Risk and Practice Management
Marketing
Manager of First and Lasting Impressions
Most lawyers are very concerned with their reputation in the community as lawyers. Yet they often give little time or thought to the person most involved with the public perception of their law firm on a day-to-day basis. The receptionist is the person who makes the initial contact with almost everyone seeking to do business with you. The receptionist can make a big difference in everything from losing a client to the initiation of a professional responsibility complaint. Yet often the receptionist is the most underpaid, unappreciated and under-trained person in the office. Make sure that those answering the phone and/or stationed in the reception area are competent, confidential and friendly and attentive to callers.
Making your business card your best marketing tool
Capture Contacts Quicker
“Copy2Contact” is a great little utility that helps you quickly capture contact information from email and documents and add the information to Microsoft Outlook or your smartphone with just a few keystrokes. Best of all, it drops the information into the correct fields both, saving you time and aggravation.
Get Your Own Domain Name
With the low cost of domain names and hosting space these days, you can’t afford not to take the plunge. Also, if you don’t have your own domain name, your site isn’t portable.
Optimize Your Website
Build for Google. Google holds a staggering majority of the market. Let the chips fall where they may for the other search engines. Google is the place to be. Remember what they rank highest – in general, your domain name, then the title of your site, your sub-headings, and the text on the home page, with hyperlinked items ranked higher. Make sure there are “alt” tags (text tags which name each graphic). Google’s algorithms are held more tightly than most classified data, and they change frequently, so it’s
important to review your website for optimization. Do not believe those salespersons who pitch you that your site can be made #1. If your site content is deep and broad, you’ll show well in the rankings.
Brand yourself in Your Signature
Studies have shown that having your professional-looking signature appear at the end of every email is well received by clients and prospective clients this should also have a confidential. Now, with every email, they have some of the things they need most – your name, your firm name, your address, your phone number, your email address and your website (both as a hyperlink of course). Make it easier to reach you in all these media. Include a confidentiality/ privilege notice in your signature such as:
This email and any attachments are confidential and they may contain privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately by return email, delete this email and destroy any copies. Any dissemination or use of this information by a person other than the intended recipient is unauthorized and may be illegal.
Create a "Thank You" File
In it should go the letters from satisfied clients, the replies from speaking engagements, the minor league support letter-anything that demonstrates that you are making a positive difference in someone's life. What gets measured gets done. Start measuring the impact that you are having on the world.
Market to Existing Clients
Increase your business by hosting an informational seminar for each of your business clients. Ask each business client to present a seminar to your firm about what is going on in the client's profession or industry, as well as the specific business issues and changes presently facing the client. Coordinate with the client to invite their accountant, banker, and other professionals. After the presentation, hold an open discussion to identify possible legal needs and ascertain possible solutions. In the end, you will have a better understanding of your client needs, an improved lawyer-client relationship, and maybe some new business from your client as well as the other professionals at the seminar.