Do You Feel Like It's Been Halloween All Year Long?
This weekend is Halloween, but for too long, too many people have been acting scared. Fear and negativity are pervasive everywhere you look these days, and it’s not just because of the mid-term elections.
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of hearing how bad the economy is. I’m tired of hearing hyped up stories in the media that feed on fear. I’m tired of hearing about how people are helpless and how there’s nothing you can do but wait out the storm.
I’m not sticking my head in the sand, but I do believe if you only focus on negativity and fear that’s exactly what you will see and experience. There are three dangers to allowing your life and your law firm to be driven by negativity and fear:
Fear Kills Your Creativity. Fear induces stress which lowers your innate ability to solve problems.
Fear Kills Your Confidence. As business owners these are times when we need to act with confidence and clarity. Fear will stifle your ability to think clearly and act decisively.
Fear Kills Your Competency. If you have ever had a manager who micromanaged your every action, you will recall that it undermined your feelings of competency. When you allow fear to be a primary motivator, you will doubt your every decision.
Here are three ways you can replace fear and negativity with focus and positivity:
Focus On Being A Positive Person. Positive people attract other positive people. When your attention is on being positive you will draw clients and referral sources to you who are also positive. Find people who are doing great things and moving in the right direction and get to know them.
Focus On Positive Solutions For Clients. People are looking for solutions that actually work in the real world. As their attorney, you have a responsibility to provide them with positive solutions. The more effective your solutions, the more attractive you will become to prospects, clients and referral sources.
Focus On Keeping Your Staff Positive. Everyone can use a little more encouragement and positive reinforcement these days. Even though your firm may be going through a tough time economically, you can still emphasize what your staff did right and say thanks.
Another Source For Positive Solutions
Our last Rainmaker Retreat for 2010 will be in San Francisco on November 5 & 6. The Rainmaker is a 2-Day Marketing Boot Camp for small firm and solo practice attorneys that provides a wealth of information on how they can boost their revenues and increase the effectiveness of their law firm marketing strategies.
Today is the last day to get in on Early Bird pricing for this session, and the savings are nothing to say Boo! about. And neither are the over 62 proven tools you can immediately use to generate more and better referrals and increase your revenues that you will learn over a Rainmaker Retreat weekend that will change your life, and law firm, forever.
Go to www.rainmakerretreat.com to register online or call 888-588-5891.
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Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?
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.
NJSBA to Learn The 5 Rules of Internet Marketing for Attorneys at Mid-Year Meeting
There couldn’t be a better venue for the New Jersey State Bar Association Mid-Year Meeting next week than the Four Seasons Scottsdale at Troon North, nor a hotter topic to discuss than what I’ll be presenting next Wednesday, Nov. 3: The 5 Rules of Internet Marketing for Attorneys: How to Use Your Website and Blog to Generate High Quality Leads for Your Law Firm.
This fast-paced seminar will focus on how top attorneys are using the Internet, their websites and blogs to find more and better clients for their law firms. We’ve found that the Internet is one of the most cost-effective lead sources for today's attorneys.
I will be sharing:
- The 5 rules for Internet marketing for attorneys
- Do's and Don'ts: the intersection of ethics and online marketing
- The 3 keys to getting your website on the front page of Google
- How to set up your website right the first time
- Avoiding common ethical pitfalls with your Internet marketing
- Lead conversion pages: how law firms are converting 10-30% of website visitors into qualified leads
- 3 most important goals of your website & blog
- The "secret weapon" of Internet marketing for lawyers
I look forward to welcoming all NJSBA members to my backyard, and urge you to take full advantage of all the shopping, golfing and sight-seeing there is to experience here in Scottsdale – after my presentation, of course!
Safe travels!
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Get Your Free Guide: 5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan
Feel like you don’t have time for marketing? Let us show you how to make a plan that runs on “autopilot” – one that attracts new and lucrative clients while you focus on your practice.
Learn how easy it can be to create an effective law firm marketing plan that performs by getting our Free Guide: 5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan.
After working with many ultra-successful lawyers we found five common threads in their marketing plans. This guide outlines these shared elements to provide insight into strategies that work and how to make them work for you.
There are two versions: one for Attorneys in Solo Practice and one for Attorneys in a Small Firm. You can download them now free! Go here to download, and start using these proven strategies today!
Law Firm Marketing: Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Rainmaking Event is Nov. 9
On Tuesday, Nov. 9, you are invited to join the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego and the San Diego County Bar as they present an information-packed 3-hour live seminar featuring attorney John Bisnar, Managing Partner of one of southern California’s most successful personal injury law firms, and yours truly on Proven Marketing Strategies to Increase Referrals and Revenue for Small Firms and Solos.
For many attorneys the last few years have been the most difficult of their entire career and many newly minted attorneys have had to scramble just to make ends meet. Yet some law firms are experiencing the best years they have ever had. Why? What are they doing they you aren't?
If you are ready to hear the truth about succeeding in this economy...If you are ready to transform the way you market and run your law firm...then we invite you to join us for a powerful evening filled with specific strategies, systematic techniques, and direct dialogue about what's working and what's not right now.
When you attend here's what you will discover:
- The Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Lifestyle Law Firm
- The #1 reason why you are not getting more referrals from your clients and 3 ways to solve this problem
- How to build a network of over 30 new referral sources in the next 6 months
- Why most of your advertising does not work and how to fix it fast before it sinks your firm
- Case studies of attorneys who are using Internet marketing and blogs to dominate their competition online and generate massive revenues
- Why “Micromanaging the Client Experience” is a singular way to stand apart from your competitors
- 7 ways to find new clients fast and how to select the best ones for your law firm
- Demystifying social media strategies—what works and what doesn't and how to stop wasting your time and start leveraging your online connections
- Effective tools for maximizing your networking efforts
- Low cost and no cost techniques for standing apart from bigger competitors
- How to fix your follow up system and increase your lead conversion rates
- How to ethically position yourself as a specialist
- Ethical guidelines in advertising, what you can and cannot say
- How to build a massive platform of people who know you, like you, trust you and will refer others to you
- Why your law firm can't afford to hire anything less than a “Superstar”
By attending, you also receive 2 Hours General and 1 Hour Ethics MCLE Credits (CASD is a state bar approved MCLE provider). Both CASD & SDCBA members are able to attend at the discounted member price.
The seminar will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 9, and will kick off with a light networking dinner at 5 p.m. The presentation will begin at 5:30 p.m. and end at 8:45 p.m.
To register online or for more information, click here or call 619-696-1166.
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Free CD: Insider Small Law Firm Marketing Practices
Get your free CD on Insider Small Law Firm Marketing Practices by #1 Best-Selling Author And Nationally Recognized Law Firm Marketing Expert Stephen Fairley, and listen as he reveals A Proven System To Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice!
Discover:
- How 1 piece of simple technology in your practice will drastically increase your communication with prospects, clients and referral sources – resulting in a major revenue boost
- 5 ways to market and position yourself as a recognized expert
- How 2 Attorneys promoted their law firms to over 100,000 people for less than $100 in 2 hours
- The 1 item you must absolutely have to create a Million Dollar Law Practice (hint: Not having this will almost guarantee your failure!)
- 6 BIGGEST secrets to generating more and better referrals
- How to create a proven network of 30 new Strategic Referral Partners in the next 90 days
To obtain your free CD, visit www.lawfirmmarketingstrategies.com.
Law Firm Marketing: Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat Roundup
At last weekend’s Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat, there were a couple of topics that everyone was hungry to learn more about – social media and creating systems that will lead to business success.
Social media has been a hot topic for the past couple of years. The growth of sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has fueled a revolution in how legal marketers ply their trade.
Everyone at the Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat wanted to know how they could leverage these platforms to multiply their existing marketing programs and gain greater access to their target markets. One of the exciting aspects of social media is the ability to receive real-time feedback and have two-way conversations with prospective clients.
Learning how to create and implement marketing and business operation systems that allow you to build your firm to the level that you dreamed of when you started out on this venture was another hot topic.
One of the shifts many attorneys experience is the mindset of moving from having a practice to owning a business. Many attorneys initially have the belief that law is a profession and therefore does not need to be marketed like other businesses.
By the time they leave, these same attorneys have often experienced a mind shift towards, “I'm a business owner who just happens to practice law and while the application may be slightly different, the ‘rules of marketing’ apply to my business just like they do every other business.”
Attorneys who attend the Rainmaker Retreat law firm marketing boot camp leave with over 62 proven tools they can immediately use to generate more and better referrals and increase their revenues. It is a weekend that will change your life, and law firm, forever.
If you haven’t taken the time yet to attend a Rainmaker Retreat, you have one more chance before the end of the year. The San Francisco Rainmaker Retreat will be held Nov. 5-6 at the State Bar of California. Early bird registration ends this Friday, Oct. 29.
For more information and to register online, go to www.rainmakerretreat.com or call 888-588-5891.
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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.
Get your complimentary copy online 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.
Law Firm Internet Marketing: Reaching Journalists Through Blogging
Digital research firm eMarketer released a report last week about how blogging has become more fully integrated into marketing communications.
According to PRNewswire and PRWeek statistics, about one-third of journalists reported they used corporate blogs as research sources in 2010, up from one-quarter a year ago. Almost two-thirds of journalists use blogs to publish and promote what they write, so it is apparent that blogs have become a widely accepted and credible source among the fourth estate.
Here is a graphic showing the results of an April 2010 survey among journalists on the research tools they use when developing a story:
Journalists operate on tight deadlines, so the use of the Internet as an information-gathering tool for stories should not be a surprise to anyone. However, this also reinforces the need for attorneys looking for press coverage to have a robust law firm Internet marketing plan in place to help accomplish this goal.
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Exclusive Rainmaker Retreat Preview Call – Learn Before You Go!
If you want to learn more about the Rainmaker Retreat and why it is a proven legal marketing system that has helped over 7,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for our one-hour complimentary teleseminar hosted by Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley.
Sign up now for one of these upcoming one-hour teleseminars:
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
11am-12pm Pacific | 12-1pm Mountain | 1-2pm Central | 2-3pm Eastern
Thursday, November 4, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern
Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!
Law Firm Internet Marketing: How to Recession-Proof Your Practice
We’ve been told that the Great Recession ended last June, but I’ve had many conversations with clients all across the country and I know many of you are hurting.
Now, I’m not going to tell you to put on rose-colored glasses and pretend things are suddenly all better, but the reality is that we all have businesses to run and “waiting things out” is simply not an option.
What I am suggesting is that you turn this recession on its head and into an opportunity to grow by doing what may seem counter intuitive. For example:
Don’t cut back on your level of customer service—increase it. Think of this as your unique competitive advantage.
Continue to invest in marketing. Done properly, marketing is not an expense; it’s an investment. And since your competitors are holding back, then this is the perfect time to continue your marketing to help you pull past those competitors.
Call all your best clients every month. Check in with them to see how things are going and how you can help. They’ll appreciate being able to talk business owner to business owner.
Don’t make major decisions based upon your emotion. During this stressful time, it’s easy to do so. Therefore, talk to a trusted adviser or mentor and ask for their advice before you make that final decision on major issues.
Take care of yourself. Last, but not least, make sure you’re taking care of yourself—get plenty of rest and balanced nutrition and take time out just for yourself, to recharge your own batteries.
I’m in Scottsdale today leading a session of our Rainmaker Retreat two-day marketing boot camp, which is full of hearty souls who have decided with me to sit this recession out. You can join us today and tomorrow via a live Tweet Chat; here’s how you can participate:
Go to http://tweetchat.com/ and sign in with your Twitter account in the upper right corner. Add lawmarketing into the hashtag area on the top of the webpage.
OR, if you don't want to go to TweetChat, all you have to do is use your Twitter account as you normally do and after you ask a question or make a comment, you will need to add #lawmarketing at the end of your question/comment.
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Check Out Your Peers As They Share Their Rainmaker Retreat Experiences
We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at our 2-day law firm marketing boot camp, the Rainmaker Retreat. Yes, we know you are skeptical. 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.
The last Rainmaker Retreat for 2010 is in San Francisco on Nov. 5-6. Register online at www.RainmakerRetreat.com to reserve your place or call 888-588-5891 for more information.
Law Firm Internet Marketing: 7 Steps to Success in Social Media
A couple of months ago I blogged about How to Measure Your Law Firm’s Success With Social Media and find myself wanting to revisit this topic again and again because so many business owners (yes, you are a business owner) continue to struggle with how to measure ROI for social media.
Digital intelligence firm eMarketer just came out with a free report (yes, they want your info, but not your money – see Monday’s blog for why) called Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media that does a nice job of summarizing exactly what marketers need to do to achieve success with their social media marketing programs:
- Establish clear marketing goals for your product or brand, and then identify social measurements that directly support those objectives.
- Organize your measurements and metrics in a logical framework.
- Take a long-term outlook with social media interactions and measurements. It’s a commitment, not a campaign.
- If hard ROI metrics are difficult to track directly, consider a range of softer metrics that can be linked back to desired business outcomes.
- Determine a dollar value for customers who choose to opt in and engage with your brand via social networks.
- In your ROI calculations, don’t overlook the value of cost savings that can result from ongoing social listening and tracking.
- Build the technological capabilities to measure your customers’ complete digital footprint—in real time.
One of the hardest ones for most attorneys to grasp is #3 – it’s a commitment, not a campaign. Building a social media presence takes time. You can’t expect to throw up a few blogs and have prospects knocking down your doors. Create content that is relevant to your targeted prospect, keep pumping it out there, and they will come.
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Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?
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. To order this information-packed set click here.
Law Firm Marketing: Time to Get Off The Fence
If you're on the fence about coming to a Rainmaker Retreat...
Let me ask you a question:
If we can teach you a proven system that brings in several new clients every month,
How much would that system be worth to you?
The Rainmaker Retreat includes:
- Over 65 proven ways to grow your law firm
- 10 ways to dominate your competitors online
- An 8-step method for tripling your referrals in 90 days
If you're tired of struggling to find more clients...
And you truly want to build a 7-figure law firm,
Then you need to attend one of the last two Rainmaker Retreats we are offering this year:
Friday, Oct. 22nd & Saturday, Oct. 23rd Scottsdale, AZ
Friday, Nov. 5th & Saturday, Nov. 6th San Francisco, CA
We have a proven system that works, even in this economy.
Here's the solution: www.RainmakerRetreat.com
Over 7,000 attorneys have benefited from implementing the proven Rainmaker Marketing System.
Listen to their testimonials and check out what you will learn at the Rainmaker Retreat here.
Isn't it about time you started growing your practice instead of struggling just to get by?
Register TODAY by calling 888-588-5891 or at www.RainmakerRetreat.com.
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Live Tweet Chat from Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat This Weekend
If you are not able to attend the Rainmaker Retreat in Scottsdale this coming weekend, we will be tweeting live on Tweet Chat October 22-23. If you have any questions that you would like to ask Stephen, please add #lawmarketing at the end of your question on Twitter.
Law Firm Marketing Boot Camp: Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat This Weekend
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After days of rainy weather that have made the national news, the weather forecast for Scottsdale this weekend is “abundant sunshine”.
And the forecast for this weekend’s Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat is “abundant legal marketing strategies you can implement next week”!
If you’re a partner in a small law firm or are on your own and want to grow your practice while enjoying the lifestyle you deserve, you owe it to yourself to check out the Rainmaker Retreat where you will learn:
- More than 22 proven legal marketing strategies to attract more and better clients
- How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
- 5 Ways to automate your legal marketing using technology and the Internet
- 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
- 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition
Did you read Phoenix bankruptcy attorney Joe McDaniel’s blog about the Rainmaker Retreat he attended in May? Here’s what he had to say:
At this point in my life, I've seen and heard a lot, and I figure that if I get one single good idea out of a seminar, it was time and money well spent.
At the Rainmaker Retreat, I finally lot track of the great ideas I picked up after about twenty. And the hits kept coming.
Now, ideas are a dime a dozen, and you can certainly read and study and learn about rainmaking for fun and profit without every attending a seminar with the Rainmaker Institute.
But why would you?
Your time has value. Of course, you may just like to do things the hard way. That's okay with me, of course.
But the unique value of the Rainmaker Retreat Seminar I attended is this, and in this it's different from all the books and seminars I have absorbed in the last thirty years of my practice: it teaches a systematic approach to making water fall from the sky.
That's a systematic approach to old-school rainmaking and online rainmaking. Both. Not one. Both. In that sense, it's really two seminars in one.
So lemme summarize: ideas are a dime a dozen. You will get a hundred great ideas and a system to make it rain without end at your law office if you attend The Rainmaker Institute Rainmaker Retreat.
And if you apply those ideas in your practice, you will have, in my humble opinion, a massive competitive advantage over your classmates in causing the sky to give up it's precipitation.
I recommend the Rainmaker Retreat Seminar without reservation.
The Rainmaker Retreat is filled with sessions (with built-in Action Steps and Action Groups) to guide you in putting these law firm marketing strategies into practice immediately. You will leave Scottsdale with a specific plan – uniquely suited to you and your firm – that will help you create a successful and highly satisfying legal practice!
Register today to reserve your place at the upcoming Rainmaker Retreat in Scottsdale on Oct. 22-23 or in San Francisco on Nov. 5-6.
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Exclusive Rainmaker Retreat Preview Call – Learn Before You Go!
If you want to learn more about the Rainmaker Retreat and why it is a proven legal marketing system that has helped over 7,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for our one-hour complimentary teleseminar hosted by Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley.
Sign up now for one of these upcoming one-hour teleseminars:
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
11am-12pm Pacific | 12-1pm Mountain | 1-2pm Central | 2-3pm Eastern
Thursday, November 4, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern
Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!
Law Firm Internet Marketing: Give It Away So You Can Sell It
Many attorneys I’ve worked with have heard that free reports are an important component of a law firm Internet marketing plan.
But most are not sure how or why they are important.
The real value of a free report in law firm Internet marketing is in its role as a quid pro quo. Potential clients give you some information about themselves in exchange for some valuable legal information on a topic of interest to them.
The information you’re asking for is their contact information. And that is a key first step in beginning a trust-building relationship with them.
But first, you need to make sure your report is worth the valuable information the prospective client has just given you.
Remember the movie “A Christmas Story” where young Ralphie waits for weeks in great anticipation for his secret decoder pin from the Little Orphan Annie radio show? It finally arrives. He runs upstairs, locks himself in the bathroom, and starts decoding the secret message from Little Orphan Annie.
The highly anticipated secret message? “Drink your Ovaltine.” Or, as Ralphie describes with bitter disappointment, “a crappy commercial!”
Here are four proven elements of a well-crafted free report:
Addresses issues that people really care about – Remember, clients may not care about legal precedents, but they are very likely to care about how to save money during a divorce.
Uses laymen’s language – If they are being completely honest, most people would tell you they prefer reading USA TODAY to the New York Times. While the NYT is a serious paper for serious people, USA today is interesting at the individual level, and it’s written in an easy-to-read format.
Builds credibility for your law firm – Don’t miss this opportunity to share client quotes or real life results you’ve gained for your clients.
Includes a call to action – By the end of the report, the prospective client should be interested enough to take the next step, whether that is going to your website for more information, or signing up for your newsletter.
The free report can be an indispensible law firm Internet marketing tool. Its real value to your law firm Internet marketing program is as the first step in connecting with new clients. If used correctly, it earns you both contact information and credibility.
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Live Tweet Chat from Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat This Weekend
If you are not able to attend the Rainmaker Retreat in Scottsdale this coming weekend, we will be tweeting live on Tweet Chat http://tweetchat.com/ October 22-23. If you have any questions that you would like to ask Stephen, please add #lawmarketing at the end of your question on Twitter.
If you'd like to attend the Rainmaker Retreat in person, register online at www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call us at 888-588-5891.
Law Firm Internet Marketing: Are Getting Referrals Through Search Engines the Future?
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This week Facebook and Microsoft’s search engine Bing announced a new partnership that could mean big things for online legal marketing, especially when it comes to search engine marketing and referrals.
Facebook and Bing are now making search social by featuring a Facebook “Like” icon that tells you what your friends have liked as the result of that search. In addition, Bing will improve its people search function by prioritizing the names that come up by the number of your friends who know them.
And that’s just the start. The next step they say is surfacing people who are experts in specific subjects. Like divorce law. Or real estate law. Or personal injury law. You get the opportunity, right?
More and more, people are turning to online recommendations from people they know and even those they don’t know. Obviously, if your friend “likes” a particular law firm or attorney, you would be more inclined to choose them for yourself.
Stay tuned. This could be big.
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Can’t Make It to a Rainmaker Retreat? Then Have One Delivered to You!
Over 7,000 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 our Rainmaker Retreat Live! 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 will also get the same 70-page marketing manual used at all our Rainmaker Retreats.
Click here to order your copy of Rainmaker Retreat Live!
Law Firm Marketing: 3 Steps to Finding the Right Keywords
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A couple of days ago I blogged about online marketing opportunities for lawyers and how imperative having the right keywords are to your search engine marketing program. So how do you find the right keywords to drive the right prospects to your website?
Here are 3 steps to finding the right keywords for your law practice:
Step 1: Make a list of 5-6 words and/or phrases that best describe your practice.
Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes and think about what words they would use to find you. Hint: it is not the name of your firm. Choose words or phrases that describe exactly what you do, in laymen’s terms: i.e., Phoenix divorce lawyer, car accident attorney, etc.
Step 2: Choose your keywords or key phrases based on relevance and difficulty.
As you saw in my Tuesday blog, competition for the word “lawyer” is about as fierce as it gets, which means it would be very difficult for your site to rank high in search results for that word alone. The smaller you are, the more specific you want to get, choosing keywords that have less competition. Use Google’s Keyword Tool to see what the search volume is for your keywords and key phrases. Look for similar words that have less competition, but are still relevant to your business. Then strike a good balance between relevance and difficulty.
Step 3: Use your keywords and key phrases throughout your website.
Choose the best 3-5 individual keywords and your top 10 key phrases and use them in the content of your website as well as in the page titles and metadata. If you can secure a URL for these keywords, use that as well. Be sure not to “stuff” your content with too many keywords – your site should still be written for a human being, not a search engine.
This is just one of many topics I’m covering today in San Francisco at the BALIF Seminar on Proven Marketing Strategies for Today’s Rainmaker. If you would like to learn more about online marketing for law firms, sign up to attend one of our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats – we’ve got one coming up next weekend in Scottsdale (Oct. 22-23) and one next month in San Francisco (Nov. 5-6).
For more information, visit www.rainmakerretreat.com or call 888-588-5891.
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Stop Wasting Precious Time and Money
Feel like you don’t have time for marketing? Let us show you how to make a plan that runs on “autopilot” – one that attracts new and lucrative clients while you focus on your practice.
Learn how easy it can be to create an effective law firm marketing plan that performs by getting our Free Guide: 5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan.
After working with many ultra-successful lawyers we found five common threads in their marketing plans. This guide outlines these shared elements to provide insight into strategies that work and how to make them work for you.
There are two versions: one for Attorneys in Solo Practice and one for Attorneys in a Small Firm. You can download them now free! Go here to download, and start using these proven strategies today!
Marketing for Lawyers: When Opportunity Calls, You Pick Up the Phone
If you are like many attorneys, this economy has really taken a toll on you.
Fewer clients are calling for repeat work...fewer people are willing to pay your fees. More clients are paying slowly...or not at all. If this sounds like your law firm, there is hope.
Join us for a complimentary Rainmaker Retreat Preview Call one week from today – Wednesday, October 20 at 1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET.
Go here to register: www.RainmakerRetreat.com/previewcall
Join us to 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
Schedule an hour next week to pick up the phone and learn about the opportunities you can create for your law firm using a proven legal marketing system that has already helped over 7,000 attorneys find more and better clients.
Register now for the free call at: www.RainmakerRetreat.com/previewcall or call: 888-588-5891.
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Phoenix Legal Networking Group: Learn How to Use Blogs and Internet Marketing to Generate More Leads at our October 19 Meeting
At the October 19 Phoenix Legal Networking Group meeting, Stephen Fairley will make a presentation on How to Use Blogs and Internet Marketing to Generate More Leads. Join us next Tuesday to discover:
- Why blogs are one of the most effective lead generation tools—if you do it right
- Top reasons every law firm should have a blog
- Proven ways to use your blog to generate leads
- Top 10 questions about law firm blogging answered
- 3 major benefits for law firms that blog
- How long it will take for your blog to produce revenue
The event will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 19 at Monti’s, 100 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe.
Cost is $20 per person if you register by October 15, $30 if you register by October 18 or $35 on the day of the event. This covers drinks, hors d’oeurves, the networking event and the workshop.
To register for the October 19 networking and legal marketing event, co-hosted by FindLaw, Attorney at Law Magazine and The Rainmaker Institute, visit www.therainmakerretreat.com/network/ or call 888-816-8935.
Law Firm Marketing: Online Marketing Opportunities for Lawyers
A recent online marketing study by Hubspot.com of 33 different industries and associated keywords included the legal profession, utilizing the keyword “lawyer”. Here are the findings:
How to interpret the data:
Absolute Activity means how many actions take place in a given channel for the keyword “lawyer”.
Competition is how much competition exists for the keyword “lawyer” in each channel. A score of 50 is an average level of competition; higher numbers mean more competition and lower numbers mean less.
To be effective, your law firm marketing plan should include a marketing strategy for each channel. Using keywords that have lots of traffic – like using “lawyer” in your search engine marketing – is usually a losing strategy for all but the biggest firms. Small and medium-sized firms can score a bigger win by developing a group of keywords that strike the right balance between having reasonable levels of both competition and traffic.
Learning how to create online marketing strategies is a key focus of the Rainmaker Retreat, our two-day legal marketing boot camp. There are two more Fall sessions of this popular program:
- October 22-23, 2010 Scottsdale, AZ
- November 5-6, 2010 San Francisco, CA
Early-bird registration for the Rainmaker Retreat is still available for a limited time. A special VIP registration is also available for attorneys looking for more personalized attention. We also offer special discounts for two or more people attending from the same firm.
Registration information is available by visiting the Rainmaker Retreat website, www.RainmakerRetreat.com or by calling 888-588-5891.
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Learn Before You Go: Rainmaker Retreat Preview Call
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, I encourage you to join our FREE Preview Call on:
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern
The call will give you a preview of the valuable material that is taught at our 2-day Rainmaker Retreat.
Click here to register for a Preview Call.
Legal Marketing: Discover Success Through Specialization
Columbus Day is a particularly good day to think about new discoveries. An article in yesterday’s New York Times got me thinking about how many attorneys have discovered new success from specialization.
The Times piece focused on lawyers who specialize in arguing before the Supreme Court. It’s a good read and you can find it here.
The article is essentially about attorneys who have carved out a niche (and nice) practice out of arguing cases before the Supreme Court. Not for the fees – these cases are usually what are called loss leaders – but for the clients it helps bring in and retain.
I know that when the economy is in the dumper, it’s tempting to take on anyone who walks through the door. But now is exactly the time NOT to do this...to build an area of specialization where you outshine your competitors and are able to build a stable base of clients for now and the future.
Here are the benefits to positioning yourself as a specialist:
- Significantly higher rate of referrals.
- Can charge higher rates.
- More opportunities to offer clients more expensive services.
- Better client retention.
- Not perceived as a commodity.
- Value is based primarily on credibility and expertise.
- Better positioned to get positive media coverage.
- Easier to dominate your niche.
Of course, the niche you choose needs to align with your expertise and there should be a need in the marketplace for those services. What draws prospective clients to you and your services? Keep track of your inquiries and see if they don’t begin to naturally fall into one or more groups. If they do, you already have a base from which you can start building your niche practice.
Becoming aware of these commonalities is a way to let your niche discover you, which In turn helps you develop your law firm marketing strategy around promoting your area of expertise and specialization.
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Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?
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. To order this information-packed set click here.
Legal Marketing: Best Practices for Generating Leads
Earlier this year, inbound marketing software company HubSpot released a study of lead generation best practices from an analysis of 1,400 small and mid-sized businesses. The findings are equally applicable to law firm marketing.
Basically, the study found that there are four major factors that have a significant impact on lead generation:
Indexed Pages in Google. The growth in leads accelerates substantially – 236 percent – once a website has more than 300 pages indexed in Google. Also, the size of your firm is not a critical factor in achieving a significant number of Google indexed pages. You can build page volume very quickly with a blog.
Rank in Google’s Top 100 Results for Many Keywords. Sites that ranked in Google’s Top 100 for 26-51 keywords generated twice as many leads as those that ranked for less than 13 keywords. The takeaway: unique, interesting content with as many distinct keywords as possible helps you generate leads.
Blogs. Firms with blogs generated 67 percent more leads. Those that had blogs of more than 52 articles generated 77 percent more leads. Enough said. Blog and do it often.
Twitter for B2C. B2C Twitter users generate twice as many leads as those without a Twitter account. The biggest jump in leads take place once a company has over 100 followers.
If you are wondering how to generate more leads for your legal services, then you should consider integrating these four strategies into your law firm Internet marketing program.
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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.
Get your complimentary copy online 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.
Join Me Live Today at 4 p.m. ET Via TweetChat for Law Firm Marketing Seminar
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A few days ago, I blogged about being in New Jersey all this week to give several legal marketing presentations – three Becoming a Rainmaker seminars sponsored by the New Jersey State Bar Association and three County Bars, and a Rainmaker Retreat that starts tomorrow.
It occurred to me last night as I was Tweeting about a social media ad by the New Jersey Courts that since NJ is in such a social media state of mind, it might be interesting to invite all of you out there to join in via Tweetchat to my last Becoming a Rainmaker seminar of the week. Here’s what we’ll be talking about:
- The 7 Ways to Find More Clients and How to Pick the Best Ones for Your Firm
- How to Build a Network of over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 6 months
- Change Your Website from just an Online Brochure to a Money-making Machine
- Passive Versus Active Marketing and why you need both
- Creating Client-generating Surveys: When to Use them and How to Leverage them
- Automating Your Marketing System
- How to Ethically Position Yourself as a Specialist in Your Area
- How to Promote Your Firm to 150,000 people for $140
- Avoid the Most Deadly Marketing Mistakes Attorneys make
- Why Advertising Doesn't Work and what to do instead
- Where to Find and How to Create Positive Media Coverage for your firm and your clients
- The #1 Reason why Attorneys Don’t Receive More Referrals and how to overcome it
- Using Visibility Events to Attract Highly Qualified Prospects to Your Firm
I’ll be presenting Becoming a Rainmaker live from the Bergen County Bar Association
today at 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
ET. You can sit in, ask questions or make comments. Here’s how to participate:
Go to http://tweetchat.com/ and sign in with your Twitter account in the upper right corner. Add lawmarketing into the hashtag area on the top of the webpage.
OR, if you don't want to go to TweetChat, all you have to do is use your Twitter account as you normally do and after you ask a question or make a comment, you will need to add #lawmarketing at the end of your question/comment.
Looking forward to tweeting with you later this afternoon!
Phoenix Legal Networking Group: October 19 Meeting to Focus on How to Use Blogs and Internet Marketing to Generate More Leads
At our October 19 Phoenix Legal Networking Group meeting, I will be making a presentation about How to Use Blogs and Internet Marketing
to Generate More Leads.
Join us on October 19 to discover:
- Why blogs are one of the most effective lead generation tools—if you do it right
- Top reasons every law firm should have a blog
- Proven ways to use your blog to generate leads
- Top 10 questions about law firm blogging answered
- 3 major benefits for law firms that blog
- How long it will take for your blog to produce revenue
The marketing seminar is during the second hour of our monthly meetings. You’ll spend the first hour networking with other attorneys who could be great additions to your referral network in the Phoenix area. After only five gatherings, we’ve already heard about jumps in referral activity from attorneys who have met some great new referral sources here.
So who should attend?
Partners at small law firms who want to reconnect with colleagues and discover new and innovative ways to increase their referrals and revenues and are open to new ideas.
Solo practitioners who want to find new clients fast on a shoestring budget and want to build relationships with other Phoenix area attorneys.
Of Counsel Attorneys who need to learn how to bring in more business to the firm.
Associates who are looking to grow their book of business or who want to get on the partner track.
Law Firm Staff—including Business/Office Managers, Paralegals, and other Office Staff who are looking for more referral sources and want to help grow their law firm with more connections.
The networking event and marketing seminar will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 19 at Monti’s, 100 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe.
Cost is $20 per person if you register by October 15, $30 if you register by October 18 and $35 on the day of the event. This covers drinks, hors d’oeurves, the networking event and the workshop.
To register for our October 19 networking and legal marketing event, co-hosted by FindLaw, Attorney at Law Magazine and The Rainmaker Institute, visit www.therainmakerretreat.com/network/ or call 888-816-8935.
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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 -- go here to order now!
Transform Your Law Firm's Website into a Client Generating Machine
Marketing for lawyers on the Internet can be a very effective tool for generating highly qualified prospects, if you do it right.
Here's the first tip: Don't wait any longer to start marketing your law firm online.
Every week you wait, it just gets more competitive. Don't give other law firms sole access to all of the potential clients to be found online. Develop a client generating website for your law firm.
Here are some online law firm marketing secrets you can start using to attract more and better clients:
Create a website that targets your ideal clients. Don't make the common mistake of trying to be everything to everyone. People don't want to work with a generalist. They want to trust specialists. When it comes to marketing your law firm online, focus is critical to your success.
Give website visitors a reason to contact you. Every law firm's website has a place for a free consultation. How boring! That's simply not enough to attract someone's attention. Offer them a free special report or white paper or a tip sheet; something that educates them about a problem they have and then positions you as the best possible solution.
For lawyers who have multiple practice areas, develop a practice specific micro site for each one. Again, focus is key here. For example, a personal injury lawyer may have a practice specific website for: SUV rollovers, construction accidents, dog bites, and automobile accidents.
Write compelling content for your law firm website. Please remember, writing for the Internet is not the same as writing a legal brief. My recommendation is to hire a professional copywriter who has experience writing for law firms. Don't know any? Email me and I'll send you a list of recommended writers. The cost is well worth it.
Work with an SEO firm. Search engine optimization is the technical process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your law firm's website. Once you have developed your website into exactly the format you want, you can begin using online legal marketing strategies to market it. You can expect to invest several hundred to several thousand dollars per month on a top notch SEO firm. Make sure they have experience in the highly competitive field of legal marketing. Send me an email if you want a referral to who I think is the best one out there.
Submit educational articles to online directories. There are hundreds of places online where you can submit articles for prospective clients for free.
Transform your website into a client generating machine and watch your profits increase from the many different prospects you will reach by marketing your law firm on the Internet.
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BALIF Rainmaker Institute Event on October 14 in San Francisco
On Thursday, Oct. 14, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) will present a 1-day workshop designed for busy attorneys, partners, associates, and their staff who want to discover how to apply proven marketing strategies and top tips used by some of today’s biggest Rainmakers to create a 7-figure lifestyle law firm.
Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley will be speaking on Proven Strategies for Today’s Rainmaker: Increasing Revenues and Referrals Using Networking, Internet Marketing and Social Media In the New Age. This one-day seminar includes 1 hour of MCLE Ethics Credit for California attorneys.
This one-day seminar also includes 1 hour of MCLE Ethics Credit for California attorneys.
The October 14 seminar is open to all BALIF and Minority Bar Coalition members as well as interested non-members.
For more information and to register online, go to www.rainmakerretreat.com/balif/ or call 888-588-5891 to register by phone.
Law Firm Marketing: Sacrifice Sacred Cows to Find Out Where the Beef Is
We may have all heard that the Great Recession is over, but I don’t really know how many of us are feeling a recovery. At best, the recovery is predicted to be a slow one – about one percent per year – which means that for your practice to thrive (or even survive), you need to think about doing things differently.
Now is not the time to coddle your sacred cows. It's time to challenge the traditional ways of doing business. To think creatively about your business model. What may have made sense in the past may no longer work.
Creative thinking involves breaking out of one pattern in order to create a new one. All too often, we become ensnared by the familiar phenomenon:
We make rules based on reasons that make a lot of sense.
We follow these rules.
Time passes and things change.
The original reasons for the rules may no longer exist, but because the rules are still in place, we continue to follow them.
Ask yourself these challenging questions:
- How can you provide the same level of services at a lower cost?
- How price-sensitive is your target market?
- How can you structure payments to better fit the new financial realities in our economy?
- What parts of your practice make the most profit?
- Should you expand your practice areas or get rid of one?
- Should you really hire another associate or paralegal or could you outsource it to a part-time contractor for half the price?
- Does your current client base present opportunities for growth?
Start by making at least one change in your practice that makes sense today, and continue to identify those areas that no longer serve your best interest or your bottom line.
Maybe you just need some new ideas to spark that new train of thought. Well, you can get those by attending a Rainmaker Retreat.
I’m in New Jersey all this week presenting Becoming a Rainmaker seminars in different locations around the state that are sponsored by the New Jersey State Bar Association and local County Bars. Go to www.BecomingARainmaker.com/njsba -- there is still time to sign up!
I will also be holding a session of our two-day legal marketing boot camp this Friday and Saturday in New Brunswick at the New Jersey Law Center. There’s a special discount available for NJSBA members. Go to www.rainmakerretreat.com to sign up for this session or one of our upcoming sessions in Scottsdale and San Francisco.
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Becoming a Rainmaker: Business Building Strategies for Lawyers
Based on Stephen’s highly successful seminar series by the same name, this 3-audio CD program covers dozens of practical recommendations and step-by-step sales and marketing techniques for solo practitioners and small law firms.
More than 7,000 attorneys from law firms all over the country have experienced powerful results from attending the Becoming A Rainmaker seminar. It has been sponsored by more than 22 of the largest state and local bar associations.
In this information-packed audio program, you will discover:
- How to generate more leads by using education-based marketing
- The relationship between credibility, visibility, tangibility, and consistency
- How to position your small firm as an industry leader
- The importance of being perceived as a specialist
- Why most advertising is a waste of your money
- What to expect from a Yellow Pages ad
- The 3 marketing strategies that will produce 80% of your results
- How to influence the Know, Like and Trust factors
- Common marketing mistakes lawyers make and how to avoid them
- How to answer the question, "Why should I buy from you?"
- Specific ways you can set yourself apart from low-cost lawyers
- What to do with the 15% of the population that always buys on price
- Ways to attract your Ideal Target Market
- The 6 stage sales process you must follow for maximum success
To order yours now, click here.
Why Articles Should be an Integral Part of Your Law Firm Marketing Plan
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One of the most common questions we receive from attorneys is “How do I build my reputation online?"
One essential strategy is writing and submitting articles online. By submitting articles online, you and your law firm benefit in many ways:
- Your articles will be syndicated across the Internet and published on numerous websites within a short time.
- You increase the visibility and credibility of you and your law firm.
- You drive prospects to your website.
There are literally hundreds of websites that will publish your articles online for free, including EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, ArticleDashboard.com, ArticlesBase.com, Buzzle.com and more.
You can also sign up for a service to do it for you for a small monthly fee – DistributeYourArticles.com and ContentCrooner.com are two sites that distribute your content to their networks.
When writing your articles you want to be sure you:
- Ensure the article is a good fit for the site you’re submitting it to;
- Write for a specific audience – don’t make it generic and don’t write for other attorneys!
- Keep it short and concise but with some good information;
- Add a short bio and call to action at the end of the article – the call to action can be something like, “For a free consultation or to receive our free special report, email us or give us a call.”
Once you start submitting your articles, you’ll soon see them published all over the place. One website will publish your article, and then 10 other websites will come along and take that same content and publish it on their website.
Earlier this week, we got a call from a well-known consumer website that wanted to use one of our clients as their expert legal resource – and their content is not only all over the Web, it is also syndicated to over 1,000 newspapers. They found our client because of the articles he publishes online through a free service.
This was not a happy accident – it’s part of a solid legal marketing strategy that has been well executed. Good things come to he/she who writes!
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Stop Wasting Precious Time and Money
Feel like you don’t have time for marketing? Let us show you how to make a plan that runs on “autopilot” – one that attracts new and lucrative clients while you focus on your practice.
Learn how easy it can be to create an effective law firm marketing plan that performs by getting our Free Guide: 5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan.
After working with many ultra-successful lawyers we found five common threads in their marketing plans. This guide outlines these shared elements to provide insight into strategies that work and how to make them work for you.
There are two versions: one for Attorneys in Solo Practice and one for Attorneys in a Small Firm. You can download them now free! Go here to download, and start using these proven strategies today!
