Develop a solid law firm marketing system to ensure business success
My COO Richard Strauch has some great thoughts on how to create a strong law firm marketing 
system within your firm that will allow you to capitalize on the opportunities that come your way. It is not enough to have a rough plan and some good intentions about legal marketing. Like any other discipline, it requires good planning, proper staffing, execution and determination to be as effective as possible. Here are nine tips from Rich to help you with your planning.
First, create a written 12 month marketing plan for the law firm. Put down in writing all of the goals and steps necessary to achieve those goals. Second, develop processes and procedures to capture major marketing metrics and data. You have to know the “lay of the land” if you are to be effective.
Third, identify major lead sources and create tracking mechanisms to measure results. Know where your referrals and leads come from and chart the volume of those leads and referrals. Fourth, develop reports for tracking effectiveness of marketing efforts. You have to know what is working and what is not. Don’t waste time and money on techniques that are not effective for you.
Fifth, create metrics for quantifying ROI of all major marketing initiatives. If technique A has a ROI of 10 and Technique B has a ROI of 5, which one should receive the bulk of your attention? Sixth, develop an online marketing system to generate leads and prospects from the internet. Use your website, blog, news releases and YouTube videos to drive traffic to your firm.
Seventh, build a system to develop relationships with potential referral sources and generate consistent referrals from them. Take people to lunch. Meet face-to-face and ask how you can help them with their business. Eighth, create a system for connecting with prospects, clients and referral sources on a regular, consistent basis. This includes:
- Monthly newsletters
- Annual Client Satisfaction Survey
- Keep In Touch letters
- Referral Education System
Lastly, train your staff on how to use the systems you have put in place. The best plans in the world are useless if they are not implemented. Following these guidelines will help you design a legal marketing system that will generate leads and referrals, allow you to convert those leads into clients, who will then generate more leads and referrals. But it does take time, and some money, to make it work.
*************************************************************************************************************
Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?
Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD. It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice. The CD is free, so sign up now!
Reflect on your mission and your legal marketing strategy
This week is a holy season to two of the world’s great religions – Christianity and Judaism. It is a time of reflection from things that distract people from their “mission in life.” It is also a good time for you to reflect upon your own mission, the “mission” of your law firm, and the law firm marketing strategies you have set in place to help you achieve your mission
For the Jewish faith, this week commemorates the Passover.
For Christians, this is Holy Week leading to Easter.
What do these have to do with law firm marketing? They are holidays of remembrance: recall the past, learn from it and use the lessons to refocus on what's most important. Both Moses and Jesus focused on their mission while avoiding distractions that could have taken their eyes off of the ultimate goal.
You face similar challenges with your legal marketing mission. There are many things that can distract you from your goals, and you need that same focus on your mission if you are to achieve the business and personal goals you have set.
Every week I speak to attorneys who have bought into the myth that their primary roles and responsibilities are, in order:
(1) To be a “billing machine” for their law firm.
(2) To be the administrator or fireman in the firm
(3) If they have any time left over, to meet with prospects.
This is completely reversed!
As a partner or owner of your law firm, your primary role and responsibility is to be the Rainmaker for the firm—not the technician billing clients and certainly not handling the “administrivia.” Technicians (lawyers who can bill clients) are easily found, but true Rainmakers are difficult to replace. (For those of you who are not partners in your law firm, here's the one key you need to become “irreplaceable”: learn the skills of being a powerful Rainmaker).
While you are reflecting this week, take time to reflect on your legal marketing strategies and ask yourself if you have taken your eyes off of your goals (or if you have let others distract you from your goals). If you have, make it your task this week to refocus on your law firm marketing plan and avoid the distractions that can move your focus onto things that will not move you toward your goals.
**************************************************************************
Practice Made Perfect For Lawyers: 10 Principles for Marketing Your Legal Services
50% off until April 2nd only! Just enter the Promotional code PMP50 on the order page to receive the discount. This comprehensive law firm marketing training manual is specifically designed for attorneys who desire to achieve a higher return on investment from all their legal marketing efforts by applying Stephen's unique High Impact Legal Marketing System to the challenges faced by solo and small law firms.
The set includes: An audio CD that provides you with an overview of the '10 Principles for Marketing Your Legal Services', a CD with ideas on how to maximize your results, a 130+ page Law Firm Marketing Manual, and a Data CD that contains customizable templates and forms to help you create a legal marketing budget and strategic development plan. Just a few of the tools you will discover in this highly practical legal marketing manual include:
* Over 50 specific law firm marketing strategies
* Why advertising doesn't work for most small law firms
* Strategies for achieving maximum results from all of your online legal marketing efforts
* How to retain your best clients.
Make sure law firm marketing is one of your critical functions
To strategically build your practice you must focus on the 5 fundamental functions of running a successful law firm: Strategic leadership, Management & Operations, Business Development, Marketing, and Service and Production. Let's focus on two of these areas – business development and marketing.
Business Development: The lifeblood of every organization is new business development. There are only 2 ways to make more money in business—increase revenues or decrease overhead. The first way is almost always easier.
When assessing your law firm business development strategies, here are some powerful questions to ask:
- What are the specific steps a prospect passes through on their way to becoming a client? What's your business development process?
- How effective is your lead generation follow up?
- How do you track prospects and clients?
- How can you increase your conversion ratio?
- Do you have a coaching and training program in place that consistently improves your business development skills and keeps your people up to date with the latest legal marketing strategies?
If you can increase the effectiveness of your business development staff by just 5% every quarter, just 5%, your net revenue growth would be phenomenal.
- How do you ensure clients continue to receive a high level of service?
- What percent of your time is spent managing clients versus developing new business? If your time is dominated by your existing clients, what time do you have to develop new clients?
- How do you keep clients for life?
Marketing: Legal Marketing is everything a law firm does to make the process of gaining client easier. You don’t do marketing as an end in itself. You do marketing to support your business development efforts and increase their effectiveness.
Questions to ask include:
- Who is your Ideal Target Market—the person or company who is most likely to retain you initially, repeatedly, and at the highest profit margin?
- How can you find these prospects in a cost and time effective manner?
- How are you measuring the success rate of your current legal marketing strategies?
- What are you doing to increase the quality and number of your Strategic Referral Partnerships?
- Why should they utilize your services now?
- How can you move from being just another attorney to a trusted advisor?
As you can see from the list of questions, this is not something that can be treated casually if you want to have success. Your legal marketing and business development functions need to be staffed with highly-trained, motivated, hungry people who know your business, know your ideal target market, and know how your firm can meet the needs of your target market. Those are the critical personnel you need for this very critical business function.
**************************************************************************
Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?
Then subscribe to our FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox. Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to begin 2010 on the right note in your legal marketing plan.
Cash Flow is King of your law firm and legal marketing plan
Any law firm that is planning to be successful must have a positive cash flow. Your goal is to make your law firm profitable and then invest a percentage of that profit into additional marketing and resources to improve your client experience.
Your law firm marketing plan should be designed to generate positive cash flow in a consistent manner. Consistent, positive cash flow take a great deal of pressure off of the owners and allows the remaining legal marketing strategies to ripen and begin to bear fruit.
Here are some tips from Richard Strauch, the COO here at The Rainmaker Institute on how you can systematically improve your cash flow system and cash flow situation.
- Analyze your current financial situation, cash flow, and Profit and Loss statements. Get a realistic picture of your financial situation right from the start.
- Meticulously review all of your expenses and look for ways to reduce your overhead costs.
• Develop a systems for reporting in all major financial areas with reports that the Partner(s) can easily run. Do not be totally dependent on your staff for reporting. - Evaluate your billing policies and work with the Partner(s) and staff to improve collections.
• Analyze all of your accounts receivable and create a system for tracking and reducing your accounts receivable. - Identify areas where your financials can be improved and train your staff to use your newly improved systems.
Focusing on your cash flow will make your office flow more smoothly and allow your partner(s) to know the financial situation of the firm. It also allows you to base your marketing plan on the real-world numbers that your law firm is generating. You can then tailor your legal marketing strategies to the most effective revenue-generating techniques.
**************************************************************************
Want to take the Rainmaker System home with you?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:
• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps
This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
Legal Marketing Expertise abounded at the Phoenix Rainmaker Retreat
.png)
Over the weekend I had the privilege of hosting the first Rainmaker Retreat designed with estate planning attorneys in mind with my friend Jeff Matsen. For those in attendance, they were treated to a rare combination of law firm marketing, estate planning, website design and management and niche marketing expertise.
Jeff Matsen brought his decades of estate planning and niche marketing expertise to life through tremendous personal and professional examples and engaging stories. Jeff’s ability to convey powerful truth through stories made the weekend one that no one in attendance will forget.
We were also joined by Alex Morris from findlaw.com who shared the hidden truths behind Google search engine optimization and pay per click advertising. Alex also discussed the keys to website design and management and which areas legal marketers should focus on.
I also had the pleasure of holding a mini-Mastermind session with four VIP guests at Fat Cat Restaurant over dinner. In addition to our lively dinner conversation, each of the VIP guests has the opportunity to attend another Rainmaker Retreat within the next 12 months.
If this has whetted your appetite for more legal marketing information, I encourage you to consider attending one of our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats in Las Vegas or Los Angeles. Just click on the city you are interested in for details, location and pricing information.
**************************************************************************
Complimentary Rainmaker Retreat Preview DVD is Available
We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at the 2 day Rainmaker Retreat. Yes, we know you are skeptical (we wouldn't have it any other way). So instead of us telling you how these 2 days will transform your business, we will let our clients do the telling.
Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.
Align Your Legal Marketing Vision and Goals With Your Business Strategy
When you, as a business owner, are looking to maximize the return on your legal marketing dollars, you need to be aware of how your business vision and goals influence your law firm marketing strategy. You also need to be aware of how your law firm marketing strategy can help you achieve your business vision and goals. To help you with that, here are the second set of questions to help you with the vision and goal setting process.
- What is the 30,000 foot view of your law firm? – You, as the firm owner, have the ability to see things that your staff will not see. Your viewpoint allows you see the chess pieces and look several moves ahead. Use that vision to ensure that you are still moving toward your goal.
- What does a “lifestyle law firm” mean to you? - When you started your firm, you had a dream of what your firm would look like. You had goals of a certain income level, a particular staff size, or the ability to have an increased amount of time off to travel. Is your firm on track to help you meet those goals?
- Do you have an action orientation? - Do you take action. “Action kills fear!” Simon Adderley – If you take what you learn and do nothing with it the information is useless. The most successful people in the world take action now. They don’t wait for some sequential order, they do everything all at once.
As you review your law firm marketing plan, keep these questions in mind. They can help you adjust your legal marketing strategies to keep your plans moving in the direction of your goals. After all, that is why you opened your firm, isn’t it?
*************************************************************************************
Unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat?
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free one hour calls give you valuable law firm marketing and business tips that you can implement in your law practice right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice.
Align Your Legal Marketing Vision and Goals With Your Business Strategy
When you, as a business owner, are looking to maximize the return on your legal marketing dollars, you need to be aware of how your business vision and goals influence your law firm marketing strategy. You also need to be aware of how your law firm marketing strategy can help you achieve your business vision and goals. To help you with that, here are the second set of questions to help you with the vision and goal setting process.
- What is the 30,000 foot view of your law firm? – You, as the firm owner, have the ability to see things that your staff will not see. Your viewpoint allows you see the chess pieces and look several moves ahead. Use that vision to ensure that you are still moving toward your goal.
- What does a “lifestyle law firm” mean to you? - When you started your firm, you had a dream of what your firm would look like. You had goals of a certain income level, a particular staff size, or the ability to have an increased amount of time off to travel. Is your firm on track to help you meet those goals?
- Do you have an action orientation? - Do you take action. “Action kills fear!” Simon Adderley – If you take what you learn and do nothing with it the information is useless. The most successful people in the world take action now. They don’t wait for some sequential order, they do everything all at once.
As you review your law firm marketing plan, keep these questions in mind. They can help you adjust your legal marketing strategies to keep your plans moving in the direction of your goals. After all, that is why you opened your firm, isn’t it?
*************************************************************************************
Unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat?
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free one hour calls give you valuable law firm marketing and business tips that you can implement in your law practice right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice.
Bust the Bracket with a Killer Legal Marketing Strategy
March Madness is upon us. Office productivity has taken its seasonal dip as employees call in sick and spend work time scanning the internet to keep up with the progress of their NCAA basketball tournament brackets. This is a good time to assess whether your legal marketing strategy is more sound than your game-picking strategy.
Some people are casual fans and spend little time and effort filling out their brackets. Others spend long hours watching games, watching the “bracketology” experts on television, and researching injury reports before they fill out their brackets.
Their thorough preparation gives them an advantage over those who just pick schools based on rankings or their reputation from previous years. Last year’s national champion didn’t even make the tournament, which is ample evidence that situations can change quickly in a year.
When you are putting your law firm marketing strategy together, take the time to research like a NCAA tournament coach, not a bracket picker. Research the opposition. Know the situations. Try to anticipate the ebb and flow and prepare your team for several different contingencies. Be quick on your feet with a strong game plan. Then you will be prepared for the marathon that is the tournament.
Legal marketing isn’t a guessing game. It is a disciplined effort that has a goal in mind from the outset. Design your law firm marketing plan with that goal in mind. Execute your plan to perfection. Then you can taste the sweetness of success.
*************************************************************************************
Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?
Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD. It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice. The CD is free, so sign up now!
New Jersey Rainmaker Retreat is a great opportunity for Mid-Atlantic legal marketers
.png)
March 26-27 is a great opportunity for attorneys and law firm marketing specialists throughout the Mid-Atlantic region to gain an enormous amount of legal marketing knowledge in two information-packed days. The Rainmaker Retreat coming to Roseland, New Jersey, is your ticket to law firm marketing expertise that will revolutionize your practice.
I will be sharing our Rainmaker System, which has helped more than 6,000 attorneys across the country find more and better clients and establish a law firm marketing system for generating more referrals. The agenda is pretty heavy with information tips, techniques and marketing strategies that include:
- Achieving Expert Status as an Attorney
- Building a Strategic Referral Network
- Creating Credibility in Your Practice Area
- Secrets of Highly Successful Attorneys
- Social Media for Small Law Firms
- Leveraging Technology: Beating the Big Firms on the Internet
- Generating More Clients Using the Power of Speaking
- Advanced Technology Tactics for Small Law Firms and Solo Practitioners
There is still time to sign up for the New Jersey Rainmaker Retreat March 26-27. Click here to register. It is two days that will provide you with a return on your investment for years to come.
*************************************************************************************
2010 Rainmaker Retreat Dates are set!
Are you looking for a way to fulfill your New Year’s resolution to become more effective in how you spend your legal marketing budget? Do you need guidance and motivation to compose a comprehensive law firm marketing plan? I have a suggestion for you. Come to one of the upcoming Rainmaker Retreats.
The Rainmaker Retreat is a 2-day marketing boot camp for attorneys. Attendees at previous Rainmaker Retreats have come away with many new ideas and actionable legal marketing strategies that they can take home and implement right away.
This spring, we have a number of Rainmaker Retreats scheduled, and more in the planning stages. The current schedule of Rainmaker Retreats is:
- Roseland, NJ March 26-27
- Las Vegas, NV April 9-10
- Los Angeles, CA April 16-17
Click on one of the locations to register for the Rainmaker Retreat.
If you are unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, join one of our complimentary teleseminars to get a preview of a Rainmaker Retreat. It will give you a thumbnail sketch of what you can expect during a Rainmaker Retreat.
Four leafed clovers are not a legal marketing strategy
Today, everyone is Irish. Regardless of your country of origin, today is the day to celebrate the wearing of the green. Irish lore, blarney stones, leprechauns and 4-leafed clovers are the topic of the day.
Before the festivities get out of hand, let me offer this caution. The luck of the Irish is all well and good, but don’t count on it to deliver the results you seek in your law firm marketing plan. Luck is for wishing. Plans are for creating systems that deliver measurable results that will move you toward your goal.
Too many people plan lightly and hope for the best. It’s akin to using lottery tickets as a retirement plan. You cannot leave to luck and chance those things that are necessary to ensuring that you achieve the levels of success that you desire for your firm. Luck , wishing and hoping are lots of fun, but they don’t bring home the bacon.
So on this St. Patrick’s Day, enjoy the festivities however you choose. Maybe you should consider adding a Rainmaker Retreat into your plans. Whatever you choose to do, please remember that sound planning, timely execution, and hard work are what will bring you to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Not a plant or a small man in a green suit.
*************************************************************************************
Can't make the Retreat? Get the Rainmaker Retreat Live!
Over 6,000 attorneys from hundreds of law firms across the country have discovered how to generate more referrals and find new clients by simply applying our Rainmaker Marketing System.
Here's just a sample of what you will discover in this 6 CD set audio program:
- Over 22 proven strategies for attracting more and better clients
- How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
- 7 ways to find more clients fast and how to select the best ones for you
- 2 ways to promote your firm to 100,000 people for only $100
- 5 ways to automate your marketing using technology and the internet
- 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition
- 8 steps to creating a 6 month comprehensive marketing plan for your firm
- Much, much more!
This live recording of our highly successful 2 day law firm marketing boot camp will inspire you with practical examples, motivate you with sample case studies, walk you through best marketing strategies used by top Rainmakers, and provide a guide for you to quickly implement proven tactics in the next 30 days. You can purchase the Rainmaker Retreat Live here
Becoming A Rainmaker legal marketing presentation coming to New Jersey
On March 24, I will be bringing the Becoming a Rainmaker presentation to New Jersey. This information-packed presentation will teach you the steps to creating the systems and practices that will lead you to the 7 or 8 –figure legal practice that you aspired to when you went into your legal practice.
The presentation is hosted by the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Monmouth County Bar Association. The seminar will run from 4-6 p.m. and be hosted at the Holiday Inn in Tinton Falls.
Some of the topics I will be covering include:
- Finding qualified clients for your firm
- Increasing your referral network in the next six months
- Changing your website into a revenue-generating source
- Automating your marketing system
- Avoiding marketing mistakes lawyers often make
This 2-hour seminar will provide you with enough information to go back to your office and begin implementing the legal marketing steps right away.
To register for the “Becoming a Rainmaker” presentation, click here. The cost is $77 for NJSBA and MBA members and $97 for non-members. For additional information, please call The Rainmaker Institute at 888-816-8935.
*************************************************************************************
Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?
Then subscribe to our FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox. Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to begin 2010 on the right note in your legal marketing plan.
Benefits, Value and Results should be the focus of your law firm marketing plan
When it comes to doing business with an attorney, prospects only care about 3
things:
- The Benefits they receive because of your services
- The Value they perceive during the relationship
- The Results they achieve from your service
If you're an estate planner, don’t sell estate plans.
If you're a family law attorney, don’t focus on the types of family law services your firm provides.
If you're a defense attorney, don’t focus on how many different types of crimes you can
represent.
These are all features of your service.
- People don’t buy features. They buy benefits.
- They buy solutions not service, because they expect everyone to have
great service. - They buy other people’s experiences of your service.
- They buy your credibility as presented by your marketing image.
- They buy based on their emotions, but they want logical reasons to
justify their decision. - And they buy guarantees and promises, so don’t make them if you can't
keep them.
Fundamentally, the reason why people or businesses seek out your law firm is because they have a problem and they are asking you, “Do you have a solution?”
In a previous post I mentioned the 15 percenters—the 15% of the population
that always and only buys on price. Your job is to weed them out and focus on
the other 85%. However, the other 85% will also buy on price—unless you give
them a reason not to.
That’s why your law firm marketing plan must focus on more than just the features of your product or service. This principle is often overlooked.
When you have a chance, take a look at several other websites of people in your
profession. Analyze their websites from a prospect’s point of view and
ask yourself these 3 all important questions:
- Why should I retain you for my legal need?
- Specifically, how do you benefit me, the client?
- Why should I retain your services now?
You will be absolutely amazed at how often their websites fail to adequately
answer even these most basic questions. But I guarantee they will answer the
one question that few if any of their prospects even care about—What services
do you offer?
Make sure your law firm marketing materials answer the questions that prospective clients are asking, not give them a laundry list of everything you can do.
*************************************************************************************
Unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat?
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free one hour calls give you valuable law firm marketing and business tips that you can implement in your law practice right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice.
Spring cleaning for your legal marketing plan
Spring. That time of renewal. When the gray of winter is cast aside and cascades of colors appear. New leaves bud out, birds lay eggs, bunnies are born and the grass greens up again. But renewal is often messy. Fixing dead spots in the lawn requires removal of the dead debris, planting, watering and patience. A great deal of rain must fall to provide the proper growing conditions for many plants to bloom and put out new branches.
Spring is a great time to spruce up your business and do some planting and pruning in your law firm marketing plan. Here are some thoughts on where you can begin.
First, identify anything that didn’t survive the season. That may include marketing strategies that were shelved or poorly executed. Give them a long look to see if some pruning and TLC can make them viable. If not, rip them out and start over with something new.
Second, look for bare spots in the lawn. These might be areas where you are missing some tools or strategies that can help you achieve your goal. Take a slow, thorough walk through your legal marketing plans and look for bare spots that you can fill in with some good seed and fertilizer. Remove any debris that will discourage new growth then cast your seed and water thoroughly.
Third, create spots for surprises. Find some areas where the bunnies can nest and bring new things into the world. In your marketing plan, these might be areas where employees can be innovative and bring ideas forward and implement them. It might be some time for seminars and conferences that allow you to expand your horizons. Allow space for the unexpected in your plans.
Hopefully these tips will encourage you to use this season of renewal to renew your legal marketing efforts
*************************************************************************************
Want to take the Rainmaker System home with you?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:
- The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
- Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
- The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
- Action, Accountability and Next Steps
This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
Use RSS as a legal marketing tool
We all know there is an enormous amount of information available on the internet that would be useful for law firm marketing purposes as well as legal practice management purposes. But who has the time to go to all of these sites and look for new information? Hopefully, no one on your payroll has that kind of time. But there are ways to monitor the sites that interest you without investing a great deal of time.
RSS – Really Simple Syndication – is a free internet technology that allows you to monitor your favorite blogs and news sites without actually having to take the time to visit them. You subscribe to the RSS feed and when new content is posted there, you will be able to see the new content.
.jpg)
There are several ways to do this. I’m going to highlight 2 of them for you. First, if you use Internet Explorer, it has a built in RSS feed on it. Right now if you are using IE 7 or newer, you will see an orange icon that looks like this
Click on the icon, and it will give you the option to subscribe to the RSS feed for this site. After you have subscribed, click on your favorites and you will see a “Feeds” tab. When you click on that tab, you will see all of the RSS feeds you have subscribed to. Those that are in bold have new content.
The second way is to use a news agreggator such as News Gator, Google Reader or Blog lines. These are free services you can use to collect all of the sites you want to monitor in one place.
The flip side to this is to make sure that your blog and website have the RSS feed enabled, so that others can monitor your content.
An RSS feed can be a useful part of your legal marketing toolkit if you deploy it well. It reminds people when you have new content, and brings them to your site.
*****************************************************************************************************
Practice Made Perfect For Lawyers: 10 Principles for Marketing Your Legal Services
This comprehensive training manual is specifically designed for attorneys and other legal professionals who desire to achieve a higher return on investment from all their marketing efforts. Much more than a simple adaptation, each chapter has been carefully rewritten to apply Stephen’s unique High Impact Marketing System to the challenges faced by solo and small law firms.
Written especially for solo practitioners and partners at small law firms (less than 25 attorneys), this practical manual includes dozens of specific marketing and sales recommendations that can be easily and quickly applied to your firm.
It includes a 2 CD set—one audio CD that provides you with an overview of the 10 Principles along with ideas on how to maximize your results from the manual and a data CD that gives you customizable templates and forms to help you create a marketing budget and strategic development plan.
To purchase this valuable resource, visit The Rainmaker Institute website.
Rainmaker Retreats are just around the corner
The next group of Rainmaker Retreats are just around the corner. These information-packed law firm marketing seminars are designed to give small firm and solo attorneys the information they need to go back and develop legal marketing strategies that will allow them to build the type of practice they have always wanted. The information presented ranges from legal marketing systems and techniques to internet marketing for attorneys.
The Rainmaker Retreat schedule includes the following dates and locations:
Scottsdale, AZ March 19-20
Roseland, NJ March 26-27
Las Vegas, NV April 9-10
Los Angeles, CA April 16-17
Past participants in Rainmaker Retreats have gone home with information that they could implement the very next business day. The Rainmaker Retreat is different from other marketing seminars in several ways:
First, it is specifically designed for Attorneys at small law firms and solo practitioners. While attorneys at larger firms can benefit from the information presented, it is presented with the Small law firm and solo attorney in mind.
Second, it is a working retreat. You will be creating many of your plans during the retreat.
Third, it is NOT an introductory course.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 course.
Fourth, it is designed to maximize the your Return on Investment. Everything about this workshop is focused on one goal—helping you achieve the best results by finding more and better clients in the least amount of time using the least amount of money possible.
Fifth, it offers a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. We are so confident you will benefit from the Rainmaker Retreat that we offer a 100% satisfaction 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.
If you are looking to revolutionize your law firm marketing system register now for one of the Rainmaker Retreats. Just click on the retreat location that interests you.
*******************************************************************************************************
Complimentary Rainmaker Retreat Preview DVD is Available
We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at the 2 day Rainmaker Retreat. Yes, we know you are skeptical (we wouldn't have it any other way). So instead of us telling you how these 2 days will transform your business, we will let our clients do the telling.
Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.
Baseball, social media and legal marketing - the perfect Saturday
Over the weekend I had the great privilege of being a panelist at the State Bar of Arizona’s Grand Slam or Foul Ball . . . Social Networking for Lawyers - Co-sponsored with The State Bar of California. It was a glorious day in Arizona filled with good conversation, excellent panelists, magnificent food, and of course, baseball.
During the seminar portion of the day – I won’t tease you with the food and baseball – the participants were treated to some great discussion of social media and how it can benefit, and hurt an organization. One of the more interesting thoughts came from Peter Woodfork
Vice President & Assistant General Manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He spoke about the issues involved with athletes using social media and some of the guidance that Major League Baseball is providing to its member clubs. There are legitimate concerns with athletes posting to social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN etc. and many clubs discourage athletes from posting during the season.
This brings up an important business principle – make sure the individuals utilizing social media on behalf of your organization are the appropriate persons to be speaking for the organization. Once something is posted on Facebook, it can live forever on Google.
I shared with the attendees my analogy on where social media fits into a law firm marketing plan. Imagine you have a cylinder and you have to fit large rocks, small rocks, sand, and water into the cylinder. Which ones go first?
I recommend the large ones, which are your referrals and past clients. The small rocks are your grassroots networking activities and your website. The sand in the cylinder is your blog. The water is social media. It ties all of your legal marketing efforts together, but it is not your primary marketing tool.
It was a great seminar for those who attended, and I hope to participate in more in the future. Social media has a place in your law firm marketing plan. Putting that piece in the right place is the key.
*************************************************************************************
Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?
Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD. It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice. The CD is free, so sign up now!
Your vision and goals will drive your legal marketing strategy
When you, as a business owner, are looking to maximize the return on your legal marketing dollars, you need to be aware of how your business vision and goals influence your law firm marketing strategy. To help you with that, here are some questions to help you with the vision and goal setting process.
- How do you define success? – Does success for you equate with growing the firm to a certain number of employees? A particular dollar figure for your income? A firm of a certain size that allows you to take more time off?
- What are your personal and professional goals? What kind of firm are you trying to build? A niche firm? A mid-size to large firm? Are you looking to retire early? Are you looking for a firm that affords you ample time off and a high income? All of these things need to be considered as you set your vision and goals.
- Where do you want to be 1, 5 and 10 years from now? This goes back to the previous post about making your plans measurable and managed. You should set benchmarks in a variety of areas at the 1, 5 and 10 year marks to help you measure the progress of your plan.
Your vision and goals are yours as the business owner. They need to reflect what you hope to achieve. Don’t base them on others expectations or what you think you should do. Rather, base them on what you want to achieve. Once you have them nailed down, revisit them on a regular basis.
It is only after you have your vision and goals articulated that you can throw your energy into legal marketing strategies that you will be able to design and implement an effective law firm marketing plan.
More on vision and goals tomorrow.
*************************************************************************************
Unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat?
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free one hour calls give you valuable law firm marketing and business tips that you can implement in your law practice right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice.
Bringing a systems approach to your law firm marketing and legal practice
Allow me to introduce Rich Strauch to you. Rich is the Chief Operating Officer here at The Rainmaker Institute, and he brings a great deal of experience with small and medium-sized companies helping them recognize the systems that they need to implement or improve to help them achieve their business objectives.
Rich has identified several systems that every law firm should have in place to be the type of firm they want to be. Those same systems can take their legal marketing strategy from a hit-or-miss proposition to a referral and lead-generation machine. But before the systems are put in place, there are steps that need to be taken to ensure that there is a strong potential for success.
Here are four steps that need to be taken from the outset:
- They must be written down. Systems must be written down in a step-by-step manner. – You can’t just say “track incoming prospect telephone calls.” You need a specific set of instructions that answers the 5 w’s – Who, What, When, Where, and Why – to design a set of instructions that can be followed regardless of who is in the position.
- They must be measurable. To the extent possible, systems must be quantifiable. If you have a target number of referral source meetings, use the number to help hold yourself accountable. If your goal is a percentage increase, use the numbers in your plan.
- They must be managed. Systems are ongoing and dynamic, not static and must be managed. Someone has to be responsible to see that they happen. The best plans are useless if they are not implemented and monitored.
- They must be automated. Using software helps to automate the process. Technology can lower the number of man-hours you need to accomplish your goals. Set a goal of automating everything that is possible in your business to you can use your time for high-value work.
Each of these items applies to many facets of your legal practice, including your legal marketing strategy. Many firms have plans that are incomplete, not written down, poorly managed and still reliant on 1980s and 1990s technology – Rolodex anyone? To take your law firm marketing to the next level, start with the steps above. We will have more on this in future blog posts.
**********************************************************************************************************
Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?
Then subscribe to our FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox. Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to begin 2010 on the right note in your legal marketing plan.
Rainmaker Retreat bring law firm marketing expertise to New Jersey
Last November I made a series of presentations of our extremely popular “Becoming A Rainmaker” seminar in conjunction with several bar associations in New Jersey. These seminars whetted the appetite of attorneys for proven law firm marketing advice that they can easily incorporate into their legal marketing strategy.
That thirst for law firm marketing information has grown, which is why we are bringing a Rainmaker Retreat to Roseland, New Jersey on March 26-27. The Rainmaker Retreat is a 2-day marketing boot camp for attorneys that shows them how to generate more referrals and turn more of those referrals into clients.
If you are unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, listen to the words of one of the many attorneys who received practice-changing information during their two day seminar:
Rainmaker Retreat is a full day on Friday and runs from morning until mid-afternoon on Saturday.
Topics that will be covered in the retreat include:
- Achieving Expert Status as an Attorney
- Building a Strategic Referral Network
- Creating Credibility in Your Practice Area
- Secrets of Highly Successful Attorneys
- Generating More Clients Using the Power of the Press
- Leveraging Technology: Beating the Big Firms on the Net
- Generating More Clients Using the Power of Speaking
- Advanced Technology Tactics for Small Law Firms and Solo Practitioners
- Creating Your Marketing System
- Implementing Your Legal Marketing System.
Click here to register for the New Jersey Rainmaker Retreat. Our early-bird discount ends soon.
Hurry to reserve your place.
**********************************************************************************************************
Can't make the Retreat? Get the Rainmaker Retreat Live!
Over 6,000 attorneys from hundreds of law firms across the country have discovered how to generate more referrals and find new clients by simply applying our Rainmaker Marketing System.
Here's just a sample of what you will discover in this 6 CD set audio program:
- Over 22 proven strategies for attracting more and better clients
- How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
- 7 ways to find more clients fast and how to select the best ones for you
- 2 ways to promote your firm to 100,000 people for only $100
- 5 ways to automate your marketing using technology and the internet
- 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition
- 8 steps to creating a 6 month comprehensive marketing plan for your firm
- Much, much more!
This live recording of our highly successful 2 day law firm marketing boot camp will inspire you with practical examples, motivate you with sample case studies, walk you through best marketing strategies used by top Rainmakers, and provide a guide for you to quickly implement proven tactics in the next 30 days. You can purchase the Rainmaker Retreat Live here
What can you learn from the large law firms about legal marketing in 2010?
A recent law firm marketing article shows where the large law firms are planning to deploy their legal marketing resources in 2010. While you are not directly competing with them for clients, you can learn from the research that their staff’s have conducted on the state of legal marketing today.
I find it interesting that the top two items on their marketing agendas are items that we have been encouraging you to implement for some time now – investing in social media and investing in client loyalty interviews.
Social media – such as Twitter, LinkedIN, Facebook, blogs, Youtube etc – allows you to have contact with your clients, prospects and referral sources in the mediums that are most comfortable and familiar for them. Social media should be a part of your integrated Web presence to maximize the effectiveness of search engine optimization and deliver the largest presence possible for your marketing dollar.
Client loyalty interviews are another area where more than 9 out of 10 law firms are spending their marketing dollars this year. Researching what your clients are looking for is standard operating procedure in most companies, and law firms are no exception. I would encourage you to expand this process to include your referral sources. Conduct some anecdotal research with your referral sources and ask what their friends and clients are looking for. That will give you an additional window into the world of your prospective clients.
I encourage you to read the rest of the article to learn all that you can from the larger law firms. They have research and marketing staffs that have put together a wealth of information that you can glean from. In this economy, make use of every resource that is available to you. Especially ones that you don’t have to pay for.
*******************************************************************************************************
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free, one-hour calls will give you a taste for the information that will be presented during a Rainmaker Retreat. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice.
Looking for a Rainmaker Retreat Preview? Check out our upcoming Teleseminars
There are thousands of law firm marketing programs, plans, seminars, workshops and other activities out there clamoring for your time, your attention, and your money. We know that, which is why we offer you a free preview of our Rainmaker Retreat for those who are unsure about committing their time and money to our 2-day legal marketing seminar.
During the one-hour teleseminar, you will learn:
- How to Avoid the Most Deadly Marketing Mistakes Attorneys make
- 3 powerful strategies you must put into action in your practice immediately
- How to set yourself apart from your major competitors
- Secrets top attorneys are using to generate more referrals right now…
- How attorneys are winning even in this economy by implementing this proven 8 step system
I will be your host during the call, which should whet your appetite for the Rainmaker Retreat, which includes this information, and so much more law firm marketing information. The teleseminar is designed to help you make a decision that may revolutionize your legal marketing strategy.
Attorneys who attend our teleseminars quickly learn that the information presented at the Rainmaker Retreat is something that they have not been taught in law school, and can change their lives.
I encourage you to take an hour out of your life and attend our complimentary teleseminars that are scheduled for the following dates and times:
Wednesday, March 3
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern
Thursday, March 4
4-5pm Pacific | 5-6pm Mountain | 6-7pm Central | 7-8pm Eastern
Tuesday, March 9
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern
Just click here to register for this complimentary teleseminar. You will be glad you did.
**********************************************************************************************************
Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?
Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD. It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice. The CD is free, so sign up now!
