The brainchild of attorney, Ken Hardison, PILMMA will help you scale your law firm for greater growth and success through membership-based opportunities.
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The brainchild of attorney, Ken Hardison, PILMMA will help you scale your law firm for greater growth and success through membership-based opportunities.
Most lawyers have no idea that they should be creating a niche practice, much less how to make it happen. But this will get you way ahead of the curve and can begin reaping the benefits that law firms who have leveraged a niche market are enjoying now. Increased Revenue. Market Domination. Higher Value Cases.
The broadcast is now starting. All attendees are in listen only mode. Well, hello everyone. This is Ken Hardison and welcome to another monthly Pyrmont webinar. And today we’re going to talk about something that I’ve never really delved into before and call it riches in niches. Um, here’s what I’m seeing. A lot of you’re probably 80% of our listeners probably are doing car accidents and that’s what they want to do.
Uh, but in a zeal to try to acquire as many classes as possible. Okay. They try to serve the widest market possible is what I’m saying is I know that we’ve got mastermind members. I know we’ve got gold members and I let her some people in here that are not members, but you try to be everything to everybody. And, uh,
that’s good and that’s bad, but it’s really as bad because, uh, then you’re really not standing yourself out. You’re not, you don’t have any uniqueness and you don’t feel that you can say in many stakes that you’re a specialist. You can be board certified. Of course. Yeah. You want to, I think with the growing competition and just all of access,
I was on like a consult last week and one this week and all they wanted with car wrecks in a, and here’s the problem. And I see this in our mastermind and everywhere, the competition for these corporate cases, uh, or getting more and more costly. What I mean by that is the cost per case acquisition cost is going up dramatically. That’s what pay-per-click,
that’s what TV, uh, S with everything. So there’s two ways to look at this. One thing is if you kind of, well, I am unique and I am niche. I’m doing nothing, but car Ricks, then maybe you need to sub ditch. And we’re going to talk about this today. Um, in ways you can do it and then maybe do one sub niche that didn’t really dominate your market.
Read More: https://www.pilmma.org/blog/how-to-create-riches-with-niches/
While many of the above questions seem random, and frankly wide in scope, there is, in fact, a calculated reason behind each one. And the countless others that need to be addressed. Historically, custom-designed television media buying strategies have been the driving force behind successful law firm marketing. And to a degree, that still holds true even in today’s digital world. However, it’s the implications of that digital world which call for the above questions.
A law firm’s clientele no longer enters the firm through one point of contact – the phone call. Add social media, paid search, content marketing, out of home, PR, experiential, and countless other channels to the media mix. The million-dollar question is which one (or ones) made the connection and motivated the client to make contact. And equally important, if multiple touchpoints, in which order.
Successful law firms and smart marketing do not happen magically, nor or overnight. As a skilled team of media veterans, experienced in both online and offline media tactics, every component plays a role in getting law firm clients to take action. It’s that objective strategy and experience, balanced across all media channels, that begs the above questions to be brought to the table and addressed. When all cylinders are firing in perfect harmony, the team at Morgan & Co. sees with clarity which media channels (or combination of) are driving clients to the firm, and at what cost. Not until that point can a law firm grow, capture market share and realize its full potential as a marketer.
A list you can copy can be found here and here, or to learn more about Morgan & Co. please visit our website.
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Essential questions to lower your firm’s cost per case
Wouldn’t it be fantastic to get them without spending a fortune chasing down the latest digital marketing strategies?
But avoid getting drowned out by other law firms that are all clamoring for the same client, and trying to differentiate your firm isn’t easy.
If it were, every law firm would be generating 8-figures- and you wouldn’t be reading this blog- you’d be in Fiji sipping cocktails-
Getting more cases doesn’t have to be a mystery or elusive objective. And your size or marketing budget is irrelevant.
One of the BEST and most timeless marketing strategies for any smart law firm owner is nurturing and orchestrating Referrals from existing clients.
Here’s the BIG MYTH– If I provide exceptional results for my client and they’re happy with my firm, they will automatically refer their friends and family to me whenever they need representation.
Sounds great. But it’s dead wrong.
Life gets in the way. People forget the lucrative settlement you got for them. They forget how hard you worked to resolve their liens and put more money in their pockets. They forget how many times your case managers talked with them and made time to listen to their frustrations with the legal process. They just forget – unless you take active steps to NURTURE these relationships.
The lawyers who figure this simple concept out and take systematic steps to increase their referrals will realize a steady stream of new cases every month.
Nurturing your past clients just means staying in contact with them so that you create “top of mind” awareness.
Send cards on their birthdays.
Send greeting cards at various holidays throughout the year.
Send out a short white paper or digital newsletter every month or two.
Send texts or emails periodically-
Just stay in touch. It’s that simple.
But that’s not the only way to start signing more referral cases- Where the real value is, and where the real opportunity is- and where you have a chance for actual control- is the ORCHESTRATED REFERRAL.
What is an orchestrated referral? This occurs when you ask for and receive a very specific type of referral.
We’ve long known the benefits of affirmation and appreciation. Who doesn’t like hearing that they’ve done a good job or that the work they are doing matters? The more we feel appreciated, acknowledged, and affirmed, the happier we are and the harder most of us work to do a good job. It’s human nature. It starts when we can barely walk, proceeds through our school-age years, and continues throughout our adult life. In our personal lives, we readily recognize how our mood and motivation improves when our spouse shows they appreciate the work we’ve done at home or for our family. We see how well our children respond when they are praised for doing a good job at their chores or studies.
Just as in our personal relationships, affirmation works wonders in the business setting, too. When our staffs feel appreciated and affirmed, they are much more apt to go that extra mile to do their best work. When we show that we value their insights and welcome their ideas, they are more likely to feel vested in what we are trying to accomplish. Feeling affirmed not only boosts our confidence and self-worth but causes most of us to push even harder. Your staff and associate attorneys are no different.
Being grateful for your staff and showing it in meaningful ways, both big and small, can transform your firm. Taking action to create a firm culture of gratitude and affirmation can be a powerful catalyst that takes your firm to an entirely new level. Productivity can increase, stressful environments can dissipate, and morale improves. And when your employees are happy, guess what? Your clients will be happier too. It’s a domino effect.
If they aren’t getting it from us, we cannot expect our employees to show our clients kindness, respect, empathy, and appreciation. As Ken Hardison, Personal Injury Lawyers Marketing and Management’s (PILMMA) President puts it, “If you want your employees to be good to your clients, you need to be good to your employees, first. If you want your clients happy, you need to make your employees happy first.”
Read More: https://www.pilmma.org/blog/law-firm-marketing-management-and-culture-foster-a-culture-of-gratitude/
Each year, the experts at Consultwebs compile insights and qualitative data about the legal services industry, to create our Legal Marketing Trends and Predictions Guide, and so it is with great pleasure that we share with you, one of the sections from this year’s Guide, on law firm web design.
Claim your free copy of the Guide, HERE.
2021 Legal Marketing Web Design Trends
Law firms are among the many verticals grappling with the tectonic shift in consumer behaviors around digital marketing and e-commerce, catalyzed by a global health crisis.
Ensuring the integrity and useability of a law firm’s website, will be a marketing imperative in 2021, as more and more clients move towards adopting online pathways to legal services.
Insight
Getting the user experience and user interface right (UX, UI), for a law firm’s website, are core tenets of “best-in-class” legal web design.
With the push towards more digital experiences for clients, law firm web design in 2021 should comport with client demands, and correlate with marketplace expectations.
Here are two specific web design trends that have piqued our interest….
Flat design will be replaced more and more with dimension, texture and gradients.
web design trends
Dark mode option on mobile and desktop will be critical for UX, but also for preference in the search engines and browsers that offer a ‘dark mode’ option.
law firms website design
As clients are starting to prefer online exchanges with law firms, and comparing sites to competitors, accessibility will be just as important as noticeability.
Incremental Steps You Can Take At Your Firm
Before you do anything fancy with design; take a look at the load times and page speed and for your law firm’s website.
There are several ways you can make tiny adjustments to your existing website to increase load times and stay competitive. Go here to test your law firm’s website.
And law firm owners – like business owners all across the globe, have become forcibly versed in the “Pandemic Pivot.” Never before has the sink-or-swim mentality been more relevant or necessary for law firm viability. For almost two years, it has been “Pivot, or Perish,” in steroid mode.
A few weeks ago, I attended the PILMMA Super Summit in Washington DC. The Summit was originally slated for the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New Orleans. But between Pandemic numbers soaring in Louisiana and the convergence of Hurricane Ida’s fury in a head-on trajectory for the Big Easy – PILMMA pivoted to DC for its yearly Legal Marketing and Management Super Summit.
Thus, I found myself in the nation’s capital (walking the same streets as the angry mob that had stormed the capital earlier this year – but THAT’s a story beyond the scope of this blog, definitely.)
Back to the story…Whenever I’m attending a Legal Conference – especially PILMMA’s Super Summit, I can’t help but feel the excitement and expectation in the air. It’s almost palpable. I’ll be honest here – At least for me, there is a special magic when one is surrounded with your “tribe”- a host of like-minded lawyers. There’s the inside jokes and jargon and the shared challenges that are universal to business owners everywhere but with unique twists respective to law firm owners. At the Summit, we’re a club of our own, with each attendee there for the same purpose; to gain the cutting-edged secrets that will enable them to reach their ideal clients, stand out from the masses of other law firms in their markets, and sign MORE CASES.
Read More: https://www.pilmma.org/blog/its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-post-pandemic-law-firm/
When most of us think about our clients, one of the first things that come to mind is a mental picture of that client who is being a pain in the proverbial butt. You know, the one you just can’t please – that’s always calling and complaining. (And typically, these are the clients you’ve done the most for or whose case is small enough you regret taking it in the first place). Or maybe you think of the client whose victory was your most hard-fought. Or perhaps you think of those clients you’ve represented who were the most injured by someone else’s negligence.
But whether you have warm fuzzy thoughts when you hear the word “clients,” or the word causes an instantaneous knot in your stomach, the truth is that your CLIENTS have the potential to be your firm’s biggest Marketing weapon. In fact, each and every client has the potential to be a mini marketer for your law firm. This is HUGE because now, more than ever, marketing your law firm isn’t about what you say about yourself – it’s about what others say about you.
Why is this so important NOW? Because in the post-pandemic world we live in your potential clients are more skeptical of ads than ever before. Advertisers are pouring more money than ever into advertisements to reach consumers. Your potential clients – the people you want to reach with your brand, are inundated with ads. Everywhere. All the time.
If you attended PILMMA’s recent Super Summit Legal Marketing Conference in DC this fall, then you had the chance to hear a mind-blowing presentation by Marketing guru and best-selling author Mark Shaffer, expounding on this concept (IF you missed this four-day event; one of the biggest Legal Marketing and Management Conferences in the country, then make sure you check it out this June when PILMMA hosts its 2022 Conference in New Orleans.
Read More: https://www.pilmma.org/blog/top-law-firm-marketing-strategies-for-2022-make-your-clients-your-marketers/
We all have unique abilities, including both strengths as well as weaknesses. One of the biggest keys to success is learning to focus your time, energy, and efforts on developing and using your strengths.
Stop trying to focus on developing your weaknesses. Now I’m all about self-improvement, don’t get me wrong. But, when it comes to growing your law firm, you need to shift your mindset. Spend more of your precious time leveraging your strengths than trying to improve your weaknesses. Develop your Strengths and Delegate your Weaknesses. Once you begin to operate with this mindset, you will see dramatic results.
For example, I’m a great “idea guy,” but I’m not naturally good at the details needed to implement my ideas. I’m just not a nuts-and-bolts guy. I see the big picture. I can see what the obstacles are going to be, but as far as getting down and doing the step-by-step process needed to get the idea accomplished, it’s just not one of my strengths.
So how do you deal with this? Once you realize what your strengths are, then hire people and surround yourself with others whose strengths are your weaknesses. As a law firm owner, you can’t do everything. You can’t wear all the hats- Well, you can, but when you do, you keep yourself from growing and completely burn yourself out in the process.
Some people have problems with this concept of delegating. They don’t want anyone around them who is smarter than they are in certain areas. Or they truly believe that no one else can do a task better than they can. But operating under that kind of mindset is a sure-fire way to NOT be successful. Be secure in your own talents and abilities. Check your ego at the door.
If your passion and strength is trying cases and you don’t like the business aspects of the law firm, then hire someone to manage and market your firm- Conversely, if your strength is management and marketing, then hire other lawyers to try the cases. IF your passion is marketing, but you hate management, then hire someone whose gift and passion is management.
Read More: https://www.pilmma.org/blog/6-key-principles-to-building-a-better-personal-injury-law-firm-part-2/
So you’re coming to New Orleans for PILMMA’s Summit. Well, you’re in luck as I’m about to dish out my must see, do, visit list while in New Orleans, from someone born and raised in this great city.
SIGHTSEEING
First up, you’re lucky to have Summit at a hotel in arguably one of the most interesting and unique neighborhoods in the U.S. The French Quarter is an incomparable experience due to its history, culture, architecture and amenities. Take at least a few minutes to tour through the Quarter and soak up the atmosphere and vibe, hit Jackson Square to see St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest congregation in Louisiana (1718). While walking, here are some of my favorite places to duck into: M.S. Rau, an amazing antique store packed with out of this world items. If you’re into armaments and/or history, step into Cohen & Sons on Royal for quite a treat. Given New Orleans’ role in the War of 1812 and Civil War, there is no shortage of history and artifacts in this store.
DINING
If I had limited time and could only dine at a few places, here is my short list. Breakfast – Two places come to mind, both are quick and easy, and check the box for fun, must do while in NOLA. Stanley is a popular breakfast/lunch spot in Jackson Square that serves traditional favorites as well as some unique South LA plates. My go-to dish is the Breaux Bridge Benedict (with Boudin). Or hit Cafe Du Monde to get the quintessential breakfast (or late night snack), the Beignet.
Lunch – I would skip lunch to save room for my favorite dinner spots. But, if you must fuel up mid-day, go to the small Italian market Central Grocery for one of their Muffuletta’s. Don’t order a whole one unless you bring along a few friends.
Read More: https://www.pilmma.org/blog/hey-pilmma-summit-see-new-orleans-like-a-local/
If we are serious about living out our core values as a company, then it seemed that core Value #4 gave us the plumb line. If we had opted for a hybrid- like vaccines, or a negative test within the last 72 hours- it simply didn’t seem tenable. We imagined attendees trying to get a test the day before they flew out to New Orleans, and then trying to scramble to get another test during the Conference. That presented a logistical nightmare fraught with uncertainty and potential Covid exposure. It wouldn’t “take care” of our attendees.
Requiring Vaccines for all attendees of the Live event- and providing a LIVE STREAM option seemed to be the path most consistent with our Core Values.
Honestly, we may lose some potential attendees- who don’t want to vax up and don’t want to mask up. Which means we may lose some revenue, too.
But being true to one’s core values is what we teach. And it’s what we want to live by as a company, even if it costs us money.
We care about our members and each other. IT’s who we are, and it’s the core value we’ve used to guide us forward.
What are your company’s core values? What is central to your law firm’s culture? IF you haven’t sat down and really given this some intentional thought, I urge you to do so today.
If you and your firm are grappling with this same vaccine issue for your employees, I urge you to evaluate your firm’s core culture and values for guidance and perspective.
There is no way that you can create a policy, process and procedure that anticipates every issue that will come up in the life of your law firm. However, the more you refine your firm’s core values, and the more you solidify and reinforce them with your staff, the less processes and procedures you ultimately need. These powerful concepts will be your firm’s plumb lines when questions or crisis arise.
Be intentional. Be Innovative. And look for the ways you can live out your firm’s mission statement and core values today.
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