Create Trust with Simple and Authentic Law Firm Marketing with Ali Awad Law

content marketing digital marketing law marketing marketing social media marketing top law firm Nov 25, 2021

Conventional wisdom teaches that law firms and businesses need to get out there and market themselves — but is that the best way to get law cases? Showing possible clients what we can do for them requires more than advertising. We cannot acquire clients through authentic law office marketing strategies and tactics alone; we must earn them through trust. But how can people trust your firm if they aren't sure how you can assist them?

In this episode, we interview the CEO Lawyer, Ali Awad — Ali is a well-known social media expert and personal injury attorney. Ali shares that harnessing social media is all about legitimacy. It's not always about advertising; in fact, 90% of his content is educational. We also discuss how to align your business model with your purpose and build a growth strategy around it.

If you want to change your law firm marketing to create genuine connections and develop visibility, tune in with Ali.

Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

Learn how to give real value through your content and create interest and excitement around what you do.
Understand that law firm marketing can start simple. It's more important to begin.
Discover how your business model and purpose can drive or stifle your business growth and direction.

Resources

Connect with Ali Awad: Website I Facebook I LinkedIn I Instagram I Twitter I Email
The CEO Lawyer Summit will be from December 13 to 15 at Westin Hotel, Atlanta.
The E Myth - Why Most Businesses Don't Work And What To Do About It by Michael Gerber
Hootsuite
Mobile Monkey
Zoom
File Vine

Episode Highlights

Ali Awad’s Journey to Building His Firm

Ali Awad shared that he worked as an associate in a firm where he did the majority of the work — he brought in cases and closed them.
He quickly realized that he wasn't being appropriately valued and quit in 2017 to start his own practice.
In 2017, Ali Awad generated $3.2 million in settlements using only his phone and one paralegal. He had no website or real office during this time.
By 2019, he hosted the first CEO Lawyer Summit. However, his company was not able to grow during this time.

Learn to Teach

For Ali, the Summit was a success because he sold the number of tickets he targeted.
The seminar taught people how Instagram marketing works and helped boost Ali’s credibility in the industry.
He then pivoted to selling recorded courses last year.

Ali: “The people that teach usually make more than the people that do.”

Ali’s Business Model

Ali: "Any case that comes into my door has a 60% chance of settling for at least $25,000. Good cases don't fall into your lap. Good cases are built."

Ali shares that you can’t assume that certain types of cases and lawyers are better off. It comes down to your business model.
Many firms have a broken business model because most work on a commission basis and do not know the quality of their cases.
Ali breaks down his process to ensure that he can make personal injury cases scalable.
He starts with finding out the root problem. In this case, the cooperative that deal with personal injury often need attorneys for litigation.
Then, he streamlined the process by sending the cases to the right doctor. He also pre-negotiated medical bills to predict settlement value and income better.

What it Takes to Build a Business

Ali shares that big litigation law office typically have cases lasting as long as 26 months, while his office is just 3 to six months.
His firm's shortened case time helps his firm reinvest in law firm marketing in a short time and grow faster.
Law firm marketing is not the only answer to business growth. Most of the time, it boils down to your business model and its scalability.
There are tasks that you can delegate to others. You don’t need to rely on expensive staff.

Ali: “It's not really people's marketing that's broken. Most of the time, you're covering fees and costs that you shouldn't be covering.”

Using Social Media as Law Firm Marketing and in any Practice

If social media worked for his personal injury practice, Ali believes it might be even more effective for other types of law.
Most practices are proactive. However, personal injury is reactive — people will only think about the service when they need it.
He shares that client acquisition for personal injury is competitive, going from$1,000 to $2,500, whereas family law ranges between low three figures or even two figures.

Ali: “Social media is more important in other industries outside of personal injury, other areas of law because it's so much easier to bring in those cases.”

How to Start Using Social Media for Law Firm Marketing

He recommends understanding the advantages you have in the market. Consider how many of your contacts have hired you in the past.
If people you know don't know what you do, it's time to educate them about it.
Listen to the full episode to hear Ali share how to change your messaging and tone by making it more personal.
Law firm marketing doesn't have to be complex; start simple. If you can't do audio and video, write a simple post. Test out different types of content.

Ali: “If it comes from the heart and it's authentic, people are going to want it, people are going to eat it up. If you do that once a week [or] once a month, it'll train your audience and your followers to know what you do.”

Don’t Commercialize Your Content

Not everything needs to have a call to action because it demeans your audience and commercializes your story.
He shares that less than 10% of his content is actual advertising. 90% is for educating and engaging his audience.
Remember that your audience is smart enough to ask questions and find out how to connect with you.

Educate and Give Value

Remember to give value to people. Give them something that they want they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
Ali shares that educating people on not needing him positions him as an industry expert.
Whenever you post something, you're promoting yourself to potential clients, potential partners, and referrals.

"By me teaching you how to not need me, how to negotiate cases on your own, you automatically trust me. Because it's like, this guy has no incentive — he doesn't even need my service. He's teaching you how to not hire me. In fact, he's protecting me from other lawyers that are inferior that don't know what they're doing."

Don't Wait — Take Action

Don't wait until the markets get more challenging and diluted. You need to start somewhere.
The more you practice and care about it, the better you will be at it.
You can’t build systems and processes overnight; they start with what’s important to you.
Most of the time, the real purpose is not getting more clients.
Learn to get reach organically, practice with your friends and family, and you’ll get better at finding and connecting with strangers.

Ali: "Content creation, amplification, domination, that's the strategy. And so on the execution part, it's all up to you — the information is there."

Growth Looks Different in each Cycle

Moshe: “Every step of the way, we need to always be investing in our business.”

Know what you want and adapt to your company’s growth cycles. Don’t focus on profitability too early because this will stop your ability to scale.
Ali shares that expecting growth means overhiring than what his firm currently needs.
Most firms are owner-heavy, where the owner keeps doing tasks that they don’t even need to do. On the other hand, Ali’s firm consists of 5 attorneys and 40 support staff.
Know every task your staff is doing and identify tasks that don't require their skills to accomplish.

Reflect Your Purpose in Your Business Model

Small changes can grow exponentially and change the trajectory of your business.
Remember that your business model should reflect what you want to do.
Wanting to work anywhere in the world meant that onboarding employees will be expensive. However, it also attracts top talents.

CEO Lawyer Summit

The Summit is a 3-day intensive seminar about building a personal injury law firm, running a virtual law firm, setting up your social media pages, and so much more!

About Ali

Ali Awad, the CEO Lawyer, is the founder and managing attorney of Ali Awad Law, P.C. His firm specializes in personal injury cases. In his first year of practice, he settled over $1 million in cases — including car wrecks, truck accidents, slip and fall cases, medical malpractice, and a toxic mold exposure claim. Ali uses social media to offer free legal advice and leverages it for law firm marketing.

Ali recently received the Lead-Counsel rating by Thompson-Reuters for his achievements in representing plaintiffs in personal injury matters.

Interested to learn more about Ali’s work? Check out his Website.

You can also connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and email ([email protected])

Enjoyed this Episode?

If you did, be sure to subscribe and share it with your friends!

Post a review and share it! If you enjoyed tuning in, then leave us a review. You can also share this with your friends and colleagues so that they can gain more insights into what marketing strategies they can use for their businesses or law firms.

Have any questions? You can contact me through Facebook and LinkedIn. To request a show topic, recommend a guest or ask a question for the show, please email [email protected].

For more episode updates, visit my website. You can also tune in on Apple Podcasts.