Legal Marketing — Legal Practice Pro

7 Ways To Promote Your Legal Podcasting Efforts

November 23, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

promoting a legal podcast

You’ve decided that you’re going to incorporate podcasting into your legal marketing efforts. You’ve got some simple podcasting equipment, have cleared your throat, and are ready to roll. How the hell do you get word out about your legal podcasting efforts?

Unfortunately, the podcasting world isn’t quite as well-organized as the legal blogging universe. There aren’t that many law-related podcasts around at all; in fact, there are more lawyers on Twitter than there are legal podcasters. Given the fact that podcasting has been around for far longer, that’s an oddity to me.

Luckily, a podcast is nothing more than an audio blog with a few technological bells and whistles thrown in for good measure. So we can use our ideas of blog promotion when trying to get a handle on legal podcasting promotion. Here are my 7 tips for getting the word out.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Podcasting For Lawyers Tagged With: itunes, Legal Marketing, legal podcast, Podcast, podcast alley, podcasting

How Vulnerable Are Your Online Legal Marketing Efforts?

August 12, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Even if you’re at the top of the search engines, you’re vulnerable to new competition. Go to sleep at #1, wake up at #4. Is this a risk you’re willing to take when marketing your law firm online?

A few days ago, I was semi–involved in a debate that was raging on an e-mail discussion list in which I am a member. One person asked a question about marketing your law firm online with a blog, and a lawyer started touting the fact that his website ranked at the top of the organic search engine results for his chosen search term. The lawyer in question does no blogging whatsoever, and essentially stated that blogging was worthless to his efforts at marketing his law firm online.

Of course, this being a marketing discussion group, chaos ensued fairly rapidly. The resident legal marketing professionals jumped all over this poor guy, and basically proclaimed him to be full of shit.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Not only does the lawyer in question do no blogging, he produces no content on any of its websites. They’re all extremely thin, and none of them stand out whatsoever. They’re all filled with the same trite, empty language that is so pervasive on law firm websites. To him, marketing his law firm online didn’t require any content production strategy. And his results were, to his mind, proof that his theories worked.

If I were to hazard a guess I would say that the attorney has ensured his high rankings based on off–page search engine optimization. By that I’m talking about massive numbers of back links to his site from other sites, with appropriate anchor text tied to his chosen search term.

Assuming this to be the case, and further assuming that there is no funny business or “black hat” tactics being employed, then I applaud this attorney for his efforts. Undoubtedly, he gets a tremendous amount of traffic and, I would assume, quite a bit of business as a result of his efforts to market his law firm online.

So, you see, this stands as proof of the fact that you need not blog in order to attain a high search engine ranking for a single term. I would go so far as to say that you don’t need to blog in order to do well for any term whatsoever.

The fact, however, doesn’t mean a thing. We all know that Google and the other search engines reward websites with more content over those that are thin. We also know that people who visit your website are more inclined to hire you after seeing the depth of your expertise reflected in your blog posts.

So even if this attorney ranks very well for a narrowly-defined search term (which may or may not get enough traffic to sustain him), it’s unlikely that he’s able to capture a tremendous percentage of those site visitors and convert them into paying clients. People are searching for information, and won’t stop looking for answers until they find them. If they happen to find them on the top–ranked site that matches their query, then they will go no further. However, if their first click does not result in an informative answer to their question then they are likely to move to the next site presented by the search engines.

I’m sure that my colleague does very well now, but his attitude with respect to his efforts to market his law firm online makes him an easy target. If one of his local competitors establishes a new website and continually adds content that is relevant, in formative, and optimize for the search engines as well as for human visitors then the likelihood is that this new site will quickly rise to the top of search engine rankings with very little effort.

How about you? Are you willing to take on this sort of risk when marketing your law firm online?

Image credit: mlhradio (Flickr)

Filed Under: Legal Marketing Tagged With: blog, engines, internet, internet marketing, law, law firm, law firm websites, Legal Marketing, marketing, marketing your law firm, online, Search Engine Optimization, search engines, vulnerable, web search engine, website ranking, world wide web, your website

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.

Online Legal Marketing Secret Revealed – Why No Web Content?

June 8, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

We’ve all been there. Some smart ass comes along and tells us we need to start a blog for our law firm, and how terrific it is for our online legal marketing. How Google loves fresh web content, how people flock to blogs, and how it’s pretty much the best thing since the cool side of the pillow. But there’s something that stops you, isn’t there?

The reason you don’t start creating web content isn’t because you don’t believe in the raw marketing power. It’s not that you think the bloggers are full of crap.

Maybe you hide behind the veneer of “it’s too technical,” but let’s get real with one another – you and I both know the learning curve isn’t that steep. You can hire someone to set up a WordPress blog for you (heck, dozens of people have hired me to do an installation for them). You can get a graphic designer to make it pretty.

Nope, this isn’t a matter of technical skill or lack of proof that web content drives online legal marketing.

5 Ways To Capture Ideas For Your Legal Marketing Efforts

June 6, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Ever have a great idea about something while doing some random chore or activity? Try as you might to remember it later, it eludes you. Frustrating, no?

We’ve talked about how important content creation is in your legal marketing efforts. We agree that inspiration can come from a variety of sources, and that you should always be on the lookout for legal marketing ideas. How you promote your law firm’s offerings can come from the subtle way that a waitress gets you to order a second piece of pie, or a headline in an ad that convinces you to buy that doo-dad.

My head is always running in a million directions. How to help my clients, an observation about how someone is doing business the right (or wrong) way, or a random thought. One minute it’s gone, the next … poof.

How A Real Lawyer Uses Social Media

June 4, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Can a real, live lawyer use social media for real, live business?

Social media for lawyers – specifically Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin – has been getting a ton of coverage in the past few days on the heels of this article in Mashable. And it seems to have ignited a bit of a debate on Twitter because there are a few attorneys who question whether the experts quoted are able to speak from experience.

I don’t think there is such a thing as a social media expert. I do believe that there are people who are well-qualified to discuss how to build trust, relationships and communities for business purposes. These are the experts, the ones who teach us how to be more human in the way we conduct business. When these people talk about using the platforms at our disposal, I listen and take notes.

Social media is an all-encompassing term that speaks to platforms, and how they are used to accomplish a particular goal. Those platforms currently include legal blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Tumblr, Posterous, Foursquare, Gowalla, and the list goes on and on. But bear in mind that these are platforms only, and are subject to change without notice. A few years ago it was Friendster. A decade ago it was Usenet. And on and on.

To say that you’re an expert in Twitter means that you know how to set up an account and use the tool. It doesn’t mean you know how to connect with people or businesses who may have some use for your service. When Twitter goes away or, more likely, evolves in ways we can’t currently imagine, the “Twitter expert” will be as useful as a “mimeograph expert”.

The person who’s skilled in the broader skillset of creating and maintaining relationships will continue to thrive. Because that’s not just good marketing, it’s good for life.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I thought it would be useful to outline how I use the various social media platforms to achieve my goals. Those goals, by the way, are fluid. Sometimes I’m looking for help with something. Other times I’m promoting my expertise as a bankruptcy and consumer protection lawyer, or as a guy who knows a thing or two about marketing a law firm. Maybe I’m going to be a new place and need some recommendations for a good place to have dinner. In all cases, the song remains the same overall (hat tip to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page).

Content Distribution And Promotion

Every time I create content on this or any other platform, I promote it on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Doing so exposes my work to people who find the subject matter compelling, and cements my standing as someone who knows about the fields in which I spend my time.

Information Sharing

I’m a newshound, and read hundreds of blogs each day. When I find something that catches my eye, I share it with people. More information is a good thing, no?

Connecting With Interesting People

Here’s where people say Twitter is a waste of time, right? I mean, why would I spend time typing out 140 character messages to strangers? Well, why would you spend an evening at a networking event filled with a diverse group of people? To meet them, get to know them better, and establish a relationship. Maybe that plumber I meet will never have need of my legal services, but I’m betting that he knows of someone who will eventually need me. The stronger my relationship with Mr. Plumber, the more likely I am to be the name and number (OK, email address) that he passes along to his friend who’s going into foreclosure and needs help.

What if Mr. Plumber is in Oklahoma, far from my state of admission (which is New York)? No worries – I can send the referral to one of my colleagues in Oklahoma. I’ve connected with some of them on Twitter, others on Facebook and some on “old school” listservs. Send a referral to a trusted colleague and I get good karma in return. It’s happened so often I’ve lost count, and it increases the chance that I get a referral in return. Karma’s like that, you know.

Strengthening Bonds Established Elsewhere

Let’s say you meet someone offline – a networking event, a social event, whatever the case may be. You connect with them on Facebook, or LinkedIn, or Twitter or whatever platform you choose. Now you’re exposed to them on a regular basis, and they to you. Share information, keep up with one another, and allow your humanity to continue to unfold before one another. It takes a causal meeting with a total stranger and allows you to make something more of it.

Now you want me to prove that it works, right? Here are a few of the things I’ve accomplished by using the platforms available to me:

coverage in print and broadcast television (Twitter and LinkedIn);
paying clients (more than I can count from Facebook in particular, Twitter less so);
quotes and attendant backlinks from highly-regarded online sources, which has increased the ranking of my own site and resulted in more clients (primarily Twitter, but Facebook and LinkedIn to a certain extent); and
referrals from other lawyers as well as from non-lawyers who deal in consumer finance issues (Twitter).

Of course, none of this speaks to the business my firm has received over the years as a result of a never-ending commitment to content creation through our blog and elsewhere.

Is this list comprehensive? Does it take into account all of the nuances of how a real lawyer can use social media to help his or her practice? No, but it does give you the high notes and prove to you that this isn’t just another time suck.

What do you think?

Filed Under: Legal Marketing Tagged With: facebook, goals, lawyers, Legal Marketing, linkedin, marketing, online social networking, social media, Twitter, web 2.0, world wide web

4 Easy Steps To Syndicating Content On JDSupra

June 2, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

Online legal marketing involves content creation andcontent distribution; doing so enables us to showcase our knowledge and establish trust with our prospective clients.

One of the best content distribution sites for lawyers is JDSupra, run by a team of awesome and smart people who want nothing more than to give you the widest possible exposure for your content. JDSupra is not only highly-trafficked and well-indexed, but the service provides a number of feature-rich Facebook pages and widgets to pump content out far more effectively than would otherwise be possible.

Online Legal Marketing Demands A Reason, Not Just A Plan

June 1, 2010 By Jay Fleischman

It drives me crazy to listen to all of these legal marketing folks talking about getting together a plan. Not because they’re wrong – in fact, I think they are all very right – but because the notion of an online legal marketing plan conjures up visions of this step-by-step routine that you’ve got to follow in order to make it all happen. My experience is that it just doesn’t work that way for the solo and small firm lawyer.

I call this technique the “marketing diet.” You’ve got to start blogging, engage on social networks, get into video marketing (which means you need to understand how to use that video camera), podcast, on and on and on down the line. Exposure! Fame! Fortune!

Of course, it all comes with price tags attached. You get a kick-ass blog designed, a killer email marketing campaign, and even a customized Twitter background. Why? Because you’ve got to be there. If you’re not, you’re falling behind.

So you cut those big checks and go your merry way. The blog goes live, you submit to the “training session” (which goes by so fast you can’t pay attention), hook up Tweetdeck or some other Twitter client du jour, and are sent to meet your success.

You chug along dutifully for a few weeks, bouncing around in the dark with that blog and that stream of tweets. But when your coffers don’t fill up in that time period you get seriously bummed out and burned out. ”Why avoid that cheesecake if I’m not going to drop 20 pounds in time for my brother’s wedding next month?” seems to be the same thinking that creeps into your life right around that time.

Online legal marketing is clearly a fraud. You’re not hitting the top of the search engines. Twittering masses aren’t hanging on your every word. That blog isn’t getting any traffic.

You fail slowly at first, then really quickly because you never ask for a reason.

At first it’s a missed blog post. Maybe a day away from Twitter or Facebook. A Craigslist post doesn’t get put up because you’re too busy. But whatever it is, there’s a small hiccup in your online legal marketing plan. Sort of like an extra piece of cake after dinner. It feels bad, like you’ve done something wrong. Down deep you’re guilty. But there’s another voice in your head telling you it’s OK because this stuff doesn’t work that well in the first place.

If you’re like me, you just stop doing anything at all. When I first got online I was podcasting, blogging and (trying to be) active in a variety of places. At first it was fun. But it wasn’t feeding my business in a way that made it compelling, so when I stopped there wasn’t a reason to go back to “the grind.”

Until I took a look at my goals, and how my online legal marketing plans fit into them. Remember, I was doing this to feed my practice and my family – not as a cool experiment in futility.

I’d been sold on the bright shiny object of the platform rather than on the ways in which a particular one fit into how I wanted to market my law firm.

Sound familiar at all?

When you turn the notion of an online legal marketing plan on its head and focus instead on your business goals, your strategy becomes clearer.

You need to ask yourself, “Why should I engage in this legal marketing medium? Why should I spend my time here on this platform?”

Look at your goals and objectives. Then do your homework to learn how you’re going to get found on a particular platform by the people most likely to have need of your services. Doing so will lead you to the platforms that will work best for your online legal marketing efforts rather than the other way around.

Best of all, it will help you understand the importance of engaging on a particular platform and save you money and time on wasted efforts in the wrong places.

Save money, use your time wisely, get the results you’re looking for.

So here are my questions: why do you use a specific tool for your online legal marketing efforts? What is the defined goal for that particular tool? And how exactly is it working in your favor?