Power Marketing For Attorneys

LinkedIn - Making it Work for You

Cindy — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:21:54 +0000

It’s been interesting that lately I’ve seen a fair amount of activity occurring on LinkedIn within the ranks of the people in our industry that happen to be in my network. That’s why I thought it might be helpful to post a link to an informative video from Lee Lefever over at Common Craft. It really sheds new light on the value of the connections on LinkedIn.

http://www.commoncraft.com/linkedin

If you would like to connect on LinkedIn you can do so at:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyspeaker

I would be delighted to be part of your network!

Findlaw - The Story Behind the Controversy

Cindy — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:05:38 +0000

Mark Wahlstrom at The Legal Broadcasting Network posted an excellent video regarding the recent Findlaw controversy.

Rich Schefren - Brilliant Marketer

Cindy — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:34:42 +0000

I’ve hired a number of marketing coaches over the years. Each one has served a different and very positive role in my professional development. More than anything I’ve found value in being coached because it invariably drives me to what some marketers call “massive action.”

A few years ago I hired a gifted guru that some of you have probably heard of - Rich Schefren. This is a guy that just erupts with one amazing concept after another. I’ve learned so much from him. Today I was watching an online video that had clips of a recent presentation he did and I wanted to share it with you.

He juxtaposes 3 business concepts. He refers to the old way of business as “make & sell.” A current way that most businesses operate is “sense & respond.” Then he presents his recommended way as the way of the future and the way to really rise above the competition - “anticipate & preempt.”

One of my favorite lines in this video is “do it wrong fast!” Another is that “action creates clarity.” I wholeheartedly agree with both concepts. We cannot wait to take action until we’ve dissected every potential outcome. We need to get in there and do it. Experiment and just keep doing it. It’s the best way to learn and discover so that we can “anticipate and preempt.” Thank you Rich for all you’ve taught me and continue to teach me.

The Future of Law Firm Ownership

Cindy — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:58:21 +0000

I was speaking at a legal marketing conference a few months ago and had the pleasure of hearing Scott Trost present. Scott is both an attorney and marketing consultant and he presented some very interesting research to the group.

One of my clients asked me to follow up with Scott and so I jumped on the web to do a little investigation. I came across a very interesting YouTube video that Scott did in March regarding his thoughts on the future of law firm ownership.

If you have 3 minutes, this is worth a listen.

Findlaw Is Under Investigation

Cindy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:43:21 +0000

Findlaw is undergoing serious scrutiny because of their search engine marketing service. I read reports from two reputable sources this morning indicating that Findlaw may have been selling links - which violates Google’s guidelines. If found guilty, this could be a disaster for law firms that subscribed to this service. That will depend on whether or not Google decides to penalize the law firms along with Findlaw. As SEO expert Todd Friesen said “It’s been nice knowing you Findlaw.”

http://kevin.lexblog.com/2008/08/articles/search-engine-optimization/findlaw-gaming-google-and-possibly-scamming-lawyer-customers/index.html

http://www.oilman.ca/random/shame-shame-shame-findlaw/

Microsegmenting Our Clients

Cindy — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:51:32 +0000

Thanks to database technology and various analytics that we have access to we are able to more narrowly define and target subsets of our clients and prospects. This is often referred to as vertical marketing.

It’s been interesting to me to reflect on our industry over the past 12 years and see the very significant differences in the way that we practice business development and marketing in 2008 versus that way it was done in the 1990’s. Marketing is no longer as effective when done with the shotgun approach. Mass media still works, but other types of relationship driven strategies are becoming far more effective.

Are you engaging in a conversation with your clients and propects? Is there a developing relationship? Have you embraced social networking and all that it has to offer?

Over the last few months I conducted a series of market research surveys in law firms throughout the country. One of the things I assessed is the most important factors for choosing a law firm. The number one answer was “someone you trust recommends the firm.”

Let’s think about that. If your clients are most likely to come to you because someone they trust recommends you, then doesn’t it makes sense for us to spend far more time building relationships…the kind of relationships that lead to great word of mouth on your behalf?

The M&L Legal Forum 2008

Cindy — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 07:26:20 +0000

I am writing this post from Coeur d’Alene in Idaho. The M&L group has just finished the first day of their 3 day conference at this beautiful lakeside resort. I haven’t been to M&L for a few years, and it has been so nice to see friends that I haven’t seen for quite some time. Of course, Bill Berg is one of my favorites. Bill is the one that first took a chance on me when I left my position with a Philadelphia law firm and ventured out as a consultant. My friend and client Terry Bryant is here. I always get such a kick out of Terry. We share a thing about time. I had to laugh yesterday when I was leaving the Spokane airport for the 40 minute trip to the resort. Terry and a few other attorneys were waiting to get on a shuttle to make the trip. As I walked by Terry heading towards my rental car he was looking at his watch saying that the shuttle was not meeting his time schedule. So Terry and 4 others jumped in the rental car with me and we had a fun trip over. I’ve been working with Rainwater, Holt & Sexton for quite awhile now but we had never actually met in person until yesterday. Mike is holding down the fort back in Arkansas but both Stephen Holt and Bob Sexton are here.

A couple of my Atlanta clients came in this afternoon - Tom Ashenden and Bruce Millar. Greg Stokes, also from Atlanta will be here tomorrow. Greg has a terrific marketing director, Melanie, and I was so glad to get to meet her this evening. Melanie gets things done. It’s great. She is a mover shaker!

I could go on and on but the hour is late and I want to wrap this up. I do want to mention one resource that I discussed during my talk today and that is www.ustream.tv. I have a test site set up and it’s at this link: www.ustream.tv/channel/legal-marketing-cafe.

Las Vegas attorney Richard Harris and I chatted at the cocktail party tonight and we set Richard up on UStream.TV. If you want to take a look, here is a link to his show site: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/las-vegas-personal-injury-lawyer. Obviously he hasn’t done a broadcast yet but my guess is that he will before long!

If you’d like to know more about UStream.TV, feel free to email me at cindy@cindyspeaker.com and I’ll help you get started!

Birth of Online TV Show - Legal Marketing Cafe

Cindy — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:17:35 +0000

Ustream.TV is catching on like wildfire. It’s a technology that allows virtually anyone with a $100 webcam to broadcast a live TV show over the Internet. And that’s exactly what I did for the first time tonight. You can see the rather rough and raw video at the link below:

Live Video streamed by Ustream

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/legal-marketing-cafe

Don’t be too critical - I wanted to capture my first attempt so that hopefully we will witness a progression as a better understanding of the interface emerges!

If you’d like to know more about Ustream.TV, check out this 6 minute video with the vision of the two West Point founders.

Am I Too Old To Twitter?

Cindy — Sun, 25 May 2008 01:31:18 +0000

I’ve been hearing about a web 2.0 site called “Twitter.” When somebody uses twitter they are said to “tweet.” I have to tell you that this terminology really didn’t strike me as anything that I would ever be involved in. However, tonight I signed up for my own twitter account and now I tweet! As a matter of fact if you go to the calendar page on my website you will be able to follow my twitter account.

Here’s why I did it. I continue to study and explore social media and tonight I am listening to a series of videos, one of which is about www.twitter.com. The forecast is that this is a rapidly growing phenomena and I so I want to understand it.

Recency often replaces authority. Google is giving us an in to page one as they continue to change the rules. How is it affecting media? When I search for something that is current, I see results on news from places like PR Web. How do we get there? We do a press release. If we want to dominate and play with the big boys we need to write content and do media everyday. It’s pretty intense. Twitter will track you as you do that.

I am now set up to syndicate my twitter updates on facebook, my space and my website. I can simply send a text message and all 3 places will be instantly updated so that anybody that wants to know what I am doing can quickly see that.

Web 2.0 is an exciting arena. Twitter is just a small part of it. If you want to try it, go to www.twitter.com and sign up for a free account.

Pay Per Click Advertising - The Way The Masters Do It

Cindy — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:30:28 +0000

Last month I held a teleseminar for my Inner Circle group of attorneys on the web. One of the hot topics that we discussed was pay per click advertising. I believe pay per click can be a very effective strategy when done based on careful research, ongoing testing and tweaking.

Today I want to share a video with you that gives detailed steps for an optimized pay per click campaign. You will learn how to determine decisions such as:

Do I turn off the content network or not?
How do I decide how much to bid?
What position is best for my ads?
Do I use standard delivery or accelerated delivery of my ads?
What do I do about ad scheduling?
Should I enable position preference?
Should I rotate my ads equally?

This video was done by an online marketing organization called Stompernet that I have been involved with and think very highly of. They are a real quality organization and I think that this video will be valuable to you if you are involved with pay per click advertising or intend to be in the future.

The meat of the video starts at 8 minutes. Here is the link:

http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural3/vid1_adwords_triangulation_method

Enjoy!