In Remote Times Like These, How Can You Really Connect With Your Clients?

Nancy Myrland - Myrland Marketing & Social Media
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Myrland Marketing & Social Media

These times can be challenging for client and business development.

We’re in-person, then we’re not.

We’re scheduling events, then we’re canceling them.

We’re working remotely, but only sometimes.

When you are trying to connect with clients and potential clients, what are you supposed to do that is worth your and their time and resources? How are you supposed to connect with those who are important to you, your practice, and the firm when you can’t see them face-to-face?

You might be getting tired of scheduling plain vanilla Zoom networking meetings where you “just want to get to know each other better.” (Not that anything is wrong with vanilla, but you know what I mean.)

The Most Common Question I’ve Heard The Past Two Years

During these past two years, the most common question or concern I have received has been about how to get close and stay close to clients and potential clients when you can’t be with them in person.

Lawyers and their marketing and business development professionals have been trying to think of ways other than traditional networking meetings and webinars on Zoom that will allow lawyers to stand out and make a difference to their clients.

One specific question I answered on a recent listserv discussion was:

“My organization is looking for creative ways to connect and market with our clients. As in-person meetings continue to not be an option at this time, we are looking for ways to connect with clients besides Zoom calls. What are firms doing?”

I Have Ideas For You, Plus One BIG Caveat

If you are looking for a few additional ways to connect with your clients that can truly make a difference to them, I have your back.

Before you read on, please know that these efforts I am focusing on are all about helping your clients and potential clients attract attention to what they are working on. These should not be focused on you and your practice area. When you define your audience correctly and involve them in this process, your audience’s knowledge of what you do will happen naturally.

For now, your goals are to:

  • Shine a spotlight on them.
  • Provide value to them.
  • Show them kindness and the courtesy of helping them strengthen their business through your efforts.

Let’s get started.

10 Timely Ways To Connect With ClientsSPECIAL NOTE: As you read the following idea, if you are interested, I have created 9 more ideas for you that you are welcome to download. Don’t miss the link below that offers 10 Timely Ways To Connect With Clients. If you are reading this via email, just click here

Co-Create With Your Clients and Potential Clients

As a way to connect and add value to your relationship with your clients, let’s talk about how the co-creation of content helps to connect with your clients.

One Idea: 6 Ways:

Co-creating content can take many forms, but here are 6 ways co-creation of content can play out. Hopefully, one or more of these will work for you:

  1. Interview them for a written series on your blog. Come up with a standard set of questions that form the basis of this and any future interview, but also be attentive by asking questions that are specific to their business. Let them know you care enough to customize your questions.
  2. Co-author a blog post or article. This is different from the interview mentioned directly above in that you are partnering to cover a topic that is important to both of you. Talking about the various facets of this topic will cause you to spend quality time together. Promote this blog post on your website and on social media. Tag them and show appreciation for working together. Make sure to send them the link with a heads up to let them know when it will be published.
  3. Interview them on pre-recorded video. Similar to what I mentioned in the first point, interviewing them on video creates a bond between you, and it also helps create a bond between your client and those watching the video. Video is the ultimate when it comes to accelerating the know, like, and trust factors your and their clients need, want, and deserve. Hint: Caption the video as many watch videos with the sound turned off, which means you need to make your video accessible to all.
  4. Create a livestream video, introducing your client to your audience, asking questions, taking questions from attendees, and having a casual conversation about what they do for a living. When you go live on LinkedIn, for example, this automatically creates a LinkedIn Event, which has many additional benefits. One of those is that you can schedule it and invite all of your audiences to attend. Remember that livestream replay attendees are often more numerous than those who attend live, so this is a gesture that has long-lasting benefits. Share the link far and wide after it is over to show even more value to your guest.
  5. Co-host a webinar or mini-series, discussing issues you are both well-versed in and that your attendees care about. This is another way to introduce your client to your community, which is always a valuable gesture. You are helping to position them as an expert in their field, which is good for their business. Again, what a wonderful gift to shine this type of spotlight on them.
  6. Create simple yet powerful quote graphics with words your client has spoken, then post these on social media. One way to gather this information is to ask them for their “top 5 changes they have seen in their industry in the past 2 years,” or “the top 5 changes they anticipate in the next 2 years.” Turn those into simple graphics that show the quote, their name, their firm name, then add their contact information in the comment that accompanies the social media post. You can also post these in a space on your website dedicated to sharing your client’s wisdom with your website visitors. Make sure you provide copies of these to your clients in case they are interested in posting them on their social and digital media. Create a set of templates that will make it easy to go in and edit the copy each time you do this for additional clients.

Repurpose, Repurpose, Repurpose

These are all valuable relationship-building gestures, but you can make them even more valuable by extending their reach to as many different social and digital media as possible.

Repurpose your content by redesigning parts of them in different ways, which will likely attract different audiences as you will be providing formats that speak to different methods of consumption. Do this the first time and you have a process that you can use every time.

Interested In Additional Ways To Connect With Clients Now and After The Pandemic?

If this one idea of co-creating content with your client has been interesting to you, I have created a complimentary resource called…you guessed it:

10 Timely Ways To Connect With Clients (Other Than Zoom)

These ideas are meant to help you differentiate yourself and cut through the clutter of Zoom invitations your clients receive. If you are getting tired of those meetings, the chances are pretty strong that your clients are, too.

As I mentioned above, when you approach these 10 ideas with a servant’s heart of shining a spotlight on your clients, this is where the true connection can be made.

10 Timely Ways For Lawyers To Connect With Clients

Let me know what you think, okay?!

Also, if you are already using any of these ideas, I’d love to know how they are working for you.

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Nancy Myrland - Myrland Marketing & Social Media
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