Podcast Ep. 137: Legal Marketing Lessons to Live by With Attorney Justin Stivers

In this episode of the Legal Marketing 2.0 Podcast Guy is joined by Justin Stivers, the founder and owner of The Probate Law Firm; a law firm dedicated to probate and estate planning based out of Miami, Florida. Justin is all about making the legal process simple and easy for the consumer and is constantly looking for efficient and innovative ways to improve the way legal services are sold and delivered. The focus of Justin and Guy’s discussion is on what legal marketing lessons Justin has learned to enable growth for a new law firm, which social media channels offer the most benefit for small to mid-sized firms on a budget, and how he currently manages his time as an owner of a successful law firm. You can connect with Justin on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.

Podcast Show Notes

1. What has and what hasn’t worked for you from a marketing and business development perspective?

I think the biggest thing that I did was getting my name out there and being known by the public. When I first started, I didn’t have a large bankroll to throw at Google ads or Facebook ads. I started by going out to networking functions like lunches, breakfasts, happy hours, and bar events.  Once cases started coming in, I found myself not having as much time to visit these events and began scaling my marketing efforts. I did this by focusing on social media. People want to see who you are and what you do, they want to put a face to the name. Social media is also a great way to maintain those relationships you made with people from these networking events. These are all legal marketing lessons I have learned along the way.

2. What social media channel has been the most successful for you?

Facebook is great because I think most people have a Facebook account. Depending on your demographic and depending on what type of legal services you do, I think Facebook tends to skew to a little bit older of an audience which is great. Instagram has also been doing well; I’m seeing a lot of younger attorneys active on that platform that engage with us on a regular basis. We have recently started creating YouTube videos based on certain topics users may be looking for more information on and even followed up with a client while she was watching one of our videos.

3. What would you say to the lawyer that is too busy or reluctant to focus on marketing?

How much work do you want? Do you want to get more business? Are you happy where you’re at? An agency can only capture your voice and your persona to a certain degree. There needs to be a good mix of content-based efforts in which you are educating the public, and I think an agency or your in-house team can help with that.

4. How do you manage your calendar?

I am extremely militant about my time. It’s a trait that I’ve developed and improved upon over the past several years. I script out my day to every 15 minutes. I don’t take unexpected phone calls unless it’s an emergency. Schedule out your day and don’t have white space on your calendar, know exactly what you’re going to do at all times.

5. What is the main role of the owner of a law firm and how does that relate to marketing and business development?

I think the first step is admitting that you have a problem that you need help with. You must decide, is your main goal to be the best attorney out there in your specific field and have cases just stacking up and not work for them to come in? If you do, then I don’t think owning a law firm is for you. You can not put marketing out of mind when running a law firm.

6. What is your strategy for staying top of mind with people?

We do a lot of following up with our potential clients. That entails many phone calls and emails. We conduct drip email campaigns with our clients. This also goes back to social media, if a client jumps off a phone call with you and then wants to search you up online, if you haven’t posted anything in years it’s not going to look good.

Takeaway

Constantly being aware of how you can improve your law firm is a tedious, yet fruitful trait an owner can have. Owning a law firm may not be for everybody, but for those willing to take the challenge on, following the legal marketing lessons Justin has uncovered along the way through his journey may be a life saver. Marketing and business development efforts should never be ignored, and only those that are willing to commit the time will succeed.

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