Network Affiliates

What tools do you have in your advertising arsenal? Are you able to know exactly what your competitors’ schedules are so you can “out-position” them?

Research suggests that for every client you engage you miss nearly 20 others. That means missing out on almost 95% of potential clients. Imagine what it would do for your case intake if you could reach even a portion of them. So, how can you do it? How can you acquire more clients?

Invest In Competitive Tools
Does your ad agency or media buying service allow you to completely and comprehensively know exactly where your other competitors are placing their commercials? Do you have this information at your fingertips when you are planning your media buy so that you can better strategize and work around crowded TV environments? Buying without this knowledge is like going to court without completing discovery of the defense’s case.

When was the last time you dissected your media plan?

If you haven’t done it in the last five years, you might not even be aware of the tools that are available to you today. Cutting-edge market-analysis technology, database mining and media tracking devices are helping law firms compete more effectively than ever in the marketplace. Your competitors are using these tools. If you’re not, you could be handing them the lion’s share of potential clients.

You Don’t Have To Do This Alone
As a lawyer and business owner, there are some marketing tactics only you can affect. For instance, you cannot hire someone to take your colleagues out to lunch or to maintain significant referral relationships. But, there are many aspects of legal marketing and advertising that do not require your personal involvement. Selecting and purchasing the best tools for media planning and placement is definitely in that category.

At Network Affiliates, we have invested in these tools so you don’t have to. We use sophisticated media software that allows us to determine the demographics, ratings, share and reach for programs, stations, and dayparts in all 211 markets. We have access to all of your competitors’ TV ads. We know what ads they are running, where they are running them and how much they are spending, so we are educated and informed to spend your money wisely.

Our clients have the advantage of knowledge. Shouldn’t you?

You may assume that as long as you are on TV and your ad is well placed, it will be effective. Getting your name and number out there is not enough. Television is still the most powerful advertising medium for law firms, but if your message gets lost in a sea of other ads you may as well throw your advertising dollars out the window.

Too many law firm advertisements look alike and say the same thing. Even if you are sending the message that speaks to your target audience, if your ads don’t stand out, your prospect may wind up calling someone else, even when she had you in mind in the first place.

Think about it. A prospective client needs to hire a personal injury lawyer. She vaguely remembers having seen your ad, but can’t remember your law firm’s name or phone number. She is watching TV hoping to see your ad again to write down your number and call you. Another law firm’s ad appears. It is basically what she remembered. So, she writes down the other firm’s name and phone number and makes the call.

With so many attorneys advertising on TV, how can you prevent this from happening? There is no easy answer. It takes time. It requires some serious competitive intelligence. It requires a dedicated and committed advertising and marketing team with the ability to develop a message that will set you apart – an ad campaign that won’t be confused with all the other lawyers on the air. You need to be sure that when a prospect wants to call you, she remembers your ad, and your law firm, and calls the right number.

And, don’t fall in love with your own TV ad. Maybe you came up with the creative concept. Your partners, associates, and your friends and family all love it. Remember, that the concept and the message that you love may not resonate with your potential clients. It doesn’t matter how much you love it, if it doesn’t speak to your potential clients, it needs to go. You have to put yourself in their shoes, or work with someone who can.

The creative team at Network Affiliates has over 28 years experience developing messages and ad campaigns that generate business for lawyers. We understand how to put ourselves in your clients’ shoes. We know what stands out, and which messages speak to the people you need to reach. We know the difference between a message that sounds great and a message that will get your prospects to call you. Please, contact us today to learn how you can send the right message – and get more business.

At first glance, everybody loves the idea of a toll free vanity number. It’s catchy, it makes you feel clever, and everyone will remember it so that’s the number they will automatically dial when they need an attorney, right? Not necessarily.

Vanity numbers can be very effective, but they do not always deliver the promised benefits. Many of our clients have found that they get excellent results from a simple phone number that is easy to remember, such as one with repeating numbers. The key to success is not just the number, but the effectiveness of your law firm advertising campaign that brands the number in the mind of your prospective client.

Getting Value out of Toll Free Vanity Numbers is Not Simple
Getting real value out of a vanity number requires more than just a catchy name or word in replace of digits.

It must be a seven digit word, one that people will not confuse with something similar. It must use 800, rather than the alternatives 888, 877, or 866 for most people to actually remember it. To really milk the value out of a vanity number, your branding has to be consistent over a long period of time and emphasize the number in your law firm’s TV, radio and print ads.

A Few Concerns about Vanity Numbers
Some vanity numbers will generate wrong number phone calls for you; an annoyance, but one you could live with. However, your potential clients may reach the wrong place of business if they do not remember the number precisely, and that can cost you business. This is more likely if your vanity number is not an 800 number (888, 877, or 866).

Vanity numbers may irritate some people who struggle with converting the letters to numbers. This may become more problematic as consumers convert to smart phones with full keypads. If you look at your blackberry, you can see that the numbers and the letters don’t match up with a traditional phone keypad.

Network Affiliates can Help
Sometimes the flashy concepts backfire. With over 28 years of experience in attorney advertising, the marketing experts at Network Affiliates have learned the difference between costly marketing gimmicks and comprehensive marketing strategies that really work. If a vanity number will help your advertising campaign, we will tell you – and, because we have relationships with several vanity number providers, we can help you get a good one. Contact us today to learn more about effective phone numbers and other “little things” that can mean big ROI for your law firm’s marketing campaign.

Be honest.... YOU ARE NOT TRACKING. How can you make intelligent decisions when you do not know what is working?

You know you need to track the effectiveness of your advertising. You need to know what works and what doesn’t so you can stop doing the things that do not work and keep doing the things that do work. But, do you really know how to track?

You ask the prospective caller…So, where did you hear of us?
They say they “saw you on radio”. Maybe the yellow pages, maybe TV. Maybe on a sandwich board on 8th and Main Street?

Tracking is complex. You cannot simply sit back and guess. You may assume that your phones are ringing more this week because of a new ad, and you may be wrong. It could be a minor change in your law firm’s media buy, a flurry of hits on your law firm website, or maybe an older ad has just started driving the message home and picking up business. Or, you may be right, but those calls may not be quality calls that result in new cases.

You are probably familiar with some of the old, basic ad tracking techniques such as tying a special phone number to a particular ad campaign or the promotional codes that retailers sometimes use. Today, you must have a much more sophisticated tracking system in place, and it must be comprehensive.

Just think of all of your marketing and advertising tactics. Of course, you must track your TV and radio ads, but you also need to track your online advertising. (You should insist that your website marketing firm uses Google Analytics.) As you branch out into social media, you need to track the effectiveness of your posts. That includes the comments you make on other blogs. Even if you participate for your own pleasure, it is still marketing and you need to track it.

Obviously, technology can help you with your tracking on many levels, but you also need to ask your clients why they decided to call your firm in the first place. Gather all this information in your client management software such as Needles, Client Profiles, etc. If your firm’s software doesn’t help you evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing, you should be looking for some new software….

When you make marketing decisions based on guesswork, even guesswork that seems logical, you are just throwing your money and time around aimlessly. Not only do you risk dumping money into something that does not work, you may wind up pulling your best ad because you do not know it is bringing in business.

Also, gather information from your colleagues about what their tracking data shows. At our semi-annual client networking meetings, our clients share this information with each other and it makes them stronger and more effective. As an ad agency that has been working with law firms since 1981, we also have years of empirical data about what works and what doesn’t. It all comes into play.

When you start to get the picture of how tracking really works and what is involved, it can be overwhelming. You do not have to do all this yourself. Network Affiliates has a proprietary tracking system called AdTrack that we use in combination with your advertising, so you can really evaluate the effectiveness of your legal advertising campaigns. Contact us today to find out how you can finally track your advertising and make the best marketing decisions.

If your best cases come from referrals, why don’t have a comprehensive referral strategy? A better question may be: do you even have a simple plan in place to generate referral business?

With everything else you do, The BEST cases come from Referral, Agree?

The quality of the cases is high, and people who are referred to you by someone they trust are much more likely to contact and work with you than those who consider you a stranger. Referrals mean being vouched for; you skip the part where potential clients are still trying to decide if you are really above board or any good at what you do. Many people even feel obligated to work with someone who has been recommended to them, whether it is for legal services or another type of service.

But, you already now all of this, right? So, why aren’t you tapping into it?

WHY?

It is easy to think of referrals as something that just happen. Of course your friends, colleagues, and existing clients are going to send business your way. They know you, they like you, and they know that you are the right person for the job. That is probably all true, but you probably are not the first thing on their minds unless you put yourself there.

Your referral base does not just operate quietly and effectively in the background without some stimulation on your part. You must maintain active relationships with your clients and other lawyers for this resource to work for you. A haphazard approach, intending to get in touch, will not make it happen. You must have a plan and stick to it.

You can start with the basics.

Top of Mind Awareness – Client Relationship Management for Lawyers - Communicate with your clients regularly; greeting cards, newsletters (e-newsletters), any kind of communication to keep you on their minds. Pick one and be consistent.

Being consistent is the key to succeeding in Advertising!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Social Media Networking offers a tremendous tool to generate referrals, but, as with the others, you must be consistent. Set up a Facebook Fan Page for your law firm – and post on it regularly. Talk about your successes. Talk about how you contribute to the community. Post video as well as text comments. Take advantage of LinkedIn to build your professional network. Join groups and post comments about issues relating to your areas of expertise. There are many more opportunities here, but you have to have a plan and stick to it.

Network… Network… Network… Call other attorneys, take them out to lunch, attend events, and make these activities a part of your schedule. Do not wait until you get around to it. Rotate who you contact. Make a list and make sure you so not just focus on the people whose company you enjoy most. Do prioritize your list according to those who you know are your best referral sources.

Your law firm’s advertising campaign can help with this, but if that is all you do, you will miss out on some big cases. Keep in mind that your ad campaign will help with this only if you develop an effective brand within your community.

Do not forget to thank people for referrals. It will keep them coming. Do it right away and make it sincere, personal and meaningful. When appropriate give a heartfelt gift.

To learn more about creating a comprehensive plan for harvesting referrals, contact Network Affiliates today.

Group advertising programs work for some firms, some of the time. In our experience, the key to success is using a group or network with strong brand name recognition. A good example of this is the Jacoby & Meyers Legal Network. This program works because of the Jacoby & Meyers brand name, which dates back more than thirty years.

Without the brand name, however, group advertising campaigns can be an ineffective use of your limited legal advertising budget. No matter what your budget, you need to ensure that you generate the maximum return on your investment.

What You May or May Not Get From Group Advertising

With a group advertising campaign you pool your budget with a number of other law firms. One reason to participate may be your desire to maintain your anonymity. Another common reason applies to law firms in large markets that may be unable to afford the expense of an effective advertising campaign on their own. The group or network approach may enable you to reach a larger audience than you could afford to reach on your own.

There are a few potential downsides: You need to ensure that the agency managing the campaign actually invests the bulk of the group’s advertising dollars into the media. Avoid group advertising programs that lack name recognition and do not guaranty that a specific portion of your investment goes into the media buy.

Another risk with a group advertising campaign is turnover within the group. Many group campaigns lose participants because some members of the group generate more leads – or are more effective at converting their leads – than others. When this happens, the group advertising budget may decline causing the lead volume to decline for everyone. Again, it pays to go with an established group with a strong brand and name recognition to minimize this risk.

What You Know You Will Not Get

One thing you know up-front that you will not get from group marketing is any kind of personal name recognition or branding. Just remember that branding does bring long-term value. When your potential clients know who you are, they can seek you out in their time of need and at their convenience. In the long run, the brand recognition will add value and increase your referrals

With over 28 years of experience in attorney marketing, Network Affiliates knows how to create a marketing strategy that will be effective for your firm within your budget, giving you the best value for every dollar you spend. Please, contact us today to learn more about your options.

I hope you had a pleasant New Years.
I went to a party and each time I met someone they asked..."So what do you do"?
How do you generally respond to this question? Most lawyers I know just say: "I’m an attorney."
Responding in this way means nothing, relays no benefits and is boring.
The real response should focus on what value and benefits you bring to the table.
In other words, if you’re an IP lawyer, why not state, "I protect the trade secrets and intellectual property of companies so they can maintain a competitive advantage."
Or, "I’m a personal injury attorney and I help injured people make sure they get fully compensated for their injuries."
Another style of "elevator pitch" can be:
1. Ask a question like..."Do you know how when people decide to end their marriage they are overwhelmed by all the decisions they have to make concerning property, custody, and support"?
2. "What I do is protect and help people gain control of all these issues by providing them cost effective legal advice every step of the way so they can protect their assets and provide them peace of mind during a difficult time in their life."

Can you see the difference it will make when you answer the question with what you actually can do for the person?
A unique and benefit-laden elevator speech will not only set you apart from other lawyers, but will show your prospects the value you deliver.
These two different ideas will set up apart every time someone asks ...so what do you do?
Stay well.
Cole
http://www.Findcareersuccess.com
(609) 306-8098
The Silver Group Ltd.
8 Dorchester Lane, Suite A
Moorestown, NJ
08057
US