From the category archives:

Business Development

Social Touchpoints for Your 2010 Marketing Plans

Law firms may need to play catch up if they don’t start integrating social technologies into their marketing, client service and business development mix in 2010. In the late 90’s, the word “touch-point” was frequently heard in legal marketing conversations. There was even a session on it at the LMA annual conference. No longer a [...]

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Is Social Networking right for me?

I knew it had to happen. Up until this point I wholeheartedly believed that any business could benefit from greater exposure by participating on the social Web, but today I advised a company that the social web is not the right place for them to be investing their time, at least at this time. As [...]

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Is alternative billing enough to differentiate your law firm in this competitive business market?

Word is that in this economy law firm clients are willing to walk across the street just to get better value. Go figure. Value sells. Many law firms have begun competing on price—adopting alternative billing structures. I can’t help but wonder if law firms aren’t falling into the value box defined by their competitors instead [...]

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Sustainable-and valuable-social media strategy. Part II

In my last post I offered my ideas on how a law firm might approach a sustainable social media program. I suggested that you not start with the tools, but rather start with the client. Build a strategy around how prospects move through the purchase process and then choose the best tools that will help [...]

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Sustainable—and valuable—social media strategy. PART I

Social interaction, online and offline, is one of many ways people get connected to products and services, so it makes perfect sense that many professional services marketers are looking at social Web tools as a means to that end. However, it’s easy to make the mistake of focusing on the tools instead of your goals. [...]

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What is the price for a loyal client?

I think many businesses [and law firms] are shooting themselves in the foot when they cut corners on the wrong stuff. For example: Discount stores like Marshalls, TJX and Ross are perfectly positioned for a recession when discretionary dollars are tight. The other evening the mid-town Miami Marshalls was teeming with shoppers sorting through tons [...]

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Taking Care of Business –Social Networking Style

If you are still questioning the effectiveness or the role of social networks in “real” business transactions, just ask some of the the 32 law firms that have made it to the next phase of FMC Technologies, Inc.‘s law firm challenge: Abbott Simses (a 16-lawyer firm in New Orleans) Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld [...]

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Will Online Networking Expedite the Development of Rainmakers?

I asked Mike O’Horo, of Sales Results Inc. if he thought social networking online will expedite the development of young professionals into rainmakers. His response was so on point that I would be selfish not to share it with you.

So, I asked Mike, “Do online social networking behaviors produce rainmakers at an earlier age? Where does business development fit in?” Here’s what he said:

“That depends on the degree to which the young professionals in question recognize the difference between marketing and selling. Social networking tools emulate and magnify personal networking behaviors, and serve the same purpose: helping you to get found, presumably by those whom you most want to find you. [marketing/exposure]

Getting chosen from among those found (selling) requires a disciplined decision-management process that is entirely distinct from marketing [networking]. Therein lies the double rub re: online social networking. If you can’t sell, all the getting found (leads) in the world is just wasted opportunity. Likewise, if you can’t manage the distillation process, weeding out those who want to act vs. those who must act, you’ll exhaust your extremely limited sales-time bandwidth before you get the desired results.

The bottom line is that these tools are just a medium within which to conduct the same marketing and sales activities that have been necessary in commerce for hundreds of years. Faster, cheaper, broader? Yet bet. Sufficient? Not by a long shot. As my friend, Mark Greene, was wont to say during his decades as a premier market research wizard, “Necessary, but not sufficient.”

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Blogging for business development vs. market promotion

Growing in popularity, blogging is attracting lawyers and law firms in droves. I often wonder how much thought goes into what the lawyer blogger really expects to achieve. I mean, a blog is a serious time commitment, requiring thoughtful planning, posting, and promotion. Setting up a blog because someone told you that it’s a great [...]

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Mining Existing Content for the Social Web

Markerters, this one’s for you. Part of the VirtualMarketingOfficer’s mission is to pass along ideas to make your job easier. So, if you’ve been tasked with setting up or directing a social Web program in your firm, here are your first 4 steps.

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