Out & About: Why Lawyers Should Run Workshops

For lawyers who engage with the buying public – which is just about every lawyer, whether they’re working with consumers or businesses – workshops can be a great way to build a client and referral base, as well as solidifying an attorney’s expertise.  Estate planning lawyers for example, have success running workshops, and often include related professionals, like financial planners.  Sure, writing a blog post is one thing; and, sending out an enewsletter is another thing – but, getting face-to-face time with your potential clients is undefeated as a method for generating new business.  So, if your marketing planning does not include time and space for workshops, it may be time to tweak your marketing plan. 

 

These are five, specific reasons why you need to run workshops through your law firm: 

 

-The most obvious one is client and referral generation, as alluded to above.  The more of that face time you can get, the more you can entice folks to know, like and trust you.  And, the more business you’ll get.  And, that’s true whether you’re doing virtual or in-person workshops.  Though, there are some distinct advantages to running in-person workshops – even if it’s not the only type of workshop you operate. 

-Another advantage of running workshops is that it offers you the opportunity to refine your pitch, in real-time.  Look, you can practice your elevator pitch, and closing conversations, all you want in the mirror.  But, what happens when the rubber meets the road, and you’re trying for real?  It’s better to get real reps in place, to see how folks react in the moment, so that you can take the cues you get, and refine how you sell.  Workshops are like focus groups, and so have significant value, in that way, too. 

 

-Since even before the pandemic, community-based referrals for law firms have been rising at a faster rate than traditional business owner-to-business owner referrals.  Workshops allow you to access that growing trend, by establishing a regular, community-based activity for yourself.  And, if you can run these events live, and in-person, then you’re in a good position to expand your brand in your locality – not just on the web. 

 

-Running workshops in partnership with other community stakeholders is another way to imprint your local brand.  But, it also helps you in web marketing, including for local search.  Host a workshop with a local, financial planner, or the local library, and those businesses are likely to add your website link to an event page.  That’s called a backlink, and they’re massively important to any content marketing program on the web.  When Google (or other web search engines) look for viable businesses when folks are searching service providers, one of the things they look for is whether other businesses seem to believe your business is a viable provider in your legal niche.  This is part of the equation for ‘domain authority’.  So, the more backlinks you can get, the higher you can fly – in terms of search; and, this option is a whole heck of a lot cheaper than engaging a full-throated SEO campaign 😊. 

 

-Last but not least, you can also use workshops to help you build out your content calendar.  If you’re hosting webinars, record them + add them to the pool of content that you can publish on your website, in social media and in your newsletters.  If you’re hosting in-person workshops, record those, as well, with physical devices + publish those online, and via your marketing channels.  Content marketing is the most cost-effective way to market a small law firm, and this is another tactic for taking advantage of that.  You can take videos and chop them up into smaller segments.  You can just use the audio, or segments of it.  You can take the transcripts, and publish written text, as well. 

 

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Workshops work; and, if you want to start running them – give us a call, we can help! 

Through a unique partnership between the bar association and Jared Correia's Red Cave Law Firm Consulting, National Creditors' Bar Association members have access to experienced law practice management consultants at a special discount rate.

To get started, visit Red Cave's NCBA landing page, and start running your law practice like a business.