As an attorney, it can be difficult understanding where to start, when it comes to allocating these precious resources. If you are limited on the amount of time and money you can spend with your attorney marketing efforts, here are some tips for you:

As far as making yourself available 24/7 so you don't miss cases, here is some news for you - you are already missing cases. Are you getting all of the cases in your location right now? Probably not. By making yourself always available, you could be sending the wrong impression. For example, if you needed non-emergency heart surgery, would you rather see the surgeon who is not able to see you for six weeks or one who says, "I'm not busy, let's go ahead with the operation today." Do you understand my point?

If you have ever flipped through your Yellow Pages then you probably noticed that there were anywhere from five to 70 pages of ads. The headlines were mainly generic and the only offers made to consumers were free consultations or "no fee unless we win." The names of the law firms could easily be swapped in these ads and not much would change.

People do not look for attorneys the same way they shop for goods and other services. That is why traditional marketing doesn't work to adequately attract new clients. Someone is not going to sit down one Friday night and watch all of the lawyer ads that were recorded on the DVR. This person is instead going to head to the computer to start searching for a lawyer to help with his or her legal issues. In some areas, this search will be done using the Yellow Pages.

Think about when you search for a subject, service or product on Google. Do you scroll through pages and pages of search results? If you are like most people, then the answer is, no. The majority of prospects searching for legal services online will only read the websites listed on the first page of Google or whatever search engine. Many of them won't get past the websites listed at the top. In order for more of your potential clients to find you, not only should you be on page one, you also need to be at the top.

You may have been told that having your firm's name, phone number and practice areas on a website is enough, but that is absolutely not true. To have a successful attorney website, it must incorporate four important elements, which are listed below:

The marketing vultures that sell you expensive advertising space are going to tell you that you just need to buy a bigger ad or add color to your attorney advertisement to get a better return on investment. Then you will stand out for sure, right? The answer is no. If your ads and website send the same message as all the other lawyers in town, it is like having potential clients throw darts at a dartboard to pick an attorney. How will they know whom to call?

You need to let your prospects know that you have the solutions they are looking for. It is very difficult to put a lot of information into a Yellow Pages ad or other form of advertisement. Instead, you should design a package that you can mail that provides multiple educational materials. If you were to include the same information that you can potentially incorporate into your mailing package, in a Yellow Pages ad, it would cost millions of dollars.

Before I go into how to create effective ads that send the right message, it is important to talk about what you shouldn't do. Many attorneys make the error of listing too many practice areas in one ad. Open up the Yellow Pages and you will see some ads that list up to 25 different specialties. This type of lawyer ad is giving the impression that the law firm is just an average firm. The industry is fiercely competitive, which is why you have to find a way to stand out from the crowd.

It is important to understand that a free consultation is not an irresistible offer. Just about every law firm in town will be saying the same thing in their ads, so it will not set you apart from your competitors or even give a potential client a reason to pick up the phone and call you.

A Waiting List is Forming Now.

I'm excited to share some big news with you today. With a final surge in registrations just after the holidays, JumpStart 2010 is now sold out. This marks the fifth consecutive GLM conference event to sell out (and the earliest).

The GLM conferences have proven to be the best on the planet for lawyers who are success-minded and self-reliant and who are committed to building thriving practices.

If you missed your chance to register, I do want to let you know that all hope may not be lost. In the past we've sometimes ended up with a few last-minute cancellations due to an unexpected emergency or a change in a trial schedule, so we've gone ahead and set up a waiting list.

If you would like to be placed on the waiting list or check to see if there have been any cancellations, please contact Nicole at Nicole@NicoleTully.com or by calling 717-824-6553.

For additional information about JumpStart 2010, please go to GLMJumpStart2010.com.

Ben Glass

The headline for your legal advertisement or website needs to give people a reason to continue reading. Think about your habits when reading the newspaper or magazine. You choose an article based on the title. Your prospective clients will do the same thing.

Do you have these types of statements in your lawyer advertisements? If so, you are not the only attorney to make this common lawyer marketing mistake.

Too often, lawyers waste money on ineffective ads. They market in the Yellow Pages and on the Internet with ads that look like everyone else. Some attorneys will waste valuable ad space with comments that are similar to those above that really don't differentiate them from the law firms down the street.

When you open the Yellow Pages, it is common to see pages and pages of lawyer ads. Law firms spend thousands of dollars to advertise in the Yellow Pages and online and get little return on investment. There are many possible explanations, including the following:

Nationally-recognized attorney and legal marketing expert Ben Glass announces the official agenda for the popular (and nearly sold out) "Great Legal Marketing" JumpStart 2010 Conference, to be held January 15-16, 2010, in the Washington, D.C. area.

Time is Running Out to Reserve Your Spot at Great Legal Marketing's JumpStart 2010 Conference

I know you've got tons of stuff going on right now. We all do. But, if you're serious about building a hugely successful practice in 2010 and beyond, you owe it to yourself and your family to read this email and take a few moments to sign up for our next conference.

Here's Why:

For starters, JumpStart 2010 is nearly sold out. Each year, we end up turning away lawyers in the last couple of weeks prior to the event who waited too long. Don't be one of them.

More importantly, though, here's just a taste of what you'll miss if you're not here:

Here are some notes from that part of the interview.

Ben Glass and Stephen Fairley talk lawyer marketing.

A Special Webinar Featuring Ben Glass, Tom Foster and Rem Jackson on December 16, 2009, at 1:00 P.M. EST. Register below.

The ad was perfect: It had the right message. It looked sharp. It was in the right media. It even generated calls to the firm. But then what? Silence. No new cases.

Welcome to the world of traditional (i.e. ineffective) lawyer marketing.

The bottom line is that marketing is about much more than advertising. In fact, advertising (while the most obvious and public piece of a marketing program) is really just the tip of the iceberg. The "REAL" marketing happens further along in the process.

When you understand how this CRITICAL AND VITAL part of the marketing process works, your ROI (Return on Investment) begins to increase dramatically. Ben Glass and his Great Legal Marketing team of experts have perfected this system and are going to share it all in a special webinar December 16 at 1:00 P.M. EST.

Be sure to have your pen and paper ready or your laptop open when you attend this webinar because you will be taking notes for a solid hour. Find out how the very best lawyers are choosing the cases they want.

This is a webinar you don't want to miss.

Register for this webinar for free here.

Basically, this was lawyer advertising enforcement gone wild, this time, courtesy of the legal advertising ethics folks in South Carolina. Only problem, the Court didn't go far enough...the Court should have ordered the Office of Disciplinary Counsel to apologize for wasting everyone's time and money.

You can read more of the story of the South Carolina Office of Bar Ethics Counsel's failed effort to shut down this lawyer's TV ad here.

I thought that the subject matters were so important that I wrote a couple of short articles to share with everyone.

Here's an article where Stephen Fairely and I were talking about the use of client satisfaction surveys.

We also had a really cool discussion about educating your clients on what makes a good referral.