Law Firm Marketing: Top 10 Social Media Trends for 2011, Part 1 of 2

A senior analyst with the digital intelligence firm eMarketer gave a presentation recently on the Top 10 Trends in Social Media for 2011.  Here are the first five:

Trend #1:  4 of 5 Companies Will Use Social Media in 2011
Changing consumer usage patterns make social media a must for marketers.  Facebook is now the fourth largest website in the U.S. and still growing.  Six out of 10 Internet users worldwide belong to a social network. 

Trend #2:  8 in 10 Companies Will Increase Their Spending on Social Media
There will be a large growth in online video production as consumer interest continues to grow in this medium.

Trend #3:  Social Media Will Be an Integral Part of Marketing Planning
The more experienced companies get with social media, the more they realize the need to integrate it into their business models.  Marketing and PR departments lead, with customer service and sales not far behind.

Trend #4:  Traditional Media Spend Will Drop
As marketers spend more on social media, dollars allocated to traditional forms of advertising is falling.  Social media is estimated to rival email marketing for budget increases.

Trend #5:  Dollars Spent on Search Go To Facebook, LinkedIn
Currently, Facebook gets almost 25 percent of all display ad impressions.  In 2011, social media advertising will be the top paid search priority for advertisers.

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Practice Made Perfect for Lawyers CD Set

The Practice Made Perfect CD set and manual applies Stephen Fairley’s unique High Impact Marketing System to the practice-building challenges faced by solo practitioners and partners at small law firms. 

It includes dozens of specific marketing and sales recommendations that can be easily and quickly applied to your firm, including:

  • The only 7 sure-fire ways to get clients in your door NOW
  • Why advertising doesn’t work for most small law firms
  • The 7 reasons why people don’t buy from you   
  • How to market and sell with USP’s (Unique Selling Proposition)   
  • Using audio logos to attract immediate attention for your business
  • Using low-cost, high impact marketing strategies   
  • Strategies for achieving maximum results from all of your marketing efforts   
  • How to discover your Ideal Target Market
  • 3 critical factors to remember when looking for new clients
  • The NEW sales cycle for professional services
  • How to retain your best clients

Click here to order your Practice Made Perfect for Lawyers CD set and manual now.

 

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Law Firm Marketing: Watch What Happens at a Rainmaker Retreat

I’m in Florida today gearing up for another exciting session of our Rainmaker Retreat.  We’ll have attorneys in Orlando over the next two days from all over the country who are eager to learn about law firm marketing on the Internet as well as how to leverage the power of social media to create a true lifestyle law practice.

Do you think you could benefit from attending a Rainmaker Retreat?  Let me explain just how you can: 

Here are the upcoming dates for this intensive two-day law firm marketing boot camp:

March 11-12, 2011 – New Brunswick, NJ*
April 8-9, 2011 – San Diego, CA

Go to www.rainmakerretreat.com or call 888-588-5891 to register now.

*Non-New Jersey Bar members get a free one-year NJSBA membership when they register for the New Brunswick Rainmaker Retreat on March 11-12!

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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.



 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: 10 Ideas for Creating Press Releases

One of the many effective law firm marketing techniques is creating press releases that have been deliberately written to be picked up by search engines, helping you drive more potential clients to your website.

However, I’ve often found that our clients struggle with coming up with topics, month after month.  Here are 10 topic ideas for press releases:

  1. Comment on current news events.
  2. Introduce a special report that people can get for free at your website.
  3. Discuss a big case that just settled.
  4. Announce newly hired attorneys joining your firm.
  5. Announce an award, accomplishment or appointment.
  6. Announce an appearance you or someone in the firm is making.
  7. Announce pro-bono work you’re doing.
  8. Issue a protest about a specific topic.
  9. Discuss how a legislative change may affect your clients.
  10. Announce special events, like a firm’s anniversary.

There are a variety of free press release submission websites, but be aware that they will tag your release with advertising (that’s why it’s free to you).  If you take the time to invest in a press release strategy, you should also invest in distributing it in a way that will get you the most coverage – we use PRWeb (www.prweb.com), where you can submit a release starting at $80 per release to reach online audiences.

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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!  Click here to download, and start using these proven strategies today!

 

 

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Join Me for Becoming a Rainmaker Seminar in New Jersey on March 9

The Rainmaker Institute in coordination with the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Hunterdon County Bar Association present Becoming a Rainmaker: Practice Development Strategies for Small and Solo Law Firms on Wednesday, March 9 from 4-6 p.m. at the Historic Court House in Flemington, NJ.

More than 7,000 attorneys from law firms all over the country have experienced powerful results from attending the Becoming A Rainmaker seminar, which has been sponsored by more than 24 of the largest state and local bar associations.

The Becoming a Rainmaker seminar teaches simple techniques attorneys can take back to their offices and implement immediately.  Some of the tools and techniques that I will cover during this highly informative two-hour session include:

  • 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

The cost for the two-hour Becoming a Rainmaker law firm marketing seminar is minimal: $77 for NJSBA or HCBA members and $97 for non-members. 

Please call 888-816-8935 or click here for registration information.

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Can’t Make It to New Jersey?  Get Our Becoming a Rainmaker Audio CD Set

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.

In this information-packed audio program, you will learn:

  • 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.

 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: Is Your Target Market Engaged in Social Media?

Sometimes I can’t believe it, but I still occasionally hear attorneys discount the use of social media for law firm marketing by saying, “My clients are not into social media.”

A recently released Pew Internet report, Generations 2010, examined how the different generations use the Internet.  Here are a couple of eye-popping charts that show the dramatic growth in the use of social media and online video:
 

 

If your current clients are not “into” social media (and how do you know?), then most certainly your future clients are.  The important question is, if you’re not there, how will they find you?

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A Turnkey Approach to Social Media and Blogging for Attorneys

Don’t understand social media or have time for it, but know that your law firm marketing program desperately needs to include it?

Then you need the Rainmaker Automated Blogging and Social Media Program. Get new leads in your law firm through blogging and social media--all virtually done for you for one simple and affordable monthly investment!

The Rainmaker Institute will develop, maintain, manage, track and measure your blogging and social media program across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, JDSupra, Avvo, YouTube and more. 

To learn more about the Rainmaker Automated Blogging and Social Media Program, click here.



 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: Google Adds Social Media to Search Results

Late last week, Google announced that it is making its search results more social by adding content that a user’s friends have shared or created on social networking sites to Google search engine results.

A post on Google’s blog announced:

As always, we want to help you find the most relevant answers among the billions of interconnected pages on the web. But relevance isn’t just about pages—it’s also about relationships... Today we’re taking another step forward—enabling you to get even more information from the people that matter to you, whether they’re publishing on YouTube, Flickr or their own blog or website.

So if a user’s friends have blogged, posted or Tweeted about their experiences with a lawyer or law firm and that user is searching for an attorney, his or her friend’s comments will turn up in those search results.

Out of a page full of lawyers that pop up in your Google search, wouldn't you be more inclined to choose one your friends or social networking contacts have endorsed?

This makes social media participation more important than ever for attorneys.  And makes monitoring social media sites for what is being said about you more important, too.

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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. 
 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: The Truth About Referrals

Rummaging through the tickler file today, I can across this article that I bookmarked last year by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing that explains why businesses that rely on referrals (like attorneys) should take a more proactive approach to the process of getting referrals instead of leaving things to chance.

I’ve blogged about that subject many times, but John does a nice job of synthesizing the truths about referrals.  I’ll summarize:

Truth #1:  People Make Referrals to Build Social Capital.  Most people enjoy making referrals to their friends and associates as a way of building social capital.  If you believe the way you practice law benefits your clients, then you shouldn’t feel uncomfortable about having clients refer you to others who may benefit as well.

Truth #2:  Mitigating Risk is Important.  All referrals involve risk – if you refer a business and it under performs, you feel badly that you made that referral.  Attorneys who count on referrals for business generation need to take necessary steps to mitigate this risk with communication, education and stellar follow-up.

Truth #3:  People Refer Great Experiences.  People who have had great experiences with a product or service tend to refer it to their friends and colleagues.  Which is why cultivating a culture of great client service is a must for gaining referrals.

Truth #4: Referrals Require Trust.  Even if someone raves to a friend about you, that referral is likely to search for you on the Internet.  If the referral can’t find good content, reviews or social network participation, they will be less likely to proceed with contacting you.

Truth #5:  Referrals Require a System.  Attorneys need to create a referral strategy that includes a process for making referrals happen, a way to educate referral sources and a solid follow-up program.  Once that is in place, you just need to operate the system.

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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. Click here to download free, and start using these proven strategies today!
 

 

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Litigation: There's An App for That

If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I love technology.  It has made both my personal and professional life so much easier, and even though there are times when I dread hearing just one more beep that tells me I’ve got mail or a text, I would never want to be without it.

A new app called Litigator was released in December from Linsay Associates and is reviewed today at LawTechnology.com.  For $14.99, litigators can have all the Federal Rules of Appellate, Civil and Criminal Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence, Supreme Court Rules of Procedure, Title 18, Title 28 and Local Rules at their fingertips via an iPad or iPhone.  Sure beats lugging books to court – and if you need help finding the court, the app has Google Maps to get you there.

Need more cases to bolster your argument?  The free FastCase app is a full-featured legal research app that pulls up federal and state case law by keyword, sorts the most relevant results and allows you to integrate citation-analysis tools into the search results. 

Integrating technology into every aspect of your law practice is something we focus on at the Rainmaker Retreat.  Here are the upcoming dates for this intensive two-day law firm marketing boot camp:

  • February 25-26, 2011 – Orlando, FL
  • March 11-12, 2011 – New Brunswick, NJ
  • April 8-9, 2011 – San Diego, CA

Go to www.rainmakerretreat.com or call 888-588-5891 to register now. 

Watch what a recent Rainmaker Retreat attendee had to say about his experience:

 

See Other Attorneys Share Their Rainmaker Retreat Experiences

We would like to send you a free 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.
 

Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: Guidelines for Measuring ROI

However you choose to measure social media, it is imperative that you have a success metric in mind before you begin. Without some sort of benchmark, determining your ROI is impossible.

Digital intelligence firm eMarketer.com came out with a free report called Seven Guidelines for Achieving ROI from Social Media that does a nice job of explaining exactly what marketers need to do to achieve success with their social media marketing programs. I’ll do my best to summarize:

1.  Establish clear marketing goals for your company (generate more opt ins, more leads, etc).

2.  Identify the basic measurements and metrics you want to measure.

3.  Remember, social media is a commitment to connect with leads, clients and referral sources, it’s not a campaign. To win at social media, you need to have a long-term outlook.

4.  If hard ROI metrics are difficult to track directly, consider a range of softer metrics that can be linked back to desired business outcomes.

5.  Determine how much a client who opts in to your database is worth to you if a sale is made. Estimate how many sales you need to make in a year to justify the investment.

6. In your ROI calculations, don’t overlook the value of cost savings that result from engaging in online conversations with prospects, leads, clients, and potential referral sources.

7.  Examine your choices for managing your blog and social media marketing efforts. You have three choices:

Do It Yourself. While this may seem the cheapest option at first (“It’s only my time”), consider this—How much do you charge per hour (if you don’t charge hourly ask yourself how much value do you place on an hour of your time)? For example, if you bill out at $250 per hour and it only takes you 1 hour to research, write, edit and post a blog (that’s a good estimate), but you do this 5 times every week to maximize lead generation, that’s $1,250 per week, $5,000 per  month, or $65,000 per year. That’s not counting the “opportunity cost”—not only will you “spend” $65,000 of your time each year, but you will also lose another $65,000 in actual billing where you could have billed a client! So the true cost of “doing it yourself” may be upwards of $130,000!  Suddenly, that doesn’t seem so cheap.

Use a Staff Member. This usually takes the form of either instructing an Associate to do it (what’s their motivation to write great blog posts 5 times every week?) or assigning another non-attorney staff person to write it—at which time it becomes just one more thing on their long list of to-dos. Not to mention the fact that you will need to make sure any staff member understands keyword density ratios, how to insert the correct keywords, and using the correct header and title tags—that's all that SEO stuff, which is the real reason why you are blogging anyway.

Outsource. A growing number of attorneys are outsourcing their blogging efforts and social media campaigns to organizations like ours (full disclosure: yes, we have a program for attorneys to manage their blog and social media). When you outsource, you can focus on end results, not the process and hopefully you will be working with professionals who do this for a living. It’s not just another item on their to-do list, it is the very service you are paying them to provide for your firm.

When you interview an outsourced legal marketing company, be sure they meet these 5 criteria:

  • they can point to other attorneys they work with;
  • they have a written blueprint for how they intend to generate leads for your law firm;
  • they clearly integrate blogs and social media and see one as an extension of the other;
  • they charge a flat fee that’s reasonable based on results;
  • they have clearly identified strategies to track and measure actual results from your blog and social media. Having a written guarantee of results is even better.

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Practice Made Perfect for Lawyers CD Set

The Practice Made Perfect CD set and manual applies Stephen Fairley’s unique High Impact Marketing System to the practice-building challenges faced by solo practitioners and partners at small law firms. 

It includes dozens of specific marketing and sales recommendations that can be easily and quickly applied to your firm, including:

  • The only 7 sure-fire ways to get clients in your door NOW
  • Why advertising doesn’t work for most small law firms
  • The 7 reasons why people don’t buy from you   
  • How to market and sell with USP’s (Unique Selling Proposition)   
  • Using audio logos to attract immediate attention for your business
  • Using low-cost, high impact marketing strategies   
  • Strategies for achieving maximum results from all of your marketing efforts   
  • How to discover your Ideal Target Market
  • 3 critical factors to remember when looking for new clients
  • The NEW sales cycle for professional services
  • How to retain your best clients

Click here to order your Practice Made Perfect for Lawyers CD set and manual now.

 

Sign up now to receive our complimentary
monthly newsletter, the Rainmaker Report.

 
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Law Firm Marketing: How to Create a Successful Blogging Strategy

Blogs are one of the best ways to get to the top of Google for targeted search results. Google loves fresh content and when done right, a blog is the best way to push fresh content into the search engines. 

In addition, social media research indicates companies with blogs generate 67% more leads than companies that do not have a blog!

There is no denying the value of blogging when it comes to law firm marketing.

When used properly, it becomes a clear, consistent voice for your practice. It entices prospects, referral sources, colleagues, clients and thought leaders to engage you in dialogue.

It keeps you top of mind. It builds visibility among your target clients. Ultimately, it earns you more of the kind of client you most desire.

In a recent report on the influence of blogs, eMarketer found that in 2010, 51 percent of Internet users in the U.S. -- over 91 million - read blogs, and projects that usage to go to 60 percent (150 million) in four years.

The report found that blogs hold a unique position in the online media landscape because they have become an accepted source of information.

So, are all blogs successful?  No, and I will tell you why: The problem arises when you begin blogging without a clear strategy behind you.

Blogging should be a part of, but not your entire law firm marketing strategy. It is your forum to connect with the community at large and to make it clear that you are an expert in your field.  But to make it the highly effective medium you need it to be, your law firm marketing and promotion strategy should include:

  • A topic list designed to engage your target audience;
  • A list of social media (such as Facebook and Twitter) to promote it;
  • A list and schedule for article marketing services to add visibility and to feed it to reporters and thought leaders;
  • An up-to-date blog that you write articles for at least 2 to 4 times per week;
  • A search engine optimization formula to increase your page rank.

When you have all these things in place, you will be well on your way to creating a blog that will enhance your overall law firm marketing efforts.

Want to get started started blogging, but need some help?

Click here to find out how you can get a jumpstart on your competition in the next 30 days.

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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:
How to create an automated marketing system to transform your law firm from a practice into a business. Stephen has studied best practices in law firm marketing and shares with you the 5 unchanging secrets they use to build a multi-million dollar law firm.

Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners:
Every lawyer wants more referrals, yet for many the steps to get there remain an elusive secret. Listen in and watch as Stephen lays out his 8 step proven system to triple your referral sources in 90 days or less!

The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys:
Internet marketing is one of today's fastest growing and most powerful marketing tools for lawyers. Yet much of how to generate more business and attract more clients online is still a mystery. Watch as Stephen pulls back the veil and walks you through the core concepts and key principles every attorney must understand in order to dominate their competition online and build a powerful Internet presence on a shoe string budget.

Action, Accountability and Next Steps:
Knowledge is power. The most difficult part for most attorneys is putting that knowledge into action. In this DVD you will discover an 8 step system for creating your law firm marketing plan and how to take action immediately.

This program includes a data DVD which includes the PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations.

To order this information-packed set click here.
 

 

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Nielsen: Americans Love Online Video; Use Up 45% in One Year

According to a Nielsen report, the time we spend watching videos online increased 45% in the past year.  Overall, there were 144 million unique U.S. online video viewers over the past year, with YouTube and Facebook named as the top two online video brands.

Use these simple guidelines to make a highly effective online video for use in your law firm Internet marketing efforts:

Use real people, using real words. One of the biggest mistakes attorneys make is using video the way they use PowerPoint. Stringing together static images accompanied by a faceless voice on audio is not an effective use of online video. While this may get seen by some potential clients, it is not nearly as valuable as giving them a chance to see your face and hear your sincere words.

Create a well-thought out script designed to persuade potential client to call you. To accomplish that, ask yourself what makes your law firm different from, and better than, your competition – and then build your script around those key points.

Focus on the viewer, not yourself. It is easy to get caught in the trap of thinking potential clients want to hear about all of your qualifications. The real truth is they want a law firm that understands their problems, and knows how to solve them. Your script should describe some of the problems clearly, and then explain how you can solve them.

Use annotation and notes. On YouTube you can add notes or annotate your video with key points of emphasis that will appear as people are watching.  Not only does this help you deliver your message succinctly, it also provides content for Google to index to improve your search ranking.

Include keywords and tags.  Use the YouTube Keyword tool to see what the hot topics are and what people are currently searching for – this can give you some ideas on how to marry your area of the law with contemporary topics.  Be sure to load your description with those keywords and include links back to your website.

Include your contact information 2-3 times within your video. The goal of your online video is to persuade potential clients to call you. Yet, no matter how well crafted your video is, if those clients do not know how to reach you, it’s wasted effort.

Here’s hoping everyone has a very Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Live Webinar Feb. 16: Advanced SEO Strategies for Law Firms

On Wednesday, February 16, Stephen Fairley will be conducting a live one-hour webinar on Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies for Law Firms, beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

In this comprehensive 60-minute webinar, you will discover:

  • 7 critical components of Google's search engine ranking algorithm
  • The top 3 things attorney website companies don’t want you to know
  • How Google views your website
  • Why Google loves blogs and how to leverage this powerful technology!
  • The power of using video on your website
  • Why “long tail” search is better and how to apply this secret strategy
  • 3 ways to improve your website conversion rates
  • Does social media matter when it comes to search engine ranking
  • Questions to ask any law firm Internet marketing expert before you hire them

This event will be presented live by phone with a web connection available for those wishing to view the presentation on their personal computers. Internet access is not required for phone-only participants. A copy of the presentation and downloadable materials will be provided after the event.

Click here to register for the Advanced SEO Strategies for Law Firms live webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. ET.
 

 

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How to Tell if You're Ready for a Rainmaker Retreat

If you are like many attorneys I know, you have been practicing awhile, and your law firm is doing all right; but you go to sleep at night with this uneasy feeling that you should be making a lot more money by now and achieving a level of success that still seems to elude you.

Perhaps the current economy has hit you hard, maybe your revenues and profits are falling faster than you want to admit, and you are finding it harder to land qualified clients.

Your overhead is the same, but with revenues being down, you are taking home less now than ever before.

If this sounds like you, then you are ready for the Rainmaker Retreat.

The Rainmaker Retreat focuses on the unique problems facing small law firms and solo practices. Here is just a small sample of the actionable methods you will learn:

  • Specific strategies highly successful attorneys are using right now on the Internet and with social media to attract hundreds of people to their websites and blogs every month, convert them to paying clients, and keep them coming back and sending a steady stream of referrals!
  • Dozens of ways to drastically reduce the cost of your marketing campaigns and still get more clients than you might believe possible.
  • How to implement low cost marketing tools and systems that let you control your practice - instead of your practice controlling you!

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

You have nothing to lose and so much to gain by attending.  Here’s what criminal defense attorney Kevin Leckerman had to say after attending a Rainmaker Retreat last Fall:

“I attended the Rainmaker Retreat for two days in October of 2010.   The quality of information provided concerning bringing new clients to my law firm and running a more efficient business was amazing.  I left the Retreat with a notebook filled of ideas that I could immediately implement.

After one month of utilizing the principles that I learned at the Rainmaker Retreat, I could already see positive changes in my law practice.  The number of calls from potential clients increased.   The number of potential clients converted to actual clients increased.  Moreover, the Retreat taught me how to put powerful systems in place to handle the influx of new business.  I give Stephen Fairley and the Rainmaker Institute my highest recommendation.”

Our next Rainmaker Retreat is February 25-26 in Orlando – go to www.rainmakerretreat.com or call 888-588-5891 to register now.

Other upcoming Rainmaker Retreat dates:

  • March 11-12, 2011 – New Brunswick, NJ
  • April 8-9, 2011 – San Diego, CA

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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.

 

Sign up now to receive our complimentary
monthly newsletter, the Rainmaker Report.

 
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Social Media for Attorneys: Brave New World or Business as Usual?

Here is an advertisement placed by Indiana attorneys Calvin Fletcher and J.A. Breckenridge in the Indianapolis Gazette, which ran in 1822:

Which goes to show that legal marketing can be done incorrectly no matter what the medium – a fact that may have been a bit lost on the author of a recent ABA Journal article with the titillating title, Seduced: For Lawyers, the Appeal of Social Media Is Obvious. It’s Also Dangerous.  

Seduced?  Dangerous?  As in, run for your lives?  Puhleeze.

The article does a thoughtful job of pointing up some of the dilemmas attorneys can face when diving into social media.  But as I’ve said before, social media should be no more consternation-causing than any other form of legal marketing.  There are rules.  You follow them.  No matter what the medium.

Or, as NYU Law School legal ethics professor Stephen Gillers said in the article, "Many of the rules are at a high-enough level that they can be applied to new technology without revision."

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Becoming a Rainmaker Seminar Comes to New Jersey on March 9

The Rainmaker Institute in coordination with the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Hunterdon County Bar Association present Becoming a Rainmaker: Practice Development Strategies for Small and Solo Law Firms on Wednesday, March 9 from 4-6 p.m. at the Historic Court House in Flemington, NJ.

More than 7,000 attorneys from law firms all over the country have experienced powerful results from attending the Becoming A Rainmaker seminar, which been sponsored by more than 24 of the largest state and local bar associations.

Join us to discover:

  • 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

Please call 888-816-8935 or click here for registration information.

 

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Law Firm Marketing: How to Gain A Competitive Edge

The Super Bowl last weekend reminded me that legal marketing is as competitive as any sport.  A well-prepared coach will know the facts about his opponent.  A well-prepared trial attorney will not only study their case, but also their opponent.

Marketing your law firm consists of quite a bit of information gathering; learning about top competitors is one of the first steps.

Below is a list of ideas you can use to become acquainted with your competitors to gain an important edge in law firm marketing:

  1. Review and analyze their website. You will be surprised what a law firm will reveal on their website. Studying their website will give you some important clues about their level of professionalism too.
  2. Enlist a friend's help to interview their associates as a potential client. Be prepared with a list of questions before they place the actual call. Choose questions that will reveal important data about the competition. A simple telephone call can produce a wealth of information about the competition’s law firm marketing techniques.
  3. Ask them to mail you some information about their law firm. The type of legal marketing material they send out will speak volumes about who they are and how they conduct business.
  4. Sign-up for their online newsletter or e-newsletter (using your personal email address, of course).
  5. Use Google to further bolster your law marketing strategic planning. Type in the keywords and phrases someone would use to find your practice area. For example, "LA PI lawyer" or "Real Estate Attorney Chicago" or "Estate Planning Lawyer in Manhattan".  Study the top ten websites that come up. These are your most aggressive online competitors because they didn't get there by mistake.
  6. Talk to local recruiters to find out if they are hiring. Recruiters are a great resource; they often talk to clients daily and can give you the inside info.
  7. Review local newspapers and trade magazines to see how 'visible' they are.  Create a Google Alert for each of your competitors so you can receive news feeds about them as they happen.
  8. Ask fellow attorneys what they know about the competition. If they have had business dealings with them, get as many details as possible.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and to investigate as much as possible. Your successful competitors, no doubt, are learning about you too if they are using the best law firm marketing techniques.

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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. 


 

 

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Live Webinar Feb. 16: Advanced SEO Strategies for Law Firms

Next Wednesday, February 16, I will be conducting a live one-hour webinar on Advanced Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies for Law Firms, beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of artificially boosting your website and blog to the top of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing). This no-nonsense webinar will teach attorneys and their staff advanced SEO strategies to help them achieve first page rankings.

High website rankings can help to increase your website traffic, and in turn, generate new business and referrals for your firm. If people can't easily find your website, then you are likely losing business on a daily basis.

Whether you are working on a new website, launching your first site, or want to take your current website to the front page of Google, you absolutely need to attend this webinar.

In this comprehensive 60-minute webinar, you will discover:

  • 7 critical components of Google's search engine ranking algorithm
  • The top 3 things attorney website companies don’t want you to know
  • How Google views your website
  • Why Google loves blogs and how to leverage this powerful technology!
  • The power of using video on your website
  • Why “long tail” search is better and how to apply this secret strategy
  • 3 ways to improve your website conversion rates
  • Does social media matter when it comes to search engine ranking
  • Questions to ask any law firm Internet marketing expert before you hire them

This event will be presented live by phone with a web connection available for those wishing to view the presentation on their personal computers. Internet access is not required for phone-only participants. A copy of the presentation and downloadable materials will be provided after the event.

Click here to register for the Advanced SEO Strategies for Law Firms live webinar on Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. ET.

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Phoenix Area Attorneys:  Get a Preview of the Upcoming Advanced SEO Strategies for Law Firms Webinar at February 10 Meeting of Phoenix Legal Networking Group

Join us at the Phoenix Legal Networking Group meeting this week – Thursday, Feb. 10 -- and learn some of the advanced SEO strategies that will help your law firm’s website achieve first page rankings.

Stephen will be previewing some of the information he’ll be sharing at next week’s live one-hour webinar (see above). 

The networking event and marketing seminar will be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 10 at Monti’s, 100 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe.

Cost is $20 per person if you register by end of day today, $30 if you register by February 9 and $35 on the day of the event.  This covers drinks, hors d’oeurves, the networking event and the workshop.

To register for our February 10 networking and legal marketing event, co-hosted by FindLaw, Attorney at Law Magazine, Coash & Coash Court Reporting and The Rainmaker Institute, visit www.therainmakerretreat.com/network or call 888-816-8935.


 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: 10 Steps Toward Strategic Marketing

Here is a reprint of an article I authored that appeared in a recent issue of the North Carolina Bar Association’s Law Practice Management newsletter:

With so many ways to market your law firm and its services, which vehicles should you pursue? Take a closer look at 10 components of an effective marketing action plan.

Creating a law firm marketing action plan is a crucial step in your efforts to attract quality clients.  This task can be very time-consuming, so many attorneys and professional colleagues in their firms (including principal administrators, who may be charged with the firm’s marketing-related endeavors) unwisely choose to skip it.

I cannot stress enough the impact a law firm marketing action plan can have on the success of your law firm. Although developing such a plan can take considerable time (from a few days to a few weeks, depending on your firm’s size, the number of people involved, and the plan’s scope), it is absolutely critical that you do so. Failing to create one can cost your firm valuable clients and long-term revenue growth. A reliable, effective law firm marketing action plan has 10 key components, described below.

1. Executive Summary and Company Overview
Although the executive summary appears first, it is actually the last part of the marketing plan you will write. This summary – which provides a simple, to-the-point overview of your firm, its people, and its services – allows readers to understand exactly what your law firm offers and how your firm can help them.

2. Your Firm’s Services
Here you need to describe your firm’s services in detail. Include why you have chosen to offer this particular service to a specific target market and indicate what benefits you will offer. Benefits are not the same as features. A feature is merely something your firm’s service does, but the benefit is the end result or value that your service gives to the client.

This is important because your prospects care only about what is in it for them. Your prospects want to know exactly why they should trust your firm with the solution to their problems. When creating this part of your legal marketing plan, you must appeal to the needs and pains of your clients – they have serious problems and are looking for solutions from a trusted adviser.

3. Your Ideal Target Market
Identifying your ideal target market is likely the most important part of your law firm marketing action plan. If you waste your legal marketing efforts on only a mass-market campaign – through the Yellow Pages, TV, or radio, for instance – you will be surprised at how fast you can get to nowhere. Targeting the wrong clients will not only be a waste of time and energy, but a very costly mistake.

4.  Know Your Competition
Knowing your firm’s principal competitors will enable you to one-up them with better service packages or other offers to encourage prospects to contact your firm.

5. “SWOT” Analysis
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. When completing this part of your legal marketing plan, you should recognize your firm’s strengths, be aware of its weaknesses, explore opportunities (e.g., expanding your firm’s services, offering a higher level of service to clients, etc.), and be aware of potential threats. Include all of these items in your law firm’s marketing plan.

6.  Your Unique Competitive Advantage
Consider this critical question: If an ideal client for your firm asked, “Why should I hire you instead of your competitor?” what would you say? Your “unique competitive advantage answers this question. How is your firm different, better, or uniquely positioned to best serve this client, and how do you articulate that value proposition to the client? Every person in your law firm should know and be able to clearly explain to anyone the firm’s unique competitive advantage.

7.  Marketing Strategies
Attorneys often find new clients through referrals, speaking engagements, networking, print and online advertising, promotional events (like trade shows), and through the media (publicity). Which of these are useful for your firm’s marketing plan? While advertising is popular, it is often the least effective marketing approach for lawyers. What will your firm do? How often? How will you make your firm’s marketing strategies practical, consistent, and different from those of other law firms?

8.  Financial Plan
Being honest about your firm’s finances is essential. How much money does the firm need to make every month just to cover expenses (including personnel, rent, partner draws, etc.)? How many new clients must the firm sign up to generate that cash flow?

9.  Contingency Planning
This is also known as “Plan B.” What will you do if the marketing plan for your firm doesn’t pan out? Consider what can go wrong. Once you identify the obstacles and how to overcome them, your plan will have a higher likelihood of success.

10. Firm Success Stories and Attorney Biographies
This section is all about your firm and its human assets. On your firm’s Web site and in any other marketing materials, discuss your firm’s success stories (especially those involving its ideal target market). Emphasize your attorneys’ collective professional experience and why they are qualified to assist potential clients.

Moving Forward
Follow these 10 steps and you will be well on your way to creating a comprehensive law firm marketing action plan. Set aside time to complete it and then to put it into action. Follow your plan closely for 90 days, and then to assess it for any changes or updates.

If marketing a law firm were easy, every lawyer in every firm would have a seven-figure practice. It’s not easy, but it is necessary. As the old saying goes, failing to plan is planning to fail.

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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, click here now.

 

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Law Firm Marketing: Is Your Law Firm The Victim of a Crime?

The biggest crime in law firms today goes unnoticed. It is not reported in the media. There are no police reports filed and firms don’t even mention it on their websites. People don't talk about it on the street and partners often overlook it. Even though this crime is rampant, its presence is so subtle that many attorneys fail to recognize when it is happening.

The biggest crime in law firms today is the crime of being forgotten.

SIGNS OF THE CRIME
Here are some signs that your firm has fallen victim to the crime of being forgotten:

  • Decrease in year over year revenues
  • Less than 5,000 people a month visiting your website
  • Less than a dozen inquiries every month from prospective new clients
  • Losing large or long-term client accounts
  • High staff turnover
  • Inability to attract and retain top people
  • No mention of your firm in the media in the last 3 months
  • Less repeat business from clients
  • No word of mouth referrals coming in the door

STEPS TO SOLVE THE CRIME
There are many things you can do as an attorney to help people remember you, starting here:

1. Focus on the question that every client wants to know: What's in it for me?
At the end of the day, clients are only interested in what you can do for them.  Your job is to tell them what your service can do for them personally and remember- they do not want to spend time looking for the answer. The answer to this question must be one of the first things your clients see on your website and in your firm-wide communications. If your clients are going to remember you, you must first answer the question "What's in it for them?"

2. What differentiates your service from everyone else?
For every service you provide there are hundreds if not thousands of other attorneys who can provide the same services that you can. So why should someone hire you versus your competitor across the street or down the suite?

In other words, what is your UCA-your "Unique Competitive Advantage"? What can a client get from you that they cannot get from anyone else? Perhaps it is your credibility or the creative way you bring solutions to your clients. You must determine what differentiates your firm from anyone else and market that point.

When creating your UCA, one of the keys is to not use either quality or service. The reason is that every attorney says they provide quality and service (even though we know they don't). Therefore quality and service have become meaningless when it comes to differentiating your service because every client expects quality and service and will not do business with any attorney that doesn't have both already. Your UCA must be creative, yet accurately reflect who you are, what you offer that no one else does, and most importantly directly addresses the challenges of your target market.

3. All of your communication must be emotionally impactful.
Anyone can quote statistics or develop an advertisement on a cognitive level, but the most effective way to ensure a lasting impact on your clients is to communicate with them on an emotional level. You must find their "pain." What is it about their business, life, family, time, or environment that is causing pain? Are they not working or working too much? Is their business growing too fast or too slow? Is their family falling apart? Do they have a hard time tracking their employees? Find their pain and communicate with them on an emotional level about how you can help heal their pain and make their business, life, family, time or environment pleasurable.

4. Distinguish your benefits from your features and communicate them clearly.
Features are what your service does. Benefits are why your client needs your service. For every feature you have, you must tell your client what the benefit is. Is your firm better, faster, guaranteed or more personal? Will your service create more clients, decrease turnover, or increase profit margins? These are all great features, but you must tell your clients how this benefits them specifically.

5. Reduce the risk of working with you.
Many of our clients work at small law firms that have services similar to those at larger, more established firms. Why should your potential client buy your service over the big firm’s service? Are they taking a risk with a firm that may not be around 5 or 10 years from now? Is it just because you offer a lower price?

While no one can predict the future of your firm, the savvy attorney recognizes the need to develop creative ways to reduce the risk of their clients in working with them. How could you lower the risk of your clients if they are concerned about working with a solo practitioner or a small law firm?

6. How effective is your cheapest form of marketing: your business card?
Your business card is the cheapest form of marketing. I buy 5,000 new business cards every year and make it my goal to pass out all of them. Most attorneys make the mistake of only using the front side of their business card and leave the biggest part (the back) completely untouched. Examine your business card as if you were one of your target clients. Does it tell them succinctly who you are, what you do and how you can help them? If not, perhaps it is time to redesign it. Use the back of your card to focus on the benefits, results, and value you bring your target market.

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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!  Click here to download, and start using these proven strategies today!
 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: Create a Cost-Efficient Process for Converting Leads to Clients

Tracking the cost of converting your leads to clients is what takes you from spending money to making money, which it is the reason you are in business.

The first step is to work with staff to identify the stages of going from prospect to paying client.  Some questions to be considered include:

  • Who is involved in the process?
  • How many steps are there?
  • Who originates the process?
  • Who keeps it moving?
  • Who closes the process?
  • Who tracks the process and prompts those involved?
  • What does each step in the process cost?

Look closely at your process and look for opportunities to shorten the process wherever possible. Look for redundant actions and duplication of staff that can be eliminated.  Your goal is to have a lean process that delivers the results you are looking for.

Secondly, identify Cost Per Lead (CPL) and strategies for reducing cost per lead. You cannot do this without the previous step.  If you don’t have a handle on your process and its costs, you cannot reduce your cost per lead.  Some questions for this process are:

  • How many leads are produced?
  • How much does it cost to obtain a new client?
  • How much revenue does each client bring in?

Once you know your process and the incremental cost of each step, you can then begin to whittle down your costs as you take steps toward making your process more efficient.  Legal marketing, like any other business process, needs to be as efficient as possible while still delivering the desired results.  These questions will get you started on road to streamlining your process and improving your lead conversion ratio.

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Can’t Make It to a Rainmaker Retreat?  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!

 

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Bring Your Law Firm Marketing Out of the Shadows at a Rainmaker Retreat

Happy Groundhog Day!  Punxsutawney Phil poked his head up this morning and predicted an early spring – right in the middle of one of the largest snow and ice storms in U.S. history.

Meteorology has progressed significantly in the past 125 years, which is how long Phil has been predicting winter weather.  We no longer rely on a groundhog for our forecasts – and you shouldn’t rely on guesswork either when it comes to law firm marketing.

Our Las Vegas Rainmaker Retreat last weekend was chock full of attorneys anxious to learn over 65 proven, step-by-step legal marketing strategies.

At each session, I pull back the curtain and teach you how hundreds of my top clients have gone from having a good six figure practice to a fantastic 7 figure practice, from working every day and every weekend, to taking 3 to 4 months of first class vacations every year, of going from making a 6 figure income to consistently having a Net Operating Income of 7 figures.

Still skeptical? Good! So was almost every other attorney who has ever attended our Rainmaker Retreat! They may have been skeptical before they came, but they left believers!

“Great information on marketing. I intend to immediately start implementing Stephen’s ideas. The insights provided in this retreat would take years of trial & error to figure out on my own.” 
- Patrick Devine, Solo

“Stephen provided some great advice and gave me immediate steps to implement in helping my firm retain more clients and give better service. I highly recommend the Rainmaker seminar!”
- Thomas Wallin, Partner

“Very helpful and detailed on issues related to web site marketing. A very complex topic, simplified.”
- Andrew Rzepiennik, Partner

Great practical advice on marketing and growing your legal practice. I learned more in 2 days than I have over the past year of building my practice!”
- Becki Kammerling, Solo

Marketing for the 21st century! You need to change your marketing plan now! This seminar will show you how! Very valuable!”
- Thomas Downey, Jr., Partner

“Great! Useful, current information that will help my bottom line.”
- Elga Goodman, Solo, Estate Planning

I intentionally limit the number of people who attend the Rainmaker Retreat. This is no ‘mega-seminar’ with hundreds of people and a new sales pitch every hour. The number of attendees is kept at a level that allows each attorney to receive individual attention in an intimate setting. You will leave with a complete written Marketing Action Plan (MAP) that you will be eager to get going the first day back in your office.

Here are the dates for upcoming Rainmaker Retreats:

  • February 25-26, 2011 - Orlando, Florida
  • March 11-12, 2011 - New Brunswick, New Jersey
  • April 8-9, 2011 - San Diego, CA

If you take advantage of the Early Bird Special (only available when you register at least 2 weeks in advance of the event), you receive $300 worth of extra benefits!

For more information please call: 888-588-5891 or visit www.RainmakerRetreat.com.

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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.


 

 

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Law Firm Marketing: 3 Different Ways Attorneys Can Leverage Facebook

According to a recent survey of small business owners by marketing researcher Ad-ology, 55 percent of SMBs view Facebook as very or somewhat beneficial to their business.  The top benefit they identified for their business?  Lead generation.

Of course, to successfully market on Facebook, you need to understand the tools available to you.  There are three different ways that attorneys can leverage Facebook:

1.  Profile Page
This page is about you, and is a good starting point for Facebook novices.  Check mine out at www.facebook.com/fairley

You will see that my page clearly talks about my business, but from a more personal standpoint.  My interests and activities are also listed, as well as the many Facebook groups I belong to.  Creating an engaging Facebook profile page should give the visitor a real sense for you as a person as well as what you bring in terms of experience and enthusiasm to the practice of law.

2.  Fan Page
This page is about your business.  You can view mine at www.facebook.com/LawFirmMarketing.

The Fan Page is your Facebook storefront, and should promote your practice and build your brand.  On my Fan Page you will find daily updates that are links to our Rainmaker blog and our Twitter page, an Information tab that provides background on The Rainmaker Institute, a tab that promotes our Rainmaker Retreat, photos, videos and a discussion tab for visitors to weigh in on whatever is on their minds.

Studies show that engagement, interest and constant connection keep fans coming back on Facebook, which offers tools that allow you to customize your landing pages for more effective branding.

3.  Groups
Similar to LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups are opportunities for you to cross-promote yourself and your business with those who may be interested in your services.  You will see on my profile page that I belong to several hundred groups.  This is not a place to do heavy promotion, but rather to build your online credibility and showcase your expertise by joining discussions and providing feedback and information.

Social media sites like Facebook are the fastest way to build your platform (how many people know who you are, who you help and how you are different).  The key to social media is to build your platform and then entice them to visit your blog or website to opt-in to your mailing list using a free special report or free CD or DVD or newsletter.

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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.

 

 

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