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. (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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. (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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. (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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? (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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. (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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. (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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: (Keep reading →)

Categories: 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.

Categories: 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. (Keep reading →)

Categories: Rainmaking, Marketing Plan |

Rarely is marketing a one time event. It is not a quick fix or magical formula to flood you with new clients for little investment on your part. Rather, it is a series of interactions you have with prospects as they try to solve their problems. There are a number of steps people take before they decide to buy something. (Keep reading →)

Categories: Client Service, Psychology, Marketing |