If you want a running commentary of the 2014 Futures Conference, search for #COLPM2014 on Twitter. It’s an excellent, real-time, meat-of-the-matter summary of the six TED-style talks, Tom Sager’s keynote, our ten facilitated breakout teams and their “Shark Tank” presentations to our judges. The program was designed around innovative thinking […]
New Website Case Study: Super Regional Firm Winstead (winstead.com)
Here is what 300-lawyer Winstead explains to website visitors, and it’s why a buyer of legal services should take a look a them: “Destination: Wherever you need to go” represents Winstead’s attitude, as well as the vastness of our experience and technical resources that clients rely on. Clients in virtually […]
Create relevant website content that drives search engine and human traffic – Guest Post by Janet Ellen Raasch
“Site Optimization and Online Awareness” is the 8th of the Ten Foundational Best Practices for law firm websites. “Lawyer Biographies” and “Content (Other than Bios)” are 4 and 5, respectively. In 2005, I launched the AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices research because I determined that law firms were […]
New Website Case Study: California firm Downey Brand (downeybrand.com)
For more than 80 years, Downey Brand lawyers have been key figures and played pivotal roles in the growth of Northern California and Northern Nevada. Advancing both public and private interests, Downey Brand clients are frequently at the center of the region’s most strategic and vital activities and investments. While […]
To win more business, don’t underestimate the value of visceral appeal.
For more than two decades we have known that corporate counsel and other buyers of legal services have two levels of decision-making. They make an intellectual decision when creating their short list, evaluating expertise, perceived technical skill, and other features that are important to them – geographical reach, depth, rates […]
A champagne toast to a grand 2014 – and my one piece of New Year advice
Many law firm consultants, prognosticators and pundits have written long blog posts and articles with predictions for law firms in 2014. Given that website visitors don't read (they scan), I prefer tiny bites of information and opinions, as opposed to having to scroll to China. I have several predictions this […]
A big year of awards and enhancements for Content Pilot
As the founder of Content Pilot, I am proud when the company and team I have built does well. Our biggest test of success is how our clients feel about us. Every engagement – regardless of size or client – means the world to us, and our mission is to […]
Ouch! Thinking about designing a law firm mobile app? Read this review first.
If you are thinking it’s a good idea to launch a mobile app for your law firm, first read this review by Jeff Taylor. Jeff is a lawyer in Oklahoma who writes a popular blog called, “The Droid Lawyer.” This is a scathing review of Sidley & Austin’s mobile app […]
Results: 2013 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research – Part I
I just presented the Keynote address at the 2013 LMA Legal Tech Conference in San Francisco, previewing the results of the 2013 AmLaw 100 Websites research findings. Congratulations and thanks to Clare Ota and Adam Stock for organizing a sold-out, superior conference. Sponsored by Content Pilot LLC and supported by […]
New Website Case Study: Tennessee firm Chambliss launches new site (chamblisslaw.com)
Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, P.C. (“Chambliss”) is not your grandmother’s Tennessee law firm, in spite of the fact that it is 126 years old. From a style of doing business standpoint,the 56 lawyers are accessible, approachable, entrepreneurial, scrappy (the opposite of white-shoe), big fun (not boring), innovative and forward-thinking. From […]
New Website Case Study: Oklahoma firm Doerner (dsda.com)
Doerner Saunders Daniel & Anderson LLP (“Doerner,” which rhymes with burner) is the oldest law firm in Oklahoma – its founding and Oklahoma’s statehood happened at about the same time. It is a fresh-thinking, contemporary firm and it has been from the beginning – working with clients who were shaping […]
Charlatan SEO company gets sued by its unhappy law firm client
From the very first days of Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines, lawyers have wanted to appear at the top of search results – “above the fold.” That spawned a slew of hucksters forming companies that promised unwitting lawyers that they could get them to show up on top […]
The best lawyer videos I’ve seen – watch Richard Hsu
“Video” comes up in every website conversation I have with lawyers and marketers. Everyone wants to add video to their websites, but few know how to approach it strategically, uniquely and so that the end result is superior to what you had without the added media. I have written about Richard […]
Website visitors don’t read (and we’ve known this for a long time)
Law firm website analytics show that visitors don’t read the content that we painstakingly create. Visitors are scanners – they efficiently scale the pages with their eyes in a big F pattern, catching a headline, keywords or infographics that catch their eye. We hope that something registers, and that there is […]
What law firms can learn from my experience with the strangest dessert in San Francisco (maybe the world)
While In San Francisco to speak at the monthly San Francisco LMA luncheon on Website trends (with Barbara Abulafia, Keker & Van Nest, Jeff Yerkey, Right Hat and Per Casey, Tenrec), my colleague Keith Wewe, another couple and I were hosted by Elizabeth Lampert for dinner at Twenty-Five Lusk. This modern and tony restaurant, located […]
The most startling finding from the 2012-2013 AmLaw 100 Websites research – A troubling deficiency
Content Pilot is just releasing the findings of the 2012-2013 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices research. Objectively reviewing the websites of the nation’s largest law firms is an arduous process. There are Ten Foundational Best Practices – must-have features and functionality for today’s law firm sites – and each FBP […]
Year-end website bio housekeeping for lawyers in 30 minutes or less
People don’t like to start on new projects the last few days of December. The pre-holiday bustle that focuses around family, food, faith, fa-la-la and folly has subsided, and we look ahead to the first full week of January to really start work. This year, these last December days are “lost” days […]
Waller: A successful law firm website case study
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP is a 200-lawyer firm headquartered in Nashville, with offices in Birmingham, AL and Austin, TX. The work that “Waller” does in the healthcare industry belies its relatively small size. It is known throughout that industry as the leader, the number-one firm, the “player” in […]
5 Tech tips to increase your productivity – Courtesy of Attorney at Work Blog
David King Keller surveyed a few of us at the Legal Marketing Association’s Tech Conference in San Francisco on October 10-11, 2012 and published an article on the Attorney at Work Blog. The focus of the conference was for speakers to share big and little ideas that “can increase your visibility, your productivity […]
What’s your message? No, really – What’s your message?
Is your message what you say it is – let’s say, your positioning strategy that results in a tagline – is that your message? Or, is your message what others say about you, or post about you on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest? Marketoonist Tom Fishburne spoke at Google’s marketing conference […]