Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal editor, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, marketing consultant, legal consultant, business development

At LexisNexis' 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^®) set the tone for the session by walking attendees through some important demographic changes underway in the legal profession.

Here is a video clip from the panel discussion:

According to Great Jakes web marketing, most traffic on a law firm website goes right to lawyer bios (see the chart). This is exactly where marketing-savvy lawyers want it to go. So, why are they neglected?

The reason is deep in the attorney psyche, according to marketing consultant Amy Knapp. "Attorneys are slow to accept the real way that clients make hiring decisions. The person whom the client (1) Knows, (2) Likes and (3) Trusts, in that order, gets the job. So why wouldn’t the purpose of a bio be to make one known, likable and trustworthy?" she says.

Before I tell what works, here's what does not get new clients:

• Old articles (over 3 years) and anything you wrote in law school.
• Neglect: a bio that is out of date.
• Text that goes on and on (and the opposite: one content-free paragraph).
• No picture.
• Bios that start out with where you were born or went to school.
• No links to your speeches and articles.

Elements of a bio that do generate new business are:

• Peer reviews and recommendations from other lawyers.
• Client reviews and testimonials.
• Case histories of results obtained for clients.
• Text describing how you work with clients.
• A recent color picture. See How to Pick a Good Picture of Yourself.

Here's a great example:

Read "Turning Your Bio into a Magnet for Business," a short article I wrote about how you can create your own personal brand.

Did you know that advertising, unsolicited newsletters and the legal press are irrelevant in getting legal work from a medium sized business? 

However, there are several sure-fire ways to reach decision-makers at these companies, and we'll discuss them during our Webinar next Thursday June 9, "Winning Legal Business from Mid-Cap Companies."

Our featured guest is Silvia Hodges, Ph.D. Professor of Marketing and Management at Fordham Law School. She spent 4 years studying how mid-sized companies find and select law firms and just published a book on the topic: Winning legal Business from Medium-Sized Companies.

In the webinar, I will interview her on how to communicate, market and sell to these excellent, paying clients. 

But medium-sized companies are different -- they don't have an internal legal department and typically lack legal expertise. They don't issue RFPs and will consider one or two law firms before making a choice. Often the CEO or the HR director will search for and choose the company law firm - not the purchasing or procurement department.

Among the topics Dr. Hodges will cover are:

• The unique two-stage process that mid-size companies use to find a law firm and then select a lawyer.
• Why many standard types of marketing - like branding and advertising - are a waste of money to reach mid-size companies.
• The communications, marketing and selling techniques that are proven to work to reach the CEO or company executive who makes the hiring decision. A tip: they don't have to justify their decision so being a brand-name firm doesn't matter.
• How to position yourself as a lawyer so that mid-cap companies will find you.
• How modern Internet applications like blogs, Facebook and Twitter have become important. 85% of executives consider law firm websites important sources of information in their search for lawyers.

Please see the description of Winning Legal Business from Mid-Cap Companies to find out more.
MORE INFO: Program Director Laura Kresich; (Tel) (773) 966-9273 or Lkresich@LawMarketing.com
WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/ilfrRh

Dorsey & Whitney, with more than 600 lawyers in 19 locations in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific region, just hired ten new partners.

At first I wondered why this was worth the effort of writing a press release.  Sending out new associate and new partner announcements is one of the routine chores of law firm marketing professionals. When I was an in-house marketer, I considered part of the scut work that came this the job.

Now I think differently. I was listening to an in-house corporate lawyer talk about the reasons that his company hires its law firms. He said, "we like to retain law firms that are hiring," he said. "It means that they a solid operation and in sound financial condition."

It turns out that telling the world that you're hiring is very effective law firm marketing.  To see some examples of my favorite announcements, please go to:

The Best Lateral Partner Announcement, Ever

A Law Firm Announcement that Clients Will Actually Read

Tydings & Rosenberg Announcement Hits the Mark