Legal Marketing Strategies and Tactics by Avvo Ignite

In this week’s chat, Mark Kelly, President and CEO of Chair10 Marketing here in Seattle, provides the top five key question every attorney needs to use to evaluate the success of their pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Whether you manage the campaign in-house, or have hired an agency to run one for you, the success of your campaign depends heavily on these answers.

The online world offers many opportunities to connect with people and maintain relationships that likely wouldn’t be possible offline, and Twitter is one great way to tap into those available connections. Today, Megan Olendorf, Avvo’s Marketing and Events Manager, walks us through setting up an account as well as the basics of engaging on the social platform. She also addresses key benefits of Twitter for lawyers, including greater opportunities to network, to demonstrate thought leadership, and to increase exposure to colleagues and potential clients.

With the growing number of new ways to connect with people, many often think of email as old news. The reality is that email marketing is still one of the most powerful — and often inexpensive — tools you can use to stay top of mind with current and potential clients as well as referral sources. This week Josh takes a high level look at the “why,” “who,” and “how” of email marketing, and addresses how you can think about it as part of your bigger marketing and business development initiatives.

Avvo’s General Counsel will cover the latest decisions and opinions surrounding legal marketing, provide examples of how lawyers can and cannot promote their services as well as answer any questions about industry rules and regulations that impact online activities amidst a rapidly evolving technology marketplace. Specific topics include online advertising, attorney and law firm websites and social media.

Sadly, most lawyers finish law school, pass the bar and think that making money will be the easy part. It’s not. They simply don’t teach that in law school! In this webinar you will hear from Alexis Neely – a lawyer and entrepreneur who within three years of starting her own law practice from scratch, had built it into a million dollar a year revenue generating business by creating a new law business model her clients loved.

You know that client feedback is important, but what’s the best way to collect it? If you’re thinking about creating a survey, this chat provides five effective tips to creating one that’s actionable and that will help solicit a variety of useful information.

In this webinar, Mark Britton, the Founder and CEO of Avvo, will discuss how lawyers can increase their effectiveness in business development, both online and offline. Lawyers – especially those solo or in small firms — must first understand that they run businesses and must be students of business principles. Mark will address a number of these core business principles as well as processes and systems for management.

In this Fireside chat, Jake Martin will walk you through the necessary steps to claiming your Google Map’s Local Business Listing and integrating it with your Google+ Brand Page. This process will help improve your online visibility — in Google search results, the Google+ social network, and on a multitude of Android Apps — as well as attracting more potential clients to your business.

The adoption and advancement of mobile has changed our lives and the way we do business. Today, Leigh McMillan, Avvo’s VP of Marketing, walks you through the three key considerations you need to keep in mind when thinking about your business and mobile marketing strategy. As more consumers use their mobile devices to make decisions and purchases, how are your business and marketing methods evolving to keep pace?

In this webinar, Josh King, General Counsel and VP of Business Development, will discuss ways to help lawyers and law firms get comfortable with the rapid proliferation of online feedback and the most effective – and ethical – ways to respond.

SEO is a complicated endeavor, and many are turning to professional consultants for their SEO search needs. In today’s Chat, Jake Martin, Avvo’s SEO Manager, shares tips on how to find a high-quality SEO consultant and avoid a backlink, blackhat nightmare. He’ll cover how to set your budget, where to look, and what to look for (good and bad) when researching your options.

Everyone wants more client contacts, but how can you optimize conversion of the contacts you already have? Josh illustrates recent findings that show just how important your response time is — down to the minute — in converting those contacts to clients. And the fact is, if you don’t have the systems in place to manage your contacts in a way that allows for instant follow-up, you’re likely losing out to the next lawyer on that potential client’s list who does.

Julie Smith, Avvo’s Director of Product Management, addresses how to respond to a negative review online. She discusses the five emotional stages many people go through when they receive a negative review, and highlights at what point it’s appropriate to respond. Julie also provides pointers on specific feedback to look for and recognize in your response. After all, a potential client leans more about a lawyer from their response to a negative review, than from the negative review itself.

If you are only tracking clicks and visits to your website generated by your online marketing you are only getting part of the story – and only realizing part of the potential from your efforts. Call tracking and analytics enables you to measure the offline results of your online campaigns, improve your marketing return on investment, and maximize the channels that are driving the most valuable leads to you practice. And best yet, call tracking and analytics is cost effective and relatively easy to implement.

Josh King addresses the common question, “How do I get started finding and following blogs?” Josh provides tools and resources for those new to blogging as well as for those looking to more efficiently organize the current subscriptions.

What is the best and most cost effective way to start blogging? Learn how to customize a blog to achieve your professional goals. Explore the best tools to use and identify pitfalls that can sink your site. Learn how to create content that is interesting, compelling and timely.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the numbers that make your law firm run. By analyzing these critical metrics, Partners and Owners of law firms can easily determine whether they are on track to achieve their goals or if they need to retool and refocus their marketing and business development efforts. Nationally recognized law firm marketing expert and CEO of the Rainmaker Institute, Stephen Fairley, will cut through the clutter and give you clear and easy to understand guidance on which numbers really matter the most.

Lawyers have long-recognized the importance of building relationships to developing business. And while relationship development for practice growth is certainly nothing new, the internet has greatly enhanced our ability to create, nurture & solidify these relationships. Understanding how to develop web content to both build a professional network, as well as, attract new clients is becoming more and more critical to success.

Avvo is the largest legal Q&A forum where lawyers can showcase their expertise by answering questions from prospective clients in their area. Avvo delivers more than 175,000 contacts to attorneys each month. For those who are not familiar with Avvo, or for others who actively participate in the site, learn the latest about Avvo’s free marketing platform that connects lawyers directly with people seeking their services.

Hear from Dennis Kennedy, lawyer and co-author of the new book Facebook for Lawyers, published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section, will provide attendees with strategies, lessons and tips for using Facebook to achieve personal and professional goals.

The use of video as an online marketing tool has exploded over the past several years, and has proven to be a successful channel for lawyers to communicate their expertise to potential clients and referral sources. Hear from our guest Drew Keller, an award-winning television producer, editor and educator.

The web is a huge open publishing platform on which almost everyone can share an opinion. Given this inherent lack of control, what can lawyers do to monitor and maximize their online reputation? From answering questions on Avvo, to tweeting and blogging, learn the best ways to “own” your online presence. Implement tips and tactics to also maximize positive online reviews and determine the best response to negative or lackluster reviews that demonstrates your professionalism and willingness to solve problems.

Over the past two years, the iPad has gone from a movie-watching and game-playing device to a serious productivity tool for lawyers. Lawyers can now use the iPad to manage most aspects of their legal practices when they are out of the office, including document creation and editing, legal research, and litigation management. hear from our guest, Tom Mighell, lawyer and author of iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, published by the ABA Law Practice Management Section.

Lawyers and legal marketers understand their firm needs a website, a logo and even business cards. Many also understand the benefit of blogging, email newsletters, answering questions on Avvo and having a business page on Facebook. Hear from Mark Britton, Avvo Founder and CEO, discuss how lawyers can develop an integrated marketing plan that will drive more business.

Most lawyers do have a basic LinkedIn Profile and know how to send and receive invitations to connect with others. Some have even joined a LinkedIn Group or two. But what are you really supposed to do with LinkedIn, and how can it help you develop business relationships (and hopefully, new clients)? Allison will move beyond the basics and show you some of the advanced features of LinkedIn and how you can use them effectively.

With so much discussion about SEO and SEM, some lawyers may overlook traditional methods to get their name and firm in front of your target audience: Public Relations. Working with the media to provide content, an opinion or your expertise can be just as powerful, if not more, as being on the first page Google’s search results or featured in a television advertisement. But of course, as with any other marketing tactic, creating a rapport with the media takes time and a continuous effort.

Understand the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization and pay-per-click Search Engine Marketing so lawyers can implement an online search strategy on their own, or understand how to work with consultants to manage their SEO and SEM efforts.

In this webinar Greg Sterling – renowned Internet Industry Analyst, expert commentator and Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land – will discuss what Google+ is all about, how it impacts local search and why lawyers and law firms should claim their business pages.