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.

The podcasting landscape was a gold rush in those days, with people betting their fortunes on the medium as a way for broadcasting to live online.  Tons of companies sprung up to take advantage of podcasting – it was the latest fad.

And no wonder.  As a law firm marketing effort, this was the least expensive and simplest thing I’d ever done.  Open up a free audio recording program, talk for about 15 minutes, save the recording and upload it to a blog site hosted (originally) by Blogger.  Even better was the fact that I was the only bankruptcy lawyer using podcasting as a law firm marketing tactic.

But I, like many others at the time, stopped podcasting.  Lots of the big names associated with the platform eventually left when they figured out they couldn’t get multi-million dollar sponsorships for their programs.  I stopped because I lost interest.

After all, in 2005 and 2006 not everyone had an iPod.  Smartphones were just coming into their own, and capacity didn’t allow for more than a few pieces of audio content.  To get a podcast you needed to have a special program on your computer.  In other words, the audience just wasn’t there.

Fast forward to 2010.

50 million iPhones sold.  160,000 Android devices sold each day.  Millions of BlackBerry, Palm and Windows phones dot the landscape.  Everyone’s got iTunes on the computer.  You can’t walk down the street without getting hit in the face by someone’s crappy earbuds.

The audience is here.  In fact, Tom Webster from Edison Research recently reported that 45% of all Americans are aware of podcasting, while 23% of Americans listen to podcasts – anincrease from 11% in 2006.

And here’s a fun fact – there’s pretty much nobody is out there marketing a law firm using podcasting these days.  I recently got back in the saddle, and am doing my Debt Podcast just about once a week.  I’ve been doing them with my friend and colleague Connecticut bankruptcy lawyer Eugene Melchionne (that’s him in the picture), and it’s fun for both of us.

Americans have an average commute of 18-22 minutes each way.  They’re hungry for audio content.

Lots of people learn better by listening rather than by reading or watching video.  They’re hungry for audio content.

Still not many people out there using podcasting as a law firm marketing technique.

My audience is up significantly each week, and I don’t do much to promote the show.  OK, I don’t do anything at all to promote it.  Yet.

But you know I will.  And soon.

What do you think?  Time to re-think podcasting for your law firm marketing?

Related posts:

1. Who Is Responsible For Marketing Your Law Firm?
2. Why You Need To Ignore The Competition When Marketing Your Law Firm
3. Law Firm Marketing And “The Buy My $#!^” Mentality

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.

Those leads go into a database of names and contact information, always kept updated and close at hand.  Whenever the lawyer’s got something to share – news, information, what have you – the database is leveraged so that not only are as many people notified as possible, but also the right people.  People who care.

Lots of my colleagues in the bankruptcy bar look at me cross-eyed when I talk about lead generation as the supreme means of marketing your law firm.  They think about their clients as “one off” sources of business, people who leap into the waiting arms of a bankruptcy lawyer when absolutely necessary and then never again.  But it ignores the reality of a person’s life – the act of leaping is usually made after the decision to leap.

So why is lead generation the most effective way of marketing your law firm?

Dip A Toe Into The Water Without Getting Soaked

There’s someone who, as I write this, is neck-deep in debt.  They’ve got the credit card companies at the door, foreclosure looms, the car’s going to get towed away.  They’re looking at options, but aren’t ready to make a final decision on what they’re going to do.  In this information gathering phase of the process, people want to get as much data as possible without making a firm commitment to anything.  They need some time to digest it all, make the right choice for their own situation, and do so in a time and a place that is most convenient for them.

Using a simple lead generation strategy you can reach out to those people and provide them with information that they can review on their own time, without any pressure or time commitment.  It also lets you keep your calendar free from those who are looking to bend your ear but not really go anywhere in terms of legal representation.  Everyone wins.

Cut Out The Crap

If you’re doing TV, radio or paid online advertising then your message is being seen by thousands of people each day.  The problem is that they’re seeing your message once and only once.  If they see the message and decide not to take the drastic action of hiring your law firm, the only way for you to get in front of them again when they’re ready is to spend more money.

When you’re using lead generation as part of your law firm marketing strategy you’re identifying those people who are interested in learning more about your services.  No longer do you need the barrage of paid ads to get in front of them a second time – you’ve got their email address, snail mail address, or whatever you’re collecting.  Couple that initial piece of information with a regular newsletter or content update and you’re sure to be in front of them when they need your help.

Know-It-All Beats The Show-Off

If I’m looking to buy a car, who am I going to buy from – the sales person with the nicest suit, or the one who knows the most about cars?  If I’m looking to get the best automobile for my money, I’m going with the one who knows a thing or two about cars.  The show-off may look great, but in this exercise I’m not looking to buy a suit.

So, too, in the world of legal marketing.  There are lots of really slick looking websites, blogs, TV ads and the like out there for attorneys.  Some are cutesy, some are classic, and others are just over-designed to the teeth.  But if you strip away the fancy graphics and professional spokespeople, there’s only so much you can say in a 30-second spot or on a single page of text.

Sure, there’s blogging and other content marketing strategies.  But they all depend on getting someone to visit your site again and again.  Unless you’re spending money to lure the repeat traffic, you need to have a reliable way of getting the prospective client back.

A compelling lead generation effort solves these problems handily by providing reliable information, thereby establishing you as the lawyer who is the premier authority in your field.  Your prospective client, this stranger, is suddenly enamored of the depth of your knowledge and understanding of the issues surrounding their problem.  Nothing else matters anymore.  No other lawyer can hold a candle to your expertise.

Practicing What I Preach

Lead generation has been a cornerstone to my own law firm marketing for quite some time.  From consumer bankruptcy to debt collection abuse and foreclosure defense, I’ve put into place various strategies that continue to feed my law firm with a steady stream of new clients each day.  Clients who come to me pre-sold, more concerned with how quickly they can get in to see me than with my fees.  Tire-kickers are a thing of the past.

So, what’s your take on lead generation?

Photo credit: Steve Crane (flickr)

Related posts:

1. 9 Reasons Google Analytics Is Critical To Marketing Your Law Firm Online
2. Does Your Online Legal Marketing Or Lead Generation Company Pass The Sniff Test?
3. 3 Reasons To Have A Law Firm Logo

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.

You Must Ignore Your Law Firm Marketing Instincts If You Want To Succeed

Stop following the competition.

They got there first, and have more money to spend than you do.

They are well-established.

Every other firm in town is copying them.

This means that every law firm sounds, acts and looks alike.

Yellow Pages ads with a stern photo in front of a row of (unread) law library books.

Ads touting a free consultation.

The same old, same old.

Successful Law Firm Marketing Says Something Remarkable In Your Own Voice

Don’t be afraid to use you own words to communicate with the people you want to have as clients.

Don’t hide behind your credentials.

Don’t use the royal “we” if you’re a solo practitioner.

Tell your story in human terms.

Are you willing to step out of the shadows of your competition?  Do you want to learn how to do it, and to make the connection that enables you to be a market of one?

Do you dare?

Photo credit: horizontal.integration (flickr)

Related posts:

1. Who Is Responsible For Marketing Your Law Firm?
2. Law Firm Marketing And “The Buy My $#!^” Mentality
3. Marketing Your Law Firm Online With A Domain Name

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.

Perhaps you’ve never heard of the Reno Rule. It’s a blackjack term that means you can double down only if you’ve got a 10 or 11 on the first two cards. It’s meant to increase the house odds by preventing someone from doubling down on a soft 17 but I follow it in my law firm marketing as well.

See, I like to take a risk – but I’m no fool when it comes to my law firm marketing. I’m looking to up the ante so I can maximize my payout, but in my mind doubling on a soft 17 just isn’t a smart bet. I’m sure a lot of blackjack players will disagree, but doubling down on an ace-6 just feels wrong.

Why double down in the first place?  Everyone else is away, and no business is being done.  Seems like a waste of time, doesn’t it?

Not at all. The competition is off playing, and their eye is off the wheel.  I could play, or I could get some work done and overtake them in business development.  It’s an investment of time and effort to be sure, but it’s easier to win the race when the other folks aren’t even running.

Here are my 5 killer ways to use the Reno Rule in your law firm marketing this summer.

Increase Your Lead In Content Creation On Your Law Firm Blog

Most of the other lawyers in your area are off on vacation with their families, enjoying the sun and sand.  Their content creation is going to slow to a trickle, their blog languishing like a plastic bucket left on the beach by a forgetful toddler.

Not yours, though.  You realize that your law firm blog is a key player in your law firm marketing efforts, and that those pearls of wisdom keep working for you long after you publish them.

I’m not telling you to strap yourself into your chair and write all summer, but just think about the power of one or two posts per week on your law firm blog.  With ten weeks of summer, you could have twenty blog posts up and working for you while the competition is getting a tan.

Make Some Phone Calls To Referral Sources

Nobody is going to be making any major business decisions during the summer, but your referral sources are far more than keys to your law firm marketing success – they’re people, too.  None of them want to be in the office (and neither do you) so make a phone call just to say hi and catch up.  See if they want to grab an iced tea and enjoy the sunshine.  You’ll build rapport, maintain a personal touch, and have some fun.  And when the weather turns cooler, they’ll be more likely to remember you for those referrals.

Catch Up On Your Reading

With so many incredible business books out there, the slow season is a good time to catch up and get some fresh ideas for your practice (may I suggest you pick up a copy of Search Engine Optimization For Lawyers?)  I’ve just finished reading Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur by Richard Branson, and it’s not only a treasure trove of new ideas for my law firm – it’s a fun read.

The side benefit of this is that you can read from anywhere – even from a beach or your back yard.  Law firm marketing with a cool drink in your hand … not a bad idea, right?

Create A Tractor Beam For Your Advertising

I’m a big fan of tractor beams, those pieces of freebie content that you use to entice people to contact you.  No cost or obligation, just free information someone can use to get a better idea of what you do and how you can help.   We’re talking about ebooks, special reports, white papers, and the like.

It’s the most effective piece of my law firm marketing efforts, and the tractor beams I’ve created do the work of a hundred ads.  The problem is that they can take a ton of work to produce effectively if you’ve never done it before, which is why so many lawyers leave this law firm marketing vehicle by the side of the road.

Summer is a great time to hop back into that car and take it for a spin.

You probably don’t have time to focus on putting something together during the winter months when things are hopping, so why not take the time and work on something remarkable right now?

Invest In Your Practice

Maybe you’ve been thinking about some new piece of software or hardware for months but haven’t had the time to implement and learn how to use it.  Or perhaps there’s an incredible educational resource for your law firm marketing that you’ve been meaning to dig into.

Now that things are a bit quieter, you can concentrate on wringing maximum value out of your investment.  This will allow you to reap the benefits in the months ahead rather than ramping up just as the phones start ringing again.

No matter what you do, it’s important to remember that your law firm marketing efforts have a double-down effect when undertaken during the summer months.  Take some time to relax, but remember that those vacations are even sweeter when you’re on top of things and your competition is just realizing that they’ve fallen way behind you.

Use the Reno Rule this summer and you’ll maximize your payout before you know it.

Photo credit:  Bob Owen (flickr).

Related posts:

1. Who Is Responsible For Marketing Your Law Firm?
2. 6 Ways To Maximize Your Law Firm’s Google Places Listing
3. 7 Ways To Profitably Use Email Marketing In Your Law Firm

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.

Look outside the window and you can see where the world is right now.  Take the audacious step of joining the world, and you move way into the future of legal marketing.

Yup, I’m telling you to join the human race.  And with that in mind, here are my 4 online legal marketing trends for the future (which you should be doing today):

1.  Content Creation As Online Legal Marketing Tool

Look, you’d have to be Rip Van Winkle to be blind to the reality that content creation is how the big guns are making their impact online and creating authority.  What began as teenagers showing their angst with blogging has turned into a valid business model over the past few years.  WordPress 2.9 has been downloaded 9,342,201 times as of 5:00am on May 25, 2010 (for more updated number, go here).  There are over 126 million blogs (according to BlogPulse).  There were 234 million websites as of December 2009, and 47 million of them came online in 2009 alone.

With that volume of content online, it’s not a stretch to say your 10-page law firm website isn’t going to make much of a dent.  Without a content creation strategy in place, your online legal marketing efforts aren’t going to amount to much.

2.  Email For Law Firm Marketing Purposes

With such an overwhelming volume of content online and greater demands on our time than ever before, we need to meet our clients where they are.  To a large extent, that’s in their email box.  With 247 billion email messages sent per day, it’s safe to say that people are using email more than ever.

Email marketing is seen by some as an extension of junk mail.  The reality, however, is very different.  Junk mail comes unsolicited to recipients, and ends up in the trash.  Email, however, can’t be sent unsolicited – sending unwanted email is a violation of the CAN-SPAM Act, and can land you in serious hot water.  Using autoresponder systems and opt-in lead generation on your website or blog allows you to attract only those who want to be contacted with information about your offerings.

Using email for your law firm marketing allows you to bypass the search engines because people who opt into your email marketing list won’t need to go back to the search engines for their information.  Instead, it will be delivered on a (virtual) silver platter in the form of relevant and interesting content.

3.  On-The-Go Law Firm Marketing

It seems as if everyone’s got a smartphone these days – iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, even PalmOS and Windows-based phones.  In fact, as of January 2010 it was reported that 42% of the U.S. used a smartphone.  And a mere 28 days after the release of the iPad, Apple confirmed that it had sold 1,000,000 of these devices.  The tablet form factor promises to be a huge growth market, as everyone and their Uncle Sol is releasing one in the upcoming months.

Every device has bazillions of apps available, and people download those suckers like kids eating M&Ms (OK, like me eating M&Ms).

All those people are using their smartphones and iPads to find information, get answers, and do stuff.  They’re abandoning their televisions and radios, ditching their stereo systems and cancelling their newspaper subscriptions in favor of staying online.

At the same time, location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla let people check-in to tell the world where they are and what they’re doing.  It’s part social-media, part game.  People are flocking to these services in droves, collecting badges as a new type of customer loyalty program.

Most companies are still playing in the shallow end of this pool, trying to figure out how mobile marketing can help them.  By getting in early, you may find the sweet spot before your competition even knows what hit them.

4.  Social Media As Law Firm Marketing

Facebook is the big thing right now.  Facebook’s got ads you can target with stunning accuracy (how does the dentist advertising on my Facebook page know I’m 40 years old and graduated from Buffalo Law School?), fan pages, and a host of other ways to get people together and build community.

Some companies have done a good job at it, and others have fallen badly.  But chances are pretty good that the extent of your law firm’s Facebook presence is a fan page that has been “liked” by 28 of your friends and colleagues.  But that ignores the true value of Facebook as a legal marketing tool – the power to bring together people of similar interests in one centralized location.

Facebook fan pages can be tricked out with custom HTML forms (email marketing once again), discussion boards, and even used as a distribution point for your blog.  Using these features at the very least can help you engage with people and increase the level of trust and authority given to you by your existing and prospective clients.

Twitter’s also a social media darling, a place where people gather to share what’s on their radar at the moment.  Interesting stuff gets passed around all day and night.  And it’s not just, “here’s what I had for lunch today,” either.  There are Twitter feeds for discounts on airfare and hotels, local coupons, and more.  Mobile food trucks in big cities are using Twitter to tell their customers where to pick up lunch (uh oh, there’s that “what I ate for lunch today” thing creeping up again).  Retailers are using Twitter for customer support.

How does this tie into your online legal marketing efforts?  Using Twitter to syndicate your online content, alerting the public of news and information, and connecting with journalists are all easy ways to use Twitter to market your law firm.  But what about using it to communicate broadcasts to your clients?  Telling people when you’re going to be out of the office and unavailable to return phone calls would be one way to distribute your message to those who might otherwise call you in the middle of a deposition.  Connecting with the people who may need your help in a quick and informal way helps get your message out without being threatening and scary.

This Is No Secret – And It’s Not A Fairy Tale

These online legal marketing trends aren’t wishes for the future.  They’re trends we’re seeing in the marketing of consumer as well as business-to-business products and services.  You can ignore them for only so long before some other law firm begins marketing with these channels and others that will come along.

The platforms will undoubtedly change or, at the very least, evolve with time.  Your legal marketing efforts will likewise need to keep up with the times.  But by looking to what the rest of the world is doing you can get a better sense of where you need to be.

Related posts:

1. Online Legal Marketing Secret Revealed – Why No Web Content?
2. Online Legal Marketing Tip – Google Places
3. Blogs As Online Legal Marketing Tools

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 pushing blogs as the best thing to happen to law firm marketing. They aren’t telling you how to blog or what to blog about, but they’re pushing this blogging thing like drug dealers outside the playground. It’s the bee’s knees, they claim. Use a blog for your law firm marketing efforts and the world is at your feet. Empires crumble, the little lawyer wins the day with the power of a law firm blog.

Maybe you “get” it, maybe not. But the bottom line is that everyone is telling you to give away your hard-earned knowledge day after day, month after month. For free.

What they don’t tell you is how you’re going to earn a living off all giving away this free stuff.

Let’s Play A Content Marketing Game

Pretend for a moment that you have a multi-million dollar business. Not a law firm. You make widgets of some sort, highly technical widgets. And each one costs about $200 to the consumer.

You are required to hand-make each one of these widgets when a customer wants one. Making a widget takes about an hour, plus you’ve got to keep a huge overhead of widget-making parts on hand. Those parts go bad pretty fast, too. In fact, if you don’t use it in a short period of time it rots and you’ve got to toss it. So you’ve got to make a lot of these things, and quickly.

Top it all off with the fact that you have to hire a bunch of people to help sell and deliver these doo-hickeys. Those folks like to get paid on a regular basis, so you need to keep them working for paying customers.

Oh, and did I mention the profit margins are stupidly thin?

Now Here Comes The Bad Business Promotion Strategy

You know you need a truly great marketing strategy. Instead, you enter the universe of stupidity.

You spend a year or more writing a $29.95 book detailing exactly how you create your product. You get so specific it becomes readily apparent to you that anyone could do exactly what you do. The metal pieces, the clips, the entire production process is so breathtakingly simple you could do a how-to on cable television and everyone could create it.

What a terrifically preposterous idea. Give away the entire process, show people exactly how to do it, and make absolutely zero dollars from the customer!

In fact, the customer can now sit at home and make your thingies in the comfort of their own home. And it costs less than going to your place to have you do it.

This, my friend, is exactly what I mean by marketing your law firm with content.

Give away the entire store for free.

Not As Stupid As It Sounds

The social media intelligentsia will tell you that by putting content out there and making it free, you become invested with social capital. People look to you are the de facto expert, and they’ll flock to your law firm when they need your help. What they don’t explain is why anyone with half a brain would hire you once you tell them everything you know. They merely assure you it’s the case.

Luckily for you, I’m not so smart. I don’t follow the rules that someone else sets, and I don’t expect you to, either.

I want to prove to you that content marketing works.

Last week I had the privilege of having dinner at Bottega, a restaurant in Napa Valley. My wife and I had been a fan of the chef, Michael Chiarello, for years. We had his books, had watched his television shows, and had organized our entire trip around this meal.

I won’t bore you with the details, but it was the best meal we’d had in years. The chef came around to the tables and met the patrons (he folded my napkin for me), the ambiance was outstanding, and our service was perfect thanks to Murph, the seasoned server who made it all seem effortless.

How Does A Celebrity Chef Prove Content Marketing Works?

Chiarello has been showing me exactly how to cook his recipes for years. I can follow every step in his cookbooks, mimic every technique he shows on television, and even swirl a glass of pinot noir the same way he does before taking a sip. In spite of that, I planned an entire trip around a reservation at Bottega.

Why? Because through his content marketing approach he’s established himself as the go-to guy for rustic Italian cooking. His personality comes through, and has made me like him. He puts himself out there, which makes me trust him.

In other words, he’s let his content speak for itself. He’s shown me that he knows what he’s doing time and time again.

To be sure, he’s made money along the way. I’ve spent about $40 on his books over the years, and I’m sure he gets a decent salary from the television networks that air his shows. Those dollars don’t come directly from my pocket, though, so I can’t count them.

None of that matters, at not much. What does matter is that he’s poured literally everything into my brain over a number of years.

And when the time came for me to buy, I didn’t go across the street to French Laundry or down the road to some other famous place. I pulled out the credit card and went to Bottega. I also had the chance to buy his cookbooks again, visit his store across the street, and pick up some of his family-made wine.

Just Because You Can Does Not Mean You Will

I can buy Michael Chiarello’s cookbooks, but when I want a masterful meal I’m going to the restaurant.

I can buy every Home Depot DIY book out there, but when I need to install a bathtub I’m calling a contractor.

I can read the tax code but when I need to get the taxes done for my business I’m calling my CPA.

Maybe some of your potential clients will try to use your law firm content marketing efforts to do some of the legwork, and that’s fine. But when push comes to shove and the big deal issues present themselves, the clients are going to call you.

Because what you do is not merely technical, it’s infused with years of experience. Knowledge of your judges and trustees doesn’t translate effectively into content. You can’t replicate finesse and analysis of difficult scenarios.

And that’s why you can market your law firm with content and never have to worry about going hungry. Ask a chef.

Related posts:

1. How Content Drives Law Firm Marketing
2. Why You Need To Ignore The Competition When Marketing Your Law Firm
3. Who Is Responsible For Marketing Your Law Firm?

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.

Related posts:

1. Why The Economic Crisis Is NOT Good For Bankruptcy Lawyers
2. Why A Bankruptcy Lawyer Can Use A Good Copywriter
3. Content Marketing For Bankruptcy Lawyers

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.

Related posts:

1. Law Firm Blogging For Profit
2. Law Firm Blogging Doesn’t Need To Stop With The Lawyer
3. How To Get Law Firm Blogging Ideas From Google Scholar