Integrity Marketing

A Legal Marketing Fable: The Pony and the Pen

Our team had a single, simple marketing goal: Get 25 clients signed up for the next workshop. We tried every marketing trick in the book, and for a moment it looked like we were going to make it. But at the last minute, our clients bolted and the event flopped.

Why?

A little background: We were playing a game called Leadership in a Box. Four of us (the marketing team) were trying to persuade one small pony (the 25 attendees) to step over a 3-inch pipe on the ground and into a pen (the workshop). We could not use any equipment like a halter and lead rope, we could not talk, nor could we touch or "bribe" the pony with treats. We had to persuade him (that's called marketing!).

Now, you would think that four people could sort of "surround" a little pony and pressure him to move forward, right? Well, you would be wrong!

See -- ponies have this thing called "attitude," and they don't respond well to "pressure."

We got behind and beside our little pony and we pushed and pushed into his space. He moved forward. Then he bolted and ran off.

We followed him. And we pushed and pushed into his space again. He inched forward. We pushed. He inched. We pushed some more. When he was just about ready to step over the pipe, we encouraged him by pushing again. Pony spun and bolted clear across the arena and away from us. He was done. He was having no more to do with us at all. When we even tried to approach him, he would bolt and run.

We failed.

A few moments later, three of us left the arena. We sent one person in to wrangle the pony.

She walked quietly up beside the pony, standing at his shoulder. She bent over to bring herself down to his level.

The pony did not run away. In fact, he turned his head to look at her.

Then she took a step away.

The pony stepped toward her.

She stepped away again.

The pony stepped toward her again.

She walked away. The pony followed.

Calmly and quietly, the pony followed her all the way across the arena and right into the pen.

That's Leadership.

It's not about pop-up ads, e-blast campaigns, or high-pressure sales. The more we pressure people (or ponies), the more they just want to get away from us -- and all that pressure. But when we approach people with true Leadership -- Leadership that is calm and balanced, respectful and relational -- people choose to follow.

They are not troubled and always on the verge of bolting. They stay with us because we've created a relationship and safe place for them to be. In this changing, always crazy, sometimes brutal world of ours, that's hard to find.

December Print Newsletter Deadline

The deadline for making edits to your December issue estate planning newsletter is November 5, and the articles we have scheduled for you are: Top Five Estate Concerns and Death & Disputes.

To see the additional articles available for custom issue creation, download a preview of the newsletter article library.

If you would like assistance customizing your SELECT Print Newsletter, please feel free to contact me, April, at 877-352-2021 x82 for a quick walk-through. Be sure to have your message prepared and saved to your computer or network for easy access. Around 150 to 220 words.

December Animated & E-Newsletter Deadline

If you are not scheduled for a December print newsletter, please don't hesitate to submit your message for inclusion in your December electronic newsletter.

Social Media Recap and Something Fun

• Check out some great Pumpkin Carving Tips. Don't forget to share those photos!
• Veterans Day is November 11. Are you participating in any community activities? Have you considered honoring a Veteran?
• Q: What type of music do mummies prefer? A: Wrap music!

Have a safe and happy Halloween! 

- April

Marketing Paw-spectives: Keep Clients Informed of Upcoming Events!

Marketing Paw-spectives: Insider Tips & Hints To Get Your Marketing Working for You
By Bandit – Office Dog

Woof! Welcome to my weekly column!

My Adoption Day is coming up Nov. 15th, and it's going to a barkin' good time! My mom makes me a carrot cake and puts me in a hat. Of course, I want all my friends to be there too! I give them plenty of notice and remind mom to update my Facebook Page with the event details. Keep your clients and contacts updated with your office events by updating your website and mentioning it in your e-Newsletter. You can mail important event details to your Account Manager (aka, my mom Dana Alley) and she'll get them added promptly! Remember to mention your events often on Facebook and LinkedIn!! Put forth a tiny bit more effort and share the link to your website event/workshops page, and mention that you have a super easy online sign up form!

The Exclusive Firm Retreat

We are proud to welcome Lawyers With Purpose to our Integrity Marketing Solutions client family! We are excited to be working together to help them achieve their mission to change an industry. LWP is a unique organization, committed to "bringing talents, systems, technology, and coaching to inspire lawyers to have thriving client-centered practices that help the people in their community protect what’s important."

We kicked things off last summer with an Exclusive Firm Retreat: three days of intense strategy meetings punctuated with fun, focused activities intended to create a cohesive team. We also took the opportunity to shoot almost a year’s worth of video with virtually every member of the team for use on LWP’s upcoming new website, social media, advertising and even at their member events.

With this unique approach, we were able to accomplish in three short days more than many firms accomplish in a year – and more than most firms ever accomplish!

If you’re ready to get truly serious about growing your firm, talk to James about the Exclusive Firm Retreat. The agenda varies by firm, and is tailored to your needs – but will include strategy planning; outlining tactics, timeframes and budgets; leadership and team-building; video shoots and an outline for strong follow-up.

For a sneak peek, check out these photos from the LWP experience:

Victoria Collier in a leadership exercise.

Dave Zumpano works in the “relationship zone” with The Big Guy.

Strategy planning at the IMS office.

Everyone deserves a break!

Victoria Collier, Dave Zumpano & Molly Hall

And of course, time to relax:

Molly Hall visits with James Campbell out at the ranch.

Victoria Collier REALLY takes time to relax!

Call James at 877-352-2021 ext. 80 to discuss an Exclusive Firm Retreat for your team!

Consistent Branding Leads To Successful Branding

During our Fall Legal Marketing Workshop, one of the things we talked about was Branding. Excellent branding requires a company message that is focused, personal, and simple. And it is not limited to just your logo! Your branding is made up of your logo, all marketing tools (such as your website, brochures, etc.), and the tone of voice you use as a company.

Your branding is a great tool to use to make your law firm stand out from the rest! But for it to work most successfully, your branding must be consistent. Use your branding on everything your firm produces. Make sure your website, newsletters, and business cards are all telling your clients (and future clients!) the same story about your firm.

One aspect that often gets overlooked is social media. If you’ve been hanging out with the IMS team for very long, you know we love social media! Branding your social media pages is a great way to tie everything together. Have you branded your profile picture and cover photo on Facebook? What about on Google+? If you’ve shot video with us, you most likely have a YouTube Channel as well. And don’t leave out LinkedIn or Twitter!

Ensure that your branding works hard for you by making it consistent throughout all of your marketing tools. If you have questions or need advice on how to brand your social media pages, don’t hesitate to ask! Call 877-352-2021 to speak to your IMS team.

Postage Rate Increase Expected – Mailing List Maintenance

The United States Postal Service has announced a proposed rate increase for 2014. The increase would raise the price for a First Class Mail letter from 46 cents to 49 cents (a 6.52% increase). Pricing for Standard Mail will be adjusted, too. If all goes as planned, these prices will be effective January 26, 2014.

Mailing List Maintenance

Now is a great time to get your mailing list cleaned up! If you are planning a First Class mailing, be sure to use an ancillary mailing endorsement: Address Service Requested. This service will provide a notice of new address. There are even options you can use with Standard Mail. Beware though - rates do apply - and due to the scheduling of some mailings, you may want to include the endorsement on one mailing and then be sure to remove it for the next month's mail. This will allow you time to actually get the address updates and apply them to your list before you begin using the endorsement again as a maintenance techique.

How Does This Affect Your Estate Planning Newsletter?

If this rate increase does move through as proposed, you will see an increase for turnkey postage on your January 15 invoice for February services.

- April

Marketing Paw-spectives: Schedule Blogs & Status Updates to Save Time

Marketing Paw-spectives: Insider Tips & Hints To Get Your Marketing Working for You
By Bandit – Office Dog

Woof! Welcome to my weekly column!

Since I'm a busy office dog, I don't have a ton of time in my workday to focus on posting blogs on Typepad or updating my Facebook page, so I rely on handy tools like the scheduler feature. I devote about 45 minutes on Mondays to writing and scheduling my blog posts and status updates so they go out automatically the rest of the week. This gives me more time to focus on the important things, like organizing my bones, self shedding, and naps.

If you need help using these features, make sure you contact your Account Manager! You can email Dana Alley, [email protected].

Recap, Regroup & Recharge to Change Your Practice

"Commit yourself to your own success and follow the steps required to achieve it." ― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Last week, IMS hosted the Fall Legal Marketing Workshop for our Essentials Clients here in Kansas City. What a talented group of professionals! The attorneys and support staff in attendance buckled down for three days of marketing strategy and training, taking time away from their practice to focus on their practice. We'd like to thank all of our attendees for joining us, you are all Rock Stars!

So now that the workshop is over ... what's next?

Oftentimes, you may leave your office for training, conferences and seminars ready to focus and learn new ways to improve your practice. You arrive at your event, you take notes like mad, and your mind is full of ideas and inspiration for how you are going to change your ways when you return.

Then Monday morning comes along and reality sets in. Your inbox is full, the phone is ringing off the hook, and you realize you're out of coffee (gasp!). Ok, hopefully you have plenty of java in the office. But the point is, just as it's difficult to leave the office for a workshop or retreat in the first place ... it can be even harder to return to the chaos.

Staff Meeting Time

What you need is to Recap, Regroup and Recharge. In fact, each morning of our workshop started with a short session titled by those 3 R's.

• Recap - Take some time to review what you learned at your event. What are the take-a-ways? For our workshop recap, attendees discussed how video can boost their marketing, acknowledged the importance of being active on Facebook and LinkedIn, and learned how to set the stage in a client meeting to avoid fee push-back.
• Regroup - Fill your staff in about the event you attended. Show them any handouts you feel necessary to share and make extra copies. Let everyone know if there needs to be a change in procedure, a new role to fill, or additional meetings to set the ball in motion. For our workshop attendees, maybe you need to create a Social Media Calendar with your team's help. Or better yet, perhaps you need to assign a staff member the task of taking over Social Media or blogging for your firm.
• Recharge - Lead by example. If you want to recharge your practice, it starts with you. To see the change, be the change! Keep your new focus, put the training into practice, and stay on track.

Remember, success is not something you have, it’s something you do.

Quote of the Month for Social Media Sharing

This month's quote is: "Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value." — Albert Einstein

To use this month's inspirational quote, download one of the following graphics and share it to Facebook (along with a simple comment if you desire). It really is that simple to get social. You may also share this on other social platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest.

You may choose from three different color palettes: (follow the link, view the image, right-click and save; then share to your Facebook profile as your own!)

1. Navy: http://blog.estateplanningpartners.com/images/1013Quote1_Albert-Einstein.jpg
2. Gold: http://blog.estateplanningpartners.com/images/1013Quote3_Albert-Einstein.jpg
3. Burgundy: http://blog.estateplanningpartners.com/images/1013Quote5_Albert-Einstein.jpg

If you have a quote you would like to submit for consideration, feel free to pass it along to me, April at [email protected].

Honoring a Veteran

With Veteran's Day right around the corner (November 11), now is a great time to plan a tribute to a friend, family member or client who has given his or her service to our country. Consider paying tribute through a blog post that introduces them, provides a photo, and lists branch and dates of service.

Have a great week!

- April

Time Management For Your Law Firm Emails

We can all use a tip to shave a few seconds off when searching for an email, so here are a few tricks that I use that you may like to implement yourself. Be sure to share with your estate planning team members.

Email Management

Start by organizing your email by folders. I've worked with many law firms and I know that you do take advantage of folders for sorting your client communication. But how about creating folders for employees or other common contacts? Doing so can really help you find or refer back to an important email quickly.

Next, step it up by creating email rules or message rules. Every email client will have a different process for creating rules, but basically:

1. Initiate a New Rule,
2. Set the Condition, (i.e., From line contains people),
3. Set the Action, (i.e., Move to a folder),
4. Customize the "Values" of each condition,
5. Name your message rule, (i.e., Hanna's Mail) and
6. Save.

Finally, what about those folders that you've created and you have one or a few that you use over and over again but they start with 'M' or 'S' and you have to scroll down your folder list to find them? A simple trick! Rename your folder 1Miller and 1Smith, for example. Now those few folders that you use often will go right to the top.

A Bit of Humor

What street does a ghost live on?

                A dead end.

What kind of teeth can you buy with a dollar?

                Buck teeth.

Have a great week!

April Leabo