Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg

A search engine like Google or Microsoft's recently released competitor Bing are great tools for a global search of the entire web.  And that's great for those lawyers who have a dominant presence or a unique niche that appeals to clients nationally.  But where most search engines have a hard time is at a more granular level, i.e., in helping users find local businesses and services -- be they restaurants or nail salons or daycare centers or law firms -- right in their own backyard. 

For lawyers who target clients in surrounding communities, the search engine's "local" blind spot creates an enormous disadvantage.  Large "mill" law firms with regional or state-wide practices are able to dominate solos and small firms in search engines, pushing them down to the second or third page of rankings.  And while these larger operations may not have offices in close proximity to a prospective client, that client may choose the firm by default because a more convenient solo option never appeared in the search engine.  

As I've written previously, blogging can help close the search engine gap.  For example, lawyers can improve local SEO by choosing a domain name for a blog that is very location-specific, such as BlueHillTennesseeLawyer.com, or referencing the names of local communities within posts.  However, if you're not inclined to blog, Google just launched another tool which can help improve your visibility on the local level and, more importantly, generate data that can help you to better target local clients. (As a disclosure, my husband is a Google employee, but he does not work on any of the search tools and in fact, never mentioned this tool to me -- I learned about it independently online).

As described at Tech Crunch, Google is attempting to build up its Google Local application, which generates local search results and provides listings that pop up in Google Maps.  But in order for the tool to be effective, small businesses need to claim their listing profile.  As I've already discussed, listing a profile at Google Local can help improve your SEO in local markets.  In addition, Google Local also lets users include photos and create "coupons" (though you'd need to check with applicable bar rules to determine whether you can ethically offer discount coupons).

But as if that wasn't enough incentive to add your profile, now Google is offering this Small Business Dashboard which provides free data that can help businesses evaluate the effectiveness of their local marketing efforts.  The Dashboard provides statistics on how many times a business comes up in search results and which keywords generated those results, how many times people generate driving directions to the business on Google Maps, and, most importantly, where those people come from.

How can Google Local and the Dashboard help your marketing?  For starters, let's say that you continuously receive calls about bankruptcy matters, notwithstanding that you specialize in estates.  By checking the keywords by which users are finding you, you may discover a phrase on your website that attracts clients with bankruptcy problems.  You can use that information to tailor the text on your site to lure clients with matters in your specific practice areas.  Or, let's say that you learn that for some reason, many clients are coming to your firm from another part of the state -- perhaps as much as 40 miles away.  You could consider adding a virtual office component to your practice, or holding office hours once a month at a temporary office closer by as a convenience to these clients.

Through the Internet and powerful search engines, all of us have the ability to search and be found globally.  But for those lawyers who serve the surrounding communities, none of that matters unless clients can find them locally.  So why not act locally and set up a Google Local listing for your law firm?

A few months back, I posted on the importance of client newsletters as a marketing tool and offered some tips on how to create newsletters to make them appeal to existing and prospective clients.  Not surprisingly, many businesses recognize the benefits of e-newsletters -- so much so that Forrester Research predicts that email marketing campaigns will reach $2 billion by 2014, reports Lisa Barone at Small Business Trends. 

Barone believes that email marketing is one of the most effective low-cost ways for small businesses to inform and retain existing clients.  She writes: 

Email marketing is all about customer retention. It's about building stronger relationships with customers who already know you and decided that, yes, they want to keep hearing from you. They want to stay up to date on what you're doing, they want to hear about new products, they want to hear about hot deals, etc. The messages that land in their inbox help keep your company name in their top of mind and force them to constantly be thinking about you.

Barone offers some advice about email marketing campaigns.  Though I don't recommend that law firms bombard clients with promotional activities (and indeed, doing so might not even be ethical), many of the tips are readily transferable to e-newsletter campaigns.

In addition to the advice from my earlier post, Barone recommends that you develop content with your existing and prospective clients in mind.  For example, do your clients want educational articles to help with a specific task?  Are they interested in short case studies or quick updates on new legal developments?  Once you understand why clients have subscribed to your newsletter, you can generate content that suits their needs.  If you serve a diverse clientele -- for example, families who need estate planning and individuals with employment matters -- you may want to consider two separate newsletters.     

It's also important to "brand" your newsletter, using the logo or colors that are consistent with your website.  That way, the template will help reinforce your brand to clients.

One final, interesting point -- the day that you send emails matters.  According to Barone, emails sent Tuesday to Thursday receive the highest open and clickthrough rate.  By contrast, those sent on Monday are most likely to be lost, while those sent on Friday are most likely to be ignored.  If your schedule doesn't permit you to personally send newsletters on those days, then consider delegating e-newsletter prep to an assistant.

Once again, it's time for a round-up post, updating information that I covered in earlier posts.

1. Lawyer-Bloggers All A-Twitter About the Value of Twitter 

Back in February 2009, I considered whether lawyers should be using Twitter, ultimately concluding that at the very least, they ought to give it a try.  Last month, however, lawyer marketing expert Larry Bodine stirred up a controversy with this piece contending that Twitter isn't a very effective tool for lawyer marketing.  Bodine highlighted Twitter's high churn rate, with 60 percent of users dropping off after just a few months' use and pointed out that other tools such as email promotions and blogs were more effective ways to drive traffic to a website.  Most significantly, Bodine argued that Twitter was a time sink -- a distraction from getting real marketing work done that didn't lead to serious business.

Bodine's post earned him lots of criticism in the blogosphere, which David Barrett exhaustively summarizes at Linked In Lawyer.  Most of the commentary emphasizes that Twitter isn't an end in itself, but a supplement to other marketing tools, such as creating an introduction to warm up a cold call or other personal connection, or helping lawyers reinforce their personal brand.

2.  Are Listservs Obsolete?

Back in December, I made the point that the new generation of social media still hadn't rendered listservs obsolete.  Fast forward six months... and is that still the case?  Via the Legal History Blog, I came across this interesting article, Where Do Legal Listservs Fit in A Social Media World? by law librarian Greg Lambert.  Lambert notes that while listservs still remain a great way to build relationships, network, and discover new resources, at the same time, they have drawbacks such as "lazy research" (obvious questions sent out to 2500 members) and a tendency to generate flame wars if left unmoderated.  Lambert favors Ning (which I'll post about on Monday) as his tool of choice for combining the ease of use and spontaneity of listservs without the drawbacks.  I checked out the Law Librarian Ning that Lambert referenced -- and while it's a nice looking site, it lacks the fluid interaction of a listserv.  At the same time, the participants have all filled out bios, which can facilitate connections and networking.

If you're like most lawyers, you probably use Wikipedia for a variety of purposes, from finding a layperson's explanation of a legal concept to getting the back story on current events.  Some of you may be avid enough users that you may have even registered for a Wikipedia account and contributed to some of the entries.  But chances are, you never considered creating a Wikipedia page for yourself or your law firm.

Truth is, up until a few weeks ago, I didn't either.  But as I described in this post at Legal Blogwatch, most major law firms already maintain pages on Wikipedia.  What's more, the
UK Law Society points out, Wikipedia has enormous reach:

Wikipedia is one of the largest reference websites -- 684 million visitors yearly. For a sniff of its power, whether you like it or not, cogitate on this snippet from the New York Times 'Bits' technology blog on 30 March, entitled 'Microsoft Encarta Dies After Long Battle With Wikipedia': 'Microsoft delivered the coup de grâce Monday to its dying Encarta encyclopedia, acknowledging what everyone else realised long ago: it just couldn't compete with Wikipedia... In January, Wikipedia got 97% of the visits that web surfers in the United States made to online encyclopedias, according to the internet ratings service Hitwise. Encarta was second, with 1.27%.' That's how powerful Wikipedia is.

With that kind of traffic, a listing on Wikipedia could theoretically bolster a firm's search engine visibility.  So I decided to test my theory and ran a couple of searches on some of the law firms listed in Wikipedia.  Sure enough, the firms' Wikipedia listings came up within the top five to ten front page search results on Google.

Still, is a Wikipedia entry worthwhile for solo and small firm lawyers?  For starters, what kinds of information would you include in the listings?  Many large firms with long histories describe the firm's origins and provide bios of firm founders and well-known alumni.  But solo and small firm lawyers might not have enough background material to include.  A smaller firm might also link to reported cases or cross-reference practice areas described on Wikipedia.  For example, a bankruptcy lawyer could cross-link to the entry on Bankruptcy in Wikipedia, thus providing a good resource for clients with basic questions.  Likewise, lawyers could cross-reference the city where they practice or hobbies they enjoy.

Ultimately, I don't think that Wikipedia is an indispensable component of a lawyer marketing portfolio in the same way as a website or blog or business card.  But for lawyers looking for something different or who can devise a unique use for Wikipedia, it might be a marketing tool worthy of further consideration. 

In the past few months, most of us have seen stories such as this one about how newspapers are facing extinction, victims of widespread content available online free and recession-driven declining ad revenues.  But could television be far behind on road to obsolescence?

This past weekend's Washington Post carried this interesting article, "Click Change: The Traditional Tube Is Getting Squeezed Out of the Picture" which describes that more and more, consumers are cutting the cord to their television, opting to watch shows online.  And of course, even those consumers who aren't yet willing to part with their little black box (or large, flat plasma screen, as the case may be) customize their viewing experience with TiVo or other recording devices such that their television habits bear little in common with those of viewers of ten or fifteen years ago.

All very interesting.  But as a reader of this Legal Marketing Blawg, you're probably wondering "So what does declining television viewership have to do with me?  I don't advertise on T.V."  Yet, that's precisely why this trend should interest you.  Because while television is dying, you still have a chance to get a first-mover advantage on those advertising techniques that are most likely to work in the post-television age.  Moreover, studying today's trends in television viewership offers insight into what kinds of messages work with 21st century consumers.  Now, I'll step back and explain.

1.  Positioning Yourself for the End of Television Advertising.

Traditionally, television advertising has been the domain of large law firms or networks of firms.  After all, who else can afford the enormous cost?  Lawyers who pay for television advertising are playing a numbers game, figuring that by getting in front of thousands of viewers, they can capture just a small percentage and thus make the cost of the ad worthwhile.  However, when viewers stop watching television, ads won't be as effective -- and these mass marketers will look for other avenues, including the Internet.  They've got the resources to potentially dominate, too -- by gobbling up keywords and employing high-priced SEO Consultants.

By acting now, you can fight back.  For example, by setting up a blog (as I noted last week, only two percent of lawyers are currently blogging) you can start gaining visibility in local domains and specific niches.  By starting a blog now, you can get yourself comfortably entrenched on the first page of Google's search results by the time the mass television marketers find their way online.  And once on top, it's harder to get dethroned.

Even if you're not committed to blogging, you have other options to establish visibility online.  In previous posts, I've discussed how article archiving sites like JD Supra, circulation of eBooks, and other do-it-yourself techniques can bolster your online presence.

2.  What Do Consumers Want?

Continue reading "What the End of Television Means for Lawyer Marketing" »

Here's the latest round-up on some of the topics covered in earlier posts to be sure that you have up-to-the-minute information on the latest and greatest in lawyer marketing:

1.  Add More Value to Videos By Power Using YouTube.

Back in January, I posted on why lawyers should consider making video part of their marketing portfolio.  In addition to the reasons that I described, Travis Campell, the Marketing Professor offers some ideas for building community and online presence through YouTube -- which means that you'll get more bang for the buck out of any videos you produce.  So what benefits does You Tube offer?  For starters, you can get statistics on viewer demographics and feedback on your video through commenters.  Posting video on YouTube can also help drive traffic to your site and enhance your search engine visibility.

2.  Should You Hire An SEO Expert?

My first post for this blog described some do-it-yourself SEO tips.  But if the DIY approach doesn't get you the results that you need, should you consider hiring an expert?  I've posted, more generally, on issues to consider when hiring a marketing consultant and now, lawyer marketing expert Larry Bodine shares advice on hiring an SEO expert.  My favorite tip of the post? 

Type the vendor's own targeted search terms into Google and see how well they do for themselves. Type in "law firm web consultant" or "law firm SEO consultant" or "law web marketing consultant" into Google. If they can't get good rankings for themselves, move on.

3.  Social Media and SEO.

Six months ago, when I posted about do-it-yourself SEO, I didn't focus extensively on social media, largely because its impact on SEO wasn't fully recognized or acknowledged at the time.  That's since shifted, as Duct Tape Marketing writes, noting, "It has become extremely difficult to achieve any measure of success for important keyword phrases without the use of social media."  As a result, any business attempting to optimize a site should add a blog and podcast, participate in Twitter and optimize profiles on Facebook and LinkedIn at the very minimum.

To date, I've penned eighteen entries for Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg, covering marketing tools ranging from eBooks to article archiving to listservs and more.  But so far, I've omitted one rather conspicuous topic: blogging.

In part, my omission derives from the fact that there are already so many resources on blogging available online.  For example, consider Grant Griffiths' (a recovering-lawyer turned blogger) twelve-part-and-still-growing-series on how to build a successful blog that will generate clients.  Likewise, Kevin O'Keefe of Lexblog maintains an archive crammed with blogging basics.  As for me, I've penned my share of articles on blogging, including a now-five-year-old piece, It's A Blog World After All (surprisingly, only the info on tech is dated) and a GP Solo article, Get Your Blog Rolling, which offers hints on guerrilla blogging tactics that will let you get the most bang from your time.  I also authored a form-follows-substance blog-based presentation on blogging, that you can click through here.  This piece too is five years old, but except for some technology changes, the concepts remain the same.

And yet... in spite of the fact that lawyer blogging has been around for more than five years and generates a huge volume of coverage, only two percent of lawyers are blogging.  That's the statistic from the 2008 ABA Technology Survey, which also found that 8 percent of law firms are blogging.  You might conclude that the paucity of lawyer-bloggers means that blogging is a waste of time, but in fact, the opposite is true:  Few lawyers blogging means that the door's wide open for you to get in on the ground floor.

Moreover, even though social media is the marketing tool with all the buzz, it's blogs that have both the staying power and the impact.  Just last week, the influential women's web hub Blogher.org released the results of this study, which concluded that:

Women are nearly twice as likely to use blogs than social networking sites as a source of information (64%), advice and recommendations (43%) and opinion-sharing (55%)...

In short, when it comes to gathering substantive information, women are relying on blogs -- and if you're a lawyer with a blog, you become a trusted source.

Blogs are also a proven source of generating clients. Greatest American Lawyer Enricho Schaefer discusses the success of his firm, which he attributes to his findability from the organic search terms embedded in his blog.

By now, I've probably overwhelmed you, but at the same time, I have hopefully piqued your interest in starting a blog.  For now, I'll lay out a couple of of preliminary steps to getting started and, in the following weeks, I'll share some best practices and details.  So here are a few first steps:

1.  Register a couple of domain names.  Yes, I know it sounds crazy to invest money in domain names before you get your blog set up.  But the domain name is critical -- because each time you update your blog, that domain name will get a boost in the results returned by search engines.  So by giving your blog a topical name that's relevant to your practice area -- such as NebraskaCollectionLaw.com for a Lincoln-based collections attorney -- you're organically boosting your search engine visibility. 

Don't despair if your first choice of domain name isn't available -- many great domain names are still out there.  If you serve a specific jurisdiction, location, or city, you may want to include that location in your domain name. Most prospective clients hope to find attorneys within a locality -- and by including a city or county within your domain name, you increase your findability -- e.g., BethesdaMarylandDivorceLawyer.com.   Sure, those terms are narrow, but you can purchase a couple of domain names and aim them all at the same site.  So go run some searches and see what's available.

2.  Start reading other blogs.  Spend some time reading blogs -- you can find a universal list at the ABA Blawg Directory and Justia's Blawg Search.  Take a look at how those blogs are set up and which features you like (or don't like).  Are there particular styles that you favor?  Certain topics or writing style?  Keep a list of your preferences.

3.  Set up a news reader or sign up for Twitter.  One way to come up with material for blog posts is by staying informed.  You can do this by signing up to use a News Reader where you can read streams of posts from blogs and news sites all in one place.  Or, you can hop on Twitter to see what kinds of news items those you follow are posting.  Current stories and news events are a great source of information for posts and will help you generate traffic.

4.  What would you want to hear?  In addition to staying on top of news streams, put yourself in a client's shoes.  If you were a prospective client searching for a [bankruptcy or immigration or family or special education or fill-in-the-blank] lawyer, what kinds of questions would you have?  What information would you want to know?  And what would you hope to learn about your lawyer?  More than anything, imagining your audience is the secret to an effective blog, as well as one that's personally satisfying.

Email me at elefant@myshingle.com with any other questions about blogging.  I'll pick up this series over the next few weeks. 

As I did a few weeks back, here are a couple of updates to topics that I covered previously:

For Twitter, which I posted about here, there are two great blog posts on usage.  At Law21, Jordan Furlong focuses on Twitter as a business tool, while Steve Matthews of Stem Legal shares the most comprehensive list of dos and don'ts that I've seen to date.

Meanwhile, relevant to my earlier post on eBooks is a classic by marketing guru Trey Ryder explaining education-based marketing.  Since eBooks are a great example of education-based marketing, Ryder's post may give you added motivation to try an eBook campaign.

Many lawyers find themselves in a catch-22 situation in the economic downturn.  On the one hand, they realize that they need to step up their marketing efforts to attract more business.  On the other hand, feeling cash-strapped, they're loath to spend money unnecessarily.  And when business finally comes through the door, lawyers are more inclined to jump on it to earn some money and relegate marketing to the back burner.

Large firms have long dealt with the problem of yo-yo marketing efforts by maintaining professional marketing staff who can keep the machine running even while lawyers are busy.  But few solos have the resources to invest in full-time marketing staff, or even to hire a part-time marketing professional.  Moreover, many solos run a strong independent streak and are loath to delegate any tasks, including marketing.

Truth is, there are few tasks that are easier and more cost-effective to delegate than marketing.  Below, identify those marketing functions that lend themselves to delegation and find some affordable ways that lawyers can outsource some of those tasks.

1.  What you can delegate and what you can't.  Delegation can help lawyers with their marketing, but there are some functions which can't be outsourced.  For example, if your marketing strategy includes lunch or coffee dates with prospective referral sources, clearly, you can't send an assistant in your stead.  However, as I'll discuss below, what you can do is ask your assistant make the initial contact with referral sources, with you following up personally to issue the invitation. 

Some tasks fall in the middle of the line.  For example, you could hire a ghostwriter to write articles or a blog for you, or use a social media guru to Twitter on your behalf.  I don't recommend delegation in these circumstances because it's not genuine -- I prefer my readers to hear my voice in my writing because it conveys a sense of my personality.  Though there's nothing wrong with asking an assistant to help identify blog topics, edit posts, and every so often put up a post under your name during a busy spell, ultimately, you should avoid having someone acting as "the man behind the curtain".

Finally, as a lawyer, you alone are responsible for compliance with ethics rules governing advertising.  If you outsource preparation of an advertisement or marketing campaign, you need to review those materials thoroughly to ensure that they don't run afoul of ethics rules in your jurisdiction.

2.  Tasks suitable for delegation.  Now that we've covered those tasks that lawyers shouldn't delegate, what's left?  Plenty, as discussed below:

For seminars, delegate room reservation, set-up of online webinar software, scheduling, registration, marketing, materials reproduction, mailing campaign, registration and surveys.

For articles or e-books, delegate research of potential topics, potential publication sources, supporting research, editing, formatting, and distribution.

For blogging, delegate blog set-up, topic collection, gathering resources, editing and formatting posts, monitoring blog statistics, and blog publicity.

For cold calls, delegate organizing contact lists and numbers, making initial contact and scheduling the followup call.

For social media, delegate the setup of accounts or profiles (based on information provided by lawyer), identifying potential followers (on Twitter) or connections (on LinkedIn), sending requests for testimonials, and monitoring lawyer's online presence.

For general marketing, delegate identifying growth areas, preparation of white papers and surveys to support marketing efforts or circulate to potential clients, graphics and logo preparation, contact management, and sending news items in clients' newsletter.

3.  Who to delegate to?  There are plenty of professional marketing companies that can handle all of these tasks for you, but they can also be costly.  Instead, try working with virtual assistants, many of whom have experience marketing their own businesses and are highly skilled when it comes to social media and online tools.  Professionals students, such as law students or business students, can also help out on most tasks, particularly those requiring more specialized marketing or legal research.  Don't overlook your family either -- your spouse, parents, or kids can help fold or stamp fliers, or register attendees at a seminar.

As for cost, virtual assistants and students provide fairly cheap labor, while you can often consign friends or family for free! 

4.  Change your mindset.  Ultimately, to succeed at delegating, you need to change your mindset and build it in to all of your plans.  Start breaking down marketing tasks into lists and specifically identify whether you or an assistant will handle a particular matter.  Once you formally list an assistant as responsible, you'll be less inclined to take on the work yourself.

Just like yo-yo dieting, on-again-off-again marketing efforts aren't particularly effective or healthy for the growth of your firm.  By delegating marketing tasks, you can ensure that they continue to move forward even during those times when you're too busy to pay attention.

You've probably heard the saying that bad publicity is better than no publicity.  But that's not necessarily true in this cache-and-carry-on-forever Internet age, where Google continues to shine light on your darkest hours long after the controversy has died down. 

As a result, more than ever, lawyers must be vigilant about our online profiles -- in an an Internet age, our online reputation invariably precedes us.  Increasingly, clients are turning to the Internet to find lawyers.  And even those clients who locate lawyers through offline sources like newspaper ads or personal referrals routinely turn to Google to ferret out additional information.

To complicate matters further, there's now myriad ways for disgruntled clients or colleagues to disseminate unflattering information.  From lawyer rating sites to individual blogs to newspaper articles that remain online and uncorrected long after an unflattering incident has passed, it's never been easier to drum up dirt on anyone.

So what's a lawyer to do?  We're all familiar with ways to harness the power of Internet to attract business; indeed, I've posted on many of those techniques here in my blog.  But today, I'll focus on the flip side: how to use the Internet to avoid losing business as a result of rumors, criticisms, or other negative information that resides online.

1.  Guard Your Reputation As Zealously As You Represent Clients

Perhaps the most important step that lawyers can take to avoid fallout from negative information is to continuously and vigorously monitor their respective online reputations  If that sounds time-consuming, it doesn't have to be.  Over at Hubspot, you can find out how to monitor your social media presence in just ten minutes a day.  Tips that apply to lawyers include:

1. checking Twitter for chatter about your company and using search tools like TweetDeck or TwitterSearch to monitor conversations in real time
   
2. setting and then checking Google Alerts for your name or those of cases or client matters you're working on
   
3. looking for questions to answer on LinkedIn (answering questions can increase positive search engine visibility), and
   
4. using Google to track other social networking sites and, in particular, blogs, where a colleague may have criticized a posting or commented negatively on the way in which you handled a case. 

In addition to these general social networking sites, lawyers should regularly monitor sites like Avvo which allow clients to post ratings and opinions, and other similar sites where clients are permitted to comment or review lawyers.  And don't forget to keep an eye on sites like LinkedIn, where colleagues can post testimonials.

2.  If You Find Something Positive, Reinforce It

Of course, lawyers are most interested in dealing with negative information and I'll get to that issue in a moment.  However, even when you find positive comments, you should respond with a thank you.  Clients and colleagues who take the time to praise something you've done can serve as your greatest allies if you ever need to undertake damage control against unfair criticism or unflattering commentary.  Take the time to cultivate your own personal vigilante group who can go on the offensive for or with you.

3.  Dealing With Negative Information

So what can you do if you uncover negative or unflattering information about yourself?  First, depending on the information and the site where you found it, ignoring the information might make the most sense.  As this Freelance Folder post suggests, when the comments are clearly from a source that's not credible, you are probably best off ignoring them rather than drawing further attention. 

Continue reading "Is Bad Publicity Better Than No Publicity? Not Necessarily in an Internet Age" »

Since the world of Internet marketing and social media changes so rapidly, I've decided to offer routine updates on earlier posts so that you can stay current on the latest and greatest.  So without further fanfare, here's the first round-up:

1. Two weeks ago, I posted about how lawyers can use eBooks for marketing.  However, as Amanda Fazani points out at this April 6 post at BloggingTips.com, eBooks are also a great tool for building traffic to your blog, which in turn can generate business for your firm.  If you can't come up with topics, Fazani suggests several ideas, including:

• Collect your 10 most popular posts and repackage with a little extra commentary.
• Expand on the concept of your most popular blog post.
• Create a directory of resources which are useful for your target audience.
• Write an FAQ to answer popular questions from readers of your site.

Fazani also recommends using a Creative Commons license for your eBook so that you can retain some control over the way in which the book is redistributed by others. 

Also,  if you're looking for ways to broaden distribution of your eBook, consider the options for distributing articles discussed in this blog post at Stephen Fairley's Rainmaker Institute. Fairley explains that you should submit articles you've written to re-distribution sites like  Article Marketer, isnare.com, or SubmitYourArticle.com and there's no reason why you couldn't also submit portions of your eBook to gain further visibility.

2.  About six weeks ago, I posted here about how lawyers are using Twitter.  Last week, Simon Chester asked that question of his readers at Canadian law blog Slaw.com and some of the responses are illuminating.  Also at Slaw.com, I learned that Jim Calloway, Practice Management Advisor of the Oklahoma Bar offers his own take on Twitter in this article,  Twitter: The Good, the Bad and The Ugly.

In the meantime, whether lawyers are using Twitter or not, there's no dispute that this social media tool is gaining traction.  According to this recent Mac World article:

Twitter traffic is up 700 percent over last year, and it's all thanks to the old-timers. That's according to the latest numbers from ComScore, which says Twitter drew almost 10 million visitors worldwide in February 2009. In the past two months alone, Twitter traffic has grown by 5 million worldwide visitors, while U.S. Twitter traffic accounted for 4 million visitors in February 2009 -- a 1000 percent jump over last year.

What's most interesting is that the average age for Twitter users is in the 25- to 54-year-old range, with the over-45 set comprising the bulk of users.  So if you're in that age category and previously considered other social media tools too childish, you may want to explore Twitter some more.

A couple of days ago, I came across an interesting piece from Portfolio.com about a deal between major publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and the online document document-archiving service Scribd that makes an increased number of best-sellers available for free as ebooks.  Though at first blush, giving away a core, revenue-generating product free seems crazy, publishing houses report that the freebies generate increased buzz and exposure on micro-blogging platforms and thus get the author's name and book title out to a wider circle. After reading this, I got to wondering why lawyers don't take a page from publishers and use and promote ebooks to gain greater exposure for their practices. Why indeed?

Turns out, some lawyers are already using ebooks as part of their marketing portfolio.  For example, consider Florida-based firm, Ricardo, Wasylik & Kaniuk, which released a 30-page ebook, The Consumer's Guide to Defending Florida Foreclosures.  The ebook helps consumers avoid the increasing number of sham "foreclosure prevention assistance centers" cropping up around that state which prey on consumer fears.  Plus, it's a way for the firm to demonstrate their expertise and provide useful information to the public. Finally, by requiring users to register for the ebook, the firm can build a mailing list.

Another Florida lawyer, Miami Criminal Defense attorney Brian Tannenbaum, devised his own innovative ebook concept.  Tannenbaum penned a 28-page ebook entitled The Truth About Hiring a Criminal Defense Lawyer.  Tannenbaum's book offers prospective clients straight-talking advice about what factors clients should consider in hiring a criminal defense lawyer and what clients can do to work with a criminal defense attorney to ensure the best possible outcome.  Tannenbaum's book gives his firm exposure and also educates clients about basics, such as: Be prepared to pay your lawyer!  My guess is that Tanenbaum's book deters those clients who don't realize that attorneys need to earn a living. 

Even more interesting, in order to generate exposure for his book, Tannenbaum asked A-list criminal defense attorney-bloggers like Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice and Mark Bennett of Defending People to review his ebook.  Thus, Tannenbaum set off a nice discussion about various approaches to criminal defense practice and in so doing, gained more visibility for his book.

If these examples have convinced you that an ebook may have marketing value for your firm, here are some ideas for getting started:

Continue reading "Take a Look at the eBook to Market Your Practice" »

Lawyers are supposed to be fearless, yet the thought of cold-calling for business is enough to send shivers of fear down most lawyers' spines.   Many lawyers believe that cold calls reek of desperation, while others reject them as undignified or unprofessional. 

But for all of the criticisms that cold calls receive, they're a hot way to market your law practice, if only because so few lawyers are willing to make them.  Moreover, cold calls offer an immediacy that even many social media sites can't replicate.  For example, let's say that you call a family law attorney to let him know that you're available for conflicts cases and unbundled matters.  The attorney may not have anything that fits the bill but may need someone to help out with overflow work on a contract basis.  Because of its interactive nature, a phone call allows you to explore these possibilities.  Cold calls are also inexpensive and efficient -- in the span of an hour, you can speak with five or six prospects.  By contrast, you'd probably need several more hours to draft a personal email to potential referral sources -- and there's no guarantee that the recipient would actually read it or respond.

Before you embark on cold calls, consult your bar rules.  Most bars prohibit phone calls soliciting business from consumer clients.  But these restrictions don't prevent you from contacting other lawyers or professionals to ask for business.  Likewise, if you represent more sophisticated clients, you can probably contact in-house counsel or an executive at the company to set up a meeting to discuss your services.

Once you've concluded that your cold calls pass muster under bar rules, below are some tips for getting started:

1.  Warm Up Your Cold Calls.  As a general rule, a warm call -- one where you can offer some plausible connection to the recipient -- works better than a random cold call, say, to another lawyer in the bar association.  Fortunately, with social networking tools like LinkedIn and online lawyer directories (including Nolo's Lawyer Directory), it's easy to find a connection to colleagues through their online profiles.  You may notice, for example, that another lawyer worked at the same firm where you once worked or attended the same law school.  All of these bits of information can help open the door. 

The other way to generate a warm call is to ask colleagues for people who you might contact about a matter.  Let's say that you want to let family law attorneys know about your estates practice so that you can help newly-divorced clients modify their estate plan.  If you have a friend who's mentioned a colleague who's a family lawyer, ask your friend if you can call and use his name. 

2.  Concoct a Reason for the Call. You're likely to get the best reception from a cold call if you can offer something of value instead of just asking for work.  When I started my law practice, I cold-called various professionals in my field, offering to send them a copy of a law review article that I'd just written.  Offering to send something made the calls less awkward and, in many cases, piqued my prospect's interest in learning more about my firm.  There are numerous excuses that you can give for making a call, from sharing information about a new blog to offering a checklist or ebook that might be useful to your prospects clients -- e.g., a consumer credit lawyer might give copies of a checklist on "Avoiding Foreclosure" to family law attorneys, whose clients might be on the brink of financial disaster following divorce.

3.  Get Organized.  Since cold calls can be uncomfortable, you're best off setting aside a chunk of time (mid-morning and after lunch work best) to make them in bulk, one right after the other.  Be sure to keep track of calls -- who you called and whether you need to call back at another time. 

4.  Write a script.  Cold calls can be awkward, so you'll want to jot down a script and practice it a couple of times.  Your script should include an introduction, your connection to the prospect -- and, most importantly, a question asking whether it's convenient to talk or if you should call back. 

5.  Think Positively.  If you're feeling desperate when making cold calls, prospects will hear it in your voice.  So think positively and smile across the phone lines. 

6.  Don't Quit.  Almost immediately, you'll get rejections or people who don't want to talk.  Just tough it out and try to finish.

7.  Try It At Least Once.  If you've never made a cold call, try it at least once.  There aren't any real financial costs associated with cold calls, so you have nothing to lose if they don't pan out.   Moreover, if you can muster up the guts to make a few cold calls, even a nasty opposing counsel won't seem quite as scary by comparison.

Most of us lawyers know that inside a courtroom, there's nothing quite as compelling as testimony, a personal narrative of events from witnesses with personal knowledge of the facts of the case.  So it's surprising, then, that few lawyers recognize the value of a related marketing concept -- the testimonial -- wherein a lawyer's clients or colleagues endorse or recommend a lawyer's service or qualifications based on personal impressions formed during their professional relationship.

Like testimony in court, testimonials are compelling because they're personalized.  In contrast to the cookie-cutter jargon that most lawyers include in brochures and websites about being compassionate or caring or responsive or aggressive advocates, the best testimonials convey those same concepts through examples drawn from an individual's personal experience.  In addition, testimonials frequently focus on points that matter to potential clients, but that a lawyer might not recognize as important.  For example, some testimonials I've seen compliment lawyers on their staff's friendliness -- a significant benefit for harried or stressed clients, but not necessarily a feature that most lawyers would think to highlight in their marketing materials. 

On the other hand, just like the witness whose testimony goes south in the courtroom, a poorly executed testimonial can do far more harm than good.  Testimonials from fellow lawyers that simply state "nice guy, great lawyer" aren't worth the bandwidth they require, while testimonials that are clearly reciprocal -- i.e., where one lawyer endorses a colleague and the colleague returns the favor without any useful information -- can damage a lawyer's credibility.  In addition, testimonials that aren't truthful or that violate client confidentiality rules can put lawyers in trouble with the bar.  In fact, as discussed below, lawyers should consult their respective bar rules prior to seeking testimonials from clients -- or even other lawyers -- because some bars do prohibit the practice.

Below are some how-tos for getting effective and compelling testimonials from clients and lawyers and using them in marketing materials.  But when it comes to testimonials, many lawyers find that giving is just as important as receiving -- and I'll also detail some ways to offer testimonials to colleagues and service providers to generate ancillary benefits for yourself.

A.  Getting Testimonials

1.  What Is Appropriate for a Testimonial?

Testimonials are appropriate for virtually any type of service that you provide.  If you are marketing a divorce or bankruptcy or criminal practice, then testimonials from clients on everything from their satisfaction with your work or your personality and demeanor are appropriate.  On the other hand, if you're trying to generate more referral-based work from other lawyers, then testimonials from lawyers who've worked with you and are familiar with your skills and reliability make the mo