If you dread writing your law firm newsletter each month because a) it’s not fun or b) clients are generally unresponsive to your efforts, you’re probably committing one of three legal marketing sins.

Remember, the point of your newsletter is to develop a relationship with your leads and prospective clients on their own turf.   It’s so easy to just “start a newsletter” because a marketing guru tells you to, but you really must understand the “why” behind the “what” if you want to be effective and generate leads/referrals in this area.

So with that said, let’s jump right into the top three things you should NOT be writing in your newsletter:

1. Case Briefs- It seems logical that a law firm newsletter would have case briefs of relevant decisions in your practice area, right?  Wrong. While information on recent case law may be valuable to your clients, what you have to say about it is probably WAY over their head.  Unless you can write on a third grade level and explain what the case means for THEM in plain English, leave complicated case briefs out of the newsletter.
2. Promotional Hype- Your newsletter isn’t another opportunity to pitch your firm and services.  You might get by with that here and there, but eventually the client will get sick of “being sold” and throw it in the trash.  Instead, stick to useful content, tips and how-to’s that will improve or add value to their life in some way.
3. Legalese- Again, you’re trying to reach clients on their level so try to leave complicated legal jargon out of the mix.  And if you’re trying to educate your client on a certain area of the law and absolutely must drop a few legal terms, be sure to provide clear and alternate definitions so your prospects can actually follow along with the article.

Hopefully you’re noticing a trend here with my emphasis on words like them, their, etc.  Understand that if you can bring the focus of your newsletter back on the client and away from the firm, you’ll be much more effective in bringing in referrals and converting existing leads.  

And of course, if you still hate the newsletter process and can’t seem to unleash its true potential, then consider this a job to be outsourced!  In today’s economy, a newsletter is one marketing tool that you MUST have, so commit to having one that works for you—even if that means brining in outside help!

Note: If you need help finding a legal newsletter manager for your firm, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and being a virtual assistant for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

I’m sure by now you’ve heard about the necessity of implementing social media marketing as it relates to your overall legal marketing strategy.

In fact, most online gurus talk about social media marketing as though it’s the end-all, be-all to all to your legal marketing plan!

Unfortunately, most of those web 2.0 marketing “gurus” have never set foot in a law firm and don’t understand just how crazy your schedule really is!

Fortunately, there are still a few ways to engage (and be effective) in social media marketing without being “inauthentic” or non-transparent to your target market (which is a very bad situation to be in if you get caught!).

These are just a few strategies that I’ve found to be really helpful for lawyers that can’t devote too much time social networking.  I encourage you to pick and choose what works for you and just jump in as soon as possible!

1. Outsource SOME of your social media marketing- This is a really great idea for the lawyer that just doesn’t have time to engage, but really wants to.   If you’re using twitter as your main social media source, have someone on the team pre-write tweets of events, links to blog posts or other things going on at the firm that you can approve.  Then ask them to schedule the tweets in a Twitter client like Hootsuite or Tweetlater to go off randomly during the week.  Then when you actually have time to engage, you can just focus on talking to people and won’t have to worry about getting your marketing out.   You can also follow the same strategy for posting updates on Facebook if that’s your network of choice.
2. Encourage your team to start networking- This is the scariest option for most lawyers, but it can be quite effective if you set things up right!  You’ll need to lay down some guidelines, but it can be done.  For example, you may want to have your team open a corporate twitter or facebook account separate from that of their personal account.  It’s also a good idea to have them setup branded user names around the firm (for example, the people at Dell Computers use names like @JoeatDell or @MaryatDell just to show it’s a corporate account).  You’ll also want to make it clear that they can’t give legal advice! While their goal is to engage and make strategic relationships, they’ll need to direct people to a blog post or to an attorney if someone has a legal question.  Other than that, let them loose and have them engage throughout the day.  It will make work fun for them and increase your sphere of influence at the same time!
3. Outsource ALL of your social media marketing-  While some people really look down on this approach, it can be effective if done the right way and for the right reasons.  If you are absolutely intimidated by social media—or just aren’t the social type, this might be a good route for you.  You’ll definitely want to find someone that has a background in the legal industry and will use social networking to promote and engage on behalf of YOUR FIRM, not on behalf of you.   That should be the understanding right from the beginning.  You don’t want someone pretending to be you, the attorney (and I hope you can see why that’s a bad idea for a number of reasons).  Instead this person or company will be part of the “team” and will essentially be doing your marketing as though they work in-house.  If you have further questions about this or need someone qualified to handle your social media, feel free to email help@legalmarketingmaven.com for further assistance.

But as you can see from the tips above, all that matters is that you get involved.  And fortunately there are so many ways to do it that even you, a busy attorney, have no reason to stay behind in the dark ages of legal marketing 1.0.  So pick a strategy and get started with social media marketing ASAP!

Image Courtesy of Flickr

Attorney Outsourcing: How To Get Started

The  first step you should take when looking to outsource is to really determine what you are spending your time doing. I suggest keeping a list of everything you do for a week and how much time you spend doing it. At the end of the week, make three columns:

Things Only “I” Can Do
Things I Do NOT Enjoy
Things I LOVE

Next, Put a checkmark next to each item in the applicable category. Be very careful selecting the “Things Only “I” Can Do” category!  Is that really true?

Next evaluate your list, the only things you REALLY have to be doing are those things only you can do. Of course, I usually recommend continuing to do the things you LOVE to do, IF it is not a huge time zapper.

Once you have the list of things you can let go of, it’s time to start determining the type of vendor you need to outsource to.

Here is a short list of some items that I see attorneys (and other small businesses) commonly outsource:

• Marketing – Creating Direct Mail Pieces, Creating Display Ads, Creating Monthly Newsletters, Setting Up Seminars, Handling Distribution of Weekly Ezines or Email
• Admin Support: Keeper of the Gate, Email Management, Calendaring, Client Intake, Travel Arrangements, CLE Management, negotiation with Vendors.
• Paralegal Support: Drafting Documents, Research, Transcription
• Bookkeeping
• Website Development & Maintenance
• Graphic Design
  
• Social Media Management
• Blog Management

In Part II, we’ll talk about each of these categories and how to find the best vendor to outsource to.

Hint – it’s NOT finding a Virtual Assistant who can do it all!

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and being a virtual assistant for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

Blind to the Need for Attorney Outsourcing

After working with attorneys for twenty something years, I have to admit that I have taken on many of the same “traits”, some great, some not great. I think the one that will wreak the most havoc on your time, is that of being a control freak. The thought that “no one can do it as good as me” or “it will take too long to teach someone else”, keeps us constantly doing things that we should not be doing.

Keeping track of everything you do for a few days, and I mean EVERYTHING, will give you a great insight to how many things you are doing that you should not be doing yourself. Instead they should be delegated to someone with the right skill set that can complete the task effectively and efficiently. Give that person a clear direction on the outcome that you expect, set a definitive timeline, make yourself available for questions, and let go.  You should only be doing what ONLY YOU CAN DO!

You may be very surprised at the results you get!

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and virtual assisting for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com

Attorney outsourcing and delegation is the key to your freedom, yet so many times, we just ask for help, but don’t let go enough to realize the freedom that the delegation can truly bring. Instead we do the complete opposite of delegating and we micro manage, causing even more stress to ourselves and our team.

Here are a few tips on SMART Delegation that will help you with the process of letting go and will help your team successfully complete the projects that you delegate.

S – Specify – Specify the end result that you want. Give the details and scope of the project and let your team member know exactly what you want at the end and why. By giving these details, you team member is going to understand exactly what they need to do and the reasons that it is important.

M – Milestones – Have some built in milestones so that you are comfortable that the project is staying on track. Again, this should not be at every turn (micromanagement) but at predefined times during the scope of the project. Let the team member control the progress of the project with a clear expectation that the milestones must be met.

A – Answer – Make yourself available to answer questions as they arise. If the team member has questions, answer the questions as fully as possible and explain your reasons. Many times if a team member asks a question; and then is explained “why” they may develop a better solution or way to approach the tasks necessary to complete the project.

R – Realistic – Make sure the scope and milestones of the project are realistic. Never set a team member up for failure. Ask for feedback during the initial delegation of the task and during milestone meetings.

T – Thanks – Show your appreciation. This is so often overlooked, but I can promise you that when you show your appreciation to your team members when they manage a project and meet a deadline, they will be much more inclined to do it over and over again! A simple “Thank You” goes a lot further than you think.

Do you have other tips that have helped you delegate projects? Leave your comments!

Online Business Manager and law firm marketing expert, Laura Lee Sparks, is one of the most authoritative and well respected voices on attorney outsourcing, legal marketing and virtual assisting for lawyers on the web.  Her advice and legal marketing campaigns have helped lawyers reach and surpass the million-dollar mark in their businesses numerous times thanks to her straight-forward advice and ability to make legal marketing principles easy to understand and implement.  For further information on lawyer outsourcing programs or to contact Laura Lee directly, please email help@legalmarketingmaven.com