Web 2.0 – Is This Relevant To PI Attorneys?

Absolutely.  My best advice to you is to find a way to embrace Web 2.0 as soon as possible.  It is changing the way we acquire and nurture clients and you need to understand that before your competitors do. 

The average PI client is about 35 years old.  Do you really think they are looking for a lawyer in the yellow pages?  Probably not.  Instead they are becoming increasingly sophisticated web users that demand a significant and credible web presence from their vendors of choice.

A basic website is no longer sufficient.  We now need to concern ourselves with understanding blogs and podcasts, rss feeds and social bookmarking, online video and tags. 

We must have an online visibility that breeds confidence.  That means showing up in Google, Squidoo, Digg, Technorati, Del.icio.us, Zoom, and My Space – just to name a few.

 By the way, here’s my Squidoo site.  It’s fun and it’s free!  http://www.squidoo.com/cindyspeaker/

The choices are truly endless.  That’s why the pursuit of greater online visibility and credibility requires study and research.  Focus your efforts in the right area.  Web 2.0 efforts are inexpensive but labor intensive.

Mobile Marketing for Law Firms?

We’ve been hearing for quite some time now that in the near future, ads will be a common occurrence on cell phones.  I don’t know about you, but I have resisted believing that such a thing could really happen.  After all, who is going to stand for being charged to receive intrusive sales pitches on their cell phone?  Well, it seems that advertisers are already making headway in this effort that has been aptly referred to as ”mobile marketing.”

First of all, 75% of the United States has cell phones.  That equates to about 225 million people.  Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt predicts that we will soon see free cell phones, with the cost of a service plan subsidized entirely by ads.  As a matter of fact there is apparently already a Google-branded phone in the works.

An existing business model for “SugarMama” provides some insight as to how the near future may look.  The Virgin Mobile service provides 4 million users – mostly teenagers – with up to 75 minutes of free airtime a month if they watch ads and answer questions to prove they paid attention.  Since its launch in May, SugarMama has been used more than 2 million times, and it’s gaining about 1,000 new users a day.  It has also attracted advertisers such as Pepsi, Sony Pictures, and the U.S. Navy, which gives the small mobile operator a welcome stream of nonvoice revenue.

Just imagine the power that will go to the early adopters of mobile marketing in the soon to be golden age of cell phone innovation! 

Client Satisfaction

Research shows that the first 90 seconds of your clients perception of you and your firm will have more to do with their overall client satisfaction than anything that occurs after that initial point of contact….ever!

This whole area of first impressions deserves more of our attention than it generally receives.  You see, the fact of the matter is that your law firm is not judged primarily on the merits of your work but on the emotional connection that occurs during that first point of contact.   

In most cases, you as the attorney are not the one making those all important first impressions.  Instead it is your receptionist and intake operators.  Therefore, it is important that they are carefully trained to create the kind of emotional connections that your clients crave?  This is a hot topic in law firms around the country and because of that, last week my staff and I did a team training teleseminar entitled “Are You A Customer Service Hero?” 

We posited that your clients are in need of heroes.  Not superstars, but knowledgeable, caring listeners that are available to help them navigate what can be one of the most difficult times in their life.  

Are your front line people customer service heroes?  One way to assess this is to call our office about conducting a series of ghost calls.  We will help you evaluate what is transpiring during new case calls and then, if desired, work with your team to ensure proper training and implementation.  You can reach us at 610-692-3217.  Or email us at cindy@cindyspeaker.com.

Web Collaboration

In today’s issue of Business Week, it is reported that “My Space users are aging.”  Believe it or not, 67% of My Space users are over the age of 25.  That statistic really surprised me.  In the PI industry our average client is about 33 years old and that makes our clients avid web users.

So what is it that people are doing on the web?  The research shows that what we do at home and what we do at work differs a bit, but it’s clear that the web is an integral part of our lives.

Here’s what we’re doing on the web from home:

1. 75.5% use e-mail
2. 48.7% receive photos via e-mail
3. 15.5% watch internet video
4. 7.9% use social networking sites
5. 9.4% buy and download music files

At work, we use the web a little different:

1. 33% use message/bulletin boards
2. 24% online video
3. 27% social networking sites
4. 19% blogging
5. 17% wikis
6. 11% podcasting

So how do we, in the PI industry, leverage the web to build our businesses?  Begin by asking yourself how many of these strategies you are utilizing.  Do you have a blog?  Are you using online video?  Do you have an email marketing system to reach your clients and potential referral sources?  Have you tapped into the social networking sites?

Web collaboration is flourishing.  And nobody understands it better than our young people.  My recommendation to you is to have a web savvy young person as part of your team to make sure that you are growing your online visibility in a positive way and faster than your competition!

It’s Not Just About The Numbers…

Few in the PI industry study the numbers like I do, but I can tell you that marketing your PI firm is not just a numbers game.  It’s a process…a process that requires planning, execution, measurement, systemization, feedback and continual improvement.  Are you committed to the process? 

 

If you’re a PI attorney looking to grow your practice to the next level, you have a number of options, all of which will yield differing degrees of success or lack thereof.

 

The option that I see most commonly is to simply increase advertising.  Why is that the most common choice?  Because it’s the fastest and easiest. 

 

If attracting new case calls was the only goal of the marketing process, then advertising might be the best option.  But attracting and acquiring new calls are simply step one and two.  When we move to step three of the marketing plan, advertising falls short.  You see, step three is to grow relationships.  And that leads to step four which is to retain customers (clients) and generate a consistent stream of referrals.

 

I believe that your numbers are the foundation for gauging the effectiveness of each element of your marketing program.  But marketing is not just a numbers game.  Marketing is all about building relationships and that is a process.