Law Firm Marketing: Finding an Online/Offline Balance

There is no shortage of evangelism out there on the importance of the Internet as a platform for marketing law firms. I’ve certainly attempted to be a strong voice on this topic for well over a decade.

According to Toronto law firm marketing consultant, Sandra Bekhor, however, the legal marketing landscape has evolved, and the question has now shifted.

The importance of a well-positioned, frequently updated online footprint remains a given for law firm marketing.

The critical question today is whether that, alone, will be enough to guarantee success. In other words, can we do it all via our websites, blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms?

In her recent blog post, The single biggest web marketing mistake everyone (almost) is making,  Ms Bekhor suggests that professional practices take a renewed look at marketing opportunities offline, and argues for a new, coordinated balance between online and offline marketing efforts.

She offers the following tips:

1. Weave back and forth, from online to off – my personal favourite. Whether it’s to network with prospective clients or referrers, go to or create your own live events, anything from seminars to cycling and wine tastings. Get out there (with your team) and press the flesh. And for those of you that are already doing so, stop keeping those activities in a silo. Use the internet to share your experiences, post photos and reconnect with the very same people you met in the flesh. They will remember you far better than having briefly scanned your profile and your online efforts will continue to solidify the connection. Keep doing it and your internet marketing will be more targeted, one degree at a time.
2. Market to the neighborhood – especially fitting for medical clinics and other services targeting the local client. Every neighborhood has its own culture. Read the local paper, visit complementary businesses and generally tap into the comings and goings of the area to discover the best opportunities to get the word out about your firm. There are ample opportunities from sponsoring local events or teams, public speaking, networking opportunities and promotional partnerships. Start walking and talking. You might even enjoy yourself. What’s wrong with that?
3. Use snail mail to pop from the clutter – That’s right, snail mail is the new internet! How many letters do you get these days? Would you notice if you received a personalized package from someone in your professional network? And what if it included a handwritten message, clever marketing materials or a surprisingly likeable keepsake? Don’t be too quick to dismiss direct mail as a viable option just because you had a couple of bad runs. There may very well be a logical explanation. Objectively, was the message clear and compelling? Did it reach the right audience? Did they even receive it? Did you follow up with subsequent mailings to build up to the appropriate frequency? Investigate.
4. Pick up the phone, you know the part with the numbers that can actually call someone?! – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from clients that nobody calls anyone anymore. Our phones may be smart, but are we? We’re so busy texting, emailing and ‘liking’ that we’ve forgotten how to connect as human beings. Remember that a short call is a lot more powerful that posting something on LinkedIn to the audience that never showed up to read it.
5. Better yet, go for coffee! And don’t let distance stop you, skype coffees count too!

(Full disclosure: Sandra Bekhor is, among other things, my significant other, and is currently the thought-leader in our home on this topic. I’m glad to share her comments with our readers. I think she has this entirely right.)

*Cross posted at Slaw

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net

5 Tips on Marketing for Law Firms (Video)

The world of marketing remains a bit of a mystery for many legal professionals.  We know enough about it that many of us become do-it-ourselfers for our websites, blogs and even our branding.

Nonetheless, there is much we can learn from true marketing professionals.

To that end, I have the pleasure today of introducing the first in a series of videos on Marketing for Lawyers and Legal Professionals I’ve done with Sandra Bekhor of Bekhor Management and Toronto Marketing Blog. Sandra’s firm provides marketing and practice management services nationwide to lawyers and other professional practitioners.

In this installment, Sandra discusses marketing for lawyers and provides 5 tips on taking your firm’s marketing endeavours to the next level:

Here are Sandra’s key tips from the video:

1. Track where your client enquiries are coming from.

• Generate data on what’s working for your firm today by asking your intake staff to ask new clients how they became aware of your firm and by including a question on your intake questionnaire that asks this same question. And, of course, remember to thank your referral sources.

2. Analyze your marketing budget (and spend wisely)  

• Be aware of how much you are investing in each of your marketing initiatives over the course of the year, and determine which of those initiatives are delivering a good return.  If an initiative isn’t working, discontinue it.   If you are seeing success, consider how to extend and build on that success.

3.  Decide what you want your marketing to generate for you, and use marketing to shape the practice you intend to build.

• Consider the “80/ 20 rule:” 20% of your practice drives 80% of revenue.  Decide what you want more of, and direct your marketing efforts toward those outcomes. Develop a sense of who your “ideal” target client is, and target those clients.

• This applies to each individual lawyer.  Take a look at your practice – the kind of work you are doing and the kind of work you’d like to be doing.  Focus your marketing efforts on reshaping your practice to align with your professional aspirations and goals.

4.  Develop a plan

• After analyzing what has already been working, deciding where you want to get to and establishing your budget, you will have compiled much necessary information to feed and direct your law firm’s marketing plan.

• While there are many steps to getting there, ultimately your marketing plan is an action plan.  It tells you what projects you should be working on – develop a logo or tagline, expand your engagement on social media, arrange speaking engagements, or update your website, as examples.

• It will likely include marketing activity that the entire firm will participate in, as well as personal level activities that are customized to each lawyer’s strengths and interests.

• If a stated goal is to open x new files in a preferred area of practice or to drive y dollars in revenue by end of year, your plan will also help you determine how many of these marketing activities will need to happen (and at what frequency they must happen) to make your goals a reality.

5.  Implement your plan before the ink dries

In fact, start implementing even before you finish the plan.

6.  Bonus Tip (from me):  Involve Marketing Professionals

• Marketing professionals bring objectivity, understanding of the marketplace and an assortment of strategic and creative skills to any law firm marketing initiative.

• But perhaps most importantly, marketing professionals can help law firms to identify and clearly articulate their authentic identities and strengths.  They then can work with us to translate these articulated strengths into marketing initiatives aimed at building the kinds of practices we all genuinely aspire toward.

It’s not quite as simple as “if you build it they will come,” perhaps.

But if you build it and market it appropriately and professionally – and your firm delivers the quality of service it promises to deliver – you are likely to have a very successful career in the practice of law.

For the professional practice of today, I’d suggest, marketing has become one of the necessary – and unavoidable – components of such success.

(Cross-posted at Slaw Tips)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Office website: www.wiselaw.net

Canada's New Spam Act: What Does It Mean For Small Businesses?

The Canadian government passed the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act late last year, just before the holiday break. The law was long overdue as Canada was one of the last large First World countries to pass an anti-spam act. However, now that it is in place, many small business owners are unsure about their obligations under the Act - what are the legal questions surrounding the sending of an electronic newsletter, for example? Does that qualify as spam? How about a mass coupon emailing?

Looking at the Act, the new prohibited actions are fairly straightforward. Section 7 outlines the actual act of spamming: sending or causing/permitting the sending of a commercial e-message unless it meets all of these qualifications:

• the person has consented to receiving it
• the message identifies the sender and their contact information, and
• an unsubscribe mechanism is included with the message.

"Consent" goes beyond express consent and encompasses implied consent as well. According to section 11 of the Act, businesses can assume implied consent when the receiver has:

• bought, leased or traded with the sender within the last two years,
• provided a business or investment opportunity to the sender within the last two years,
• entered into a contract with the sender within the last two years, or
• received an inquiry from the sender within the last six months.

Furthermore, consent can arise from non-business relationships, such as when the message recipient has made a donation, performed volunteer work or been a member of the sending organization within the last two years.

The prohibition doesn't apply when the mail is sent between friends and family, or when someone sends a commercial email inquiring about another person's commercial services (asking for a quote on a service, for example). It also doesn't apply to someone providing a quote or estimate, warranty information, or other sorts of communication that would facilitate an ongoing business transaction or inquiry.

(It also doesn't apply to electronic messages that are two-way voice conversations, voicemail messages or faxes, so telemarketers and junk-faxers can rejoice that their annoying business models remain legal for now.)

Sections 8 and 9 are largely not applicable to small business owners as they respectively concern themselves with man-in-the-middle-style hacking operations (the redirecting of email mid-transfer) and the surreptitious installation of malware or spyware in the course of commercial activity.

However, businesses with websites that require users to accept cookies should be aware that cookies are programs that install themselves on another person's hard disk and therefore, technically, are prohibited under the Act if the user does not consent to their installation. In practice this will not often be relevant since most people either set their web browsers to auto-accept cookies or set them to give prompts when a cookie is offered, but it is worth noting.

Finally, section 10 prohibits aiding, inducing, procuring or causing to be procured any of the activities prohibited in sections 7 through 9.

Ultimately, small business owners that are concerned about their vulnerability under the Act should carefully examine their newsletter practices and consider obtaining legal advice as to their obligations and responsibilities.

- Christopher Bird, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net

TORONTO EMPLOYMENT LAW • TORONTO CIVIL LITIGATION & ESTATE LITIGATION • TORONTO FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG • SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Not Amused

...by this racially questionable legal marketing concept initiated by a Boca Raton, Florida social worker:

(h/t: Kevin O'Keefe)

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net

TORONTO EMPLOYMENT LAW • TORONTO CIVIL LITIGATION & ESTATE LITIGATION • TORONTO FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG • SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG

Spammiest. Professional Announcement. Ever.

I have no idea whether the law firm involved had anything to do with the creation of this "press release" (and I suspect it did not - I'd like to believe that nobody who writes so poorly could ever have made it through three years of law school), but someone, somewhere sure does like using the keyword phrases "Ottawa Family Law lawyers" and "Ottawa Wills and Estates lawyers."

The phrases makes numerous redundant appearances in a professional announcement, published online, that announces the addition of two "Ottawa Family Law lawyers" and "Ottawa Wills and Estates Lawyers" to a "premier Ottawa law firm," thereby purportedly adding to the "depth of the firm."

This exciting career news of these two "Ottawa Family Law lawyers" and "Ottawa Wills and Estates lawyers" was published on March 19, 2010, according to the notice's text.

Which is quite interesting, given that one of the lawyers welcomed by the announcement has apparently been with this firm since 2004, according to the very same news release.

Huh?

(Better late than never for professional announcements, I guess?)

The phrases "one of the top estates lawyers," "one of the top family lawyers," and "one of the best family lawyers" also make regular cameos in the online announcement.

This appears potentially problematic, in view of the commentary to Rule 3.01 (2) of the Ontario Rules of Professional Conduct, which precludes "suggesting qualitative superiority to other lawyers" in professional marketing materials.

But as far as keyword spam goes, this is apparently the natural order of things.

Does anyone know - are these sorts of monstrous affronts to the English language created solely through automated means, or are humans actually involved?

- Garry J. Wise, Toronto

Visit our Toronto Law Firm website: www.wiselaw.net

EMPLOYMENT LAW • CIVIL LITIGATION • WILLS AND ESTATES • FAMILY LAW & DIVORCE

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT WISE LAW BLOG • SUBSCRIBE TO WISE LAW BLOG