Blog: Marketing Archive
Categories: Client Development, Marketing•
on December 15th, 2011•
Does your law firm have a brand? The answer is yes. The answer is yes, even though you may not know what your brand is. So, what exactly is a “brand”?
“A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company.”
- Marty Neumeier, author of The Brand Gap and Zag: The #1 Strategy of High-Performance Brands
Marty’s definition gets to the heart of the matter. Here’s the thing, your brand is not just your logo or your website. It’s not just your stationary or your firm brochure.
Your brand is what your clients say it is. Your brand is how you make people feel.
Your brand is EVERYTHING about your firm. Your logo, website, stationary, and firm brochure are part of your brand, but they are just a part. Your brand is . . . How promptly you return phone calls . . . How tidy your office (yes, YOUR office) is . . . How your receptionist answers the phone . . . How prepared you are for meetings or hearings . . . How you speak to clients . . . Whether your shoes are shined . . . Whether you deliver projects on time. You get the idea.
Although you can’t say what your brand is, you can influence your brand in everything you do. You can start by thinking about branding your firm as a three-step process.
1. Know who you are, what you do, and what makes you “the only.”
Before you can influence your brand you have to know what you want to convey. The first step in building your brand is to get very clear about who you are. What is your law firm’s mission? Who are your ideal clients? How do you help them? What makes you unique? Or in Marty Neumeier’s words: “What makes you the only?” If you can’t answer these questions, you cannot build a brand.
2. Spread the word.
Now that you know who you are and what you do and what makes you unique, you’ve got to let others know. This is where your logo, website, and other marketing materials come in. All of your marketing materials must have a consistent look and feel. But spreading the word goes far beyond your marketing materials. Remember, your brand is EVERYTHING. Your brand must be conveyed in everything about your firm. You’ve got to “live” your brand every day.
3. Live it.
Your job in building your brand is to create a brand experience in every aspect of your practice. Do you return your calls when you say you will? Does your office create an experience that is consistent with your brand or is it a mess with files all over the place? When you go to a bar luncheon are your shoes shined? When a client calls your office, are they greeted warmly or do they feel like they’re just another problem to deal with? If you live your brand, you’ll create a total brand experience, and your clients will spread the word for you.
So, what’s your brand and what are you doing to influence it? I’d love to know!
Categories: Client Development, Marketing•
on September 13th, 2011•
Have you started thinking about your holiday marketing yet? I know we just celebrated Labor Day last week, but now’s the time to get focused on your holiday marketing. And by holiday marketing, I don’t mean simply choosing what greeting card you’re sending this year. Instead, I’d like to challenge you to use the holidays as a time so supercharge your marketing for the coming year.
Here are 10 things you can do between now and the end of the year. Each one will make a big impact, but you don’t have to do all 10. Pick three. Do three. Have fun. And get ready for a Happy New Year.
- PARTY! Yes, party! You’re going to be getting invitations for bar association events, firm receptions, and parties with friends. GO TO THEM! Enjoy yourself. Meet new people. Expand your networks. Have fun!
- Brush up your laser talk. Since you’ll have the opportunity to go to a lot of parties in the next few months, now is the perfect time to brush up on your laser talk or elevator speech. Can you explain in three sentences how you help people, why your clients hire you, and what makes you unique?
- Host an open house. Hey, you don’t just have to go to other people’s parties. Throw one of your own! Show off your office and your team. In fact, let you team plan the party and host it. I bet they’ll come up with some ideas you would never have thought of.
- Do something special for your best referral sources. How well do you know your best referral sources? I hope you know them well enough to know what would be a great, personalized gift for them. If you don’t, well then, I guess you should be taking them to lunch or dinner or coffee or the theater to find out!
- Give back. Are you passionate about a particular charity or cause? Is there a particular cause that might resonate with your clients? For example, if you’re a family law attorney, would it make sense to support a shelter for women or a children’s charity? If you’re passionate about a cause, the holidays are a great time to give back. It might even turn into something your firm could support throughout the year.
- Have a holiday photo contest. OK, this one lends itself more to certain practice areas – family law, adoption, estate planning. Criminal law attorneys might want to skip this one. You could have a photo contest and use the winners to decorate your office. It could even become an annual event for your firm.
- Send cards that give back. If you want to support a particular cause or charity, why not send cards that donate part the cost of the card to the charity? Check out Good Cause Greetings or Cards That Give.
- Reach out to former clients in a personal way. When was the last time you called a past client just to check in and see how they are doing? What better time than the holidays to reach out? Identify your favorite (best) former clients and give them a call. You’ll feel great, they’ll feel great, and you might just be rewarded with referral.
- Celebrate something different. I have one client who sends Thanksgiving cards and another who celebrates the New Year. By focusing on these holidays you can set yourself apart from the crowd.
- Commit to continuous improvement. OK, this isn’t so much a holiday thing. It’s something you should be doing all year long. Make it a habit to spend at least one hour a month learning something new about marketing AND DOING IT!
Do just three of the things on this list and your New Year will be very, very, Happy!
Categories: Client Development, Marketing, Web/Tech•
on July 9th, 2011•
Nerd alert: I’m getting ready for a webinar on Thursday for Atticus – Social Media and Your Firm: What Every Lawyer Needs to Know. So I decided to try out Wordle to create a title slide for my presentation. I am now a Wordle addict. If you’ve never tried it, you should check it out at www.wordle.net.
I’m reading Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, by Guy Kawasaki. According to the bio on his website, Guy was previously the chief evangelist of Apple. While that may be accurate, he is so much more. He is a phenomenal communicator and connector. And Enchantment is a book all attorneys should read. Why? Because all attorneys are in the business of changing hearts, minds and actions. All attorneys need to be enchanting.
Let’s look at just one nugget of gold from Enchantment – How to Achieve Likability. Buy the book for this chapter alone. The most important thing you can do to market your practice is to build “know, like and trust” with your influencers and referral sources. Enchantment will help you do this . . . and it will enchant you along the way. Read Enchantment and your approach to marketing will never be the same. You’ll understand why it’s important to: smile like George Clooney; shake hands . . . and connect; create real win-win solutions; and NOT speak like a lawyer.
And while we’re on the subject of likeability check out: 16 Enlightening Communication Principles at Dan Rockwell’s blog, Leadership Freak. The words we speak – or choose not to speak – have a tremendous impact on our likeability. I read Dan’s blog post yesterday, and it reminded me how much words matter. Here are the 16 Principles.
- Flatterers puff you up so you’ll lift them up.
- Backstabbers secretly invite you to condemn yourself by inviting you to condemn others.
- Always answer a question with a question.
- Casually spoken words cut. Stop blabbing.
- The rule for words is restraint: fewer words are better than many words. Churchill said, “We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.”
- Words limit and create bondage like a snare. Avoid unnecessary promises and commitments.
- Life giving words are intentional; seldom accidental.
- Intentionally energize rather than accidentally demotivate with your words.
- Harsh words invite harshness.
- Gentle words drain drama and anger.
- Quiet words enable better than loud words.
- Loud words excite or overwhelm; more frequently they overwhelm.
- Avoid whisperers they manipulate.
- Behaviorally speaking lying is hatred.
- Never publicly improve the boss’s words.
- Embrace the two to one rule. Ask two questions – at a minimum – before making statements.
If you can enchant and enlighten in all your communications, you can change the world one person - or conversation - at a time.
Are there any other principles you would add to Dan’s list?
Categories: Client Development, Marketing•
on February 9th, 2011•
It’s February, and love is in the air! Now is a great time to show some love to your clients, your former clients, your referral sources, and your team. The famous line from the movie Jerry Maguire was, “Show me the money!” I say if you show your clients, your referral sources, and your team some love, the money will follow.
Here are 10 things you can do to start spreading the love around. You might feel that some of these ideas would never work for your firm. That’s fine. Don’t do those things. But there are some things on the list that you can do. So pick at least three things and get busy. Do something to spread the love. It will make you feel great. Your clients will thank you. Your referral sources will thank you. Your team will thank you. And . . bottom line . . . your bottom line with thank you!
- Pick up the phone and call three former clients or referral sources. (Hint: Make this a habit. Do it at least three times a week.)
- Send chocolates.
- Send flowers
- Have a local bakery deliver a tray of pastries and coffee to your office.
- Send everybody on your team a funny Valentine eCard.
- Have a special lunch delivered to the office.
- Send cookies from Selma’s. (Yum. One of my clients sent me cookies from Selma’s for Christmas. They are unbelievable!)
- Send your team to the spa for the afternoon.
- Send your best clients and referral sources a handwritten note letting them know how much you enjoy working with them and how much you appreciate them.
- Send everyone on your team a handwritten note. See #9.
These are just some ideas to get you thinking. Any of them would be appreciated. But if you really want to make an impact, ask people what they love. Make your gifts personal.
What are you doing to do to show the love to the people who make your practice possible?
Categories: Client Development, Marketing•
on January 10th, 2011•
Every year the American Dialect Society, in conjunction with the Linguist Society of America, names a “Word of the Year.” For 2010 that word is “app,” as in “there’s an app for that.” If you’d like the in depth story on what’s been dubbed “the Oscars of new words,” check out the full story at Visual Thesaurus.
So, why am I writing about this? What does it have to do with your law practice? It made me think of one of my favorite marketing books: Love is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends, by Tim Sanders. In Love is the Killer App, Tim talks about the importance of building your personal brand. Your personal brand is integral to your firm’s brand because everything you do matters. Before you can effectively brand your law firm, you’ve got to build a killer personal brand. Here’s how.
Think of the acronym D.R.E.A.M. when building your brand. The D.R.E.A.M. concept of brand perception was articulated by Duane Knapp in The Brand Mindset. Love is the Killer App refers to The Brand Mindset, for a discussion of realizing your D.R.E.A.M. of becoming a great brand. Your “brand” is who you are, what you stand for, and how you are thought of in the community.
In the acronym, D stand for differentiation. Successful law firms need to find new ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors in order to build a great brand. What makes you different from your competitors? What makes you unique?
R stands for Relevance. In order to really stand out and apart from the crowd, you must make yourself relevant to others. Keep your knowledge base constantly expanding and share your knowledge with your colleagues and clients. Think in terms of providing useful knowledge via your web site, blogs, podcasts, eNewsletters or social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter provide great ways for you to share your knowledge. JDSupra is designed solely as a knowledge sharing website for the legal profession. Consider posting your briefs, memos and pleadings to this site.
E stands for Esteem. Esteem builds on relevance. We all want to work with people we know, like and trust. When you act in ways that build “know, like and trust,” you create high esteem. When people hold you in high esteem, they naturally want to work with you.
A stands for Awareness. The more you have to offer, the more people will be aware of you. The more people (clients, influencers) are aware of you the more business they will refer to you.
M stands for the Mind’s Eye. Being distinctive in a potential client’s mind’s eye means creating Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA). As Sanders says, most people have a number of credit cards in their wallet, but 80 percent of their purchases are made with the card at the top of the wallet. Do all you can to create that type of awareness – of who you are and what you do.
Build your brand every day by focusing on the D.R.E.A.M. And your brand will be your killer app.
For more great ideas from Tim Sanders, click here to check out his blog.
Categories: Client Development, Marketing•
on December 15th, 2010•
Do you know where your best clients come from? Or should I say, “who” your best clients come from? If you’re like most attorneys, your best clients come from personal referrals. But have you ever thought about why your best clients come from referrals?
Let’s take a look at why your best clients almost always come from personal referrals. (I know; you may get some less than great clients from referrals, more on that in another post. First, let’s consider the great clients.) When someone refers a potential client to you, they are making a powerful statement about you. Your best referral sources refer people to you for three reasons: 1) they know you; 2) they like you; and 3) they trust you. And when they refer someone to you, they’re effectively telling that person that they “know, like and trust” you.
Think about your own experience in giving referrals to other attorneys. Do you ever make referrals to attorneys that you don’t know, or don’t like, or don’t trust? The question is almost silly. No, it is silly.
If you want more great clients, you’ve got to focus on building “know, like and trust” with your referral sources. Great referral sources are like magnets for your practice; they attract the right clients for you and send them your way. So, now you’re thinking, “OK, but how do I go about building “know, like and trust?” It’s simple, and you can do it.
Step one – Get Known. Make sure your best referral sources know who you are. “Getting Known,” is really a two-tiered process. First, you need to be known in your legal community. You need to establish yourself as a great lawyer in your practice area. There are lots of ways to do this. You can speak at seminars; you can write substantive articles (Hint: most bar association newsletters are always looking for articles.); you can blog; or you can create an eNews for your firm – just to name a few. Then you need to “get to know” your best referral sources. Block time on your calendar each week to have lunch or coffee or a glass of wine with one of your best referral sources or someone who could be a referral source for you. This investment of time is one of the best investments you can make in the profitability of your practice.
Step two – Be likeable. Being liked should be a natural outgrowth of getting known. As you get to know your referral sources, you’ll build real relationships with them. Real relationships. You’ll get to like them, and they’ll get to like you. This won’t happen with everyone you may want to cultivate as a referral source, but it will happen with people who’ll become your best referral sources.
In his book The Likeability Factor, Tim Sanders outlines four ways to build your “L-Factor” by enhancing four areas of your personality.
• Friendliness: Your ability to communicate openly with others.
• Relevance: Your capacity to connect with others’ interests, wants and needs.
• Empathy: Your ability to recognize and acknowledge other people’s feelings.
• Realness: Your integrity which guarantees your likeability and authenticity.
The Likeability Factor provides some great insights and practical actions that can help you boost your “likeability,” and by extension your “referability.”
Click here to take Tim’s L-Factor Self Assessment.
Step three – Earn their trust. The key to earning their trust is acting with integrity all the time. Do what you say you are going to do. Be true to your word. Be . . . trustworthy. When you earn the trust of your referral sources, they transfer that trust to every person they refer to you. Clients who come to you from your best referral sources already trust you because your referral source trusts you. That is powerful.
Once you build “know, like and trust” with your referral sources, and the referrals start coming your way, there’s one more thing you need to do every, single time you receive a referral: Send a thank you note to your referral source.
Do you know the characteristics of your worst and best clients? Let’s start with your best “A” clients. In order to attract more “A” clients, you’ve got to have a crystal clear picture of who those “A” clients are. There are some universal characteristics that most attorneys would agree on, for example – they pay their bills, they follow your advice, they are polite to your staff, and they’re not calling your office every day (or hour) for an update on their case.
But beyond these universals you need to understand exactly what constitutes an “A” client for YOU. If you’ve never done it, you should pull out a piece of paper, and write down a description of your ideal client. If you have more than one practice area, write a description of your ideal client for each area. Make sure you and your staff understand exactly who your ideal clients are. I’ll be writing more about this in an upcoming post.
OK. Now that you know who your ideal clients are, who are the nightmare “D” clients? The universals are typically opposites of the characteristics listed above. And I’m betting you can think of many more. I’m also betting that you have a list of warning signs – bells that go off in your head – when a potential “D” client is sitting across the desk from you.
In the current issue of the ABA Journal, there’s a collection of warning signs submitted by Journal readers, inspired by the Nutmeg Lawyer. Some of them are funny, and all of them are on target. What are some of your warning signs?
Categories: Marketing•
on October 19th, 2010•
One of my all-time favorite quotes is from Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I think that simple sentence speaks volumes, and I have a copy of it in my office to remind myself of it each day. We can’t change the world. We can only change ourselves. And by changing ourselves, we change the world. Well, the same can be said for your marketing efforts. Here’s what I mean.
The next time you go to a marketing event, don’t act like a guest, act like the host. I read this sage piece of advice in a great book, Don’t Keep Me a Secret, by Bill Cates. By simply “being the host,” you change your entire persona. “Being the host” forces you to step out more. Yes, perhaps even a bit beyond your comfort zone. But, hey, that reminds me of another one of my favorite quotes: “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch . So get out there and “be the host.” Here are some specific examples from Don’t Keep Me a Secret, that illustrate the difference.
| Guest |
Host |
| Takes a passive role |
Takes an active role |
| More reserved |
More outgoing |
| Waits to be introduced |
Takes initiative |
| Often feels awkward |
Helps others feel relaxed |
| Waits to be approached |
Initiates conversations |
| Waits for invitation to activities |
Helps facilitate activities |
| Stays in one place |
Mingles, makes introductions |
You get the idea. Have fun with it. The holidays are just around the corner, so there will be plenty of parties to go to and plenty of opportunities to practice your “hosting” skills. If it feels overwhelming to do all of these things at once, choose just one change for each event you attend, and work on that one thing. Before you know it, you will have created whole set of new, powerful, relationship-building habits.
Categories: Marketing•
on June 11th, 2010•
Want an easy way to showcase your firm and provide useful information to clients and potential clients? Get yourself a digital photo frame and set it up in your reception area. Digital photo frames have dropped in price over the past year and are now very affordable.
What can you do with a digital photo frame? A lot. Below are just a few ideas, and I bet you and your team can come up with even more.
- Include photos of everyone on your team with their names and positions. And if it works for your firm’s culture maybe a funky fun fact: Mary Jones, Full-Time Paralegal and Part-Time Gourmet Cook.
- Include photos of happy clients. This is a great option for estate planning attorneys and adoption attorneys.
- Does your firm support a local charity or foundation? Include photos from events you’ve attended.
- Do you mentor law students or high school students? Include photos of you working with them.
- Create a PowerPoint* presentation with information about your firm and practice areas.
- Create a PowerPoint presentation of testimonials from clients. Consider this the 21st Century version of a book of handwritten notes or framed notes hung on your wall. (Check the Rules of Professional Responsibility in your jurisdiction with respect to testimonials.)
*PowerPoint presentations will need to be converted to video. Wondershare PPT to Video software converts PowerPoint presentations to video that will play on a digital photo frame, iPhone or iPad. Click here to learn more about Wondershare PPT to Video software at cnet.
For a small investment of time and money, your digital photo frame can become one of your best marketing tools.
