» Entries tagged with "Marketing"
Reinventing The Wheel Into Something Else
After reading a post at My Shingle, I clicked through to a post by Jordan Furlong discussing his thoughts on the future of the practice of law. He divides what he calls “the evolution of the legal services market” into stages, the first being what he calls a “closed market,” the second being a “breached market,” the third being a “fully open market,” the fourth being an “expanding market,” and the fifth being a “multi-dimensional market.” He sees competition growing and lawyers having to drastically change what we do. We’re all going to have to think outside the box, reinvent ourselves. My initial reaction was that he was just making up stuff, providing intricate details about a fictional future where his services will be in far greater demand … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing, Practice in General
Commodities
A while back, Chicago lawyer Kevin Case wrote a fascinating article about the commoditization of symphony orchestra musicians. He describes the lamentable fact that many managers in the arts world view artists as faceless, interchangeable parts of a big machine instead of the uniquely talented individuals they are. It isn’t just a problem in the music world. I regularly get emails about the next big thing in lawyer marketing. People only find lawyers on the internet, I hear. They use search terms I’d never expect or go to sites I’ve never heard of. Old-timers clinging to antiquated marketing ideas are supposedly destined for failure, so lawyers must adapt. We’ve been commoditized, and we’re being traded primarily on the internet. Those of us who don’t … Read entire article »
Dumb Luck
Jordan Rushie, one of the Fishtown Lawyers who writes the Philly Law Blog, put up a post yesterday about bringing in clients. These were his thoughts about craigslist: Do you really think we would put up a free Craigslist ad? That’s for losers, and it will never ever happen. Period. Why? Because it’s undignified, that’s why. And yes, you are a total loser if you’re putting up free classified ads for legal services on Craigslist. I don’t care if it resulted in a client or two. Rather than hijack his post with a rambling comment, I figured I’d share my experience posting on craigslist. Let me tell you a story. The year was 2007. I had no money, so I was working one weekend and thought I would put up … Read entire article »
Peaking
Networking events bring out all kinds of lawyers. For the most part, they bring out normal lawyers looking to connect with other normal lawyers. They also bring out great lawyers at every stage of their careers. What’s the fun in writing about those kinds of lawyer though? It’s the outliers who make for the best discussion. Events bring out the young lawyers with no jobs, wandering around like zombies clutching stacks of business cards with “Esq.” after their names but no firm name or physical address anywhere to be found. Some only list a cell phone with an Illinois area code and a Gmail or Yahoo email address consisting of a cutesy name followed by a few odd digits. As smart as some of them … Read entire article »
Refining the Product
Private practice lawyers learn to play many roles. One role that many people seem hesitant to acknowledge is the role of salesman. Like it or not, if you want to make a living in the private sector representing human beings, it is imperative that people want to hire you. To do that, you must occasionally play the role of salesman. I am no salesman. It isn’t in my genes, I haven’t gone to great lengths to develop any sales skills, and quite honestly, the idea of selling things to people, even if it’s something I believe in, makes me feel a tad bit icky. I acknowledge I must sell my services to stay afloat in this profession, but I generally do that by sticking with one … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing, Practice in General
Ups and Downs
Private practice can be a roller coaster. The turns may widen and the grades may diminish as time passes, but the financial uncertainty never goes away altogether. Your threshold for risk will diminish as your practice grows. Traditionally, summer months are the hardest for me and Adrian, but this summer has been an exception. We’ve seen unexpected growth during a time when we usually hunker down and prepare for the worst. We’re lucky, but even if every month is a relatively good month compared to when you started out, you still never know what the next month holds. A lot of money can pour out of a business very quickly when times are slow. Running a small firm isn’t for the faint of heart. Running it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing, Uncategorized
Marketing to Bikers
I follow Susan Carter Liebel on Twitter. She’s the creator of Solo Practice University, a website that’s supposed to be “the #1 web-based educational and professional networking community for solo lawyers and law students.” Yesterday, I noticed she put up the following with a link: “Adam Gee teaches you How To Market To Bikers in his newest class.” Intrigued, I clicked the link. I couldn’t find anything about the content of the course though, so I went to Adam Gee’s page at SPU. There, I saw the following under his syllabus: Marketing to Bikers: Developing a Motorcycle Practice * Indirect Marketing Techniques * Direct Marketing Techniques * Blogs, social media and books I think SPU is a great idea, and … Read entire article »
Filed under: Bikers' Rights, Clients, lawyers, Marketing
I Will Never Recommend These Lawyers to Anyone
Last week, I discovered one drawback of having some of my favorite blogs link to us. With the increase in traffic has come spam. Lots of it. Occasionally, an obvious spam comment slips past our filter, but it doesn’t bother me. I delete it, and life goes on. It normally involves male enhancement or someone willing to do something that’s illegal in the deep south. It looks like some new lawyers have jumped into the fray. Taking a cue from viagra vendors, some scumbag attorneys have decided to spam my poor little blog. They put up stupid comments talking about how great they are and linking to their website. The spam comments were completely unrelated to the posts. I won’t provide a … Read entire article »
Filed under: Ethics, Marketing, Practice in General, Professionalism
New Blog Name
It was recently brought to our attention by Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice that calling this blog “Brown & Little, P.L.C.” might be dissuading other blawgs from linking to us. I can see his point: it’s just too promotional. On top of that, it isn’t very creative. Personally, I’m the kind of guy who sees no problem naming a dog “dog” or a goldfish “goldfish,” but I have to admit a name change is probably in order. We will officially change the name soon, but we’d first like to get some input. We keep getting stuck on Scorpion-themed blog names, as we’ve always wanted the kind of dignity and respect animal law firm mascots command. “The Scorpion,” “The Scorpion Kings,” “Scorpion Justice,” and “The Stinger” are … Read entire article »
Filed under: Uncategorized
Poor Guy
August 6th, 2010 | 2 Comments
Sometimes, I have to respect spammers. Perhaps my favorite spam comment to date comes from “vimax,” who writes as follows: I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia [penis enlargement] and being forced to post spam comments on blogs and forum! If you don’t approve this they will kill me. [penis enlargement] They’re coming back now. [penis enlargement] Please send help! [penis enlargement] I think I just saved a life by posting this. You can thank me when they free you, vimax. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Marketing