Legal marketing was the topic of the weekend at New Jersey Rainmaker Retreat
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.
**************************************************************************
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!
Baseball, social media and legal marketing - the perfect Saturday
Over the weekend I had the great privilege of being a panelist at the State Bar of Arizona’s Grand Slam or Foul Ball . . . Social Networking for Lawyers - Co-sponsored with The State Bar of California. It was a glorious day in Arizona filled with good conversation, excellent panelists, magnificent food, and of course, baseball.
During the seminar portion of the day – I won’t tease you with the food and baseball – the participants were treated to some great discussion of social media and how it can benefit, and hurt an organization. One of the more interesting thoughts came from Peter Woodfork
Vice President & Assistant General Manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He spoke about the issues involved with athletes using social media and some of the guidance that Major League Baseball is providing to its member clubs. There are legitimate concerns with athletes posting to social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN etc. and many clubs discourage athletes from posting during the season.
This brings up an important business principle – make sure the individuals utilizing social media on behalf of your organization are the appropriate persons to be speaking for the organization. Once something is posted on Facebook, it can live forever on Google.
I shared with the attendees my analogy on where social media fits into a law firm marketing plan. Imagine you have a cylinder and you have to fit large rocks, small rocks, sand, and water into the cylinder. Which ones go first?
I recommend the large ones, which are your referrals and past clients. The small rocks are your grassroots networking activities and your website. The sand in the cylinder is your blog. The water is social media. It ties all of your legal marketing efforts together, but it is not your primary marketing tool.
It was a great seminar for those who attended, and I hope to participate in more in the future. Social media has a place in your law firm marketing plan. Putting that piece in the right place is the key.
*************************************************************************************
Looking for more Rainmaker Institute Wisdom?
Then sign up for a complimentary Law Firm Marketing Strategy CD. It contains information that will enable you to Generate More and Better Referrals, Find New Clients Fast, and Fill Your Law Practice. The CD is free, so sign up now!
What can you learn from the large law firms about legal marketing in 2010?
A recent law firm marketing article shows where the large law firms are planning to deploy their legal marketing resources in 2010. While you are not directly competing with them for clients, you can learn from the research that their staff’s have conducted on the state of legal marketing today.
I find it interesting that the top two items on their marketing agendas are items that we have been encouraging you to implement for some time now – investing in social media and investing in client loyalty interviews.
Social media – such as Twitter, LinkedIN, Facebook, blogs, Youtube etc – allows you to have contact with your clients, prospects and referral sources in the mediums that are most comfortable and familiar for them. Social media should be a part of your integrated Web presence to maximize the effectiveness of search engine optimization and deliver the largest presence possible for your marketing dollar.
Client loyalty interviews are another area where more than 9 out of 10 law firms are spending their marketing dollars this year. Researching what your clients are looking for is standard operating procedure in most companies, and law firms are no exception. I would encourage you to expand this process to include your referral sources. Conduct some anecdotal research with your referral sources and ask what their friends and clients are looking for. That will give you an additional window into the world of your prospective clients.
I encourage you to read the rest of the article to learn all that you can from the larger law firms. They have research and marketing staffs that have put together a wealth of information that you can glean from. In this economy, make use of every resource that is available to you. Especially ones that you don’t have to pay for.
*******************************************************************************************************
If you are still unsure about attending a Rainmaker Retreat, sign up for one of our complimentary teleseminars. These free, one-hour calls will give you a taste for the information that will be presented during a Rainmaker Retreat. Don’t miss this opportunity to preview something that can revolutionize your law practice.
