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advice you can use — short and to the point — every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

technology  practice  research

All Our Tips

Breathe Life Into Your Marketing Programme With Video

 

It’s information overload out there. And many lawyers are seeing readership of their blogs, articles and newsletters dropping off. So, this week’s tip is to consider changing things up by adding video. How can you make that decision? Give some thought to the following questions:

1. Do you know where the surfers are? Youtube has surpassed Google for searches. That’s right… Google! There is no higher mountain. Enough said.

2. Does your target market watch video? It’s not just celebrity and cat videos that are making the rounds. Business executives are watching video. In fact, research shows 59% of them will choose video over text, when both are available on the same topic.

3. Would your team be amenable to being part of a video series? Don’t know? Find out. Even the most introverted and shy lawyers can do well on screen… if there is a professional plan in place.

4. Is there room in the budget? The truth is that most law firms have some fluff in their marketing plan that can easily be cut out or modified without impact to the return on the program. Why not take a closer look at your plan to see what can be cut?

5. What does your market respond to? How you listen? Bolster their confidence? Answer their questions with ease? This type of human rapport translates well to video, when it’s strategic, client centred and focused on the firm’s central brand messaging.

So, the next time you sit down to a partners’ meeting and the question of ‘how can we get our marketing to perform better’ comes up, don’t let the energy in the room drop. Talk about how you’ve scrutinized the marketing plan (and hopefully received expert advice about that) and have some ideas for discussion.

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For more on video marketing, see previous posts on SlawTips:
A Beginner’s Guide to Producing Law Firm Videos – Part 1

A Beginners Guide to Law Firm Video – Pt 2: Choosing Topics for Your Firm’s Videos

Also see Toronto Marketing Blog, for light banter about the value of video, along with some interesting statistics:
One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words – A “Video takes off” series

Sandra Bekhor, Toronto

 

Don’t Forget Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a useful way to start a search of academic literature, particularly for subject areas for which you have limited or no access to the relevant databases. Google Scholar has indexed an impressive number of academic articles; a 2014 study estimated that it contained just under 100 million English-language academic documents.

Google Scholar uses the same search syntax as Google. Searches can also be limited by author (e.g. Author:Tredwell), name of publication, and publication date. You can also limit search results to those that have links to the full text of the paper.

Although the majority of references in Google Scholar are just to citation information, where available it includes links to the full text of papers. If you are trying to find a specific paper that someone has cited, Google Scholar is a good place to start looking.

–Susannah Tredwell (@hannasus)

 

Band-Aid Planning

You know how to plan effectively. Well, at least you have read dozens of articles on it, right? But you are alway too busy to do it. You promise yourself that as soon as things slow down, you will get right on that because its such a great idea. But either you never slow down or you go golfing instead. Either way, you end each working day in a panic, you go home exhausted with little to show for it, and whatever enthusiasm you have the next morning dissipates like political promises on E-day + 1.

The best solution is the office equivalent of radical, emergency surgery: lock the doors, put the answering machine on, turn off Outlook, and stay there until you have a Plan that will allow you to practice efficiently and effectively. Jim Calloway will outline the basics for you, if you forgotten them.

But if you cannot, will not, act so drastically, try a band-aid for today. When you think you have had it for the day, stop. Just stop. Three deep breaths. Rummage through your To Do list, the pile of files on your desk (or the floor), or even your frantically-splnning mental list. As you identify a file that MUST BE DONE, set it aside. When you have 3 files, stop. No second guessing or looking for another file that might be even more MUST BE DONE. Move every other file out of sight – not just on the corner of the desk because you will see them out of the corner of your eye and be distracted; completely out of sight (hopefully in a filing cabinet but that is for another day). Your work area is now clear except for 3 files. In no more than 10 seconds – a gut reaction – pile them with the one you fear the most on top and descending levels of fear from there.

Tomorrow, put on the answering machine and turn off email – no alerts, visual or audible. Close your door. Set an alert for 2 hours later. Work on that top file until it is under control (files are never done until they are billed and reported out – just aim for under control i.e., no more panic). If you get all 3 done before the 2 hours is up, spend the remaining time reading Jim’s article. At the end of the day, rinse and repeat – 3 more ugly files, etc. Within 10 working days, you will have everything under control and a working plan that will keep your practice that way thereafter.

Barney (Bjorn)  Christianson

 

Think About Lay-Out and Design

If you’re lucky, you’ll have marketing or communications folks who will prepare your piece for publication, but there are some design aspects you should be thinking about too.

White space
Dense blocks of text are hard on the eyes. Too many words will repel readers.

Think about breaking up long paragraphs and sentences so your piece is easier to read.

Headings and sub-headings
A useful way to impose order when you’re writing – and to guide the reader when the piece is published.

Block quotations
Avoid long quotations. As Matthew Butterick says in his illuminating book, Typography for Lawyers:

‘Lawyers sometimes put voluminous material into a block quotation intending to signal “Hey, I quoted a lot of this source because it’s really important!” The actual signal a reader often gets is “Hey, I didn’t write any of this, I just cribbed it from somewhere else!”‘

As a result, readers tend to skip big chunks of quoted text.

You’re better to quote only the essential bits, integrate the rest into your own text or, if a long quotation is absolutely necessary, explain what it says before you quote (on the assumption the reader won’t actually read the quotation).

Bulleted and numbered lists
These are really helpful:

• they’re easy to read
• they provide emphasis and
• they break up your text

Keep each item in the list short, though. Punctuation optional after each item (more modern and elegant without it).

Boldface and italics
Use sparingly.

As Butterick points out, ‘if everything is emphasized, nothing is emphasized.’

Bold and italics are also harder to read than roman (regular) text.

Next on the agenda: go gender-neutral

–Neil Guthrie (@guthrieneil)

 

Handle Personality Differences by Mirroring

A potential new client comes into your office and you can already tell you don’t like him. There’s something about the way he stands, the way he talks, his clothes, the scent of cologne wafting through the air. You can’t pin it down. but his very being puts you off. You’re not conceited – you figure he probably thinks exactly the same of you. At the same time, you know he has a big and interesting case, he can pay, and you want to win him over. What can you do?

Your first reaction may well be to differentiate yourself. “I’m not anything like this person”, you say – and you go about making sure you stay true to yourself. You offer something unique, after all, and this potential client will either like you for you, and if not, it was never meant to be.

But put the je ne sais quoi prejudices aside by mirroring the client’s manner of speech and body positioning. Take advantage of similarity bias – people tend to like those who are similar to them. As you sit down with the client you realize he speaks much louder and faster than you. You slightly quicken your pace of speech and raise your voice just enough – your energy level ramps up accordingly. He sits with his hands in front of him to make a church steeple, each fingertip on the one hand touching the other. You realize your hands are hidden under the table and bring them up on the table. Before you know it, the minutes have flown by and you’ve built rapport. You’re not best buddies but you are both comfortable and respect each other.

Mirroring what your client says is helpful too. If your client doesn’t agree with you, start by outlining the client’s position. This gives comfort to the client and reassures the client that you are listening. It also helps builds a shared foundation from which you can make your recommendations.

Mirroring does not require you to change your personality and become someone you are not. You do not need to act and speak exactly like your client – a little effort can go a long way. And refrain from mirroring an angry and yelling client – that will only escalate the matter. If you have a truly difficult client, one that bullies you or that causes you to consider going against your principles, think hard about whether the client is worth keeping.

Mirroring acknowledges that one person’s way of talking and acting in the world is just one way among many. It would be an unhappy circumstance if valuable relationships are never built because of something as shallow as the way one speaks or sits, but it can happen. Eliminate these barriers and use mirroring to help you build a bond with your client.

A client who likes you is more likely to retain you, accept your recommendations, and not sue you. So handle personality differences by mirroring to help eliminate whatever biases stand between you and your client.

– Ian Hu

 

Don’t Forget About SITE: Search

In what is becoming a biennial tradition here on SLAW Tips, I want to remind everyone about SITE: search, one of the advanced search tools offered by Google.

Google’s SITE: search allows you to search just one website for specific terms. This can be useful when a site’s own search form is disappointing or missing altogether.

There are two ways to access this tool: via Google’s advanced search form or directly from Chrome’s address/search bar. Back in 2011 Shaunna Mireau gave us a detailed explanation on how to use the advanced search form. More recently, in 2013, Dan Pinnington showed us how to use this tool directly from Chrome’s address bar.

I prefer to use the SITE: search directly from Chrome’s address bar. To do this, follow these three steps:

1. In Chrome, navigate to the website you want to search. In my example, we’ll use Transport Canada’s website (https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/menu.htm).
2. In Chrome’s address bar, delete all the characters before and after the root domain. For example, I would edit the full URL (i.e. https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/menu.htm) to be tc.gc.ca.
3. Add the phrase site: before your edited text (no spaces!) and enter your search terms after the edited URL (with a space!). Press enter and review your results. For example, my search would look like this:

site:tc.gc.ca “minor works” “navigation protection”

— Bronwyn Guiton (@BronwynMaye)

 

Tackle That (In)Box

 

 

Think of Your Reader

A lot of writing by lawyers is clearly intended only for other lawyers. Cases in point from a recent edition of Lexology:

Opinions: the Sixth Circuit’s most active authors
Squire Patton Boggs
This post examines which Sixth Circuit judges write the most opinions. My analysis examined opinions available on Lexis over a five-year span. On…

Delaware – Federal district court limits fee request
Morris James LLP
This is an interesting decision for the way it treats a fee request in connection with the settlement of Delaware litigation. Counsel in a case filed…

This sort of thing is fine if your target market is a lawyer at a big firm – except that probably isn’t your target market. And maybe not even if it is – those two examples aren’t exactly gripping.

Your readers may well be in-house counsel, so things of purely lawyerly interest may work for them.

But wouldn’t it be better if your in-house counsel reader could distribute your blog post (or whatever it is) to all the business people he or she supports, with no requirement for translation into plain English?

In order to expand your reach, it’s better to pitch things to a more general, non-lawyer audience. Some tips:

• plain language wherever possible
• avoid legalese – or use it once, explain it and move on
• no Latin!
• be practical in focus – why is this legal development important to someone outside the rarefied world of lawyers? what action does your reader need to take (or avoid) as a result?
• don’t go into too much detail – you want to give the highlights, without giving away all your wisdom and without miring your reader in the minutiæ (which can be a bit, well, boring)

Next tip: lay-out and design

–Neil Guthrie (@guthrieneil)

 

Leadership

 

What does it mean to be a leader?

And what does true leadership in a law firm context really entail?

Clearly, there is no “one size fits all” answer to these questions. Every leader’s approach and plan will necessarily vary, depending on circumstances, temperament, objectives, opportunities – and practicalities.

But behind any effective plan lies a vision of where you want to get, a framework for getting there, and a well-thought-out gameplan for implementing whatever changes that vision may drive.

I will mark the 30th anniversary of my call to the Ontario Bar in April. I will be 57 years of age in September.

At this juncture in my career, I think about developing my own professional leadership – in a small firm context – quite a bit. And I am starting to think quite differently about what that leadership role means, both to me and to the very good people I am fortunate to work with.

And frankly, one of the most difficult challenges, and perhaps the most rewarding when met with success, is simply getting out of the way, so that those talented people you work with can actually do their own jobs completely and build their own track records of personal growth and professional success.

We have talked about delegation a number of previous times here at SlawTips.

I’d like to add this simple thought to the mix: Effective delegation is one of the highest expressions of true leadership. And the corollary also holds: Any leader who fails to effectively delegate is probably no leader at all.

By delegate, I don’t mean feeding tiny scraps of grunt work down the chain to eager underlings.

I mean incrementally delegating the whole enchilada.

Delegating entire files. Key court attendances and transactions. Entire  projects and departments. And delegating real responsibility for maintaining and building key relationships.

Keeping a finger in, where and when it needs to be, of course, but primarily focusing on the “executive” tasks that maximize what you, personally, can now bring to the table.

The more able you are to do that, the more able you will be to implement the balance of your vision.

And it does start with a vision.

Are you thinking of yours?

(We might as well begin there)

….

I will continue with these thoughts in my subsequent posts. Given the  addition of so many talented, new contributors to the Practice Tips bench, you will be seeing a little less of me here, moving forward.

I will be staying with SlawTips, of course, with my own turn to post coming every two months or so. And I am apparently now an editor here, with respect to our new contributors’ posts.

The good news is you will be reading some really interesting Tips articles from some exceptional, new voices.

And you may be seeing a bit more of me now at my own flagship, Wise Law Blog. That’s not such a bad trade-off, as it turns out, and I’m quite looking forward to it.

So see you again at SlawTips in May.

And Happy Easter to all who are celebrating.

Garry J. Wise, Toronto

 

Use a Checklist

As a great fan of checklists I highly recommend Atul Gawande’s book on the subject, The Checklist Manifesto.

In his book Gawande makes the case that a checklist is valuable even if you have done a specific task many times before and know exactly what you are doing. He illustrates this point by giving examples of how checklists are used in hospitals and airplanes.

Checklists are a very handy tool for libraries. They can be used:

• to train people to do new tasks;
• when staff are away and tasks need to be performed by someone else;
• for processes that involves multiple staff members, so that everyone knows what has been done and nothing falls through the cracks; or
• to carry out specific research tasks, e.g. researching a company or an individual. You can list all the resources that should be used on the checklist, and, once the task is done, forward a copy of this list onto the person who requested the research so they know exactly what resources were consulted.

Another value of a checklist is that designing it forces you to think about the process you are documenting. Are there parts of the process that are unnecessary or are there procedures that should be on the checklist that aren’t?

–Susannah Tredwell (@hannasus)