The Top 5 Most Common Mistakes Law Firms Make on Their Websites

Where do potential clients receive their first impression of your firm?

Your Website!

That is why your website should be a top priority and should not be eliminated due to budget cut backs. And great emphasis should be placed on creating an effective, easy to follow and informative website.

Here are the 5 most common mistakes you need to avoid:

1. An Impersonal Website: your site needs to reflect the firm’s personality rather than being a generic attorney website. You want and need to stand out amongst your competition.
2. Internally Focused on the Company Rather than Externally on the Client: to be honest your clients are concerned more with what you can do for them and your reputation and then about your values and mission. Focus on the benefits you offer to entice potential clients.
3. No Resources that Support Specialty Practice Areas: posting client alerts and articles about your area of expertise helps demonstrate what your firm specializes in and is passionate about.
4. No Calls to Action: don’t make your website difficult for the client to use. Complicated websites steer users away.
5. Photos that Don’t Relate to Your Firm: stay away from pictures of the city in which you reside. It’s too generic. Look for images that stand out. And always proudly display your firm logo.

To read more on this topic click here and view the full article by Christina Canright.

10 Habits of Highly Successful Law Firms

What firm doesn’t want to know the secrets of the top law firms in the country? I am certainly positive you do. I mean there is a reason their law firms are such a success. I read an article from Legal Marketing Reader called The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Law Firms written by John O. Cunningham and I want to share those habits with you. No matter what size firm you have these tips can vastly improve your profits, morale and client satisfaction. SO check it out!

1. Selecting a Managing Partner to Manage: Allowing your attorneys to also manage the firm eliminates a great amount of time to focus on their clients and cases. Successful firms are now relying on professional management to manage their firms.
2. Being a “Best Place to Work”: Companies that have the best employee environment and staff appreciation have the greatest financial performance and stability. Better job satisfaction results in better client satisfaction. And remember, you wouldn’t be where you are now or where you want to be without your staff!
3.  Institutionalizing Client Service: Successful firms place a strong emphasis on client satisfaction. Firms conduct client surveys on a regular basis to ensure consistency and the best possible service. They learn where they need to place more attention and what they are doing well. Also, in-house client service delivery training is a great benefit.
4. Living with Your Clients: Alston Bird took the initiative to work as an employee at UPS to get a better understanding to prepare for a case. Other firms have had their clients speak at team meetings.
5. Emphasizing that Clients Belong to the Firm and NOT the Lawyers: Firms have launched service initiative teams to better serve client needs and underline the importance of viewing clients as a valued asset to the firm rather than as “individual turf”.
6. Using Technology to Improve Your Marketing and Client Relations: The advancements in technology are outstanding and provide us many options to increase productivity, revenue, client relations and marketing potential.
7. Cultivating Transparency and Trust: Firms are becoming more and more open when sharing information with employees and clients to help foster growth. Firms are disclosing more information on their websites about who they are and what they stand for.
8. Treating Your Alumni like Members of the Firm: Top firms acknowledge that alumni are an excellent source for referrals and in-house contacts of large corporations. Another firm has created an “alumni buddy program” that partners new young lawyers with alumni to mentor them, stay in touch and attend functions.
9.  Knowing and Promoting Your Core Focus: Successful firms are steering away from the “we do it all” message and focusing more on the specific industries that they serve.
10.  Being Involved in Charity and Community: Top firms are placing great emphasis on community service and participation in charity work and not just for their image. This helps boost morale, is fun and sociable and helps a great cause.

 

To view the full article please click here.

Outsourcing Your Marketing Needs

Marketing is an absolute necessity for any business to succeed and to further grow in any economy or market. In this rough economy, the legal market has become more competitive than ever; therefore, making marketing far more important than before. Much more effort needs to be placed on your marketing plan to stay on top in your community.

Currently, firms are delegating their marketing to their attorneys and office staff. This is a horrible mistake. It puts the outcome of your firm’s future expansion directly in the hands of staff that does not have marketing experience or even the desire to handle marketing.

Outsourcing your marketing is an excellent option to partake in to ensure a positive, beneficial and successful outcome from your marketing plan and eliminate the cost of hiring, training and paying a full time employee.

Here are some advantages of outsourcing your marketing needs:

• Clear Direction – developing a clear definitive marketing plan with your marketing supplier one on one ensures the outcome your firm desires.
• Clear and Effective Meetings – when a marketing meeting occurs with an external supplier the meeting is far more focused, all decisions are made and all actions are completed.
• Allows Staffs Focus to Remain on Main Responsibility – outsourcing your marketing to an external supplier allows your attorneys to focus truly on their main responsibility of legal advice.
• Access to In-depth Expertise – it is not your secretaries or your attorneys job to handle the marketing of your firm. They do not have the expertise and experience that an outsourced supplier will provide for you.
• Continuity of Service – by hiring an outsourced provider you do not have to be concerned with the turnover of staff and it ensures all projects are completed without interruption.
• Ease of Exit – if you desire to discontinue your services for any reason there is a clear method of cancelation and eliminates the many problems associated with the termination of an employee.

Outsourcing your marketing is definitely worth exploring and taking advantage of. Remember how important marketing is for your firm’s future success.  To read more information on this topic you can view the full article by Sue Bramall clicking here.

To speak to someone form Coastal Legal Marketing about their services please contact Jennifer at jennifercangeme@yahoo.com.

Tips for Building a Credible and Effective Website

Nowadays a majority of potential clients are researching through Google, Bing and other search engines for services, products and information they are in need of.

Since a majority of your clients are visiting your website before they have any other form of contact with your firm, your website is you’re a first impression. And as you know, your first impression means EVERYTHING. If you don’t have a credible, professional and effective website you are losing clients. That’s a fact.

So how can you improve your website you ask?

Here are 10 tips to help build a credible and effective website:

1. Provide additional links on your website to ensure the accuracy of the information you are providing.
2. Include your firm’s phone number, physical address, and email address for contact and also include links to articles published by or about your firm.
3. Include a complete list of attorneys at your firm and their bios. And include their email addresses. This gives the reader a look into the attorneys and the ability to contact the attorney that stands out to them.
4. Highlight every area of expertise your firm focuses on.
5. Ensure that your contact page is clearly visible and accessible.
6. Demonstrate professionalism by avoiding these mistakes: a poor visual design, a bad layout, formatting errors, typos and horrible images.
7. Ensure your website is easy to use and educational. Ask yourself: Are the pages informative? Will potential clients find this site informative? Can potential clients find the information easily?
8. Update your website frequently. Do not keep outdated and ineffective content on your site.
9. Do not provide advertising on your website.
10. Avoid errors of all types at all cost.

Follow these tips and you will be guaranteed to have a far more credible and effective website that will provide the first impression you deserve and increase the number of clients you retain from your website.

Uh oh.. Kevin Bacon lost the ‘degrees of separation’ crown

Check out this article I found on www.hlntv.com written by Jonathan Anker. You will be shocked!

“Kevin Bacon has been surpassed. His greatest claim to fame (“Footloose” aside) done one better by Facebook.

The social network has released a pair of studies indicating they connect a huge slice of the world’s population through just 4.74 degrees of separation. That’s 1.26 fewer than Mr. Bacon.

In research conducted along with Italy’s University of Milan, Facebook discovered that any two of its 721 million active users are separated by fewer than five clicks, on average.

“Thus, when considering even the most distant Facebook user in the Siberian tundra or the Peruvian rainforest, a friend of your friend probably knows a friend of their friend,” explains Facebook in a post on its web site.

Of course these global connections only account for people who are on Facebook — not everyone on the entire planet. But those distinctions are quickly blending into each other as those 721 million users account for more than 10% of the world’s population.

Read more: Let’s ‘celebrate’ National Unfriend Day!

Read this article from www.hlntv.com. You will be shocked!

The degrees of separation shrink even more when just looking at users within a single country. For instance, any American Facebook friend of yours knows any other random American on Facebook through an average of just 4.37 “hops,” to use the research lingo.

That’s not only kind of mind-blowing, but also really reinforces why it’s never a great idea to talk trash about anyone on Facebook. You’re always only 4.37 degrees of separation from being busted.

A couple other interesting conclusions from what’s been labeled the largest social network study ever conducted:

• The average Facebook user has 190 friends, though the median friend count is 100
• Our social world is shrinking: In 2008, the average distance between two Facebook users was 5.28 hops; today, it’s just 4.74
• 84% of all user connections are between people in same country
• Most of your Facebook friends live close to you and are about the same age as you
• Facebook’s 721 million users have 69 billion friendships among them”

Why Every Law Firm Needs to Focus on Social Media Marketing

Facebook and Twitter have taken the world by storm. 80% of Americans have a Facebook page and spend more time on Facebook than any other website.

Currently, 88% of non- legal consumer based companies are actively using social media as a marketing tool to generate leads with 76% seeing increased traffic and subscriptions as a result of social media. BUT only 12% of law firms are using social media to promote their firms.

Why are law firms not taking advantage of social media?!

Here at 10 reasons to take advantage of social media to build your law firm:

1. Visibility – Social media allows you to constantly engage your audience and build a visible brand
2. Build Yourself as a Reliable Resource – You become the “go-to” person for your expertise and a voice people trust in your community
3. Build a Community – By reaching out to your audience and sharing information you strengthen your community
4. Highlight Your Services – Social media easily allows you to show off and discuss your services and you can easily respond to any questions
5. Develop Your Firms Culture – Social media allows you to portray your firms personality, helpfulness, expertise and customer service
6. Extremely Cost Effective – You don’t have to spend a lot to reap great benefits. 60% of small business spend less than $100
7. Inquire Better Hires – Social media introduces you to more qualified candidates and gives a deeper insight on the candidates
8. Increase Referrals – Social media vastly increases referrals. Customers can easily reach many people and share their experience and refer your firm to others in need
9. Receive Immediate Feedback – Your firm instantly can see your follower’s questions, responses, mentions and recommendations.
10. 10.  Helps Your Firm Stand Out Amongst an Intensive Competitive Market!

So why are you not taking advantage of social media again?

Start simple and slowly grow your presence. You will reap great benefits from such a simple marketing strategy. And whether you like it or not social media is on the rise.