The following is an extract from their website:

“Free Ebook: How to Leverage Social Media for Public Relations Success

Without a doubt, the web and social media are making it easier for businesses to communicate with their public.

As a result, social media and inbound marketing strategies and tools are making it easier for PR professionals to connect and build relationships with influencers, generate media coverage, and communicate their messages to customers, prospects and other valued constituents.
Download the 28-page ebook to learn more about how you can infuse social media into your PR efforts for maximum results. Topics include:

*How to connect & build relationships with the media, bloggers and influencers
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* How to use social media to facilitate customer and employee relations and improve brand sentiment
* How to measure the ROI of public relations

TweetUp

Follow this link to an article that explains what a Tweetup is and how lawyers are using them to build their online social networking profiles. Fascinating…..

Happy Valentine's

Have you sent a Valentine’s message to your clients and/ or prospects?

If not, it’s well worth considering doing so as part of your marketing plans for next year.

When we send a Valentine’s offer as part of a direct mail campaign we get great results.

Mary Portas echoes this sentiment in her current Channel 4 TV series in which she slates the sofa salesmen who flog oversized sofas to bewildered customers. They want the largest commissions and often don’t care about the consumer. Instead, she encourages her proteges to create environments which play to the consumer’s wants and needs. In return, the consuemr will tell their friends about this great place to buy sofas and the power of endorsement marketing is harnessed.

Lawyers could easily do this, because they talk with their clients all the time so they know what problems they need solving.  Come up with a great marketing campaign for a product that solves one of those problems and then design the product. Invariably, lawyers hand over the marketing of their products and services to third parties or in house marketing managers. Big mistake! It is absolutely vital to remain involved throughout the process. Remain passionate about your clients, your products and services (not your brand) and good things will happen.

I would definitely recommend Seth Godin’s book, Purple Cow, and if you happen to be in Orange County on the 2nd March you could hear him speak. http://www.linkedoc.com/

Employment lawyers usually want employers to read their articles so taking that example, it’s unlikely that employers are going to subscribe to feeds from JD Supra or visit the website because it is predominantly for legal specialists so you rely on them finding your work via the search facility on Google when they search for help with a problem. It would help, therefore, to include the words and phrases that employers will search for.

Your next question is, of course, “How do I find out what employers are searching for?”  Well, you could start by searching Google with phrases you think your audience may use. Google’s new ‘Suggest’ feature automatically shows you what the most popular searches are as you type. Just keep changing the words around and experimenting to find inspiration from Google’s ever changing list of suggestions. The list is based on the most popular searches and is rated by many experts as more reliable than Google’s keyword tool.

It soon became clear that those shopkeepers who marketed their products and services with passion were more successful than those who sat back and waited for customers to cross the threshold.

Despite all the odds, an Edwardian butcher flogged pre-historic looking cuts of meat and a milkshake bar drew in crowds of listless teenagers. The blacksmith did a brisk trade in candle stick holders and the hairdresser bagged tips she had only dreamt of.

The successful shopkeepers overcame many barriers including limited product lines, third rate machinery, rationing during WWII and price fixing by the large manufacturers. They beat all the odds and their competition with good old fashioned marketing techniques and a healthy dose of excellent customer service.

This is something the Edwardians developed and the’self-service 70′s’ killed off. Most lawyers can cast their minds back to law school and remember the Boots self service test case as a useful lesson in ‘offer and acceptance’. Beyond that this case heralded a new era in which we liked to help ourselves. The irony is as this series discovered, that we now miss all that pampering and have welcomed it back with open arms in the millenium. We are very sorry we took it forgranted and we want to feel ‘special’ again. Stuff the conveyor belt and self service check out’ and spoil me says today’s typical consumer.

But is this enough for us? The programme seemed to confirm that we want more than just elements of great customer service. We want it all. Personal service, competitive pricing, endless choice and of course, excellent quality.

Well like it or not, as lawyers this is the challenge facing us today. I for one take it up with gusto. It makes my job much more exciting and when I get it right (which evidently I must now do 24/7) it is hugely rewarding.

Nobody, particulary hugely successful businesses have time on their hands and yet they find time for marketing. I know this is a fact, because they cannot reach their potential otherwise.  If you want new business you have to work for it. Allocate significant resources to smart marketing. Stop making excuses and instead make it happen and just like these High Street time lords you will find that it works a treat.

Carolyn