Don’t be a snob, and all PR needs to be personal. That’s it. Okay, maybe a bit more detail is warranted. The first tip: don’t treat a reporter from an unfamiliar publication as someone to shun, since you may regret it one day when he or she is with a major newspaper. That comes from… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Marketing Tips
Subscribe to Marketing Tips RSS FeedDo You Really Know Why You Won a Competition?
Posted in Marketing Tips, Prospecting for ClientsThere is an interesting discussion over on Attorney at Work about how a firm should deal with losing a competition. Merrilyn Astin Tarlton provides some solid advice on dealing with such a situation. First, get over it. Then, contact the decision maker(s) and seek information on why you lost (in a non-threatening way, of course),… Continue Reading
Do You Still Hate Marketing?
Posted in Marketing TipsI received a call this week from a young lawyer a couple of years out of a top tier law school. She left a message that she was thinking about starting a solo PI firm. She wanted to know who and what was out there to help her with that. The voicemail message stated that… Continue Reading
Two Quick Tips On Building Relationships
Posted in Client Communications, Marketing TipsIn a similar vein to the old real estate adage, in legal marketing it’s all about contact, contact, contact. Two important factors need to come into play in building any relationship are how often you are in contact (with clients, referral sources and prospects) and what value those communications add to the relationship. That’s pretty… Continue Reading
Of Course, Client Service is Marketing!
Posted in Client Communications, Marketing TipsHave you ever had a bad experience that totally turned you off to ever returning to a store, restaurant, auto mechanic, or whatever. I have to admit that that has happened to me. But, have you ever been turned off to a WHOLE city because of an unpleasant incident at its airport? Patrick Lamb tells… Continue Reading
The Future of Law Practice & The Impact on Marketing
Posted in Legal Fees, Marketing Tips, Prospecting for ClientsThis year at the Legal Tech conference the keynote address was by Jim Calloway, a law practice management guru, who serves as director of the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Management Assistance Program. The highlights of his much heralded address on the future of law practice is now a podcast that is worth listening to. It runs… Continue Reading
Market for Clients Where Your Clients Are, Of Course!
Posted in Marketing Tips, Prospecting for ClientsYou may think that that is so obvious, that my mere mentioning it is dumb. Not so fast. Too many lawyers are into activities to be active…they think. Some believe that by going to enough social events (online or otherwise), or business meetings, or community events that they will pick up work. Maybe or maybe… Continue Reading
Are You Providing Clients Real Value?
Posted in Marketing TipsThe key to success in any business is providing value. And in today’s competitive legal market, any law firm that doesn’t know that is not talking to their clients. Much less are they in tune with their marketplace. If you think you are providing value to your clients, but haven’t asked them, how would you… Continue Reading
Why Clients Will Pay You More
Posted in Client Communications, Marketing TipsBecause they like you. They like you because you provide great value. You provide great value because you care about your clients, about being efficient and reducing costs, helping them achieve their personal and business goals, and you give them freebies (i.e. free advice occasionally, CLE, and more). The result: raving fans! Raving fans are willing to… Continue Reading
Why Your Partner Won’t Cross-Sell You!
Posted in Marketing TipsAfter 25-plus years in marketing lawyers, it continues to amaze me that some lawyers do not understand why cross-selling so often doesn’t work. The thinking seems to go, “I’m good at… (fill in the blank), we’re partners, and they should just refer ‘their’ clients to me so I’ll have more work.” The question is “why… Continue Reading
Marketing Ethics: The Rules Still Matter
Posted in Marketing TipsOver on Attorney at Work there is an article entitled “Legal Marketing Ethics Pointers” that is a compilation of various posts by Will Hornsby, the ABA’s ethics guru. He basically points out that ethics rules might not be given the consideration they should in today’s Internet and social media marketplace. He covers emails, domain names,… Continue Reading
Public Speaking: Tips on Doing Well
Posted in Marketing TipsOne of the key ingredients for a successful speaking engagement is to be nervous as hell before you start. It does not mean you should be trembling in your shoes, but if you are not a little on edge, you will generally fall flat. At least that’s what happens to me. If I am very… Continue Reading
Stop Wasting Time – Network Smartly
Posted in Marketing TipsFirst, get over your fear of networking. How? Treat it as an opportunity to meet and get to know new friends. As I said in another post, don’t put pressure on yourself by thinking you have to come away with a new client every time. Just enjoy yourself!! Okay, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be… Continue Reading
Read What Your Clients Read
Posted in Marketing TipsPretty simple, huh. And if you don’t know ask them. Your clients’ reading habits will reveal what it is that other potential clients like them (whom presumably you would like to also represent) are reading. That is essentially the message of today’s meditation taken from 365 Marketing Meditations: Daily Lessons for Marketing & Communications Professionals by… Continue Reading
Good Etiquette = Good Manners = Good Marketing
Posted in Marketing TipsThere is a very interesting article on Inc. magazine online about business etiquette and five suggestions that matter. It starts out by talking about how some consider the mere discussion about etiquette as being stodgy or even old fashion. It is anything but. Here are the 5 tips: Write Thank You notes. They are still… Continue Reading
Don’t Waste Your Money On The Yellow Pages
Posted in Marketing TipsThere’s a great discussion over on LinkedIn’s Marketing the Law Firm group about the value of advertising in/on the Yellow Pages. I support most of the ideas or comments made there and suggest you take a look at the discussion. I have never been big on advertising, period. It does not make my top 10… Continue Reading
How to Make Your Marketing Committee Effective
Posted in Marketing TipsFor those who know me, know that I am not a fan of law firm marketing committees. It may have something to do with my many years as an in-house marketing professional. I found that they only get in the way. Not only because some committee members get at cross purposes chasing their own agendas… Continue Reading
Consider an Internal Coaching Program to Get Marketing Results
Posted in Marketing TipsAt a presentation to lawyers and marketing people this week at the LMA Triad City Group, I was talking about best practices. I didn’t just suggest tips for those activities that work best IMHO, or planning action items around them, but pointing out that in my experience the biggest obstacle to lawyer business development is… Continue Reading
Does Your Business Card Hurt You?
Posted in Marketing TipsWhat does your business card say about you? That is the question posed by Ross Fishman on Ross’s Law Marketing Blog. You may not think that a small, simple thing like a business card is very important. In fact, you may not even give it a second thought. That is a big mistake. Fishman says,… Continue Reading
Legal Project Management is for Real!
Posted in Marketing TipsLawyers have always done project management. They haven’t called it that nor done it in a systematic way. But if you’ve ever managed a legal matter (project) you have done project management, more so if you managed a team, worked within a budget, and on deadline. But, as I mentioned, it’s was likely done in… Continue Reading
Thank You Notes: Is Handwritten or E-mail better?
Posted in Marketing TipsA post on Thom Singer’s Some Assembly Required blog last Friday challenged in detail the assertion by Jessica Liebman in a post on Business Insider Blog that email “Thank You” notes after an interview are better than handwritten ones. Her reasoning is that the latter: Take too long to get there (and letters could get… Continue Reading
Marketing Budget: Should be 0% of Revenues for Starters
Posted in Marketing TipsThere is an interesting discussion over on LinkedIn’s Marketing the Law Firm group about how much a law firm’s marketing budget should be. Numbers like 5%, 8% or 3% are being thrown around. I’m not saying that any of those are right or wrong. What I suggest is that your budgeting process should start with a… Continue Reading
Building a Network for Success
Posted in Marketing TipsA referral network does not just happen. Like everything else in legal marketing, it takes work. William Melater, the Dis-Associate contributing author on Attorney at Work, tells us that it doesn’t matter where you went to school or your class rank. What does matter, if you are to “be successful as a lawyer,” is that… Continue Reading
Involve your staff in developing business
Posted in Marketing TipsLawyers do not have to do all the marketing and business development by themselves. They can and should involve their staff as much as practicable. Early in my in-house marketing career I got as many non-marketing staff as possible to help with marketing, since I had no departmental staff to speak of. I cajoled and… Continue Reading