marketing your law practice Archives

28 03, 2013

A Chance to Grab a Better Law Firm Website Name

2019-03-11T21:17:38+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on A Chance to Grab a Better Law Firm Website Name

There’s a big shake up going on in the world of internet domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is accepting applications for new generic Top Level Domains (TLDs). Top Level Domains are the second half of your website name – the part that follows the “dot,” such as .com, .net and .info. Historically, ICANN authorized only 22 generic TLDs and 248 country code TLDs, like .ca or .fr. Recently, however, ICANN began accepting applications for the issuance of new descriptive TLDs, such as .book or .auto.

So why should you care about all this mumbo jumbo? […]

10 01, 2013

Keep a Success Journal to Be a Happier and More Productive Lawyer

2019-03-11T21:41:57+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|2 Comments

It’s that “rubber-meets-the-road” time of year again. When solos start closing out the books on their law practices for the year, it spurs them to look back and take a little personal inventory. Some law firms and law departments ask their lawyers to summarize their accomplishments in connection with their annual performance review. I ask my clients to scrutinize their successes and their disappointments for the year that is ending, before setting their goals for the year to come.

As I assist lawyers with these processes, I notice that, although they may remember their shortcomings and disappointments with all the gory detail of a train wreck, they often forget significant achievements from the first half of the year. They also forget the heartfelt note of appreciation they received from a client four months ago and the midnight oil they burned for weeks to meet an important deadline. Sometimes when they master a skill or change a habit, the new behavior becomes so natural that they don’t count it as an achievement. They forget the awkwardness of their first attempts and how daunting the hurdle initially seemed.

[…]

13 11, 2012

Cultivating the Courage to Ask for Business – Part 3

2019-03-20T22:22:33+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|2 Comments

This is Part 3 of a 3 part series in which Debra L. Bruce talks to attorneys about less painful and more effective ways to ask for business from potential clients.

Networking Is Key

So how do you get into conversations with potential clients, or create the connections that can improve your likelihood of success, without making cold calls or being pushy? Networking is key. One in-house counsel said, “I enjoy talking to new people who introduce themselves at a conference or an event, particularly if they are confident, poised and friendly – without being overly aggressive.” Another said, “In order for a law firm attorney to have some chance of getting my business, I almost always would need to have met that person and ideally have had an opportunity to interact with them in a legal setting, such as serving on a bar committee or participating on the same seminar panel or co-authoring an article with them.”

So don’t give up on speaking, writing, bar service and trade association activity just because your phone doesn’t ring the next day. You are demonstrating your expertise and putting in place relationship building blocks. If you don’t meet a potential client, you might get to know someone who can later make an important introduction or referral. Corporate counsel frequently seek referrals from lawyers they trust, particularly other corporate counsel. […]

6 11, 2012

Cultivating the Courage to Ask for Business – Part 1

2019-04-01T20:52:45+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|3 Comments

This is Part 1 of a 3 part series in which Debra L. Bruce talks to attorneys about less painful and more effective ways to ask for business from potential clients.

Many lawyers, both men and women, blanch at the thought of having to ask for business, and I don’t blame them. In my opinion, it’s often a mistake, and it should be scary to do something clumsy or annoying. Common advice about “asking for the business” may drive sales in low risk transactions, but drive away potential clients with complex and risky issues.

Nevertheless, lawyers do need to develop business, and expressing your interest in working with someone can make a difference. How do you drum up the courage to do that? In short, it’s a lot less scary if you have laid the right groundwork beforehand. To help illustrate what potential clients want to hear from lawyers, I did an informal survey of a number of in-house counsel about how they like to be approached for business. My thoughts and their responses are intermingled in this article. […]

18 02, 2009

Creating Your Personal Marketing Plan

2009-02-18T16:15:22+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Creating Your Personal Marketing Plan

In the last article we talked about preparing to create a marketing plan. Now it’s time to write down your plan. A written plan requires you to organize your thoughts, and provides some accountability guidelines for your activities. This article does not address the specifics of advertising, but if you do plan to use advertising, it should be addressed in your plan, too. Here are five steps to create your marketing plan.

1. Budget marketing time. Decide how much time you will commit to marketing activities each week. It’s important to set a minimum so you will develop a regular habit of marketing activity. You can’t postpone your marketing efforts until you are low on work, because marketing legal services is a long-term process. You have to plant and nurture seeds before you can harvest the fruit. You can’t wait until you need the apples to plant the apple seeds.

Budget a minimum of five hours per week. That will allow for 10 to 15 minutes per day for making little connections by emails, notes or phone calls. Your other marketing activities will require time blocks of approximately two hours each. You might choose two per week from the categories of (a) in-person meeting over lunch, breakfast, dinner, coffee or cocktails with a client, prospect or referral source, (b) group networking activity such as a bar, civic, or industry association meeting, (c) writing or blogging, (d) online networking in listservs, social networking sites like LinkedIn, chat rooms or forums, or (e) speaking. Some weeks all of your efforts will fall in one category, but try to diversify your efforts over time.

[…]

21 01, 2009

Preparing to Create a Marketing Plan

2009-01-21T12:50:12+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Preparing to Create a Marketing Plan

The beginning of a new year is a good time to set a marketing plan for your legal services. Many lawyers don’t have a marketing strategy, much less an action plan. They use the “Threshold Method.” They take any business that crosses the threshold into their office.

Some attorneys write down marketing goals, but they put about as much thought into them as they do their new year’s resolutions. They resemble a wish list more than a plan. A wish list is better than nothing. At least if you stumble onto one of your goals, you’ll recognize it.

Some lawyers actually write down a plan of marketing activities for the year. This year they plan to give four speeches, attend three conferences and take four clients to lunch per month. At least they have some activities to aim for. They get off to an optimistic start, but their efforts tend to dwindle in a couple of months. Their numbers are specific, but their target audience is not. They lose momentum because they don’t have a focus.

A good marketing plan works like a treasure map, guiding you toward your goal. It gives you specific instructions, with landmarks that will help you gauge whether you are making progress toward finding what you are looking for. You know what you are trying to get to because “X marks the spot.”

You need to do some preparatory work, surveying the landscape before you create your treasure map. Get clear about the treasure you are seeking, and what kind of “X” it will be buried under. The steps described below will get you ready to map out a good plan.

[…]

2 07, 2008

Which Marketing Book Can Help You?

2008-07-02T14:55:57+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Which Marketing Book Can Help You?

Many of my clients ask me to recommend books that can be good tools or reference materials for enhancing their law practice management skills. Today I’m sharing with you my reviews of three popular books that address business development for lawyers.

1. Rainmaking Made Simple: What Every Professional Must Know by Mark M. Maraia. Maraia writes in an easy to read style, and gives numerous real life examples of how attorneys have successfully implemented the techniques he recommends. Those anecdotes shift the conceptual into the concrete, a real strength of the book.

Maraia’s book is ideal for attorneys who find marketing daunting, unpleasant or bothersome. He teaches the reader how to make marketing fun, or at least, in his words, “less torture.” He helps lawyers find ways to market their law practice while doing things they already like doing. He teaches them how to become more effective at the marketing techniques they have already attempted, and encourages them to stretch a little into some new activities.

[…]

1 06, 2007

Marketing: What Are You Already Doing Right?

2007-06-01T12:54:51+00:00By Debra L. Bruce, JD, PCC.|Comments Off on Marketing: What Are You Already Doing Right?

On a panel for a webcast by the Law Practice Management Program about “Finding and Keeping Good Clients,” we discussed the efficacy of public speaking. Rick Albers, a real estate lawyer in Austin, recounted that another lawyer once told him that he had spoken many times at continuing legal education programs, and never got any business from it. Rick’s mouth dropped open. He himself had referred four matters to that lawyer over the last several years. Rick made those referrals because he knew from hearing the lawyer speak that he was knowledgeable in the relevant area of practice.

Many years ago, when I had my own law firm, my father asked me how I got my clients. I blinked, dumbfounded by the question, and finally responded, “I wish I knew, Dad, so I could get more of them.” That question spurred me to examine my list of current and former clients. I discovered that 75% of my business came from referrals from other lawyers. To my surprise, many of those referrals came from my competitors!

[…]

Make an Appointment

Setting goals for
your life and career?

marketing your law practice

Make an Appointment

Setting goals for your life and career?

Setting goals for
your life and career?