You’re using video as part of your legal marketing plan, and it’s going great. You’re taking all the right advice, getting more clients into your office based on the persuasive power of your video marketing.
Well done, but you’re not there yet.
What you want to do is embed those YouTube videos onto your blog or WordPress site. This way, visitors to your blog will get your marketing message in yet another venue.
Watch this video and learn how it’s done:
More and more lawyers are using their laptops to access information and work remotely. Though Internet access is readily available at many coffee shops and airports, the charge for connectivity can be extreme. And when you need to hop online for only an hour, paying the full day-rate seems wasteful.
For some, the answer is getting one of those neat little wi-fi cards from the cell phone company. But these, too, often cost $25-$50 per month plus the hardware costs (unless you can get a freebie from the company). Up until now, most lawyers have only dreamed of being able to use their iPhone as a means of getting connected to the Internet with their laptop.
Other cell phones can do this and the feature is enabled (but not activated) in the latest version of the iPhone OS.
I did just that recently. Pressed for time, I needed to send an email with substantial attachments to a Chapter 7 Trustee in a client’s case. I had a 45 minute drive ahead of me to get to Court and the calendar call was in 30 minutes. So I belted my MacBook Pro into the passenger seat with the lid open, connected the laptop to the iPhone by BlueTooth and set my email program sending that email out. Strapped myself into the driver’s seat and headed off to court some 35 miles away. By the time I got to Court, the email had been sent over the G3 cell network and the Trustee had acknowledged receipt by return email!
Next time, I’m going to extend this feat by making a phone call through my car’s handsfree connection while emailing through the laptop at the same time. You can activate the tethering feature in your iPhone easily.
How many things can you do at once?
So many lawyers are on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. And so many more aren’t. With so many millions of guides to using Twitter, you may think you’ve seen them all.
Not so. Now the British government has come out with a roadmap to using Twitter. And oddly enough, it’s pretty interesting.
Advertising Age tells us that our friends from the other side of the Atlantic have issued a 20-page internal strategy document to help them use Twitter more effectively. And lawyers looking to market using Twitter would be advised to check it out.
The guide is written by Neil Williams, head of corporate digital channels at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Some of his tips include:
avoid “pointless content”
“provide an informal, ‘human’ voice of the organization” by tweeting “no less than twice a day and no more than 10.”
Tweets should be “varied,” “human,” “frequent,” “re-tweetable,” “timely,” “credible” and “inclusive.”
follow by following people back when they follow you.
Add value with insights and thought leadership.
Nice job from Downing Street! Think the Queen will be using Tweetdeck?
I want to get a website for my law firm (or a law blog). And I will, just as soon as I can get it designed.
How many times do I hear this each day? Well, I heard it twice yesterday alone.
It’s “Ed Norton Syndrome,” a phrase I picked up from my wife some years ago. It relates to Art Carney’s character in The Honeymooners. Norton would engage in a long-winded ritual of physical tics to clear his head and get ready to tackle a task, and that ritual would continue until Ralph blew up in frustration. It was funny on TV, but in the world of law firm marketing it has the effect of leaving money on the table. A lot of it.
So here is my pearl of wisdom for you:
Let me explain before I’m accused of throwing money at everything that passes under my nose. If you take 10 minutes to buy a domain name, set up hosting and do a one-click installation of WordPress you can be up and running on a blog or “regular” website in no time flat. Once launched, you can start adding content that will resonate with your target market and build traffic to the site.
The site may not be pretty, but there are some damn good ones out there that aren’t pretty yet they get the job done. The first job is traffic, the way that searchers “vote with their mouse” regarding which sites are worthy of higher search rankings. These votes are an integral part of search engine optimization, not to mention getting new clients in the door.
On the flip side, let’s say you decide to go with one of those hyper-expensive companies that will design a slick looking website or blog for you. If you do it before there’s any content, all you’re really doing is painting the house before the foundation is built. Nobody cares if a blog or website is pretty – if nobody visits, it’s a tremendous waste of money.
So it’s your choice – do you go out of pocket for a pretty site that gets no traffic, or do you take those first steps and get something – anything of value – online? Do you plant your flag and claim your spot, or do you worry about cosmetics?
I’m not saying that cosmetics don’t matter. They do. The look and feel of your website or blog highlights who you are, and tells your story visually. It should represent professionalism, dignity, grace, intelligence and empathy. By all means, spend some bucks on the cosmetics – but if you’re waiting for the paint to dry before laying the foundation you’re going to end up sitting on the sidelines while the world passes you by.
Note that this tutorial was valid and wonderful in 2009 when originally published. iOS has evolved significantly, to the extent that there are many other means of tethering your iOS device – including ponying up a few bucks to the carrier each month or buying an app. This article is current, so don’t try this at home.
Tethering is the process by which you can connect your cell phone to a computer as a method of connecting to the internet. This is most helpful when there is no WiFi available and there is no other internet access. Tethering is built into the latest version of the iPhone OS. You can set it up without hacking or “jail-breaking” the iPhone.
Follow the step by step instructions here:
Now the steps for a Windows machine are a little different requiring trips to the Control Panels folder, but the concepts are the same.
You can undo the process at any time by going in your iPhone Settings -> General -> Profile -> Remove ATT profile and restart the iPhone. If you want to use USB instead of BlueTooth, skip all the BlueTooth steps and just click on WiFi in the upper right-hand menu bar, open Network Preference and choose Ethernet Adaptor (en5). Everything installs itself.
USB tethering is automatic when you plug the iPhone into the laptop using the USB cable. You will see a blue bar at the top of the iPhone screen that says internet Tethering. A few warnings though: AT&T doesn’t currently support tethering so don’t expect to call them or Apple for help; and the lastest beta version of the iPhone OS (3.1) is rumored to disable tethering until AT&T can figure out a way to charge for it.
I will tell you that creating video to market your legal services is the best return on investment anywhere. Hands down. Better than TV ads; billboards; newspapers; classified ads; radio; yellow pages and any other form of paid advertising. How do I know? I’ve done it. With more than 165 educational and informative videos on my website and video sharing sites, I receive calls every day from people across the country wanting to know if I can help solve their problems.
Have you created video today? If not, why not?
Gerry Oginski is a New York-based lawyer concentrating in the field of medical malpractice. Want to learn more? Take a look at the Lawyers’ Video Studio. It’s a great place to learn about creating video for attorneys. You can also join Gerry’s Facebook group, The Lawyers’ Video Studio, for more information.
Among other things, I’m a huge fan of M*A*S*H. As a child I’d sit glued to the television each week to watch Hawkeye and the rest of the cast go through their storylines. It was my dad’s favorite TV show as well, so I guess it gave me common ground with him as well.
Charles Emerson Winchester III gave me one of my most profound legal marketing tips, and I thought I’d pass it along. At the beginning of his run with the 4077th Charles was operating in a very methodical manner – quite unlike the “meatball surgery” practiced in wartime Korea. When told to hurry up, Charles replies as follows:
“I do one thing, I do it very well and then I move on.”
What does this mean to legal marketing, you may ask?
It means that the face you put forward to clients and prospects must reflect a singular focus in your practice – even if the firm does lots of stuff. Nobody goes to a podiatrist for a headache, a motorcycle repairman when the Benz breaks down, or a plumber to fix the roof.
Got a website? Rather than stuffing it with every single type of law you practice, split up into a bunch of sites – one for divorce, one for personal injury, one for bankruptcy, one for … well, for whatever. Your prospects want to see someone who is a specialist (even if you aren’t certified and cannot call yourself a specialist, that’s OK – just look the part) rather than a dabbler. Jack of all trades, and all that.
Showing only a single field of expertise will inspire your prospects to believe in you, and to trust your word as valid and valuable. You position yourself as a specialist, someone who is not distracted by other fields of law. You’re laser focused, ready to tackle the challenges of any case in that field without distraction.
You’re a hero.
Be that hero.
As business people we are faced with hiring decisions all the time. The initial appointment with a potential client should answer two questions: can I help this person with their issues? Can we work together? A potential client that is evasive, irritating, frustrating and combative at the initial appointment is not likely to improve over time.
If you are considering hiring a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant (VBA) the initial discussion should also answer two questions: can this person help me and my practice? Can we work together?
Over time you have developed a series of questions that helps you get to the issues and feel out a potential client. When I talk to a potential client, there are five areas I expect to discuss. An attorney that does not cover these areas is likely to be frustrating and difficult to work with over time. Here are five questions that I have been asked and expect from a potential client:
1. [Quantity] How many petitions have you prepared?
Volume is important. The more situations a VBA has dealt with, the more potential issues they will be aware of in new cases. What is a good answer? I think it depends on YOUR practice. If you handle 30-50 cases a year, after four or five years, you probably consider yourself experienced enough to deal with your potential client base. A VBA that has done 150 to 250 cases is probably a reasonable experience level for your practice size. A high volume practitioner that handles 200 or more cases per year will probably consider a thousand cases as a minimum level of experience. Matching your volume for five years to the VBA’s numerical experience will probably give you a VBA that can handle many of the issues likely to come up in YOUR practice.
2. [Breadth] What type of cases have you handled?
A VBA that has never handled a Chapter 13 case has seldom had to face the issues that asset cases address. It is like a car mechanic that has never dealt with a manual transmission. Chapter 7s, Chapter 13s, individuals, couples, same sex couples, sole proprietorships, federal and state exemption rules, multiple districts and multiple attorneys gives a VBA a vast array of experience that improves the quality of their work.
3. [Depth] What type of information do you provide when you return a petition?
A VBA should offer a comprehensive list of concerns, missing items and legal issues. The issues can be as simple as they were missing one paystub in the last sixty days to ‘Did you know they had $22,000 deposited in their checking account two months ago and it was withdrawn the next day?’ Seeing a lien on a car title but the creditor wasn’t listed in the schedules; A married couple with no jewelry listed on Schedule B and two jewelry store credit cards with large balances on Schedule F.
A report of the issues and concerns raised during the preparation of a petition gives attorneys two vital pieces of information: issues to be aware of in front of a Trustee and how forthright a client is in their discussions. A VBA should never assume an attorney knows what is missing or what issues exist. Most attorneys are aware of the credit counseling requirement but listing the absence of a credit counseling certificate in every case where it is missing is the job of the VBA. It gives the attorney confidence that when they sit down in a 341 hearing, the Trustee is not going to ‘surprise’ them.
There is one other area/issue that a VBA should not be afraid to advise the Attorney about: legal issues. I may get some flack about it, but a good VBA knows the rules and the law. I am not suggesting the VBA tell the Attorney HOW to practice bankruptcy law, but when a client has not lived in a state for two years, noting that different exemptions apply is part of our job. Legal issues will be rare, but they are 800 pound gorillas and catching them before a Trustee does makes a VBA invaluable to an Attorney.
4. [Performance] What is your turnaround time?
A nuts and bolts question? A VBA that answers ‘within 24 hours’ or ‘within 48 hours’, probably has a low volume business – nothing wrong with that, but the answer should be consistent with the answer in question number one. An answer of 7-10 days either indicates an extremely busy VBA business (and then you want to be careful with quality) or a VBA with other obligations (a regular job?). In the end, it is an issue of YOUR practice. If you routinely plan to file petitions quickly after obtaining the information from the client, a long turn around will impact your business processes. Also, if it is normal to file all your cases in the first week of the month, having longer turn around times may not impact your practice at all. A VBA should always offer that if you have an emergency filing, they will do their best to turnaround the petition as quickly as possible.
5. [Quality] What documents do you need to prepare a petition?
Most attorneys have a booklet or set of papers that a client fills out with the information necessary for the petition. That booklet is a foundation, but far from enough to complete a quality petition. In addition to the booklet, at a minimum: deed(s), title(s), 2 years of tax returns, 3 months of bank statements, 3 months of financial and creditor statements (especially secured debts); 6 months of pay stubs; any summons/complaints for lawsuits; credit counseling certificate. (I prefer and review 6 months of financial statements. 90 days covers SOFA #3 but could be an issue on balance transfers – our trustees ask about balance transfers over the last 120 days.)
VBAs that ask for less are not bad, but you need to compare the amount of information provided to the VBA with the detail expected back from them. A reasonable inquiry applies to all the steps in the preparation and filing of a bankruptcy petition. We have seen at 341 hearings the result of debtors filing their own petitions. VBAs that take only the minimum information provided and prepare a petition from it will fare no better.
A VBA that requests a significant quantity of documents is more likely to return a petition that accurately reflects the debtors financial condition, but reviewing such a load of documentation will take much longer also – expect to pay for it.
Those are the important five. They cover quantity, quality, depth, breath and performance. You will ask other questions as the discussion evolves.
But, you might notice there is no discussion of cost: how much do you charge? If you get good answers to the above questions, pay whatever the VBA asks. It will be worth it. When you bill clients for staff work, the amount is more than you actually pay the staff. The number reflects the overhead costs and carrying costs of having staff performing necessary work. The VBA provides their own computer, facilities, training and overhead. The VBA only gets paid when you need them, whenever you need them. No staff member would accept four hours of work this week, then sitting at home unpaid for 10 days.
Consider the amount of time you (or your staff) spend preparing petitions and then multiply that by your staff billing rate. It will be a reasonable starting point for fee negotiations with a quality VBA.
Tracy Coyle is a virtual bankruptcy assistant working with consumer bankruptcy lawyers nationwide. She can be contacted by email at tracy.coyle@gmail.com.
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When I'm not working with other lawyers, I'm out there helping people in the fields of consumer bankruptcy, debt collection abuse, and credit reporting errors. [Read More …]
