Law Firm 4.0 Blog

Lawyers (and everyone else), ask yourself: Am I my resume?

With yet another high profile resume-fake (Scott Thompson, who was ousted as Yahoo! CEO after four months among accusations that he lied on his resume about having a computer science degree) I am compelled to write this blog post about telling the truth on your website and other biographies.

Whether you call it biography, bio, profile, CV, vita or work history, this document should never have an ounce of fiction on it.  No fudging on capabilities and experience, board and community service, education (years, your major, the institutions you attended) . . . simply, don’t say you did something if you didn’t do it.

I read an article in the Dallas Morning News yesterday about a new book by author James Donovan, “The Blood of Heroes,” with the subtitle, “The 13-day struggle for the Alamo and the sacrifice that forced a nation.”  Apparently, the Alamo stories that we were taught in K-12 history classes were not true.  Davy Crockett was not executed by Mexican hero/despot Santa Anna, and the storied Alamo battle didn’t last 15-minutes, but more like 45 minutes or longer.  You might wonder what this has to do with lawyer biographies?

Donovan's Dallas Morning News article started:

“Everyone knows that Davy Crockett was executed after the battle of the Alamo by Santa Anna.  Except he wasn’t.”

Donovan, a Dallas author, writes:

“Crockett’s death, and the duration of the Alamo battle, are two examples of how historical events often become encrusted with myth, legend and error, deliberate or not. Particularly before the invention of electronic recording devices around the turn of the 20th century, history was more pliable, especially for those with an agenda — or simply to make a good story even better.”

I love the phrase, “…history was more pliable, especially for those with an agenda – or simply to make a good story even better.”  We do this all the time in conversation, subconsciously believing that facts should never get in the way of a good story.

He concludes his article:

“History, like life, may be messy, awkward and embarrassing on occasion, but that’s because it’s about people, and none of us is perfect. Without respect for historical truth, we compromise our ability to grow and improve both as individuals and as a society.”

Too many lawyer resumes include every line of what the person has ever done, spoken or written.  Bios should follow the governing clothes-closet management rule:  Don’t put one new clothing article in your closet without eliminating something old.

Without such stewardship, the result of this year-after-year layering of data, whether online or on paper, is that your memory fades and you no longer remember if it was true.  If there was an error or omission 20 years ago, chances are you are still carrying it forward – simply because you aren’t looking at it that carefully, you can’t remember, and you assume it must be true because it used to be true. And it’s about you, so what’s the big deal?

My company, Content Pilot, is preparing to conduct our fifth research study, “2012 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices,” where we analyze the websites of America’s top 100 law firms based on gross revenue. The 4^th Foundational Best Practice is lawyer biographies.  I’ll write more about the foundational attributes of a “best practices” lawyer resume in another post, but the glaring problem we see is that too many senior partners don’t care about their bios.  This opens doors, however, for those partners who do care – by comparison, who stand out as relevant, current and subject matter experts in their fields.  After all, that’s the goal of your website (and other online sources, such as LinkedIn) biography – come across well enough that you are short-listed for a particular matter.  Then it’s your job to get chosen as “the one.”

When your bio is riddled with old information – or worse, lies (a strong word, I know) about what you’ve done – everything else that is accurate is questioned.  Don’t risk the reputation damage by being “too busy” to update your resume when your marketing team requests it.

The musical, “A Chorus Line” starts with an energetic number, “I Hope I Get It,” where the auditioning dancers start competing against each other for a job in the chorus.  In unison they sing,

“God, I hope I get it. I hope I get it.  How many boys, how many girls?  Look at all the people, at all the people” . . . Then one dancer sings, “I really need this job, please god I need this job, I’ve got to get this job!”

As it continues, it segues into a lone male dancer singing,

“Who am I anyway? Am I my resume? That is a picture of a person I don't know. What does he want from me? What should I try to be? So many faces all around, and here we go. I need this job, oh God, I need this show.” 

So, ask the question:  Am I my resume?  Take a fresh and critical look at every claim you make – the three-prong test against which your assertion should be judged is:  1) Is it truthful? 2) Is it current? (If it’s not, buyers of legal services may not care about it.) And, 3) Is it relevant? (If it’s not, buyers of legal services won’t care about it.)

What law firms can learn from Dyson's (think vacuum cleaners) anti-branding slur.

British industrial designer, Sir James Dyson, is best known for his iconic bagless vacuum cleaner that he peddles on television. And among frequent travelers who wash their hands in airport restrooms, for the Dyson Airblade, which dries your hands as would the edge of a tornado.

But after a recent comment in which he said he didn't believe in branding - "We're only as good as our latest product. I don't believe in brand at all." - he is now famous for being the anti-branding guy.

Matt Straz, blogger of MediaPost's Online Spin, wrote yesterday, "Like a cat coughing up a hair ball, Dyson's comment caused a loud, involuntary response from the advertising world."

Let me give you some context: Dyson was speaking at Wired magazine's "Disruptive by Design" conference earlier this month. He responded to the question, "Does brand make the product or does product make the brand?" He said that "Brand was the only word that was banned at his company," then concluded with the statement above.

A Forbes.com article about his statement said, "A remarkable comment from someone who has stood in front of a camera for the last decade or more on behalf of creating his own eponymous brand of vacuum cleaners, and spending millions in the process."

The Forbes article suggests that Dyson may not understand what "brand" or "branding is, and it goes on to describe what it is. It talks about how successful brands create new rituals:

"Powerful brands have rituals. Much as Starbucks changed how we have coffee in the morning, and Ikea has changed how we interact with newly-purchased furniture, Dyson has changed the ritual of how we interact with our vacuum by handing us one that can be snapped together (or unsnapped) much like Lego blocks. The rollerball changes the way we move across the floor. The quick-open canister lets us dump right into the garbage can, rather than unleashing those nasty vacuum bags. And if you really want to get into it, there’s the ritual of innovation–and creating 5,127 prototypes, and more innovation."

I asked friend and colleague Norm Rubenstein, Partner and branding expert at the Zeughauser Group, about his take on Dyson's slur - and whether law firm leaders with an anti-branding bias might have new fodder to dispute its efficacy.  Norm says:

"There is profound irony in Dyson’s claim 'I don’t believe in brand at all.' Dyson’s company is reminiscent of Apple, a company whose followers buy products, often products they don’t need, because of their elegant marriage of form and content. In creating his high-end vacuum cleaner, Dyson has made it the ultimate status symbol: what greater triumph of brand recognition than to invest in a luxury good that lives in a closet with one’s cleaning supplies as opposed to on a desk or adorning one’s person? And once people got on the Dyson bandwagon, reinforced through traditional advertising that always has extolled the product’s innovative technology and consumer benefits, they suddenly found a need for Dyson’s chic fans, and one suspects, will require his future products in the same way as they are introduced."

Online Spin also points to Nike, who has significantly reduced its investment in traditional branding pillars, such as advertising.

"Having relied for years on mass branding messages like 'Just do it,' the company has now dramatically scaled back its investment in traditional branding. Nike has also reduced its emphasis on big brand athletes like Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, and Lance Armstrong. Instead, the company has focused on creating software and gadgets like its new Fuel wristband that measures athletic output. Instead of marketing products, Nike is using products to market itself."

To that, Norm says,

"The truth is that brand development and brand maintenance, decidedly different stages in a product’s life cycle, are opportunities to employ different tools and tactics for reinforcing brand awareness and loyalty. Products and services require significant marketing focused on developing and raising visibility in their infancy: in their adolescence, assuming they come to enjoy unaided top-of-mind recognition as both Dyson and Nike have done, they can rely on satisfied customers to help sustain their brand equity."

Social media has changed the branding landscape in ways we couldn't have imagined even four years ago. It supports both mass customization and engagement at the most powerful of all levels - person to person. And the dollar investment is a fraction of the cost of traditional broadcast and print advertising.

Norm agrees,

"The emergence of social media makes it possible for a company like Nike to shift the extent to which it has to rely on traditional branding tools. In its previous marketing, which always has been advertising-intensive, Nike has made its 'swoosh' synonymous with the achievements of admired athletes. By creating ongoing demand for its products and aligning them with a promise of quality and performance, Nike now enjoys the benefit of extensive brand equity. As the marketplace shifts and consumers now have become their own product reviewers/marketers, the company theoretically can take advantage of marketing that shifts its focus away from admired role models (who often disappoint in real life) and place it on the traditional—might one say, the average, buyer—the buyer whose endorsement in the Zagat world in which everyone’s opinion counts—can begin to redefine its approach to the marketplace."

So, what does this mean for law firms? It's challenging for law firms, even the largest of the AmLaw 100 firms, to defend their brand positions as unique among all their competitors. Is it possible? Yes, absolutely, but it requires research, rigor and patience, plus a significant and consistent investment of time and money. Law firms can take advantage of all the media that Dyson, Nike and Starbucks use - but they often don't have the stomach for it or the budget to sustain it. It also requires leadership and vision constancy - meaning, firms whose Chair and Managing Partner positions are up for grabs every two or three years will have a harder time than those firms who invest in the same leaders year after year.

Norm concluded our interview by saying,

"... For a law firm to follow the lead of a Nike and begin to shift its marketing focus, say by taking greater advantage of new media as a critical component of its marketing mix, it needs to assess the brand equity it already enjoys, and if it is not an acknowledged market leader in the spaces for which its seeks to be known (defined not by the firm, but by the market), it will need to maintain or to develop a robust strategy that well may continue to require extensive use of traditional marketing tools (e.g., thought leadership and credentialing)."

I'd say that Dyson is all about branding, even if he doesn't call it that.

 

Do the leaders of your law firm use social media? Employees trust leaders who do.

By now, most law firms have inked social media policies, yet leaders' fears are still cresting at the thought of firm employees' fingers running amok and damaging the firms' reputations in some way. It seems this trepidation is a one-way street, however, as BRANDfog's 2012 Social Media and Leadership Survey found.

BRANDfog surveyed hundreds of employees in companies ranging in size from start-ups to Fortune 500 behemoths asking about company executives and their use of social media to communicate with them and the rest of the world. 81% said that CEOs who use social media are "better equipped" than their peers to lead companies in this contemporary business environment. This included "communicating values and shaping corporate reputation."

82% said they were more likely or much more likely to trust a CEO and other top executives who use social media. And 78% said that they'd prefer to work for a company whose leaders regularly use social media.

Most respondents agreed that social media significantly aids leaders' engagement with key stakeholders:

1. 89.3% said executives can better communicate with customers
2. 84.7% believed that it improves communication with employees
3. 66.3% said executives should use it to communicate with investors
4. 71% said executive engagement in social media enhances your brand.

But you can't fix a company environment that's broken, they said. Only 45% believed that you can improve bad company morale via C-suite social media use.

Erik Sass of the MediaPost Blog The Social Graf notes: "All this makes interesting reading when juxtaposed with actual rates of social media engagement among CEOs and top execs. According to figures cited by BRANDfog, while 61% of Fortune 500 brands use Twitter to engage with customers, just 2.5% of Fortune 500 CEOs are actively using Twitter."

What can law firm leaders take from this? Employees want more communication from you - not just staff, but your lawyers, too. There is a readily available platform you can use to post your musings, and to show how you understand today's world of business communication. I know you have a lot to say -- roll up your sleeves and plan your communication strategy for the next 12 months. Choose the social media forum that makes the most sense for you - LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or a blog - and commit to it.

Your firm's clients will be listening, too. And they will finally have a chance to know why you have been chosen to lead your firm.

Your vote and opinion really matter to me! Deadline to vote: Friday, March 30

I am proud to announce that my company, Content Pilot, has been included in the first-ever National Law Journal list of legal vendors for 2012. We have worked hard to be a part of this important national list - and we'll work even harder to stay on it.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NLJBest2012

If you think highly of us, we would be honored if you would take a moment to vote for us in the following categories:

#27 - Who offers the best LEGAL MARKETING AND BRANDING SERVICES?

#28 - Who offers the best LAW FIRM WEBSITE DESIGN SERVICES?

#60 - Who offers the best LAW FIRM PROPOSAL AUTOMATION & EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION?

If the numbers don't correspond to these noted here, worry not (they may vary by the position you note in your entry) - please look for the text titles as displayed above.

The deadline is this Friday, March 30. Thank you VERY much!! Deborah

Content Pilot's "Velocity" wins IAC Awards - Best Legal Mobile Application

NEWS RELEASE - March 26, 2012

THE 2012 INTERNET ADVERTISING COMPETITION AWARDS (iAC) HONORS CONTENT PILOT'S "VELOCITY"

The first mobile app to drive sales in the legal industry wins "Best Legal Mobile Application"

Dallas, Texas -- Content Pilot LLC announced today that Velocity™, the first mobile application that drives sales for lawyers and other professionals in professional services firms, won “Best Legal Mobile Application” in the 2012 Internet Advertising Competition Awards. The Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards are produced by the Web Marketing Association to “honor excellence in online advertising, recognize the individuals and organizations responsible, and showcase the best in award winning Internet advertising.” In 2011, more than 86 industries were represented in the competition.

Law firms using Velocity have the clear advantage of their lawyers being able to search on their iPhone, BlackBerry, iPad or other mobile device at critical moments in business development discussions. The app intuitively organizes and pulls lawyers’ experience, client, team and other information so lawyers will never again miss critical business development opportunities.

“We are ecstatic that Velocity is getting this broad industry recognition. It cuts through barriers to success that lawyers have in sales and cross-selling, and it is ahead of the curve in terms of where smart phone and tablet technology is headed.” explains Deborah McMurray, CEO and Strategy Architect for Content Pilot and a former law firm chief marketing officer.

The IAC Awards were formally announced today.

About Velocity:

Velocity is patent pending, and is powered by Content Pilot, an industry leader that provides business development and marketing technologies to professional services firms, including proposal
centers, websites, experience databases and more.

About Content Pilot:

Content Pilot LLC (www.contentpilot.net) is a Dallas-headquartered marketing strategy and
technology company launched in 2006 that serves leading law firms and other professional services firms across the U.S. For more information about Velocity: Contact Deborah McMurray at
214.351.9690 or 972.897.4921 by phone or email at mcmurray@contentpilot.net.

The Elephant in the Room: Marketing Technology Trends you can't Afford to Ignore

That's the title of our ILTA/LMA panel at the Legal Marketing Association's pre-conference CMO session tomorrow. (This is the first formal joint venture between LMA and ILTA - the first of many, I hope.) Starting at 11 CT, Kate Cain, the new Director of Market Intelligence at Sidley, will kick off our session as moderator. Panelists are Joe Calve, CMO at Morrison & Foerster; Mark Greene, Chief Business Development Officer at Waller; Bob Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer at Greenberg Traurig; and me.

We had attendees complete a two-minute survey in advance of our session so we could tailor our remarks to their interests. The hottest button issues of this CMO audience are: CRM, experience databases and proposal centers, websites and social media. And we are covering all these topics, sharing trends, then discussing our real-world experiences to make the planning, process and implementations successful. All of us have a business focus - a use-case focus, rather than climbing into the features of the technology tools. We all believe this is where success begins.

If you are interested in receiving a copy of our handouts after tomorrow, please email me at mcmurray@contentpilot.net.

I hope to see you at the conference! (If you are at LMA, please stop by the Content Pilot booth - #316 - and say hi.)

SMU Law School Law Practice Management Class 2012 - What's on their minds?

Last week I taught Southern Methodist University's Law Practice Management class - for the third year in a row. In 2011, the students were mostly 2Ls, but this year, there was an equal mix of 4Es (evening students who have fulltime jobs during the day), second and third years. They are in this class not to learn about the practice of law, but to study the business of law. (Read last year's blog post about this class.)

This course was created and is taught by Mark Shank, partner in the litigation boutique, Gruber Hurst Johansen Hail Shank.

Like last year, I kicked off my presentation, "Marketing on the Internet", by asking two questions:

1. When you think of starting your careers in a year or two, what is the biggest opportunity that you see the Internet can bring you?
2. What is your greatest fear when you think about the Internet and your career?

We discussed the students' answers before I continued with the Ten Foundational Best Practices of law firm websites, and the increasingly far-reaching world of serious social media. I've written about both on this blog.

Because these students are covering the "real world" aspects of running a law practice, they will be much better prepared than their classmates who don't understand the complexities of law firm profitability, client relationship management, service delivery, business development - and yes, the opportunities and risks associated with marketing on the Internet.

Here is how the students answered the first question (I am using their names with their permission - and you can find them all on LinkedIn if you want to get better acquainted with them):

1. Steven Strobl (a 4E entrepreneur): The biggest opportunity that the Internet can bring . . . is the ability to easily, cheaply communicate at a global level. The Internet is the ultimate symbol of services globalization. More people are connected every year, making it one of the easiest ways to increase your clientele on a global scale.
2. Brett Talley: The Internet is an easy way to connect with clients and provide info about your law firm. The problem is that a lot of firms use web pages in much the same way, and they often all look the same to prospective clients. So, the way the Internet is being utilized currently provides an opportunity to do something different - to stand out.
3. Laura Fenstad (2L): Biggest opportunity that I see are websites that rank law firms and give people a chance to blog about their experiences.
4. Emily Benbrook: Online client reviews of the work attorneys have previously provided for them. Yelp, Google Reviews, etc.
5. J. Brooks Durham (2L): You can learn about your new employer and learn how to advance in that practice area by learning about the career path of the partners and senior associates. Often there is information available online that you cannot get from them face-to-face.
6. Chase Crosby: Access to a wider consumer base, which (while it presents a greater set of challenges) also offers a greater chance of success. And actually making a substantial difference in society.
7. Scott I. Hooker: It gives me the opportunity to target the niche I wish to develop. In my case, estate, business and tax planning. Over the long-term, if I can carve out such a niche, it gives me a chance to target that niche as a prominent practitioner in it.
8. Thuy Nguyen: Exposure to an audience outside your immediate network.
9. Justin Wilson (2L): I'd like to use the Internet as a means for educating legal clients to the process my trial animation business will use to revolutionize the way animations are used as demonstrative evidence - through cinematic techniques like motion-capture.
10. Sarah Russell (2L): Advertising/publishing, quick access to information. many forums for communication.
11. Cade Jobe (3L): Social media - from jobs to contacts to customer service. I don't trust a company that doesn't have a website and it's getting that way with social media.
12. Clarence Wilson (3L): Marketing and branding to a global market.
13. Chase Potter: The plethora of information it provides me.
14. Greg McAllister (an alumnus of this class from two years ago, and now an associate at Gruber Hurst Johansen Hail & Shank): Social media - passive marketing, but opportunities to be active, plus SEO opportunities. Build your brand on your law firm's website.

Unlike some lawyers who have been practicing for a few years (although it's not entirely a function of age or generation), these guys get the enormous potential of the digital assets available.

Here are some of their fears:

1. Steven: Over-regulation or excessive government control. SOPA/PIPA are good recent examples. Further, depersonalization of legal services concerns me. Everyone interacts screen-to-screen more than face-to-face these days. This can reduce the drive to engage in more meaningful ways (more meaningful than "I need XYZ, please respond.")
2. Brett: Easier for clients to contact you via email, leads to them to expect more communication and quicker responses.
3. Laura: Losing a trial and having a reputation ruined.
4. Emily: Software or websites providing legal advice or services for clients - and thus stripping business from attorneys.
5. Brooks: New employer may lie on the website, so you think you are taking a job at one firm and end up at a completely different firm. And ending up on WSJ Blog bad writing examples.
6. Chase: Because of the easy access, how do you "brand" yourself in a manner that is both unique/specialized and valuable to a wide consumer base. The fear is in finding that optimal mix when it seems as though the Internet has grown the number of competitors.
7. Scott: Probably the biggest fear is the Internet's permanence, especially regarding disgruntled clients or other negatives. It's also the challenge of establishing a reputation at all online as one builds a practice.
8. Thuy: The possibility that you can't congtrol what someone else will post about you on the Internet and the irreparable damage it could cause to your reputation.
9. Justin: I fear potential clients won't find my site in a Google search (not being on the first page in a Google search).
10. Sarah: Things I don't want out there getting published (particularly quotes being taken out of context).
11. Cade: Making a mistake and it being published on the web.
12. Clarence: Damage control.
13. Chase: The plethora of information it provides clients or potential clients.
14. Greg: Missed opportunities. Failure to take advantage of it all.

As natural as it is for these students to "live" online, they have most of the same fears that practicing lawyers have. Last year, the big fear of these students was "privacy," and I cautioned them about posting things on Facebook (or anywhere) that could embarrass them or someone close to them later. Strangely, this year it didn't come up, although reputational risk was mentioned several times.

Advice to all law firms with established summer recruiting programs: Ensure that your summer clerks understand the opportunities and the perils of maintaining an active digitial presence. Feel free to download a copy of my SMU Law School presentation.

And Good Luck to the 2012 Law Practice Management class. See you on LinkedIn!

Mobile apps or mobile websites: What's a law firm to do??

When my company, Content Pilot, last conducted the AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices research in Q2-3 2010, there were only four of the country's largest law firms that had mobile apps.  A few more had mobile websites, which were typically poorly designed, bare-bones renditions of their big site.  (Learn more about the Ten Foundational Best Practices by keyword searching on this blog.)

We will conduct the research again this summer, and I expect we'll see more of both.  (More on our upcoming research study and the findings about mobility and the other Foundational Best Practices later.)

Jakob Nielsen, the Internet expert on usability, writes in today's Alertbox: 

"Mobile apps currently have better usability than mobile sites, but forthcoming changes will eventually make a mobile site the superior strategy."

On its face, this is great news for law firms, which don't have the multi-million dollar Internet marketing budgets like major corporations.  The skeletal apps that we first saw from law firms had budgets estimated at $30,000 - 75,000.  I wonder if those firms think they got their money's worth - other than being among the first to bring "cool" to market.  As app development and expectations for user experience have matured, that cost is going higher and higher.  Remember, one app doesn't fit all devices - if you want your app to reach everyone, you need to design it for iPhones, Androids, BlackBerrys, and all forms of tablets (iPad, Kindle Fire, Samsung, etc.). 

If your law firm has an actual application that it wants to push to buyers of legal services, design an app.  If you simply want visitors to have a great experience with your website on a mobile device, then design a highly usable mobile website.

Nielsen says that today, apps perform better in usability testing:

"As of this writing, there's no contest: ship mobile apps if you can afford it. Our usability studies with mobile devices clearly show that users perform better with apps than with mobile sites. (Mobile sites have higher measured usability than desktop sites when used on a phone, but mobile apps score even higher.)

The empirical data is really all you need to know. It's a fact that apps beat mobile sites in testing."

Nielsen continues though, and says:

"In the future, the cost-benefit tradeoff for apps vs. mobile sites will change.

Although I just said that computers will become 100 times more powerful, this doesn't necessarily mean that the iPhone 14 will be 100 times faster than the iPhone 4S. It's more likely that hardware advances will be split between speed and other mobile priorities, especially battery lifetime. So, a future phone might be only 10 times faster (but will be thinner, lighter, and able to run much longer between charges), whereas download times will be cut by a factor 57.

The expense of mobile apps will increase because there will be more platforms to develop for. At a minimum, you'll have to support Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Furthermore, many of these platforms will likely fork into multiple subplatforms that require different apps for a decent user experience."

Jakob Nielsen advocates up to three mobile websites for optimal usability - one each for Smart Phones, mid-sized tablets and for larger tablets.

"It's only realistic to expect even further UI diversity in the future. This will make it extremely expensive to ship mobile apps.

In contrast, mobile sites will retain some cross-platform capabilities, so you won't need as many different designs. High-end sites will need 3 mobile designs to target phones, mid-sized tablets (like Kindle Fire), and big tablets. Using ideas like responsive design will let you adapt each of these site versions to a range of screen sizes and capabilities. The same basic UI design will work for both a 6.8-inch tablet and a 7.5-inch tablet if you simply shrink or stretch things a bit. (A 5-inch phone would require a different design, with fewer features and abbreviated content.)"

So - today, my advice to law firms that want to optimize access of their websites and can afford to invest in mobility is to design the best mobile website for the highest used devices.  According to the website analytics that we follow, iPhones and iPads are still a low percentage of visitors to law firm websites.  But those visitors have steadily increased, and we believe this traffic will grow exponentially.  So - design mobile sites for Smart Phones and large tablets.

For law firms that don't have Internet mobility locked into your budget, then ensure that your current website is "mobile friendly."  Every website launched today should, at a minimum, be designed for easy access on a mobile device.

A final piece of advice about mobile website design:  Don't let a developer take your current desktop site and simply scale it back.  Those sites are typically ugly, don't perform well or deliver what visitors want, and developers are not invested in what buyers of legal services are looking for from your firm.  Hire a designer who understands buyer behavior and the plusses and minuses of website mobility and user experience.

 

3 Geeks review our cross-selling mobile app, Velocity

In an ILTA hosted webinar yesterday about experience databases, Kathrine Cain (Winston & Strawn), Lisa Simon (Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck) and I spoke about our own experiences implementing experience databases.  As I mentioned in my introduction and observations, this is one of the hottest topics proliferating law firms today - and not just the IT or marketing department, but the executive suite and your managing partners' offices.

Firm leaders are clamoring to improve cross-selling and grow revenue.  And make lateral integration more successful.

I'll write more of a program recap in a day or two (and will alert you when ILTA posts a recording of the webinar on its site), but in my concluding "What's Next" remarks, I mention this:

All the lawyers and marketers to whom I've spoken agree that for cross-selling to improve, lawyers must learn to strike while the iron is hot.  Meaning, when lawyers are at a conference, having lunch or a drink, or riding in a cab with a client or prospect, and the client asks, "Do you have anyone who does <fill in the blank> in the ________ industry?"--the lawyer must be able to facilitate a spontaneous conversation around that topic.  Right then and there. 

Trusted mobility is next. 

Content Pilot has created Velocity, a mobile app that integrates with your experience database to do exactly this.  Read the review on the 3 Geeks and a Law Blog.

For more information, please email me at mcmurray@contentpilot.net

 

Attorney at Work's "Lawyer Marketing Collection 2011"

If you haven't subscribed to Attorney at Work yet, take 5 minutes during this post-Christmas-gift-exchanging-sale-exploiting week and do it.  To get a taste for the benefit you'll receive, download this free "Lawyer Marketing Collection 2011" -- the most popular/best read Attorney at Work posts during the last year. 

I am happy to say that I have two posts among the 11 featured in this year-end edition - "Nine Questions to ask about your Firm's Website" and "Email Signatures:  Valuable Real Estate (co-authored by colleague Keith Wewe)."

Merrilyn Astin Tarlton and Joan Feldman say this in their intro to this 2011 collection:

Sometimes it seems the only business problem you really have is knowing how to get more clients. Sure, people talk about marketing plans, but exactly what plans should you be making? What’s working for others? What should your next priorities be? Well, if you’ve been longing for someone to just tell you what to do … here we are!

We’ve gathered the top Attorney at Work marketing articles from 2011—the ones readers told us helped them the most, and the ones that generated the most “clicks”—and assembled this handy guide. It may just be the starting point—or the kick in the butt—you’ve been needing. Take a read through them, share and discuss them with colleagues, and we guarantee you won’t need anyone to tell you what belongs in those marketing plans. It will all come from you.