Two Market: More Marketing Plan Tips, from the Group

At my last post referencing topics covered during LOMAP’s inaugural Marketing Group, we reviewed some tips and tricks for the drafting of your marketing plan. This week, the LOMAP Marketing Group met to discuss marketing plan drafts that each member had derived. This being the anchor session of the first group of classes, we were fortunate to receive several thoughtful and well-constructed marketing plans. The discussion on plans presented, as well as on some more general marketing plan matters, was quite vibrant. So, piggiebacking on our last post in this vein, I thought it appropriate to add some quick pointers that were made during our last meeting, and that were not covered in my last post on this topic. Thanks for the substance of this post goes to the LOMAP Marketing Group members, who really came across with some excellent ideas and suggestions for attorneys seeking to draft their own marketing plans.

In the fashion of braindroppings, then:

--When doing your “Market Analysis”, look beyond your town, region and county. Great ideas and solutions don’t stop for manmade borders. The further out you look, the better sample you’ll get. This may allow you to jump your local competitors on trends that they may not know about yet. It will also give you a more holistic view respecting billing rates within your practice area(s). This will be especially important insight if you are one of few practitioners in your area specializing in a certain type of law. Your local sample size may be too small to give you a good read.

One important question respecting your marketing plan crafting, is “for whom” are you writing it:

--One group for which you are writing your marketing plan (as included within your business plan) are investors, the persons who can provide capital for your firm’s (initial) operations. The investor version of your marketing plan should focus on your current financial picture, and anticipated costs, which your hoped-for benefactor might fill. But, to think that you’re only drafting your marketing plan for investors is too limiting. You are also drafting your marketing plan for your clients and for your referral sources. Your elevator speech enters into your marketing plan as your objective section; so, it is easily drawn out again as your pitch. Your branding efforts are guided by your strategies, as outlined in your marketing plan. Reviewing and refreshing your marketing plan serves to refresh your elevator speech and brand, and vice versa. This is a collaborative-based relationship here, such that your marketing plan becomes a series of moving parts, that you may move in and move out, as you need them. Your marketing plan is, also, most obviously, drafted for you, as your planning document. Your attached goals and deadlines keep you on task, and on time. Thinking of your marketing plan as a one-use document will limit the effect that you get out of it; and, having worked hard to draft a compelling marketing plan, you should get everything that you can in return from it.

--It is also important to determine, through your marketing plan’s directives, who your good clients are and will be, and who your good referrers are and will be. If you have a specific target person, or group, in mind, it will allow you to refine your objective client beyond the conception of just aiming after some amorphous target market. The creation of a “client profile” (age, income status, location, needs, etc.) will help you to better determine who it is that fits your services and who it is that does not. This exercise will allow you to better understand exactly who it is that you are going after, adding some flesh to bones. Not only will this create some of that refinement within your direct marketing efforts; but, this exercise will also allow you to more finely craft your acceptable client description for your referral sources, whom you are training to send you the type of clients that you want. It can be useful, as well, to create a client profile, or profiles, for those types of clients that you do not want.

--An important question to ask yourself, in crafting your objectives, and in tweaking your elevator speech and presentation mode is: How do you pitch to non-legal crowds? While you cannot assume a lack of intelligence just because people are not attorneys, you must, nevertheless, think about ratcheting down your service descriptions, to make them understandable to the general public. Every profession has terms of art, and the law has quite a few, including some in Latin. So, you must be careful that, when you are speaking to those that do not have your professional experience, that you can make your professional experience understandable to the average person, or that you can communicate across professions, relaying similarities between your skill sets, and smoothing over differences, so that a connection may be built.

--The creation of a marketing plan may be more important for partnerships than for individual attorneys. If each partner is on the same page, and has helped in the creation of that page, it can only strengthen the partnership. An early allocation of responsibilities and expectations will serve to decrease disagreements and disfunction later. It is easy, over the course of time, for partners to lose sight of a common goal, in the onrush of day-to-day business activity. It is important, then, that partners attempt, at all events, to create a marketing plan early on in their partnership, when they do have the time to do so, before the workload ramps up. It is equally important that partners continue to review their marketing goals, not only to refresh their marketing platforms, but also to take the pulse on the state of their relationship. A partnership is much like a marriage, and can be equally emotional; the key to establishing a solid partnership, then, is much like the key to establishing a solid marriage: honest communication of expectations up front, and continuing, open communication throughout the relationship. Address contentious issues early on, and compromise now, instead of getting sucked into a stalemate later.

--The best marketing strategy may be: to do with your referral sources what you would do with your friends. Other attorneys are likely to refer you cases when they respect your acumen and understand exactly the sorts of services you provide, so that they can be sure that they are matching their referee’s needs. But, they’re more likely to refer you cases when they like you. Being informal, then, should not always be equated with being unprofessional. Sometimes, it is in the professional’s best interest to loosen up a bit. So, try a poker night, order pizza and have people over for the game, throw a Pampered Chef party. You’ll be surprised how many referrals develop when your referrers become your friends. Now, this does not mean that you should be fake about it. If you really don’t like someone, don’t force it. But, in time, professional associates often become friends. You’ll just be massaging the relationship is all.

These are certainly some excellent marketing/marketing plan tips from our Marketing Group. If you have any further tips that you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to comment on this post.

In Memoriam. I’d be remiss if I did not pause for a moment to pay tribute to the musical career of the recently deceased Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson certainly had lingering issues from a difficult childhood that never dissipated, and that he could never quite outrun; but, whatever your feelings for Michael Jackson, the person, Jackson was, nevertheless, a gifted and brilliant performer. His death, at only 50 years old, represents the most shocking music-related passing since Kurt Cobain’s suicide, and ranks there alongside the assassination of John Lennon, the death of Elvis Presley, the death of Hank Williams and the plane crashes and car crashes involving Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (and almost Waylon Jennings) and Harry Chapin and Jim Croce.

From the 1979 release of “Off the Wall” through the 1991 release "Dangerous”, Jackson marshaled an unprecedented string of hits, revolutionized music video and became the most widely recognized performer in the world, before his career was effectively destroyed amid child sexual abuse allegations. For all his personal problems, Jackson’s legacy remains in the music for which he was responsible. I can honestly tell you that I listened to my Thriller cassette so often when I was a kid that I snapped the tape.

Michael Jackson had been a featured performer since the age of 8, singing lead for the Jackson 5 on such hits as “ABC”, “I Want You Back”, “Going Back to Indiana” and “Dancing Machine”. Jackson was a star in the Motown constellation, and moved from there to create his own pop revolution. His first several solo albums were produced on Motown, but it was after Jackson left the Motown label that he became a superduperstar. From “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” to “Thriller” and “Beat It” to "We Are the World" to “Bad” and “The Way You Make Me Feel” to “Black or White” and “Remember the Time” to duets with Paul McCartney, to punk remakes of his hits, and parodies, too, to his ownership of the Beatles catalogue, Jackson’s influence on popular music cannot be understated.

Jackson’s relevance had been continually sliding for the better part of two decades. Yet, his death, although a truly sad event, does place in stark relief the tremendous importance and vaulting majesty of his music.

OMG! This is Gr8!!: Predictive Texting

Even here in 2009, not everyone has a PDA. And, until PDAs are shrunk to nanochippy size, and embedded in our skulls, not everyone with a PDA will have access to their PDAs all of the time. Some folks, even, have, and prefer to have, in some cases, those old-fashioned cell phones with the 12-digit keypads. Remember those? I do. And, I remember Zack Morris, too. Do you?

Despite the ubiquity of internet email access and QWERTY keyboards, either on-device or on screen, there are times when a full keyboard is not available for mobile access. And, What do you do then? Using traditional multi-tap systems to toggle through the number pad options to type out messages can sink your speed. Is there a way to approximate the speed with which you type on a QWERTY keyboard using text, and be faster than everyone?

There sure is. Predictive texting is a method for text that allows you to type full words without toggling through each of the letter choices represented by each number. For example, instead of hitting 2 twice, then 8 twice, then 7 three times, then 6 twice, in order to spell “burn”, instead use predictive text, and hit 2-8-7-6; if “burn” does not appear following your typing (although it should), toggle through the word options until you find it. Reducing your number of keystrokes reduces the amount of time you spend tapping and texting. Predictive text basically works by making educated guesses as to the word that you are intending to type, while still allowing you the option to find or to spell alternate options, such that you are not confined to the system’s best guess. The principle, of course, is that the best guess will be the right guess, most of the time. If you add a word completion function to the predictive text format, the system will attempt to guess the word that you are spelling before you have completed entering all of your letter keys. If the system has correctly guessed your word before you complete it, you may move immediately to your next word. If there are several words that could be formed from your keystroke entry, the predictions will begin, in alphabetical order, for your scrolling; but, the more you text, the more the system will know about you, such that, if there is a word that you frequently use, it will default to that word as your first option, rather than the first word appearing in alphabetical order. Some systems even include a next word completion feature, wherein, if, in your writing, one word typically follows another word, the predictive text system will automatically predict your first word, and the following word, or the remainder of your sentence. Doesn’t this make you want to turn your cellphone into a little pocket Nostradamus, too.

Of course, predictive texting is not perfect. There is the issue of “textonyms”, subtly referenced above, which textonyms occur when two or more words will fit into a completed number set entry. This forces you to toggle through a series of potentially fitting words, until you find the one that you really wish to use, if the system has not immediately guessed your intent. And, on occasion, gibberish finds its way into the associated program dictionaries (although not every program uses an associated dictionary), so that misspellings become acceptable (i.e.--guessable) terms. However, these issues are merely nuisances, which may easily be fixed. If you find a gibberish term or a misspelling as an accepted form, you need only choose the “spell” option, and return to multi-tap usage, in order to complete your word. And, as with email, you should make sure, anyway, that you proofread any text before you send it, so that you can replace misspelled words or gibberish, and so that you are not broadcasting a misunderstanding.

In general, though, predictive texting is easy to use, and many newer keypad cellphones default to the option. If you haven’t used predictive text before, turn the option on, or try it for the first time. A few run-throughs should be all that you need to get it down. And, if you have a deeper interest in the concept of predictive text, check out the Wikipedia article, covering the topic, and which I’ve referenced here and there above. Man, I love Wikipedia. I swear, God created Wikipedia and the History Channel so that men could have something to do when they aren’t watching sporting events.

Whether you’re texting your kids to find out when they’ll be getting out of soccer practice, or texting your secretary to let her know that you are running late for a client meeting, predictive text can speed your process and save you time.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must reveal something further of my motivation for the drafting of this post . . . Certainly, I wish to help you to become more efficient, so that you can save time and money and so that you can spend more time with your family, and all that good stuff. But, in point of fact, I am here trading on the knowledge of my 17-year-old sister-in-law. And, this is why, when people complain to me of the cost of IT, I tell them that they can rid themselves of a lot of the soft costs for technology by stopping their reliance upon training and support, and by trying to figure things out for themselves first, or asking a high schooler that they know if they can’t figure it out on their own. Most of this stuff is intuitive nowadays, and it’s just a matter of practice and familiarity to get it. So, How did I find out about the predictive text feature on my cellphone? Father’s Day, I was sitting with my sister-in-law, who turned to me and said, “How is it possible that you text so slowly?”

Ever since I’ve been using this predictive text, though, strange things have started happening to me. I mean, I downloaded the new Jonas Brothers song yesterday. (It’s about time they let Nick carry lead vocals. He’s the real talent in the band.) And, I think my dad may be a werewolf, too.

Marshalling a Plan: Creating Your Marketing Plan for Action and Follow-Through

In this, our third of six installments covering the series of topics generated for, and expanded upon during, LOMAP’s very first Marketing Group sessions, we’ll review some tips and considerations for the drafting of a marketing plan.

And, as the title of this post might suggest, this is not just about drafting a marketing plan, and putting it into a lockbox somewhere, never to be addressed again. This post will underscore the importance of creating a finely-tailored, well-researched, living, breathing marketing plan. Now, what those categorizations come to mean will be laid out more fully below; but, suffice it to say, for now, that if you slap together a marketing plan without deviating overmuch from a template, don’t do any market research and then never look at your draft again until it is covered in dust, or when you’re moving your office, or when you retire, you haven’t quite done enough. So, let’s figure out, together, how you can create a great marketing plan, that is continually usable, and that can drive your practice forward.

Previously, in this series, we’ve covered the importance of developing a pitch-perfect elevator speech. And, this was not by accident. We have processed chronologically here on purpose, because each of our prior project topics will help you in some way/will allow you to save yourself some time, in the creation of your marketing plan. Your elevator speech is not just another brick (actually, it is a cornerstone, I should say; but, that doesn’t involve a cool link out) in the construction of your marketing plan. Your elevator speech is not just a truncated selling tool for quick uses; its effectiveness is also judged through its repurposing, via your marketing plan. Your elevator speech, if constructed properly, defines what you do and defines the services that your business provides. It allows you to trace the purposes of your business, and to define its meanings. Tweaked slightly, it becomes the objective section of your business plan, and so guides what you set down as your intentions for your firm. Your elevator speech, reconstructed, then, also becomes the rudder for your marketing plan, as well, and provides anchored guidance for all of your marketing efforts. Repurposed, it provides a generalization of your marketing focus, so that everything you do returns you to what the point was to begin with, once more.

Likewise, your brand research, and brand creation, which topic we addressed at our last writing in this series, inure further to your benefit at the time of the creation of your marketing plan. We are talking more repurposing here, such that you can save yourself heaps of time in drafting your marketing plan, if you have done your due diligence, and if you have appropriately put in your time, ahead of time. When you set about creating your brand, you determined what is/what would be your target market. This is also a substantial step for creating your marketing plan; but, since you have already done the work in preparing your brand, you need not do it again, unless you want to take the time to take a look at refreshing, or resetting, a pre-existing, older brand. Your marketing plan should also include within it your conception of the perception of your services; and, that perception should not only match what you believe that it is that you present of your services to the public, but it should also match the actual perception of the public, as to their belief in what your firm does, and can do, as well as how it does it. You must be careful, in the creation and maintenance of your brand, that you not only have a clear understanding of what your brand is, but that your clients are also getting the message: that your perception of your brand matches their perception of your brand. If you have done your market research, and have been precise in the creation of your brand, you won’t need to reinvent the wheel when grafting a description of an understanding of your services onto your marketing plan; and, the stated perception you choose then should match what your clients see.

So, this is much less daunting now, no? If you’ve followed these posts chronologically, and have done what may have appeared to be disparate tasks as you went along, you’ll have finished off a good deal of your marketing plan requirements by taking the time to fine-tune your elevator speech, and to define your brand.

But, there is a threshold question here, as well; and, that is: Why even create a marketing plan in the first place? Why is it so important? Well, I’m glad you asked. The creation of a marketing plan is important for a number of reasons, which are to be described below. First, your marketing plan will allow you to integrate your total marketing efforts. If you are without a plan, your marketing efforts are likely to be sporadic and disjointed. A football team would not enter a game without a playbook; neither should you enter the market without a marketing plan. Your marketing plan will allow you to, and, in some cases, will force you to, take a systematic approach, which sort of approach is essential if you wish to promote yourself in a consistent and coherent way. Second, your marketing plan will require you to act. Establish time frames and deadlines for your marketing forays. Calendar deadlines, marketing events, release dates and review dates. Not only will this force you to act upon your goals in a timely fashion; but, it can also serve to create staggered, periodic review sessions for your individual marketing platforms. Is your yellow pages ad getting you your required return on investment? Schedule for yourself a review of the effectiveness of that strategy before you have to renew. Lawyers function under deadline; it is the nature of the profession. As a solo or small firm attorney, you must add to your stream of deadlines administrative matters, like the review of your marketing position. Third, the creation of your marketing plan will force you to establish clear goals and objectives for your marketing platform. A clear plan has an end at its beginning; as the saying goes, plan with the end in mind. People generally work best when they are working toward specific goals; and, lawyers are generally more goal-oriented, and goal-driven, than most people are. If you establish your goals at the outset, and provide yourself a schemata under which to work forward, you are much more likely to achieve what you set out to achieve. Your marketing plan, like your resume before and your business plan after, must contemplate an “Objectives” section. Fourth, your marketing plan will allow you to control costs. Certain methods of advertising are expensive, and your outlays can quickly get out of hand if you do not tie your marketing plan to a specific and separate budget. Limit what you can spend, to limit what you will spend. Even if you make adjustments to ratchet up your marketing spending, you will nonetheless be working from a cap, which is more likely to keep you in line, or closer to the line, than would be the case if you had not established some level to begin with. Fifth, your marketing plan will allow you to vet your clientele. If you create a marketing plan that establishes, and aims for, a clear target, you are more likely to hit that target. You will find that, if your perception of your services and your clients’ perception of your services match, that you will be seeing more of the clients that you want, and less of the clients that you don’t. If your marketing plan truly reflects your business, your clients will be filtered naturally, and you will have to waste less time vetting clients on the back end, and listening to stories that you really can’t help in writing. And, this is true of both direct clients and referred clients; referring attorneys are more likely to send you the sorts of clients that you want if they happen to know the sorts of clients that you want. Sixth, and this bears repeating, a marketing plan will provide you with instances for periodic effectiveness reviews, and not only with respect to the calendaring of deadlines, including quality check opportunities. Since your marketing plan is a written document, the establishing of revision deadlines can be a beneficial way to move your plan forward. The process of providing critical commentary, the dropping of ineffective promotion methods, the adding of potentially effective promotion methods and the general review of the holistic scheme, to determine its general effectiveness, and to get after your return on investment, may all be substantial goals accomplished through a redraft of your marketing plan. You change, the world changes and technology changes; your marketing plan should change also, along with them all.

When you determine that yes, you do need a marketing plan; and, when you begrudgingly determine that yes, you must take the time to draft said marketing plan, you’ll need to consider how to put it all together. So, to that end, we’ll move here toward a discussion of, first, what you should consider before you draft a marketing plan, and, second, what you should include within your marketing plan.

Before you draft a marketing plan, you must have some idea of what it is that you are marketing and how it will be that you will market it. So, sit down and brainstorm. Determine what your services are, and how you will communicate to your clients and to your referral sources what it is that you do, and how you do it. (Again, if you’ve already created an elevator speech and a brand, you’ll have an easier time, because you know what your services are, how you see them and how everybody else sees them. If not, you have a bit more work to do.) The second piece of brainstorming should strike how you will go about getting the word out. Will you be using more traditional forms of marketing, or more modern, more viral formats? How much time will you spend networking and how will you network (online or face-to-face, or a hybrid of both)? In which marketing and networking options will you choose to invest your time? How will you manage your time, such that you will not become overwhelmed by the choices available to you, and such that you will have enough remaining time for your various other duties? These are threshold determinations that will affect your time management until such time as you get back around to reviewing your initial marketing plan. So, take the time to consider your options fully, at first, so that you do not quickly become overwhelmed. To provide a construct, or returning point, for your initial considerings, keep before your mind the Four “P”s. This concept of the Four “P”s was introduced in this thoughtful article; and, although I am generally repulsed by cutesy things like this, keeping in mind your Ps (save your Qs) will provide you with continual reference to four of the most important marketing plan concepts. The first “P” stands for “product”: What are your (legal) services, that you provide? The second “P” stands for “price”: Is your price competitive in the market, relative to your experience? Have you established a price ceiling and a price floor, rather than a stricter, or one-price-fits-all model? Do you attempt, to the extent possible, to determine your clients’ ability and willingness to pay prior to commencing representation? The third “P” stands for “place”: Where are you? Where are your clients? Does your Boston office put off your suburban clientele? Where do you advertise? Does your ad in the Newton Tab reach your clients in Salisbury? The fourth “P” stands for “promotion”, of your services: What methods, or advertising strategies, will you use to reach your market? Beyond the Ps and questions, there are several more quick pointers that will be useful for your consideration as you move to your first draft of your marketing plan: Make sure that your plan is a living document. Establish daily review of your plan’s effectiveness, or, at least, review upon intervals, and at material changes to business. In this way, your document will live, in that it will evolve with you and your firm, such that, at any point, your marketing plan will reflect the current needs of your firm. The only way you can make your marketing plan so effective is by paying attention to its relevance, continually. Tie your marketing plan to your business plan. Your marketing strategy, and implementation of that strategy, is an integral part of the running of your business; make it officially so, by grafting your marketing plan upon your business plan. Establish time frames and deadlines within your marketing plan, and carry that concept over to your business plan, such that you are continually working toward your goals, and are continually motivated to do so, by those pleasant reminders. Finally, remember that your elaborate marketing plans will not all find success, neither will all of your grand schemes work overnight. Give your plan some time to work, and stick with your promotional choices until it becomes obvious that certain options are not working. Give yourself and your plan some time to work things out.

This has all been a long, long, long introduction to putting pen to paper, or keystroke to computer screen. Now, when you have done all your homework, like good boys and good girls, and are ready to sit down and put this sucker together, there is the question of what inclusions are absolutely necessary to carry off the successful drafting of a marketing plan. As we’ve hinted at throughout this piece, it is essential that you commit to writing Clear Objectives and Goals: provide yourself something to work toward. If you are fortunate enough to be able to hire marketing personnel, or if you have administrative staff, or partners, consider parsing responsibility, and allocating specific duties to specific persons, preferably duties that are within the peculiar skill sets of the assignees. Several heads being better than one, if you assign correctly, you should be able to accomplish severalfold more work together than separately. In addition to establishing goals, consider how those goals will be achieved: What will be your Specific Strategies? Include within your marketing plan a key, or essential, strategies section. What marketing tools will you use to achieve your objectives? There are several categories of marketing and networking tools. To get you started, I have derived five general options (not an exhaustive list), for which subcategories may gather under. Those general, strategic propositions are, as follows: paid advertising (print and online), publicity (interviews given; articles written about; referrals made to, etc.), direct mail/direct email (targeted mailing; Constant Contact or iContact, for email), other internet/web marketing (for free or cheap: website; blogging; social media marketing) and community involvement (or, targeted volunteerism; for lawyers’ groups and for the general public). Regardless of how well your objective is formed and despite how well-crafted your strategic initiatives are, neither will mean a thing unless you reach your potential clients and your potential referral sources. But, to reach your target market, you must find out, first, who they are, and, only second, how to reach them. If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If your message reaches the wrong market, is it heard? And, you can’t expect your target market to find you. So, your marketing plan must include a Market Analysis. Your assignment in finding your target market is grounded in research, research and more research. Google competitors. Talk to friends. Attend CLEs and other events. Talk to your family. Gather disparate pieces of information, and find the common threads. Only with hard work will you be able to determine who your potential clients and referral sources are, and where they hang out. When you are researching your market, take into account, as well, your competition. There are two sorts of competitors to watch out for: direct competitors and indirect competitors. Direct competitors provide the same service that you do, in the same market and in the same place. Indirect competitors provide the same services, but in a different market, or in a different place. The main reason for researching competitors to begin with (and another good reason to keep tabs on them going forward) is to allow you to make a determination respecting the reasonability of your pricing structure. If you’re too high, you’ll price yourself out of the market; if you’re too low, you’ll never be respected as a legitimate service provider. The only way that you find that range that becomes your own moving target is by keeping tabs on what others are doing. You should also review the processes and methods of your competitors in order to determine, by comparison, the general effectiveness of your own. You may check your competitors, as well, to make sure that you are offering the full range of services available in your industry, or field. Keeping an eye on your competitors may also mean that you spot market trends that you might have missed the first time around. More generally speaking, keeping tabs on business innovation and industry trends across markets can provide you a competitive advantage, in that you may discover and apply the next buzzword generating process before others of your direct competitors, which application may resonate deeply with clients and potential clients, as you are painted as innovative entrepreneur. But, you can’t do everything that you want to do. Regardless of the numerosity of your great ideas, you will always be constrained by resources, both money and personnel. Therefore, it is essential that you attach to your marketing plan a Marketing Budget. Overruning wildly on marketing expenses, especially for a small, or start-up, firm can be hemlock. This is not some wild rumpus; there must be a cost-benefit analysis made, and determined, initially, as a proposed budget-educated guess, which will be refined and sharpened over time. Neither is this whittling or fishing. You must continue to push effective ideas, pull ineffective strategies and endeavor to discover new effective and innovative strategies. But, a bad idea is not going to tug at your shirtsleeve, and be like, “Hey, Um . . . I suck.” No. You’ve got to establish Time Tables and Deadlines for your marketing endeavors. And this means, as we’ve touched upon previously, that you must schedule time to review the effectiveness of your strategies, to determine whether what you are doing is working, which, meaningfully, means that you look to scrap what is not working, keep or refine what is working and add what should be working, for you. The creation of deadlines will also force your action. So, calendar your reviews, and treat them as true milestone pillars. Refresh your marketing plan from time to time. In this way, it will truly become a living document, and will move fluidly, as your business does. The only way that you can create a truly flexible marketing plan is by rigorously applying your time standards and review deadlines. And, bear in mind that your initial timing decision may be one of your most important. The determination to enter the marketplace as a going concern, as a competitive business entrant, must be grounded in your preparation, such that you can hit the ground running, and express your confidence and ability to those persons to whom you must sell your services.

Keeping in mind the importance of an entrance, and understanding that we must plan to begin with the end in mind, some hybrid of that combination means that it is important to know where to end; and so, our formal discussion covering the how-to’s of drafting a marketing plan terminates here.

If you like what you’ve seen here, and you’ve found this discussion valuable to your practice, you may also wish to access some of the resources that I have referenced in order to construct this post:

A short(er) and sweet list from the Australian government is, nevertheless, quite effective in getting some excellent marketing plan drafting tips across, which just goes to show that you don’t have to write a 4,000 word blog to make a point. A fulsome post by John Remsen, of the Remsen Group, represents a high level discussion of marketing plans for attorneys. Paula Black’s “Every Attorney Needs a Marketing Plan” just about says it all, and provides seven tips for getting started. Susan Ward of the Great White North, eh, provides some excellent general marketing plan advice in this article, which features many valuable links out; and, while this article features general business advice, the tips can easily be turned to a lawyer’s use. As I mentioned above, I totally stole the “Four Ps” from Laura Lake, which is not a place, but who is a person, a person who is a guide up the marketing plan mountain. Laura talks about the Four Ps, and other marketing Ps (pointers), in this article.

I am, once again, indebted to LOMAP Summer Intern Michael Pirrello, for his research assistance. I don’t do any of my own research anymore. God. September is going to suuuuck.
If you’ve read down this far, I feel sort of obligated to produce some sage advice of some kind to wrap things up, or to unwrap things apart, in this case . . . As a wise man once said: “If you don’t know where you’re goin’, any road’ll take you there.” Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.

LOMAP Offers Free Online CLE Covering Compliance with Massachusetts Data Privacy Act

LOMAP, the Massachusetts Bar Association and Catuogno Court Reporting have made available a free set of videos covering compliance with the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act, which will take effect on January 1, 2010.

The videos, available here, feature LOMAP Director Rodney Dowell’s review of the regulations and HyTech Management President and CTO Mark Kupsc on compliance with the new requirements. The tandem presentation provides a look at overview and implementation through the unique perspectives of a practice management expert and an IT professional.

The program was originally recorded on March 20, 2009, as the “Compliance with the New Privacy Regulations” session of the MBA’s Legal Technology Expo.

LOMAP would like to thank Catuogno Court Reporting, especially founder and CEO Ray Catuogno and Director of Legal Division & Sales Dean Whalen, for funding the recording, editing and hosting of these videos, which have been made available for free as a service to Massachusetts attorneys. LOMAP also wishes to thank Wayne Martin and his staff, from National Video Reporters, Inc., who actually accomplished the filming and post-production of the videos.

After watching the videos, you’ll likely feel a whole lot better about the new data privacy regulations. Well, you’ll feel a little bit better. . . . Well, you’ll understand them better. Hopefully.

And, if you can’t quite get enough of the regulations, and this has only whet your appetite for more, well, you’ll be pleased to know that there is, yes . . . more, as follows: If you want to download the Powerpoint presentations you see on the screen during the videos, head over to this site, which includes downloadable versions of those presentations, as well as all of the other materials submitted for the MBA’s Legal Technology Expo, held this immediate March. If you’re looking for the source: check the text of the act itself; the relevant statutes: here and here; the Code of Massachusetts Regulations section; and, further guidance from the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. In addition to the state laws and produced guidance, we have made several compliance-based posts at the LOMAP blog; and, those posts are available here, here, here and here. For a revised version of our original Powerpoint covering the regulations, and created for a recent presentation at the Plymouth County Bar Association, visit this website. Finally, for compliance updates, check Mark Kupsc’s blog and Massachusetts compliance center.

And, I know, I know, the effective date for the regulations has been pushed back before. But, even if they’re pushed back again, isn’t it better to know them now, and to begin to comply. These regulations will not be put off forever, and it’s a sight better to comply now, than to scramble, in complying later, under the heat of a shortening deadline. But, if all this stuff is making your head spin, stop and think on it for awhile. And, if you’re still stuck, give us a call.

Brand Oh!: Making a Stellar Name for Yourself, or Your Firm

For the second of our envisioned six installments in our marketing series, that will track the topics and developments of LOMAP’s inaugural marketing group, we present, for your enjoyment, a discussion of law firm branding.

Branding is as important for law firms (small firms and solo attorneys included) as it is for any other business. When it’s a hot summer day, and you’re thirsty, and you walk into a 7-Eleven, with that prominent 7 intersecting Eleven logo on the sign, and you’re checking out the cooler, which soda are you most likely to buy? Chances are you’re reaching for the Coca-Cola before you grasp after the Royal Crown Cola, or any of these. I know I am. There is nothing quite like a Coke. I still get excited when I am in the Midwest, and can find Coke in bottles. I am guaranteed to overpay for them. Guar-own-teed.

And the reason I buy a Coke is not that Coke necessarily tastes better than other soda; and neither is it because I necessarily prefer Coke to any other soda. No. It’s because Coke has become synonymous with soda, globally. In fact, in some parts of the South, the term “Coke” is used for soda, such that you could order a 7Up Coke, if you wanted a 7Up. Sounds crazy, I know; but, it’s true. I still haven’t figured the popularity for “tonic” over soda in certain parts of the Summaville, though.

And, although Coke has a checkered past (cocaine being prominently featured in the original recipe; helping to make sulry, ol’ misanthropic Ty Cobb rich; New Coke, the soft drink equivalent of the Edsel), Coca-Cola has done a lot of things right, not the least of which is that bringing to our minds of the image of a bottle of Coca-Cola whenever we hear the word soda.

This blog post is not all about Coke, I promise you; but, the example of Coca-Cola is instructive for attorneys: being the most recognizable brand in a field (in the world) is some kind of aspirational goal; and, through the strength of the example, it is one that persons can easily grasp and understand the application of. If you practice family law, with a concentration in divorce, be the Coca-Cola of divorce attorneys, as crass as it sounds. You want to make as certain as possible that attorneys referring cases and clients thinking of divorce find their immediate way to a picture of you appearing in their minds. Although there is no substitute for a global enterprise, and for the truckloads of cash that come with it, that the Coca-Cola company has access to, you can still map the Coke pattern for success, while remembering that even Coca-Cola had to start somewhere. So, brand yourself the way Coke does: define your service; define the client perception of your service; produce a consistent message; use constant reinforcement to, um, reinforce your message.

Now, a brand does not pop out of thin air. Neither the familiar Coke logo, with script letters and streaking flourish, nor the Nike swish, was dropped from the heavens, like manna. And, furthermore, the gaining of the additional heft those brands have taken on within the public imagination meant additional, and hard, work. So, there are some preliminaries here, even before you start marketing your brand. Before you create a brand, you have to know what you have/what you do/what you offer. You can’t intelligibly relay your services in a meaningful way to your potential clients, and.the public at large, and referring attorneys, if you don’t yourself know what your services are. (Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why it is so important to create a thoughtful business-teamed-with-marketing-plan, and to craft and perfect a winning elevator speech. The exercise and application of these tools will create much of the background that you will require for determining your brand.) Figure out what it is that you are known for: What is the matter of your renown? Determine your services, determine how you will uniquely offer your services and determine to whom you will offer your services/who has interest in your services. The word “determination” is used intentionally, with a couple senses of its meaning intact: you must determine how your business will proceed, and you must be determined in applying your business decisions. Many attorneys starting out solo or starting out small may feel overwhelmed and underqualified; but, these attorneys must, at all costs, and nonetheless, avoid the appearance of a lack of confidence, as this will permeate everything that they do, and as this will be apparent to observers, like clients, potential clients and referring attorneys. After about the first year of law school, you know the law, and you know how to write and talk like a lawyer. Don’t let your self-perceived lack of experience drag you down. You will grow in competency; your confidence should always be with you. And, part of that confident manner must attach to the selling of specific and unique services, if you have your own firm.

Once you have established your niche, and have become aware of the unique services that you provide, the next step is to create your brand, which will be, in essence, the public perception of what you do/what your firm is, as those considerations may meld, and become synonymous, over time. Branding is all about perception. So, to begin the process of creating your brand, you must figure out what the public perception of your services is. Once you determine what the existing perception is, consider whether it is line with what you think your services mean. If your perception of what your business is and the public’s perception of what your business is are out of wack, you have some work to do. If you are starting out, you are in a position to create a perception to relay to the public. This is a unique opportunity. It is much easier to spend the time and energy creating a brand before your client load becomes heavy enough that marketing and brand creation may appear as uniquely disquieting 800 pound gorillas sitting in your office chairs, staring at you across the desk, unshakeable annoyances, necessary for your firm’s growth, yet near impossible for the finding of the appropriate amount of time for devotion.

In either case, whichever scenario you find yourself presently attached to, your marketing efforts must be grounded in planning. Your brand creation, as part of your marketing plan, as part of your business plan, should be an intentional, logical strategy. Your brand creation process should begin, and should be grounded in, market research. Create some branding options (descriptions, logos, elevator speeches) and query friends, colleagues, more senior attorneys, current clients, potential clients. Survey your support system and your market (your market includes current clients (some of your best referrers), potential clients and colleagues (who will refer cases to you)) in order to determine which brand options create client perceptions that match what your own perceptions of your business are, or what your own perceptions are of what your business should be, and should offer. (For free and easy online survey creation and results aggregation, check Survey Monkey.) Once you have collected your survey results, use those, as well as a dose of your good common sense, to select the brand components that fit you best, and that will be your best relay for your public perception.

Once you’ve settled upon a brand, the fun part becomes the dropping of that brand upon the wider world. This is what you have been waiting for. By now, you’ll have your firm name, logo, tagline and marketing statements, including your elevator speech, in place. (If you are to art what Billy Carter was to first brothers, you may want to stick to homebrewing, and farm out your logo design. A great place to get a good logo on the cheap is through CrowdSpring.com.) But, since you’ve done all this hard work, there’s no sense in wasting it, by misusing it; and, the trick to implementing and developing a successful brand is maintaining your consistent use of that brand teamed with repetition of your brand components. In the small words, your brand should be the same and your brand should be here, there and everywhere. So, place consistent and repetitive brand markings on your website, stationery, business cards, email signatures, voicemail recordings and shave your firm logo into your dog. (That last one was just a test, your dog doesn’t want to market for you. Trust me.) If your research was dead-on, your potential clients’ and referral sources’ perception of your services should be the same as your own. You’ve eliminated confusion, and replaced it with precision.

Having a brand is nice, and displaying that brand for the world to see is nice, too. But, you must not forget that the development of that brand is the integral part of gathering success. You must work to promote your brand, and put the time and effort necessary into the development and use of a continuing pitch. But, be patient, if your efforts do not pay off immediately. This is a growth business. Let your brand breathe, let it grow. Whenever and wherever you are marketing yourself, carry your brand with you. Wear it on your chest as a sheriff’s badge, as it can serve much the same function: people will understand that you mean business, that this is what you do, that this is how you do it and that you do it well. There should be the same immediacy and recognition emanating from both presentation scenarios. When you walk into a room, your potential clients and potential referral sources must know that the sheriff is near. And, on that score, of doing it well: your brand can only really be as successful as the service you provide behind it, that you back it up with. You must build your clients’ confidence in your service, such that your brand becomes synonymous with that confidence. It is essential, then, that you don’t overpromise, and that you follow through on what it is that you do promise. You must make your brand a true service mark, if you wish for it to carry real meaning.

When you begin to consider the making of your, or your firm, brand, you need not reinvent the wheel, entirely; perhaps you’ll only need to place a new, shiny hubcap. To that end, there are a number of good examples of firms that have created successful brands, and that you may view as templates for creating your own brand. Some exemplars are as follows: Lubin & Meyer, P.C., for medical malpractice; Joel H. Schwartz, P.C., for personal injury; Lando & Anastasi, LLP, for patent/intellectual property; Breakstone, White & Gluck, P.C., for personal injury/medical malpractice; and, Kelsey & Trask, P.C., for family law/bankruptcy.

In addition to the sampling of sites above, there are also a number of general online resources available covering the topic of law firm branding. A Google search will likely reveal more than you can handle. And, if you don’t want to trouble yourself, check the following resources: this 2003 article from Dennis Kennedy contains a number of valuable links, many of which are still active, over five years later; Terry Isner provides a thoughtful take on brand creation; Bob Weiss covers the importance of the firm logo in a recent article; this decade-old review of the effectiveness of law firm branding, from Altman Weil, Inc., is nonetheless still relevant; this article presents a take on law firm branding from a marketing professional; here’s a modern take on law firm branding, including a bit on the intersection of law firm branding and the elevator speech; this transcript of a roundtable on law firm branding is great, and includes a bunch of excellent web resources; the ABA’s tome on “How to Build a Law Firm Brand” is available as a PDF for a reasonable outlay at the ABA’s webstore; and, the Brand Channel is a great, general resource, for lawyers, and everybody else, too.

Another brand I like is the brand of southern rock that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as well as Tom Petty sans the Heartbreakers, have been providing to good Americans everywhere since 1976. Petty and the band have been doing it since before I was born; and, just when you think they’ve had it, there’s another great album in the offing, like 2006’s "Highway Companion". Only the waiting, for the next one, is the hardest part. Most everyone knows the hits; but, there are so many great Tom Petty songs that have flown under the radar, that might have made the greatest hits albums of lesser artists. A generous sampling of undercover gems include: “California”, “You Wreck Me”, “All the Wrong Reasons” and “Zombie Zoo”. If you want a real treat, grab 1995’s “Playback” box set, containing unreleased songs and rarities, like the great acoustic live version of ”King’s Highway”, the demo version of “The Apartment Song” (featuring Stevie Nicks) and the delightful “Heartbreaker’s Beach Party”. Yeah. And, don’t forget about “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, a greatest hits inclusion (exclusive to the greatest hits album), and one of the best videos ever, incidentally. Mr. Lewchik loves Tom Petty; and, if it’s good enough for Mr. Lewchik, it’s good enough for you. OK.

Great thanks goes to LOMAP’s Summer Intern, Michael Pirrello, who compiled research for just about every section of this post, save for the Tom Petty paragraph, which research I have been compiling for over twenty years.

iGoogle, You Google, We All Scream for Google: Open Your Google Toolbox

Seriously. Everybody uses Google, to the point that the verb “Google” has entered the lexicon as modern slang for performing an online search. But, there are far more Google Tools available than just the search website.

If you only use Google for search, you’ll be stunned, amazed and impressed (too over-the-top a description?--well, you may be the judge) over the amount of the robust Google tools available to you. Not only are most of these tools free, and generally useful, but it is not hard to make the imaginative leap as to how many of these resources can be made applicable to your practice life.

The College@Home Blog has a really tremendous post on 57 must-have Google tools.

If you have a short attention span, some of the highlights (as well as some additions), are as follows:

GMail. GMail is Google email. There are a ton of helpful features on GMail that allow you to use the program as a primary or secondary email account. GMail has tons of storage space: unless you’re scanning and attaching to emails the collections of the Library of Congress, you should be good. Conversation aggregation allows you to more easily track email threads. GMail also offers a robust search feature for finding lost or mislaid emails and email topics. GMail can also be integrated with the Google calendaring system, which comes complete with reminder options.

iGoogle. iGoogle allows you to create, in no time flat, your own Google homepage. You can send to this page, for your easy access, your GMail account, your Calendar and your favorite blog feeds. iGoogle is a great way (and an alternative to another Google product, the Google Reader) to organize your favorite blawgs, and to read new posts on your time, and at your leisure.

Google Maps. Google Maps is the website for accessing driving directions. Never visited a certain Registry of Deeds and need to find the quickest route from your office? All you need is a beginning and ending address to check Google Maps. It also works great on the run as an iPhone or as a Blackberry app. Never be lost . . . or be lost less.

GOOG-411. Don’t waste money dialing 411 anymore. Instead, dial GOOG-411. Google’s by-phone information service is free, and saves the nickel-and-diming expense of calling traditional 411. Google’s system is “manned” entirely by automated operators; and, if the automated operators just can’t make out what you’re saying (it’s only happened to me once, in a crowded and loud restaurant), you can still call the old school 411, and you’re still saving, based on all those other calls to GOOG-411 that are picked up.

Google Groups. Google Groups allow you to create private or open access points for sharing ideas and information, and for generating discussion. You can modify your page, add pages, tweak the settings and invite or add new group members. Document upload is also available.

Blogger. Blogger is Google’s free blogging platform; and, it’s what you’re using to read this very blog.

YouTube. Lest ye forget, Google owns YouTube, as well. YouTube is where I get most of my sweet music links. But, it’s also a great marketing opportunity for savvy attorneys who are seeking a direct client impression. Check out what Massachusetts attorney Gabriel Cheong does with YouTube: InfinityLawTV.

Postini. Google even offers web and email security through its paid service, Postini. Postini offers hosted security and archiving services for business. Like YouTube, this is another Google product purchase, that has made some company founder ridiculously, fabulously wealthy.

Google Earth. Download Google Earth for a free trip to anywhere on the globe. It’ll be the cheapest vacation you ever take. And, if you’re ever looking for lost relatives from Atlantis, Google Earth is available with Google Ocean. Don’t forget, either, about Google’s space options . . . if you wish to boldy go . . .

The Google universe is vast, and, apparently, ever-expanding. So, if anyone wishes to add any nifty Google tools I have left out (perhaps on purpose . . . perhaps), please feel free to use the comment space. You may also feel free to add, through the comments, some other good and useful, free or cheap online tools.

As Boston’s endlessly entertaining Mayor Menino famously (well, in a provincial sort of way) said, in paraphrasing Winston Churchill, “Give us the tools, and we will do the job.” Well, Google is your whole dang toolbox.

Rosier Outlook: Microsoft Outlook Email Tricks and Treats

If you’re using Microsoft Office Outlook for your email, it’s a virtual certainty that you’re not using all of the robust features offered through the product. Of course, it’s also a virtual certainty that you will never have enough time to learn of all of those robust features anyway, even if you took two lifetimes. However, if you’re using Outlook only to send and receive email, there are some easy-to-use additional features that you can apply to your use of the program in order to increase your efficiency and in order to control your email flood. (If you have a deep interest in learning about email archiving and more about email control tips, I will be speaking on these matters at a June 1 Worcester County Bar Association program. The program will also feature Alan Klevan and Rodney Dowell on PDF, and Channing Migner and James Gavin Reardon, Jr. on Google collaboration/cloud computing. To register, contact the Worcester County Bar Association.) Some of these quick fixes involve creating email signatures, sending emails directly to designated spaces outside of your inbox and setting and resetting your junk email folder options.

You can learn about these features, and many others, at the clearinghouse for all things Microsoft Office (including Microsoft Outlook), the Microsoft Office Online homepage. From the homepage, you can search for specific topics, wend your way through how-to presentations and find particular product pages. Use your product homepage to maneuver through the learning options for your version of Outlook. Favorite your product page. Make it a point to learn one more new thing about Outlook every month. You use email everyday, all day long. A minimal time investment in training can produce big net results over time.

There are also a couple of other web hotspots you can check out, too, if you wish to improve your fluency with Outlook. The official Outlook team blog is a great resource, that’ll learn you straight from the horse’s mouth. Adriana Linares frequently presents Outlook tips (in a winning style, by the way) at her blog, I Heart Tech.

And, when you learn to embrace Outlook, you’ll heart tech, too.