Have you heard the news? LinkedIn is now allowing customized
business pages on their social network. (In an attempt to keep up with Facebook I assume.) This is a brand new feature on this platform and by
all estimates really taking off and providing an excellent place for
businesses to interact with customers and prospective customers.
One feature I've always liked about LinkedIn is the "recommendations"
section. This will be prominently displayed on the new business page as
well as custom graphics!
Whenever I hear about a new advancement in social media I always turn
to a very credible source, Social Media Examiner.
They are the world's largest online social media magazine and designed
to help businesses discover the best ways to use social media tools
like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter to connect with customers
and generate more brand awareness and increase sales.
They just posted an excellent article on creating
your linkedin business page. Here are some of the highlights from
that article.
Building Your Company Page
The newest feature of company pages is the ability
to post a
status update. That status update can be viewed in the streams of your
followers. If you don’t have followers for your company page, your
status
updates won’t get any visibility outside of your company page itself.
In order to build followers for your LinkedIn
company page,
you will have to run some campaigns such as:
notify your employees to follow your page,
send out an email to your existing contact
database to
follow your page,
place a Follow button on your website or blog,
and
cross-promote your page on other social
channels, including
LinkedIn Groups and facebook.
Right now I believe there is a tremendous window of opportunity for
small- to medium-sized companies to significantly grow visibility and
market share on LinkedIn because there is little competition. Many
companies are not yet utilizing LinkedIn company pages to their full
extent, and many more have not begun to consistently update their
company page status. The stream is not yet crowded. Think of the early
days of Facebook pages—now almost every business has a Facebook page
and it is very difficult to get into the news feed of your fans.
It makes sense to invest where LinkedIn is investing. LinkedIn company
pages are only going to grow in significance, and if your audience is
there (influential, affluent, educated members), you must build and
activate your company presence!
Look for Integrity Marketing Solutions to be helping estate planning
and elder law attorneys build their LinkedIn business pages in the very
near future.
In the past week I've designed two mobile websites for two of our great essentials clients, Terry Bertram with Legacy Law Center and Richard Hughes with The Hughes Law Firm. As I've prepared for and worked on the design for these two projects, I thought I'd note some of the important differences between website design and mobile website design.
A mobile website is not an app that is downloaded and saved to the phone, with specific functions that the user would need or want to use more than once. And yes, your website will show up on a mobile phone or device without having a specially designed mobile website.
So why is having a mobile website important? For two main reasons:
Mobile is mainstream. Over half of all local searches are performed on a mobile device. The number of people using mobile devices and creating business for companies who have well-designed mobile websites is just too large to ignore.
Design. 61% of mobile users who visit a mobile unfriendly site will click away immediately and go to a competitor's site. This is where you specially designed mobile website comes in. Once the mobile user finds you, you have to a have a good, user-friendly mobile web design to keep them there.
So, now that you have your beautiful, information-rich and technology-forward IMS law firm website, why won't this same website be ideal for mobile users? Because of a few design considerations that make specially designed mobile websites the user-friendly solutions:
Layout. When designing for your IMS web site, we consider the dimensions of your average computer monitor or laptop screen, so it is easy to see why this doesn't translate well to the screens of most mobile devices. When pulling up a regular desktop site on a mobile phone, the result will either be way to small, requiring the user to zoom in and possible click on tiny links by accident, or have to do excessive scrolling both vertically and horizontally. The best mobile websites (and all IMS mobile websites) are designed to be readable without zooming, and scroll only vertically.
Simplicity Your desktop website is filled with tons of information, easily accessible to the user... if they are on a desktop computer or laptop. On a mobile device, all this information can overcomplicate the website navigation and confuse the user, while most mobile users are looking for simple a phone number, email address or directions to your office. When designing a mobile website, we sift through all the excess information and strip down to the essential pieces of info that the users are likely to be looking for. This simplifies the mobile navigation and is less likely to confuse those who stumble upon your site on their mobile device.
"Tap-ability." Desktop websites are designed with the mouse or trackpad in mind, on mobile devices, users are usually navigating with their fingers on a touch screen phone. Good mobile websites have a navigation and buttons that are large and finger-friendly. Our mobile websites also come with useful buttons that allow users to save contact info to their phone, call the office with just a tap, or send directions to their mobile map application.
To learn more about getting an IMS mobile website designed for your law firm, contact James at 1-877-352-2021 ext. 0.
Business owners, attorneys, entrepreneurs and professionals tend to
like Do It Yourself activities. They are smart, proactive, budget-conscious and (sometimes overly) confident. These are usually
excellent traits but can really bite you in the behind when it comes to
marketing.
I'm the first to admit that I held myself in high regard as the Do It
Yourself KING for years, until I bought a house.
"What's that honey? The toilet is backing up? Let me grab a wrench and
watch a youtube video and I'll fix it right away!"
... 1 hr later I'm calling the plumber and replacing the toilet and
surrounding tile.
The problem with DIY marketing is much the same. The problem is obvious
and you're a smart cookie. Facing the fact that your marketing is
either non-existent or not working leads to the realization
something has to be done. You've read "Marketing 101 For Dummies" and
watched a youtube video on "Building Your Own Website FOR FREE".
Because you’re not spending money on outside resources you might think
you’re saving tons of money with a DIY approach. Just remember
this…it’s not just what you spend, it’s what you spend and get
backon what you spend. You also
have to factor in what your time is worth. Not just what it's worth at
your hourly fee schedule but what is your rate on doing something you
fumble along with compared to something you do very very well ... like
practicing law?
Then there's always the question of how much harm you do to yourself when you launch an amateur-ish website. You may think it looks great, but, honestly -- it doesn't! It looks like you didn't have enough money to hire a pro -- and who wants to trust their legal work to an attorney who can't afford a decent website? Remember Harry Beckwith, who wrote in Selling the Invisible, "The longer your image says struggling attorney, the longer the struggle."
Solid marketing will bring back more than what you spend -- A LOT more.
How many of you have blasted LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer and told
people that DIY estate planning is a very very bad idea that doesn't
work and causes huge problems??? In fact, most of you have probably
written multiple blog posts on this very topic. You feel passionate
about the hazards of DIY estate planning because you have seen the
disasters it causes and because YOU KNOW that it SHOULD have been done
by a professional.
You see where I'm going with this don't you?
When it comes to your estate planning or elder law practice consider
letting yourself be the professional attorney. You practice law and
hire professional marketers to handle the marketing.
While
choosing colors in your brand identity may seem like a matter of simply
taste and personal preferences, colors have natural and psychological
associations. These associations, conscious or sub-conscious, evoke
emotions, feelings and experiences that affect consumer perception and
behavior. For
example, purple, a popular brand identity color in the 90's, has shown
to create majestic, sophisticated and mysterious psychological
impressions.
However, psychological reaction isn't the only factor that
affections perception based on color, there are cultural and social
connotations as well. So while purple has the aforementioned
associations, we also culturally associate purple with spirituality. For
these reasons, color can have different meanings based on geographic
location, religion or social groups. Red, white and blue means something
different for U.S. citizens than it does to people from other countries
or, red and yellow may mean something different to me, as a Kansas City
Chiefs fan (not positive associations, currently) than it does to fans
of other teams across the country.
So,
what colors may be good choices for law firms? Blue, for one, is
usually a safe choice for any legal field because it tends to evoke
feelings of authority, confidence and success. But blue can be an
especially good choice for estate planning law firms because along with
those feelings, it is associated with trustworthiness, serenity and
calmness.
Another good choice for law firms is brown which is reflective
of richness, seriousness and stability. A color to perhaps avoid is
black, because while it exudes feelings of authority and formality, it
also symbolizes menace, evil and power.
Another color that could produce
a negative impression for an estate planning attorney is bright red, as
it can symbolize danger, indebtedness or aggression. However, different
brands have different mission statements and objectives, so do your
research and see if your brand colors reflect your desired brand image!
If you're thinking of a way to send Holiday Greetings or Christmas Wishes to your clients, friends and family consider using your December issue print newsletter to convey your message. Now is the time to begin preparing your December message so you'll have it ready next week for updating to your December newsletter (deadline of Nov. 5).
OR, how about a custom graphic for page four? Starting at $50.00* we can create a custom graphic using a stock image from Microsoft Office and a brief message of your choice. Place your order by October 26.
To order: 1. Select your image from Microsoft 2. E-mail your image to [email protected]by October 26 3. Include a brief message and approval for billing 4. Wait for your proof and reply with your approval (all approvals must be received by November 2)
Not scheduled for a December print newsletter? No worries. Plan instead on submitting your personal message for inclusion with your December email newsletter. You'll have a bit of an extension on the date for that. Mark your calendar for November 15 to begin thinking about your message and then submit it by November 20.
Need assistance? Give me a call for help or to schedule a training session. You may contact me at 877-352-2021 x82 (dial the extension when you hear the greeting.)
* Fifty dollar fee includes design, one proof and uploading to your December print newsletter. Additional edits and proofs will increase the fee.
By April Leabo, Production Manager Customer Service
Delegation can be a hard skill to learn.
Especially if you have a mindset of “The only person who knows what they’re
doing around here is me!” That’s a joke
by the way... the most common reason to not delegate is “It’s just faster if I
do it”, which, to begin with, is usually a true statement.
Unless you are an internet super hero, you probably don’t
have the time to commit to your law firm's social media like you should. However, investing the
time to train and delegate your social media marketing to another member of
your staff has enormous benefits. It saves you a TON of time, and opens the
door for your law firm to establish a phenomenal social presence.
Here are a few tips for deciding who in the office should handle your social media.
Choose an already internet savvy person. In
this day in age, you need to have at least one semi ‘techy’ person in the
office. They should be familiar with Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In, and know
how to post a status update, send messages, share articles, websites, and
photos across all social media platforms. If they have a smart phone…bonus
points!
Choose
someone who is...err…SOCIAL! The ideal candidate for this project loves to
talk, share stories, provide updates, and is friendly! This individual will
help represent the law firm on a social level.
Choose
someone who isn’t afraid to do their research. There are tons of informative
articles out there about how to market a law firm, or how to get feedback on
Facebook, or how to post a poll on LinkedIn. A good candidate for handling your
social media won’t be afraid to do their online research – and keep up with it.
The field changes daily, and it’s important to share fresh interesting content.
Choose
someone who becomes committed. That’s right, social media marketing needs
to become their baby. They should be
proud to manage the marketing. Let them know how important this really is, and
let them take it to the max!
One of the major benefits you have as an Essential Attorney™,
is that IMS provides advanced social media coaching straight to your employee.
This is an excellent resource to get your person started! And it saves you a
good deal of ‘teaching’ time.
Many of our clients, who have a top performing social
presence, did it with the help of their employees. You can too!
By Dana Alley, Personal Account Manager SEO Specialist
Today I want to write a bit about Video Gone Wrong -- and why you should be very picky about hiring a videographer to shoot your web video. I'd like you to take a few moments and give some thought as to what kind of damage can be done when you cut corners to save a few dollars.
Mark Twain said, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt.” When you consider utilizing video in your marketing, the concept of Something Is Better Than Nothing is a thought you need to eliminate from your head completely. Don’t cut corners; in this case Sometimes Nothing is actually better than Something.
The (cheap) AMATEUR.
So many times we find video of attorneys shot with their web cam. The audio may be choppy or laced with distracting echo; the attorney is sitting at their desk sometimes blatantly reading their script off of the monitor in front of them. There is no brand recognition, no personal connection or comfortable presence on camera and the video overall looks amateurish.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m looking for someone to trust with a plan that will take care of all of the things and people I love in my life, I am not going to settle for an amateur.
You might have all the best intentions in the world, but it is obvious you’re cutting a corner here and misrepresenting yourself and your firm in general. That, or the representation of this video is spot on. Regardless you simply can not afford the time it took you to throw this together just to tarnish your professional image.
The Lights Are On, But Nobody's Home
Another corner you could cut is just to hire a local videographer that specializes in light design, audio recording and general camera work. You could end up with a video that is appealing to the eye, but the substance of your message is off. The camera man knows nothing of your firm, the type of law you practice or the correct message you need to communicate to your viewer. In this instance you’re going off of what you think is best.
A few possibilities occur with great video that has no guidance on the correct message to communicate…
Used Car Salesman: You get a great video shot that consists of you trying to sell an estate plan like a used car salesmen. This turns viewers off or it attracts customers only looking for the best price…
LawyerSpeak. You get a great video that is way too long and way too technical for a typical viewer to even understand what you’re talking about. Diving into the nuts and bolts of how to avoid probate is simply not interesting.
Free Legal Advice. You get a great video that spills all the beans. It is really easy to give away too much in your video. Your videos should not be set up so you can give legal advice for free, that is what your consultations are for.
The Wrong (Depressing) Message. You get a great video that simply depresses your viewer to the point that you’re the last person they want to see. Let’s face it, a lot of the planning you do is not if the sky falls but when the sky falls.
I personally enjoy a TV series on Biography called I Survived (watch full episodes here). It is sometimes a very harsh show to watch, but you’re always comforted by the fact that these people survive their close encounter with death. Please be sure not to push your own series by your law firm called I Died! This is not entertaining; it is extremely depressing and uses scare tactics to bring a person into your office.
You may have great video shot locally, but you probably won't get the proper coaching to guide you through this daunting task of communicating the correct message to your viewer. Sorry, but your local videographer likely knows nothing of these concerns and will record whatever sits in front of them.
Search Engine Optimization ... or ... Lost in CyberSpace
One last concern to consider is in optimizing your videos for web search. Quite frankly nobody that I’ve seen so far is doing this to the degree that we are. Properly optimized video gets ranked on Google for your key search terms. So many videos are just uploaded to YouTube and may as well be thrown into CyberSpace never to be found again. We constantly find great videos that have been up for months or even years with only a few views to their name.
Avoid these pitfalls. When the time is right, make the move, but do not try to cut corners and harm your practice.
Nearly 7.3 milion people were watching Sunday as Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner re-attempted the Red Bull Stratos extreme skyjump, free falling more than 128,000 feet to Earth at 833 miles per hour! This guy actually floated on a balloon into space then jumped!
What compels a man to do such a thing?
When asked this very question Felix said "This was my mission. More than a goal it was my mission. Now ... thank God ... Mission Accomplished!"
I really like that. He didn't just have a goal - although I'm sure it was - Felix was on a mission.
A mission requires a goal or a desired end result but it also requires a plan. Not only that, a mission requires action.
What is your mission with your estate planning or elder law practice? Watch the above video of Felix and get some inspiration to develop a lofty, far-reaching goal. Develop a plan to acheive that goal then take some action. Remember, you don't have to be GREAT to START but you have to START to be GREAT.
One of our clients,
Lizette Sundvick of Sundvick Legacy Center, recently saw the need to
revisit her branding and firm image. Lizette, whose current website was
full of warm colors with a dark orange and burgundy "Southwest feel,"
wanted her website to be perceived as softer and "less heavy."
With
her direction, we redesigned her branding and website. While the effect
was relatively dramatic, the actual changes were simple. The rebranding
involved no changes to her logo, typography or site format, but made
significant changes to the color palette and textural image.
Sometimes,
instead of a long-winded complete redesign, a few simple dramatic
changes can be exactly what is needed to achieve the new image your firm
requires.
Next up for Lizette: brand new video packages and firm
brochures!
Coding
Accuracy Support System (CASS) is a United States Postal Service address
verification, Zip+4 and barcoding method requiring a certification software
subscription. Are you still with me?
According
to USPS.com [https://www.usps.com/business/certification-programs.htm]
website, the CASS system is described as follows: The United
States Postal Service, in cooperation with the mailing industry, developed
certification programs to evaluate the accuracy of software and equipment
offered by Vendors and Licensees that provide mailing related services to
customers.
If
you have a mailing list of over 500 valid addresses, are interested in reduced
postage rates, applying for and paying the fees for you own mailing permit,
subscribing to a CASS-certified mailing software, setting up an addressing
station in your office ... you get the picture, check out these recommended mailing
programs [https://www.usps.com/business/certification-programs.htm] at
USPS.com.
If
you are interested in booking more consults, scheduling workshop dates and
spending your time focused on helping families with their trusts and estate
planning matters – then let us do your mailing for you! We have the skills,
training, postage permits, software subscription and addressing stations so you
can do what you do and we can do what we do.
Are
you ready to get your turnkey mail service started? Call me at 877-352-2021 x82
to schedule an appointment.
By April Leabo, Production Manager / Customer Service