A law firm’s most precious assets are its clients, which are the source of both today’s business and tomorrow’s referrals. It’s never been more important than right now to integrate the voice of their clients into all you do. Unfortunately, many law firms still haven’t adopted a client-centric mindset as they engage with their clients and prospects, which often leads to what I call lots of random acts of marketing. There’s nothing worse than bombarding your clients with lots of non-focused content.

The fundamental and critical elements of business development success include forming strong online and in-person relationships, and providing exceptional client service at all times.

Since in-person networking is on pause for now, online networking is the most important tool  we have.

It’s never been more important to be client-focused as it is right now as we face this global pandemic, which is affecting everyone around the globe.

Here are nine ways to adopt a more client-centric mindset at your firm.

This is a great time to make enhancements to your personal marketing and business development efforts – especially when it comes to your LinkedIn profile.

In today’s digital world, networking online is just as important as cultivating in-person connections, and LinkedIn is the most important social media channel for professionals in any field. LinkedIn enables you to nurture relationships or build your brand more easily and efficiently than ever before.

But here’s the thing – many LinkedIn users think their profile is strong as is or that they know everything there is to know about the platform, when neither is true.

In fact, only about half of all of users have a 100% complete profile, according to LinkedIn (that means thoughtfully filling out every single field and section that LinkedIn prompts you to fill out). The main reason to do this is quite compelling: it enables you to rank higher in LinkedIn’s search results.

As we are in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, online networking has never been more important to stay top of mind and build connections.

There are three essential building blocks of LinkedIn – your profile, your connections and your interaction on the platform. I find that many professionals focus on the first one – creating a strong profile, but they don’t take it to the next level by strategically building their network (meaning sending and accepting connection requests) and maintaining a consistent presence through liking, commenting and sharing posts.

Here are some ways you can fire on all cylinders when it comes to strengthening your LinkedIn presence. Remember that LinkedIn is where business professionals gather, do research and look for information especially now.

While we all have to do our part by staying apart physically, online networking and content marketing are tools that every professional and company should use to market themselves (in an appropriate way) and their company. The worst thing you can do is to do nothing right now. We will all be relying on social media more than ever before in the foreseeable future, so it would be wise to embrace it now.

The most important question you should ask yourself right now is “how can we support our clients and our profession during this time”? Let that be your guiding light.

Here are some ways you can build relationships during the era of social distancing and quarantining. They just require a more human and online touch.

You may not always have a steady stream of referrals to give out to your referral sources, and here’s what to do when you feel stressed out about that.

Here’s a great article by Sue-Ella Prodovonich on referrals and how to pay them back when you can’t refer them work at that time.

As she says, “referrals are the lifeblood of most professional services firms.” Think about idea of mutual reciprocity and being helpful. Invest in your relationships in a way that provides something of value to them and you will strengthen the relationship until you can make an introduction that may lead to a referral. Remember that referrals are never guaranteed – but you can certainly make connections and go out of your way to help people. No one forgets when someone goes above and beyond for them. Read on for Sue-Ella’s tips. 

In what is a major game changer on LinkedIn, the platform has rolled out its new Events option to all company pages as part of its efforts to assist companies dealing with the impact of COVID-19.

With so many in-person industry events and conferences either canceled or postponed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, the new LinkedIn Events feature is helpful to find meaningful ways to connect and promote virtual events to your followers, such as meetups, coffee breaks, happy hours, CLE programs or webinars.

My content tip for today is to showcase your expertise and help others by offering clients and the general public access to offer educational resources about the coronavirus.

For example,

I hope you will tune in to watch Legal Marketing Coffee Talk each day with me and Rob Kates. Every day we feature an interview with someone in the legal