Category: Legal Marketing

Legal Bloggers: Strategies for Increasing Your Readership

So you have a blog. Great! Everyone – from legal marketers to managing partners – has probably told you that writing a regular blog will establish you as a thought leader and drive business development.

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Finding a blog on the Internet is akin to picking out a needle from a haystack.

Just because you write it doesn’t mean they will read it. For your blog to attract readers, you need to give it a push. And that means coming up with a solid distribution strategy.

Let’s look at potential channels that could send readers to your blog.

Organic Search

You can bet that your target audience will be using search engines – Google, Bing, etc. – to find articles and blogs. Understanding topics and keywords that people search for should be the first step in blog writing.

Use Google Trends and Google News to mine for topics. Then research which keywords people are using to search for your topic. Google’s keyword planner provides data on how many searches are conducted every month. For example, if you’re writing about Title IX, are people using search phrases like “title IX discrimination on campus” or “gender equality in education”?

Once you determine the best keywords, integrate them into your blog – naturally. Don’t overuse phrases again and again. Instead, choose five or six phrases and sprinkle them throughout your blog.

Next, give consideration to your title tag. This is separate from the headline on your blog post. The title tag is what is known as a “meta” field and is accessible on the back end of most content management systems (WordPress, Drupal, etc.). Select one prominent keyword phrase that has relatively high search volume, along with high relevancy, to use in your title tag. Search engines use title tags to index your blog posts. Your title tag is also what search engines use to designate your posts in their results pages.

And don’t forget about “domain authority.” Domain authority is a third-party metric that indicates how well search engines will rank a website in search results. Hosting your blog on your firm website (as opposed to building a brand-new site for your blog) will most likely provide higher authority for your blog.

Email Subscriptions

Have a way for readers to sign up for email alerts that are triggered when you put up a new blog post. This type of “opt-in” automated program delivers your blog to engaged readers – that is, potential leads.

If your blog focuses on various practice areas or industries, creating sign-up categories will help you target your readers with relevant content. As an example, Kirton McConkie recently launched a multi-practice blog that provides email sign-up options by category.

Subscription-Based Legal Syndication Sites

Sites like the National Law Review, JD Supra and Mondaq repost blogs on their websites. These online resources are hubs for general counsel, attorneys and reporters to find information on legal topics. Subscribers can join for free, while contributors pay monthly or annual fees to have their content included.

These types of sites have an added benefit for blog authors: They also use social media and email marketing tactics to deliver your content, creating additional visibility.

Social Media

It goes without saying that social media has the potential to reach an enormous pool of readers. But getting the attention from the right people on social media is a daunting task. Sending out a tweet linking to your blog can be like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the ocean. Fortunately, there are a few best practices to help you get additional visibility.

First, decide which social media platforms you’re going to use based on the audience you want to attract. Every social network has a unique culture and demographic characteristics. Don’t waste your time chasing a crowd that’s not relevant – for instance, Snapchat users are not interested in legal blogs.

Once you’ve identified one or two social platforms, search for influencers in your topic area. These influencers will frequently write about and share relevant content and will have high follower and engagement metrics. Start engaging with these people. Don’t bombard them with requests to share your blog, but show interest in their content and join in conversations. Also, sprinkle links to your blog into your social stream. Just be careful not to make it all about you.

LinkedIn Posts

Use the LinkedIn “Publish a Post” feature to repurpose your blogs on your profile. It’s a simple way to expand your reach on LinkedIn. Not only are posts searchable on LinkedIn, but they also are pushed out through LinkedIn’s email notification program.

Blog Directory Sites

Setting up your blog’s RSS feed to relevant blog directory sites like AllTop’s legal section and ABAJournal blogs will drive readers to your blog. Track visits from these sites in the “Referral” section of your Google Analytics dashboard to measure the effectiveness of these visitors.

Guest Authors

I

nvite thought leaders with high online visibility to write guest posts for your blog. These authors will have followers who read their content. If they post to your site, they will help you share their post through their social media channels, which again drives visits to your website.

It may be difficult to recruit guest bloggers. If you find that is the case, try to provide benefits to writers, such as prominent links back to their websites.

Other Digital Marketing Initiatives

Leverage all your digital marketing channels by including a link to your blog in your electronic communications – email signature lines, client alerts, invoices, etc. Add a link to your blog in all your social media profiles – LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

As with all digital marketing initiatives, measurement and tracking are key steps for identifying tactics that work and tactics that don’t. Review your Google Analytics or other analytics-tracking platform regularly. Understanding which topics resonate with your readers will inform your content strategy as you go forward.

ARTICLE BY Melanie Trudeau of Jaffe

© Copyright 2008-2015, Jaffe Associates

How to Avoid Being Penalized by Google [Infographic]

Google algorithm updates are usually accompanied by much wailing and gnashing of teeth among marketers, and sometimes it’s for good reason. With one flick of a switch, all that hard work to improve search results can be undone if your site no longer complies with what Google considers to be best practices for your website and blog.

Of course, Google’s intention is not to penalize sites — it’s to improve the user experience. Recently, Internet marketing consulting company QuickSprout developed the infographic below with specifics on what to avoid and strategies for ensuring your sites don’t get penalized by Google.

These tips are easy to understand and not too difficult to implement. The reward of not incurring a Google penalty is well worth your time in becoming educated on current best practices in SEO for Google:

How to Avoid Being Penalized by Google [Infographic]

ARTICLE BY Stephen Fairley of The Rainmaker Institute
© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved

Want to Build Business? Here’s How to Be a Better Networker

Few would argue that networking always has been and likely always will be an important aspect of building and maintaining a successful law practice. Networking is how lawyers connect with prospective clients and referral sources, build trust and loyalty, and develop the types of individual relationships that can lead to new business.

It’s also time-consuming and, for most of us, not particularly easy or fun.

So, it is not surprising that more and more busy lawyers have embraced social media and digital marketing to expand their network of contacts. While these tools give us a platform for making connections on a large scale, the relationships we develop this way typically are not as deep as those we nurture through in-person contact.

6 Lawyer Networking FAQS

When coaching attorneys on their business development activities, I frequently am asked for pointers for how to make in-person networking less time-consuming and more effective. Answers to a few key questions can put this into perspective.

1. It seems there are events I could attend nearly every day. How do I know which are the best?

• Revisit your goals. The best events are those that help you reach your marketing and business development goals. If you are looking to raise your profile in a particular industry, attend events where people involved in the industry will be. If you want to cement your relationship with a key client, ask them which events they would recommend you attend to learn more about their business or their industry. If you are a younger attorney who needs to develop a profile and a network, attend as many different types of events as you can.

• Review attendee lists. Some events will make the attendee list available in advance of the meeting. Request a copy, and review it to get an idea of whether there are people attending who would be worth meeting. If the event is predominantly attended by people you already know or those whose positions or employers are not in your business development “sweet spot,” you may want to find another event, unless, of course, you can use the event to hone your networking skills. An event where less is at stake can make you feel more comfortable.

• Remember why you’re there. You network to develop relationships, which takes time and goes beyond one brief conversation. The best professional networking groups operate as business information, idea and support exchanges, providing opportunity for you to really get to know someone. Sometimes, this might be more easily accomplished by attending a meet-up of a group of people with the same hobbies than through a bar association meeting.

2. Most of these events last a couple of hours. How do I make sure I am not wasting my time?

• Set three attainable goals. Do not let yourself become overwhelmed because there are 500 people attending a convention in one of your targeted industries. Go into the event with a few attainable goals, such as meeting specific individuals, meeting five new people, speaking with the host or chairperson about assisting with a future event, introducing a colleague to one of your contacts, or meeting a high-profile speaker.

• Set a realistic time limit. Instead of feeling as though you have to stay for the duration of the event, take some of the pressure off by committing to being engaged for one hour, or some other realistic and comfortable period of time. Not only will this keep you fresh and engaged, you are more likely to attend more events if you set boundaries on the amount of time you commit.

3. I find it difficult to initiate a conversation with a stranger. How do I start?

• Arrive early. If you get there early, the room will walk into you, whereas if you walk in late, people will already be mid-conversation when you arrive.

• Look for an opportunity to engage someone. If the room is crowded and there seem to be many conversations underway, look for people who are standing alone. One-on-one may be more comfortable and can make for effective networking.

• Don’t be afraid to admit that you don’t know anyone there. Approach a group with a smile on your face, and simply ask, “May I join you?” No one ever replies, “No, we don’t want you.”

4. What do I talk about? If I don’t know someone well, it can be a challenge to find something to discuss.

• Your primary job is to listen. The worst thing you can do when networking is turn it into a sales pitch. Networking should be about building a quick rapport – it should be informal, brief, interesting and leave people wanting to know more. People bond over commonalities. Sales pitches have the opposite effect.

• Build a bank of conversation starters. Catching up on current events and being knowledgeable in a variety of general topics will help you make meaningful contributions to conversations.

• Follow the event on social media. Many organizations will set up a Twitter feed with a specific hashtag as a way to share information about the event and engage attendees in discussion before and after.

5. I know I shouldn’t talk to the same few people the entire time. How do I make a graceful exit from a conversation?

• It’s OK, indeed, appropriate to move on. Unless the conversation is very promising, plan to spend no more than four to six minutes with any one individual. After that, you should be prepared to move on. You also don’t want to take up too much of the other person’s time. They are there for the same reasons you are. Remember, you feel more uncomfortable about leaving the interaction than the other person. It’s acceptable to say that you have to make a phone call, get a drink, go to the restroom or say hello to someone you haven’t seen.

• Make an introduction. Offer to introduce someone you’ve met to someone else you met or know in the room. This allows you to gracefully move on while also helping others expand their network.

• Glass half full. Literally. Carry a half glass of beverage and order only half a glass of beverage to more easily facilitate separation.

6. I attended four events this month. Why haven’t I gotten any new work?

• Relationships take time. It takes time for people to have confidence in you and form a relationship with you. You cannot expect someone to send you work just because they met you at an event. Instead, focus on investing in others. Find ways to be helpful, provide information, tell them of an opportunity that might interest them or introduce them to others beneficial to their own network. The rest will come.

• Follow up, and keep at it. If you have followed your networking plan for the event, you are on your way to developing a relationship. That said, you should not consider the event to be “over” until you have followed up. Send an email to those you met, following up on your conversation or providing information you promised to send. If you would like to develop a stronger relationship with a few particular people you met, consider giving them a call rather than sending an email.

The key to successful networking is to remember that you are building real, deep relationships with your contacts. What good is a network full of people who don’t know you very well? The more you foster trust and rapport with those you meet, the more you can begin forging new avenues of business.

ARTICLE BY Joi Scardo of Jaffe
© Copyright 2008-2015, Jaffe Associates

Three Steps to Leverage LinkedIn for Your Law Firm

I have yet to find an attorney who could not benefit from having their profile on LinkedIn. It’s the number one online network for white-collar professionals.

Whether you want to connect with non-competing attorneys, non-legal professionals, or potential clients, the demographics on LinkedIn speak for themselves:

  • The average age range of a LinkedIn user is 30 to 49

  • 44% of LinkedIn users report an annual income of more than $100,000

  • 50% of members have a college degree

  • 28% have a graduate degree

LinkedIn members are highly educated and affluent. Is this a demographic you would like to reach? For most attorneys, the answer is obvious.

The first step to using LinkedIn is to create a comprehensive profile. Use your entire bio in your profile and be sure to include your keywords in it. In other words, use the exact keywords that you believe prospects or potential referral sources would use to find an attorney with your skill sets.

For example, if you are a business attorney in Omaha it might sound like this:

“John Doe is a Omaha business attorney who works with small business owners and CEOs of mid-sized companies to create comprehensive operating agreements, buy-sell agreements and employment agreements. His Omaha business clients appreciate the fact that John is an attorney who has a strong business background, having owned and operated two different companies, including a high tech company with 25 employees.”

Next, go to the See Who You Already Know on LinkedIn page and import your email contact list. This makes it super simple to connect with people you already know who are also on LinkedIn. In addition, based on your contacts, LinkedIn will suggest relevant contacts for you to connect with on the site.

Then search LinkedIn Groups and join those where your clients and prospects are. Create content — blog posts, free reports, articles, etc. — that will attract their attention. You can also start your own group and invite contacts to join.

The key to utilizing LinkedIn effectively is to be involved and be consistent. You need to commit to investing at least 30-45 minutes every week to log in, post an update or a link to your blog, reach out to your contacts, answer any questions that are sent to you, and make yourself visible. Simply setting up a profile on LinkedIn will not lead to more referrals any more than a having a business card will automatically get you new business.

ARTICLE BY Stephen Fairley of The Rainmaker Institute
© The Rainmaker Institute, All Rights Reserved

LinkedIn For Lawyers: The Publishing Tool

Jaffe

There is no question that LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool that can potentially turn online connections into real-world clients. That won’t happen overnight, however, and those efforts will only thrive with proper care, maintenance and pruning.

Writing Your LinkedIn Profile

Most likely you already have a basic profile, but one of the biggest obstacles lawyers face is distinguishing themselves online. Bios sound the same from one attorney to the next, and, while they might showcase a long list of achievements, they often don’t say much about the person and how he or she is a problem solver. It’s important to remember that your profile is your front door to the world. Spruce it up, and lay out the welcome mat.

Need some tips when writing your LinkedIn profile? To reach influencers, gain a following and develop a reputation as someone “in the know,” use actionable language, and try to be more lively and specific. Identifying clearly how you provide a solution will make it infinitely easier for potential clients to understand what you do and why you are the perfect fit for their job. If you think revising your online profile will easily drop to the bottom of your “to do” list, schedule it on your calendar.

Blogging on LinkedIn

With a progressive profile in place, you’re now ready to harness the power of LinkedIn. In addition to providing opportunities for connecting with colleagues, friends, and potential prospects; joining groups; and posting, LinkedIn has recently unveiled a new publishing platform. It was designed to provide users with a sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, blogging tool. For those who work at law firms that do not have blogging resources, or if you want to prove the viability of a blog before adding it to your law firm website, using LinkedIn publishing is a good option.

To help you use the blogging platform, LinkedIn provides a built-in template that comes up when you click on the orange “Publish a post” icon at your home screen. From there, it is easy to add a photo, draft an engaging headline, drop in the text and click Publish.

Blog posting through LinkedIn allows you to share quality content on a regular basis with a built-in audience and group of followers. You can share posts with specific groups or individual connections. Another bonus of the LinkedIn blogging tool is that the pages encourage two-way conversation and discussion. Each post is equipped with social-sharing buttons, so it’s easy for other users to share, like, repost and retweet across all social networking platforms. Unlike cumbersome email campaigns or formal alerts, you can easily point and click your way to becoming a thought-leader on specific topic. And, the tool catalogs all your posts in one area for easy reference.

LinkedIn Blogging Best Practices

Successful bloggers publish at least twice a month, and more frequently to accommodate new developments or interesting news. Content should be relevant, entertaining, engaging and brief. It should include a call to action. If at all possible, it should tell a story. But most importantly, you should write about topics that affect your clients and help to position you as a valuable resource.

In fact, according to Bloomberg’s Big Law Business Report, there seems to be a sea change among in-house counsel about how to handle client development. Fancy dinners and tickets to sporting events might be nice, but it’s also important to show that you have your finger on the pulse of the market and are watching (and can report on) trends. Blogging ticks this box.

It is also important to note that, as lawyers become more and more proficient on LinkedIn, they also need to be aware of the various state bar rules. While the ABA has not yet published comprehensive guidelines on social media usage, some state bars have, including New York.

In fact, in March 2015, the New York County Lawyers Association Professional Ethics Committee released an opinion recommending that attorneys in New York with LinkedIn profiles that include information about their practice areas, skills, endorsements or recommendations – essentially, anything more than the straightforward biographical information in their profiles – should now include attorney advertising statements at the end of the “Summary” section of their LinkedIn profiles, similar to “Attorney Advertising – Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.”

While this doesn’t mean that LinkedIn should be abandoned as a powerful networking tool, it just will require that attorneys periodically monitor and review the content of their LinkedIn profiles for accuracy and compliance with bar guidelines.

The Confluence of Content and Social Media

Lawyers and legal marketers seem to have an ever-growing number of marketing tools and tactics at their disposal. Technology has provided us with a number of new avenues to reach our desired audiences, but just using these channels is not enough. They have to be leveraged strategically.

Lawyers should take the time to populate their LinkedIn profiles with quality information that positively reflects their personal brands. They should also make it a habit to continually update their profiles to capture recent successes, promotions, organizational affiliations, pro bono activities and published articles. Finally, with the LinkedIn publishing tool, lawyers can maximize the benefits of the social network by crafting and distributing relevant thought leadership materials to a targeted audience of engaged professionals.

ARTICLE BY

Kathy O’Brien
Jaffe

Three Tips for Better Law Firm Videos [PodCast]

Great overview of successful attorney videos by John McDougall of McDougall Interactive and Justin Parker and Jimmy Craig of MethodLoft in the podcast below.

https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/203761369

John McDougall: Hi. I’m John McDougall. I’m here today with Justin Parker and Jimmy Craig of MethodLoft. Today, we’re going to be speaking about three tips for better law firm videos. Welcome, Jimmy and Justin.

Justin Parker: Hi. Good to be here.

Jimmy Craig: Good to be here.

John: Why is video important for attorneys?

Justin: There are a few factors there. One of the most important is that an attorney is — you’re not only selling services but you’re selling yourself. A video is a great way to let your client know who you are, what’s your body language, how do you talk, is someone going to be comfortable working with you? It’s much more personal than just seeing a stock photo or a still photo of you on the website.

John: Yeah, and too much text, which certainly people read a lot online but video is a booming trend for sure.

Justin: For sure. For a lot of attorneys, you could have a video that doesn’t need to have a lot of views, but one sale from 75 views is really a big deal and can make the whole project worthwhile.

John: And you’ve seen that happen?

Justin: Absolutely, yes.

Jimmy: It’s obviously important for attorneys to be present online. So having video is just a, what we think is a critical piece of that, especially now since videos show up in organic Google search results. Also, YouTube is the second biggest search engine. It’s good to take advantage of that.

John: What is typically wrong with lawyer videos?

Jimmy: I’d say, something we always encourage lawyers to avoid is being too sales y. Video is a really good opportunity to be more personable. Basically, just share knowledge that you already have and don’t try to be aggressive, and not sales y and not stiff.

Again, anytime we shoot a video, we really encourage lawyers to not even use a script. We’ll basically have a loose outline, but we really want them to basically just be them.

John: Yeah, a lot of times, they’re really wondering, “Who’s going to write the script, and how long is the script?” It’s a lot more likely you’ll get a less stiff take if you don’t do that, right?

Justin: Absolutely. A lot of attorney videos, you’re just seeing, like Jimmy said, “Come to our law firm because we do this.” That’s all we’re getting from them, and it’s just blending in with everybody else who does that as opposed to, “I’m just here to share my knowledge with you.” That is just a much better sales pitch, I think.

John: Yeah, so starting with the right approach, a good inbound marketing type of approach. What are the three tips to improve law firm websites using video?

Justin: One tip is just to make sure your production quality is decent. It doesn’t have to be like Hollywood extravaganza, but you probably you don’t want to shoot your videos with the webcam in your laptop. Also, a lot of people underestimate audio quality. That’s a big thing that goes into the whole production process.

John: How do they miss out on that, just using the mic that’s in the camera or is there a way to get around that?

Justin: Yeah. Different microphones are obviously going to have better quality even if they are on the camera, but you could have a boom mic that you can place right next to the subject. That’s definitely going to increase the quality. Just put it up on a little tripod. It’s not really a big deal, not a big setup.

John: Do you often can go into a separate MP3 recorder or…

Justin: Yeah, absolutely. That’s our current process, but that isn’t the only process. Sometimes, you can feed directly into the camera. It just depends on the equipment.

John: But that means you’re going to have to sync it somehow, right?

Justin: Yeah, absolutely.

John: But you think that’s worth doing?

Justin: Yeah, for sure. Again, audio quality, almost more important than video quality. They’re right there.

John: Interesting. What else?

Jimmy: Another tip, I’d say, is to be mindful of the length of the content you’re releasing. Typically, when we do an overview video for an attorney, which is basically their commercial to the world, we stick around one to two minutes, typically. We don’t really want to go too long.

We found that a lot of attorneys want to say everything they’ve done, the history of their firm, and how much money they’ve won, and how long they’ve been in the business and stuff. It’s really just highlight points. Basically, you want to think of it as, this is your bullet list. Again, people online don’t really have the longest attention spans, so we try to keep things under two minutes.

Also, for FAQ videos, that’s another thing we do with a lot of attorneys, and we keep those, typically, I’d say, under a minute, probably around 40 to 45 seconds.

John: With the overview videos, I think some of those value proposition statements, a little bit of, “How long have you been in business?” and some of those stuff is OK but as long as they can do it quick.

Jimmy: Of course. The thing is, that stuff is definitely important. It’s just, sometimes, you can get that across, too, with even a text bulleted list during the video while the attorney is saying something else, maybe talking about a specific case or something like that. Basically, you want to pack a lot of information into a short thing. But you don’t need to go into detail, basically.

Justin: Again, it depends on what kind of video you’re doing. There’s overview videos, and then there’s FAQ videos. With your overview video, maybe that’s more of an overview of your firm. An FAQ video, it’s just, here is a specific question, here is a specific answer.

So as a law firm or an attorney, you have a lot knowledge you want to share, and just figuring out which pieces of that knowledge fit into what kind of video you’re doing.

John: With the FAQ videos, it’s important to pick keywords. So you’ve seen good results with that as well.

Justin: Definitely, another tip that we would definitely recommend is using keywords, and then adding them to YouTube, and then transcribe the text of what you’re talking about in your video, and you can put that text directly into your website for SEO purposes and also take that text and import it into YouTube as the Closed Caption text. Those are other ways to be searchable for sure.

John: Those are great tips. Again, this is John McDougall with McDougall Interactive Marketing, here today with Jimmy Craig and Justin Parker of MethodLoft. See you next time. Thanks, guys.

Justin: Thank you.

© Copyright 2015 McDougall Interactive

Continue reading Three Tips for Better Law Firm Videos [PodCast]

Digital Marketing and Your Law Firm: Essential Tips for Attorneys

RW Lynch Company, Inc.

If you have been in law for a long time, you may never have envisioned having to pay attention to digital marketing to help your practice grow. But the good news is, law firm marketing can benefit tremendously from digital marketing techniques, and there are many you can put into place yourself, without major investment.

The key to succeeding in digital law firm marketing is commitment and consistency. You shouldn’t try to tackle everything at once, because you may be overwhelmed. If you have never done any digital marketing, your first step will be to map out a strategy that’s reasonable for your level of time and resources.

Document a Content Marketing Strategy

A 2014 survey on digital content marketing found that companies that actually write down a content marketing strategy are more effective than those that either have a verbal-only strategy or no strategy at all. Documenting your content marketing strategy helps ensure that all participants are on the same page, so to speak, helps you to remember the tasks you set out for your team, and gives you a baseline document you can use to help you determine the effectiveness of the various digital marketing strategies you use. A documented strategy sets the tone and the pace.

Phase in Social Media Marketing

You might think writing a few Tweets per day, or updating your firm’s Facebook page is a trivial activity. However, consistency is essential for successful social media marketing. Too often, businesses start out with a blitz of social media content that they are unable to maintain, and this can detract from their brand. Quality is more important than quantity. Start small, perhaps on one social media site, ramp up your social media posts, and learn to use the site’s built-in analytics. Once you get into a consistent posting schedule and can use analytics to learn what is and isn’t effective, you can branch out to other social media platforms.

Essential Tips for Attorneys

Ensure that mobile users can learn about your law firm on the go.

Ensure Mobile Friendliness

Digital marketing today must be mobile-friendly, particularly for local businesses like law firms. There are a number of ways to use mobile platforms for law firm marketing. You can develop a mobile website or an app, for example. People have mobile devices with them around the clock, so if you can reach people on their mobile devices, you have many more opportunities than if you rely solely on them finding your website on their desktop. Thirty-one percent of traffic to law websites is from mobile devices. You don’t want to ignore an audience of that size.

Blogging Can Benefit Law Firm Marketing Significantly

Blogging, like social media marketing, requires commitment. Fortunately, you can outsource blogging to ensure your blog has a steady drumbeat of fresh content. Again, quality trumps quantity, so don’t rush to add a lot of content to your blog without ensuring it is timely, relevant to your practice, and well written. Topics for law blogs can come from any number of places, including government statistics, news stories, and even popular culture. As your blog grows, so does your credibility as an authority source, something that will inspire confidence in those who hire your firm.

Non-Text Content Broadens Your Reach

Digital law firm marketing doesn’t have to consist solely of text content. Visual elements can take digital marketing to a higher level and make a measurable impact. You can add visual content in many ways, such as creating a video holiday card for your clients and business partners, creating captivating infographics (using free sites like piktochart), or hosting online webinars that you publicize on your blog and social media. If you create a YouTube channel for video content, create a Google+ profile as well to help boost your content in Google results.

Don’t be afraid of digital marketing for your law firm. With the ability to target audiences on social media and take your content to a potentially huge audience, digital is the future of law firm marketing. You need a defined strategy, commitment to maintaining it, and the ability to use web analytics to determine what works best.

ARTICLE BY

Brian Lynch
RW Lynch Company, Inc.

The 9 Top Habits of Successful Rainmakers, Part 3 of 3

The Rainmaker Institute

Working with more than 10,000 attorneys over the past dozen years has taught me a lot about what it takes to be a successful rainmaker. Some would argue you’re born with it; however, I believe many of these successful habits can be learned.

To read about the first six top habits of successful rainmakers, go here to access Part 1 and here to access Part 2. These are the final three:

7.  Incorporate Sales Into Daily Life

While personality is a key factor in successful selling, developing a sales mindset so that it permeates your daily activities is a key attribute for high-achieving rainmakers. These attorneys consistently:

Differentiate contracts from prospects. Listen for the signals that distinguish a real prospect from someone who is simply price shopping or worse (using you to obtain a lower fee from another lawyer).  Create a list of questions to disqualify contacts focusing on the criteria of “need, want, afford.”

Interview qualified prospects directly. Are you consistently talking directly to your prospects (versus their gatekeepers and time-wasters)? Make sure you are speaking to the real decision-maker.

Give prospects a call to action. Make sure each prospect receives one clear call to action. Make it easy for them to follow. Ask for their business!

Follow up. Have a process in place that will follow up with a thank you letter or e-mail within 24 hours of the interview. Be sure to end every interview with action steps (e.g., what each party agrees to do as next steps and when they will do it by). If you agree to do something, be sure to do it before the deadline.

8.  Answer the Question, Why Hire Us?

To be able to successfully pitch why you are the best choice, you must understand the problem the prospect sitting across from you is facing.  They are coming to you seeking a solution to a specific problem, which for you could be something you see every day, but for them are new and unique.

Don’t emphasize the kinds of services you offer, the quality of your services, the size of your law firm or your years of experience. What you need to tell prospects is the benefits they will get because they are doing business with you, the value you will provide them (value does NOT mean price) and theresults they can expect from the services you provide.

9.  Perfect the Close

One of the primary reasons that a company or person hires an attorney is to alleviate some type of “pain”. They may use words like “challenges”, “problems”, or “obstacles”, but all of the words amount to the same thing; they are experiencing discomfort; they are experiencing pain. Their “pain” is whatever they are asking your assistance with. Successfully closing a deal with a prospect relies upon your ability to identify their pain and effectively communicate how you will help them resolve it.

Some attorneys have a very bad habit of making clients feel stupid by using too many legal terms in conversation. Stay on your client’s level and always make sure they understood what you are trying to communicate.

In perfecting the close, great sales people:

  • Lead with benefits

  • Can articulate and add value to the conversation

  • Build credibility and trust

  • Are perceived as a trusted advisor

  • Identify a prospect’s wants and needs

  • Sell to the prospect’s goals

  • Focus on prospect’s gaps

  • Demonstrate how they will solve the prospect’s problems or needs

ARTICLE BY

Stephen Fairley
The Rainmaker Institute

Part 2: The 9 Top Habits of Successful Rainmakers

The Rainmaker Institute

Successful rainmakers consistently apply certain habits and characteristics to distinguish themselves from competitors and increase the revenues of their law firms.

Click here to read Part 1 for the first three top habits of successful rainmakers. Here are the next three:

4.  Mind and Grow Your Referral Network

Just like any cash crop, a referral network needs to be nurtured in order to grow. And one of the best ways to nurture your referral network is to keep educating them about your firm so they can send you great referrals.

Here are five things you need to tell them:

  1. What your perfect client looks like. Provide a detailed description of your ideal client.

  2. Why someone should hire you. Be clear about your unique competitive advantage.

  3. What problems you solve. Again, be as specific as possible.

  4. How you follow up. Tell them your process so they are comfortable with referring you.

  5. Why referrals are important to you.

In addition, you need to find unique ways to thank your referral sources and, whenever you can, reciprocate.

5.  Leverage Relationship Building Tools

Staying connected with referral sources and clients you want to hire you again and again is the hallmark of a great rainmaker.  In my experience over the dozen years of working with more than 10,00 attorneys, I’ve found one simple solution that will help you achieve this goal without much effort or expense on your part: an e-newsletter.

E-newsletters provide an easy way for you to reach out to your entire network at the same time and to keep your name and your firm in their mind. The key benefits include:

It Establishes a Dialogue – Most email marketing companies make it easy to provide links to email and social media. The easier you make it for a contact to share information, the more likely they will share it.

It’s Easy to Track – Your email marketing provider will make tracking your effectiveness simple. They know who opened your email, who opted out, who clicked through. It’s an easy way for you to find out if the newsletter is working.

Keeping Them Informed – With a newsletter, you can include information about other firm highlights you want to share. Did someone just get an award? Did a case just settle? Did someone new join the firm?

Keep in Touch – Use the newsletter to keep in touch with former clients. It will reinforce the positive impression you had on them and ensure that you are top of mind if a new issue arises.

Educate Your Clients – If you handled my divorce, then I may not think of you when it comes time to hire an estate planning attorney. That isn’t my fault though, it’s yours. Educate your past, current and future clients and referral sources about all your practice areas.

It is a long road of small interactions, but by focusing on creating a solid relationship with your network you will benefit in the end.

6.  Develop a Marketing Mindset

The Internet and social media has blown the old legal marketing model to bits, and those with the entrepreneurial mindset and vision to harness the incredible power of these modern marketing tools create their own opportunities for revenue and growth beyond their wildest dreams.

Be proactive to recognize opportunities for you and your network and keep the radar on in every aspect of your life. Marketing is not an event, it is a mindset and a lifestyle. Access every resource available to you — internal, external, memberships, friends, family, and colleagues.

ARTICLE BY

Stephen Fairley
The Rainmaker Institute

How Americans are Consuming Digital Media Today

The Rainmaker Institute

Digital research firm comScore is just out with their 2015 U.S. Digital Future in Focus report, which details how Americans are currently interacting with technology and consumed media. Here is an overview of the findings that can help inform your law firm marketing efforts:

Multi-Platform

Over the past four years, digital media consumption has grown 394% on smartphones and 1,721% on tablets. However, the desktop is not dead — its usage has grown 37% over the same time period. What this says is that Americans are expanding their use of ALL devices, engaging with multiple screens throughout the day

.How Americans are Consuming Digital Media Today

Mobile

At the end of 2014, U.S. smartphone penetration was at 75% and has been growing at a rate of 16% annually. Apple and Android share 95% of that market.

Social Media

Facebook remains the 800 lb. gorilla with an 81% reach of the total digital population. Time spent on Facebook is 18x more than any other social network. Google+ has a 38% reach, LinkedIn is at 37% and Twitter at 36%. Here is the demographic breakdown of who is spending time on the top social sites, by age group:

social

Video

While mobile video viewing is on the rise, desktop viewing is still #1. Nearly 7 of 8 Americans watch online video, and more than half of those watch every day. YouTube remains the #1 destination and video platform with the most engagement.

video

ARTICLE BY

Stephen Fairley
The Rainmaker Institute