The Rainmaker Blog : Law Firm Marketing and Business Development : The Rainmaker Institute : Stephen Fairley : Professional Legal Marketing

1. Specifically Designed for Owners and Managing Partners at Small Law Firms and Solo Practitioners. While Associates, Of Counsel, and Partners at large firms (50+ attorneys) are welcome to attend and will receive benefit from attending, the Rainmaker Retreat is specifically designed to meet the needs, challenges, and financial budgets of solo practitioners and small law firms.

You won’t find any strategies that cost tens of thousands of dollars in this seminar. In fact, many of our strategies have little to no cost and with many of them we will tell you how to trade more of your time instead of spending your money if you’re marketing your practice on a shoe-string budget. Nor will you hear about generic marketing ideas that only work if you have a large staff or a separate marketing department.

2. This is an Advanced Legal Marketing Workshop. We work very hard to make the material easy to understand and simple to apply, but please understand this is an advanced, in-depth, hard-hitting law firm marketing course!

If you are just starting out or have never done legal marketing or business development before you will likely find the volume and depth of our strategies to be a little overwhelming at times.

A common remark we hear from experienced attorneys is that attending the Rainmaker Retreat is like “trying to drink from a fire hydrant” because we will provide you will dozens of time tested legal marketing strategies each day of the workshop.

3. You will be taught How to Track and Measure Every Legal Marketing Effort! You will find a big emphasis on tracking the results of your attorney marketing efforts so if you are a numbers kind of person you will LOVE the Rainmaker Retreat!

There are 3 major areas you need to analyze and every one of your current challenges is directly related to problems in one or more of these 3 areas. We will teach you what the 3 areas are and how to use this tool to diagnose your problems and what “marketing treatment” you need to prescribe.

4. You will learn a Proven Lead Conversion System. The biggest area attorneys overlook in their legal marketing efforts is how to convert more prospects into paying clients. You will learn the 5 numbers you need to track in your law firm.

We will give you the tools and teach you how to use them so you can start tracking: (1) where every incoming lead is coming from, (2) how many of those leads turn into appointments, (3) how many appointments show up, (4) how many of those appointments retain at the initial consult, and (5) how many retain at a later date. We will introduce you to our Rainmaker Follow Up System that can be used to determine your Cost Per Lead (CPL) and Cost Per Client (CPC).

5. It is a Working Retreat. This means that several times each day you will be given specific marketing tasks to complete with step-by-step instructions. You not only come to listen, learn and discover, but also to practice and apply.

6. There is a Strong Focus on Return on Investment (ROI)! Everything about this workshop is focused on one goal—helping you achieve the best possible results by finding more and better clients in the least amount of time using the least amount of money possible!

For most attorneys, landing just 1 new client as a result of this workshop will more than pay for your attendance. But that’s not our goal! Our goal is to teach you how to gain dozens of new clients in the next 60-90 days.

Please note, ethically we cannot guarantee those kinds of results, but we work hard to provide you with all of the tools you will need to find more and better clients on a consistent basis. With that kind of Return on Investment, can you afford not to attend?

7. 100% Money Back Guarantee! We are so confident you will benefit from the Rainmaker Retreat that we offer a 100% money back guarantee. If you are not completely satisfied at the end of the first day, just let us know, turn your materials in and we will refund your money.

Upcoming dates for our Rainmaker Retreat include:

• July 26-27, 2013 – San Diego, CA
• August 16-17, 2013 – Las Vegas, NV
• September 20-21, 2013 – San Francisco, CA
• October 25-26, 2013 – Chicago, IL
• November 15-16, 2013 – New York City
• December 6-7, 2013 – Los Angeles, CA

Click on this link to register now for an upcoming Rainmaker Retreat or call 888-588-5891 for more information.

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A new report released earlier this week by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that in just the past three years, the percentage of Americans who own tablet computers has gone from just 3% to 34%, with more affluent households leading the way in adoption:

The fastest growing groups for tablet ownership include more affluent households making over $75,000 a year, college graduates as well as adults between the ages of 35 and 44, especially parents. 

In the past year, tablet ownership among parents with minor children living at home, rose from 26% to 50%. Tablet ownership among adults living in households making at least $75,000 per year rose from 34% to 56% and tablet ownership among college graduates rose from 28% to 49%. Analysts predict that tablet sales will surpass laptop sales within two years.

What this means is that your website and email marketing better be optimized for mobile devices. Specifically for iPhone and iPad, which dominate with 80% of mobile opens performed on these devices.

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FREE "Top 10 Mistakes Attorneys Make and How to Avoid Them" E-book

In a newly revised e-book, legal marketing expert Stephen Fairley outlines 10 of the most common marketing mistakes attorneys make that can lead to the failure of their business, and provides specific strategies and proven principles for avoiding these deadly errors. 

To get your complimentary copy online, click here.

Regardless of your specific situation, this free e-book will help you examine how you are currently finding new clients and recommend specific steps you can immediately start using to grow your practice. 

We have helped thousands of attorneys achieve their goals of creating a financially successful and personally satisfying legal practice. In this e-book you will discover specific principles and tools you can use to grow your practice, too.  

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Our Rainmaker Retreat in New York on May 31-June 1 yielded many questions about marketing small firms on the Internet. Here are some of the questions asked and my answers:

My firm is small; how can I compete against bigger firms on the Internet?

One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that all the big firms are engaging in the right kind of online marketing. Many big firms throw lots of money at Internet marketing but their dollars and time are not being used as effectively as they could be. Another misconception is that you are competing against the “big firms” and not the “small firms.”

The truth is many large firms are too big and move too slowly to react to constantly changing Internet marketing strategies. So being a smaller firm puts you in the perfect position to get on the Internet and start to make a name for yourself because you can make changes quickly.

The most important thing to do is to get in the game, do the right things and you will see your Internet presence grow steadily. But if you continue to sit back and watch you will never grow your online presence.

Can’t I do this all myself instead of outsourcing?

Doing it yourself is always an option. There is a lot of really valuable and great information out there where you can learn what needs to be done in order to successfully market your firm. But the hard reality is you went to school to practice law and chances are that is your unique gift.

We have seen dozens of our clients start out with the idea that they were going to do it for themselves. Most of the time, they start out strong, doing the right things in the right amount but as soon as they practice gets busier or grows, their time is divided and they no longer have time to dedicate to doing the social media or blogging or e-newsletter activities.

The reason you hire a company like The Rainmaker Institute is because our core competency is online marketing for attorneys. Do what you do best and outsource or delegate the rest. That is the most effective use of your time and money.

How do ethics play into social media?

The same ethics rules apply online and offline. However, with the exception of direct solicitation and making blatant self-promoting statements, educating prospects and those who follow you online and social media platforms is perfectly OK. Of course, you must be mindful of what you put out there, but writing blogs and doing social media updates about new laws and other type of educational information is perfectly acceptable and very valuable to those who are looking to hire an attorney.

 Should I only focus on online marketing?

You never want to put all your eggs in one basket. This holds true with marketing. Not only do you need to diversify your marketing strategies online, you also need to utilize some effective offline marketing strategies too. Things like weekly networking, giving educational seminars and meeting with referral sources, to name a few, are outstanding offline marketing strategies that are highly effective in creating a comprehensive marketing strategy.

That said, if you want to successfully grow your legal firm, you must be on the Internet and give people the opportunity to find your firm and engage with you on multiple platforms so you can build trust, credibility and rapport with prospects and referral partners.

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FREE Online Seminar: How to Attract Clients in Today’s Marketing Jungle

When it comes to law firm marketing, it is truly a jungle out there! Mastering social media, SEO and Internet marketing strategies – and making sure your efforts align with legal marketing rules – can give even the most eager attorney pause.

In his new one-hour seminar, Stephen Fairley will lead you through the step-by-step actions you should take throughout the course of the next 12 months to substantially increase your revenues. You will learn:

• How to target market to get your ideal client
• Why your firm is not getting more referrals and how to change it
• How to select the right marketing tools that will work for your practice and personality
• Effective online and offline marketing strategies
• How to create a financial plan to fund your marketing budget
• The 5 critical components of a Marketing Action Plan (MAP)
• 4 ways to create a unique competitive advantage
• What is critical to have in place today’s hyper-competitive online focused marketplace

This FREE seminar will also give you a preview of the 65 different marketing techniques and strategies taught at our 2-day legal marketing boot camp. Upcoming dates for our Rainmaker Retreat include:

• July 26-27, 2013 – San Diego, CA
• August 16-17, 2013 – Las Vegas, NV
• September 20-21, 2013 – San Francisco, CA
• October 25-26, 2013 – Chicago, IL
• November 15-16, 2013 – New York City
• December 6-7, 2013 – Los Angeles, CA

Click on this link to register now for the FREE How to Attract Clients in Today’s Marketing Jungle seminar.

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Internet marketing firm Shebang recently aggregated research from several leading market research firms to determine what is working today in Internet marketing for small businesses and published the results in the form of an infographic below.

So what is working best for small business when it comes to Internet marketing? The top 6 inbound marketing tools include:

• Social Media
• Blogging
• SEO
• Landing pages
• Email
• Mobile

In addition, research says that inbound marketing costs 61% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing – a good reason that a vast majority (89%) of small business marketers plan to maintain or increase their inbound budgets in 2013.

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Secrets to Building a 7-Figure Lifestyle Law Firm: Proven Strategies from the Front Line

At The Rainmaker Institute, we define a “7 figure lifestyle law firm” as one that allows you to have the lifestyle that you want to live!

It’s more than just money or achieving a million dollars in revenue.

It’s about creating a lifestyle where you do what you love and building a business around your core values and interests.

In this recording of an interview between Stephen Fairley, CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, and nationally recognized attorney John Bisnar, Stephen asks John to share with us some of the secrets he has used to create a law firm that allows him to go into the office only one day a week and take, on average, 3 to 4 months of vacation every year - all the while managing a very successful, multi-million dollar law firm!

You will receive either a CD or MP3 recording, plus we will email you a pdf transcript of the interview.

This interview will help you discover:

• The difference between a law practice and a business
• How to identify superstar employees to help you run your business
• The difference between an Office Manager and a Business Manager
• The 7 essential systems your firm must have & how to implement them
• How to micromanage the client experience
• Critical keys to success
• And much more!

Click this link now to order Secrets to Building a 7-Figure Lifestyle Law Firm: Proven Strategies from the Front Line.

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When it comes to delegating business development efforts to your staff, your only choices may be to ask a paralegal, your assistant or even a receptionist to support you.

If this sounds like your situation, here are some critical questions to ask to help you decide on which staff member is in the best position to support your business development efforts or whether you need to go to "Plan B":

What is their level of interest in marketing? When you talk to your staff member about growing the firm and helping out with business development efforts, do they show a sense of excitement or do they suddenly come up with lots of reasons (read "excuses") as to why they can't do it at this time? 

On a scale of 1 to 10, what's their level of interest in helping you with marketing? Seriously consider someone else if their self-reported interest level is less than an 8 or 9. I learned a long time ago in business, you can't push a rope.

What is their availability on a weekly basis? One of the keys to successful marketing is consistency. The best results from blogging are seen when your law firm's blog is updated at least 4-6 times every week with unique content. That takes consistency. 

Are you planning on removing something from the staff member's current list of responsibilities in order to give them more time to dedicate to marketing or are you simply going to pile it on top of everything else they are working on and then expect them to "work harder?" 

Without knowing the specifics of your situation, I cannot give you a correct answer nor can I counsel you on whether your staff member is working as hard as they can or if they can truly take on more work. However, you need to take their availability into consideration before you ask them to assist on a regular basis with marketing. 

You need someone who is going to be consistently dedicated to promoting your law firm. Do they have the personality for marketing? There is no "correct" personality to have in order to be successful in marketing. There are successful introverts and extroverts, but you need to take into consideration the type of marketing you will be doing and if that person has the right personality for it. 

For example, if you need someone who primarily will be overseeing a marketing project, then you need someone who has good project management skills and a lot of attention to detail. If your primary marketing efforts revolve around building relationships with other professionals and your clients are CEOs and owners of companies, than you want someone who has great relationship building skills who can easily build rapport with strong, confident executives.

What's your assessment of their skill set? There are several critical skills sets proven to be invaluable in leading your marketing efforts: project management, copywriting, editing, public relations, social media, knowledge of search engine optimization strategies, graphic design, best practices in Internet marketing, referral development, relationship building, and account management, just to name a few. 

Obviously, it's rare to find someone who has more than a few of these critical skill sets, but depending on your marketing plan, some of these skills may be more important to you than others. Be sure to evaluate which skills they have versus which ones you will likely need so the two of you aren't disappointed when expectations aren't met.

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June 13 Online Seminar: 8 Keys To Turn Website Browsers Into Buyers & Dominate Your Competition

Over 95% of law firms already have a website, but most of them never get any business from it. If this sounds like your law firm, then this seminar is a must for you.

Tune in on Thursday, June 13 at noon PT/3 p.m. ET to learn how small to mid-sized law firms from around the country are transforming lackluster websites into revenue-generating machines!

If you can’t remember the last time you generated a lead from your website, then you owe it to yourself to attend. If you're tired of your competition getting all the highly qualified leads online, this online seminar will teach you what you need to know to dominate them.

You will discover:

• Top strategies to quickly increase your online conversion rate
• How to create trust with your website’s visitors
• Specific tools you can use to encourage your visitors to pick up the phone and call you
• The biggest mistakes law firm websites make and how to avoid them
• How to differentiate your website from your competition

Register online now by clicking on this link: 8 Keys To Turn Website Browsers Into Buyers & Dominate Your Competition. 

Time doesn’t work for you? Click on the above link, register and we’ll email you a recording of the live webinar to watch at your convenience!

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