• By Laura Lee

I did your holiday shopping for you!

The holiday season is upon us, and that means for the next eight weeks our schedules are going to be hectic, offices will be closed and our professional and personal calendars are going to become chaotic!

On the list of things to do before the end of year is show appreciation to top clients and referral sources, and I know you WANT to make that happen.

However, I can’t even tell you how many times I have talked with attorneys about the holidays and showing appreciation to top clients and referrals sources and heard, “Well, I really wanted to do that, but time just got away from me,” or “I just didn’t know what to send,” or a plethora of other excuses why year after year their good intentions remained just that and never got implemented.

In fact, that is the story I hear about a lot of great marketing ideas…but let’s stick with this one.

Your top clients and referral sources should be feeling the love from your firm this holiday season and since there is PLENTY of time to make this happen, I’m *giving * you THIS RESOURCE to help you knock this task off your to-do list in less than a week!

Just click the link: you’ll find my personal holiday gift guide with options for every budget. There are even links that go directly to the product order page. It couldn’t be easier!

So let’s break this down into action steps.

Choose your list of top clients and referral sources and export their names and addresses into a spreadsheet.Choose the gift you would like to send (from my recommendations)or your own but if your own go ahead and put the order link on the spreadsheet).

Write what you would like the gift card to say.

Decide the date you would like your gifts delivered.

Give the list and your credit card to your assistant to place the orders.

Isn’t that easy?!  Don’t put it off, get it done early…even if your delivery dates are in December. Keep this holiday season as stress free as possible and show your appreciation to your top clients and referral sources! They are an important part of your business and deserve to be celebrated.

Happy Holidays!!!

PS:  This is just one of the many services we provide to the clients that
work with us. We are the marketing team that they hand these types of
tasks off to so that they know it is handled without having to worry about
it.

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Online Reviews…The Good, Bad and Ugly

There are so many ways for clients to tell everyone they know about you, and thanks to the Internet, they can even tell people they don’t know!  This is great if the things they’re saying make you look good.  If they’re posting negative reviews and comments, however, it can feel like a punch in the gut to someone running their own small firm.

So, what do you do if someone is trying to sabotage your legal marketing plan by saying nasty things on Yelp, their blog, or your Facebook page?

First, don’t panic.  This is a time to keep your cool, because how you respond is more important than whatever this person had to say in the first place.  Keep in mind that even though this negative comment is out there, it is certainly not the only thing out there.  It is one person’s opinion in a sea of opportunities for you to present yourself as you’d like.  It’s annoying and infuriating, but it is not the end of the world.

Once you’re calmed down, not just pretending to be calmed down—take a day or two if you need to, you can plan how to respond.  Because of their background, a lot of lawyers jump right to the idea of writing a cease and desist letter.  There are some problems with this.  For one thing, it could theoretically add legitimacy to whomever made the claim against you.  It can also be really hard to even find out who made the comment as so many of those things are done anonymously.  And in the grand scheme of things, the letter might not even work.

With the idea of a letter considered and thrown away, you can now look at actually responding to the comment.  Most of the review sites will allow you a way to respond to the negative comment.  In doing so, you don’t want to come off as anything but professional.  You can use the opportunity to explain your side of the situation—oftentimes the individual is mad that they lost their case, not because there is actually anything wrong with you—but do it in a calm, rational way that doesn’t sound overly defensive.  If the person responds back, make a point to only engage if you can do so calmly and in a way that shows you in your best light.  Remember, too, that there’s no rule saying you have to respond at all.

Finally, consider asking your clients, colleagues, and supporters to visit the site and leave their own feedback. This will “bury” the negative comment down to a lower position that will probably not be seen by many.  In addition, when you have a bunch of five-star ratings or comments about your professionalism, it shows that the negative comment is not par for the course and is likely coming from someone who is bitter.

A bad review here or there isn’t going to completely destroy your legal marketing efforts.  If you find that you are getting a lot of negative reviews, however, it may be necessary to take a look at what you’re doing and make some changes.

• By Laura Lee

Could you use some individualized help growing your practice?

Summer is almost here, our team has expanded significantly and we have room this quarter to accept a few additional private clients who could use some more individualized help growing their practices.

This is NOT exclusive to just Estate Planning and Elder Law attorneys.

This is more than just receiving marketing materials that your team can implement on their own (if that’s what you need, check out our Done-For-You program here).

Instead, this is OUR TEAM, doing your marketing FOR YOU, so that you can focus on what you do best: practicing law!

We serve attorneys in the following areas:

• Copywriting and ghostwriting
• Blogging
• Website management
• Email marketing
• Email newsletter creation and management
• Print newsletter creation and management
• Graphic Design
• Public Relations
• Social Media management
• CRM or Infusionsoft management
• Mailing and fulfillment
• Team coaching

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

P.S. Curious about what it’s like to work with us? Here’s what a few of our clients have to say:

“Laura Lee is a great motivator and implementer. She is passionate about helping her clients grow their practices and she has certainly helped me grow mine. Laura Lee and Legal Marketing Maven have been instrumental in helping me transition my practice from all divorce and family law to its current 50-50 mix with estate planning and probate, and that side of the practice growing each year. As a direct result of their materials, I have been on local television and radio shows featured as an expert on the topic of estate planning and probate. I have several ready-made and often-requested educational and promotional e-books and legal guides which they prepared and taught me how to deliver them to my prospects in a systematic and effective manner. Their team is highly trained in communicating the legal principles I with which I wish to educate my potential clients, so that they are already prepared to retain me before we even meet. Best of all, they are great people to work with and very loyal and dedicated to their clients and their needs. ”

~Steve Worrall
Attorney at Law

“Laura Lee is AWESOME. She listens, asks questions and works closely with you to achieve the best results, quickly and at a reasonable cost. She is number 1 in my book!”

~Nancy Cavey
Attorney at Law

• By Laura Lee

Take a break from your legal marketing this Spring …(yes, really)

If you’d like to simplify your life and stop worrying about marketing this spring without having to jeopardize new clients coming in the door….

…then take a peek at the special we have right now on our Done-For-You monthly marketing packages for estate planning attorneys.

We know that you are so busy taking care of your business, servicing your clients and building referral relationships that your marketing sometimes takes a backseat to everything else going on.  That is why we created this program specifically for you.

These are high-quality, professionally done marketing materials with a proven track record of helping estate planning attorneys gain more clients, more page 1 search rankings, better conversions, newspaper and TV coverage, increased referrals, new speaking opportunities and more!

Each month, our DFY program includes:
•    A direct-response marketing campaign and step-by-step instructions on how to implement it (i.e. free reports, landing pages, postcards, brochures, follow-up scripts);
•    A press release and media pitch letter for maximum local publicity and SEO;
•   A weekly blog post professionally written and optimized to dominate the search engines (…for many DFY clients, our blog posts show up on page one in Google before any other page of their website!),
•    A done-for-you print newsletter to stay in-touch with clients by mail;
•    4 video scripts for video marketing; and
•    Area exclusivity!  We will not work with your competition.

It’s all of your marketing, professionally done for you each and every month, without the aggravation or expense of hiring in-house staff.  All of the materials are delivered to you in editable format so that you can customize and edit as you see fit.

To head off March, we’re offering these marketing materials at just $797 per month–a $200 monthly savings off the regular price of $997.   There’s no time commitment either; try it out at the discounted price and cancel if it’s not for you. No worries, no hassles.

This is like hiring a part time legal marketing professional for your firm for only about $12 per hour, that is a huge savings while still giving you expert results.

This offer is only good until March 5th, so to learn more about the program and request exclusivity in your area, visit https://legalmarketingmaven.com/dfy

P.S.-  Please feel free to browse through our Portfolio photo gallery on Facebook to see real results that our clients are getting and samples of materials that you will receive in the program.

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Addressing Some FAQ’s

We‘ve had a ton of interest in the DFY materials that we have been talking about for the last few months but I’ve also received a quite a few emails and wanted to answer some of the frequently asked questions I’ve been getting.

Does Legal Marketing Maven also help with implementing the marketing materials? I don’t have enough time to do it myself.

Yes!  We are an implementation company!  The DFY packages were put together to help lawyers that have in house staff (or virtual teams that they are working with) so that they didn’t have start every month from scratch.  But we will happily put together an implementation package that meets your needs, just reply to this email and schedule a complimentary strategy session with me to explore those options.

Do all of your DFY materials focus on general estate planning (or focus on one particular niche)? I am an elder law lawyer, will it work for me?

Our DFY materials are eclectic and focus on estate planning for the young and old, we try to incorporate basic estate planning, elder law and administration into our materials each month because we believe your practice will benefit from serving clients in all stages of their life.

Do you have DFY materials for other practice areas? I am a bankruptcy lawyer and would love materials like this for my law firm.

Currently our DFY materials are only for Estate planning attorneys however, we are planning to launch 2 new practice areas this year.  If you are interested in these types of materials for your practice area please reply to this email and let me know what that is, it will help me determine which 2 areas we will roll out next.

If you need the services now, let’s schedule a time to chat about what your needs are and create a custom package that will meet your needs.

Does Legal Marketing Maven work with lawyers in other practice areas?

Yes!  We privately work with clients in a variety of practice areas – personal injury, medical malpractice, bankruptcy, business law and family law.  Our services span a wide range including but not limited to:

•    Development and execution of direct response marketing campaigns
•    Web writing, Copywriting and Blogging
•    Teleseminars and Webinars
•    Landing Pages/ Squeeze Pages
•    Email Marketing
•    Newsletters
•    Infusionsoft Management
•    Autoresponders
•    Search Engine Optimization
•    Social Media Marketing
•    Article Marketing
•    Reputation Management
•    Press Releases and Public Relations
•    Marketing of In-Person Events/ Conferences
•    Creation and Launch of Lead Generation Pieces
•    Product Launches

Do you have more questions, or would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Pick Up the Phone and Follow Up

Legal Marketing Tip of the Week

I’ve been doing a lot of hands-on outreach for our private clients lately to get them speaking gigs in front of referral sources orother relevant groups.

I literally spent hours on the phone this week following up with every organization we sent a pitch or speaker packet to, just to see what they thought and if they were interested in moving forward.

For every unfriendly voice on the other end of the line who couldn’t be bothered with my call (which would probably be discouraging if I didn’t have such thick skin!), there was another who was thrilled that I took the time to follow up.

Many had further questions (and real interest) about the materials we sent, but they just never found time to pick up phone and call us back (you know how that goes).

We eventually did land a few speaking engagements and invites to lunch as a result of our efforts–which shows how important follow up is during any marketing campaign.

If you can make one shift in your marketing plan this week, I would encourage you to assign SOMEONE on your team to follow up by phone, email or preferably both when you are reaching out for speaking gigs.

To make things even easier, send something tangible first (i.e a speaker packet, letter, postcard) and you’ll find the follow up call isn’t so “cold,” as you are already on the group or organization’s radar.

Now what are you waiting for–get to it!

Do you have more questions, or would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

5 Tips For Setting Up Your Law Firm For Outsourcing Success

The entire Legal Marketing Maven team is traveling this week to Fairfax, VA, to participate at Ben Glass’ Great Legal Marketing Conference.  Our good friend Jay Fleischman is our guest author this week.  Jay has been outsourcing the tasks in his law practice for many years, and shares below 5 tips for outsourcing success.  We’ll be back next week and ready to share many new ideas that I’m positive we will come away from Ben’s event with.  Have a great week!
~Laura Lee

Are you thinking about outsourcing certain tasks or workflow issues in your law firm?  If you are, you’re not alone.  Outsourcing is on the minds of many solo and small firm lawyers.  The promise of lower overhead, more freedom and the ability to concentrate on core business problems creates a siren song for attorneys.

But as with any other decision in your law office, you’ve got to have a roadmap; without one, you’re doomed to failure from the outset.  The notion of outsourcing is not nearly as quick and easy as making a phone call to a stranger and walking away.

Here, then, are the 5 tips I live by when outsourcing any process for my law firm:

Determine:  Think about your needs and goals.  What do you want to outsource, and why do you want to do so?  This may sound simplistic, but the “why” portion of the question gets many lawyers hamstrung.  Rather than having a reason do something, they frequently think in terms of what they do NOT want to do.  “I don’t want to be bothered with drafting these motions,” rather than, “I recognize that drafting routine motions is best left to someone else, leaving me free to carefully review and revise drafts for a final review.”

Document:  When outsourcing, don’t presume that anyone else in the world has your brain or background.  You need to be able to provide any professional with a detailed set of instructions on exactly how you want tasks accomplished.  Without such documentation, you’re leaving results up to chance.  You’re also guaranteeing that an outsourced professional (who likely charges by the hour) will need to spend more time than is necessary merely to get up to speed.

Interview:  When it comes to outsourcing for your law firm, there’s nothing more important that ensuring that there is a match of skills and attitude.  Office-bound employees are subject to vetting, so why would you not do the same with an outsourcing professional?

Manage:  The service you provide is always your responsibility, so you need to manage the work your law firm outsources.  Some tools you may decide to work with are Basecamp, Google Wave, or even Google Docs.  Wikis and project management solutions abound, and it’s your responsibility to ensure that they are utilized to maximize the efficiency of your law firm.

Hone:  Your initial experience with outsourcing will be merely a trial run for the long-term.  Mistakes will be made, none of which will be anyone’s fault in particular.  Instructions will be misunderstood or poorly communicated, and the ball will be dropped.  You will be managing each task closely, but it may be frustrating to both you and the outsourced professional.  Take the time to listen to suggestions for improvement, and make some constructive ones of your own.  Refine the process regularly and you will minimize the problems later on.

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Officially Re-launching LM2- Coaching, Implementation and Marketing Support for Lawyers

Wow—it’s been long time coming in writing this post!

As I explained last week, I am turning the page and no longer working with Alexis Martin Neely and the Family Wealth Planning Institute.

Instead, I’ve realized it’s time to re-open the doors of my own business, which was extremely successful before my  decision to commit to one client in 2007—and ultimately one that changed the lives of many attorneys and practices all over this country.

So I’m excited to announce that I’ll once again be providing private coaching and high-end implementation services for qualified attorneys and attorney membership organizations in the US and Canada.

But here’s the really exciting part.

My company, Legal Marketing Maven, is now partnering with my good friend and well-respected implementation Goddess, Paula Woolley of Progressive Office Solutions and other incredible team members to provide full-service, complete marketing support for lawyers who are really serious about exploding their business this year.

So what does a full-service, complete virtual marketing team look like?

Basically, you’ll have a private coach, marketing director, copywriters, graphic designers, IT gurus, client service directors and administrative support staff virtually at your fingertips… devoted entirely to the growth, prosperity and vitality of your small or solo law firm.

You’ll also get the benefit of working with me as your personal mentor, coach and business strategist.  I’ve helped multiple businesses surpass the million dollar mark and I’m happy to give you the tools and strategies to do the same.

You will  also benefit from my network of service providers, marketing professionals and business gurus as I’m out there continuing my own personal education and staying up to date cutting edge strategies both in the legal and non legal communities. which of course is needed for long-lasting growth.

However, as I said this is a major time commitment on our part and we can only take a limited number of these high level relationships.  They are also limited geographically to ensure fairness and a true competitive edge to the lawyers we serve.

If you’re interested in becoming one of the few lawyers we serve at this level (and FYI a number of spaces are already filled—and filling fast just via word-of-mouth) please email me directly at help@tremendous-arm.flywheelsites.com

Yet for those of you simply looking for a la carte legal marketing , virtual administrative services or regular marketing support on a less-intensive level, we still have plenty of options to meet the growing needs of your small or solo firm.  You can see all of our services or request more information by visiting our services offered page.

Again, I am so excited to embark on this journey with you and look forward to completely transforming law firms across the country this year.

To your success & productivity!

Laura Lee

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

Weekly Staff Meetings – What NOT to Do

Last week we discussed the importance of having a weekly meeting with your team, and some suggestions to make these meetings productive and help streamline the work flow in your law business.

We’ve all had to attend meetings (sometimes regularly scheduled meetings) that we simply dreaded.  Since you do want your team meeting to happen every week, the last thing you want is for it to be something your staff does not look forward to.

Here are my tips for what NOT to do with your weekly team meeting time:

Do not assume everyone can stay in the meeting for an unlimited amount of time.  I recommend scheduling 60 minutes for the team meeting, and do your best to keep it within that time frame.

Do not spend the entire time, focused on one agenda item.  Everyone should come to the meeting with a printed agenda of items that everyone has contributed to.  If you see that the discussion of a certain item will take more than a few minutes and your agenda is full, suggest that the members of your team that are involved with that item, have a separate meeting to go more in depth on the topic.

Do not forget to take notes, always appoint someone to be in charge of taking notes (keeping the same person for this each week works well) and appoint someone in charge of reviewing the notes from the previous week and making sure that all open items carry over to the next agenda.

Do not ever use a team meeting to call someone out personally about a problem.  If you are having issues with a team members you or your manager should handle those problems privately.  On this same note if you are having a problem with a team member do not make that obvious during the staff meeting, by you comments, tone, or lack of responsiveness to that staff person.

And do not control the meeting.  You have selected your team because of the talent and gifts that they bring to the table.  When you bring all of those gifts to a meeting of the minds that is conducted in a “safe place” where there are no stupid questions or ideas, your business will benefit from this weekly activity in ways that you never dreamed possible.

Do you have tips that make your meetings more productive, or a staff meeting experience to share, please post a comment, we love to hear from you!

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.

• By Laura Lee

The Importance of Team Meetings and 4 Things you MUST Do To Keep Them Productive

As an attorney is important to have a team; be it in house, virtual or a combination of both,  and in order to manage your team effectively, it’s critical to implement weekly meetings so the team stays productive and your business keeps moving forward each month.

These team meetings can be done in person, via phone, or on a video platform like skype.  Yet no matter which platform you choose, the key is to ensure they happen each week without fail….schedule it at the same time every week as if it is your most important client.

That’s because your team needs at least an hour of your undivided attention to ask questions, go over open items, provide feedback and discuss future projects in a way that’s organized. And by setting aside a specific time each week for this to occur doesn’t interrupt your daily work flow on a regular basis.

You, in turn, need these meetings to check up on the progress of your team, give them the time to hear their feedback and answer questions, hold everyone accountable, brainstorm future projects and keep everyone informed of the happenings in the firm.

Having a weekly team meeting, is a great way to do this in a controlled and focused environment where everyone gets their needs met and your team is empowered to tackle their work load without struggle, confusion or lack of clarity each week.

If you’re not already holding weekly team calls for the employees or subcontractors of your firm, now is a great time to start.  Here are a few things you should ALWAYS do during a team meeting to ensure it is always a productive and efficient use of your time:

1. ALWAYS have an agenda– This keeps the meeting focused and on track.  Essentially, one person should be in charge of compiling the agenda and gathering talking points (from every person that attends the meeting) that they would like to cover in advance of the call.  You’ll then use this to guide the conversation and ensure all issues are discussed and resolved appropriately.
2. ALWAYS Share the Stage– It’s important that meetings are a collaborative and safe space and not just what you want, need or expect from your staff.  While that will ultimately be addressed on the call, it’s equally vital to make sure everyone has a chance to voice their needs, questions and/or concerns for feedback from the group.  In fact, I recommend starting each call by celebrating the successes of the week so it naturally pulls everyone into the conversation.  You can then proceed into the agenda from there.
3. ALWAYS look ahead two weeks in each meeting– This gives everyone the big picture as to what’s coming up so no one is scrambling at the last minute…or worse…misses an important deadline for your firm.   This two week run down should include everything significant on the company calendar—and if you don’t have a company calendar, now’s a great time to start one!
4. ALWAYS take notes– meeting notes are a great point of reference…and even a refresher as your team moves through their work load for the week.  It’s also a great point of reference for you or your manager to stay on top of what was assigned and to whom.

So there you have it….4 things you should ALWAYS do during a team to ensure they become an effective…and extremely beneficial use of your time.  Once you get started with these simple tips, you’ll be on your way to having more productive, efficient and happy team and hence a more productive business in no time.

Be sure to leave a comment below with any team meeting tips you find beneficial for you and your team.  Next week we’ll discuss the top things you should NEVER do on a team call, so stay tuned!

Would you like to talk about how we can help you save time on your marketing and help you turn ideas into action? Simply schedule a time on my calendar for a no-strings virtual cup of coffee.