My guess is that many of you have more free time now due to the pandemic, which had slowed down deal flow and litigation activity.
Plus working from home eliminates the need for commuting, giving you extra hours in the day to focus on marketing and business development.
This is a great time to become
As most of us are staying close to home as the pandemic continues to affect all areas of the world, here are a few ideas in the marketing and business development areas to keep you busy.
The summer is a great time to reconnect with your network and focus on your business development and branding efforts. Here are some ideas on how you can do it using online networking techniques despite the breakdown in personal interactions due to the pandemic:
Your professional biography is your opportunity to showcase your work, capabilities and areas of expertise, and what makes you stand out from your competitors.
Many in-house counsel cite lawyer bios as one of THE most important sources of information regarding researching outside lawyers (yes, everyone is Googling you whether you like it or not and your web bio is usually the number one search result of your name). In addition, lawyer bios are among the most visited pages on law firm web sites, further underscoring their importance.
Your bio can serve as an important business development and branding tool if it is well-crafted. Yet within the legal industry, so many bios are still lackluster, outdated, not client-focused or just poorly written.
Given the power of bios, it has always baffled me that many lawyers do not update theirs at least several times a year or write them with a client focus. The new year is a great reason to take a fresh look at your bio and make enhancements to it.
I recently wrote a much longer version of an article on creating a strong, engaging bio for JD Supra, which you can read here. This is an excerpt of that article, which concentrates on the show vs. tell concept, an essential component that many law firm bios are missing. The article also focuses on the idea that all bios should be client-focused and that you should always write for your audience, not your peers. Remember that often, your clients aren’t actually practicing lawyers, and even if they are, the world today isn’t as formal as it used to be (especially as clients are getting younger), so drop the legalese from your vernacular and speak in a more casual tone to your audience. Now let’s get to work!
I’ve been working with several of my clients to craft communications to send to their clients now that some states have allowed law firms to reopen their offices.
Businesses of all types have a responsibility to explain new health and safety protocols that are in place to prevent the further spread of COVID-19.
Getting client communications right is critical to the success of your business in a post-pandemic world, as clients and potential clients are looking for businesses that make them feel safe and secure.
Effective, consistent communications during a crisis will help you maintain client trust, restore employee morale and confidence, and retain market stability. For both B2B and B2C businesses, consistent messaging across all channels is key. All messages should be timely, relevant, empathetic and considerate of your clients’ current needs and concerns.
Each state has different policies on what is allowed in their jurisdiction, so be sure to check your state’s guidelines (here’s information on NYC’s guidelines) and work with your office administrator and firm leadership to be sure that you are operating within what is permissible and of course, always put the health and safety of your employees first.
The below communication may be a helpful framework for you as you are thinking about how to communicate your reopening to your clients. Please adapt it for your audience.
Remember that it is still not business as usual by any stretch of the imagination – and no client expects you to be reopening. COVID-19 is still very much a threat to all of us. You may want to rethink how you’ve been conducting business in the first place – perhaps you can conduct more business remotely and only require employees to go into the office for essential functions. This is a great time for law firms to be innovators – your clients will certainly appreciate that.
Stay safe.
Continue Reading What to Say to Clients About Returning to the Office After the COVID-19 Shutdown
In what might be the most important update for LinkedIn company pages to date, you can now see your actual LinkedIn company followers (this has been on my LinkedIn wish list for years). This new feature has been rolled out to users over the last few days.
This is huge for organizations. And was a
Content marketing and social media success is so much more than having good content. It’s about knowing when to post and how to maximize the channels on which you post. Here are some tips to expand the reach and power of your content.
I am thrilled to be featured in a recent Practising Law Institute (PLI) #inSecuritiesPod podcast along with the brilliant Deborah Farone.
In the podcast, Deborah and I discuss the strategies and tactics we each leverage to help law firms, individual attorneys and practitioners build thriving practices. We delve into how firms and lawyers can
Have you ever wondered why some of the content you post to social media performs really well (with a high number of likes, comments and shares) and some posts don’t? It could be the subject matter, the time of day when you posted it, but it also could be algorithms working in the background.
Social
Thank you to the New York Law Journal and Mid-Market Report for publishing my new article, “20 Ways Small- and Mid-Size Firms Can Appropriately Market Themselves During the Pandemic.”
Your most important job right now is to lay the foundation for when we return to “normal” and also to be ready, willing and able to assist your clients during this time of great change, confusion and stress. Empathy is the single most important characteristic you can have right now to build stronger relationships.
In case you are looking for some “homework” in the marketing and business development area, here are a few ideas to keep you busy during this period.
Continue Reading 20 Ways Small- and Mid-Size Firms Can Appropriately Market Themselves During the Pandemic