It's possible to spend thousands of dollars - or read tens of thousands of words - and still get nowhere in the world of online marketing. A session titled "A Common Sense Approach to Online Marketing" tried to highlight the essentials, however, since the path to success can be relatively simple.
Matt McGee, the SEO manager of Marchex, started things off by discussing an SEO success pyramid. At a very basic level, he pointed out that commitment, planning, and patience are necessary. "You have to have enthusiasm," McGee noted. "You have to stay on top of the game."
Keyword research, a concentration on design and usability, and a use of tools and analytics come next. In regards to analytics, McGee said, "It is how you determine your success or failure."
And in order to guide things towards that first outcome, seek out customers on local and social sites. Manage your reputation all the while. "[The] pyramid boils down to the human element," McGee observed. "Small businesses depend on word-of-mouth."
Wendy Piersall, the founder of eMoms at Home, then stepped in to back up some of those points. Her site has been successful, and she said, "Visibility is key . . . just going out and introducing yourself. Also, in regards to networking and enthusiasm, she added, "You're doing this because you love it and let that passion shine through."
Matt Bailey, the founder of Site Logic Marketing, was the last to speak, and he assured the audience, "Search engine optimization has a great return on investment just by using the basics." Work on keywords, content, and links to your site. As for design issues, he pointed out, "Usability is as easy as getting your mom to sit down and use your site."
Monday, April 21, 2008
Online Marketing is all About Focus
Many small businesses will spend thousands of dollars on websites, yet won't market them properly, says David Cree, an Internet marketing consultant.
This is where search marketing is effective, he says.
Search marketing involves carefully determining how people will be searching on the web for the product you are selling.
It includes search engine optimization -- putting the right content on businesses' websites to increase the lik-elihood it will come up near the top of search results.
It also includes working with the advertising arms of search engines and purchasing common phrases that people would use to find a product.
"Search marketing is really the biggest and quickest avenue into e-business and spreading your market," Cree says.
But search marketing isn't just about having people find your product on the web -- it's also about having robots finding your product on the web.
"We market to robots that scan the web to determine what the rankings are going to be on search engines," says Cree, president of Clearpath, an Alberta-based web marketing consulting firm.
A large component of search marketing involves search engine optimization.
"Making sure that your site is optimized will tell Google what to rank you for -- what phrases is this site about," he says.
"What it won't tell it is how well it should rank you and the million other sites that are about the same thing as you."
And it's more than just the content on your website. Search engine optimization is also about what's not on your website. That's where marketing comes into play.
"Essentially, that's a political popularity contest," says Cree. "(Search engines) go out to the web and see how many people are linking to you. How much buzz is there out there about you and your company?"
A web marketing campaign can create a buzz in several ways. One of the best methods is through blogs and social networking sites, says Cree. "People don't realize that about 35 per cent of Canada is on Facebook."
Another way to build up a website's popularity is through search engine advertising. Many search engine companies sell keyword phrases to businesses that potential customers will use to search for a product.
If they use that phrase in a search, the companies that purchased that phrase will have a small ad, linking to its website, appear on the search results page.
Finding the right phrase is essential to this strategy's success, Cree says.
Search engine advertising is about finding the right description that will differentiate a business from others -- much like with traditional marketing.
It differs from more traditional methods in that it lets a business focus on consumers or businesses that would need its product, says Cree.
"You only pay for the people who click on your ad. You're only paying for highly targeted marketing."
Online Law Firm Marketing
This is where search marketing is effective, he says.
Search marketing involves carefully determining how people will be searching on the web for the product you are selling.
It includes search engine optimization -- putting the right content on businesses' websites to increase the lik-elihood it will come up near the top of search results.
It also includes working with the advertising arms of search engines and purchasing common phrases that people would use to find a product.
"Search marketing is really the biggest and quickest avenue into e-business and spreading your market," Cree says.
But search marketing isn't just about having people find your product on the web -- it's also about having robots finding your product on the web.
"We market to robots that scan the web to determine what the rankings are going to be on search engines," says Cree, president of Clearpath, an Alberta-based web marketing consulting firm.
A large component of search marketing involves search engine optimization.
"Making sure that your site is optimized will tell Google what to rank you for -- what phrases is this site about," he says.
"What it won't tell it is how well it should rank you and the million other sites that are about the same thing as you."
And it's more than just the content on your website. Search engine optimization is also about what's not on your website. That's where marketing comes into play.
"Essentially, that's a political popularity contest," says Cree. "(Search engines) go out to the web and see how many people are linking to you. How much buzz is there out there about you and your company?"
A web marketing campaign can create a buzz in several ways. One of the best methods is through blogs and social networking sites, says Cree. "People don't realize that about 35 per cent of Canada is on Facebook."
Another way to build up a website's popularity is through search engine advertising. Many search engine companies sell keyword phrases to businesses that potential customers will use to search for a product.
If they use that phrase in a search, the companies that purchased that phrase will have a small ad, linking to its website, appear on the search results page.
Finding the right phrase is essential to this strategy's success, Cree says.
Search engine advertising is about finding the right description that will differentiate a business from others -- much like with traditional marketing.
It differs from more traditional methods in that it lets a business focus on consumers or businesses that would need its product, says Cree.
"You only pay for the people who click on your ad. You're only paying for highly targeted marketing."
Online Law Firm Marketing
Lawinfo.com Launches Online Preferred Listings
I found this interesting article on PRweb:
LawInfo has launched an online Preferred Listings forum for attorneys nationwide to maximize their online exposure for optimum business results. These Preferred Listings have been designed to facilitate maximum online lead generation for private practices as well as corporate firms, and will be showcased on LawInfo.com, Lawsmart.com, and Leadcounsel.com, as well as accessible throughout 2,000 geographically focused and 80 media partner web sites. Top areas of law that attorneys can list their firm include Bankruptcy, Business Law, Criminal Law, Drunk Driving, Estate Planning, Family Law, Immigration, Labor and Employment, Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation, based upon geographic availability. Over 1,000,000 users visit LawInfo and its family of sites per month--making LawInfo.com a frontrunner in online lawyer marketing.
In addition to providing a Preferred Listings forum for attorneys, LawInfo's legal resource center (LRC) can also help the public locate qualified legal experts nationwide--including bail bondsmen, expert witnesses, private investigators, court reporters, process servers, paralegals and litigation funders. Further, LawInfo.com has created the largest interactive legal forum with over 1,200 message boards as a resource for the Internet community. The boards provide an opportunity to research information and share commentary on a multitude of legal topics.
LawInfo.com has also expanded its free online legal resource center to include a comprehensive legal blog--incorporating interactive polls, providing access to volumes of legal archives, supplying streaming video and audio clips and keeping a live feed on breaking legal news that is updated around the clock.
For over a decade, LawInfo's mission has been to assist the public in locating qualified attorneys and legal services. In addition to the Preferred Listings forum, LawInfo.com provides marketing packages for attorneys and legal professionals crafted by a team of specialists that integrates web design, content development and internet marketing with targeted traffic-generation tactics. LawInfo is staffed by experienced legal industry professionals and their corporate offices are located in San Marcos, California, just thirty minutes north of San Diego.
LawInfo has launched an online Preferred Listings forum for attorneys nationwide to maximize their online exposure for optimum business results. These Preferred Listings have been designed to facilitate maximum online lead generation for private practices as well as corporate firms, and will be showcased on LawInfo.com, Lawsmart.com, and Leadcounsel.com, as well as accessible throughout 2,000 geographically focused and 80 media partner web sites. Top areas of law that attorneys can list their firm include Bankruptcy, Business Law, Criminal Law, Drunk Driving, Estate Planning, Family Law, Immigration, Labor and Employment, Personal Injury and Workers' Compensation, based upon geographic availability. Over 1,000,000 users visit LawInfo and its family of sites per month--making LawInfo.com a frontrunner in online lawyer marketing.
In addition to providing a Preferred Listings forum for attorneys, LawInfo's legal resource center (LRC) can also help the public locate qualified legal experts nationwide--including bail bondsmen, expert witnesses, private investigators, court reporters, process servers, paralegals and litigation funders. Further, LawInfo.com has created the largest interactive legal forum with over 1,200 message boards as a resource for the Internet community. The boards provide an opportunity to research information and share commentary on a multitude of legal topics.
LawInfo.com has also expanded its free online legal resource center to include a comprehensive legal blog--incorporating interactive polls, providing access to volumes of legal archives, supplying streaming video and audio clips and keeping a live feed on breaking legal news that is updated around the clock.
For over a decade, LawInfo's mission has been to assist the public in locating qualified attorneys and legal services. In addition to the Preferred Listings forum, LawInfo.com provides marketing packages for attorneys and legal professionals crafted by a team of specialists that integrates web design, content development and internet marketing with targeted traffic-generation tactics. LawInfo is staffed by experienced legal industry professionals and their corporate offices are located in San Marcos, California, just thirty minutes north of San Diego.
Why so few Women at the Top?
Let’s turn our attention away from all-things Potter for a moment and consider this fact: Just eight percent of law firm leaders are women, according to a report released in November by the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL).
Why? It’s an issue addressed this week by Leigh Jones of the National Law Journal.
For starters, there’s a timing issue. Jerry Clements, the woman in charge of 700-lawyer Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, says that when she graduated from Baylor University School of Law in 1981, big law firms were just beginning to hire women, she said. The supply of women attorneys with enough experience to lead law firms is still relatively small, she said.
Still, while the pool of all lawyers who even want to run a law firm is relatively small, the pool of women lawyers eager to take on the tasks is even smaller, said Valerie Ford Jacob, co-managing partner of 684-attorney Fried, Frank (pictured).
Among the downsides of the job, according to Jacobs: giving up a full-time legal practice, “extensive travel to far-flung offices, the constant demands of business development and, in some cases, the need to maintain a practice with managerial issues.”
A major reason that women lag so far behind in top leadership roles at law firms is because, in general, those are not jobs they want, said Joel Henning, a consultant with Hildebrandt International. “The best women lawyers get satisfaction out of their practices, and they see little attraction in becoming housekeeping-type law firm leaders,” Henning said. “Many women would rather do their housekeeping chores somewhere else, not in their law firms.”
Paula Hinton, a litigation partner at Vinson & Elkins, disagreed, adding that she would embrace the chance to lead a big law firm. She pointed to a lack of opportunity as the reason for the shortage of women leaders. “The job of a law firm leader has changed,” she said. “Their role is much more in the marketing and strategic planning arena, not in the housekeeping arena.”
Why? It’s an issue addressed this week by Leigh Jones of the National Law Journal.
For starters, there’s a timing issue. Jerry Clements, the woman in charge of 700-lawyer Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, says that when she graduated from Baylor University School of Law in 1981, big law firms were just beginning to hire women, she said. The supply of women attorneys with enough experience to lead law firms is still relatively small, she said.
Still, while the pool of all lawyers who even want to run a law firm is relatively small, the pool of women lawyers eager to take on the tasks is even smaller, said Valerie Ford Jacob, co-managing partner of 684-attorney Fried, Frank (pictured).
Among the downsides of the job, according to Jacobs: giving up a full-time legal practice, “extensive travel to far-flung offices, the constant demands of business development and, in some cases, the need to maintain a practice with managerial issues.”
A major reason that women lag so far behind in top leadership roles at law firms is because, in general, those are not jobs they want, said Joel Henning, a consultant with Hildebrandt International. “The best women lawyers get satisfaction out of their practices, and they see little attraction in becoming housekeeping-type law firm leaders,” Henning said. “Many women would rather do their housekeeping chores somewhere else, not in their law firms.”
Paula Hinton, a litigation partner at Vinson & Elkins, disagreed, adding that she would embrace the chance to lead a big law firm. She pointed to a lack of opportunity as the reason for the shortage of women leaders. “The job of a law firm leader has changed,” she said. “Their role is much more in the marketing and strategic planning arena, not in the housekeeping arena.”
Chief Marketing Officers Dropping Like Flies at Big Firms
If it seems a little drafty in some high-rises, it might be the revolving door of marketing departments in several large firms.
In the past few months, at least four law firms in Pennsylvania have seen the departure of their chief marketing officer or other high-ranking marketing staff.
Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and Drinker Biddle & Reath are, or soon will be, without a chief marketing officer, and Duane Morris lost two senior marketing directors in recent months.
Ballard Spahr is in the process of searching for a new CMO, Buchanan Ingersoll has brought in someone under a different title and Drinker Biddle will fill the vacancy with two people internally who will retain their respective director titles.
Duane Morris is open to filling its recently vacated senior marketing manager and senior director of marketing/CRM manager positions either externally or from within its ranks.
Despite the turnover, most everyone at these firms who spoke to The Legal Intelligencer for this article was optimistic about the increasing tenure of senior marketers in large law firms. They said firms are taking more seriously than ever before the role of business development as part of a profession that, increasingly, looks like an industry.
The legal marketing scene in Philadelphia, however, isn't picture-perfect.
Marketing consultant Stacy West Clark said the turnover in the city is different from that of places like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. Whereas those cities see turnover due to talent wars and firms plucking off CMOs for more money, Philadelphia is more of a "doom and gloom" scenario, she said.
CMOs and other higher-level marketers are leaving or being asked to leave Philadelphia firms more often because it wasn't the right fit, and those firms aren't always looking to fill the vacant positions, she said.
BALLARD SPAHR
Blain Banick started at Ballard Spahr in October 2004 as the firm's CMO. He left the firm in the fall of 2007 to take a similar position at Dallas-based Haynes & Boone.
Ballard Spahr Chairman Arthur Makadon said the western Canada native never quite took to the East Coast and moved with his family to Texas.
Despite the gap in a CMO position, Ballard Spahr decided to continue full-steam ahead with its large-scale branding campaign scheduled to be launched in January 2009.
Makadon said there were some concerns within the firm about continuing the branding efforts while looking for a new CMO. The firm had already started, however, what Makadon called a "very expensive" process and hired an "upscale branding firm" to start working on the project.
He said losing a CMO in the midst of this process has been fairly seamless because Banick created a well-trained staff. Marketing directors Ellen Ragone and Paul Bonner are handling the majority of the CMO duties until a new person is hired, and Makadon said he is more involved with firm marketing than he's ever been.
Ballard Spahr spent the first few months after Banick's departure interviewing recruiting firms to help with the CMO search. The firm hired John Lamar of The Alexander Group in Texas, and he has spent the past six weeks to two months finding candidates to be interviewed by the firm.
Interviews are about ready to begin, and Makadon said there are, currently, two definite candidates, with the prospect of a few more being added to the interview list.
While the position doesn't have to be based out of Philadelphia, Makadon said that would be ideal because the majority of the marketing staff -- between 20 and 25 people -- are based in the city.
The two candidates who will be interviewed are both from the law firm world, but he said that doesn't have to be the case. The firm would be open to interviewing marketers from other professional service industries, he said.
Makadon said he isn't sure why legal marketers don't stick around for more than an average of two or three years. If a firm found the right person, he said he would think it could make for a long-standing relationship.
Serving as a CMO in the legal industry is a challenging job because there are so many constituencies to please, Makadon said.
As the evolution of law firm marketing departments continues, he said firms should be learning from their experience.
"We'll be wiser this time than we were last time," Makadon said.
He said the tenure for these positions would continue to increase as legal marketers become more experienced and have more to offer the firms.
DRINKER BIDDLE
Stephen D. Barrett joined Drinker Biddle as its CMO in September 2005 and has been commuting from his Boston home to Philadelphia each week. He would spend the week in the city and travel back to Massachusetts for the weekend.
Despite trading in his long commute, firm managing partner Andrew C. Kassner said Barrett may have felt he accomplished what he was looking to do at the firm.
"He's a builder," Kassner said. "He saw an opportunity here to help us build, and he may be looking for the next challenge, wherever it may be."
Since joining the firm, Barrett helped build the marketing department from around 10 members to 25. There are 12 marketers in Philadelphia, seven in Chicago and two in Washington, D.C., and there will soon be four in New Jersey.
Kassner said he was pleased with the progress Barrett made over the last few years. He said Barrett came in with a vision of how to build a marketing and client relations department in the firm and went ahead and did it.
Building a strong staff, Kassner said, worked out in the firm's favor, given Barrett's coming departure. Instead of hiring a new CMO, Drinker Biddle will split the responsibilities between its two marketing directors.
John Byrne, the firm's director of communications, and Kristin Sudholz, director of practice development, will work together on carrying out the marketing plan Barrett created.
Byrne, based in Philadelphia, started at the firm in July 2006. Barrett hired Sudholz in March 2007 after the firm merged with Chicago-based Gardner Carton & Douglas. She is based in Chicago.
DUANE MORRIS
Since January 2008, Duane Morris has seen the departure of its senior marketing manager, Holly Lentz Kleeman, and its senior director of marketing/CRM manager, Pat Purdy.
When the firm saw a changeover in leadership at the beginning of the year from major marketing proponent Sheldon Bonovitz to litigator John Soroko, some people questioned what would happen to Duane Morris' robust marketing department.
All those involved said there has been no decrease in support of the marketing department under Soroko's leadership and Kleeman and Purdy's departures were completely unrelated to the change.
Kleeman, who was the No. 2 person behind CMO Edward M. Schechter, left in January to start her own business, Lentz Productions. She focuses on business development and marketing for firms of all sizes.
She had been at Duane Morris for eight years and said that was one of the main reasons she left.
"Eight years is a really long time for legal marketing," she said.
Kleeman said Purdy's departure may have had something to do with her leaving the firm considering Purdy used to work for Kleeman's husband, and Kleeman brought her on board at Duane Morris.
But more than that, Kleeman said, Purdy had a really great opportunity at another firm. She now works for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in New York.
While the legal industry is often slower moving than other professional service sectors, Kleeman said she does see legal marketing becoming more accepted and the positions staying filled longer. She said Schechter is the exception to the conventional wisdom that CMOs stay in their positions for only a few years. He has been at Duane Morris for six.
"[Firms] are realizing that, like it or not, they're going to have to behave a little bit more like a business," Kleeman said. "Once they do it, they find out it's not that painful."
Although Kleeman credited the marketing department's existence to Bonovitz and recognized that Bonovitz and Soroko have different leadership styles, she said Bonovitz is still active in the firm. She said she thinks Soroko sees the effect Bonovitz made with the marketing department and would look to maintain that.
"Who knows what's going to happen at Duane," Kleeman said. "With a former chairman and a chairman there, that will be interesting to observe."
Schechter said the leadership change at Duane Morris has had no bearing on the marketing department.
"While marketing and business development is often impacted by the change of a chair, in that regard, we're running against the grain," Schechter said. "[Soroko] is very supportive of what we're doing."
He said Kleeman and Purdy's departures were completely unrelated to the leadership change. The two just had good opportunities, he said.
It is a great time for legal marketing, particularly at Duane Morris, Schechter said. In the process of building one of the largest marketing departments in the country in relation to the firm's attorney head count, the work of the marketers hasn't gone unnoticed. That has presented several opportunities for members of the department, he said.
Duane Morris is looking to fill both positions and will look both internally and at external candidates. He said both Kleeman and Purdy were important members of the team and contributed significantly to the department's growth.
In response to speculation that he may be looking for a position at another firm, Schechter dismissed the idea and said he was staying at Duane Morris. He said the opportunities he has there, in terms of the ability to use innovative marketing and business development programs as well as the support from management, are "incredibly strong relative to other firms."
"It's a great position to be in when you have that level of support from leadership and the partners and have a team here who's awesome," Schechter said.
BUCHANAN INGERSOLL
Buchanan Ingersoll's first CMO, Mark P. Trice, announced in August 2007 that he would be leaving the firm to move to Texas. He had started at the firm in June 2006, right before its merger with Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling.
He left legal marketing completely, instead joining the marketing team of financial, human resources and information technology company Vcfo Inc.
At the time of his departure, Buchanan Ingersoll Chief Executive Officer Thomas L. VanKirk said the firm might not hire a new CMO but rather bring someone in under a slightly different title. He said then that the firm hired a CMO more for the business development side of marketing given that Buchanan Ingersoll already had a strong communications arm.
VanKirk stuck to his word. A few weeks ago, the firm brought on Linda L. Fleming as its director of business development. She is based out of the firm's Alexandria, Va., office and works alongside Pittsburgh-based Director of Communications and Public Relations Lori K. Lecker.
MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS
Morgan Lewis has also been making some changes in its marketing department. The firm recently lost its director of communications, Paul Webb, and decided to do away with the position.
Instead, the firm created a new position, chief marketing and communications officer, to oversee what used to be two separate departments.
Morgan Lewis recently hired Michael Baltes, who was the former director of communications at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, to fill the new position.
A firm spokeswoman said management felt the marketing and communications departments should work more closely together and report to one person. She said Mona Zeiberg out of Washington will continue to serve as the firmwide director of marketing.
In the past few months, at least four law firms in Pennsylvania have seen the departure of their chief marketing officer or other high-ranking marketing staff.
Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney and Drinker Biddle & Reath are, or soon will be, without a chief marketing officer, and Duane Morris lost two senior marketing directors in recent months.
Ballard Spahr is in the process of searching for a new CMO, Buchanan Ingersoll has brought in someone under a different title and Drinker Biddle will fill the vacancy with two people internally who will retain their respective director titles.
Duane Morris is open to filling its recently vacated senior marketing manager and senior director of marketing/CRM manager positions either externally or from within its ranks.
Despite the turnover, most everyone at these firms who spoke to The Legal Intelligencer for this article was optimistic about the increasing tenure of senior marketers in large law firms. They said firms are taking more seriously than ever before the role of business development as part of a profession that, increasingly, looks like an industry.
The legal marketing scene in Philadelphia, however, isn't picture-perfect.
Marketing consultant Stacy West Clark said the turnover in the city is different from that of places like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. Whereas those cities see turnover due to talent wars and firms plucking off CMOs for more money, Philadelphia is more of a "doom and gloom" scenario, she said.
CMOs and other higher-level marketers are leaving or being asked to leave Philadelphia firms more often because it wasn't the right fit, and those firms aren't always looking to fill the vacant positions, she said.
BALLARD SPAHR
Blain Banick started at Ballard Spahr in October 2004 as the firm's CMO. He left the firm in the fall of 2007 to take a similar position at Dallas-based Haynes & Boone.
Ballard Spahr Chairman Arthur Makadon said the western Canada native never quite took to the East Coast and moved with his family to Texas.
Despite the gap in a CMO position, Ballard Spahr decided to continue full-steam ahead with its large-scale branding campaign scheduled to be launched in January 2009.
Makadon said there were some concerns within the firm about continuing the branding efforts while looking for a new CMO. The firm had already started, however, what Makadon called a "very expensive" process and hired an "upscale branding firm" to start working on the project.
He said losing a CMO in the midst of this process has been fairly seamless because Banick created a well-trained staff. Marketing directors Ellen Ragone and Paul Bonner are handling the majority of the CMO duties until a new person is hired, and Makadon said he is more involved with firm marketing than he's ever been.
Ballard Spahr spent the first few months after Banick's departure interviewing recruiting firms to help with the CMO search. The firm hired John Lamar of The Alexander Group in Texas, and he has spent the past six weeks to two months finding candidates to be interviewed by the firm.
Interviews are about ready to begin, and Makadon said there are, currently, two definite candidates, with the prospect of a few more being added to the interview list.
While the position doesn't have to be based out of Philadelphia, Makadon said that would be ideal because the majority of the marketing staff -- between 20 and 25 people -- are based in the city.
The two candidates who will be interviewed are both from the law firm world, but he said that doesn't have to be the case. The firm would be open to interviewing marketers from other professional service industries, he said.
Makadon said he isn't sure why legal marketers don't stick around for more than an average of two or three years. If a firm found the right person, he said he would think it could make for a long-standing relationship.
Serving as a CMO in the legal industry is a challenging job because there are so many constituencies to please, Makadon said.
As the evolution of law firm marketing departments continues, he said firms should be learning from their experience.
"We'll be wiser this time than we were last time," Makadon said.
He said the tenure for these positions would continue to increase as legal marketers become more experienced and have more to offer the firms.
DRINKER BIDDLE
Stephen D. Barrett joined Drinker Biddle as its CMO in September 2005 and has been commuting from his Boston home to Philadelphia each week. He would spend the week in the city and travel back to Massachusetts for the weekend.
Despite trading in his long commute, firm managing partner Andrew C. Kassner said Barrett may have felt he accomplished what he was looking to do at the firm.
"He's a builder," Kassner said. "He saw an opportunity here to help us build, and he may be looking for the next challenge, wherever it may be."
Since joining the firm, Barrett helped build the marketing department from around 10 members to 25. There are 12 marketers in Philadelphia, seven in Chicago and two in Washington, D.C., and there will soon be four in New Jersey.
Kassner said he was pleased with the progress Barrett made over the last few years. He said Barrett came in with a vision of how to build a marketing and client relations department in the firm and went ahead and did it.
Building a strong staff, Kassner said, worked out in the firm's favor, given Barrett's coming departure. Instead of hiring a new CMO, Drinker Biddle will split the responsibilities between its two marketing directors.
John Byrne, the firm's director of communications, and Kristin Sudholz, director of practice development, will work together on carrying out the marketing plan Barrett created.
Byrne, based in Philadelphia, started at the firm in July 2006. Barrett hired Sudholz in March 2007 after the firm merged with Chicago-based Gardner Carton & Douglas. She is based in Chicago.
DUANE MORRIS
Since January 2008, Duane Morris has seen the departure of its senior marketing manager, Holly Lentz Kleeman, and its senior director of marketing/CRM manager, Pat Purdy.
When the firm saw a changeover in leadership at the beginning of the year from major marketing proponent Sheldon Bonovitz to litigator John Soroko, some people questioned what would happen to Duane Morris' robust marketing department.
All those involved said there has been no decrease in support of the marketing department under Soroko's leadership and Kleeman and Purdy's departures were completely unrelated to the change.
Kleeman, who was the No. 2 person behind CMO Edward M. Schechter, left in January to start her own business, Lentz Productions. She focuses on business development and marketing for firms of all sizes.
She had been at Duane Morris for eight years and said that was one of the main reasons she left.
"Eight years is a really long time for legal marketing," she said.
Kleeman said Purdy's departure may have had something to do with her leaving the firm considering Purdy used to work for Kleeman's husband, and Kleeman brought her on board at Duane Morris.
But more than that, Kleeman said, Purdy had a really great opportunity at another firm. She now works for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in New York.
While the legal industry is often slower moving than other professional service sectors, Kleeman said she does see legal marketing becoming more accepted and the positions staying filled longer. She said Schechter is the exception to the conventional wisdom that CMOs stay in their positions for only a few years. He has been at Duane Morris for six.
"[Firms] are realizing that, like it or not, they're going to have to behave a little bit more like a business," Kleeman said. "Once they do it, they find out it's not that painful."
Although Kleeman credited the marketing department's existence to Bonovitz and recognized that Bonovitz and Soroko have different leadership styles, she said Bonovitz is still active in the firm. She said she thinks Soroko sees the effect Bonovitz made with the marketing department and would look to maintain that.
"Who knows what's going to happen at Duane," Kleeman said. "With a former chairman and a chairman there, that will be interesting to observe."
Schechter said the leadership change at Duane Morris has had no bearing on the marketing department.
"While marketing and business development is often impacted by the change of a chair, in that regard, we're running against the grain," Schechter said. "[Soroko] is very supportive of what we're doing."
He said Kleeman and Purdy's departures were completely unrelated to the leadership change. The two just had good opportunities, he said.
It is a great time for legal marketing, particularly at Duane Morris, Schechter said. In the process of building one of the largest marketing departments in the country in relation to the firm's attorney head count, the work of the marketers hasn't gone unnoticed. That has presented several opportunities for members of the department, he said.
Duane Morris is looking to fill both positions and will look both internally and at external candidates. He said both Kleeman and Purdy were important members of the team and contributed significantly to the department's growth.
In response to speculation that he may be looking for a position at another firm, Schechter dismissed the idea and said he was staying at Duane Morris. He said the opportunities he has there, in terms of the ability to use innovative marketing and business development programs as well as the support from management, are "incredibly strong relative to other firms."
"It's a great position to be in when you have that level of support from leadership and the partners and have a team here who's awesome," Schechter said.
BUCHANAN INGERSOLL
Buchanan Ingersoll's first CMO, Mark P. Trice, announced in August 2007 that he would be leaving the firm to move to Texas. He had started at the firm in June 2006, right before its merger with Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling.
He left legal marketing completely, instead joining the marketing team of financial, human resources and information technology company Vcfo Inc.
At the time of his departure, Buchanan Ingersoll Chief Executive Officer Thomas L. VanKirk said the firm might not hire a new CMO but rather bring someone in under a slightly different title. He said then that the firm hired a CMO more for the business development side of marketing given that Buchanan Ingersoll already had a strong communications arm.
VanKirk stuck to his word. A few weeks ago, the firm brought on Linda L. Fleming as its director of business development. She is based out of the firm's Alexandria, Va., office and works alongside Pittsburgh-based Director of Communications and Public Relations Lori K. Lecker.
MORGAN, LEWIS & BOCKIUS
Morgan Lewis has also been making some changes in its marketing department. The firm recently lost its director of communications, Paul Webb, and decided to do away with the position.
Instead, the firm created a new position, chief marketing and communications officer, to oversee what used to be two separate departments.
Morgan Lewis recently hired Michael Baltes, who was the former director of communications at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, to fill the new position.
A firm spokeswoman said management felt the marketing and communications departments should work more closely together and report to one person. She said Mona Zeiberg out of Washington will continue to serve as the firmwide director of marketing.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Law Firms Lean Towards Business Development
The scales are shifting in professional services marketing. The days when it sufficed to perform ‘marcomm’ activities – like brochures, advertising, public relations, firm events and branding – have passed. Today there is pressure on marketers to show return on investment.
In short, marketers must move from the ‘expense’ side of the ledger to the ‘revenue’ side.
Adding urgency is the fact that the US (and soon the world) is in a recession – consumer spending is down, unemployment is up, home prices are down, oil prices are near an all time high and the war in Iraq is wasting billions.“We are in a recession right now – it’s pretty obvious,” said Sara Kraeski, Director of Business Development of Davis, Graham & Stubbs in Denver, at a recent conference.
Partners today don’t want to know how much your project costs, they want to know how much it will earn. Smart marketers are changing their focus to business development activities:
* Advising teams going on tender competitions and beauty parades.
* Developing proposals that win new business.
* Identifying targets for clients to pursue.
* Helping professionals write personal business development plans.
Coaching is the single best activity in which to be proficient.The good news is that ‘BD’ is a learnable set of skills, and the abilities that make a top professional – being a good listener, analytical, expert questioners, organized and hard-working – are the same skills of those of top salespeople.
law firm marketing, marketing director, business developmentYou as the marketer must help the professionals write business development plans.The priorities of the plans are pursuing clients first, then referral sources, next becoming visible in a business organization and finally targeting business executives. It’s all about relationships – the more a professional has, the more clients he or she will have.
First you’ll need support from the top. Announce to firm management that you have a plan to increase its revenue significantly. That will get their attention.Then explain that you will work with the fee earners who have the most potential (not the new associates or the 40-year old ‘service partners’ who have no clients).Your plan is to magnify their new business production.
I recommend that professionals spend 200 hours per year on business development. This equals four hours per week – a goal easily attained by meeting a referral source for coffee, visiting a client’s offices at lunch and attending a trade association meeting at an event.
Here’s why this works. If you have 10 professionals who are active four hours a week, they should meet two ideal clients per week.This works out to 1,000 contacts per year. Let’s suppose they are just terrible at what they do and have a 90% failure rate. It still works out to 100+ new clients/matters per year. And that is a return on investment the partners can take to the bank.
In short, marketers must move from the ‘expense’ side of the ledger to the ‘revenue’ side.
Adding urgency is the fact that the US (and soon the world) is in a recession – consumer spending is down, unemployment is up, home prices are down, oil prices are near an all time high and the war in Iraq is wasting billions.“We are in a recession right now – it’s pretty obvious,” said Sara Kraeski, Director of Business Development of Davis, Graham & Stubbs in Denver, at a recent conference.
Partners today don’t want to know how much your project costs, they want to know how much it will earn. Smart marketers are changing their focus to business development activities:
* Advising teams going on tender competitions and beauty parades.
* Developing proposals that win new business.
* Identifying targets for clients to pursue.
* Helping professionals write personal business development plans.
Coaching is the single best activity in which to be proficient.The good news is that ‘BD’ is a learnable set of skills, and the abilities that make a top professional – being a good listener, analytical, expert questioners, organized and hard-working – are the same skills of those of top salespeople.
law firm marketing, marketing director, business developmentYou as the marketer must help the professionals write business development plans.The priorities of the plans are pursuing clients first, then referral sources, next becoming visible in a business organization and finally targeting business executives. It’s all about relationships – the more a professional has, the more clients he or she will have.
First you’ll need support from the top. Announce to firm management that you have a plan to increase its revenue significantly. That will get their attention.Then explain that you will work with the fee earners who have the most potential (not the new associates or the 40-year old ‘service partners’ who have no clients).Your plan is to magnify their new business production.
I recommend that professionals spend 200 hours per year on business development. This equals four hours per week – a goal easily attained by meeting a referral source for coffee, visiting a client’s offices at lunch and attending a trade association meeting at an event.
Here’s why this works. If you have 10 professionals who are active four hours a week, they should meet two ideal clients per week.This works out to 1,000 contacts per year. Let’s suppose they are just terrible at what they do and have a 90% failure rate. It still works out to 100+ new clients/matters per year. And that is a return on investment the partners can take to the bank.
Should I start my own blog?
Darren Rowse has a great article over at ProBlogger where he raises the question “Should I Change My Website Into a Blog?” He mentions six reasons to do so, while including five reasons you may not want to. Darren’s reasons include:
Reasons to do a blog:
1. “Blogs give Individuals, Companies and Brands ‘Voice’;
2. “Blogs are Conversational;
3. “Blogs build Trust;
4. “Blogs build Profile;
5. “Blogs are Immediate (meaning that you don’t have wait for your writings to be published); and
6. “Blogs are a doorway to Search Engines and Social Media.”
Reasons not to:
1. “Blogs Take Time to Mature (so don’t expect a quick return);
2. “Blogs Take Daily Work (not if you don’t post daily, two or three times a week can work);
3. “Blogs Take More than Writing (it can also involve monitoring comments, having a good design, marketing your site, etc.);
4. “Bloggers Can be Anti-Trust/Profile Building (meaning that depending on what you write and your tone, you could actually impact your reputation adversely); and
5. “Blogs Rely Upon YOU as a Conversation Starter.”
For higher visibility for your law practice, blogging may just be the answer. But if you aren’t going to make the commitment to sustain it, then maybe not.
So, the question is: Do you want to increase your visibility, dialogue, and credibility with your intended audience? Blogging is one vehicle to consider as part of your business development mix, IMHO.
Check out Darren’s article for more, such as whether to turn your web site into a blog or start a new site, as well as some recommended reading. You may also want to look over the 38 comments he got in response to his post to see what others think about the idea.
Reasons to do a blog:
1. “Blogs give Individuals, Companies and Brands ‘Voice’;
2. “Blogs are Conversational;
3. “Blogs build Trust;
4. “Blogs build Profile;
5. “Blogs are Immediate (meaning that you don’t have wait for your writings to be published); and
6. “Blogs are a doorway to Search Engines and Social Media.”
Reasons not to:
1. “Blogs Take Time to Mature (so don’t expect a quick return);
2. “Blogs Take Daily Work (not if you don’t post daily, two or three times a week can work);
3. “Blogs Take More than Writing (it can also involve monitoring comments, having a good design, marketing your site, etc.);
4. “Bloggers Can be Anti-Trust/Profile Building (meaning that depending on what you write and your tone, you could actually impact your reputation adversely); and
5. “Blogs Rely Upon YOU as a Conversation Starter.”
For higher visibility for your law practice, blogging may just be the answer. But if you aren’t going to make the commitment to sustain it, then maybe not.
So, the question is: Do you want to increase your visibility, dialogue, and credibility with your intended audience? Blogging is one vehicle to consider as part of your business development mix, IMHO.
Check out Darren’s article for more, such as whether to turn your web site into a blog or start a new site, as well as some recommended reading. You may also want to look over the 38 comments he got in response to his post to see what others think about the idea.
SEO or CPC?
This is the question that a lot of law firms and lawyers are facing in the ever changing online marketing game. For most, the simplest way is to just pay for a CPC campaign and be done with it, which depending on your market and practice, can be very effective, or a huge ripoff. CPC is very risky since their is no real measure of ROI, nor is their any guarantee that your competitors aren't just clicking away on your ads until you are gone for the day.
More and more, searchers are coming to respect the organic search results and are looking right past the CPC advertisers on Google, Yahoo! and more. If you can achieve search results in the top 10 of your given keywords then you will be getting a much higher visitor rate than from the CPC campaign. SEO is not an easy thing to take on by yourself either, there is a lot of technical work that goes into it as well as a lot of written copy work. It is best to hire a firm that specializes in law firm marketing online or a web design company that also does SEO, such as www.lawpromo.com.
I hope this helps you a little and be sure and do your research before going with just anyone for your SEO efforts, this is your lively hood.
More and more, searchers are coming to respect the organic search results and are looking right past the CPC advertisers on Google, Yahoo! and more. If you can achieve search results in the top 10 of your given keywords then you will be getting a much higher visitor rate than from the CPC campaign. SEO is not an easy thing to take on by yourself either, there is a lot of technical work that goes into it as well as a lot of written copy work. It is best to hire a firm that specializes in law firm marketing online or a web design company that also does SEO, such as www.lawpromo.com.
I hope this helps you a little and be sure and do your research before going with just anyone for your SEO efforts, this is your lively hood.
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