Solo and Small Firm Marketing » General http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com Effective (but oftentimes unusual) marketing of your law firm Fri, 28 May 2010 19:07:56 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Intellectually Lazy Lawyers Will Continue to Ignore Reality http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/intellectually-lazy-lawyers-will-continue-to-ignore-reality/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/intellectually-lazy-lawyers-will-continue-to-ignore-reality/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:17:31 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=183 Can I ask you a question: how is it really going? Are you honestly better off today than you were at this time a year ago? Based on new client inquiries that you are getting right now, are you confident that 2010 will be a blockbuster year for you?

Nationally recognized attorney marketing guru announces the opening of general registration for the Great Legal Marketing JumpStart 2010 Two Day Marketing Conference. (The event is 50% full based on advanced registration for private clients, coaching members and past attendees.)

If your answer is not 100% YES to the question above then check out our legal marketing conference. No, its not for everyone (and when you read the entire story behind the conference you’ll see why some people just don’t like what I am doing) for those who come, listen and DO–it can be life changing.

Sure, some people don’t like it that I’m a realist. That I talk about capitalism and “profit” and things like that. They don’t like that I make fun of some of the ethical theorists…or that I “call out” frivolous lawsuits… That’s OK…Life is but a series of choices….

Whether or not you think that Great Legal Marketing is your “cup of tea” I encourage you to read our full information and honestly answer for yourself the questions I raise.

You can find our Great Legal Marketing JumpStart 2010 legal marketing conference information here.

Ben

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/intellectually-lazy-lawyers-will-continue-to-ignore-reality/feed/ 0 Virginia State Bar Counsel Give Great Marketing Tip http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/virginia-state-bar-counsel-give-great-marketing-tip/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/virginia-state-bar-counsel-give-great-marketing-tip/#comments Sun, 27 Sep 2009 09:21:17 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=168 At the Virginia Woman’s Law Association Webweavers event this weekend, one of the speakers was Leslie Haley of the Virginia State Bar ethics division.

There was a panel discussion about social media and ethics and, when talking about Facebook, Leslie, said “what’s the point?”

This was a great question. Not that lawyers can’t use Facebook to get cases-they do. But MOST lawyers have no “point” in their marketing. They have no plan.

They learned somewhere that they should spend XX percentage of their budget on marketing and advertising and they just do it. They buy some advertising piece without ever thinking about a plan.

Here’s how you should be thinking:

1. what do you want your life to look like

2. how do you design your practice to support your life

3. who is that perfect client that you LOVE who supports what you have designed your practice to be

4. Now, lets go out and design marketing FOR THAT PERSON, not for everyone

5. Figure out what you want THAT PERSON to do to respond to you

6. Develop a system to handle the leads/cases.

By the way, the Webweaver’s event was terrific. If you are interested in marketing your practice and you saw the ads for the event and didn’t respond…well…you missed something really good.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/virginia-state-bar-counsel-give-great-marketing-tip/feed/ 0 Big Firms Waste Money–How Dumb is This Ad? http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/big-firms-waste-money-how-dumb-is-this-ad/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/big-firms-waste-money-how-dumb-is-this-ad/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:54:14 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=159 Its funny to watch the big silk stocking firms fall all over themselves in a recession. They start throwing what little money they have left at ad designers to build their “image.”

The “marketing committee” was probably thrilled to see that the ad designers came up with a headline for a law firm that said “we solve legal problems.” Wonder how much work they can directly trace to this ad.

I know, I know…”we are building our image.”

Wow!!!

 

Big Firms--Happy to Keep Throwing Money at Marketing

Big Firms--Happy to Keep Throwing Money at Marketing

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/big-firms-waste-money-how-dumb-is-this-ad/feed/ 0 Great Legal Marketing Seminar Video Highlights http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/great-legal-marketing-seminar-video-highlights/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/great-legal-marketing-seminar-video-highlights/#comments Sun, 03 May 2009 20:30:19 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=151

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/great-legal-marketing-seminar-video-highlights/feed/ 0 Law Firm Newsletters http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/law-firm-newsletters/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/law-firm-newsletters/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:59:11 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=149 Every business should be sending a montly newsletter to clients, customers and prospects. Its a huge mistake to be spending money on mass advertising before developing and maintaining a relationship with those who already know you.

Here is the April 2009 edition of the BenGlassLaw monthly newsletter.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/law-firm-newsletters/feed/ 1 Your Perfect Client is Not “Everyone” http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/your-perfect-client-is-not-everyone/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/your-perfect-client-is-not-everyone/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:04:19 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=145 Many lawyers waste their marketing dollars by trying to be all things to all people. Forget about that!

Its way too expensive to try to be a big fish in a very big pond.

You must decide who your perfect client is (and I’m giving you permission to do that) and develop a marketing message for that client.

Dan Kennedy calls this hitting the right target. Here’s a lesson on why YOU pick who you SHOULD be representing.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/your-perfect-client-is-not-everyone/feed/ 0 What Not to Do: A Lesson from College Football http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/what-not-to-do-a-lesson-from-college-football/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/what-not-to-do-a-lesson-from-college-football/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:43:17 +0000 brianglass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=141 Lane Kiffin, head coach of the Tennessee Volunteers, is taking some heat this week for reportedly telling highly recruited wide reciever Alshon Jeffrey that if he went to South Carolina he would end up pumping gas for the rest of his life.  This threat came at the end of a long and heated recruiting battle between South Carolina, Southern California and Tennessee. 

 

Jeffrey had orally committed to Southern Cal, but later backed out to stay close to home (he’s a South Carolina native).  Early in the recruiting, Southern Cal had actually threatened to pull the kid’s scholarship offer if he even visited another school… a threat they didn’t make good on after he took official visits to South Carolina and Tennessee.

 

A couple lessons from this story:

 

First, your recruiting (or marketing) should focus on what makes you better – not what makes the other guy worse.  Kiffin’s pitch should have been based on his own (albeit short-lived) head coaching career in the NFL and the fact that Tennessee has 37 players currently on NFL rosters.  Who cares what the other guy?  Your potential clients need to know why they should come to you, not why they should avoid someone else.  And do you think Coach Kiffin is going to have credibility with players he calls next year to promise an NFL career to?

 

Same goes for Southern California.  If I’m Pete Carroll (USC’s head coach), I want you to go visit other schools.  I know the LA Collisseum is a great stadium, our players date movie stars, and Will Ferrell comes to our games… think you’re gonna find that in Tennessee?  Carolina?  Nope.

 

The more important lesson is that you’ve got to focus on what the prospect wants and tailor your marketing to that thing.  For Jeffrey, it was the desire to stay close to home, something neither Southern Cal nor Tennessee could provide.  Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how big the TVs in your locker rooms are.  If you can’t provide that one thing the client is looking for, he’s going somewhere else.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/what-not-to-do-a-lesson-from-college-football/feed/ 0 Will Your Firm Thrive in this Recession http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/will-your-firm-thrive-in-this-recession/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/will-your-firm-thrive-in-this-recession/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:10:17 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=137 Around every Wal-Mart is a successful mom and pop hardware store. That small business does something different from the 80% who would otherwise fail when Wal-Mart comes to town.

The legal industry is no different. There are some small firms (I talk to a different one just about every day) that only knows there is a recession going on by reading the gloom and doom headlines.

What do they do differently? I suggest its not any one thing. Its how they think about the world, their lives and their businesses.

Go here to see Why Some Law Firms Continue to Thrive in this Economy.

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/will-your-firm-thrive-in-this-recession/feed/ 1 Free Critique of Your Attorney Yellow Pages http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/free-critique-of-your-attorney-yellow-pages/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/free-critique-of-your-attorney-yellow-pages/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:51:15 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=124 As a follow up to yesterdays post about starting your own law firm I got some emails asking me to review/critique Yellow Page ads. I’m happy to do this and in fact get ads each week from lawyers across the United States and Canada.

Here are the terms and conditions of my free review of your attorney Yellow Page ad.

  1. You can’t be a Yellow Page rep asking me to do your work
  2. Offer limited to firms with 5 attorneys or less (see name of this blog)
  3. Fax only… 877-576-6752
  4. Must include your letterhead with fax.
  5. Allow three weeks for turnaround. I am busy. Please don’t fax and say “rep is coming in three days, please help!”
]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/free-critique-of-your-attorney-yellow-pages/feed/ 0 Starting a New Law Firm – Get it Right From the Beginning http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/starting-a-new-law-firm-get-it-right-from-the-beginning/ http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/starting-a-new-law-firm-get-it-right-from-the-beginning/#comments Sun, 01 Mar 2009 10:49:40 +0000 Ben Glass http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/?p=122 Carolyn Elefant has some stats now about the uptick in new law firms.

This was very predictable, as “biglaw” explodes (or implodes, depending, I guess, on where you sit while watching the fireworks). I’ve talked to many former partners and associates who now find themselves facing the challenges of practicing law and running a business, top to bottom.

Unfortunately, most will fail. Eighty percent of all new small businesses will fail in the first five years and there is no reason to thing lawyers are any different. It takes a special “breed” to wrap their arms around the entrepreneurial journey.

I wonder how many of these new small firm attorneys are at the library or hoarding books at Borders. Books about marketing, entrepreneurship and leadership? Probably not many.

Most will succumb to the deadly thinking that “I’m a good lawyer so I can run a small law firm.”

Good Luck to all. I certainly would invite all of you who are embarking on this journey to at least start off on the right foot. I’ve got a fee CD on building and marketing that new law practice for you!

]]> http://soloandsmallfirmmarketing.com/starting-a-new-law-firm-get-it-right-from-the-beginning/feed/ 0