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!

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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

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January/February 2016

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, Brauneis Klauser Prändl Rechtsanwaelte GmbH – Vienna, Austria!

Brauneis Klauser Prändl (bkp) is one of the Austria’s leading business law firms. They are known for providing clients with high-profile services, along with efficient and target-oriented advice. Due to the size of their firm, they are able to advise and represent clients in all aspects of business law. Continue Reading ILN Firm of the Month – Brauneis Klauser Prändl Rechtsanwaelte GmbH – Vienna, Austria!

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

photo-1418225162054-0f773a996f9eAlthough you may be expecting our final Two for Tuesdays post of the year to focus on content marketing, I’m actually going to take a surprising break from that today in favor of sharing with you a couple of networking tips instead (try not to fall over in shock).

This time of year is perfect for networking because we’re all thinking of fresh starts and how we can make new business development connections. And, of course, you’re all joining me for our January LinkedIn Challenge, right?

Since it’s easy to get bogged down in the usual ideas of “okay, so I have to go to more networking events?” and “do I really have to revisit my elevator speech again?” I’m always looking for new and unique ways to breathe some life into my networking efforts without having to get too uncomfortable. I happened to come across this article from HuffPo the other day through Klout – and a quick aside on Klout. Typically, those of us familiar with Klout have long thought of it as a place for egomaniacs, because it’s a service that provides you with a “score” for your social media activity. It’s also generally accepted that this “score” is not altogether accurate – while it does a nice job of feeding your ego, it doesn’t always accurately reflect the quality of what’s being shared, or the level of engagement happening, and a number of us in the social media space were more than alarmed when some companies were hiring based on someone’s Klout score. Continue Reading Networking Hacks from Undergrads

yJl7OB3sSpOdEIpHhZhd_DSC_1929_1It’s that time of year again, the time of year when every post is a round-up, or a look at trends for 2016. We’re saying goodbye to the old, and ringing in the new, as the close of a calendar year has taught us to do.

Like everyone else, I’ve been thinking about what 2016 will have in store. While I won’t be doing any typical “top ten” posts this year, I am using today’s Two for Tuesdays to look at two goals I have for content marketing (my own and the ILN’s) in 2016. I’ve been thinking about these for a while, and fortunately, industry trends seem to be bearing them out. We’ll get to what they are in a moment, but first, I’d like you to think about what your content marketing goals are for 2016 – I read a great quote in an Inc. article this morning that reminded me that we all have to up our game:

A client, whose company was in a very fast growing industry, once said that as their market matured, they would be forced to become better marketers, not simply capturing new and pent-up demand. The same holds true for content marketing. Those who make the effort to do it right–assigning dedicated resources, developing written business plans with clear goals, leveraging tools like Buyer’s Personas to develop content for the customer’s benefit rather than the brand’s and producing a variety of content types–will continue to drive heavy engagement.”

We’re at that jumping off point in the legal industry as well. Content marketing isn’t new to us – we’ve been doing it forever. In the last year, we’ve seen more strategy implemented around it, and moved into an era of more sophisticated tracking. We use data to inform our next steps in what content we produce, and the channels we use to distribute it. There are a few firms lagging behind, but they’re catching up. We’re all being forced to be better marketers, and it’s fantastic – I love listening to brilliant colleagues doing creative, interesting things.  Continue Reading 2 Content Marketing Goals for 2016

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December 2015/January 2016

The ILN is proud to announce our latest firm of the month, Glusman & Co. – Tel Aviv, Israel!

The Law Offices of Glusman & Co. focuses on the business arena and provides an overall one-stop-shop for premium legal services to both corporate and private clients from Israel and abroad, in various fields, combining personally tailored client relations with professional expertise. Continue Reading ILN Firm of the Month – Glusman & Co. – Tel Aviv, Israel!