7 Legal Marketing Books Every Lawyer Should Read

Podcasts can be a terrific learning resource for attorneys. So can blogs like ours. But, for many out there, nothing beats sitting down and reading a good book.

Below, we’ll be presenting you with seven top legal marketing book selections, and providing interviews with the books’ authors. This list is a must-read for any legal professional seeking guidance in growing their firm.

Featured Books

• Tiger Tactics

• The Legal Side of Blogging

• The Lawyer Marketing Book

• The Legal Marketing Fastlane

• The Game Changing Attorney

• The Power of a System

• If You Want To Get Rich, Build A Power Niche

Tiger Tactics: Powerful Strategies For Winning Law Firms

Jay Ruane, and four fellow attorneys (Ryan McKeen, Billie Tarascio, William Umansky, and Theresa DeGray) have collaborated to produce “Tiger Tactics”, a book which brings lawyers actionable strategies for helping their firm succeed and grow. Some topics covered in the book include using the internet to grow your firm, techniques for streamlining workflows and defining how you want your firm to exist. All of the authors of this book have gone on to create million and multi-million dollar legal practices, and their marketing advice is not to be missed.

Our Conversation With Author Jay Ruane

What made you want to write this book?

Jay: "The book started in a slack forum with 2 other attorneys, Ryan McKeen and Billie Tarascio. We were talking about how difficult it was to launch our respective private practices and lamented over the common roadblocks and hurdles we faced, as well as the issues which we all dealt with in time. Jokingly we said that no book existed in the market that directed the lawyer about to launch into private practice about these issues and since we all experienced them, we should “just write it ourselves.

That idea stuck. We immediately started throwing out ideas for chapters, and how we could build a book that walked people through the process and, more importantly, the mindset needed to enter the world of solo and small firm practice. We added 2 more authors, Bill Umamsky and Theresa DeGray to round out the perspectives.

From there it snowballed and since the chapters were all ideas we were passionate about, the writing was easy. Even the painful parts."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading your book?

Jay: "Too many lawyers feel alone. The profession doesn’t lend itself to showcasing weak points and there is no business training in law schools whatsoever.

Too often, lawyers launch into private practice without contemplating all the moving parts and many lawyers find themselves lonely, frustrated with the business part of the law practice and financially trapped.

We wanted to show them that not only are they not alone (we have all had challenges since launch), but that answers exist to many of their problems – if you know where to look."

Was there anything interesting you learned while doing research for the book?

Jay: "How different the journey has been for my co-authors. Why we launched is something deeply personal to all of us.

For me, it came from indignation, for Ryan it came from a realization that he was captaining his own ship and needed to take control.

But what I learned is that no matter if your practice is in Connecticut, Arizona, Florida or elsewhere, we are all tackling the same issues."

In this book, you have a number of different lawyers from different practice areas providing expertise. What additional value do you think that brings to the book?

Jay: "Not everybody will resonate with my story or how I approached my law practice business. That’s where the other authors come in.

Everyone has a story to tell and by telling 50 different stories, I am sure anyone reading this book will find at least one or 2 that resonate with them and allow them to learn and grow their practice."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

Jay: "We set up a website that tracks our book and speaking engagements at www.tigertacticsbook.com, where you can also get access to our Facebook group and continue the discussion online with fellow attorneys in the same position as you.

It has been great for the authors to learn from our “ambush” of tigers (that is what a group of tigers is called – something else I learned in this process!)"

The Legal Side of Blogging for Lawyers

The world of legal blogging can be an intimidating place, and without proper knowledge of the space, a dangerous one. But, don’t worry, attorney Ruth Carter is here to help. In the book, “The Legal Side of Blogging For Lawyers”, Ruth explains the rights you have as a blogger, provides real-life examples of what can go wrong for bloggers, and tells attorneys how to avoid common legal blogging mistakes.

Our Conversation With Author Ruth Carter

What made you want to write this book?

Ruth: "I became a blogger when I was a law student. I used my intellectual property and internet law classes to learn about the dos and don’ts about posting online to keep myself out of trouble.

As a lawyer, I continue to blog and I also practice internet law. When I started teaching CLEs about blogging and online marketing, I heard the same questions I get from average people about what they can and can’t post online. (I’ve also had my blog content stolen by three other attorneys who didn’t understand how copyright works.)

I realized that attorneys have the same needs as everyone else about what they can post online, and there wasn’t a comprehensive book that filled this void that addressed the general issues as well as the specific issues affecting attorneys."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading your book?

Ruth: "I have two hopes for my audience. The first is, I want them to be effective bloggers with the knowledge and resources necessary to accomplish this. One of the challenges all bloggers face is that they don’t know what they don’t know, and it’s often when there’s a big problem that they realize they’ve been making costly mistakes. I want to prevent attorneys from having to deal with the headaches and heartache that can result when things go badly.

Second, I don’t want attorneys to be afraid to create content. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways I’ve built my business and established my niches. I get about half of my new clients because they found a blog post or video that I posted online about a legal topic. I encounter a lot of attorneys who won’t share legal information online because they are afraid of possible ethics violations. There’s no need to be afraid if you’re doing it the right way."

Was there anything interesting you learned while doing research for the book?

Ruth: "There are so many stories about people getting in trouble because of what they post online, often because they had no idea what they were doing was wrong. I asked the anonymous blogger, The Namby Pamby, to write the afterword for the book. He said reading my book scared the crap out of him because there were so many laws that he didn’t know about.

The other interesting story I found in my research was a lawyer who was disciplined for ethics violations because of their blog. They treated their blog as a platform to brag about themselves, which is not the purpose of a blog. They were disciplined, not because they were blogging, but because they didn’t know that blogging, when done properly, is not advertising. (Marketing and advertising are two different things.)"

In your opinion, what makes blogging such an effective legal marketing technique?

Ruth: "It’s demonstrative. Instead of merely telling potential clients your practice areas, a blog provides a platform to show how you can help them. By helping the audience understand the law better, your audience develops trust in your ability to help them.

Having a blog also gives the audience a sense of your personality. People hire people, and clients want to hire a lawyer they like as a person. They get an idea of who you are through the topics you choose, your phrasing, and what videos and images you add to your posts."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

Ruth: "I’m easy to find online"

Find Ruth Carter Online

• Legal Blog

• Newsletter

• Personal Blog

• Law Practice Monthly Column

• Youtube

• Twitter

• Facebook

• LinkedIn

The Lawyer Marketing Book

With over 20 years of legal marketing experience, Matt Starosciak has a lot of expertise to share, and does so in “The Lawyer Marketing Book”. In this publication, Matt advises lawyers on converting prospects into clients, effectively setting marketing goals and measuring ROI. Each chapter is presented in an engaging and comprehensive fashion, and is full of valuable takeaways.

Our Conversation With Author Matt Starosciak

What made you want to write this book?

Matt: "Put simply, I felt I had a lot of helpful knowledge and experience that I should share.

Practicing law is much harder than non-lawyers think. And marketing a law practice is especially challenging in today’s competitive climate.

I felt my twenty years of experience as a lawyer, marketing products sales rep, and law firm consultant was unique and could really help the lawyer who is looking for strategies to effectively run his or her business."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading your book?

Matt: "I want lawyers to come away from my book with concrete takeaways they can implement in their law practice today. Every page is written with the goal of providing the reader a return on the time they spend reading it.

I also wanted the book to be entertaining, which is why I tackled each concept with a real world story. Some of these are pretty funny, but every one is relatable for the private practitioner and many readers say that format is what they appreciated the most."

Do you feel that this is a book that can help firms of all different sizes, and lawyers of all different experience levels?

Matt: "The book will undoubtedly help lawyers at all experience levels. It’s written to do so. And while I think most readers would agree that it will help small to medium sized law firm attorneys the most, there is enough relevant material to be useful to the large firm lawyer.

For example, there is a lot of material devoted to building an effective personal online resume, which is critical even for a lawyer at a 300-attorney firm who gets all of his or her clients from referrals."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

Matt: "I would encourage those who like my book to visit www.provenlawmarketing.com, which hosts my blog and also provides information about upcoming events at which I’m speaking."

The Legal Marketing Fastlane: Your Roadmap to Generating Real Leads in 72 Hours or Less, Even If You’re Small

Tired of not knowing where your next client is coming from? For those seeking immediate and consistent legal marketing results, Jan Roos’ “The Legal Marketing Fastlane” may be just the ticket. In the book, Jan discusses in-depth a strategy called PPC lead generation, and goes step-by-step explaining how lawyers can set up a lead generation system of their own.

Our Conversation With Author Jan Roos

What made you want to write this book?

Jan: "Running CaseFuel I found myself speaking with practice owners about marketing all the time.

After a few hundred of these conversations I started to see patterns between the ones that were finding success and growing year over year and the ones that were treading water with their business. And it had everything to do with the views they held around growing their practice - marketing being a really big part of that.

So when I sat down to write the book the first goal on my mind was to do whatever I could to arm practice owners that weren't growing as fast as they would like with the same tools and mindsets that the successful firms were using to think about growing their practice."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading your book?

Jan: "There are really two parts to the book with separate goals for each.

The first part is really geared around demystifying marketing and turning it into numbers. One of the biggest things that stops attorneys from moving forward (or moving forward with something that might have no chance of working from the start) is not having clarity around what marketing can and should do. In a perfect world a marketing investment should be as predictable as choosing a banking account, you know what you're putting in and what you should get out.

The second part is demystifying one specific channel - pay per click on google adwords. The goal here is to give someone the tools to get the type of PPC campaign that has gotten our clients leads in 72 hours or less going with no outside help. And once that starts working for them, I'm hoping they have the confidence to take control of their practice growth and scale it up or down as needed."

Was there anything interesting you learned while doing research for the book?

Jan: "There wasn't a dedicated research period per se - it was the result of hundreds of client campaigns over the years so in a way too much interesting stuff to recount!

Here's one particularly interesting tidbit though - lawyers are paying way too much for leads on pay per click and it has nothing to do with adwords. Based on the average industry conversion rates (around 6% for TOP advertisers according to wordstream), a divorce lawyer paying $15 per click in a major metro would need about $250 to make the phone ring just once! And that's not even considering that not every call will close. No wonder most attorneys say adwords is impossible.

Using the strategy I laid out in this book we've seen clients regularly convert at 25% plus, cutting that cost down by almost 80% and making it realistic to use PPC as a profitable growth channel."

What makes PPC lead generation such an effective legal marketing strategy?

Jan: "PPC isn't the end-all-be-all by any means, but it's a tool that has some distinct advantages. As the title of the book would imply the biggest one is speed.

There's no other channel that can get you consistent lead flow as quickly as PPC traffic, and provided you know how to close the leads coming in that means there's no other channel that will return your marketing investment quicker.

The reason I think that's so important is it can make skeptics into believers quickly, and also give them the means to 'double down' if they want to and take control of how fast they want to grow."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

Jan: "My latest focus has been my podcast which you can subscribe to here on iTunes.

I keep all of my announcements on LinkedIn though! Helps me keep things on all the different platforms together. You can follow or connect here."

The Game Changing Attorney: How To Land The Best Cases, Stand Out from Your Competition, and Become the Obvious Choice In Your Market

Today, consumers have seemingly endless options for legal assistance, and it can often be a struggle for attorneys to stand out from the crowd. In “The Game Changing Attorney”, Michael Mogill tells lawyers what they must do in order to reach a vast online audience, and separate their firm from the rest of the pack. Mogill’s experiences as CEO of Crisp Video, one of the nation’s fastest growing legal video marketing companies, makes this book a fascinating read.

Our Conversation With Author Michael Mogill

What made you want to write this book?

Michael: "I was struck by the present state of the legal landscape, in which solo attorneys and small firms find themselves at a significant disadvantage when they’re competing with Goliath firms.

That disadvantage is not only because they can't invest the same amount in marketing dollars and resources, but also the simple dilemma of great attorneys coming out of law school, getting great experience practicing law, and starting up their own firms - but then finding that they may not be great at marketing and are struggling to get the best cases as a result.

The best cases should go to the best attorneys, but in the current state of things, the best cases are going to the best marketers. One of the reasons I wanted to write the book was to share those types of insights to help to level the playing field."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading your book?

Michael: "I hope they’re able to better understand consumer decision-making — what consumers really think about and go through when they’re hiring an attorney — so they can align consumer needs and pain points with what they’re doing in terms of messaging.

I also hope they’re able to get a good understanding of how law firm marketing works these days, regardless of platform. From messaging to value proposition to differentiation to humanizing and authenticity, I think when you learn those concepts it makes you a much more dangerous marketer — and by nature helps you get found as an attorney."

Was there anything interesting you learned while doing research for the book?

Michael: "I learned that while the public views attorneys as generally competent, the level of trust that they have toward attorneys is very low.

The other thing that I found extremely interesting was that regardless of practice area, regardless of market and market size, any law firm — solo or small firm — can be competitive up against the Goliath firms in their market. Even without the financial and advertising resources. No one has an excuse."

How can creating original videos help lawyers land new clients?

Michael: "If you’re able to articulate what differentiates you, what sets you apart, to be able to tell your story and explain your why — why you decided to practice law, why your firm exists, your values, and so on — that in itself helps you to stand out from the numerous competitors and competing law firms within your market.

Creating engaging videos with thoughtful messaging like this helps you stand out and land the best clients simply because you’re focusing on humanizing, whereas everybody else is very much focusing on the same messaging or just simply services, like the practice of law is just a commodity and it doesn’t matter which attorney people choose when they need help.

You’re engaging people emotionally rather than just logically."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

Michael: "Readers can learn more about the book and where to find it at www.gamechangingattorney.com (where they can also download the first chapter for free). At www.crispvideo.com, they can check out the videos we produce for clients and more resources.

But, the best way to get all the value we provide is to attend our annual Crisp Game Changers Summit. It's the largest law firm growth conference on earth, and it’s unlike any legal event you’ve attended before. We’ll even give Answering Legal readers a special code to get $250 off your ticket. Head to www.crispsummit.com and use code ANSWER on any ticket type. Hope to see you all there."

The Power of a System: How to Build the Injury Law Practice of Your Dreams

Experience can be a great teacher, and in the “Power of a System”, attorney John Fisher uses his over two decades of injury law experience to show lawyers how to build their perfect law practice. In the book, Fisher tells attorneys how to put marketing systems in place that will help them get new cases every single day. You’ll learn what clients your firm should be going after, how to market to those clients, how to build a superstar staff around you and much more.

Our Conversation With Author John Fisher

What’s the biggest mistake you see lawyers make in the building of their practice?

John: "Most lawyers spend almost all of their time working in the business (technical work), rather than on their business (strategic planning).

Of course, you’ve got work that must get done, but there is nothing more important than strategic planning for the future of your law firm."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading your book?

John: "Documenting systems and policies for every aspect of your law firm is the most important thing you do.

If you are confronted with an issue more than once, you should have a policy for it.

Document the policy, share it with your staff and this will ensure that you don’t have to answer the same question more than once. Doing so will put you on the path to creating a self-managing law firm."

Was there anything interesting you learned while doing research for the book?

John: "When I wrote the book, The Power of a System, I thought it would appeal almost exclusively to young, relatively inexperienced lawyers. I was wrong. I discovered that older, experienced lawyers (25-30 years of experience) did not have systems or policies for their law firm."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

John: "You can get a free ebook of my book, The Power of a System, at ThePowerofaSystem.com and you can sign up for our weekly email newsletter at UltimateInjuryLaw.com. If you’re interested in joining a mastermind of elite plaintiffs’ lawyers, you can apply at MastermindExperience.com.

If you’d like to chat about your biggest challenges in running a law firm, give me a call. My direct phone # is 518-265-9131."

If You Want to Get Rich, Build a Power Niche…and a Bundle of Other Utterly Brilliant Marketing & Sales Ideas that Actually Work

For years, attorney Bruce M. Stachenfeld has been sharing his expertise in columns for Above The Law. In “If You Want to Get Rich, Build a Power Niche”, he takes things a step further, sharing everything he’s learned about marketing over the past 11 years. The book, which is available now on Kindle and in paperback form on April 23rd, explains why it's important for attorneys to establish their firms as different, and how they can do so by adopting a power niche.

Our Conversation With Author Bruce M. Stachenfeld

What made you want to write this book?

Bruce: "It was strange that I felt I had to write the book.

After spending well over 10,000 hours on marketing – trying and failing and failing and then succeeding in the end – I realized two things. First that the Power Niche was one of the few things that really worked. Second, that no matter how many times I showed it to people and proved it worked, people had a really hard time conceptualizing it. I kept explaining it and explaining it.

Finally, I started to write it down and then before I knew it I had written the book."

What do you hope attorneys get out of reading this book?

Bruce: "Attorneys think that getting clients is SO hard – many of them try and fail and give up. But it is all so easy if you follow the precepts stated in my book. It really is.

I hope other lawyers will read the book and not think about whether I am right or wrong, but just do what I advise. I recognize that that doesn’t sound humble, and I don’t mean it that way. I just hope they will give it a try. Once they do – and it works – it might change their careers and lives.

So I guess my “hope” is that the book will do good for lawyers’ careers."

What is a power niche, and how might attorneys benefit from centering their practice around one?

Bruce: "The Power Niche is in the book in Chapter One. In a nutshell, I explain that instead of trying to be a fish – of any size – in a pre-existing pond, you “create” your own pond, where you are the “only” fish. Since it is a pond you created, by definition you are the only one in it and easily become an expert in this small-sized pond.

Once you are an expert you effectively have monopoly power – including bargaining and pricing power – in that pond. If clients want “the best” in your pond you are the only game in town. What is so hard for lawyers to grasp, is that the smaller pond is not something already there that you pick out – it is something you “create.”"

Was there anything interesting you learned while doing research for the book?

Bruce: "When I started writing the book it took very little time as I was just writing down what I had been learning on the job.

One thing I will add here that differentiates me from others who write these kinds of books – I am not a professor in an ivory tower – or a lawyer who couldn’t practice law and now markets.

Instead, I get up every morning – every single day – and try to land clients. I am on the job just like the people reading my book. Everything in the book is the result of actual trial and error."

If readers like the book, where can they continue to follow your work?

Bruce: "Readers should follow me on LinkedIn and Twitter. I also have a regular column on Above the Law entitled “Power Niche Marketing”. Lastly, I write The Real Estate Philosopher™, which contains applications of my insightful and outside-the-box thinking to the real estate world. If you would like to read previous articles or subscribe, please click here."

For more legal marketing recommendations and guidance, check out our “Let’s Talk Legal Marketing” discussion groups on Facebook and LinkedIn. Many of the authors featured in this piece are already group members! And be sure to check out our free marketing eBook, “How Attorneys Are Marketing Their Firms in the Digital Age: A Survey Article” here.

Want more marketing content? Visit the “Let’s Talk Legal Marketing” web page here!