Law Firm Marketing: Why Divorce Lawyers Need to Say, "I Do" to Social Media
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Extracting data from the 2004 U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), the Pew Research Center released a report in 2011 that said the risk for divorce is highest among married 25-year-olds.
Other findings:
- For first marriages, men divorce at the median age of 31.8 and women at the median age of 29.4;
- The majority of divorces occur among younger people and divorces that have lasted fewer years;
- 65% of marriages are intact at their 15th anniversary for couples that married between 1970-1984;
- 50% of married 25-year-olds will divorce
- 45% of 50-year-old men will divorce
- 46% of 50-year-old women will divorce
So, family law practitioners.... are you marketing to the 34-and-under demographic? Because that is your market. And they are not reading a newspaper, watching much TV or looking up lawyers in the Yellow Pages.
They are on the Internet engaging in social media. Current research shows that 65% of online adults use social media. This figure is 83% for 18-29 year-olds, 70% among 30-to-49-year-olds and 51% among 50-to-64-year-olds.
Women 18-29 are the power users of social networking –89 percent of those online use social networking sites.
Want to learn more about getting engaged with your future clients online? Take two days and attend a Rainmaker Retreat. Here are the upcoming dates:
March 30-31, 2012 – San Diego, CA
April 27-28, 2012 – Chicago, IL
If you want to learn more about the Rainmaker Retreat and why it is a proven legal marketing system that has helped over 8,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for one of our one-hour complimentary teleseminars:
Friday, March 2
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Wednesday, March 14
12pm PT | 1pm MT | 2pm CT | 3pm ET
Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!
Law Firm Marketing: How to Promote Your Practice on Twitter
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Basically, Twitter is micro-blogging, so the same guidelines for establishing a successful blog also follow for Twitter:
Build your brand – your online brand should be the same everywhere, so be sure your Twitter profile matches your other online profiles. On Twitter more than other social media sites, you need to keep in mind that people follow people. It’s more personal, which helps establish trust with prospects – the first step in forging a relationship.
Market yourself – add a Twitter button on your website, include your Twitter handle in your email signature, add it to your other online accounts, even put it on your business card. The point of Twitter is to gather as many followers as possible.
Create and/or join a group – Twitter has both private and public groups, which are great for networking and establishing yourself as a reliable resource for information or services you’re selling. You can start or join a group via Twitter Lists.
Listen and Learn – use Twitter search to see if anyone is talking about you and what they’re saying; it’s a great platform for ensuring your online reputation is up to snuff, and fixing any problems you may not even be aware of. It’s also a great way to learn more about – and from – your competitors.
Interact – social media is all about community and you aren’t a valuable member of any community if you don’t give something back. Comment on and “retweet” other posts you like and share news items or useful information you come across.
Poll – Twitter is great for polling. And why would you want to do that? To learn what is important to your prospects so you make sure your messaging is right on target. To get feedback on a hot legal issue and then publish an article and press release about it to promote yourself on other platforms.
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FREE Webinar Tomorrow: Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys
On Wednesday, Feb. 29, Stephen Fairley will present Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys, a one-hour complimentary webinar sponsored by Avvo beginning at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.
Social media is no longer a fad. It's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate and it is quickly becoming a powerful and cost effective tool to market your law firm! Every time you turn on the television companies are asking you to "like them on Facebook" or "follow them on Twitter"—what does that mean and why should you do it?
We have all heard the startling statistics:
- Facebook recently announced they now have over 845 Million active users!
- LinkedIn adds another 1 Million users every 6 days!
- Over 200 Million people have set up a Twitter account!
- YouTube surpassed over 490 Million unique visitors per month!
As a law firm, should you “jump on the bandwagon” and get in before your competitors do or should you “wait and see” if social media really takes hold? If you wait, what will you miss and how do you know if it's right for you? What are the risks you need to be aware of? What about the ethical rules and regulations? How can you get started? Where do you begin? How much time, energy and money should we devote to social media? How do you measure a return on investment? What expectations should you have?
To register for this free Avvo webinar on Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys, click her
Law Firm Marketing: Studies Show Law Firms Seeing Benefits from Blogging, Social Media
The results of two new surveys – Hubspot’s 2012 State of Inbound Marketing Report and ALM Legal Intelligence’s Social Media ROI for Law Firms – show that legal professionals are beginning to realize measurable benefits from blogs and social media participation.
Kevin O’Keefe reported on the ALM study on his blog last week; he received an advance copy of the $500 report and shared the key findings from the survey of 179 legal professionals, which included:
- 85 percent of responding law firms use social media and 70 percent maintain a blog.
- Almost 90 percent of responding firms said social media play an important role in their law firm marketing program.
- Almost 50 percent said they received leads from blogging and social media.
- More than 40 percent said they received inquiries from journalists as a result of their participation in blogs and new media.
The Hubspot survey of 972 marketing professionals conducted last month – which included marketers from the professional services sector – revealed that:
- 57% of companies with a blog have acquired a customer from their blog.
- 92% of companies who blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog.
- 62% of companies using LinkedIn have acquired a customer from the network.
- 70% of marketers indicate that they blog at least weekly.
- 77% of B2C companies report that they have acquired a customer through Facebook.
- 65% of B2B companies report that they have acquired a customer through LinkedIn.
For those in the professional services category, blogs and LinkedIn were the two primary sources of new lead acquisition:
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Free Report: 4 Myths That Keep Attorneys From Building A Referral-Based Practice
Referrals are the lifeblood of many law practices, and building a good referral program takes a proven process. Stephen Fairly unveils the 4 Myths That Keep Attorneys from Building a Referral-Based Practice in his new free report. Read and discover:
- How to determine the best source for your referrals
- How to explain your ideal target market to a referral source
- How to get referrals from other attorneys
- Whether online directories are a good referral source
- How to network effectively
- And much, much more!
Click here to get your free report today.
Law Firm Marketing: How to Lead Prospects from Awareness to Advocacy
I read an interesting post by John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing the other day called the 7 Stages of the Content Hourglass. Jantsch argues that the traditional sales and marketing funnel model has now evolved into what he calls The Marketing Hourglass™.
The hourglass concept says that the job of law firm marketing is to not only get prospects to know, like and trust you, but then to turn that into try, buy, repeat and refer. Here is an infographic from his website on this interesting and relevant marketing concept:
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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.
Rainmaker Retreat Insights From Lawyers Like You
The Rainmaker Retreat is specifically designed to help attorneys at small law firms understand how to attract more and better clients using proven, step-by-step marketing strategies. This is not a theoretical, feel good program. It’s built on 4 principles:
- Building referrals through purposeful relationships
- Automating your law firm marketing system
- Leveraging the power of the Internet to attract highly qualified clients
- Maximizing your return on investment for all your marketing dollars
Steve Jackson, an estate planning attorney from North Carolina (www.stevenandrewjackson.com/), attended our Orlando Rainmaker Retreat last weekend – for the third time! Here’s why he keeps coming back for more:
If you are interested in building a lifestyle law practice through effective law firm marketing, then come to one of our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats:
March 30-31, 2012 – San Diego, CA
April 27-28, 2012 – Chicago, IL
If you want to learn more about the Rainmaker Retreat and why it is a proven legal marketing system that has helped over 8,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for one of our one-hour complimentary teleseminars:
Friday, March 2
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Wednesday, March 14
12pm PT | 1pm MT | 2pm CT | 3pm ET
Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!
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Get All the Law Firm Marketing Strategies You Need to Create A 7-figure Law Practice with Rainmaker In A Box: Volume 2!
Newly released! Rainmaker in a Box: Volume 2 includes:
8 Proven Steps for More & Better Referrals
Discover the proven step-by-step system used to double your referrals from current and former clients and how to build a network of strategic referral partners. Top attorneys have used this exact system to double their referrals in 6 months or less!
7 Strategies to Recession Proof Your Law Firm
Watch and learn as I walk you through the specific strategies top lawyers are using to increase their revenues in this tough economy-and it doesn’t include reducing their fees!
6 Keys to Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media
Social media has emerged as the fastest way to build a massive platform of prospects! I pull back the curtain and let you in on little known secrets of how attorneys are generating dozens of leads every month from social media.
5 Core Components for Highly Successful Websites & Blogs
My interview with nationally recognized personal injury attorney John Bisnar on how his law firm uses search engine optimization and internet marketing to drive tens of thousands of unique visitors every month to his 30 websites and 10 blogs. Discover proven techniques for converting website visitors into paying clients.
Data DVD: Includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you experience these information-packed DVDs!
Click here now to order!
Law Firm Marketing: How to Create Free Reports & Use Them to Generate Leads
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Free reports, white papers or e-books – whatever you want to call these informative downloadable documents – are a wonderful tool for attorneys to generate leads by driving traffic to your website or blog, get sign-ups for your newsletter and engage your followers on social media networks.
To create a impactful free report, follow these steps:
1. Identify your prospect’s point of pain. The best reports provide a solution to a problem, so you need to identify what problems are plaguing your prospects – i.e., their “point of pain” – and then provide them with a solution.
2. Give some secrets away. You don’t have to give it all away, but entice your readers with a few secrets so they feel they have something of true value. Secrets are another way of demonstrating your experience and expertise, and that you know what you’re talking about.
3. Be brief. Your report should be 3-10 pages long and should start with a brief summary.
4. Make it attractive. The layout should be easy to read with appropriate graphics and saved as a PDF file for easy download.
Once you create your free report, you can now use it to:
Generate leads quickly. Blogs are great lead-generators, but it takes time –usually around six months or so – to build a following. A free report can help you generate leads more quickly.
Build your e-newsletter database. Offer your free report on your website and blog in exchange for prospects signing up for your e-newsletter.
Grow your social media following. Offer your free report in exchange for “Likes” on your Facebook page. Create a landing page for your free report and promote the link to it on Twitter and LinkedIn.
For some examples of how we use free reports in our marketing efforts, click on these links:
"Top 10 Mistakes Attorneys Make and How to Avoid Them" E-book
Free Report: 4 Myths That Keep Attorneys From Building A Referral-Based Practice
FREE REPORT: How to Use Blogs as a Secret Weapon in Your Online Arsenal
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Feb. 29 Webinar: Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys
On Wednesday, Feb. 29, Stephen Fairley will present Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys, a one-hour complimentary webinar sponsored by Avvo beginning at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.
Social media is no longer a fad. It's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate and it is quickly becoming a powerful and cost effective tool to market your law firm! Every time you turn on the television companies are asking you to "like them on Facebook" or "follow them on Twitter"—what does that mean and why should you do it?
We have all heard the startling statistics:
- Facebook recently announced they now have over 845 Million active users!
- LinkedIn adds another 1 Million users every 6 days!
- Over 200 Million people have set up a Twitter account!
- YouTube surpassed over 490 Million unique visitors per month!
As a law firm, should you “jump on the bandwagon” and get in before your competitors do or should you “wait and see” if social media really takes hold? If you wait, what will you miss and how do you know if it's right for you? What are the risks you need to be aware of? What about the ethical rules and regulations? How can you get started? Where do you begin? How much time, energy and money should we devote to social media? How do you measure a return on investment? What expectations should you have?
To register for this free Avvo webinar on Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys, click here.
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: How to Create Your Own YouTube TV Channel
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Every day, there are over 3 billion videos viewed on YouTube. Yes, that’s billion, with a “B”. Every day. Is there a place for YouTube in your law firm marketing program? 3 billion times, yes.
Take a quick look at our Rainmaker Retreat website and you’ll see lots of video. When we build a client’s website, we always try to add video features – because even though attorneys may love words, your potential clients love video, and hosting your video clips on YouTube is an excellent way to state your case to those potential clients as well as improve your search engine ranking (YouTube is owned by Google).
Plus, it’s easy and economical to do. So whether or not you have video features on your website, you can create a YouTube channel for your practice that will do double duty for you, persuading potential clients why they should hire you, and boosting your Google ranking. Here’s how:
Pick your specialty. You’ve heard me say it before, but it bears repeating: one of the biggest legal marketing mistakes attorneys make is generalization. You need to promote yourself as a specialist (in the marketing sense) – you’re a divorce lawyer, or a car accident attorney, or an estate planning lawyer. Choose 3-4 topics within your area of specialization and develop informational talking points (no more than 3-4 minutes each) that potential clients will find useful. And remember, you are not shooting a commercial – make it interesting and informational.
Shoot your videos. Your clips do not need to be Hollywood-quality productions. You can get a small camcorder for around $200 and have someone shoot the videos of you in your office or conference room. These wonderful little camcorders have a built-in USB connection so you can upload each clip to your computer, edit it, and create a file for YouTube.
Brand your channel. Once you create an account on YouTube, you can set up your YouTube user name and channel in the Settings menu. Your channel name should NOT be “ABC Law Firm”, it should be something that describes your practice – i.e., Orange County Personal Injury Law, Phoenix Divorce Attorney, etc. The website will walk you through the process of uploading and tagging your video. Be SURE you title and tag your video with your keywords (i.e., “Atlanta divorce lawyer”) so you feed those search engines. You will also need to add a description of your video – be as specific as possible and load up on those keywords.
Promote your channel. Add your YouTube channel link to all your social media pages – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. – as well as to your email signature. Have everyone in your practice add it to their social media and electronic signatures as well. You can also search for relevant videos on YouTube and post a video reply linking your channel to those relevant videos. And, of course, embed the clips into your website and link to your YouTube channel from there.
YouTube is no longer just for skateboarding dogs and sleepy babies...it’s a great social media tool for your law firm marketing arsenal that can help you with SEO and attracting new clients.
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FREE REPORT: 8 Reasons Small Firms & Solos Should Publish an E-newsletter PLUS 3 Steps to Get Started
In less than a few hours a month, you can produce an effective electronic newsletter, also known as an “E-newsletter.”
An E-newsletter is a customized electronic newsletter that is commonly used in business, but rarely in the field of law. If you are truly interested in the long-term success and sustainability of your practice, you need to learn how to leverage technology and the Internet to build it.
Here’s what you’ll discover when you read this report:
- The cost benefits of an e-newsletter
- How to incorporate your e-newsletter with your social networking
- How an e-newsletter supports your marketing efforts
- How to get started right away with your e-newsletter
- And much, much more!
To get your free report now, click here.
Law Firm Marketing: Persistence Pays...Celebrate ALL Wins!
As business owners, we are often told that persistence pays. However, as the demands pile on, bills flow in and the stress of running a practice takes hold, it is easy to forget this nugget of wisdom.
Whether you are starting, building or maintaining a life-style law firm, it is important to keep in mind that persistence pays – and to remind ourselves to celebrate ALL wins.
Why? Because when you celebrate a win you:
1. Acknowledge the accomplishment.
2. Reinvigorate yourself and the team with positive energy.
3. Become hopeful about moving forward successfully.
Over six months ago, we began what was to become an odyssey to get our logo on the side of our office building. An easy task, some might think. However, it turns out that the city had incorrect architectural documentation -- it took 6 months, 35 emails and dozens of meetings and phone calls to finally get the sign approved and hung.
Special kudos to TRI team member Jessica Johnson, who saw this project through to fruition and got this tasty show of gratitude for her efforts:
So for us at The Rainmaker Institute, Valentine’s Day last week was extra special because the sign was finally hung.
That simple act of hanging our sign represents a lot more than building identification.
It unified the team, it represents all that we stand for and it shows the world that we are a company that proudly promotes itself and our ability to positively impact thousands of attorneys looking to Increase lead generation, enhance client conversion and improve client retention.
We wanted to share our win with you and remind you that no matter how small the accomplishment, be proud and celebrate the wins you accomplish on a day-to-day basis.
It will keep you motivated, make your team feel wonderful and make all your challenges a little more tolerable.
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FREE REPORT: How to Use Blogs as a Secret Weapon in Your Online Arsenal
One of the secret tools of Internet marketing for attorneys is the power of having a targeted blog. In a new report on the influence of blogs, eMarketer.com found that in 2010, 51% of Internet users in the U.S. (that’s over 91 million people) read blogs, and they project that usage will go to 60% (150 million) in the next four years!
Still think blogs are a fad?
Here’s what you’ll discover when you read this report:
- Why you must have a blog in order to stay relevant
- 3 keys to successful blogging
- 7 Guidelines for achieving ROI
- Your 3 choices for managing your blog and social media efforts
- And much more!
Click here to order your free report now!
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: How Facebook's New Ad Targeting Options Can Spread Your Influence
If you’re a frequent reader of this blog, you know that I am not a fan of traditional law firm advertising for three reasons: it doesn’t move people along in the sales cycle, it is often too costly for most law firm budgets and most law firm advertising is poorly written or designed.
But what about nontraditional law firm advertising? Facebook Ads has recently added a broad targeting option that I find really interesting. And I believe it provides some good opportunities for lawyers to spread their influence through the offering of targeted, relevant education materials.
For example, say you are an attorney in Dallas who targets small business owners. You create a downloadable e-book on, say, “Incorporation and Legal Structures: What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know”. Then you create a Facebook ad with a link to your website, blog or a special landing page that captures a prospect's email address in exchange for downloading the e-book. Using broad category search, you set your target:
You specify business owners over the age of 30 in the Dallas area, and this is how many people you can reach:
Or say you are an estate planning attorney in Dallas and want to capitalize on the growing trend of creating pet trusts. Again, you create a downloadable informative e-book on “How to Provide for Your Pet After You’re Gone”. You can go to Interests and target pet owners over the age of 60:
Then narrow it to those in your market area and reach this many prospects:
Facebook ads allows you to target very specifically to introduce an audience of likely prospects you may not have had the opportunity to reach with any other medium. It is also inexpensive; you can try it out for a week or two for a couple hundred dollars or less.
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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, and start using these proven strategies today!
Law Firm Marketing: How To Differentiate Yourself from Your Competition
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Ken Hardison, founder of the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association (PILMMA) and founding partner of Hardison & Cochran, is my guest blogger today. Here is his post on how to differentiate yourself from your competition with law firm marketing:
Consumers are bombarded with advertising material on a daily basis and most have learned to just tune it out and ignore it. How are you supposed to reach potential clients and stand out from the pack?
I have formulated a five-step plan that guarantees potential clients won’t just pay attention to your legal marketing, but they will even remember your name!
1. Create a U.S.P (Unique Selling Proposition)
A U.S.P is an absolute must-have for any business, especially a law firm. Your U.S.P. is a list of benefits or the number one benefit that you can offer potential clients that your competition can’t. Choose a unique feature of your law firm and tell your potential clients why it is so beneficial to them and focus on it in every area of your law firm marketing.
Make it a compelling offer or guarantee that answers the question – “Why should I do business with you instead of the other lawyers in town?” This will put you at the top of their mind when they need the service you provide. Create a memorable catch phrase to present your U.S.P. in all your law firm advertising and marketing material. Consistently using the same phrase will create an association between you and your message in the minds of potential clients. Make sure you keep it short, simple and concise.
2. Specialize
You can’t be all things to all people, so go ahead and become The Expert on one particular topic. This topic should also be the focus of your U.S.P. Your U.S.P. should become your mantra and you should use it in everything you produce. Put yourself out there, write articles, write a book, become a local expert in the media on your specialty.
This strategy doesn’t appeal to all potential clients, but then again, you shouldn’t try to appeal to everyone! This approach will attract clients who value your knowledge and expertise over your prices. Having a specialty is an easy way to assert your uniqueness and announce to potential clients how dramatically different you are from your competition.
3. Be First to Proclaim Uniqueness
Being the first to declare your individuality from the pack gives you a clear advantage. Until your competition follows suit, you are the ONLY one claiming to be different from all the rest. You are the client’s clear #1 choice!
4. Make an Irresistible Offer
An effective U.S.P. boldly declares big benefits and illustrates your exceptional service. You have to promise potential clients something so valuable they will never even think of calling your competition. It must grab their attention, so even though they don’t need your services now, when they do in the future, they will remember you.
Studies have shown that some of the most motivating desires we have are for tranquility, vengeance, fairness and social justice. Choose one of these key desires, hone in on it and appeal to it in your U.S.P. Try to evoke an emotional connection with the audience that will make your offer irresistible.
5. Give Social Proof that Clients Prefer YOU
Use testimonials from previous clients in your legal social media marketing. They validate your claim that you can help potential clients get what they want. Testimonials make it easier to market yourself because someone else is doing all the talking. Even in states where the use of testimonials is prohibited in law firm marketing, you can still use them in materials you send to prospective clients after they have initially contacted you. These responses are priceless for marketing your firm to potential clients.
These five steps will help you uniquely position yourself as the expert and #1 choice for anyone looking for an attorney in your area.
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Stephen Fairley Guest Speaker at PILMMA Legal Marketing Boot Camp March 1 in San Francisco
At the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association (PILMMA) one-day boot camp, you will learn "How to Increase Your Caseload... Without Spending a Boat Load," from some of the sharpest legal marketers in the world. These are the very people (secret weapons, really), who have worked behind the scenes at all those successful firms that have been grabbing the big cases from you for years. Now they'll disclose their entire Vault of Secrets to you...
One of PILMMA’s guest speakers is Stephen Fairley, legal marketing expert and CEO of The Rainmaker Institute. Stephen will share the secrets of Getting Your Law Firm to the Top of Google on Thursday, March 1 at the San Francisco session of the PILMMA one-day boot camp.
Registering is simple and takes less than 2 minutes. Simply click this link and learn how you can start snagging these big cases for yourself!
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: Why the Good/Fast/Cheap Rule No Longer Applies
There used to be an expression that marketing people liked to use with clients: “When it comes to marketing, there’s good, fast and cheap – you can only have two.”
In other words, if you wanted something fast and cheap, it wouldn’t be good. If you wanted it good and cheap, it wouldn’t be fast. If you wanted it good and fast, it wouldn’t be cheap.
Social media – a good, fast and cheap way to promote a small business – has now made that rule obsolete. Here’s why you can no longer afford not to go social:
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Feb. 29 Webinar: Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys
On Wednesday, Feb. 29, Stephen Fairley will present Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys, a one-hour complimentary webinar sponsored by Avvo beginning at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.
Social media is no longer a fad. It's a fundamental shift in the way we communicate and it is quickly becoming a powerful and cost effective tool to market your law firm! Every time you turn on the television companies are asking you to "like them on Facebook" or "follow them on Twitter"—what does that mean and why should you do it?
We have all heard the startling statistics:
- Facebook recently announced they now have over 845 Million active users!
- LinkedIn adds another 1 Million users every 6 days!
- Over 200 Million people have set up a Twitter account!
- YouTube surpassed over 490 Million unique visitors per month!
As a law firm, should you “jump on the bandwagon” and get in before your competitors do or should you “wait and see” if social media really takes hold? If you wait, what will you miss and how do you know if it's right for you? What are the risks you need to be aware of? What about the ethical rules and regulations? How can you get started? Where do you begin? How much time, energy and money should we devote to social media? How do you measure a return on investment? What expectations should you have?
To register for this free Avvo webinar on Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Attorneys, click here.
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: A History of Social Media
Most of you may be surprised (I know I was) to learn that the history of social media stretches back more than 30 years, when two computer geeks created a computerized “bulletin board” to share information with friends.
This pre-dates the Internet as we know it today by about 15 years!
Here’s an infographic on A History of the Business of Social Media so you can see how far we’ve come:
And speaking of how far we’ve come...I was delighted to see that I am ranked #35 (and rising!) in the Top 100 Marketers to Follow on Twitter:
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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.
Social Media Marketing for Lawyers: How to Leverage LinkedIn Marketing Features to Generate Leads
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A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a Hubspot study that showed LinkedIn is the best social media network for lead generation – 277 percent better than Facebook and Twitter. So are you using all the nifty LinkedIn marketing features as part of your law firm social media marketing strategy?
Here are some you should be leveraging to help generate leads:
LinkedIn Answers – a forum for people to ask and answer questions. Get involved here to build your credibility and to identify other industry influencers you can network with. See what people are asking to get ideas for your blog.
LinkedIn Apps – LinkedIn has two legal apps – JDSupra’s Legal Updates and Martindale-Hubbell’s Lawyer Ratings – as well as Google Presentations and SlideShare presentations that allow you to share presentations, and a Blog Link that links your blog to your profile.
LinkedIn Subgroups – you may already be participating in LinkedIn Groups, but click on the “More” tab of your LinkedIn group and you’ll find subgroups. Great for building influence in your niche.
Skills & Expertise – the Skills tool allows you to search for LinkedIn members, companies or groups based on skill or expertise.
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Stephen Fairley Guest Speaker at PILMMA Legal Marketing Boot Camp March 1 in San Francisco
At the Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management Association (PILMMA) one-day boot camp, you will learn "How to Increase Your Caseload... Without Spending a Boat Load," from some of the sharpest legal marketers in the world. These are the very people (secret weapons, really), who have worked behind the scenes at all those successful firms that have been grabbing the big cases from you for years. Now they'll disclose their entire Vault of Secrets to you...
One of PILMMA’s guest speakers is Stephen Fairley, legal marketing expert and CEO of The Rainmaker Institute. Stephen will share the secrets of Getting Your Law Firm to the Top of Google on Thursday, March 1 at the San Francisco session of the PILMMA one-day boot camp.
Registering is simple and takes less than 2 minutes. Simply click this link and learn how you can start snagging these big cases for yourself!
Law Firm Marketing: Top 10 Ways to Generate Leads From Your Blog
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Generating qualified leads from your law firm marketing blog should not be a “happy accident” – you put time and money into producing a blog, and you want a return on your investment. To help you realize a good return in the form of qualified leads, here are the Top 10 ways you can use your blog to generate leads:
1. Focus on your prospect’s “point of pain”. One of the primary reasons someone hires an attorney is to alleviate some type of "pain". Use your blog to identify their pain and effectively communicate how you will help them resolve it.
2. Educate. A blog helps you build the context around your practice by allowing you to showcase your expertise for solving problems that affect your prospects. Offer downloadable reports and other helpful aids, and always write with your prospect in mind.
3. Create digestible content. Keep things relatively short and add links and graphics that entertain and reinforce your message.
4. Post regularly. Blogs are about establishing a relationship with prospects, and the most important part of building a relationship is communication. You need to post 3-5 times a week to keep the conversation going.
5. Converse. And since it is a conversation, allow your readers to comment and take the time to respond.
6. Use SEO. Make it easy for prospects to find your blog by using SEO best practices – see my post from last month on the Top 10 SEO Essentials for Your Law Firm Marketing Websites.
7. Showcase your people. Allow more than just one person to post on your blog to showcase the diverse talents of the people at your firm.
8. Make it easy to share. Add social share buttons and Forward to a Friend functionality so your content can go viral.
9. Include a call-to-action. Make is easy for prospects to contact you with questions – most people use a Contact responder or email as a first step in determining if they want to do business with you.
10. Promote. Promote your blog on other social media networking sites, your own website, in your email signature, your e-newsletter, etc.
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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.
Feelin' the Love for Law Firm Marketing at the Orlando Rainmaker Retreat
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February is not a bad time to be in Orlando, even if you’re from Arizona. Our Orlando Rainmaker Retreat last weekend had attendees from all over the country feelin’ the love for law firm marketing:
“Steve Fairley is a powerful and energetic speaker and his Rainmaker Retreat offers value and meaningful advice for any lawyer wishing to both develop and retain quality clients over the long term.” - Douglas Fitzmorris, Partner
“Great retreat! I left with an enormous amount of information and several great concrete ideas. I just upped my marketing goals for the year. I will lay out a marketing blueprint tomorrow that includes weekly specific goals.” - Michael Rosenthal, Partner
“The confidence Steven Fairley has in his techniques and the depth of material provided is staggering. I look forward to developing my own Lifestyle Law Firm and coming back to share my success story with him in the future as my firm grows.” - Scott Eldridge, Solo
“I had already reviewed your CD’s before I came, but I learned so much about new marketing strategies- especially social media marketing- that I was close to being overwhelmed. However, The Rainmaker Institute has given me hope that I can get started and make progress in the right direction. If I can’t do it myself, I know that The Rainmaker Institute is there to help me with the more difficult strategies.” - George Hough, Solo
I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day yesterday. Filmmaker Tyler Perry was on Jay Leno last night and I liked what he had to say about this “holiday”: “Valentine’s Day is for wimps! A real man tells his woman he loves her every day.”
If you want to “feel the love” from getting new clients for your practice every day, you need to practice the fundamentals of successful law firm marketing. And you can learn those at a Rainmaker Retreat! Here are our upcoming sessions:
March 30-31, 2012 – San Diego, CA
April 27-28 -- Chicago, IL
See below for more details on how you can start feelin’ the love.
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Want to Get a Taste of What a Rainmaker Retreat Can Do for You and Your Legal Practice?
Join us for a free one-hour Rainmaker Retreat preview call hosted by Stephen Fairley where you will discover:
- 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
Sign up now for one of these upcoming one-hour teleseminars:
Thursday, February 16
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Wednesday, February 22
1pm PT | 2pm MT | 3pm CT | 4pm ET
Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!
Law Firm Marketing: Top 10 Tactics for Growing Your Email List
Last month, I blogged about How to Increase Your Email Marketing Effectiveness – but this is only half the equation of a successful email marketing program. The other half is how to grow your email list.
According to the new MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmark Report, these are the Top 10 tactics for growing an email marketing list:
The most effective tactic is to add an opt-in request to the purchase process. The research shows that only 31 percent of professional services firms do this, so many attorneys are missing the opportunity to capture emails when they sign on new clients.
The most popular tactic used by 75 percent of email marketers is a website registration page. You can increase the number of email subscribers through your website if you make sure an opt-in request is on each page of your site and by adding opt-in requests to all your social media network pages and blogs.
In fact, every time you communicate with a former, current or prospective client is an opportunity to include an opt-in request – whether it’s a subscription to your e-newsletter or blog or a request to like your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter.
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FREE REPORT: 8 Reasons Small Firms & Solos Should Publish an E-newsletter PLUS 3 Steps to Get Started
In less than a few hours a month, you can produce an effective electronic newsletter, also known as an “E-newsletter.”
An E-newsletter is a customized electronic newsletter that is commonly used in business, but rarely in the field of law. If you are truly interested in the long-term success and sustainability of your practice, you need to learn how to leverage technology and the Internet to build it.
Here’s what you’ll discover when you read this report:
- The cost benefits of an e-newsletter
- How to incorporate your e-newsletter with your social networking
- How an e-newsletter supports your marketing efforts
- How to get started right away with your e-newsletter
- And much, much more!
To get your free report now, click here.
Law Firm Marketing: 5 Proven Strategies to Attract More Clients
Are you working harder, feeling more stressed, and still not seeing the results you want? Then it's time to take action and re-engineer your law firm marketing efforts - or risk your future.
Here are 5 proven strategies that will increase demand for your services:
1. Make marketing your priority. The primary objective of your business is the marketing of your professional services; your secondary objective is then the delivery of those services. Most attorneys have it backwards.
Simply because you may deliver excellent service and provide enormous value, clients do not automatically knock your doors down.
The key to building a long term, solid practice is the quality and consistency of your marketing much more than the actual delivery of your services. Working on your business is much more important than working in your business.
2. Choose positioning over prospecting. A positioner is someone who builds his/her reputation so that prospects come to them; they command respect. Positioners pick and choose clients, whereas prospectors hustle and struggle to get clients. Become a positioner and share your valuable knowledge, expertise, and education with prospects so you will be viewed as the "go-to" person.
3. Use an education-based marketing approach to attract new clients. This is the process used by industry leading service professionals to attract and enroll highly qualified prospects by giving them what they want, not by selling or promoting.
The key is to look for opportunities to create and give your information away, which in turn will position you as the expert. As a result, you will create a powerful magnet to pull clients to you.
4. Design, create and give away information products to generate leads. Many highly successful attorneys are avid writers and producers of information products. In terms of positioning, creating an information product will attract highly qualified prospects that view you as an expert in your field, and as a result, will pay top dollar to work with you.
5. Become a specialist, not a generalist. This is a big one. Highly successful attorneys are specialists at one thing. When people think of that one thing, the specialist comes to mind. Prospects who want that one thing will pay top dollar for the specialist.
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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 8,000 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.
Learn the 5 Critical Numbers You Need To Monitor To Create A Successful Law Firm at a Rainmaker Retreat
When it comes to generating leads for your law practice, there are 5 critical numbers you need to measure and monitor in order to create a successful law firm. This is what we call the lead conversion process.
At the Rainmaker Retreat, our two-day law firm marketing boot camp, we walk you through these numbers and show you specific strategies for how you can increase your conversions at each level of the lead conversion process:
If you want to know more about getting leads and then converting them into paying clients, then I invite you to attend a Rainmaker Retreat, our two-day law firm marketing boot camp. Here are the upcoming dates for 2012:
February 10-11, 2012 – Orlando, FL
March 30-31, 2012 – San Diego, CA
April 27-28, 2012 – Chicago, IL
You can click here to fill out our short contact form and someone will get back to you to answer any questions you may have about the Rainmaker Retreat and how attending our two-day law firm marketing boot camp can help you generate more leads and create a successful law firm.
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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 8,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for our one-hour complimentary teleseminar.
Hosted by Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley, this teleseminar will give you a preview of the valuable material that is taught at our 2-day Rainmaker Retreat as well as teach you:
- 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
Sign up now for one of these upcoming one-hour teleseminars:
Thursday, February 16
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Wednesday, February 22
1pm PT | 2pm MT | 3pm CT | 4pm ET
Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!
The Content Marketing Tools That Matter for Law Firm Marketing
Last month, I wrote a blog encouraging attorneys to Make Content Marketing a Key Legal Marketing Tactic in 2012 and provided some tips on how to do it.
According to a 2011 study by the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is growing rapidly, no doubt spurred by Google’s algorithm shift last year that places a much greater emphasis on creating and posting fresh content.
The most popular content marketing tools, according to the survey, include articles, social media, blogs, eNewsletters, case studies and in-person events. This infographic tells the story:
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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, and start using these proven strategies today!
Law Firm Marketing: How and When Your Target Market Uses Media
I have posted often about the importance of finding your ideal target market – for example, here and here and here – before you embark on any law firm marketing program.
A recent report on Media Consumption by Magid Generational Studies and Advertising Age provides a fascinating glimpse into the media tools used by each generation and when they use them.
The relevance of media consumption habits to your law firm marketing plan is critical because you not only need the right message, you need the right channel and the right timing to get your law firm marketing....well, right.
Here is an infographic produced by MBAOnline that details the findings:
Created by: MBA Online
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Free Report: 4 Myths That Keep Attorneys From Building A Referral-Based Practice
Referrals are the lifeblood of many law practices, and building a good referral program takes a proven process. Stephen Fairly unveils the 4 Myths That Keep Attorneys from Building a Referral-Based Practice in his new free report. Read and discover:
- How to determine the best source for your referrals
- How to explain your ideal target market to a referral source
- How to get referrals from other attorneys
- Whether online directories are a good referral source
- How to network effectively
- And much, much more!
Click here to get your free report today.
Why Law Firms Need to Claim Their Turf on Google+ & How to Do It
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I know, I know. Yet another social network to engage with. So many tools, so little time. But hear me out. Attorneys need to claim their law firm marketing turf on Google+ business pages for two key reasons:
After only six months, Google+ has over 90 million users.
Google is fully integrating Google+ with search results...so if you’re not on Google+, think about what that means for your SEO.
Setting up a Google+ business page for your law practice could not be easier – seriously, it takes just a few minutes. Here are 5 steps to set up your Google+ business page:
1. If you already have a personal Gmail account, do NOT use that address – instead, create a new Gmail account that other people who may be administering your Google+ page can access. For example, ABCLaw@gmail.com.
2. With your Gmail address, go to http://www.google.com/+/business/ to create your page – just follow the Google+ wizard, which will give you classification options for your practice.
3. Populate your Profile with your logo and a tagline if you have one.
4. Optimize your Page with bios, photos, links and other content so when you promote it there is something to interest people.
5. Promote your Page to contacts and your other social networks. One of the great features of Google+ is Circles, which allows you to group your followers are you wish – so if you practice more than one area of law, you can segment by interest and market to them accordingly.
Google+ is here to stay, so get a jump on your competitors – who may not be as savvy as you when it comes to realizing the importance of social media networking – and start generating leads.
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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.
Law Firm Marketing: The Top 5 Reasons Why Attorneys Need a Blog
Just like building good referral sources, blogs are tools of trust-building that eventually result in bringing in new clients. In fact, social media research shows that companies with blogs generate 67% more leads than companies that do not have a blog!
That alone should have marketing-minded attorneys scrambling to implement a blog. However, if you are still weighing the pros and cons of blogging as part of your law firm marketing mix, consider these 5 reasons why attorneys need a blog:
1. A blog is a low-cost, long-term venue to reinforce your brand and educate prospects about you and your practice area(s).
2. A blog gives you a platform to speak directly to clients, prospects and other attorneys rather than through the filter of the media or other sources that may not be accurate. A blog establishes your expertise in a particular niche.
3. A blog provides a stable base for your content without the limitations of other social media channels that are constantly streaming feeds. It is a place for your own voice, 24/7, a place to burnish and protect your reputation.
4. A blog can generate leads for you at a low cost by building traffic to your website and social media networks.
5. Blog analytics provide you with important information on what interests your prospects so you can generate more content to attract them and learn more about marketing to them, thus increasing the likelihood of a greater ROI on your marketing spend.
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FREE REPORT: How to Use Blogs as a Secret Weapon in Your Online Arsenal
One of the secret tools of Internet marketing for attorneys is the power of having a targeted blog. In a new report on the influence of blogs, eMarketer.com found that in 2010, 51% of Internet users in the U.S. (that’s over 91 million people) read blogs, and they project that usage will go to 60% (150 million) in the next four years!
Still think blogs are a fad?
Here’s what you’ll discover when you read this report:
- Why you must have a blog in order to stay relevant
- 3 keys to successful blogging
- 7 Guidelines for achieving ROI
- Your 3 choices for managing your blog and social media efforts
- And much more!
Click here to order your free report now!
Learn How to Turn Random Referrals Into a Regular Referral System at a Rainmaker Retreat
If you ask many attorneys where most clients from, they say referrals. But if you ask them exactly where their referrals come from, you usually get a blank stare in response.
The problem with random referrals is that they are...well, random. You can never count on when you might get one. So how you can go from random referrals to create a referral-based practice?
Here’s how:
I encourage you to click here to fill out our short contact form and someone will be with you shortly to answer any questions you may have about the Rainmaker Retreat and how attending our two-day law firm marketing boot camp can help you create a referral-based practice.
You can also click here to register for our complimentary one-hour teleseminar, where you will discover a proven Legal Marketing System that has helped 8,000 attorneys convert more prospects into paying clients.
Join us and learn:
- How to avoid the most deadly legal marketing mistakes attorneys make
- 3 powerful strategies you must put into action in your law 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
The call will also give you a preview of the 65 different marketing techniques and strategies taught at our 2-day legal marketing boot camp.
Join us and in 60 minutes learn why hundreds of attorneys across the country attend and rave about the Rainmaker Retreat. Here are the dates for an upcoming complimentary teleseminar:
Wednesday, February 8
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Thursday, February 16
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Wednesday, February 22
1pm PT | 2pm MT | 3pm CT | 4pm ET
Law Firm Marketing Playbook: Take Time Out to Reassess and Recommit
I love the Super Bowl. Not just for the game, but for the commercials. The marketer in me is always anxious to see what kind of talent the big advertisers and their agency teams will put on the field during the biggest showcase in advertising.
I loved Chrysler’s Imported From Detroit spot last year and they followed it up with a doozy this year, Halftime in America:
Here are the words that resonate when it comes to law firm marketing:
We find a way through tough times, and if we can't find a way, then we'll make one. All that matters now is what's ahead.
So what is ahead for your law practice in 2012? Will you still be reeling from the punches that this economy has delivered over the past few years? Or will you take the time to reassess your legal marketing game plan and make the necessary adjustments to win?
One secret of highly successful attorneys is that they make time to plan for the future. We recommend meeting at least once per quarter with your senior partners (even if you are the entire partnership) to evaluate achievements, set new goals and work on your law firm marketing plan.
Here are some of the areas for you to think about:
Financial goals for your business --Don’t just focus on the money; focus on how you will get there. If your average client spends $5,000 with you, how many new clients do you need to break $500,000 this year? (Answer: 100). That works out to about 2 new clients per week. Unless you want a high volume law practice, you will need to develop a way to up-sell new clients into higher-end services.
Practice Area Specific Goals -- How many new estate plans do you want to do in the next 6 months? How many new trials are you willing to take on this year?
Marketing Goals --All the top law firms in the country recognize the importance of marketing and business development. You need to set measurable marketing goals. “I will meet with 4 new referral sources every month.” How are you going to meet them? Who is going to set those meetings up? Who will do the follow up?
Strategic Business Goals-- This is where you start to think big about your practice. Challenge yourself; how can you come up with another $100,000 this year? How can you go from your current 5 referral sources to 30 in the next 6 months?
Personal Goals --Perhaps you need to schedule a vacation for yourself every quarter. Maybe you have an idea for a new business venture. What place does your family, friends and significant other hold in your life?
Above all, make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T. -- Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-oriented, and Timed. A good goal needs to incorporate all of these criteria.
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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.
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: Proven Tactics for Twitter Success
Of the major social media networks, the one that seems to confound attorneys the most is Twitter. Perhaps it’s because there’s a limit (140 characters) on what you can write that frustrates lawyers, or all those #hashtags and @ symbols that confuse.
What you need to keep in mind about Twitter is that it’s all about getting followers. You want to push out ideas and insights that people will want to follow, which is establishing trust, which is bringing you leads.
I recently blogged about How to Boost Your Law Firm Marketing SEO with Twitter. This HubSpot infographic tells you exactly how to structure your tweets to Get More Clicks on Twitter:
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FREE REPORT: 8 Reasons Small Firms & Solos Should Publish an E-newsletter PLUS 3 Steps to Get Started
In less than a few hours a month, you can produce an effective electronic newsletter, also known as an “E-newsletter.”
An E-newsletter is a customized electronic newsletter that is commonly used in business, but rarely in the field of law. If you are truly interested in the long-term success and sustainability of your practice, you need to learn how to leverage technology and the Internet to build it.
Here’s what you’ll discover when you read this report:
- The cost benefits of an e-newsletter
- How to incorporate your e-newsletter with your social networking
- How an e-newsletter supports your marketing efforts
- How to get started right away with your e-newsletter
- And much, much more!
To get your free report now, click here.
Social Media Marketing for Lawyers: Understanding the Social Media Lifecycle
Are any of you watching The Firm? It’s a new series on NBC based on the John Grisham best-seller, and continues the story of personal injury lawyer Mitch McDeere after he “escapes” from the big, bad law firm in the original movie and opens his own practice.
It’s a pretty good show, as legal thrillers go. Of course, there are some of the usual legal clichés – like another big, bad law firm burying Mitch’s tiny firm in paperwork to “hide” the smoking gun that will net his client millions.
But the damning memo is eventually discovered, and David bests Goliath once again. Thanks heavens that lawyers love to dig. Nothing like finding that nugget that will enable you to prevail in a suit.
It may surprise you to learn that this same tenacity needs to be applied when it comes to your social media marketing efforts. Ubervu created an interesting infographic outlining the Social Media Lifecycle, broken out into four areas that all need your attention if you are to prevail in your social network law firm marketing efforts. I have blogged about each of these four areas recently:
Monitor: Understand How Consumers Use Social Media to Improve Your Law Firm Marketing Efforts
Analyze: How Google Analytics Can Help Improve Your Law Firm Marketing Website and Blog
Collaborate: Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: How to Create a Winning! Social Media Strategy
Integrate: The Importance of KPI in Marketing & Managing Your Law Practice
Here’s the infographic; start digging!
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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, and start using these proven strategies today!
Social Media Marketing for Attorneys: How to Evaluate a Social Media 'Expert'
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Social media is all about sharing, so when I come across a thought-provoking post on another of the many social media blogs I frequent, I like to share it.
Today’s shared post is not only entertaining writing, it also imparts some valuable information that attorneys who are considering outsourcing their social media efforts should know.
These are the 10 Questions to Evaluate a Social Media Expert; you can read the full post with the answers to these questions here.
- Do you have a blog?
- When did you start in social media?
- What is social media?
- What is a social media campaign?
- How do you monitor social media for clients?
- How to you measure ROI?
- How do you build an audience?
- Do you offer a guarantee?
- How did you learn social media?
- How does social media impact SEO?
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.
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Get All the Law Firm Marketing Strategies You Need to Create A 7-figure Law Practice with Rainmaker In A Box: Volume 2!
Newly released! Rainmaker in a Box: Volume 2 includes:
8 Proven Steps for More & Better Referrals
Discover the proven step-by-step system used to double your referrals from current and former clients and how to build a network of strategic referral partners. Top attorneys have used this exact system to double their referrals in 6 months or less!
7 Strategies to Recession Proof Your Law Firm
Watch and learn as I walk you through the specific strategies top lawyers are using to increase their revenues in this tough economy-and it doesn’t include reducing their fees!
6 Keys to Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media
Social media has emerged as the fastest way to build a massive platform of prospects! I pull back the curtain and let you in on little known secrets of how attorneys are generating dozens of leads every month from social media.
5 Core Components for Highly Successful Websites & Blogs
My interview with nationally recognized personal injury attorney John Bisnar on how his law firm uses search engine optimization and internet marketing to drive tens of thousands of unique visitors every month to his 30 websites and 10 blogs. Discover proven techniques for converting website visitors into paying clients.
Data DVD: Includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you experience these information-packed DVDs!
Click here now to order!
Legal Infographic: How to Become a Paralegal
Do you know someone who loves the law, but not the prospect of law school? If so, I am happy to share with you this interesting infographic from Schools.com on how to become a paralegal:
Courtesy of: Schools.com
Law Firm Marketing: New Study Shows How Social Media Influences Hiring of Outside Counsel
The 2012 In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey, conducted by Greentarget, Inside Counsel magazine and Zeughauser Group, examines how in-house lawyers utilize social media.
Attorneys who seek to be hired by in-house counsel should take note of the results in planning their law firm marketing efforts – particularly these from the executive summary of the report:
Blogs are influential. 76 percent of the survey respondents said they place some level of importance on a lawyer’s blog when making a hiring decision.
Blogs are credible. 84 percent of respondents said they perceive blogs as credible.
LinkedIn is the preferred social network. 88 percent of respondents said that LinkedIn is the “serious” social network for lawyers, and a significantly greater number of in-house counsel are using LinkedIn for both personal and professional reasons.
Older generation of in-house counsel is catching up on social media. A greater number of older in-house counsel are participating in social media than the 2010 survey revealed; most notably, older counselors are becoming greater consumers of blogs.
Listening instead of contributing. In-house counsel rarely contributes content on social networks, instead preferring to monitor and listen.
Clearly, social media use among in-house counsel is rising and becoming more influential in decision-making. Attorneys targeting this market as prospective clients need to raise their social media game to be noticed.
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Insights From Rainmaker Retreat Attendee on How Applying What She Learned Earned Her 43 New Cases
Last June, I was privileged to keynote the California Solo and Small Firm Summit and present four breakout sessions:
Law Firm Marketing Strategies in a Social Media World: How to Use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to Connect with Clients, Prospects and Referral Sources
How to Use YouTube, Avvo, and Your Blog to Connect with Clients, Prospects and Referral Sources
Proven Strategies for Using Websites and Internet Marketing to Generate More Leads
From Lead Generation to Client Retention: Secrets of Highly Successful Rainmakers
Patricia Van Haren, a Torrance, California family law attorney (www.budrisandvanharen.com), attended this June event and just finished participating in our two-day law firm marketing boot camp, the Rainmaker Retreat, in Las Vegas last weekend. Here’s her story:
Using just what she learned in those four sessions in June, she was able to generate 43 new cases for her family law practice in only six months – impressive, to say the least! She has now formed a new partnership and attended our Rainmaker Retreat to further refine her education on law firm marketing to grow that new partnership quickly.
I was interested to hear that one of her key takeaways was about micromanaging the client experience. Too often, micromanagement is seen as a bad thing – but that is not the case when it comes to ensuring your clients have the best possible experience with your firm. You not only want them to return and refer, you want the word on your good reputation to be spread via social media – this can only be accomplished by paying very close and careful attention to managing the experience your clients have with your firm.
If you are interested in learning the law firm marketing strategies Patricia is using to grow her firm, here are our scheduled Rainmaker Retreat sessions:
February 10-11, 2012 – Orlando, FL
March 30-31, 2012 – San Diego, CA
April 27-28, 2012 – Chicago, IL
Click here to visit our Rainmaker Retreat website, where you can also access online registration for our upcoming events.
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Here’s a Risk-Free Way to Preview the Rainmaker Retreat
In this complimentary 60-minute legal marketing call you will discover a proven Legal Marketing System that has helped 8,000 attorneys convert more prospects into paying clients
Join us and learn:
- How to avoid the most deadly legal marketing mistakes attorneys make
- 3 powerful strategies you must put into action in your law 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
This teleseminar will be personally presented by Stephen Fairley, CEO of the Rainmaker Institute, LLC and a nationally recognized law firm marketing expert.
The call will also give you a preview of the 65 different marketing techniques and strategies taught at our 2-day legal marketing boot camp.
Join us and in 60 minutes learn why hundreds of attorneys across the country attend and rave about the Rainmaker Retreat. Here are the dates for an upcoming complimentary teleseminar:
Thursday, February 2
12pm PT | 1pm MT | 2pm CT | 3pm ET
Wednesday, February 8
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
Thursday, February 16
11am PT | 12pm MT | 1pm CT | 2pm ET
If there’s one thing you cannot afford to miss out on this year, it’s the Rainmaker Retreat.
Click here to register and discover for yourself what you have been missing.
