Ed shares some thoughts on electronic marketing and offers ideas on how traditional marketing can help you stand out in the crowd.
You are more likely to be remembered, thus contacted, if you reach people on a personal level.
Differentiating yourself will lead to increased:
And most importantly:
More money in the bank.
This is where our 1968 Ambassador Airstream was made… Jackson, Ohio.
It was great to visit SteSpot’s birthplace and see how they do it today…. 🙂
The web is changing. First, everyone wanted to use "com" in their web address. The .com world became crowded, so we saw .biz, .net and others come onto the scene.
The .org generally was reserved for non-profit organizations … But, now the Arizona Bar says that it’s o.k. to use .org for profit-making organizations as well. This reverses an earlier Arizona state bar ethics panel decision (Arizona Ethics Op. 01-05 (2001)) that had found the use of the suffix ".org" by for-profit law firms would mislead consumers. This most recent opinion, (Arizona State Bar Committee on Rules of Professional Conduct, Op. 11-04), finds that the ".org" suffix is now more widely used by for-profits such that consumers of legal services will no longer be misled.
The cynic might say that the neighborhood has become so crowded that economic forces command that .org be available for everyone, profit and non-profit. My question is who is running the madhouse? Is this the Wild West where anything and everything goes? There was some comfort in knowing that .org was an institution or non-profit. But, since the world is upside down anyway in the last few years, why not the internet and web addresses?
Still, .com is the preferred suffix … But, then, why do we need a suffix of any kind? It just means more letters have to be typed. While we’re not cutting trees to write the extra 4 characters, we are using our energy (means we have to eat more to have energy to move our fingers more), we might encounter more finger strain (carpal tunnel syndrome), and other yet to be determined maladies. Where are the real reformers when we need them?
Factors to Consider When Marketing You Firm:
-Have a Marketing Plan
-Consider the commonality between you and prospective clients.
-Play the Numbers Game
-The more people you can get in front of; the better the chance of someone engaging you.
-Build a quality referral sources
-Understand that people learn differently
-Connect with other professions who share your market
Cell phones removed from listed property category
Cell phones have become so ubiquitous that the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 has eliminated the need to create special record-keeping by taxpayers for employer-provided cell phones.
IRS makes mid-year 2011 adjustment to business standard mileage rate
For the third time in six years, the IRS announced a mid-year adjustment to the business standard mileage rate because of rising gasoline prices. The business standard mileage rate increased from 51 cents-per-mile to 55.5 cents-per-mile for the second half of 2011 and into 2012.
There are many examples of how the legal profession is moving toward commoditization. The most recent commentary on the subject is Richard Granat’s blog post.
Other examples include: Legal Zoom, currently in battle with the North Carolina Bar Association about the unauthorized practice of law; forms available in books (remember Novo?); and online (see Granat’s blog post for some). People who believe they need legal help but can’t afford it, will do the next best thing…get a form from these resources. This happens in estate planning, real estate transfers, even in some litigation, and in other practice areas as well.
This will result in greater segmentation (a marketing term) of the legal industry. The "bet the company" cases and large companies will still use good law firms; others with less serious matters will use lower cost lawyers or do-it-yourself forms. (Whether these forms create more legal work later is another and unimportant issue for now.) And at the lower end of the economic spectrum, you can expect to see great competition. Even large law firms at the higher end are experiencing competition, just at a different level of sophistication.
Change is in the air. Hold onto your hats; the legal world is moving!
Amazing how many people seek to find shipwrecks.
One of the best is the one in Kansas City, MO … The Arabia.
It’s an incredible museum, privately owned and operated by the folks who found and brought up the steamboat ….
Ed discusses the three key areas to address in managing client expectations.
1.) Use the initial consultation to gauge a client’s wants and whether you can meet their wants.
2.) An attorney’s responsibility is to match what the client needs with what the client perceives they want.
3.) A monthly status report is a simple, yet critical tool to keep clients informed. –An attorney can monitor the monthly status reports to guarantee that the clients needs and wants are being met.
Lawrence Wolf, Esq. has been a criminal attorney for over 35 years. He represents defendants accused in criminal matters ranging from drunk driving to sexual abuse. He not only defends them, but helps them put their lives back together. He has used the art of the brochure to effectively promote his practice. Today in this interview with Ed Poll, he relates how his focus with the brochure has changed over the years from attracting clients to attracting those who can refer clients. More information about Larry can be seen at www.YouAreInnocent.com.
23 minutes, 42 seconds
5.4MB
In a December issue of the Wall Street Journal, the headline implies that lawyers are making far too much money in a Delaware case. This, despite the unheralded reduction in their fee request. But, it’s easy too trash lawyers, and good headline writers (a special art in writing) are brilliant in getting readers to pick up the paper and keep reading …
But, let’s look at the facts:
First, the judge in the case said that the plaintiffs lawyers did an outstanding job, not just good, and such work should be rewarded. This is the same judge who historically penalizes lawyers when they fail to get results.
Second, the agreement between plaintiffs’ lawyers and plaintiffs permitted counsel to ask the court for 30% and they applied for less, only 15%, not a normally outrageous percentage.
Third, the risk reward element of contingency cases should be evaluated as of the beginning of a matter. And in this case, the risk of no recovery was substantial. Victory was, by no means, assured. Monday morning quarter-backing is always performed by those who have a corporate bias, have no interest in the matter and just want to carp, are jealous or, worse, feel that lawyers should be heard, not seen. Reminds me of the criticism against lawyers who sued Ronald Reagan, as governor of California. Despite the fact that the lawyers won most, if not all, the lawsuits brought against the abuse by the State, neither the facts nor the victories was much discussed by those with a political agenda.
Last, these arguments that the lawyers’ hourly billing rates were too high fly in the face of value billing, the new wave for corporate America. In other words, the results in this case were based on the value to the clients resulting from the effort and skill of the lawyers. In most cases, hourly billing results in higher legal fees … fees unrelated to the value received by the client … and fees that created certainty in the cost of the legal proceeding, an important factor to clients in most matters. It’s important to know what the legal cost will be before embarking on a matter. Value billing provides this.
Thus, the criticism offered by the writer in the WSJ is off target, to say the least. Most criticisms against legal billings involve the hourly billings … here, value billing was requested by the lawyers and their clients and approved by the court. Hoorays should have been the proffered by the writer, not whining.