Your Law Firm is a Business. Take it to the Next Level

We get questions all the time from law firm owners who are wondering what kind of marketing will work best for them. They want to know what’s working right now and what marketing tactics will bring them the most results. The problem is, our answer is always, “It depends.”

Of course, we have some general rules of thumb. We share marketing tactics all the time here on the show. The key is, how you apply them largely depends on your firm’s revenue and profits.

In this episode, we’ll cover what your marketing budget should be depending on the size and revenue of your firm, from brand-new to established and growing firms. We’ll also give you some marketing strategies to guide you through all of this information. Tune in!

Show Highlights:

• What percentage of your revenue should go towards marketing.
• How much you should spend on marketing if you’re a smaller firm.
• Marketing tactics you should implement at the beginning stages of your business other than hiring a marketing agency.
• How much you should spend on marketing as a more established firm.
• How to track marketing metrics.

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Supporting Resources:

Book a free consultation with GNGF "How Much Should You Spend On Marketing" Forbes Article "How To Get The Most From Your Marketing Budget" SBA Article Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook

Action Steps:

1. Think about where you are revenue- and profit-wise. Do you want that to grow or stay steady?
2. Set a budget for marketing based on your revenue. If you are under $250,000 in revenue, budget TIME for marketing and maybe create a small financial budget for outsourcing tasks.
3. If you are looking to grow, think about what you need to adjust in your operating expenses and take-home to be able to budget 10%-15% toward marketing and business development.
4. Have a strategy for how you will spend this budget and measure its success. You can refer to a number of our earlier episodes on marketing strategy, marketing KPIs, and business KPIs.

*** Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.  Let them know I sent you.

You’ve probably heard a lot about KPIs. If nothing else, you’ve heard us mention them on the show several times. You might have a basic understanding of what they are and why they’re important but still feel confused about exactly where to start with them. Today’s episode is for you!

In this episode, we’re going to demystify KPIs, as the title suggests. We’re going to explain exactly what they are and clear up any discrepancies around them. Then, we’re going to give you some examples of effective ways to use KPIs and specific goals you can set for each position within your firm.

Tune in and finally get clear on this key component of running your law firm!

Show Highlights:

• The definition of KPI.
• Why you need key business objectives to create KPIs.
• Various KPIs you might set.
• Leading vs. lagging indicators.
• Why it’s important to identify who is tracking and who is responsible for each KPI.
• KPI best practices.
• How to use your practice area and key business objectives to determine your KPIs.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Episode 8 streamlined.legal Our website Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook

Action Steps:

1. What are your key business objectives? The more detail you can provide the better. “A gross income of $750,000” is better than just, “more gross income.”
2. Brainstorm the measurements that will lead to your key business objectives.
3. Pick one and determine how the measurement will be tracked.
4. Place a weekly time on your calendar to look at the measurement so you can determine any trends.

*** Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.  Let them know I sent you.

Does influence show up in your law firm? Better yet, do you know what influence even looks like in a law firm?

If not, you’re in the right place! Today, we will talk about influence, how you can recognize it, and how you can increase both your influence and the influence of your firm.

This topic came to us at this year’s Clio Conference. Robert Cialdini wrote a book called Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion and gave a presentation on it at the conference. In this episode, we’re going to cover some of the highlights from his book and presentation. Specifically, we’ll explain Cialdini’s “three levers of influence” and how you can practically use them in your own law firm.

Show Highlights:

• What a “lever” of influence is.
• What the lever of reciprocity means and how it shows up in a law firm.
• What the lever of liking looks like.
• What makes people like us.
• How to use the lever of liking in marketing and in your law firm.
• The idea behind the lever of social proof.
• Where social proof is found in marketing.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini on GoodReads Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini on Amazon Daniel Pink's Masterclass on Sales and Persuasion streamlined.legal Our website

Action Steps:

1. Pick one of these Levers of Influence: reciprocity, liking, or social proof. 2. Where have you seen this acting in your firm? 3. Where would you like to see this act in your firm?

*** Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com.  Let them know I sent you.

You don’t have to buy cool new technology, discover the latest marketing trend, or do anything grandiose to get big gains in your law firm. All of those things fall under “shiny object syndrome.” You’re chasing the next big thing to get tons of new clients and dramatically increase your profits.

The truth is, none of that works. Shiny objects won’t get you the growth you’re desiring–small consistent changes will. This happens through compounding growth.

Today, we are going to talk all about compounding growth. Throughout the episode, you’ll learn why making small continuous improvements usually beats out big “swing for the fence” changes, how to avoid shiny objects, and how to decide on the one new thing you’ll focus on at a time.

Show Highlights:

• What the compound effect is.
• Why you need to track your metrics to see change.
• How to start tracking metrics simply.
• Why you need to avoid shiny objects and how to do it.
• Why you should only focus on one new thing at a time in your firm.
• How small changes can lead to the biggest gains.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

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Book a Consultation at GNGF 

The Compound Effect

Episode 57 

Episode 61

Action Steps:

1. Look at what you are doing now. Do you have measurements in place that you can work to improve?

• For example: 
• • Intake process
  • • How many leads are turning into consultations?
    • How many leads are turning into clients?
  • Digital marketing
  • • Number of leads from online marketing efforts
    • Are sessions increasing?
    • Are your ranking and visibility increasing?
    • What is the conversion rate of visitors to your website to those that become leads?
  • Utilization of your team
  • • Number of hours available to work billable work
    • Number of hours being billed

1. Pick a couple of measurements that you would like to improve this year and identify one or two things you can test to try to improve one of those measurements.

• Has the number of visits to your website gone up a lot but your conversion rate has dipped a little? There are a lot of little things you could improve in this case.
• Would you like more leads turning into consultations? Maybe you can increase the frequency of times you are following up with a lead or add text messaging to your follow-up.

• Listen to our podcast and you’ll hear a lot of ideas that can help you take your firm to the next level.  Pick only one item to work on for now.

1. Take these small improvement items and pick one or two to work on in the next 90 days. After 90 days, measure, identify some other improvements, and repeat.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.

Litigation is an interesting topic for law firm owners. Everyone does it differently and you probably even switch up how you do it within your own firm. Creating a workflow for litigation may seem counterintuitive or like a waste of time.

Well, it’s not.

Today, we’re talking about how to tame litigation and other types of workflows. Creating workflows is challenging but it’s not impossible. It’s attainable for every law firm owner, including you!

Tune in to learn how to get started and some great strategies for creating workflows that will ultimately take stress off your plate.

Show Highlights:

• The golden rule of workflows.
• Why you should write follow-ups into your workflows.
• Things to remember when it comes to the “who” of workflows.
• The benefits of creating workflows.
• Why it’s important to add time frames into your workflows.
• How to plan for contingencies in your workflows.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook Register for the 2023 Clio Conference GNGF streamlined.legal

Action Steps:

1. Think about and identify one part of a process that is painful for you right now.
2. Write out the first three steps of this process.
3. Figure out how to place them into your Practice Management software.

• • If you don’t have software, buy some.

*** Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.

If you’ve ever thought about hiring someone to help you run your law firm, you’ve probably ran into the terms “coach” and “consultant.” These terms often leave law firm owners confused because they have no idea what the difference between the two is. Many law firm owners also don’t know which one they need to hire to help them.

So, in this episode, we’re talking about coaching, consulting, and the difference between the two. We’re discussing the benefits of each and how to know when you’re ready to hire one or the other. We’ll also give you some examples of what both coaching and consulting look like to clear this issue up for you once and for all.

Show Highlights:

• Our definition of coaching.
• Where training comes in.
• Our definition of consulting.
• The benefits of both coaching and consulting.
• How your personal life affects your business.
• The value of accountability.
• Different kinds of coaching.
• Consulting examples.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

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GNGF

The Legal Marketing Academy

Action Steps:

1. The action steps for today are to look at what type of assistance you need.

• If you need some accountability help, some mindset help, help thinking about your firm’s “WHY” and value proposition, or you just want some experienced guidance from experts without going as far as a full-time consulting engagement, then maybe group coaching, training, or accountability coaching is for you.
• If you have a good idea of the next steps you need to work on at your firm and need some expertise in mapping your goals to actual delivered processes (whether they’re regarding financial, technology, or marketing), reaching out to consulting agencies may be the best next step for you. 

1. It’s always a great thought exercise to put you and your business in the middle and think about how others can support you and your firm to improve.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.

We’re coming to you live from the Clio Conference!

ClioCon 2022 was held in Nashville and was a great time. One of the highlights was connecting with other law firm owners and learning about each other’s practices. It’s so nice to hear how others are doing things in their firms, what tools they’re using, and where they’re working–remote or in office.

We also heard a lot of great content about how to run a successful law firm. During the conference, a variety of topics were covered including marketing, web presence, customer service, and more. 

Tune into this episode as we dive into all of this further and paint a picture of what ClioCon is all about!

Show Highlights:

• The various topics covered at ClioCon 2022.
• Why it’s a great conference to attend even if you don’t use Clio.
• What Clio Lab is.
• Keynotes and other sessions that stood out to us.
• How to register for next year’s conference.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

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GNGF

Action Steps:

1. Go to your calendar and mark off the dates for next year’s Clio Conference. It will again be in Nashville at the Gaylord Opry Land Resort and will take place on October 9-10, 2023.
2. Don’t forget to get your tickets. The earlier you buy them, the cheaper they will be. Check out the Clio Conference website or reach out to us if you need a discount code.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.

Your business life and personal life are intimately connected. If one suffers, the other suffers. Conversely, if you’re feeling organized and productive in one, you’re probably feeling the same way in the other.

This is why we want to share our top tech hacks today, both for business and home. These hacks include everything from apps to appliances but they will all make your life easier. Of course, some of them solve “first-world problems,” but anything you can do to make your life run more smoothly will help you take your law firm to the next level, too.

Tune in and learn about tech hacks you don’t want to miss!

Show Highlights:

• Our favorite appliances.
• Why you should schedule some of your appliances to go off at certain times.
• Tech tools that have helped us at the office.
• How tech can help your remote team feel like they’re really a part of the team.
• Other “tech hacks” that make life easier.

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We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

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GNGF

Whirlpool Smart Washers and Dryers

Instant Pot

Green Mountain Grills

simplehuman Trash Can

Moen Smart Faucet

Kudoboard

How to Save Favorite Places on Google

How to Create A List of Places on Google

WiseStamp

Calendly

Splitwise

How to Split Uber Fare

Action Steps:

1. Go back and listen to Episode 35: Tech Hacks That You Will Thank Us For!
2. Pick one tech hack that you already have the technology for in your house or office and that you want to try.
3. Set an alarm or reminder on your phone to try that hack at a time when you expect to need it. For example, set an alarm for 7:00 pm to set the timer on your coffee maker and then reset the alarm once it goes off to help you build the habit.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.

Today, we’re finally graduating from SEO 101! We’re moving beyond the advice we discussed throughout our SEO series and getting into some more advanced territory. Certainly, this puts us into the “taking your law firm to the next level” category, at least when it comes to SEO.

Before you get overwhelmed, these strategies on city pages can be implemented by anyone. They are more advanced but you don’t need to outsource all of it to an agency. We’ll teach you exactly how to set up city pages yourself in this episode.

Tune in to learn the basics of city pages, why you need them to enhance your local search engine optimization, and the step-by-step to successfully creating them.

Show Highlights:

• What city pages are.
• How city pages can benefit your firm.
• The prerequisite to creating a city page.
• How to leverage your competition to create great city pages.
• How to create your city pages.
• Why cross-linking on city pages is important.
• A bonus way to use city pages to find prospects where there’s little to no competition.
• An example of a client who had success using city pages.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

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GNGF

Free Law Firm Marketing Consultation

How to Create An FAQ Page

Action Steps:

1. The action steps for today are to decide if City Pages are right for you. 

• If you are ranking on the first page in maps for the area right around your office, look to see how you are ranking. Type in Practice Area / City Name (i.e. Estate Planning Attorney, Cincinnati Ohio).
• Look at the competition and identify which areas containing your ideal client would be the easiest to rank for (refer back to our SEO series about looking at the competition).
• Get a baseline of your traffic from your Google Analytics and look at Search Console for the impressions by keywords.
• Create one or two unique city pages with FAQs and Schema makeup and link to them from your main practice area pages.
• After 3 months, look at your Google Analytics and impressions by keywords. If you are seeing some success, rinse and repeat on more cities every 3 months.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.

We aren’t just discussing feel-good tips here on the podcast; we’re discussing real, actionable strategies that successful law firms use every day. However, when you’re just starting out or when you’re struggling as a law firm owner, it can be hard to believe success like that is possible. That’s why we’ve decided to highlight some case studies here on the show.

Today, we’re giving real-life examples of firms that have implemented systems within their businesses and are now reaping the rewards. Joining us to do so is our friend and colleague Corine. Corine is the Problem Solver Extraordinaire at streamlined legal. 

Tune in to learn all about what systems can do for you and your law firm!

Show Highlights:

• Signs that your firm needs some systems in place.
• How Corine and her team helped an estate management firm organize their files.
• A case study of a family law firm who implemented billing systems.
• How systems make hiring new team members easier.
• The importance of instituting workflows.
• How calendar systems can get your law firm more leads.

Subscribe and Review

We’d appreciate you subscribing to this podcast and leaving an Apple Podcasts review. Reviews help others discover and learn what Law Firm Next is all about. It only takes a second and helps us out a lot!

Supporting Resources:

Follow us on Twitter

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GNGF

Streamlined Legal on YouTube

Schedule a Call with Corine 

The Legal Marketing Academy

Action Steps:

1. Look at the Things to Measure

• Level of chaos
• Revenue
• Staff happiness
• Client happiness
• Cash flow (can you systematize it?)
• 3 new clients retained/wait time
• Are you sleeping at night?

1. Does it feel like any of these are measuring very high as in your team or clients are NOT happy or you AREN’T sleeping at night?
2. If you’re able to identify why, scroll back through our episodes list and listen to Episode 50 on Calendars or Episodes 36-38 on Intake and start taking those action steps!
3. If you can’t identify why, reach out to Corine, our Problem Solver Extraordinaire at Streamlined Legal to help you identify why your KPIs are so high.

***

Episode Credits

If you like this podcast and are thinking of creating your own, consider talking to my producer, Emerald City Productions. They helped me grow and produce the podcast you are listening to right now. Find out more at https://emeraldcitypro.com Let them know I sent you.