Community Outreach-Good for Your Community and Your Firm

Community Outreach: An activity of providing services to populations who might not otherwise have access to those services.

Adding local community outreach events to your strategic business plan can benefit both the firm and the community. Supporting local community events is a way to increase brand recognition, create happier employees, gives you an opportunity to offer much needed assistance and builds your reputation and presence in your community. 

Increase Brand Recognition, Grow Networks:

It’s easy to see how being involved in a community event yields greater recognition in the community. Connecting to good works builds trust, cultivates a sense of belonging and can increase your network to include people you might not find in your advertising campaigns.

As an added benefit, when you sponsor an event, you will receive a back link to your website from their site.

Outreach Engages Employees Beyond the Billable Hour:

A recent study by Deloitte found that employees and executives who participate in community outreach programs are “more likely to be proud, loyal and satisfied employees,” and while the study didn’t target law firms, you can be sure that this is true of the legal community as well.

Engaging employees in volunteer opportunities shows that the firm management cares more than just the dollars earned—that the employees are worth more than their billable hours. These activities bring the group together in a new and satisfying way, makes employees feel respected as individuals and can be proud of their firm. And, getting out of the office to support a local event can help avoid burnout.

How to Create Community Outreach.

Start with your State Bar and Local Bar Associations. Your State Bar has a pro bono program that you can support and your local bar may have a foundation that donates to local non-profits. To find community organizations, take advantage of some of your local social services programs. Contact them to determine area of need that you can fill. The United Way can also help in your selection.

When you've decided where you want to donate your firm’s time and treasure, find the outreach that fits your firm’s interests and capabilities. Some suggestions:

·      Make a financial donation,

·      Offer pro bono services,

·      Offer mentoring to local students,

·      Volunteer with a social service agency, or

·      Offer to host a community event at your office.

Once you’ve decided on an event, you’ll want to promote it. Update your blog and social media profiles with information about your efforts. Create a blog post with details of the event and link to the post with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and your SBM member directory.  After the event, create a follow up blog and post your pictures.

Community outreach, whether a big or small effort, is worth your consideration. It will increase recognition of your brand, build your reputation and create a more well-rounded firm.  

Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

Sally Consumer is an active user of the Internet. She uses it to find coffee shops, restaurants, doctors and lawyers. More often than not, her searches take place on her phone or her tablet. If your website or blog loads slowly, doesn't fit the smaller screen forcing Sally to pinch or zoom in order to read the content, she will move on to a more responsive or mobile friendly website.

Google has long been aware of Sally's search habits and has decreed that its search robots will include a website's "mobile-friendliness" as a ranking signal. This means that site pages that can't fit comfortably on the smaller screens will see a downgrade in ranking.

How do I know if my website is mobile-friendly?

Ever efficient Google has created a website where you can enter your webpage URL (Uniform Resource Locator) or web address to test it. Find and click on the Mobile-Friendly Test, enter your web address and you will quickly know the results. If you fail the test, contact your web developer or website host to find out how to make your website responsive or mobile friendly. 

What is a mobile-friendly design?

A mobile-friendly website is one that is designed to work the same way across all devices. A website with no usability concerns regardless of whether it's being viewed on a phone, tablet or laptop is mobile friendly. If your website, like most law firm websites, is basic with few navigation drop-downs and no animation, it may pass the test. 

The key features of a mobile-friendly website are:

Static content that doesn't change,

Simplified navigation,

Images display smaller, and it's

Not reliant on a particular operating system to work properly

What about a responsive design?

A responsive website is one that changes based on Sally Consumer's needs and the device she's using to conduct her search. With responsive design, text and images change from, for example, a three-column layout to a single column display. Unnecessary images are hidden so they don't compete with the more important information on the smaller display. 

The key features of a responsive website are:

Content changes,

Abbreviated navigation,

Improved images, and it's

Reliant on a particular operating system to work properly.

Which do I need?

A simplified mobile friendly site will give you a consistent website experience across all devices. If you don't have a large mobile audience (less than 35%), your site is simple with mostly text and images and your picture sizes are small, allowing for quick loading, a mobile-friendly site is for you.

Consider a responsive site if more than 35% of your web traffic is on mobile devices, your website content is complex or has features that are difficult to use on a phone or tablet or you want your website to appear up-to-date longer. Be aware that a responsive design takes expertise, proper planning and a larger budget. 

Sally Consumer is in a hurry. She wants to solve her problems now. She will quickly pass by websites that load slowly and are hard to navigate on her phone or tablet. To be sure your website is the one she picks, test it for mobile-friendliness and make any necessary adjustments. i

Finding the ROI on Your Website and What it Means

You’ve redesigned your website and it’s been up since the first of the year so now is the time

to track, compile and analyze its data. Measuring your website’s Return on Investment (ROI) is the key to assessing the effectiveness of your Internet marketing efforts.

Google Analytics, which is free, can be incredibly useful to track the behavior of the traffic to your site. It can tell you how many people visit, how they get there, how long they stay, where they live and how many fill out the contact me form. With this information, you can find the under-performing site content and it can help you determine your ROI.

In order to get a clear picture, we have to enter the world of numbers. Experts recommend using the following categories of information:

·      Number of Visitors: Track the volume of visitors to your website within a set period of time. Use a longer period of time for more accurate results.

·      Conversion Rate:  A conversion happens when a client completes the contact form or sets up an appointment. Calculate the conversion rate by dividing the number of conversions by the total number of site visits.

·      Leads: Visitors times Conversion Rate = Leads. Knowing this figure can help you determine whether what you’re doing is effective or not. (Example: 4500 visitors x 2% = 90 leads)

·      Closing Rate: Divide the number of people who buy your service by the number of visitors. Example: 100 sales divided by 5000 visitors equals a 2% closing rate. Experts say 1 to 3% is good.

·      Lifetime Value: Lifetime value is how much money the client brings in over the course of time. The client who needs frequent legal services is worth more.

·      Delivery Costs: That figure is the cost of your website. It is a rough figure which includes the total development costs, if this is a new site and that cost has not already been accounted for, and the monthly costs of operating the website, which includes costs like hosting and any monthly fees for 3rd-party tools you use.

Calculate the ROI of Your Website:

The number we’re seeking is the number of consumers that became clients solely through the website. This means they scanned your site, sent a contact me form or set up an appointment.

Once the information is collected you can calculate your website’s ROI. Using the formula below will give you a rough idea:

ROI = (Sales – Cost)/Cost)

It’s typically expressed as a percentage, so multiple your result by 100.

Figuring the ROI on your website helps you to make educated website decisions; keeping the things that work and reworking the areas that don’t produce as well. Often small changes can make a big difference in your results.

The Importance of Bar Associations

Most attorneys are members of a State. Many of those state bars, in addition to administering state licensing requirements, provides a number of services to its members. However, there are other local and specialty bar associations to which lawyers can belong.

What are they and what services do they provide? 

First, there are local bar associations that serve lawyer members in specific counties, cities and towns. Many provide practice benefits including:

legal advertising 

• Substantive information on practice trends,
• Affordable continuing legal education through its practice sections,
• Fostering relationships among members,
• Referral services for the public,
• Mentoring-both as mentor and mentee, and
• Cultivating camaraderie and professional respect. 

Successful bar associations have members who dedicate real time and effort to the organization. By doing so, members can develop relationships they need to grow their business. An example is the Ingham County Bar Association, to which I belong, begun in 1895 and still providing networking opportunities including awards banquets, fundraisers, a luncheon lecture series, a newsletter and a bench/bar conference.

Second, there are specialty bar associations which serve attorneys who work in a specific practice area. They can be a source for information about your chosen niche practice area. Examples in Michigan are:

1. Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan--Hosts two yearly conferences to update its members on developments in the practice of criminal defense. 
2. Michigan Creditors Bar Association-provides education on collection law,
3. Michigan Intellectual Property Law Association-sponsors social events, career panels at law schools and a luncheon speaker series.
4. Michigan Association of Justice-one of the largest specialty groups, its goal is to help the working class of Michigan if they are wrongfully injured.

Finally, there are bar associations that serve specific groups of people such as:

• National Association of Women Lawyers which strives to secure the full and equal participation of women in the legal profession,
• Wolverine Bar Association, established in the 1930's for African-American attorneys in    Michigan addressing the unique and distinct needs of their community for legal service, representation, and protection, or



the red-robed judge

• Catholic Lawyers Society sponsoring several events for its members throughout the year.

 As you can see, bar associations are as varied as the profession itself. Deciding which association to join can be difficult and may change as you progress through your legal life. Many lawyers begin with the local bar association and then move on to add a niche practice area or specific group of people. Each provides benefits; only you can decide if those benefits will help you and your practice

The Language of the Internet

Each discipline has its own language. The law has a rich history of words that lawyers like to use and few outside the law understand. The Internet, too, has special words, many borrowed from other fields or invented by the users in the heat of creation. Understanding that language will help you communicate with those raised with electronic devices and your marketing director.

When you start your day, you boot up your computer. The term is a shortening of the word bootstrapping, which was the name adopted by the early computer scientists in the 1950’s to refer to the start-up process of the computer. They thought of it as the computer pulling itself up by the bootstraps.

To access the Internet, you use an Internet Service Provider, which can be wireless (Wi-Fi) and is provided by a company or organization. Once there, you use a web browser, a free software program included on computers and mobile devices at time of purchase. The browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.) let you view online content.

Some basic terms:

•       Internet Protocol (IP) Address A set of unique numbers that identifies every computer and device that connects to the Internet.
•        E-mail Mail that's electronically transmitted by your computer.
•        Homepage The first page that is viewed when the browser starts.
•        Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) It is the set of rules by which Web pages are transferred across the Internet.
•        Link or Hypertext Link An underlined word(s), phrase(s), or graphics on a Web page that transports the reader to additional or related information on the Internet.
•        Uniform Resource Locator (URL) An addressing scheme used to locate you and other resources on the World Wide Web.
•       File Transfer Protocol (FTP) The standard method for downloading and uploading files over the Internet.
•       Web Page A single hypertext file or a page that is part of a Website.
•       Website A collection of Internet pages or files.

When Sally Consumer searches the Internet and lands on your webpage, she can get there in two ways—organically or directly. Organic Traffic is not traffic unfertilized with chemicals but unpaid traffic from search engines, social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, referrals from other sites which happens when Sally clicks on a link on another website such as your SBM profile. Organic traffic is what you want to attract using keywords in your content such as Traverse City Family Law Attorney so when Sally types those words in a query your site appears.

Direct Traffic—Sally types your URL into a browser, immediately connecting with you.

Lately, we’ve heard the word “Troll.” While in folklore a troll was a mythical giant or dwarf that caused harm such as the trolls that took over the public bridge in “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” 

Wikipedia defines the Internet Troll as: "Someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.” Be wary of the trolls under the bridge or on the Internet.

Creating a Content Publishing Strategy for Your Firm

When Walter Consumer has a legal problem, his first reaction will be to turn to the Internet. At this point he is not looking for a lawyer, he is looking for information. He might ask “What is personal injury?” or “What is a Power of Attorney?” Providing content that answers his questions helps you connect with him early in his search. To be sure that you are on target with your content marketing you need a publishing strategy. 

A well-developed law firm publishing strategy improves the firm’s profile and supports its business development. The reason to publish great content is to increase business so be sure your publishing strategy fits with and furthers your business strategy.

A Publishing Strategy Includes: 

Your market: Your first consideration is your market. If you are a solo practitioner, you may have one type of client. Larger firms, however, could have several practice areas with specific client types you want to reach. Try to be as specific as you can when describing the prospective client. For example, if your personal injury cases are limited to motorcycle accidents, you would write for those readers.

Your Content: Consider the needs of your proposed reader and plan your content accordingly. Content can include frequently asked questions, case summaries, discussion of current legal events, how to guides or legal business updates.

Your Format: There many ways to publish content on-line. You can write a blog, a feature article, a newsletter or an e-book. Other formats include videos and podcasts. Each one has its benefits. Which you use depends on your reader and your skills at communicating.

Your Schedule: As was said in Mice and Men, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” This especially true of writing marketing content. To stay on track, set a schedule, put the dates in your calendar and when the time comes, sit and stare at the blank screen until the words emerge. Keeping a regular publishing schedule is the best way to retain readers and be recognized by the search engines.

Your Budget: Your budget will include two types of expense. First, moneys spent to hire a staff person to write content or to hire a freelance contract content creator. Second, for the lawyers responsible for producing content, account for their non-billable time in their personal development plans.

Your Team: Someone in the firm needs to be in charge of the publishing strategy. For large firms, that person is usually the marketing director; in smaller firms, it would be the lawyer or a staff member. 

Finally, how do you know if the plan is working to bring in more business? Try to set goals that are measureable such as percentage of new work from existing clients, number of new clients or more speaking requests for a particular practice group. 

Increase Your Referrals

The oldest, most reliable form of generating leads for lawyers are referrals. In fact, it is probable that your very first client came to you via a referral, who, in turn, referred the second client and so forth. The 2017 Clio study found that 62-percent of people find their attorneys through referrals from family or friends.

How can you increase your referrals?

Do Good Work: The best referrals come from satisfied clients and doing good work for those clients is the very best way to get those referrals. Clients notice the small things—being on time, listening to what they say, explain and explain again until they understand, even when they don’t get all they want. Those contented clients will remember you and will send others your way.

Expand your e-mail list: Be sure to ask for a new client’s e-mail and permission to send information via e-mail. Assuming your website has content, use that content to send out a periodic e-newsletter. Your newsletter should include great content, images, links and overviews. It doesn’t need to be long, simply well-written and attractively formatted. And don’t forget to include bits about the daily goings-on in the office that shows off your staff’s personality. Such content gives a personal touch and makes people feel invested in the people behind your brand.

Create and maintain relationships with other businesses: Forming relationships with businesses that complement your practice such as, for example, accountants, investment advisors, realtors, or health professionals can also lead to referrals. Keep them up to date with a newsletter and remember to refer business their way when appropriate.


Out of the Office Activities: Lawyers donate a lot of time to their communities. Most find such work gratifying. Report about it in your newsletter. Remember that clients and peers who know more about the firm are more comfortable making a referral.

And, finally, show your appreciation for clients who refer work your way. This can be as simple as a hand-written thank-you note to show your gratitude for the effort they’ve taken to help your business. Even if you don’t take the matter and refer it to another lawyer, be sure to thank the client. They will remember, refer other matters and your business will grow.