The Best of My Legal Marketing Blog As Awarded By…. Me

At this time of year, it is not uncommon to pay tribute to what was "best about the current year. The news media does it. Entertainment companies do it. ESPN does it. And about a hundred different blogs to it as well.

Not wanting to buck the trend, I took the time to review the assorted blog articles we posted in 2016 and came up with what I perceive to be the “best “ legal marketing tips of the year. Needless to say, I am very proud that our posts are the acknowledged “winner” of all of these prestigious designations – even if we are the only participants or players in the game. 

Hence, with that in mind, here goes… We launched 2016 still in the goodwill frame of mind that comes (or should come) with the holidays. We reminded everyone that affiliating their firm with a worthy cause or special event can:

• Generate a high level of visibility
• Facilitate interface between firm attorneys and prospective clients
• Provide a means for building a contact database
• Underscore the branding of the firm
• Elevate the firm’s overall credibility in the eyes of the community and amongst its prospect groups.

Then we got back on the online marketing bandwagon, reiterating that sources for web, blog and social media content are plentiful and can be found within the firm, happenings in the business and legal communities, the specific areas of expertise of the firm’s attorneys, their published articles as well as special firm announcements and offerings.

By the time the summer came along, we were really rolling and pleading with our readers not to focus on search engine rankings. Specifically, we said:

"The point is not that search engine placement is irrelevant, or that being first is not often the preferred position. Rather, such a position is a means to an end, as is the monthly budget applied and the dollar amount of the click bid itself. If the goal of your firm’s PPC or SEO initiative is to generate more revenue for the firm, then the leads (or actual clients) generated per dollar is a much more significant metric. As important, it is also a better metric for directing you as to how your on-line dollars should be allocated."

Of course, all of our readers were following our words of wisdom and generating a vast array of new clients. So we told them it was important to appreciate these new sources of income and posted, “The value of a client is determined not just by the revenue that client brings in, but also by the revenue that client generates through word-of-mouth and referrals". Unfortunately, most law firms fail to track that information and thus fail to get a full understanding of what each client represents to the firm.” 

In August, we also admonished our readers not to give short shrift to the importance of the IT function in implementing marketing programs. 

We said:

“The law firm that places too great a distinction between marketing and information technologies runs the very real risk of inefficiency, but even more important, is almost certain to miss out on opportunity. A much wiser approach is to promote the full integration of the IT folks into the marketing decision making process."

As the leaves started turning brown, we turned to one of the most measurable of all marketing tools by highlighting how to measure the results of your Pay-Per-Click campaigns:

We said: “Ultimately, your best indication of results, will come not from reports on the metrics of your PPC campaign alone, but from aggregating your quality leads. All of the other metrics come into play only in the service of enhancing your efforts.”

And because so much of PPC success stems from the quality of the web site to which the ads are directed, in November, we asked “When is it Time to Re-design Your Web Site?” and determined that there were five valid reasons:

1. There’s a Major Change at the Firm
2. The Site No Longer Does What You Need it to Do
3. Your Site Looks Outdated
4. Technical Problems
5. You’re Not Getting the Results You Want

And finally, just last week we asked another question: “What Was the Return On Investment for the Couch in Your Office?” That’s right. We were trying to make an important point, namely that, “While it is certainly okay, in fact, highly recommended, to measure marketing allocations by their potential to yield a positive ROI, it is definitely not okay to consider those allocations as expenses rather as investments simply because the yield did not come as quickly as one might like.” Because if you did, you’d never even consider purchasing that new couch for your office.

So there you have it – the very best of 2016, at least according to me. 

On a larger scale, I think everyone would agree that, if nothing else, it’s been an “interesting” year.

Here’s hoping no matter how 2016 turned out for you, that 2017 is even better. Much better!!!