Legal Marketing Tips From a Divorce Lawyer

A Divorce Lawyer’s Marketing Journey to Build My Law Practice

During the past few years, I have had a lot of visibility resulting from my marketing efforts. Other attorneys continuously ask me about my marketing so I thought I’d share some thoughts. I have been immersed in the legal world my entire life. I have practiced law in Illinois since 1984, and grew up surrounded by legal talk, as my father was also an attorney. This has allowed me to observe the evolution of the legal field throughout my lifetime.

History of Legal Advertising

As many attorneys are aware, previously, legal advertising was generally prohibited. This did not change until 1977, well after advertising became common practice in most other fields, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on lawyers’ right to advertise their services in the controversial case of

Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (433 U.S. 350). As a result, the tradition against legal advertising was rejected as an antiquated rule of etiquette. Thus began the opportunity for attorneys to grow their practices through marketing.

My Journey Begins

Although legal marketing previously provoked controversy, it has been an important key to my success as a lawyer. I have always marketed my practice. For the majority of my career, I concentrated on traditional methods such as Yellow Page advertising (pre-internet) and networking. As my experience grew, I added peer-rated credentials to my resume and joined different organizations. Fast forward to 2010, when my marketing guru, who also happens to be my wife, expanded her business into the growing field of social media. I jumped at the opportunity to be her online and social media test case. We developed a marketing plan including all the traditional marketing techniques plus newly burgeoning online marketing strategies.

We started with a short list of 13 tasks, and as those were completed, we added many more. Over the past four years, marketing has fascinated me. My marketing list has become an ever-evolving ‘to do’ list and we are always tweaking my marketing plan. We have been especially pleased by the Internet and social media campaigns’ successes. For those interested in starting or building upon a marketing campaign, here are some insights I have gained over the years. Please keep in mind that I am not a marketing professional, just a lawyer like you trying to build my practice.

What are the most important elements of marketing?

Consistency and follow-up are the most important aspects of marketing. You can have all of the know-how, a hefty budget, the best contacts and technical staff; yet, your marketing efforts will not result in success without consistency and follow-up. I have spoken with attorneys who tell me they are going to start their online marketing with blogs posts. They lay their foundation – build a website, write a few blogs posts – but too often, after several months, begin to neglect their page. Likewise, an empty Twitter account, LinkedIn or Facebook fan page is equally useless. Additionally, people often attend networking events, make new contacts, but fail to follow-up. Continuous activity is necessary to achieve your goals.

What types of marketing do I use?

I break my marketing down into two different, but equally relevant, categories: traditional and internet marketing.

Traditional marketing

For me, traditional marketing consists of networking and making myself visible. I think this builds the strongest and longest-lasting referrals. My ultimate goal is to build an extensive network of relationships so that people call me directly for my services or refer clients to me. Additionally, I recognize the importance of being a resource to others. In the networking world, the givers get the most back. For others, traditional marketing may include newspaper ads, speaking engagements, direct mail, television, radio and even billboards.

Internet marketing

The objective of internet marketing is to make my name a prominent presence when people search online for help with the services I provide. My goal is for my web presence to effectively convey who I am and how I can help people, thus influencing people to contact me and ultimately hire me.

Who has time for marketing?

I understand that lawyers need to spend the majority of their hours practicing law. Networking takes a lot of time so you have to marshal your efforts in order to reap the most benefits with the least amount of time. Here are some networking suggestions:

· Be strategic; identify the best people to network with. Read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point.

· Set and track goals when meeting people or joining networking groups.

· Take time to develop relationships. Always remember that quality, not quantity, is important.

· Be a good listener and ask questions. Find out how you can help that person, whether it is referring business, making an introduction or sending a relevant article.

· Always follow-up and deliver what you promise.

Where do I start my internet campaign?

You can build your online presence through search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. SEO gets your website or web-page noticed by various search engines. Social media uses internet platforms for individuals and groups to share, co-create, and discuss. Social media marketing involves using internet forums, blogs, social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, podcasts, video and more to build your online presence, identity, relationships and reputation.

What to keep in mind while marketing

Marketing helps bring potential clients into your office to hire you. Satisfied clients bring more clients, and this remains one of the best ways to grow your practice. Thus, it is both good business and good marketing to build solid relationships with your clients. Tips include:

5 Keys to Succesful YouTube Marketing

1. Title Properly

It all begins with preparation, the first thing you want to do is proper keyword research. This is by far the biggest mistake I see businesses make when creating the title for their videos. How the search engines work in YouTube is by aligning up what you are searching for with what the video is titled. For example if I title my video “My company’s Sizzle Reel” I am probably the only person that is going to search this term. Think what is your video about? What is the main message you are conveying in the video? Who is your potential customer and what are they searching for to find your solution. Google offers a free keyword planner to help give you ideas. So my business is in Salt Lake City, UT and we offer Video Production Services, a very good title for us would be Utah Video Production or Salt Lake City Video Services

2. Enable and correct the closed captions

The search engines have no way to crawl the audio on your video and thus categorize your videos content that is why taking this step is so vitally important! By enabling your captions the search engines can read your audio file through text and categorize the content properly.

YouTube has an automatic caption reader and it creates a Closed Caption script for every video that has an audio track uploaded. You can go in and edit this caption from the Video Manager tools in your YouTube account. If you have done your keyword research you know your best keyword terms and they are laced throughout your video thus enabling the search engines to read and rank your video accordingly.

3. Write out a proper description

The first thing you want in your description is your business URL next your phone number, you want these to be the first things visible in your snippet. You also want to use your full URL with the HTTP:// included, this becomes a live link in the description and viewers can click directly to your site from here. You also want to create a good amount of keyword rich copy in your description, it is one of the more pertinent areas in video for SEO juice.

4. Use annotations to enhance your video

In the Video Manager you can utilize the annotations to convey a message, add a link to another video or even directly to your website. Annotations can be annoying when they are over used but when used appropriately they enhance the video and communicate information like your phone number or some important information that may not be being covered correctly or as well as you would like it to be covered in the video. It can be used to direct the viewer on what you want them to do such as subscribe or where you want them to go like clicking on another video or clicking through to your website.

5. Share on social media outlets.

Okay so you have done all of the other work on preparing your video to maximize it thus getting the most value in being found on the search engines, now you need to get the word out and get people seeing it. User interaction is important so you want to get it out to as many people as possible right away! Once it is posted on YouTube you can share it through many social media outlets, YouTube provides you with an embed code right below the description and also has automatic share buttons to over a dozen different channels that you can just click on as well.

Your Mind’s Operating System / Online Marketing Part Two

This is part two of the same article. If you have not read Part One, please go back and do so, as the information is being developed from a basic position to a more advanced stage.

This article gives you basic online business ideas that can help you with your personal growth and development. Use it to generate positive movement through your personal endeavors and life path.

Remember to stay focused on “Happiness is your birthright.” For simplification let’s label any information affecting and entering our mind as message units. It is said today we receive over four hundred thousand of these message units daily. Think about not only what you consciously choose to read, watch, touch etc., but the many message units that bombard you without your conscious control. These units include words, thoughts, pictures, emotions, etc. that have created our personal files.

The human being receives message units or information into the conscious mind through four sources. The first source is the external environment, which are things like the music you are listening to, television you may be watching, or anything affecting you from everyday surroundings. The second source is the body itself; pains, discomforts, movements of the body, all sending information about these things to the brain. The third source is the conscious mind, handling our thinking process, our logic, decision making and all the factors affecting our conscious thoughts. The fourth source and probably the most important is the sub conscious mind, which receives and holds without accepting or rejecting the many message units we receive from our religious, social, and genetic backgrounds, and the many conflicts we face daily surrounding these areas.

You may be thinking at this moment, “How is all this information going to help me, to allow change in my life, to become useful and applicable?” Based on the explanation presented earlier of how the human mind has developed over thousands of years and how it operates in theory today, accept the following statement as a basic starting point. The larger part of your mind, the sub conscious, which is approximately 88 per cent of the whole mind, is where changes need to be made related to things put into its file system over many years. The sub conscious mind drives our behavior automatically, and reacts the way it has been programmed to do just like the computer mentioned earlier. It is the old cliché “Garbage in, garbage out.” Whatever you put in, you get out. This programming occurs in our infantile years through approximately the age of eight, before we are able to distinguish between right and wrong. A key point to be made is that the child’s sub conscious has no critical factor or logic. It will accept as truth any data entering its file system. This is why we as children are so quick to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. As children the message units go directly into the file room or the sub conscious mind. Remember the sub conscious mind has no logic or reasoning ability. It just accepts information given to it. Example: if you as a child were constantly teased about having big ears, and as an adult hear someone talking about big ears, even though they were not talking specifically about you, those words will trigger emotions in your mind about how you felt as a child hearing statements like that about you. Even though as an adult we can rationalize, that our ears were larger as a child as many of our body parts take some time to balance with one another, and as an adult know they are not any bigger than anyone else’s, you will still react mentally to that statement on a personal basis. Another example; as a child your parents constantly told you what a bad person you were, that you would never amount to anything. You hear this enough times and it creates a file. The file drives your behavior as you feel less than you should and ultimately creates the reality around you. Today as an adult you can consciously rationalize that you are doing well and have probably forgotten many of those negative situations, but if you were to critically evaluate your life, my guess would be that you are not who you want to be and probably question yourself as to why you do not seem to get the lucky breaks that others seem to.

The point being made is many of us, because of the poor direction given to us as children, with poorly worded and emotional statements repeatedly made to us, bombarding the mind in the form of message units have created what are called “files” in the sub conscious file system. These files of information drive our behavior automatically in many cases, and sometimes not in our best interests. The point to remember is that the file room has both positive and negative files of information. It depends on your specific life circumstances as to the ratio of one to the other. The function of the conscious mind is evaluation and comparison of the new idea to previously accepted information thus checking its credibility before allowing entrance into the file system or sub conscious mind. The sub conscious mind will only accept what the conscious mind believes at the time the suggestion is given. Since the sub conscious mind is the dominant and driving force, we generally follow what the sub conscious mind believes. This is another key point. Eighty eight per cent of the time, you are on automatic pilot, as you react to life, based on information in these files that started at birth and which developed through the formative years, birth through approximately eight years of age, creating your own and unique value system for decision making. The sub conscious is the storehouse of information related to desires, emotions, and the energy driving you to satisfy them. We always do what our sub conscious mind believes. In addition to storage of data, the sub conscious regulates the involuntary body functions such as circulation, breathing, digestion, etc. Understanding that our emotions govern the strength of our desires, we are literally at the whim of our sub conscious mind, unless we learn to control this strong part of our mind. The sub conscious mind in housing the emotions that regulate our desires, make a case for understanding that its input decides our path in decision making. The sub conscious has no discrimination and accepts information given to it as truth. It is also where our imagination resides, thus imagining or believing in failure, will produce that certain failure. Repetition of good or bad habits will instill in the sub conscious the files that will generate the automatic behavior we sometimes question.

Habits are also organized in the sub conscious where activities such as driving a car, playing sports, walking are all good examples of not needing to be in conscious mode to perform the specific activity. In fact these are all done easier and better if we do not think consciously about them. Do you think of which foot to place first as you start down a staircase? Of course not, if you did you would probably fall. The sub conscious mind does it automatically for you. Remember the sub conscious does not rationalize. It basically reacts using the data in the files. Another example of sub conscious behavior is driving a car. How many times have you been driving, say on a long trip, and found yourself day dreaming, to find you have gone some distance before you realize you were not mentally awake and rational in this experience, occasionally missing an exit due to this condition? Many of us can say yes to this question, as it is not an unusual occurrence. It is not unusual to enter this state and frame of mind two to three times a day based on today’s high stress levels and the environment around us. The knowledge that we were not involved in any kind of accident is based on the fact we were on automatic pilot, with our sub conscious driving for us. Let us throw some additional information into the mix, before we focus on the application of all this valuable information to literally change who you are, and where you choose to go in life. As the human mind evolved and developed over time, an important area, called the critical filter, emerged and gradually began to hold information from dumping directly into the sub conscious. This control allowed less information from going directly into the sub conscious mind without conscious mind involvement. This filter holds information or message units for approximately twenty four hours and will allow penetration into the sub conscious file room only if there are matching “knowns” in the file system. This filter develops approximately by the age of eight, and helps handle the multitude of message units we are bombarded with daily. For an easy approach in understanding the importance of the critical filter, look at the filter as a personal secretary that gathers information before taking the time to search out the corresponding files in the file room. Once the secretary gets involved and starts to search out matching files and adds information to them, the file becomes thicker. In cases where the secretary finds no matching file to deposit information, the information is rejected. The message units or information not relevant to the file system are discarded; many in the form of dreams. We are going to rely heavily on the critical filter or secretary to help us as we start the actual Training Wheels for Mental Fitness Program, using our training wheels approach. You will see later as we progress into the actual process of Mind Fitness development, how this programming tool works with the secretary or the critical filter, in opening and allowing entry into the sub conscious file room on a direct basis. Bear in mind, it is the sub conscious we want to interact with directly. This is the part of your mind where changes need to be made for long term use and benefit. The paradigm or working model works in this manner. Message units enter the conscious mind first, and are then held in the critical filter area. Remember this as your personal secretary’s desk where information is held for filing. Here they accumulate and are on hold for use. This area is both conscious and sub conscious because we have been educated to develop an analytical sense for evaluation on the conscious level. At the same time we have learned on the sub conscious level to avoid anything that is critical or threatening to us. The critical area or personal secretary will not analyze message units as long as the conscious mind is present, only when sleep takes place and the conscious mind is off will the process develop. This is the only time when the conscious mind will not try to hold on to them. Interestingly, if too many message units accumulate in the critical filter, you will find your body getting tired and sleepy. The more emotional traumas a person is undergoing in their life, the stronger the tendency will be to be tired and sleepy. Sleep is an integral part of this total process as this is when the mind vents or releases needless information.

Much of the information that could not be filed because matching files were not found will be discarded in the form of dreams. You may not always remember your dreams, but it is known that all of us dream. Dreams are known to be a venting process that helps eliminate or discard the many message units that are not matched up within the file system, or needed by the mind. During sleep, the accumulated message units are then dropped into the sub conscious mind for analysis. Here the secretary is hard at work looking for the matching file. Keep in mind that the sub conscious mind has no rationale, thus allowing both positive and negative message units to be filed in their respective files. This works to your benefit with a program such as ours that allows you to program the necessary information for positive mind development and the achievement of long term success.

All of the previous information is designed to give you a grass roots foundation for understanding the basic theory of your mind’s dynamics. It is designed to help you lay the groundwork for the system of positive change that will bring more success to your life. The basic premise is “Happiness is your birthright”. If you are one of those who have not reached the levels of success aspired to, if you wish you could become a stronger, more confident person, if things do not always go the way you would want them to, then what follows is paramount to understand. “You can be whomever you want to be, you can achieve any level of personal or business success you desire, and you can do most anything you can visualize because you have the ability to set up your own file system for success”. Understanding the material presented earlier gives you the foundation to change what is called your life script, or the file system within your sub conscious mind. Follow through on “Happiness is your birthright”. It is within your personal control through planning, dedication, and the responsibility to follow through on the achievement of your goals.

Are You an Internet Marketing Genius?

Not many people are, so it shouldn’t be an embarrassment saying that you are not.

Internet marketing can be hard and even confusing. At least, it seems to be for the novice who just wants to get as many people as possible to see their website.

So what about internet marketing do most people find difficult?

Understanding how it has changed in the last decade. Traditional marketing used to be a relatively simple process. Maybe some mailers to people around town, a small space in the local Yellow pages, maybe even a spot on local radio. All of that has changed with the internet boom. Now you can market globally… if you understand how. Sure, it can make your business visible to a much larger audience, but how?

Making the best to use your time. Most small business people wear multiple hats. As a comparison, internet marketing is the cheap baseball cap compared to the expensive fedora of trying to manage the business. Internet marketing seems to take up way too much time for the tangible/measurable benefits it brings.

Spending the money. Marketing is just one of many costs, but because modern internet marketing is completed on so many fronts, it is difficult to know where the money is going. Keeping track of most expenses is easy because you have a direct relationship. But, marketing costs seem so ethereal.

Determining what is effective. In traditional marketing, you can do studies to determine exactly (or at least close to exactly) how effective your marketing dollars were. There was more of a direct link between marketing and sales. Now it is seems like it is very difficult to tell.
What is the answer to this dilemma? You know you have to market in order to be seen by as many people as possible.

So to get the most out of your marketing dollar, you can take one of two actions. Let’s look at them.

#1. Learn How to do Internet Marketing Yourself (effectively)

Computers are as necessary to business these days as buggy whips were at one time. Of course, the buggy whip manufacturers either adapted or they went the way of large wooden sailing ships. It is possible to find some of each in museums these days, but they aren’t in use anymore.

If you are hoping that the same happens to computers and the internet, you are probably also betting your business on a coin at the wishing well. Neither are a good bet.

So, computers are here to stay and you need to learn how to market using one. You know your business won’t grow itself, but learning a new task when your time is already precious is not efficient. But, internet marketing is necessary.

You could take one of the online courses, spend time just reading as much information as possible, or you could take the second alternative (at this point I am going to say that it is the better of the two).

#2. Outsource Your Internet Marketing

You have just reached a milestone and you want to show your employees how much you appreciate them. A party sounds like a good idea, something that they will remember for a long time. Something that will motivate them when they are doing their jobs tomorrow. What do you do?

Well, if you’re smart, you let an expert take over. You know what you’re good at and it isn’t planning parties (unless you’re an event planner or caterer, then think of a different example). You call the local Chucky Cheese (or other favorite venue) and let them do the planning.

Looking at this example, why would you then believe that you can be an effective internet marketer when it’s not your specialty?

Some would have you believe that internet marketing is as simple as putting up a Facebook page, sending out a few Tweets and writing something in your websites blog every two or three weeks. If that was true, why aren’t the orders flowing in?

Effective internet marketing is complex. You need to understand how to reach people using modern technologies and you need to understand the possible benefits of many different resources.

Why would you try to tackle such a complex system without some type of help? It would be insane.

Outsourcing works for companies in need of a service that is better done by someone else. For example, many small businesses turn to someone else for such services as human resources, payroll, web design and, yes, internet marketing. Because these are all specialized services, small business owners understand that they actually save money while outsourcing some aspects of their business.

Time is just too valuable!

You can find a company that specializes in internet marketing which could include handling your social media marketing, promoting your blog, etc. These companies have years of experience, keep up with changes that are always occurring in internet marketing and use proven marketing strategies to help their clients succeed.

In addition, just think of that extra time you would have on your hands if you didn’t have to do these tasks yourself and could concentrate on other important areas in your small business. Yes, it costs money to hire someone to handle your internet marketing, but remember… Time = Money.

Outsourcing may seem like something that large businesses can afford to do, but they have the money to have in-house departments. It pays for a small business to think creatively when they cannot afford to provide internet marketing services for themselves.

The original question was “Are you an internet marketing genius?” If not, then outsourcing your internet marketing chores may be the best way to go!