Reputation and experience are leading factors that push prospective clients to choose an attorney. If you’re trying to grow your estate planning practice, it’s wise to consider that data point, as it’ll be key to your strategy.
Growth tactics focused on highlighting your expertise and boosting your reputation can garner trust among leads. These five tips for growing your estate planning practice put your skills in the limelight and help potential clients feel comfortable working with you.
Commit to continued excellence
You’ve put a great deal of work into establishing a practice: getting a rigorous education, passing the bar, and acing your first client interactions. But in the estate planning industry and amidst a changing legal landscape, your work is never done. Drive trust with potential clients by showing your commitment to continued education and keeping your skills fresh.
Attend webinars and conferences, and stay on top of pertinent legal updates. Become a member of The Estate Planning Institute (TEPI), and gain access to exclusive webinars with industry leaders, up-to-the-minute information on legal changes, and a member badge that demonstrates your commitment to excellence and continued education. Feature this badge on your website and in marketing materials to foster a sense of trust among potential leads.
Offer the best client experience
One way to stand out among the competition is to offer a better client experience than the rest. Much of doing this lies in providing the expertise clients seek and delivering your services with admirable soft skills like clear communication, problem-solving, and empathy.
But you can go above and beyond by offering clients educational tools they can’t find elsewhere. When you help clients understand the estate planning process—ideas that are new and complex to them—you foster smoother, more confident relationships and streamline work. TEPI offers an exclusive library of video content targeted at estate planning clients to make this process more agile. These clips break down complicated concepts in ways laypeople understand.
When you offer unique value-adds, they’re sure to come through in referrals, reviews, and conversations around your practice. These perks become key differentiators for clients choosing an attorney.
Take a multichannel marketing approach
Savvy marketing is essential to finding and nurturing new leads. Take a far-reaching approach by leveraging different communication channels and content styles.
Start by maximizing the potential of your website, making it easy for potential clients to learn about your services and experience and contact you. Optimize your content for search engines (SEO) by using keywords in site texts that’ll help browsers find your page easily. There are plenty of SEO tools that can identify these search terms for you.
Create a Google Business account, as well, so that your practice is readily searchable on this engine. Fill out as much information as possible, describing your business clearly and categorizing it finitely, so that the search engine will bring it up in results when local leads query about estate planning practices near them.
Then, promote your practice on social media, keeping your branding and message in line with those established on your website. Use paid social media marketing to create advertisements targeting your ideal demographic.
And be consistent with email marketing. Deliver valuable estate planning information and client promotions, inciting recipients to open your emails and take the first step toward working with you or returning for repeat services. TEPI creates compelling ready-made content that members can use in marketing emails, saving you time and ensuring quality information.
Leverage referrals
Encourage satisfied former clients to refer your business. It only takes them a few seconds to leave a five-star rating for your business on Google and a few minutes to write a stand-out review. And the payout for your practice is invaluable. Eighty-four percent of consumers surveyed say they trust online reviews just as much as word-of-mouth ones.
You can also ask former clients for written or video testimonials. Highlight both on your website and use written testimonials in emails you send to leads. This tactic allows potential clients to learn more about your expertise from a third-party, unbiased viewpoint.
Finally, consider incentivizing referrals. For example, you can reward repeat clients with a discount on future services if they bring in a new client for your practice. Help referrers promote your business by providing them with concise information to share with interested contacts, i.e., a digital brochure about your services accompanied by links to your website and social media accounts.
Foster a strong professional network
Not all the professionals in your network are “competition”––even other estate planners. You may find that peers are readily willing to refer clients to your practice. Perhaps their client load is too high, or they’re heading off on a long vacation, retiring, or seeking a good fit for a client who needs help in another state, your state. Build your professional network by joining communities like TEPI’s directory and forum, attending webinars and conferences, and staying active in local groups.
Other professionals in your network can help drive referrals, too. For example, financial planners can send clients your way for specific estate-planning help, and you can do the same when one of your clients is seeking more generalized financial guidance. Apply this same technique with insurance professionals, tax experts, and other lawyers in your circles.
Focused growth efforts will pay off
Client-attorney estate planning relationships can last a lifetime as people shift their financial goals and needs. Every new client implies a longstanding and lucrative opportunity, an enjoyable relationship, and a learning experience. So, investing in marketing, networking, and driving referrals is well worth the time and expenditures.
TEPI was founded to help estate planners grow their practices and professional communities affordably. Network on our forum, leverage our videos and ready-made marketing materials to educate clients, and stay up to date on legal changes with our timely updates—delivered directly to members’ inboxes.