law firm marketing — Legal Practice Pro

Podcasting As Law Firm Marketing Tool

October 25, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

debt-podcast-gene-melchionne

Radio advertising was sexy until television came along. Then the rise of the Internet really stole radio’s thunder. But audio remains a solid choice when it comes to law firm marketing.

I started podcasting more than 5 years ago after hearing Adam Curry make it sound effortless. It was the beginning of the whole podcasting craze, and I was hooked so much that I took up a microphone and began what ultimately became the Debt Podcast. I scoured the Internet for music I could play during the show without paying royalties, grabbed sound clips to jazz up the program, and had a blast.

This had nothing to do with law firm marketing, it was just fun. The days turned into weeks into months, and I began talking about issues surrounding the impending changed to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Emails and voice mails started pouring in from people from all over the United States, asking me questions and looking for help.

Then I realized I’d begun an ass-backwards foray into law firm marketing.

3 Compelling Reasons Why Marketing Your Law Firm Should Begin With Lead Generation

August 31, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

lead generation - marketing your law firm You’re sitting in your office and the phone rings, or that annoying little ping signals you’ve got an email. It’s a new potential client! Stop the presses! All work halts! Why? Because when a new client contacts you, it means you’re on the precipice of making money. This is what marketing your law firm is all about. But is that the right way to do business?

Lawyers, especially those in historically direct response fields such as bankruptcy, personal injury and criminal defense, typically get the client when there’s an immediate need. I get rear-ended and wind up in the emergency room, so I start looking for an attorney to represent me. But as I’ve said in the past, it would be so much better if I, the client, met my lawyer before I needed any help. In that way I wouldn’t have to scramble at the last minute – my choice would already be made in my head.

For the lawyer, it makes sense as well. When you’re marketing your law firm, your goal is to be the first attorney someone thinks about when they think about a lawyer. There’s always a steady stream of people who are interested in learning a bit about the attorney’s services. It’s called lead generation, and it’s what makes the business world go around.

Why You Need To Ignore The Competition When Marketing Your Law Firm

July 7, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Law Firm Marketing Instinct When I decided to open my own law firm, I did so with the firm belief that I could not fail. I figured that if I put up a Yellow Pages ad people would find me.

Did I mention I was 24 years old and working Manhattan?

Yeah, not so smart.

It didn’t take me too long before I realized I had no earthly clue about law firm marketing.

If this happened today I would just jump online, find myself some cool legal marketing blogs (that’s a gratuitous link to my free 5-part course, by the way) and start jotting down notes. There are lots of places to learn this stuff.

As it so happens, the Interwebs weren’t quite so well established back in 1995. So I cracked open the phone book and the newspapers to see what everyone else was doing. I watched endless amounts of television and listened to the radio (all in the name of market research, I assure you) so I could see what the competition was doing.

In the end, I fell flat on my face. Spent an obscene amount of money just to make a go of it.

I followed my instincts. And, it turns out, I would do the same thing if I were a newbie lawyer now (unless I read this post).

But now I’m going to issue you a warning – one you really want to take to heart.

5 Ways To Use The Reno Rule For Your Law Firm Marketing This Summer

July 6, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Law Firm Marketing And The Reno Rule The schools are closed, the kids lining up for ice cream by the truck with that annoying jingle emanating from it. Moms and dads are forking over money for water parks, blockbuster movies and chlorine for the pools.

No work is getting done whatsoever. And here in New York City, we’re facing temperatures closing in on the triple digits all week.

If you have a legal problem and need a lawyer, chances are pretty good that it’s going to wait until Labor Day unless it involves something extremely urgent.

For those of us who get the majority of our business from clients who could conceivably wait for a few months with anything awful happening, the instinct is to pull back on our law firm marketing efforts.

Me? I’m going to double down on my law firm marketing rather than take a breather. But I’m going to play with the Reno Rule, not just throw money at the table.

4 Online Legal Marketing Trends Every Other Industry Knows About

May 25, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to peer into the future? Some way to tell what the next few years would bring? What would you do with that information? Would you put money on the Super Bowl? World Series? Or would you take the opportunity to move ten giant steps ahead of the competition?

OK, it’s no and either-or sort of thing. You’d probably do all of those things and a lot more. But when it comes to marketing your law firm online there’s a certain amount of forecasting we can do without any help. All it takes is a quick glance around to see where the rest of the world is today.

That’s right, we can see the future of online legal marketing by looking around us right now. As a backwards-looking profession, we live in the past. It’s in our legal pleadings, our reliance on precedent, and our education. But the fun thing is that the rest of the world is living in the present.

Law Firm Marketing With Content – Counterintuitive, Or Money Maker?

May 10, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Marketing a law firm is time-consuming, costly, and rife with risk. What if your headline sucks? What if someone’s offended by the photo you chose for your snazzy (and super-expensive) display ad? Will it make money or lose money? You’re marketing a law firm to bring in business, after all – and if the new clients don’t show up, you’re out of luck. And potentially out of your home.

Marketing Your Law Firm With Content Is Counterintuitive

You went to law school for three years, spent ages digging out of student loan debt, and now are struggling like hell to make enough to keep your law firm profitable. Some months are flush, some are lean. Heck, these days a lot of lawyers are contemplating their own bankruptcy filings. Including bankruptcy lawyers, mind you. Your law firm marketing efforts need to reliably pay out every month.

So you read about this concept of content marketing, which essentially tells you to market your law firm by giving away your expertise.

The companies that were selling you on beautiful law firm websites last year are now [Read more...]

Filed Under: Legal Marketing Tagged With: content marketing, law firm, law firm blog, law firm marketing, law firm websites, marketing your law firm, michael chiarello

Why I Want More Good Bankruptcy Lawyers In New York

April 22, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Do you want more competition in your marketplace? Do you really think you could handle all the business if you were the only one? Even if you could, wouldn’t it be lonely?

A recent article caught my eye not because of the content itself, but because of the title (which is, of course, the mark of a good blog title). The question posed is whether more competition is good for you as a business owner.

Lots of lawyers I know would love nothing more than to be the only game in town, to have their pick of every potential client. Not me. I want more good bankruptcy lawyers, right here in New York where I practice.

I’m not saying there aren’t some very good lawyers in this city – there are. But I’d love nothing more than to have double or even triple that number. Not casual filers, but high-level folks who do terrific work.

Lest you think I’ve gone off the deep end, let me explain. The more competition there is in the market, the better it is for you. Period.

More smart lawyers means more informed judges. If I’m the only one bringing a complex issue to a judge, it isn’t going to make a huge impact. But if every lawyer in town is highlighting the same issues to the bench then my court is going to stand up and take notice. It goes from one lawyer being a thorn in the side to an epidemic. Can’t avoid it, can’t ignore it.

Better lawyers = better information. People need solid, reliable information when they’re making a decision on whether to hire a lawyer. Better lawyers are those who convey more timely and useful information in a way people understand without getting out the dictionary. More information gives prospective clients a better idea about what they need and want, and how a lawyer can help them.

Greater sense of community. Shoddy lawyers hold their cards close to the vest and are less likely to help one another out. They have so little knowledge and expertise that they’re afraid of letting others in on what little they know. On the flip side, those who know a lot about a field of law are less afraid of sharing knowledge with others – even the competition. They know there’s more to getting and keeping clients than a motion form, and they act accordingly.

In recognition of the common enemy. Every field of law has a common enemy. For bankruptcy lawyers, it’s the debt settlement folks and the self-help outfits that make promises and deliver little, if any, value to most consumers. When there are enough intelligent, well-reasoned lawyers in the field it’s easier to combat misinformation and disinformation spread by the people who harm our clients day in and day out.

Next time a new lawyer starts practicing in your courthouse, don’t look at it as a setback. Realize that one lawyer can’t serve the entire population, can’t educate the entire community, and can’t bring every issue before the court. Take the time to reach out, make the connection, and learn from one another.

The results will be outstanding.

Photo courtesy of Fabbio.

Filed Under: Legal Marketing Tagged With: bankruptcy lawyers, business owner, competition, law firm, law firm marketing, lawyers, smart lawyer

Blogging For Your Law Firm? There Is No Middle Ground.

March 11, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Marketing your law firm with a blog is a romantic notion in a certain sense.

Law firm marketing folks – heck, all marketing folks – extol the virtues of blogging. Create a law firm blog and your business will soar, setting you apart from the competition and bringing you accolades of all sorts. Your law firm marketing efforts should center around a blog, they say.

Actually, that’s not true. Creating a law firm blog as part of your marketing efforts will set you apart from the competition, but maybe not in a good way.

Blogging is a content marketing mechanism that’s designed to provide useful information and show your stuff. By creating a law firm blog you build trust your prospective clients and the public, enhancing your reputation. It’s also terrific for search engine optimization, which exposes your words and thoughts to a wider audience and increases the reach of your message.

But unless you’re adding content on a regular basis, you’re not going to look so terrific to people to visit your law firm blog.

I’m not telling you to create content every day because I know it’s not realistic for lawyers to take that kind of time. But would it kill you to put down something on your law firm blog once a week, something valuable and helpful?

There’s a lawyer in my area who, in a fit of “I want to market my law firm,” went out and hired a designer to do two new sites for his bankruptcy law firm. The sites are beautiful, and very easily navigable. And they both have blogs.

OK, I can see someone creating more than one law firm blog – in fact, I have more than one. The problem is that both of the blogs cover exactly the same topic, with the only difference that one site allegedly covers New York City and the other covers Long Island (a distance of under 60 miles).

Since he launched these beautiful sites over six months ago, he’s suffered from a bit of over extension.

On one blog he’s done 10 posts since September 2009, which is respectable.

On the second blog he’s done 2 posts since September 2009. And one of them is a duplicate of a post on the first site.

A failure of consistency tells a visitor that you’re not serious. And if you’re not serious about this aspect of your marketing, how reliable are you as a service provider? Your law firm blog signals a commitment to provide information and share knowledge; your lack of consistency signals a failure to live up to that commitment.

In addition, failing to consistently publish content onto your legal blog will lower your site traffic. If there’s a blog I like, I’m going to visit it more frequently (as much as I love it, I recognize that RSS readers never really caught on with the masses). Once I show up a few times and see nothing new, I’m not visiting anymore. It’s like when I turn on the television every week to catch Big Bang Theory (which you should watch), I expect to see Sheldon in a new episode. If all I get is repeats for a few weeks I’m going to find something else to do on Mondays nights.

So, too, with your legal blogging activities. If you’re going to do it, understand that you’re in this for the long haul. If you’re in that’s cool. And if not, you need to go find some other way to market your law firm.