I recently discovered a very informative article called “iPad Apps for Lawyers” published by this group which pares down the somewhat exhaustive list of apps to about 50 that are really useful to trial lawyers.  To review the entire list categorized by function, click here.

While visiting their site, I also learned a lot about their app called JuryPad.

What an amazing tool at a very reasonable price ($19.99 for the iTunes download).  Watch the short promotional video for all the features and tools to assist not only with voir dire but mapping of jury pools, demographics, statistics and trial results.

Donna A. Jones
Senior Vice President

I recently came across an article by Brain Tannebaum. It’s based on his interview with Sam Cohen, from Attorneys First, about malpractice insurance for attorneys. Brain does a good job of covering the basic questions a lawyer might have. I thought it might be very useful to a new attorney wondering about malpractice insurance. Brian covers several points during the article, some of which are:

• Which attorneys don’t need malpractice insurance.
• What malpractice insurance covers.
• Considerable options for attorney coverage.

To find out what other advice is Sam shares, view the full article here.

Attorney John Fisher in Kingston, New York shares with Author and Educator Michael J. Swanson how a book, like 'The Power of a System,' is the world's greatest business card for attorneys and business owners.

Attorneys Bob and Brad Simon of The Simon Law Group in Hermosa Beach, California, share with Author and Educator Michael J. Swanson what to do to go paperless at your law firm and how it can help you get better results for your clients.

In today’s video, you’ll meet America’s Top Trial Lawyer Genie Harrison of Genie Harrison Law Firm in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Swanson interviews her about tracking emotional damages and her new app that will help attorneys do so.

One of America’s Top Trial Attorneys, Andrew Garza of the Connecticut Trial Firm, sits down with author and educator Michael J. Swanson to discuss the importance of using focus groups on your cases and give tips on how to use focus groups to get better results for your clients.

Credit cards are a staple part of American purchasing. Almost everyone has at least one credit card, whether they use it often or save it for emergencies. Surprisingly, some attorneys, along with other professionals, choose not to accept payment via credit card. A few years ago, this would have been understandable, but technology has changed so much since then.

Those changes and improvements in technology, especially mobile technology, have made it easier than ever for all business owners to accept credit cards. Obtaining the information needed to know about credit card processing is even easier. Check out What Attorneys Should Know About Accepting Credit Cards, an article from FindLaw For Legal Professionals, to learn how you can get started today.

Busy schedules and a lack of interest are probably two the biggest reasons attorneys don’t blog. What’s wrong with that? Nothing. While many may disagree with me, plenty of attorneys and other professionals have grown their business’s online presence without blogging on the daily basis. I’m not saying that abandoning the idea of sharing news and announcements online is a good idea. A few newsletters could easily make a decent replacement for blogging, and many professionals will agree.

Carolyn Elefant, a contributor for www.AboveTheLaw.com, recently wrote 6 Reasons Why E-Newsletters Beat Blogging As A Content Marketing Tool for Lawyers. Give it a read to find out how you can start using newsletters to better your firm’s marketing efforts without spending an excess amount of time.

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

In today's video, Attorney Ryan McKeen of Connecticut Trial Firm sits down with Author & Educator, Michael J. Swanson, to talk about the book he wrote with four other attorneys, Jay Ruane, Billie Tarascio, William Umansky, and Theresa DeGray called Tiger Tactics: Powerful Strategies for Winning Law Firms, which is a book that discusses law practice management strategies.

Getting yourself motivated to take courses for your CLE can sometimes be quite challenging. This is especially true if you have a busy schedule. This lack of motivation and time is something that every educated professional will more than likely deal with at one time or another. While I most certainly am not a lawyer, I too must find time to take courses that will benefit my own career.

I recently came across an article on www.AboveTheLaw.com titled, Beyond Biglaw: Back To School (Or, Some Tips About Continuing Legal Education), written by Gaston Kroub. Mr. Kroub comes up with several good points that can not only help other attorneys stay on top of their CLE, but also help them enjoy taking the courses. They include:

• Using technology to better locate and take courses.
• What types of courses attorneys can take.
• How teaching CLE can contribute to your own education.

The advice Mr. Kroub gives in this article helped motivate me to stop putting off the enhancement of my own education, and I’m sure it can help motivate you. To view the full article, click here.

Copyright: Andriy Popov

I recently came across an interesting article from the Consumer Attorneys of California’s Forum Magazine by Ibiere N. Seck, Esq. The article, Do I Need a Jury Consultant, features Ms. Seck’s interview with Jury Consultant Harry Plotkin. Mr. Plotkin gives a good insight what exactly a jury consultant does, why they’re effective and when is the best time to bring one onto a case.

I recommend giving the article a read. If you know any young lawyers getting ready for their first case, I highly recommend sharing it with them.

Click here to read it. Hope you enjoy!

Copyright:  123RF Stock Photo

By Yvette Valencia

There's more to "seasonal web content" than just following the calendar patterns of spring, summer, fall, and winter. There are many more seasons that matter to different businesses. CPAs, for example, perk up around tax season, while roofers and disaster repair specialists might see a pickup in web searches for their services around hurricane season.

Attorneys: Take a Look at Your Own Seasonal Observations

Seasons exist for attorneys as well. If you've been practicing for a while you should have started to notice trends in your caseload and the types of cases you get during certain times of the year. Understanding this information will help you craft the most relevant content for the season. For example, many family law attorneys find that January is a major month for divorce cases.

Personal Injury: Consider the Recreational Seasons

For personal injury attorneys, there's never an "off season" where people don't get injured in accidents. However, depending on where you practice, there are several "seasons" that can influence the types of accidents you see.

Injury attorneys in warm coastal areas like Florida and California may see patterns of decreases and increases relative to weather and tourist season in water-related accidents.

• Boat crashes
• Parasailing injuries
• Defective water products like jet skis

Personal injury lawyers in rural areas may see an increase in hunting accidents during the various game seasons. Lawyers in or near large cities with high tourism may anticipate more accidents with lost or distracted drivers from out of town during certain seasons.

Keep in mind the major holidays to tailor content to those celebrations, like pedestrian safety for Halloween and decorating safety during the winter holidays. Another type of content to keep in mind during holidays is driving safety.

Every year AAA publishes heavy traffic warnings during major holiday weekends like Memorial Day Weekend, Labor Day Weekend, and 4th of July Weekend. These are all times when more people take road trips or drive while intoxicated from holiday parties.

Seasonal Calendars Can Help You Plan for Maximum Content Success

If you're going to take advantage of content seasons to increase web traffic and lead gathering, do some pre-planning. At the start of every year make up a content calendar and highlight all of the different seasons that matter to your law practice. They don't all have to be legal-related, either. If you have a charitable cause that's near and dear to your heart like breast cancer awareness, highlight that in October during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Planning seasonal content in advance allows you to ensure your content is written, proofread, and ready to post when the appropriate season comes up. Not only does this help you keep your content timely and current, it also ensures you'll have something ready to post when you don't have a regular article or blog to go up.

If you're hitting a wall trying to come up with seasonal content, don't fret! We Do Web Content has your back! Just fill out our contact form and we'll be in touch to discuss your practice and what kind of content we can provide year-round to take advantage of the seasons and other hot topics in your area. Call us at 888-521-3880.

Advocate Capital, Inc., is a commercial finance company that was founded in 1999. Our main focus is providing an alternative to the “interest free” loans that most trial lawyers make to their firms for case expenses. We do this through a unique combination of commercial lines-of-credit and specialized accounting services.

Our clients are the best and the brightest of trial law firms from all over the United States. Our typical client-firm is a well established, experienced trial law firm whose partners are high-net-worth attorneys at the “top of their game”. Many are leaders of state and national trial lawyer associations, and quite a few are authors and expert speakers in the profession.

Advocate Capital, Inc., has enjoyed consistent, rapid, profitable growth during its history and now has clients in over 35 states. We look forward to adding you to our family of satisfied clients!

Website: www.advocatecapital.com

Gerry is a practicing NY Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorney in one of the most competitive markets in the Country.

He is the author of “Secrets of Lawyer Video Marketing in the Age of YouTube,” and lectures to thousands of lawyers across the country each year, has written hundreds of articles on video marketing for attorneys and is considered the leading authority on video marketing for lawyers.

He has personally created over 1350 educational videos to teach his potential clients how cases involving medical malpractice & accidents work and is the Founder of the Lawyers Video Studio, where he has helped lawyers across the United States create over 3500 videos to market their law firms.

Gerry has used video marketing to generate settlements of over $8.6 million dollars for his own solo practice.

Connect:

A basic fundamental part of convincing someone to believe you is providing visual evidence to back up whatever you are trying to prove. Many attorneys know this to be true in the courtroom. After all, seeing is believing. I recently came across an article by Daniel L. Buckfire, an attorney with Buckfire & Buckfire, P.C. In his article, titled ‘The Benefits of Using Visual Aids With Expert Testimony,” Daniel talks about the use of visual aids in personal injury cases, and goes in depth on the following:

• The importance of visual evidence
• The use of substantive & demonstrative visual evidence
• Legal exhibit companies
• New technology

View Mr. Buckfire’s full article, click here.

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

If you are like many personal injury attorneys, you have probably had to deal with issues regarding liens. Resolving issues with liens is without a doubt frustrating and time-consuming. There may be a few ways to speed things along.

I came across an article by Anne C. O’Donnell the other day while doing my daily exploring on Practice.FindLaw.com. Anne’s article contained her 7 step approach on dealing with lien claims, and includes some of the following:

• Assessing what lien claims are involved.
• Explaining the payments to your client.
• Keeping the Lien Claimant up to date as the case goes on.

To read about the full 7 steps, check Anne’s article, 7 Steps to Approaching Lien Claims in Personal Injury Cases.

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

Are You Having Trouble Choosing Between Deposition Services?

With the number of deposition services out there, at times it can be a bit overwhelming choosing which service to go with it, and which company to choose for those services. It’s easy to simply pick one without giving it much thought, such as simply choosing a court reporter. One must remember that reaching a decision too quickly can sometimes have a negative impact, and a negative impact on a deposition can prove costly during trial.

Deposition Services: How to Choose the Right Provider, an article by Sarah Ballentine, contains a few things to consider when choosing a deposition service provider. They are:

• The provider’s location.
• The technologies they offer.
• The way they screen their employees.
• The number of attorneys they can supply.

To view the full article, click here.

Copyright : Sommai Larkjit

Gerry is a practicing NY Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorney in one of the most competitive markets in the Country.

He is the author of “Secrets of Lawyer Video Marketing in the Age of YouTube,” and lectures to thousands of lawyers across the country each year, has written hundreds of articles on video marketing for attorneys and is considered the leading authority on video marketing for lawyers.

He has personally created over 1350 educational videos to teach his potential clients how cases involving medical malpractice & accidents work and is the Founder of the Lawyers Video Studio, where he has helped lawyers across the United States create over 3500 videos to market their law firms.

Gerry has used video marketing to generate settlements of over $8.6 million dollars for his own solo practice.

Some of you may have heard about the new publication available for the iPad called Law Firm Marketing.  If you have not, I suggest you check it out. It was launched in October of 2012. It is the legal industry’s first interactive, digital magazine and it’s now available for free! It is designed to help you learn the best marketing practices from other successful lawyers as well as some of today’s top legal marketing experts. You can get the latest issue free by subscribing on iTunes or downloading the app by clicking here. Since the magazine is digital, it makes use of video interviews, hyperlinks and other interactive content. You can download the magazine in several different languages as well.

If you do not have an iPad, don’t worry! You can view the recent video interviews feature in the magazine on The Law Firm Marketing Magazine YouTube channel.

In the very first issue, the magazine featured Gerry Spence.  Spence is widely known as one of the best trial lawyers of all time, which is why he was an easy pick to be featured in the first edition of the magazine.  Spence founded the Trial Lawyers College in 1994 and has an amazing record of accomplishments with zero criminal cases lost. Also featured so far in the magazine is current American Association for Justice President, Mary Alice McLarty and well-known marketing guru, Jay Abraham.

Cindy Speaker is the CEO of Speaker Media and Marketing and the developer behind the Law Firm Marketing Magazine. She is known as “The secret weapon of personal injury lawyers and trial attorneys throughout the U.S.” It is no wonder attorneys across the country run to Cindy for marketing advice, she has an extensive list of successful clients as well as a published documentary, “Well of Dreams”. She believes this magazine will help law firms stay on top of an ever-changing marketing landscape.

If you are a trial lawyer (or are involved in law firm marketing) you should download your own copy of Law Firm Marketing right now!

Tina Burns
Vice President

James Mitchell Brown has practiced law with passion, enthusiasm, energy and creativity since 1973which is one of many reasons has been Martindale Hubbell AV rated since he first became eligible.  Jim’s practice has been almost exclusively representing people on a contingency fee basis. Jim sold his practice in 2003 for health reasons, took a year off and .in 2004 founded Attorney Consultant Inc. Jim is currently nationally known as the leading consultant for contingency fee law firms.

His first book, Marketing for the Contingency Fee Law Firm was published in July, 2012 and has helped many firms increase their practice, improve their image and do wonders for their bottom line in unique ways that define who they are as attorneys and individuals. His second book, Nuts and bolts of Law Office Management will be published this fall.

Brown has made presentations throughout the country to attorneys, law students, physicians, politicians and potential clients about issues of importance in their venues as well as appearing on National and local radio and television.

He enthusiastically shares his dedication and expertise with lawyers throughout the United States in marketing, practice management, business, crisis management, buying and selling practices and every other area of practice.

The company trademark, Enjoy Your Practice; Enjoy Your Life® is something Jim helps instill in every one of his clients.

Connect:

www.attorneyconsultant.com
877-621-2022

James Mitchell Brown has practiced law with passion, enthusiasm, energy and creativity since 1973which is one of many reasons has been Martindale Hubbell AV rated since he first became eligible.  Jim’s practice has been almost exclusively representing people on a contingency fee basis. Jim sold his practice in 2003 for health reasons, took a year off and .in 2004 founded Attorney Consultant Inc. Jim is currently nationally known as the leading consultant for contingency fee law firms.

His first book, Marketing for the Contingency Fee Law Firm was published in July, 2012 and has helped many firms increase their practice, improve their image and do wonders for their bottom line in unique ways that define who they are as attorneys and individuals. His second book, Nuts and bolts of Law Office Management will be published this fall.

Brown has made presentations throughout the country to attorneys, law students, physicians, politicians and potential clients about issues of importance in their venues as well as appearing on National and local radio and television.

He enthusiastically shares his dedication and expertise with lawyers throughout the United States in marketing, practice management, business, crisis management, buying and selling practices and every other area of practice.

The company trademark, Enjoy Your Practice; Enjoy Your Life® is something Jim helps instill in every one of his clients.

In today’s marketing world, it has become obvious how important social media is. However, just like every other social form of communication, there are manners that not only help one maintain a level of respect, but also help set one apart from the rest. I know this from my own professional experience, which is why I felt compelled to share an article by Samantha Collier, writer of the award winning “Social Media for Law Firms” blog.

Samantha covers several “do’s” and “don’ts” in social media, all of which are specifically aimed in helping attorneys and others in the legal profession. To read her full article, click here. Here are just a few she mentioned.

• “Remember reciprocity when utilizing social media for business development.”
• “Respond to criticism and conflicting opinions.”
• “Remember your reputation and brand on social media.”
• “Do not over-promote yourself when using social media.”
• “Don’t boast about your praise online.”

I highly recommend this to any attorney who is utilizing social media to market their firm. Marketing a law firm today is already challenging enough, but the proper use of social media can help leverage your efforts.

Marketing intake may not be something you’ve given much thought. After all, if they are reaching out to you, they should be pretty easy clients to get business from. That seems to be the common thought, even in businesses besides law firms. This is the wrong way to think about incoming clients.

When a person calls or emails your office, their first interaction with you will be a key factor in gaining their business. Being busy and not answering the phone, or taking too long to reply to an email, can cost you. Attorneys’ jobs are important, yes, but they provide a service. When you look to purchase a service or product, it’s easier to buy from a place that feels more welcoming. Answering the phone with the wrong tone and greeting can quickly turn someone else away. You might be a good attorney, but no one will want to do business with you if it doesn’t seem like your firm cares that they are interested. This is where good marketing intake practices come in.

Lawyer Marketing released an article in their blog title, Get a Grip on the Client Experience. I highly recommend giving it a read, since it covers some pretty basic marketing intake practices that can make a world of difference to your potential and current clients.

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

How to Use Your Legal Blog Content to Convert Readers into Clients

By Yvette Valencia

Convert readers into new clients for your law firm by understanding what topics will draw their interest. Whether you’re a lawyer flying solo with your own single-employee law firm or a partner of a multi-attorney firm with several staff members, getting to know your customers is key to content conversion.

The first step is to pay attention to interactions between your business and your existing clients. It’s here where you can do a little investigative reporting to uncover the hot topics that really grab clients’ attention.

Ask Your Employees about Their Day-to-Day Customer Interactions

When you run a medium to large law firm, you may not find yourself meeting directly with clients as often as your legal assistants, paralegals and case representatives. However, that doesn’t mean that you should be in the dark about what’s on your clients' minds.

Make it a part of your weekly or monthly routine to meet with the staff members who have the most direct interaction with your clients and pick their brains for the latest hot topics. For example, family law attorneys in a state where the ban on gay marriage was overturned recently may see a surge in same-sex couples seeking help in preparing prenuptial agreements. Personal injury law firms in states with harsh winters may notice more slip and fall cases at shopping malls during the winter shopping months.

Your employees can keep you abreast of what kind of cases or situations are most commonly brought to your office so you can tailor your legal blog content to really get in-depth about those topics. Ask your employees to keep track of the most commonly asked questions they hear on a regular basis – these questions are excellent for bulking up your FAQ section.

Solo Attorneys: Analyze Your Customer Interactions for Content Opportunities

Attorneys with solo practices can use the same techniques to develop ideas for new blog posts. Because you are working directly with your clients, the rapport you build with them can be used to test different blog ideas. For example, if you have a good working relationship with a car accident client, see if he or she would be willing to do a short interview with you to get some information from the client’s perspective on the injury claims process.

Your client’s answers to the following questions can help you generate blogs explaining the kind of information they learned or wish they had known prior to their accident.

• How much did you know about the injury claims process before your accident?
• What was the most shocking thing you learned about the injury claims process?
• What did you wish you had known about injury claims before your accident?
• What advice would you give to someone who has just been in an accident?
• What do you think is the biggest myth about the injury claims process?

These article ideas will fulfill a necessary role of your legal blog: It will help you write entries that answer common client questions and alleviate fears and misconceptions about their legal rights and their case. During your questioning, keep your ears open for repeated terms – these can become your keywords for your blogs.

We Do Web Content Writes the Legal Content Your Potential Clients Want

The writing team at We Do Web Content knows how to think like a potential client and write to their needs and interests to help transform readers into customers. To get started, give us a call or fill out our contact form to speak with our sales manager about all of the services we offer to help grow your business through Internet and SEO marketing: 888-521-3880.

By Yvette Valencia

Who says lawyers can't be social? A healthy social marketing plan is a key component of successful law firms across the country, but it takes more than just a Facebook profile and a Twitter handle to conquer the social media marketing world.

Before you put your law firm out on the social channels, read our list of dos and don’ts of social media for lawyers.

The Dos of Social Media for Lawyers

Do brag about your achievements. Potential clients want to see that you’re an attorney who gets results. Pictures of yourself along with satisfied clients and a brief note about their successful case can help instill confidence in your legal skills and puts a human face on your legal services.

Do engage in discussions with your followers. When someone comments on a social post from your firm, make sure you respond appropriately. Even if it’s just a compliment, thank the commenter for taking the time to write on your page. You also should look at engagement as an opportunity to ask satisfied clients for testimonials on AVVO, Yelp, Google+ and other rating/review sites.

Do post entertaining and informative content. The most shared content on social media is content that entertains and content that informs. It might include videos, photos, infographics or just helpful content. If you want your social networks to be heavily trafficked and really give you the full benefit of social marketing, you need to share content that your followers will find useful and/or amusing.

The Don’ts of Social Media for Lawyers

Don’t be arrogant. While you should share your successful cases, you also need to be tactful about doing so. Avoid gloating, demeaning or deceptive language in posts about recently resolved cases. Your goal in posting case successes is to show humbly how honored you are that your clients chose your firm for their case and how happy you are to be able to help them achieve justice for their cases.

Don’t ignore comments. The point of social media is to be social, and ignoring comments -- even negative ones -- defeats the purpose of having a social channel. You should respond to all interaction with your social profiles in a professional and prompt manner. If a discussion gets too heated, you may wish to ask politely that it ends or move the discussion to private communication.

Don’t post confidential content or content that could violate your local bar rules. Details of your recent case victories should be kept as general as possible to avoid breaching the attorney-client privilege. You also need to keep in mind that your state bar may have restrictions about social media conduct for attorneys, and you may not be allowed to post case results or may have to include a disclaimer on your profiles.

Don’t Make a Social Blunder – We Do Web Content Handles Social Marketing for Lawyers

We Do Web Content, Inc. handles social media for lawyers. We help attorneys and law firms across the nation keep their social presence up and lively. To get started, give us a call or fill out our contact form to speak with our sales manager about all of the services we offer to help grow your law firm through Internet and SEO marketing. 888-521-3880.

By Josh Habegger

Are You Spending Too Much for Medical Records?

Provider fees can pile up and damage a firms cash flow, so it is important that attorneys look for ways to get the information that they need and keep expenses to a minimum.  We all want our medical records as soon as possible, but it is important that you, or your medical record vendor, verify every invoice before paying the provider or copy service.  It is a daily occurrence that we find our clients are being overcharged for their records, and we have to fight to make sure they do not pay more than they should.  Besides double and triple checking your invoices, consider only ordering certain sections of a medical record, or as we refer to them “sub-types”.  Instead of ordering a full medical record, that could be several hundred pages, order a few sub-types and reduce the number of pages by up to 80%.  If a state statute allows the provider to charge upwards of $1.00/page, you will realize substantial saving over a short period of time.

A Few Tips to Keep Provider Fees in Check

As I mentioned above, always check to make sure you are never over charged for your medical records.  This practice should be implemented as a standard in your ordering process.  Some firms have the ordering process down to a science and know exactly what to look for and which sub-types to order.  We give our clients an easy way to order sub-types and all it takes is a few clicks.  The sub-types most often ordered are: Abstract of Medical Records, Doctor’s Records, Operative Reports, Admission/Face Sheet, Chart Stickers, & Radiology/Diagnostic Reports.  This practice will allow you to quickly locate exactly what you are looking for and save your firm a substantial amount of money.

Quick tip-  Many cases will require the full medical record, but always order sub-types for pre-intake.

For more tips on best practices you can contact us at: info@nationalrr.com

By Sam C. Rumph, III

Lawyers are busy. Lawyers track lots of documents and information. Lawyers need immediate access to their case information, but it has to be secure - protected. Lawyers want simple. And contrary to popular beliefs, lawyers DO have budgets.

At Symbioshare, we get that. Why? Because we ARE lawyers. But before we were lawyers, we were engineers. As lawyers, we got tired of case management resources that touted solutions, but failed to deliver. Symbioshare’s flagship product, OnPoint.Legal, is the proven result of over 4 ½ years of development and testing. As engineers, we will tell you there is nothing else like this on the market today. As lawyers, we will tell you there really is a case management solution for all those “I wish I could...” moments you’ve had sitting at your computer.

OnPoint.Legal is a matter management software application designed to give attorneys complete flexibility and control in their practice’s case structure, organization and operations. OnPoint.Legal enables you to practice law in the way most beneficial to you.

OnPoint.Legal integrates with Microsoft SharePoint Online allowing increased security, flexibility, reliability, enhanced collaboration and an experience unmatched by any other system on the market. Imagine, a software application that organizes, controls and displays key information in one simple view utilizing tools that you use every day, e.g., Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer.

At Symbioshare, we are driven to help your practice succeed in a seamless transition to the next generation information management system. OnPoint.Legal’s integration capabilities enable lawyers to keep the information most important to your practice immediately accessible regardless of your geographic location. OnPoint.Legal utilizes the strongest features of each Microsoft Office 365 application to efficiently and effectively empower law firms to manage their practice in a matter and client centric design to collaborate on projects, track deadlines, delegate or assign tasking, and route documents for review, editing, and approval.  What sets us apart is that we can help you do all of this without changing the way you want to practice law and save you money along the way.  Call and let us help you today!

Symbioshare

t: 478.254.9651

By James Mitchell Brown

CEO at Attorney Consultant, Inc.

Is your marketing giving you the results it should? The answer is probably a resounding NO!

No matter what the initial purpose of the consultation, I usually find when I consult for firms that they are not maximizing the results of their marketing. Most are not as egregious as that of a client that I recently helped, who was concerned that he was not getting enough clients from his new television ads in spite of some kick-ass commercials. (I can complement the commercials since I wrote them.)

I listened to the recordings of the intake calls and was amazed at how bad they were. It was shocking they signed up anyone.

• Problem one: Firm policy when prospects called—
  • Screen to see if they were good prospect.
  • Schedule a time for the “intake specialist” to call them back.
  • Naturally, 25% of the prospects were not there when called back.
• Problem two: Receptionist sounded as if the people were lucky to have someone to talk to.
  • She acted too busy to spend much time talking with them.
• Problem three: Anywhere from 40% to 70% of the calls went to voice mail.
  • 80% of them hung up rather than leaving a message.
  • When the hang-ups were called back they were not interested in talking to anyone from the firm.

The next issue is firm owners who trust non-attorneys or associates to determine who the firm can represent. The owner of the firm has to occasionally call some of the people who were rejected to determine if the correct decision was made, find out if they were spoken to with respect and were satisfied with the reasons given for not being represented. If intake calls are recorded it is incumbent upon the firm owner to listen to some by each of the people doing intake. Determine the quality of work being done by the people making the first impression on prospective clients. You have three seconds to make a first impression. The person you may not take as a client who become a valuable source of referrals if treated properly.

The major area where firms are losing money is failing to screen for mass torts. I recently taught an estate planning firm to look for drug cases and they have gotten one women into the Lipitor class, one in the mesh class and two men into the testosterone class.

Every person who calls about any case in any area of law should be screened for mass tort potential. If you don’t it is money you can receive that you are just letting slip away.. When new class actions are filed you can send a letter or email to every current and former client to see if they or anyone they know has ever used that product. .

A client of mine with a social security practice found 861 children who used Risperdal. He didn’t have the staff to call them all but, at my suggestion, hired two college students to do the screening. Sixteen of his former clients got into the class action lawsuit. That will be a huge co-counsel fee for him someday.

Intake is huge. All but one firm I have consulted for, for various reasons, has let good clients slip away. Look at your procedures carefully to make sure your firm signs up the clients you want.

By Yvette Valencia

If you’re hoping to increase website traffic and generate more leads, don’t hire a wizard.

What does that mean? Anyone who tells you that you can dramatically increase your web leads and boost your site traffic in less than three to six months has to either be a wizard or involved in black hat SEO.

The truth is, content success takes time and continuous effort. Great websites with thousands of hits per day didn’t get that way overnight. They gained their popularity through years of publishing great content.

The Secret to Increase Traffic to a Website

The secret is: there is no secret. There’s no magic formula, no tricks, and no amount of money you can pay to get solid leads and genuine increases in web traffic. There are still black hat SEO marketers who use unscrupulous techniques like link schemes and shady link networks to generate quick web traffic.

While it’s a quick trick to temporarily boost your traffic, what you’re paying for ultimately is a short-lived reign at the top followed by the risk of de-ranking by Google and a low chance of generating good leads.

The plain and simple truth is that truly successful websites and blogs generate leads and increase web traffic through quality content. Just like any publication, gaining traction on the Internet takes time. You have to find your niche and build a fan base, milestones that take time to reach. Spend that time crafting and curating a library of quality content designed to attract and capture potential leads.

Now, how do you set up your content marketing strategy for success?

The Content Saturation Index

Marcus Sheridan of The Sales Lion hit the nail on the head when he coined the term “Content Saturation Index” or CSI. The estimated time it takes a website to gain traffic and leads through a content marketing strategy depends on the content market you are entering.

In the legal content industry, you can break down the types of content into three levels.

• Broad content that talks about the fundamentals of the industry (what a personal injury attorney does, the benefits of hiring a lawyer).

• Narrow content that deals with the specifics of a type of law (how injury attorneys get paid, the differences between drug trafficking charges and drug possession charges).

• Niche content that talks about information specific to your practice and geographic area (DUI laws in Pennsylvania, Texas divorce laws).

The speed of the success of your content marketing depends on the type of content you’re writing.

Content in the broad category is everywhere; it’s the most highly saturated category of content on the Internet. If you’re writing only at the broad level, increasing your traffic and generating more leads may be almost impossible without paying for clicks and leads.

Writing more in the narrow and niche levels gives your website a better chance to stand out from the crowd and rank faster for the key terms most closely associated with your practice. When you focus on saturating these less competitive levels with your quality content, you’re setting yourself up for a faster – but not overnight – track to content success.

Saturate Your Content

At We Do Web Content, our experienced team of writers, content managers, and editors know how to craft a content plan to safely and honestly improve your Internet presence. To get started, give us a call or fill out our contact form to speak with our sales manager about all of the services we offer to help grow your business through Internet and SEO marketing. Call 888-521-3880.

By Yvette Valencia

How often should I update a blog for my law firm's website?

Whether you've been practicing law for a few months or a few decades, most attorneys know that their busy schedules don't make it easy to constantly update a blog for their law firm. The good news: that's okay. There is no set standard for how often you should update a blog on your law firm’s website. But keeping a regular schedule can help you build your audience and drive traffic.

Sometimes Less Is More When It Comes to Blog Updates

How often you should blog depends mostly on two things: your time and your ideas.

Before you set yourself on a blogging schedule, take into consideration your own time constraints. If you know you can't dedicate at least an hour to write a post a few times a week, try once a week, or every other week, or even once a month. It's better to space out your posts rather than trying to meet a tight blogging deadline.

And if you don't have a good topic to blog about, you could be sabotaging your blog by putting out boring, bland, or useless information. If you’re struggling to regularly come up with topics, a looser schedule with more time between posts can give you adequate time to create a topic or monitor relevant news that you can comment on.

Further, set yourself up for success by gathering "evergreen" topics. An "evergreen" topic is one that's relevant no matter what time you write it. These are good topics when there's no hot news in your field, ensuring you'll always have something to write about when you need to blog.

If You Create a Blogging Schedule, Stick to It

One of the biggest advantages to blogging regularly is that Google and other search engines will take notice of your site's regular updates. Google loves fresh information, which may benefit you in the search results.

Also keep in mind that blogging on a schedule creates expectations as you build an audience. Think about your favorite TV show like Game of Thrones. Fans have come to expect a new episode every week, and if the show's creators couldn't get an episode out for the week, the fans would riot.

While your law firm's blog may not have the following of Game of Thrones, it can look just as bad if your readers expect a weekly blog and you fail to deliver.

Blogging Services Are Available for Those Who Don’t Have the Time

If you want to set up a regular posting schedule but know you don't have the time or topics to support it, don't fret. We Do Web Content can set up your law firm blog with a regular schedule that drives traffic to your website. To get started, reach out to us to speak with our sales manager about all of the content services we offer for law firms.

by Gerry Oginski, Esq.

(1) “Objection! I Direct You NOT to Answer That Question.”

That’s the title of one of my videos. Why would I create a video with such a pointed question?

Here’s another video title...

(2) “Surveillance video backfired. New York medical malpractice attorney explains.”

Who is that video title for?

Here's another laser focused video title...

(3) “Why would I discontinue a case against two gynecologists in a failure to diagnose breast cancer case?”

Again, why would I create such pointed and specific titles for videos? Would you like to learn the answer? Come join me as I share with you this great information.

If you are going to take the time, energy and resources to create great educational video, you must have a clear and concise video marketing strategy before ever pressing the record button.

Do not think for a moment that you can take your iPhone, android device, or iPad or video camera and start shooting a quick and dirty video and expect that viewers will flock to watch your video.

PLANNING AND STRATEGIZING IS CRITICAL

The most important part of creating great video involves the planning phase. During your planning you need to map out a clear video marketing strategy.

If you fail to have a clear and concise video marketing strategy your ideal clients will never find you online and here’s SEVEN REASONS why:

1. Your videos will not be found by Google or YouTube. YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world directly behind Google. (Who owns YouTube? Google).
2. Even if your video somehow comes up in a search results page, your ideal client will likely overlook the title of your video and move elsewhere.
3. A viewer who presses the play button on your video will quickly recognize that you do not have great information for him and he will leave quickly.
4. Simply providing rambling content will force your viewer to watch someone else’s video.
5. Most attorney videos lack a strategy to get viewers to pick up the phone and call.
6. You may think you have great content to offer your ideal clients, but if you don’t really know what content your viewers want, you are spinning your wheels and missing great opportunities.
7. If your strategy is to be all professional and use big legal words, your ideal consumers who are searching for you online will eagerly look elsewhere for someone they can relate to.

BONUS

IF YOU DON’T HAVE VIDEO YET, YOU ARE INTENTIONALLY IGNORING THE SECOND LARGEST SEARCH ENGINE IN THE WORLD.

HOW DO YOU GET SOMEONE TO TRUST YOU IN 3 MINUTES?

Remember, as attorneys we have a very large hurdle to overcome when we market ourselves both online and offline. Our ideal clients who do not know us are searching for an attorney to help solve their legal problem. The obstacle is that new clients who don’t know us typically do not trust us.

That’s a fact.

So how is it possible I am able to generate trust and expertise without ever talking about my credentials or selling myself in this video?

The answer is with a clear and concise video marketing strategy.

In the first headline, who is that video for?

In the second headline, who is that content for?

Importantly, what do you think I’m discussing in each of those videos directed to those specific potential viewers?

Want to see what I’m talking about?

Take a look at this video... the embed code is: <iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/n-7E2nKRmqs?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The url for the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-7E2nKRmqs.

A FINAL THOUGHT

You must have a clear and concise video marketing strategy when using video to market your law firm. Failure to do that will result in you scratching your head wondering why no one is watching your videos.

By Yvette Valencia

“How do I attract clients to my law firm?” Attorneys ask themselves – and others – that question all the time. The answer can be pretty lengthy. Here, we’ll discuss how to get clients as an attorney by using the content of your blog. The following three steps can help you establish authority to reach out to potential clients and then influence them to take action.

Achieve a Position of Authority

Blogs that develop a following do so because the author has established a position of authority or celebrity status. As an attorney, “celebrity” is probably not the niche you want. Acting as an authoritative source will serve you better.

Establishing authority begins with dispensing information. Spread your knowledge and expertise freely; don't make people hunt or pay for content. One way to establish yourself as an authority is to write an eBook about your legal area of expertise and offer it as a free download.

If you're not the book-writing type, develop a robust FAQ section on your website to answer the most common (and not so common) questions potential clients might have. If you have an AVVO profile (and you should) spread your knowledge by contributing to its Q&A section or posting articles to its legal library.

Learn What Your Clients Want and Deliver On It

The first steps of successful content conversion are to learn what your clients want and then give it to them. Sometimes a client will walk into your office knowing she is going to hire you to represent her. Others might know they have a legal issue but might not know if they should hire a lawyer.

It’s the same with your blog or article library. Some readers will be looking for general information about a legal topic. After reading your content, they may realize they should contact you for legal consultation. Others will come right to your website looking to set up a consultation with you.

Address both readers. Write general content about legal topics for readers not yet looking to hire you. And write content geared towards\ readers who know they need to hire a lawyer. But how do you know which topics to address?

Your own experience addressing clients’ concerns could help. Brainstorm some topics and questions you address a lot. Keyword research can also be valuable for learning what potential clients are searching for on the Internet. Tools like SEMRush can tell you how popular certain keywords are or tell you what keywords are associated with your site and competitor sites.

Make sure you have Google Analytics activated on your site as well; the queries tool can give you a lot of insight on what search queries bring the most users to your website.

Once you have some topic ideas generated, build up your blog with quality posts on those topics. Make sure you're using blogging best practices.

• Keep entries between 400 and 600 words
• Use diverse keywords and synonyms
• End with a strong call to action

Influence Readers to Take Action

A strong call to action is a statement near the end of a blog post that tells your reader exactly the action step needed to solve his or her problem. Your call to action might encourage the reader to contact your law firm. A less direct approach is to invite the reader to learn more by reading other posts on your blog or downloading your eBook.

If coming up with all this content seems daunting, don't fret! We Do Web Content specializes in online marketing for lawyers and other professionals. We produce top quality, unique legal content for law firms across the nation. Just fill out our contact form and we'll reach out to you to discuss a custom content plan to draw readers to your website and convert them into clients. You can also call us at 888-521-3880.

By Adam Rowan, Content Specialist at Page 1 Solutions

For many years, Wikipedia was seen as a dubious source of information. Its open-source model initially gave the impression that pages on the platform were riddled with questionable quality and unreliable research, especially among academic and professional circles.

However, few websites have so rigorously enforced quality standards, and Wikipedia is now recognized not only as a prominent, trustworthy brand but a go-to source for information on people, places, companies, and other entities. When you do an online search, relevant Wikipedia pages consistently rank on the first page of results.

Not just anything or anybody can qualify for inclusion on Wikipedia, and law firms are no exception. But if your firm has the extensive history and quality backlinks that are the hallmarks of any good Wikipedia article, there are several benefits your firm's website can enjoy from being included among the nearly 5 million articles on The Free Encyclopedia.

Benefit #1: Search Authority

Wikipedia has a perfect 100 domain authority score, a metric developed by search engine optimization (SEO) company Moz to analyze and predict the performance of a given website in search results. This score means that pages from the domain are extremely likely to rank well in search.

If your firm is the subject of a Wikipedia article, make sure there is a link back to your website somewhere on the page. A backlink from such an authoritative domain like Wikipedia (even if marked “No Follow”) should enhance the authority of your own site, potentially increase your performance for target keyword terms against your competitors, and generate more website traffic.

Benefit #2: Consumer Legitimacy

As noted in a recent Inside Business article, only 10 percent of online consumers trust the advertising created by brands. More and more consumers are seeking out third-party sources, such as review sites, to arm themselves with what they perceive to be impartial information before choosing to engage with a brand.

Today, few websites enjoy greater objectivity in the eyes of consumers than Wikipedia. Though anyone can create an article, new articles are reviewed within days by moderators who can and will enforce Wikipedia's guidelines for acceptable content. One of those guidelines is eschewing content that reads like an advertisement.

If your law firm is deemed noteworthy and the Wikipedia page provides verifiable information that isn't written in a promotional fashion, the more likely it is that the article will stay online. The longer the article is online and the better written it is, the better your brand will look to clients seeking legal services.

Benefit #3: Potential Knowledge Graph Placement

Over the past few years, you've likely noticed that some of your searches on Google return not just the expected list of results but also informative, eye-catching graphic boxes displaying information and images relevant to your search. This is Google Knowledge Graph, a tool engineered by the search giant to deliver answers more immediately to users.

How is Google able to find and display this information in such a neat little package? The search engine crawls a number of reliable websites for digestible information, and one of the most reliable is Wikipedia.

A search for a big-name brand will likely return a Google Knowledge Graph result. But you don't need to be a Fortune 500 company to show up on the Knowledge Graph. Your firm can also appear in these results.

First, as discussed recently by Search Engine Land, your firm will need to have an article on Wikipedia and be entered as an entity in Wikidata, a data knowledge base Google crawls to provide Knowledge Graph results. Then, by using structured data markup tagging on your site (see the article to learn how to do this), you tell Google that your website is the same as the entities identified on Wikipedia and Wikidata, thus increasing the likelihood that your firm will show up prominently as part of Knowledge Graph.

The information that shows up in a Google Knowledge Graph result is difficult to predict, and like anything in SEO there is no guarantee that the above process will work. But the increased visibility of your firm above and beyond traditional search results is another way to set yourself apart in the eyes of users in need of an attorney.

Here are a few examples of law firms and lawyers with Wikipedia pages:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Wright
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colling_Gilbert_Wright_%26_Carter
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_R._Kline
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanin_Specter
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_H._Hickey

At Page 1 Solutions, we regularly work with attorneys to identify the aspects that set their firm apart and use those strengths to build competitive Web marketing campaigns. If you're struggling to find traction in search results, Page 1 Solutions can help! Call (800) 368-9910 to speak with one of our team members.

Copyright: 123RF Stock Photo

We are always on the lookout for valuable content to share on our blog; adding worth beyond case expense financing for our readers.  Today we welcome guest blogger Yvette Valencia.  She is the co-founder and COO of WeDoWebContent.  I hope this is useful to you!

By Yvette Valencia

If you’re reading this post, you likely found it in one of two ways: you’re either a subscriber to our blog or you used a search engine, like Google, to find information on “capturing new clients.” If the latter is true, my keyword (or “on-page search engine optimization”) strategy worked. You see, I wrote this article for two reasons: 1) to educate and help you succeed on the Web; and 2) to attract potential clients to my company’s website where they could learn more about our services and eventually hire us to design their law firm’s search marketing strategy.

Today I am here to tell you that you can do the same for your law firm. When you research and use the terms your ideal clients are using to find information on the Web within your Web content, you increase your chances of being found. And, when you write truly informative pages, ones that give your readers valuable takeaways, you will earn your stripes with Google and be rewarded with top spots on their search results pages (referred to as “ranking”).

During my presentation at the Broward County Hispanic Bar Association’s monthly luncheon, I revealed the biggest mistake most lawyers make with their legal marketing strategy and offered tips on creating a loyal fan base for the purpose of expanding their firms’ reach and increasing referrals. Now I’m ready to discuss one of the most powerful components of search marketing: keywords.

If you took the time to identify and develop a niche for your business and are taking the necessary steps to grow your practice, you will have a good idea of how your ideal clients search for information on the Internet. So if you want to continue building your list with similar clients, you should start by looking to your current clients for keyword inspiration.

Get Into Your Clients’ Heads

Conducting interviews with past clients can help you better understand how they search for legal resources on the Internet. Some questions you could ask are:

• When you were searching for a personal injury attorney, what was more important: 1) their office location; or 2) their specialty or exclusivity in handling cases similar to yours?
• How did you initiate your search? Did you believe you had a viable legal issue and knew you needed an attorney and therefore started your search there, or did you set out to learn whether or not you had a legal issue?
• If you received a referral from a friend or family member, did you first research the attorney or firm online or did you contact the attorney without researching?
• Did you search for lawyers that handled the type of accident in which you were injured or the specific injury you suffered?

Conduct Research & Analyze the Data

More and more people are using search engines like Google and Bing to find products and services on the Web. By analyzing what your prospective clients are looking for and how they are searching for it online, you will increase the chances of your website appearing on the first page of their search results.

You’ll want to start by gathering data from your website’s analytics service, as well as using a couple of independent keyword tools available on the Web. When you work with data that is accurate, you move away from assumptions and the dreaded possibility of wasting a lot of time and money.

Keyword tools allow you to evaluate the performance of millions of search terms – an essential step for creating the best keyword list for your business.

Google AdWords is a free and pretty robust keyword tool that provides the popularity and competition level of a specific keyword, as well as related keywords. You should be expanding your focus beyond the original keywords you research and open yourself to similar search topics – synonyms are great!

When coded properly into your website’s off-page code, Google’s Webmaster Tools and Analytics will track your domain’s performance and offer a treasure trove of information. In other words, from these tools you can gather up-to-date data about your audience, traffic sources, content, and conversions. In some instances you will be able to see the keywords that were responsible for drawing in new and repeat visitors, and which of them also led someone to buy your products or enlist your services. You’ll want to continue to promote these keywords within your Web content so as to not compromise your rankings and the ability to generate leads.

SEMRush is a paid keyword tool that’s definitely worth the price. You can track the performance of your chosen keywords over time. And, the reports you can generate will take the guesswork out of determining whether a keyword will be beneficial to your content as far as attracting potential clients.

You can generate lists with hundreds of keywords using these tools, but the real trick is knowing how to choose and target the right ones.

Evaluate Your Keywords

The keyword lists you generate during the research phase of your Web content strategy are only suggestions of what MAY work. To truly unearth the money-making keywords, you have to evaluate these keywords based on the following three points:

#1: Relevancy to your website. Ranking for a keyword that is completely unrelated to your company, your products, or service is completely futile. For example, a personal injury law firm has no business ranking for the keyword “teen pop star” unless it only represents celebrities like Justin Bieber. This will only lead to meaningless website traffic and do nothing for your firm’s bottom line. Instead, focus on the keywords that are closest to the end of your sales cycle so you can increase your chances of generating leads and gaining new clients.

Quality over quantity is the name of the game.

#2. Popularity in terms of web traffic and conversion potential. While keywords with high search volume can drive traffic to your website, they may not do much in the way of converting visitors to clients. This is why keyword research is critical to the success of any online marketing campaign.

A visitor to your website is just another notch on your Web traffic belt. You’re better off paying attention to the keywords that have the best conversion potential. Before you put all of your eggs in the expensive, high-competition-keyword basket, test the effectiveness of your business’s most important phrases with some pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns.

If your chosen keywords are generating Web traffic and new leads, you know you’re on the right track.

#3: Competition to rank for the keyword. While it’s great to want the #1 spot on page one of Google for “personal injury lawyer,” it’s highly unlikely that your law firm will gain this position using only organic marketing methods.

Your organic marketing efforts will consist mainly of a Web content strategy that ethically infuses both the keywords and synonyms your target audience is using to find the topics that interest them. Unlike paid advertisements, which I will go into shortly, the Web pages you create are indexed by the search engines, which means they will exist on the Web forever and will be served to the searcher every time your page meets their search criteria at no additional cost.

Knowing the competition level of a specific keyword will allow you to determine what it will take to rank for it and whether or not you are willing and have the budget to jump through those perpetual hoops.

Be Open to Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Most times, acquiring and/or maintaining a top position for a highly-competitive term means you will have to engage in a lengthy and expensive pay-per-click campaign.

The Beatles said it best in their 1964 chart topper “Money Can’t Buy Me Love,” but it can buy you a spot on Google’s search results pages. Through the search engine’s AdWords program, Google allows businesses to buy ad space on page one for the keywords they want to target, but this is a costly option, especially for attorneys whose top search terms typically range from $50 to $80 per click.

In highly-competitive geographic areas, like South Florida, Denver, Colorado, and Los Angeles, California, for example, engaging in pay-per-click advertising is necessary for the long-term health of your online presence. However, in other, not-so-competitive areas, you can get away with engaging in a modest and temporary pay-per-click campaign meant to accelerate your website’s exposure and ranking, as well as complement your organic (non-paid advertisements such as landing pages, informative articles, and blog posts) efforts.

The one advantage to pay-per-click advertising is that you will find out very quickly whether or not a highly-coveted term is actually a money-making term. If it’s not, you can drop it from your campaign and invest your money in another term that will actually generate qualified leads for your firm.

Get Organized!

A smart and savvy businessperson is always organized. Microsoft Excel can be your best friend when it comes to organizing and tracking your keyword placement once the research and evaluation phases are complete.

You’ll want to develop a keyword matrix that has separate worksheets to group related keywords. For each keyword, keep notes on their popularity and competition, as well as when, where, and how you used them within your pages.

Discover How We Do Web Content Can Boost Your Online Presence

There’s no doubt that developing a keyword strategy for your website is a daunting task, especially when you have a successful law firm to run! Don’t take up your valuable time researching keywords when We Do Web Content can do the work for you!

Get started on one of our SEO plans today. Call 888-594-5442 or complete our online contact form to speak with our sales director about all of the services we offer to grow your practice.