In Law Marketing: Blogs Are In, Yellow Pages Are Out, Sales Are Next
Blogs are a great law marketing tool. The Yellow Pages are out. Firms must move beyond marketing to sales. Law marketing guru Larry Bodine made these and other interesting comments in a recent interview. Here are some excerpts:
• “Law firms are just beginning to use blogs … A blog is a fantastic marketing vehicle because it establishes the author as an expert, an authority. Smart lawyers will pick one narrow, particular topic to focus on their blogs.”
• “There’s no longer a need for the Yellow Pages. I tell my clients to cancel their ads and start a blog instead.”
• “I’ll give you an example. Dennis Crouch … has a blog called Patently-o and the site gets 50,000 visitors a week. He told me that his blog has brought in Fortune 500 companies and more importantly, referrals from lawyers he has never met. He writes about patents that were granted and has now made himself the national expert. And he’s been in practice only four years!”
• “How much should a law firm spend on marketing? The rule of thumb is to spend 2% of gross revenues, not counting marketing staff salaries, on marketing and business development.”
• Bodine predicts the next law marketing trend will be to move beyond marketing to sales: “Marketing will raise your profile in the market and make you well known, but it is sales that bring in new business. In law, you don’t say ‘sales,’ you say ‘business development.’ That entails picking a target … and a long-term plan to acquire the target. … Most law practices are composed of clients who sought them out. The lawyers didn’t pick the clients so many lawyers hate what they are doing. The new trend is to pick your clients and go after them.”
• “Another trend is remote law practice. Most law practice comprises transactions, and that entails documents. A lawyer can be anywhere to write the document and the client can get the document on the web - there is no need to be anywhere specifically. … All you need is the Internet and a phone connection.”
• “I ask [lawyers receiving consultation] what they like to do in their practice. Then I ask what kind of people they like to work with. Next I’ll ask what activities are fun for them, such as boating or golf. Then we are going to mix in business development with what the lawyer does for fun. Finally, we turn to finding people whom the lawyer can help. This is how lawyers should market: find someone you like, someone whom you can help in your particular field and get out there and have fun with them.”
Here’s the whole interview: “The Most Effective Forms of Legal Marketing”
