Guest post by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk of BBR Marketing.

I can’t tell you the times I’ve heard an attorney bemoan the fact that their firm isn’t well known in the market. When they mention their employer at a cocktail party, they are met with a blank stare, just another string of last names. I’ve had partners look at me in wonder and ask, “Why does XYZ Firm gets so much media coverage?”

While there’s no foolproof formula, one of the most effective ways for law firms to increase awareness for themselves is through article writing. The benefits are numerous, and here are just a few.

• Allows you to define your niche and advise those within it. You should always have a niche, or a few, and writing articles for publications that specifically target your niche is a great way to reach your audiences. Do you specialize in providing services for the construction industry? Are bankers your best clients? Figure out what they are reading, both in print and online. Not sure? Ask them. Then start writing for those outlets. Make sure the content is pertinent, interesting and NOT a sales pitch for your services. Share a case study, offer tips to help them stay out of trouble, explain some recent legislation. The possibilities are endless.
• Establishes your firm as an expert in your field. There is no better way to be seen as an expert in your field than to author articles for respected publications. When readers repeatedly see your name attached to valuable information, they will want to know more about you, your firm and your services. Reporters will also start calling you for input and quotes on stories they are writing, which will further expand your reach.
• Provides valuable content for trade publications and Websites. Many trade publications have had to cut their writing staff and now depend on outside content to fill out their editorial calendar. They won’t print just anything, but a well-written, pertinent article is usually welcomed with open arms. It gives them the content they need and gives you exposure to their readers.

But don’t think of an article solely as content for outside publications. Once written, you can use articles in a variety of ways, including:

• Sales Collateral: Create a PDF of your article and send it to prospects and clients. These make fantastic follow-up materials after prospect meetings, and can help you introduce a new service offering to current or prospective clients.
• Post to your Website: Many firms are always looking for ways to keep their Website content fresh and “sticky.” Posting new articles on a regular basis is a great way to do this. It will establish you and your firm as experts with your market and keep site visitors coming back to see what’s new and pertinent to them. Regular updates will bump up your search engine optimization as well. 
• Newsletter content: Many professional service providers send out regular newsletters to their clients and friends of the firm, but are frequently stuck wondering what to include in the current issue. Include your latest article, with reference to any publications that have printed it. Or include the first few paragraphs of the article itself, and then provide a link so your readers can see the rest online.
• Social Media links: Once your article is posted on your site, use your social media tools to let people know it’s up. Tweet about it on Twitter, include it on your status on LinkedIn and Facebook. You’d be surprised how much traffic this can drive to your site with minimal effort. And if it’s interesting to your followers, they are likely to repost it, exposing you to an entirely new group of readers.

I can hear you now. “I don’t have time to write articles,” or, “I can’t take time away from client work to do this sort of thing.” And I agree, you shouldn’t. But this is where a talented ghostwriter can save the day. Before you go hire your nephew, the English major, consider this. Working with an experienced writer – ideally one that knows your industry inside and out – will make this process much easier. He or she will ask the right questions to ensure the first draft is on target. A good writer will research the publications where you want to submit your article, and write in the style and language that they want. Working with someone with skills and experience will make the entire process smoother, quicker, and ultimately, more valuable for you.

So think about it. If your article helps you meet or retain just one client, it has more than paid for itself. And even if it doesn’t the first time around, it will increase awareness for you and your firm, to the RIGHT audiences, which will provide return to you over the long haul.

So, what were those excuses again?

BBR Marketing is the brainchild of Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk. She has nearly 20 years of marketing experience working with a diverse range of industries and people, most recently as the marketing director for a mid-sized accounting firm in Atlanta. Her creative thinking and distinctive approach allows her to bring unique ideas to her clients that differentiate them from their competition and give them the tools they need to reach their audiences.

Guest post by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk of BBR Marketing

Attorneys are suddenly starting to show some interest in the phenomenon that is social media, much to the thrill of their marketing personnel. But there is still a lot of confusion about this new medium, and objections abound. Below I take on a few of the most common ones.

Recruiters will poach our people. I hear this a lot. And it’s pretty easy to overcome. First of all, if your employees are that easy to poach, you need to look at your policies and see why they are so willing to leave. Secondly, there are many other ways for recruiters to find your people, and don’t think they aren’t getting calls from them on a regular basis. If you create a culture where people want to stay, it won’t matter if recruiters have another way to reach out to your staff.

We don’t have time. This is a valid concern, because if social media isn’t done correctly, it can be a huge time drain. However, if you manage your presence correctly, you can reap the benefits with a minimal time commitment. There are many tools available that can help you manage your various social media outlets. Hootsuite and SocialOomph are two great ones that allow you to schedule your tweets for a future time. So when you read something you think your audiences will find interesting, schedule an update. I find this allows me to maintain a connection with my followers without taking nearly as much time.

We don’t want our employees wasting time on social media. Again, a valid concern, but one that can be easily overcome by establishing a clear social media policy. Social media is like any other marketing tactic – it should be strategic and align with all your other marketing activities. Create a policy that allows you to gain the benefits from it while still maintaining a modicum of control. Train your employees on your policy and have it available for them to reference as needed. If they are busy with work, they won’t have time to spend chatting on Facebook. I personally think that the occasional visit to these sites has become the cigarette break of days gone by. It’s a quick moment to rest your mind and take a breath between tasks.

This is just a phase. Technology is always evolving. The current social media sites may not be here forever, but the concept is here to stay. (See my article entitled, “If the Pope is on Twitter…”) At one point email was considered to be a phase, but now you wouldn’t even think of not having an email address for each of your employees. The beauty of many of these social media sites is they allow you to establish a community of people – clients, prospects, colleagues, press – and create and maintain relationship with them. It simply makes it easier to reach people you’d never have access to through other methods.

LinkedIn is only full of people looking for jobs. There certainly are people who use LinkedIn to find jobs, but there are a lot more who use it to connect with colleagues, prospects and others in their industry. It is a treasure trove of information for anyone in business, regardless of what you are seeking. Don’t fall into the trap that many do and just set up a profile and leave. Create your profile with accurate information, and indicate whether you want to get job requests or not. Use the many tools on the site too. The advanced search feature can help you find business prospects more easily than any other traditional method. Join groups of like-minded people, and watch the connections start to form. It can be incredibly powerful.

In the end, the benefits far outweigh the concerns. You just need to do it in the correct way. Establish a plan and an owner for your firm’s social media presence and make sure you are consistent. I’ve personally reaped the benefits of being on LinkedIn and Twitter, and know you will too.

Let me know what you think. I’m happy to answer any questions you have, help craft a social media policy that will return results, or even come to your firm and train your staff on how to use social media properly. Now jump on in, the water’s fine. Oh, and connect to me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

BBR Marketing is the brainchild of Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk. She has nearly 20 years of marketing experience working with a diverse range of industries and people, most recently as the marketing director for a mid-sized accounting firm in Atlanta. Her creative thinking and distinctive approach allows her to bring unique ideas to her clients that differentiate them from their competition and give them the tools they need to reach their audiences.

Guest post by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk of BBR Marketing.

My client base consists primarily of attorneys and accountants. This is not an early adopter group of most new technology, and for good reason. They are saddled with all sorts of regulations that most businesses are not, and have to worry about anything they say being construed as advice.

Also, in their defense, Twitter was not marketed very well as a business tool in its early stages. Twitter is still seen by many as an egocentric medium where people are always posting about what they had for lunch or how great (or horrible) their date was last night.

With that said, it’s time for my lovely professional service providers to quit rolling their eyes every time I mention Twitter in a presentation or meeting. Social media is here to stay, and Twitter is rapidly becoming (or has already become) an important marketing tactic that everyone should have in his or her toolbox.

When I read this article The Pope's Twitter Crusade, I wasn’t sure whether to gape in surprise or be impressed. Either way, when the Pope is on Twitter, and encouraging his priests to reach out to parishioners with tweets, it has definitely hit mainstream.

So, you say, “I just don’t have the time to learn it or to ‘tweet’ all the time.” The beauty is that you don’t have to. First of all, it’s incredibly easy to set up a page and join the Twitter universe. As Geico says, “Even a caveman can do it.”

Just click on “Join the Conversation,” enter your name and password, and you are up and running. Look up people and companies that you are interested in and follow them. Post a “Follow me on Twitter” link on your Website so visitors can easily follow you. Add your Twitter link to your outgoing email signature. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can build a following with little effort.

So now you are up and running, but don’t know what to say. I’m sure you read particular trade publications or Websites that contain information of interest to you and your industry. Post a link to the articles you think your followers would be interested in reading. Post links to your own articles (you are writing articles, right?) to reach an entirely different audience. Re-tweet interesting content from those you are following. You’ll find it’s rather easy to find things to post, and you won’t be stuck with “not sure what 2 say, but going 2 post this anyway” sort of babble.

TIP: Go to www.bitly.com to shorten URLs for posting. It will take up less of your 140-word count, and also show you which articles are the most popular and getting the most readership and re-tweets.

So, now for the main objection, “I don’t have the time!” Admittedly, Twitter can be a serious time-sucker, but if you do it right, you can get the benefits from creating your own online community without it taking hours of your day. To misquote Apple, “There’s a Website for that.” There are many sites – both paid and free – that allow you to schedule your Twitter posts, so you don’t have to be on there all the time. www.hootsuite.com and www.SocialOomph.com are both good ones, and they are free. By using one of these Tweet aggregators, you can dedicate an hour or so a week and get all the benefits of Twitter without spending massive amounts of time on the sites. 

So what are you waiting for? Dip your toe into the Twitter water and see how you like it. You’ll soon be an expert with hundreds of followers, people that you would have never met in any other way. Come on in, the water’s fine!

Oh, and follow me on Twitter, and let me know how you like it.

BBR Marketing is the brainchild of Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk. She has nearly 20 years of marketing experience working with a diverse range of industries and people, most recently as the marketing director for a mid-sized accounting firm in Atlanta. Her creative thinking and distinctive approach allows her to bring unique ideas to her clients that differentiate them from their competition and give them the tools they need to reach their audiences.

Guest post by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk, owner of BBR Marketing.

Whether you are an entrepreneur or work for someone else, it’s vitally important that you conduct your business in such a way that you stand out from the pack. I constantly advise my clients on ways they can differentiate their products and services from their competition, because ultimately, it’s more important to be different that better. Everyone says they are “the best” in their field, but “best” is always going to be in the eyes of the beholder. Different is, well, different and much more believable and easily explained.

With that said, it’s important as individuals to stand out from the crowd as well. People work with people, not products. I will often choose to frequent a restaurant or store because I like the people who work there. Yes, they have to provide a product that I like and am willing to pay for. But when faced with multiple options, I’ll often choose the place that has the people I like best, sometimes even regardless of price.

So, how exactly do you stand out? You’d be surprised how easy it is. Here are a few simple suggestions that really work.

Answer your emails
I’m amazed at how many people don’t do this. Even a short “I am swamped right now, but will review the document and get back to you by the end of the week,” will accomplish a few good things. First, you’ll inform the sender that you received the email so they don’t have to wonder if it went through. Secondly, you acknowledge them and let them know when to expect a response. Thirdly, you’ll make them feel valued and not leave them wondering what your lack of response really means.

Keep your promises
First of all, don’t make promises you can’t keep. And more importantly, keep the ones you make. Again, this seems like the simplest advice, but it surprises me how many people don’t do this either. Be realistic with the deadlines you set for yourself, and communicate that to your clients. They will appreciate that you are taking the time to keep them abreast on the status of their project. And if something comes up – as it does for all of us from time to time  – don’t leave them wondering where their project is. Take 30 seconds to send an update email to let them know where they project is and if it is delayed. Unless you are trying to meet a specified date, most people can be flexible with deadlines. What hurts the relationship is not knowing where they stand.

Say NO
Ah, this can be the hardest thing of all, but one of the most effective ways to set yourself apart. I’ve said it before, but no one can be all things to all people. Some work that comes our way may be appealing, but it’s simply not in our sweet spot. Maybe it’s for a niche we don’t normally service, or it could be work that will not be profitable. Carefully consider new work before you take it on and make sure you are the best person for the job. And if not, refer it to someone better suited for it. You will benefit in a number of ways from this move. First, your client will appreciate that you found someone who can do the work better/cheaper/more efficiently and remember that fact when something more suited to you comes along. Secondly, the person you refer it to will appreciate the business and happily send work your way when they can. And most importantly, you will be able to spend time on the things that will truly grow your business and not get bogged down in work that takes more time and effort than it should.

What simple business tactics have you found to be effective? Send them on and I’ll post them in a future blog. You may contact me at bonnie@bbrmarketing.com.

BBR Marketing is the brainchild of Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk. She has nearly 20 years of marketing experience working with a diverse range of industries and people, most recently as the marketing director for a mid-sized accounting firm in Atlanta. Her creative thinking and distinctive approach allows her to bring unique ideas to her clients that differentiate them from their competition and give them the tools they need to reach their audiences.