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Marketing your blog : Ask prospects to subscribe

September 30, 2006

Reading an article at Law.com by Joey Asher, an attorney and communications/sales coach, about how lawyers may telephone prospects and offer free seminars, conference invitations, invitations to join an organization or free memos on an area of the law reaffirmed my thinking on one way to market your professional blog. Call, write or email prospects asking them to subscribe.

And for lawyers, asking someone to subscribe to your blog is not solicitation. Solicitation means contacting a prospective client and asking them to hire you for a pending matter. For non-lawyers, solicitation is a legal ethics violation.

How do you ask?

When you talk with prospective clients on the phone or in person, whether it be socially or a conference, let them know now you’ve created a blog which people in their shoes have found most informative. Ask if you can get their email so you can add it to your blog subscriptions. Explain they may later opt out if they wish to subscribe by RSS or that find your blog’s not for them.

Sometimes you’ll know your exact audience. Perhaps you’ve got a blog covering election law issues for the largest political action committees. Call or write the leaders of these organizations and ask them to subscribe by RSS or email. I was talking to one client recently who is going to have a blog on a topic of interest to the corporate/municipal council for cities and townships throughout their state. I am suggesting that they let those council know of the blog and to subscribe to same.

When speaking at a continuing education program or industry event, ask people to provide their emails on a sign up sheet or to toss their business cards in a bowl. You’ll then subscribe them by email to your blog. Of course also let them know a copy of your presentation may be downloaded their.

You are offering something of value.

  • Few lawyers stay on top of a niche topic like you.
  • Even fewer are monitoring RSS feeds for information on the topic.
  • There’s a strong likelihood no law firm is blogging the topic.
  • Your blog is not a treatise but it is an intelligence agent on the niche topic your prospects need to stay on top of.
  • Your prospects’ interests, and even jobs in the case of in-house counsel, are at risk if they do not stay up to speed on the topic.

Be proud of your blog. Posting an entry once or twice a week to share what you think may be of interest to your target audience is good stuff. The people you ask to subscribe will not bite. They’ll thank you.

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