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Today's article is by guest author, Kristine Vincencio.

Changing demographics are posing new challenges to lawyers when marketing their services. Jefferies Solicitors looked at the latest trends - and where they may be leading for the future.

The legal landscape is changing, and in the 21st century you are increasingly likely to see non-standard family models and individuals whose priorities and personal timescales differ from 'traditional' expectations.

A recent Datamonitor Consumer report sums up some of the most significant factors influencing consumer goods companies at present - and many of the same observations could apply equally to the marketing of legal services to the demographic group known as 'millennials.'

Trendsights: Situational Complexity, Datamonitor notes that many people no longer have the kinds of 'prescribed checkpoints' that would once have applied to almost everybody's personal life journey.

Rather, some people are more likely to delay getting married and having children, and instead choose to co-habit (for longer)- before marriage; in particular, lesbian, gay and transgender couples are becoming much more widely accepted within society, and represent specifically 'non-standard' households for obvious reasons.

All of this means that providers of legal services need to be able to cater for the demands of clients, no matter what their unique circumstances might be. Marketing services as such could be an important step towards gaining market share from customers in non-traditional situations.

Age is on the Increase

First, you should be prepared to deal with an ageing client base, not only in general terms, but also in the context of specific services that have traditionally been provided to people of a certain age.

Many people are marrying later in life, for instance, which may mean they have more assets and savings, increasing the potential to market prenuptial agreements to these couples; there may be a greater age gap between the parties involved as well, creating an imbalance in terms of who holds the greater personal wealth.

Datamonitor reports that almost a third of 25 to 34-year-olds worldwide currently live with their parents; this makes them more likely to have a larger disposable income, but also means a greater number of older adults will be buying their first homes in the years to come - meaning conveyancing services for first-time buyers should not only be aimed at those in their early 20s.

With more people having children later in life, and retirement ages also on the increase, it is essential that you appreciate how ageing within your client base translates into a need for properly targeted sales messages, to avoid alienating mature clients by treating them as though they are 'young.’

Closing the Gender Divide  

Datamonitor's findings also hint at how the gender divide is perhaps not closing, but is becoming blurred by shifting roles and family structures.

"The blurring of traditional gender roles has important implications for how products are positioned and to whom they are targeted," the analyst warns.

In addition to the obvious implications for traditional family units - in which the woman may now be the main breadwinner, and the man the primary caregiver at home - LGBT families are now enjoying greater freedom and acceptance in society as a whole.

You may wish to reassess your range of services to ensure you are not neglecting these non-standard family units, particularly including same-sex couples who have children through adoption or surrogacy, and in light of new laws on same-sex marriage in some countries of the world.

The years to come are likely to see even less predictability in individuals' personal timelines and life goals, along with an even greater prevalence of non-standard and non-traditional households.

In order to be positioned for maximum success, you need to remain vigilant to changing demographics within your client base - and pragmatic about how you cater for those new societal groups, even in the absence of clear legal precedents.

Anne Kristine writes about her experiences in law at Jefferies Solicitors, a legal services company based in Essex.

The 2013 ABA Technology Survey reveals the use of social media by attorneys continues to grow, but only at a very modest rate.

• 27% of US law firms now have blogs, up from 22% last year, 15% in 2011, and 14% in 2010. Only 9% of lawyers maintain a personal, professional blog outside the firm. Solo attorneys are the most likely to have a professional blog, as are those between the ages of 40-49.
• 59% of those surveyed indicated their firms maintain a presence in a social network such as LinkedIn or Facebook, up from 55% last year, 42% in 2011, and 17% in 2010. Of those firms with a presence, the breakout of channels can be seen in the chart below. LinkedIn and Facebook are the most used, but legal-vertical network use remains low.
• Individually, 81% of attorneys report using social networks for professional purposes, up from 78% last year, 65% in 2011, and 56% in 2010. LinkedIn usage is nearly universal (98%), with Facebook usage actually falling from 38% in 2012 to 33% this year.
• 19% of law firms now use Twitter, up from 13% in 2012. Individual Twitter usage by attorneys reached 14%, up from 11% last year. Twitter usage is more common in solo and small firms.

How effective is maintaining a presence in social media? When those utilizing any type of social media/networking were asked if they ever had a client retain their legal services directly or via referral as a result of their use, 19% indicated “yes” (compared to 17% last year and 12% in 2011). Solo and small law firms reported better results than larger firms.

See Volume IV: Web & Communications Technology of the 2013 ABA Technology Survey for more details.

Dee Latham, Senior Copywriter at LexisNexis, hit it spot on with this blog post about the importance of mobile websites.

Veruca Salt. Do you remember that name? She was a character from the classically delicious movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She uttered the famous line, "I want it and I want it NOW!"Never mind that she was a spoiled child and met with a highly unlikely and untimely death of drowning-by-chocolate.

But she had the right idea. If Willy Wonka had a mobile website, imagine the mayhem. Instant gratification rules, especially in the age of smartphones — if any Web search takes longer than three seconds, that is two seconds way too long. What is the human instinct in this case? We move on to the next, best thing.

Take your firm's website. If prospects are searching for a lawyer on their smartphones, will they be able to find you? If they do find your site, it needs to draw them in, not push them away. Small, hard-to-use navigation, broken or missing graphics, or no clear way to contact you are some of the negatives of an incorrectly rendered mobile version of your website. Forty percent of consumers will visit a competitor's site after a bad mobile experience.1

Take a look at your website right now on your smartphone. How does it look? It may need to be optimized in order to help you convert mobile site visitors into leads. By maximizing your online visibility in this way, you expand your firm's mobile footprint with improved search engine rankings. A Martindale-Hubbell® Mobile Website is also a way to sync your traditional and mobile site content, so you can focus on your practice instead of making changes to both properties. You may be missing an entire audience if your website looks incomprehensible and cluttered on a mobile phone.

Have you seen any law firm mobile websites that make the cut?

If you would like to learn more about how a mobile website can attract more potential clients who are looking for legal help, give us a call at 866-799-3717, or contact a LexisNexis Law Firm Marketing Specialist.

And in the long run, a mobile website is a lot healthier than a piece of chocolate.

Read this post at its source here.

1Gomez, 2009 

Hat tip from The Rainmaker Blog: Twitter has released the results of a survey conducted by global research firm Market Probe International on how small businesses can benefit from having a presence on Twitter. Adults who currently follow small businesses on Twitter are much more likely to make a purchase from them as well as recommend them to others.

Followers also have an emotional connection with the businesses they follow, and use Twitter as a way to provide their feedback and share information. This infographic from Twitter details the key takeaways from the survey:

More people are online than ever before and they are looking up lawyers using their mobile phones and tablets. If you haven't optimized your website for mobile devices, you are missing a lot of new business.

Smartphones have been outselling PCs since the end of 20101 and tablets (like iPads) will start outselling PCs in 2015.2 Mobile Internet users have grown over 30 percent in one year to about 1.5 billion users worldwide.3

When you realize that 21 percent of consumers use smartphones to search for an attorney (according to "Attorney Selection Research Study," The Research Intelligence Group, March 2012) you can see it's time to capture this new business.

Mobile websites are very different from PC websites — your mobile content should be action-oriented, and focus on issues that arise when a person's primary access to the Internet is a smartphone, not a PC. A great example is being stopped for a DUI, where a consumer needs an answer instantly.  

Here are other scenarios where you'll want a mobile website:

• A lawyer's name is given to a client as the best person to handle a matter. The client goes to your website on his iPhone to validate the lawyer's credentials. Your mobile website or profile on a legal directory should highlight your attorney profile, the firm's practice areas and your expertise (e.g., your blog).
• A lawyer is at a conference and meets a prospective client. The lawyer mentions an alert the firm issued and is able to display it instantly. Your mobile website or profile on a legal directory should highlight your alerts, publications and news.
• A client is going to a meeting at the firm and needs directions. The client can't recall the address. Your mobile website or profile on a legal directory should highlight your offices, maps and directions.

Think of how often you check your own cell phone when you are looking to buy something or hire someone — and you'll be convinced. LexisNexis has experts at creating mobile websites. Call 866-799-3717 today or click for a free website evaluation.

1 IDC, "Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker," February 2011.
2, graph IDC, "Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker," May 2013.
3 Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, "Internet Trends 2013," May 2013.

Sara Derakhshanian, a Lexis-Nexis law marketing specialist, explains how the television show "Shark Tank" can help attorneys whose practices focus on patents, trademarks, etc.

Nearly 5 million people tuned in to watch "Shark Tank" last season, where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to potential investors. Television commercials frequently appear, reminding inventors that they can file patents and (maybe) make a lot of money, just like that guy who came up with that idea for that thing that a big company bought.

This type of publicity offers fresh opportunities for attorneys whose legal practices don't usually scream "television" or "high-profile." However, attorneys who focus on patents, business formations, LLCs, copyrights, trademarks, intellectual property and other fairly technical areas have a terrific opportunity to jump on these trends and grow their client base.

For example, Glenn Peterson, an attorney who specializes in trademark cases, comments online about intellectual property controversies, such as an infringement case regarding the “I-heart-NY” logo has caught the attention of the legal world. When not representing clients, Peterson writes industry articles and provides media commentary—and is frequently featured in print, on line and on the air. When not representing clients, Peterson writes industry articles and provides media commentary—and is frequently featured in print, on line and on the air.

In order to capitalize on this new awareness, attorneys should tackle a two-prong approach. One is business-to-business, the other is raising awareness among consumers who may become potential clients. For busy attorneys, homing in on social media and their websites often represent the best investment of their time and resources.

Business-to-Business Referrals

While offline relationships are still important, connecting online is one way to increase your network and put yourself top of mind when colleagues have clients who need the services you offer.

Join professional groups on LinkedIn and participate in forums that relate to your practice area. Become or stay active with colleagues and groups on Facebook and other platforms.

When you meet colleagues, follow up and invite them to connect via social media, which will expand your presence online.

Reach Out to Consumers Directly

When targeting potential clients, many of the same general ideas apply. Only the context and focus may be a little different.

For example, social media activities geared towards your peers can be tweaked for the general public. Be sure to spend some time on your Facebook page, where consumers are likely to find you. Think about starting a blog, or blogging more regularly. Your website should also be well designed, inviting and easy to find.

Consider the value of taking part in online advice forums, where you can answer specific questions (my colleagues Amy Kovar and Donald Rohan have written some excellent advice about this).

Business lawyers have the chance to jump in on some exciting opportunities and take advantage of public awareness about these to promote their services. Don't miss your chance! To learn more about improving your social media presence and website, call 866-799-3717 or contact a LexisNexis Law Firm Marketing Specialist.

Read the article at the original source here.

Amanda Green has provided us with another great post.  This time, we learn tips for using email to market your law firm.

Along with several apps designed to market your law firm, email marketing can be another weapon in your arsenal. The advantage to email marketing is that it is a quick, inexpensive, and almost instantaneous way to get the word out about your firm. The major disadvantage is that it is easy to abuse, and it is difficult to create a message that draws potential clients to your door.

There are several tips and tricks that can make your email marketing campaigns successful.

1. Do Not Spam

It’s tempting to pull a list of addresses and send your email cold; after all, vendors have been doing this via snail mail for years. However, where a simple post card, or mailbox flyer, might not cause much of a stink, people are more protective of their email inbox. At best, your recipient will delete and ignore your message. At worst, he will report the message to your mail provider as spam. One report might not cause problems, but if you get multiple reports, your provider could suspend your mail account.

If you need to add to your address list, consider using a more conventional advertising method – like a banner ad on a website, or even a flyer, that directs potential clients to a site where they can sign up to receive information via email. If you have to purchase a mailing list, make sure your provider can verify that all the recipients have opted in to receive information from “third party vendors with similar products".

2. Notify your ISP

Even if you are using a legitimate list, or are contacting people who have specifically expressed interest in receiving emails, if your ISP notices a lot of bulk mail activity, they could still shut you down. Notify them in advance, and provide proof that you are sending legitimate bulk mail, and you can avoid any interruptions to your email account.

3. Consider an Email Service

Email services provide templates and tools to help you create the most effective email campaigns. These services also manage your address book by removing people who decide to opt out of the email, and adding people who decide to opt in. You can even schedule mailings, such as newsletters, to go out at regular intervals.

4. Verify Contact Information

The only thing worse than having most of your emails returned with delivery errors for invalid addresses, is discovering that the message reached its target and you have misspelled her name, or gotten other information wrong. If you are using a database to send a form letter, take some time once a month to make sure the database is up-to-date. The last thing you want to do is greet a client and his wife, in your message, and discover that his wife passed away months ago.

5. Use Professional Language

I’m not talking about avoiding profanity, although that is important too, but rather using formal language (including spelling, grammar, and syntax) when you address potential customers. You don’t have to sound like an English butler, but you should avoid using terms of art or jargon, as well as multiple exclamation points for emphasis or text speak.

6. Communicate Regularly… but Not Too Much

One of the biggest pitfalls of email marketing is figuring out how often you should reach out to your subscribers, without blowing up their inboxes. Communicate too little, and they might forget that you exist. Communicate too much, and they could opt out just to stop the madness.

Consider sending out an email newsletter once a month, or even quarterly, to keep your subscribers aware of what’s going on with your business, with smaller emails no more than once a week for major announcements.

7. Take a Break During the Holidays

It might seem like a good idea to send your subscribers holiday greetings, especially around Christmas time, but they are more likely to get lost in the shuffle. Instead, consider sending out a themed email before the holiday season, that addresses major legal issues that tend occur during that time.

For example in early November, before the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza season, send out an email with information on personal injury (to tie into the Black Friday madness), deep-fryer safety, or DUIs. Then take a break for the rest of the season, and resume in January.

Before the summer holidays, send a message out before Memorial Day that covers all that holiday, and Independence Day, with information on laws about fireworks, neighbor disputes, or motorcycle safety. Then take a break until just before Labor Day, when you can issue a newsletter about back-to-school issues, and more DUI information.

8. Link Newsletter Content to your Blog

Rather than send your subscribers a long, email with full-length stories, include just the headline and one paragraph of text, with a link to read the remainder of the story at your website. This will not only drive traffic back to your site, where they can browse for more information, it will reduce the file size of the email.

9. Use Media…Sparingly

Embedded YouTube videos and sound files can really help your marketing efforts, or they can annoy and alienate your subscribers. When using embedded audio and video, avoid using auto-play; instead, let the recipient click the file at his leisure. Another option is to provide a link, back to your firm’s website, where the recipient can view the video and also browse other content.

10. Make Subscription Process User-Friendly

Provide clear information, and links for opting out or changing one’s email address. Have a receipt system in place that confirms the recipient has made changes to his subscription, and approximately how long it will take for the changes to take effect. Making it easy to change one’s delivery preferences goes a long way toward fostering trust. 

Amanda is an online writer who is always looking for new topics and places to write. She normally writes about business, personal finance, and marketing for sites across the web including paidtwice.com. When Amanda is not working on a business post she is usually writing about pets or being eco-friendly, two of her favorite subjects!"

 A press release dated August 8, 2013:

Atlanta –  The show must go on.  For seven years, attorneys at FordHarrison have amused and enlightened weekly readers of their employment blog, “That’s What She Said,” through recaps of NBC’s The Office.  While the series finale of The Office marked an end to “That’s What She Said,” FordHarrison is adopting the entertainment-industry maxim and launching “EntertainHR.”

Like any smart Hollywood executive, in designing “EntertainHR” the FordHarrison team has borrowed shamelessly from the winning formula that made “That’s What She Said” appointment reading for thousands of HR and business professionals each week, and a perennial member of the ABA Law Journal’s Blawg 100, a list of the 100-best legal blogs.  Just as “That’s What She Said” analyzed the labor and employment issues raised by the antics of the Dunder Mifflin staff, “EntertainHR” will do so on a larger scale.  The blog will offer a lighthearted but informative look across the landscape of television, movies, and celebrity culture from an employment-law perspective.

Should Arrested Development’s Michael Bluth have taken more precautions in selling shares of the family business?  What are the Family and Medical Leave Act issues surrounding Robin Roberts’s absence from Good Morning America?  And what are the best ways to handle a worker directing Charlie-Sheen levels of public rage at their employer?

Questions like these will be the stuff of “EntertainHR,” a fun read for HR professionals and employers who can indulge their taste for entertainment news and gossip while absorbing important professional insights.

“EntertainHR” can be found at http://blogs.hrhero.com/entertainhr/. New postings appear weekly beginning July 8, 2013.

About FordHarrison LLP

FordHarrison is a U.S. labor & employment law firm with more than 200 attorneys in 25 offices, including five affiliate firms. The firm is committed to providing clients with the "right response at the right time" in managing their workforce. FordHarrison attorneys represent employers in labor, employment, immigration and employee benefits matters, including litigation. Through its membership in the global employment law firm alliance, Ius Laboris, FordHarrison provides clients that have multinational operations with a broad range of services related to labor and employment law in 43 countries throughout the world. For more information on FordHarrison, visit fordharrison.com. To learn more about Ius Laboris, visit iuslaboris.com.

Joe Fuzak

This just in:

ALL-STATE LEGAL, a leader in engraving and printing, has acquired Vizibility, the company behind the popular vizCard mobile business card platform for professionals.

"As the nation's premier engraver and printer for professional services firms, we see business cards as the first form of mobile marketing," said Joe Fuzak, President of ALL-STATE LEGAL. "But with sales of smartphones outselling PCs by 2-to-1, it is time to marry print and pixels. This is an example of how ALL-STATE LEGAL is redefining the traditional business card.

Not only can a small QR code be printed on either side of the card, customers will also get a unique URL to embed in email signatures, text messages and other online sites that will bring up their digital business cards on any device. "Vizibility is a personalized mobile business card, or vizCard, which can be easily shared.

James Alexander

Vizibility's founder and Division President James Alexander describes the hosted service as, "the third side of the business card. Vizibility is an engaging, mobile identity management solution that makes it a snap to download vCards, view common LinkedIn connections, set up appointments and share hand-picked profiles, videos and other online content right from the printed business card. We can even connect all of your professionals' mobile business cards into a mobile directory which helps to instantly validate the deep expertise of your people and your firm."

Vizibility is fully integrated into ALL-STATE LEGAL's online print portal providing customers with a smooth, unified process to dynamically create and update mobile business cards and choose to add QR codes to their business card templates. This seamless solution eliminates duplication of effort and delivers a low cost of ownership.

Vizibility mobile business cards are now available in two simple options: the vizCard and vizCard Pro. A bundle of unlimited vizCards, called a vizCard Pack, is available for $999 per year and includes a custom logo, vCard downloading (works even on the iPhone), CardFollow™ for vCard updates, a powerful mobile directory connecting a firm's vizCards and an online dashboard for easy administration.

The vizCard Pro is $79 per year per user and includes everything in the vizCard plus CommonConnections™ to LinkedIn, unlimited links to online content, full metrics on scans, and the patented "Google Me" button with search results monitoring. For $499 per year, both the vizCard and vizCard Pro accounts can upgrade to include robust enterprise-class features such as a custom domain name, a direct URL to the Mobile Directory, auto-redirect of mobile business cards for former employees, telephone support and more.To learn more about traditional printed and mobile business cards, visit www.aslegal.com/vizibility.

About ALL-STATE LEGAL
Since 1946, ALL-STATE LEGAL (http://www.aslegal.com) has been dedicated to helping law firms and other professional service firms manage and grow their businesses through an extensive array of award-winning engraving and printing services for brand management, stationery, and marketing materials. An employee-owned company, ASL is committed to developing environmentally friendly products and services that make it easier to run law offices and consistently communicate a unique brand to enhance business development efforts.

About Vizibility LLC
Vizibility LLC (http://www.vizibility.com), a division of ALL-STATE, delivers the first enterprise class identity management and engagement platform for mobile. Vizibility's highly acclaimed vizCard addresses today's reality that the first impression a company or individual makes is often online, and in many cases on a mobile device. Vizibility enables people to package and share their online presence to make powerful, accurate and lasting impression. ALL-STATE customers enjoy a bottomless box of business cards so they never running out of cards again. U.S. Patents 7,831,609, 7,987,173, 8,095,534, 8,271,650, 8,275,837, 8,280,879 and 8,290,941. Other patents pending.