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Management is all about communicating the vision to align your team's efforts so that everyone moves together toward achieving the vision. Alignment is essential whether it's you and a virtual assistant or you and a team of hundreds. The cadence of management is the heartbeat of the business.

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You already have a marketing strategy for driving people toward your website. But you’ve probably also heard me say that traditional SEO and website updates are becoming less important than they have been in the past. There is, however, a tool available that will allow you to provide resources in a way that makes Google more likely to send traffic your way: this tool is Google Business Profile.

Google Business Profile is an online listing that your firm can leverage in order to reach the top spots in Google’s organic results, when people are searching for legal help in your geographic area.

Companies like Google, Facebook, and others want to keep users inside their walled gardens, instead of watching us (and the money we represent) click through to external websites. You, as a business owner, may be accustomed to providing many features and types of information on your website, but Google is now building tools that will allow you to provide that content from inside their own search results.

In this guide to local SEO for lawyers, we’ll teach you how to set up a Google Business Profile listing for your law firm, how to maintain it, and how to maximize results with unique tips you might not have heard before.

Why is Google Business Profile important?Before we dive into the details, let’s be clear on exactly what a Google Business Profile listing is.

Put simply: a Google Business Profile listing (GMB listing for short) is a branch of local SEO that targets people in your firm’s local area through organic search.

The most notable benefit is that law firms with a well-optimized GMB listing show up in the “three-pack” at the top of your target client’s search engine results page (SERP).

Here’s an example for “lawyers in Philadelphia:”

Notice how the three-pack is the first thing I see when my results page loads?

By positioning your firm here, you’re maximizing the likelihood of a target client finding you through organic search, rather than hoping they’ll scroll past the three-pack (or paid results) to find your website on their own accord.

Plus, almost a third of mobile searches are related to a location, and 86% of consumers rely on the internet to find a local business.

Your potential clients are actively using Google to find you.

Data added to a Google Business Profile listing is also shown when using Map search:

But here’s the best part about creating a Google Business Profile listing for your law firm: 50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day. It’s highly likely that potential clients searching for a law firm call the firms they discover with even more frequency. After all, a legal problem is like an aching tooth: it requires prompt attention.

That means if you’re able to gain more Google real estate in your client’s search results, there’s a big chance they will click through to your website, or book a consultation with your lawyers in the near future.

It’s even more important for lawyers and attorneysGoogle Business Profile listings are a fantastic way to drive more clients toward your practice, especially those all-important ones who are searching specifically for the services you offer.

In fact, it’s especially useful for attorneys, because your target client may be someone who’s going through a personal matter, such as a divorce, a financial issue, or another potentially embarrassing concern.

Lawyers in practice areas like bankruptcy, criminal defense, and divorce often find that clients won’t follow them on social media because activity can be public.

They’ll head to Google and complete a private local search, instead.

By creating a Google Business Profile listing for your firm, you place yourself at the forefront of the searcher’s mind, without having to encourage them to publicly “like” your Facebook Page.

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Google Business Profile vs. owned media channelsIf you’re relying on press releases, blogging or other types of content published on a website, those outlets are likely becoming less effective than they were in years past.

That’s because Google has started funneling traffic away from websites. Its algorithm has begun displaying information (taken from a variety of sources) directly in the SERPs, so searchers don’t need to click on a third-party website.

Just take a look at my results page for the phrase “how to get a divorce:”

Nestled just below the promoted results is Google’s featured snippet box, which displays advice from a top-ranking website without the searcher having to click the link.

Here’s the bottom line:

If you’re relying on website content to attract potential clients through Google, you’ll need to come to grips with the fact most people won’t click any results at all–and you need to find another way to attract their attention in a crowded results page.

Maybe that’s why Google offers its own website hosting service: to have more control over the content they’re promoting in SERPs. This is a great option if your law firm doesn’t already have a website, but if you do, don’t create another. That could cause duplicate content issues, and cause your original site to perform even worse.

Luckily, Google Business Profile listings can help you achieve the visiblity you need.

These directory-style listings don’t require people to leave the Google platform in order to view information about your law firm. This encourages Google’s algorithm to show you in search results–whether that’s in the three-pack or Map searches.

The best part? You have control of the information you’re adding to your law firm’s Google Business Profile listing, instead of allowing Google’s algorithm to take random snippets from your website to display to searchers.

That’s bound to lead to more search traffic, awareness, and potential clients than a traditional piece of content posted to your website would.

How to set-up your law firm’s Google Business Profile listingReady to create your firm’s Google Business Profile listing, and reap the rewards that come from creating Google-owned content?

Head over to the Google Business Profile homepage and press Start Now.

You’ll be taken to another page that will prompt you to enter key details about your business, including:

Business name
Location
Contact number
Email address
Website
Category (or industry)

Selecting a category can often be tricky, since you likely offer several legal services. However, Kristal Terrell, Marketing Assistant for Get Online NOLA, recommends:

“Selecting a primary business category and additional business categories is really useful. Categories describe what your business is such as “Lawyer” “Law Firm” “Civil Law Attorney” “Tax Attorney” “Family Law Attorney” Etc.”

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Once you’ve gone through this process, you’ll need to verify your Google Business Profile listing. There are various ways to do this; the easiest way is to allow Google to send a letter to your physical address.

Head over to the Google Business Profile homepage again, and click the Start Now button.

On the next page, type the name of your firm. This should be displayed as a business in their database, since you’ve already entered details about your business.

Here’s an example:

Source

Then, double-check that the information displayed is correct, and hit the Mail button.

Google will then send a unique verification code to your physical address. You’ll need to add the code to your account:

Sign into your Google Business Profile account.
Select the location you want to verify.
Click Verify location.
Enter the five-digit code you received in the mail, and press Submit.

Bingo!

Google will now activate your listing, and make it visible to people who’re using their search feature to find local businesses.

4 key features to monitor when you go liveNow that you’re up and running with your Google Business Profile listing, you might fall into the trap of letting it “do its own thing.” But remember: people won’t always click through to your website, fill out your contact form, or dial your phone number.

Chances are, some prospective clients will interact directly with the listing, rather than going to your website.

So, how can you find these people, and convince them to schedule a consultation with your team of attorneys?

You’ll need to keep a close eye on these four features, and check in regularly to confirm that you’re not neglecting warm leads:

MessagesGoogle has started rolling out a messaging feature, which allows people viewing your listing to message you directly. These messages don’t come through email or SMS; they arrive through the messaging feature in your GMB account.

Enable this feature by:

Downloading the Google Business Profile app through the App Store or Google Play.
Selecting the platform you want to allow messages on.
Selecting Customers.
Selecting Messages, then Turn On.

The text messages sent by your audience are routed through a cell phone number owned by Google, and the only way to respond is through your GMB account..

You should receive an SMS message notification whenever a visitor leaves a message, but you can sign into your Google Business Profile account, head back to the Customers page and select Messages to view them all.

People will likely use this messaging feature as a way to ask questions about your business.

[ Ready to put these ideas into practice? I have a 10 day email course called Rosen's Rules that will help you take action starting right now. It's completely free, and this time in 2 weeks, you'll be a lot closer to having the practice you deserve. Sign up here. ]

But you’ll need to follow Google’s guidelines for communicating with customers through this feature, which include:

Not asking for sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card details.
Not sending irrelevant or unwanted messages to customers who have contacted you.
Not sending inappropriate content, such as harassing or discriminating messages.
Not sending unsolicited messages or unwanted business-related content.
Avoiding slow or unreasonable response times to messages, or no response at all.

(I know those guidelines sound like common sense, but they’re a useful reminder of how to interact appropriately online.)

BookingsIf you’ve done an awesome job of creating your Google Business Profile listing, you’ll start to see a stream of new clients filtering through–that’s fantastic!

But remember: you want to make it easy for people to book an appointment with your legal team.

To do this, you can use the Bookings feature offered by Google in your firm’s listing.

To enable this:

Select the location you want to enable in your Google Business Profile account.
Press Bookings.
Select a partner from the drop-down menu, such as SquareUp, Appointy or TimeTrade (full list here). You can also choose to sync these bookings with your Google Calendar.
Start receiving bookings through your listing; they’ll automatically be created and scheduled through the partner platform you chose.

Let’s put that into practice and say you’re encouraging clients to book a free consultation with your team of lawyers. Using the Bookings feature in your listing and the SquareUp integration, clients are given a list of appointment times. All they need to do is click the time that suits them, confirm their appointment, and they’re booked.

You’ll receive a notification that the booking has been made. And if you’ve synced your Google Calendar with your listing, the appointment will appear on your team’s calendar.

Source

ReviewsDid you know that Google is now the biggest review website, beating traditional sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Facebook?

It’s true: 6 out of 10 people look to Google Business Profile listings for company reviews:

People are able to leave public reviews of your law firm on your Google Business Profile listing. And although it’s not officially confirmed that these reviews positively impact your chances of ranking in the local three-packs, it’s safe to assume it’s an advantage.

Google wants to show the best results for a local search query. They’re more likely to rank a highly-rated law firm than one with several 1* reviews (or worse, none at all).

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

To find the reviews left on your law firm’s Google Business Profile listing, sign into your account and press the Reviews tab.

Here, you’ll find a list of reviews left by previous clients, with the option to respond:

Source

It goes without saying that you’ll want to collect as many glowing reviews as you can, within the bounds of the ethics rules. Not only can it help boost your law firm’s local SEO strategy, but it’s impressive to potential clients who view your listing.

InsightsDo you know how many people have seen your Google Business Profile listing? How did they find you? Are they clicking through to your firm’s website?

All three questions (plus many more!) can be answered in the Insights tab.

Head over to your Performance dashboard; you’ll find analytics on how well your GMB listing is performing:

Source

The most important metrics to check include:

Actions: How many people clicked through to your website, requested directions, or made a phone call as a result of your GMB listing?
Search data: How many customers found your listing through searching your brand name, versus a product or service you offer?
Photo data: Are people clicking on your photos? Which are most popular?
Viewing data: Did people visit your website through a text or Map search?

Regardless of what you’re focusing on, there’s no doubt that the dashboard is a goldmine, especially if you use the data to tweak and re-optimize, in order to attract more visitors.

(More on that later.)

How to stay up-to-date with your listingA Google Business Profile listing is a machine with several moving parts.

There are four main things to check, but if your listing takes off and you’re overflowing with more messages than you know how to handle, here’s how you can stay up-to-date with the features we’ve mentioned:

Assign a single team member to “own” each feature. For example: your customer service manager can handle reviews, whereas your intake manager can handle appointments.
Encourage the people who “own” each feature to create a daily or weekly schedule, depending on the volume of things they’re responding to. This could be a Friday morning, or every afternoon before they finish work.
Use add-on tools to make your listing easier to manage, such as Moz Local (if you’re managing several locations) or the Agency Dashboard (if you’re working with an external marketing agency, but still want oversight of your firm’s listing).
Consider outsourcing the day-to-day management of your listing. For example: can you hire a virtual assistant to respond to messages? Can you hire a contractor to respond to the reviews left on your listing?

How do you optimize your law firm’s GMB listing?You’ve entered the details of your law firm, activated your Google Business Profile listing, and are starting to see a small stream of inquiries.

However, it’s not time to relax just yet.

There are likely hundreds of other law firms competing with you for clients, so it’s not easy to appear in the three-pack for a local search like “lawyers in Michigan” by just entering your business information.

In order to transform your Google Business Profile listing into an inquiry-generating machine, you’ll need to optimize it, using the many factors Google’s algorithm takes into consideration when displaying results pages for local searchers:

If that sounds confusing, or you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t panic.

Here are eight tips you can use to optimize your law firm’s listing, and reach the coveted three-pack in local search.

Include as much information as possibleGoogle’s aim has always been (and will always be) to show the best, most accurate results for anyone’s search query. If they didn’t, and their search results pages gained a reputation for being useless, nobody would use their platform.

That’s why it’s important for your law firm’s Google Business Profile listing to include as much information as possible, such as:

Business hours
- Address
- Contact details
- Photos and videos
- Service area
- Opening date

Empty fields, inaccurate opening times, or a lack of information about what your business does won’t fit Google’s “highest-quality” guidelines. As a result, you’ll have a tough time trying to get into the three-pack for your local audience.

Think about it: Google is more likely to feature a firm in the three-pack if their information is complete–much more so than one with incorrect (or missing) details, right?

That’s likely why Kingsley Napley LLC ranks in position #1 of the three-pack for “law firm in London:”

You might be thinking this step isn’t necessary if you’ve already taken the time to make sure your phone number, address and opening hours are accurate throughout the creation of your listing.

But don’t fall into the trap of only checking the information on your listing when you’re creating it.

You should regularly check back over your listing every month or so, and update the information if it’s no longer accurate. That’s likely to happen when:

You’ve changed contact numbers
You’ve moved offices
You change your website from HTTP to HTTPS (business listings with a website get 25-35% more clicks, so this one is critical)
You have an old Google Business Profile listing and you’re now starting again from scratch

Finally, check the information against any other directory listings you’ve built. Google’s algorithm may check this, because NAP consistency (Name, Address, Phone Number) is the ideal way to check whether business information is accurate. Given how many directory listings you may have already, it makes sense to use a service such as Moz Local to automate NAP consistency monitoring.

This is even more important since Google recently started to crack-down on inaccurate Google Business Profile listings. A recent announcement said:

“Hey everyone,

We’d like to let you know about a new way to report fraudulent activity relating to businesses Google Maps.

If you come across a business name, phone number, or URL on Google Maps that leads to fraudulent activity, you can now submit a complaint using this form.

We’ll close the Spam board on this community, so please use the new form to report spam-related issues. Complaints submitted through this form will be reviewed in accordance with our guidelines for representing businesses on Google Maps.”

Spammy or factually incorrect listings, along with those with tons of fake reviews, are now being removed from the platform. They’re even encouraging the general public to report incorrect listings through a Business Redressal Form.

In a nutshell: If you’re littering your listing with inaccurate information, you could be at risk of your hard work going to waste.

(That’s not what we’re aiming for.)

Including photosWhen you’re creating your law firm’s Google Business Profile listing, you’ll have an option to upload photos and videos that are visible to people who click your result for more information.

Why not visually show them you’re worth their time when making an inquiry?

Photos show that your business is “real,” and that you’re a personable firm potential clients can make a connection with. It’s no surprise that one report found 60% of consumers said local search results with good images captured their attention and pushed them toward a decision.

That’s perfect for a Google Business Profile listing, where you’re actively competing with several other law firms for the attention of your potential clients.

Just take this example from Schwartzapfel Lawyers’ NYC listing:

Notice how the photos of their location and team make them look like a “real business?”

That’s likely why they’ve landed themselves in the three-pack: because they’re providing their audience with tons of information, and they look like a reputable (and trustworthy) business. You could do the same, and attract more clients through your firm’s Google Business Profile listing, by uploading photos.

Jon Rodriguez, a Senior Digital Strategist for Red Olive, explains the types of photos you should include for maximum engagement:

“With my clients, I have seen adding a 360 office tour of an office increase organic traffic by 5% to 10%, not to mention profile engagement.

For photos, Exterior and Interior images are a must. Additionally, include any signage linking the law firm to its location. This can include your listing on the business directory sign, monument signs, canopy signs, marquee signage, or any other signage visible to someone driving by the business.”

(Not all photographers offer 360-photos, so you might have to do a personalized, specific Google search to find one–such as “360 photography London.”)

Maximize the advantage of including great photos in your listing. Google provides specific photo recommendations:

Format: JPG or PNG
Size: Between 10 KB and 5 MB
Minimum resolution: 720 px tall, 720 px wide

(Read Google’s full guidelines for uploading images.)

Devin Beverage, SEO Expert and Founder of DevBev Co, also recommends naming your images before uploading them to your listing for maximum optimization:

“Regularly uploading photos boosts your Google Business Profile rankings. Double up the benefits by naming your images strategically before upload. This can lead to them appearing in Google Image search results, which can still potentially get you noticed.

“Consider as an example: for a divorce attorney in Houston — “divorce-attorney-houston-brian-walters” would be your file name.”

But if you’re still not convinced about using images in your listing, here’s the best part: Photos are yours; your competitors will have a tough time copying them.

Talk about a competitive advantage!

Respond to public customer questionsRemember how earlier, we briefly talked about the messaging feature your Google Business Profile listing comes with?

Although some people may use the private message feature to ask questions about your law firm, some local searchers might ask questions publicly using the “questions and answers” feature.

Take a look at these questions answered by Allred, Maroko & Goldberg on their Google Business Profile listing:

A report by Get Five Stars (now GatherUp) found 25% of locations on Google Maps have questions. If one is left on your Google Business Profile listing, you’ll receive an email like this:

Source

It’s important to answer these questions.

Why? Because the people leaving questions on your profile are genuinely interested in your legal services, and could be ready to hire your legal team if their question is answered.

Think of them like a “hot lead” that you want to convert as soon as possible.

Plus, other people might be asking the same questions in their mind, but be too afraid (or not yet ready) to reach out. By making the answers to those questions public, you might be guiding them through the customer journey much faster.

You should also answer every single question left on your firm’s Google Business Profile listing because they’re open for anyone to answer–including your competitor.

Granted, it might be rare for a competitor to poach your clients by answering questions left on your listing. But, it’s a possible opportunity for them that can be prevented by leaving a response yourself.

This could give you an advantage that will bump you up into the three-pack, because you’re making content accessible through Google’s own platform (rather than your website). Google rewards businesses who keep users on a Google-owned site, rather than a third-party one.

Post content to the Google Posts platformYou might’ve heard the conversation around Google+ being made redundant and assumed you can’t create content on the Google platform anymore. That’s incorrect; you can connect your law firm’s Google Business Profile account to Google Posts.

Use this to your advantage and create Google-owned content to go alongside your listing.

(Remember: Google wants to keep users on their platform rather than redirecting them to a website–and they’ll reward you for it, potentially with the three-pack result.)

Once you’ve connected the two accounts, content published to the Posts platform will be accessible through your GMB listing.

First time I’m seeing snippets from Google Posts being pulled into the local finder.

Y’all seen this before? @mblumenthal @JoyanneHawkins @ndyjsimpson pic.twitter.com/yIwKCEfOKj

— Dave DiGregorio (@deegs20) February 8, 2019

“What exactly is a Google Post?” I hear you asking.

It’s similar to a social media update, like a tweet or Facebook update. There are three main types of Google Post that you can choose from when creating content for the Google Posts platform:

a) What’s New postsThis style of Google Post is likely to be your most-used. It’s typically used to provide general information about your business.

But what should you post about?

Digital Marketing Manager Jeff Moriarty explains:

“One recommendation I always give to my law firm clients is to post about your different cases if you can. These posts can be about cases you have won or cases you are currently taking on and they can be a broad description of them, they don’t need to be specific.

This not only shows more trust in your company, it shows off your successes, and helps to tell Google that you are proactive with your GMB listing.

It’s free to do and most companies don’t even know this option exists.”

What’s New posts have a field for text, a photo/video option, an external link, and a call-to-action button. You don’t have to use all four, but it’s the perfect option for posting content regularly and engaging local searchers.

b) Event postsAre you running a special event? Perhaps you’re supporting or sponsoring a local meet-up, or hosting an online webinar. Either option can make for fantastic Google Business Profile content, because the details are accessible through your business listing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRz2DrFLuUg

To publish this type of post, you’ll need to include key details about your event. That includes:

The start and end date
The event title
A description (a great way to target local keywords)
A call to action
Optional: Photos and videos

Let’s put this into practice and say your law firm is running a free webinar on the process for a divorce. By creating an Event post, you’ll be raising awareness and encouraging people to tune in when they visit your listing–all through one single post.

(Event-style posts stay live until the event date. When this time passes, the Post will be automatically removed–meaning you’ll have to create the post again, should you run the event again.)

c) Offer postsDo you offer discounts on your legal services packages? Do you have document review specials? Do you sometimes offer a free consultation?

Offer posts are a superb way to raise awareness of them, and give local searchers who land on your Google Business Profile an incentive to reach out.

This type of Google Post also requires a start and end date, along with a choice of photos, videos, links, and terms and conditions. However, the call to action is simply a “View Offer” button.

Source

Ready to start publishing content to Google Posts?

You don’t need to set constant reminders to hit the “publish” button; tools like OneUp can schedule Google Posts on your behalf. Simply create your account, connect your GMB listing, and spend a few hours batching the content you’d like to post, scheduling each post to automatically publish at a given time:

Remember to hit your local SEO checklist by including the local keywords in your content. For example: If you’re targeting “law firm in Chicago,” include that phrase, along with 3-5 similar keywords, in your content to prove relevance.

Respond to all reviews… even if they’re negativeHaving a top-rated Google Business Profile listing is the easiest way to help you reach the three-pack because you’re proving that you’re a trustworthy firm.

Think about it: If you were Google, which of these lawyers or attorneys would you rank higher in local search?

A law firm with hundreds of 4-5* reviews
A law firm with one or two 3* reviews

I’ll bet it’s option A, purely because they look more credible and reputable. That’s the type of business Google want to refer to their local searchers.

(They’re essential for driving clients, too: 21% of consumers agreed that Google reviews were one of the most important factors in their search for a local business, ranking them as more influential than price estimates, proximity, and SERP.)

The simplest way to get more Google Business Profile reviews is to create a custom link that directs people to leave a review, and set up an email automation that sends the link automatically when a client’s case is closed.

You can create that custom URL by:

Searching for your business in Google, and locating your listing
Pressing the Write Review button
Copying the link from your browser, and sending it to clients

(Top tip: You could use a tool like Rebrandly or Bit.ly to customize these links.)

Here’s Matthew Post, co-founder of SEM Dynamics, explaining how you can tailor your approach to boost the chances of clients writing keyword-optimized content for you:

“In any correspondence where you’re asking for a review, be sure to include ideas for the client to discuss. Topics that they can include are the location where services were performed, what type of case was handled, and who helped them are all great suggestions to give clients for writing reviews.

This will help guide people to naturally include keywords into [their] reviews.”

After encouraging former clients to review your law office (keeping in mind any ethical restrictions), you might find that not all of them are as glowing as you’d hoped. Some clients may complain about things that happened outside of your control, but it’s important to respond to every customer review.

That’s not only because 53.3% of customers expect businesses to respond to their online review within 7 days.

Responding to negative reviews on your Google Business Profile listing shows you’re a real human, a personable lawyer. Try to explain the situation and where things went wrong (if possible and if in compliance with applicable confidentiality rules), and reassure them–along with other potential clients reading the review–that you’re committed to making sure the problem doesn’t happen again.

Just take this response by Garratts Solicitors Newton Heath on their Google Business Profile listing, for example:

They’ve responded to the unhappy customer within a few days, and expressed their sadness that their firm failed to meet expectations. However, instead of closing with a simple apology, the person responding has left a personal email address so the unhappy reviewer can get in touch. The promise to investigate the problem further demonstrates this firm’s commitment to customer service.

Unsure how to handle a negative review? Google has a full set of guidelines to help you craft the perfect response, but remember that Google guidelines do not supersede the professional responsibility rules in your jurisdiction.

Use attributes for your listingAttributes are statements or words that describe your law firm, shown on your Google Business Profile listing. They can either be:
Objective: Things you know are accurate, such as “free parking” or “wheelchair access”
Subjective: Things Google figures out by analyzing customer reviews or feedback, such as “top-rated”

Why not optimize your Google Business Profile listing by adding both types of attributes?

You’re able to add objective attributes, like “free parking,” directly from your GMB account. Simply sign in, select your location, and:

Click Info
Find the Attributes section
Click Edit
Search for the attribution you’d like to add
Click Apply

Source

You’re also able to collect objective attributes by encouraging customer reviews on your firm’s listing. Simply ask your clients to answer quick questions about your firm through the link on your listing:

They’ll be asked questions related to the amenities, services, or special qualities your law firm offers:

…and their answers will be used when Google determines your subjective attributes.

Test relevant emojis in your contentEmojis have been around for a long time, but you’ve probably only used them in text messages to your friends. You may not realize that you can use emojis in your law firm’s Google Business Profile to target local searchers who use emojis in their search queries.

Surprising, right? Google is one of the first search engines to support emoji search, meaning their algorithm understands what emojis mean, and shows results related to them.

This is happening in local SERPs where you’re fighting to reach the three-pack.

Testing emojis in your Google Business Profile listing could be a fantastic option for law firms, because 92% of consumers use emojis in their online activity.

(It’s an even better local SEO strategy for targeting millennials, 36% of whom prefer GIFs and emojis in order to better communicate their thoughts and feelings, rather than using words.)

Here are the results of my search for “ lawyers in Toronto:”

Would you like to reach the three-pack for the growing number of local searchers who are using emojis to find local law firms? The idea that some people use emojis in their search terms may seem ridiculous. Welcome to the brave new world.

Here are some emojis you could use to get started:

: Family lawyers
: Marriage-related cases, such as prenuptial agreements or divorce
: Justice cases

In your Google Posts, include emojis relevant to the services you offer.

This will help Google to connect the dots between your Google Business Profile listing, and people using emoji search to find law firms near their own location.

Optimize calls to action based on InsightsThe list of “best practices” for optimizing a Google Business Profile listing can change dramatically from location to location. What works for some firms might not work for others for many reasons:
Searchers in one location have different search preferences
Some law firms offer different services
Different customer journeys have different search requirements

That’s why it’s not easy to use a one-size-fits-all approach to optimizing your listing.

Your Insights tab, however, is a pot of gold. You’re able to see which actions your prospective clients are completing, and make changes based on those actions, rather than taking a generalized approach.

For example: if you find a large percentage of actions are based around a phone call, you know your prospective clients are more likely to pick up the phone than email you. So, add your phone number everywhere (including your Google Business Profile description, photos you upload, and Posts you publish) to encourage more searchers to call you and inquire.

Source

5 awesome resources for keeping up with GMBGoogle is always changing. Whether they’re updating their algorithm or changing the way they rank businesses in local search, it can be difficult for business owners to stay up-to-date. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

We’ll be updating this article for new features every time they’re released.

But if you’re eager to learn more about local SEO for lawyers and attorneys, you’ll find the following Google Business Profile resources useful:

Moz Blog
BrightLocal
Search Engine Land
Local Visibility System
Search Engine Roundtable

Final thoughts on using Google Business Profile for lawyersAs you can see, Google Business Profile listings are a fantastic feature that will help your law firm attract more clients through local search. Not only will you stand out on a crowded search engine results page, but you’ll have a great shot at convincing your dream clients to make an inquiry or book a consultation, since your business is more visible in their SERPs.

Remember to always check on your firm’s Google Business Profile listing to monitor Insights and respond to messages, and constantly optimize your listing to make sure you remain in the three-pack.

It’s a tough and constant job, but one that’s worth its weight in gold.

Google Business Profile, when used optimally, works. You’ll increase your visibility, generate more calls from potential clients, increase your revenues, and ultimately put more profit in the bank account.

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From Mexico City - A tech tip about using WhatsThatCharge.com to figure out what those cryptic and mysterious transactions on your credit card are. Some concise advice about receiving and giving advice on your marketing, why your ideas might interfere with what marketing pros suggest, and why you shouldn't be negotiating with the experts.

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From Mexico City - A tech tip about the lowly keyboard shortcut and why you should be using more of them. Some concise advice about getting out of that rut if you're feeling stuck in your practice.

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From Raleigh, NC - A tech tip about why letting email addresses at your firm disappear when employees leave is a bad idea and how to fix it. Some concise advice about how putting yourself in the right place and selling the right thing sets you up for victory in a way that just doing what comes your way doesn't.

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From Edinburgh, Scotland - A tech tip about the new AI and web scraping features that have been added to Zapier, and why they should get you thinking about the kinds of systems you should be building to take advantage of new technology that is right around the corner. Some concise advice about how letting the success at achieving smaller, easier, and less important goals derails us from getting to the practices we really want.

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From Edinburgh, Scotland - A tech tip about the bookkeeping software you're using at your firm, why you shouldn't be making that decision, and who should be. Some concise advice about health, weight loss and what I've learned from a few decades of keeping my weight under control.

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From Edinburgh, Scotland - A tech tip about how Rosen Institute was fired by its bank, why that's a good thing, and how to make sure you have a backup banking plan for your practice. Some concise advice about how it's impossible not to seem like you're playing favorites when you have family members working in your law firm.

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From Tallinn, Estonia - A tech tip about getting around the frustration of websites that block you from being able to paste in things like account numbers and passwords with the Don't F*** With Paste browser extension. Some concise advice about why forcing employees back to the office is not a silver-bullet for making them productive on behalf of the law firm.

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From Tallinn, Estonia - A tech tip about the joys and dangers of living on the bleeding-edge by trying new software and technology from sites like ProductHunt and using them in mission-critical applications before they're ready. Some concise advice about hiring - why it's cyclical, how the market can change quickly, and what you can do to make yourself and your practice more alluring to potential employees - specifically the idea of "async" work.

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From Helsinki, Finland - A tech tip about the few things you actually need while traveling - from someone whose luggage went missing for almost a month. Some concise advice about why you should trust more, when it comes to the legal arena, travel, and just about everything else.

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From Helsinki, Finland - A tech tip about moving to a technology stipend for allowing your employees to choose and maintain their own hardware so you don't have to deal with it, and using a service like Hello Retriever if you still want to be able to reclaim computers and monitors from your former employees. Some concise advice about the remote work trend - where it's headed, whether it makes sense for your business post-COVID.

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From Prague - A tech tip about using tracking devices like Apple's AirTags and Tiles for your luggage as travel resumes around the world. Some concise advice about why client communication - even when there's nothing to report, or even terrible things to report, is far better for the clients and your reputation than clamming up and ignoring the problem.

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From Prague - The deadline to sign up for VisionQuest is tomorrow. Join here: https://roseninstitute.com/join Firms without a clear vision don't grow - they repeat the same year over and over. Decide what you want and where you're going so you can get there. A tech tip about what technology products you should buy and why having a clear vision for your practice makes choices about hardware, software, client management products and more a lot easier. Some concise advice about identifying the purpose for why you do what you do in your practice and why that purpose needs to be bigger than just your ambitions.

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From Chisinau, Moldova - A tech tip about managing the bits of paper you still encounter in this "paperless" age. Some concise advice about being proactive about notifying clients about issues so that you can manage responses and expectations.

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From Sighisoara, Romania - A tech tip about conducting business, making calls, and interacting with people across time-zones without the math headaches using tools like Fantastical, The Clock, and TimeAndDate.com. Some concise advice about why specialist lingo and terminology makes us feel like insiders and serves us amongst colleagues, but can be incredibly counter-productive and send the wrong message when we use them with people who aren't in our club.

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From Brasov, Romania - A tech tip about using plug-ins and extensions to get more out of the software you're already using, particularly your web browser. Some concise advice about the feasibility of creating video commercials and how you can likely make better commercials on you iPad without any filming than were available to local businesses paying 10s of thousands of dollars just a few years ago.

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From Brasov, Romania - A tech tip about streamlining and simplifying charging cables and power adapters when traveling. Some concise advice about whether or not "firing fast" really is the best solution to lackluster employees. I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

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From Sarajevo, A tech tip about bringing your vendors into the team communication software you're already using. Some concise advice about why handing off everything you can to your bookkeeper shouldn't scare you and will make your life easier.

The post Letting go of your finances shouldn’t be scary appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Novi Sad, Serbia - A tech tip about the "call whisper" feature available in many VOIP phone systems that can automatically give you advanced information about your caller, as well as allow you to monitor and train new employees. Some concise advice about why using criteria like price, and "experience" to market ourselves isn't meeting our clients where they're actually making their decisions, and how being different is the better approach.

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The last time I updated you on our nomadic existence, we were in Seoul, South Korea, hiding out from Covid. We're still hiding out, but we've developed some (so far adequate) virus avoidance skills. We've made it through another year with a bit of luck, a lot of Covid tests, and masks firmly settled on our faces.

The post Nomad Life—7 Years as a Digital Nomad Lawyer appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Belgrade, Serbia - A tech tip about the predictive typing features and pre-written responses available in your email app (and additional tools like LightKey), and why I think they're fantastic. Some concise advice about why using your email inbox as a task list is a sure-fire way to let important action-items fall through the cracks, and how introducing some artificial constraints on your inbox can actually make you more productive.

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From Lake Ohrid, Macedonia - A tech tip about why trying out the latest, bleeding-edge apps and products is fun, but you should exercise extreme caution when using them for anything that's mission-critical at your firm. Some concise advice about making (and using) a list of the key frustrations you have in your practice to get your brain engaged in finding solutions to whatever is standing in the way of your goals for the firm.

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From Saranda, Albania - A tech tip about the hassles involved in taking payments from clients in foreign countries and using services like Wise.com, even for trust account payments. Some concise advice about preparing your practice for what some people say is the coming (or perhaps already arrived) recession.

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From Corfu, Greece - A tech tip about why you shouldn't cut corners and why buying the good stuff from market leaders nearly always saves you time and stress in the long run. Some concise advice about the value and impact of memberships in things like civic groups, online communities, and more.

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From Madrid - A tech tip about why small gains from tiny software utilities add up to big time-savings over the long term, specifically tools like Hazel, PopClip, BetterTouchTool, Paste, and TextExpander. Some concise advice about distinguishing yourself from your competition in your marketing, but why your competition is often not another law firm, but apathy about the problem or lack of awareness about you.

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From Constantine, Algeria - A tech tip about why the view count on YouTube videos you're using to build an audience for your practice is a double-edged sword. Some concise advice about using marketing to build trust by helping your prospective clients, so that you've sealed the deal before they walk in your door.

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From Milan, Italy - A tech tip about getting and using cash when you're traveling to foreign destinations. Some concise advice about celebrating your wins and why celebration will make a big difference in your firm.

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From Naples, Italy - A tech tip about keeping your satellite offices and executive suites tidy even when you can't visit them very often. Some concise advice about marketing, the allure of shiny-object-syndrome, and why every marketing tactic can work, but you have to be willing to stick with it.

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From Naples, Italy - A tech tip about using expense tracking tools like Expensify and Zoho expense to track mileage, snap photos of receipts, and get reimbursements handled without the headaches. Some concise advice about traveling and why your bias should be toward trusting people rather than being suspicious, as well as overcoming communication issues in countries where you don't speak the local language.

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From Tunis, Tunisia - A tech tip for those of you still dictating your notes, and why you may not need extra software or transcription services now that the built-in speech-to-text options in products like Google Docs and Microsoft Word 365 have matured. Some concise advice about why in addition to paying attention the referral sources sending you business, you need to be asking them whether or not you're still delivering the kind of service they feel confident recommending.

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From Alexandria, Egypt - A tech tip about why in addition to using a password manager like 1password, you should also be using unique codes for your ATM card and to unlock your phone. Some concise advice about why looking exclusively at law firms for business ideas isn't a great idea, since our industry is not generally a trend-setter when it comes to processes and technology.

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From Tunis, Tunisia - If your law firm is going to run like a business, you need systems. The Law Firm Flywheel program is starting soon and we'll be spending aocess for building systems for every asp month creating a prect of your practice so that the practice can run under its own momentum without you having to cary every case and project across the finish line. A tech tip about software that allows you to build, assign, and update your systems using tools like Process.st, SweetProcess, and SystemHub. Some concise advice about why systems matter and how you can make your clients (and yourself) happier with systems that are documented and enforced, rather that used ad-hoc.

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From Cairo, Egypt - A tech tip about tools like Descript.com, Rev.com, and GoTranscript.com for audio transcription. Some concise advice about breaking down the processes behind your client's journey to identify the flaws and get them fixed.

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From Baghdad, Iraq - A tech tip about using Trakt.tv to manage the TV and video content you're watching as well as find new things you might enjoy. Some concise advice about travel and my thoughts on the valuable things I've learned from years on the road.

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From Bahrain - A tech tip about why using search engines like Brave, Neva, and You.com might get you better results with more privacy and whether we're heading toward a post-Google search landscape. Some concise advice about why asking clients who didn't hire you what went wrong and why they went with someone else might be awkward, but will present you with opportunities for changing your approach and making your firm better.

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From Medina, Saudi Arabia - A tech tip about email privacy services and why they make sense, including my current favorite, AnonAddy. Some concise advice about why you should take the time you're spending watching old TV shows or YouTube videos to send some quick messages to people on your contact list. You're only half paying attention anyway, so why not use the time you're spending on re-runs to touch base with people so you're always top of mind?

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From Dubai, UAE - A tech tip about going paperless - some firms did it decades ago, but a lot are still dealing with way more paper than they should be on a daily basis. Some concise advice about hiring your first employee and why you shouldn't worry about it, because your first hire probably won't work out anyway.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

A tech tip about using Privacy.com to manage online subscription cancellation and renewals without the normal hassles.

Some concise advice about hiring team members for your firm and why headhunting fees for virtual assistants can creep up on you in less obvious ways than they would with traditional employees.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

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These are the tools and products we use and suggest. Some are tried and true. Some were created last week. We update this list with some frequency so we suggest that you bookmark it and come back periodically (a tool we mention below, VisualPing, automates that process.

Have we used every single product? Nope. But we do use a lot of them, and of those we don’t, most are used by our members at Rosen Institute. There are a few that we included without trying because they fill a gap in the market–they solve a problem that some folks desperately need to have solved.

In some categories, we’ve got a strong preference. In others, we’ve found a variety of products and services which all meet our needs. Our goal is to give you some ideas that will advance your search for something which solves your particular problem. There are many categories in which we don’t make suggestions. These categories tend to be mature (i.e. bookkeeping software, hardware, etc.). The choices are all well established and the distinctions tend to be more of style than substance.

Many of the tools we mention are not specifically built for the legal market. We have often found that lawyer-targeted products are inferior and over-priced. The general market tends to have better offerings at better prices so long as you can adjust to issues like a management system that refers to “customers” instead of “clients.” A willingness to adapt to terminology changes can give you an instant advantage over your competition because you’ve got better tools.

Your feedback helps us refine our list (always a work in progress), so feel free to share your experiences with these products. We encourage you to connect with us and let us hear your suggestions, additions, and input for the list. Let’s dig in.

Good Stuff From Rosen Institute * Rosen’s Rules: Free 10-day online course setting forth the essential rules to follow in order to grow a successful practice. * Fix Your Email Address: Still using an AOL or Gmail address? 1990 is calling and they want their email address back. Our free course shows you how to jump thirty years forward in just thirty minutes. Let us show you how it’s done. * Rosen Institute Premium: Membership community of successful lawyers growing practices around the world. In 10 minutes per day, you’ll level up your marketing, outsourcing, networking, systems, and more. You’ll find a welcoming group of lawyers communicating via Slack 24/7/365 helping one another find more time, make more money, satisfy clients, and take a systematic approach to greater productivity and the rewards you deserve.

Most Recommended Tools If you look at nothing else on this page, these are the five items that you should know about. We recommend these resources again and again. We use them because they work, and we’re confident you’ll agree too.

GetStaffedUp: We outsource nearly everything. This is a virtual staffing agency focused exclusively on law firms for both legal and marketing work.
Rosen Advertising: Handles our pay-per-click advertising on Google Adwords, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Rosen Advertising is (obviously) run by a relative–my son, Toby. He has been handling our ads for a couple of years and we’re earning an incredible return on our investment. He’s one of those young guys who grew up with technology and just gets it. He’s doing sophisticated things for us with ads, remarketing, and video advertising on Google, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you’re not getting revenues of 10-20x your ad spend then you need to talk to him.
Search Engine News: Essential reading–I haven’t skipped a month in more than a decade. You’re paying someone for SEO services and you likely don’t have a clue whether they know what they’re doing. Get educated. We’ve subscribed to Search Engine News forever, and their advice has helped us achieve astonishing website traffic from Google. What more can I say? There is nothing you can buy that delivers more value.
Smith.ai: This is the go-to virtual receptionist for law firms. It’s our recommendation and we have lots of Institute members who swear by them over other options. Useful whether you want to hand of part or all of your reception duties.
TextExpander: if you aren’t using a text-replacement tool like TextExpander, you’re wasting hours of your own time each week. Set up abbreviations for simple items like email addresses and phone numbers, all the way to more complex snippets like email responses and PDF or website form fills. Use the advanced features to automatically adjust names, dates and much more in your snippets.

Advertising * Google Adwords: If you want to begin advertising on Google, you can select keywords and locations, and pay each time someone clicks on your advertisement. * Rosen Advertising: Online advertising is tricky. Toby Rosen knows his way around Google Ads, Facebook and LinkedIn. He’ll save you time and make you more money. * PixelMe: PixelMe is a URL shortener that embeds retargeting pixels from Facebook, Adwords, and LinkedIn into shortened links. Brand, track & share your own short URLs and retarget anyone who clicked on your links.

Books * The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It: Small business consultant and author Michael E. Gerber, with sharp insight gained from years of experience, points out how common assumptions, expectations, and even technical expertise can get in the way of running a successful business. * Duct Tape Marketing Revised & Updated: The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide: Duct Tape Marketing shows readers how to develop and execute a marketing plan that yields more revenue and ensures the longevity of small businesses. * Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries: Fast-paced, and as entertaining as it is illuminating, Little Bets offers a whole new way of thinking. Break away from the narrow strictures of the methods of analyzing and problem-solving we were all taught in school, and unleash your untapped creative powers. * Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Tool Kit for Entrepreneurs: Brodsky shares his hard-earned wisdom every month in Inc. magazine, in the hugely popular “Street Smarts” column he cowrites with Bo Burlingham. Now they’ve adapted their best advice into a comprehensive guide for anyone running a small business. * Remote: Office Not Required: Whether you’re a manager fretting over how to manage workers who “want out” or a worker who wants to achieve a lifestyle upgrade while still being a top performer professionally, this book is your indispensable guide. Particularly relevant in a pandemic. * Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable: The cult classic that revolutionized marketing by teaching businesses that you’re either remarkable or invisible. * The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable: Throughout the story, Patrick Lencioni reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams–even the best ones–often struggle. He outlines a powerful model and actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a cohesive, effective team. * Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business: In this landmark book, Danny Meyer shares the lessons he learned developing the dynamic philosophy he calls Enlightened Hospitality. The tenets of that philosophy, which emphasize strong in-house relationships as well as customer satisfaction, are applicable to anyone who works in any business. * The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies: Chet Holmes helps his clients blow away both the competition and their own expectations. And his advice starts with one simple concept: focus! Instead of trying to master four thousand strategies to improve your business, zero in on the few essential skill areas that will make a big difference. * Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: Dr. Robert B. Cialdini—the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations. * The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change: Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. * Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business: In Traction, you’ll learn the secrets of strengthening the six key components of your business. You’ll discover simple yet powerful ways to run your company that will give you and your leadership team more focus, more growth, and more enjoyment. * What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful: America’s most sought-after executive coach, Marshall Goldsmith, shows how to climb the last few rungs of the ladder. * Leadership and Self Deception: Getting Out of the Box: Read this extraordinary book and discover what millions already have learned—how to consistently tap into an innate ability that dramatically improves both your results and your relationships. * The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation: The authors explain how almost any average-performing sales representative, once equipped with the right tools, can successfully reframe customers’ expectations and deliver a distinctive purchase experience that drives higher levels of customer loyalty, and ultimately, greater growth. * The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals: By following the 4 Disciplines—Focus on the Wildly Important; Act on Lead Measures; Keep a Compelling Scoreboard; Create a Cadence of Accountability—leaders can produce breakthrough results, even when executing the strategy requires a significant change in behavior from their teams. * Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success: An accessible and practical toolkit that teams and companies in all industries can use to increase their customer base and market share, this book walks readers through the process of creating and executing their own custom-made growth hacking strategy.

Book Publishing * ACX: Turn your book into audio and sell it on Audible. * Amazon Author Central: Author resources, author page, etc. * Bowker ISBN Numbers: Get your ISBN number–own it yourself instead of letting it be owned by another entity. * IngramSpark: An Amazon competitor for self-publishing paper books. * Kindle Direct Publishing: Amazon Kindle publishing. * The Book Designer: Design services for book publishing. * Indie Author Publishing Services: They’ll handle every aspect of getting your book published. Full-service agency.

Calendar Scheduling * Calendly: Quick and easy system for having clients select open meeting times. * Doodle: Great scheduling tool for small groups.

Call Tracking * CallRail – Call tracking to unique phone numbers used by a number of our members with success. * Call Tracking Metrics – another player in the space.

Chatbots * ChatFuel: The quickest and easiest way to set up a Facebook Messenger chatbot. Watch our tutorial and use it to set up a chatbot for your law firm in 30 minutes. * ManyChat: Deliver auto-responder drip campaigns via Facebook Messenger and SMS.

Client Reviews * BirdEye: Collect reviews, convert leads, run surveys, text customers, and get referrals all in one place. * Boast: Collect testimonials for your website and social media. * Broadly: Automatically request reviews and manage all from one dashboard. * GatherUP: Customer experience and online review engine. * Google Review Policies: Google guidelines for reviews. * Google Review Link Tool: Generates a review link to send to a client. * Review Shake: One tool to generate, manage, market, and analyze online reviews.

Cloud Desktops * Amazon Workspaces: Hosted desktop on Windows. * Host My Apple: Hosted desktop on Mac.

Competitive Research * VisualPing: Monitor changes on websites. * Inoreader: A very useful RSS feed reader that also includes web page monitoring to keep up with competitors. * BrowserFlow: Automate browser interactions to do things like scrape information from web directories

Customer and Contact Relationship Management * Salesforce: We used Salesforce for more than a decade. It’ll do almost anything, but you’ll pay a steep price in monthly fees plus developer costs. * Zoho CRM: We’ve had very positive experiences with Zoho. It’s a bit like using Salesforce’s younger, dumber sibling. It has all the features but it’s always a year or two behind. The price is very reasonable.

Discovery * Evichat: Cloud-based discovery tool for unearthing chat and SMS conversations.

Document Assembly * TheFormTool: Entry-level document assembly tool. Sharefile File storage with document management capabilities. * FormStack Documents: Formerly WebMerge. A simple, powerful, cloud-based document assembly engine. This is a great place to start when it comes to automating documents for quick fill-in-the-blanks using an existing repository of client information, like a spreadsheet or practice management system. * XpressDox: Desktop and/or Cloud-based, document assembly tool with a much more comprehensive (and complex) templating language. Includes an API that allows you to trigger document generation from external data and software. * Docassemble: Relatively new player in the document assembly space. Free, open-source, and built by a lawyer who is also a developer. Very flexible, very customizable, and built on popular technologies which means finding developers to customize it should be fairly easy. If you’re not game to build your own solution, Documate and Afterpattern are commercial offerings built on top of Docassemble.

Email * Sanebox: Stop the email insanity! Sanebox does an amazing job of sorting and preparing your email for review. Instead of being overwhelmed by email, you get it under control. It’s the only way I’ve ever achieved “inbox zero.” It works with almost any email system and it has all kinds of features that get you organized and save you time. They offer a free trial. * Signature Satori: Centrally-managed Gmail signatures across your entire organization. * CodeTwo Email Signatures: Centrally managed Office 365 signatures across your entire organization. * Batched Inbox: Get your email on your schedule. * AnonAddy: Create disposable email addresses and set up anonymous email forwarding.

Email Delegation * Front: Turn your email, social media profiles, SMS line and more into a Helpdesk and customer support platform for your entire team. * Sortd: Transforms Gmail into an all-in-one workspace to manage sales, service and delivery.

Email Marketing * ActiveCampaign: This is our current email marketing, automation, and CRM tool. It’s comprehensive, effective, and powerful. It’s more than most small firms require and that’s especially true if you’re using a practice management system. But if you can justify the expense, it’s an awesome system. * Gmass: Email marketing is powerful and this tool makes it especially easy to blast out emails straight from your Google email account. New features keep rolling out, but Gmass has one benefit that really stands out–very high deliverability. * ConvertKit: We’ve tried them all (Aweber, Mailchimp, Infusionsoft, Getresponse, Pardot, etc.) and ConvertKit stands out for offering amazing features at a great price. * Email Deliverability Tester: Test your emails before you send them. * Email Drips: Examples of drip marketing sequences. * Email Octopus: Great prices and deliverability. Not as easy to use as ConvertKit but the deliverability and price more than make up for a bit more complexity. * Postmaster Tools: Google tool for monitoring and improving your success with sending email. * Zipwhip: Broadcast text messaging tool. * Pigeon: CRM, mail merge, and automations in your Gmail inbox. * SendSimple: Turn a google sheet into an email list.

Email List Maintenance and Cleanup * MailFloss: Automatically filter out junk email addresses from your list. * KickBox: Email verification service with multiple integrations. * AlfredKnows: Fast email hygiene tool.

Email Inbox Warmup If you’re relying on email marketing, you’re likely aware of the impact your domain reputation and the deliverability score of your service provider can have on whether or not your messages are going to spam, or ending up in bulk mail filters. Inbox warmup services automate actions like delivering to email addresses and moving bulk/spam messages to the inbox to improve your deliverability.

Gmass inbox warmup tool: Free tool from Gmass.
Warmbox: Dedicated inbox warmup tool.

File Storage/Migration/Document Management * CloudHQ: Backup/Sync/Migrate. They do all sorts of things. We’ve used them repeatedly. * Dropbox: File storage. * Cloud Convert: Convert anything to anything. * Sharefile: Dropbox on steroids–file storage, workflows, permissions and more.

Finance * Clients Accounts Receivable Management: They help with collections. Good feedback from members. * Kabbage: Business loans and credit lines. * Mercurious Advisory Services–MAS Accounting: Accountants used by a number of Rosen Institute members. We’ve met with senior leadership and been impressed. * Tiller Money: Connect your bank accounts to your financial spreadsheet for automatic updating.

Hardware Computer * Apple MacBook Air: Our top pick. We recommend the upper-tier model with an 8 core cpu/gpu and also spending the extra $200 to bump the total RAM up to 16gb. * Dell XPS 13: Our pick for Windows. We recommend a model with 16gb of RAM and a 512gb hard drive. You can option these up with more memory and storage, as well as combinations of touch-screens and 4k resolution, but be mindful that the screen options will reduce battery life.

Phone * Apple iPhone 13: Still the best option for most people unless you really like to tinker. Two sizes available. Skip the pro version unless you’re convinced you need the extra camera features, or just want the top of the line.

Wireless earbuds * Beats Fit Pro: My current favorite, even when compared to the AirPod range. I think these fit better and handle wind-noise better but your mileage may vary. * Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro: The best option if you’re using a Samsung phone. * Google Pixel Buds: Good option for Google phones or other Android devices.

Multi-function printer/scanner * HP OfficeJet Pro 9015: A workhorse and great all-rounder. This latest version is wireless and Alexa-compatible and is a great low-volume all-in-one device for color printing and scanning.

Other * Extra USB charger: We recommend a notebook as your only computer. Just take it with you. To facilitate that, an extra charger at the locations you’re likely to go makes sure you’re never stuck without a charge. There are plenty of models out there, but this one has as much power as you’ll need from any device and can charge your notebook, phone, and a few other items at the same time if needed. * David Clark Headsets: Working remotely and need quiet? These cans get the job done plus you can direct air traffic. * Fujitsu ScanSnap iX1500 Scanner: The ultimate small firm desktop scanner. * Harmony Headphone Microphone: Serious noise cancellation for working in noisy environments.

Human Resources * Guideline: Simple, low-cost 401(k) plan provider with ETF investment options. * Gusto: Payroll service plus benefits platform. * Sequoia One: Professional Employer Organization (PEO) which handles all employee benefits, compensation, and human resource issues businesses. * TriNet: Another PEO.

Legal Outsourcing * Law Clerk: A number of members have used this service and reported back that things went very well. They offer a resource page including a link to “Ultimate Guide to Outsourcing.” Use the rebate code “LEEROSEN” on your first project and they’ll send you a $200 rebate.

Mail/Postage * Casemail: Send mail. * Handwrytten: Automated notes, handwritten and sent via postal mail. * Simple Certified Mail: Certified mail is a hassle. This vendor makes it easier, plus it’s cheaper than paying at the post office. No-brainer. * Stamps.com: Print postage on your computer. No trips to the post office, better than a postage meter. * Thankster: Thank-you cards, etc. mailed for you.

Newsletters * Ghost: Paid newsletters are all the rage but you can use these tools for a free newsletter as well. Of course, you can use some of the tools mentioned above in “Email Marketing” but Ghost is built specifically for paid newsletters. * Substack: This product deserves most of the credit for the revival of the paid newsletter category. The product is simple, easy to use, and supports both paid and free newsletters.

Nomad Life and Remote Work * 1 Dollar Scan: These folks scanned all of our books. * Airbnb: Online marketplace for vacation rentals–get up to $50 off when you use our link. * CDC Travel Advice: Travel health advice from the US government. * CDC Yellow Book: A resource for health professionals who advise on international travel–covers diseases, vaccines, etc. * Fit for Travel: Vaccine advice from the U.K. * IATA Travel Centre: Do you need a visa or other travel documents to visit a particular country? Find out here. * Nomad List: Sortable index of best places to visit. * Google Fi: Wireless device service for international travel. * Pill in Trip: Prescription drugs around the world have different names in different countries. This site helps you figure out the name of the medication you need anywhere in the world. * Ripcord Travel Rescue Insurance: Flexible travel/evacuation insurance. * Tripit: Track and monitor travel plans. * ScanCafe: Photo scanning service for photos, slides, and digitizing video. * SIM Card Wiki Directory: By country, for prepaid cellular SIM card providers. * Smugmug: Photo storage without compression. * St. Brendan’s Isle Mail: Scanning and forwarding service in Florida. * Thai Vaccine Clinic: Vaccines at bargain prices in Bangkok.

Office Systems * DocuSign: Works great for obtaining digital signatures. We use it for client agreements and whenever else possible. We’ve incorporated it into our practice management system so certain documents are prepared and sent for signature with one click. * Google Workspace: Email, Calendar, text, spreadsheets, etc. all safely managed in the cloud by Google. We trust them. Easily manage your entire team’s online collaboration and communication tools. * LastPass: If you already have a password manager, stick with it. They all have similar features. But if you don’t, you need one and LastPass is great. No more having to track down passwords for associates. Share passwords with your team safely and securely. No one but you will know the actual password and you can change it as often as you like.

Outsourcing * GetStaffedUp: Virtual assistants. They’re good. They provide VAs, bookkeepers, writers, webmasters, and more. * OnlineJobs.ph: Advertise for assistance in the Philippines. * Shepherd: Headhunters for international talent. * Upwork: Take our Outsourcing course before you hire your first Upwork contractor and you’ll get much better results. * Virtual Assistant Israel: We used this company for years with impressive results.

Podcasting * Auphonic: Automated post-production services for podcasting. * Call In Studio: Do a call-in “talk radio” show. * Descript: Edit audio in text form. Incredibly useful for podcasts, video, and screencast editing. * Evo Terra: Podcast consultant. * Headliner: Use video to promote your podcast. * Libsyn: The hosting provider for our audio. You don’t want to store the video on your website server. Libsyn is inexpensive and optimized for audio. * Microphones: We get asked which microphone we use for our podcasts. Lee Rosen uses a Zoom H1N which is a small, portable handheld recorder that’s easy for him to use on the road. * Music Radio Creative: A voice talent marketplace for intros, outros, and more. * Resoundly: Let the software handle the speaking part of the podcast. Text to speech automation. * Riverside.fm: Easy end-to-end podcast recording. Record interviews easily online with local, high-quality recording happening on both ends of the conversation.It’s a competitor to Ringr, Welder, and Zencastr. * We Edit Podcasts: These folks edit audio. Quick and reasonably priced.

Podcasts * Manager Tools: Great advice on management. Start with their basics series. * Marketing Over Coffee: Concise and actionable marketing advice.

Printing * VistaPrint: Shockingly well-priced printing with very good (not great) quality. We’re using them for business cards, letterhead, and postcards.

Selling Law Firm * The Law Practice Exchange: Ready to sell the practice? These experts know the ins and outs. Mention my name–Lee Rosen–when you connect and you’ll get the deluxe treatment. There is a market for your business, and you’ll be glad you got help finding your buyer for the best price.

Slack * Slack: The de-facto community and workplace communication platform. It’s what we use for our member community inside of Rosen Institute. * Toki: Workflow management inside of your Slack workspace * Timy: Robust utility for scheduling Slack messages * Truffle: A bot for surfacing previously answered questions in Slack * Ricotta: Trivia, icebreakers, and games for your team

Social Media and Repurposing * Cross Post App: Offering cross-posting to multiple social media platforms. * Headliner: Turn podcasts into video marketing pieces. * Repurpose.io: Republish content from one platform to another with sophisticated automations. * Graficto: Create engaging infographics quickly * APITemplate: Add to your automation or workflow builder tool like Zapier to generate social-media friendly images and banners automatically

Software * ExpressVPN: Working from coffee shops and other remote locations presents risk to the data you transmit over the public wifi network. A virtual private network (VPN) helps to keep your private information private. This is the service I use because it’s cheap and easy to use. I’ve tried a dozen of these services. This one is the best. * Pocket: our favorite “read-it-later” application. * Setapp: a big, useful collection of Mac and iPhone apps at one fixed annual fee. * TickTick: Task management system we use daily. It’s solid, reliable, and simple. * Zapier: Connect all your favorite cloud software with customizable workflows. Automate tedious tasks and remove human error. * Zoho: A complete small business software suite. Everything from Mail and Calendar and Documents to Finance to CRM to Recruiting and HR.

Subscription – Memberships – Courses * Podia – Comprehensive, feature-rich site making it easy to offer memberships, courses, webinars, and more. * Thinkific: Easy and intuitive platform for creating and selling courses * Staple: Create paid membership programs from Notion docs

Systems Automation and Documentation * FileThis: Automate document collection in certain contexts. * Pipefile: Make it easy for clients to upload documents for your review. * Portal: Quick and easy client portal. * Process Street: We use this to document our systems and procedures. Our entire team has access so they know how to do whatever needs doing. Your systems are your business. Most of us lack an easy, accessible, comprehensive approach to documenting systems. ProcessStreet pulls together your system documentation and checklist, and integrates with many products via Zapier. * Tettra: Internal knowledge management system with workflow builder. * KBee: Turn a Google Drive folder into a fast, searchable wiki

Time & Billing * Minute 7: Syncs with QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online and enables employees to enter time and expenses from their PCs, Macs, iPhone and Android devices. * PayDirt: Time tracking, online invoicing, team productivity management, and business reports on one dashboard.

Transcription * Rev: Pay by the minute. * GoTranscript: This service is working as well as Rev now and they’re charging about 70% of the price. * SpeakWrite: Pay by the word. * Trint: Cheap transcription using artificial intelligence.

Video * Camo: Turn your iPhone or iPad into a webcam. * Epidemic Sound: Royalty-free music for your show. * Unscreen: Remove video background. * SmartShoot: These folks shot many videos for us. They’re an Upwork for video. * Wistia: This is where we host our videos. * VieEdit: Crowdsourced video-editing platform. * vidIQ: YouTube optimization Chrome extension.

Video Streaming * Restream: Stream live to multiple platforms simultaneously. * Streamlabs: Another product for streaming to multiple platforms. * Streamyard: Yet another–this space is hot right now.

Voice and Video Communication * DialPad: We use Dialpad. It’s simple, inexpensive, flexible, and reliable. It’s a great system for any business and it’s perfect for providing phone-based systems for your remote team. * Tossable Digits: Phone numbers in a variety of locations.

Webinars: * Demio: An alternative to Zoom for webinars built for marketers. * ElasicWebinar: Evergreen, pre-recorded webinars with simulated events and real-time chat. * eWebinar: Webinar automation so you don’t have to give that speech one more time. * EverWebinar: Another pre-recorded webinar alternative. * Pitch: A beautiful and simple alternative to Keynote and PowerPoint loaded with templates. * Zoom–Video Conference/Webinars: Host webinars with up to 100 attendees via desktop, phone, or tablet. It also permits live video or screen share, an essential tool for webinars.

Websites * Carrd: Simple one-page website creator. This is where we suggest starting when you need something quick, easy, and inexpensive. You’ll have a website up in an hour. * Terrace: Build a website from your Notion pages * TypeForm: Webforms made quick and easy. Users fill out your forms and you integrate their data with your practice management system. It’s Zapier.com-friendly so it’ll integrate with lots of systems. * GoDaddy: They handle our domain registrations and they get the job done with very good customer support. * Moz: Website performance metrics, crawl issue tracker, and centralized local business listing management. * Google Analytics: Google’s free website tracking and analytical tool. A must-have for anyone with any type of website. * Dribble: Find a great designer. * FeedPress: Manage your podcast hosting and keep watching your podcast and RSS feed stats in a single web application. * Sheet2Site: Turn a Google Sheet into an always-updated website with easy templates. * Figma: Collaborative design tool used for building prototypes of websites, apps, etc. An easy and convenient way for a team to work on these projects and share ideas. * Inspireframe: Leap ahead in the website design process by showing your designer what you like with pictures rather than words. Inspireframe provides a library of website components you can drag and drop so that you’ve got a good start before you start spending money on experts.

WordPress * WordPress: The go-to web publishing platform. Free and easily customizable with wonderful support. All of my sites use WordPress as the content management system. * WP Engine: This is the service that hosts our sites. We’ve tried them all and this one is simply the best. WP Engine provides powerful, robust servers with excellent stability and customer service. Because they try to lock things down and prevent issues, they don’t provide all of the flexibility of some other providers. We’re making tradeoffs in favor of reliability, and we’re very satisfied customers. * Social Warfare: Social Warfare: If you’re linking to your social media profiles from your site, this WordPress plugin will turbocharge your system. We use it. It’s the best we’ve found. * Yoast: They provide a number of excellent WordPress plugins for search engine optimization, sitemaps, etc. * WooCommerce: This is the tool for selling products, services, memberships, etc. from your WordPress site. There are lots of options, but this product is so tightly integrated with WordPress that it’s the only logical choice. We’ve used it for some time and have had great success. * Formality: Fully-featured and free form builder plugin for WordPress

WebFlow * WebFlow: Well-supported and highly extensible website builder platform * FlowBase: Components for WebFlow websites

Website Analysis/Testing * Built With What: Find out what tools were used to build a website. * DareBoost Performance: SEO, and content testing tools. * Google PageSpeed Insights: A game-plan for site speed considerations directly from Google. * GTMetrix Speed Tools: Leading page speed test. * Pingdom Speed Test: Leading page speed test. * SEOmator: Automated SEO analysis tool. * SimilarWeb: Website traffic comparison tool. * WordPress Theme Search: Find out what theme and plugins a WordPress site is using.

Writers * Mortified Cow: Mish is a writer at Mortified Cow. She’s pretty amazing. She’s not cheap, but she’s sharp, witty, edgy, and will take you up a big notch. * Rule the Word: Great at writing bios. She’s a writer for hire but we’ve used her to write lawyer and staff bios that engage the reader and generate interest. She’s not going to write the boring traditional blurb about law school and law review. She’s very good. * Scribe on Demand: All kinds of legal writing, editing, etc. If you need blog posts, website content, or other writing, done by lawyers who know how to make it interesting, then this is the place to start.

Zoom & Google Meet Tools * Airgram: Google Meet and Zoom meetings are instantly transcribed while your team collaborates on recording meeting notes. * Fathom: Let the software handle the notetaking so you can watch and listen. It’ll even update your CRM or Slack so you don’t have to remember to cut and paste. * Grain: Instantly record, transcribe, and highlight the best parts of your Zoom video calls. * Luma: Host Zoom events with custom events pages and tickets. * Perfect Recall: Zoom clips for sharing with your team.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above are affiliate links and, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that we have some level of interaction with all of these companies, and we recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.

The post 2022 Tools Worth Trying appeared first on Rosen Institute.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition

What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation

The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies

Duct Tape Marketing Revised and Updated: The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide

The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals

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Hacking Growth: How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success

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Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries

HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 All-in-One Wireless Printer, with Smart Home Office Productivity, HP Instant Ink, Works with Alexa (1KR42A)

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It

USB C Charger, Hyphen-X 100W GaN Fast Charger Type C PD Charging Station for MacBook Pro Air 16in 14in 2021, iPhone 13 Pro,Pixel 6 Pro, iPad Pro Air, Galaxy, Dell XPS USB-C Laptops and More(Black)

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Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box

Street Smarts: An All-Purpose Tool Kit for Entrepreneurs

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

A tech tip about one of my favorite travel tools, TripIt.

Some concise advice about the mindset of the entrepreneur vs. the law firm owner – how they differ, why they differ, and what each kind of objective provides.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post Are you a firm owner, or entrepreneur? appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Phuket, Thailand…

A tech tip about why you should be using one – yes, just one – computer.

Some concise advice about what I learned about getting better customer feedback from a restaurant manager.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post Specific questions get more honest feedback appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Phuket, Thailand…

A tech tip about one of the tech tools that I keep coming back to, even after trying the competitors, the “read it later” app Pocket.

Some concise advice about why being the one who initiates communication with your clients gives you a lot more value and customer satisfaction for the same amount of time spent.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post Why calling your client is better than your client calling you appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Phuket, Thailand…

A tech tip about why you should be looking at hiring an email deliverability expert to make sure your email marketing is landing in your prospective client’s inbox and not in the spam or bulk folders.

Some concise advice about law firm partnerships – you probably know by now that I don’t think they’re a good idea, but since a lot of lawyers choose to get involved in them anyway, I have some thoughts on how you can avoid some of the headaches you’ll might encounter otherwise.

We’re about to dive into our Marketing Tactics Lab program in February. If you’re interested in joining us, you can sign up here.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post My advice for your ill-fated partnership appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

A tech tip about whether or not software built for lawyers and the legal profession is really a better option than more mass-market products and why a product like Zoho might make more sense than a practice management package.

Some concise advice about my 4 step plan for building your law firm, and your life.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post My 4 step plan for everything appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

Happy new year! Today – a tech tip about renting cars and saving money with AutoSlash.com and whether what’s called a non-owners insurance policy for a car is worth it for you.

Some concise advice about scheduling your holidays now, for the rest of the year. Blocking off your vacations now, at the beginning of the year, makes it a lot less likely that you’ll run into scheduling issues in a few months time.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post Schedule the rest of the year’s holidays right now appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

A tech tip about sending faxes – yes, really – with GeniusFax.

Some concise advice about performance reviews and how relevant (or irrelevant) they are today.

It’s the last day to join me in the Marketing Accelerator program that starts in January, where we’ll create and tailor the marketing message you need to get the clients you deserve.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post Is a performance review still relevant? appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

Today’s podcast is a little bit different. I want to talk about the two most common issues I hear about when I talk to lawyers, and issues I dealt with myself.

The first is not having enough clients. You know what you’re doing, you’re good at what you do, and you enjoy the law. But there just aren’t enough clients walking through the door. The second is kind of the opposite – you have too many clients. So many that they run you ragged. You feel like you just can’t get ahead. You’re swamped, your team is swamped, and you feel like there’s nothing left to give.

The solution to both these problems is actually more clients – even in the second case. But those clients need to be better. They need to be able to understand and afford the fees you deserv.

And because of that, the solution to the problem of having too few clients, or too many of the wrong clients, lies in how you’re marketing your practice.

Our Marketing Accelerator program is coming in January and I want you to join me as we create and tailor the marketing message you need to get the clients you deserve.

The post Too few clients? Too many? A better message is the solution appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

Our Marketing Accelerator program is coming in January and you can sign up here to join me as we create and tailor the marketing message you need to get the clients you deserve.

I have a tech tip about using your phone to record videos and why getting an external microphone is absolutely necessary for decent content.

And some concise advice about how to avoid and remove negative reviews on services like Google and Yelp.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

The post How to fix negative reviews appeared first on Rosen Institute.

Rode Wireless GO II 2-Person Compact Wireless Mic System/Recorder Bundle with 2X Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone

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If this is the year you’re going to make it happen, but you know you need focus and accountability, join me for Marketing Accelerator 2022. It’s a community of lawyers building the practices they deserve in 10 minutes a day.

Join Marketing Accelerator

2022 is on the horizon. It’s time to plan your marketing for the year.

Why?

Because it’s good to walk into a room of other lawyers who know who you are, respect you, trust you, and refer business to you. That’s one thing an effective marketing plan can do for you.

But it does a lot more than that.

It makes you welcome in your community as a respected contributer. You get that feeling of pride and warmth and caring when you show up at the kid’s sportsball game, or a civic group meeting, or the restaurant where you take the family on Thursday nights.

And yes, there’s more.

Marketing, even though it’s a business thing, becomes a family thing when your spouse knows you can be counted on to contribute, when your kids hear good things about you at school, and when you’re able to do the right things—the good things—for your loved ones. Marketing improves your entire life when you provide a safe, comfortable home, a solid education, and time for your family to be together doing fun things, building connection, and creating memories.

It’s tempting to think of marketing as selling yourself, or hustling; many of us avoid it because we hate the idea of coming off as gauche.

That’s not at all what we’re talking about.

Marketing your business isn’t about shouting your name louder than everybody else. It’s about providing value to your potential clients and professional referral sources by letting them know they have someone they can rely on to help. You’re the one who can be counted on to solve the problem.

This is how you achieve that feeling of pride, satisfaction, contentment, and belonging. It’s how you gain the respect you’ve earned with your education, effort, commitment, and determination. If your marketing feels wrong, it is wrong. Effective marketing feels good because it is good.

It’s 3 simple steps The plan, in a nutshell, is this:

Set three goals (more/better clients, better revenue, more profit)
Draft a monthly plan to achieve the goals (almost any marketing approach will work if you actually do it)
Take action! Execute! Do it!

That’s the plan. It’s not complicated. I’ve watched more law firms than I can count go from zero to millions of dollars per year in revenue by following those simple steps.

It’s your time—2022 is when it happens for you This is the year you stop wondering is this going to work? and start saying I’m doing it—it’s real.

2022 will be unique.

What’s ‘normal’ is different now, but in many ways, things are getting back to the way they were before the phrase ‘global pandemic’ was in common usage.

People have problems to solve and the money to solve them. They need lawyers and they’re going to give that money to the lawyers they trust.

Your marketing mission is to help folks realize that you can be trusted.

Here’s what’s coming … This is a simple, month-by-month law firm marketing plan for those lawyers who lack the time/energy/creativity/resources/whatever to build out a marketing plan for themselves.

What’s the impact of the plan? You’ll invest one day per month, and the revenues will start to flow. You’ll earn millions of dollars. You’ll fund your kid’s education, build a retirement nest egg, and probably leave a little to your alma mater when you die—if you do as I suggest.

[ While I have you here, I wanted to remind you that you can get the latest articles delivered to your inbox a week before they go up on the web. Just one email per week. Sign up here. ]

There’s no magic in this prescription. It’s not at all sexy or innovative. There’s some relationship-building mixed with a bit of reminding people you still exist. There’s some effort to establish yourself as an expert, so that you can gain the attention of people who need your help. It’s a practical, conservative, proven approach to building a professional

practice.

This plan is particularly effective because it’s steady, consistent, and persistent. It works because you work the plan over time, which steadily increases awareness of your business.

But it won’t work overnight, and it won’t work unless you take action and do what’s outlined below. Sure, wishing for new clients might work … it just won’t work very well. Doing what I describe below works a heck of a lot better than wishing.

You won’t do this … you probably won’t even read it This is the law firm marketing plan for lawyers who don’t have a marketing plan.

You don’t need this plan if you’ve already got something good going on. If you’re doing it, doing it, and doing it, then just keep doing it.

If you’re busy executing your plan, don’t mind me today. In fact, you can stop reading right now.

Of course, you won’t stop. You’re not that kind of lawyer.

You’re still reading, just in case I say something useful. That fear of missing out is part of what is going to drive your success. So feel free to join me today for this journey.

In Case of Emergency Break Glass We panic. I get it. I’ve spent time in panic mode.

Sometimes we need revenue NOW. There’s huge pressure to bring money in the door. Bill collectors are calling and the rent is past due. The stress is overwhelming. Been there, done that, felt the sweat dripping down my neck.

Thankfully, a lawyer’s life isn’t always a break-glass emergency. Thankfully, most days are pretty good and the money, while not always overflowing the cup, is enough to keep the cup full. But sometimes ….

The marketing plan I suggest below works. You’ll have a good year. But if you’re in crisis mode right now, you may need to make something happen this afternoon.

First—have you done everything you can to beef up your Google My Business profile? You can knock that out this afternoon, for free.

Second, if you need a quick cash infusion, I suggest you turn to online advertising. It’s rarely a good long-term solution. It’s easy to begin to feel like you’re working for the online ad seller rather than yourself. They use your data to figure out how much you’ll be willing to pay, and they let their algorithms keep jacking up the price. You can easily go from being the customer to being the hostage.

The online ad space is crowded with lawyers. It’s competitive. We often irrationally drive the advertising cost up beyond the point where the expenditure is profitable. That’s why I suggest, if you find this approach necessary, that you look beyond Google and Facebook for advertising opportunities.

Check out online advertising opportunities on TikTok, Quora, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram stories, podcasting, Amazon, and YouTube (yep, a Google-owned property). These options are often less cluttered, less expensive, and less competitive than their bigger competitors.

Advertising might be a quick fix for your short-term revenue needs.

But remember: it’s generally more profitable to build a long-term model on less expensive, more predictable marketing. Online advertising puts you at the mercy of the large companies that facilitate the distribution of your message. Be cautious about relying on online ads as your primary source of new business. I know it’s incredibly tempting, but don’t get addicted to the quick fix.

[ I'm glad you're enjoying the Friday File. I share my best marketing and practice management advice exclusively with my email subscribers every Friday. Join now. ]

How marketing vendors become our worst enemy We love the quick fix—at least, I do. We’re all about buying ourselves a magic solution that can instantly turn on the new client inquiries. We love the idea of the magic bullet, and we’re quick to suspend our critical thinking skills when we’re hungry for revenues.

We’re the people who joke that the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math, but we’ll turn around and buy into a marketing gimmick sold by some huckster in a slick suit or a Silicon Valley venture-funded polo shirt.

Hell, some of us buy into marketing schemes because the cookies that SEO company sent were soooo damned tasty.

I’ll be blunt: if your revenues aren’t yet what they need to be, then you need to avoid shiny-object syndrome. You need to get the basics under control.

Some lawyers have their systems optimized. New clients hire the firm, the firm makes and meets its promises, and revenues overflow the bank accounts. Great.

Firms that are already performing at a high level:

Bring the vision to fruition
Make clients happy enough to spread the word, online and off
Generate revenue of hundreds of thousands of dollars per employee
Retain employees and turn away a steady stream of job hunters
Finish the year with a healthy profit, enabling reinvestment in the development of the business

These firms have the basics mastered. They can afford to consider some of the shiny marketing objects that might take them to the next level.

They’re positioned to explore advanced data-based approaches to acquiring algorithmically-scored prospective clients at the moment they enter the market.

They’re ready to use chatbots, experiment with artificial intelligence, and build custom CRM workflows to bring prospects into the firm’s orbit and increase engagement.

They’re able to deploy technology for tracking each prospect’s engagement with the firm’s marketing, and then use that data to customize their approach to each specific buyer.

They’re positioned to level up their game, because they have a foundation in place. But if you’re not ready for next-level tactics, don’t let yourself get distracted by the shiny new toy until after your solid foundation is in place.

It’s tempting to jump on the latest intake application, uber-cool online marketing sales pitch, or slick sales training proposal, and get pulled down the rabbit hole. Don’t do it. Stay focused. Get the basics mastered first. Follow the plan detailed below.

Not enough revenue? Keep reading! Today, I’ll outline a marketing plan for your law practice for the coming year.

It’s a simple plan, but it works. There are no radical ideas. The tactics are proven.

This law firm marketing plan will take a newbie from $0 to $300k in the first year. It will also take a million-dollar practice to a much higher level.

It works for nearly anyone … if you take action Follow this plan and you’ll get results. In fact, the only way you won’t get results is if you ignore my

prescription.

But here’s where 9 out of 10 of you will fall short: reading the plan is not enough. Following the plan is the only way it works. This is the most important paragraph in this article. Go back and read it again. Seriously.

I talk to lawyers almost every day who say they love what I do, have read everything I’ve written, and are excited to be super-charging their marketing, but can’t figure out why the revenue isn’t where it needs to be.

To a person, the issue is that they simply aren’t doing the things in the plan.

Sometimes they think they are, but when they tally up the number of referral source lunches they’ve had in the past month, they’re shocked to find that it’s zero.

Sometimes, they say this part or that part of the plan isn’t practical for their practice area or their location, so they haven’t done it, and they wonder why the phone isn’t ringing.

Only you can decide whether you’re committed to your financial success. I’ll show you the way, but I can’t set the alarm, roll you out of bed, or make the coffee.

You have to be the driver on this journey.

If you’re fired up and ready to go, scroll down to “January” and you’re off.

But if you want to exponentially increase the return on your investment, don’t skip ahead just yet.

You’ll go faster with vision Marketing works. Following the plan I’ve set out below will deliver clients.

But will they be the clients you really want? Will you end up doing the work you enjoy? Will the revenue be profitable?

Most lawyers only consider these questions after they’ve started attracting new business. The new business turns out not to be the business they want (they realize this later). Usually, they figure it out because they’re busy and broke.

Wouldn’t you rather avoid that cycle and figure out your practice before you mess it up?

We instinctively understand the need for a plan. We know it’s risky to postpone the existential decisions.

We’re aware of our lack of clarity when we accept different kinds of clients with different kinds of problems. We find ourselves taking work we aren’t suited for. We know, in our gut, that we’re making questionable choices.

But we’re worried about staying busy, so we avoid thinking about our vision for the business.

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.

—Lewis Carroll

Investing time in a vision is ultimately a time-saver. In fact, deciding where you’re going before you start moving is the best way to become more efficient and prevent waste. That’s why the free Rosen’s Rules course spends so much time on the topic.

Rule number two in the course is all about vision. Vision is where you start and, if you do it right, it’s where you end up at the end. You see it, you build it, and then you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

The secret marketing sauce: The two stories Your marketing message doesn’t have to be perfectly clear to work.

Even an amateur who gets the basics right will see some results.

The brand new marketer quickly figures out how to communicate the most basic part of the message: “This is my name; this is what I offer.” It’s pretty easy to get that part right.

But a marketing message that resonates will travel further and cost less to deliver. Optimizing your message means you can spend less time and less money spreading the word, because the words themselves are more powerful.

A good story spreads fast. Other people start telling it on your behalf, and suddenly it’s amplified. Word of mouth is the most powerful, efficient, and effective form of marketing. A good story gets people talking.

There are two stories you should tell. First, tell your client’s story. Describe what it feels like to have their problem.

Second, tell your story. Explain how you came to be the right person, in the right place, at the right time to help.

Tell your client’s story Articulate the problem. Show them that you understand. Tell them what it’s like to be in their shoes. Use your marketing message to demonstrate empathy.

Most importantly, explain what it feels like to be going through their problem. Use your knowledge of their story and their problem to articulate it better than they could themselves.

When prospective clients believe you fully appreciate their problem, they will automatically believe that you also know the solution.

As counter-intuitive as it sounds, we humans care more about our problem than we do about the solution.

Leave them with that ‘fly on the wall’ feeling. Make them wonder whether you’ve actually been watching their lives unravel. Make it clear that you know what happened and you know what’s next. Tell them their own story as part of your marketing message.

Tell your story, too Prospective clients have a hard time judging your legal talents and skills. They’re not qualified to assess your expertise. But they’ll trust you because of your story, if you’re willing to tell it.

They want to know who you are, what you’re about, and why you do what you do.

They want to know what you’re made of and how that core part of you translates into the solution to their problem.

They want to know what you care about and why.

They want to know why you care about them.

They want to understand how you already know so much about their life and their problem, and why you’re on this mission to help.

They want to understand what makes you tick. They want to know what you feel, why you feel it, and how that energy translates into getting them results.

Explain to them what it feels like to be you, to live your life, to have experienced the kinds of issues that feel, to you, much like their problems feel to them. Look hard for the emotional overlap between your story and their story.

The magic happens–the connection becomes exponentially stronger–when the feelings they are having are feelings that you have also experienced. You understand because you have felt the way they feel now.

In telling your story it’s crucial to focus on the overlap. It’s not important to tell every aspect of your story. Emphasize the overlap. Find your common ground with your prospective clients. They want you to explain how your story intersects with theirs.

Once you’ve figured out what these two stories are, tell them whenever you can: in articles, in speeches, whenever you’re interacting with people. The words of these stories matter, but it’s even more important to feel their truth in your bones.

Telling both stories isn’t easy, which is why most lawyer marketing is “John Doe–Injury Law–Phoenix” repeated over and over. If you find a powerful way to tell these two stories, people will share your message.

A good story goes much further Telling the stories I suggest–your client’s story and your story–is a force multiplier. You’ll get dramatically better marketing results when the stories are well told. You’ll be able to spend less time, money, and energy and achieve the same marketing impact.

If you invest time and energy now in developing the stories, you’ll reap the rewards for the entirety of your legal career. Getting the stories right will pay dividends year after year. Yes, you have to expend some creative energy in the development of the two stories, but once the foundational elements of the stories are in place, you’ll be able to rely on them forever.

It’s impossible to overestimate the impact of the stories. They are the engine that powers your marketing. Once you get the stories right, you’ll see them spread without you. It’s fascinating to observe their impact after you set them free in the world. Stories drive the world forward. Get yours right and they’ll drive your business growth forward, too.

Numbers, goals, and deadlines impact results Some marketing advisors say, “If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.”

I agree with the spirit of that advice. But if we quit doing all the things that didn’t come with solid metrics, most of us wouldn’t market our businesses at all.

It can be tough to track the origin of our clients. We ask them how they found us, but they can’t remember. Or they do remember, but they get it wrong.

One client says she found you on “the internet.” Later you discover she found your website because her cousin sent her a link to one of your articles. The cousin bookmarked your page because of his minister’s recommendation. The minister heard you speak at the Rotary Club.

Good luck tracking that.

Still, tracking is worthwhile. Collecting data gives you a general sense of what works and what doesn’t.

Double down on the tactics that generate business. Abandon the ones that fail. Over time you’ll become more efficient.

It’s possible to get very scientific about your marketing. You can create measurable funnels and track prospective clients as they gradually move toward retaining your firm.

That data can give you a powerful boost toward success. But don’t let your inability to numerically analyze the value of your effort paralyze you. Act now, then measure later, when you have the time to track your results.

But while measurement can wait, deadlines can’t.

Let’s face it: we’re deadline-driven people, and we’re programmed to meet the hard deadlines, without fail. Most of us spend our lives leaping from one deadline to the next. The longer-term items–the ones with no clear, immediate deadlines–tend to get kicked down the road.

The solution to this procrastination problem is to write your marketing plan into the calendar, with hard deadlines that reflect your commitment. Your marketing calendar is the cornerstone of your marketing success.

Your marketing calendar drives the plan Marketing is calendar-driven. Trying to market your business in bursts isn’t as effective as spreading it out consistently, over time. Use the calendar to spread your marketing “touches” over the course of a year.

Personally, I like to calendar my marketing on a spreadsheet.

I figure out my target groups and list them across the top of the sheet. For example, I might list clergy, psychologists, social workers, lawyers, upset fathers, hair stylists, and accountants.

Then down the left side, I’ll list the months of the year.

At the intersection of dates and targets, I list the tactic I plan to use to touch the target to remind them that I exist. I find a way to reinforce the marketing stories I tell with each touch.

I plot my calendar in December of each year for the next year. The calendar gives me an organized view. I can scan it to be sure I’m touching each group at regular intervals.

For example, I might email a seminar invitation to lawyers in January, remind them in February, and send them the recording in March. Touch, touch, touch; you get the idea.

Find what works for you Don’t try to be someone you’re not. You can’t sustain it, and you’ll be miserable. Use the marketing approaches you find most enjoyable.

Don’t rely on your assumptions about yourself, either. Test your self-assessments. See what works and what feels good.

Some of us are quick to reject networking. We assume we have the wrong personality for building relationships.

But some of the best networkers are introverts. They listen well, so people like them. The classic loud, bragging extrovert turns off a lot of people.

Success helps us enjoy tactics we might have skipped if we hadn’t tested. You won’t know until you try a variety of approaches.

After trying out some different tactics, settle into the ones you enjoy. Networking is great for some and completely wrong for others.

An information-rich, educational website or blog is the perfect tactic for certain folks. Some love public speaking. Others enjoy social media. There are lawyers who geek out about online advertising and there are other lawyers who can’t stop calling reporters, offering to comment.

Everybody is different. Everyone has different strengths and challenges. Find what works for you and then do it–lots of it.

You need one objective measure You need something by which to keep score. You need to know, deep in your heart, whether you’re making progress or floundering.

The obvious measure of your marketing success is revenue. If it’s coming in, then you’re winning. But if it’s not, well–you’re not winning as quickly.

But revenue, in a growing practice, can be a frustrating measurement. The gurus say it takes two years to build a successful professional practice. During those two years the revenue will likely come in fits and starts. It’s an unusual firm that sees the revenue trend steadily upward without interruption.

You need an objective measure. You need something that tells you that what you’re doing is working. You need an early (pre-revenue) measurement of the success of your efforts.

Thankfully, there’s an easy yardstick by which to judge yourself.

Count your five-star reviews on websites dedicated to reviewing law firms. Google and Yelp are the obvious choices. More reviews means more happy clients. This is word-of-mouth marketing in the 21st century: when someone jumps online and says something nice about you, they are growing your practice. Get more reviews.

I can already hear some lawyers telling me why they can’t make that measurement work. They’ll blame their practice area for their failure to get the reviews posted online, or the types of folks they represent. I don’t agree.

Yes, it’s hard to get online reviews from some people in some practice areas. But I can find practices in every area getting reviews. You say your criminal law clients are too embarrassed to post reviews, but I can find reviews for other firms. You say your clients insist on privacy and won’t post, but I can find very private people posting about very personal matters.

You can get the reviews. They’ll serve as interim measurements of your success and they’ll be a long term source of new clients, because reviews are powerful in the market today.

Get more five-star reviews. Just do it.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic: should you automate the process? Should you let software handle this for you? No. Talk to your clients, explain the review process, and encourage them to post on your behalf. Don’t leave it to email; use your personal charm to get every single client to post a review.

What’s not in the plan There are certain approaches to marketing, mostly pitched by vendors, that you won’t find in this plan.

Why? Because they are generally ineffective, frustrating, and often cost more–in either time or money–than they are worth.

Don’t bother with these:

Don’t buy leads (or most anything else) You’ll get calls. “Are you taking new clients?” they ask. Just hang up. The leads will be terrible.

Speaking of hanging up: look, we all get these solicitation calls from marketing vendors. Aside from leads, they offer plaques for your walls, ‘award’ listings on websites, ads, pens emblazoned with your name, and more. Just say no.

Once upon a time, we got solicitations from Who’s Who. Today it’s Super Lawyers. It’s all a play on your ego. The only thing you’ll get if you pay for a listing in Super Lawyers is public confirmation that you’re insecure. If these publications want to list you and use your name as bait for less secure lawyers, then let them. But don’t pay them.

Calls from salespeople are all about helping the salesperson, not you. Caller ID is your friend. Don’t answer these calls, but if you do, don’t give them your credit card number.

Don’t redesign your website Redoing your website is fun. It’s especially enjoyable if you can work in a giant photo of yourself.

But you’ll quickly discover that revenues don’t suddenly jump up when you launch the new site. Now is the wrong time to redesign your website.

Should you add educational content? Absolutely.

Should you add video, calculators, tools, and a chatbot? Yep, if you’ve got the basics covered. But don’t bother with the extras until you have the educational content written. Get the text done first. Educating your market with text works. The extras work too, but not nearly as well as providing text. Write first. Do the rest later.

But don’t redesign the site from the ground up when there are other marketing tactics that you haven’t yet employed.

And keep in mind that the website game is substantially different today than it was even a couple of years ago. Google is sending fewer and fewer clicks to organic search results, preferring to keep users on pages they control via knowledge panels, AMP, and Google My Business listings. Bidding wars on the top PPC terms in a lot of markets mean spending more per click than you will make in profit on each case. It’s not the inexpensive and abundant source of business it once was.

The marketing plan below will allow you a bit of a website refresh if necessary. You can still include that big picture of yourself. But we’ll just tweak a bit instead of starting over entirely, because we’re focused here on generating revenue first.

Don’t pay for search engine optimization There must be legitimate search engine optimization people out there somewhere. But it’s hard to tell, because there are so many sleazy operators. They lie, cheat, and steal, and we don’t know how to figure out whom to trust, if anyone.

I’ve met lawyers who are convinced that their SEO firm is doing magic for them, only to discover the statistics were faked.

One lawyer reported a dramatically reduced “bounce-rate” and then figured out that his guru had tweaked a Google Analytics setting which explained the change. There had been no change in visitor behavior.

Another lawyer was given a graph showing steadily increasing traffic only to discover that it couldn’t be confirmed by Google Analytics data.

When you find yourself busy with new clients, your SEO firm will take credit. When business is slow, they’ll blame a search engine algorithm change. Their work is invisible. They operate in a black box. They may mislead you and take your money. Clearly, I am not a fan.

But I do know a secret: search engines appreciate valuable, well-written content.

Why? Because they need to deliver answers to the questions asked by their searchers.

Search engines especially appreciate it when you create something useful that addresses search queries which previously came up empty. Can you do that without paying for help? Probably. I’ve always found excellent advice on the topic from Search Engine News (I’ve subscribed for more than a decade).

Don’t delegate relationships Relationships are between you and the other person. Keep them close. Set up your own lunches. Message back and forth. Use the process to get to know one another as you build the relationship.

Don’t hand it off to your staff. Don’t outsource it. Don’t expect results from relationship-building unless you are actually engaged in the relationship.

Trust is a one-to-one kind of magic. It comes naturally when you (1) interact, (2) with frequency, and (3) mutually engage in disclosing personal details. Trust comes quickly for some, slowly for others, but it’s always about one human connecting with another. Keep the relationship between you and the other person. Don’t delegate.

Don’t believe the hype There is always something new. Much of it was new to the rest of the world three years ago and now lawyers have suddenly ‘discovered’ it today.

Snapchat, Facebook video, chatbots, etc., all get their day in the sun. They are not miracle cures for your revenue problem. Don’t jump on the new thing because of the hype, unless you’ve got the old proven thing humming along already.

Personally, I love a shiny object, but I’ve learned that the ‘great results’ we’re promised are usually a figment of someone’s imagination–either (1) a vendor who needs to sell something, or (2) an insecure lawyer who loves to talk about himself and his brilliant idea.

Shiny is fun, but not at the expense of an approach that’s proven.

Don’t do it all It’s tempting to do it all — build a website, launch a podcast, get going on Facebook, Google MyBusiness, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, add an email auto-responder, throw in some Google Ads, start publishing YouTube videos, and print business cards, brochures, and more.

Instead of doing it all, go in a different direction by doing one thing particularly well.

You can build an amazing practice by standing out, using just one slice of the marketing pie. You can be the lawyer everyone is talking about on TikTok. You can be the lawyer with an amazing podcast. You can be the lawyer writing the terrific blog.

It’s really hard to stand out using just one marketing tactic. But it’s nearly impossible to stand out when you divide your time, energy, and money between two or more tactics.

Pick a tactic for telling your stories and go deep with that single tactic. If it’s podcasting, then get great at it and build your audience. If it’s YouTube videos, then master the YouTube algorithm and grow a following. If it’s a website, then make it a site visitors can’t wait to visit again. Do something worthy of talking about instead of doing lots of things that nobody cares about.

Note: If you’re willing to step up, step out of the typical lawyer marketing mix (a website, a business card, and some paid advertising), and set yourself apart by going deep with a single tactic, then the plan below really isn’t for you. The simple plan I provide is for lawyers who are afraid to set themselves apart by saying something loud, potentially controversial, and probably targeting some perceived enemy. Bold lawyers don’t need the simple, month by month, plan detailed below, because they’ve created their own plan for showing up in the minds of the prospects they’re targeting.

Smooth the way and reduce friction Finally, it’s pointless to generate new inquiries if the potential clients are just going to hit roadblocks at your firm and decide to go elsewhere. All too often law firms destroy a relationship with a prospective client before it even gets started.

Do your best not to encourage your prospective clients to call your competition. Get the basics under control before you amp up the marketing.

Ask yourself:

Do we answer the phone when it rings?
Do we promptly return calls, emails, and text messages?
Do our website contact systems work?
Can we get prospective clients in quickly?
Is our office easy to find? Do we send directions?
Do we remind prospective clients of their appointment?
Can we accept whatever form of payment the client wishes?
Do clients leave their initial meeting satisfied?
Do we follow up?
Do prospective clients retain us?

Eliminating friction in the intake process has a significant effect. Fixing these problems before the phone starts ringing is critical. Do it now, because this marketing plan works. If you follow this agenda, you’ll have new clients soon.

Here’s the monthly law firm marketing plan This marketing plan works.

Of course, you have to work the plan.

I’ve released annual plans before, and I always get lots of enthusiastic responses from lawyers promising to stick with it for the coming year.

They don’t.

I’m not sure which New Year’s resolution they drop first: the marketing plan, the diet, or the gym membership.

But if you do what I suggest, you’ll get more clients.

I encourage you to modify this plan for your particular needs. Adapt it to fit your practice.

But once you finish planning, execute and stick with it. Don’t keep tweaking it after you start. Don’t incorporate the latest scheme based on some sales pitch. Stick to the plan and keep going.

Here’s your 2022 law firm marketing plan.

January 1. Create a list Lists are valuable. Create a big list of anyone who might be useful to your marketing efforts. Include their name, address, email address, and social media addresses (Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and LinkedIn).

You won’t have all the info for all of your contacts, but don’t stress. This list will be a lifelong work in progress. Start now and add information as you acquire it.

Whom should you include on the list?

Everyone. Include clients, former clients, former classmates, local connections, referral sources, civic group contacts, church friends, neighbors, and anyone else who has the remotest idea that you exist.

Two notes about the list:

Don’t feel constrained by the lack of a prior relationship. It’s okay to add people to your list whom you’d like to know. Go big. It’s okay to start working on some folks who feel out of reach. Don’t limit yourself.
Lawyers are great additions to your list. Realistically, lawyers get asked for referrals to other lawyers more than anyone else and thus are incredibly valuable relationships. A great list tends to be lawyer-heavy.

You’ll use the list regularly for the next year (and forever), so now is the time to get it organized.

What software should you use to create the list?

Anything that encourages you to get it done. A legal pad and pen are fine. The contact manager in whatever applications you use is better. A specialized software product is great if it’s simple to use, but not if it means you’re going to spend 2 weeks researching instead of making the list.

Action before efficiency.

Add details about each contact. You’ll add more notes over time, but for now record where the contact originated. Was this person from the church directory? Is she a former client? Is she both? Use some sort of simple notation to help you recall how you know each person on the list.

Send out invitations to a video conference Back in the day, pre-covid, I’d have suggested throwing a party. Today, a party might get you on the local TV news–and not in a good way.

We need an alternative to parties that allows us to connect with people at a rate faster than one at a time.

At this point, we’re all well familiar with the latest, greatest way to bring folks together: the video conference.

Yes, it was fun for a hot minute when the pandemic began. The novelty quickly wore off. Zoom went from feeling new and interesting to feeling like work.

So you’re going to have to be creative. You’re going to have to find a way to turn video conferencing into something valuable.

How? Offer something more. Turn your video conference into something that adds value for attendees.

Do something educational, or something entertaining, or something stimulating. Pandemics call for creativity. This is your chance.

Come up with an idea for some segment of your list. Maybe it’ll be a networking event, or a speed-dating opportunity for business owners to connect, or it’ll be an educational program covering some element of your practice area. Maybe it’ll be a birthday party for your town with champagne delivered to every attendee in advance, or maybe you’ll host an opportunity to debate a current issue involving your practice area. Maybe you’ll host a lunch and learn while everyone eats together on the screen. Maybe you’ll plan a karaoke event for your group.

Whatever you plan is likely to make you nervous. So don’t overthink it–just do it. Send the invitations before you think too much about it, so your anxiety doesn’t have time to stop you. Invite too many people. Send those invitations.

Hesitant? I hear you. We’re living in new circumstances and things are different. But that means that everyone is looking for new ways to connect and communicate. Your slightly crazy idea will work. You’ll stimulate something in people and the positive energy you create will benefit your business. Do it. It’s going to be great. Send the invitations.

Snail mail some letters Send letters to one-tenth of your existing clients. Use snail mail, not email. (Yep, people still open paper letters from lawyers. Maybe use fancy notecards because buying stuff feels like progress, right?)

Thank them for allowing you to perform their work and ask whether they’d like to talk to you, at no charge, about any issue. Have them call and schedule a phone conference if they want to talk.

Eat some lunch Let’s talk about lunch and the pandemic before we go too far with our January plan. There are issues with taking people to lunch … at least in some places and for some people. I have no idea what the rules are in your area, what risk lunch might entail, nor do I know what’s safe for you and your lunch date. Our current reality is fuzzy, uncertain, and requires advice from an epidemiologist. I can barely even spell epidemiologist.

So, if lunch isn’t a possibility for you right now, then this is another chance for you to use some creativity and adaptability. My personal approach to long-distance lunch is as follows. First, my lunch date and I agree on a lunch via video conference. Second, I take their lunch order via back-and-forth emails, a few days in advance. Third, I order their lunch and my lunch and have both delivered to our respective locations using a meal delivery service. Finally, we enjoy our respective lunches while video chatting. It’s actually quite enjoyable and ends up taking about half the time of a pre-pandemic lunch, because there’s no driving involved.

I’m going to suggest a bunch of lunches for you in 2022. Use the procedure I’ve outlined so you’ll both stay safe. Better yet, come up with your own approach to sharing a meal. What matters is spending time together and building trust.

So here’s your January lunch assignment:

Call two lawyers from your master list who might refer business to you at some point. Invite each of them to lunch. As usual, don’t overthink it. Just do it.

Enjoy lunch, talk, and get to know one another better. Ask lots of questions. Learn about their lives and businesses. These lawyers are the beginning of your soon-to-be thriving network of referral sources. It all starts over pasta and salad.

Why two lawyers instead of ten, or twenty? Because I’m trying to get you moving without scaring you off. I know lawyers who can do ten coffees and lunches per week. How are they doing with growing their business? Phenomenally well. This is a game of ‘the one who dies with the most friends wins.’ Make more friends. Lunch is the gateway drug of friendships.

Spend a few minutes on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn It’s trendy to unplug, disconnect, and go off the grid. That’s for other people. You need to get yourself wired up, plugged in, and accessible online. For our purposes, Facebook or Instagram will do the trick.

Make sure everyone who refers business to you is in your email contacts list. Give Facebook access to your list. (It’s automated, so if you’re worried about client confidentiality, segregate your client list from your referral source list.)

Friend all of those people. Don’t get all wound up about crazy internet stuff like who might see pictures of your kids. (Trust me, nobody wants your kids. We’ve got enough of our own, and they’re driving us nuts.)

Once a month, at a minimum, update your status on Facebook. Just post something simple to remind people that you’re alive.

If social media feels awkward to you, keep it short and sweet. Just say, “Still alive and well, in case you were wondering.” As usual, don’t overthink it.

Should you do the same on LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, and whatever else comes along? Sure, if it floats your boat. But if you’re not already doing this stuff, then it’s probably not your idea of fun, so don’t sweat it. A quick Facebook update is sufficient to remind others that you exist.

February 1. Send more snail mail Send the same letter to the next tenth of your clients. Repeat every month until you finish in October. We’re building a system here, so make sure this happens. You’ll see how the pieces of this system come together each month. Don’t skip steps.

Have lunch again Schedule two more lunches. You’re going to continue taking new people to lunch each month until November. (See the system?)

Tip: consider prioritizing your contact list, so that you reach out to the most promising referral sources earlier in the year. For some lawyers, those highest-priority lunches will be with lawyers. Why lawyers? Because they are a great source of referrals. But some of you will want to focus on non-lawyers, depending on your area of practice. Maybe you should be having lunch with doctors, or community leaders.

What should you talk about at lunch? Ask questions and use this list of conversation starters to keep things going. Be sure to add notes to your list after each lunch so you’ll remember these people. You’re going to see them again.

If you’re feeling like a fish out of water at lunch (and are willing to keep trying) then you might appreciate my networking course. We charge for the course; if you can’t afford it please contact me, and I’ll make arrangements for you.

Throw the video conference Remember the invitations you sent? Now it’s time to have the online event.

Whether you’ve got three people, thirty people, or three hundred people, be sure to greet everyone and keep up with the attendees. Add notes to your list to track who showed and who wasn’t able to attend.

You spent time last month coming up with a great idea. Now is the time to pull it off. Remember, this is all new. Nobody knows what to expect. No matter what happens, you’ll act like it’s exactly what you planned. This thing is a success regardless of how it plays out because it gave you a chance to invite everyone and position yourself in the mind of everyone invited as a go-getter in your practice area. You won this game before it even started. Have fun with it.

Don’t forget about Facebook Go ahead and post your monthly social media status update. This time go big and include a picture. Pictures of you with your family will get noticed, so go for it, even if you have an ugly family.

March 1. Keep sending letters Continue with the client letters, covering another 10 percent of your list.

I suspect you’re getting bored with sending letters. Nobody said marketing would be exciting. This might be the right time to outsource or delegate the letter-sending. We’ve had good luck with virtual assistants for projects like this one. You’re looking for someone who will enable you to set it and forget it.

Eat more lunch Take two new people to lunch.

I know, you’re gaining weight from all the lunches you’re having this year, and it’s only March. Maybe you’ve already added a COVID-15.

Join a gym. The gym is a great place to meet more people, anyway. And if gyms still aren’t open in your area by March, start a Zoom aerobics group. Everybody feels more comfortable in sweatbands and Lycra anyway.

If you’re enjoying the lunches, take it up a notch and do more than two a month. I know a lawyer who scheduled eight lunches per week. She ate far too much lunch, but got so busy with work she often didn’t have time for breakfast or dinner.

These are good problems to have, right?

Write an article Write an article for a publication. Local business publications are usually good targets, but a blog or other online publication in your market or practice area might be better.

Limit yourself to 750 words and submit it. Tell a story about something interesting (pro tip: remember those two stories you worked on telling above, back in December? This is an important place to use them). If the publication rejects your submission, submit it elsewhere until you get it published.

Get going on Google My Business Spend a little energy getting set up on Google My Business. This program helps Google list you on Google Maps and in the search engine results. This month do what’s required to get yourself listed and verified. It’s quick and easy. If you’re already listed, then check your listing and make sure everything is up-to-date and working.
Check your 5-star reviews How many reviews have you garnered so far? Keep an eye on the total number of 5-star reviews. Remember, this is our measure of success. It’s a leading indicator. A growing total of 5-star reviews will lead to growing revenues. Track this leading indicator, because it gives you the feedback you need to stay on course before the revenues start flowing.
The usual: Keep it up Post anther Facebook update. Make sure you’re ‘friends’ with all of your contacts. Start ‘liking’ their updates so they’ll notice that you’re paying attention. Hitting the ‘like’ button is the easiest marketing you’ll ever do. Like, like, like everything you can find.

April 1. Update the website Lawyers have, for more than two decades, focused on their websites as a critical piece of their image. Our marketing presence has become a blend of (1) us as human beings, and (2) us on the internet. Some lawyers make their first impression in-person, others do it on the web.

Websites are critically important to marketing now because they are the first introduction to the law firm that many potential clients have. They’ve been sent to the site by Google, and they’ll quickly hit the back button on their browser if they don’t like what they see.

But the importance of your website is diminishing. The fact is that most law firm website traffic comes from Google. Google is sending less and less traffic to websites via the search engine results pages. They’re working hard to keep the traffic on their site.

You need to continue to make a positive impression, and educational content on your website is and will continue to be a great source of new clients for many firms, for years to come. But there was a time when launching a new site each year made economic sense. After a year, a site looked stale and lacked the latest technology.

Today, the pace has slowed. You don’t need to focus nearly as much marketing energy on your website as was once required. That energy can be allocated to other marketing projects.

But feel free to indulge your own need to refresh your site periodically, so that all the educational content you’re adding makes a positive impression. It’s only a little refresh, though–keep it basic and inexpensive.

Don’t jump into this project like it’s a brief for the U.S. Supreme Court. Think of it more like a motion to dismiss on a $10,000 breach of contract case that’s way beyond the statute of limitations.

This is not rocket science, so keep it simple. Think of it as a business card with more space for text and pictures.

You need a site with a few pages (contact info, bio, and list of services) and a sleek look. Hire a developer on Upwork for $500 and let him build you something new on WordPress.

Or better yet, just build it yourself in an hour with something like Caard.co–I use it all the time and it’s fantastic.

We’re entering an era where your website will act more like a warehouse for the content you’re producing and distributing elsewhere, rather than being the first place people will interact with you.

Don’t overdo it. If you’ve already got a decent site, April is the time for a refresh and update.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. No video, no blog, and nothing expensive or complicated. Keep it simple, clean, and easy. Incorporate a spot on the site where you can add pages as you write articles, like the one you worked on last month.

Amp up the lunches It’s time to escalate your lunch game. You’ll be doing four lunches this month. That number will continue to grow.

But the good news is that it’s also time to circle back to the folks you had lunch with in January. You can invite the same two people to lunch again. A second lunch is always easier than the first. Now you’re old buddies, and you don’t have to go through the ‘getting to know you’ awkwardness.

Invite those two people to lunch, and add two new ones to the mix. You get bonus points for having a quick coffee with someone new this month as well. These coffees will serve as the teaser for a full-blown lunch down the road.

Update Google My Business Take a few minutes and pop back to your Google My Business dashboard. This would be a good time to install their app on your phone so you can keep up with what’s happening when you’re away from the office.

Go and do a quick post about the article you had published last month. Write a quick summary and mention where it was published. You can do lots of different types of updates on Google My Business. You can alert clients to new educational material on your site, programs where you’re speaking and other events you think are important, new services you offer, and more. My Business posts generally expire after seven days.

The usual: don’t stop You’ve now got a bunch of systems in place that keep you top of mind with a growing number of professionals. You’re doing (1) the Facebook updates, (2) the snail mail letters, and (3) the lunches. Keep it going. Don’t take a break.

What should you put in the Facebook update? It really doesn’t matter. The goal is to remind others that you’re alive and kicking. A reference to something that you’re not particularly good at doing (for me, it’s bowling) accompanied by a picture will hit the bullseye. A picture of your kid or your dog will work too. Again, keep ‘liking’ your friends’ updates.

Go further with your list (if you have time) I hesitate to push further. You’re busy and this plan is starting to deliver. But I’ll make a suggestion, if you’re looking for more and want to amp it up a bit. This idea isn’t for everyone. If you’re struggling to keep up, don’t take this on.

I’m a big fan of email marketing. In fact, Rosen Institute is an entire business built around email. It works.

You made that big list of contacts back in January. My guess is that your list is getting longer now. Good for you.

Staying top of mind with those folks is what we’re doing with the letters, the social media posts, the articles, and the parties. What if you could do more without adding much more effort?

Email can help. If you’re ready for more, you can use a product like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign (I’ve used both myself) to send out periodic emails. It’s an easy way to stay in touch. We use them to send our weekly Friday File broadcast emails. Products like these are also useful for adding sequences of automated emails to educate prospective clients and/or referral sources. With automated sequences, you put the effort in once to get the emails written, and then you recycle them for years. It’s a smart investment if you can find the time.

May 1. Do the usual: letters, lunches/coffee, and Facebook Letters, lunches, coffee, and Facebook are your foundation now. Don’t slack off. If you’ve delegated the letters, make sure your assistant keeps the project on track.

Continue adding two new potential referral sources to the lunch/coffee plan each month. Also, it’s critical that you follow up with the people you went to lunch with back at the beginning of the year. In May, it’s important to have a second lunch with the folks from February.

It’s time for some reviews We’re going to add something new this month.

Ask your happiest clients and former clients to post reviews on Google, Yelp, and Avvo (if permitted by your state’s rules).

These people will be pleased to help. Give them a role in growing the business. Ask them to write the review and be sure to thank them. Shoot for one satisfied client review each week.

Keep an eye on your Google My Business dashboard and respond to your reviews. There’s only upside to responding to positive reviews with a simple thank you. Responding to negative reviews is more complicated, so let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

Tweak the list Remember our list of contacts from January? By now you probably have ideas for more contacts, plus additional information about your current contacts. Update the list and keep using it to inspire new additions to your lunch program.

This would be a good time to add some aspirational contacts. There are folks out there who likely have a steady stream of business they could refer. These are the ‘I wish I knew’ people you’ve heard about and admire from afar. Now is the time to add them to the list.

June 1. Do more of the usual Letters, lunches, coffee, and Facebook need to happen in June as usual.

Let’s add the reviews we started last month. Shoot for one client review per week going forward. Now your regular tasks include snail mail letters, lunches/coffees, Facebook updates with a picture, and four client reviews per month.

Lock down the lunch system I’ll say less and less about your lunches in future months because you’ve mastered the lunch program.

You’re adding two new people to the list each month, and you’re following up with another lunch with each one during each quarter of the year.

By the end of June, you’ve had lunch–twice–with all the potential referral sources from January to March. Now you’ve got six more folks to add to the follow-up list from April, May, and June. These folks, along with the January to March group, will join you for lunch during the next three months.

Yes, the group is growing fast. And they’ll all remember you, because you’re following up.

Check those 5-star reviews Keep an eye on the total number of positive reviews coming in. Be sure every happy client has the opportunity to review your work. Clients don’t need to be finished with their case to write a review. A review can be posted at any time. Some prospective clients might even post a review after a positive experience with your intake process. Keep the reviews coming.
Take a vacation You’re doing really well if you’re sticking to this plan. Now, take a week off.

Go somewhere good and enjoy your time away. While you’re traveling, find a nice gift for all of your contacts. Bring them something related to your vacation spot–something you know they’ll appreciate. Gifts are powerful.

July 1. Continue with the marketing system You can see what’s happening with the usual stuff we do each month. It’s a system now. It’s happening month after month.

It’s how we build a sustainable business. This is an important piece of your evolution.

Each month, you’re sending letters, having lunches and coffee, updating Facebook, and getting client reviews. These monthly activities are your foundation.

Add follow-up notes to the system Your lunch dates have fallen into a pattern. You’ve got a cycle happening. You’re going to see each person four times a year, once every three months.

In between lunches, it’s important to remind them of your name and practice area. Your Facebook posts are helping, but there’s more we can do.

Once a month, during their off months, send them each a personalized email. Send a link about something they mentioned at lunch or something they might find useful. If nothing useful comes to mind, send something funny. Keep in touch so they’ll remember you.

Join a club It’s time to level up just a bit. This time you’re going to join a civic group–something like the Rotary Club. We’ll assume things are open and events are happening where you are by this time.

I know, I know, this isn’t your thing. Well, guess what? You’re going to do it, and it’s going to be better than you think.

By now, you’ve likely been approached about a group by one of your lunch contacts. It’s time to accept the invitation. If you haven’t been invited, it’s time to go looking for one.

Update Google My Business If generating business from Google matters to you, then the Google My Business dashboard should become your home away from home. Start adding a short post each week. Keep an eye on reviews and respond. Add some photos and even video if you’re so inclined (maybe a quick walk-through of your office).

August 1. Keep up with the marketing system Don’t neglect your foundation: letters, lunches, coffee, Facebook, and client reviews. Write follow-up notes to everyone on your lunch list just to check in. Maintain the cycle: each quarter, every individual on your list should hear from you at least three times–once for lunch/coffee and once when they receive your monthly follow-up emails.

It’s time for some media attention Local media coverage is good. It doesn’t always result in a deluge of new clients, but it builds credibility with referral sources, judges, and others.

Rack your brain for a connection to a local media outlet: TV, radio, or newspaper. You’re bound to know someone who knows someone. For now, just think it through. Ask your contacts. We’ll work on this more next month.

It’s time to write another article Crank out another 750-word article. Get it published in your community, and then put it on your website. Be sure to send a link to your network so everyone knows you’re a rock star.

Now, I’m going to suggest something extra if you’ve got surplus marketing energy welling up inside of you. How about a podcast?

You’re writing articles anyway. What about repurposing the articles as a podcast or even as a video on YouTube? This is an extra credit assignment. It’s not essential. But with the technology built into your phone, it’s easier than ever to turn written material into audio or video. The apps from Anchor (for podcasts) and YouTube (for video) make it simple to publish audio and video content. If you’ve got the time, consider repurposing the material you’re creating. You can promote the content via email and social media.

Get a key position in your club Volunteer in the club and take on some responsibility.

Two positions have a big impact. Either (1) direct your energy toward communications (the newsletter, emails, or website) so you become visible or (2) get involved in programming so you can meet and communicate with the speakers coming to each meeting. Either role will increase your visibility with club members and/or in the community.

September 1. The usual tasks Your usual tasks have become quite a system. By now you are:

Sending snail mail letters to existing clients
Having lunches and coffee dates
Sending lunch follow-ups via email
Posting Facebook updates
Collecting client reviews online
Periodically updating your contact list
Attending club meetings
It’s TV time Approach that media contact we identified earlier and offer your help. Place a quick call and mention that you’re an expert in your practice area.

Don’t ask about being on the news or in the paper. Just let the contact know that you’re available and willing to help.

Be ready when the contact calls and asks for some help. Be generous and see where it leads.

It’s video conference planning time again Pull out your contact list and send out invitations again. It’s time to repeat the video conference from earlier in the year, if you haven’t already done so. Invite some of the folks from the first list, plus some new people. Be sure to invite everyone from your lunch and coffee dates. This online event should be much easier to pull off than it was the first time, and will be dramatically less stressful now that you’re nine months into this plan.

Your video conference might have been such a success the first time that you’re doing them regularly already. Good for you. If not, then September is the time to kick off round two.

Back to Google My Business Drop by the dashboard and do a quick post on that article you wrote last month. Go ahead and turn that article into some short questions and answers. You, and any other Google user, can post questions on your page. You can answer your own questions. Be sure to keep an eye on the Google My Business dashboard (the mobile app makes it easy) so that you’re answering other people’s questions as well.
How are you doing on 5-star reviews? Have you ever heard the old adage what gets measured gets done? Keeping an eye on the 5-star reviews, making them a big part of your focus, is win-win. The clients win because they’re happy with your work. You win because a 5-star review is word-of-mouth marketing on steroids. People trust other people who’ve been through what they’re going through.

How many reviews have you gotten so far? Stay focused on doing what’s required to make your clients happy. Then be sure they have the opportunity to post some great word-of-mouth for the world to hear.

October 1. Keep pushing the marketing system Now it’s about fighting decay. Don’t let anything slip. The list is growing and the lunches are becoming more frequent as the numbers grow larger. Entropy is the enemy now. Don’t fall into the we got too busy to market trap.

Shop for gifts Get ahead of everybody else and start thinking about holiday gifts for key players in your life.

Recognize the people who send you business. Recognize those who contribute to keeping the system healthy and strong. Plan to send something to each important referral source and client.

Some lawyers send mail-order cookies or pears. Those are great gifts, but they’re generic, and your gift is likely to be identical to what others send. The gift thing must be done right or you’re wasting time and money.

Spend some time and energy reflecting on the perfect holiday gift for each individual. October is the time to start thinking because getting this right can take a while. It’s not about how much you spend–it really is the thought that counts. An inexpensive gift, perfectly calibrated, has much more bang for the buck than something flashy. These people matter to you, so make sure the gift demonstrates your understanding of the recipient.

Let’s video You’ve already sent the invites, so it’s time to throw the video conference. The first time was scary, but you’ve now done this before. If vaccines prove to be effective and the virus is history then let’s turn this event into a real-life party. But if that’s premature, then a video conference will be welcomed by everyone who needs ongoing human interaction.

If you’re doing the video thing then find a way to make it fun for you and valuable for others. There are so many possibilities with video that you don’t want to limit yourself to simple educational webinars. Loosen up and others will join you. Everybody who attends is, at some level, trying to build a relationship with you. They want friends and you want to build your network. Be human, be open to others, and let yourself connect.

November 1. Work the marketing system Take a break from client letters. You’ve made it through the client list by doing 10 percent each month for the first 10 months of the year.

Now send holiday cards to everyone–clients as well as contacts. Keep everything else rolling as well. Things are busy in November, but you’re running a system now. Don’t stop.

Double down on lunches November is a key time, before the holidays, to get ahead on lunches with your network. Assume you need to do all of your November/December lunches before November 15.

Realistically, that’s four lunches with new lawyers, plus 13 follow-ups. That means you need to do two a day, more or less, for the first half of the month, so you can take some time off over the holidays without falling behind.

If you’re worried about your waistline, get creative. Breakfast works, for your early-rising contacts, or maybe afternoon tea is an option.

Remember: entropy is the enemy. This is where you’ll see the system start to break down if you don’t push yourself. Keep it up.

December 1. The marketing system never sleeps Keep everything pumping along. December is the stress test for your system. Don’t let it decay, even in the face of holiday season distractions. Pay careful attention to each element.

It’s time to party Holiday parties may or may not be a thing in 2022. But, in the absence of groups gathering, there will be substitute events of some sort. Humans are not likely to go down without a fight.

Jump on the bandwagon and participate in every safe holiday event you can find. Whether it’s car parties from the sunroof, video gatherings, outside events in the cold, or whatever–jump in with both feet. Don’t hold back. When an opportunity arises, be the first to say yes.

Reap the rewards By the end of the year, you’ve sent all of your clients a letter reminding them that you exist and can help.

You’ve met a bunch of new referral sources and had a chance to get to know them.

You’ve met a ton of new people in your club.

You’ve been recommended numerous times on Google, Yelp, and Avvo.

You’ve likely been published in several places, and you’ve probably been quoted in the local media.

If you followed this plan, you had a good marketing year.

How’s it working out? Measurement has value. Keep measuring. Obviously, revenues are the ultimate marketing measurement. Bringing in good, profitable work keeps the lights on and helps you bring the vision to fruition. Keep a close eye on the overall revenue and the direction of the trend.

But also stay focused on the 5-star reviews. Here at the end of the year, it’s valuable to assess the total number of reviews you’ve gotten, and consider strategies for bringing that number up next year.

These reviews let the world know that you’re trusted, you’re reliable, and you deliver on your promises. Keep them coming. Celebrate the number if it’s good. If it’s not what you’d hoped, focus on improving it. There’s always next year.

Make a new plan Spend some time in December thinking about next year. Come up with your new marketing plan and take it to the next level. Use this plan as the basis, but tweak the new plan to suit your personal talents, skills, and abilities.

Your next plan will be even better, and will take you to an even higher level of success.

Now You’ve Got a Plan That’s the law practice marketing plan for 2022. If you execute on this plan, you’ll have a good year. If you don’t, you’ll probably have a bad year.

If you do what I suggest, clients will call and the revenue will flow. I promise.

But for marketing to work, you have to actually do the work. Nothing I outlined above is complicated or difficult. It simply requires diligence and adherence to the system.

At the end of the twelve months, you’ll have a mature business and a functional marketing machine. This year will feed into the next. Growth from this year will promote even more growth in subsequent years (like compound interest).

This is how you build a thriving practice.

Now that you have the plan, all that’s missing is commitment and execution. Are you in?

The post 2022 Law Firm Marketing Plan appeared first on Rosen Institute.

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From Bangkok, Thailand…

A tech tip about letting your team bring their own devices when it comes to computers and phones used for work.

Some concise advice about office design and whether it’s worth having a specialist arrange and outfit your workspace.

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

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From Raleigh, North Carolina…

A tech tip about getting your new website done in an hour (rather than weeks or months) with tools like http://carrd.co.

Some concise advice about medical care and staying healthy while traveling, or living out of the US.

My wife Lisa does more in-depth writing on our travels in her weekly newsletter. You can find it here: rosenfinder.com

I have a lot more ideas about marketing, management, finance, and technology in your practice that I send out in my Friday File email each week. Get it here.

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