Legal Marketing & PR

Where New Business Comes From ... And How You Can Get It

Posted on May 10, 2010
First, let me share some truths about rainmakers. They have achieved mythical status because of their seemingly magical and effortless ability to generate new business. It takes only a small number of rainmakers (10 percent to 20 percent of all lawyers) to keep an entire law firm busy...

30 Creative Bag Ads and Guerrilla Marketing Examples

Posted on May 10, 2010
I love guerrilla marketing. It is the art of the unexpected. It succeeds in the "Ha! Made you look" aspect of good marketing. Below are 30 Creative Guerrilla Marketing Examples in the form of Creative Bags.  I found them at Creative Guerrilla Marketing...

A Majority of Law Firm Marketers Are Investing in Website Redesigns

Posted on May 07, 2010
53% of law firm marketers said that their firm had recently redesigned their website (since January 2008), according to Great Jakes, a web marketing firm in New York. "If you consider the dismal state of the law business, this seems to show significant faith in web marketing," said Robert Algeri, head of of business development and operations...

Top Law Firm Marketing Methods are Social Media, Blogs, and Search Engine Optimization

Posted on May 06, 2010
According to the new "State of Inbound Marketing Report" from Hubspot, inbound marketing is continuing to grow in importance at the expense of outbound marketing. The top three most important inbound marketing techniques are: Social media Blogs Search engine optimization These three lead generation approaches plus pay-per-click advertising are what Hubspot calls 'inbound marketing...

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Recession-Proof Law Firm Marketing in 4 Steps

Posted on May 04, 2010
In 2009, marketing was often one of the first items to be slashed because of the recession. That's a mistake, as I've maintained consistently. The time to be marketing is in a severe economic downturn. But regrettably, a lot of law firms will dump jet fuel while their firm is going into a tailspin...

Law Firms Add Value while Reducing Cost of Legal Services

Posted on May 03, 2010
From the Austin Business Journal: While many in economically dinged industries have attempted to improve performance and lower prices during a recession, the legal industry is doing so this time. Seeking to hold and grow business amid one of the nation's darkest economic recessions, law firms are making client-focused changes to their services, billing practices and communications, according to a white paper issued late last year by legal placement agency Robert Half Legal...

LinkedIn Gives Users the Ability to Follow Companies

Posted on April 30, 2010
LinkedIn has made it easier for users to connect with their favorites companies with the launch of 'Follow Company,' a new feature that allows users to get notifications about activity happening from the companies they follow. Now lawyers and marketers can be in the loop on new developments, potential business opportunities or even job opportunities by following companies of interest...

Ten Ways to Boost Lateral Partner Integration

Posted on April 29, 2010
Over the past few months, we have seen law firms merging as well as lawyers leaving firms to join other firms. This trend is predicted to continue as the economic downturn plays out. As these lawyers integrate into new firms, there are a myriad of communications, operational, marketing and cultural issues to consider, oftentimes with everyone involved in reaction mode...

Fordham Law School to offer Law Firm Marketing in JD Program

Posted on April 28, 2010
We have all been: Waiting for the other shoe to drop Waiting for Hell to freeze over Waiting for a law school to teach marketing to students as for-credit course. The long wait is finally over. Fordham University School of Law in New York will begin offering a course on 'Law Firm Marketing' that counts as 2 credits towards a law degree...

Last Chance to Register for What Corporate Clients are Buying...and How They Judge Law Firms

Posted on April 27, 2010
THE REPORT CARDS YOU DON'T SEE When your law firm sends an invoice electronically to a client, did you know that your client will run it through sophisticated project management software and create a report card about your firm? Then your client will share this secret report card with other companies! In tomorrow's Webinar, "What Corporate Clients are Buying...

101 Law Firm Taglines

Posted on April 26, 2010
Curious to see whether taglines have changed much since 2002, web marketer Steve Matthews of Stem Legal decided to update the list and see if he could find more. He compiled 101 Law Firm Taglines by scoping out hundreds of US, Canadian, and international law firm websites, starting with the AmLaw 100 2009 and Lexpert's 30 Largest Canadian Law Firms...

Turning Your Bio into a Magnet for Business

Posted on April 22, 2010
Smart lawyers turn their bios into a marketing magnet that generates leads, as opposed to a mere resume or a CV, which recites only your education and experience. The trick is to turn a feature of yourself into a benefit to the client. In other words, if you've done a particular activity, you need to answer the question, "So what?" If a client knows you've done something, how does that benefit them? A "feature" is what something has, like a car with four doors or a new improved formula...

Lawyers Get Business Development Tidbits with "Marketing Minute" e-Newsletter

Posted on April 21, 2010
How do you get busy lawyers to read a newsletter about marketing? You must keep it short. Smith Moore Leatherwood started publishing the innovative 'The Marketing Minute,' an internally distributed electronic newsletter focused on business development that takes no more than a minute to read...

Sutherland's Business Development Curriculum Trains 549 attorneys in a Year

Posted on April 20, 2010
A year ago Sutherland CMO Felice Wagner established a firmwide in-house Business Development Curriculum. As a result, the firm was able to: Presented 22 business development training courses to 549 attorneys in one calendar year...

Sutherland's Business Development Curriculum Trains 549 attendees in a Year

Posted on April 20, 2010
A year ago Sutherland CMO Felice Wagner established a firmwide in-house Business Development Curriculum. As a result, the firm was able to: Present 22 business development training courses to 549 attendees in one calendar year...

Law Firm Marketing Tip: How to Make Networking Events Work for You

Posted on April 19, 2010
Networking works best if it is done with 'marketing aforethought.'  Here's your game plan for an effective networking event. Where to Go The best meetings for networking are the ones your clients and referral sources go to.  Every person in business belongs to a trade association...

How to Get an A+ on the Secret Client Report Cards

Posted on April 16, 2010
When your law firm sends an invoice electronically to a client, did you know that your client will run it through sophisticated project management software and create a report card about your firm? Then your client will share this secret report card with other companies! We'll show you how to get an A+ that generates new files and revenue, in our April 28 Webinar, "What Corporate Clients are Buying...

Christopher Marston of Exemplar Law - Revenues up 48% and "absolutely no billing by the hour"

Posted on April 14, 2010
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door, as 2010 Small Firm Rainmaker of the Year Christopher Marston knows well.   By offering soup-to-nuts service to entrepreneurs and startup businesses, the revenues of his Boston law firm – Exemplar Law – saw its revenues shoot up 48% in 2009, when the rest of the legal profession stagnated in the Great Recession...

Half of Americans have a Profile on an Online Social Network

Posted on April 13, 2010
Nearly half -- 48% -- of Americans age 12 and older are now members of at least one social network, according to a new national survey from Arbitron and Edison Research. This is about double the level from two years ago (24 percent in 2008), according to the survey titled 'The Infinite Dial 2010: Digital Platforms and the Future of Radio...

Create Your Own Marketing Video in Five Minutes

Posted on April 12, 2010
Google just launched a new feature called the 'Search Stories Video Creator' It's a fun way to create a quick marketing message. The new feature prompts you to input up to seven search queries spread across Google's search features (including Images, Maps, and standard web search) and choose a soundtrack...

More than a Quarter of Law Firms are Hiring Again

Posted on April 10, 2010
More than a quarter of the lawyers questioned in a recent survey expect to hire full-time staff members within the next three months. The lawyers were asked in a survey developed by Robert Half Legal, a legal staffing company, if the law firm or company plans to increase or decrease the number of full-time legal personnel on their staff for 2010's second quarter, which runs through June 30...

Business Development in a Recovering Economy

Posted on April 08, 2010
At last there is good news: The legal profession has entered a recovering economy. The grinding downturn that brought layoffs of 5,259 lawyers – 4.3 percent of the lawyer workforce nationwide, according to the Nov. 9, 2009 National Law Journal – is ending...

Last Chance to Register: April 8 Webinar - Getting Business through Online Social Networking

Posted on April 07, 2010
There's only one day left to register for this popular Webinar. Click here to learn more about this Webinar. This program will sort through all the options – LinkedIn, Martindale Connected, JD Supra, Twitter, Legal OnRamp, Facebook and others - and instruct you on: • Where to focus your efforts for the best results • Which of the networks are a waste of time • How to use a network so that it generates new-business leads • How much time to devote • Online etiquette and mistakes to avoid Learn the practices and the actions you should take to win more business through social networking and the Internet...

Special Rainmaker Issue of Originate! Magazine

Posted on April 06, 2010
About this Issue: Winners of the 2009 Rainmaker of the Year Awards In this issue, we feature the business development excellence demonstrated by three of the winners of our 2009 Rainmaker of the Year awards...

10 Simple Google Search Tricks

Posted on April 05, 2010
From WebWorkerDaily, blogger Simon Mackie says he's always amazed that more people don't know the little tricks you can use to get more out of a simple Google search. Here are 10 of his  favorites. Use the 'site:' operator to limit searches to a particular site...

83% of Websites Influence Lead Generation for Service Providers

Posted on April 02, 2010
From Hubspot: When it comes to lead generation for your services, your website may impact your ability to generate new leads more than you think. Of the more than 200 buyers surveyed—from companies of all sizes—83% report that a service provider's website holds at least 'some influence' over their decision to engage in initial discussions...

Don't miss our April 8 Webinar, "Getting Business through Online Social Networking"

Posted on April 01, 2010
There's only one week left to register for this popular Webinar. Click here to learn more about this Webinar. This program will sort through all the options – LinkedIn, Martindale Connected, JD Supra, Twitter, Legal OnRamp, Facebook and others - and instruct you on: • Where to focus your efforts for the best results • Which of the networks are a waste of time • How to use a network so that it generates new-business leads • How much time to devote • Online etiquette and mistakes to avoid Learn the practices and the actions you should take to win more business through social networking and the Internet...

"Martindale Connected" Social Network Grows 10X in One Year

Posted on March 31, 2010
Martindale Connected, an online social network for lawyers, has grown from 3,000 lawyers when it was launched one year ago to 30,000 members, including members from more than half of the Fortune 500, lawyers from 98 of the Am Law 100, and 10 Alliance Partners from prominent legal organizations and associations...

How to Choose Effective Website Photos and Images

Posted on March 30, 2010
Marketer Sandra Neihaus offers four guidelines to make a graphic on your website powerful: Does it convey the right feeling? Does it add information? Is it (at least fairly) unique? Is it contextually cropped? Not all images are created equal...

Six Ways to Spark a LinkedIn Discussion

Posted on March 25, 2010
From Amy Dean of Keyword Communication: Hundreds of discussion topics are proposed via LinkedIn groups every day. The vast majority of them fail to generate any responses. The ones that do succeed in getting a conversation started stand out like bright flowers in a field of forgotten links...

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