During the presentation, a number of questions arose about pay-per-click, how websites are optimized and what works best for client development. One of the things I recommended was to create local business profiles, on places like Google Local, Superpages, etc.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time, and didn’t get to my series of slides on social marketing. I had an idea I wanted to share: could you use social for local? Since all major search engines included social media elements for just about any given search, I thought there might be an angle lawyers and other professional service providers could take. I came up with the following rule and super simple plan:

Rule
Never alter your Name, Address or Phone number (NAP) from platform to platform. It’s hard enough to rank for popular phrases, why complicate things?

Plan

• Create local profiles on Google Local, Yahoo Local and Best of the Web. Be consistent with your NAP!
• Once you sign up on Twitter, occasionally tweet your NAP. And while you’re at it, make sure your Name, Address and Phone Number are listed clearly on all social media profile pages.
• Add your social media profiles as links on your local profiles. Couldn’t hurt.

What do you think? This three step plan is easy to implement, and should pay dividends down the road.

• Linda Glasgow, of Lewis King — thank you for the opportunity to speak!
• Marsha Wilson, the executive director of the Knoxville Bar Association
• Marc Upchurch, of Kramer Rayson, LLP
• David Kristy, an attorney with Butler, Vines & Babb, PLLC
• Randall Miller, Executive Director of Woolf, McClane
• Pam McMahan of Wimberly Lawson

Photo credit by robhoward.

I’d really like to thank Debbie Gordon, Executive Director, for her hospitality. We had a fun group, and were joined by:

• Travis Charles Smith, an immigration attorney
• Jeffrey Crain, an attorney with Rainey Martin, LLP
• Ron Collier, a Social Security Disability attorney
• Jerry Shiles, an elder laywer

The questions were deep, and revolved around the technical aspects of search engine marketing. The best were after the seminar ended, when Travis and I discussed his plans for using social marketing to attract new sites. We talked about his website, blogging, Facebook (he landed a new client from a referral!) and using Twitter.

All in all, an enjoyable hour of conversation around inbound marketing.

The problem? Most businesses never reach their full potential because they fail to realize that websites are employees – employees that work to gather leads 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The sooner you realize this, the closer you’ll be to reaching a new level of success; one that comes from possessing a global presence, a constantly networking and marketing tool, and a full-service establishment that serves your customers and potential clients effectively all day, every day.

Used properly, a website will change your online destiny and heighten your understanding of what your clients expect from you as a professional company, and, scary to say, what many of your competitors could well already know: websites have an enormous amount of power, both online and offline.

Your task is to harness this power in a way that works for you, and it starts by changing your mindset on what a website is, and why you either need one, or need to proactively put the one you already have to work. Consider this: radio took 37 years to get 50 million listeners. TV took 15. The Internet did it in less than 3 years. In today’s ultra-competitive economy, a website is your way of being heard.

First, your website acts as a customer service representative. Websites can provide customer service for your company like no other employee on your payroll. What other employee do you have that works non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year, for year after year after year? So leverage your website for what it’s great at: providing useful information about your business, such as your services and procedures. Recent news about your company or industry that may interest potential customers also can be posted to your website and updated regularly. Your website can and should provide unparalleled customer service on your behalf.

Second, your website acts as a public relations manager. Websites communicate who you are and help you connect with potential customers. Regardless of whether you’re locally famous or not, your website can make you known globally. By providing clear definitions, information and articles in simple terms everyday people understand, your website can make you more money and attract new customers. Not to mention the potential for making a more personal connection with people by including online professional biographies. A website thrives on attention, and when others reference it, link to it, and love it for providing what they’ve been desperately searching for, it shines brighter than ever, attracting yet more attention. By using your website and the knowledge you currently posses, you can become “the” expert who not only understands your own business, but how to communicate that understanding into the practical, hard-and-fast information surfers seek out.

Third, your website acts as a document provider. Websites can make the lives of your customers and staff easier. Ever faxed or mailed a form to a customer that they could easily have filled out online? Allowing your website to provide forms, general paperwork and documents with your company letterhead already in place saves everyone time and money. Your administrative staff will thank you, too, when you use your website to reduce both unnecessary office traffic and time spent needlessly explaining general documents. Do your clients and yourself a favor by providing forms, general paperwork and documents online.

Fourth, your website acts as an intelligence-gathering tool. We would all like to know what our customers are expecting from us before they say it, and there is absolutely no better way to have this knowledge in-hand than to allow your website to perform a bit of intelligence-gathering on behalf of your business. In this manner, your website is able to gather information and provide you with powerful insight that will improve all aspects of your business – both online and offline. Through feedback forms, website analytics and surveys, your website can be your company’s perpetual covert intelligence agent, working around the clock to help you get to know your clients so you can better communicate with them.

Essentially, the costs associated with creating, maintaining and distributing a website are minimal compared to the ROI your company will receive. Where else can you find a single, consistent medium to provide your company with ongoing customer service, public relations, document delivery, and intelligence gathering, which is not only accurate, but also complete?

With your website working for you fulltime, your company can level the playing field with larger competitors. A valid website will expose you and your company to global markets, while complementing the work you are already performing offline. By tapping the power of your website, you have hired an employee that never needs to be fired and that works just as hard as you do.

Local Listings
The practice of law, or any other service, is typically a combination of a problem + a location (e.g. “divorce lawyer in Dallas”), so claim your listing on Google’s Local Business Center and on Yahoo Local.

Ratings & Reviews
Ask current clients to rate and review your practice on Yelp. This site has grown beyond just reviews on restaurants, and organizes businesses in more than 20 categories, such as Local Services, Professional Services, and Real Estate. If you’re not part of the conversation, how do you know what’s being said? Simple instructions are found on Yelp’s Business Owners Guide.

Networking
When asked, nearly all service providers like to say they get business “by referral” so put your networking on steroids and join LinkedIn. The best ways to use this site, beyond simple networking, are by joining groups and answering questions. But don’t neglect your network! Writing unsolicited recommendations is the best way to get more of your own. And if you’re a lawyer or an attorney, join Martindale-Hubbell Connected, which is a professional network is designed exclusively for legal professionals.

Build your marketing plan from these three foundational elements, and you’ll be well on your way to growing your service-based business in 2010.

But how do you get more testimonials for your service business? Instead of shackling your best clients to a desk, locking them in a room, giving them pen and paper, and coercing them to write (and write well!), try this strategy instead.

First, come up with a short list of questions your potential clients should ask of yours or similar services (make sure the questions emphasize benefits). For example:

• Is your service exclusive my industry or company?
• How often will you call or visit my team with updates?
• What type of guarantee do I get?
• What time commitments do I need to make?

And so on. Then, present this list along with a handful of current clients for your prospect to contact.

When your current clients are contacted for information — and let’s face it, it will be via email — they’ll be compelled to write back what looks like a well-written testimonial. The glicken (*) is when your current clients copy (‘cc’) you on this message. Voila! Instant testimonial.

This approach even helps your active clients further remember why they did business with you in the first place, and may spawn more referrals.

How would this strategy work for your business?

Postcards work for a number of reasons. They’re easy to read, easy to test and produce quick results. Since everyone with a website is only focused online, postcards also have much less competition. But here’s the best part: your competitors won’t know (and can’t copy) your marketing efforts when you use postcards. Unless they’re on your mailing list, you’ll keep your special promotions to your best prospects only.

Postcards work for any business.

According to the USPS, simple, eye-catching cards with timely, relevant information do the best. Make sure you’re using either a key-code, or the postcard itself (when presented in person), for your tracking purposes. Every business, online or offline, can use postcards successfully. A website can promote its URL, driving traffic; a marketer can use a 2-part postcard (one that has a return postcard attached) for lead generation; a retail store can use a postcard with a discount, coupon or phone-in offer… The possibilities are endless.

Before you roll-out a gigantic postcard campaign, test a very small selection (a few hundred names should be sufficient). If the results are acceptable, slowly increase the mailing to larger and larger lists. With a couple mailings done, you’ll have enough data to predict the future success on a full mailing. The campaign should be successful if you’re writing direct response copy with a personal touch and mailing to the most appropriate list.

Tips, Tactics and Ideas

• Always mail with first-class postage, and include an “Address Correction Requested” line below your return address. The post office, for a small fee, will then provide you with updated (and corrected) home addresses for your prospect, leaving you with a much cleaner list.
• Don’t try to make direct sales with a postcard. You simply don’t have enough sales copy space on a postcard to make a direct sale. Instead, offer either a discount or coupon (for online and offline businesses) or promote a lead-generation landing page on your website.
• Follow up with your postcard prospects by telephone. Virtually no one does this. You’ll dramatically boost response this way.
• Don’t send one postcard and call it quits. They’re so cheap and inexpensive, you can send one to your prospect every 3-4 weeks and stay “top of mind” with them.
• Use postcards to survey your customers. Just list your short survey questionnaire on the back and ask them to answer and then fax the card back or visit a website to record their responses.
• Thank your customers and encourage referrals with a postcard.
• Use high-quality, gloss-free card stock (80lb. or heavier) and opt for a larger (requiring first-class postage) size of at least 5 x 8 inches.
• Sales copy should be quick and snappy, following the AIDA formula: get Attention, stimulate Interest, create Desire and call to Action (it’s critical that you ask them to do something: phone, stop in, visit this webpage, complete this survey, give to a friend, etc.).
• Spend time on the USPS website. You can design, create and mail your entire campaign right from your PC.
• Pictures, graphics and other eye-catching elements are a must. We all read words, but we think in pictures.
• Try 1 or 2 color printing first. 4 color printing usually requires a glossy finish, and your work of art is likely to be smeared and scratched by postal processing machines.

Conclusion

Have you ever received a postcard you didn’t at least look at? It’s hard to ignore a postcard since it’s already “opened”. The price, ease of use, and available resources make postcards one of the most effective “low-tech” marketing tactics in your arsenal.

Resources

Postcard Marketing Systems

• Postcard Marketing Secrets
• Marketing With Postcards

List Rentals

• infoUSA
• SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service)
• Melissa Data

Postcard Printers

• Postcard Power
• Modern Postcard
• VistaPrint

United States Postal Service (USPS)

• Business Mail (see Click2Mail and Premium Postcard)

• They are not found on local search engines for obvious phrases (seriously, it takes all of a few minutes to claim a Google Local and Yahoo Local listing)
• The website was launched in 1998 and hasn’t been updated since
• There is no conversion form or method of capturing visitors intent
• Not enough content (or alternatively, too much pretentious jargon)
• It’s just plain ugly

What else am I missing?