Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog

Do Attorney Rankings, Ratings & Reviews Increase Likelihood of Being Hired?

Larry Bodine — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 05:48:08 -0500

Cindy Greenway, Editor in Chief of LawMarketing.com reached out to Carlton Dyce, Vice President of Peer Review Ratings and Client Review Services at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell to get his thoughts on the importance of attorney rankings.

The topic of attorney rankings has been a hot one for several weeks. We've heard some say that attorney rankings, ratings and reviews don't help attorneys connect with consumers - we've also heard others say they matter a great deal.

I reached out to Carlton Dyce, Vice President of Peer Review Ratings and Client Review Services at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell to get his thoughts on this topic. Carlton has over 25 years of broad publishing and production experience covering data collection and database management.

Bottom line is this - whether they're buying a washing machine or buying a car, consumers appreciate the importance of ratings and rankings when it comes to making a formal decision.

The same is true in the legal space.

Today consumers are leveraging ratings and rankings to make an informed decision, and lawyers need to look at that as a way of differentiating themselves, a way to stand out. Ratings increase the likelihood of being hired by buyers of legal services, and what they do is they also provide consumers, corporate counsels and small business owners with that sort of extra reassurance.

Ratings also provide a sort of third-party validation. Consumers like to hear reviews and feedback in verbatim from people like themselves, and what they're looking for is to see whether or not that person like them, what kind of experience they had. Was the experience someone had with that divorce lawyer the kind of experience where he or she was responsive to the specific matter or did he or she not ever call back in this difficult time.

Consider this information the next time you hear someone say that rankings, ratings and reviews don't matter.

ABOUT CINDY GREENWAY

Cindy is the Editor in Chief of LawMarketing.com, the premier online resource attorneys and legal marketers turn to for information on the business side of law. She is passionate about online marketing and helping attorneys stay up-to-date with the most current marketing strategies available to support the growth of their law practice. Cindy has supported businesses across the globe since 2003 by implementing marketing strategies to support increased online visibility and revenue generation.

How Google Authorship Can Help You Stand Out From The Competition

Larry Bodine — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 09:25:13 -0500

George Murphy, Owner at The Search Ninjas provided a guest post about Google Authorship.

Google, which is still the preferred search engine for 67% of the United States according to Comscore’s latest report, launched their Authorship program in early 2012 in an attempt to help users differentiate between trusted, reputable authors, and web spammers. Many Internet marketers (myself included) believe that the Authorship program will play a big role in the search engine giant’s ranking factors in the near future, and to plan for this, you’ll need to know more about Google Authorship and how to implement it on your website(s) and/or blog(s).

What is Google Authorship?

You know how, when you do a Google search for something like “Maryland DUI attorney” or “Los Angeles divorce lawyer”, you see a number of other lawyers’ pictures come up in the search results page? Their pictures are being displayed because they’ve implemented Google Authorship into their website(s) or blog(s), and studies have confirmed that click through rates for webmasters who have implemented Google Authorship are much higher than those who haven’t.

How Do I Setup Google Authorship?

The best part about the Google Auhtorship program is that it doesn’t take a web “ninja” to figure out how to set it up. Here are a few resources that you can utilize to implement Google Authorship:

How to sign up for Google Authorship and link your Google+ profile to the content you create by Google

Rich Snippet Testing Tool to see if your website’s Authorship markup is working correctly by Google

Check Authoship impressions and clicks in Webmaster Tools by Google

A Few Quick Tips

While you may be tempted to post more personal/laid back images of yourself on other social media profiles, you probably want to keep the suit on for Google+. Surveys have shown that law firms with more distinguished attorney pictures are preferred to the picture of you and the family on vacation.

In the “contributor to” section of your Google+ profile, add a link to as many profiles as you can- your LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, Facebook page, Superlawyers/Lawyers.com/Findlaw profile, etc- as it adds reputation to your Authorship efforts.

If you use Wordpress for your website or blog, Yoast’s SEO Plugin will help you to easily implement Google+ Author markup.

Improved Search Engine and Overall Web Visibility

As you continue to:

Add more content to your website, blog, and other websites through guest posting and contributions.

Increase your reach on Google+ by following and interacting with others, posting regularly, joining and interacting with communities, and +1’ing other posts on a regular basis.

Market your Google+ page in your newsletter, e-mail campaigns, and other social media profiles.

Get added to more people’s circles on Google+ as a result of the above

The more trusted you will be in Google’s eyes and, as a result, the more visible you and your firm will be to search engine users and your target audience.

About the Author

George Murphy is the owner of The Search Ninjas, a Maryland-based web marketing company specializing in website design and SEO (search engine optimization) specifically for law firms and attorneys. George has been in legal web marketing for over 5 years and has worked with a number of law firms throughout the country and in a variety of practice areas. Find out more about their law firm SEO services or follow George on Google+.

Client Testimonials Will Boost Your Law Firm's Web Campaign

Larry Bodine — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:59:05 -0500

Your law firm’s website can make prospective clients feel more comfortable about choosing your firm by providing them with testimonials from happy clients. With the prominence of review sites like Yelp, consumers expect to see comments from current "customers."

Whether in written or video form, a positive testimonial from a satisfied client may carry as much weight as that $1 million verdict you won last year. And in the dawning age of social media sites, a testimonial can deliver real marketing clout on your law firm’s professional Facebook page.

“Your prospective client can relate to the person giving the testimonial, and they think, ‘Hey, that’s me!’” says Kenneth L. Hardison, a Raleigh, N.C., personal injury lawyer whose law firm, Hardison & Cochran, uses testimonials on its website. “What you say about yourself is good,” Hardison says. “What others say about you is gold.”

One law firm that does a good job with testimonials is Croftons Injury Claims. Quotes like "Excellent service – thank you!" and “I am very grateful for the service provided” are powerful marketing. Croftons acts for victims of work accidents, personal injury, industrial disease, hearing loss and auto accidents.

How do you gather client testimonials? Ideally, you can simply accept a testimonial offered by one of your firm’s satisfied clients. What could be more convincing than a testimonial from a client who felt so good about their experience that they volunteered to endorse your firm?

However, bear in mind that many people do not feel they are good writers. Additionally, they may be very busy. This could lead to delays in preparing the testimonial. Take the initiative by writing their comments and asking them to edit what you have written. Most will tell you that your comments are accurate and will give you permission to use the testimonial.

Getting Potential Clients to Watch Your Video

Larry Bodine — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:15:50 -0500

According to David Wodnicki, a LexisNexis Law Firm Marketing Specialist, when potential clients view videos of attorneys, it can create a powerful connection like nothing else on a law firm website. But even an Oscar-worthy video won't help, if viewers don't bother to actually launch it. So, how can you get them to watch? Here are a few ideas.

1. Make them worth watching
You don't need to hire Martin Scorsese to direct your attorney-profile video, but you don't want a video that looks and sounds cheap. Fortunately, digital equipment has become so inexpensive that you don't have to spend tens of thousands of dollars to hire someone to create simple, effective videos.

The videos also don't need to be long. Potential clients aren't looking for a law-school lecture or a bragging session. They just want to get a sense of who you are as an attorney and why they may want to talk to you about their case.

2. Make the videos easy to find
Feedback from the LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® 2013 Law Firm Website Conversion Study points to the success of putting videos on the home page. You want to be careful about how you use this valuable real estate, but creating links here can pay off in a big way by encouraging people to watch them.

3. Optimize videos for desktop and smartphone viewing
Consumers who go online to look at law firm websites are most likely to use laptops and desktops, according to theAttorney Selection Research Study by The Research Intelligence Group (TRiG). However, more than one-fifth of potential clients accessed online resources with their smartphones. You want to make sure computer and smartphone users alike can easily view your videos.

4. Be sure to comply with all your jurisdiction's ethics laws
But you knew that, of course.

Guiding New Clients on the Journey to Retaining You

Larry Bodine — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:00:45 -0500

When you open a file, it's the end of a successful customer journey for the client — a trip that was influenced on the way by email, online searches, social media and referrals. Search engine giant Google recently unveiled data about which law firm marketing tactics are most influential in guiding that journey to a "customer purchase decision."

Which technique is the most effective? Savvy marketers understand that you don't always seal the deal with a single tactic. A client may see a display ad, click on a link from a friend, or do a search before deciding to select you for their legal matter.Google's online tool reveals online buying behavior and shows how different marketing interactions affect business success.

Every lawyer wants to "close" a new client, but that won't happen without marketing to consumers at the start of their journey, when they (a) become aware of a lawyer, (b) begin to consider the attorney, and (c) form an intent to call you.

Email and social media are effective early in the client journey, according to Google. These initiatives assist a consumer in becoming aware of a lawyer's services. (Note: I filtered the Google tool to display results for the finance industry, the closest analogue to the legal profession.)

This means that publishing an email newsletter, and having an active presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are important elements of a law firm marketing plan. These techniques will influence the journey a consumer takes, but it will require multiple interactions or "marketing touches" to direct them to hiring you. Lawyers.com has expertise in helping lawyers with social media marketing.

Pay-per-click advertising and paid search results are effective in tipping consumers from considering hiring a lawyer — to deciding to hire a lawyer. In fact, paid search turns out to be just as effective as being found in the results of "organic" or consumer-initiated searches.

A referral is marketing gold: according to Google, it leads directly to a purchase decision. Consumers who have received a referral to you are no longer shopping — they are ready to retain you. Among the ways to get more referrals is to ask clients to recommend you, and to establish referral arrangements with other lawyers.

To impress clients and lawyers, it is key to have an up-to-date lawyer profile. Lawyers.com receives 34 million unique visitors each year who are seeking legal assistance.1 Seventy percent of those visitors come to Lawyers.com to find an attorney.2

The Google tool proves the necessity of having a multi-faceted marketing campaign to generate new business. Email, social media, paid search and referrals are guideposts on the customer journey to retaining your firm.

1Self-reported LexisNexis Web Statistics, 2012
2Data derived from a custom analysis of sub-domain URL information from comScore Mar. 2012. This data is not reflected in the basic comScore interface.

Webinar: WAKE-UP CALL! Essential Mobile Marketing Strategies for Small Law Firms

Larry Bodine — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:50:07 -0500

Register Now
Date and time:	Wednesday, June 12, 2013 12:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00) Change time zone
Duration:	1 hour
Description:	WAKE-UP CALL! Essential Mobile Marketing Strategies for Small Law Firms If you're a small law firm or sole practitioner, nearly 30 percent of prospective clients are accessing (or possibly trying to access) your website on a mobile device right now. But if your website is difficult to navigate with a mobile browser, especially for someone with a smartphone who types with his thumbs, you are sacrificing business. So the question is: How many more potential clients do you have to lose? This complimentary one-hour webinar presented by LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® will show you how to make mobile marketing a strategic asset differentiating your firm from competitors and enable you to reach more potential clients. Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn: • The latest data for mobile marketing and online marketing for law firms • How to create a mobile marketing strategy for your law firm • Examples of law firms with compelling mobile websites and applications • How to leverage mobile applications to generate real business results • Leveraging mobile to engage effectively with existing clients Presenters: Manish Bhargava Director of Product Management, Web and Mobile for Web Visibility Solutions at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Jay Butchko Director of Retention and Acquisition for Web Visibility Solutions at LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell * Source: Compuware, 2012 Register Here

Can Color Influence Your Readers?

Larry Bodine — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 09:00:59 -0500

Brian Farrell, a Law Firm marketing Specialist for LexisNexis, posted an interesting article about how using color on your firm's website can influence your clients for good or bad. Here is what he had to say:

When it comes to your website, you probably spent significant amounts of time thinking about the text, layout and other details. But how much time did you spend thinking about the color scheme?

When viewers visit your firm's website, their first impression is a visual one. Colors create moods and impressions, and our brains process their meaning before we've read the first word of text.

"Everybody is fluent in the language of colors but they usually do not realize it because they do not have to think about it in order to understand it," says Robert Bossinger, project management team lead for LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. "Designers use colors to communicate a singular message or a complex, multifaceted message without ever writing a word. The old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true."

So what does your color selection "say"? Here are some common website colors and the emotions they exude to clients and potential clients:

Red
Power and aggression, used most often by criminal law and personal injury firms. Be careful though — red also means love, especially if you have a pink accent. What's more, red, as a primary color, has for generations represented blood and is often used as a sign of danger (ever wonder why stop signs were red?).

Pink
A very feminine color, not often seen on law firm websites. However, as an accent, it's a very quiet and calming hue, and could be useful for both family law and women's rights firms.

Orange
The color of summer. Orange is very warm, and mixes well with browns. In business, it represents ambition, success and goals. It can also represent justice, happiness or new beginnings.

Brown
Earthy and rich, browns are often mixed with oranges and yellows to symbolize fall. It also stands for strength, productivity and hard work (as used in the UPS slogan "What can brown do for you?").

Gold
Wealth and riches. A masculine power color. When mixed with other bright colors, it represents playful humor.

Blue
Cool and calming, blue often represents both sky and water. A very strong color, used often by B2B firms, corporate attorneys and others who want to convey trust and devotion.

Green
Lighter shades represent nature, spring, growth. Be careful with greens though, since darker shades have a completely different meaning — that of power, money and success.

Your website designer should know the appropriate color combinations that complement each other and will most effectively convey the message you are trying to send. That is why you should schedule a consultation before designing or updating your website.

LegalTech NY Discussion: To Blog or Not to Blog? [video]

Larry Bodine — Fri, 31 May 2013 05:00:00 -0500

At our LegalTech New York 2013 panel — "Taming the Wild West of Social Media: The Secrets of Social Media Success in the Legal Profession" — moderator Steve Mann, chief marketing officer of the Research & Litigation Solutions business at LexisNexis, pointed out that roughly one-half of all law firms are now using blogs as a way to reach potential clients. He asked our expert panelists to weigh in on how firms can assess whether blogging is a good marketing strategy for them.

"I think we've passed the point where law firms should be thinking about whether or not blogging is right for them," said Stephen Fairley, chief executive officer of The Rainmaker Institute. "If you want to grow your number of contacts and expand your business, you've got to have a blog. There are no 'ifs, ands or buts' about it. This is a no-brainer."

"If you're going to get started in social media, a blog should be one of the cornerstones of your marketing efforts," said Larry Bodine, Esq., editor in chief of Lawyers.comSM and martindale.com®.

You can view a five-minute video segment of this piece of the panel discussion. Stay tuned next week for more details from the session.

New Survey: Nearly Two-Thirds of Parents Want Their Child to Become a Lawyer

Larry Bodine — Thu, 30 May 2013 12:25:54 -0500

NEW PROVIDENCE, N.J. (May 30, 2013) – Doctor. Lawyer. Astronaut. As graduation season kicks off, parents are anticipating where their children’s education will take them. A new survey from Lawyers.com – a top-cited online legal resource – reveals that nearly two-thirds of parents are hoping their children will choose legal careers.

According to the survey:

Parents are receptive to the idea of their children becoming a lawyer, but are slightly more mixed on their child marrying one:

64% of survey respondents with children in the household want their child to become a lawyer.
Moms (55%) are more likely to be interested in having a lawyer as a son- or daughter-in-law than dads (38%).

Survey results conveyed the aspirations of lower income parents:

80% of parents with household incomes of less than $25,000 per year said they’d like their child to become a lawyer, vs. 54% of those with household incomes over $75,000.

“Being a lawyer means being a respected professional, and that’s something that parents want for their children. Despite the tough economy facing the next generation, it’s exciting to note that nearly two-thirds of parents would be happy with a law degree in their child’s future,” said Larry Bodine, Esq., Editor in Chief of Lawyers.com.

For more information, please visit www.Lawyers.com.

Methodology

A total of 1,001 interviews were conducted from April 4-8, 2013, collected from the Ipsos telephone Omnibus survey, TeleNation. TeleNation is a nationally representative study, including both landline and cell phone interviews; interviews were conducted in both English and Spanish. Qualified respondents were U.S. adults age 18 and over. Data were weighted to reflect Current Population Study statistics on age within gender, Census Region, market size, education, and race/ethnicity.

About Lawyers.com

Lawyers.com is a top-cited online legal resource that provides consumers and small business professionals the information they need to learn about the law, ask questions - get answers, read timely legal articles and find the right legal team for their legal issue. With information about more than 1.2 million lawyers and firms, Lawyers.com lists the most attorneys with trusted lawyer ratings or reviews, and annually reaches nearly 34 million unique users.

The Results are in: Majority of Consumers Use Social Media When Searching for Attorneys

Larry Bodine — Wed, 22 May 2013 08:35:00 -0500

The Rainmaker Institute recently commissioned a survey by The Research Intelligence Group to find out how consumers use social media in their search for an attorney. Read about the details of the survey at Survey Says Majority of Consumers Use Social Media When Looking for Lawyers.

Enjoy the Benefits of Your AV Rating

Larry Bodine — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:00:41 -0500

Today's post is part of an article written by Philip Livingston, CEO of Marketing and Business Solutions at LexisNexis. He explains the importance of achieving an AV Preeminent^® rating.

Each year thousands of attorneys achieve an AV Preeminent^® rating. If you too are among the elite, you should showcase your rating to the fullest and enjoy all the benefits of this honor.

Martindale-Hubbell actively promotes your rating so others readily understand your accomplishment. An exclusive agreement with ALM Media Properties, LLC will put AV Preeminent rated lawyers in front of more than 500,000 legal professionals across 30 different publications in 2013. An agreement with Fortune magazine and ALM highlights U.S. law firms with the highest percentages of AV Preeminent rated lawyers in its December "Investor's Guide."

We also display your ratings on martindale.com^®and Lawyers.com^SM . Lawyers.com alone makes your rating available to 34 million unique visitors annually. To locate the best of the best, visitors can fine-tune their search by rated lawyers only.

I strongly encourage you to proactively promote your AV Preeminent rating too. Display your rating in locations where clients, prospective clients and referring lawyers can find you: your website, your social media profiles (LinkedIn^®, Facebook^®, etc.), your business cards, at your office and elsewhere. Our associates at American Registry create elegant plaques, lapel pins, acknowledgements, ratings video and other recognition products, all designed to showcase your rating. You can find more information at http://www.mhur.com/.

Take the time to draw attention to your two favorite ratings' verbatim feedback by promoting it to the top of your ratings display on Lawyers.com and martindale.com. You also should take advantage of the one-time opportunity to comment on each peer feedback to give clients and prospects a better understanding of you and your practice. All of this can be easily accomplished in the Martindale-Hubbell Client Service Center.

For more than 140 years, Martindale-Hubbell has proudly facilitated the ratings process to highlight lawyers who are at the pinnacle of the legal profession. If you have questions about Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings or Martindale-Hubbell Client Review Ratings, visit www.martindale.com/ratings, email ratings@martindale.com or call 800-526-4902, option 4.

Webinar Today: Using Blogging and Legal Advice Forums to Engage Prospects

Larry Bodine — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:00:00 -0500

	Click here to Register
Date and time:	Today, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 12:30 pm EDT
Duration:	1 hour
Description:	With 76% of consumers seeking an attorney in the past year using an online resource at some point in the process¹, it’s more important than ever to embrace social media as an important marketing channel for your law firm. Join us for an exciting Webinar, where you’ll hear legal marketing experts Larry Bodine and Jason Weingarten discuss how to use two important social media marketing tools—blogging and legal advice forums—to connect and engage with potential clients online. By attending this session, you will: Learn how participating in blogging and online legal advice forums can generate more business for your firm Understand how to leverage these channels efficiently and effectively Gain insight into how you can boost your visibility and demonstrate your thought leadership Take advantage of this opportunity to drive new business with blogging and online legal advice forums. ¹Source: Based on a survey of 4,000 adult Internet users conducted by The Research Intelligence Group (TRiG), March 2012. About your Presenters: Moderator: Larry Bodine, Esq., Editor in Chief, Lawyers.comSM Larry Bodine is the Editor in Chief of Lawyers.com where he leads a 20-person news team. An award-winning journalist, Larry has 20 years' experience in the news business. He also ran his own business as a sales and marketing consultant and advised more than 250 law firms by training lawyers, leading retreats and composing marketing strategies. A former litigator, Mr. Bodine has served as an expert witness in litigation involving Internet marketing disputes. Jason Weingarten, Product Manager, LexisNexis® Web Visibility Solutions Jason Weingarten is currently a Product Manager for LexisNexis Website Marketing Solutions. He began working for LexisNexis in early 2011 and has focused his time expanding the social media services offered by LexisNexis as well as working closely on expanding the Pay-Per-Click product. Before LexisNexis, Jason spent many years working in Financial Services, marketing credit cards and other financial services products. Jason currently attends NYU Stern School of Business in pursuit of this MBA. He is very active in the Graduate Marketing Association and was also elected "Core Group Leader" (class president) in 2010. Jason enjoys playing paintball on weekends and spending times with his fiancé and two dogs. He is a former service dog trainer, having volunteered to train Labrador puppies to become service dogs. He also participated in pet therapy, bringing his Belgian Sheepdog, Storm, to local libraries to help children practice their reading.

Law Firms: Big Brands Mean Big Business

Larry Bodine — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:17:53 -0500

If there is any doubt about the power of a big brand, check out Graphic Design USA’s recent listing of the favorite logos of the past half century. Even those that are abstract symbols are easily recognized by millions across the globe. These brands have gained popularity over many years and consumers choose these companies’ products because they believe in the brand - a strong brand can generate fierce customer loyalty.

When someone needs the services of an attorney, the company brand will heavily influence their final choice. People are used to making choices based on branding – they are bombarded by brands every waking minute of their day, from adverts and product packaging, to television and the ubiquitous internet. So when seeking legal representation they will automatically assess law firms’ brands and will be attracted to the brand which appears to match their specific needs.

If a law office brand doesn’t send out the right message to the prospective client right from the very first viewing, quite simply its attorneys won’t be hired. When branding your law office, follow these guidelines to ensure that you have a big brand that will bring you plenty of business:

Use a Professional Branding Company: This critical step can’t be over emphasized. A brand is far more than an eye catching logo; a powerful company brand summarizes everything you offer and how you deliver it. By working with seasoned professionals you can develop a strong branding strategy that reflects your professionalism, your ethics, your experience and expertise. A big brand will form a firm foundation for all your promotional activities.

Define your Target Market: A full and complete understanding of your target market is necessary for your brand to be effective. It must appeal to your audience and make them sit up and take notice.

Define your Unique Selling Point: Be clear on what makes you different from your competitors. Maybe you have a great track record in winning your cases. Whatever it is, make sure it is highly evident in all of your promotional materials.

Choose an Appropriate Company Name: Partner names can be used but only in moderation, and are far more effective when combined with the area of legal specialization. ‘Dale & Docherty Family Law’ definitely works. However ‘Smith, Lewis, Docherty & Slopecki Criminal & Family Lawyers’ is starting to push any reader’s attention span to its limit and is far from memorable. More creative names are also acceptable so long as they reflect the services on offer.

Design a Memorable Logo: Your company logo will be shown on everything from your business card and corporate stationery to your website and traditional adverts. So use a professional brand company to get it right. A logo which appears unrelated to legal services or is clearly an amateur design certainly won’t instill trust in your would-be clients.

Create a Strong Tagline: Your company tagline is a short phrase to set the stage for what you offer and to entice the reader to learn more. It can be traditional and formal, or more modern such as that used by Foster Townsend Graham & Associates, the Canadian firm who opted for ‘Damn Fine Litigators’. It’s succinct, to the point and definitely memorable.

Produce High Quality Printed Materials: To make a good impression, your business cards, corporate stationery and company brochures must all be professionally designed and printed on quality paper. For many this is an indication of your success - and clients will always want to hire successful attorneys.

As with any other product or service, consumers are persuaded to hire an attorney in part by the company brand. A well thought out branding strategy created in conjunction with a professional brand development company is imperative for your law firm. By creating an effective brand, it has the capacity to grow into a well known brand – and big brands definitely drum up big business.

About the author: Michelle Collins is an experienced writer in the field of brand design and website development, and works for New Design Group in Toronto, Canada as VP of Public Relations.

New Design Group is an outstandingly motivated and sought after branding specialist company with expertise in brand identity development, website design, SEM, SEO, and Social Media campaign management. View the New Design Group website http://www.newdesigngroup.ca or visit the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/NewDesignGroup

Online Destinations that Influence a Consumer to Buy

Larry Bodine — Wed, 08 May 2013 05:40:25 -0500

According to new research, there are three places online that are most likely to influence a consumer to make a purchase:

"Retail" websites like Lawyers.com^SM
"Brand" websites, like a law firm's site
Blogs

Also topping the list were Facebook, and online forums and groups like Ask a Lawyer. The new findings in theTechnorati Media 2013 Digital Influence Report confirm that the best way for lawyers to attract new clients online is to market around the way that consumers behave.

Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. It surveyed 6,000 "influencers" (bloggers), 1,200 consumers and 150 top brand marketers. "Brand managers report an expected increase in budgets for digital marketing in the upcoming year," Technorati reported.

Retail websites

Consumers love to go to retail websites like Amazon.com or Zappos.com - online shopping centers where people can find many brands. In this sense, Lawyers.com, which gets more than 6 million page views per month, is a "retail" site - where consumers can find tens of thousands of lawyer profiles.

On Lawyers.com, consumers can easily find out many lawyers' expertise, website and contact information, and can compare attorneys by peer and client ranking. Online reviews can be a great source of new clients. Lawyers.com andmartindale.com® are the top online directories used by consumers who sought an attorney in the past year, according to the Attorney Selection Research Study by The Research Intelligence Group (TRiG).

Brand websites

In contrast, a "brand" website displays information about one kind of product or service, like Microsoft or Google. A brand website is an online store, the digital equivalent of an Apple store at a shopping mall.

"Today's consumers are increasingly comfortable going online to find answers for all kinds of issues, including legal ones," says Samantha Miller, vice president of product, Web Visibility Solutions, LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. "Law firm websites need to capture consumers' attention and engage them, while serving as part of a larger marketing campaign."

There's no doubt that attorney websites still matter. More than one in three potential consumers of legal services turn to law firm websites to find a lawyer, and 26 percent have checked out a firm's website in order to validate an attorney, according to the TRiG research.

Lawyer blogs

It's clear to see why blogs also influence people to make a purchase. Consumers begin their search for a lawyer by researching their legal issue. The ideal place for them to learn a particular aspect of the law is on an attorney blog. And once a consumer has read a good blog post, who better to call than the lawyer who wrote it?

To learn more about what we can do for you and get a free Website Evaluation and Consultation, contact a LexisNexis Law Firm Marketing Specialist.

Is your Law Firm Website and Online Newsroom up to Par?

Larry Bodine — Sun, 05 May 2013 19:00:43 -0500

When creating and updating your firm's website, do you consider what practices match the journalists who you are pitching your expertise and services? If not, start now.

TEKGROUP International recently released the 2013 Online Newsroom Survey Report. It covers how editors, reporters, producers, correspondents and bloggers work with online newsrooms, digital audio and video, press release distribution services and PR professionals in general.

This survey will help you determine in which areas your website and newsroom need improvement. Here are some highlights:

97% of journalists find an online newsroom important.
Two key areas saw dramatic increases in expectations of journalists - social and mobile.
90% of journalists like to receive targeted email alerts with relevant news for them.
Does your online newsroom have a landing page for access to all your social media links? Over 50% or those surveyed found a landing page for social media important.
2013 shows a 33% increase in visits to corporate Facebook pages.
Journalists agree that access to biographies for your company/firm's executives is very important.

Click here to download the survey results.

About TEKGROUP International

TEKGROUP International, Inc. is an award winning Internet software and services company that develops social media online newsrooms and e-business software solutions. Our website can be found at http://www.tekgroup.com and you can also follow our Online Newsroom Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/onlinenewsroom.

The American Lawyer 2012 Report on Growth of Am Law 100 Firms

Larry Bodine — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:30:52 -0500

Last week, The American Lawyer 2012 Report on Growth of Am Law 100 Firms came out. Here is a press release with its results:

NEW YORK – April 26, 2013 – *The nation’s 100 largest law firms achieved modest cumulative growth in 2012, gaining 3.4% in total gross revenue over the prior year to $73.4 billion, 2.6% in average revenue per lawyer to $844,245, and 4.2% in average profits per partner to $1.47 million, according to the 26th annual Am Law 100 report published in the May issue of ALM’s *The American Lawyer* and at AmericanLawyer.com.

However, 2012’s gains were uneven, with only 76 firms showing gross revenue increases, down from 80 in 2011, and 66 registering higher profits per partner, down from 72. In addition, profitability gains were concentrated among the higher-grossing firms. The 50 largest firms registered a cumulative 8.0% jump in profits per partner while the others fell 3.3%.

DLA Piper, powered by an 8.6% gross revenue spurt, topped the Am Law 100 with $2.44 billion, pushing former leader Baker & McKenzie, with $2.31 billion, into second place. Latham & Watkins with $2.23 billion took over third place from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom with $2.21 billion. Kirkland & Ellis retained fifth place. Jones Day took over sixth from Hogan Lovells, which fell to seventh. Sidley Austin held steady in eighth place as did White & Case in ninth. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher moved up to 10th place from 12th in 2011.

The law firms that prospered last year “tended to have an international footprint, a strong transactions group, and a diverse set of practice areas," wrote Robin Sparkman, Editor in Chief of *The American Lawyer*. "The boutique labor and employment and immigration firms were the exception.”

"Many of these firms also have a strong brand and are known by clients for standout work in a particular area," Sparkman added. "The firms that did well also held the line on their equity partner head count and continued to raise rates, increase billable hours, or both. Some stood out for capitalizing on high-growth industries.”

Among the stand-out firm performers, for better or worse, were:

- Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, whose profits per partner leaped 36.5% due to a contingency class action payment in a Native American royalties rights case.

- Bracewell & Giuliani, which scored the group’s largest profits per partner increase, 42.2%, based on high demand from their energy industry client list.

- Immigration-focused Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, which rose 16 ranks to number 86, its first-ever appearance on the Am Law 100.

- Barnes & Thornburg, Chadbourne & Parke, Cozen O’Connor and Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker fell out of the Am Law 100. Chadbourne was a 26-year veteran.

Is Successfully Negotiating and Closing a Deal is Similar to Serving an Exquisite 5 Course Dinner?

Larry Bodine — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:30:14 -0500

On his website, Mitch Jackson treats us with an analogy in the form of a five course dinner. He shows how successfully negotiating and closing a deal is very similar to selecting and timing the courses of an important dinner party.

Mitch gets his point across with vivid imagery that will have your mouth watering and your stomach growling and maybe even the itch to go close that deal that has eluded you for months. Click here to read the full article.

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Closing a deal is a very similar experience. Go about things the right way and the negotiation will flow naturally and the deal will be one to remember. Skip a course or two and the other person just might get up and leave the communication table before the evening is over.

Start with the setting

You don’t serve a 5 course dinner on the lids of garbage cans in an alley behind the restaurant. Along those same lines, don’t try to negotiate an important deal over day old coffee in the parking lot of Wal-Mart while wearing a stained t-shirt.

Make sure that you’ve thought things through and have properly set your communication table—the place you’ll be serving your verbal meal– in a suitable fashion and location. Have your ducks in a row and remember to place your napkin in your lap, serve from the left, and clear from the right. Do what needs to be done to help ensure your surroundings are conducive to a meaningful discussion and presentation.

Now for the first course…

Start with something memorable. Tonight, we’ll be starting with essence of butternut squash, presented with a seared sea scallop, chive oil and young seedlings. Is your mouth starting to water? Mine is!

After a bit of small talk and building rapport, get immediate focus and attention by raising the problem or issue during the first course.

Tip- Talk about the problem.

The second course

For your second course, we’ll be serving pan seared lump crab cake, presented with fire roasted corn and cilantro relish smoked chipotle aioli and butter poached leeks. While you enjoy this course and start to get in the mood for the main entre, spend some quality time talking in more detail about it the problem or issue. Discuss what bad things will happen if changes are not made. What are the short and long-term consequences of action or inaction? What will happen if things don’t get resolved and continue to drag on day after day and even year after year?

Tip- Discuss the short and long-term impact of the problem.

The third course

What better than to follow the crab cakes with a dish of roasted beet carpaccio, presented with seared goat cheese, beet syrup, aged balsamic reduction and mache greens. Do this correctly and your guest is already interested in what the next course will be.

You’ve got his attention. He knows why he’s sitting at the table and understands that action is needed or things will just get worse. Now is the time to show your guest how your idea will solve his problems. Working your way from the outside in, your utensils should include specific examples, metaphors and stories.

Tip- For the first time, reveal your specific solution to the specific problem of your guest.

The fourth course

Now that you’ve shared your solutions in the third course, knock your guest right off his chair with a fourth course consisting of something a bit more substantial. Let’s go with grilled fillet of beef, presented with caramelized shallot/red wine reduction, crisp truffle scented potato rosti, white asparagus and morel mushrooms. It might also be time to order another bottle of wine.

This course is all about substance and value. Show the other person exactly how your suggested solution will benefit him. Understanding that facts tell but stories sell, use the right utensils (words, pictures, testimonials, videos…) to continue showing your dinner guest how your product, service or idea will benefit and help him. Communicating and share major value and specific benefits, through stories and examples, are what the fourth course is all about.

Tip- Communicate the major benefits of your solution to your dinner guest.

The fifth and most important course

Click here to find out what is served for dessert!

New Study Reveals Social Media Use Is Now Mainstream for In-House Lawyers

Larry Bodine — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:53:20 -0500

Today's post is a press release that reveals which social media outlets are the most popular, therefore most important to utilize.

LinkedIn, blogs by fellow lawyers and Wikipedia are among the tools most frequently used by in-house counsel in their professional lives, according to a new survey released today by communications firm Greentarget, consulting firm Zeughauser Group and InsideCounsel magazine.

In-house attorneys use social media more than ever, for everything from building professional networks to consuming substantive content to conducting business and industry research.

This survey, referenced with the hashtag #ICSurvey on Twitter and represented visually by an infographic, suggests that many legal marketers are not yet making full use of the channels and platforms that can effectively reach the primary buyers of legal services. But it also affirms the wisdom of law-firm marketers who take an integrated, content-centric approach to incorporating digital platforms into their communications strategies, treating them as an extension of their thought leadership efforts.

The In-House Counsel New Media Engagement Survey, conducted for the first time in 2010, measures the changing perceptions, attitudes and social media usage behaviors of in-house lawyers and their impact on business development efforts. Earlier iterations of the survey are now hosted athttp://insidecounselsurvey.com.

“The survey results suggest, in no uncertain terms, that the convergence of digital and traditional media is fueling the continued use of social media among the in-house bar,” says John Corey, president and founding partner of Greentarget. “Our 2013 survey makes it crystal clear — as evidenced by the sustained prominence of LinkedIn and attorney-authored blogs, the growth in mobile consumption of news and a continuation of the ‘invisible user’ trend — that in-house lawyers are using social media as part of their daily routines.”

The Highlights:

New media use is now mainstream. The percentage of respondents who say they do not use new media has plummeted from 43 percent in 2010 to just 27 percent today.
LinkedIn is still the “serious” social network. Sixty-seven percent of in-house counsel used LinkedIn for professional reasons during the past week, and 40 percent used it during the past 24 hours. It remains the most frequently used platform for professional reasons.
Attorney-authored blogs are popular and trusted. Respondents say they read blogs by attorneys as often as they read blogs by professional journalists, and more than half (53 percent) say well-executed blogs influence hiring decisions.
The “invisible users” trend is accelerating. Although social networks are designed to promote online engagement, most respondents (74 percent) are using social media in a listen-only mode versus commenting on posts and participating in discussions—up from 68 percent who identified themselves as invisible users in 2012.
Use of mobile is prevalent. Fifty-three percent of survey respondents read business news on their smartphones daily, while 39 and 23 percent, respectively, use tablets and mobile apps for news every day.
Wikipedia is emerging for business-oriented research. Sixty-five percent of respondents say they use Wikipedia to conduct company and industry research, up from 51 percent in 2012. This is one of the more significant jumps in the year-over-year data.
Online video is largely unexploited. Many respondents report that they are watching online video from law firms, but they are doing so infrequently.
Peer-driven rankings lack influence. Despite the energy and resources that law firms continue to invest in peer-driven rankings, they have minimal impact on the opinions of outside lawyers or hiring decisions, the survey data suggests.

To download a summary of the research report, click here. For more information, contact John Corey at jcorey@greentarget.com or 312-252-4100.

Basic Design Tips for Law Firm Websites

Larry Bodine — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:40:04 -0500

Donald Rohan, a Law Firm Marketing Specialist with LexisNexis, provides this guest post about basic design for law firm websites.

Bad website design is like a bad tattoo. You went into the process wanting something that highlighted your uniqueness and attracted positive attention. Unfortunately, you got something indistinguishable from thousands of others — or worse, something that stands out for the wrong reasons.

Traditional limits on legal advertising and inexperience with design often lead law firms to overspend on websites that don't deliver maximum impact. Some firms may think they don't need to invest much in their site. But even if your firm maintains a conservative approach to a practice area like estate planning, you can present and promote yourself in a unique, attractive way.

You don't need to be a design expert. Just keep a few basic tips in mind, and check out these examples of firms that are doing design well:

Tell a story with one dominant image.

Before viewers read a word, they should get the message you're trying to transmit. Don't distract from this message by clouding the viewer's perception with different images. Find one dominant image that works. On this homepage, you would immediately understand the firm's international focus.

Resist visual clichés.

A picture of courthouse steps does not send a message of trial brilliance. Instead, it leaves viewers with the inability to distinguish your firm from the thousands of others with similar imagery. The first people to put a pink flamingo on their lawn might have evoked curious questions as to whether exotic waterfowl lived there, but now those plastic birds are so common, people don't even "see" them anymore. Here's a website that uses symbolism to get away from the typical images of personal injury firms.

Think like a newspaper editor.

Without reading any of the text, a newspaper reader knows which stories merit the most attention. Those appear on top with the largest headlines and graphics. Other important stories are presented lower on the page. Interesting items that don't merit front-page treatment receive a brief mention in the table of contents with their page number. On this site, the main headline is large, clear, and well promoted, even as the images behind it shift. As you move down and outward from the headline, the secondary items appear and are easy to access.

Click here to read the article at the source.

Don't Get Fooled by the Standard Marketing Advice

Larry Bodine — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:20:48 -0500

I was just reading a blog post by a lawyer who offered "5 easy marketing tips" for young and experienced lawyers. It offered the standard marketing advice but left out something crucially important.

The blog post advised staying top-of-mind with referral sources, making referrals, public speaking, joining organizations and doing excellent legal work. Check, check, check — this is all basic marketing information I've given to lawyers myself. It appeared to be standard advice until I hit the end of the article and found a titanic omission.

Pulling back, I thought to myself — you wouldn't market your law practice without paying attention to your website, would you? No — especially knowing that 76 percent of consumers seeking an attorney in the past year used online resources at some point in the process, according to TRiG research.

The standard marketing advice was right out of the 1980s, before the Internet went live. The guidance was tailored for a world with rotary phones, fax machines and VHS video cassettes. Today, the lives of consumers are filled with smartphones, iPads, computers, email, social media and blogs. These are marketing breakthroughs because they allow a lawyer to be many places at once.

In the old days, a lawyer could reach only the crowd he or she was addressing, talk only to the person he met at an organizational event and send a file only to referral source he had on the phone. Marketing efforts were limited as one-to-one activities.

But it's a different world today. Consumers are likely to look up your profile on the Web before they ever see you. They'll find you online before they ever hear your presentation or meet you at an event. When they look you up, consumers more are likely than ever to use their smartphones — smartphones are already outselling PCs and are regularly used by consumers to make purchasing decisions.

The Web has become an essential step in the way today's consumers really search for an attorney. Consumers don't start by looking for a lawyer — instead they begin by researching their legal issue. This naturally makes consumers seek out lawyer blogs and attorney websites that have detailed FAQ (frequently asked question) articles. Consumers will have a positive impression of a law firm if the website is mobile-friendly, and can easily be viewed on a two-inch screen on a smartphone.

So don't be fooled by the standard marketing advice from the 1980s. Get your website in shape so that it generates new business for you. Need some help? Contact a LexisNexis Law Firm Marketing Specialist.