By Kristina Schneider Many estate planning attorneys think that seminars don’t work—for a variety of reasons. Some of these reasons may be valid, but the most common reason that I find when I talk to estate planning attorneys is they say, “I tried it and they didn’t work.” It’s then that we begin to have a discussion about how they went about marketing it and as we begin to look into things further, it is clear to me why they don’t think that seminars work. Worse yet, for some attorneys, I have found that when we actually reviewed the return…
What Estate Planners Get Wrong About Their Homepage
By Foster Web Marketing Most estate planning attorneys assume that their homepage should be the page that comes up in search for every single keyword they want to be found for. The plain reality of the situation, though, is that you can’t do everything with just one page. This is such a pervasive issue in estate planning marketing. Nearly everyone assumes that all their visitors will come in through the “front door,” or homepage, of their website. Their designers put a load of emphasis on it. They use all their best images, calls to action, content, links, and ideas on…
7 Tips for Making More Appointments – – Right at a Seminar!
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law Many seminar speakers forget (or don’t realize) that the main goal of a seminar is not to educate, but to motivate the attendees to make appointments with you before they leave the seminar! Our goal is always to make appointments with a minimum of 80% of the “units” attending (husband and wife equal one unit). That may be a lofty goal for you to begin with, but you should at least shoot for an initial appointment rate of 50%. …
Use the Right “Google Bait” to Attract Great Estate Planning Clients
By Foster Web Marketing Who is your website designed for? It sounds deceptively simple, but this is a big question. If you think about and make a website like a lawyer, you’re probably only going to attract the attention of other lawyers. But, if you shift your thinking and your website toward what makes sense to the people you actually serve, you’ll attract your “perfect clients.” Too many lawyers write their content and develop their websites without those perfect clients in mind. And their ability to get great cases and clients suffers for it. So, if you want better leads…
Conduct a Successful 2025 “Kick-Off” Meeting with Your Firm
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law I’ve found that the best way to ensure a successful new year is to start off with a big stride in the right direction, by holding a firm “kick-off” meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to establish clearly defined goals for the year, outline the implementation process and get everyone on board, excited and motivated! It also provides an action checklist that you and your firm can periodically refer back to during the year, so you stay on…
Year-End Sales Tip to Get Clients to Engage You
By Philip J. Kavesh, J.D., LL.M. (Taxation), CFP®, ChFC, California State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust & Probate Law As we head into the final weeks of the year, you may experience some pushback from clients and prospective clients you are meeting with. In particular, they may say that the holiday time is too busy and they’d like to revisit things sometime next year. The problem with this is that once they leave your office, it’ll be much harder to circle back with them, get them in, and get them re-motivated to do the planning and do business…
How Estate Planning Firms Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising Responsibly
By Foster Web Marketing Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) isn’t as easy or cheap as some marketing companies would have you believe. It’s a highly competitive marketing channel, especially for lawyers. That constant competition drives up the cost of popular keywords, even when those keywords aren’t necessarily effective at attracting the clients and cases you want. It also takes high-level research, technical know-how, and constant adjustment to get a good return on your PPC investment. So, if you approach it with the expectation that it’s going to be this simple, single-channel solution to all your marketing woes, you’re going to be disappointed. …
Top 10 Year-End Practice-Building & Marketing Ideas of 2024
By Kristina Schneider, Practice Success Coach As we head into the final quarter of 2024, you may be wondering where all the time went and what can you do in these final two months to really help your practice end the year with a BANG! I’ve put together what I consider to be the Top 10 Year-End Practice-Building and Marketing Ideas for 2024 so that you can end this year on a productive, positive note and head into 2025 with some momentum! IDEA #1: Clean up your database. Now is a great time to take a look at your database…
2024 National Estate Planning Awareness Week
The third week of October is National Estate Planning Awareness Week. This year, it’s October 21-27. Bringing awareness and educating the public about estate planning is crucial to not only keeping families out of Probate Court, but also for helping manage, preserve and distribute their hard-earned assets to their loved ones, as they wish. To help spread the word about estate planning and National Estate Planning Awareness Week, feel free to download and use the image below in your public marketing (website, blogs, newsletters, social media, etc.).
You Need a Strong Review Strategy to Attract More Estate Planning Clients
By Foster Web Marketing A lot of the estate planning lawyers I talk to see reviews as a kind of nice “extra.” They don’t ask for them. They don’t look for them, and they don’t necessarily know what kind of impact their reviews are having on their incoming visitors and leads. In a profession that depends on your good name and reputation, doesn’t that seem like a huge oversight? Someone checking out your estate planning firm for the first time wants to know what kinds of experiences other people have had. They want to know if you can actually help…