Take a look at our December newsletter!
DEC 2020 (800) 406-7229 SpotlightBranding.com
THE X’S AND O’S OF A WINNING LAW FIRM 5 FOOTBALL LESSONS THAT WILL HELP YOUR BUSINESS THRIVE IN 2021
Is it just me, or is football season one of the only things making life in 2020 worth living? Okay, okay — that might be a bit of a stretch. But I am a huge football fan, and I look forward to every single game. Usually screen time helps me turn off my work brain, but lately, I’ve been watching football with marketing on my mind. Last week, it hit me: A winning football team and a thriving law firm have a lot in common. Honestly, the same could be said for any business! If you apply these five lessons from football, you’ll set your company up for a fantastic “season” in 2021.
how many times I’ve seen a firm drop the ball on their marketing because they don’t have a process in place for getting it done right. On top of that, a playbook can alleviate tension between the players and their coaches (aka your employees and you) when a play goes sideways. If something doesn’t go according to plan, you can whip out the playbook and explain where the route your employee was running went wrong.
might sit back in coverage and play more conservatively to defend the pass. None of these strategies are “right” or “wrong,” but every team DOES have one. Having a cohesive strategy and executing it to the fullest brings a team together and makes them more effective — and the same is true in a law firm. Your firm needs to have a strategy that defines your approach to law. Are you the aggressive bulldogs who are in it to win it on every case? Or are you the feel-good attorneys who take a gentler approach, focusing on shepherding your clients through hardship? Either persona can work, but knowing your strategy and making it clear to yourself, your team, and your clients is essential to success.
LESSON NO. 1: DRAW UP A PLAYBOOK. A playbook is absolutely essential in football.
LESSON NO. 2: CHOOSE A STRATEGY. There are a lot of different ways to win a football game. Some winning teams prefer to pass like crazy, while others focus on running the ball. On defense, Team A might “IN YOUR LAW FIRM, YOUR CLIENTS ARE YOUR FAN BASE, AND YOUR BRANDING SHOULD STAND OUT TO THEM LIKE A NEON SIGN SCREAMING, ‘THIS IS FOR YOU!’”
LESSON NO. 3: CREATE
Those scribbled X’s and O’s describe the routes key players
CLEARLY DEFINED
will run and keep the whole team on the same page. Without it, offensive and defensive
POSITIONS. Reading this section head
coordination would go out the window and the players would start charging willy-nilly across the field. Who wants to watch that game? The same is true in business. Without a playbook — aka the written systems and processes detailing how your firm operates — even the most well-disciplined team can turn into a chaotic scrum. It’s absolutely vital that you not only have processes and procedures, but also that you write them down in detail . You’d be surprised
you’re probably thinking, “Yes Marc, I know every football team has positions, and every business has them, too — duh,” but cut me some slack here! Yes, I do want you to think of your receptionists and paralegals as running backs and wide receivers, but you also need to dive deeper. What traits and duties make a great running back or a fantastic receptionist? To help your business succeed, you need to create clearly
be aggressive and blitz more often to put pressure on the quarterback, while Team B
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CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
Sunshine Isaacson & Hecht, LLP in Jericho, New York, serves individuals and businesses across a wide range of practice areas, SUNSHINE ISAACSON & HECHT, LLP: FAMILY LAW
Best of all, it took little effort on their part. We created all the content for them. All they had to do was look it over and give their approval.
including family law, personal injury, and oil spills. Earlier this year, the firm reached out to us about our services. When their blog, e-newsletter, and social media service started about a month later, they immediately began receiving calls. An attorney whom they had not spoken to in years contacted them and referred a new case because she saw their newsletter and social media.
With that small effort, Sunshine Isaacson & Hecht, LLP was able to remind everyone on their contact list (over 1,000 people!) who they were and how they could help — and it resulted in business they didn’t expect to receive. Don’t believe the naysayers out there. Newsletters (both print and digital) work. Sunshine Isaacson & Hecht, LLP is just one
WANT MORE REFERRALS AND BETTER CLIENTS? Visit SpotlightBranding.com/NL to schedule a call!
This is what we tell lawyers all the time — you’re losing business that could be yours simply because you’re not keeping in touch with your contacts! Had they not signed up for our services, it’s likely that other attorney would have referred that case to someone else.
example of several clients of ours who have received referrals from their e-newsletter, and it’s all because they are reminding people they’re still out there and helping those in need.
OPTIMIZE YOUR LIST TO TARGET THE RIGHT LEADS THE FIRST TIME!
Your business is nothing without its list. The files upon files of customer data that you have stashed away can give you more insight and direction than most metrics, yet many business leaders know very little about their list — much less how to utilize it. A great list has a few components. It’s usually more than just an Excel spreadsheet with names, addresses, email addresses, preferences, and phone numbers. But if you don’t even have that , then you need to do some serious updating before you go any further! Start by scrubbing your list. Remove any names that are no longer prudent. Then, call the remaining people on the list and verify contact information or ask for additional details. Make this an impossible offer to turn down by providing a reward or something of value to those who opt to share more details with you. As more people offer their information, you have multiple tools to market directly to them. (This will come in handy later.)
Now that you have a brand new, scrubbed, beautiful list, it’s time to break it down . Your list has to be segmented into multiple components to provide a scope of your business’s well-being and to pinpoint target areas. Start with three “buckets”:
your lists rather than casting a wide net and only catching a few leads.
One of the easiest ways to target each group is through relationship marketing. Increase your content production, and keep hitting your customers with your message , using the information from your list to guide you. Start with an email blast, and then pepper in a few postcards. Next, host a Facebook Live event with that very same information and invite a specialty group of people from your list (i.e., your hot leads or loyal customers). Each time you curate a message specifically for a segmented population, you are creating a message that will land right where they need it the most. But don’t let off the gas. Most readers only remember about 10% of what they consume, so keep communicating! With a targeted list, you should have no problem finding a new tactic, a new device, or a new platform to get your message out to the people who need to hear it most. It all starts with perfecting — and updating! — your list.
• Prospects • Customers • Bad Leads
From there, you can break the list down even further to include:
• Canceled customers • Hot leads • Customers with high spending • New sales
As you categorize your list into various buckets, a plan will emerge. Your team can develop campaigns to upsell clients who may need more of the services you can offer while pinpointing those who could be resold on your company. This segmented data is then a powerful tool to help you specifically target
More Referrals. Better Clients. Higher ROI.
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and hype up their fans. In your law firm, your clients are your fan base, and your branding should stand out to them like a neon sign screaming, “This is for you!” Sports teams advertise to their bases with Subway partnerships and eye-catching cheerleaders. When you’re creating your content and other marketing materials, ask yourself, “What will resonate with my clients?” If you’re a family law attorney, images of happy families could be ideal. Every “fan base” is a little bit different, but you can win yours over by creating a brand, message, and content that appeals directly to them. LESSON NO. 5: TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE ‘OFFSEASON.’ Let me get one thing out of the way up front: Business has no “offseason,” and the holidays are the worst possible time to take your foot off the gas pedal (read more on that on Pg. 4). That said, there are a lot of great principles at work in a football offseason that you can steal. Offseason is when coaches take a step back to reassess their strategy, revise their playbook, evaluate their personnel, and
decide if changes need to be made. You can — and should! — take time to do these
defined positions AND make sure you’re filling them with the right people.
If a guy has two left feet, would you really make him a running back? Similarly, if a receptionist always sounds bored and exhausted on the phone, should they really be a receptionist? Here at Spotlight Branding, we call this matching process “right person, right seat” and encourage our clients to constantly reevaluate their staff with that idea in mind. Do you have head coaches, coaching staff, and players who know (and fit) their roles inside and out? If not, it’s time to reshuffle and refocus.
things, too. Here at Spotlight Branding, we do this type of evaluation quarterly. If you don’t
have the breathing room for an “offseason” conversation right this second, here’s my challenge for you: Look ahead to 2021 and put these evaluations on your calendar. That’s it, guys — five lessons from football that will help your firm play its best season ever. If you’re not sure where to start on putting them into action, my team and I can help. Strategy and brand- building are our specialties, and we have a network of business coaches, staffing experts, and culture gurus that we’d love to connect you with to help with the rest. Whether you’re looking for our services, a referral, or both, shoot an email to Info@SpotlightBranding.com.
LESSON NO. 4: BUILD A BRAND FOR YOUR FANS. Every sports team has a
brand — they have a team name, team colors, a logo, a
website, and social media pages. These “brands” exist to sell their product (the games),
–Marc Cerniglia
FEATURED EPISODE THE VERY BEST EPISODES OF ‘THE LAW FIRM MARKETING MINUTE’ PODCAST
RESOURCE OF THE MONTH
EASILY START YOUR PODCAST!
Starting a podcast for your law firm can be a great authority- building tool that you can quickly implement into your marketing. While there are several other podcast hosts out there, Buzzsprout comes with a lot of easy-to-understand features and also puts your podcast in front of as many people as possible. In fact, Buzzsprout can distribute your show to more than 15 different media platforms, including Apple Podcast, Pandora, and Spotify! Even more, Buzzsprout has an embeddable media player you can use to put your show directly on your website. It has other neat tools to share your latest episodes on your social media channels. The coolest feature may be Buzzsprout’s ability to take a snippet of your episode and turn it into a 30-second video clip! We’ve had our show on Buzzsprout for a while now, and we love how easy it is to use, coupled with the platform’s ability to put our show in front of as many people as possible. If starting a podcast is one of your goals for 2021, give Buzzsprout a look!
If you’re looking for more great resources to drive your business forward, take a look at this episode from our industry‑leading podcast “The Law Firm Marketing Minute.” “EMAIL MANAGEMENT TIPS!” LFMM 332 One of the biggest time management issues attorneys face is dealing with their emails on a daily basis. Stop wasting and mismanaging your time with email! These tips will hopefully help you out. If you want More Referrals, Better Clients, and Higher ROI on all your marketing, call us today at 800-406-7229 to schedule a consultation!
Listen to this episode and find even more at SpotlightBranding.com/lfmm and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Want more great tools for your law firm? Visit SpotlightBranding.com/rotm.
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THIS ISSUE INSIDE
What Your Law Firm and a Football Team Have in Common
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Your List Is Your Greatest Weapon
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Client Success Story
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Spotlight Branding’s Industry-Leading Podcast
4 Ways to Keep Your Firm’s Momentum Through the Holidays
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4 BOXES TO CHECK TO UNLOCK YOUR BEST MONTH EVER KEEP YOUR FIRM’S MOMENTUM GOING THROUGH THE HOLIDAYS
դ Double down on creating content. Oh, you have some down time? Perfect! You can finally write that blog, shoot that video, or make that social media post you’ve been putting off. This is the moment to double down on your content creation because more people will be at home scrolling their social media feeds. դ Hire Spotlight Branding. Okay, we’re just kidding — well, kind of! It doesn’t have to be us, but it IS a smart move to hire a marketing service to kickstart or upgrade your marketing during the holidays. If you put it off until next year, Q1 will inevitably get crazy and it will end up on the back burner indefinitely. Can you tick off every box? If you do, you’ll not only make Marc’s holiday, your efforts will pay dividends in 2021.
to reach out to your network and put your firm top of mind. This month, pick out between five and 10 past clients, referral sources, and colleagues to call, text, or email. Yes, they might be busy with holiday plans, but odds are their schedules have slowed down enough that they’ll take your call (and maybe give you a referral). դ Attend at least one networking event (virtually or in person). If you can find a networking event in your area, grab your mask and take the leap this season! Odds are attendance will be low, and you’ll have a great opportunity to connect with the eager people who do show up. If you’re not comfortable
“He’s making a list, and checking it twice …”
No, we’re not talking about Santa Claus! Here at Spotlight Branding, that little ditty describes our CEO. You see, Marc has noticed that a lot of law firms let their growth slow during the holidays. They figure, “Ah well, no one is thinking about their cases right now anyway,” and they put their feet up and coast until January. This is a marketing nightmare! When you give up on your marketing during the holidays, you miss a key opportunity to get a jump on your competition and grow your firm through the end of the year. To that end, Marc put together a holiday checklist for you. դ Call 5–10 people in your network to check in. The holidays are a great excuse
meeting face-to-face, sign up for a virtual event or Zoom party to grow your network.
More Referrals. Better Clients. Higher ROI.
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