Public Relations...Or, Relating with the Public

My undergraduate education is in communication. Specifically, organizational communication. I studied communication at a mid-sized university, before heading off to law school.

The thing I particularly enjoyed about the communication studies discipline, was the range of classes available to students. My first thought when I embarked in the field was to become a reporter, or some other press-related individual. I liked the "gumshoe" work of a reporter, strung together with the fast-paced, changing world. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to work in the messed-up world of business, and evaluate the different sub-levels of businesses and other organizations - hence, organizational communication (I'm not sure why I didn't choose psychology, because a lot of O.C. is about analyzing people and their behaviors.)

During my education I had a variety of opportunities to examine media interactions, and learned to appreciate the power of the media. That's why this post by The Nutmeg Lawyer, Adrian Baron, really worked.

The post discusses the importance of working with the media, and how the media can really boost your law practice. Adrian Baron talks about his experience in the world of criminal law, and how using the media has increased his revenue and client base. Adrian give concise advice regarding some fundamental steps to help work with the media.

I learned early that too many people, and far too many lawyers, are afraid of the media, and using the media in their law practice. I see it as a natural tendency for us to shy away from anything we can't acutely manage or control. However, you must recognize that there are times and places when you want to use the media to your advantage, and certainly bad coverage (where you're involved with a "bad" client) is better for your firm than no coverage. Always recognize and appreciate opportunities to market your firm.

Part of growing and building your practice is becoming recognized as a legal "expert" on a particular topic. The more people can recognize you as the lawyer, hence Adrian's "heroin lawyer", the greater success you'll have in bringing in clients. I attest to the truthfulness of this mantra. Like Adrian, I've had several similar good and bad experiences with media relations.

When you're given an opportunity to become a legal "expert" by the media, seize it. You're never going to have an easier time striking publicity for yourself.

It's What Distinguishes Us from the Animals

There's a huge flurry of excitement over blogging, internet websites, and social media. For lawyers, this sphere is quickly becoming the new yellow pages. Recently, there has been a great influx of movement toward the internet, and I suspect more lawyers will "get online" with their law firms.

The problem, as I've beaten profusely, with "getting online," is that it's not only about getting there, it's also about being there.

Here's two examples:

Yesterday a new attorney moved into our office. He's leasing a space, and was looking at a senior attorney in one of the other offices (I share my offices with several other attorneys) for advice to get his website in place. The attorney wasn't around, so he asked me to let him know the young guy was looking for him. Actually, the conversation went more like this:

        Attorney:  Where's X? He said he was around later to talk about creating a website.

        Me:  A website? You don't want to talk to X about a website.

     Attorney:  Why? He said his [closely related computer savvy individual] can design a site for like, $300.00.

        Me:  Really? $300? Have you seen X's site?

        Attorney:  No.

        Me:  Look. [Type in the name of extraordinarily long website].

        Attorney:  Oh.

        Me:  Here's my website. [Type in the name of mediocrely long website].

        Attorney:  Wow. That looks good. (I know he's blowing).

     Me:  Here's a secret: the key to visibility on the internet is visibility. You have to have content to encourage the search engines to care. Otherwise, you're just another website.

        Attorney:  Oh.

        Me:  The problem with X's site is that it sucks. There's not any content.

        Attorney:  Yeah, he said his site's pretty ineffective.

        Me:  That's because it's static, it has words on a page, but nothing else. Dynamic content. That's what drives the internet. You want to know about using the internet, you talk to me, not X. You talk to X about BigLaw legal practice and old school legal services. If you're interested, I'll give you the tools to use, and the information needed to get you successful. The problem is, most attorneys don't want to do the second stage: the work.

It was about this time, we were interrupted by Attorney 3, the second example:

           Attorney 3:  Have you seen my website? It's bi-lingual? It's awesome.

           Me:  No. What's the address?

           Attorney 3:  Uh...not sure. Try X.com.

           Me: Nothing.

           Attorney 3:  Maybe it's not published yet.

           Me: What about the one I helped you set up? [Typing in website.com].

           Attorney 3:  Yeah, that one sucks. We don't use it.

           Me:  But it's your name, what's easier than that?

           Attorney 3:  Couldn't figure it out, so we gave up.

           Me:  Oh, that's logical.

         Attorney 3 to Attorney: The key isn't the internet, the key is word-of-mouth. You'll get more clients from word-of-mouth referrals than having a website.

         Me: That's true. However, for some new attorneys, all you have is time and no word-of-mouth referrals. So, if it's me, I'm going to work on developing credibility via the internet.

           Attorney 3: But I don't get any hits from my website, so it's not an effective way to do things.

           Me: Well, I get referrals, but I also get at least 1 client call per day from my internet work. Again, it's not about just having a website, it's about dynamic content. Search engines put you up at the top when your content is relevant and changing.

            Attorney: Yeah, he just showed me that he's 2 and 3 on Google.

         Me: Those are just two examples of my key metrics and their placement. I have other terms that perform equally well. I want people to find me after searching for those terms, so all my work focuses on including those key metrics in my legal work.

            Attorney: But doesn't it take you a long time? How do you come up with stuff to write about?

            Me: On average, 30 minutes...

            Attorney 3: ...that's 30 minutes you'll never get back.

            Me: True. But if done correctly, I just picked up a client who cost me little to nothing to find, but likely will reward me with at least 10 times my investment. Not too shabby. I find stuff to write about by reading blogs or discussing topics that are important to me.

            Attorney 3:  Blogs? I don't have time to read those, I'm doing real lawyer work.

            Me: And that's the reason my website succeeds and yours doesn't. Part of my real lawyer work includes marketing my practice, and establishing my small niches.

             Me to Attorney: You want to learn about websites and internet marketing, talk to me. You want to learn about referrals, talk to Attorney 3. If you're computer savvy, I'll show you how to get your stuff set up in about 2 hours, for cheap. Not savvy, then I know a gal who does this professionally, she can help you.

Internet marketing is the future. If you're not having success with your marketing scheme, you're doing it wrong. You'll likely continue to chase every whim that you deem effective. The problem for most attorneys is patience. Getting sighted by Google and the other engines requires time. Be patient, follow your scheme, and exercise diligence in the work. That's how you develop an effective marketing scheme.

           

More on Getting "Googled"

The Google Small Business blog has two great posts about using Google Places to build your marketing. I suggest you read them, especially in light of the fact they come from the search engine god itself:

Building your web presence with Google Sites and Google Places

How to Run, Get Online, and Promote Your Business with Google Tools

Remember, I'm intensely satisfied with what Google has done for my law firm website and marketing.

More on Google Places

I Love, Love, Love Google Places. I think it's a fantastic concept, and for me, reaps a lot of benefits.

GP is easily my best investment, for the cheapest price. Tom Kane, author of the Legal Marketing Blog, agrees.

In his most recent post, Tom discusses why he believes that Google Places (he calls it Google Maps) is the place to be. He also, which I think is great, links to a couple other "how-to" posts by Tom O'Leary. These are excellent pieces for beginners. 

The thing I love most is that the "free-factor" gives you the powerful marketing tools your law firm needs, without having to spend the enormous dollars. More precisely, Google Places puts your law firm where it needs to be, and instantly gives you a viable, searchable, findable, web presence.

Google Places

I don't market my law firm anywhere else but on the internet. Sure, I have the obligatory white pages listing I get when I installed my office line, but that's so indescribably boring that it's hardly worth mentioning.

What has been the true "make it, or break it" marketing maven is my firm and personal listing on Google. I've discussed the benefits of Google, and how my listings on Google influence the types of cases I want to develop. When I ask people how they got my information, "the internet" or "Google" are the two most common responses.

Well, now Jay Fleischman has delved into helping you create and utilize Google Places to your marketing advantage. Jay has two posts, here and here, which effectively and succinctly describe what Google Places is, and how to take advantage of the Google behemoth, all for free.

One of the keys that Jay suggests, which I think is the money quote, is get a separate Google account. I didn't do this when I started my firm's marketing scheme, and frankly, it didn't even cross my mind. Now however, the separate account would be nice. The problem I've realized is that have your marketing connected to your private account will create headaches in the future, i.e., what if you want to sell your business? Your public marketing efforts are intricately tied to your private account. It's unseverable without fully transferring my private Google account. The easiest thing to rectify this problem: get a Google apps account for $50 per year. 

Other than that small glitch, I love (as I've gloated before) seeing my names in the 1 and 2 spots on the Google search page. Even more thrilling is that my names come before the BigLaw firms who have mucho denaro to market with.

To Market Your Firm, Stay Away From The Crowd

I'm a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, advocate of finding a way to "reinvent the wheel" when you're starting/operating your own law firm. I've discussed a variety of ways you can make yourself "popular" without blowing your operating budget. For me, Google Places is big.

In today's post from Jay Fleischman, he hits this topic squarely on the head. If you're following the crowd, you're always going to be following the crowd. I like this sentence from Jay's post: "They got there first, and have more money to spend than you do." That's the quintessential point that a lot of new solos don't realize.

You have to find the new avenues and marketing mediums (right now I'm trying to negotiate a sign placement in a local burger joint), to get your name and message out.

Marketing Successes

I like to get compliments, just like everyone else. More especially, I like compliments like, "your name is every where," or "did you know you're number __ on Google?"

Of course I know this, but it's certainly always nice to hear the compliment from someone else. I always politely respond with a simple yes, and "would you like to know how?" People are impressed by search position (remember when you used to be impressed by the back page of the phone book?).

My method isn't anything special or secret, nor do I spend a large amount of money paying to market my law practice. Moreover, I'm sure that if I did a couple of things differently, I'm going to pop my rankings even more, and turn over more search engine clients.

I've told you about my marketing efforts, but in case you're not faithfully reading this blog, you may check the posts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

The simple fact is, I spend less than $150.00 per year on marketing for my law practice, and I attribute 3 things to my successful marketing:

1. Actively blogging about important subjects - I believe that part of the task and success in raising your name to a ranking position on page 1 (this is important too) is constantly update your content with relevant subject materials. The search engine spiders go after fresh stuff.
2. Google Places - if you're not listed on the Google map, you're missing out on a free and effective marketing opportunity. Pick your core demographics (geographically and topical), and key in on those in your blogging/website.
3. Headway Wordpress Theme - while Headway takes some getting used to, it's a fairly simple program to use and create a website with. Wordpress is a phenomenal platform, so you can't beat the combination. Headway has great SEO options, which help get your name/content into the digital world.

Like I've said before, I'm not a marketing genius, nor do I claim to know the ins/outs of marketing. What I do know though is that these three things are the only things I'm doing different from the colleagues in my office. This is the stuff that's producing my results.

Why You Should Personally Control Your Marketing

Many attorneys like to leave their marketing schemes to junior associates or other "media" interns. There's one attorney in my office who's even letting his legal assistant design the site without any input from him. He's taking a "hands off" approach, while the assistant handles the media marketing. In fact, he's so interested in distancing himself from the website design process, that he tunes out all criticism and other input.

The truth is, this is the worst approach to managing your media image. If you want your firm to be at the forefront of people's thoughts, you need to be at the forefront of your media campaign too. You wouldn't let a legal assistant schmooze referral sources, would you? Then why do you permit them to schmooze the potential clients?

I'm certainly not saying that you need to handle every microcosm of your media design. Certainly, at some point it's more efficient for you to handle legal work, while your assistant composes the "About Me" page of your website. The key is, you need to approve every element of the content going into your media campaign.

Your marketing should have your cohesive style to encourage continuity and consistency. Your image is your image. Keep it to yourself, because nobody cares more about you, than you.

If you'd like some suggestions on managing your media, please shoot me an email. I've written several posts on some of the tools I use, so take a minute to search the site.

Referral Marketing

Marketing is one of those things I'm not really good at. Well, I shouldn't say that; I try, but I come up short sometimes. Sure, I'm blogging, I'm seeking referrals, I'm trying to market my practice, but sometimes, all that stuff is tough.

That's why this post by Tom Kane was such a great thing. Tom gives some short, simple, and fantastic advice on how & why you should market to referral sources. His synopsis gives 8 quick and simple ideas for ways to market to your referral sources.

I suggest you spend a few minutes reading the post, and the accompanying document written by Trey Ryder.

Getting Your Name Out

One of the things I haven't been particularly diligent at is face-to-face networking. The truth is, I'm not really good at meeting people and carrying on with small talk. My problem is that I have a difficult time striking up a conversation with people. My initial concern is, "what do I talk about?"

I have a colleague who is excellent at making "small talk." We went to lunch at the mall because he needed some some sunglasses. We went into one of the high-end sunglasses shops, and my colleague immediately struck up a conversation with the sales clerk about a medical procedure she had performed. This was a random and innocuous discussion, but not likely to happen without my friend's initiation.

The discussion gave him an opportunity to pass his business card with a reference for a medical specialist she might consider consulting.

The point he emphasized to me that moment was that the content of your discussions aren't as important as the benefits or memories they produce. My colleague will hopefully have a client for life, or at least one positive contact, which otherwise wouldn't have existed.

A lot of "marketing experts" will try and push blogging or your website as the keys to growing and developing your business. While these are effective tools in developing your expert persona, they're only part of the solution.

People seek assistance from you because they know you're an expert (blogging and other marketing), and because they like and trust you to take care of their problems. Human interaction is the only way to develop lasting trust, and a long-term relationship, with clients and potential clients.

My challenge for you is to find one opportunity each day this week where you can give (physically hand) someone your business card. I'm going to work on with you on this "guerrilla marketing" task.

Domains

A lot of my recent articles have focused on marketing your law firm. As I've admitted, I'm not a marketing expert, I've just seen what works, and what isn't. One thing I don't think works is "generic" email addresses.

I can't remember where I saw the comment, but it went something like this:

You'll know the quality of your lawyer by the quality of his email address.

There's truth in that. Although I know plenty of good lawyer with generic addresses, I believe people expect lawyers to fork over the money to register their own domain address and website. I think it shows people you care about your professional image. Moreover, if you've worked on developing your marketing scheme, your email address is a crucial component in that scheme.

The same goes for law firm blogs, websites, and other online marketing materials. I'd recommend against using free services like Blogger and Wordpress.com (not the platform). Pay the little money each year, get yourself your space.