Grow My Law Firm

Building your brand by blogging

How to Build Your Brand by Blogging

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When your own employees sabotage your company's brand

I know I've said it many times before, but I have to repeat it again: your brand isn't your logo or stationery, although they may be physical representations of it. Your brand is the way you are perceived. It's about how people feel when they hear your name or see any physical element of it. It is built entirely from one's experience with your product or service and is the sum total of all touch points that they have ever been exposed to.

So, have you thought about the potential damage your employees can inflict on that brand?

One of the most critical elements of any brand is in setting up expectations of behavior. Think of Wal-Mart. You expect to be greeted in a friendly manner by a smiling someone at the door. Consider McDonalds. You expect those fries to be perfectly cooked and piping hot. Think of the receptionist at your doctor's office. You expect her to be helpful and polite.

But what if the Wal-Mart greeter scowls, the fries are brown and cold, and the receptionist is rude? In an instant, your expectations aren't met, and you feel uncomfortable or perhaps a bit cheated or angry. Your experience doesn't match the perception that you have created about that product of service, and the brand begins to erode in your mind.

Now think about your own business. Are all of your employees on the same page? Do they all deliver a consistent experience to your clients at every touch point?

Your employees are your brand's champions or the undoing of it. They must always present a professional, tactful, classy front. Clients are affected by their tone, attitude, and even the way employees dress, so be careful of who is on your front-line. For example, your accounting person may be terrific with numbers, but if his people skills are poor, he shouldn't handle clients' inquiries. Even if an employee is having a bad day, that's not an excuse to inflict a rotten attitude on the public.

Also consider how toxic a bad attitude is internally. Can one bad apple spoil the whole bunch? I have seen a few organizations that were turned into glum, depressing places by people who made it their mission in life to spread their own misery. If you've got such an employee on your staff, think about addressing him or removing her.

Your brand and your reputation are wrapped up very tightly together. Make sure you protect them by employing the right people.

by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter
On Facebook

5 website mistakes you can and should avoid

I look at a lot of websites when I research competitors while doing positioning work for my clients, and I see a lot of websites that need help. Unfortunately many small businesses make the same mistakes. Are you guilty of any of these listed below?

1. Believing that your website should be under the control of your IT department. Your website is a function of marketing. It is one of the most prominent reflections of your brand and must be protected as a precious asset. I have yet to encounter an IT person who understands branding. Actually, web development is also a different skill set from IT, so it is unlikely that your IT department has the competency to build a website that is up to today's standards. You'll need a good web developer and a strong marketer working together if you want your web presence to be as good as it can be. Your website is your company's primary marketing vehicle. It is a 24/7 representation and usually the first destination when people hear about you. Can you afford to not present the best possible face?


2. Displaying content that is poorly written. Good writing is a skill that not everybody possesses, and web content writing is its own unique animal. Not only does your content developer have to be proficient in the rules of grammar and spelling, and respectful of tense and flow, but web content writers are specialists who know how to incorporate keywords for search engine optimization. They also know how to relax the feel while retaining a professional flair. They know how to cut out the fat and get to the point because they understand and appreciate the short attention spans of your visitors.


3. Allowing multiple departments to have control over web content. This can work sometimes, in the event that everyone has sufficient training and adheres to specific guidelines. But almost invariably, somebody learns a little HTML and decides that this would look pretty in pink, and this would stand out more bolded and in a different font. Then before you know it, people hardly recognize your company when they go to your website because everything looks disjointed. Pages are a mishmash of inappropriate creativity. This damages your brand by breaking the cardinal rule of consistency.


4. Launching a site, then forgetting about it. I'm sure you were very proud of what you accomplished when your site went live, but how long has it been since it was updated and refreshed? The evolution of web design is so fluent that old sites look really dated to anybody's eye. We all go to the same internet every day. We all experience new and exciting technology that constantly looks and works better. When we come to a site that is old, there is an instant discomfort, dislike, or dare I say, distrust. The visitor may feel that if you don't care enough about your own website, you might not care too much about his business either.


5. Building a website that is all about me, me, me. Clients don't care about you. They ONLY care about what they get from you. Read your home page and count how many times you use the words we, us, our, I, me, my, and mine. The actual number of times all of these words should be used is zero. Now look at the rest of your pages. Pretty much the only time you should be talking about yourself is on your about us page because that's the whole point of it. When people go there, they expect to read about you. The rest of the time, people want to know what they get when they hire you. They don't care how great your service is, how long you've been in business, or how wonderful you think you are. Tell them how your service will benefit them and how you can do that better than anybody else if you want to earn their business.

Website development is a specialty best left to the pros. You probably have a lawyer handle your legal work. You probably have an accountant handle your taxes. You probably have a doctor diagnose your illness. So does it make sense to trust your company's primary marketing vehicle to someone who isn't qualified to provide the best possible product on your behalf?

by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Turbo Tax nails their position and branding

We're right smack in the middle of Turbo Tax's season, and boy, do they ever understand their own branding. They have positioned their product as the premiere do-it-yourself tax software and created various versions to accommodate personal needs. What really impressed me lately though is the tagline that they've been using in their advertising:

Choose easy.

I am not sure if that tagline is new or if I've just noticed it, but those two words do exactly what a tagline should do, nail down the customer benefit. Here, Turbo Tax captures the essence of one of their primary customer benefits, making it easier to do your taxes. You know what you get, your taxes done as easy as possible. What a relief! That is a powerful motivator to buy their product.

TurboTax has a very small window to make their money, and they have pulled out all the stops to make the most of their season. I haven't seen a mis-step yet. Whoever is guiding their brand strategy is right on the money.


by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Damaging your brand by abusing your customers' confidence or trust

One of the quickest ways to antagonize your clients is to abuse their confidence or trust. This also holds true for organizations that abuse the confidentiality of their members' information.

A client of mine recently received a notice from his local Chamber of Commerce informing him that for the bargain price of $50, he could send a sales message or promotion in a Word document to the Chamber, and they would blast it out in an email to the whole membership. I'm not sure if they don't realize of don't care that many of the Chamber's members will perceive these messages to be spam. It's one thing to be informed of Chamber happenings and events by email, but it's an entirely different thing to use the organization's email list to spam the membership with solicitations.

So, since your brand is what you are perceived to be, what does such an action do to that Chamber's brand? Does this damage the delicate balance of trust? You betcha. Upon the first email delivery of a member's promotional message, that Chamber morphs itself into a spammer. Now this could work successfully if there was an opt-in for such messages, but the membership certainly didn't expect this when they shared their email address for the purpose of receiving Chamber news and updates.

That Chamber should also have a sophisticated email opt-out, enabling people to choose to receive only the kinds of messages they desire, but that's an after-the-fact band-aid, because the trust will have already been bruised by a push of spam.

The lesson here is to always turn everything that you're doing around and view it from the perspective of your customers. How will they perceive any individual marketing activity? Will they welcome it? Will they be leery of it? Why?

Your goal should be to always feed your customers exactly what they want. Always put yourself in their shoes first. Any marketing activity that brings in a few bucks while antagonizing clients is one that should make you pause.


by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Marketing & branding = windows and mirrors

My colleague and Twitter friend, Gabriel Rossi, branding specialist in Brazil, recently tweeted something that hit the nail right on the head: "Marketing & Branding = Windows & Mirrors." I was impressed by this spot-on analogy. Marketing is indeed a window into your product or service, and good branding is a mirror of what your target clients want you to be.

It all goes back to basics, your position. If you have identified who your ideal clients are, what they get from you, why your firm is the best provider, and what value they perceive from your product or service, you are in a position to craft marketing messages that are appealing to those particular people. You can explain the benefits they receive and how their pain will be alleviated. Those are very powerful attention grabbers and one of the best means of piquing enough curiosity to have them want to know more.

Think of marketing as an education process that warms up your prospects to prime them for a sale. Effective marketing provides the right information to turn individuals into a warm prospects. It is the processes of pre-selling and gives them a window into what they get.

A strong brand then acts as a mirror, reflecting themselves back to those target prospects - their desires satisfied, their pain soothed. They see a fresher, better, happier, more satisfied "me," one that they identify with and desire.

Marketing & Branding = Windows & Mirrors. - So true.

by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Unintentional complications - when you do things that damage your brand

I recently received a request from a client for PC training, and I sent out an email soliciting help to a networking group that I belong to. I received about a dozen responses, and I wanted to compile a list for my client to review. I thought that would be quick and easy, but I was wrong.

The problem was that many of the respondents' email signatures were formatted as graphics, which look nice but make it impossible to copy and paste contact information. So I had to retype their info. That wasted my time, and I didn't appreciate it.

Do you do things that make life harder for your clients? Or is your focus completely client-centric. Do you regularly stand in your clients' shoes and appreciate how easy or difficult it is for them to do business with you?

Believe it or not, this contributes to your brand because your brand is about the feeling that people have resulting from their experiences with you. Any roadblock or speed bump in that experience damages the brand that you try so hard to craft.

So think about it. Do you have an unfriendly secretary? Are your clients never able to reach you directly when they need you? Are you always late for meetings and in delivering your work?

You may be the best in the world at what you do, but if you make it difficult to do business with you, that becomes your brand, one where people will say, "Yes, she's very good, but..."

Eliminate that but. Remove the obstacles and make life easier on your clients. That creates a stronger brand

by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Building your brand 140 characters at a time

At the risk of sounding like a broken record... your brand isn't your logo and stationery, although they are elements of it. Your brand is the feeling that people have when they see your logo, hear your name, or are reminded of your product or service in any way. Your brand is completely about the emotion evoked.

Twitter is one of the most powerful branding tools available these days. Are you building your brand on Twitter? Is it possible to build a brand in 140 character bursts?

Case in point: Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh is on Twitter. Now let's face facts, the man sells shoes. What's so exciting about that? He tweets about his day. He tweets about meetings he has. He tweets when he is interviewed by the press. He tweets about making green tea, and what he had for dinner. He tweets when he sees a movie. What's so exciting about that? Individually, maybe nothing, but all together, they gave his followers...all 27,615 (as of now) of them, insight into Tony, the person.

I'm one of those followers, and when I read regular stuff about a regular guy who is excited about Christmas and spending time with friends, I think, "He's okay." Then I read the impressive stuff that he's doing with is company, and I am inclined to check out his website and maybe do a little shopping.

Reading Tony's tweets puts a human face on a company that I wasn't really curious about before. Now Zappos is on my radar, and my feeling about it is positive. "Hey, that's Tony's company." That's branding.

I know what you're thinking, "What can Twitter do for me? Is it worth my time? How can I learn it?" The truth is that it can be whatever you want it to be. Everyone in the Twitterverse is learning at the same time. There are no experts. There is no rulebook. If someone abuses your personal ethics, unfollowing them is as easy as clicking a button. Poof, they can't assault you anymore.

Twitter is a unique marketing mechanism in the fact that it is 100% permission based. Think about the potential of always speaking to an audience that signed up to listen to what you have to say, and always welcomes it. What company would argue that they don't want a 100% opt-in prospect list?

Companies are also reinforcing their brands by doing damage control on Twitter. Consider the importance of the job that head of social media at Ford Motor Company, Scott Monty has. I have the utmost respect for someone who embraces the challenge of rebranding one of "The Big 3." The automotive industry's reputation is so tarnished that I applaud Scott's efforts. He uses Twitter to educate followers about new features and industry news. He politely clarifies misconceptions and always maintains a positive attitude. Whatever Ford is paying him, he's worth more, far more, for the rebranding that he actively pursues daily on the company's behalf.

Finally, what better example could there be than the poster boy, Barack Obama? Some brilliant staffer realized that Twitter was on the verge of exploding, and the campaign embraced it as a marketing tool. I doubt that he was doing this personally, but somebody was posting several times/day about his appearances and speeches. They posted links to live feeds. Throughout the campaign, his followers got an inside, birds-eye view of what he was doing daily. We felt like a member of his team. We felt a spirit of camaraderie. We found each other, and supported each other, and cheered together on one glorious night. Obama's venture into the Twitterverse definitely helped build his brand.

So, if Twitter is good enough for Obama's brand, and Ford and Zappos, is it good enough for you?

by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Branding from the inside out - the importance of consistency

Your brand is precious, and it should be voraciously protected. But what happens when your own staff and employees give out conflicting brand messages? How can you get everyone on the same page and delivering the same messages to prospects and clients?

Getting all your internal resources on the same brand page starts with going back to your position statement. Does everyone in your organization understand who your target customers are, what they get from your company, and why your company is the best source for those customers to obtain their professional services? Does everyone clearly and succinctly deliver a consistent brand message? Is the information that prospects and clients receive the same every time?

The onus of brand enforcement ultimately lies with you, the business owner. Either you accept the responsibility of "brand cop," or you delegate it to someone within your organization. One of the most important functions of your brand cop is the training of all staff. Even if every new employee is handed a copy of your position statement upon hire, it is unreasonable to expect them to automatically understand and assimilate it into their daily actions.

All staff should be trained and fully understand your position in the market, why your company is unique, what value you bring to your service, and how your clients expect and deserve to be treated in every interaction. Remember that your brand is the way people feel about your service and company. If they have a certain expectation, and that expectation is not met, your brand becomes a lie and you lose their trust.

It's a good idea to have regular followup refresher training to make sure that everybody remains on the same page as well. Perhaps an annual meeting would suffice.



by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

When your ad agency doesn't understand branding

"Branding," is a popular buzzword that is often misused by people who don't understand what it actually is. It's not surprising that many business owners don't quite understand what their brand is, but it's a sad day indeed when an advertising agency doesn't get it. Unfortunately, that happens pretty often.

I recently saw this ad for an advertising agency's "branding service," and I just shook my head. This agency wants your business, and they may have a talented graphic designer who can make your materials look attractive, but this ad isn't actually about branding, so if they don't get it, how can they help you?

Your brand is the sum total of your clients' and prospects' experiences with your service. It's what they feel when they hear your name or see your logo. The physical aspects named in the ad are elements of your brand, but they are not the brand itself.

This blog is full of posts about what a waste of money it is to change your phyical look and expect that your brand will change. By themselves, a new logo, stationery package, and all the rest of the items listed in the ad to the left will rebrand your business about as successfully as changing the carpeting and window dressings in your office would.

The only way a company can rebrand is to change its clients' experience. You must change the way your clients feel they are treated in every interaction with your company. You must establish a different or higher expectation and uphold it in all client touchpoints.

Once you have made your core rebranding commitment, repositioned your company, created a position and value statement, and all stakeholders are onboard and trained, only then can you successfully change the graphics that represent your company to appeal to the target clients identified in your positioning.

If you change your logo and other associated graphic materials before repositioning your company, who will those graphics appeal to? Only the egos of your company's partners and administration.

Please don't be fooled into thinking that a new graphic look will change your brand. If someone tells you differently, you might want to go shopping for a new marketing/advertising company.


by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com
My LinkedIn Profile
On Twitter

Recession marketing – your online reputation is more important than ever

I recently stumbled upon a very good article about marketing during a recession. It was published in eMarketing and Commerce magazine, but the principles are so sound that they relate to service professionals as well.

The first several points the author makes regard consumer behavior. In a nutshell, when gas gets more expensive, people stay home more and do their homework upfront before shopping for anything. This includes professional services.

Since your online presence is more important than ever, what is your online brand? What impression do people get when they Google you? Are you portrayed in a positive and professional fashion? Are your online bios sufficiently packed with information so that prospects get a feel for who you are before they call?

Take a look at your website bio, blog bio and LinkedIn profile. Are they complete? When a prospect compares yours with a competitor's, is one full of helpful information and the other sadly lacking anything but bare minimum facts and obviously not important to the author? What message does that send to a prospect?

Can any service professional afford to drop their guard and allow a competitor to get an appointment because their online brand is stronger?


by: Christine Pilch

Have you Googled yourself lately?

Do you regularly Google yourself to see what the web reports about you? You should. Your online brand depends upon it.

It's pretty easy. Just go to Google and enter your name within quotation marks. Hopefully there will be plenty of information about you on the first page. If not, you don't exist online, and that's not good for a service professional. How will people find you?

To enhance your Google presence you need to have your name appear on the internet in various places, including your own website, referrals from others' sites, on your blog posts, mentions of others' blogs, on published articles, as a speaker on seminar promotions, on professional networking sites like LinkedIn and perhaps Facebook, etc.

It's also a good idea to check the links that you find about yourself to make sure they're accurate. Sometimes, I find typos in email addresses and other contact information. You can easily request corrections.

It's also a good idea to set up a Google Alert for your name. Just go to Google and set up an account. Then go to My Account / Products / Alerts. That way you will be aware of new online mentions of your name.

Your online brand is critical these days, so it's important for you to manage it carefully. Remember, if you're not on the first page of Google results for your name, you don't exist online, and prospects can't find you.


by: Christine Pilch
Christine@GrowMyCo.com

Moving past marketing mistakes

You know that feeling you get when a client doesn't follow your advice? Ultimately he is paying for it, but he is not obligated to take it, so you keep your professional cool but discretely shake your head. You know that in this particular venture he is destined to fail. But he trusts his own instincts, or decides to take a shortcut, or save money instead of following your advice.

We sometimes find ourselves in a similar circumstance at Grow My Law Firm.

One of our challenges is in making clients recognize some of the marketing mistakes they have made in the past. Often this comes in the form of a personal attachment to a company name or logo that they feel they have made a significant investment in.

A lot of the work we do at Grow My Law Firm is repositioning. Law firms come to us for help when something is just not quite clicking any more. Business may be down, leads may have slowed, or they may just not be growing at the rate that they want.

In order for us to determine why their problem is occurring, we need to dig into the demographics and psychographics of their current client base to determine who their best clients are and why they come to that firm or practice. When we understand their ideal clients we know what appeals to them, and we can craft messages that they will be attracted to. Sometimes that best begins with a name change.

Consider these two fictitious law firms:

Dale, Jones & Murphy

Family Legal Services

What kind of law does Dale, Jones & Murphy practice? What kind of law does Family Legal Services practice? Dale, Jones & Murphy will likely have to spend a lot more money to brand themselves as they want to be perceived than Family Legal Services will. See the power of the right name for your professional service firm? It is important for prospects to be able to instantly identify the potential for you to solve their problems. Someone seeking assistance with a custody dispute will look at Family Legal Services and know, yes, that's what I need.

Your logo is also part of your brand, as a physical manifestation of it. As such, a good logo will appeal to your prospects. It should represent you as they want you to be. Unfortunately we find that often logos were developed before positioning work was done, so they appeal only to the egos of the firm's partners, which don't necessarily coincide with what appeals to their prospects.

After we do the firm's positioning, it is sometimes apparent that a name and/or logo change are in order. But this is a tough nut for some firms to swallow. They often have an emotional investment in their current name and logo, and despite the fact that these changes are significant steps in overcoming the problems that caused the firm to seek out Grow My Law Firm, it's difficult to let go of the past or admit to making a mistake.

At this time, we encourage our clients to consider the goal, getting more business. Would they rather keep a name that nobody relates to or a logo that the senior partner's son designed, or is there more value in making changes that will facilitate more of the right clients coming through the door? At this time, we learn just how serious that firm is about growing their company. After all, they pay us for our advice, but they're not obligated to take it. And if they don't take it, then what are they paying for?


by: Christine Pilch

What are your client’s experiencing?

Product and service quality are very important factors of any professional service firm. These are no longer just competitive factors, (we offer “better” quality and services,) they are expected factors. Everyone expects quality from their attorneys.

You cannot become the best in your category by quality alone since every one of your competitors can make the same argument that they have “quality products and services. Without quality products and services, their business will certainly begin to fail.

Focusing on clients and their total experience, not just quality (or price or service,) becomes your most critical differentiator.

Value is everything. Value relates to the entire package: the combination of price, quality, service, convenience, and every other factor involved in making the decision to choose to retain your firm.

Here’s what many firms don’t quite get - you don’t have to have the lowest prices or best quality to become successful – you don’t tell your clients the wonderful value they receive from your firm, you demonstrate the value you offer. Your client’s total experience with your firm, whether real or perceived, is the single most important factor that will set you apart from all other competitors.

Your client’s total experience in interacting with your firm is the new competitive advantage. It’s called your “Brand.” The good news is that your organization actually has a great deal more control, influence and power over the client’s experience than it has over the quality and price of your products and services.

You may not be able to offer the same kind of products and services or even the same quality as the mega-firm down the street. You may not be able to set your fees as low as some competitors. You do, however, have much control and influence over the total experience that your clients receive from advertising, marketing, phone calls, one-on-one encounters or any other way they may have contact with your firm.

The expectations of clients are higher than ever, and your number one competitive task is learning how to meet those expectations. See this is an opportunity, not a problem, because as long as clients keep raising the bar and raising expectations, you have the opportunity to beat your competitors by going beyond those expectations. If you are good at what you do, you should be thankful for clients who constantly expect more and more because a constantly rising standard of expectation weeds out your competition.

The “Clients are…” list below might be a good start in shifting employees’ attitudes towards clients. Feel free to copy it, embellish it, make it your own and place copies around your offices as a continual reminder of why you’re in business.

CLIENTS ARE…

• Clients are the most important people in our business - without them there would be no need for this firm.
• Clients are not dependent on us - we are dependent on them.
• Clients are not an interruption of our work – but the purpose of it.
• Clients do us a favor when they call or come in - we are not doing them a favor by serving them.
• Clients are not simply to be tolerated so that we can do our thing - they are our thing.
• Clients are not outsiders – they are a necessary part of our business.
• Clients are not just money in the cash register - they are human beings with feelings and emotions like our own.
• Clients are people who bring us their needs – it is our privilege to fulfill those needs.
• Clients are deserving of our most courteous and attentive treatment.
• Clients are the lifeblood of our business.
• Clients pay our salaries - without them, we would have to close our doors.

- Author Unknown

by: Dennis Kunkler

The danger of a disconnected internal and external brand

What happens when every external impression of your law firm is consistent yet unsupported with what actually happens inside the walls of your office? This brand disconnect is very dangerous because it makes your brand a lie, and people don’t like that.

To explain, let’s first go back to basics. Your brand is the way your clients and prospects feel about you. It’s entirely about their perception of you, not the other way around. Your brand is a reflection of their sum total experiences with your firm.

Your external brand is supported by many elements including your logo, promotional materials, advertising, website, blog, eZine, newsletter, wearables and giveaways items. Every physical impression should be controlled by corporate identification guidelines so the public is fed a steady stream of consistency. All marketing messages should be designed around a common theme with consistent client promises. That sets up an expectation for the way clients expect to be treated and the way they expect to feel.

Now let’s consider your law firm. Let’s hypothesize that you are diligent about creating consistent external impressions, and the position that your firm wants to own in the market is that of providing extraordinary customer service that outranks the competitions’. Your marketing promises such things as minimal telephone on-hold times, wait times for appointments never to exceed 10 minutes and a guarantee that you will return documents within a week or your clients will receive a 10% discount off the work.

Now, you know that you don’t want to be passing along a 10% discount, so you always return client docs within a week, but what if you regularly leave your clients waiting in reception for 15 or 20 minutes? What if your receptionist doesn’t generally leave clients on hold for long periods of time but she is unfriendly and impatient?

Your brand should be consistently communicated internally and externally in everything that represents your law firm, in everything that can form an impression about the firm tangibly and intangibly. From employment policies and practices to office decorum, to dress code and company culture, your brand is at stake in every interaction and client touch point. The external elements of your brand, including your logo, colors, stationery, website, brochures, advertising and other marketing materials communicate your brand visually and verbally, but they must be supported internal as well in the way your clients are treated so they feel supported by the brand.

If you fall down on the promises that your brand makes, the brand becomes a lie, and everyone who experiences this disconnect will talk about it. This will undermine your future efforts to secure the positive brand that you want and instead build a brand that is quite different from what you intended. Remember that your brand represents your clients’ experiences with your firm and all its touch points. So if what you say and what you do aren’t synched, the public will form its own impression of your law firm. Your brand represents how your clients actually feel, not what you say.

by: Christine Pilch

Dressing like the successful lawyer you aspire to be

Forbes online recently published a very good article that I encourage all young attorneys to read. It is called Wardrobe Essentials for the Young Professional. This article provides a simple overview of how to dress for interviews and meetings, and how to deal with casual Fridays.

The timing of this article was especially apropos for me because just this morning I had a conversation about professional attire with a law clerk who is employed by one of my clients.

As I’ve written before, your appearance is part of your personal brand, and it is very important for you to look like the lawyer that you aspire to be.

by: Christine Pilch

Taglines – forget obscure and find a unique client benefit instead

I recently ran into a lawyer who was all excited about his firm’s new tagline. When he told me what it was, I asked, “What does that mean?”

He spent the next five minutes explaining what the new tagline meant to him. Apparently, the firm had hired a local advertising agency and spent a good deal of money to develop a “brand,” and this tagline was one of the components received.

Without getting into details about the fact that you don’t just develop a brand; it is the way people feel about you and their impression about your firm, I was concerned about the need for this attorney to spend all this time explaining his firm’s new tagline. An effective tagline conveys an obvious client benefit. If it needs explanation, it’s not going to work because prospects won’t get it.

Consider our own tagline for Grow My Law Firm; Miracle Growth for your Practice. No explanation necessary here. You instantly know what you’ll get when you hire us.

A good tagline evolves out of your unique selling proposition, which expresses your differentiator and benefit to your clients. It’s not about you at all, but about what your clients get, because that’s all they care about and what attracts them to your law firm.

So getting back to the attorney whose firm just settled on a new, obscure tagline. When I asked him if he thought that his potential clients would understand what he just explained to me, he enthusiastically replied, “Oh yes, we have a whole advertising campaign being designed to explain it.”

I walked away shaking my head. The only thing that tagline is going to effectively do is line the pockets of the agency that created it, through continued work, in a quest to explain something that must be obvious to prospects to be effective.

This marketing error could have resulted from one of two possibilities:

1. The law firm went into the project with a predetermined set of ideas and put itself in the position of marketing expert rather than deferring to those who really are the experts. Or;
2. The advertising agency doesn’t clearly understand positioning and branding, so they don’t know that client benefits and relief of clients’ pain are the only things that sell legal services.

I’ve seen both of the above scenarios many times, so it’s anybody’s guess what really caused this marketing mistake. It is however unfortunate that so much money and time is being wasted on legal marketing for this firm that has such little possibility for success.

Can you afford this kind of misfire with your legal marketing?

by: Christine Pilch

Finding your practice niche – branding yourself

Everybody knows what a niche is, but do you know how to apply this marketing principle to your legal practice to help brand yourself and become a more successful lawyer?

Niche marketing involves determining what area(s) of practice you want to specialize in. If you’ve been a practicing attorney for a few years or more, it is likely that the market has helped determine this for you. Analyze your current and past business.

• What practice area is bringing in the most money?
• What brings you the most satisfaction?
• What areas of practice do you like the best?
• How are you perceived in your market?

The final question above will require the most soul searching. If people simply think of you as “a lawyer,” you’ve got some work to do because you aren’t perceived as distinctive. You’re just one of a bunch of lawyers in the phonebook, and you don’t offer anything that sets you apart and creates value for potential clients. You haven’t given anybody a reason to hire you because you haven’t positioned yourself.

But what if you happen to be perceived as an estate planning expert? Your reputation would precede you in your encounters with prospects. They would know what you could do for them, and you wouldn’t have to sell yourself so much. You see, marketing is the process of educating and pre-selling yourself to prospective clients. By positioning yourself as an estate planning expert, you gain instant credibility.

People like to deal with professionals that they perceive to be one of the best at what they do. When you position yourself, thereby establishing a legal niche for your practice, you build a brand surrounding a certain perception and create an expectation among your prospects. When they need what you have to offer, the choice to call you will become obvious.

by: Christine Pilch

Branding is more than a new name or logo

An article in the online version of the Houston Chronicle on May 26th about law firms cutting down their names only tells part of the branding story. The implication throughout is that a brand is a name, a logo, colors, a website or marketing materials.

The author writes, “…Branding for law firms isn’t just paring down the name. It’s picking a logo with gravitas, a classy color scheme, an important feel for the Web site, a poignant message and a way to convey it all...”

It is true that all of these are elements of a brand, but they are not the law firm’s brand itself. A brand is the emotional response that all of those things generate in your clients or prospects. Your brand is the way people feel about you. It is the sum total of all their experiences with your firm.

The implication in the article is that you can change your brand by changing your name, logo, etc, but actually, the only way to change your brand is to change your client’s experience with your firm. All the rest is just window dressing. Think about it, does a new logo really change the way your clients feel about the experience they have when they engage your legal services?

Successful branding is built around the value your clients get as the result of your legal work, and rebranding is often the result of a need to fix a deficiency or enhance your clients’ experience.

The author does make a very important point however, when she discusses how some firms are recognizing the need to toss their egos. She quotes Corinne Cooper, a former law professor who now runs an Arizona business for branding of law firms. “... the firm has to be branded in ways that make sense. … Many lawyers who have strategically managed law firms into large successful businesses are smart enough to know that what helps the firm success is what matters. They worry not about egos, but about what works.”

Removing ego is critical to marketing success. Successful marketing turns around all messaging from “about your firm” to “about your clients.” It removes ego. Branding is about finding the core value that your clients perceive in your legal service. It’s about making everything about them, not about you.

So, yes, your name, logo, colors, website and marketing materials all reflect your brand as elements of it, but your brand itself is all about how your clients and prospects feel about you. The only way to change your brand is to change your clients’ experience.

by: Christine Pilch

Producing great client publications

Don't waste your money

I’m a big fan of blogging, but many of you are still sending out newsletters and eZines as well, so let’s talk about how to create a client publication that gets their attention and doesn’t waste your resources.

It’s usually best to keep your publication topic specific because corporate clients might be a little uneasy reading about bankruptcy information, and estate planning clients aren’t necessarily interested in municipal law news. You might argue this and say that it’s important to let clients know the other areas of the law that your firm practices, but that can be handled in a simple list with links to your other area specific blogs and online newsletters and eZines.

The most successful client publications turn around the information from news about us and what we do and have to what you are interested in and what you want and need.

Clients only read information about things that interest them. It’s tempting to add attorney bios to your publications and announce a large settlement that your firm was just awarded, but for the most part, clients don’t care about that. They want to read about themselves, their industries and competitors. They want solutions to their problems and relief of their pain. When you deliver that kind of news, you have a successful newsletter, eZine or blog. When you devote your space to talking about yourself, or bragging, as it is perceived by your readers, you just waste your time.

Pack as much topic-specific information as you can into your publication in every issue or post. The more you inform, the more credibility you earn in the eyes of your clients. In our book, “The Definitive Insider’s Guide to Growing Your Practice Through Innovative Brand Strategies,” we talk about how you have to give, give give. The more you give, the more that comes back to you.

Giving tidbits of legal information doesn’t solve problems or discourage people from contacting you, just the opposite. You have demonstrated that you know the law and can handle their legal matters competently. You have also shown them that they can’t handle such legal work without guidance, so when they call someone for help, it will likely be you.

Make sure that your publication is well written. Spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors are unacceptable in anything coming from a lawyer. And make sure that your publications are professionally designed. You can have a newsletter template designed in Microsoft Publisher, then drop in content. You can also have an eZine template designed. For your blog, if you use Typepad, they have over 100 templates that you can use, and it’s easy to incorporate a custom banner to any of the templates that will make your blog look unique.

Finally, client publications shouldn’t be something that is regarded as less important than anything else you do in your law practice. They should be released on a regular schedule and be the best caliber that you can possibly produce. They actually become part of your brand because they represent your law firm. Your reputation is at stake if you don’t do them well because they won’t live up to the professional brand that you have built and your clients expect in all your actions.

by: Christine Pilch

Prepping for the press

If you’re lucky enough to be contacted by the press for an interview or comments regarding a topic that they are working up as a story, you should be pleased to be among the honored few. But don’t underestimate the significance of this opportunity. If you treat it respectfully and carefully, it could be a pivotal step in your personal brand and a chance to open the door to establishing a long-term relationship with the media.

Following are a few tips to help you make the most of this opportunity:

• Treat members of the press respectfully
• Return calls promptly
• Be accommodating to their schedules
• Answer questions honestly and directly
• Avoid “off the record”
• Position yourself as a future resource
• Speak carefully
• Think before you speak
• Beware embarrassing quotes
• Dress appropriately - business attire only, no Friday casual

by: Christine Pilch

Bad marketing advice – brainstorming taglines - yikes!

I recently read some of the worst marketing advice ever. A marketing professional was discussing tagline creation, and he suggested brainstorming with friends and family. Oh boy! Here comes, “Great service since 1952.” This advice is like telling your clients to consult with their friends and family about how to handle a discrimination dispute.

The best taglines are simple and short. They aren’t random quips that sound cool, and they aren’t about what you offer or what you can do. They nail down the main benefit that your clients receive when they hire you. They help brand your firm, so why would you want to give that responsibility to people who don’t understand branding?

Developing a tagline starts with positioning. First you nail down:

• Who your target clients are
• What they get
• And how you are uniquely qualified to handle it for them

While determining the demographics of your clients, you should also be analyzing their psychographics. These include attributes that lend insight into your clients’ personalities, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. With this information, you can make judgments about what is most important to your clients and how you can solve their problems. Remember, that is all they care about. They don’t care about you or what you have to offer. They only care about what they can get from you.

Once you have all that work done, then you can start whittling down the list until you arrive at the primary benefit that is most attractive to your clients. This is the point that becomes your tagline.

You’re going to use your tagline for many, many years. It is an obvious reflection of the greatest benefit that your clients receive when they hire you. Isn’t your tagline too important to chance that your friends and family might come up with something that is okay? Wouldn’t you rather be absolutely certain that you are properly stating what you most want you clients to know and has the greatest potential of appealing to them?

So, if you ever hear someone propose that you could brainstorm with friends and family members about potential taglines, run away from him as fast as you can. If his advice is that poor, you probably understand more about positioning than he does.

by: Christine Pilch

Smarter marketing – what’s all this talk about brands? We don’t sell widgets.

If 80% of what you do at your firm is pretty much the same as your competitors are doing, that’s called running a business or practice. However the 20% that you may do different can be called strategy. The strategy that allows you to bring in your desired client, by definition, is the way you intend to achieve your goal.

In a competitive environment, the goal is to attract clients that prefer your firm over the competition. So, your strategy is the way you are going to create an advantage - in the eyes of your clients - over your competitors.

The way to achieve an advantage is by differentiation. In other words, doing something that is perceived to be different, of more value, an advantage, or to provide a unique status over your competitors, causing your clients to prefer you.

It is important to note here that your clients make choices based on his or her own perceptions of the differences between options available – not yours. Therefore, your competitive strategy will be the idea or concept that is designed to let your prospective clients know about your advantage over your competitors.

A brand exists in the mind of the consumer. It’s the anticipation of a unique and well-defined experience - a certain, unique, perceived benefit obtained solely through retaining your services.

Your brand only becomes a brand when that perceived anticipation exists. If the anticipation you create is both unique and attractive, you have a strong brand. Just because your name or logo may be recognizable doesn’t make it a strong brand. The brand has to represent a particular meaning and perceived anticipation to your intended audience.

For instance, as cheesy as they may appear, the ads for The Law Offices of Mark E. Salamone are effective. They’ve managed to embed their unique brand in the minds of millions of people with their ubiquitous ads starring Robert Vaughn and more recently, William Shatner. The basic message is that when you, the average Joe, need to take on a tough adversary, you’ll remember, “We Mean Business!” That’s been accomplished by consistently delivering their unique brand promise. This is called a brand strategy – it’s a firm’s commitment or promise to its specific clients.

“But, wait,” as they say on TV. The brand strategy is also your differentiation - the competitive strategy itself!

That’s it! Your Brand = Your Differentiation = Your Competitive Strategy.

THIS is that 20% that you can do differently to gain a huge advantage for your firm. This is why the strategy is the brand. Or to put it another way – the brand strategy is the translation of the competitive strategy – into a defined promise to your client.

Creating a brand for your firm means developing and putting into practice a way to convey your benefits to your clients, thus, providing focus and direction to all your marketing communications.

by: Dennis Kunkler

How can I brand my firm?

How can I brand my firm? This is one of the most common questions marketers hear, and those who ask the question don’t really understand what a brand is. You already have a brand. It can be refined or reshaped, but there’s a very good chance that it doesn’t have to be built from scratch.

Many people think that a brand is a logo and stationery package, but your brand is so much more than those elements of it. Your brand is the feeling that people get when they hear your name or experience any of your firm’s touch points. These include such traditional things as your website, advertising, promotional materials and signage.

But your brand is also shaped by many things not traditionally associated with it, like your office space, courteous and respectful treatment of clients by your staff, your physical appearance, and your commitment to the community and the charitable causes that you participate in. Your brand is a promise that you make to your clients about a certain expectation that they can count on whenever they need your services. So if you drop the ball in any of these areas at any time, you turn your client’s expectation into your lie to them. But if you honor their expectations, you maintain your current brand.

by: Christine Pilch