of leads.  Make pay-per-performance online marketing part of your mix, but be sure you’ve got your own internal systems for becoming THE go to lawyer in your local community as well.

Have you ever read one of my past articles on generating income and thought, “That all sounds nice and good Alexis…but there’s just no way I can [insert opportunity] because I’m not an estate planning attorney?”

If so, you’re not alone!

In fact, I received an email this week from one of our subscribers just like that.  Here is a reprint of the email in part:

Hi Alexis,

Thank you for your consideration.

First, let me get one thing out of the way before I address this subscriber’s specific question-ALL businesses are at their core the same.

Every business owners is in the business of marketing the service that business provides.

So, yes, even though you are a litigator, you can rustle up a speaking engagement and get clients into your office that translate into revenue …fast.

Let’s take a look at how.

As more people lose their jobs, entrepreneurs are taking it as a sign to branch out and start their own businesses.  In fact, small business startup rates are higher than ever-especially when it comes to online ventures.

This subscriber could be putting together a presentation (and even charge for it!) that teaches businesses owners and corporations what they MUST know to avoid being sued and/or what to do if they are sued to keep their legal fees as low as possible.

This presentation could be advertised online nationally or locally in your community.

I guarantee if you market it right, you’d get a great turnout.  How do I know?  Because I’ve created a tele-conference series for business owners who want to put a great foundation beneath their business and over 20 business owners have paid $397 to participate.

Business owners want and need this information.  When you provide it to them, guess who they are going to call when they find themselves in hot water? YOU!  And, how many of the business owners you will be hot water right when you talk to them?  A few.

These potential clients are now be educated on why they need your services and why you are the best person to serve them.

Can you see how this is applicable to every practice area?

The personal injury lawyer can be speaking to accident victims – what to know before settling your accident case with the insurance company. The divorce lawyer – what to know before you file for divorce so you keep as much money as possible and don’t screw up your kids.  The employment lawyer – what every business owner must know to keep from losing tens of thousands of dollars to employees. The business litigation lawyer – what every business owner must know about disputes to keep legal costs down.

These are very basic, simple examples, but here’s what you can see …

Experts hold seminars. Experts get referrals, and the experts get immediate income.You are qualified to be holding seminars, giving presentations and sharing your knowledge because you are an expert in your practice area!

Now it’s just a matter of getting creative, finding the right audience and getting in front of them-which is really a crash course in direct response  marketing 101 (taught through our Law Business Secrets Success Coaching Club) – and has nothing to do with estate planning.

And while I can’t reveal every single detail about securing and converting these speaking engagements into immediate income (that’s a perk for Personal Family Lawyers and Law Business Secrets Success Coaching Club members only!), with a little bit of research and “outside the box” thinking-you too can generate additional income through speaking engagements no matter what type of law you practice!