tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81584459238779947172011-09-06T09:21:52.188-06:00This blog has moved to <a href="http://www.themarketinggurus.com/wordpress/">http://www.themarketinggurus.com/wordpress/</a>Jessica Jaramillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14535913105923893980noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-26083133811828082502010-07-10T13:17:00.008-06:002010-07-12T09:58:47.329-06:00

An in-house counsel has finally said publicly-- in a prepared statement appearing in national media-- what so many of us who are marketing boutique and small firms have long known being that it's not always best to hire a big firm when faced with big exposure. Quoted in The National Law Journal, an in-house counsel for Sherwin-Williams says he's staying with his lawyer who has formed a boutique

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-85678647459924466452010-07-02T09:20:00.009-06:002010-07-02T09:50:30.473-06:00

My thoughts on lawyer and law firm ratings and directories just given to a reporter writing about Chambers USA. Why has Chambers has so quickly established widespread credibility? Super Lawyers and Martindale have programs in place to build their brands. The latter is even doing TV advertising to enhance the value and reach of their ratings and directories. Best Lawyers in America also

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-7486769308718083072010-06-27T21:18:00.006-06:002010-06-27T22:06:42.748-06:00

Professionally speaking, social media has created a phenomenal opportunity for people to share and receive information about their business and expertise instantaneously. While social media has revolutionized the way we communicate and market our services, it has not changed the fact that we must mind our manners. Here are a few tips for ensuring your online efforts are well received. 1.

Jessica Jaramillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14535913105923893980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-58275760728904686342010-06-23T15:36:00.005-06:002010-06-23T15:43:42.869-06:00

A just-released survey on personnel trends by one of the legal industry’s largest consulting firms indicates that a lasting result of the Great Recession is going to be that younger lawyers will be expected to help firms develop business earlier in their careers than in the past. Abraham Reich, co-chair of 475-lawyer national firm Fox Rothschild, summed it up in telling www.law.com: "When I

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-44947894110471889202010-06-08T20:45:00.006-06:002010-06-08T20:58:15.322-06:00

Lawyers must invest time in writing deetailed biographies on a firm's Web site. That's the first observation in a series we will be posting this summer summarizing comments made by several panels of sophisticated buyers of legal services with whom we have recently sat. “It really irritates me when a lawyer’s online bio or profile is cursory or lacking in detail – and doesn’t indicate industry

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-32428158231499088902010-04-26T20:32:00.011-06:002010-04-26T21:16:20.432-06:00

Just attending the regular meetings of trade groups and community organizations, and a working committee, is not enough. A lawyer needs to do more than that to generate the credibility needed for members to hire or refer them. One of my employment lawyer clients said last week that for two years now he has been religiously attending his chamber of commerce's committee on workforce issues. The

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-85725489995318048282010-04-16T12:28:00.010-06:002010-04-22T13:05:37.563-06:00

When I was president of our local humane society I was saddened and surprised at how common it was for pups just over 12 months of age to be surrendered at the shelter. Frustrated owners commonly said they could no longer stand their pet's chewing and other mischief. What we knew and tried to explain to them was that the dogs were just a few months away from naturally settling down into sweet

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-88602852849263241702010-04-09T00:28:00.008-06:002010-06-17T12:49:37.273-06:00

We get a lot of questions about whether or not its worthwhile to participate in social networks such as LinkedIn. Our advice is always, "Yes, Do it, do it now". Proof that it works. We're in LA this week speaking about marketing effectiveness and best practices in marketing at an annual meeting of a national law firm network. I met a corporate lawyer who got a $70 million international

Jessica Jaramillohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14535913105923893980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-25372247102804722572010-03-20T15:55:00.004-06:002010-03-20T16:24:39.900-06:00

It is unreasonable to expect every lawyer in your firm to market in the same traditional way-- acting as a "hunter" and attending events, serving on committees, making speeches, fundraising and teaching continuing professional education. But that does not mean every lawyer in your firm cannot contribute, and significantly, to business development. Every lawyer can contribute in a way that is

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-21293192245906057162010-02-18T13:25:00.005-07:002010-02-18T14:31:29.630-07:00

Many law firms upgrading their Web sites are surprised to learn they do not own their online assets. They are forced to pay their original designer and hosting company substantial additional (often nonnegotiable) fees when they want to make a change in who hosts, designs and optimizes a new Web site. The expensive alternative for many has been to start over from scratch with only their content

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-13999785798764151092010-02-05T14:12:00.003-07:002010-02-05T14:25:18.792-07:00

Another surprising statistic has appeared as we analyze the results of our latest bi-annual survey of law firm marketing effectiveness-- 77% of the 120 corporate, transactional and defense firms reporting to us say they have received work directly through their Web site. The consumer bar-- PI, bankruptcy, whistleblower and family-- years ago figured out the Web could be a source of desirable

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-20346277737468757362010-01-24T14:51:00.006-07:002010-01-24T15:10:26.248-07:00

We're compiling the results from our latest bi-annual National Marketing Effectiveness Survey of Corporate, Transactional and Defense Firms. As trends emerge from the data, we'll be issuing alerts. Here's our first: Nearly half of all firms-- a dramatic increase from two years ago-- report they are using formal search engine optimization (SEO) in an attempt to generate cases directly and by

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-1311530040405218872009-12-23T08:08:00.006-07:002009-12-23T08:53:34.161-07:00

We recently completed a fully-optimized entirely new Web site for a client in just 5.5 months, a record time for our team. This is particularly gratifying because we have clients and know of firms that have struggled for up to two years on their sites, and when done have been dissatisfied with both the process and the results. Here's some reason why this project went quickly and smoothly.

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-16371120844461885502009-12-07T19:42:00.005-07:002009-12-07T20:24:22.667-07:00

Here are some examples of perfect Updates on Linked In by lawyers from around the country: "...is preparing to defend an employer against an unfair labor practice charge before the National Labor Relations Board", "... is working on a SLAPP motion filed in a prescriptive easement lawsuit", "... is responding to wage & hour audits from the U.S. Department of Labor. The threat of employer audits

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-87852733132349843822009-12-02T15:34:00.006-07:002009-12-02T15:52:10.247-07:00

I was asked today about law firm newsletters-- if there are any good pre-printed providers for consumer-direct or business/defense firms. We do custom news alerts, electronic and printed, that create Web traffic and referrals for our clients. They create frequency-recency and top-of-mind awareness. We can track calls, email inquiries, Web site visits and cases from to them. Canned content and

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-42351658885423574912009-11-20T09:09:00.010-07:002009-11-25T10:14:58.977-07:00

I received three Thanksgiving cards yesterday from three different firms-- one was a custom design that made an extremely positive impression, the other two were the SAME stock card that looked mechanized and devalued the repute of the recipients. I have addressed best practices to ensure holiday cards contribute to lawyer personal business development and where they fit in a law firm marketing

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-21747516196647153512009-10-30T18:21:00.009-06:002009-10-31T14:15:52.701-06:00

If your law firm marketing plan coming out the recession includes repositioning lawyers into related or new areas of practice, one marketing tactic to consider is having the lawyers author a chapter in a highly-used reference work that’s about the new type of work sought. We just advised a plaintiffs injury trial lawyer, who has done business torts and commercial litigation in the past and wants

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-44715912711792557742009-10-19T18:09:00.009-06:002009-11-05T14:19:34.664-07:00

How far in advance should you notify clients and referral sources that you are relocating your law offices? In our experience, as soon as people get a new address or phone they update their records and start using it. So, we recommend you send the notice of the move to those who are outside your local area on the Wednesday before the Monday you arrive in the new offices, and to local contacts

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-80566126418392898212009-09-23T18:45:00.003-06:002009-09-24T09:00:12.149-06:00

The landmark 2003 study of women rainmakers—the only report of which I am aware that tabulates how much time needs to be spent to create a book of business-- has been updated. Based on 400 interviews, it indicates the threshold for success is for lawyers to devote 8 hours weekly to personal business development. Spend less than eight hours, and originations plummet. Spend more, they soar. The

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-74109837324733718212009-09-01T13:21:00.007-06:002009-09-01T14:14:17.649-06:00

Talked today with a general counsel and her outside coordinating counsel for a national docket of litigation about how they hire and drop local firms-- they assign 5,ooo cases every year of which about 100 go to trial. When searching for a new firm they create an initial list by asking other lawyers, both in-house and in private practice around the country, for references. They want the name of

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-90639814735170512042009-08-03T15:28:00.007-06:002009-08-12T11:37:54.177-06:00

Clear (sad) trend: this week I ran into another established firm where the mid-career partners are about to leave to form a new firm. These lawyers, in their late 30s and early 40s for the most part, were mentored and have practiced for most, if not all, their careers at this firm. The founding and senior partners do not want to invest in marketing-- which every study shows would be a good

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-67739966812185112702009-08-03T15:05:00.006-06:002009-08-03T15:23:59.156-06:00

A new report by the ABA shows 43 percent of lawyers are members of an online community, Facebook, Linked In, Legal On Ramp, etc.-- up from just 15 percent one year ago. While some social media sites have faltered or shown they have limited business development potential for a lawyer-- think My Space with Twitter, possibly-- this form of communication is not going away. Our recommendation: your

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-57968398853157634712008-09-19T11:55:00.008-06:002008-12-17T09:52:22.291-07:00

Most lawyers struggle with their individual business development because they don’t reach enough people, or they do not contact those people they know frequently enough. Neither issue is hard to fix. Establishing reach is no more difficult than taking a couple of hours to create a comprehensive mailing list of your clients and referral sources. Your mailing/email list would include experts, other

Bob Weisshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04162260767947822192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8158445923877994717.post-71636815245750823052008-08-27T09:24:00.002-06:002008-08-27T09:25:25.592-06:00

Thanks for visiting the Alyn Weiss and Associates website, we will be adding blog posts soon.

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