When you talk about advertising, and especially TV advertising, you are told that saturation and frequency matter. Well, I am here to tell you that it matters in relationship marketing, networking and referral marketing as well.
It is not enough to go out occasionally and make introductions. Even if this does result in some degree
of business, I can assure you it will not be enough and referrals will not continue if you do not actively and aggressively keep those referrals sources informed and keep yourself top of their minds.
No matter how well a referral source likes who you are and what you do, you are typically not their top priority (unless it is some parent, sibling or brother-in-law situation). Staff changes, policy changes, ambivalence, attrition and just plain forgetfulness will always interfere with the regular flow of business or cases if you do not stay on top of the situation and top of the mind.
How do you stay on top of this?
First, do not slow down. You have to get out and meet and greet. Referral sources are going to fall off, they are going to leave the business, retire or just get upset with you. You need to be replacing these referral sources and growing your base. I temporarily forgot this and about a year and after bankruptcy reform I saw the number of referrals take a nosedive. I had to remember to get back out there and be seen. Also, technology (although a good thing) had kept me out of the courtrooms around Texas except for active trials. This turned out to be a problem in finding new referral sources because many of them found me in the past during these status conference, management conferences, turnover and preliminary hearings.
Second, you have to stay in touch and top of the mind on those who do refer you cases. I like to say that everything I know I learned from my beagle. She is almost aggravating when she wants to be fed. She will continue to bark at me when I am preparing her food and putting it in her bowl. My wife jokes that she knows my memory is so bad that if she does not continue to remind me every two seconds, that I will forget. Well, this persistence to remind your referral sources that you are out there and are relying on them is vitally important. You need to continue to bark at them.
So, apart from getting out and getting seen, I try to stay top of the mind using several different methods. These are:
1. Basecamp . This is a cheap extranet that allows me to keep all notes, time and documents available for the attorneys of my firm, but it also copies my referral sources automatically of all notes, time entries, documents and actions taken in a case they referred. It gives them a front row seat as to what is going on, and since we use this extranet for office productivity anyway, it is an effortless and cost effective marketing tool.
2. Skype. This is a very cheap Internet phone. Forget cell phone minutes and costs. This service would be free except you really need Skype Out so you can call regular phone and line lines. I need to call referrals sources with questions or just to shoot the breeze. I want to know how they are doing in their practices because (1) I do care, and (2) how they do has an effect or impact on my practice. Get Skype and call regularly even if, for nothing else, to shoot the breeze. I guess I am older and have kids in law school and college. I do not like to hear from my children only when they want something or need money. The same is true for your referral sources. Call them when you do not need a referral or something from them. Ask them about their family, their staff, their accomplishments, and their catastrophes, because it matters. You want to refer to people you like and who like you. Being a people person does not hurt.
3. Constant Contact. This is a relatively cheap online email broadcast service. Upload your list of email address, you should be collecting, and produce short little email newsletters and alerts every week or two. For most practices you can get by on the $15 a month plan. If you had a particularly good settlement or fact situation, tell your referral sources. If you are going to speak to some bar group, tell them. If you are going to man the phone banks for the Jerry Lewis Telethon, tell them. If there is a law change, tell them. Keep it short but keep it frequent and let everybody know.
4. EFax. This is an online service that converts faxes to you into PDFs and sends them to you be email. It is a vital service for your office. But, they also have a service for broadcast faxes. You do not know who your referral sources best get information or who in the office gets the information that might direct clients to you. Your referral source might get new staff that is vital in identifying the work you do or in getting the work referred to you. They do not know who you are, and they might not see the email broadcast sent to by you to the principal referral source. So make a point of sending one page faxes to your referral sources once a month or so. In my experience your referral sources do not mind fax alerts or information as long as you do not become a pest about it. So, keep it to about once a month and keep the information short.
5. Click2Mail. It is a partnership situation with the United States Post Office. It allows you to send small mass mailing, cards and announcements to your referral sources. Again, you do not know how information is best received by your referrals sources or who in the office sees the information, or needs to see the situation. So, send low tech mailings in a high tech way, and do it regularly. I would suggest a mailing at least every 6 weeks or so. Some can be simply holiday cards. Others alerts or newsy letters (letters with a lot of news but not in a newsletter format). The point is frequency and saturation.
6. TypePad. This is an online blogging software. There are other such programs as well. No matter which one you use, blogging is essentially email to the world. Add this to some service like Living Dot which can allow you to turn your simple little blog into a website that will domain map your URL over your TypePad URL and establish a recognizable email address. Even if you do not want to blog that often, you can easily use this software to set up a reasonable website. Then when you are producing all of this other information in newsy letters, faxes and emails you can turn them into posts as well. And, it is something you can easily set up and design yourself. It does not have to be too slick as much as it has to be relevant. Check out my practice blog at StayViolation.Com. I do not update it all that frequently, but it has a good deal of content. I did it all myself without any help (and you can as well). And, it acts as a informational and referral source. It is really the portal to which all referral attention is directed.
7. FormSite. This is a nice little online utility that allows you to create (in most cases FREE) an email referral form that you can link to your website or blog. This is important, because when properly using your URL and website/blog as the referral and reminder point, you need a quick and easy method for referral source to send you a case or client. It also helps you collect the information you need upfront to properly evaluate the case. You can take a look at the one I developed on my practice blog. Just go to StayViolation.Com and click on the Refer A Case Online icon.
8. 123 Print. This an online source for designing a printing business cards. There are actually dozens of these sites to chose from. Just Google business cards. Look, business cards are not high tech. But, they are cheap and easy to procure. They are easy to keep with you. And, person-to-person they are still the easiest way to transmit relevant information to your referrals sources. Get them. Keep them with you when you are out and about, and hand them out like candy. The cards need to lead off with your URL. Direct them to your personal cheap referral portal. Direct them to your website/blog, and provide them with all other contact information. Just because someone has referred to you in the past, do not forget to give them a card. Make them refuse it if they do not want one. It is a vital part of staying top of the mind.
9. YouTube. What an unused resource this is for all of us -- even me. Video production does not have to be slick. It just has to be honest. Cameras on our computers. Camcorders. I even have a movie camera on my cell phone. You do not have to be overly photogenic. I look closer to Ziggy than Robert Redford. But, you can easily record a short message or thank you, upload it to YouTube for FREE. You can then link to it in a email or embed it on your website or blog. Record a general thank you or holiday message for your referral sources. Then send it to them via email. Then for good measure and for content embed it on your website or blog.
The point of all of this is that you do not have to be overly slick in what your produce. In fact, this might not be a plus. But, what you have to do is be consistent in frequency and saturation of your small but effective referral base. It is a little bit of a pain to get all of this set up as I have described above, but after doing so it becomes so routine that keeping up with it is not difficult.
This method works for any field. If you practice personal injury, meet and greet doctors, chiropractors, auto body shops, insurance adjusters, other lawyers in related but not identical fields, all depending on what side of the docket on which you might practice.
In consumer bankruptcy? Then you can pursue CPA, accounts and bookkeepers. You can pursue human resource people. You can add divorce lawyers, and other bankruptcy attorneys.
In probate? You can work funeral directors, grief counselors, bankers, real estate agents and personal injury attorneys, just to name a few.
My referral source of choice are bankruptcy attorneys.
Frequency and saturation are the keys to all overly successful marketing, and relationship building or networking is no different. Develop these tools and you will eventually be successful in your chosen field.
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