Legal Marketing Archives - Page 12 of 50

Easy But Impactful Ways to Stay in Touch With Your Professional Network

It’s so easy to be forgotten today when we are not seeing each other in person on a regular basis.

That means the onus is on you to maintain relationships with your professional network with the tools you have – and right now that’s virtually.

The most compelling reason to contact someone in your professional network is to provide them with something useful — and, trust me, people really want to hear from others, especially during this very isolating time.

Your goal right now should be to keep in touch with your professional network and to provide information of value to them that enables you to showcase your expertise without being boastful or salesy.

If you do this right, you’ll never have to sell anything or use an elevator pitch. Very often an individual is retained due to word-of-mouth and referrals. And repeat business is given based on your past performance and likability. Lay the groundwork today for future success.

You may already feel your firm is doing everything it can to acquire new clients, but what strategies have you put in place to retain existing clients, and how are you interacting and communicating with them?

After all, it’s far easier and less costly to keep an existing client than to bring on a new one.

When your clients feel that you value their business, their loyalty and brand preference grow. And when they benefit from valuable advice, client service and responsiveness, they could refer their friends and colleagues to you, and become your loyal brand ambassadors.

A timely thought leadership piece covering a topic that addresses issues top of mind for your clients can be gold at a time like this, and lead to the opening of doors and opportunities.

Make sure to send it via individual email to select contacts with a personal note and send a regular email newsletter to your contacts/clients. This is the best way to reach your clients and potential clients because it goes directly to their email inboxes.

You could also write a short email note just checking in on your clients/referrals/other VIPs to see how they are navigating working from home and managing the demands of family life.

This is the time to build relationships that go beyond the perfunctory “how was your weekend” – especially when someone’s kid or dog is appearing in a Zoom and we are all revealing much more our personal lives. A short note is more than enough to let people know you care and to keep you top of mind with them.

Of course don’t forget about using LinkedIn (and other social media platforms that work for your client development) to your advantage.

It’s not enough to have a strong profile or a lot of connections – you must use the platform to share posts in order to maximize the power of LinkedIn.

Social media success can be achieved by being active and liking, sharing and commenting on posts and also creating posts of your own – these actions will help to keep you top of mind, enabling you to showcase your expertise without being boastful while allowing you to provide value to your contacts.

This could lead to new relationships or referrals or new business.

Here are a few more ideas for how to stay top of mind with your contacts in a meaningful way:

Build online rapport and relationships by following people you admire on LinkedIn. Supporting others helps you build a strong network and stronger relationships.
Take the time to build compelling online content that provides prospects with valuable information on how to solve their most pressing problems possibly caused by the crisis, and then make that content available across your digital ecosystem. This is your chance to build your brand, strengthen relationships, create trust and grow demand for your services.
If you are on a group Zoom happy hour or networking event, note the participant list so you can connect with each person afterwards on LinkedIn. 
Groups are a great way to expand your network on LinkedIn. They have gained traction since the pandemic and give you access to many other business professionals who are interested in the same topics as you.
The Advanced Search tool on LinkedIn is another great way to strategically expand your network. Use LinkedIn filters to search by keyword, for example job title, location, company or school. Premium LinkedIn accounts enable you to conduct wider search parameters and saved searches.
Share posts written by others (prospects, colleagues, your company, your clients, etc.) or create a post based on something you wrote or an article you found that was interesting in a trusted news source (such as the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, a trade publication – you get the gist). Staying top of mind is the key to success on LinkedIn.
Like and comment on LinkedIn posts that you think are valuable and share the posts with your connections and in groups.
Regularly share content that is valuable to your connections on social media with brief introductory text on why they should read it. Highlight a few key points in your synopsis, use the @ sign to mention anyone in the post and always use an eye-catching visual and the right hashtags to accompany your post. Providing status updates on a regular basis keeps you visible to your network.
Be generous by liking and sharing others’ posts and congratulate others on their successes, especially your VIP connections. While they may not be ready to hire you at this moment, they will likely be in that position in the future. When they reach that point, you will be top of mind.
Make it easy for clients and prospects to connect with you by including your updated contact information on all of your social profiles and making it visible to everyone not just your connections. Also, if you list your work phone, make sure that it is being forwarded to your cell during the pandemic.

Make sure your clients and prospects don’t forget about you – especially now when we are social distancing– with information that is useful, consistent and by being thoughtful and helpful.

ARTICLE BY Stefanie M. Marrone of Stefanie Marrone Consulting

For more articles on legal marketing, visit the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

“I always make it the lawyers’ idea.”

Marketer: “When I want to get the lawyers on board, I always make it their idea.”

I’ve never cared for that approach — that’s not respecting the lawyers as intelligent adults. That’s infantilizing them; it’s treating them like children whose little egos need to be soothed and pampered so they don’t throw a tantrum. I say the heck with that.

They’re smart, tough, professionals who only bestow their respect upon those who have earned it. And marketers who let others to take credit for their ideas are teaching their employers that they don’t have any good ideas of their own. That’s not demonstrating that you’re invaluable and need a big raise. Rather, you’re making yourself replaceable by someone younger, cheaper, or less experienced.

Some time ago, I was asked on a Legal Marketing Association (LMA) email group how I structure my arguments to achieve effortless buy-in of innovative ideas and initiatives with skeptical groups of lawyers and marketing committees. My fundamental point was that it all comes down to education.

As a simple example, let’s say we’d like to redesign a firm’s letterhead to remove a long list of lawyer names. We’ve done this dozens of times for firms of all sizes, and I always follow the formula detailed below. Once I figured out this secret 25 years, I increased my professional effectiveness by 1,000%. It’s arguably the most vital lesson I teach marketers.

I think this is critical for everyone who works with lawyers to thoroughly understand.

First, as I regularly comment, “If (1) what I’m recommending is the best idea or action, and (2) I can teach lawyers what they need to know to position them to make a good decision, then (3) they should see that I’m right and agree with me.”

However, if they disagree with what I’m proposing, then either (1) I was wrong, (2) they’re stupid, or (3) I’ve failed to educate them sufficiently. I don’t know any stupid lawyers, which means that any battles are likely caused by a poor job of educating the lawyers. And that’s our fault, not the lawyers’.

I can explain something to marketers in two minutes that takes me an hour-long presentation with 50-100 PPT slides to explain to lawyers. Most marketers and administrators come from a similar vantage, experience, and frame of reference — we start generally on the same page, and we’re open to new ideas. Lawyers are not especially open, they don’t know much about marketing, and they have an exceptionally skeptical thought process.

That’s not a criticism, it’s many marketers’ personal experiences in marketing committee meetings. As marketers, we spend 8 hours a DAY thinking about marketing — our lawyers may not spend 8 hours a YEAR. We exhaustively research every variable before recommending a particular course of action to the marketing committee. Why should we expect lawyers to be able make an intelligent, educated, and correct decision the first time we throw it at them?

Regardless, in spite of their lack of information and education on any particular topic, if the lawyers are asked, they’ll always have an opinion. And once they voice that opinion in front of others, it’s very difficult to persuade them to change it. So before we allow them to subconsciously formulate that opinion, we must get them to buy into our view on the topic.

Here’s how I do that:

First, I do not lead with the conclusion. That is, I do not open with a general topic sentence using the classic journalistic style, something like “I think we should remove the names from our letterhead,” If I do that, they’ll disagree and pick me apart. They’ll identify 100 reasons why that’s a dumb idea, for example:

“We’ve always done it this way!”
“Everyone does it this way.”
“My clients like seeing my name near the top!”
“It’s more traditional, it’s classier.”
“It shows how big we are.”
“We don’t want people unknowingly calling our associates.” Etc.

I can never let that argument start.

Once it does, I’ve already lost. I’m done. It’s dead. Even though I may be 100% right, once they start piling on with “And here’s another reason you’re wrong!” it’s too late. I spent a lot of my early years in marketing losing important debates with my lawyers even though what I was advocating was right. In a free-flowing debate, they’ll win. They love arguing and they won’t stop until you give up, because from their experience they’re right and you’re wrong. So we must first provide them the information required to position them to make a well-informed decision.

Instead, I might start by quickly discussing design trends in the legal marketplace, what the leading firms are doing (discussing firms they’d aspire to become). I show actual examples of beautiful design from competing local firms (you can get them from your printing company), that don’t have the lawyers’ names on them.

I’ll validate that what they currently have was the right answer at the time it was created, that it looked absolutely beautiful. That is, I’m never suggesting that the original design was bad or poorly conceived, simply that since then, design has changed — as it always does over time. I might mention other obvious types of designs that have changed since the time this letterhead was created, i.e. it’s not just the firm’s letterhead — men were wearing three-piece suits, suspenders, and yellow ties, while women lawyers wore stiff, poofy hair and dresses with shoulder pads rather than the more open and casual approach we have today. Design changes have been spurred by the clean lines of Apple and the Internet. The business culture is less formal than it was back then and today’s design reflects that.

That is, I create hard evidence in support of my argument.

I might provide highlighted copies of any articles and blog posts that I can find that discuss and support the removal of names from the letterhead. I pull relevant quotes from articles, blog posts.

I’ll ask a friendly engraving or printing company how many of the past 25 letterhead re-designs they’ve printed have included all the lawyers names, and quote them. I’d ask a client/friend which design they prefer and provide the results, e.g. “I think having the lawyers’ names along the margin looks silly, and alphabetizing them implies that the most-senior lawyers have giant egos. At my company, we want to show our younger employees that we value them.” Lawyers are persuaded by client quotes. Note, whatever I’m advocating, I make a persuasive, logical evidence-based case for change. This helps the lawyers think “Huh, that makes sense. I never thought about it that way.”

I’d print out a sample letter on the current letterhead, then paste that same text into one of the printing company samples that have larger margins because they don’t have all the cluttering names on them, and show them how much more content fits on the new style — fewer two-page letters.

THEN, after they’re fully educated about this topic (this should take 15-20 minutes), NOW I can suggest that I’d like to update the firm’s letterhead to the same type of modern layout that all the top firms are using. At this point, they have learned why what they have isn’t good any more. They may have walked into the meeting loving their stationery, but 20 short minutes later, I’ve taught them to hate it, in a friendly, educational, interesting, and highly professional way, and lawyers love learning new things.

This is the structure I use when pitching anything — e.g. a new brand or website. I recommend that all marketers and administrators use it regardless of what we are seeking their agreement to — whether it’s a new piece of technology we want to purchase, a marketing-training program or other initiative we want to launch, a new employee to hire, or a big raise or bonus.

One added benefit of doing it this way is that we don’t have to “make it the lawyers’ idea.” I want marketers to make it YOUR idea. It’s a GOOD idea, it’s the RIGHT idea, and we are gradually teaching the lawyers that we are high-quality professionals whose ideas and efforts they should respect and trust. We’re not winging it, we’re approaching our decisions with a thoughtful, well-researched process and methodology that they can understand and respect, just like they’d have done it themselves if they were in our shoes. Lawyers appreciate that.

At least that’s how I approach it, and it’s served me well in conversations with lawyers and marketing committees for 25 years.

What do you think? What works for you? Do you have a different perspective?

ARTICLE BY Ross Fishman of Fishman Marketing, Inc.

For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Relationships Creating Commerce: How to Get the Most Out of Professional Networking and Referral Groups

Since in-person networking opportunities, such as industry conferences, are almost non-existent during the coronavirus pandemic, professional networking and referral groups are gaining popularity and becoming the go-to choice for creating referral relationships for lawyers. The format, makeup and style of the groups may vary, but the overall concept and purpose are the same: Grow your network, obtain new clients and bring in more revenue.

If you are thinking of joining a professional referral network, there are a few best practices, factors and concepts to keep in mind.

Your Circle of Trust

We all know it takes time to build your network the old-fashioned organic way — attending networking events, speaking at conferences and just meeting people over time. However, joining a professional networking and referral group will accelerate the growth of your network in three ways.

Joining the group expands your network immediately, since these groups typically have 20 to 30 members.
Those 20 to 30 people in the group are trusted advisors to their clients. As a fellow group member, they come to know you as someone they can trust. If their clients have a need that you can fulfill, your cohort will not hesitate to refer you. You can think of it as having 20 to 30 salespeople working on your behalf in the market.
Practicing the law of reciprocity is an accelerator. For every introduction you provide to your fellow members to help grow their networks, you can anticipate the boomerang effect because the person you gave to will want to return your gift in kind.

Selecting the Right Group

Several group options are available; joining the one that’s right for you is key to gaining value for your time and investment. Most professional networking groups have a monthly membership fee that, for the most part, is comparable, so don’t plan on distinguishing based on cost. There are four other factors to consider when you are deciding which group to choose.

Ask about the selection process — not only whom the group recruits, but how. For example, in an invitation-only process, you must attend a meeting first and if there is a mutual fit, the group extends an invitation for you to join. Consider how the group fills its rosters. Does it vet member candidates to ensure they have extensive tenure within their practice areas? Does it require that groups are curated with a mix of focuses to maximize cross-referrals?

You should also ask about the attendance policy. Make certain the required time commitment is a fit, because it’s important for presence to be a priority. You need your fellow members to attend consistently and participate actively to truly refer each other. The group should meet monthly at a minimum, and should also create opportunities for fellow members to network in smaller groups between monthly meetings.

Consider the broader networking opportunities the group offers. How large is the total network? How does it create opportunities to meet geographically distant members? Does it offer affinity or subgroups? There is added value to your membership if you can network regionally or nationally as well.

Finally, research the makeup and history of the organization itself. Does it have a credible story to tell about its members and opportunities? Does it have a strong onboarding program and proven systems for how members meet and create commerce? Does the organization have a tenured support staff? Another key benefit is if the organization provides a platform to share thought leadership, news and accomplishments, as well as a community board to ask for needed introductions and referrals.

The Perfect Combo Creates the Ideal Referral Source

Some professional referral networking groups have a specific formula or membership mix that encompasses a broad range of practices or professions. Such groups usually allow just one representative or member from each area. While all of your fellow members are potential referral sources, a handful will naturally complement each other and lend themselves to creating opportunities to cross-sell and cross-serve the same client. A best practice is to focus on these particular relationships within your group. Meet with these complementary professionals often and discuss creative strategies to create combined offerings for each other’s clients.

If you expect to gain quality, be sure to educate your fellow members about your ideal client and referral. Be sure that your fellow members know and understand where your ideal client can be found, and how your ideal client typically finds you. Let your group know about where your target-rich audiences are, the most common reasons you are retained and the kinds of problems you solve.

The Law of Reciprocity

One business development strategy that will always harvest results is to fulfill a need for the person you’re trying to gain something from. Regardless of what it is (an introduction, a recommendation, a referral, expanding your current work, or gaining new business or a new client), your only focus and approach should be that of a giver, not a taker. Members who grow their businesses from group relationships do so because they focus on giving referrals, as opposed to seeking referrals.

The “giving” doesn’t always have to be a referral. It can be a recommendation, a solution to a problem or a shared idea. The law of reciprocity will always work because the receiver naturally wants to return your “gift” in kind.

Bottom Line: Trusted Advisors Create Commerce

Other best practices of professional networking are obvious: Attend your group meetings regularly and participate actively. Consider providing educational training and thought leadership to the group as well as serving on leadership committees or boards.

The benefits of a professional referral network are far-reaching. Winning one new matter or client will pay for your membership. There is also more juice for the squeeze, since the time you commit to membership is actually minimal compared to other business development activities, especially those that involve cold networking, such as sending unsolicited emails or social media invitations. You also enhance your own value to your clients because you have an ever-expanding network of trusted advisors and referrals to tap into.

In a world where you should never underestimate the power of a relationship, professional networking and referral groups will play a key role in the number and quality of relationships you cultivate. As long as opportunities to meet in person remain limited, these resources will only increase in value for everyone.

ARTICLE BY Glennie J. Green of Jaffe

For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Email Marketing for Law Firms: Good2bSocial Digital Certification Part 7

Continuing the National Law Review’s overview of the Good2bSocial digital marketing certification, this week we look to Email Marketing for law firms. Email Marketing is a critical element of law firm digital marketing, and the Good2bSocial Digital Marketing Certification provides an overview of key principles such as Email Segmentation, A/B Testing and Email Marketing Drip Campaigns. Kevin Vermeulen Good2bSocial’s COO:, “There is a natural sense of urgency that tends to accompany the legal field that marketers can take advantage of with email marketing.”

HowEmail Marketing Benefits your Law Firm

Email Marketing, if done correctly, can be a great way to stay top of mind as a regular presence in your client’s and potential client’s inbox, and a consistent source of leads. Modern life requires close attention to email, so if you can build a list that is engaged, and if you provide useful content, your law firm’s email marketing program will become a crucial part of your digital marketing strategy. Refining your email marketing strategy to increase your open rate helps stretch your digital marketing dollars and increases your ROI.

Some basic things to consider when putting together an email campaign:

Make sure your email template displays well on mobile. Mobile is a huge factor in email opens, so make sure your email looks good no matter what device your subscriber is using.
Images: Less is more. An email with too many images can negatively impact your click-through rate and often takes too much time to download or may become truncated.
Be strategic about when you hit “send.” Research indicates mid-morning is the best, but it’s also important to consider the day of the week.
Using the recipient’s name in the subject line or the body of the email can drastically increase click-thru rates.

Email List Segmentation: Give Your Email Subscribers What They Want:

Providing your subscribers with content they find useful and appealing should be a cornerstone strategy of your email marketing program. If your subscribers are finding your content helpful, they are more likely to be engaged, forward your emails to others, not report you as spam, and ultimately look to you as an expert resource–and then service provider. To accomplish this goal, dividing your email list into segments is a good way to target your content to appeal to the right audience.

Options abound for email segmentation, so starting small can make the process manageable and still yield results.

Ways to Segment Your Email Lists to Reach the Right Audience:

How did they sign up? If they were looking for information on a particular topic or area, crafting a list or related lists based on the subscriber’s expressed interest is a reasonable inference.
Where is the subscriber on the buyer’s journey? This can provide clues into what kind of information they may find useful.
How engaged is the subscriber? Are they opening your emails consistently? If not, pelting them with every email you send is not a way to increase engagement. For low-engaged subscribers, perhaps send a reminder campaign of their options, so they can more efficiently tailor their preferences to their needs.
Where is the subscriber located? Some clients or potential clients may be interested in regional information–relevant to their geographic area..

The Importance of A/B Testing or Split Testing in Email Marketing.

A/B Testing involves creating two different versions of the same email, sending out both, and comparing the results in terms of clicks and responses to extrapolate the variations that are more effective for your audience. Many email marketing programs provide for A/B testing, and provide the analytic data you need to make an informed decision about results. It’s important to test on a large email list, to ensure the data you garner is significant, and weave the takeaways into your email design strategy.

Email Marketing is highly dependent on context, so looking at pre-existing information can give your law firm insight into what areas to A/B test, to funnel results into recommendations that can have a broad impact. Some areas you can A/B test are:

Subject line
Layout design–one column or two columns?
Body text
Closing text
Images
Personalization

It’s important to A/B test one variable at a time, so you can clearly identify what is responsible for the differences in the results. It’s important to start at a point that makes sense for the situation; for example, if you are seeing low open rates, start with the subject line. The open rate, the click-through rate, and the conversation rate are metrics most often used to evaluate the results. If changing the layout design results in a higher click-through rate, that is a change you might want to consider incorporating across your emails.

A/B testing is important to keep your email marketing fresh, and responsive to the interests of your subscribers.

How Email Marketing Drip Campaigns Help Your Law Firm.

Email Marketing Drip campaigns are a way to send crafted messages to each segment of your email audience to stay top of mind, deliver helpful information, and nurture professional relationships.

Drip Campaigns pick up where email segmentation left off. Identifying a segment–and then creating triggers–either action triggers or demographic triggers that kick off a domino effect. In many instances, this can be automated, making the work involved more supervisory–and less labor-intensive. For example, you have a group of prospects segmented by how they signed up–and you send them emails that provide them with options–so if they click on a specific link, it indicates an interest or preference, transferring that contact into a different bucket–so they are sent content based on that preference.

Email drip campaigns are highly customizable and require strategic thinking about your client persona and Client Journey Mapping for law firms. The Good2bSocial Digital Marketing Certification provides resources to help law firm marketers look at their audience, and help design a customizable program for them. Kevin Vermeulen, COO of Good2bSocial:

“It can be a tedious and time-consuming process to get a drip email campaign put together, but because of the hyper-efficient and automated targeting, the results are well worth it. It may take days or weeks to get everything exactly where you want it, but once it’s working, you’ll have something that can run for months or years, completely automated, constantly working to bring your firm new clients, and ultimately more revenue.”

Email Marketing Big Picture Campaigns

It’s important to make sure any email marketing campaign your firm does complies with all relevant privacy legislation and regulations. For example, the GDPR in Europe, the CCPA and CPRA in California, and Virginia’s latest data protection legislation, and more states, countries and regions are drafting new legislation at a rapid pace. Additionally, there is always the possibility of a comprehensive federal law on privacy that would impact email marketing efforts.

To Read Part 1 Good2bSocial Digital Academy for Law Firms — Inbound Marketing and Client Journey Mapping, click here.

To read Part 2 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Content Marketing Strategy for Law Firms, click here.

To read Part 3 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Developing a Successful Social Media Strategy for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 4 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Paid Social Media Advertising Campaigns for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 5 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Search Engine Optimization for Law Firms, click here.

Stay tuned for more details on the topics and key takeaways included in the other modules of the Good2bSocial Academy.

ARTICLE BY Eilene Spear of The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

In-Person Client Meetings and COVID-19

A fellow attorney just circulated a poll to his friends asking, “Are you starting to meet with your clients in person?” If you are restarting in-person meetings with your clients, consider whether you are in a jurisdiction that mandates contact tracing and whether that conflicts with your duty to maintain a client’s confidential information confidential.

Every jurisdiction has adopted some form of ABA Model Rule 1.6, Confidentiality of Information. It provides in part that:

(a) A lawyer shall not reveal information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation or the disclosure is permitted by paragraph (b).

The mere fact that a person has consulted an attorney can be in itself confidential information. One obvious example is a famous celebrity visiting a divorce attorney.

The problematic situation arises if you learn that the client has COVID after an in-person meeting. Alternatively, what if you learn after the meeting that you have COVID? In jurisdictions that require contact tracing disclosure, or even for public policy and health considerations, you may need to disclose your client’s identity to contact tracing authorities. As an attorney, you should take a moment to learn the contact tracing and public health reporting laws in your jurisdiction. For example, right now, I understand that there is a tracing program in Massachusetts, but disclosure is voluntary, not legally required. This may change.

The easy answer to this dilemma is to discuss the issue before meeting a client in person. Model Rule 1.6 permits the disclosure of otherwise confidential client information with informed consent, so you should inform the client about contact tracing so the client can decide whether to meet in person or remotely.

The hard answer arises if you have not had this conversation. Absent informed consent from a client to disclose their identity to contract tracers, Model Rule 1.6 does permit – but does not require – disclosure to comply with a statutory requirement for contact tracing:

(b) A lawyer may reveal information relating to the representation of a client to the extent the lawyer reasonably believes necessary: . . . (6) to comply with other law or a court order . . .

While the ethical rules may permit you to comply with a statutory requirement to disclose your client’s identity in a COVID tracing situation, such a unilateral decision to make disclosure may not be good for your attorney-client business relationship.

In conclusion, you should seriously consider discussing the possibility of contact tracing disclosure obligations before meeting with a client in-person.

ARTICLE BY Edward S. Cheng of Sherin and Lodgen LLP

For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

How to Elevate Your Law Firm Brand

You can have the best law firm in the world, but if no one knows you exist, you will not attract business. Marketing your law firm is incredibly important because you need to constantly broadcast your firm’s messaging, offering, and identity. You want to establish yourself as the go-to law firm of the community. Even by attempting new marketing strategies for lawyers, you are outpacing most of your peers.

However, most solo attorneys and small law firms are not taking an intentional marketing approach and instead engage in “random acts of marketing.” The American Bar Association states the majority of small law firms do not have a strategic marketing plan in place.

This behavior is self-sabotaging as it is critical for law firms to stay relevant in the legal community and firmly establish their brand voice and marketing plan.

Overall, lawyers have an incredible opportunity to network and expand their brand in a world that has seemingly gone virtual. To grow your practice, you need to experiment with new marketing strategies and mediums. After all, if you do not market your services, how would anyone know your services are available?

This article will cover some ideas on how to determine what your brand identity is and how to elevate it through marketing tactics.

Be Crystal Clear on Your Law Firm’s Brand Identity

A law firm should establish the message they want their clients to remember them for. Start by asking yourself the following:

What is the identity of our law firm?
What are the values of our law firm?
What makes our law firm unique from competitors?
What makes our legal services different from other firms?

It is often said in marketing, “People do not buy from businesses; they buy from people.” Answer these questions to establish your unique perspective and differentiator, and then move onto executing traditional marketing tactics for lawyers.

6 Ways to Elevate Your Legal Brand with Marketing Tactics

Potential clients are looking for lawyers who are good at what they do, helpful to the people they serve, and that show strong leadership skills and community commitment. Marketing is a holistic tool that helps the best attorneys become more visible to their clients and in the legal community, which grows their reputation, increases their referrals, and grows their practice.

Utilize Snail Mail.

Striking the right balance between traditional and digital advertising is tough; however, traditional media still has tremendous value for law firms, and its utilization continually carries an air of authority and prestige. Direct mail is not dead, and in fact, postcards outperform other mediums, leading to a response rate of 42%. Creating personalized postcards that have a unique touch also increases the likelihood your potential clients will respond. You can include an incentive such as first-time client deals, a free consultation, or a local resource list.

Radio Still Wins

The majority of the Americans are still tuning into the radio; 90% of adults ages 18 to 30, 94% of adults ages 35 to 49, and 91% of adults over 50 years old are listening to their local radio station, making it the leading platform for reach in the US.

Additionally, radio audiences are also becoming more diverse. 45 million Latinos and 35 million Black Americans are tuning in monthly.

Radio advertising also offers the unique advantage of a high frequency, meaning how many times the average person hears your ad over the course of a week. It can take your customer seven times to hear about your legal service before they take action. Radio provides many opportunities to get in front of your community again and again. It is scientifically proven that a person needs to hear an ad about three to four times per week to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Embrace Virtual Networking Sessions

As the legal community is a relationship-based industry, in-person activities historically laid the foundation for the most powerful marketing strategies. However, COVID-19 brought those activities to a grinding halt, pausing almost all face-to-face marketing opportunities for law firms.

However, Zoom usage soared from 10 million daily meeting participants back in December 2019 to over 300 million in April 2020. There are endless opportunities to get involved with networking. Search for areas in your legal specialty for speaking opportunities, mentorships, or even just a monthly meetup. Take advantage of the new ability to catch up and network with multiple people a day, from the comfort of your home office, without having to drive around town.

Email Marketing is Powerful

Email marketing is still one of the most popular traditional marketing practices. Over half of the world’s population uses email every day, and 54% of email is read on a mobile device. Also, email marketing continues to deliver one of the strongest returns on investment, with every $1 spent averaging an ROI of $42.

Building out monthly newsletters and embracing consistent email communication is key in staying top of mind with your community.

Collaborate with Fellow Attorneys in Your Area

I often advise legal professionals to capitalize on developing an attorney-to-attorney referral network. Instead of seeing local law firms as competition, it is essential to create a reciprocal relationship among ten to twelve attorneys that practice in non-competing areas. Develop authentic relationships with your peers, and you will find that more business will come your way, making collaborative advertising one of the most affordable forms of marketing.

Even though you can’t grab dinner or coffee, there are many ways to stay connected with other local attorneys virtually, including the following:

Consistently engaging with their LinkedIn posts, offering congratulations on a hard-won case, or simply adding your insight to their thought leadership.
Not forgetting milestones such as birthdays or work anniversaries – for your fellow local lawyers building their business, their fifth-year anniversary of starting their firm is an emotional milestone for them. Send a handwritten congratulations card or a special treat to their office.
Staying connected on inside jokes, sending a funny gift through the mail, or shooting over an email that references a great time you had together in the past.

Billboard Advertising Offers High Frequency and Familiarity

Billboard advertising utilizes local awareness and promotes your law firm to a broad range of your local community. Like radio ads, billboard advertising offers a high frequency, meaning your potential customers are driving or walking by your signage every day, becoming more and more familiar with your face and brand name.

This familiarity breeds comfort; studies show that brand familiarity is the most rudimentary form of consumer knowledge and increases your customer’s likelihood of seeking out your services when they need legal help. This continued exposure builds trust and establishes your image as the go-to attorney in your area.

Elevate Your Brand Through Trusted Marketing Strategies for Lawyers

As a lawyer, you first need to establish what you and your firm stand for. Create a solid brand identity that guides your usage of traditional marketing strategies. Put pen to paper on your vision and know how impactful you can be in your community, which directly leads to your firm’s branding. Once this is created and solidified, experiment with trusted traditional marketing strategies like postcards, email, billboards, radio, and virtual networking sessions, and you will find that marketing your business was well worth the investment.

ARTICLE BY Meranda M. Vieyra of Denver Legal Marketing

For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

A Lawyers Spring Cleaning Guide to Decluttering the Intake Process

Spring is upon us and what better time than now for lawyers to clean up a process that can sometimes get messy — the client intake process. Client intake is a pivotal step in converting those hard-earned leads to customers and can leave a lasting impression on your law firm. It’s important to periodically look at what is and is not working in your own firm’s intake process.

Prospective clients will be evaluating your professionalism, skill, personality, and customer service from this moment forward. Not only is it important for lawyers to ask the right questions so they may decide on the best approach to a case, but lawyers additionally need to consider the client experience.

Your prospective client is also interviewing you, wasting time shuffling through paperwork or unorganized files looks unprofessional and could be the difference in winning over that client or not. Keeping this in mind, don’t waste the client’s time with a slow intake process. A streamlined, clutter-free client intake is a win-win, let’s go over some tips in this guide.

Ask yourself the right questions

When thinking about client intake, lawyers should think about themselves first. It may be an odd concept but it will ultimately save you and the client time. The key is to ask enough screening questions to evaluate if the client will be a good fit. To do this, lawyers need to determine their ideal client and have a good understanding of the services their firm can realistically offer.

When evaluating what questions to ask the client, lawyers should consider the following:

What key information do I need for this case?
What is my timeframe?
What type of cases can I take on?
Are there other recommendations I can make if I can’t assist the client?

The answers to these questions will be different for each lawyer but they should get you thinking about what information you will need during client intake. Clients will appreciate lawyers who have a firm understanding of their capabilities and services instead of stretching the truth just to sign a client on board.

Automate your client intake

The easiest way to clean up your client intake is to streamline it with automated forms. Automated forms allow lawyers and their team to easily access and distribute forms to the client without having to jump on the phone or come into the office. This is even more important now that virtual or hybrid offices are here to stay.

Platforms like PracticePanther allow lawyers to create customizable client intake templates that are easily interchangeable and responsive. Implementing automated forms will:

Reduce non-billable hours

Client intake can be time-consuming for busy lawyers. Allowing clients to independently fill out their information will save you time and resources that could be allocated towards managing other aspects of your practice.

Eliminate human error

If your firm is using a paper client intake form or filling out the form on behalf of the client, mistakes can be made. This isn’t to say that you or your team are doing poor work – human error is sometimes inevitable. Transitioning away from paper to an automated form will greatly reduce the potential for human error and increase data accuracy.

Improve the client experience

Accessibility is an important aspect of the client experience. Having the option for the client to fill out the form anytime, anywhere will increase the likelihood they will complete it and in a timely manner. PracticePanther forms were made with this in mind and can be used across all mobile devices.

Provide multiple client intake funnels

Your firm’s marketing strategy should always include multiple client intake funnels. This will increase your online visibility to prospective clients and offer them options to choose platforms they are comfortable with. Whether a potential client is coming from social media, landing pages, ads, or a review website, the intake process should be uniform.

Taking this into account, it’s important to ensure all members of your team are familiar with the intake process and have easy access to the proper forms. Client intake should be a team effort (if your firm is large enough to handle it) especially when prospective clients can come from any platform, at any time. If you operate a solo firm, automating client intake through multiple channels ensures that customer service doesn’t suffer.

Keep it simple

If there’s one thing lawyers want more of, it’s time. Adopting processes and software that offer a “set it and forget it” approach will allow lawyers to focus their time on assisting clients. By using this guide, you’ll be on your way to a tidy intake of clients for seasons to come.

ARTICLE BY Kamron Sanders of PracticePanther

For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Legal Industry News Update: Women’s History and Achievement, Legal Industry Innovation and Professional Moves

We’re back with another edition of our latest legal and consulting industry news column, focusing on women’s history and achievement in the legal industry, coronavirus legal innovations and professional moves. Read on for all the latest updates:

Legal Industry Professional Moves

Legal operations veteran Bob Taylor joined Deloitte Legal Business Services team as a managing director based in Boston. Taylor will focus on business of law and legal department transformation at Deloitte Tax.

Mr.Taylor has 25 years of experience as senior corporate counsel and manager at Liberty Mutual in the company’s legal operations function.

Dr. Darrell G. Kirch, president emeritus of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), joined Manatt, Phelps & Phillips as an advisor in Washington, D.C. Dr. Kirch was the president and CEO of AAMC from 2006 to 2019 and prior to his tenure at the AAMC, Dr. Kirch served as dean, university senior vice president and academic health system leader of two medical institutions: the Medical College of Georgia and the Pennsylvania State University Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. At Manett, Dr. Kirch will work with the firm to enhance its healthcare policy and legal practice with the nation’s leading academic health care institutions.

“Innovation and transformation are our guiding principles as we advise our clients and help them navigate today’s new economy,” said Donna L. Wilson, Manatt’s CEO and Managing Partner. “Darrell’s impressive background and commitment to being an agent of change embody this ethos, making him an ideal fit to our integrated legal and consulting platform.”

Carlos M. Velazquez was named Senior Counsel at Ditchik & Ditchik, PLLC. Mr. Velazquez brings 50 years of New York real estate tax litigation experience, advising NYC real estate developers, landlords and hoteliers on the particular ecosystem of New York real estate and will serve in a leadership capacity at the firm alongside Managing Partner Joel Ditchik and Partner Steven Tishco.

“Ditchik & Ditchik’s approach to this niche field of law is unmatched. I am delighted to join its established group of pioneering tax certiorari lawyers,” said Mr. Velazquez. “I look forward to applying my experience and skills to serve the firm’s impressive client base.”

Managing Partner, Joel Ditchik, expressed confidence in the contribution Mr. Velazquez will make to the firm, saying that “Carlos will not only offer astute leadership to our attorneys, but will continue to grow our firm’s capabilities across the full range of property tax law services to our loyal clientele.”

Legal Industry Innovation

Documate, a San Francisco-based legal software provider, received the 2021 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access from the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services (ABA). Documate increases access to legal services for those of modest means through its platform that allows attorneys to easily automate documents, principally through its “no-code” platform that allows attorneys to create tools to expand their service offerings without the need to hire a software developer. Documate software is used by courts, legal aid organizations as well as private attorneys.

Another initiative recognized by the ABA with a Louis M. Brown Select Award includes COVID H.E.L.P. Illinois, a pandemic-inspired free to use tool designed to help anyone in Illinois with legal problems related to the pandemic which was created by a group of Illinois legal aid programs, including CARPLS Legal Aid, Illinois Legal Aid Online, Legal Aid Chicago, Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance, Prairie State Legal Services, Westside Justice Center, and others and was funded through a grant from the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois.

The awards are scheduled to be presented at the ABA Annual Meeting August 4 – 10, 2021.

Thomson Reuters is introducing improvements to HighQ, 3E and Marketplace. The new version of Thomson Reuters HighQ has over 60 new features for enhanced workflow collaboration. HighQ and 3E help corporate and government legal departments, as well as law firms, deliver customer-driven enhancements and customizations, improving project management, contract management and managing critical files with more flexibility.

“Over the past year, our customers have relied on HighQ to improve their productivity and serve their clients at the highest level, all at a time of unparalleled disruption,” said Chris Kitchener, vice president, Product Management for Thomson Reuters HighQ. “Version 5.5 brings new features and tools to multiple use cases, with significant enhancements to the legal project management and contract lifecycle management capabilities. Additionally, much of the work done to this point has laid a strong foundation for what is yet to come for HighQ this year, anchored by significant upgrades and key product integrations.”

Thomson Reuters Marketplace allows users to find and test solutions to extend the functionality of existing products for legal and tax professionals. Marketplace offers over 120 add-on enhancements and integrations across 18 categories ranging from contract / document management and automation and CRM / business development tools to timekeeping and billing integrations.

“We anticipate further cloud adoption and acceleration in the digitization of how legal work gets done,” Fischer said. “Through our content-driven technology, we are continuing to innovate and deliver products and new features, focusing on customer input to really move the dial on connectedness and productivity, so legal professionals can make the most of their new skills and implement technologies that create a competitive advantage.”

The American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR) has developed an integrated smart videoconferencing technology platform to provide a seamless virtual arbitration experience which is helpful with current social distancing rules and travel restrictions.

The camera system is a hands-free system, where up to seven cameras can be positioned around the room. The cameras are activated by the voice of the speaker. The recording capabilities are built-in, so proceedings are easily archived. All participants, whether present or are completely remote, can easily engage.

Michael A. Marra, the VP of AAA ICDR’s Construction Division said that “COVID19 has changed everything, but no matter how long social distancing and other pandemic rules remain in effect, or what the post-pandemic reality looks like, the AAA-ICDR is positioned to ensure people receive uninterrupted ADR services even if not everyone involved can be in the same room or venue.”

Women’s History & Achievement

Stradley Ronon Associate Aliza S. Dominey was selected for the 100 Women in Finance’s Washington D.C. Education Committee where she plans philanthropy, peer engagement and educational events to help progress the careers of women in the financial services industry.

At Stradley Ronon, Ms. Dominey counsels investment companies and private funds on regulatory, compliance and transactional issues, in addition to reviewing registration statements, proxy solicitation materials and researching various securities and corporate law issues; and preparing board materials.

100 Women in Finance has nearly 20,000 registered members and works to strengthen the global finance industry by empowering women to achieve their professional potential at each career stage.

Eve Howard, Global Head of Capital Markets at Hogan Lovells, was selected as a member of the DirectWomen Board Institute class 2020-2021. General Counsel of Fortune 500 companies, senior partners of law firms, and lawyers from private equity and government are selected after a thorough selection process, and attend the DirectWomen Board Institute, taught by CEOs, C-suite executives, and directors of public companies.

Since its inception, more than 215 women have participated in the Board Institute, and more than a third of the Board Institute’s alumnae have been elected to serve as directors of major companies, including Tesla, Inc., Visa Inc., The TJX Companies, Inc., Valero Energy Corporation, Party City Holdco Inc., Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., and many others.

Ms. Howard, a partner at Hogan Lovell’s Washington D.C office, and Global Head of the firm’s Capital Markets practice has more than 30 years of experience structuring and negotiating complex corporate transactions and serving as a trusted advisor to public company clients. Howard has also served on Hogan Lovells’ International Management Committee.

Per Howard:

“I am honored to be selected to participate in DirectWomen Board Institute’s prestigious program. DirectWomen aims to increase the representation of women lawyers on corporate boards and serves as a great opportunity for those with a wide range of business knowledge and experience in their industries to bring that expertise to the boardroom.”

The Board Institute will be held in New York in October 2021.

Jacquelyn E. Stone, a partner with decades of experience advising clients on government relations, regulatory and immigration matters at McGuireWoods, won the Phoebe P. Hall Mentorship Award from the Metro Richmond Women’s Bar Association (MRWBA).

Ms. Stone is based in Richmond, VA and has worked as a mentor with several organizations, focusing on helping the next generation succeed in the legal industry, including Just the Beginning—A pipeline organization to create opportunities for underrepresented groups to pursue legal career and Partnership for the Future, a college prep and workforce development program for Richmond area high school students.

“I am honored to receive this prestigious award from the Metro Richmond Women’s Bar Association,” said Stone. “It’s important for me to be a mentor, to share my experiences and help others on their path to personal and professional success.”

Ms. Stone was the first African-American woman to be named a partner at a major Virginia law firm, and she was also is the first African American to serve on McGuireWoods’ Board of Partners. At McGuireWoods, she created the Diversity & Inclusion Committee in 2006 and served as its chair until 2017.

ARTICLE BY Eilene Spear, Rachel Popa and Hanna Taylor of The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

For more articles on the legal industry, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Paid Search Adverting for Law Firms: Part 6 Good2bSocial Academy

The eight modules of Good2bSocial’s Digital Academy provide legal marketers with critical components of an effective digital marketing program adapted for the unique needs of the professional services industry. Good2bSocial’s Digital Academy fills the need for legal marketers to demonstrate that they have a baseline of digital marketing concepts, and also provides law firm CMOs an objective way to assess team members’ or potential hires’ legal marketing knowledge. Last week, we covered Good2bSocial’s Digital Academy’s course on search engine optimization (SEO) strategy for law firms, providing the components of an effective SEO strategy for lawyers, stressing steady and exponential website visitor growth over time which increases both search visibility and law firm credibility.

Module 6 helps legal marketers learn effective ad bidding strategies and outlines best practices to create effective advertisements on Google Ads and other platforms. Good2bSocial’s program helps legal marketers navigate the Google Ads interface through real-life examples, providing actionable tactics to improve click-through rate, lower advertising spend and maximize performance.

Per Kevin Vermeulen Good2bSocial’s COO:

Google Ads and Bing Ads are a highly effective way to deliver quality traffic and leads to your law firm’s website. But there needs to be thorough keyword targeting so Google displays your ads only to those searching for your legal services. Google’s global audience and the audience data they provide is unrivaled in the industry and it is critical to know how to properly set up new campaigns and how to optimize existing ad campaigns to assure that your law firm receives the maximum return on investment (ROI).

Pay Per Click Basics for Law Firms: An Overview.

As the name indicates, with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, your firm only pays when someone clicks on your ad. PPC ads strategies include purchasing ads on search engine results pages, social media advertising as discussed in Good2bSocial’s Academy Module 4 and purchasing ads on partnering websites. Guidance is given on how to compete with others who want the same key words you are targeting in an auction to determine who wins the ad spot. Ad spot bidding is impacted by the key word’s relevance, the query made by the person doing the search, and your law firm’s landing page.

Get Your Law Firm’s Message at the Top and Most Viewed Parts of Search Pages.

Pay-per-click advertising on search engine results pages places your firm’s message in a prominent spot right at the top, bottom or side of the search page. PPC ads that appear at the top of the search page are more likely to be clicked on than the top-ranking search result.

Other Types of PPC Ads that Provide Value for Law Firms

Vendors like Google Display Network and Microsoft Advertising, previously known as Bing Ads, display ads on partnering websites such as the National Law Review. Google Display Network includes more than 2 million partnering websites and the ability to reach more than 90 percent of those online. The Bing Ad Network audience includes 60 million desktop searchers not reached on Google. There are many networks out there and other niche options for law firms. For example, Quora, where people come to ask questions and to read and share answers, is particularly suited to reach customers at the point they are evaluating and researching a product or service. Good2bSocial’s Academy PPC module provides a great deal of analysis of the various pay-per-click options for law firms in addition to explaining remarketing or retargeting campaigns that show your PPC ads to those who have visited your website in the past.

Critical Points to Consider for Google Ads Campaigns Setup and Maintenance include:

How to Choose and Manage your Law Firm’s Advertising Keywords?

When using pay-per-click advertising, you have the freedom to customize your keywords, allowing for extra targeting focusing your spend on keywords that are more likely to indicate an urgent need for a lawyer. Additionally, your firm wants to make sure your keywords are unique so that you don’t end up competing with yourself.

The checklists in Good2bSocial’s Academy PPC module provide useful information on:

How to organize similar keywords into groups helping you keep things organized and streamlining your targeting efforts.
How to silo lower performing keywords into a campaign to determine if they should be dropped or can be improved.
How to prune underperforming keywords and how to improve the lower performing keywords through adding negative keywords to your lists.
How to look for new keywords and phrases.
How to do split testing.
And how to tweak landing pages and ad copy for optimal performance for high performing keywords.

What are Best Practices for Law Firm Ad Campaign Set Up and how to Avoid Costly Missteps?

Because of the high cost of PPC advertising for attorneys, law firms should research to ensure your firm chooses highly targeted keywords that will deliver an impressive ROI. Key words in the legal field are highly competitive. According to Good2BSocial, the average click costs $54.86 for keywords related to legal services and lawyers.

Good2bSocial’s Academy Provides Useful PPC Organization and Execution Advice Including:

How to consolidate PPC campaigns by performance.
Why your firm should check landing pages and URLs and making sure the landing page works as intended.
How to download your ads and look at them in Excel or Word to organize them and assure simple things like the spelling is correct, as misspellings can have a negative effect on click through rates (CTR).
How to include your keywords in your law firm’s ad copy and your landing pages’ URL and setting page paths.
And how to make the most of your clicks by enhancing your ads with things like ad extensions and going into detail on how Sitelinks, Review, and Call extensions can be useful for law firms.

How to Set Budgets and Choose Location and Language Targeting for your Law Firm’s Ad Campaigns.

According to Good2bSocial, certain geographic locations and more specialized key words may require higher suggested PPC bids, with some firms setting a monthly budget for PPC ads of $30,000 or more. If a law firm is going to enter into and thrive in the PPC marketplace, Good2bSocial’s checklists, real life examples and detailed explanations provide an invaluable roadmap, including:

How to define your CPC bids to ensure you don’t bid too high on cost per click amd how attorneys can use Google’s keyword planner to get an idea of the PPC range your firm should be aiming for.
How to set your PPC budget.
How to set location and language targets. Not all legal consumers in the U.S. are browsing in English, so setting proper language targeting and then assuring that prospects are taken to a landing page in the language they are using to browse.
How to choose ad rotation and delivery method.
How to set “Search Network Only.” Google will set your campaigns to search with display by default. And because display ads show up on websites other than Google search engine result pages, inadvertently including display ads outside of search results can cost your firm significantly more money.
How to set ad scheduling. If you want to schedule ads so they only show while your office is open and how to set target devices if you’re running a campaign specifically designed for mobile/ desktop/ or tablet only.
How to exclude your own IP address(es) to avoid skewing your tracking results and how to use Google’s ad preview tool to check to see where or how your ads are showing up.
And how to set up conversion tracking. To monitor your ads and selected campaign attributes to assure they met your law firm’s PPC campaign goals.

Key Takeaways for Law Firms Paid Search Advertising

Per Vermeulen:

Google ads and other PPC outlets are highly effective for the law firm market at producing rapid lead generation results. But it’s not as simple as “setting and forgetting” a law firm’s PPC campaigns. However, while the extensive configurability of the Google platform, in particular, makes it extremely powerful, it also makes it easy to forget a step somewhere and cause problems with your firm’s campaigns. To prevent wasting time and money, checklists, forethought, monitoring and routine recalibration checks are needed when launching and evaluating existing PPC advertising campaigns.

To Read Part 1 Good2bSocial Digital Academy for Law Firms — Inbound Marketing and Client Journey Mapping, click here.

To read Part 2 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Content Marketing Strategy for Law Firms, click here.

To read Part 3 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Developing a Successful Social Media Strategy for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 4 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Paid Social Media Advertising Campaigns for Law Firms, click here

To read Part 5 Good2bSocial Digital Academy — Search Engine Optimization for Law Firms, click here.

Stay tuned for more details on the topics and key takeaways included in the other modules of the Good2bSocial Academy.

ARTICLE BY Jennifer Schaller of The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC

For more articles on legal marketing, visit the NLR Law Office Management section.

Taking the Jump to Virtual with Jennifer Schaller, Managing Director of The National Law Review and Megan Braverman, Principal of Berbay Marketing & Public Relations [PODCAST]

What you’ll learn in this episode:

The pros and cons of a virtual office.
The biggest challenges of working remotely.
Transitioning your technology to a virtual “platform.”
Advice for firms considering going remote.
What to ask prospective employees to ensure they’re a fit for remote work.

Listen to Taking the Jump to Virtual, Episode 87 of the Law Firm Marketing Catalyst podcast.

Sharon: Welcome to the Law Firm Marketing Catalyst podcast. Today, we’re talking about a timely subject which is affecting many of us, and that is working remotely. First is Jennifer Schaller who is a co-founder and the Managing Director of The National Law Review, a publication which many of you are familiar with, and Megan Braverman, Principal of Berbay Marketing & Public Relations, and I am Sharon Berman, Managing Principal of Berbay Marketing & Public Relations. So, we’ll be here from each of our desks today talking about their experiences and what they have to learn and what we can learn from them about working remotely. Jennifer, can you tell us about your experience?

Jennifer: Sure, absolutely. We started as a remote company just simply because we were formed by a group of attorneys at different in-house law departments, so it wasn’t like most of the co-founders were leaving their regular positions working in corporate law departments. A former law firm administrator and I and a few other young attorneys actually started the more public-facing part of The National Law Review. So, it wasn’t like we had an office and we moved to remote. We were kind of a remote group to begin with and then we hired more remote people, if that makes sense.

Sharon: Yes, it does. O.K., so you’ve been remote from the beginning. Basically, you started—

Jennifer: Yes.

Sharon: O.K., that’s a great way to start in terms of not having to transfer technology and think about things. Megan, can you talk a little bit how Berbay—we have just gone totally remote, but we’ve building to it for a while, so tell us about the Berbay experience.

Megan: So, Berbay was founded in 1995 and since that date, we’ve had a physical office in Los Angeles and our most recent office we were in for just over twenty years in West L.A. It’s a long time and as you said, we were really thinking about going virtual for some time. For those that understand the L.A. world, traffic and the commutes are painful, and we really ran the agency like just get the work done; we don’t care what time you clock in and clock out and everybody really liked that and so the past few years, we would walk into the office and it felt like a bit of a ghost town. People were coming in later and leaving earlier to help avoid the commutes and traffic, and so once COVID hit, it came at an interesting time because our lease was coming due at the end of that year and so it really just propelled us into going virtual. I think in many ways it was a blessing in disguise because it really got our—we had to get our act together, whereas if COVID and the pandemic didn’t happen, I think we would have probably taken our time and maybe reluctantly gone out the door. So, we officially went virtual on February 1, 2021.

Sharon: That’s true and when you say it would have taken a long time, I think about it because we had talked about, “Well, let’s talk again in a few months” and then it’s like, “O.K., how do we do this?” and it probably would have been five years from now if we really hadn’t been sort of forced in—well, not forced. It’s not that we didn’t want to do it, but it’s like, “O.K., we’d better get it done.” So, for both Jennifer and Megan, what did you think before you set this up? For both of you, what do you think the biggest challenges were going to be working remotely?

Jennifer: We’ve always had a physical office space. It’s just having space for initial training and storage of conference and office supplies in Chicago. Right now, we have people in our main office Chicago and then we grew to Denver, and we have one of our tech people in Detroit. Since it’s always been mature attorneys or an office manager who has thirty years’ experience, there wasn’t the need to have the supervision of making sure people come in on time because in running a news service, we know if you’re producing work or not. It’s really more for initial training or for the purposes of picking stuff up. So really more of the remote issues that we’ve encountered along the way have been dealing with operating in different states and some of the laws relating to that.

Sharon: Yeah, you just have to think about the fact that different states have different compliance standards to think about. Did you think when you brought on people in different locations like Seattle or Detroit, did you think, “Oh my god, how am I going to keep everybody together?” or what did you think the challenges might be?

Jennifer: It is really, really organic. The Detroit person is one of our more technical guys and he has a tight relationship with my spouse, who actually handles the real high-level oversight of the more technical end of the website because we’re an extremely high-volume website and they’re kind of buddies. So, they handle their thing and the Denver part of it grew very organically by adding an additional tech person in Denver. We had a person who had been working with us for a while who was relocating out there for her husband’s position and so we agreed to keep her position and we’ve just found a whole little kind of hub of really good talent out there. We’re actually now starting to actively hire more towards the East Coast and bring in people in specific time zones where we might not have anybody, but the other part of it was just based on people—we try to accommodate the needs of our employees and to try to make it a win-win with the company’s goals.

Sharon: And Megan, were there challenges that you expected or that you didn’t think about that popped up?

Megan: Most of the challenges that we faced were expected. I mean the typical ones like—well, change is really hard, especially from a technology standpoint, so I think there are always technology issues along the way. I expected that. I knew people were going to have trouble adapting to the new system, especially when you’re used to something for so many years. I think there will be challenges to come because we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. In California, we’re pretty locked down here. I think there will be different kinds of challenges when everybody can start seeing each other again, like logistical I think is a little bit hard right now. Before, we would all be at the office and we’d jump in the car together and go see a client and I think that will be different. I think what Jennifer said—it’s like Jennifer has an office where you can kind of do some physical pickup of things. That’s all going to be remote for us and we’re going to be doing drop-offs of computers when we have a new employee and if someone leaves, picking them up and how that’s all run and handled. Those things I think are challenging. You don’t really think about all those little things as you move virtual, but those were all challenges and things you have to figure out a plan for.

I think the one challenge that—not only is it happening now, but I think it will get harder as we continue to be virtual and live in this virtual world longer, is we’re in the creative space and so there is a lot of collaboration and right now every collaboration is intentional. So before in the office, you would just say, “Hey, Sharon, can you swing over here and take a look at this? Look what do you think?” And we would sit there and have it out or I’m sure it happens the same with you, Jennifer. We sit down randomly and have brainstorm sessions and strategize. Now all of that has to be intentional. It’s more like, “Sharon, do you have twenty minutes tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. to go through this” and so it’s less of a spur of the moment and I think that that will—it can impede collaboration.

I think there are ways to combat and ensure that we’re doing the same things as we once did physically. For example, we’ve created something called Co-llab which is really just an intentional weekly meeting where we can all get together and bring things to the table. There’s no agenda. It’s just like, “Here’s my challenge” or “Hey, can you look at this ad? What do you think?” or “What about this copy” or “I’m struggling with this pitch” and we can all just bring things to the table. So, it has to be much more planful and intentional now.

Sharon: In technology—because technology was the most daunting thing—I mean there are a lot of like you say, bugs that have to be worked out, but to me, from my perspective, it was thinking about how do we move the technology, are we in the cloud or is it a server or whatever and then also, we use Microsoft Teams in terms of collaboration. Jennifer, you are on Slack?

Jennifer: Yeah, the technical end of it has been the easy part for us because we’re a tech-based company given the volume of publishing that we do. We publish anywhere from 65 to 85 articles a day, and that’s why we also have people in different time zones. It’s sort of challenging when we’re hiring and we’re like, “We’re publishing anywhere from six in the morning to seven at night” and interviewees are like, “I’m not working those days.” We split that up into different work teams and that concept gets kind of messy in a lot of the minds of people we interview who are working nine to five, but ultimately our clients win if we get the best results for them which means a quick turnaround on their publishing and we win because we make half of our revenue from advertising, so we have every incentive to get their content out there quickly and to do the best with it that we can. So, since we have people working in different shifts, in different time zones, all to produce news content, they have developed a great system on Slack where they talk throughout the day, figure out who’s doing what, who’s doing the social media, who’s doing the formatting of the content and the SEO work and who’s publishing it.

On the front end, we do scheduling as far as a month out on our work calendar. We have a system where; we ask folks to put their preferred hours to help fill publishing time slots during the day so we can cover the publishing cycle. Then we also have staff available on the weekends for publishing and customer service—so it’s like our road map for things. I wish I could have found something to read on how to do this, but we just kind of felt our way through it with both the scheduling of people and the timekeeping and then the daily conversations on Slack kind of evolved organically.

We have subcommittees for social media, advertising and SEO and a couple of other groups for projects and then we have regular team meetings. We usually will have a written agenda of things for our meetings that we want to go over, not that we can’t talk about different things, but in order to have a roadmap of who’s going to be covering what and what the deliverables are from the last meeting, so everybody knows they’re going to be held accountable and to have their stuff ready. So, we’ve just had to develop a lot of formalized systems but have done it through technology.

Sharon: It’s interesting how—I’m sure you’ve hit roadblocks along the way and said, “O.K., we tried that. That wasn’t really the way to go.” You also have been able to do this over time, whereas a lot of firms are scrambling right now. Yes, there’s an aspect of scrambling, but we had a foundation of people working remotely. It wasn’t like, “Oh my gosh, what are we going to do?” It’s nice to have that luxury of trial and error and it sounds like it’s really served you well in terms of “O.K., we tried this. This is the way we want to go. Let’s go around this way.”

Megan, for firms that are considering or who are in the midst of going remotely or debating whether to revert back when get to the new normal or to go totally remote, what do you think the firm should be thinking about?

Megan: Well, I think it’s a big decision for a lot of firms to decide what to do when things start to get back to normal. I’ve talked to so many people who have said that they love the virtual world, and their employees and the staff love the virtual world. It gives them a lot of flexibility; a better workplace balance and they can’t imagine going back. I’ve spoken to a lot of employees who have said they’re not going back. So, they’re really hoping that their employer’s going to be amenable to their request because they can’t imagine going back into the office. I’ve talked to a lot of folks that feel differently. They really believe in having that physical presence and having that office and having people there every day.

I do think that this pandemic has changed the mindset on virtual. I think there are a lot of sort of nonbelievers out there that turn believers because in their minds it was impossible. I mean there was no way that they could operate virtually, but when you’re forced to operate virtually, you realize that you can and actually there are a lot of benefits that come with it. I do think there are more believers out there. I think that that will change permanently. I think if you’re considering embarking on going virtual, even partially virtual, maybe you decide to have your employees come in twice a week or whatever it might be or downsize your offices. You just kind of share space differently. I think you really have to come up with a plan of action. To me that was so crucial when we made the decision, we were going to officially go virtual.

I did a ton of research and thought about—I mean technology is one small piece. Privacy is a big piece. For example, there are some employees who are sharing their living with a roommate or a partner and you have to think about privacy issues beyond just secure technology, but what if someone’s overhearing conversations of confidential information, but they’re living in 600 square feet, what do you do? So, there’s a lot under each umbrella. I think that plan of action includes everything from how meetings are going to work, as Jennifer went into detail about how they handle their meetings, what to do when like for example the internet isn’t working very well at home. That happens all the time. It’s amazing. It’s like no matter how much you call your internet provider, nothing happens. So, what do you do when something is the matter with your internet?

I think of all these things—first there’s a lot online. There are a lot of people who’ve done this, so talk to people who’ve done this; they can tell you their mistakes or the things that they overlooked, but a simplified plan of action of all the things we needed to be thinking about really kept us on track and made sure that we really—and we did things in phases. I think that was a big thing for us. Don’t try to tackle everything at once. We had almost a year to move out of our office. We took that time, and we did little by little by little. That was so helpful. If you try to move out of an office in a month, you are going to be scrambling.

Sharon: I think you made some very good points about the fact that if you do it in phases. First of all, I do have to say that you were the main planner and driver of going virtual and I give you a lot of credit because it really went—it happened, and it didn’t happen with people tearing their hair out. So, I think that’s—

Megan: Just me tearing my hair out.

Jennifer: Your hair still looks very good.

Megan: Thank you, thank you.

Sharon: Jennifer, you must have seen over time a real evolution in how people view—ten years ago, you just didn’t say if you weren’t going to the office. You must have seen a real change.

Jennifer: Well, we have one advantage. We’re the kind of business that nobody visits us, so it’s not like we’re going to have client visits. That was one thing that kind of made things a little bit easier with the whole virtual situation, but yes, perceptions have changed drastically over what it means to work from home and we work very purposely when we interview to ferret out people’s perception of what it means to work from home because being in the publishing business, there’s a lot of freelancers and there are a lot of folks who are like, “I’m just going to work when I want to work” and we try to explain the rigid schedule of news publishing, if they haven’t worked for a newspaper or a daily publication, how—no, it’s got to be between certain hours and that there’s structure in order to produce the product that we do for our clients. But yeah, I mean initially ten years ago, there was a perception either that it was kind of two extremes, either you were like some lady who’s doing quilting in her basement or you’re like Bill Gates and you can work from the south of France and there were very few in-the-middle kinds of situations.

So yeah, it took a little bit to educate people whom we were bringing onboard on what the expectations were. I mean we’ve learned an amazing amount over the years—it’s a huge red flag if somebody says in an interview like, “How do you know if I’m working” and it’s like, “Oooh.” So, we just have figured out mostly through being exceedingly descriptive when we post jobs and then continuing through the interview process of explaining what our daily routines are, and to explain that there is some expectation of an in-person component for both work and training.

For training, we train normally pre-COVID three weeks one-on-one to get folks into the publishing process because it is pretty difficult to find people who have SEO experience and legal experience and publishing experience, we’ve yet to find the trifecta of somebody who has all those things. So, we’ve found it most effective when we train to sit down with people so we can see if, versus virtual, if their eyes are glazing over because we’re going over something that’s routine for them or if it’s a new task that they have no clue what’s going on, so we can better tailor our training and also develop rapport because we know eventually, we will be working remotely.

We have multiple people interview everybody when we hire, which some interviewees are confused by. Especially in the publishing process, it’s an all-day-long cycle of either different team members coming on and tagging in or working jointly in different parts of the publishing process. We really want a cohesive team, and we want anybody who’s joining us to know what they’re getting into and to have as many different people to talk to, to get a flavor for that. And by the same token, anybody we bring onboard, we want the full buy-in of our staff. So, the net of it is, in person when we can, monthly in-person meetings, like we do an LMA meeting and usually work together as a group in the afternoon pre-COVID. -. In-person training and then we do lots of conferences, and we try to mix up the people who are going to different events and can get to know their coworkers and their clients better.

Sharon: That’s really nice. You have the independence and then really work to build the camaraderie among different people. Megan, what do you think? What are some of the questions or what are you looking for when you’re asking somebody about coming onboard to Berbay?

Megan: So, we’ve only hired one staff member virtually and onboarded and trained this person virtually, so we’re fairly new to doing this and I think a lot of the questions and sort of what we’re looking for in a candidate is very similar to before. There are of course questions related to their space. Do they have a designated office space or not, and have they had experience working virtually? Would this be their first experience? How do they manage their time productivity?

It’s interesting. I found that we are working more productively, longer hours virtually than when we were in the office and there are a couple of reasons for this. I think one reason is that we’re all locked down, so there’s nothing else to do, so we just fill our time with things that we need to get done. I think that because you have a lot more flexibility, that you kind of work different hours. Sometimes you’ll work a big chunk in the morning and then you’ll take an hour or so break, eating lunch, maybe going outside and then you’re back to working. The fact that you’re able to break whenever you want during your day at the convenience of your schedule I think works really well versus when you are in the office, you are in the office. Even if there was a slow period, you were in the office.

You just kind of did what you needed to do, but I do think when you’re finding candidates, I mean you really need someone that is used to that autonomy and if they’re used to working side by side with people and they’ve never had that remote autonomous position, I think that’s going to be challenging. With that said, if they’re a very disciplined person and motivated and proactive, all the qualities that probably any company looks for, I think that a lot of people can adjust and will find—if you probably talked to anyone at Berbay including myself, we all agree that it’s just been so amazing working virtually. I mean there’s a lot less planning you have to do and that frees up your mind for other things, like for example a lot of us who go to the office, we think about meal planning: what should I make the night before so I can bring lunch in the next day or what time do I need to leave so I can get into the office on time for whatever call I have? You have to think through all those things. You have to plan them. Even your outfit, when you’re at your office, some people love to do the day before if you have a meeting. So, there are a lot of things you have to think through. I think the fact that you have more brain space now and not have to think about that makes a big difference. I know I sort of got sidetracked with the questions, but I think those are all the things that you can kind of probe a candidate for in terms of discipline, ability to be autonomous, their experience with remote work, etc.

Sharon: No, I mean there is more brain space because you don’t have to figure out what time do I go to the gym, should I make lunch, should I pack dinner for the night before for lunch. I think the main difference—what Berbay and Jennifer are saying—and I thought that was an interesting point—is somebody in what we do, can be a freelancer in a sense. I mean they can be part of our team, but be a freelancer, where, Jennifer, you need somebody who is going to be available at certain times; it doesn’t matter if there in an office or not; they have to be available to take an assignment at a certain time and get it done at a certain time. So, that’s interesting because I think candidates who haven’t been exposed to what Jennifer is saying would have a hard time sort of wrapping their heads around the fact, “Well, I’m not a freelancer, but I’m not in an office.”

Jennifer: Yes, it’s been challenging. We really, really, really, really try to front everything in the interview process. That makes it sound like there’s something sinister going on here. We have exceedingly talented people. Most of them have advanced degrees and have years and years of either publishing or SEO experience or editorial experience and some legal, and so to talk to interviewees and say, “Well, we kind of work in an assembly-line environment” for lack of a better way to put it because we have somebody who checks what’s coming in and then verifies that we can publish it, formats it, does the SEO work, has an editor look at it and makes it go live, does the social, does homepage placement. We kind of repeat that process for 60 to 85 articles throughout the day.

As things come in, editorial questions come in from our clients who want changes to things or just have general questions and to understand the interdependence of how to do that for 12 hours a day with different people working, it’s easy to explain it to somebody who’s worked in a news environment, but even with that, that tended to be more print, intended to be super deadline specific, we tend to publish live and cut things off at a certain time in the day. So, there’s a lot of judgment calls at the end of the day if we have things coming in still if they’re breaking news, if we publish them or wait until the next day.

So, that whole process I think is somewhat unique between having our own writers’ writing, original contributed content and then syndicating content from law firms and mixing it up into a newsfeed. That’s not super-common out there. It’s not like we can recruit people who’ve been doing the same thing at other places. There’s a learning curve and a trust curve.

Sharon: No, I can understand that. That would be a difficult thing to find. To me, I’m still struck by having to explain these to them overnight. It’s not freelance, but you’re working virtually basically. So, Megan and Jennifer—Megan, let me start with you. Based on your experience, what would you tell other firms who are considering going totally virtual or what would you say the benefits are? What would you do differently? What would your advice be to them?

Megan: My advice to those that are going to go virtual, first is give yourself—however much time you think it’s going to take to really go virtual, I would double it. I think the fact that we had essentially a year to do it was incredibly beneficial and mind you, I took that year very seriously. It’s not like I started four months out. I mean I really started at the top of the year and just started chipping away at the paint because that was the only thing that my brain could actually handle getting out of this physical office and transferring technology and all of the things that had to come with it. So, I would say give yourself ample time.

I think that there are an enormous of benefits from working virtually, challenges too, but I think that there is a new meaning to the work-life balance. I think that whatever the new normal looks like, I believe that people are going to be permanently changed. Maybe everybody can’t wait to get out of their house and I’m sure a lot of people can’t wait, but at the same time, I think once we’re able to get out, I think we’re going to love the fact that we had that time at home and with our family and the quality time and we’re going to need that, and I think the virtual workplace offers that.

I would say the other piece of advice too is have someone to support you. Don’t think that you have to do this all your own. This was very a team approach of Berbay. Everybody had a role in going virtual. Every single staff member had a role in helping get to the virtual space. So, someone has to lead the charge of course, but just rely on your staff as much as possible and everything is overwhelming with change. I think just taking it day by day—I know that that’s such a simple piece of advice, but it’s really true. I think I had a realization moment where I knew that I couldn’t think too far ahead. You just think about the day, think about the week and what you’re going to achieve and over time, you’ll see how much progress you’ve made.

Sharon: Megan, we had that year, and you had that year, but that still sounds like if you could have had more time, you would have. At the same time, if this hadn’t happened and we said, “O.K., we’re going to go virtual,” I think that five years down the line we’d still be converting. So, what do you think? Do you have an idea of what—is it a couple of years you think? What would you say?

Megan: It’s a good question. I think it depends on the size of your company. I think that plays a big role. I mean we had one office. We were a small team. We can work leanly. There’s not a whole lot of bureaucracy, so decisions were made very quickly, very easily. So, I think depending on the size of the company, that can change. I think if you’re working with multiple offices and maybe each office is doing something different, that can be a challenge. I do think creating some kind of timeline, even if it’s over a long period of time, that’s O.K. You just have to create a timeline and really stick to it because we were forced into that timeline, but I think that it was probably one of the more beneficial motivators we had in place. It was like we had that—we couldn’t change the timeline. It wasn’t like we could say, “Well, our lease was up. We weren’t going to renew, so we had to get out of the office by February 1.” I think that’s why the timeline is so crucial, but again, I think you’ve got to rely on your staff and it’s so important. You can’t do this on your own. I talked to probably ten other employers who went virtual. I just picked their brains for 20, 30 minutes and just got the rundown of everything I needed to know, and you just get it done.

Sharon: And you did and once again, I give you a lot of credit. Jennifer, in wrapping up, what would you like people to know? What do you think they should know about working remotely or going remote or words of wisdom?

Jennifer: Well first of all, what a wonderful way you guys rolled it out, you had a hard deadline, but a lot of runway at the same time in order to make it happen and it’s fantastic that you pulled together as a group. One thing I can say, we were exceedingly blessed to have an extremely strong office administrator when we first started. Not only was she very experienced in the law firm world, but she was technology savvy, and you don’t always find somebody with a huge amount of experience in tech and office systems. So, we had her—thank you, Shirley—early on and actually now she works for a client of ours and came from a client of ours before.

So, I would say if you can, start out with strong parameters like having filing protocols and having systems for reporting time and requesting time off, formal systems for payroll. Just because you’re working remotely or have a small team, that stuff doesn’t go away. I think the stronger systems that you have in place like they do at larger companies makes it simpler to make that transition and then just letting team members know not only do they have input into how to change them or tweak them, but that we actually do take our team’s input and implement the changes.

Sharon: And I think that’s a good point because I think that goes a long way in terms of pulling people together and making them feel like they’re part of something, at least knowing what the protocols are. It’s not like, “Well, I can do whatever I want. I’m floating in space. I can do whatever I want.”

Jennifer and Megan, thank you so much for talking today. I’m sure that those listening gleaned a lot of information and we gave everybody a lot to think about and I hope we didn’t scare anybody off. Thank you once again for being here. Jennifer Schaller who is the Managing Director of The National Law Review and Megan Braverman who is Principal of Berbay Marketing & Public Relations. Thank you both.

Jennifer: Thank you.

Megan: Thank you.

Sharon: We hope you apply what you learned here today to propel your firm forward. If you have questions or want even more resources, go to Berbay.com and as always, thank you for listening.

ARTICLE BY Sharon Berman and Megan Braverman of Berbay Marketing & Public Relations Firm

For more articles on remote work, visit the NLR Labor & Employment section.

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