The traditional marketing mix – product (service), price, place, and promotion – is evolving as the mix is grows in complexity. Marketing is no longer static as online marketing continues to challenge traditional marketing. Conversations are happening through various channels and for this reason marketing needs to be more fluid than ever.

Some key trends influencing the legal marketing mix:

• Word of mouth: There was a time when networking at the country club or local chamber of commerce event could connect you with prospects and those prospects could quickly investigate your reputation This still works but also consider that social

In a previous column, I mentioned that law firm marketing activities should help enhance at least one of the four Rs: Revenue, Reputation, Referrals, and Retention. 

I missed a big one: Recruitment.

Is recruitment a marketing initiative? Depending on your involvement in the process, your answer might range from “Of course it is!” to “Who cares?” Law firm marketing departments generally like working on recruitment programs, because they use someone else’s budget and they often get the chance to do something different to help their firm stand out in its quest for the best students. That’s the plus side. . . . [more]

Other than heavy reliance on alliteration what do these three things have in common? They’ve all been on my mind in recent months. And as such things go, what I’ve seen and read about the first two have influenced the third. Here’s how:

Motorbikes

A few years ago I scratched a long-standing itch and re-engaged with my childhood love of motorbikes, purchasing the machine I’d dreamed of ever since my parents sold my 50cc minibike. Now I’m back on the road, but the middle-aged realities of running my own business and raising three kids means days spent actually riding are . . . [more]

Creating a positive client experience is a team sport. Everyone who is in contact with your clients should be singing from the same song sheet so that your clients have a synchronized experience with you. Anyone off-key will bring the whole choir down, so to speak.

Your assistant, typically, has regular contact with your clients and is in a position to advance your team’s ability to deliver high quality service to your clients, resulting in client loyalty and more meaningful long term relationships.

At the risk of adding on to your assistant’s busy desk, there are a few easy things . . . [more]

It’s getting down to the final few weeks of December. As some Slaw readers might remember, my year-end focus is on two activities: 1) the Clawbies, and 2) forecasting trends and making predictions about where the Internet is heading. 

(If you’re interested, you can look back to see how successful (or how terribly wrong) I’ve been in prior years. Here are my crystal ball attempts for 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.)

So without further ado, these are the trends that I see emerging in 2014:

1. Biometric Authentication Finds a Market

Other companies unsuccessfully tried . . . [more]

Some people just seem to have all the luck. Born into the right family, went to the right schools, landed the right job, works with the best clients and they make it all look easy. Maybe it shouldn’t be chalked up to “luck.” What else could it be? Huffington Post contributor and author of Embrace The Chaos, Bob Miglani writes… 21 Reasons Why Some People Get So Lucky in Life. He realized that some people… “Became ‘lucky’ because they think differently and take certain actions.” Below are several of the reasons that I think are particularly applicable to lawyers: . . . [more]

Have you considered how to best use your marketing department? Do you come to them once an idea has been flushed out and expect them to deliver on the concept without the background information? Or do you employ them early in the process, let them help you define the problem and then develop a solution? If you are part of the latter group I applaud you. Unfortunately most lawyers and law firms are in the former category.

There are many reasons why your firms marketing department has a good or bad reputation. A good marketing department is engaged early and . . . [more]

As I write this, annual conference season is in full swing. Lawyers, hastily arranging their speaking notes, are wondering how they got involved in the first place. Marketing departments are finding out at the last minute that the conference hosts need the firm’s logo, the lawyer needs a PowerPoint presentation, and the booth at the accompanying trade show needs staffing. Wait, what booth? Trade show? Nobody told us…. 

Yes, that’s how it usually goes down. It shouldn’t be any surprise, therefore, that both lawyers and marketers feel cynical about the value of trade shows in the marketing mix. Like . . . [more]

Last year on Slaw, Steve Matthews wrote ten tips for building a law firm publishing culture. One of his tips included using an editorial calendar as a useful tool to keep track of who was writing what in the firm and when, but also to include guidelines, set reminders, and help identify opportunities, and in my last post on using Evernote as a marketing tool, I mentioned that lawyers may want to keep their editorial calendar within Evernote.

Editorial calendars help you plan content and ensure that you are posting consistently. They are also handy tools to help . . . [more]

Yes, it’s that time again. For 2014 I’ve decided to give you a head start by providing you a shopping list of tactics you can use to give your marketing efforts a boost in the year ahead. To make it easier still, I have broken them down by difficulty level. Can barely lift your head off your desk after the soul-destroying race to the finish line to meet your year-end billing target? Dip a toe into the shallow end by Googling your own name. As long as you’ve still got a pulse, you can manage that one. Or — if . . . [more]

If your law firm maintains a blog, or if you blog personally, there’s a reasonably good chance that you’ve received one of these emails:

Hi Steve!

My name is Joe Schmo and I am a writer at somewebsite.com, a relatively new social media agency.

I was just wondering if you would be interested in us contributing a guest post for your site?

We’ve done many before, and can provide examples of published work if desired. Looking forward to hearing from you! :)

Joe

My advice? Don’t do it. Don’t publish guest post content on firm-owned blogs, and don’t let marketing . . . [more]

Running a small business successfully is tough – in any industry. In British Columbia approximately 98% of businesses are classified as small business, so those of us in B.C., and several other provinces actually, we’re in good company. The challenge, though, is producing high quality work while positioning yourself, and your business, for long term success.

You want to make smart business decisions and invest your time and financial resources wisely. Some firms will ponder marketing for a while before they begin, while others take a “let’s throw everything at them” approach.

Here are some of the most common questions . . . [more]