By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm ManagementA law firm rarely fails for lack of talent. It fails due to a litany of bad business practices, inefficiencies, infighting and hubris, as well as a number of other reasons that have nothing to do with the intelligence or talent of the lawyers themselves. Being good at practicing law only gives you permission to… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Development,Law Firm MarketingHere’s a lesson that many attorneys learn the hard way: you will never have that lifestyle law firm you want if you keep taking on the wrong types of clients. These are the people that fall outside a pre-defined category of what constitutes your ideal client. You need to look at your most profitable clients and… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Content MarketingGetting Google to rank your website high is a much harder task than you might imagine. In fact, there is an entire industry that has been created based upon helping businesses get their websites ranked high on the search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are so many tricks of… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Content Marketing,Law Firm BlogHaving high quality content on your law firm blog is one of the best ways to improve your Google search ranking and online authority. When people — your prospects — like what you have to say online, you are rewarded by Google as well as by those who are ready to hire an attorney to… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingThose of us in the Gen X or Baby Boomer demographic sometimes enjoy poking fun at Millennials as entitled little snowflakes who grew up receiving participation trophies, have no idea how people got coffee before Starbucks, and popularized the man-bun. But while we were all laughing, they were growing to become the largest demographic, overtaking… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingWhen I started out in law firm marketing some 20 years ago, it was a lonely profession. Today, the law firm marketing landscape is covered with so-called “experts” in SEO, social media, digital marketing, you name it. Some are good at what they do, but most have no business calling themselves an expert at anything… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Marketing,Rainmaker Mastermind GroupImagine what it would be like to have skilled and focused law firm partners helping you find solutions to the most challenging questions and issues in your practice. You would get many lives of experience, resources, education and insight from which to draw. There are few things as powerful. This is what membership in the… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Rainmaker Mastermind GroupThis weekend I’m meeting with the Rainmaker Mastermind Group, an exclusive group of non-competing attorneys and law firm marketing experts who meet a few times a year for an intense, two-day strategy session. Here, attorneys have the opportunity to learn in the company of other top attorneys where to find the necessary resources, tap into… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingConsumer insights are important when crafting a law firm marketing plan, and they have certainly changed a lot in the last few years. A new consumer content study by Adobe lists five significant changes that you need to dial in to your marketing planning for 2019, including: Consumers spend almost 9 hours on average every… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Lead ConversionIn 2019, instead of making a resolution to lose that last 10 pounds that keeps hanging on (or coming back), why not resolve to do something different to fatten your wallet? Establishing the right system to follow up with inbound leads and automating as much of the process as possible will help you capitalize on… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Marketing,Lead ConversionIt’s the second week of January and you have a lot of slots to fill on your calendar with appointments that will hopefully turn into new clients. So how are you going to do it? You can begin by watching my free webinar on the Top 5 Ways Lawyers Are Filling Up Their Calendars With… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Management,Law Firm MarketingThere are certain traits successful law firms share. I call them habits, since they must be deeply ingrained in an organization to bear full fruit. A few years ago, Forrester Research — a global business research and advisory firm — studied the successful habits of small businesses, and it is uncanny how those habits match… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Business Development for Law Firms,Law Firm ManagementDo you know how much money each lead is really costing you? How much does it cost you to get a new client? Knowing the answers to these questions can mean the difference between a profitable firm and a struggling one. These numbers are known as “KPIs” — Key Performance Indicators. They are the critical… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Development,Law Firm ManagementOne important lesson you have probably learned by now if you’ve been practicing law for any period of time is that knowing the law is very different from learning how to run a successful law firm. There are lessons that only experience can teach us; my experience of helping more than 18,000 attorneys learn how… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingAt some time, you’ve probably been told that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog (especially you litigators!). So while big firms do have some advantages over small to mid-size firms when it comes to resources available for law firm marketing, my experience… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm DevelopmentBuilding a lifestyle law firm — one that enables you to do what you want when you want to do it — begins with the understanding that you are running a business. And the success of your law firm lies in how well you are able to develop your strengths in three key areas: Marketing… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingOne of the most effective ways you can distinguish yourself in the legal marketplace is by creating a brand that positions you as a leading authority in your area of practice. Without a strong brand, you run the risk of becoming a commodity — and as we all know, commodities typically have minuscule profit margins.… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingIn today’s hyper-competitive legal services marketplace, it is not enough to be smart or even to do a great job for your clients. You must find a way of differentiating yourself and your firm so that prospective clients have a reason to choose you over your competitors. And everyone who works in your firm must… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingTypically, lawyers are among those who are considered to be helpers. Other people are supposed to come to you for help — which may be why it can be hard to be the one who is seeking out help. However, there are many law firm marketing tasks that you can and should delegate or outsource… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Digital Marketing for Law Firms,Law Firm MarketingThis post from June 2018 has been updated to include a slide presentation from Search Engine Journal’s recent webinar on How to Identify Lost & Missed Content Opportunities. While the relevancy of content marketing has never been greater (research shows that it generates 3x as many leads than traditional marketing and costs 62% less), we… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Development,Law Firm MarketingThere aren’t too many excuses I haven’t heard from lawyers who won’t do what it takes to market their law firm effectively: I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. I don’t know how. My clients aren’t on social media. My practice is highly specialized so I don’t need to market it. All… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Digital Marketing for Law Firms,Law Firm Marketing,SEO for law firmsMost people are not aware that YouTube is the world’s third largest search engine, where three billion searches are executed every month (compared to Google at 100 billion and Bing at 26 billion searches per month). YouTube has become so enormous that videos not optimized fully for search likely won’t find an audience. Online video is… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm MarketingWord of mouth has always been important for lawyers to obtain new business — after all, what are referrals but informed word-of-mouth recommendations? Now that our lives are all online, it’s easier than ever for clients to post reviews of your services. And you can no more control that than you can order up a… Continue Reading
By Stephen Fairley on Posted in Law Firm Marketing,Legal MarketingLaw Firm 500 is a prestigious, one-of-a-kind award recognizing fast growing law firms of all sizes. It celebrates velocity, innovation, and the entrepreneurial spirit of law firms measured by revenue growth over the past three years. Law Firm 500 is similar in spirit to the Inc. 500, which recognizes fast growing, independently owned companies in the… Continue Reading
