by Trey Ryder

~~ FAST FACTS ~~

>> Create a seminar on the problem you can solve for clients.

>> Prepare a flier that you'll use to promote the seminar.

>> Get a co-sponsor for your seminar. This can save you a tremendous amount of money in promotion costs, including printing and postage.

~~

Often, all you need to attract a few new clients is the opportunity to speak to a qualified group of prospects at a seminar. Here are 7 simple, cheap and easy steps:

Step #1: Create a seminar on the problem you can solve for clients. For example: How to settle an injury claim. How to avoid probate. How to reduce the pain and expense of divorce. How to cut liability insurance costs. How to reduce lawsuits from employees and vendors. Whatever is specific to the area of law in which you want to attract new clients.

Step #2: Prepare a flier that you'll use to promote the seminar. On the flier, display the title, explain the various points or problems you will discuss, add your photo and include your biography. Include a space for the time, date and place of your program.

Step #3: Get a co-sponsor for your seminar. If your seminar is business oriented, you might ask the local chamber of commerce to co-sponsor it. Or a local business group. If it is consumer oriented, ask a local newspaper or TV station to co-sponsor it Or a citizens' group. Choose your co-sponsor based on the size of the audience they reach, how many of your prospective clients are in that audience, and how willing they will be to promote your seminar to their audience, membership or mailing list. (This can save you a tremendous amount of money in promotion costs, including printing and postage.)

Step #4: Promote your seminar to your co-sponsor's membership or mailing list. Provide them with a flier about your program. If you rely on them to produce the flier, it will contain little more than the title, time, date and place. But if you provide it, you can go into great detail about the information you will present and the problems you can help prospects solve. The more you explain about your program's content, the more prospects you can expect to attend.

Step #5: Promote your seminar with newspaper publicity. Contact your local daily newspaper or business paper (depending on the nature of your seminar). Announce that you're presenting a seminar. Discuss the problem your seminar will address and emphasize how many people in your area are -- or could be -- affected by this problem. Invite the editor to interview you for an article to help alert the community (or your target audience) to this problem -- and your upcoming seminar. You're in a stronger position when you approach the editor in writing with a letter discussing your seminar and what you will present. Give the editor at least six weeks' advance notice of your program.

As an alternative -- if you can't get advance promotion from a particular media outlet -- invite the editor to send a reporter to your seminar who can write an article about it for the newspaper. I've seen editors put articles about my clients' seminars on the newspaper's front page. Because this article won't appear until after the seminar, it won't help your attendance. Still, it makes a powerful reprint and may bring you new clients.

Step #6: Promote your seminar with direct mail (or e-mail) to your past clients, current clients, prospects and referral sources. Many people on your mailing list may want to learn about your subject. Also, they may have friends and colleagues they can invite to attend with them.

Step #7: Present your seminar, addressing the subjects you outlined on your seminar flier. Discuss clients you have helped in the past so prospects see you have experience in these matters. Share actual case histories of what happens when prospects make good decisions, and what happens when they make bad decisions. Then offer something your prospects will find attractive, such as a free office consultation, free telephone consultation, or whatever you wish.

In all likelihood, if you reach qualified prospects and present a good program, you will get new clients as a result of this seminar.

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© Trey Ryder

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