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

This venn diagram at Matt Homann’s the [non]billable hour blog got me thinking again about perception and reality when it comes to law firm marketing:


If you ask most attorneys whom they are marketing to with their websites, they’ll tell you potential clients.  That’s their perception.  But the sad reality is, most attorneys are marketing to other attorneys and, yes, themselves. 

How profitable is that?

Maybe it’s time to take a good long look at that Ideal Target Market and be sure your website – and all your marketing efforts – are speaking directly to them.

Your Ideal Target Market (ITM) is the person or company who is most likely to retain you initially, repeatedly, and at the highest profit margin. There are 3 key parts here:

Initially—your ITM will retain your services faster than others and present fewer obstacles for you to overcome.

Repeatedly—the most expensive thing a law firm can have is a 1-time client. On average, it will cost your firm 10 times as much to obtain a new client as it does to service an existing one.

At the highest profit margin—your ITM is not the price-conscious consumer. Research tells us that 15% of any market, regardless of what product or service you are selling, will always and only buy on price. Your responsibility as a law firm marketing professional is to quickly identify those “15 percenters” and move them out of your pipeline so you can focus on selling to the other 85%.

Identifying and targeting the right market is absolutely critical to the success of your law firm marketing plan. If you don’t target the right market, nothing else you do will matter. To be successful as a legal marketer and attorney, you have to start with a clear picture of your ITM.

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BALIF Rainmaker Institute Event on October 14 in San Francisco

Founded in 1980, Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF) is the nation’s oldest and largest bar association of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgendered persons in the field of law.

On Thursday, Oct. 14, BALIF will present a 1-day workshop designed for busy Attorneys, Partners, Associates, and their Staff who want to discover how to apply proven marketing strategies and top tips used by some of today’s biggest Rainmakers to create a 7-figure lifestyle law firm. 

Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley will be speaking on Proven Strategies for Today’s Rainmaker: Increasing Revenues and Referrals Using Networking, Internet Marketing and Social Media In the New Age.  This one-day seminar includes 1 hour of MCLE Ethics Credit for California attorneys.

For more information and to register online, click here.

 

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Fall is almost here and so is the next group of Rainmaker Retreats!  These information-packed law firm marketing seminars are designed to give small firm and solo attorneys the guidance you need to go back and develop legal marketing strategies that will allow you to build the type of practice you have always wanted.  The information presented ranges from legal marketing systems and techniques to Internet marketing for attorneys.

The Rainmaker Retreat schedule includes the following dates and locations:

• October 8-9, 2010        New Brunswick, NJ
• October 22-23, 2010    Scottsdale, AZ
• November 5-6, 2010    San Francisco, CA

The Rainmaker Retreat is different from other marketing seminars in several ways:

First, it is specifically designed for Attorneys at small law firms and solo practitioners.  While attorneys at larger firms can benefit from the information presented, it is presented with the Small law firm and solo attorney in mind.

Second, it is a working retreat.  You will be creating many of your plans during the retreat.

Third, it is NOT an introductory course. We work very hard to make the material easy to understand and simple to apply, but please understand this is an advanced, in-depth, hard-hitting course.

Fourth, it is designed to maximize the your Return on Investment. Everything about this workshop is focused on one goal—helping you achieve the best results by finding more and better clients in the least amount of time using the least amount of money possible.

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

If you are looking to revolutionize your law firm marketing, register now for one of the Rainmaker Retreats. 

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Complimentary Rainmaker Retreat Preview DVD is Available

We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at the 2 day Rainmaker Retreat. Yes, we know you are skeptical (we wouldn't have it any other way).   So instead of us telling you how these 2 days will transform your business, we will let our clients do the telling.  Like this:

 

 

Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.

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The information-packed Becoming a Rainmaker presentation is coming to New Jersey, October 5, 6 & 7, 2010 in a series of presentations sponsored by the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Bergen County Bar Association, Burlington County Bar Association, and the Morris County Bar Association.

These 2-hour seminars show small and solo practice attorneys how they can take charge of their practice and begin to build the business they have always wanted.  The Becoming a Rainmaker seminar has been sponsored by 22 of the largest state and local bar associations in the country, and teaches the proven Rainmaker Marketing System, which has helped more than 7,000 attorneys find more and better clients and establish a law firm marketing system for generating more referrals.

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 will be covered during these three informative two-hour sessions 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 Becoming a Rainmaker seminars are scheduled as follows:

Tuesday, October 5, 2010, 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
Burlington County Bar Association
Burlington County Court House, 49 Rancocas Rd., Mount Holly, NJ
Click here to register.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010, 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
Morris County Bar Association
Old Court House, Washington and Court Streets, Morristown, NJ
Click here to register.

Thursday, October 7, 2010, 4 p.m.-6 p.m.
Bergen County Bar Association
George W. Newman Law Building, 15 Bergen St., Hackensack, NJ
Click here to register.

Admission to each presentation is $77 for Bar Association members and $97 for nonmembers. 

For more information, call 888-816-8935 or email info@therainmakerinstitute.com.

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LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook dominate the social media marketing landscape for both B2B and B2C marketers, according to a new study just out from KingFish Media, HubSpot and Junta42:

The online survey of corporate managers and marketing/sales managers conducted two months ago found that nearly 75 percent of all companies surveyed have a social media marketing strategy in place, and will be increasing their spend on social media over the next year.

The most prevalent ways these companies are using social media include:

• Generating leads
• Enhancing customer relationships
• Increasing sales
• Increasing customer retention
• Brand promotion
• Customer feedback
• New product introduction
• Entering new markets

To get a pdf of the full report, go here.

And if you need help getting your social media marketing program off the ground, go here.

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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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Here is the second in a series of three posts this week outlining the best practices in becoming a rainmaker on the Internet. 


To read the first in the series, go here.  I’ll list the first three from yesterday to refresh memories and then continue with the next three strategies for driving targeted traffic to your website through good SEO practices:

1. Know the keywords people use to search for your services.
2. Use keywords in your domain name.
3. Create compelling copy.

4. Add fresh content regularly. Perhaps the top strategy used by high-ranking lawyers today is to add new, relevant content to their websites on a consistent basis. This is one of the major reasons for the explosion in blogs in recent years. Although some law firms are selecting blogs instead of websites, I believe there is a place for each in online legal marketing. If, for economic reasons, you are forced to select between one or the other, I recommend starting out with a blog. Why? Because they are very low cost (or free) as compared to websites and, if done properly, will help you rank faster than a traditional website.

Anyone can start a blog at no cost using sites such as www.wordpress.com and www.blogger.com. For any serious traffic, you need to be updating three to five times per week. Lawyers who want to be at the top of the search engines update their blog three to five times per day. The more relevant content your blog gives Google, the more it will love your blog by ranking it higher. 


Key Action Steps: 


• The more fresh, relevant content you post on your website or blog, the higher you will rank on the search engines. 

• Blogs are a great place to get started, but in order to be effective they must be updated frequently. Update your blog at least three to five times per week.

5. Use video to keep visitors’ attention. Now here’s a truly depressing statistic: On average, 85 percent of your website’s visitors will stay for less than 30 seconds and will never return. Seriously? Yes. If you don’t believe me, check for yourself. Look at your website’s statistics log and see how many unique visitors you have and how long they stay on average. (Virtually every website has at least a basic statistics package; just ask your website tech or hosting company how to access it. If you are not already using Google Analytics, have your tech install it. It’s much better than most. And it’s free.)

The bottom line is that you literally have less than 30 seconds to impress your website visitors. I believe all of us would agree that the longer visitors stay on your website, the more likely they are to connect with you.

One of the best ways to increase the length of time a visitor stays is by using videos. Anecdotally, our clients have seen a four- to fivefold increase in length of stay after implementing videos on their websites. These videos should be one to three minutes long and focus on educating prospects and website visitors about who you are, who you help, and why you are different. These videos do not need to be professionally produced, but you may want to have someone add a short introduction including your website and phone number. Once you have your video ready, upload it to your website—and to www.youtube.com for additional exposure. Visitors are more concerned with content than production quality. If allowed in your jurisdiction, use video testimonials from your clients as well. 


Key Action Steps:


• The longer someone stays on your website, the greater likelihood they will connect with you.  Use videos to quickly capture their attention. 

• Your videos should educate prospects about who you are, who you help, and why you are different.

6. Develop educational tools and promote them on your website. Education-based marketing is one of the most powerful tools at the disposal of lawyers. There is a great amount of basic information you know about your practice area that prospects want and need to know. Think about some of the questions your clients have about child custody and divorce or how to avoid getting sued by employees or ways to protect their intellectual property. Identify their frequently asked questions or biggest challenges and put together a short report (three to six pages long), a PowerPoint presentation, or even an audio CD, and offer a free copy to website visitors who give you their contact information.

Remember, if you cannot get visitors to call you directly, the second-best alternative is to persuade them to give you their contact information with permission to contact them. Give your education material a creative title such as “7 Questions You Must Ask before You Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer,” or “The 10 Deadly Mistakes People Make with Their Estate Plan,” or even “5 Strategies Inventors Can Use to Protect and Monetize Their Inventions.”

This kind of free educational information is a great tool to start building relationships with many people who need your help but aren’t ready to walk in your door. It is not enough simply to offer people a free consultation. Almost every lawyer does that. Take it one step further and give them some great information that will help them think through the issues and challenges they are facing. Once you have created these educational tools, find every way you can to give them away to as many people as possible. 


Key Action Steps: 


• Use an educational report, white paper, or audio CD to inform prospects, clients, and referral sources. 

• Every prospect has questions and challenges. Identify them and give them some information that indicates you can resolve their challenges and answer their questions.

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You Should Not Miss This Law Firm Marketing Webinar Tomorrow!

Live Webinar:  8 Proven Tools to Double Your Referrals in 6 Months... Or Less.
Hosted by #1 best-selling author and nationally recognized law firm marketing expert Stephen Fairley

Wednesday, August 18 at 2:00pm ET
(1:00pm CT, 12:00pm MT, 11:00am PT)

Duration: 60 minutes

This event will be presented live via phone with an Internet connection available for those who want to view the presentation on their computers as well. Internet access is not required for phone-only participants. A copy of the presentation and downloadable materials will be provided after the event.

Register online: http://www.avantresources.com/store/events/8-proven-tools-to-double-your-law-firm-referrals-in-6-monthsor-less

 

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Social media is trending upwards faster than ever. Facebook just announced they now have 500 million registered users!  By way of comparison, the estimated population of the USA is 309 million.  And Twitter usage has more than doubled in the past year, from 44 million to 92 million worldwide.

Attorneys and law firms should consider using social media, but keep it in its place. In other words, be sure you are focusing on the major parts of your marketing first like generating referrals from current and former clients, seeking referrals from other professionals (attorneys and non-legal professionals), networking, getting your website up, blogging, THEN using social media.

Social media is the #1 fastest way to build your platform (how many people know who you are, who you help and how you are different).

The Rainmaker Institute has close to 60,000 people following us on Twitter and several thousand ‘fans’ and friends on Facebook (also www.Facebook.com/LawFirmMarketing).

Are all of them attorneys? No, but since we usually only post topics that attorneys or other small business owners would care about (most of our clients are also small business owners), the people who are not interested in these topics will generally self-select and stop following us after a while.

Social media can be the most cost effective way to build your list!  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 list using a free special report or free CD or DVD or newsletter. 

The golden rule here is: he/she who has the biggest list wins! Yes, I know it's about the quality of your list as well, but when it comes to building your law firm database of interested prospects, size does matter!

Get started by focusing on the big 6 social media sites for attorneys:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Avvo
• JDSupra
• YouTube
• Twitter

Let us know if you want some help in figuring out how to get started or how to leverage social media to build your list and generate leads for your law firm.

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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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Law firm marketing is a complex and competitive business. And there are many reasons why some law firms fail to grow or even fail to survive.

However, in my work with more than 7,000 attorneys over the years, I’ve come to find out that there are essentially 3 main reasons why lawyers fail to grow their practices:

Lack of Time
This is the single biggest complaint we hear. You’re stressed for time. You barely have time to serve your clients, much less market your practice. Not to mention spend time with your family.

Lack of Systems
There are several simple systems attorneys can use to create a “lifestyle practice”—a practice that supports the lifestyle you want to lead, rather than one that dominates your life.

Lack of Strategy
From a marketing perspective, a comprehensive strategy to grow your law firm is essential to your long-term success. Otherwise, you and your team lack direction.

These “lacks” can be overcome so that you can create that lifestyle law practice you desire.

Many of our clients are proof of that. When you use a proven legal marketing strategy that consistently produces results, you can then set up legal marketing systems that, in turn, frees up your time, increases your client roster and boosts your revenue.

And where might you find proven legal marketing strategies?  Check out the free offer below.

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Free CD:  Law Firm Marketing Strategies

Get your free CD on Law Firm Marketing Strategies 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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If you are like many attorneys, you have tried many things to market your law firm. Marketing for lawyers often includes giving seminars and presentations, going to networking events, writing articles, talking to old law school buddies, meeting with potential referral sources, building law firm websites, and sending out holiday cards to remind clients of who you are.

When marketing your law firm, there are four different groups of people you come into contact with, and which group they fall into will usually tell you how you should follow up with them. It is important to understand the differences between each group:

Leads are people or companies who are unqualified and may or may not need your services or even be able to afford your services. Leads come from a presentation you make to a local trade group, by visiting your law firm website, or perhaps sending you a question in an email.

Prospects are people who have some level of qualification. They have either expressed a need for your services or they fall into a category that you believe has a high likelihood of needing your services. The major differences between leads and prospects are two-fold: you know who they are and you have a good reason to believe they need your services.

Clients are the third group you need to follow up with. A client is someone who has paid you money. Do not confuse prospects with clients. If someone hasn’t signed an agreement and paid you money yet, they are not your client.

Referrals are the last group you need to follow up with as part of your law firm marketing plan. They may be current referral sources, former referral sources (they haven't sent you any new leads or prospects in the last 12 months), or prospective referral sources.

I have coached and trained over 7,000 lawyers in virtually every practice area. The difference between financially successful attorneys and struggling attorneys is often found in their follow-up.

Top attorneys clearly understand “the fortune is in the follow up”. They plan ahead and lay out a clear game plan for following up with every person they connect with.

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Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?

Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!

Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:

• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps

This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations.
To order this information-packed set, click here.
 

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I am in Las Vegas today with the Bisnar Rainmaker Mastermind Group at the Trump Hotel – I mean, where else would a group of entrepreneurial legal marketing gurus meet to plot industry-leading growth strategies?

The Bisnar Rainmaker Mastermind Group is an exclusive group of non-competing attorneys and law firm marketing experts, who:

• Share proven methods about how to multiply their practice
• Have a passion to play a bigger game
• Are dedicated to increasing the profits, not just the revenues, of their law firms
• Desire to create an automated legal marketing system
• Desire to systematize our law firms so they can have a lifestyle law firm
• Know one of the secrets to success is to build a team of superstars
• Are committed to investing 3-5 hours every week to working on their business
• Want to move fast and see dynamic results in their business and their life
• Dedicate themselves to growing their law firm at least 30% every year

The group is led by me and nationally recognized personal injury and auto defect liability attorney John Bisnar, founder and managing partner of Bisnar | Chase in Orange County, CA.  He is nationally recognized as an expert in Internet marketing for law firms and each year his law firm generates hundreds of qualified clients from his 40+ websites.  John’s Internet marketing efforts have resulted in building a multi-million dollar law firm, which is one of the fastest growing firms in the country.

The Bisnar Rainmaker Mastermind Group is a success oriented, team-minded retreat where attorneys have the opportunity to learn in the company of other top attorneys where to find the necessary resources, tap into creative ideas and apply the skills they need to transform their current practice. 

We meet three times a year, usually in L.A., Phoenix and Vegas, for an intense, all-day strategy session.  Membership in our group is by invitation only; prospective members fill out an application and are interviewed by John and me.  The group is geographically and practice-specific as well as non-competitive.

Members have unrestricted access to both of us, as well as all the group members for brainstorming, high-level networking, business development techniques, goal setting, and refocusing on creating a lifestyle law firm.

There are a ton of other benefits as well – too many to list here – so you can read more about us here.

If you are interested in being considered for membership in the Bisnar Rainmaker Mastermind Group, email me: Stephen@therainmakerinstitute.com.

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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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The term res ipsa loquitur – “the thing speaks for itself” – is commonly used in negligence cases, but in the case of our Rainmaker Retreats, I think the results speak for themselves, so here are the verdicts from recent attendees of our 2-day legal marketing boot camp:

“If you are not doing this stuff, thanks! Because I am scooping your client prospects!”
- Peter Brewer, Esq. (CA)

“This course should be part of the law school curriculum for every school in the nation!”
- Andrew Cho, Esq. (CA)

“I flew across country to get here. I would have walked. This is an utterly fabulous program.”- Tom Hartmann, Esq. (NJ)

“You will get a hundred great ideas and a system to make it rain without end at your law office if you attend The Rainmaker Institute Rainmaker Retreat.” – Joseph C. McDaniel, Esq. (AZ)

“The program was fast paced, loaded with content and, unlike many seminars, commanded constant and undivided attention. I now feel I have specific steps to take besides waiting for the phone to ring.”- Michael Hickman, Partner

“This course exceeded my expectations, doubly exceeded my cynicism, and made me feel I was wasting big bucks taking a restroom break.”- William Bachrach, Partner

“Worth every minute and every dollar. A new world for business development.”- Joseph George, Jr., Partner

The Rainmaker Retreat is different from other marketing seminars in several ways:

First, it is specifically designed for Attorneys at small law firms and solo practitioners.  While attorneys at larger firms can benefit from the information presented, it is presented with the small law firm and solo attorney in mind.

Second, it is a working retreat.  You will be creating many of your plans during the retreat.

Third, it is NOT an introductory course. We work very hard to make the material easy to understand and simple to apply, but please understand this is an advanced, in-depth, hard-hitting course.

Fourth, it is designed to maximize your Return on Investment. Everything about this workshop is focused on one goal—helping you achieve the best results by finding more and better clients in the least amount of time using the least amount of money possible.

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

We have one last summer session and it’s this coming weekend, Aug. 6-7, at The Mirage in Las Vegas.  It’s not too late to register now for this practice-changing event.

Check back here for more Fall Rainmaker Retreat dates to be announced soon.

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Exclusive Rainmaker Retreat Preview Call – Learn Before You Go!

If you want to learn more about the Rainmaker Retreat and why it is a proven legal marketing system that has helped over 7,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for our one-hour complimentary teleseminar.

Hosted by Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley, 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:

Wednesday, August 4, 2010
11am-12pm Pacific | 12-1pm Mountain | 1-2pm Central | 2-3pm Eastern

Wednesday, August 11, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern

Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!

 

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Today I’m in Los Angeles at our Rainmaker Retreat – one of two back-to-back legal marketing boot camps that I’ll be conducting this weekend in L.A. and next weekend in Las Vegas.   Then I’ll be relaxing the rest of August after hosting four very successful retreats over the past two months!

If you want to get in on our final legal marketing boot camp of the summer at the Mirage in Las Vegas next weekend (Aug. 6-7), there is still time, and you can register online.

If you are unable to join us in Las Vegas, there is no reason to miss out on the invaluable legal marketing information we will be sharing with attorneys from around the country.   Such information will consist of valuable legal marketing tips to expand on your law firm marketing campaign. If you can’t come to us and learn all there is to know about legal marketing, then we will bring the Rainmaker Retreat to you.

You can own “Rainmaker Retreat Live” when you purchase the 6 audio compact disk set, which is accompanied by a downloadable PDF 70-page Legal Marketing Manual. Experience the Rainmaker Retreat on your schedule, at your own pace. You will be inspired, motivated and provided information on legal marketing with the guidance to make your practice all that you know it can be.

This live recording of our highly successful two-day legal marketing seminar features:

• More than 22 proven legal marketing strategies to attract more and better clients
• How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
• 5 Ways to automate your legal marketing using technology and the internet
• 7 ways to find more clients fast and how to select the best ones for you
• 2 ways to promote your firm to 100,000 people for only $100
• 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition

Many of the most successful attorneys we know pop a CD into their CD-drive and listen to “Rainmaker Retreat Live” during their daily commute. Discover how you can build a successful law firm practice using the legal marketing strategies that you will learn on your drive!

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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!)
• The 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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When it comes to finding new clients, there are really only 7 legal marketing tools you should use to find them. Most successful attorneys don’t use all of them -- they experiment and find the ones that consistently produce the most results.  Then they focus all of their time, energy, and resources on those proven strategies.

Which strategies will work for you depends on your target market and what’s allowable where you practice. Some of the strategies and techniques covered in this section will not work or may only work if you are targeting a particular population.

Before I get to the 7 tools that will help you find new clients, I must add this caveat:

Every state has different rules and regulations regarding marketing, advertising, and what is and is not allowed. Depending upon your practice area and state code of professional ethics, some of the strategies discussed in this post may not be allowed in your area.  You are personally responsible for seeking specific legal advice regarding your local and state regulations and ethics codes.

Here are the 7 legal marketing tools for finding new clients :

1. Referrals: from strategic partners, existing and former clients, friends, family members, other lawyers, legal referral sources, and business association.
2. Speaking and Seminars: formal presentations, workshops, seminars, speaking for associations and organizations.
3. Formal/Informal Networking: connecting with centers of influence, professional associations, chambers of commerce, clubs, trade association meetings, or formal lead groups.
4. An Online Presence: websites, article marketing, blogs, pay-per-click, ezines, auto responders, newsletters, and opt-in lists.
5. Press Releases & Media Placement: online press releases, writing articles or columns for local newspapers, trade magazines, professional journals, offering an advice column, being a content expert for the media, television, radio, trade association magazines, or newspaper interviews.
6. Promotional Events: participating in trade shows, sponsoring a public event like a marathon, participating in a charity event, sending out partnership announcements, or having an “open house” to publicize your new offices.
7. Advertising: in the Yellow Pages, newspapers, magazines, or trade journals, email campaigns, ads in business directories, or on radio or TV, and Internet–based ads.

After you’ve considered your state’s regulations and ethics code, consider how you can use some of these legal marketing tools to find new clients.

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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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If you have not registered yet for our two upcoming attorney marketing boot camps, there is still time to do so. Join law firm marketing experts and your fellow attorneys for our Rainmaker Retreat – in Los Angeles on July 30-31 or at The Mirage in Las Vegas the following weekend, Aug. 6-7, 2010.

This is what attendees of the Rainmaker Retreat have had to say about our attorney marketing boot camp:

Among the many things you will take away from this event:

• Step-by-step guidance in finding the best, most strategic referral partners
• How to cut costs by eliminating ineffective law firm marketing strategies
• Create a ‘Master Plan’ to guide your firm’s growth through marketing for lawyers
• How to focus your time, energy and dollars on the most effective law firm marketing techniques designed specifically for small and solo law firms
• Five proven strategies to get more attention, command more respect and charge higher fees
• Leveraging the Internet to create the most “buzz” for your firm
• How to create a steady stream of new referrals using law firm marketing techniques
• Learn to set your firm apart from your competitors

Each day is filled with sessions (with built-in Action Steps and Action Groups) to guide you in putting these law firm marketing strategies into practice immediately. You will leave with a specific plan – uniquely suited to you and your firm – that will help you to create a successful and highly-satisfying legal practice!

You can still qualify for the Early Bird Discount for our Las Vegas Rainmaker Retreat – to register, go here.

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Exclusive Rainmaker Retreat Preview Call – Learn Before You Go!

If you want to learn more about the Rainmaker Retreat and why it is a proven legal marketing system that has helped over 7,000 attorneys find more and better clients, then register now for our one-hour complimentary teleseminar.

Hosted by Rainmaker Institute CEO Stephen Fairley, 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:

Tuesday, July 27, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010
11am-12pm Pacific | 12-1pm Mountain | 1-2pm Central | 2-3pm Eastern

Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 4-5pm Eastern

Join us and learn why the Rainmaker Retreat is the one law firm marketing boot camp you cannot afford to miss!

 

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A very powerful law firm marketing strategy to generate more clients is to hold educational seminars or speak at events.  Here are some tips to help ensure that the time you commit to this endeavor pays off for you in terms of new clients and/or referrals.

Tip #1: Always Speak to Decision Makers
Make sure you get in front of the right group (people who either can refer you clients or who are highly likely to need, want and be able to afford your services) by asking about:

• What is the average attendance?
• What is your average attendee like? Their job title? Description? Age? Decision maker?
• What percentage of your usual attendees are decision makers?
• What kinds of topics have had the best turnout?
• Who has recently spoken to your group and what did they speak about?

Tip #2: Educate Your Audience
Make your talk educational. Don’t stand up there and spout legal jargon and legal theory or sections and codes because that’s not what people want. They want practical, useful information.

You may say, “Well, I don’t want to give away the store. I don’t want to give them so much information that they can do it themselves.” Please understand, if you could give them enough information where they could do it themselves, the people who actually would do it for themselves are not your clients.

You want to target the people who have the money to hire an attorney and don’t want to do it for themselves. You don’t want to hire tire kickers or “do it yourselfers” because all they’re going to do is try to get your lowest price. I actually follow the opposite principle. I purposefully try to overwhelm my audience with practical, useful information when I give a seminar on law firm marketing. Why? Because I want them to walk out of the room with so many great ideas that they don’t know where to start so they will turn to me and hire my company to implement the law firm marketing plan for them.

You must recognize that not everyone in the audience is in your target market and you need to qualify them as much as they qualify you. You need to ensure that they need you, they want you and they can afford you. If you don’t want to attract “Yellow Page Clients” then don’t charge Yellow Page prices.

Tip # 3: Get Attendees' Contact Information
Have a plan for obtaining the attendees’ contact information both before and after your presentation. You want to get it before so that you can get ready to follow-up with them, but also after your presentation just in case somebody shows up at the door. If you can’t get the contact information from the conference organizer, do a giveaway for a prize and have them pass their business cards to the front or have them email you their contact information to get a free copy of the handout or PowerPoint slides.

Tip # 4: The Fortune is in the Follow-up
The number one reason why lawyers don’t get results is because they don’t have a written follow-up system. You must develop a follow up strategy before the talk.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say your follow-up strategy is a series of emails, phone calls and maybe a letter or postcard. Your follow-up system would include 4 emails, 3 phone calls and 1 letter.

Email #1 would be sent within 24 hours post-seminar. It would be a thank you email with an offer for a free consultation, special report or audio CD.  Phone Call #1 would be made by your staff and would be made within 24 hours post-seminar. The call would be to thank them for attending and make the same free offer that’s made in the email. Your letter would be sent out the next day (they should receive it within 3 days if they are local.) and the letter would repeat what you have written in the email. All of this would happen in the first 24 hours after the seminar.

Some of you will question if that’s too aggressive. It’s not. It demonstrates a high level of professionalism and commitment to your attendees. We give dozens of law firm marketing seminars every year and this works.

Email #2 is sent 3 to 5 days after the event. Remind them about the seminar they attended and invite them to sign-up for a consultation for your newsletter. Email #3 might offer a brief tip about the topic you spoke about: top 10 tips or recommended resources, etc. Every person should be contacted by at least three phone calls before you stop trying to reach them. Every attendee should receive at least 5-7 emails and 1-2 letters from your law firm.

If you follow this script, you will attract both new clients and referrals from an audience that has been impressed by your knowledge, how you articulate it and the thoroughness of your follow-through.  You’ll be the attorney they want to do business with, I promise.

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Phoenix Attorneys:  Learn About Social Media at July 21 Legal Networking Group

Join us on Wednesday, July 21, when Stephen will address a meeting of the Phoenix Legal Networking Group on Unlocking the Secrets of Social Media for Lawyers: Facebook and Twitter. 
You will learn:

• Why Facebook is the 800 pound gorilla on the Internet
• Who is using Facebook (this will surprise you)
• What kind of practice areas are getting clients from Facebook
• How to get started fast
• Why Twitter is growing so fast
• How to leverage Twitter to drive traffic to your blog or website
• Top tips for using social media in your legal marketing strategy

The event will be held from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 21 at Monti’s, 100 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe.  Cost is only $20 per person.

To register for this seminar, co-hosted by FindLaw, Attorney at Law Magazine and The Rainmaker Institute, click here.

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Woke up this morning to some great news from my friends at JD Supra – great for them, great for those of us who believe in the power of social media when it comes to legal marketing.

Last night LinkedIn launched its Legal Updates application powered by JD Supra content, calling it the “World's Largest Legal Content Distribution Network.”

The Legal Updates application distributes a feed of expert commentary and guidance as well as legal news tailored to the professional interests of LinkedIn members.  Currently, Legal Updates is the only application for distribution of professional legal content and information available on LinkedIn. 

It is free to LinkedIn members (which currently number 70 million) and is available now at http://bit.ly/c8JRjh.

As you may know, LinkedIn is the dominant social networking site for professionals, and has been extremely selective in making outside applications available on its network.  For instance, the iPhone has more than 200,000 apps available, while LinkedIn has only 16 that come from trusted names like Google, Amazon and Twitter. 

JD Supra's Legal Updates application is widely seen as a game-changer for how lawyers will use LinkedIn to market their expertise (the current installation rate for the application is about one every minute since it went live overnight).

JD Supra's Legal Updates application gives legal professionals a compelling platform to communicate their expertise not only to their own list of LinkedIn contacts but beyond to LinkedIn's entire network of 70 million professionals across a range of fields, including Insurance, Banking, Tech, Real Estate, HR, and more.

LinkedIn's 70 million members can receive custom-tailored, fully editable content feeds based on their industry and areas of interest.  Real estate professionals get updates on real estate law; HR professionals get updates on HR law, etc.

To read more about this exciting legal marketing opportunity, click here for the announcement press release.

You can also learn more by signing up for an online demo of the new app on Wednesday, July 22 at 1 p.m. ET.  To register, visit http://bit.ly/9NOeuL. 

Can’t wait?  To watch an instructional how-to video, visit http://bit.ly/bDvX2x.  That’s where I’ll be with my morning coffee.

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Learn All About the Latest Legal Marketing Trends & Tools at a Rainmaker Retreat

If you are interested in building a lifestyle law practice through effective law firm marketing, then come to one of our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats:

• July 30-31, 2010        Los Angeles, CA
• August 6-7, 2010       Las Vegas, NV
• October 8-9, 2010     New Brunswick, NJ

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. Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.

 

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According to the newly released Altman Weil Flash Survey, Law Firms in Transition 2010, over 75% of the large law firms surveyed indicate that they think more price competition, more non-hourly billing and the use of project management to improve efficiency of service delivery will be permanent changes in the legal landscape.

Conducted in April and May of 2010, the survey polled managing partners at 787 American law firms with 50 or more lawyers.  The full survey is available online to download here.

We’re pretty sure that what is affecting the larger firms is also affecting smaller and solo practices – more pressures on price and, overall, more competition as consumers become more savvy about “shopping” for their legal services on sites like Avvo.

So how do you distinguish yourself from your competition and stand out in the vast legal landscape?  It will take you two days to find out:  attend a Rainmaker Retreat. 

These attorneys just attended our last Rainmaker Retreat in San Francisco in late June:

“If you are not doing this stuff, thanks! Because I am scooping your client prospects!”- Peter Brewer, Esq. (CA)

“This course should be part of the law school curriculum for every school in the nation!”- Andrew Cho, Esq. (CA)

“I flew across country to get here. I would have walked. This is an utterly fabulous program.”- Tom Hartmann, Esq. (NJ)

In fact, more than 7,000 attorneys are already employing our law firm marketing techniques and reaping the benefits.

Among the many things you will take away from this event:

• Step-by-step guidance in finding the best, most strategic referral partners
• How to cut costs by eliminating ineffective law firm marketing strategies
• Create a ‘Master Plan’ to guide your firm’s growth through marketing for lawyers
• How to focus your time, energy and dollars on the most effective law firm marketing techniques designed specifically for small and solo law firms
• Five proven strategies to get more attention, command more respect and charge higher fees
• Leveraging the Internet to create the most “buzz” for your firm
• How to create a steady stream of new referrals using law firm marketing techniques
• Learn to set your firm apart from your competitors

Each day is filled with sessions (with built-in Action Steps and Action Groups) to guide you in putting these law firm marketing strategies into practice immediately. You will leave with a specific plan – uniquely suited to you and your firm – that will help you to create a successful and highly satisfying legal practice!

Register now for our Los Angeles Rainmaker Retreat on July 30-31 or our Las Vegas Rainmaker Retreat on August 6-7 and take advantage of the Early Bird special pricing -- a $200 discount!

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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 6,000 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.

Sign up now for one of these upcoming one-hour teleseminars:

Tuesday, July 13, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 5-6pm Eastern

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
11am-12pm Pacific | 12-1pm Mountain | 1-2pm Central | 2-3pm Eastern

Tuesday, July 27, 2010
1-2pm Pacific | 2-3pm Mountain | 3-4pm Central | 5-6pm Eastern

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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The Law of 7 Touches is based on research that found it takes an average of 7 to 10 meaningful touches EVERY YEAR to move someone through the cycle from not knowing anything about you to being ready to buy from you. 

This is just the average, not a guarantee, because in hyper-competitive markets, like legal services, it often takes many more touches than that -- and to drive customer buying habits, it takes consistency. 

Consider the following statistics regarding the legal profession’s contact with prospective clients:

• 48% of lawyers give up after the first contact.
• 25% give up after the second contact.
• 12% give up after the third contact.
• 5% give up after the fourth contact.

In other words, 9 out of 10 prospective clients are never followed-up with more than 4 times.

If you want your law firm marketing to be successful, you must obey “The Law of 7.”

You’re probably thinking, “I know I should connect frequently and consistently with my prospective clients, but I just don’t have the time.”

True.  Which is why you should leverage the power of technology to build relationships with your prospects.

What you need is a strategy and a process that leverages the most recent advancements in technology (autoresponders, social media, blogs, for example) to simplify and automate your marketing efforts, building rock solid, long-term relationships and helping you earn more, work less and spend time doing what you love to do.

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Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?

Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD.  It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice.  The CD is free, so sign up now!

 

Take our Twitter Poll:  If you’re an attorney, we want your feedback!  Click here (or go to http://twitter.polldaddy.com/done/3364850) to let us know what business development topics you’re most interested in right now.

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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.

Technorati, the top blog search engine, was indexing over 126 million blogs as of December 2009.  Two years ago, there were only about 1,800 to 2,200 blogs written by lawyers.  Law.com now indexes over 23,000 legal blogs.

Have you seen the huge opportunity here?  Or are you still on the sidelines waiting to see if blogging is a fad?

The problem arises when you begin blogging without a clear law firm marketing 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.

Take our Twitter Poll:  If you’re an attorney, we want your feedback!  Click here (or go to http://twitter.polldaddy.com/done/3364850) to let us know what business development topics you’re most interested in right now.

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Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?

Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!

Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:

• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice

• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners

• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys

• Action, Accountability and Next Steps

This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint presentations.

To order this information-packed set click here.
 

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Even though it has 70 million members and is the planet’s largest business networking website, LinkedIn sometimes gets lost in the social media cacophony.  Maybe because it’s not as fun as Facebook.  Or doesn’t have a cute alias for communicating like “tweet”. 

But for lawyers, it’s hard to beat LinkedIn as a vital social media tool for building referral sources.  Some more stats for LinkedIn:

• All Fortune 500 companies are represented
• 46% of users describe themselves as Decision Makers
• Average household income is $109,000
• Average age is 41
• Over 1 million senior executives use LinkedIn

The best uses of LinkedIn for attorneys:

Connect.  Use LinkedIn to connect with referral sources and joint venture partners.  One of the most compelling reasons to join LinkedIn is for the professional groups.  Do you practice real estate law?  There are 3,418 real estate groups on LinkedIn.  Does your practice target tech?  There are 6,270 technology groups.  Need to boost your visibility with finance professionals?  Join a few of the 1,852 finance professional groups on LinkedIn.

Boost Expertise Profile.  Joining and contributing to the discussion within the LinkedIn professional groups helps you build your profile as an expert in your area of law practice. 

Boost Search Engine Ranking.  LinkedIn profiles rank high in Google and the other search engines.

Here are 8 steps to get you started on LinkedIn:

• Create a comprehensive profile
• Start by connect with people you know (tip: use LinkedIn toolbar for Outlook)
• Recommend others and be recommended
• Join groups for attorneys, referral sources and prospects
• Start a group for your target market
• Answer questions
• Update your status at least three times every week
• List all your events on LinkedIn

I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn at www.LinkedIn.com/in/StephenFairley.

Take our Twitter Poll:  If you’re an attorney, we want your feedback!  Click here (or go to http://twitter.polldaddy.com/done/3364850) to let us know what business development topics you’re most interested in right now.

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Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?

Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD.  It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice. 

The CD is free, so sign up now!
 

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It’s not enough to simply generate lots of traffic for your law firm website; if they’re not the right kind of visitors – the kind who are interested in what you’re selling – simply driving traffic for the sake of numbers is a fool’s errand.

So how to attract the right sort to your site?  It takes some discipline and a methodical approach.

Audience identification
Identifying exactly who your top prospects are for your practice is critical to online success. One of the biggest mistakes attorneys routinely make is targeting the wrong market – typically, a market that is too big for them to adequately reach.  Remember, it takes an average of 7 to 10 meaningful “touches” to move someone from knowing nothing about you to being ready to buy from you.  Your Ideal Target Market is one you can affordably reach at least 7-10 times before expecting them to utilize your services.

Keyword research
Those prospects for your services will use certain words to search for what they want.  Knowing what those words are – and using them throughout your site in content and meta tags as well as in PPC campaigns and social media marketing -- is the key to driving targeted traffic to your site.   There are several helpful keyword research tools to help you, including Google Adwords, Wordtracker and Wordstream.

Relevant content
Your keyword-rich content should not only attract and engage your site visitors, it should also lead them to an action -- sign up for a newsletter, call for an appointment, etc.  Serving up the right information at the right time adds value to the user experience, helps with the decision-making process and leads to sales.  Keeping your content fresh – and this is where a business blog on your site can be most useful – not only keeps visitors engaged and returning, but also boosts your search engine rankings.

Social media
Engaging prospects in other online venues, in groups or discussion forums, also provides assistance in attracting targeted web traffic.  Establishing yourself as an expert presence in these online venues adds professional credibility and provides you with link building opportunities that help your search engine ranking as well.

Remember that the goal of your legal practice website is to generate interest that leads to engagement, which can only come from attracting the right target audience.  It’s not just all about the numbers – it’s about the numbers that translate into dollars.

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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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One of the questions our clients struggle the most with when it comes to marketing their law firm is “How do I differentiate my law firm from my competition?”

In Practice Made Perfect, our 90-day business development program for attorneys, we cover 10 specific ways to differentiate your services. Here are 3 of them:

1.  Create a micro niche. In these days of hyper-specialization, it’s NOT about “mass marketing.” It’s about “micro marketing”—creating a micro niche that best positions you as a specialist. If you developed a tumor on your brain, you would go to an oncologist specializing in neurosurgery, not a general practitioner.

It’s the same way with law firm marketing. You must position yourself as a specialist, not a generalist.

One way to do this is by focusing on a very defined niche. For example an intellectual property attorney could say, “I concentrate on helping inventors and owners of small software development companies in Los Angeles with less than $1 million in revenues protect their intellectual property and develop creative ways to generate multiple revenue streams from their invention.”

Creating a micro niche, or focused target market is critical to your success as a small law firm.

2. Focus on solutions and results. Too many attorneys try to sell their legal services. Attendees at my Rainmaker Retreat 2 day law firm marketing boot camp program are surprised when I tell them that people don’t buy legal services! People buy solutions to their problems. They buy results, not your services.

When meeting with a prospective client, emphasize the benefits you offer to clients and the value you bring through your specific expertise with their kind of legal problem. Discuss the results you have achieved for other clients, but be careful not to overstep the ethical boundaries or promise results based on someone else’s case. There's an old adage “Facts tell. Stories sell.” While your colleagues may be thrilled to know all about how you found a loophole for your client, don’t forget to meet the needs of your client by focusing on the solution.

3. Build an online presence. The Internet has changed everything when it comes to law firm marketing and how consumers select law firms. Many attorneys either don’t realize or aren’t willing to admit that most savvy individuals will check them out online before they ever finalizing their decision. 

In fact, current research shows that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations; only 14% trust advertising.  An online presence today means not only a website, but also immersion in Social Media – blogs, video, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Avvo and more. 

As another old adage goes: Fish where the fish are.

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Phoenix Attorneys:  Learn About Social Media at June 23 Legal Networking Group

Join us next Wednesday, June 23, when Stephen Fairley will address a meeting of the Phoenix Legal Networking Group about integrating social media into a law firm marketing program.  Learn:

• Practical tips for attorneys just getting started on social media
• Case studies from law firms currently using social media
• Why social media is a fundamental shift in our communication method
• What's working and what's not for law firms
• How to start tracking your results
• 8 steps to get started with LinkedIn
• How any attorney can use Avvo to get more business
• Ways to quickly boost your Avvo score

 

The event will be held from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23 at Monti’s, 100 S. Mill Ave. in Tempe.  Cost is only $15 per person. 

To register, click here.  The Phoenix Legal Networking Group is sponsored by FindLaw, Attorney at Law Magazine and The Rainmaker Institute.

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If you believe the latest Internet statistics regarding online video viewership, you might think that most Americans are spending a very big portion of their day watching videos on their computers.

And you may be right.

According to comScore Video Metrix data, 178 million U.S. Internet users watched 30.3 Billion online videos in April. 

You read that right.  Over 30 Billion video views in one month.

For 178 million viewers, that averages out to 171 videos per viewer in April.  Or an average of almost six per day.

So are you using video on your website or in your blog?  If not, why not? 

Video is hot, hot, hot!  People are watching more videos online than ever before (see above).  It’s easy to get started with a Flip video camera, or by hiring a local high school or community college film student to shoot and edit your video. 

It’s more about content than quality these days when it comes to online video.  Use education-based marketing to draw prospects in and entice them to connect with you.

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Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?

Then subscribe to our FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox.  Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to maximize the effectiveness of your legal marketing plan.

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Good litigators know that sometimes you just have to let the evidence speak for itself.

I can tell you that our May Scottsdale Rainmaker Retreat was a great success, but I am going to let the evidence – in the form of a blog post by attendee Joseph C. McDaniel, a seasoned bankruptcy attorney from Phoenix – speak for itself:

The Rainmaker Retreat: Worth the Price, and Then Some!

I've been to a fair number of seminars concerning the art of rainmaking. I've read a lot of books on the topic. I've lectured to lawyers on how to make the sky cloud up, in years gone by.

So it ain't my first rodeo.

Then there's my particular situation.

I'm a board-certified, AV rated, AVVO 10 bankruptcy attorney and former Chair of the Arizona State Bar Bankruptcy Section, and former Chair of the ABA Bankruptcy Committee of the General Practice Section, all in the state that has seen the biggest increases in bankruptcy filings in the United States.

So there's a pretty constant downpour at my little office. Soggy there, you know? But don't stop referring me cases!

But I figured I'd go to The Rainmaker Retreat (taught by Stephen Fairley and a cast of rainmaking geniuses) because I love what I do, and I want to help as many folks as I can, and that requires that they pick up the phone and call me.

At this point in my life, I've seen and heard a lot, and I figure that if I get one single good idea out of a seminar, it was time and money well spent.

At the Rainmaker Retreat, I finally lot track of the great ideas I picked up after about twenty. And the hits kept coming.

Now, ideas are a dime a dozen, and you can certainly read and study and learn about rainmaking for fun and profit without every attending a seminar with the Rainmaker Institute.

But why would you?

Your time has value. Of course, you may just like to do things the hard way. That's okay with me, of course.

But the unique value of the Rainmaker Retreat Seminar I attended is this, and in this it's different from all the books and seminars I have absorbed in the last thirty years of my practice: it teaches a systematic approach to making water fall from the sky.

That's a systematic approach to old-school rainmaking and online rainmaking. Both. Not one. Both.

In that sense, it's really two seminars in one.

So lemme summarize: ideas are a dime a dozen. You will get a hundred great ideas and a system to make it rain without end at your law office if you attend The Rainmaker Institute Rainmaker Retreat.

And if you apply those ideas in your practice, you will have, in my humble opinion, a massive competitive advantage over your classmates in causing the sky to give up it's precipitation.

I recommend the Rainmaker Retreat Seminar without reservation.

And I was lucky enough to wind up with several dvds after the seminar, and I can't wait to watch them. The reviews of those dvds will follow.

Bookmark Joseph’s Just for Attorneys blog – it’s full of all kinds of wit and wisdom from more than three decades of law practice.

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Tell ‘Em Joseph Sent You: Summer Rainmaker Retreat Dates

If you are interested in building a lifestyle law practice through effective law firm marketing, then register for one of our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats:

• June 18-19, 2010       San Francisco, CA
• July 30-31, 2010        Los Angeles, CA
• August 6-7, 2010       Las Vegas, NV
• October 8-9, 2010     New Brunswick, NJ

Want to learn more about what you’ll learn at a Rainmaker Retreat?  Then sign up now for a one-hour complimentary teleseminar for a preview of the valuable material that is taught at our 2-day Rainmaker Retreat.
 

Enter your email to receive our complimentary monthly newsletter, the Rainmaker Report.

For Email Marketing you can trust

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Many of you have probably tried the traditional ways that attorneys use to get more clients. You belong to the Chamber of Commerce. You advertise in the Yellow Pages. You tried radio and it probably flopped pretty seriously.  And you hope for the random referral.

We’ve studied over 2,500 rainmakers to find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to building a financially successful law practice.  What we’ve discovered is that successful rainmakers do not rely on random referrals to build their practice. Instead, they use a systematic approach. They find what works for them and they do it over and over again.

There are specific steps you can take to reduce the amount of randomness to practice development.

#1 – The Ezine

One way you can renew, restore, and revive your practice is actually very simple. You can do it in less than an hour a month, but in order for it to be effective you have to do it consistently.  It’s what we call an Ezine, or electronic newsletter.

Electronic newsletters have been around the Internet industry for several years now but they’re still relatively new in the legal industry. There are probably less than 5% of all attorneys who send out any kind of an electronic newsletter. And one of the really powerful things about this is how quickly and easily you can set up and maintain an Ezine program.

The key to winning online is to connect with your prospective target market or best prospects over and over and over again. We call it the frequency and the consistency model. Statistics show that it takes a minimum of seven touches before most of your best prospects are going to look up long enough to say, “Who are you and what can you do for me?” because we’re all being bombarded with so much information now.

Ezines are great for law firm marketing because they:

• Are inexpensive and easy to produce
• Support targeted messaging to different target audiences
• Have tracking capability so you can see how many people opened your email and clicked through to your website
• Are easy to forward or print, so the recipient can actually widen your prospect base for you
• Allow your clients and prospects to communicate directly with you by replying to your Ezine

Ezines are designed to be short, informational and actionable.  The fact that they are also inexpensive to produce and distribute makes them one of the cornerstones of an effective and systematic law firm marketing program.

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Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?

Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!

Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:

• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps

To order this information-packed set click here.


 

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Last week, YouTube celebrated its fifth anniversary and announced that it is now serving more than 2 billion videos per day.  Yes, that’s billion, with a “b”.  Every day.  Is there a place for YouTube in your law firm marketing program?  2 billion times, yes.

When we build a client’s website, we always add video features.  We know, lawyers love words.  But 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.

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 short and informational.

Shoot your videos.  Your clips do not need to be Hollywood-quality productions.  You can get a Flip HD Video camcorder for around $200 and have one of your staff shoot the videos of you in your office or conference room.  The Flip has a built-in USB connection so you can upload each clip to your computer, edit it, and create a file for YouTube.

Set up your channel.  Isn’t the 21st century great?   With YouTube, you can create your own TV channel.  The website will walk you through the process, including 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 – be as specific as possible and load up on those keywords.

Promote your channel.  Add your YouTube channel URL 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.

After five years, 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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Stop Wasting Precious Time and Money

Feel like you don’t have time for marketing?  Let us show you how to make a plan that runs on “autopilot” – one that attracts new and lucrative clients while you focus on your practice.

Learn how easy it can be to create an effective law firm marketing plan that performs by getting our Free Guide: 5 Easy Steps to Create Your Law Firm Marketing Plan. 

After working with many ultra-successful lawyers we found five common threads in their marketing plans. This guide outlines these shared elements to provide insight into strategies that work and how to make them work for you.

There are two versions: one for Attorneys in Solo Practice and one for Attorneys in a Small Firm.  You can download them now free!  Go here to download, and start using these proven strategies today!


 

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Last week over 20 attorneys from small and solo practices around Phoenix met for the launching of our first ever Phoenix Legal Marketing Network Group.

This group will be meeting on a monthly basis and is co-sponsored by The Rainmaker Institute, Alex Morris of FindLaw, and Ken Minniti of Target Market Media and the Publisher of Attorney At Law Magazine—Phoenix Edition.

We met for 2 hours in Scottsdale near the airport. The first hour was all about networking with your fellow professionals. Reconnecting with colleagues and making new acquaintances.

During the second hour, yours truly gave a seminar on “7 Keys to Recession Proof Your Law Firm,” designed to help attorneys look at their law firm as a business, not just a practice.

One of the core concepts to having a successful law firm is understanding that “the People run your systems and the Systems run your law firm.” The problem with most law firms is that they are being run by people and do not have any real systems in place. We identified 7 critical systems every law firm needs, including:

• A Cash Flow System
• A Marketing System
• A Lead Generation System
• A Client Conversion and Retention System
• A Work Flow System
• A Management System and
• A Key Performance Indicators System

Another main topic was the importance of hiring and retaining “Superstars” on your team. As a Partner in your law firm, you simply cannot afford to have anything less than a Superstar in every position at your firm. This is especially true during these difficult economic times.

What's different about this networking group from others?

First and foremost, it's for attorneys. While attorneys from all size law firms are welcome, it is specifically designed to help lawyers in small and solo practices to connect with one another and share referrals.

Second, there is an educational component at each event. Not MCLE or about substantive matters of law, but about how to build your business, make more money, generate more referrals, and run your practice like a business.

We invite all local Arizona attorneys to join us each month. Upcoming topics will include:

• How to double your referral network in 6 months
• Using social media marketing to generate leads
• Practical ways to run your law firm like a business
• Generate more and better referrals
• Lessons from 7 figure attorneys
• Automating your online marketing efforts
• Increase your revenues and improve your receivables
• Take consistent action to build your business
• How to fix your follow-up with every prospect, client and referral source
• Tools to increase referrals from CPAs, CFPs and other attorneys
• Learn cutting edge Internet marketing strategies
• Apply practical tips and techniques to create a lifestyle law firm

The next session is on Wednesday, June 23 -- if you would like to be notified of specifics for this meeting as well as future dates, please go to http://www.therainmakerretreat.com/network and sign up by clicking the box “Can't Make It, Send Me Future Dates.”

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Becoming a Rainmaker:  Business Building Strategies for Lawyers Audio CD 50% Off!

One week only! Don't miss the 50% savings on this month's featured Law Firm Marketing Product!

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 6,500 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 22 of the largest state and local bar associations.

Click here to order yours now – if you order by May 21, you save 50%!
 

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Disclaimer: When I use the word “expert” or “specialist” in this series, I’m not talking in the legal or ethical sense, but in the marketing sense where the goal is to get media and/or prospects to perceive you as an expert or specialist.

The third legal marketing strategy for building credibility and becoming a recognized expert is Submitting Articles Online.

Many of you have written articles for your state or local bar association or some other newsletter that’s heavy on the technical jargon. However, for these online legal marketing articles, you want to craft brief, information education-based pieces that are typically 400-700 words in length.

There are literally hundreds of websites that will publish your articles online for free.  All you have to do is submit them.  The top sites include EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, ArticleDashboard.com, ArticlesBase.com, Buzzle.com and more.  If you do a Google search for “article directories”, you’ll get many more. 

You can also sign up for a service to do it for you for a small monthly fee – DistributeYourArticles.com and ContentCrooner.com (formerly ArticleMarketer.com) are two sites that distribute your content to their network.

When writing your articles you want to be sure you:

• Ensure the article is a good fit for the site you’re submitting it to;
• Write for a specific audience – don’t make it generic;
• Keep it short and concise but with some good information;
• Add a short bio and call to action at the end of the article – the call to action can be something like, “For a free consultation or to receive our free special report, email us or give us a call.”

Once you start submitting your articles, you’ll soon see them published all over the place. One website will publish your article, and then 10 other websites will come along and take that same content and publish it on their website.  These sites all have reciprocal agreements that say they can’t change the content of the article, so your bio and contact information will remain intact.

Combined with press releases, article submissions can be a powerful legal marketing tool. If you type my name into Google, you’ll see that I come up with about 800,000 mentions. A great majority of that is because of the articles and press releases that we’ve submitted over time that have accumulated and produced a snowball effect. This is not a happy accident – it’s a solid marketing strategy that has been well executed.

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Go to Camp This Summer!  Get in on the 2-Day Marketing Boot Camp for Small Law Firms
 
If you're struggling to build your legal practice or want to learn a proven law firm marketing system that has helped attorneys discover how to generate more referrals and find new clients fast, then you owe it to yourself to check out a Rainmaker Retreat this summer:

May 21-22, 2010    Scottsdale, AZ
June 18-19, 2010    San Francisco, CA
July 16-17, 2010    Las Vegas, NV
July 30-31, 2010    Los Angeles, CA

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 (we wouldn't have it any other way).   So instead of us telling you how these 2 days will transform your business, we will let our clients do the telling.
 
Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.
 

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If you’re a small law firm with big growth plans, then you need to attend The Rainmaker Retreat, a two-day law firm marketing boot camp where you will learn:

• More than 22 proven legal marketing strategies to attract more and better clients
• How to create powerful relationships with over 30 new Referral Sources in the next 90 days
• 5 Ways to automate your legal marketing using technology and the Internet
• 7 ways to find more clients fast and how to select the best ones for you
• 2 ways to promote your firm to 100,000 people for only $100
• 6 secrets top Rainmakers use to dominate their competition

More than 6,000 attorneys nationwide have discovered the secrets to building a lifestyle law practice through effective law firm marketing that is providing them with significantly greater income and the time to enjoy it all:

"I am extremely thankful I met Stephen Fairley and that I attended his Rainmaker Retreat.  I more than doubled my firm's annual revenue in the year since attending the Rainmaker Retreat and implementing Stephen's marketing program.  If you are willing to do the work, Stephen definitely has a proven method of driving new business into your firm.”-- Gordon R. Levinson, Esq. (Levinson Law Group, Carlsbad, CA).

“I stayed for the entire two days and came home with 19 action items, specific tips, tools and techniques I could immediately put into practice. Most of those action items are up, running and contributing to my bottom line. My partner and I are looking to net double our best year ever, by July 1.  The strategies and techniques taught at the Rainmaker Retreat are some of the tools that assist me to move to the next level of financial success.” – John Bisnar, Founder, Bisnar Chase (California Catastrophic Injury and National Auto Defect Attorneys)

Each day is filled with sessions (with built-in Action Steps and Action Groups) to guide you in putting these law firm marketing strategies into practice immediately. You will leave Scottsdale with a specific plan – uniquely suited to you and your firm – that will help you to create a successful and highly satisfying legal practice!

Register today to reserve your place at the next Rainmaker Retreat in Scottsdale on May 21-22.

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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 6,000 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:

Wednesday, May 5, 2010
11am-12pm Pacific | 12-1pm Mountain | 1-2pm Central | 2-3pm Eastern

Thursday, May 13, 2010
4-5pm Pacific | 5-6pm Mountain | 6-7pm Central | 7-8pm Eastern

Tuesday, May 18, 2010
3-4pm Pacific | 4-5pm Mountain | 5-6pm Central | 6-7pm Eastern

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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The NFL draft has gone from a nondescript covered by a handful of beat writers to a four-day media extravaganza, thanks in part to some great marketing from the NFL and ESPN.  Here are some tips that you law firm marketing plan can include from the NFL draft.

First, communicate early and often.  As soon as the season ended, draft talk was all over the airwaves. Fans were clamoring to know the direction of the team, and the teams have been feeding them enough information to keep them coming back.  The NFL scouting combine has become must-watch television due to the constant chatter by fans, ESPN and league sources.

Second, know your audience and their needs. The NFL and ESPN correctly surmised that that time between the Super Bowl and opening day of baseball season is largely a dead time in sports.  Football is the American pastime, so they created the scounting combine during that “dead” time so that the buzz about the NFL would continue.  The audience demanded more football info, and they delivered it.

Third, remember that it is about delivering on the promises made.  First round draft picks, rightly or wrongly, are judged harshly.  The first round picks that became busts live in infamy.  Those who go on to greatness are heralded forever.  It’s not enough to have promise, you also have to deliver on the field.

When you are putting your legal marketing plan together, keep these thoughts in mind.  Communicate early and often to your audience.  Tell them what they need to know, and deliver on your promises.  It will take you from having potential to a becoming a superstar.
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Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?
Then subscribe to our  FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox.  Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to maximize the effectiveness of your legal marketing plan.
 

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Spring is nature’s time of renewal.  The grey of winter is gone, the snow has melted and the landscape burst forth in a frenzy of blooms, colors and new growth. Spring is also when many people move their exercise programs outside to take in the sights and sounds of the birds that have returned.  It’s also a good time to give your law firm marketing strategies a shot of energy.

Legal marketing can kick into the next gear now that taxes are done, the winter is over, and spring break has passed with the family vacations.  There is a window from now until summer where people tend to really buckle down at work ahead of the summer vacation season.

Spring is when the dead is pruned and cast away, and new growth is nurtured.  If you have elements of your law firm marketing plan that need pruning, now is the time to do so.  If you have staff who could use a little fertilizer boost in the form of training and motivation, invest in it.  Growth doesn’t come from tired and worn out soil.

Now is a good time, if you haven’t done so already, to get your referral source visits scheduled, and make time work on the human side of your legal marketing plan.  If you are a golfer, combine your passion for golf with a referral source.  A few hours on the links relaxing and playing a game you both love is a great way to invest in a referral source.

There is an energy, a buzz, to spring.  Let that energy infuse your office and staff and energize your efforts to build your practice to the level you dreamed of when you started.  The dreary doldrums of winter are gone, and the dog days of summer are not yet upon us.  This is the perfect time to seize the moment and join in with the renewal that nature is displaying. Review your law firm marketing plan and strategies and see where you need to prune, cultivate and fertilize.  Then get growing!
***************************************************************************************************
Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:

• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners 
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys 
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps

This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
 

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I have been talking about the law firm marketing system that every law firm needs to have in order to be successful.  Today’s post wraps up that discussion with referrals, the lifeblood of any successful law firm marketing plan.

Referrals don’t just happen.  They must be cultivated.  Sure you may get an occasional referral from a former client or someone you know, but if you want to take your legal marketing to the next level, you need a referral system.  How do you do build a referral system that will bring you the results you need?

You start by developing relationships with potential referral sources and generate consistent referrals from them.  These sources may include accountants, investment advisors, business leaders, or anyone who has influence with your target market.  Depending on your practice area, your referral sources will vary.

Developing a relationship is a two-way process.  It can’t just be you asking them for referrals when you see them.  It requires regular contact and you showing as much concern for their business as you are asking them to show for your practice.  Ask them how you can assist them in achieving their goals.

Another key component of your law firm marketing plan is to create a system for connecting with prospects, clients and referral sources on a regular, consistent basis. This should include:

• Monthly newsletters – keep them apprised of what your firm is doing, new employees, and content that is beneficial to them.
• Annual Client Satisfaction Survey – find out what your clients think about the service they have received from your firm. 
• Keep In Touch letters – on a regular basis, every 2-3 months, send a letter to referrals, prospects and clients just to touch base.  This top of mind awareness is crucial for generating referrals.
• Referral Education System – your referral sources need to know what kind of prospects you are looking for.  It does no good for them to refer prospects to you who are not looking for what your firm offers.  Keep your referral sources updated on your practice areas and any changes in your firm if you want to receive high-quality referrals.

There are a number of systems that are vital for your law practice to be successful.  But your law firm marketing system is the one that drives the traffic in the doors.  Don’t skimp on your legal marketing system if you want to achieve the level of success that you dream of. 
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Unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat?
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free one hour calls give you valuable law firm marketing and business tips that you can implement in your law practice right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice!
 

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Today is the opening round of the Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. There are a number of similarities between those who are successful at law firm marketing and those who are successful at winning one of the most prestigious events in golf.

First, anyone who wants to be successful at golf, legal marketing, or any pursuit has to have an intense dedication to their craft.  Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer are maybe the most famous winners of the green jacket, and they all were single-minded in their pursuit of excellence. 

They relentlessly pursued perfection in the physical and mental aspects of the game.  Legal marketers would be wise to take notice of that and devote their focus to being the best possible marketers possible.  Invest in training and study and hone your skills as you work toward your goals.

Second, like golfers, legal marketers have to deal with distractions.  This is the mental part of the game that is so difficult.  There are rarely perfect conditions in golf, and the same applies to law firm marketing. There will always be something that is pressing for your attention that can take your eyes off of the ball. 

Learning to tune those things out and focus on the task at hand is one of the most difficult aspects of golf and legal marketing.  Those other things may be good things, but they are not where your time and energy need to be devoted.

Lastly, remember that you are competing against some of the best in the world at what they do.  The Masters attracts the greatest golfers in the world who are competing at the highest level.  In the legal marketing world, you are going up against some highly-skilled professionals who are masters of their craft.  But the advantage doesn’t always go to the most skilled.  Sometimes it goes to those who are the most determined.

Enjoy the Masters this weekend and appreciate the hard work and dedication that you are witnessing.  Take those lessons back to your firm and apply them to your law firm marketing strategies.  You may not win a green jacket, but you will reach your goals.
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Complimentary Rainmaker Retreat Preview DVD is Available
We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at the 2 day Rainmaker Retreat. Yes, we know you are skeptical (we wouldn't have it any other way).   So instead of us telling you how these 2 days will transform your business, we will let our clients do the telling.
 
Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.
 

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As you review the systems your law firm must have to be successful, pay particular attention to your law firm marketing plan and the systems that support it. A well-designed plan is practically useless if you do not have strong systems to support the legal marketing strategies in your plan.

Here are some tips from Richard Strauch, COO of The Rainmaker Institute, on how you can develop systems that will make your law firm marketing efforts more effective.

First, create a written 12 month marketing plan for your law firm.  Take the time to systematically look at all of your plans for the next year and review them in sequence.  Does the order of events make sense? Do the strategies build on each other?  Does your plan have an inherent coherence that is easily discernable?  Is your plan comprehensive, or are there gaps in your plan in the audiences being targeted and the techniques being used.

Second, develop processes and procedures to capture major marketing metrics and data.  Your plan should be able to identify all of your target audiences, the key influencers to those audiences, and your effectiveness in reaching them.  You should be able to track the conversion rate of prospects to clients, the response percentage to your marketing messages, and who is responding to your messaging.

Third, identify major lead sources and create tracking mechanisms to measure results.  Who is sending you business?  If you can’t answer that question, you do not have a handle on your lead and referral sources.  Tracking the frequency of your referral source meetings and the number of referrals generated is a very basic measure that you should have access to.  There are many other measures of your lead and referral sources that you can include in your law firm marketing plan.

A well-designed legal marketing plan can take your firm from the level where you are to the level where you want to be. It takes planning and follow-through, but it is achievable once you have a strong plan and measurement system.
**********************************************************************************************************
Are you looking for specific marketing strategies you can use in your law firm?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:

• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys 
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps

This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
 

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Over the weekend I had the pleasure of meeting with a group of attorneys in New Jersey who are committed to improving the effectiveness of their law firm marketing strategies.  The group I met with was energetic and eager to learn ways that they could grow their business to the level they dreamed of when they first started their firm.

There were a couple of topics that everyone was hungry to learn more about – social media and creating systems that will lead to business success.  Social media has been a hot topic for the past couple of years.  The growth of sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook has fueled a revolution in how legal marketers ply their trade. 

Everyone at the NJ Rainmaker Retreat wanted to know how they can leverage these new technologies to multiply their existing marketing programs and gain greater access to their target markets.  One of the exciting aspects of social media is the ability to receive real-time feedback and have two-way conversations with prospective clients.

Systems was another hot topic of the weekend.  Learning how to create and implement marketing and business operation systems that allow you to build your firm to the level that you dreamed of when you started out on this venture.  The material was well-received and attendees were furiously taking notes and asking questions throughout the weekend.

If you haven’t taken the time to attend a Rainmaker Retreat, hear the words of David Salvaggio, an attorney attending his first Rainmaker Retreat:

I just returned from the two-day Rainmaker Retreat Program sponsored by the NJSBA and the Essex County Bar Association. It was a fantastic program!  Stephen Fairley gave an extremely engaging presentation on behalf of the Rainmaker Institute.  On a scale of 1 to 10, the Program and Mr. Fairley were a perfect 10! Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to attend the Program.  

Go to Rainmakerretreat.com to see the schedule of upcoming retreats.  It is a weekend that will change your life, and law firm, forever.
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Unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat?
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free one hour calls give you valuable law firm marketing and business tips that you can implement in your law practice right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice!
 

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To strategically build your practice you must focus on the 5 fundamental functions of running a successful law firm: Strategic leadership, Management & Operations, Business Development, Marketing, and Service and Production. Let's focus on two of these areas – business development and marketing.

Business Development: The lifeblood of every organization is new business development. There are only 2 ways to make more money in business—increase revenues or decrease overhead. The first way is almost always easier.

When assessing your law firm business development strategies, here are some powerful questions to ask:

• What are the specific steps a prospect passes through on their way to becoming a client? What's your business development process?
• How effective is your lead generation follow up? 
• How do you track prospects and clients? 
• How can you increase your conversion ratio? 
• Do you have a coaching and training program in place that consistently improves your business development skills and keeps your people up to date with the latest legal marketing strategies?

If you can increase the effectiveness of your business development staff by just 5% every quarter, just 5%, your net revenue growth would be phenomenal. 

• How do you ensure clients continue to receive a high level of service?
• What percent of your time is spent managing clients versus developing new business? If your time is dominated by your existing clients, what time do you have to develop new clients? 
• How do you keep clients for life?

Marketing: Legal Marketing is everything a law firm does to make the process of gaining client easier. You don’t do marketing as an end in itself. You do marketing to support your business development efforts and increase their effectiveness.

Questions to ask include:

• Who is your Ideal Target Market—the person or company who is most likely to retain you initially, repeatedly, and at the highest profit margin?
• How can you find these prospects in a cost and time effective manner? 
• How are you measuring the success rate of your current legal marketing strategies? 
• What are you doing to increase the quality and number of your Strategic Referral Partnerships? 
• Why should they utilize your services now? 
• How can you move from being just another attorney to a trusted advisor?

As you can see from the list of questions, this is not something that can be treated casually if you want to have success.  Your legal marketing and business development functions need to be staffed with highly-trained, motivated, hungry people who know your business, know your ideal target market, and know how your firm can meet the needs of your target market.  Those are the critical personnel you need for this very critical business function.
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Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?
Then subscribe to our  FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox.  Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to begin 2010 on the right note in your legal marketing plan.
 

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Over the weekend I had the privilege of hosting the first Rainmaker Retreat designed with estate planning attorneys in mind with my friend Jeff Matsen.  For those in attendance, they were treated to a rare combination of law firm marketing, estate planning, website design and management and niche marketing expertise.

Jeff Matsen brought his decades of estate planning and niche marketing expertise to life through tremendous personal and professional examples and engaging stories.  Jeff’s ability to convey powerful truth through stories made the weekend one that no one in attendance will forget.

We were also joined by Alex Morris from findlaw.com who shared the hidden truths behind Google search engine optimization and pay per click advertising.  Alex also discussed the keys to website design and management and which areas legal marketers should focus on.

I also had the pleasure of holding a mini-Mastermind session with four VIP guests at Fat Cat Restaurant over dinner.  In addition to our lively dinner conversation, each of the VIP guests has the opportunity to attend another Rainmaker Retreat within the next 12 months.

If this has whetted your appetite for more legal marketing information, I encourage you to consider attending one of our upcoming Rainmaker Retreats in Las Vegas or Los Angeles.  Just click on the city you are interested in for details, location and pricing information.
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Complimentary Rainmaker Retreat Preview DVD is Available
We would like to send you a DVD of your colleagues (and even your competitors) describing their experiences at the 2 day Rainmaker Retreat. Yes, we know you are skeptical (we wouldn't have it any other way).   So instead of us telling you how these 2 days will transform your business, we will let our clients do the telling.
 
Click here to order your complimentary DVD right now.

 

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March 26-27 is a great opportunity for attorneys and law firm marketing specialists throughout the Mid-Atlantic region to gain an enormous amount of legal marketing knowledge in two information-packed days.  The Rainmaker Retreat coming to Roseland, New Jersey, is your ticket to law firm marketing expertise that will revolutionize your practice.

I will be sharing our Rainmaker System, which has helped more than 6,000 attorneys across the country find more and better clients and establish a law firm marketing system for generating more referrals.  The agenda is pretty heavy with information tips, techniques and marketing strategies that include:

• Achieving Expert Status as an Attorney
• Building a Strategic Referral Network 
• Creating Credibility in Your Practice Area 
• Secrets of Highly Successful Attorneys 
• Social Media for Small Law Firms 
• Leveraging Technology: Beating the Big Firms on the Internet 
• Generating More Clients Using the Power of Speaking 
• Advanced Technology Tactics for Small Law Firms and Solo Practitioners

There is still time to sign up for the New Jersey Rainmaker Retreat March 26-27.  Click here to register.  It is two days that will provide you with a return on your investment for years to come.

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2010 Rainmaker Retreat Dates are set!
Are you looking for a way to fulfill your New Year’s resolution to become more effective in how you spend your legal marketing budget?  Do you need guidance and motivation to compose a comprehensive law firm marketing plan?  I have a suggestion for you.  Come to one of the upcoming Rainmaker Retreats.

The Rainmaker Retreat is a 2-day marketing boot camp for attorneys. Attendees at previous Rainmaker Retreats have come away with many new ideas and actionable legal marketing strategies that they can take home and implement right away.

This spring, we have a number of Rainmaker Retreats scheduled, and more in the planning stages. The current schedule of Rainmaker Retreats is:

• Roseland, NJ   March 26-27
• Las Vegas, NV  April 9-10 
• Los Angeles, CA  April 16-17

Click on one of the locations to register for the Rainmaker Retreat.

If you are unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, join one of our complimentary teleseminars to get a preview of a Rainmaker Retreat.  It will give you a thumbnail sketch of what you can expect during a Rainmaker Retreat.
 

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On March 24, I will be bringing the Becoming a Rainmaker presentation to New Jersey.  This information-packed presentation will teach you  the steps to creating the systems and practices that will lead you to the 7 or 8 –figure legal practice that you aspired to when you went into your legal practice.

The presentation is hosted by the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Monmouth County Bar Association.  The seminar will run from 4-6 p.m. and be hosted at the Holiday Inn in Tinton Falls.

Some of the topics I will be covering include:

• Finding qualified clients for your firm
• Increasing your referral network in the next six months
• Changing your website into a revenue-generating source 
• Automating your marketing system 
• Avoiding marketing mistakes lawyers often make

This 2-hour seminar will provide you with enough information to go back to your office and begin implementing the legal marketing steps right away.

To register for the “Becoming a Rainmaker” presentation, click here.  The cost is $77 for NJSBA and MBA members and $97 for non-members. For additional information, please call The Rainmaker Institute at 888-816-8935.

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Looking for more proven tactics from The Rainmaker Institute?
Then subscribe to our  FREE monthly e-newsletter. One click of your mouse will take you to our site where you can see the current issue and subscribe to our complimentary monthly e-newsletter that will be delivered to your inbox.  Each issue is chock-full of legal marketing information you can put to use right away. I think you will find the information in every newsletter something you will want to share with your staff to begin 2010 on the right note in your legal marketing plan.
 
 

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Spring.  That time of renewal. When the gray of winter is cast aside and cascades of colors appear. New leaves bud out, birds lay eggs, bunnies are born and the grass greens up again. But renewal is often messy. Fixing dead spots in the lawn requires removal of the dead debris, planting, watering and patience. A great deal of rain must fall to provide the proper growing conditions for many plants to bloom and put out new branches.

Spring is a great time to spruce up your business and do some planting and pruning in your law firm marketing plan. Here are some thoughts on where you can begin.

First, identify anything that didn’t survive the season.  That may include marketing strategies that were shelved or poorly executed.  Give them a long look to see if some pruning and TLC can make them viable.  If not, rip them out and start over with something new.

Second, look for bare spots in the lawn.  These might be areas where you are missing some tools or strategies that can help you achieve your goal.  Take a slow, thorough walk through your legal marketing plans and look for bare spots that you can fill in with some good seed and fertilizer.  Remove any debris that will discourage new growth then cast your seed and water thoroughly.

Third, create spots for surprises.  Find some areas where the bunnies can nest and bring new things into the world.  In your marketing plan, these might be areas where employees can be innovative and bring ideas forward and implement them.  It might be some time for seminars and conferences that allow you to expand your horizons. Allow space for the unexpected in your plans.

Hopefully these tips will encourage you to use this season of renewal to renew your legal marketing efforts

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Want to take the Rainmaker System home with you?
Then order the Rainmaker in a Box 5-DVD set!
Some of the information and strategies you will learn include:

• The 5 Immutable Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Law Practice
• Secrets of Building a Referral-based Law Practice for Busy Practitioners
• The Top 6 Most Powerful Online Marketing Strategies for Attorneys
• Action, Accountability and Next Steps

This program also includes a data DVD which includes all 4 PowerPoint slides for all 4 presentations. We recommend you print all these off and take notes on them as you watch the 4 intense DVDs.
To order this information-packed set click here.
 

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Okay, so this is a little self-promotional (even for me)...

But I just can't contain my excitement!

I'm very excited to announce I will be giving a keynote presentation at the upcoming 82^nd Annual Conference of the State Bar of California and they are promoting my presentation on their event’s homepage!

Here's the link to check it out: http://www.calbar.ca.gov/annualmeeting

How cool is that!?

I will be giving a 3 hour presentation on Thursday from 2-5pm on The Top 10 “Secret” Strategies Used by Rainmakers: How to Build a 7 Figure Law Firm During Difficult Times

If you are an attorney in California I invite you to join me and discover why some attorneys struggle to build a financially successful practice, while others grow even in trying economic times.

In this information packed session, I will discuss in detail 7 strategies small firms must use to “recession proof” their law firm while generating more and better referrals.

Attendees will learn practical tips to:

 

• Rapidly increase their referrals in 90 days
• How to stay connected with current and former clients
• Recession proof their law firm
• Reduce their overhead
• Improve productivity and moral among their office staff
• Ways to market their law firm on a shoe string budget

Looking forward to seeing you there!

 

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One law firm marketing tactic that consistently helps most law firms get new clients is through referrals. Now there are several different ways to get those referrals: initiating a strategic referral partner mail & meet campaign; informal networking and formal networking.

“Formal networking” involves attending an organized group event such as industry trade shows, bar meetings, rotary clubs, special interest groups, political groups and lead groups like Business Network International (BNI).

 

In today’s post, I would like to share 7 tips on finding clients through formal networking.

 

#1. Join the right groups: Not legal groups or groups where a lot of attorneys gather (unless you get a lot of your business from other attorneys). You need to go where the decision makers meet, not the gatekeepers.

 

#2. Join elite groups: Groups that cost several hundred dollars a year are better than cheap groups; groups that require a member to sponsor you are even better.

 

#3. Use an “audio logo”: An audio logo is an idea or statement that clearly and succinctly tells who your intended audience is and what you can do for them.

Most people are basically narcissistic – they want to talk about what interests them. They don’t want to talk to someone who’s only interested in how to get their business. So you can use an audio logo to attract attention. Be prepared to give case examples of how you have helped others.

 

Here is an outline of an audio logo: “I help (who your clients are) to (what your solution is or how you solve their problems.)”

 

#4. Remember your primary purpose: Remember your primary purpose is going to networking events is NOT to get new clients. Your primary purpose is to BUILD A RELATIONSHIP with potential referral sources and to offer yourself as a referral source to them. If you’re going to networking events to get new clients you are not only wasting you time, but you are also coming across as either pushy or desperate to the people you’re meeting.

When you understand the real reason for going to networking events, it takes all the pressure to perform off and keeps you focused on a more productive purpose—building relationships with people you could help and how may also be of help to you.

 

#5. Ask open-ended questions: Use the 8/20 Rainmaker Rule when you meet them. Ask open ended questions like:

What do you like best about the work you do?

What are the biggest challenges your industry/company/profession is facing?

Where do you find most of your clients?

Who is your target market?

If one of your prospects asks what makes you different from your competitors, what do you say?

How would I know if the person I’m talking to would be a good referral for you?

 

#6. Be intentional in your follow-up: It does absolutely no good to go to a bunch of networking events, talk to people, collect business cards, and not follow-up. You must have a plan and reasons for following up with people you meet. Your primary reason is to learn more about their business and see if you would be a good referral source for them.

 

#7. Track your efforts:

Contact’s name and full information.

Follow-up method used—phone, email letter.

Date of 1^st follow-up.

Dates of each additional follow-up.

Date of first face-to-face meeting.

Follow-up efforts.

Results of efforts.

Notes.

 

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Are you trapped into working more and more, while enjoying your life less and less? There is a way out.  It’s called the Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take so you can better market your small or solo law practice. For more information or to sign-up for the next one, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.

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A Unique Competitive Advantage (UCA) answers the questions: Why should we hire you versus your competition? What’s unique about your firm and your services?

Here are 10 ways you can begin answering those questions:

1. Benefits. What are the benefits of working with your firm as compared to working with others? What do you do that other firms refuse to do to better serve their clients?
   
2. Value. Compare your costs versus how much money you save clients. How have you helped other clients take better advantage of opportunities or avoid legal liability? What are some specific ways you are constantly looking out for their best interests? What are the core values of your firm and how do you demonstrate these values?
   
3. Results. What are some specific results you have obtained for clients in the past? What is your win/loss record? What do you do to achieve better results than your competitors?
   
4. Solutions. Give an example of a creative solution you found to a client’s problem. How did you come up with it? What happened because of your creative solution?
   
5. Individual Partners. Remember, people don’t buy legal services from law firms; they buy legal services from attorneys. People don’t say, “Go talk to my law firm,” they say, “Go talk to my attorney.” What is different about your partners than in other firms?
   
6. Service. How do your clients describe the way you treat them? What’s an example of how you went out of your way to better serve a client? How do you demonstrate exceptional client service on a regular basis?
   
7. Industry-specific Specialty. Position your partners as leading experts in a specific industry, not as generalists. To be a generalist for most attorneys is the “kiss of death.” Go deeper, not broader. Have industry specific marketing materials.
   
8. Clients’ Feedback. What do your best clients say about you? What would they tell someone else about your services and how you’ve helped them? Do you have a long list of very satisfied clients that prospects can speak with? Do your clients refer other clients to you on a regular basis?
   
9. Credibility. What is your firm known for in the industry? Talk about how your partners are profiled in the media or are industry experts. What are 3 reasons why your prospects should perceive you as a credible expert?
   
10. Visibility. How visible are your partners within an industry? Do they regularly speak at top industry events? Are they a nationally-recognized expert? A published author? What happens when prospects type their names into Google?

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Where can you read articles like: “9 Proven Keys to Recession-proof your Law Practice”;  

“4 Secret Strategies of Law Firm Marketing” or “Supercharging Your Law Firm’s Referrals?”

In The Rainmaker Advisor Journal. To get your free trial copy, go to www.therainmakeradvisor.com

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I just flew back from San Francisco. This last Friday & Saturday we had a fantastic group of attorneys for the first ever Rainmaker Retreat sponsored by the State Bar of California.

The staff at the Bar was fantastic. I was very impressed with their level of attentiveness and kindness. We look forward to working with them on many future projects and events.

Later this week on this blog I will let you in on a little secret the CA Stat Bar just shared with me on Friday morning. It blew me away! I'm very excited about this.

The group of attorneys who attended the law firm marketing workshop were incredible. While most were from California, we had lawyers who flew in from the states of Washington, Florida, Nevada, Utah, and Texas to join us. 

The level of sharing, learning, and eye-opening discoveries was non-stop. I also must say that this was probably the most fun I've ever had at a Rainmaker Retreat.

I especially want to thank:

• Conrad Saam of Avvo.com was there to show attendees how to claim their free attorney profile and how to leverage it to drive great traffic to their website and attract more clients—all for free! What you may not know about Avvo.com is that it is the fastest growing online legal directory in the country. It already has 3 times more traffic than Martindale and will soon surpass lawyers.com to become the #1 largest legal directory. And did I mention it's FREE...
• Ron Kramer, a personal injury attorney in Utah and a member our Rainmaker Mastermind Group who flew in at the last moment to attend. Thanks for joining us Ron!
• Adrian Lurssen and Aviva Cuyler from JDSupra.com who gave a great presentation on how to rapidly increase your internet platform by posting articles on their site. Attorneys are using JDSupra to rapidly boost traffic to their websites. This is a very powerful tool we will be using more frequently in the days to come. You can check out my articles and JDSupra profile at: http://www.jdsupra.com/profile/stephenfairley/
• The Team at Sagaria Law. Scott Sagaria is owner of one of the fastest growing bankruptcy law firms in California. In addition to being a very sharp business owner, he has a great vision for his law firm. He brought several of his team along including: Eddy Hsu (a true work horse!), Tina Phan (Are you still there?), Dominique Sopko (the shy one--not), Heather Cassidy (Hey, is that Stephen Fairley?), Erin Coyle (aka Bubbles), Brittany Klein (Where’s my Starbucks?), and Business Operations Director Extraordinaire Carrie Ramirez (Are you still working? It's 10pm). My thanks go out to Scott and his team for a great dinner on Thursday and for attending the Rainmaker Retreat. Looking forward to seeing you all again in 2 weeks for a 2 day in house law firm marketing audit.

Here are just a few of the comments attendees wrote down at the end of the conference:

“This was a great seminar that went through the very basics to more advanced techniques to bring in high quality cases. The sheer amount of information has left my head spinning! I'm looking forward to the flight home so I can put together a plan to implement the ideas I learned.” Ron Kramer, Esq. (Personal Injury, Draper, UT)

“The Rainmaker Retreat is the most insightful strategic planning I have every experienced! The ideas were simple yet genius and cost-effective. They could be implemented by firms of any size.” Heather Cassidy, Esq. (Bankruptcy & Family Law, Sacramento, CA)

“I am the world’s biggest cynic when it comes to direct marketing...but I decided to come despite my cynicism. I AM NOW A VIP MEMBER—that’s how great and practical this is!” Delphine Adams, Esq. (Real Estate, Santa Rose, CA)

“This legal marketing seminar provides a ‘nuts and bolts,’ systematized approach to traditional Rainmaking, then provides strategies for 21st century marketing. I thought the promotional materials over-promised before I came. As I left, it was clear that Stephen over-delivered, by a wide margin!” Michael Atter, Esq. (Personal Injury, Jacksonville, FL)

“The Rainmaker Retreat has been simply amazing. Stephen Fairley is an outstanding speaker who I find very motivating and inspiring. The content, ideas and advice of this retreat has exceeded my expectations 110%!” Carrie Ramirez (San Jose, CA)

“The Rainmaker Retreat will not sell you useless books, CDs and tapes. It WILL teach you real, practical, useful methods for you to sell yourself, over and over again. If you are a small firm or a new Rainmaker, you NEED to attend the Rainmaker Retreat!” Jeff Nunes, Esq. (Estate Planning & Employment Law, Morgan Hill, CA)

“This seminar was an amazing experience! The advice is insightful and practical. We were provided with strategies and procedures that will deliver significant benefits almost immediately.” Dominique Sopko, Esq. (Family law & Bankruptcy, San Jose, CA)

“Stephen Fairley has a fast paced program that motivates, explains and organizes your marketing efforts. I highly recommend this to all attorneys.” Robert Rolnik, Esq. (Patent Law, Kingwood, TX)

“This was very thought provoking. I have not had such a clear plan for marketing presented like this before. I really appreciated the many different marketing options and internet possibilities that were presented.” Clark Vellis, Esq. (Commercial Litigation, Reno, NV)

If you couldn’t make, you really missed a great event! But you can catch a replay in Las Vegas in about 3 weeks at the Mirage.

Here's the link for more information: www.RainmakerRetreat.com

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Anouncing Never Before at the Las Vegas Rainmaker Retreat!
We will have a special, brand new break out session on how attorneys can leverage social media to drive more traffic and land more clients. Think Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and more—on steroids!

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Law firm marketing is a complex and competitive business. And there are many reasons why certain law firms fail to grow or even fail to survive.

However, in my working with more than 6,000 attorneys over the years, I’ve come to find out that there are essentially 3 main reasons why attorneys fail to grow their practices:

1. Lack of Time
   This is the single biggest complaint we hear. You’re stressed for time. You barely have time to serve your clients, much less market your practice. Not to mention spend time with your family.
   

2. Lack of Systems
   There are several simple systems attorneys can use to create a “lifestyle practice”—a practice that supports the lifestyle you want to lead, rather than one that dominates your life.
   

3. Lack of Strategy
   From a marketing perspective, a comprehensive strategy to grow your law firm is essential to your long-term success. Otherwise you and your team lack direction.

These “lacks” can be overcome so that you can create that lifestyle law practice you desire.

Many of our clients are proof of that. When you use a proven legal marketing strategy that consistently produces results, you can then set up legal marketing systems that, in turn, both free-up your time while increasing your client roster, increasing your revenue.

Although this sounds simple (and, at the 100,000-foot level, it is), there are numerous options that are equally good and effective, forcing numerous choices to be made with resources.

When law firms engage a law firm marketing expert or attend law firm marketing seminars, bootcamps and conferences, law firm marketing becomes so much clearer and so much easier.

 

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If you think . . . you can’t make more money and have the time to enjoy your life . . . you’ve never been to a Rainmaker Retreat. If you’re a partner in a small law firm or are on your own and want to grow your practice while enjoying the lifestyle you deserve, you owe it to yourself to attend a Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take to better market your practice. For more information or to sign-up for the next one, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.

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In this blog post, I’m letting you peek behind the curtain. I will give you the steps involved in this law firm marketing system that has helped many a client increase business.

• Identify several professions or industries that already have trusted relationships with your target market.
  
  
• Build or buy a database of potential referral sources (www.infoUSA.com and www.superpages.com are two great list-building resources.).
  
  
• Focus on refining your Unique Competitive Advantage by answering this question: “Why should, someone hire me versus any of my competitors?”

• Create a form letter that includes who you work with, how you are different and a personal invitation to get together to determine if/how you could work together.
  
  
• Send out 10 to 20 letters per week.
  
  
• Have your assistant call the people you sent letters to and determine their level of interest in connecting with you.
  
  
• Have your assistant set-up appointments for you over lunch or coffee.
  
  
• When you meet with prospective SRP’s (Strategic Referral Partners), find out more about their businesses and how you can help their clients.
  
  
• Ask compelling questions to let them know you are interested in building a mutually-beneficial referral relationship, and remember to ask the best question: “How would I know if the person I’m talking to would be a great referral for you?”
  
  
• Ask them if they would be willing to send you referrals.
  
  
• When possible, try to send them a referral in the next 30 days.
  
  
• Follow-up every 4 to 6 weeks to stay connected with them (Send them a letter, article of interest or one of your press releases.)

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Do you want to double your law practice, increase client referrals and make more money in these challenging economics times? Then subscribe to The Rainmaker Advisor Journal. To get your free trial copy, go to: www.therainmakeradvisor.com

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I’ve been talking to quite a few attorneys over the past several months who are increasingly concerned about how the tough economy is affecting their practice and their ability to focus on marketing their law firm.

Let’s have a little perspective on this. As a business owner, you can either focus on the fear and scarcity mentality that is being promoted by the media today or you can focus on taking action and abundance. Which choice you make has immediate and long-term implications. If you allow yourself to be controlled by fear or make your decisions based on scarcity, you will miss the opportunities that come your way. Your challenge is to stay focused on taking action, look for opportunity in the midst of crisis and find a way to leverage it!

 

Here are 5 Tips to Keep You Focused:

 

Focus on the positive. I recommend making a list of all the good things that happen to you each day and keep it posted near your computer as a constant reminder that not everything is bad.

 

Focus on what you can control, instead of what you cannot control. You cannot control the global markets, the investment banks, or the economy. You can only control your actions so create an action plan of what steps you are going to take to keep moving forward. Have a heart to heart talk with every attorney in your firm and require them to submit 3 specific steps they will take in the next 90 days to generate more business for your firm.

 

Focus on improving client satisfaction and retention. Send out a client satisfaction survey, call up your top 10 clients and take them to lunch, stay connected with your current and former clients—ask them what challenges they are facing and how you can assist them. Perhaps you can introduce them to a banking colleague for a much-needed business line of credit or a real estate broker who can help them sublease some office space.

 

Focus on implementing your marketing plan. When this economic crisis is over, you will

find some firms have just barely managed to survive, while others have grown significantly. The difference is when everyone else was pulling back, some firms see this as the perfect opportunity to expand their marketing and increase their efforts. Which path will you follow?

 

Focus on connecting with referral sources. Go through your rolodex and reconnect with every single person who sent you a referral in the last 24 months and start meeting with them in person.

 

As you go through your week, working hard on growing your practice, remember these tips. And stay focused.

 

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Don’t get caught playing the law firm marketing game under the old rules. Get a new playbook by attending an Avvo seminar. Three times bigger than Martinale.com, lawyer directory Avvo is holding three free seminars on Wednesday, June 17^th in San Diego and Thursday, June 18^th in Irvine in the morning and Los Angeles at night. Hear law firm marketing expert Stephen Fairley and others tell you what you need to know to market your law firm in the New Normal.   

Click here to register for San Diego, Irvine or to register for Los Angeles

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Today in our look at the new rules of legal marketing, we’ll be taking a look at Rule #5, both the old and new.

Old Rule #5: Look to your competitors to succeed. In the race to be perceived as equals, small law firms have done their level best to erase the lines between them and their larger brethren. The result is an inability to self-differentiate Ask two partners, one at a small firm and one at a large firm, what makes each of them unique, and they’ll both likely give you the exact same response.

New Rule #5: Only the specialists will survive. In this new economy, you must clearly stake out your ground: who you are, who you serve, and how you specialize is increasingly vital to your survival. Identify your uniqueness and emphasize it everywhere. Train every person from your partners to the receptionist how to answer the Big Question: “Why should I hire you?”

Agree or disagree, the rules have certainly changed. The new rules are here and they may be here to stay. How will you respond? What actions did you need to take yesterday to make the most of the opportunities tomorrow?

Welcome to the New Normal!

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Learn the new rules of law firm marketing by attending an Avvo seminar. Three times bigger than Martinale.com, lawyer directory Avvo is holding three free seminars on Wednesday, June 17^t in San Diego and Thursday, June 18^th in Irvine in the morning and Los Angeles at night. Hear law firm marketing expert Stephen Fairley and others tell you what you need to know to market your law firm in the New Normal.

Click here to register for San Diego, Irvine or to register for Los Angeles

 

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Shortly after the Total Attorney’s Get a Life Conference in Chicago, a firestorm started in the legal blogosphere around the question: “Is Twitter the legal marketing tool it’s cracked up to be?”

This firestorm was ignited by legal marketing consultant Larry Bodine when he contended during a Get a Life panel discussion that Twitter is not what it’s cracked up to be that sparked brushfires among scores of legal marketing Twitter Defenders/Twitter Detractors.

Most recently LinkedIn Lawyer David Barrett jumped into the fire with a very thorough and thought provoking discussion of Larry’s contention in Barrett’s blogpost: “Twitter for Law Firm Business Development: A Conversation Among Legal Marketing Brands.”

Such healthy, robust debate is what social media was meant to promulgate. And it is what is very much needed, as we in the legal marketing community try to find a place in our law firm marketing plans (or not) for these new media tools.

Keep in mind: social media is a only tool, not a final solution.

Like any tool it can be wielded with strength and power in the hands of an expert craftsman or it can be ineffectual in the hand of a novice. It's all in how you use it.

Can Twitter be a distraction? Of course it can be. And so can email and the telephone and endless meetings....

Bottom Line: Anything can become a distraction if you don’t harness it properly.

Many businesses and lawyers are still trying to figure out if social media is a fad or a trend.

The true test as to it's long term viability as a legal marketing tool is NOT how many people register on Twitter or how many drop off after 30 days (about 40% according to recent stats quoted in the above blog posts).

The real test will be found in the answer to this question: “If I effectively use social media platforms, will it generate new business, new clients, new referrals and/or new relationships for my business?”

To some people that question has already been asnwered in the affirmative. I spent some time with Kevin OKeefe of LexBlog fame. When I posed this question to him, he immediately responded, “All I know is that since I started using Twitter our business has increased by 20-25%.”

Wow!

Bottom Line: In the right hands, almost anything can be an effective tool that can drive new business.

Clearly, we can’t forget the tried-and-true techniques of building relationships with referral sources, giving seminars and presentations, building an online presence, and the like. But I don’t hear the Twitter defenders saying that at all. I do hear some of the Twitter detractors saying the reverse. 

Bottom Line: A powerful law firm marketing plan does not rely on one “magic bullet” to solve every problem and overcome every challenge.

Top Rainmakers use a variety of online and offline marketing strategies. They test the results and fine tune their marketing tool.

The exact legal marketing tools they use depends on:

• Their target market
• Their geographical location
• Their practice area
• Their personality
• Their level of comfort

It is this bigger picture discussion that both David Barrett and I embarked upon shortly after the Get a Life Conference. We are exploring how legal marketing in 2009 needs to bring together proven techniques from both traditional and new social media marketing in creative, intelligent ways. (Toward the end of Barrett’s post he mentions our discussion.)

From this discussion will spring new educational products and legal marketing services. Stay tuned . . .

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Do you want to double your law practice, increase client referrals and make more money in these challenging economics times? Then subscribe to The Rainmaker Advisor Journal. To get your free trial copy, go to: www.therainmakeradvisor.com

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Our legal marketing strategy for all this week is discussing 15 ideas you can use to keep in touch with your referrals. Today we’ll cover Ideas 11-15

#11. If you’re really into social media, try www.Twitter.com, a microblogging site. You can post updates on your status, but it limits you to only 140 characters. You can see how I use it and follow me on Twitter at: www.twittter.com/stephenfairley.

#12. Send them a gift. It doesn’t have to be something large, but once a quarter or every six months (not necessarily around the holidays) send them a good book you just red, a bottle of wine or a gift basket. Ask their assistant for some ideas on what they like.

#13. Bring a group of them together for a luncheon. Ask three or four of them who are non-competitors to join you for lunch and introduce them to each other. This is a great way to be known as a connector. Have lunch at a local restaurant or in your conference room.

#14. Offer them a seminar at your office or their office. If you have a service you could provide them or their staff, set up a complimentary seminar for them, perhaps over lunch.

#15. Rank your referral sources based on specific criteria so you know who you should spend more time with.

A = Referral sources who have the exact same target market as you and have already sent you at least 1 great referral. Spend most of your time cultivating these relationships.

B = Referral sources who have a very similar target market and have great potential to send you great referrals. Consider holding a joint marketing event or seminar to assist them in making the referral to you.

C – Referral sources have some potential, but may serve a different market and have not referred anyone to you yet.

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If you think . . . you can’t make more money and have the time to enjoy your life . . . you’ve never been to a Rainmaker Retreat. If you’re a partner in a small law firm or are on your own and want to grow your practice while enjoying the lifestyle you deserve, you owe it to yourself to attend a Rainmaker Retreat. In this two-day marketing boot camp for small and solo law firms, you’ll learn valuable information and practical steps to take to better market your practice. For more information or to sign-up for the next one, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.

 

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Our legal marketing strategy for all this week is discussing 15 ideas you can use to keep in touch with your referrals. Today we’ll cover Ideas 1-5.

#1. Send them an email immediately after each meeting with them. Send it the same day whenever possible. In the email express thanks for meeting with you, add any points you discussed and close with any action items or next steps.

#2. Send them a handwritten thank you card or form letter two to three days after your initial meeting.

#3. After your initial meeting, put a “to do” or task item in your Outlook for approximately 6 to 8 weeks later. Have your staff contact them to set-up another time to get together face-to-face. Make your next meeting more about the relationship than business. Perhaps meet at the golf course, over drinks or in another casual environment.

#4. Use your press releases. Each time you write and submit a press release, send them a copy. It’s easier if you use PRWeb (www.prweb.com) because they will automatically convert your release into a PDF file which you can print off and mail.

#5. Send them a copy of your published articles. As attendees to the Rainmaker Retreat learn, there are dozens of online article directories that will publish your articles for free. When one of your articles is published, print off several copies and send them out with a note.

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Tough times call for tough action. This is especially true today in small law firm marketing, when the competition is fierce, the client dollars tight and your bottom line precious. Get battle-ready now with a two-day marketing boot camp called the Rainmaker Retreat. For more information or to sign-up for the next one, go to: www.RainmakerRetreat.com or call 1-888-588-5891.

 

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