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From time to time Law Firm Coach invites people who have a high level knowledge of management and marketing for law firms to write a guest blog. There is no exchange of monies or gifts between us and the author but rather our way of letting you hear from really good people who do their job with the same value and mindset that our parent company, Catalyst Group, Inc., sets as its standard. Enjoy!

The thought of putting a baseball field in the middle of nowhere and having fans come, like in the movie Field of Dreams, is like it used to be with websites. Everyone was rushing to put their "brochure" online in the form of an informational website on the Internet. Fear of not having a site was palpable. New businesses popped up overnight and got rich creating sites for business owners who did not have the time or skills to do the work themselves.

It seems that with every new technology there is a groundswell of excitement--a feeling that we must do something because every other business is doing it. A few years ago, your competitors created a website so you had to have one; now they have a blog or are using social media, so you feel you must do it, too. Having an online presence or starting a blog is not enough. Just because you create a pretty website or blog does not mean that clients will come to it. Prospects must be able to find your site and it must provide value.

Technology has changed, making it easier to have an effective Internet presence. Many tools (some of them free) exist to measure and analyze results. And new advertising channels exist that have in most cases dramatically reduced the overall cost of marketing your firm. Today's websites offer online chat features, intake forms and capture prospect information to be used for future marketing--these platforms are tools. Beware 'cheap' solutions, as back end add-ons and upgrades may end up costing you far more than a well planned, expandable platform.

But it's not just the technology that has changed; the entire customer interaction has changed, too. What used to be a "push" format--a one sided message to the prospect--has, based on consumer demand, turned into a two-way conversation. This more interactive process has taken the most successful websites from static, seldom updated pages, to robust platforms that are constantly changing to provide value to customers and prospects and allow that conversation to take place. This new reality is frequently referred to as Web 2.0.

The Web is a tool and should be looked upon as an ongoing investment to promote and showcase your firm and capture leads. A 2009 Pew research study states that 81% of people research products on the web. Indeed, through common usage, "Google" (the most commonly used search engine) has become a verb--talk about great branding! Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising and social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) are all tools that when used effectively can drive prospects to your site. These tools require frequent attention and updates. Back-end marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) help round out the web tool arsenal to ignite results.

If you build it, will they come? Yes--as long as you remember that while the technology has changed, the basics of marketing have stayed the same: build your brand to uniquely represent you and be consistent, stay on-message, and use the available web tools to deliver relevant, valuable and vibrant content to customers and prospects.

Jeanne Frazer is president of vitalink®, a creative + strategic marketing think tank, and VLegal, a new division of vitalink developed to meet the needs of today's lawyer. Jeanne may be reached at jeanne@vitalinkweb.com or 919.850.0605.

When I work with law firms, the first thing I do is insist that the law firm owner refer every phone call from vendors and marketers to me. The reason I do this is because I deal with this on a day to day basis and see a bigger picture for the law firm. The law firm owner is looking day to day and what a vendor or a marketer says makes sense, gets the enthusiasm going, and suddenly a small check here or there or a purchase without thought is made. When I get a hold of the calls first I make the caller prove to me the validity of their approach based upon the vision of the firm and the direction of the marketing budget.

You can't do this until you make yourself set down and write out a budget that starts first with what you can afford, then add to it what you are willing to invest out of your net profits over the next year, and finally what will give you the highest return on your investment.

One of my very favorite lawyers constantly tells me "well it is only $150" or "it is free for the first 2 months". If he had the $150 or he had the time to get it up and running then I want to put it where we planned for it in moments of clarity.

You are coming to the end of the year and by November 1st you should have your firm budget for 2010 in place and approved. More importantly you should have out of this budget your marketing budget. This includes very dollar planned from yellow pages to direct mail to any item that you believe will deliver you more clients at the most reasonable cost.

Do you know what the cost of each case you get in the door? If your marketing budget is $50,000.00, and you generate 50 cases then the case cost you $1000.00 just to march it in the door. Let's say that your average fee is $5000.00. Take out the marketing cost ($1000), deduct your over-head (say 50%), and your net profit is $2000.00. That may or may not be a good deal for you. I have one firm I know that has their marketing cost per case down to $525.00. Now that is someone who understands "what it means to be 'for profit'".

If you preach client service, you appreciate client service. This cup of cheer spreads more good will and drives more name recognition and new cases than any trick I know. Buy in bulk coffee cups with firm name, colors and logo. Make a contract with the florist that handles your firm business. Ask them to put into the cup the current flowers of the month (this saves florist money to use low cost flowers). Print a card with your firm name, logo, tagline.

The hand write the following:
"We believe in extraordinary client service. Thus we appreciate when we see good service from others. You helped one of our firm members in your job and you gave extraordinary service. Good job!" and have partner sign. Someone deliver from the firm if possible.

Who do you give to? Choose one person a month from nominations within the firm of someone who truly gave client service at the grocery store, drug store, medical office. Get their name off their badge or however.

I can promise you that when that cup is delivered to the person you will see (1) the employee be over-whelmed and tell the entire office or store; (2) her boss also be impressed and applaud the employee; and (3) everyone who hears about it will know your firm practices what it preaches!

Cost: $10.00

I am going to speak at a forthcoming NCBA seminar on branding yourself and it has caused me to think about how many lawyers think about their best marketing feature, themselves. I believe lawyers traditionally don't like to talk about themselves or let people know what they do. It is not uncommon for me to be at an event of some sort, recognize a lawyer I know, and when I mention it to someone else who also knows the person, they never knew they were a lawyer.

While I don't advocate running out into a crowded room and shouting "LAWYER" (this too is protected by the Constitution), I do recommend making sure that every organization you are in, any event you attend, (including school events by the way), and any other place you meet people you learn to work into a conversation what you do. You can do it by telling a funny story or get into it why you became a lawyer. There is an art to conversation but not a difficult one to learn.

How are you ever going to generate your own client base if you don't let people know what you do? So your challenge this week for a free marketing exercise simply is to find one person you know that doesn't know what you do and make sure they do. If people like you they will send you clients, trust me! And that is as free as it gets.

Oh by the way, I have a policy. I don't do lawyer jokes! I don't allow lawyer bashing! And I have found people respect you when you stand up for what is truly a noble profession. So as you tell people what you do, establish a pride factor as well. It works every time.

I believe that the truly successful, satisfied lawyers are those who give back some of what they take from this world, their community and their neighborhood. The best role model a lawyer can be is to teach that to others. And I believe that you friends, neighbors, and community watch what you do. And if you do it right they flock to your door.

I find lawyers stretch themselves so thin because of many charitable commmitments or service organizations they belong to until there is simply not enough time to make it all happen and then what they contribute looks insincere or not complete.

Lets others help you to help others. Provide each staff person with 3 hours per month to do charitable acts of kindness. Let each staff person make a recommendation how they wish to commit their time. (Make sure it is truly a charitable organization or concept). Set the schedule. Have the staff come back and let everyone know what they were doing. And let your staff know that they are part of someone else's efforts because you need to have them pick up the slack while the person is out. Trust me you will not miss three hours of staff time per month. And what you will gain is teaching others to help others.

And if you want to really make your firm feel good, build a wall of charitable acts of kindness by putting the hours each year and the organization your firm contributed to. It makes everyone feel proud.

Of all the tips I offer that are low cost or no cost marketing, this is the one that is free and generates the most return on your investment of time. Simply put, learn to stage your client service within your law firm.

Staging client service means setting the props from the answering of the phone to the look of the office to the presence of the employees. All of this is designed to have the client make an instant and positive impression of your firm. Nothing else generates more client referrals than the right stage setting. Here are some long time tools I have used in setting up client service based firms.

1. The Front Desk person is your most important tool for client marketing. The number one attribute for this person is people skills. Don't load them down with task after task that makes answering the phone or greeting clients with enthusiasm impossible. Praise and reward them for making your clients feel welcome. Anything less kills the new client right from the start.
2. Stage your lobby area to be client friendly and the Front Desk person as the host. Let the Front Desk person's job be to welcome them into the law firm home by offering them beverages and chatting with them. Your lobby area should be bright, clean and offer up reading materials. Showcase your accomplishments on the walls. Put your best foot forward. First impressions count.
3. Teach all employees they never enter the lobby without greeting anyone waiting there. A simple smile and 'good morning' works every time. One of my pet peeves is to wait in the lobby of a law firm and hear staff (including lawyers) talking about personal things at the Front Desk. The Front Desk is not the social center of the law firm. Make it a rule!
4. Always greet your client yourself. Sending someone out to bring the client back immediately makes the initial meeting about ego. The same holds true for escorting them up front when finished. Make the client feel a part of the law firm by introducing them to staff or lawyers as you pass by them. This makes the client feel important.
5. No interruptions while in conference unless the building is on fire or the Judge himself or herself is on the phone. You should be smart enought to allow sufficient time to meet with the client. If there is not time make sure you offer another appointment.
6. Whether or not someone retains you in client service is irrelevant. If they don't retain you they become a mini-marketer for you if you treat them right. I have seen to many referrals to law firms from people they never represented because they were treated right.
7. Decide for yourself the look of the employees. I have seen totally casual firms to very professional looking firms with respect to dress. The only thing I can tell you is that while it must represent the personality of the firm more importantly it better meet the personality of the client.

Disney teaches that every employee from the street sweeper to the CEO is on stage at all times. Signs are posted at doorways into the public areas that say "SMILE YOU ARE ON STAGE". And they train, train and train again that the customer (or client) rules!

We have said repeatedly that when we ask law firms if they deliver client satisfaction every lawyer gives us a resounding yes (well 98%; 2% being honest). Then we ask them how and that is where we get the deafening silence.

We were recently discussing if we could get to the same point but with a different message and we started focusing on client dissatisfaction. We put it to a test and started asking some individual lawyers what they felt they had received as dissatisfaction from a client. Ironically most candidly admitted that it was personal contact with the lawyer or lack of feeling of personal interest.

Once we saw this trend our next question was how to fix it? In other words what steps could the lawyer or firm take that would address the issue. What surprised us was that the lawyers we talked to were more motivated to fix the problem when they could identify the problem.

Our best guess is that we like to solve problems and we feel good when we do. Our marketing suggestion for this week is to have your firm keep a list (honestly) of any hints from any client of something that made them unhappy or dissatisfied. There will be no recriminations by anyone but rather an honest survey of what staff and lawyers hear. Then summarize the list and come up with five top key problems. Create an action plan to correct the problems.

Most importantly, what is your quality assurance check? Keep track of improvements. Find out if it is working. Do your QA on client complaints.

The only thing that makes law firms different is how they deliver their service. Extraordinary client service means extraordinary efforts to be better than others.

We return many calls to lawyers who contact our company and one of the checkpoints we have is how the firm phone is answered. This is the first point of contact for the majority of your business. Thus what the person says and how they say it is your first step in marketing to the client.

To simply say the firm name does nothing for your firm. You have 5 to 7 seconds to convey to the new client what your firm is about. We have some basic marketing tips we gladly share with you for answering the phone:

1. Put your best people on the phone. While we can't imagine anyone hiring an unfriendly person there are people who see this duty as beneath their abilities. The days of the receptionist being a low level entry job are over for highly profitable firms.

2. Teach everyone to smile before they answer the phone. Put a big smiley face where they have to see it as the phone rings.

3. Define your message. Our recommendation is this: Good morning, Smith, Smith & Smith, this is Alice, how many I help you? People like to know who they are talking to, and who they have called and the request "how can I help you" says what you are about.

4. Test your firm. Call back at odd times. Call while you are in the office. Find out if your people are doing what you want.

Today's economy demands you provide yourself with every competitive edge and how you greet your clients is a crucial one.

Our moms always told us to be nice. Sending compliments about other people's children is the same thing as said in our article of March 3rd . You can't be too nice. And saying thank you more often than not wins every time.

Have a note card printed with your law firm name, logo, etc. and blank inside. For every referral a handwritten note gets sent. Believe me if people like you enough to make a referral they deserve a small bit of your time. Don't type a letter. Show them it is personal to you.

And thank you's on your firm thank you card for something personal doesn't hurt. Have someone treat you nice at a store, send a note of thanks. It tells people you are the type of person they just might want to have representing them. Promote your firm through yourself.

As we explain in teaching law firm client relationship marketing, it is all about the personal side of marketing. And nothing is more personal then treating people like you would treat your own.

This is the simplest marketing trick I know.   Have everyone in the firm bring in their magazines once read.  Use magazines that are no more than one month old and in good shape.   Create labels with the firm name, address and tag line.  Say "Courtesy of".  Place label over the address label on the magazine.

Go to any place that will give you demographics for clients you are trying to reach.  Nursing homes, hospitals, senior citizen centers, shelters for abused children, school teacher lounges, etc. Meet with the person in charge and tell them of your idea to donate magazines for their clientle base.  The list is unlimited.

Drop your magazines off.   Believe me they will be more than welcome.  And if you generate only one client it will be well worth your time and effort.

How to do it?   Put someone in charge and make a big deal out of the fact that this staff person is helping the firm.   And after they do it awhile give them a gift certificate to a nice dinner.