Clienting by AttorneySync

For this episode of Clienting, Gyi and Kelly answered marketing questions from former Clienting guests.

Audio questions:

• Alex Barthet-
  • Blog called the Lien Zone about construction topics- trying to show up on SERP's as the featured snippet. Single best thing to do to appear in the snippets? Should he care about showing up in the snippets?
    • How? The content should answer a question, must be high-quality (comprehensive, entertaining/engaging, etc), has to be 'the best answer.'
      • Search for what you want to rank for, see what comes up. Also look at the People Also Ask box
      • Create something better
      • Already showing up in page 1 is a good place to start
      • Keep paragraphs short (40-50 words) and structure the content with bullets, etc.
    • Should you care?
    • https://moz.com/blog/optimize-featured-snippets
• Jared Correia-
  • Lawyers are flummoxed by social media- can lawyers pick one medium for social media and which one should they choose?
  • Jared's son, Joe: How do I get other kids to trade me their good pokemon cards for my weak pokemon cards?
• Jason Beahm-

  • Are there any tricks to running successful PPC campaigns without spending tons of money? For example, I have heard that this can work with long tail keywords, is this true? :)

    • PPC Hero
    • Brad Geddes
    • Kirk Williams - PPC Kirk

  • If you could only recommend one or two kinds of content to create and market, what would that look like? Where to put your energy right now if you feel like maybe this is an area that has been lacking.

Written questions:

• Sam Glover-
  • What Yoast SEO plugin settings should I check or change after installing it on a new website? And is the pro version worth paying for?
• Erin Levine-
  • What platform do you use to build sites for clients? WordPress? Wix? Why?
  • If a client has a limited budget and wants to work with you, what do you suggest that they start with first? Updating website? SM presence?
  • Do your copywriter services including pitching to media? If not, do you have a go to resource to help guide us on that endeavor?
  • When planning marketing services for a particular client, what factors do you consider besides the obvious (budget)? Size of firm? Where the clients are?
  • How are you able to satisfy your taco craving when you live in the mid-west? Is there really any good Mexican food there?
• Jordan Couch-
  • What's the best way for attorneys to gather data and measure return on investment in social media marketing? It seems like just measuring social media engagement isn't sufficient since you could have a very active following without any of them converting into clients.
    • Likes, comments shares (vanity metrics)
    • Reach
    • Audience engagement
    • Site traffic
    • Leads generated
    • Sign-ups and conversions
    • Revenue generated
    • downloads
  • Tracking: FB Pixel, UTM parameters
  • https://www.searchenginejournal.com/measure-roi-social-media-efforts/263259/

Gyi Tsakalakis & Kelly Street are joined this week by attorney Rob Schenk to discuss his firm's content marketing strategy and their use of data to understand their audience.

Rob Schenk is an Atlanta trial lawyer representing families with loved ones who have been severely injured or killed in nursing homes. He is the co-host of the Nursing Home Abuse Podcast, a weekly program providing education on nursing home safety and accountability.

Keywords, title tags, etc. are a great way to capture potential client questions- as long as you actually answer them!

Know who your 'real' clients are and market to them.

Marketing a specific practice area to become the 'expert' in your field. As Rob says, "The riches are in the niches!"

Why video vs. just audio? More options for people to engage with the podcast.

Marketing is a long-term strategy, so create the content and know you will have to build an audience.

Thinking about starting a podcast? Decide if you have enough time to DIY or enough money to outsource the editing, guest outreach and more.

What Rob uses for Podcast & Video recording: Canon VIXIA HF 200, Hale PR 40's, Beringer Mixer, Adobe Premiere Pro for editing

Rob's trick for video editing? Place an item (he uses a blue flag) in a particular area and move it to another spot for your editor to catch. Then they will know where to spend time editing, instead of watching the entire video.

Ethics of video podcasting? Add a disclaimer stating that you are not giving legal advice and to contact an attorney for legal advice. Do not reveal any client information, including names or specifics of their unique situation. Does Rob worry about the ethics beyond this? No. The benefits of his video outweigh the risks.

Listen through to the very last minute for Rob's Las Vegas suggestions!

Gyi and Kelly connected with Kim Bennett on her approach to marketing with a non-traditional law firm model. This episode bridges the gap between business development and marketing, which is how Kim approaches her own business as well as her work with clients.

K Bennett Law LLC is a boutique trademark, business, and employment law practice providing subscription and on-demand, flat fee virtual general counsel services focused on helping clients protect their brands and grow profitable, sustainable businesses.

Virtual, subscription-based firm. What does that mean, how does one do that?

Creating a firm with unique differentiators sets you apart but also provides a new type of service level.

Looking at your client's issue holistically- is this 'bigger' than the issue they are coming to you for? This can build more goodwill with clients and create a longer-term relationship than just a one-time issue.

Lead nurturing- educating clients far in advance of retaining them as a client.

Working in a shared space, or coworking space, can help you find the clients that match your practice area. It can also give you access to teach and educate about your knowledge. Kim talks about how she works within ethical bounds while working in a coworking space.

Gyi and Kelly talk with Chris Gober about his unique practice areas and clientele.

Most of The Gober Firm's clients come through referrals and PR appearances, which holds interesting challenges for marketing. To help with this, Chris has used TV appearances to become a go-to Republican legal commentator and boost his credentials while reinforcing his brand.

Chris shares his perspective on Networking vs. Development and how he does both to add different elements to his life and business.

Chris uses Twitter and social media to share his political perspective and do authority marketing, newsjacking, create authenticity and maintain relevancy.

Chris Gober is the founder of The Gober Group, a 3-time Inc. 5000 law firm that represents changemaking companies, causes, and influencers across the United States. The firm's clients include dozens of U.S. Senators and Representatives, professional sports franchises and leagues such as the Houston Texans, NBA, and PGA Tour, and disruptive companies and organizations such as DraftKings and the Blockchain Association.

References: Keith Ferazzi, GuestBooker.com, EO- Entrepreneur's Organization

Gyi & Kelly talked with immigration lawyer Greg Siskind about his firm's marketing efforts. Greg launched the first small law firm website by teaching himself HTML coding in the early 1990's.

Greg shared his process for breaking down legal content for blog posts, social media, and gaining PR.

Greg wisely points out that legal marketing doesn't have to be for potential clients only, you can target other lawyers, journalists, law schools, and more with your content.

Advocacy marketing works well for immigration and legislated fields of consumer-facing law.

Greg Siskind is a founding partner of Siskind Susser and has practiced immigration law since 1990. He writes several books including the annually published LexisNexis J-1 Visa Guidebook, the ABA's Lawyers Guide to Marketing on the Internet, the Physician Immigration Handbook and the I-9 and E-Verify Handbook. In 1994, he created the first immigration law website and in 1998 he created the world's first law blog. He was listed by ABC News as one of the top 20 people to follow on Twitter to keep up with the immigration debate. Greg has written numerous chapters for American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) publications, served on dozens of AILA CLE panels and been a member/chair of a number of AILA committees. He served for many years as the chair of the IMG Taskforce and now serves on the AILA Board of Governors.

Gyi & Kelly talk with Erin Levine about how her company, Hello Divorce, uses "freemiums" to build a sales funnel and customer following. While launching Hello Divorce, Erin was re-introduced to the knowledge that marketing from ground zero takes effort, and requires both a process and a plan.

Erin Levine is the managing attorney of Levine Family Law Group located in Oakland, CA and Founder of "Hello Divorce", a modern break up service, offering strategic legal help and wellness support.

Authenticity, effort, understanding the buyer's journey, which allows their firm to attract the type of clients they want to work with.

Hello Divorce uses landing pages, social media, partnership content, and sending the content directly to their network.

About Page quote: "We take the drama out of divorce."

Erin says "You can't look at law in a vacuum... These are people who are in crisis who have the opportunity to make the next chapter of their lives so much better, and happier, and stronger."

Outside help: have a non-lawyer check your content for jargon or accessible language. Jennifer Heller - Artsy Geek. Used to use Fiverr and Upwork, now has someone on staff to help with graphic design and webinar slides.

Partnership with Worthy to help clients sell wedding & engagement rings.

Getting earned media by pitching news organizations.

Using targeted Facebook ads to get webinar attendees.

Weekly emails, segmented by user group, on a topic of importance to the group.

Resources: Amy Porterfield podcast is a great resource, Lawyerist podcast, look for resources outside of the legal field.

Erin has an ethics attorney on retainer and carefully tracks California's marketing and advertising ethics rules.

Big idea: Creating your services around what people actually want.

Find Erin on @erinlevine, or @hellodivorce

She is happy to have lawyers sign up for their newsletters and learn what Hello Divorce is doing so successfully.

Gyi & Kelly wanted to discuss voice search and the pitfalls, how to improve your ability to rank in voice search, and future-proof your online presence by ranking in voice search.

They go through what voice search is and isn't, the history of voice search, and the potential future of voice search.

STAT Search Analytics- how to win the featured snippet

Who is using voice search? 39% of millennials, 17% of Gen X, and 10% of Baby Boomers.

Voice search results are due to good SEO: schema, structured data markup, long-tail keywords, research queries, links, simply written content, consistent business information

What gets people a featured snippet? Once you figure that out- do it on your own website.

Google Developer Documentation & Actions

Gyi & Kelly are thrilled to chat with a veteran lawyer this week who went from corporate lawyer to solo practitioner 25 years into his career. 10 years later, he has a thriving practice and loves his job.

Thomas R. Fox-the Compliance Evangelist

Tom is the author 16 books on business leadership, compliance and ethics and corporate governance, including the international best-sellers "Lessons Learned on Compliance and Ethics" and "Best Practices Under the FCPA and Bribery Act" as well as his series Fox on Compliance. His latest book "The Compliance Handbook" was published in May 2018 and was the No. 1 new bestseller on Amazon.com through its initial run. He writes and speaks across the globe on compliance programs. Tom leads the social media discussion on compliance with his award-winning blog, The FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog and is the founder of the Compliance Podcast Network.

Tom's policy: Give away your 'secret sauce', because it will create more trust than lose you money.

Twitter: Retweet your community to become a niche influencer. Set alerts on specific

Blog: Create, create, create! Get on a realistic content creation schedule and stick to it, rain or shine.

Podcast: Turn your posts or ideas into

Webinars: Content can get recirculated and repurposed into multiple forms of content (blog post, podcast episode, shorten video into clips)

Social Media: Tom's daughter set up his business Facebook page!

Tom built a worldwide practice from his home office, from 0 clients to a thriving solo practice.

Francine McKenna's advice: Focus on a niche and stick with it for 6-12 months.

Janine Sickmeyer is CEO and Founder of NextChapter, a web application for attorneys to prepare, manage and file bankruptcy cases online. Janine is particularly fascinated in the intersection between law and technology and was honored as one of ABA's Women of Legal Tech 2017. Starting as a paralegal, she saw a need for cloud-based bankruptcy software, taught herself to code, built a team of skilled developers and launched NextChapter two years later in 2016.

• It's about the people and not necessarily your practice. Share employees, clients, and telling stories.
• Instagram & Facebook for developing your brand and help recruit employees that fit your culture.
• Janine talks about how NextChapter does newsletters, beyond the normal articles or webinar signups.
• Facebook ads take time to learn but try them for $10 per day and see what happens. Play around with targeting to find your ideal audience by occupation, interests, and more. Use Facebook pixel to track and retarget website visitors.
• Twitter for law firms- how are people using it in 2018?
• Social media marketing is more than putting stuff out there- you have to have a strategy or goal in mind, whether it is brand awareness or getting more clients.

For episode 18 of Clienting, Keith Lee joins Gyi Tsakalakis and Kelly Street to talk about how lawyers can use online networking to build their practice and referral network.

Keith is a lawyer and author. He is the founder of lawyersmack.com, the leading private community for lawyers. He also has a blue check on Twitter which means he's officially important/obnoxious.

Lawyers are Salespeople:

• Finders, Minders, and Grinders
• Lawyer-to-Lawyer Sales

Being yourself and authentic online

• Boosting your transparency online to appeal to younger clients.
• Don't hide behind a username (or your business suit) and just be yourself.
• Do not be afraid to take a stance on issues related to your practice area or the law.
• Find your audience by identifying the people you don't want to work with.
• Create content in your own voice.

Connecting with other lawyers:

• Being vulnerable with other lawyers to connect over job difficulties.
• Supporting other lawyers through difficult times.

Where are lawyers online?

• LawyerSmack
• Reddit: r/law
• Twitter
• Blogs: Use Feedly to find blogs you may like
• Associate's Mind Resource Directory
• Bloomberg's BigLaw Business
• Jurist.org (Univ of Pittsburgh Law School)

Find Keith on Twitter, LawyerSmack or email: [email protected]