Everyone's familiar with the old adage that a a bird in hand is worth two in the bush. Yet no where is that advice more important, or less frequently heeded than in a service profession like law. All too often, lawyers direct their marketing budgets and personal energy at attracting a steady stream of prospects, yet scrimp when it comes to impressing existing clients.

Compare the effort that many lawyers devote to attracting prospects versus how they treat existing clients. The lawyer who once offered a free consult to a potential client now bills for every ten minute phone call now that the client is engaged. The lawyer who readily skipped lunch to meet with a prospect, now takes a week to return phone calls after she's been engaged. The lawyer who thought nothing of paying $100 for leads that could generate a $1500 matter now charges the client for postage and hands the client his documents in a cheap manilla folder because the lawyer is too cheap to pay a few more dollars to provide the client with a nicer looking packet that might really make a good impression.

It's not surprising that lawyers don't pay more attention to service. After all, most lawyers are results-oriented and figure that a client's experience doesn't matter so long as the lawyer attains a good result. In addition, in contrast to auto-service where customers return repeatedly for check-ups and other problems, most consumers of legal services - whether it's a criminal case or preparation of a will or a bankruptcy - rarely have a need to return to the lawyer once the case is closed. Thus, lawyers may figure that they won't get much return on investment in customer service since few clients some back.

Most of these assumptions are misplaced. Though competence counts more than cheeriness in handling a client matter, even so, most clients who are paying a significant sum of money for a service want to be treated well, as a matter of basic courtesy. In addition, while many clients don't necessarily bring in repeat business, those that do represent low-hanging fruit: as I showed in this slide deck, you'll spend 11 times more to bring in a new client than to generate business from existing clients.

Finally - and most importantly, even if satisfied clients don't have more business

So why is maintaining ties to clients so important? Several reasons. First, it's cheaper to get business from your present clients. As I noted in this previously posted slide deck, it costs a whopping eleven times more to bring a new client through the door than to mine existing clients for business. The statistic makes sense - we're all familiar with the enormous resources involved in getting your name out just so that a prospect can find you and thereafter, closing the deal. With existing clients, the expense of bringing them in is virtually eliminated, because they already know who you are. Moreover, having hired you once before, most of your past clients trust you - so the only hurdle left is convincing them of a need for additional legal service.

Of course, not all lawyers get (or want to get) repeat business. Many legal matters - such as bankruptcy, criminal law and family law involve one time situations rather than an ongoing relationship. Even there, however,

lawyers will reap rewards from treating clients well, because they'll go out of their way to refer clients, or at least, provide a favorable testimonial, which is also a valuable benefit. In fact, that's the whole strategy behind online shoe company Zappo's iconic customer service: the company recognizes that customers who are bowled over by Zappo's great service will recommend the company to others.

So what does it take to treat clients well? It's not rocket science. For starters, put yourself in your clients' shoes, and think about the experiences that thrill you and alternatively, those that tick you off. For example, no one likes to be nickel-and-dimed -- an experience now common when traveling by airplane; so don't charge clients for ten minute phones calls and postage.

Other ideas include offering special services to clients - perhaps a free or low cost annual review of a will or incorporation that you've already prepared. The ongoing service keeps clients from even thinking about using other firms. Further, if you happen to learn of a change in the client's circumstances while undertaking the review, the client might retain you to make the necessary corrections. You can also use new mobile tools, as described here to send coupons to a webinar or a free consultation to clients that they can use themselves or pass on to a friend. Free webinars are another extra that clients may appreciate.

But most of all, clients just want to be treated like human beings. Which means making it easy for clients to get in touch with you and leave a message. Or returning phone calls and emails when you promised to do so. Or just remembering basic courtesies like asking about your client's family or sending birthday cards.

To reference another adage, just as the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so too prospective clients may seem superior to existing ones - possibly richer or with more complex or interesting matters. But if you're always looking for business in another yard, you may neglect cultivating the clients right in front of you and in doing so, you may miss out on the many benefits that a loyal client base can bring to your firm.

A recent piece up at Marketing Profs suggests using slower summer months to write up case studies of successful projects.  In the hopes of using an actual law firm case study on using case studies as an example, I ran some searches to find a law firm website that includes case studies - and came up short.  So it occurred to me that before describing how to write a case study, I should describe what a case study is and why it's an effective marketing device.  After that, I'll discuss how to lawyers can write case studies that will attract clients, but at the same time, not reveal so much as to violate confidentiality rules.

What is a case study and why is it effective?

As defined in Wikipedia, a case study is an explanatory tool based on "an in-depth investigation of a single individual, group, or event" to highlight underlying issues."  The reason that case studies are effective is because through reference to facts and events, they show, rather than tell, how an attorney can assist.

How can a lawyer write a case study?

Even though there aren't many examples of lawyer case studies, fortunately, there's a fairly stock, multi-step formula for drafting a case study, as described at VAR Marketing.  First, select the matters that will serve as the focus of the case study and highlight your "best work and current business practices."  For example, if you're marketing your firm's responsiveness and ability to get the job done, you might want to focus on a client who retained you to resolve a dispute that had dragged out for years on another firm's docket.  If you want to show your willingness to take on risky or "long-shot" matters, write about a matter where you not only prevailed, but created new precedent.

If you're a new lawyer who hasn't had much experience, not to worry.  Though you can't lie or exaggerate about your involvement in a matter, you can describe your participation - even at a "low-man-on-the-totem-pole" level - in a high profile case that your firm handled.  You could also write about pro bono matters or cases that you handled through a clinic at law school.

Once you've selected a few exemplary cases, organize the content as follows, recommends VAR Marketing.  (I've modified the steps to make them applicable to lawyers):
  
    •    Client description
    •    Client Challenge
    •    Solution
    •    Results

How can I write about my clients -- what about confidentiality issues?

In contrast to some businesses, lawyers are bound by confidentiality requirements and for that reason, may not be able to discuss certain cases simply because the discussion might encroach on a client's privacy or breach attorney-client privilege.  If there's a case where you risk breaching confidentiality, you could consider getting a client's consent to discuss the details.  But in my view, you're probably better off focusing on a less sensitive case.  In addition, avoid identifying details and stick to discussion of information that resides in the public record - for example, the summary of the case from the court's opinion.

In describing the solutions and results, do so in a way that makes sense to a client.  Boasting about setting new precedent means nothing; a prospective client will want to understand why the particular precedent matters.  Likewise, you should describe the solution in layperson terms, rather than lawyer-ese.

Not convinced that the case study approach works?  Which of the following descriptions is more persuasive:

1.  Our firm's lawyers collectively have 50 years of appellate practice experience.  We have a winning record before the XYZ Court of Appeals.

2.  After our clients completed construction of their dream home, the County which had previously approved the plans,  claimed that the clients were in violation of zoning laws and directed them to move their entire house seven feet from the street curb.  Our clients challenged the County's ruling in court, and lost.  They came to our firm to handle the appeal after several firms advised them to accept a settlement which would partly compensate them for the costs of new construction but leave them without a place to live for at least a year.    Instead, we appealed and secured a reversal of the County's decision as well as an award of attorneys' fees, thus enabling our clients to remain in the house of their dreams.

As the examples show, a case study can make your work come alive for clients - which is another reason that case studies are so persuasive.  At the same time, they do require more time to draft than an ordinary practice description - so as I said at the outset, use summer downtime to make the case for your law firm by drafting a case study.

It's been a while since I've done a marketing round-up post -- either updating older posts or throwing out a couple of links.  So let's get started, and see what's new in the world of legal marketing.

Generating Business From Conferences

A while back, I posted about how you can market your practice through speaking engagements.  Of course, speaking engagements at a conference can be hard to come by.  If that's the case, you can also extract value just from attending a conference - particularly if you read this piece, How to Use Conferences to Generate Business Opportunities by Lee Rosen which appears in the May 2010 issue of TechnoLawyer.  Rosen sets out a three-phased approach for conferences which includes: (1) pre-conference reconnaissance where you identify prospects you want to meet, as well as rehearsal on what you'll say; (2) working the conference, which involves getting around during the conference to meet attendees and (3) post-conference follow up.  (Incidentally, as the video at the end of this post shows, a whopping 80 percent of conference attendees fail to follow up on leads).

The Importance of Being Mobile

Over the past year, I've twice posted -- here and here about the increased importance of being mobile when it comes to marketing.  Well, mobility still matters more than ever.  As law firm marketing gury Larry Bodine reports at his Law Marketing Blog, smart phone ownership is up 38 percent, and lawyers need to start thinking about ways to deliver marketing and education-based contents through mobile media.  Along these same lines, a recent post at Marketing Profs notes that frequent users of social media (those who use social networking sites several times a day) have more than doubled to 39 million in 2010, up from 18 million a year earlier.  These frequent users are likely to be using mobile technologies, both to engage in social media and for other purposes.  In short, it's not premature to think about ways to make your web content and other marketing messages accessible for mobile platforms.

Marketing Tips from MyShingle

For those of you who don't read my blog at MyShingle, I occasionally post marketing ideas over there.  In the past month or so, I've posted on ways to market your practice on the government's dime and also created the short video below on Marketing by the Numbers for lawyers.

Marketing by the Numbers: A Thirteen Minute WhyTo on Marketing A Law Practice from Carolyn Elefant on Vimeo.

We may be living in a Web 2.0 world characterized by interactivity and user-generated content, but you'd never know it, looking at many lawyer websites and blogs.  Most lawyer sites are decidedly first generation, serving either as glorified online brochures or a skeleton for SEO- keywords rather than offering a robust and multi-dimensional user experience.  Though admittedly, adding interactive features as recently as four or five years ago required special programming skills and cost a pretty penny, today, free and low cost tools abound.  And most of these tools are simple enough so that lawyers with average tech skills can install them on their own, or delegate the work for minimal cost to a virtual assistant or college student.

So let's get started.  In the first part of this post, I'll describe some of the reasons that lawyers should consider adding interactive features to their websites.  In the second part of the post, I'll catalog the different types of features available, and offer a couple of examples.  Finally - because we're all lawyers here - I'll briefly identify some of the ethics issues to address when making a website or blog more interactive.

I.  The Case For Increasing Interactivity

Interactive websites benefit both lawyers, prospective clients and the public.   Some interactive tools help educate users.  For example, autoresponders support education-based marketing initiatives by making it easy for prospects to sign up to receive a newsletter or an information-packed e-book.   Online quizzes and assessment tests enable users diagnose, at least preliminarily, whether they have a legal problem that warrants retaining counsel.  

Interactive tools don't just educate clients, though.  An action as simple as enabling comments on blog posts can help lawyers understand if they're getting their point across or help identify other concerns.  Forms allow lawyers to gather preliminary information about clients even before they call for an appointment.  And surveys can provide lawyers with feedback from clients that lawyers can then use to further improve their practices and quality of service provided. 

Interactive tools also facilitate immediate responses.  On-site chats, "call us" buttons and self-scheduling calendars let clients get in touch right away, while their matter is still urgent, to set up an appointment or get a quick answer.

Finally, if nothing else, there's a certain "gee-whiz" quality to interactive tools.  They're just plain neat - and convey an air of sophistication to many clients, even though they're cheap and easy to implement.  As a result, these tools will set you apart from the competition and  impress clients and colleagues.

II.  Types of Tools To Incorporate

There are literally, dozens of interactive tools and widgets that lawyers can deploy on their websites, with new ones frequently emerging.  In this section, I'll identify some of the types of interactive tools that you might incorporate along with some of the examples that I've personally used or seen employed at other sites.

1.  Comment Features
 
On the interactivity scale, comments rank fairly low.  A comment section is most appropriate on blogs; it allows users to participate in an online conversation about a post or ask additional questions.  Most standard blogging platforms include comments as a default feature; however, you can also install a third party platform like Disqus to support comments.  Third party comment platforms can make a comments section more dynamic, by enabling participants to receive notice when new comments are posted, and to reply directly to a specific comment.   (I recently installed Disqus over at my home blog,  MyShingle.com).

2. Forms

Emails are somewhat interactive - and indeed, most lawyers include an email address on their websites so that clients can get in touch.  But often, emails invite lengthy rantings or omit important details that you may need to decide whether to pursue a client further.  In contrast to email, forms provide a more effective means to gather preliminary information from a client because you can identify the information that you want the client to provide.  Sometimes, that information may be as basic as their city and state so that you can figure out whether their matter occurred in a jurisdiction where you're licensed to practice.  A form is also conducive to providing more explicit instructions; for example, you can include disclaimers next to certain questions reminding clients not to provide too many details to avoid compromising confidentiality.

Some blog platforms, such as Word Press, support contact form plug-ins.  Though my law firm website, CarolynElefant.com came with a Word Press plug-in form, my personal favorite is Google's free form generator, which you can embed in any website.   

3.  Autoresponders

Auto-responders do exactly what the name implies:  they provide an automatic response to emails generated through a collection form that appears on the website.  If you've ever been asked to complete an online form to register for a newsletter or to download an e-book, you've probably seen an auto-responder in action.  At left, you can see an example of an auto-responder that visitors to my home site, MyShingle.com use for registration.

Because auto-responders send an automatic reply to users, they are more dynamic than forms, which simply capture information but require a manual response.  For that reason, auto-responders are useful for distribution of educational content, like newsletters or e-books, because once a user supplies the information requested on the form, the auto-responder will automatically send out the ebook or newsletter without need for human intervention.  In that way, an auto-responder can help lawyers control distribution of valuable materials - for example, you can, as lawyer Jay Fleischman describes at LegalPracticePro, use an auto-responder to efficiently dispense information over a set period of time to keep your name in a client's mind.  Auto-responders may also deter competitors from downloading your work since they'll have to use their name to retrieve it (true, they can create an alias name and email, but that involves an additional step).

One of the most popular and widely used auto-responders is Aweber, which costs around $200 annually.  Aweber supports multiple releases and also includes templates that you can use to set up e-newsletters.  Constant Contact is another inexpensive service for newsletter or event registration, with different pricing options starting at as little as $15 per month.  If you're not ready to commit financially, MailChimp offers a limited free auto-responder and newsletter service for up to 500 subscribers.

4.  Assessment Generators and Quizzes

Assessment tests and quizzes serve as a fun way to engage clients at your site by teaching them about the law.  For example, you might create a quiz on the structure of the Supreme Court or the Bill of Rights as a public service to educate clients about the law. There aren't many online quiz creators, but one that is free and works for this purpose is Quibblo.com.  

Somewhat different from a quiz about facts, an assessment test can also help clients determine whether they need to hire a lawyer.   For example, a bankruptcy lawyer might create a test that asks clients about their ability to pay their bills or whether they are subject to pursuit by debt collectors, and assign points for each answer.  Depending upon the number of points, the answer key might suggest that a client consider the bankruptcy option (as discussed in Part III, you'd want to include extensive disclaimers and caveats as part of the test, to avoid having a client believe that it constitutes legal advice).

The best out-of-the-box online tool that I've found for assessments is the Assessment Generator.  Robust and easy to use, the Assessment Generator lets users create five different types of assessment tests (the example above is one that I created here at MyShingle, that lawyers can use to evaluate their need for a contract lawyer).  There's a free version of the Assessment Generator available; the more full-featured version costs around $10 a month.

5.  Surveys and Polls 

Like quizzes, polls can entertain site visitors - for example, soliciting their opinion on anything from political issues (Do you agree with the President's Supreme Court nomination?) to personal preferences (How many  hours a week do you spend on Facebook?).  Several blog platforms offer poll plug-ins, but you can also create and install your own with services like WidgetBox.com.  With polls, users can vote and then see the results of the poll after voting.

Surveys are a little different from polls because users won't automatically see results.  You might include a survey at your website for clients to provide you with feedback on your firm.  In addition to using Google Forms (mentioned previously) as a basis for a survey, you can also try Wufoo or Survey Monkey, both of which offer a limited free option.

6.  Online Scheduling

Are you losing clients because you don't have the staff to answer your phones and schedule appointments promptly?   One interactive tool that can remedy lack of staffing is a do-it-yourself scheduling system installed at your site.  Scheduling systems are basically an online calendar where prospective clients view your available openings and set up their own appointments.  The calendars are set up so that only the site owner can view the names and information associated with the appointments; site visitors don't have access to this private information.     

There are plenty of options for online scheduling, and many are free, including Tungle.me (displayed above), Doodle.com and Scheduly.

7.  Call Me Buttons and Live Chat

Ideally, your website should provide multiple ways for clients to contact you.  Most sites include phone numbers and emails - but if you're not available, the client will still have to wait for a response.  That's why you might consider getting a free Google Voice number to use as a "call me contact" at your site.

Previously in beta and available via invitation only, GoogleVoice is now open to all.  Google Voice allows users to create a "Call Me" button which can be embedded in your website.  When users click the button, they'll be connected to your Google number, which in turn, you can set up to re-direct to another phone number - thus, increasing the chance that you'll be available to take the call when it comes in.

Equally interactive is live chat, another feature that can be installed at a website - and a concept that I discussed about a year ago here at MyShingle.  With chat-ware, users can  type in a question at your site and you or your staff can supply an immediate response.  Live chat  options include ZohoChat and BoldChat, which costs around $300/year.

III.  Ethics Caveats

Any blog post on interactive websites for lawyers - even one as lengthy as this one - is not complete without a discussion of ethics issues.  Below are some of the ethics red flags that interactive technologies may raise, and suggestions on best practices for addressing them:

1.  Creation of Attorney-Client Relationship/Legal Advice:  One potential ethics risk of interactivity is that the immediacy of the communication may create the perception of an attorney-client relationship.  Or, a client may believe that the attorney is providing legal advice.  For example, consider a situation where a client asks a specific question in the comments section of a blog or through live chat.  If an attorney replies and provides suggestions, a client could rely on that advice - and the attorney could face malpractice exposure if the advice turned out to be incorrect.  To avoid any perception that a communication at the website constitutes legal advice or gives rise to an attorney-client relationship. lawyers should include appropriate disclaimers.

Likewise, if you include an assessment generator at your site on a topic like whether a prospect qualifies for bankruptcy, include caveats to clarify that the test provides guidelines - it is not a definitive diagnosis of a legal problem (nor is it legal advice) and that all cases are different. 

2.  Confidentiality & Conflicts Issues:  Clients may assume that information collected in forms will be treated as confidential.  If you are using a free form generator, the information that you gather may not be fully confidential - and the client should be advised of that risk.  At the same time, you should limit the type of information that you collect to begin with - never ask potential clients to provide social security numbers or extensive details about their claims through a form that is not secure.

3.  Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL)

Some of the communications that you receive at your site may involve individuals in jurisdictions where you're not licensed to practice - and potentially trigger UPL claims.  Make sure that your site is clear on where you are licensed to practice, and avoid substantive responses on matters that are outside of your jurisdiction.

IV.  Conclusion

As I've posted repeatedly, many lawyers focus myopically on SEO, without any thought to how to convert transient visitors into paying clients.  By inviting interaction, lawyers can make their websites more inviting and impressive to visitors, and in doing so, improve their chances that short term visitors will eventually become long time clients.

If you've come to this post expecting a checklist of criteria by which to evaluate your current marketing efforts or implement a new marketing initiative, then you've come to the wrong place.  Those kinds of checklists (especially a task list) are useful to be sure, because they make it easier to delegate marketing to a subordinate or assistant so that it doesn't go by the wayside when your schedule picks up.  But today, I'm addressing another category of checklist:  the kind that lawyers use, or at least should use, that outline the steps or procedures involved in handling the substance of a case.

If the "checklist" concept sounds familiar to you, it's because it's the focal point of Anul Gawande's book, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right, which has been the subject of many-a-recent blog post.  I recently finished the book myself and was convinced by Gawande's thesis:  that the "humble" checklist can minimize error in carrying out complex tasks by helping with memory recall and setting out the minimum necessary steps in a process.  Moreover, by committing routine procedures to a hard and fast list, a checklist frees up professionals to devote more time to the kinds of judgment calls that they always have to make, whether there's a list in place or not.

Gawande draws on examples from medicine, engineering and aviation to demonstrate how checklists can minimize error.  In the medical profession for example, a study showed that by using a checklist for placing a central line (comprised of seemingly mundane tasks like wearing a mask or body-draping a patient), the  the ten-day infection rate was reduced from 11% to zero.  But you can probably imagine situations in your own practice where a checklist - such as the essential elements of a personal injury complaint to a list of documents required to file a bankruptcy petition - could also help avoid error and eliminate the risk of dismissal of a case.

OK.  So you're convinced of the importance of checklists.  But what's that got to do with marketing?  Plenty.  Consider these potential ways to use checklists to market your practice educate your clients and keep your firm at the forefront of their mind.  Here are some ideas:

1.  Create a task-oriented checklist of all of the steps involved in a particular type of proceeding -- for example, a typical divorce dispute.  Post the checklist on your website or blog, or publish it online as a mini-ebook.  The checklist will help clients understand all of the steps involved in even a so-called simple divorce.  As a result, the list can help weed out prospects who aren't really serious about divorce, but nevertheless, eat up your time at a free consultation.  And where a client does hire you, a task-oriented checklist helps clients know what to expect, and also familiarizes them with the amount of work that their case may potentially entail - which can help reduce complaints about excessive fees down the line.

2.   Create a client "to do checklist" - for example, a list of documents that clients should bring to the first meeting or gather together for a bankruptcy filing or preparation of an estate plan.  A client to do checklist will help you to market your practice because it makes clients' lives easier.  Going through a bankruptcy or preparing an estate plan is stressful enough for busy clients; it's even more stressful if they need to keep providing additional information because they forgot to write down a particular item that is required.  Clients will appreciate a checklist that they can work from and they'll appreciate it even more if you offer it on your website and in both paper and computerized format, so that they don't have to keep calling for another copy if they lose the list.  Satisfied clients will provide positive testimonials, which if accurate and sincere, are one of the most effective ways to attract new clients.

3.  Create a post-engagement checklist for clients to use after you've finished the matter for which you were retained.  Even after you've finished a case for a client, there are still matters for which they are responsible, or that may trigger further legal action.  For example, even after an incorporation is complete, the client retains responsibility for filing annual reports and other documents to keep the corporation in good standing.  Creating a checklist of these post-representation matters will help the client avoid problems down the line.  And if you put the checklist on your law firm letterhead (or if you're feeling particularly ambitious, create a branded mobile app for a client to download a checklist on his or her phone), clients can always get in touch with you for follow up questions or problems.

For other matters - like a bankruptcy discharge or a divorce and child custody agreement - you'll want to create a checklist to help clients determine whether they need further assistance.  For example, after a bankruptcy, clients shouldn't be getting calls from creditors whose debts were already discharged - and if they do, they should call you.  Likewise, for divorce matters, a lawyer might identify a list of events - such as loss of a job or an ex-spouse's remarriage or relocation - that may trigger the filing of modification petitions.

Checklists are an ideal marketing tool:  they educate clients and enable lawyers to serve them more effectively.  Checklists aren't as flashy as a T.V. commercial or even a fancy website, but they're inexpensive and most of all, something that lawyers should be creating for their practices anyway.  So when you get around to making a list of the tools that you want to use to market your practice, be sure to include the humble checklist.

I've posted a few times about do-it-yourself tips for search engine optimization.   Professional SEO companies can be expensive, so doing SEO yourself, especially if you're starting out, can save you money.  Moreover, doing your own SEO, at least for a short period, gives you a better understanding of how it works, thus enabling you to evaluate professional SEO companies.

But let's say you reach a point where despite best efforts, you're still not getting much visibility in the search engines.  Or you've gotten so busy that you no longer have the time to diligently tag your blog posts or research key words.  In these situations, you might consider hiring a professional SEO company.   And if you take that route, this article from the ABA's Law Practice Management magazine, Making Your Web Site Visible: How to Find a Good SEO Company by Sharon Nelson and John Simek is required reading.

For starters, just as with marketing consultants, choosing an SEO company is a process fraught with peril.  Hiring a shady or unethical company that uses deception or under-handed techniques can will get you visibility, alright.  It just may not be the kind you want.

Importantly, Nelson and Simek recognize these dangers.  Thus, they advise lawyers to seek out personal recommendations from colleagues and to avoid companies that guarantee top five placement on Google  in a month - because that's an impossible promise to keep without some kind of gamesmanship. 

In addition, the SEO business tends to attract fly-by-nighters and get-rich-quick types.  So Nelson and Simek suggest that you research the company's history to determine how long it's been in business and how many people it employs.  They also point out that reputable SEO companies will list their clients -- you can then search for those clients on line and see how they present in search results.  Finally, Nelson and Simek recommend that lawyers use SEO companies that have worked with attorneys in the past, because those companies tend to be more familiar with the ethics constraints that lawyers face.

Lawyers should also compare pricing (which varies widely between companies) and closely review the terms of the contract, including whether any minimum duration is required.  Also, the arrangement with the SEO company should include preparation of regular reports so you can determine whether the SEO campaign is working.

Perhaps Nelson's and Simek's best advice is essentially to manage expectations.  As they emphasize throughout, SEO companies can help, but at the end of the day, they can't do much to improve your visibility if you're not producing content or taking other action to drive traffic to your site. 

SEO is only one part of the marketing equation.   So while you might hire an SEO company to kick your marketing campaign up another notch, realize there's no point in investing time and money to improve your website's or blog's SEO if clients have nothing to see when they arrive.

Many lawyers exhibit Type A personalities in the court-room or board-room:  highly competitive, ambitious, business-like and aggressive.  Yet when it comes to choosing the appropriate typography for the documents used in court or exchanged during transactions, these same lawyers are far more laid back, rarely searching for choices beyond the default Times-New Roman.

So how does lawyer typography relate to legal marketing, which after all, is the focus of this blog?   As I'll spell out below, one Helvetica character as a time, in the Internet Age, typography matters to lawyer marketing more than ever, largely because the web makes lawyers' writing so widely accessible.

I.  The Letter of The Law Is Everywhere 

In an Internet Age, lawyers' writings are available to all. These days, virtually every law firm has a website, and many have blogs which together comprise a large portion of lawyers' writing on the Internet.  These sites require careful typography choices to ensure that the site caters to its audience.  Thus, a site aimed at the elderly should employ large font on light backgrounds, while a site for younger folks might use an edgier look. 

But, bear in mind, typography issues aren't limited to on-line postings (and indeed, for websites and blogs, is not as critical because readers can, as a last resort, bypass the site through use of RSS feeds or email).   The more significant typography problems, in my mind, are those related to previously paper-based documents that are now rapidly making their way online.  For example, some law firms publish e-books to show their expertise in a particular subject matter and educate prospective clients.  Lawyers routinely make e-books available for download at their websites or post them at article archiving sites which means that the e-books are viewable by a far broader circle than their predecessors, the pamphlet, the law review article or the treatise.       

Likewise, a decade ago B.E.F. (before e-filing), lawyers submitted hard-copies of pleadings or briefs to the court.  Most of those hard copied documents lived out their existence in practical obscurity in courthouse file cabinets, unviewed by anyone besides the judge and the parties involved in the case.  Fast forward to today when anyone can search PACER or a state electronic filing system and find and download briefs and pleadings.  As with e-books, sites like JD Supra offer lawyers an SEO-charged location to upload work product for colleagues and potential clients to review.

The upshot of all this is that both the substance and style of lawyers' writing, is on display.  More importantly, readers' impression of the the latter can influence their opinion of the former.  For example, a reader who downloads a law firm e-book on Fighting Foreclosure that resembles a legal memo - single spaced, Times New Roman font on white paper - may assume that the e-book is written in complex legal-ese without bothering to take a closer look.  Alternatively, the reader might view the e-book as cheap-looking or homemade and wonder about the firm's financial stability, its availability of support staff or potentially, even its competence.   

Likewise, even the typography in briefs and memos tells a story to those who care to "read between the lines."  For starters, a lawyer's choice of typography for a brief can signal to others whether that lawyer is familiar with the rules of the jurisdiction, which often dictate font selection.  Others may wonder whether the lawyer still using a dated font like courier has actually practiced much in recent years.  Finally, some readers will simply feel annoyed or frustrated as they try to work their way through a fifty page memo on the complexities of securities law in font comfortably visible only under a magnifying glass.  

Granted, most of the concerns just described (with the exception of the one related to ability to follow rules) are based on leaping and most likely, inaccurate assumptions. Nevertheless, whether fair or not, the kinds of negative impressions that clients may glean from a lawyer's chosen typography can result in lost business.

On the flip side, however, smart typography choices can help lawyers market their practice.  Bold fonts and interesting layout make an e-book look so crisp and attractive that clients can't resist reading it.  A font that's compatible with other lawyers with whom you work shows that you know what you're doing.  And a unique typography style -- perhaps an unusual combination of readable and stylish fonts --  can serve as your brand, so that all who see the document  know that it's from your firm even before they flip to the signature page.

II.  A Font of Font Solutions

So how can lawyers pick the type of typography that's right for them?  For major products like e-books, engaging a professional to assist with design and typography choice is probably the best solution.  But hiring professional help may not be within your budget, nor is a designer a cost-effective approach for traditional documents like briefs or memos.

Fortunately, the web is a font of information on font selection.  Below are some resources to get you started:

1.  The beautifully designed Typography for Lawyers site offers the most detailed and comprehensive information on font choices for lawyers.  Plus, it includes examples of each font discussed, so you can see how they look in action.

2.  For transactional lawyers, Adams Drafting principal Ken Adams, describes his preferred choice of Calibri as a font for contract drafts here.

3.  The Seventh Circuit discusses federal court typography requirements and offers advice to lawyers on how to choose, as does this journal article, Painting With Print by Ruth Ann Robbins.

4.  Big Brand System explains different types of font and suggests ways to combine them.

5.  Here's a great infographic (kind of like a flowchart) from Julian Hansen that you can use to select the right font for your project.  (In fact, it's that chart that inspired this post).

Finally, if you're interested in a new font to spiff up a blog or website, Google just introduced a bunch of web fonts, free for download. 

III.  Conclusion

As I stated at the outset, many lawyers are already Type A personalities.  For that reason, it shouldn't be too difficult to convert them into Typography-A students as well, once lawyers wake up and realize how much the "letters of the law" matter to potential clients.




 

As the saying goes, a picture is worth one thousand words.  Nowhere is that statement more true than when it comes to logo design.  In fact, the term "logo" finds its roots in the Greek term, logos which literally defined means "word," but actually encompasses concepts like storytelling and analogy.  Which makes sense, because in some ways, a good logo succinctly encapsulates a company's story. 

If done right, a logo also draws attention, conveys memorability and reflects a business' personality.  Even if you believe, as Seth Godin does, that a great logo doesn't mean anything until the brand makes it worth something, if you do decide to create a logo for your firm (and opinions diverge on the need for logo, as discussed below), devote some thought to it or you'll be saddled with something hideous if you eventually hit it big.

So should a law firm have a logo? As with most topics related to marketing or branding, there are two schools of thought.

No Logo Needed 

Several years, Tom Kane of the Lawyer Marketing Blog (absolutely not to be confused with this one, as Tom's been around forever!) downplayed the importance of logos, arguing (somewhat like Seth Godin) that if your service isn't excellent, then a logo is worthless.  From Kane's post:

The point is, logos can be helpful if your product and service is excellent. Otherwise, it can truly give off negative vibes, and it would be better to not have a logo than to have one that generates immediate disdain. I like logos, but a logo is much less important than the impact of your legal services (both the legal product and the actual client service experience).

Dan Hull of What About Clients concurs, adding that a logo is really nothing more than your firm's look -- the patterns, letterhead and colors reproduced on stationary, business cards and the firm website.  Indeed, seems that a number of law firms subscribe to Hull's philosophy; even mega firms like this or this one which could readily afford a fancy logo, instead use simple typography that one might find on letter head in lieu of a logo.

Which raises a second point about logos:  great, professional design doesn't come cheap.  As I'll discuss, there are some low cost and even DIY options, some which are more preferable than others.  But if you can't afford more than a generic logo, you may be better off taking the approach that Hull suggests.

Tips for Logo Design

Let's say you want to take a chance on a logo - maybe you have a distinctive idea in your mind or perhaps you feel that it will make your firm stationary and business card look more prominent.  If that's the case, here are some tips for getting started:

1.  Identify what you like...and what you don't

Do you have a concept for a logo?  If not, there are plenty of resources to stimulate your imagination.  Steve Matthews of Stem Legal suggests SeekLogo.com, a tool that allows you to search a database of around 200,000 - though as Matthews points out, there are only 59 examples for law firms.  Even so, you may find inspiration from other industries. 

If you find that nothing resonates, you might find it useful to review examples of top logos, selected by others, such as this top 250 logo list or 20 great and 20 not so great logos.  It's also interesting to read a designer's explanation of what makes a good logo.  Logo Design Love offers a treasure trove of information on logo design, including samples and discussion of the design and redesign process (not surprisingly, Logo Design Love has a great logo!).

2.  Setting a budget

Once you've got a couple of logos in mind, you'll probably want to set a budget.  Great logo design costs money, which was something that I never fully appreciated until I actually explored the process.  Six Revisions rounds up a bunch of posts like this one that depict the steps in developing a logo, from idea to inception.  If you thought editing a brief or drafting a contract was time consuming, take a look at the design process: it's equally involved. 

3.  Design options for implementation

    a.  Professional designer or web company

With a budget in mind, it's time to find a way to implement it.  If you're able to spend several hundred dollars or more, you might decide to hire a professional designer.  Seek recommendations from colleagues, but don't stop there, as your colleague's tastes may differ.  In addition to references, you want to look at the designer's portfolio to get a sense of his or her style.  Where a designer is local, an in person visit is useful.  And for a designer who's in another location, a phone call is imperative.  You'll be working with this person intensively, albeit for a brief period, so it's best to get a sense of how you'll interact (a phone call also provides added reassurance that the designer isn't fly by night).

Another option for logo design is to commission the work as part of web or blog design.  Again, personal recommendations, followed by a review of the company's portfolio is important.  In addition, if you see a logo on a site designed by your web or blog developer, don't assume that the web company did the design.  Many times, customers hire a web company and provide their own logos that were prepared by another designer.  So if you choose to use your web company for logo company, ask explicitly about their design experience and whether the company actually designed some of the other logos at the site.

b.  Online options for more affordable design

If you can't afford a professional logo design now, not to worry.  There are plenty of mid-range options that you can locate through the Internet.  Results vary, but with some due diligence, you can may be able to find a satisfactory logo at a reasonable price.  On line options include:

1.  Craigslist and intern websites

Several designers offer logo creation services on Craigslist for fees ranging from $60 to $199. You probably won't get anything high end, but again, check the portfolio and see if the designer's work appeals to you.  Another option for low cost work include websites like UrbanInterns or College Helpers where you might find new grads or students looking to build a portfolio and thus, willing to work for less.

2.  Elance, Odesk and freelance sites

Instead of hiring someone for a flat or hourly fee, you can also bid out a logo project at sites like Elance.com or Odesk.com.  You can sign up and provide some details about your project, and set a cost cap and see what kinds of responses you generate.  Both sites include information about a designers' work history and feedback from other customers and provide an escrow type account to hold money in case there's a dispute later on.  As an alternative, you can search for designers by project (e.g., design or logo) and directly contact those who've done work that you like.

3.  Design Contests

Several sites, like 99 Designs or Cullego allow users to run a contest to select a logo.  Essentially, users offer a prize and a description of the project, and designers submit a proposal, with the winner collecting the prize money. While I've seen law firms use contest design sites, I don't recommend them.  Though characterized as crowdsourcing, in my opinion, logo contests are a way to get free work on spec, which isn't fair (would you work on spec?)  In addition, there are a host of other concerns about logo design contests, including the likelihood of attracting low quality or inferior design, winding up with potentially plagiarized work and the legality of contests.  (For another view of crowdsourcing design, see here.

4.  DIY Sites

Some online sites allow users to design a logo themselves, by mixing and matching stock images, fonts and colors in an online template.  Some of the online sites  like LogoYes offer decent variety and themes; you can design the logo free and then pay $69 to $99 to purchase it.  Logoease offers a similar concept but it's free, though its choices are more limited.

Conclusion

Though a professional logo can be fun to create and add some distinctiveness and pizazz to your website and business cards, ultimately, your logo won't carry much value unless you do the work to back it up.  Oddly, when it comes to something as visual as a logo, seems that substance trumps form.

Back in August, I mentioned a Pew Internet Report which found that approximately one third of African Americans access the Internet through a cell phone or other mobile device.  I recommended that lawyers serving African American clients make their websites and blogs mobile compliant to facilitate easy access via a hand held device. 

Now, I realize that I should have expanded my advice.  Because even if only a tiny portion of your target clients currently access the web through mobile devices today, very shortly, many more will.  By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device, predicts Gartner Research.  Thus, as we move through the second decade of the twenty-first century, all lawyers will reap benefits by expanding their marketing efforts to the mobile arena, while those who fail to will lose out.

From Gartner's Press Release:   

the total number of PCs in use will reach 1.78 billion units in 2013. By 2013, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.82 billion units and will be greater than the installed base for PCs thereafter.

Mobile Web users are typically prepared to make fewer clicks on a website than users accessing sites from a PC. Although a growing number of websites and Web-based applications offer support for small-form-factor mobile devices, many still do not. Websites not optimized for the smaller-screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners -- much content and many sites will need to be reformatted/rebuilt.

While 2013 is still three years away, lawyers are better off getting out in front, rather than scrambling to play catch up.  So what can lawyers do to expand their presence in the mobile online world?  Below are four ideas:

1.  DO design websites and blogs with mobile use in mind.  The Online Marketing Blog recommends keeping fonts basic, stripping out images to optimize loading time, remove third party services from side bars and focus on delivery of content.   For those running WordPress based blogs, design for mobile devices is even easier: you can use a WPtouch iPhone
If you run a WordPress blog, you can use a Word Press iphone theme plug-in to automatically create a small-screen friendly version of your blog.

2. DO develop content with search in mind.  As web access goes mobile, find-ability will be critical.  After all, users aren't likely to have the patience or agility to run Google searches and scroll through results on a 2" x 3" screen that downloads slowly.  Moreover, a significant percentage of mobile users will be searching for local assistance:  consider, for example, an abused wife who's left her home and needs a lawyer to file a restraining order or a businessman arrested for DUI.  In both of these scenarios, the prospective client will be searching for a lawyer away from home and will want to find someone within a specific jurisdiction.
 
The Online Marketing Blog suggests focusing on local directories (a topic I wrote about here) to improve find-ability in mobile search:

The best way to ensure you are found on mobile devices is to make sure your site is in all the local search directories with full and accurate profiles. Places like Google Local and Yahoo local probably receive more traffic from users who want to find business in a certain area. When I've used my phone to search the web, I was searching for specific businesses to visit.  Social networking through mobile is also popular and through links, can drive web site traffic. A combination of search and social is the direction where I see the bulk of mobile traffic going.

3.  DO explore creative ways to establish a mobile presence, but DON'T be tacky.  Fort Lauderdale, Florida based lawyer, Jason Turchin just released the free iphone MyAttorney app, reports the Florida Sun Sentinel.  Granted, the MyAttorney feature which enables cell phone users to call their lawyer at the touch of a button arguably meets the tacky test.  But in my view, MyAttorney is redeemed by inclusion of useful tools, such as a checklist of what to do in an accident and a feature for submitting a case inquiry and uploading and submitting photos.

4.  DO get moving on video  Nearly a year ago, I wrote about the importance of video to online marketing.  As user access moves to mobile devices, video marketing takes on even more importance.  For some users, reading text on a mobile device, can prove cumbersome even at an optimized site.  By contrast, video is much easier to view on a phone, and users can still listen even if they have difficulty seeing the video, they can listen.   Most mobile phones already integrate YouTube seamlessly into their design, and consumers have grown adept at watching videos on the small screen.  Chances are, they'll be equally adept at listening to education-based videos or scrolling through video interviews with attorneys on their phones as well.      
   
Are you good to go in this decade's on-the-go marketing world?  And if not, what are you doing to prepare?  

Facebook isn't just for friends anymore.  Increasingly, businesses are using Facebook for marketing, the New York Times reported last month.  And why not?  With 300 million users, Facebook is likely to be home to a substantial portion of a business' prospective and existing customers.  For that reason, Facebook helps businesses find new customers, build online communities to retain and provide perks to existing customers and even to access demographic information. 

Just like businesses, lawyers can also realize marketing benefits through Facebook.  At Inside Facebook, Sara Ines Calderon offers ten tips for ways that lawyers can use Facebook to market a practice.  I'll discuss some of those tips below and throw in a few of my own:

1.  Goals and Target Audience Definition:  Just like there's more than one way to skin a cat, there's more than one way to market a law practice on Facebook.  To figure out which marketing approach (or approaches) are right for you, you need to define your goals and identify your target audience.  For example, if you market to consumer clients, you may want to attract them with direct ads or try to educate them with articles or links to blog posts on relevant topics.  As discussed below, creating a Fan Page would support these goals.  By contrast, if you're trying to attract more conservative corporate clients who don't spend much time on Facebook, direct advertisements wouldn't have much value.  However, you might locate these clients indirectly through referrals from colleagues whom you can get to know personally through a Facebook friends page.

2.  Set Up A Fan Page:    A Fan Page is a Facebook page for a business or corporate entity rather than for an individual.  As a lawyer,  a Fan Page is important because it provides a way that you can interact with clients without allowing them to become privy to personal information and photos that you might share with close friends.   You can use a Fan page for a variety of purposes - to respond to questions about legal matters (in a general way, of course, to avoid any perception that you're giving legal advice), to share links to recent blog posts or to engage "fans" of the site in conversation.  You can also use a Fan page to issue invitations to events or to make special offers available - for example,  free consultations or a discount on certain legal services.

3. Direct Advertising:  With so many users on Facebook, advertisements can potentially attract a large audience.  Moreover, you can very specifically target ads to various demographics, including, country, state and city, gender, age and workplace.  There's more information on Facebook ads available here.

4.  Building Relationships:   Personal referrals are the primary source of business for most lawyers.  And most people prefer to make referrals to lawyers whom they know on  a personal basis.  Facebook offers a way to get better acquainted with colleagues and build a relationship that goes beyond the office or the bar meeting room.  In addition, when you interact with colleagues more frequently, you'll be at the top of their mind if they're asked to refer a matter.

Have you thought about using Facebook to market your practice?  How are you using it? 

My blogging mantra has always been:


Most commonly, it's the "often" component of this equation that generates the most discussion and debate.  For example, a recent Portfolio story on lawyer blogs pointed out that:

[...] many are finding that feeding the blog beast with fresh content is a legal challenge unto itself. Lawyers and blog specialists say the best legal blogs generate at least several posts per week.

While it's important to blog often, particularly when getting a blog off the ground, timing is equally, if not more important than frequency.  In other words, you don't need to blog often so much as you need to blog early.

First to press:  One component of blogging early involves reacting quickly to a big news story, getting a post up on breaking news or a recently issued decision before other bloggers come on the scene.  When you post about a new development early, you make your blog indispensable to readers; a go to source of up to date information.  In addition, an early post on a topic ensures that other bloggers or media sources will link to or comment on your blog, therefore giving you more exposure.  A couple of rules about posting early, however. 

First, if there's a hot news story or just-issued judicial decision, don't just throw out a link with a single line like "read this!" or "breaking news!"  To make your post valuable, you must offer some original insight or prediction, even if it's based on a quick first impression.  You can always update the post or write a follow up as events emerge.  Second, you don't need to be first to press with every single news item, or you run the risk of converting your blog into a news feed rather than a source of analysis and conversation.  If you enjoy providing rapid feed on new developments, share your blurbs on Twitter, which offers a  better platform for short form writing than a blog.

Early in the morning:   When I say that you should blog early, I also mean it literally, as in early in the morning.   Many heavy blog readers like newspaper reporters (who can give you more exposure) or other lawyers (who can generate referrals) tend to scroll through their news feeders first thing in the morning in search of fodder for their own blog posts and stories.  If you can get your posts up early in the morning, they're more likely to be read when fresh.  By contrast, if you post on a time-sensitive topic later in the day, by the time your post comes up on an aggregator, it may be yesterday's news.

Early in the week:  Posting early in the week is important for two reasons.  First, (and though the evidence is hardly scientific), based on my experience at several different blogs, readership is generally highest on Mondays or Tuesdays.  A  survey of various design blogs reached a similar conclusion, though Thursdays were a close second.  Tuesday is also the most popular activity day for Twitter, which can also be a source of traffic to your blog if you tweet links to your posts.   Statistics aside, there's a second reason to post early in the week: it will allow more time for conversation to brew throughout the week which will also generate more traffic.

Early adapter:  Finally, if you're just starting a blog, you gain a tremendous advantage if you can establish yourself as first to market on a particular topic.  Indeed, many of the earliest blogs, like Howard Bashman's appellate law blog,  How Appealing continue to dominate not just because of quality but also a strong first mover advantage that helps keep competitors at bay.  Even though blogging is more common than five years ago, there's still plenty of room for lawyers to establish a blog on a  topic that's not yet been covered and benefit from a first mover advantage from that  particular niche.

In short, I can't emphasize this point often enough:  blog early!

Here is another post on this topic (from last year) from Blog for Profit.

 

If Shakespeare were alive in today's Internet-based, search engine optimization (SEO) obsessed world, instead of asking What's in a name, he might well have had Juliet ask  "What's in a [key] word?"  Because when it comes to SEO, keywords matter, as Jay Fleischman emphasizes over at Legal Practice Pro.   But whereas Juliet idealistically believed that "that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," her observation wouldn't apply to SEO where subtle differences in terminology can yield less-than-sweet SEO results. 

So how can you determine whether the keywords will be effective in attracting traffic to your site?  Jay's Legal Practice Pro post offers a couple of starting points.  In addition, there's an even more recent post by Marshall Sponder of Entrepreneur that identifies seven free tools for evaluating the potential effectiveness of key words.

One tool suggested by Sponder is Microsoft AdLabs, which can help determine whether your intended service has commercial value based on the words you're using to describe it.  From the post: 

For example, "Ultra-Thin Insoles" is considered to have a 68 percent commercial value while "Comfortable Shoes" is considered by the tool to have a 96 percent commercial value. Finding the right way to describe what you're looking for will help you find it faster and cheaper, and help you monetize your offerings once your products or services are ready.

Other tools include Quantcast Marketing which you can use to obtain demographic information on customers which in turn, can inform keyword selection, and Wordstream Keyword Search, which will generate keyword suggestions.  For example, if you select "bankruptcy law," you'll see that many searches relate to the changes in bankruptcy law.  Since this term drives traffic, you may want to use it as a keyword and also target blog posts or web content to address this topic.

By using free tools to select effective keywords, you can create a rosy presence for yourself online without spending a bundle.  And that is sweet, indeed. 

Years before I started blogging here at Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg, I was an unabashed fan of Nolo for its pioneer work in providing legal resources to pro se litigants at a time when they had no other alternatives.  Flash forward three and a half decades, and though other self-help resources now exist, Nolo remains out in front both in the variety of offerings and more importantly, quality of material.   

Ah, the tagline -- that memorable phrase that pithily encapsulates the tone and premise of your brand or service.  No short string of words has ever proven more  frustrating to compose, or produced such satisfying results when it hits the right note.  After all, a terrific tagline (like solo David Kaufman's We Do Business Brawls or David Fuller's Lawyer for Tough Times) simultaneously conveys what you do while letting you stand out, while a clunker (We Care Because You Pay Us To) draws groans.  Perhaps the worst, however, is the the litany of utterly non-descriptive, generic taglines ("Committed To Your Success"; "A National Law Firm Creating Solutions") that run common to law firms and don't generate an iota of memorability.

Importance of a Tagline 

Creating the right tagline for your practice is a challenge for several reasons.  First, a good tagline begins with self-knowledge -- what makes your law firm unique and how that uniqueness benefits your clients.  So tagging your firm as "Compassionate, caring attorneys" addresses only one, the "uniqueness" part of the equation (and to be honest, compassion and caring isn't all that unique), but doesn't share how these characteristics will benefit clients.  An improvement on this tagline could be "Compassionate, caring attorneys who fix your credit problems, not criticize you for them."  It's not a great improvement, but the new tagline has some alliteration and more importantly, tells clients who may be ashamed about their financial situation -- that you'll help, not judge them.

The other tough part of a creating a tagline is making it sing -- finding the right rhythm and clever phrasing -- so that it sticks in people's minds.  This task is particularly difficult for lawyers accustomed to writing briefs and memos in thudding prose that lacks the light, bright precision that makes for a great tagline. 

Below are some ideas, from posts around the blogosphere, on ways to create your own unique tag line.

1. Take the tag line seriously.  Set aside some real thinking time to develop a tagline rather than just attempting to toss one out in an offhanded matter. You don't have to devote weeks or months to creating a tagline, but you should allow yourself six to eight hours over the course of a week to come up with some ideas.

2. Don't get caught in perfection-paralysis.  Some lawyers get too bogged down in creating a tagline, trying to anticipate all of the directions that their practice will take so that they can achieve nirvana with a tagline, when nifty would serve just as well.  The point is that taglines aren't set in stone; if your practice takes you down another path -- as it invariably will -- just change your tagline. 

Even major corporations' taglines evolve over time.  Growing up, I associated McDonald's with the tagline, "You deserve a break today," but now I'm accustomed to hearing my daughters' chanting, "I'm loving it" from the backseat as we go through drive-through.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, McDonald's has changed its slogan 23 times over the past 45 years.

Continue reading "Tag(line), You're It!" »

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.

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" »

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" »

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" »

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 most sense.

But you're not limited to testimonials about your work.  If you write a great blog or produced an e-book, why not ask for endorsements from other readers?  A testimonial about your online materials can help them stand out from the avalanche of information available on the Internet.

2.  How Do I Use Testimonials?

You can incorporate testimonials into your marketing materials in a variety of ways.  For example, you can include testimonials in written brochures and at your website.  As noted, many online lawyer listing services like Avvo or LinkedIn allow users to post testimonials as well.  Finally, some lawyers choose not to publicize testimonials and make them available to prospects on request instead.

3.  Consult the Bar Rules

Before you go to the trouble of seeking testimonials, consult your respective bar's ethics rules.  The ABA maintains an online list of state bar rules on advertising, including those states that prohibit or restrict testimonials.  On the other hand, don't go overboard and assume that because restrictions apply that you can't obtain testimonials at all.  Some bars, for example, prohibit client testimonials but do not limit testimonials from colleagues and/or other lawyers.  Other bars maintain general proscriptions against testimonials that include information that cannot be verified (e.g., "Joe Jones was the best lawyer ever!").  However, this type of restriction would not prohibit testimonials with verifiable, factual information, such as, "Joe Jones timely filed all my pleadings" or "Jane Doe returned my phone calls".  And in fact, if you think about it, it's this kind of specific detail that makes testimonials far more compelling than one that consists of conclusory statements -- just as in a court room.

Bear in mind that bar rules on confidentiality may also prohibit you from disclosing the identity of clients.  Therefore, be sure to obtain appropriate authorization to use a client's name in connection with their testimonials.  Where a client declines to be identified, you may still post the testimonial but indicate that the client's name has been withheld to preserve confidentiality.  In no circumstances should you post a testimonial with a fake name -- that would undermine its credibility.   

4.  Gathering Testimonials

Continue reading "Marketing Through Testimonials: Giving and Receiving" »

These days, blogs and social media are all the rage for lawyer marketing -- and I plan to discuss the pros and cons of these 21st century marketing activities in future columns.  But for today, l'm going to step back and take a new look at a more traditional form of lawyer marketing: the client newsletter.

So with Web 2.0 tools like blogs or Facebook or Twitter available to keep your clients up-to-date on the law or your firm's accomplishments, why should lawyers resort to something as old-fashioned or static as a client newsletter?  Well, believe it or not, newsletters offer several advantages that these other tools don't.  First, newsletters give you a chance to connect with existing clients and retain contact with former clients.  Since most lawyers report that client referrals account for their largest source of business, keeping in touch with clients ensures that they'll keep you in mind when a family member or friend asks for a referral.  Second, newsletters are a great way to build a mailing list for prospective clients -- for instance, you can have them sign up to subscribe at your blog or website. 

Newsletters also offer more flexibility over content than blogs or Twitter.  Twitter confines users to 140 characters per update -- barely enough to link to a news article or post of interest.  Blogs also tend to focus on a single topic and don't allow for digressions.  But many lawyers use newsletters to convey a variety of information to readers -- from articles on legal issues to profiles of clients to jokes or recipes.  Another drawback of blogs is that readers expect frequent updates, which leaves little time for busy lawyer-bloggers to really digest the news.  By contrast, because newsletters go out bi-weekly, there's time to develop more substantive or analytical pieces.

If I've convinced you to take a new look at client newsletters, below are the top five questions and answers on the nuts and bolts of getting started and equally, if not more challenging, keeping a newsletter going:

1.  How do I set up a newsletter?  There are many options for creating professional-looking client newsletters for minimal cost.  Desktop publishing packages such as those included in Word or Word Perfect are one option if you're comfortable with the software or have staff who can do it for you.  If you decide to send out your newsletter in hard copy, these packages work best.  Alternatively, you can also outsource newsletter production and printing to a virtual assistant or online company (just type terms like "client newsletter" and "newsletter preparation" into Google or your favorite search engine).

If you prefer an e-mail newsletter, consider services like Aweber or Constant Contact, among others, to automate newsletter preparation.  These services, which cost anywhere from $15 to $100 each month provide professional, customizable templates for e-mail newsletters and auto-response features that allow clients to register for the newsletter at your website.  Both services are simple to use; you can set up templates yourself or outsource the work to a virtual assistant.  The other benefit of an e-newsletter (as opposed to print) is that you can include URLs to sites or online articles of interest that readers can simply click through to access.

Continue reading "A New Look At Newsletters for Lawyer Marketing" »

Virtually every guide on marketing a law firm recommends speaking engagements as an effective way to generate clients. Unfortunately, there's usually not much detail provided on how to secure a speaking engagement -- particularly if you're a newer or less experienced lawyer -- how to select an appropriate venue, how to choose a topic, or how to get the word out about your talk.  So that's the focus of this week's post: How to make the most of speaking engagements to market your practice.

Before I get to the how-tos of speaking engagements, I'll spend a little time discussing the marketing benefits of speaking engagements.  First and most importantly, speaking engagements give you a chance to personally interact with prospective clients without having them feel pressured to retain you, as they might at an initial consultation.  Personal interaction also lets clients can get a sense of your demeanor and personality, factors that are often relevant to their decisions.  Second, speaking engagements are efficient, because they give you a chance to make contact with multiple prospects all at once.  Third, speaking carries a public-spirited component -- it's a way to market and educate the public at the same time.  Fourth, speaking engagements give you an opportunity to reach out to existing clients and reconnect by inviting them to hear your presentation.  Finally, when you speak, many will perceive you as an expert and thus, speaking events can enhance your reputation and elevate your visibility within your markets.

So how can you find speaking opportunities and make them pay off?  Below are some tips.

1.   Identifying your target audience

Before organizing a speaking engagement, decide what types of clients you want to target.  If you're interested in representing high-worth estate clients, giving a talk at a CLE to other lawyers isn't likely to have much impact, since most lawyers aren't likely to refer lucrative cases to you.  Likewise, speaking at a public library in a lower-income area won't generate the leads that you're seeking either.  Consider the audience you want to attract, and pick your speaking venues accordingly.

2.  Finding a place to speak

Don't wait to be invited to speak, or you might find yourself waiting indefinitely.  Instead, take a proactive approach and identify opportunities.  Once you've decided which audience you want to target, do some research on where these groups congregate.  One colleague of mine handles legal research and writing on a contract basis, so she actively targets busy lawyers, focusing her speaking activities on bar associations.  Other attorneys who I know who handle IP or corporate matters send speaking proposals to trade associations. 

But formal, established groups aren't your only venue.  There are multiple, less casual groups  that share similar interests -- from high tech to women's or grandparents' issues to finance -- which often publicize their events in mothers' magazines, local papers, or online at Meet Up.  These groups are often desperate for speakers and would welcome an inquiry.

Finally, you don't have to limit yourself to any kind of group at all.  You could try to organize your own event that you could put on at a local coffee shop, bookstore, or library.  If you serve a remote or high tech audience, you could consider an online seminar or webinar.  The one disadvantage to sponsoring your own speaking engagement is that you'll have to spread the word on your own instead of relying on another group to advertise the event.

3.  Choosing a topic

Try to identify timely or provocative topics that will attract your prospects' attention and make them want to attend.  For example, instead of offering a talk entitled, "The Basics of Estate Planning," why not propose the topic "Estate Planning: Can You Do It Yourself -- Without a Lawyer?"  This title injects some controversy -- to use a lawyer or not -- and gives you a chance to educate an audience about the importance of a lawyer for certain estate planning matters.  Other timely topics -- at least right now -- include foreclosure, consumer credit, divorce and alternatives (since the economy is causing stress on marriages, but also making divorce too expensive), and trend talks about the new presidential administration (e.g., "How the Obama Administration's Employment (or immigration or antitrust) Initiatives Can Impact Your Business and How You Must Plan for Them").

Continue reading "Marketing Through Speaking Engagements" »

Free information on marketing a law practice abounds on the Internet. Just visiting the law marketing blogs listed in the sidebar here could provide you with several weeks' worth of material on marketing a practice. And if you tire of blogs and online materials, there's a wealth of marketing books for lawyers and non-lawyers (next week, I'll list some of my favorites).  Still, let's say that despite these free materials, you feel that you still need help to ramp up your marketing efforts.  Should you hire a marketing consultant or pay for a high end marketing package?  While I can't make the decision for you, below are several considerations that you should take into account in evaluating what types of marketing products and services to pay for.

Cost.  Marketing consultants can be costly, ranging in price from several hundred to several thousand dollars.  Some consultants also produce marketing packages or tool kits, or may offer ongoing group coaching or master mind sessions.

Most marketing consultants will tell you that it takes money to make money.  Even so, that doesn't mean that you should mortgage your house to pay for marketing services.  If you spend more than you can afford, you'll add additional stress to your marketing efforts.  So instead, keep cost in mind when choosing a consultant or marketing package.  See if a consultant offers a group rate so that you can share the costs with other attorneys.  In addition, ask whether a product or a service is available on a trial basis or comes with a money-back guarantee.  Many times, selecting an appropriate service or product is a matter of trial and error, so it's important to have a way to get your money back if you don't receive any value from a program. 

Which product or consultant should you use?  With so many marketing programs and consultants available (just do a Google search if you don't believe me!), how can you choose?  Consider the following questions:

• Is the consultant an attorney or former attorney?  My own personal preference is to choose a marketing consultant who is either a practicing attorney or who formerly practiced.  A close second is a consultant with considerable experience working with attorneys.  Why is working with a lawyer so important?  As many of us know, most bars heavily regulate lawyer advertising, imposing all sorts of rules ranging from the breed of dog that can be used on a law firm logo to  the legality of using client testimonials at a website to a lawyer's ability to join a business networking group.  To be sure, lawyer marketing consultants may not be familiar with ethics issues in all 50 states, but at a minimum, they'll be sensitive to them.  By contrast, a marketer with no background in the law or with lawyers could recommend a marketing campaign that revolves around an ethically prohibited practice.
• Does the marketer have experience in your specific practice area?  Some marketing concepts -- such as the importance of follow-through or using a diverse portfolio of marketing techniques -- apply across the board, no matter the practice area.  But the effectiveness of other marketing practices may depend on a given field.  For example, networking with moms at the PTA or local mothers' groups may be effective for a probate practice, but it's hardly an effective way to lure a securities client.  Try to discern what type of experience a potential marketer has in assisting people in your practice area or, at least, a similar practice area.
• What kinds of materials does the consultant or attorney make available as a trial?  Most marketers recognize that lawyers must feel comfortable with the marketer's style and approach to create a productive working relationship.  So these days, most marketers will make a reasonably substantial sample product -- such as a free tele-seminar or a recording or an e-book to download -- available at no cost.  Many marketers will also provide a free initial consultation.  This information can help you determine whether you would like to work with a particular marketer.
• How effective is the marketer at marketing his or her own services?  Is your marketer effective at promoting his or her own services?  Does he or she have a professional-looking and substance-packed website or blog?  Or is the marketer's site sloppy, full of misspellings and lacking in any substance?  Point is, if marketers can't market themselves, how can they market you?
• Can you contact personal references?  Will a consultant give you access to previous clients?  A personal reference from a former client will give an objective third-party evaluation of the marketer's skills. 

Avoiding red flags.  Sadly, there are all too many opportunistic gurus who see an opportunity to prey on desperate attorneys who are struggling in hard times.  Here are a few red flags to avoid:

Continue reading "Should You Hire A Marketing Expert?" »

Without a doubt, social networking was the hottest new trend in marketing in 2008, and is destined to gain even more traction in 2009.  I'll be posting more about social networking at this blog, though if you can't wait, you're welcome to download my free ebook, Social Networking for Lawyers. 

However, as powerful as social networking may be, lawyers shouldn't neglect the listserv as a valuable tool for marketing.  For a variety of reasons, some lawyers have not made the transition to social networking, nor do they have any intention of doing so. Yet, these lawyers may be a source of referrals, or may need to collaborate with another lawyer or outsource a project.  By ignoring listservs, you miss out on a potential source of work.

In many ways, listservs are a precursor to social networking tools.  Listservs are essentially a mailing list dedicated to a particular topic where users can post messages and receive responses via email.  Listservs enable users to ask each other questions, exchange information, and engage in conversations on a variety of topics.  Over time, many listservs may morph from pure business to include personal discussion as well, thus creating the same sense of community as social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Solosez is perhaps one of the best known listservs for solo and small firm lawyers.  Now a decade old, Solosez boasts more than 3,000 members, making it -- as some refer to it -- the nation's largest virtual law firm.  These days, most state bar sections have listservs, as do specialty bar associations dedicated to practice area specialties like litigation, estate planning, or bankruptcy.

Some lawyers prefer the convenience of a listserv, since messages flow directly into their inbox instead of requiring them to log on to a site.  On the other hand, some lawyers avoid listservs, particularly high volume ones like Solosez, because the thought of 150 daily emails flooding their inbox is overwhelming -- though the email problem is easily cured if you manage your participation properly. 

 Below are a few tips for maximizing the marketing value of a listserv in your practice.

1.  Choose your lists wisely

Just because listservs are a useful marketing tool doesn't mean that you need to go overboard.  Limit yourself to two or three lists, with at least one of them being a low volume list.  If you spread yourself too thin, you'll either find yourself reading emails all day long or you won't have time to participate meaningfully in any of the lists.

Continue reading "Don't Leave the Listserv Off Your List When it Comes to Marketing" »

The holiday season has descended in all its glory, and like most lawyers, you probably find yourself with a stack of invitations to bar association lunches, charitable events, and holiday cocktail hours and parties.  So you trek dutifully from event to event, exchanging business cards and pleasantries with dull colleagues whom you see only a few times a year at these types of gatherings and who've never sent you a dime's worth of business.  Maybe worse, the others ignore you entirely, so you resign yourself to observing from the corner, stuffing yourself with cardboard crackers and bland cheese.  And suddenly, the holiday season, which ought to be joyful and uplifting, morphs into an enervating experience.

Guess what?  Networking doesn't have to be this way.  In fact, if you dread or loathe networking events, your distaste will come across in your interactions, thereby further reducing the likelihood of meeting anyone worthwhile.  Why not take a vacation from holiday networking events by holding your own?

You'll find many advantages to sponsoring your own holiday event.  First, you control who you invite, so you can include people you actually want to spend time with, or colleagues who've sent you work or helped you out in the past.  Second, you make yourself the center of attention at your own party by greeting guests and introducing them to each other.  Third, let's face it -- you're not the only person who's grown tired of bar events.  Most lawyers can't stand them and will welcome a chance to hang out in a relaxed environment with a small group of colleagues.  Finally, when you host a party, people appreciate the initiative.  They'll call in advance to ask what they can bring, and likely call afterwards to thank you for a good time, or for introducing them to a potential business contact.  Thus, without any further action, you remain in touch with colleagues long after the party ends and solidify relationships that may eventually yield business.

As for planning a party, it's never been easier than with the Internet.  Use Evite or email to get the word out and collect RSVPs.  You can hold the party in your office or the backroom of a casual restaurant or bar.  There's no need to spend lots of money and in fact, in these economic times, a lavish party may be regarded in poor taste. If you're feeling charitable at this time of year, you can organize a group of lawyers to staff an intake night at a local clinic, or ask them to bring toys or food for the needy to the party.

If you act quickly, you may have time to squeeze in an event before the end of the year.  If not, no worries.  Instead of a holiday party in 2008, why not organize the first post-New Year's party of 2009?

Okay, so you've written an interesting article for a client newsletter or a local media publication.  Trouble is, your newsletter only goes to subscribers, while the local media publication isn't even Internet accessible.  And while you can scan the article and upload it to your website, even that may not buy you much more mileage because the document's text may not get picked up effectively by search engines.

Truth is, without a decent presence on the Internet, that article just doesn't have much of a shelf life, marketing-wise. And when you realize that, you'll probably find yourself less likely to write another article, which will reduce your marketing efforts even more.

Fortunately, there's a simple solution to this problem:  Article archiving services -- such as JD Supra, DocStoc and Scribd, to name a few -- don't just enable you to easily post your documents online, they can actually help supercharge the search engine visibility of your written work.

The theory behind article archive sites is to give authors a chance to share their work product with others and to provide a convenient way for others to view the article without having to go through the trouble of downloading a cumbersome PDF file.  JD Supra is geared specifically toward lawyer work product, while DocStoc and Scribd serve as repositories for a wide range of written materials.  You needn't limit yourself to just one site, however.  Starting out, you might experiment with uploading the same document at several sites and evaluate which produces the best result.

Why Lawyers Have Nothing to Fear from Sharing Documents

As far as I can tell, lawyers haven't been using article archiving sites pervasively or regularly, though that is starting to change.  Still, some lawyers shy away from using article archive sites for several reasons, all of which I'll address.  First, some lawyers harbor concerns about posting pleadings or other public filings that might infringe on their clients' privacy.  Though most courts offer electronic filing and house court files online, these are generally not visible in search engines.  Concerns about client privacy are valid, however, and you should seek a client's approval before posting filings from an active case online.

Continue reading "Why Sharing Documents Online Can Help You Get A Share of SEO" »