ALA Media has released a report, An Analysis of Advertising and its Effect on Law Firm Revenue Growth, which is downloadable via its website. It states

Firms That Make A Commitment To Advertising Have Higher Growth Rates. Using the rigorous definition of advertising, the 87 AmLaw 200 firms that spent at least $10,000 in advertising in any three of the last five years have an average Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in their gross revenues that is 2.2 percentage points higher than their non-advertising counterparts (9.3% vs. 7.1%).This pronounced gap in CAGR translates into substantial revenue differentials over the five year period . And, the 42 firms that spent at least $50,000 in advertising in at least three of the last five years had even stronger growth rates than the firms spending at the $10,000 level (9.8% vs. 9.3%) .

(Read the article)

Stats/ Trends

There are a lot of lead generation services out there for law firms. The trouble is, there are all kinds of ethical considerations when it comes to paying a non-lawyer for soliciting prospective clients. Up until now, most states have considered it unethical. But recently, legal referral services have gained an unlikely ally - the Federal Trade Commission. (Read the article)

Referrals, Regulations, Marketing

The bulk of your competition probably comes from local firms that offer similar practice areas to yours. But how much do you actually know about how your competition does business? Do some competitive research to learn who their clients are, any new accounts they’ve just received, new hires, the outcomes of recent cases, and any press releases and articles they’ve recently published. (Read the article)

Marketing Plan

Your clients are a wealth of (usually untapped) information that can offer an outside perspective of your firm. Take them to lunch or send them a letter asking them to evaluate your performance and how satisfied they are with your service. After all, your clients know what your strengths and weaknesses are because they’ve worked with you and have seen your processes first hand. They can tell you areas where you excel and areas that need improvement. They can also give you insight on why they chose your firm initially. This is especially good to know when clients switch from other firms to yours. Happy clients don’t switch, so learning why they switched can give you real insight into your clients’ expectations. (Read the article)

Marketing Plan

The first step for any small business or sole practitioner is to define your goals. The direction of any small business is set by who you are and where you see your law firm in the future.

Why Set Goals?
To most people, goal setting is one of the fluffier aspects of marketing. They’d prefer to get to the hands on stuff like advertising, creating a website, or sending out newsletters. So why take the time to set goals? (Read the article)

Marketing Plan

On May 2, the UK proposed a draft bill that will allow law firms to partner with other business services firms like accountants, private equity firms, banks, and consultants. UK law firms see great entrepreneurial and growth potential - including the ability to raise private equity or be listed on a stock exchange. (Read the article)

Regulations, Current Events

Senior US District Judge, Norma L Shapiro, a Pennsylvania federal judge, ruled that M. Kelly Tillery’s name was not entitled to trademark protection. Tillery had sued his former firm to eliminate all uses of his name and all mention of his court victories. (Read the article)

Regulations

This week, four presiding justices of New York’s appellate divisions agreed to comprehensive reforms on lawyer advertising. The proposed new rules (PDF) are pretty strict. Here are a few things ads and solicitations can’t include: (Read the article)

Regulations, Marketing

Welcome to LawyerCoach.net, a site devoted to helping small law firms and solo practitioners market their firms. There are a lot of misconceptions out there when it comes to marketing. I hope this site helps to clear them up and provides a useful resource for lawyers looking to sustain and grow their practice.

This site is an extension of the law firm marketing blog I started a few years ago over on my company, Morningstar Multimedia’s website. That blog was running on the Blogger.com platform and required a number of hacks and workarounds to get it running. This is the upgraded version - on custom built technology.

I’m going to keep the old articles on that site but probably won’t be updating it in the foreseeable future.

Announcements

In a previous article, I discussed your prospect’s buying process. Here, I’ll take a look at how you can align your marketing with those stages in the buying process.

Prospecting
The first stage of your prospect’s buying process is awareness. So, your first step in marketing to them is to help them realize that they do have a problem and it is important that they take action to get it solved quickly. (Read the article)

Rainmaking, Marketing Plan