Legal Marketing | Attorney Marketing | Marketing For Lawyers

One of the problems with making a resolution for the new year is sticking with them. This is particularly true when the resolutions involve law firm marketing.

In this video conversation we discuss how to stick with those pesky New Year's Resolutions and goals for longer than the next 30 days.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and successful 2011.

Happy New Year!

In the past few years legal marketing experts have popped up all over the place. If you are thinking of hiring a legal marketing expert you may want to follow this link to a video I posted about the charlatans that have recently infiltrated the ranks of legal marketing consultants.

If you do not want to spend the time to do your homework (and you should) before you hire a legal marketing expert, than I have a solid litmus test you can apply to anyone who claims they can help you attract clients for your law firm.

This is a concept borrowed directly from a Cognitive Behavioral Psychologist and made famous by Author Malcolm Gladwell. It is called the Theory of 10,000 Hours. Here is a video that explains how to apply this theory to hiring a legal marketing expert.

You should check with any legal marketing expert and ask for verifiable proof that they have helped a lawyers and/or law firms with marketing for at least 10,000 hours. If they have not, do not hire them.

If I were on trial for my life I would certainly want someone who had 10,000 hours experience in those situations handling my case.

Keep in mind that having this experience does not guarantee success. But it is a good starting point.

If you are looking to hire a legal marketing expert you should do your homework. Check the person out thoroughly. Speak with their clients. Verify their credentials. And sign an agreement so you can hold him accountable.

You should always listen to feedback provided by your clients. Listening to people who pay you money is always a good idea.

There are however some people to whom you should pay absolutely no attention whatsoever. Those people include:

• People who will never work with you
• People who compete with you
• People who have philosophical differences with you
• People who are envious of what you have achieved

Most of the folks on the list above are not going to give you a fair evaluation of your services.

This video explains:

In addition to having their objectivity clouded, the folks who make up the list of people who are willing to give worthless feedback, are also unqualified to give you an opinion.

Think about it:

You went to law school. You have been practicing law in your area of focus for several years. Are you going to accept feedback from someone who is unqualified and has never even experienced your service?

Here's the bottom line: Listen to clients. Listen to industry experts who have worked with other successful lawyers. Listen to successful lawyers. When it comes to legal marketing, ignore everyone else.

You will be better off.

Every dollar spent on law firm marketing should return at least a dollar in profit. Most lawyers understand this concept called: Return on Investment.

What most lawyers (and most businesspeople) do not understand is that there is also a return on investment associated with your time.

Think about it: Your time is a perishable product. You will never be able to use the last 3 minutes again. You must invest your time wisely. This means you must receive a return on your investment of your time.

This video explains this concept in greater detail.

The choice is yours. You can waste your time or you can invest it doing things you think will provide you with an adequate return on your investment.

When it comes to law firm marketing, it is important to remember that the investment of your time will extend well beyond any initial marketing activity.

For example: Attending a networking meeting means investing about 2 hours, initially. However, if you meet five potential referral sources and you want them to send you clients in the future, you must invest additional time in each of them. If you invest 10 hours in writing to, dining with and socializing with each of those five contacts, you must receive a return on investment equal to 50 hours of your time.

Keep this return on investment equation in mind whenever you are focusing on your law firm marketing initiatives.

Opportunity often show up disguised as work. This is especially with law form marketing. Not long ago we discussed people who gave up opportunities to grow their business during the slow time that typically surrounds holidays. Well that kind of attitude is found year round with people who are trying to make a quick buck.

Law firm marketing is not your ticket to a work free existence as a lawyer. On the contrary, you will need to apply effort to your marketing if you want it to be successful. This video explains.

Marketing is about developing relationships. That required good, old fashioned work. You must be prepared to put the time and effort into law firm marketing if you want to be successful.

Are you ready to go to work attracting clients?

Managing by committee is like choosing death by 1000 cuts. It is slow, painful and you wind up with a horrible end result.

Someone has to be ultimately responsible for the decisions. Someone must be held accountable. Committees are fine if they are advisory. But ultimately, all major decisions should have a single decision-maker.

This video provides more detail:

It is definitely lonely at the top. Using a management committee is a great way to inform good decisions but taking a vote and seeking consensus is a way to kill any initiative.

Be bold. Make informed decisions but do not play politics with the management committee process.

There are rules for everything these days. In fact, most professionals have rules you have to follow in order to work with them. Yet lawyers never seem to make rules for themselves when it comes to clients, payment and acceptable behavior/participation.

This video has more on this topic.

If you run your own law firm you get to make the rules. Period.

The key lies in not only establishing the rules but also in enforcing the rules. Legal marketing requires consistency. Run your law firm how ever you would like just be legal, more and ethical and consistent.

Why do most of us have trouble asking for money?

No matter how good your legal marketing is, if you don't get paid, you will be unhappy.

Since most of our clients have trouble asking for money, particularly when the client is required to pay for the service up front, we decided to make this video. Use these tips to help you ask for money and get paid faster.

You have every right to get paid for your services. While you may have an altruistic motive for doing what you do, you also have to eat. You need money to do that.

Incorporate these suggestions on getting paid upfront into your legal marketing today.

Law firm marketing is often made more difficult by impending events. The Fourth of July holiday week in The United States is a difficult time to get in touch with anyone. This time of year, the Christmas/Holiday Season and the end of the calendar year is also a difficult time to try to coordinate law firm marketing activity.

So what are you supposed to do when you can't get in touch with anyone?

We have a few ideas. This video describes five things you can do during the "Slacker Season".

Law firm marketing happens all year long. If you cannot find something productive to do during "Slacker Season" watch this video a few times. This can be the time of year that helps put you over the top toward achieving your goals.

Or you could be a slacker yourself and just coast along waiting for the days on the calendar to slip away...

This is the legal marketing habit number 5. This is the fifth installment in a series of videos about how your daily habits can impact your overall legal marketing plan. Our previous video covered your daily expression of gratitude.

In this video we cover how your day-to-day networking can impact your legal marketing. If you hate networking or you are bad at networking, this video is a must see.

There are some day-to-day networking activities that can make a huge difference in your legal marketing. Follow these tips and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in to your law firm.