Networking & Business Development

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On Monday, we discussed what I saw as the “best” of this year’s crop of Super Bowl commercials (which my sister tells me is two words – “Super Bowl”), and although the general consensus seemed to be that most of the commercials this year were mediocre, we did find some to love. A few people even privately asked me why other commercials weren’t included on that list (and they’re included on today’s), so there were more than those eight mentioned that hit as favorites.

Today, we’ll look at the ones that made my “good” list for 2016; surprisingly, there were more on here than I thought. I worked to narrow it down to five, with a few honorable mentions, and I had trouble knocking some off the list. So see what you ultimately think of this list, and whether there are some that you were fond of that I missed altogether.

Audi: Commander

https://youtu.be/yB8tgVqmKzw

Audi does several smart things here – they liken their car to a space ship, touching on many kids’ dreams to fly into space (Hey! You can do that just by driving our car! This former astronaut even thinks so!); and they tug at your heartstrings not once, but twice – first by having the son make his father feel like a young space commander again, at the helm of his space ship, and again by playing a David Bowie favorite, calling to mind the recently lost musician. I’m not even a fan of David Bowie, and this commercial choked me up.
Continue Reading Super Bowl Commercials – The Good of 2016

Picture, if you will, the Staples commercials that aired a few years ago, with the parents sailing through the aisles as they got ready for their kids to go back to school as “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” played jubilantly in the background. For me, that’s what Super Bowl commercials are like.

While football is all right (these days, I’d much prefer to watch the Six Nations, where it seems that the men are men), to me, the Super Bowl is really about the ads. If a company is going to spend up to $5 million for 30 seconds of ad time (yes, you read that right), then they should really be bringing their A game to the ad game.

Unfortunately, I’d have to say that this year overall was a bit of a letdown. While I did have some standouts and so will be able to do a “best of” as well as my “good, bad and ugly,” in general, the commercials were at best, mediocre. And that’s just not okay.

Companies (and firms, this goes for you, too): if you’re going to be investing in a marketing project, invest in it. Don’t spend the money on the advertising dollars, only to go cheap on the ad itself. Some of the ads were misses for me, but at least I could tell that the agencies tried. Most of them felt like an afterthought. And I see more and more of that in legal marketing these days too – we have some brilliant and talented people in our industry, who are, unfortunately, being asked to do more and more and are spread very thin. As a result, there’s less and less creativity being seen because there’s only so much time in the day.

But I’d love to see more from all of us. Bring back the days of thoughtful, smart marketing that gets people excited about what they’re going to see. We don’t need the budgets of these big companies to learn and apply the lessons that their commercials can teach us!

So with that in mind, let’s take a look at my five favorites from this year’s crop of Super Bowl ads – along with a couple of Honorable Mentions:

Prius: The Longest Chase

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MYeM-8hO3hMContinue Reading Super Bowl Commercials – The Best of 2016

iStock_000003908491_LargeThere are some days when I struggle with writing another post about content marketing – while it’s still a topic of great importance, especially in the legal industry, it can feel overdone. I don’t want to keep repeating what I’ve said before (though there’s a lot of value in repetition in content marketing, because you have new people in your audience, or people suddenly reading your words with fresh eyes). I also don’t want to come off as a clickbait lecturer – “do these 5 things and you’ll be the best content marketer there ever was!” Uh, no.

But I think it’s important enough to continue having conversations around it, and I read two things today that really resonated with me that I’d like to share with you.

The first is actually a post that offers The 5 Best Content Marketing Tools You Aren’t Using (and maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t, read the post and see what you think!). What strikes me as being really important about this piece isn’t the tools themselves; it’s what the author says right in the early part of the post:

When content marketing works, it’s an incredible way to build relationships and share knowledge without pitching your services or products. But here’s the thing:too many businesses are still equating content production with hard sales, especially the content that’s on their business blogs. When I advise startups and small businesses on content marketing, I always come back to this essential truth: successful content is content that empowers, excites and educates. It connects and builds relationships. It tells a story.”

For law firms and lawyers, this is KEY. 
Continue Reading An Uncomfortable Conversation About Content Marketing

EOZpjI3oSqKPNnF2S4Tp_UntitledOne of the things we like to talk about here at Zen is networking, so today, I’m bringing in guest blogger, Thom Singer, to offer you some words of advice while I’m off doing some networking of my own (as well as learning) at this month’s Legal Marketing Association NJ lunch!

***

If you make networking a second tier priority, you will have second tier results.

Growing a legal practice can be an all-encompassing experience. Many lawyers put so much attention into their current client matters that they fail to honor the time to make, grow and keep their business relationships. The immediacy of issues surrounding today’s problems leaves little space for things that do not create instant billable “ROI.”
Continue Reading Networking Matters For A Long-Term Legal Career

photo-1429051883746-afd9d56fbdafBefore we jump into our regularly scheduled post, I wanted to mention that the Legal Marketing Association has put together several of the sessions from the Bay Area Chapter’s Legal Tech Conference, which are available as a webinar series – members can download them for free, and non-members get them at a rate which is really a bargain, considering the depth of content offered. One of the sessions is the panel I participated on with Adrian Lurssen of JD Supra and Laura Toledo of Nilan Johnson & Lewis, but as an independent attendee for the other sessions, I can say that the content was really smart and thoughtful, and would be well worth the time and cost invested! So I share the link with you in the event that you’d like to take a look at it – descriptions of the sessions offered with this bundle are included.

I watched our panel from the conference again, and one of the questions that we were asked during the session is one that I think Zen readers would benefit from discussing as well – that is “How do you motivate lawyers to produce content?”

It’s easy to become convinced that content development is a time-consuming process that you have to devote significant resources to. But if you invest some time in setting up good processes, and marketing professionals act as the support team for the lawyers that are producing the work, it can run much more efficiently than you’d expect. 
Continue Reading Three Ways to Motivate Lawyers to Content Marketing Success

photo-1439556838232-994e4c0d3b7cAlthough we’re well into 2016 now, it’s not too late to make some resolutions for your content marketing. I came across this Forbes article from the end of last year with 6 Content Marketing New Year’s Resolutions to Make This Year, and there is some great food for thought in there that I’d like us to consider. As it’s a Two for Tuesdays day, we’ll focus on two of them to start with.

Why content marketing resolutions at all?

It’s easy to get too into the weeds with content marketing, and be so focused on the process of producing and distributing content that we forget to take that step back once in a while to make sure that we’re sticking to our strategy, working with a strategy that makes sense for us, our practices, and our firms, and continuing to produce and distribute content that meets with what our audiences really want to consume.
Continue Reading Two Content Marketing Resolutions for 2016

200HWhile you don’t need to break the news to be a successful content marketer in the legal industry (and in many cases, it’s really better if you don’t), it doesn’t mean that you have to stay away from writing about or producing content for the latest trends. You may think that because someone else has already weighed in on something, that you shouldn’t add to the commentary out there – but you may have something valuable to say, or a different perspective to add.

What we refer to as “evergreen content,” or “SEO content that is continually relevant and stays ‘fresh’ for readers.” (thanks, WordStream) is extremely valuable for lawyers and law firms. It’s content that is always relevant to your audience, and will live on well after you’ve produced it, thus doing the work of marketing for you without you having to actively do anything at all. But it’s only part of the story – the other part is covering the latest trends (both those in law, and those outside of the law, from a legal perspective) to give those in the industry a reason to keep coming back to your content. As Ann Smarty says in this piece for the Content Marketing Institute:

Covering relevant timely and newsworthy content is a great way to grow your site audience and take advantage of trends that get people more interested and thus more engaged.”

It’s likely that you already have a number of different sources set up for how you identify the latest trends in your area of practice – whether you’re an active content producer or not, you’re staying up-to-date on the latest legislation, case decisions, and industry discussions that may or may not affect your clients. But as the world expands and evolves, so do the means with which we keep up with the latest trends – and for those of us interested in translating these into content that we can use proactively, there are various tools out there that we can leverage. 
Continue Reading Two Tools to Turn Trends into Topics

photo-1436397543931-01c4a5162bdbRather than our typical “Two for Tuesdays” post today, I want to share a great piece I came across while browsing Klout (remember when I mentioned how much I’m loving Klout’s “explore” feature?).

Megan Conley wrote a post for HubSpot’s blog on “11 Impressive B2C Campaigns That B2B Marketers Can Learn From.” If you’re a regular Zen reader, you’ll already know why I like this, but Conley does a beautiful job of summing it up:

[O]ur best ideas come when we take a step outside the scope of our work and seek inspiration from unlikely sources.”

Yes.

We’ve said before that it can be tempting to stay within the confines of the legal industry, because we’re just so darn specialized. But as Conley points out:

For B2B marketers, this means that the creative spark you’re looking for might not be found directly within your industry. In fact, there’s actually a lot B2B marketers can learn by observing the approach of B2C companies.”

And lest we forget, just because we’re working at and for and with law firms, we’re still, at the heart of things, B2B marketers –  yes, lawyers, even you are B2B marketers because even though a large part of your day-to-day is consumed with the actual practice of law, there is a not-insignificant portion of it that is involved with informing people about why they should commit to trusting you to be their advocate, be they existing or potential clients. 
Continue Reading 11 Consumer Companies that Legal Marketers Can Learn From

cropped-005-lma-ne-2015-conference-email-banner_emailRather than bringing you our regularly scheduled “Two for Tuesdays” today, I’m continuing the roundup from the LMA New England Conference, with “Creating a WOW Communications Program,” another excellent session I attended.

Whether you’re tasked directly with communications or not, the truth is that we’re all communicators in our firms – we all have messages to deliver, whether it’s as lawyers to clients or as marketers to our lawyers. So there are strong benefits to gain from this session for all of us. 
Continue Reading Creating a WOW Communications Program

twofortue
Last week, we took a look at two mistakes that may be impacting your content marketing, giving up too early and not marketing your content. Continuing with our theme, and thanks to Content Marketing Institute for their inspiration, we’re going to look at another two mistakes today.

Mistake Number One: Your Offerings Have Become Passé

This mistake is really about two things – not producing enough new content, and not thinking outside of the box with your existing content offerings. Both can be problematic.

Not Producing Enough New Content

I am a firm believer in quality over quantity when it comes to content. Yes, I write a lot myself, but that doesn’t mean I advocate it for everyone – it’s just what works for me.

But when you’re producing content, it’s all about “what have you done for me lately?” If you’re not reminding people that you’re out there, and providing them with value, they just won’t think about you at all. It’s as simple as that.

So you may not need to publish a new blog post or produce a new video every week. But you can’t let months go by without offering NEW content of value. And there is SO much that you’re already doing that can be fodder for good content that there’s really no excuse.

  • Sit down and give yourself the writing prompt “I am often asked…” What is it that your clients regularly ask you about the law that you’re always answering for them? Turn that into a blog post or a whitepaper – if a few of your clients are always asking you something, the likelihood is that others who are NOT your clients but are in the industry are wondering the same thing. Why not share your wisdom and expertise with them?
  • When new legislation comes out or cases are decided, do you email some of your clients with the impact that will have on their business? Take the content of those emails and turn it into a general article or blog post that you can use to explain to a generic company in the industry how the same legislation or court decision may impact THEM. It just takes some tweaking and removing of any confidential information to repurpose something you’re already doing.
  • If you’re speaking at conferences on a subject, take your presentations and share them on SlideShare. Turn them into a series of blog posts. Pull out the most salient points and create a short video around them.

Continue Reading 2 [More] Mistakes that Are Killing Your Content Marketing