Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog

Check Out the Latest Issue of Best Practices in Lawyer Blogs

Larry Bodine — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 -0500

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	15 Business Blogging Mistakes & Easy Fixes Your blog should be one of the key components of your law firm’s marketing strategy. Regularly updated content attracts new visitors, all of whom may be possible clients. But are you making mistakes with your blogging strategy? HubSpot offers a free ebook outlining the most common blogging mistakes and their easy fixes. Learn more ...

	Basics of RSS for New Bloggers It’s possible to have a loyal readership that rarely—or ever—visits your blog. How? Through RSS technology, which allows fans to follow your blog from afar, using technology like Google Reader™ (available in both Web and app form). If your blog doesn't offer an RSS feed, it should. BloggingTechnology.com offers an RSS primer for new bloggers. Learn more ...
	One Simple Way to Plan Great Posts, Step by Step You’re a lawyer, not a professional writer. But as a blogger, you still want to deliver great content to your readers. Writing coach Ali Luke outlines six simple steps to help you organize your writing. Learn more ...

	21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic If you want to increase your blog’s readership, you’ll have to spend time creating great content and promoting your site. SEOmoz, a site that attracts more than 1 million visits a month, shares 21 of its top tips for growing traffic to your blog. Learn more ...

Feeling Stuck? 10 Ideas for Legal Blog Posts

Writer’s block usually strikes at the most inopportune of moments—just when you’re pressed for time and need to wrap up your writing. Next time you’re stuck, check out AttorneySync’s 10 article ideas sure to inspire any legal blogger. Learn more ...

Live from LegalTech: How Lawyers Should Use Social Media

Larry Bodine — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Colin O'Keefe interviewed me about how lawyers use social media (pardon my laryngitis). Points we covered include:

The point of social media is to get to know people, not to collect connections or followers, but to meet people "IRL" -- in real life.
The one network I like is Google + -- which has 90 million users. I've had more interaction on Google + than on other social media.
The more frequently you post, the more visits you'll get and the more files you'll open.
Your blog should focus on the challenges that your readers face.
Adopt the approach of Google when it comes to making decisions. Let data make the decision, in this case, your web traffic reports and analytics.

The Small Firm and Solo Practice Social Media Cheat Sheet

Larry Bodine — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Business development trainer Stephen Fairley reported from his recent Rainmaker Retreat that he grows heartened at each successive session at how the interest in social media marketing for attorneys is growing.

"One of the biggest stumbling blocks that busy lawyers have is learning about the individual social media networks and what each has to offer then in terms of generating leads for their practices," he says.

"The clever folks at Flowtown released a Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet this past week, and although it doesn’t include LinkedIn (hopefully it will be updated to include it; this, to me, is a BIG exclusion), it does provide social media newbies with some great guidelines and attributes of the most prevalent social media networks:

LinkedIn Three Times More Effective for Lead Generation than Facebook & Twitter

Larry Bodine — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:51:08 -0500

In a recent study of more than 5,000 businesses, Hubspot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at almost 3 times higher than both Twitter and Facebook.

So why might LinkedIn be the most efficient social channel for lead generation, and how can you use that to your advantage? Less content is generally posted to LinkedIn than to other social networks, which is probably because people almost exclusively post marketing-related content as opposed to their children's photos or social "chatter," according to Hubspot.

This means there is less clutter on LinkedIn, making a person capable of viewing more of the content that's active on LinkedIn at any given time. In other words, a business' marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.

For more, see:

Business Development with LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers

5 Ways to Tell If Your LinkedIn Company Page Sucks

Top Ten Tips for Lawyers to Attract and Retain More Clients Using LinkedIn

Top 10 Tips for a Law Blog to Generate New Business

Larry Bodine — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Following are the points I made at Legal Tech New York today on the program "Growing and Retaining Your Client Base through Technology & New Media."

I'm speaking from 10:30-11:45am on a panel discussion with my colleagues Len Gilbert, Vice President, Promotional Solutions and Customer Experience, LexisNexis, Samantha Miller, Director of Product Management, Website Services, LexisNexis, and Adrian Lurssen, Co-Founder, VP of Strategic Development, JD Supra.

Research has shown repeatedly that blogs are the most effective, lowest-cost form of online marketing for lawyers. Companies that blog have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs has:

55% more visitors
97% more inbound links
434% more indexed pages

There are 6,400 lawyer blogs, according to Blawgsearch, and blogs really do generate new business, if you follow these 10 techniques.

1. Post Often, or at least on a regular schedule. Businesses that blog at least 20 times per month generate more than five times more traffic than those that blog fewer than four times per month. And businesses the blog at least 20 times per month generate nearly four times more leads than those that don't blog, according Hubspot research.

2. Write about the challenges facing your clients and potential clients. It is a classic business development technique to focus not on yourself, but on the concerns and business problems of the people who read your blog. You need to ask, "what keeps them up at night?" If your readers are bankers, write about the Dodd-Frank Law. If they are consumers write about foreclosure and divorce.

3. Subscribe to the free newsletter "Best Practices in Lawyer Blogs." We started publishing this every two weeks in November, and you can get your own free subscription. Each edition features five of the best articles from across the web on writing a killer blog. Check out the most recent issue.

4. Put in a call to action. In order to generate a response and new business, it is essential to include a call to action in your blog posts. After you've discussed your point of law, invite readers to get a white paper, download a book, come to your speech, subscribe to your blog or sign up for your newsletter. Be sure to emphasize the benefits of doing so.

5. Speak in your own voice. To generate business, your blog can't sound like it was written by a detached, disinterested observer. This has no passion to stir readers' souls. It must make a difference that you are writing about the topic. Write the same way you speak. Explain why your blog post is important to clients. Give your own perspective, insight and analysis.

6. Allow comments. This is a bugaboo at many law firms, but allowing comments is a key to the success of your blog. A blog is an interactive entity that should engage readers and allow them to give feedback. You can moderate the comments to avoid junk messages from being published. And the possibility that you'll collected unwanted clients is very remote.

7. Drive traffic to your blog. Publishing your blog entry alone doesn't mean new readers will find out about it. To achieve this you must repeat your headline with a link on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. Include new blog entries in your updates on LinkedIn as well. Upload a copy of the blog entry on free PR and content distribution sites, like JDSupra. These efforts are designed to make your blog easy to find.

8. Use images, not just text. Nobody likes reading a wall of text. People like illustrations, and you can find free ones by searching for images with Google, by conducting searches on Flickr, and by purchasing great pictures on iStockphoto. Be sophisticated and embed a YouTube video in your blog entry to improve your SEO and create a compelling blog entry.

9. Enhance your blog. Be sure to allow readers to subscribe to your blog via email and RSS. Have your IT person make your blog display your latest tweets, feature a Search box, and include icons to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Enter blogging competitions and collect some awards, which you should display on your blog.

10. Come up with great topics. This is easier than you think. I have a folder of blog ideas and am never short of content. Simply subscribe to enewsletters and RSS feeds on your topic, set up Google Alerts as well, and you'll have plenty to write about. Publish new statistics, book reviews, "how to" posts, live posts from a conference, answer a question on LinkedIn and of course, write Top Ten Lists.

While you're at it -- please Tweet and +1 this blog post, add a comment, share this on LinkedIn, Facebook and StumbleUpon. Thanks very much.

Business Development with LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers

Larry Bodine — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

It is appropriate that social media evangelist Adrian Dayton and marketing consultant Amy Knapp met on Twitter. This led the duo to write a terrific, practical book LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers: Building High Value Relationships in a Digital Age.

LinkedIn and blogs are the two most effective means of online marketing for lawyers, and the book delivers dozens of practical tips in 130 pages, plus an index.

Blogs

Dayton wrote chapters 14-23 about blogs, which feature a 39-point checklist of ways to come up with ideas for your blog. Point #1 is solid business development advice, "what challengers are your potential customers facing?" Chapter 18 outlines five simple steps to writing a blog entry.

I like the style, which opens each chapter with a personal anecdote, presents the information in list of bullets, and concludes with an assignment.

He answers how much you should spend on your blog ($300 to $400), and the pros and cons of a group versus a personal blog. Dayton explains how to tell which of your blog content is most popular and other metrics that show your blog is succeeding, including subscribers to your blog, feedback , phone calls and new clients.

There are 6,379 lawyer blogs, according to Blawgsearch, and the author of each one will benefit by reading this book.

This business social network has more than 135 million members in over 200 countries and territories, and it is a Happy Hunting Ground for Lawyers. Knapp wrote chapters 1-13 and notes correctly that introductions are worth their weight in gold, and LinkedIn makes them simple. The purpose of meeting people online is, of course, is a bridge to doing business "IRL" -- in real life, face-to-face.

After a lawyer has built a network of connections, Knapp says it's time to maximize your present with the Events tool and posting updates to you are viewed as an information source for articles and commentary.

There are 870,000 groups on LinkedIn and business development is facilitated by joining several and participating in the discussions, and using the Follow feature to track a person's LinkedIn activities. LinkedIn enables lawyers to target potential clients strategically, by identifying five companies who exemplify the perfect client and looking up the people at those companies.

Knapp offers a neat tip on how to send an email to up to 50 of your contacts.

I've been writing blog entries since 2004 and enjoyed reading this logical and pragmatic book. No matter how experienced you are, you can still learn a trick or two from LinkedIn and Blogs for Lawyers: Building High Value Relationships in a Digital Age. Dayton and Knapp are a top-notch writing team and this book should sit right next to your folder of blog ideas.

14 Rules by In-House Counsel for Law Firms

Larry Bodine — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Steve Boutwell, Director of Client Services at Kean Miller in Baton Rouge, posted In-house Insight: Outside Counsel Rules to Live By" on LinkedIn:

1) Follow my Outside Counsel Guidelines. Read them. Please don't call and ask whether or not a certain practice is acceptable, especially if it's already in my guidelines.

2) Responsiveness. Return my phone calls, and emails. Even if it's just to say, "I'm tied up right now, but I got your message." 24 hours for phone calls. End of day for email if at all possible.

3) Clear and concise communication. Keep written communications short and to the point. One page is preferred. If the communication contains a lot of detail, give me a summary up front so I can scan it and come back to the detail later.

4) Provide recommendations, not just options. Don't be afraid to opine on my matters. A list of my options is okay, but what would you do if you were in my shoes?

5) In-house counsel are making business decisions, not simply legal decisions. Remember, we have clients too. They put just as much pressure on us as we place on you. Help me look good to my clients.

6) Lawyers who "see around corners" are highly valued. Anticipate what's coming and send me alerts. And, help me avoid situations, like the one you just resolved for me.

7) Designate one person as my billing contact.

8) For publicly traded companies, strive to understand my ASC 450 reserve-setting process. This can affect our 10-Q and 10-k reports.

9) Be honest, even if it's to your detriment. If you make a mistake, let me know early. Don't try to cover it up. This can be deadly for a relationship, and especially deadly for a public company.

10) Be smart with conflict waivers and waiver requests. Think about what your request says to me. If you're asking me to allow you to represent a company that I am in litigation with, this may cause me to question your judgment.

11) Become e-discovery experts and work seamlessly with us. We expect outside counsel to be well-versed in e-discovery / ESI in state and federal court.

12) Become diversity champions. Diversity will be a part of the 2012 grade for our preferred firms. Articulate to us what you are doing about diversity in your firm, in your supply chain, and in your communities.

13) Add value. We don't have the resources to provide training on legal issues to tens of thousands of employees. For example, we have a high turnover rate in a certain segment of our security team. If you can offer a post-incident report writing class for our security team, that's valuable to us - and greatly appreciated.

14) Be a member of our team. We want long-term partners, year after year, who know us and who we know. There is an inherent value in that.

Rules to live by....

Internet Marketing for Attorneys: SEO Makes Biggest Impact on Lead Generation

Larry Bodine — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

According to WebMarketing123’s 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report, which surveyed 500 B2B and B2C marketing professionals, SEO makes the largest impact when it comes to generating leads.

Hat tip to my friend Stephen Fairley who spotted this statistic.

53 percent of all survey respondents said SEO makes the largest impact on generating leads, followed by 28 percent for PPC and 19 percent for social media. Not surprisingly, 75 percent of the B2C marketers are most active on Facebook (75 percent), while B2B marketers are more active evenly across the three leading social networks – Facebook (34%), Twitter (26%) and LinkedIn (25%).

Here is an infographic outlining the findings from this survey:

Prominent Blogs Influence Hiring of Law Firms

Larry Bodine — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:29:57 -0500

In a report that contained no new surprises, Greentarget found that blogs influence the hiring of lawyers, LinkedIn is the online network of choice for lawyers, and that social media use is going mainstream in the legal profession.

For example, 76% of 334 in-house lawyers surveyed said they attribute "some level of importance" to a lawyer’s blog when deciding which firms to retain. [This isn't really saying much...]

Confirming what we know, the study reported:

Survey respondents indicated they read blogs written by firms slightly more often than they read blogs written by journalists. In-house counsel also perceive blogs as credible (84%).
LinkedIn leads all other social networks in professional usage and perceived credibility (88%). [We knew last June that LinkedIn Seen as Most Important Social Network and that LinkedIn is a Happy Hunting Ground for Lawyers]
New media usage is going mainstream: the generational divide among in-house lawyers is leveling off. "This effect is driven by older counsel 'consuming more content' rather than a significant drop in consumption among younger counsel," the report says. [See 81% of Large Law Firms Use Social Media for Marketing]
In-House Counsel Largely ‘Invisible Users’ of Social Media: This audience rarely contributes content on social channels, preferring instead to listen and consume. This approach makes their true level of engagement difficult to measure.
Wikipedia Important, But Not to Research Law Firms: Very few in-house counsel (7%) are using Wikipedia to research outside firms, but they are using the online encyclopedia for issues-based research (51%). [Why would anybody research a law firm on Wikipedia, which is not a social network? See Wikipedia is Going Broke Again]
Firm-to-Client Communications Going Social: Whether initiated by inside counsel or by firms themselves, the legal industry is warming up to social media as a "client services mechanism."

For more, see In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey

Creating a Website that will Inspire and Present the Right Firm Image

Larry Bodine — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Thanks to Burkey Belser for this guest blog post:

I have some bad news for you. Your old, stale firm website isn’t cutting it. Sure, your competitors haven’t done much better, but that’s not the point.

Your firm’s website is the face it presents to the world--to potential clients and strategic partners. Research demonstrates that the vast majority of purchasers of professional services rely primarily on online resources when deciding which firms to hire. How much business do you think you are losing right now because your website is undermining your brand?

Your site is not judged by your industry. It is judged against all websites. In other words, our collective Internet experience subtly informs what we believe to be good, innovative, communicative, and helpful. If your firm site is unimaginative or uninteresting, it’s telling the world that your firm is too.

So, the question is: how can you create a website that will inspire and present the right firm image?

Today’s business purchaser isn’t just surfing the Web on a desktop in the office. There is a host of new technologies providing access to the Internet, and new tools are constantly being introduced.

Does your site display well on a smartphone? How about an iPad or Android Tablet? Launch your site on your smartphone and judge for yourself. You’ll have to be Harry Potter’s elf with bony fingers to manage the navigation unless the site has been adapted for mobile. How patient do you think prospects will be with your site if they can’t navigate it conveniently?

Even the smallest mobile platforms are lightning fast today. It takes just seconds to access the most complex pages. This means that designers can “paint” the entire page with an image and even place images within images. Or combine those images with motion for effect. And this same bandwidth also allows us to use computer-generated animation to display information in diagrams, maps, and charts.

In the past, there has been a tug of war between content and graphics. This is partly a reflection of the traditionally conservative nature of the legal field, and partly due to technological limitations that made downloading graphics painfully slow. Today, however, these limitations are a thing of the past, and savvy designers know the most successful sites are exciting. And exciting sites make use of the full canvas and all the rich interaction that image and transparency and motion can deliver.

Social Media Has Transformed Monologue To Dialogue

Social media buttons have become ubiquitous, now adorning almost every web page. Link me in. Friend me. Tell me what you like, and what you don’t (I know, this last bit requires courage). But what better way to engage your prospects and partners than to encourage them to reach out to you?

The most successful firms have embraced technology and grown with it. Don’t be afraid to be creative when you show the world who you are and what you have to offer.

Burkey Belser is the president and creative director of Greenfield/Belser. Greenfield/Belser can be found online at www.greenfieldbelser.com.

Best Practices in Lawyer Blogs Newsletter

Larry Bodine — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

The latest edition of LexisNexis' Best Practices in Lawyer Blogs newsletter is now available. I started this newsletter to distribute the best ideas from legal bloggers across the Web. It's free, and you are welcome to subscribe at http://bit.ly/wguekl.

10 Ideas for Awesome Blog Posts

Have the January doldrums given you writer’s block? The new year actually offers some great opportunities for new blog posts. From 2011 retrospectives to predictions for 2012, there are plenty of topics to cover. Isaac Atia offers 10 more topics sure to help get your create juices flowing. Learn more ...

How to Build an Audience for Your Law Firm Marketing Blog

You can write the world’s best legal blog, but it’s of little value without any readers. Stephen Fairley offers invaluable tips on how to attract new readers and build a following for your law blog. Learn more ...

5 Reasons Your Business Should Be Blogging

Maybe you’re already blogging, but are having trouble persuading your partners to blog too. Or perhaps you’re thinking about starting a blog, but don’t think you can justify the time it will take. Marcus Sheridan offers five reasons why you--and others at your firm--should start blogging today. Learn more ...

How to Write With Your Reader in Mind: Three Crucial Points to Consider

Attorneys are often criticized for writing in legalese. Are you making the same mistake in your blog? Writing coach Ali Luke makes three suggestions to help ensure your blog content is written at a level appropriate for your readers. Learn more ...

Ultimate List of Blogging Tools for Pros

Blogging doesn’t have to be complicated … but sometimes it can sure be tough. How do you develop new ideas when you have writer’s block? How can you build an audience? Are there ways to make better use of your blogging time? Raven Tools has compiled a great list of blogging tools that covers everything from content creation to metrics, hosting and storage to productivity. Learn more ...

MPF Workshop Attendees Present Marketing Solutions on YouTube

Larry Bodine — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:39:44 -0500

Adam Stock

To give a real-life feel to the problem-solving exercise in our workshop at the Marketing Partner Forum, we asked the attendees to solve three separate problems, and to present their solutions before a video camera -- as if they were addressing the managing partner of their law firm.

The topic of the workshop was "Social Media to Drive Business." At the start of the workshop, my colleagues Adam Stock, Jasmine Trillos-Decarie, Steve Fisher and I showed how law firms are actually generating new clients with social media marketing campaigns. Then we broke the attendees into three groups, and assigned each to use what they had learned to devise a social media marketing plan for different kinds of law firms.

YouTube, as you know, is a social medium. To demonstrate how easy it is to record and upload a video, we recorded the presentations of our brave participants Nicole Ames, Susan Green and Laine Siklos. Remember, our speakers were working with no teleprompter, minimum preparation time and no studio lighting.

Adam Stock, the CMO of Allen Matkins in San Francisco and a Zen Master of video editing, transferred the videos to his Mac and turned each presentation into a gem. Completing his work in 12 hours, he next uploaded them to the Lawyersdotcom (Lawyers.com) video channel and voila!

Please offer a comment about our team effort.

Laine Siklos presents the results of the large firm scenario.

Susan Greene presents the results of the medium firm scenario.

Nicole Ames presents the results of the small firm scenario.

Marketing Partner Forum Kicks Off with Business Development with Social Media

Larry Bodine — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:28:08 -0500

150 law firm marketing partners and chief marketing officers will gather under the sunny and tropical skies of Miami today at the Marketing Partner Forum at the Turnberry Isle resort. It's the premier law firm marketing conference of the year, and I plan to send live blog posts from the programs.

When attendees register, they'll get two books: 25 Years of Legal Branding -- a color coffee-table book by Burkey Belser and Donna Greenfield, and The Art of Woo by G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa. There's also an issue of Corporate Counsel and Inside Counsel, plus lots of info on the exhibitors.

Today begins with three pre-conference workshops: "Marketing and Business Development Metrics," "Workshop for Managing Partners/Marketing Partners," and "Social Media to Drive Revenue.

The Social Media Workshop will be a lot of fun. My colleagues Adam Stock, Jasmine Trillos-Decarie, Steve Fisher and I will show how law firms are actually generating new clients with social media marketing campaigns.

We will also create three new YouTube video stars. After the presentation, the audience will be broken into three groups. Each will be given a fact pattern and asked to develop a social media campaign for a law firm. We'll have video cameras in the room to record the presentations of the marketing campaigns, and will post them onto YouTube today.

It should be fun, providing all the equipment works. Hope to see you there.

Video Plays Slick Licks to Attract Entertainment Clients

Larry Bodine — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Errol Antzis plays a nice Taylor electric guitar in his office, showing off some tasty licks that he clearly likes to play. He's not what you expect to see as the Managing Director of digital media and entertainment practice at Gruppo, Levey and Co.

He has 25 years of experience -- in law. He clearly has that and more experience playing an axe. Granted, he's a Manhattan investment banker -- but why can't lawyer bios look like this? I strongly believe it's time for lawyers to be Turning Your Bio into a Magnet for Business

Before joining GLC, Errol spent six years as an entrepreneur and principal in the entertainment industry, with firms including a diversified entertainment company, an online music services business, and a music magazine publishing company. As a result, he brings direct operating expertise to his work with client companies, and a better understanding of his clients’ needs and issues.

I love it when he says in the video, he says, "Please give me a call to discuss your business, the current environment, ways we can help you or just to talk about guitars.

Why Content Matters for Search Engine Optimization

Larry Bodine — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

I found this on Brafton News:

When you think of SEO, do you think of content marketing? You should.

Matt Cutts has repeatedly said that quality content is key to Google rankings, and Bing’s Duane Forrester reminded marketers that “all SEO ranking signals revolve around content of some kind” at SMX Advanced 2011. High-quality, search-friendly content allows businesses to populate their sites with keywords and valuable information for visitors (and both are important to search success).

Brafton’s infographic, Why Content For SEO, explores how content is key to search engine visibility. You can click the image to see the full-sized infographic. For an in-depth look, check out a related blog post.

The Marketing Step Lawyers Miss - Follow-up

Larry Bodine — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Check out my latest post on The Lawyerist blog:

There is a critical step in the marketing and business development process that I have seen many lawyers miss, time and time again. Lawyers have spent countless hours and hundreds of dollars pursuing potential clients, but they left money on the table because of this omission. It may seem obvious when you read it, but the missing step is following up.

We lawyers are actually not bad at marketing, raising their profiles and making potential clients aware of us. Where we fall down is taking the next step. It is unrealistic to expect a potential client to take the initiative and call us with a file. Rather, the onus is on us to follow up—after all, the lawyer is the one who wants the business and thus has the obligation to make the next contact.

Why Follow-Up Matters

The reason that follow-up is so important is because that is where all the revenue is. It is not found in the introductory event, pitch or handshake. The money will be in one of several follow-up steps in which a lawyer determines the legal needs of the other person and methodically builds a relationship. Bear in mind it takes 7 “touches” to establish a relationship. With online touches that number increases to 7-16 times.

Smart lawyers won’t undertake any marketing initiative without planning in advance how they will follow up.

To read the rest of the post please visit The Lawyerist at http://bit.ly/A1nIfk

5 Reasons Why Use of Webinars is Growing As Budgets Shrink

Larry Bodine — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 07:30:53 -0500

Following is a guest post by Jason Brubaker, Business Communications Writer with Dinsmore in Cincinnati. He can be reached at jason.brubaker@dinsmore.com

How do you reach a mass audience in an increasingly global economy when your budget to do so continues to evaporate? That’s where webinars, with their simplicity and ability to fill a necessary function, come into play. With travel budgets and expense accounts being thinned as the search for additional clients (and revenue) intensifies, webinars are the most cost-effective method of communicating to mass audiences in the business world.

Here are five reasons why you should consider a webinar for your next presentation.

1. Save money
Critics may bemoan the lack of face-to-face interaction in a technology-filled society, but sometimes it just makes economic sense. Trying to gather a group of business professionals from all corners of the globe, given travel costs and chaotic work schedules, is virtually impossible. But a webinar allows you to reach the masses without ever leaving your office. The message is the same, but it now comes unattached to print materials, booking a flight, or renting a venue.

A 2009 study by Osterman Research and Quantum Leap Marketing highlighted the cost savings of webinars when compared to trade shows and in-person seminars. In terms of out-of-pocket expenses, which includes number of employees required, staff time spent working on the event and other incidentals, the median cost for a webinar was only $100, compared to $2,500 for a seminar and $11,000 for a trade show. In terms of total labor costs, the study also showed that webinars cost approximately 40 percent less than seminars and up to 75 percent less than trade shows. Obviously, there will be fees associated with hosting a webinar, including advertising, but at a time when marketing dollars and labor costs are at a premium, it makes sense to get the most use out of them.

2. Reach a bigger audience
Unlike on-location seminars and trade shows, which can be limited by location and the venue, webinars enable you to efficiently reach a much larger audience full of prospective clients. For example, a half-day seminar in Cincinnati, no matter how well-prepared, is unlikely to draw clients from more than a driving-distance radius. However, the same presentation translated to a webinar may well attract clients from California, Texas, New York or overseas, given the ease of accessing it versus the cost of travel. For many clients, even those who may be close enough to attend a trade show or seminar, webinars are also a much better use of time. Rather than fretting about drive or flight times, unforeseen travel delays and other varying factors, clients can simply block out an hour or two to view the webinar from their office, making the process much more efficient for all involved.

3. Show your technological acumen
Evolving technology continues to change the business world. Each new generation of smart phones and tablets dramatically impacts the way we conduct business and communicate with clients, who are increasingly relying on technology to make their business more efficient and productive. Those clients also want to know that their legal counsel is on the cutting edge as well, capable of harnessing new technologies to improve their services to clients. Putting on a full-length webinar demonstrates an open mind to clients and potential clients when it comes to embracing new technology and making efficient business decisions.

4. Easy follow up
It’s one thing to deliver your message; it’s another to make sure it had the proper impact on those who heard it. At on-site seminars and trade shows, the brochures, pamphlets and information sheets inevitably end up being left behind or tossed aside, and at larger seminars, tracking participation can be an inaccurate science. However, the registration process for webinars can expedite the follow-up process. Thanks to online registration, relevant contact information, as well as certain demographics of participants, will be available in a usable document that will enable you to follow up quickly with current and potential clients who heard your message.

5. Ease of use
On-location seminars, trade shows and workshops come with unique challenges, as different venues have different amenities, features and limitations which can adversely affect your presentation. With webinars, there’s no worrying about setting up equipment and displays, making sure the room is large enough, or hoping the keynote speakers flight arrives on time. It’s as simple as clicking onto a website, which means you can focus more time on enhancing your presentation rather than worrying about setting up the room. Additionally, without the ancillary distractions, the message of your presentation comes in a more clear and concise fashion.

Eight Ethical Ways to Spy on Your Competitors

Larry Bodine — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

It's always useful to know what your competitors are up to. Of course you shouldn't let a competitor's marketing activities govern which initiatives you pursue, and you certainly wouldn't do anything unethical. But if you were Microsoft, you'd keep track of what Apple was doing.

To this end, I ran across a collection of practical tips about competitive intelligence from Carol Tice on the Entrepreneur web site. From a dozen tips, I included the best below. I especially like #4:

1. Read the local papers. Subscribe to the daily newspaper and business weekly in the cities where your primary competitors are based. You'll be surprised what competitors might say when they think they're just talking to a small, local audience.

2. Tap your vendors. Product suppliers and service providers talk regularly with all their clients. If you're on good terms with your vendors, chat them up and see what you can get them to spill about your competitors. Don't be pushy, though. Keep the conversation casual.

3. Go to trade shows. You can stand near competitors' booths at a busy time when it's easy to blend in with the crowd and eavesdrop on what they tell prospects. New initiatives often are announced at shows, and chatty salespeople may reveal details. If you think you'll be recognized, send an employee or friend to listen.

4. Google your competitor's website. You can reveal hidden pages by doing Google searches such as: "filetype: doc site: companyname" says August Jackson, a senior competitive intelligence analyst for Ernst & Young in McLean, VA. Change the file type to .pdf, .xls, or .ppt to turn up data or presentations. "It's surprising how many companies put this information up and think, ‘If I don't link to it, no one will find it,'" Jackson says. You also can view the site's source code to see the meta-tags or key words being used to optimize its position in searches.

5. Explore LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, you can sign up to follow a law firm and get notices when updates are posted on its LinkedIn page. You also can search a firm's name on LinkedIn to find former employees and new hires, Jackson says. People may identify and brag about their clients on their personal LinkedIn page updates. If you're worried the company might recognize and block you, ask a colleague to follow the page.

6. Troll Twitter and Facebook chatter. If members of your industry hang out on Facebook, monitor their conversations. Music-rights agent Jennifer Yeko, president of True Talent Management in Beverly Hills, Calif., says she gets the scoop on the clients her competitors sign and the royalty rates they offer from posts made by her Facebook friends.

Many events have a Twitter hashtag that people use to chat and post speakers' comments live. If a competitor is speaking, tune in. Jackson has had success asking follow-up questions by responding and using the same hashtag.

7. Find competitors' job ads. Job portal Indeed is a great place for sussing out postings because it aggregates listings from many online job boards. Watch the skills a company may be hiring for; they're a leading indicator for new initiatives, says Sean Campbell of Cascade Insights in Oregon City, Ore.

8. Check Slideshare. Law firms frequently use this popular portal to share slideshow presentations but forget to take them down. Presentations may contain financial data, forecasts and information about new projects.

Visit 12 Ways to (Legally) Spy on Your Competitors for all the tips.

5 Marketing Tips to Make It Rain in 2012

Larry Bodine — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Register for Thursday's webinar and complete a business development plan like this one for 2012. It shows you how to increase your revenue by $100,000 in 12 months.

These are my favorite tips that I recommend you include in your business development plan in the coming year:

Don't Pitch People. No one likes to be sold to, so don't waste time telling people where you went to law school or about the breadth of your law firm. A business development conversation is an interview. The best way to engage potential clients is to ask questions. Leave the brochures, bios and newsletters back at the office. Instead, be prepared with three or four good questions to ask about the potential client's business. You will distinguish yourself by the questions that you ask.
Make time. "I don't have time for marketing" is the most common cop-out we lawyers give for not developing new business. So is "I have real work to do." I don't believe these excuses because lawyers do have time. The trick is to weave business development into the activities you are already doing. If you plan to stop at Starbucks in the morning, call a referral source and offer to buy him a latte and meet you. Reserve one day a week to go out to lunch with an existing or potential client. You won't develop any new files eating lunch alone at your desk. And once a month, attend a trade association meeting -- not a bar associating meeting -- but a meeting of business people.
Get face time with clients. The best way to strengthen relationships with clients and get referrals from them is to call on them. Go to their premises and meet them in person. To alleviate any concern that a client might thing you have nothing better to do with your time, explain that it is your policy to visit all clients. Say that you need to see the factory or the offices to better understand their business needs and to better serve them.
Ask and you shall receive. Don't hesitate to ask clients for referrals. There are two magic moments to ask for a referral: at the initial client interview and at the end of the matter. In the first interview, ask clients if they will mention your name to friends and colleagues if they are satisfied with your work. And in the post-victory glow after a matter concludes, remind the client to share your name along with the good news.
Be a joiner. My Dad taught me this. Join a civic group or trade association because it is a great way to generate new business. But don't go to the meeting just to warm a chair and listen to the speaker. Pick a meeting where you can make a difference and get involved by joining a committee, writing for the newsletter or offering to speak. Attend every meeting and become a regular. The new clients will start to flow.

Here's wishing you a prosperous 2012. To learn more, I recommend you attend Create a Business Development Plan that Results in a Prosperous 2012, a live webinar presented by business development specialist David Ackert and me this Thursday, January 12, 2012: 10 am Pacific ♦ 11 am Mountain ♦ Noon Central ♦ 1 pm Eastern.

Holiday Sale in the LawMarketing Store

Larry Bodine — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:00:00 -0500

Take advantage of our holiday sale and save 50% on these products.

Discounts expire on Monday, January 9, 2012.

Rainmaker Retreat Live!

This live recording of The Rainmaker Institute's highly successful 2 day law firm marketing boot camp will inspire you with practical examples, motivate you with sample case studies, walk you through best marketing strategies used by top Rainmakers, and provide a guide for you to quickly implement proven tactics in the next 30 days. Regularly priced at $497. Now just $248.50! Use promo code MARKET at checkout.

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Business Development for Litigators

Apollo Web Seminars' most popular program about how to capture more litigation files is now available as a recording! Larry Bodine, Esq., and Barry Schneider will show you how to grow your litigation client base, by continuing the relationship after the case is over, focusing on dispute-rich industries, picking the "hot" practice areas for trials, and prioritizing your business development efforts. Regularly priced at $150. Now just $75! No promo code necessary.

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Rainmaker in a Box - Volume 1

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Rainmaker in a Box: Volume 2

Discover how top attorneys are growing their top line revenues, generating leads from social media and the internet, and increasing the quantity and quality of their referrals in this 5-disc follow up set to the popular Rainmaker in a Box: Volume 1. Regularly priced at $397. Now just $198.50! Use promo code MARKET at checkout.

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Best Practices In Building Your

Professional Network

Build the marketing & selling skills you need to succeed as a lawyer today with this recording of Apollo Web Seminars' popular webinar. Targeted toward associates, this program will help you start bringing in work now, and set up the network of relationships you need for a thriving practice in the years ahead. Learn the practical, proven and enduring lessons of the best business generators. Put your success under your own control. Regularly priced at $300. Now just $150! No promo code necessary.

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Webinar: Develop Your Law Firm Marketing Plan

There's no better way to start the year off right than to create a Marketing Action Plan (MAP). In this one hour Webinar, Stephen Fairley, CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, will lead you through the 5 critical steps of developing a 90 day plan for marketing your law firm and give you viable options to help you implement the MAP. Plan your work and work the plan! Join Stephen for this live program and make 2012 your best year ever.

Presented by: The Rainmaker Institute
Speaker: Stephen Fairley, CEO
Date: Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Time : 2 PM - 3 PM Eastern