Marketing Strategies ebook
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007I found this great ebook that allows you to start marketing successfully more rapidly than ever using techniques that are very cost-efficient. check it out
Archive for the 'Resources' Category
RSS Marketing Diary
Friday, April 6th, 2007Unleash RSS Marketing in Japan
Just got word from my Japaneese publisher that Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS is scheduled to be released in Japan in print end of July.
It’s great to finally go international:)
Japan is getting the short 2007 edition of the book … and yes, the longer US 2007 edition is still being written, unfortunatelly.
I can't believe how many times I've postoped it already. Actually, I'm quite ashamed of it.
But, I do believe it will be worth the wait.
I also wanted to thank Geoff Livingston for putting Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS on his list of 25+ Great New Media Books.
Geoff, thanks for the extra motivation to help me finish the 2007 edition:)
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How Google's Acquisition of FeedBurner Will Change RSS Marketing
While the original plan for the RSS Diary blog was leaving on hiatus until the 2007 edition of the RSS Marketing e-book is done, the FeedBurner acquisition by Google is a story just to important to pass up … especially all the implications it might bring into the world of RSS Advertising, and RSS Marketing as a whole as well.
So, yes. FeedBurner, a leading RSS metrics and RSS advertising company was just acquired by Google. Finally confirmed after weeks of speculation. I won't go into the details of the acquisition, as you can read more about it at the FeedBurner blog and just by following the news at Google News.
Here, we'll take a look at the implications this brings to the world of RSS Marketing. Just my predictions of course:)
1. RSS Metrics Will Finally Become Integrated With Web Metrics
In my book, all marketing/communications channels should be judged using the same metrics, such as conversions, cost-per-order, cost-per-subscriber, sales etc.
Although you could already do all of this with RSS, it required some tinkering.
But, as FeedBurner gets assimilated into Google Analytics, tracking the key marketing metrics should become a breeze, giving everyone access to crucial internet optimization data.
2. RSS Metrics Moving Closer to the Mainstream
With RSS Metrics being integrated directly into Google Analytics (which I'm sure will happen very soon), marketers might finally start actually measuring their RSS feeds.
Means better RSS Marketing, finally.
3. RSS Advertising Going CPC
Although FeedBurner is cautions to provide any details about how their CPM pricing model might change with the integration of their ad services into Google, I'm quite certain that RSS advertising will move the way of cost-per-click.
Means less revenues for RSS feed publishers, but better ROI for you, the advertiser.
4. RSS Advertising Moving Closer to the Mainstream
RSS Advertising will finally reach the mainstream, utilizing Google's massive advertiser database.
Prices will go up, and RSS content monetization will again start becoming the talk at industry events.
On the plus side, it also means Google will be able to attract more RSS feed publishers, meaning more RSS ad inventory for you. Your RSS advertising reach potential is about to explode, finally enabling you to reach the masses using RSS Advertising.
5. Trouble for Other RSS Advertising Companies
I love Pheedo, another leading RSS Metrics and RSS Advertising company, but the FeedBurner acquisition makes me wonder what's in store for them as Google starts pushing RSS advertising to their massive database of advertisers, especially as part of an integrated online advertising service.
It’s certainly not the end of other RSS Advertising companies, but they might all soon see themselves transforming from RSS ad networks to RSS media planning & buying consultants.
Which would be a shame, especially considering the advancements in RSS Advertising developed by Pheedo.
6. Better Targeting for Google AdWords Advertisers (We Wish!)
Advertiser demand seems to be growing quicker than the inventory offered by Google.
The obvious choice for Google (in addition of course to increasing ad inventory through additional reach, media expansion through the content network, and expansion to new ad channels, like RSS and banner inventories) is to offer better targeting, for a premium price.
As a marketer, I clearly want to place my ads in front of the most relevant prospects. Keyword targeting is OK, but adding behavioral on top of that introduces another filtering element to my media planning, enabling me to really pin-point the users I want to see my ads.
How about displaying search ads only to people who have already visited my website, but haven't made a purchase? Google AdWords and Google Analytics integration could offer exactly this.
How about displaying search ads only to people that respond to marketing content banners on other websites? Integrating Google AdWords with one of the latest Google acquisitions, DoubleClick, can get us exactly this.
Of course, I might also want to target my ads to people who are subscribed to X e-mail newsletter. What do you know, Google already has that information through their Gmail service.
And then, how about displaying search ads only to people who are subscribing to other RSS feeds about RSS marketing? Integrating Google AdWords with FeedBurner would make this possible.
Now just take these concepts, put them all together, and expand them to banner advertising, feed advertising and any other online ad channel Google develops/acquires in the future.
This may either be science fiction or Google's actual long-term masterplan. As more advertising budgets rush to the internet, available quality ad inventory will continue shrinking.
By introducing such targeting, integrating the metric and capabilities of all of their properties, Google could come as close as possible to total ad targeting, the holy grail of marketing we are all striving towards.
Things will get much more interesting … and soon.
If I were an ad agency, I'd start developing a targeting department, focusing on targeted media buying.
[Link]
Amazon Soft-Launches RSS Feeds for Product Tags
Just got a notice from Amazon (thank you) that they soft-launched RSS feeds for tags.
But first, how do their tags actually work?
You can tag any product you like, including your previous purchases, with a keyword that best describes the product. Easily search and access products tagged by others, using the keywords you're interested in. Tags are also used as a way for Amazon to provide you with personalized recommendations.
The good part is that Amazon now added RSS capabilities to their tags, available through most tag pages.
Subscribe to RSS feeds for the tags you're interested in, and get latest product releases that match these tags. Use the RSS feeds to display Amazon products on your website, using the appropriate tags, to earn affiliate commissions. Share RSS feeds for tags with your friends, as a recommendations vehicle.
An excellent RSS e-commerce application from Amazon!
[Link]
The NewsGator Interview: RSS in the Enterprise - Manage Internal Information More Easily
In part 3 of the RSS interview with Greg Reinacker of NewsGator find out how Enterprise RSS makes information management easier within a corporation.
What will happen in the RSS space in 2007, for marketers and business?
Will RSS become integrated into every enterprise application? How will that change how information is used?
Will RSS i mprove information management within an organization?
What challenges do RSS management present to IT departments in larger organizations?
Will centralized RSS tools help solve the internal information management crisis?
What is Attention XML and how will it help you get more of the content you need and less of the content that is not relevant specifically to you?
Are smart RSS Readers only for corporations, or can consumers also take advantage?
What are NewsGator's plans for 2007?
Click here to listen to the interview [MP3; 13 min.]
[Link]
The NewsGator Interview: RSS for Online Media and Branded RSS Readers
In part 2 of the RSS interview with Greg Reinacker of NewsGator find out how online media can take advantage of RSS beyond publishing RSS content.
Why should online publishers care about branded RSS Readers?
Does it still make sense to provide a branded RSS Reader, especially with the wide adoption RSS is getting through Internet Explorer 7?
What kind of value can publishers bring to RSS Readers?
How can online media enhance the user experience through third-party content via RSS?
Is visitor ownership still a possibility, or are services like MyYahoo! owning the game? How can online media compete?
How can small businesses compete with large portals and large media sites?
Does syndicating your content via RSS mean that you’re giving up content?
Is RSS becoming a significant traffic driver?
How can companies profit from pulling together relevant content on a specific topic from third-party sources?
Is there a difference in how summary and full-text feeds drive visitors to your website? When to use which?
Best practices for re-publishing third-party content on your website
Can you put ads next to re-published RSS content on your site? How to do it?
Click here to listen to the interview [MP3; 14 min.]
[Link]
The NewsGator Interview: How are Vista and IE Changing the RSS Landscape?
I interviewed Greg Reinacker of NewsGator end of January, as part of the interview series for the 2007 edition of the RSS e-book.
NewsGator is one of the leaders in the Enterprise RSS space, a provider of top-breed RSS Readers and also a branded RSS Reader vendor.
So, you can imagine we had alot to cover.
In part 1 of the interview, find out about how Windows Vista and Internet Explorer are changing the RSS landscape …
How are Vista and Internet Explorer changing the world of RSS marketing and RSS content consumption?
How much and how quickly will they make an impact?
Are they really the game changer every marketer expects them to be?
What changes can we expect?
How can marketers take advantage of the advances Vista offers for RSS?
Click here to listen to the interview [MP3; 8 min.]
[Link]
Flying to Boston for the ACCM Conference
Only a few more weeks until the ACCM (Annual Catalog and Multi-Channel Merchant Conference) event in Boston, one of the best DM conferences of the year.
If you're in Boston or are coming to the conference, drop me a note.
I’ll be speaking on RSS and other new internet marketing media, together with Scott Voight of Silverpop.
If you're at the conference, definetly reserve the Monday 3 PM slot to come hear us. The last presentation we did together with Scott in London was a huge hit, and we promise not to dissapoint:)
[Link]
Bryan Eisenberg RSS Interview, part 2: RSS Marketing Best Practices
What works best in RSS marketing? How are RSS subscribers different than e-mail subscribers? RSS publishing best practices if you want to sell?
These and other practical questions are all revealed in the 2nd part of the RSS interview with Bryan Eisenberg. Without doubt, this is one of the best and most practical RSS marketing interviews we've done so far.
In part 1 of the Bryan Eisenberg RSS interview we focused on how the GrokDotCom.com is going beyond traditional RSS Radars by employing intelligent content aggregation tools, instead of relying just on contextual filtering, and what kind of results they are achieving.
In part 2 of the interview we move beyond RSS Radars to their overall RSS marketing strategy.
In this interview find out about …
1. How RSS subscribers are different from e-mail subscribers and why?
2. How to sell products through content-rich RSS feeds?
3. Do RSS subscribers mind seeing product promotions in your feeds?
4. When to publish your latest RSS content to get the most links from other websites and most readership?
5. What's the right RSS publishing frequency for promotional content?
6. Why branding your RSS feed is important and how to do it?
Click here to listen to the MP3 file [8:33 minutes; 2 MB]
[Link]
Amazon.com Discussions and Reviews via RSS
I have to apologise to Amazon for missing on two of their RSS content delivery options, which I previously missed.
Sorry guys, and thank you for the heads up.
1. Product Discussions
Most Amazon.com product discussions are now available also as RSS feeds. An excellent way of keeping track of the conversations surrounding your favorite products, and certainly something more websites should implement … especially those that provide content that people are pashionate about.
The first one that comes to mind is TV.com and their community show reviews.
2. Customer Reviews by Author
Like a product reviewer? Subscribe to their Amazon.com reviews RSS feed.
[Link]
Bryan Eisenberg RSS Interview, part 1: Making RSS Radars Work to Increase Your Sales
Part of the upcoming 2007 edition of the RSS Marketing e-book are also the interviews we are doing with various internet marketing experts and RSS practitioners. In the following days and hopefully not too many weeks, we'll be posting those interviews here.
I’m sure most of you have heard of Bryan Eisenberg before. Bryan is the leading worldwide authority on internet marketing optimization and website persuasion architecture. He was also one of the few marketers that got on the RSS Marketing bandwagon early on.
Recently, Bryan started exploring RSS Radars as a tool to increase the traffic to their optimization portal GrokDotCom.com, increase visitor loyalty, position the website as the key news source for internet optimization … and naturally facilitate online sales of their books and consulting services. Take a look here.
But while most RSS Radars are based on contextually filtering content from selected third-party RSS feeds, the GrokDotCom.com RSS Radars go far beyond anything else we have seen on the market so far.
Instead of relying only on contextual content filtering to select the most relevant third-party content, they are employing a number of additional filters, such as the amount of linkage the story is receiving, source relevance and credibility, and so on … and they're calling it a discovery engine.
What are their RSS Radar marketing goals? How their RSS Radar is different from what you can generally see online? What concrete results are they achieving? What you can learn from their RSS marketing?
All of these answers, and more, available in the audio interview.
Click here to listen to the MP3 file [14 minutes; 3 MB]
[Link]
Using RSS Radars in B2B CRM
RSS Radars are not just a tool to help you enrich your website content and allow you to easily conduct business intelligence, but can also be used as a B2B Customer Relationship Management tool to help you maintain customer loyalty and provide your customers with some additional added value.
Just recently I received an e-mail from David Koopmans of Mokum Marketing, who gave me the idea for this post.
David’s idea is simple:
Tag articles of interest to your customers using a service like Diigo or Del.icio.us Provide them with an RSS feed to deliver them the articles as they are updated
This is how David sees the usefulness of such an application:
“The idea is very attractive though; in B2B we often manage a relatively small number of relationships, but they are deep and we want to make them deeper."
But, there are two problems:
Tagging the articles using a public service like Diigo or Del.icio.us would make the feeds publicly available, making the service less value due to lack of uniqueness, as also noted by David Tagging relevant articles every day takes time … time that busy B2B marketers usually don't have, especially if you want to cater a tag-based RSS feed for each of your clients
This is where RSS Radars can come in, enabling you to aggregate dozens or hundreds of RSS feeds, filter them for the relevant keywords to get only the most relevant content for a specific client, and provide that client with his own customized RSS feed, using a service like MySyndicaat.com or pipes.yahoo.com.
Plus, using .htaccess you can easily password protect each feed for each individual client.
More details in the 2007 edition of the RSS e-book 
[Link]
The 10-Step RSS Marketing Plan
While RSS has certainly become well-established with most marketers, few are using it to its full advantage.
Now, while the original Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS e-book focused on explaining RSS marketing in a world where RSS was just starting out, the 2007 edition will focus on optimizing your RSS marketing and getting as much as possible from it.
The 10-step plan is one of the tools we will be introducing in the 2007 edition, once it's launched (getting there:).
Going through this plan will help you get as much as possible from RSS, on all levels. It will help you bring your RSS marketing to the same level as your e-mail marketing, and more.
But for now, here's a very quick summary of the steps from the process view point.
1. Develop your RSS marketing strategy
It all starts with a strategy that defines all the other elements of your RSS marketing plan. Developing your RSS marketing strategy consists of planning your RSS usage for each marketing function and integrating it with the rest of your marketing mix, and setting the goals for each of the marketing functions.
2. Start using RSS for business intelligence
Conducting business intelligence using RSS is the first step to improving your marketing overall. You will start by finding the right RSS Reader for you, define your business intelligence needs, find the relevant information sources, and implementing the right RSS business intelligence tools.
3. Plan your overall outbound RSS content strategy
Outbound communications using RSS are the most complex part of RSS marketing, with numerous choices available to you. During this step you will define your outbound communications target audiences, define your goals for each of them, decide on your RSS feed publishing model, define your RSS feed content and define your RSS feed content sources.
4. Define your RSS marketing requirements & select your RSS marketing vendor
Defining your RSS marketing technology requirements and selecting the appropriate vendor to supply you with all the features you need to support your strategy.
5. Plan your RSS content strategy on the content-item level
Once you have prepared your overall RSS content strategy you need to plan your RSS content-item level strategy, which essentially means getting the right content in place within the feed to meet your objectives. This consists of defining your writing style, defining the content item structure and defining your calls-to-action.
6. Promote your RSS feeds internally
Simply publishing RSS feeds on your website is not enough to generate subscribers. In this section you will define your RSS feed subscription process, define the RSS feed promotion locations for your feeds, develop the subscription offer and implement the other neccessary technical items to increase your subscription growth.
7. Promote your RSS feeds externally
After setting everything correctly through your own channels, it is neccesary to promote the RSS feeds using external websites as well. This process includes optimizing your RSS feed for the search engines, submitting the feed to the search engines and performing periodic pinging.
8. Measure and optimize your RSS feeds
Measurement and optimization are the two areas that can have the most profound impact on your RSS success. This consists of defining the required metrics, establishing the technical capacities for measurement, measuring and optimizing your content strategy and measuring and optimizing your subscription generation tactics.
9. Use RSS to syndicate your content to other online media
Use RSS to get your content published on other relevant media. The neccessary steps for syndication are defining your target media, defining your RSS feed content, preparing the right syndication tools and promoting your syndication offerings.
10. Use RSS to enhance your website and brand
Enhancing your website is about adding third-party content to enrich the user experience, while enhancing your brand is about providing your own branded RSS Reader.
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New Marketing Thinking Required for Second Life?
Mobil Avenue accuses me of 20th century marketing thinking. I'm not quite sure what he has in mind, but it seems that my Second Life posts ticked off some people.
Now, don't get me wrong, I see alot of development potential in virtual worlds, but Second Life as it is simply does not cut it.
I won't go into the details again, but the sheer lack of economy of scales shows that something is wrong when you compare the investments in Second Life and the actual virtual world penetration. Not to mention the difficult user interface.
Second Life is a good beginning, but virtual worlds have a far way to go before they deserve to be treated as seriously as some are treating them today. Yes, Second Life should certainly be treated as a marketing/communications playground, but not as a high importance marketing channel.
If you want to call this 20th century thinking, go ahead. It is. As are economies of scale, profitability, sales conversion, cost per order and other business “relics”.
And as you'll notice, 20th century thinking still works, even in 2007. We've all heard stories of the demise of advertising, the death of PR, the death of e-mail, the death of postal direct mail and so on … but they're all alive, well and kicking still today, and will remain so.
Actually, intrusive direct response TV advertising is still one of the most effective tools to generate sales. And it gives you more bang for the buck than almost any other marketing channel, including online.
Do I like this? No. I'd love to believe that the internet is the alpha and omega of marketing. But it's not. It's the key connector, but not the key driver. That's the way things are, and as markters we need to employ 20th century thinking and use what works best … and the numbers tell us that.
But this doesn't mean we shouldn't play and test. Quite on the contrary.
OK, this conversation is getting somewhat beyond the original topic, and it's quite possible I'm not even getting what Mobil Avenue is trying to say:)
And please don't get me started on 3D virtual webstores …
Of course, I might be wrong. And if I am, I'll be the first to change my stripes the next day. It's what marketers do. If a new thing comes up and works better than what you're doing, change. But every change first demand proof. Unless you're just testing … because when you're testing, the rules of the game change.
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What You Can Do With Amazon RSS Now?
If I keep this up, I might actually get the reputation of picking on Amazon.com as a hobby [just take a look at Is Amazon Missing the RSS Advertising Opportunity?, Why is Everyone Missing the RSS Transactional Messaging Opportunity? and Get the Most from RSS Marketing … Take Your DM Hat Off!].
It’s just one of those things. You see a company that could really go above and beyond with RSS and really use it to drive revenues, but they just don't do it.
But at least they're showing some activitiy lately …
[in addition to removing their list of relatively useless category feeds, which used to be available here]
a) Gold Box
Gold Box is a service that provides you with personalized deals every day. It finally has an RSS feed with your daily deals.
But, unfortunatelly, the RSS feed only provides brief information about the product, instead of also giving you a direct purchase link, some of the latest product reviews and other information that could facilitate the sale. Also, there's no personalization, or so it seems. Why not give me an RSS feed with just the special deals for me, based on my previous purchases?
b) Plog
This is one of the genius Amazon ideas. Each Plog is personalized to the individual user, giving him the latest blog posts from Amazon's authors (just from the authors' whos books you've purchased), and it also comes with a targeted RSS feed, matching the Plog content you see when you're logged-in. You can also subscribe to additional blog content manually.
Also, Amazon is promising that we'll be soon able to track latest releases, changes to our orders and "much more" through our plogs, which will presumably also come be published in our targeted RSS feeds.
Amazon, please keep this up. Make us happy:)
c) The Amazon API
But let's be fair to Amazon. Even though their end-user RSS feed offering is poor, they do provide developers with the ability to create their own RSS feeds from Amazon, by integrating with their API.
Here are some examples:
RSStalker.com - provides a variety of Amazon product tracking options via RSS, such as a 10% price drop feed that lets you know when a product that RSStalker is tracking via Amazon drops 10% in price; RSS feeds from your wishlists; last 25 price changes in a selected Amazon category, and more.
Baebo - provides a persistant search RSS feed for Amazon products, based on your keywords.
More great examples floating around …
[Link]
Quick RSS SEO Tips
WebProNews has a short summary from Amanda Watlington's tips for SEO optimization of your RSS feeds:
1. Subscribe to your own feed and claim it on blog engine Technorati
2. Focus your feed with a keyword theme 3. Use keywords in the title tag; keep it under 100 characters 4. Most feed readers display feeds alphabetically, title accordingly 5. Write description tags as if for a directory; keep them under 500 characters 6. Use full paths on links and unique URLs for each item 7. Provide email updates for the non-techies 8. Offer an HTML version of your feed 9. For branding, add logo and images to your feed
Now, let's add some tips from Stephan Spencer and continue with the numbering:
10. Full text, not summaries
11. 20 or MORE items (not just 10) 12. Multiple feeds (by category, latest comments, comments by post) 13. Keyword-rich item [title] 14. Your brand name in the item [title] 15. Your most important keyword in the site [title] container 16. Compelling site [description] 17. Don't put tracking codes into the URLs (e.g. &source=rss) 18. An RSS feed that contains enclosures (i.e. podcasts) can get into additional RSS directories & engines
And to round this off, a summary of my own tips [part 2 here] for using RSS to drive traffic to your site:
19. Get your RSS content (proactively) syndicated on other relevant websites [just the headlines and summaries of course]
20. Submit your RSS feeds to all the RSS search engines and directories
21. Use RSS to add relevant third-party content [again, just headlines and summaries] to your website to gain additional SE weight for your keywords
22. Use RSS to deliver all of your frequently updated content, not just for your latest blog posts
23. Whenever the content in your feed changes, ping the most important search engines and directories [yes, you don't need a blog for this]
Do you have more tips?
(a) Post them in the comments form below.
(b) E-mail me at info@marketingstudies.net and let's set-up an interview
[Link]
RSS Marketing With Christopher Knight: Use E-mail to Promote RSS
How does EzineArticles.com, one of the largest websites to help you syndicate your content, use RSS for their marketing?
To answer this question, we interviewed Christopher Knight for the 2007 edition of the RSS marketing e-book (coming shortly). But if you want to know more, click here to read Christopher's summary.
BTW - did you know that EzineArticles.com publishes more than 40,000 RSS feeds?
[Link]
F Trains: Another Example of Getting RSS Wrong
RSS Specifications point to the F Train from NYC and their RSS feed, which lets you watch traing schedules and changes.
The essential idea of course is good –> use RSS to get your latest and most important content to your prospects and customers. Train schedules certainly seem relevant enough for someone in NYC to subscribe to them.
But again, someone is missing the point.
If I want to know about traing schedules and changes, I don't care about all schedules and changes. I just care about the routes I take.
If I'm only taking the Queens-bound route, don't talk to me about Manhattan-bound trains.
F Trains, great idea, but now makes this a little more usable and allow people to select which routes they're interested in and then give them an RSS feed just for those.
[Link]
I'm Not Spamming You!
… but someone certainly is, using a non-existant MarketingStudies.net e-mail address.
If you receive an e-mail with the subject "Got It, I Think" from tahaseggdzf@marketingstudies.net, or something simillar, it's spam. Not from us though …
This is how it works:
(a) The spammer finds a number of open relay e-mail servers, which allow the spammer to send e-mail using an e-mail address that's not "hosted" on the e-mail server and often without even having a user account at the server provider.
(b) He or she then uses your e-mail address as the "Reply To" e-mail address in the spam messages and sends out the spam blast.
(c) Everyone receiving these e-mail messages will now think they are coming from your domain, unless of course they have enough knowledge about the subject to check the headers of the e-mail messages received. Those show that the e-mail is in fact not coming from MarketingStudies.net.
The funny thing about this spam is that the spammer didn't include any links in his spam e-mail.
Looking for ways to stop this, but I'm affraid it might be impossible …
[Link]
MarketingStudies.net Back Online and Comments Working Again
After a rather painful week, MarketingStudies.net is back with its full functionality, including comments.
As already noted, we started the move to a new hosting provider about a week ago, when the comments on this blog were again turned off by the old hosting provider without notice.
The move went relatively smoothly, thanks to the great MovableType architecture and excellent cooperation from both the old and the new hosting providers. Plus, we're now running on MovableType 3.3, which really is light years ahead from the old 2.x versions.
The only thing that really went wrong with the move were the sub-domains. Everything else was smooth.
Quick Steps for Changing Your Hosting Provider and Installing a New MovableType Version
If you're thinking of doing the same, here are the quick steps:
a) Sign-up for your new hosting package and contact your new hosting provider. Contact them in person and explain to them what you're doing and that you might need a little more assistance from them to finalize the transfer.
b) Make a replica of all of your files from the old hosting provider and upload the exact folder structure with all the files to the new hosting provider.
c) Export the SQL database with your MovableType data, directly from the SQL interface. You want a full copy of your database with practically everything.
d) Install your current MovableType version on the new server. Do not just copy the files from the old MovableType installation, rather do the installation again on the new server.
e) Import your old SQL database from the old server into the new SQL database on the new server. Make sure you import it into the new database created by MovableType.
You should now have all of the data and settings from MovableType on the old server in MovableType on the new server.
f) Log-in to MovableType on the new server. You will probably need to modify the server paths for storing files, so open the settings for each blog and change the server paths if needed.
g) Rebuild your files on the new server.
h) Install a new MovableType version on top of the current one, of course on the new server.
i) Once everything is working, ask your domain host to point your domains to your new server IPs.
This is it. Good luck!
[Link]
Directly Grabbing RSS Subscribers and Getting Syndicated Through Pheedo RSS Advertising
Pheedo just released a new RSS advertising concept, called FeedPowered Advertising, that helps you generate new subscribers to your RSS feeds using RSS advertising, through Pheedo's RSS advertising network or through other ad networks.
The Key Facts
Their new RSS ad format …
[a] Displays the latest content items from your RSS feed, including video content with direct "watch" links
[b] Allows the user to also add your content (directly from the ad) to del.icio.us, digg, Reddit, Furl or e-mai it to a friend
How the New Format Integrates DM, PR and Brand
The implications of this are quite strong.
[a] The ad format allows you to syndicate your RSS content to targeted online media, displaying your content there directly to generate more brand awareness, build your credibility and get new readers by actually demonstrating your value
[b] Furthemore, the ad itself contains further syndication options that will virally spread your content through the key social networking sites
[c] The ad functions as a direct subscription generation tool, enabling you to quickly capture new subscribers through other sites … and actually works towards increasing your conversion rate by first demonstrating the content and so making the subscription decision easier and more educated, thus generating better qualified subscribers/prospects
In essence, the ad format integrates PR, direct marketing and brand advertising.
Is it perfect? While it is an amazing idea, it does need some further refinement.
Further Improvements Needed
[a] Looking at their example on their site using Internet Explorer 7 shows that the feed subscription option in the ad is not highlighted through the IE7 native RSS Reader, making it less intuitive to subscribe
[b] The existing example is clearly targeted to RSS Aware users. But data shows that more than 80% of RSS users are not actually aware of using RSS. The ad format also need to include other subscription options, in addition to the RSS button, such as Add to MyYahoo!
[c] The ad also needs some space at the bottom to better entice viewers to subscribe, using enticing copy and perhaps bribing the viewers to subscribe by offering them a free whitepaper
[d] For direct marketers, the ad format should also allow an in-between data capture window, allowing the direct marketer to capture prospect information prior to being given access to the feed
[e] The next step would be for Pheedo to add additional metrics for advertisers, such as new subscriber retention and long-term customer conversion, and perhaps even the CPO.
If you want to check it out yourself, here's the screenshot (working version available here):
I’m a little biased here, because I've always dug Pheedo work, but in my opinion this is the best RSS advertising development yet … and finally an RSS advertising tool to generate real results by taking advantage of the power of RSS.
[Link]
Why is Everyone Missing the RSS Transactional Messaging Opportunity?
OK, I admit it. I'm on a fighting streak today. Just one of those days.
After discussing how Yahoo! Pipes may facilitate content theft and unfair use, and bashing against Amazon for not taking better advantage of RSS advertising, it's time to take on e-retailers, online service providers and basically anyone that does transactional messaging.
Let’s take a look at my inbox. Today I received …
A transactional e-mail “from PayPal" A transactional e-mail “from eBay" A transactional e-mail “from Amazon" And some other brand names as well
Of course, none of these e-mails were actually from PayPal, eBay or Amazon. Simply spam, as every other day, intended to capture my private data.
Even if PayPal really sent me an e-mail, I would never read it or respond to it, simply because I would consider it spam and would never believe that it's actually from PayPal.
As I'm sure you've noticed as well, transactional e-mail messages have become a horror story for the big brands, with spammers constantly trying to take advantage of their well-known brand names.
But here's the catch …
There is no SPAM with RSS, at least not in this form When you receive content from an RSS feed that you proactively subscribed to, you can be 100% certain that the message is legitimate and from the publisher to whom you subscribed RSS is perfectly capable of delivering personalized transactional information RSS is perfectly capable of delivering protected personalized transactional information, granting access only to those with the required username/password combination RSS transactional capabilities are easy to implement, if your user database is in order
So why aren't any of these guys using RSS to deliver transactional information?
PayPal, eBay, Amazon … I really want my transactional messages from you. But when I receive them, I don't believe them. Please start delivering them via RSS and make me a happy customer … a happy customer that actually trusts messages from PayPal, eBay and Amazon.
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Is Amazon Missing the RSS Advertising Opportunity?
Is Amazon missing the RSS opportunity?
Yes, in almost all regards. A company of their size, financing and almost unlimited content could be the poster child for smart RSS marketing uses, but insteady they choose to almost ignore the channel.
But today I would like to touch-up especially on the RSS advertising segment, where many marketers still seem to ignore the various opportunities offered by the channel.
Even more specifically, this is about RSS advertising in RSS feeds for blogs.
What Are the Key Advertising Issues Faced by Bloggers?
Bloggers like to keep their act clean, and in many cases that means either completely evading paid advertising or at least completely evading non-contextual paid advertising. Even when bloggers do decide to offer advertising, they are hard-pressed to find advertisers offering high-context advertising that would closely relate to the bloggers' content, especially their individual blog posts. There are still few RSS advertisers, making it difficult for many bloggers to monetize on their every post. However, if bloggers were to monetize their every post, the ads would need to be so highly contextual that they would not feel that they are betrying their readers. In essence, the ads would need to be an extension of their content, but at the same time clearly marked as third-party content. Following this line of though further, bloggers would prefer ads that provide real contextual value to their readers, instead of simply pushing blatant advertising messages.
Where’s the Opportunity for Amazon?
Before I explore this further, please take a look at any post at MasterNewMedia. Or just click here and take a look at this one.
Robin Good is a master at taking advantage of the functionality offered by the Amazon affiliate program. Each of his posts concludes with recommended books, related to the overall topic of his in-depth articles.
For Robin's readers, these book ads are not just ads, but rather extensions of Robin's own content, giving them the opportunity to further explore the topic.
What’s the opportunity for Amazon?
Create and promote a program that would make it easy for bloggers to publish contextually related book ads directly in their RSS feeds, enabling them to at least somewhat monetize each of their content items with relevant book ads.
Providing Valuable Context Advertising
But, to some bloggers providing book ads just as ads might not be contextual enough.
Now go to A9.com and do a search for "RSS marketing". In addition to displaying relevant books, the A9 search engine also displays quotes from these books.
How about if Amazon enabled bloggers to post RSS ads in their feeds, displaying a paragraph from each book that most closely matches the topic of the article, with a direct link to the page for that book on Amazon?
Or in the case of blogs about music, why not provide an automatic direct link in the ad to a 1 minute or 30 second demo of the song or group, mentioned in the blog post, which Amazon already has on their website?
Picking on Wikipedia
We all love Wikipedia, right?
Many of Wikipedia users love them so much that they constantly promote the website. So why can't the people at Wikipedia make this easier for bloggers?
For example by allowing them to automatically insert references to Wikipedia in the form of inline RSS ads, providing additional contextual content, related with the topic of the blog post?
No revenues for the blogger, but at least a good way for them to extent their content and provide more value to their readers.
Perhaps not a good RSS advertising example, but certainly one that can get you thinking about the various opportunities provided by this channel.
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Will Yahoo! Pipes Increase Content Theft?
First of all, I was want to emphasize again that I strongly believe that Yahoo! Pipes is a dream come true for marketers, finally offering us a tool to easily conduct business intelligence and create RSS Radars.
However, the more you think of it, the more obvious all the dangers become obvious.
Sure, these were here before, but never before have they been accessible on a mass scale, for free, and with such ease of use.
Just consider it …
Yahoo! Pipes gives anyone, with some time on their hands to learn how it works, the power to remix, filter and manipulate third-party content. In essence this means that you can easily take someone elses RSS feed and repurpose their content to best suit your needs and at the same time ignoring the needs of the publisher who is investing time, money and other resources into his content creation.
1. Creating Third-Party RSS Feeds with Your Standalone RSS Ads
Let’s get started with something easy. Yahoo! Pipes allows you to combine any amount of XML data sources and filter them to create an output that best matches your needs.
For example, you could take 100 RSS feeds that talk about search engine marketing, combine them, deduplicate the posts, and filter the posts by various keywords to really create a highly focused content stream, for example on optimizing your site for Google.
With the power that Yahoo! Pipes gives you, you could now add your own content, via your own RSS feed, and create an output that mixes all the above feeds on SEM with standalone ads for your SEM services.
Now just promote the RSS feed on your site and start grabbing subscribers. If the RSS feeds you're using as inputs are offering full-text content, your subscribers will be able to read third-party SEM tips from your RSS feed, directly from their RSS Readers, without even taking notice that these articles weren't written by you. But at the same time they would be exposed to your ads, offering your own SEM services.
In essence, using this approach you could leverage the content written by third-party experts, without their permission, to directly build your own brand as an expert and directly generate sales.
The other possibility would be to use the same third-party content, but instead of also publishing ads for your own services, rather publishing paid ads. Again, you would be using third-party content to fuel your own revenues, without the publishers' permissions … actually directly stealing from them.
2. Adding Ads into Content Items / Removing Native Ads in Content Items
Now, I'm not really 100% certain this is doable (haven't played with the service enough yet), but articles floating around the internet seem to indicate so.
Again, imagine taking the same SEM feeds and creating a new remixed output using them. But this time, you also use Yahoo! Pipes to remove the ads their content items already contained, replacing them with your own.
The result would be a full-text article from an SEM expert, with your SEM services ad directly below the article, taking direct advantage of the article to sell your services … perhaps even miss-leading the reader that you are the author of the article.
3. Creating Spam Sites
Spam sites are becoming an increasing problem, with unethical webmasters taking advantage of third-party RSS feeds to fully fuel their own sites, in the hopes of targeted content increasing their search engine rankings and serving as a vehicle to drive Google AdSense clicks and revenues.
Yahoo! Pipes now makes this even simpler, actually enabling these webmasters to build full websites of highly relevant and smartly remixed content that will actually provide their visitors with some value and thus even further increase their AdSense revenue potential.
How Can Your Protect Your Content?
Yahoo! Pipes lists 3 ways for publishers to protect their content:
Configure your web server to block the user agent "Yahoo Pipes" Add a "noindex" meta to your RSS feed: E-mail pipes-optout@yahoo-inc.com with a list of the feed URLs you want blocked
Of course, the dillema here is that by blocking Yahoo! Pipes in fear of unethical practices you are also blocking acceptable uses of your content by legitimate users and are thus decreasing your content syndication opportunities.
Is It the Tool or the Users?
The four examples are just the tip of the iceberg. With the power of Yahoo! Pipes the "opportunities" for content theft are becoming nearly unlimited.
Of course, this isn't the fault of Yahoo! Pipes. It's just a tool … and it's in the hands of users what they do with the tool.
Unethical webmasters have actually been doing this for quite some time now even without Yahoo! Pipes. But now they have a stronger tool in their hands, and it's only a question of time when this will hit "the black market mainstream".
What Can Yahoo! Do?
Yahoo! Pipes isn't a problem yet, but when it reaches "the black market mainstream", publishers will start taking notice, and that my create a backslash against Yahoo.
But what can they really do?
Somewhat limit the level of manipulation you allow with third-party feeds, at least preventing the removal of inline ads Create a new RSS element that will allow the RSS feed publisher to request an e-mail notification of Yahoo! Pipes use of his feeds, by simply placing that element in the RSS feed Allow the RSS feed publishers to mark their feeds as "Yahoo! Pipes syndication available only on-request", enabling them to authorize the use through the Pipes user interface [this one might be going a little far:)] Implement a stringent "no unfair use" policy, immediately blocking users that exhibit such uses
On the other side, adding all of these administrative hurdles to the pipes creation process for the user would greatly dimish the service's mass appeal.
So what's the right way to do it?
Please comment below …
[you can now post comments, but you will receive an error message after you submit them … but they will still be published]
[Link]
Comments Off Again
I just love my hosting company.
They again disabled my comments script on the server, of course without giving me any kind of notice.
Usually I'm patient, but what's too much is too much.
So, I apologize for the inconvenience. Comments will be back up as soon as we find a new hosting provider and implement the website there.
In the mean time, please e-mail your comments to info@marketingstudies.net
[Link]
Marketing Attorney
Friday, April 6th, 2007In-House Counsel Seek Value From Law Firm Marketing Dollars
It has been a long time since an article I authored garnered as many e-mails and phone calls as this recent one, which appeared in the new column for GCs in the Philadelphia-based The Legal Intelligencer.
In-House Counsel Seek Value From Law Firm Marketing Dollars
by Micah Buchdahl
Published by The Legal Intelligencer, 02-27-2008
Clarence Darrow is dead and the rest of you are fungible," said David Machlowitz, senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Medco Health Solutions Inc., in Franklin Lakes, N.J. He provided this reminder while addressing lawyers and marketers in one of the seemingly thousands "what are in-house counsel looking for" seminars that take place each year.
I, too, have served as speaker and attendee at some of these sessions and rarely leave with any tidbits of information that anyone couldn't garner in a "common sense 101" class. As a former in-house attorney, I can tell you that the expectations for outside counsel are generally relatively simple: (1) be attentive and responsive; (2) keep an eye on costs; (3) whenever possible, provide me with a positive outcome.
The "fungible" label, while it may be insulting to some, is generally reality. The ability to provide sound counsel and added-value components is always nice and sometimes necessary. However, there are dozens, if not hundreds or even thousands of attorneys capable of delivering the legal services required.
As law firms continue to shift toward traditional corporate business principles, more money is being directed at marketing, advertising, business development and sales. According to statistics published by ALM Media, the largest 100 law firms in the United States spend an estimated $9 million annually on marketing; and the second 100 spend approximately $3 million a year.
The question is: Are many throwing good money after bad?
This past November, the American Bar Association held its inaugural national marketing conference in Washington, D.C. The event, which I chaired in my role as vice chair of the ABA's law practice management section, will be held twice yearly.
One of the central themes of the conference - wasted time and wasted spending by the large national law firms - met with resistance from local chief marketing officers and marketing directors in Washington. Yet, as I often find in conducting marketing audits for many of these firms, dollars and time are misspent in budgeting, staffing and strategic business development decisions.
In writing this article, I spoke with 10 general counsel from a variety of backgrounds and companies. While most preferred to answer anonymously, a couple were willing to go on record. All were emphatic and their comments were relatively consistent.
Few saw significant value in the marketing efforts of the law firms they use. And most shared similar opinions - that for outside counsel, there are better ways to spend business development dollars - and similar concerns - that much like skyrocketing associate salaries, spending on marketing has a trickle-down effect on the cost of legal services and a bottom line impact on in-house budgets.
“The end-results of these efforts are a huge amount of wasted expenditure," Machlowitz said. "I am looking for greater value at less cost. I cannot recall a single law firm marketing or advertising campaign that I would deem effective, with efforts ranging from expensive and pointless, to arrogant and unproductive."
Some general counsel noted the trend toward naming clients in firm marketing efforts and expressed the opinion that being referred to at all in their outside counsel's marketing was inappropriate. For the most part, companies are not interested in highlighting the need for legal counsel to the public at large. And outside of an offer of compensation in exchange for appearing in an advertisement (a GC-celebrity spokesman), there is no bona fide benefit to the corporate client.
Others pointed out that a lack of proper targeting sometimes has a negative impact. "The key to effective law firm marketing is targeting. If I do not feel like it is meant for me or my needs, I'm not going to pay attention to it," said Jeffrey A. Feirick, general counsel for the Clemens Family Corporation, in Hatfield, Pa.
“We use a large Philadelphia law firm for some matters. I must have received three or four promotional mailings touting their involvement in a separation of church and state case. I am part of a relatively conservative organization that does not necessarily agree with the stance they took. We are a business client and do not want to see a firm we use touting issues that are contrary to ours. Instead of having a positive effect, it leaves us asking, 'Do we want to continue to use them?'"
A number of other GCs cited law firm involvement in community and pro bono efforts that were equally counterproductive. "You always like to see charitable and pro bono participation, but, to be honest, I feel like those are just efforts that we as clients are subsidizing," said Machlowitz. "For what we pay, they should be doing a whole lot more."
One vice president and general counsel at a financial institution based in Philadelphia said nothing law firms did from a marketing perspective played any role in doling out millions in annual legal spending.
“Most of us practiced enough that our own network will supply 95 percent or more of our outside counsel," he said. "You use people you know and people that they know. I'm not going to put the company or my job at risk by using people that had nice ads or invited me to a Webinar. Do you really think I got to where I am by not knowing where to go and what to spend?"
Important Marketing Tools or 'Colossal Waste'?
Many of the endeavors directed at GCs fall on deaf ears, or simply fail. The GCs interviewed had comments on the various marketing efforts of firms.
Publications
GCs read GC-targeted publications, not magazines targeted to lawyers in general. Machlowitz pointed out that publications such as The American Lawyer (an ALM publication) highlight profits-per-partner and other reminders of how much money outside counsel is earning.
Industry Associations.
“I had a situation that called for a particular representation need. I called the respective industry association in New York, who referred me to a law firm that was a member of the organization," said Feirick. Many GCs cited the value in being an active or involved member of an industry organization, rather than a peripheral sponsor or advertiser.
Newsletters
GCs expressed no consistent preference for the method of receiving newsletters or client alerts through e-mail or hardcopy. Some prefer the ability to take the hard copy home with them. Others mentioned the value in forwarding the electronic version to other interested parties in the company. Many GCs did note, however, that only the first newsletter or client alert in the door on a particular topic likely would get read, regardless of the form.
Being Best, Super, Top, Great, Influential, Powerful or under 40
Being a Super Lawyer (or related accolade) means little. Feirick noted he is unsure of the nomination process, and Machlowitz's thoughts echoed my own. These lists generally contain some good lawyers and some lawyers that are good at self-promotion.
Martindale-Hubbell listings
Rumors of the demise of the gold standard in law firm listings are somewhat exaggerated but only somewhat. GCs interviewed admitted that Martindale-Hubbell still has some relevancy. "If I'm looking for the largest law firm in Bozeman, Mont. to handle a matter, I might turn to Martindale," said Machlowitz. In addition, with constant name changes and mergers in major markets, many well-known law firms can get overlooked.
Online listings
Few GCs use Google to find lawyers. None use Findlaw. Yet many use Law.com (a Web site operated by ALM) as a resource. And while a law firm's Web site is a biographical resource, few GCs use other components of Web sites, no matter how dynamic. None of the GCs had the time or inclination to visit a blog. "You've got to be kidding," one GC said. "I'm busy."
Branding
Across the board, those GCs interviewed could not identify a single law firm "brand" that stood out in their minds.
Media/Public Relations
While being quoted in the media can be beneficial, most GCs say they feel the quotes generally lack insight and are more likely placements by the firm's PR agencies.
Annual Reports
“This is a colossal misjudgment," said Machlowitz. "I would tell these firms to scrap their reports and instead spend time reading ours, our competitors' and key business partners.'"
Client Surveys
In the interest of full disclosure, I conduct these for a number of well-known U.S. law firms. Overall, general counsel saw client surveys as a positive step for both the client and the law firm. The corporate client is able to give feedback off the clock or the time sheet. And for firms, client surveys can provide more quantifiable results - both tangible (potential new business) and intangible (invaluable face time with a client) - than most other marketing efforts.
Some GCs noted that if the relationship partner does not take the time to do the survey, then it's essentially a waste of time. All agreed that having nonlawyers conduct the survey regardless of their backgrounds in the legal profession - is a failed route.
Law Firm Functions
“While some seminars provide excellent content, too many are there to sell, or are 'teasers' to get the meter running on a new matter," said Machlowitz. "Do not invite me to a cocktail party," he added. "I'm busy, and if I'm going to take the time for a drink and canapé, I would like to do it with my family."
In contrast, a properly run continuing legal education seminar is a win-win situation for all involved. Feirick pointed out that no-cost, on-point CLEs on issues of interest to his company have significant value, and many firms routinely invite in-house counsel - clients, firm alumni and prospects - to their in-firm CLEs in some of the fanciest meeting rooms you'll find in any business setting.
Advertising is an Important element of any Business
All the in-house counsel interviewed agreed the ability to advertise is still an important element of law firm business development, and should be properly tailored to be effective.
“I understand the challenges and needs for firms to find new clients. You need to be able to market your services," said Feirick, who cites Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen and Pepper Hamilton among the firms on his short list of about a dozen firms. The list includes a specialized boutique for environmental law, a more focused farming and agriculture law practice out of Lancaster, Pa., a sole practitioner for landlord/tenant issues and the expertise and depth of a larger law firm for corporate work.
“I think most marketing departments fail to recognize the sophistication of the audience," said a New York-based GC in the entertainment industry. "There is a disconnect. The people that need to sell me are the people that not only have JDs, but have personal practice experience."
Show You Can Provide Value and Mind the Clock
One GC made her thoughts quite clear. "Be cost-effective. Be responsive. Don't bill me for a two-minute conversation. Know my business."
“We look for diversity," said Machlowitz. "Show me minority partners and women partners. I'm not interested in how many offices you have or that you are nationwide. That just means you likely have less quality control and more conflicts. A lot of that overhead is getting passed on to me. We hire individual lawyers, not law firms. We use about 30 firms annually. We use some small firms for local matters, but we use all types. It might be a solo or a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell.
“The key is to tailor marketing to my specific needs," he added. "We are a Fortune 50 company. It is amazing how often we've changed up firms and the firm losing business never asks why. Instead, focus on providing some relevant and substantive legal information, like a checklist for conducting an environmental audit - that would be valuable."
A tool like a checklist for particular practice areas and issues gives a firm the opportunity to hand a client something that has substantive value at no cost to the company. While it might eliminate some smaller opportunities for the firm to consult or offer billable advice to the client, when the checklist identifies potential problems, the firm may have the opportunity to handle those new matters for the client. Another win-win situation for the client and the firm.
MICAH BUCHDAHL a former in-house counsel, is president of HTMLawyers, Inc., a law marketing consulting company, based in Moorestown, N.J. Contact him at (856) 234-4334 or micah@htmlawyers.com
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ASK THE MAM — How can I become a Super Lawyer, or something else? Rank me. Name me. Make me a star.
DEAR MAM: I read your comments in a recent article in Conde Nast Portfolio, and was wondering how easy it is to become a Super Lawyer? And how can I get rated somewhere? SINCERELY YOURS, LC, New York, NY
DEAR LC: To be honest, if you have a heartbeat and a JD, and can not get ranked by somebody somewhere, you've got serious problems. As a matter of fact, you can send me a thousand bucks and I will name you the "Marketing Attorney Lawyer of the Week" (complete with an e-mailed PDF of a "plaque" and a gold star sticker from my three year old daughter's sticker book. I know it sounds sarcastic, but call me if you've got the grand handy.
This was a significant topic of discussion at the just-completed ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference in Washington, DC. If you missed it, you missed it. Too bad. Not only does each day bring another one of these "opportunities", but now we are have a dearth of social networking sites dedicated to lawyers as well (but that is a blog post for another day).
In Karen Donovan's piece in Conde Naste, entitled "The So-So Adventures of Super Lawyers," the topic is addressed yet again. While quoting me is always brilliant, my favorite quotes were from the people (one was an attorney at Paul Weiss) that said how relevant it was…they were interviewed at the Waldorf-Astoria Super Lawyer Cocktail Party (where do you think the money for that came from?). If clients at Paul Weiss are using Super Lawyers as a guide, things have really changed at that firm. And I would hesitate to suggest that the party would be the place to get an objective pulse on the subject.
Anyway…I received six solicitations for "accolades" in the last four days. Between Martindale, Chambers, Best this, Great that, Who's Who and Who's Not Who…not to mention dozens of local-yokel "honors (in my backyard, there is SJ Magazine and South Jersey Magazine…both with "honors" and with accompanying lawyer ads)…there is no shortage of places to get myself named "Best Lawyer named Micah in South Jersey*". *–Not admitted to practice in NJ; admitted in Pennsylvania.
LC…If you are still struggling to get named, how is this for chutzpah (a legal term, I believe)? There are people selling webinars and seminars on "how to get rated and/or named to lists". The people that attend are ideal for these awards, as you already have a propensity to be a sucker. I've got an "expanded profile" in Florida with your name on it. For $300, you can sign up for a webinar that features people that you can pay to help get you ranked, people that are paid to fill out the ranking forms, and people that will sell you the ranking. Sending me the thousand bucks directly would accomplish your dreams quicker and easier. Those teleconferences and webinars just confirm the argument that these are not scientific or independent in nature…you just need to know what to say and how to say it.
Best of luck LC! Thanks for writing. And, in all honestly, thanks for the timely question.
Sincerely yours, THE MARKETING ATTORNEY
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ABA's First National Marketing Conference Approaches–November 8-9, Washington, DC
The ABA's first-ever national law marketing conference is approaching…November 8-9 at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC.
The Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference commemorates the 30th anniversary of Bates v. Arizona, and examines the state of law firm marketing for U.S. law firms, and the hottest issues presently on the table. After three decades, what is the current state of law firm marketing? Where do we take it from here?
This is the purest educational conference in law marketing you will ever attend…and at a few hundred dollars, is the best use of business development funds for you and your law firm.
This not-for-profit, no-trade-show, no-vendor conference features thirty leading attorneys in the industry for an intense two day program in Washington, DC, November 8-9.
Do you want intense?
An ETHICS panel featuring one of the key players from Bates, the advertising ethics counsel from the Florida Bar, the litigator that argued for overturning the bulk of recent changes to the New York State Bar advertising rules, the deputy general counsel from an Amlaw 100 firm and me moderating.
The MEDIA STRATEGY program includes Chris Lehane–advisor to the Clintons, Michael Moore and others often at the center of public relations firestormson a panel with editors and reports from BusinessWeek and The American Lawyer, among others attorney participants.
Other powerful panels include:
–How do your firms marketing efforts integrate with DIVERSITY issues?
–What are the best uses of TECHNOLOGY in law firm business development today?
–Is your firm WASTING lots of time and money on ineffective hirings and intiatives?
–In 10×10, hear 10 attorneys on 10 marketing topics for 10 minutes each on areas ranging from recruiting to client surveys, law firm networks to associate development.
Be sure to visit the ABA site today for more information, and make your hotel reservations soon. See you in DC!
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Marketing Attorney Buchdahl Announces '07 Speaking Slate
Continuing his long-standing policy of not speaking or participating in for-profit speaking engagements and seminars (live, online or otherwise), Micah Buchdahl has announced his public speaking calendar for the remainder of 2007. He will volunteer his services for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the New York State Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He continues to provide lively CLE, law firm retreat and in-house law firm programming and seminars throughout the world.
APRIL
Ethics Potpourri–Bates at 30: Three Decades of Lawyer Advertising Ethics
Pennsylvania Bar Institute
www.pbi.org
April 19 in Pittsburgh, PA; April 25 in Philadelphia, PA
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark decision in Bates v. Arizonasignaling the start of attorney advertising. Today, firms large and small spend significantly on law firm marketing. Yet, the continuing debate over First Amendment rights, the ability to market a law practice, protecting the client and the dignity of the profession continues. This one-hour ethics program will discuss the cases, ethics opinions, model rules and debates over whether Bates has advanced the business of practicing law and how many state bars have continued to struggle with its impact.
Note: This program will be repeated live in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in August and December 2007. Please consult the PBI web site for dates and information.
JUNE
Starting Your Own Practice A Practice of Ones Own
Client Development for Your Practice
New York State Bar Association
www.nysbar.org
June 5 in New York City; June 12 in Melville, Long Island
Learn how to create a marketing plan that encompasses all necessary aspects of business development, including advertising, networking and public relations. Understand how to ethically follow the New York advertising rules as they relate to marketing and client solicitation, and get 20 tips on how to market on a shoestring. Micahs 45-minute presentation is part of the full-day CLE program.
AUGUST
Ethics in Advertising: Blogs, Websites and "Super" Claims - Implications for Interstate Mediation, Arbitration and Litigation Practices
American Bar Association Annual Meeting
Saturday, August 11, 2007 at 3:45-5:15 pm, San Francisco, CA
http://www.abanet.org
In this timely CLE program, the speakers will analyze First Amendment/commercial speech jurisprudence over the past 30 years, beginning with the Supreme Courts opinion on attorney advertising in Bates v. Arizona; examine key provisions on attorney and mediator advertising in ethics codes across the United States; and present practical applications of ethics rules in the area of marketing by law firms and mediation firms. The panel of speakers will cover relevant ethics rules on advertising including Section VII of the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators (2005), the ABA Model Rules for attorney advertising, California and Florida ethics rules on attorney advertising, and the New York Advertising Ethics Rule changes that went into effect on 2-1-07. The panel will discuss how the First Amendment and ethics rules impact issues on dignified and effective marketing, including applications to web sites, blogs, e-mail, public relations, "super lawyer and mediator listings, best lawyer or mediator self-designations, lawyers who have mediation practices, and multi-state practice issues.
Moderator: Margaret M. Huff, Margaret Huff Mediation, Nashville, TN
Panelists: Rodney A. Smolla, Dean and Professor of Law, Washington & Lee University School of Law; Micah Buchdahl, President of HTMLawyers, Inc.; Susan Kay, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs and Clinical Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School.
SEPTEMBER
BLOGS: Ethical Considerations for Your Practice, for Your Clients
American Bar Association Law Practice Management CLE Teleconference
Thursday, September 20, 2007 1:00-2:30 pm EST
www.abanet.org/cle/
Learn about blogs, and the impact that they are having on the practice of lawboth as a business development tool for lawyers, and as a hot area of law for practitioners.
More details and full faculty are coming soon. Please visit the ABA LPM web site for further information on the LPM Third Thursday Teleconference Series.
NOVEMBER
The Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference
Thirty Years of Law Firm Marketing 19772007
A Comprehensive Two-Day Program for Attorneys, Law Firm Executives and Marketing Directors
November 8-9, 2007 | Omni Shoreham Hotel | Washington, DC
www.lawpractice.org/marketingconference
Micah serves as conference chair for the ABAs first stand-alone law marketing conference. He will moderate the ethics panel discussion and speak on the panel regarding Wasted Time, Wasted Spending.
Have attorneys and law firms become better at marketing? Or do we continue to throw good money after bad? How has it impacted our profession? And, most importantly, what are the most successful approaches to strategic business development today?
Conference Highlights:
Return to Bates v. Arizona the Ongoing Ethics Debate, featuring Van OSteen from Bates and a distinguished panel of national marketing ethics experts
The Diversity Dilemma a very special program on legal profession diversity initiatives and its impact on the bottom line and structure of law firms and corporate legal departments
From No Comment to No Problem Developing a Media Strategy For Handling a Crisis and Growing Your Business
Wasted Time, Wasted Spending Law Firms continue to be ineffective in their business development spending. How should I budget, hire and spend?
Technology Marketing From web sites to contact management and every virtual place in-between
TWO 10×10 Extreme Marketing Programs 10 speakers. 10 topics. 10 minutes each.
If you have never attended this LPM original, prepare yourself for the most interesting speed-learning experience of your marketing life. Day One will feature 10 different law firm case studies dealing with 10 different marketing initiatives. Day Two will feature a technology version. Twenty 20 partners from 20 law firms throughout the country will present.
Why attend the most unique law marketing conference in the nation?
1. In two days, learn more about the state of law firm marketing and how to best spend your firms time, money and resources on effective business development initiatives.
2. EVERY speaker, presenter and panelist is an attorney. No vendors. No non-lawyer consultants. Hear first-hand from practitioners! And hear from a faculty that does not appear on the for-profit marketing conference circuit.
3. No trade show floor, exhibit hall or vendor panelists. Two days of programs, learning and networking.
4. From the heart of the nations capital, attend a great program for a substantially low price
from the largest professional legal organization in the world.
5.
It has been thirty years since Bates v. Arizona opened the gates for law firms to market. While the debate over the appropriateness of lawyer advertising continues, the reality is that law firms of all sizes and practices have been spending significant sums of money on business development.
The professions leading resource on law firm marketingthe ABAs Law Practice Management Sectionhas developed its first full two-day comprehensive program to address the topic and teach practitioners the best ways to move forward with their law firms marketing plans.
The ABA has put together the most comprehensive business development program for lawyers, law firm executives and marketing directors ever assembled.
Register now for the ABA Law Marketing Conference, and take advantage of Early Bird rates.
For information on booking Micah for your law firms in-house or retreat programs for 2007 and 2008, please contact him directly through HTMLawyers.
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Comply or DIE! New New York Lawyer Advertising Rules Take Effect Today February 1, 2007
Just kidding about the death reference. The much-talked about changes to the attorney advertising rules in New York take effect today. And in the end, New York proved no better (or worse) than the majority of state bars in creating different standards for what is and is not kosher.
Dont believe what you read
Outside of what you read here. In perusing dozens of articles and blog posts, I read dozens of inaccuracies and inaccurate quotes (a lot of those interviewed misspoke about what the rules were all about). One article quoted a legal marketer that said these rules effected few attorneys in New York (do you know anything about law firm business development?). An attorney cited that NY was at the forefront of these advertising ethics issues (you are not). And I read lots of quotes from non-lawyer marketers that have no say or influence in these decisions. Attorneys that make up the state bar decide what attorneys are going to do.
The reality? The whole thing was much ado about nothing. There are a few hoops to jump through. But, issues that every state keeps grappling with remain unresolved. And if you know how to issue-spot (I hope you do, if you went to law school), then you should be able to write a professional responsibility final exam poking holes through much of them.
In a nutshell, what do I do?
Since you are not likely a paying client of my firm (they receive detailed and specific marketing ethics compliance advice this is not legal advice consult your individual attorney your results may vary), here is what you need to be sure about:
If you are a New York law firm or promote a New York office, you need to have the words ATTORNEY ADVERTISING on your home page. Not on every page. Depending on the promotional use of representative clients and matters, you may need additional disclaimer language.
The retention rule for NY is three years for all traditional marketing materials. However, electronic (i.e. web and mail) are one year (and only minor modifications to the web site need to be copied and retained).
Testimonials are still OK in most instances, but require additional disclaimer and other rule compliance.
The Man from UNCLE can still do a paid endorsement, just so you let people know he was paid to do so and is not really a partner at your firm (although he looks damn close).
While you can not use monikers, nicknames or mottos, you can list bona fide professional ratings. Good luck with that one, New York. If I have a billboard that says Its a bird. Its a plane. Its SUPER LAWYER, have I complied? And outside of hearing from the IP attorneys at Marvel Comics, what are you going to do about it?
Your best bet is to read the actual red-lined version of the rules, and educate your attorneys and marketing staff on them. That is what I do with many of the law firms where I assist with marketing ethics compliance. You should do the same.
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Free Law Marketing Day at ABA Midyear in Miami–February 9th
If you live or work in the Miami area, are attending the ABA Midyear Meeting, or simply would like some no-cost business development learning, the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section is pleased to provide a special slate of law marketing programs, capped by the ABA Women Rainmakers Reception, on Friday, February 9, 2007 at the ABA Midyear Meeting in Miami, Florida. The programs and reception are free of charge and open to all ABA attendees as well as any interested attorneys, marketers and administrators from Floridas law firm and law school community.
For further information, visit the LPM Web Site for program details.
Or download the informational PDF brochure from ABA LPM:
Download file
Define Your Event Strategy: Maximize Your Business Development Opportunities
Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 Time: 8:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.
JW Marriott London II room
Marketing on a Shoestring: Tips for Making the Most of Your Business Development Dollar
Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 Time: 10:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.
JW Marriott London II room
Whether you are a sole practitioner watching the marketing budget or an attorney at a mid-size to large law firm looking to maximize your spending, this program will provide tools and tips to make the most out of your time and money.
This interactive seminar will provide you with an opportunity to ask and learn from members of the ABA Law Practice Managements Marketing Core Group.
Takeaways will include:
Making the most of your current contacts and memberships
Developing an efficient network maintenance system
Developing a marketable niche
Employing alternative billing options
Creating and structuring a successful public relations plan
20 Quick Tips for Building Your Marketing Portfolio
Panelists:
An all-attorney panel of practitioners and marketers from the ABA-LPM Marketing Core Group, including:
Olivia Fox Cabane, Spitfire Communications, New York, NY
Claudia Clontz, Clontz & Clontz, Charlotte, NC
Micah Buchdahl, HTMLawyers, Inc., Moorestown, NJ
Jamie Diaferia, Infinite PR, New York, NY
One Plus One Equals Three: Men and Women as Collaborators
Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 2:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
JW Marriott London II room
ABA Women Rainmakers Networking Reception
Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 4:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m.
JW Marriott Pool Deck
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ASK THE MAM — More Verizon Yellow Pages Woes
DEAR MAM: I read your recent post on Verizon Yellow Pages. I too have had enormous frustrations with their practices–how much things cost? When the deadlines occur? Errors in the ads? What should I do? Is there a person or department you suggest I contact with Verizon? SINCERELY YOURS, JB, Phoenix, AZ
DEAR JB: To be honest, I'm encouraging firms I work with to stop all Verizon Yellow Pages advertising, because of these types of issues. The reality, in my opinion, is that it is a dying entity. Besides the fact that there are numerous competitors (I do not know which book I keep in my own kitchen–Verizon or Yellow Book–myself), when I need to look something up, I go online anyway. And for one of my law firm clients, we have spent more time trying to resolve a dispute with Verizon this past year than we have on our own business development plan. The best bet is to simply cancel your listing all together. You can always go back later (regardless of "losing your spot in line" sales gimmickery). Perhaps, you will get a new manager or rep that can start you off fresh, or simply try some other marketing tools for a year or two and see how things net out. I have chosen to redirect some of the Verizon money to Yellow Book, simply to see if the product, services and results are any better. Please feel free to contact me privately for further information. Thanks for writing. I feel your pain. Sincerely yours, THE MARKETING ATTORNEY
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Setting Up a Law Firm Blog — Issues and Cost
The November 2006 issue of Law Technology News features a cover story I've authored on the process of setting up a law firm blog today.
This is the story of DelawareIPLaw.com, brainstormed and created by three associates in the Intellectual Property section at Wilmington, Delaware-based Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor.
For more information on this subject, feel free to contact me.
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ASK THE MAM — Boutique or Big Firm?
DEAR MAM: I practice employment law at what would probably be considered a megafirm. A few of us are wondering whether it might be better to venture out on our own. In today's market, do you think our futures are brighter staying put (we are on the partnership track, we think) or going out on our own? SINCERELY YOURS, JC, New York, NY
DEAR JC: Oh, the dilemma of sucking it up and earning big bucks with little life, or rolling the dice on making a good income and doing what you want. I know it well. Contrary to some recent reports, many have found recent success finding a niche that stands between a solo and a boutique–the mini-boutique. In most cases, the mini-boutique has a specialty in which a corporate client finds greater value and lower cost. In most cases that I've dealt with, the mini-b is started by partners that have a book of business to get rolling. So, unless you know that there will be some clients to get going, you might hold off a littler longer. Some of the mini-bs that have met with great success are IP and employment practices.
You think that you are on the partnership track? If you are within three years of that next level, stay the course and then reconsider venturing out. If you are a third-year associate, unless you have some clients that will be making the move, you may struggle. And, of course, there is always the opportunity to find a better fit at a full-size boutique. The grass is always greener, baby! Let me know how things play out. SINCERELY YOURS, THE MARKETING ATTORNEY
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ASK THE MAM — Yellow Pages Advertising
DEAR MAM: Where do you stand on Yellow Pages advertising? My gut is that it is a waste. However, so many still spend so much on it. SINCERELY YOURS, SP, Minneapolis, MN
DEAR SP: You've struck a nerve. There is no entity that has less of a shot of getting a piece of marketing dollar from one of my firms than Verizon Yellow Pages or Super Book or whatever they call themselves. Dealing with Verizon is the worst vendor interaction experience that I have faced ANYWHERE on ANYTHING. I am in the process of looking for law firms that have had similar issues with Verizon sales personnel. Since I am not interested in getting into litigation with them, I'll leave it at that. However, firms with such experiences should contact me privately. I've had much better experiences dealing with the folks at Yellow Book. But that does not really answer your question. In some undersaturated markets, there are still consumer-oriented firms that see and get value from Yellow Pages-style advertising. However, the impact in today's market is far less than it once was. It has become an overpriced entity that is often too crowded to be effective. If you have a huge budget, I still put money aside for a Yellow Book, but if my dollars are tight, I go elsewhere first. Sincerely yours, THE MARKETING ATTORNEY
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First-Year Associate Marketing Plans
Recently, I authored an article on First Year Associate Marketing Plans: It is Never Too Soon to Start, for The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly publications. More and more law firms are beginning marketing plan development for first-years, often setting the stage with introductory programs during the summer associate season.
While many firms are dropping big bucks on "attorney sales coaching" or "rainmaking" for senior associates and young partners, the reality is that these efforts would not be necessary if you started training them much earlier. While I often read about such "coaching" leading to million dollar paydays, the reality is that any focus or concentration on bringing in business will result in an increase. Unless you are just terrible.
If your law firm is interested in receiving a copy of this article, please CONTACT me. I would be happy to forward it along. It should provide a good guide to developing your own curriculum.
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ASK THE MAM — VANITY NUMBERS
DEAR MAM: I just read your response to the NY man who was asking about online law directories. I am just starting to market an 800 vanity number and want to know what are your feelings on vanity numbers? SINCERELY YOURS, KK, Santa Ana, CA
DEAR KK: Much like domain names, my first and often last question in response to a vanity phone number is "how intuitive is it?" Naturally, I see no value in a 1-800-ANTITRUST for a corporate law firm. However, for many plaintiffs' firms, a vanity number that resonates with the consumer can have tremendous value. Of course, it needs to be part of a solid, overall marketing plan. I often pass billboards for PI firms that highlight ridiculous phone numbers and web addresses. So ridiculous that I can not offer up an example, because they are so "not memorable." A number that sticks in my head after I get out of the car, or turn off the radio or TV, is a winner. That is the question you need to ask yourself. And when purchasing a vanity number from a third party (not the phone company), you should take a hard look at the cost versus the potential benefits. Thanks for writing. Sincerely yours, THE MARKETING ATTORNEY
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Super Lawyer's Kryptonite — NJ Ethics Opinion
In a summer where Superman Returns, it is Super Lawyer getting hit by kryptonite, thanks to the recent ethics opinion from my resident state of New Jersey.
As many of my readers know, I speak at law firms on a weekly basis regarding marketing ethics (usually as in-house CLEs and at retreats). This morning, I was greeted with e-mails and phone calls from about 30 of those firms seeking advice on how this affects them. Especially here in the Northeast, where many New York and Pennsylvania firms have a NJ office.
My general rule of thumb is that firms abide by the strictest state in which they have an office. In many cases, that state is Florida. New Jersey is not far behind. In Iowa, I just say to stop marketing.
In response to many requests, I have prepared a brief memo recapping the New Jersey opinion and its likely effects on marketing ethics, including suggestions on how to proceed with the marketing of many of these "honors" or "designations." However, this document is only available "by request" and will not be made available on the web. To request a copy, please contact me directly at 856-234-4334 or via e-mail (info @ htmlawyers.com).
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Law.com's Blog Network Highlights IMAs
The Law.com Blog Network today highlights the Internet Marketing Attorney Reviews and Nifty 50, with comments from Bob Ambrogi.
In just a few days on the web, the new IMA reviews and Nifty 50 have seen over 25,000 page views of readership. Thanks for your readership.
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The IMAs are Back! Along with the Nifty 50!!!
Look, the IMAs are like a full-time job. So while I've ignored the Marketing Attorney Blog, the IMAs are back! Visit them today at www.internetmarketingattorney.com.
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ABA CLE Teleconference — Using Client Surveys to Improve Your Practice
I will be participating in an ABA CLE Teleconference on "Using Client Surveys to Improve Your Practice" on Thursday, March 16, 2006. I will be joined by fellow panelists Julia Cline of Reed Smith, Michael Downey of Fox Galvin, and Carly Sproul of Saul Ewing.
Many attorneys and law firms are putting significant energy and resources into the use of client surveys as an effective business development component.
For more information, visit the ABA CLE Site.
An active client survey program that tracks needs and perceptions can be a valuable tool for any size law firm. With a deeper understanding of what your clients want and clearer insight into what they think, your firm can leverage its strengths and address its weaknesses to improve service.
Our panel of attorneys brings perspectives from small, medium and large firms to cover the various types of client surveys and reveal how to set up an effective survey system that will enable you to gather and use data, incorporate market research into your system, and steer clear of ethical pitfalls.
After the program, you will be able to:
Determine the survey methods to which your clients will respond
Create questions that will elicit useful responses
Overcome resistance to soliciting feedback and implementing related change within your firm
Develop effective strategies for using feedback
Analyze and apply survey data to improve your practice and client relationships
OUR EXPERTS
As Director of General Counsel Relations for Reed Smith in Washington, D.C., Julia Cline interacts daily with general counsel to ensure that the firm understands each clients needs. She is well-suited for this responsibility, following an accomplished in-house career with major corporations throughout the United States.
Michael Downey brings the small-firm perspective from his experience with client surveys as a partner in the 15-attorney trial practice of Fox Galvin. He will discuss the St. Louis firms successful use of client surveys to gain important client feedback that has helped the firm stay competitive.
As an attorney that focuses on business development initiatives, Micah Buchdahl of HTMLawyer in Moorestown, NJ, routinely conducts client surveys on behalf of firms of all sizes. He will detail the many possible routes, strategies and budgets that can be exercised to create successful client surveysand how what you learn can grow your practice and strengthen your bottom line.
Carly Sproul, a member of the ABA Law Practice Management Marketing Core Group and business development coordinator for Saul Ewing, will moderate.
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STILL TIME TO REGISTER FOR ABA MARKETING SEMINAR!
As part of the American Bar Association Law Practice Management Section education and outreach, the upcoming marketing seminar in Philadelphia on October 21st features one of the most outstanding days of business development programming ever assembled. And the cost is ridiculously minimal. $195 buys the full-day session, which includes breakfast, lunch and premium give-away items.
Whether you are looking at content, speakers, cost, or venue–this event blows them all away. And there are other great programs and events associated with the ABA LPM Meeting, including a full day of technology CLE on Thursday, Octoer 20th and a gathering reception at the new Constitution Center. Take a look at the meeting web site at www.lawpractice.org/fallmeeting.
ABA LAW MARKETING SEMINAR
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Business Co-Sponsored by the Philadelphia Bar Association Loews Philadelphia Hotel Friday, October 21st
THE ABA LAW PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SECTION PROVIDES THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR LAWYERS AND LAW FIRM EXECUTIVES EVER ASSEMBLED…FOR ONLY $195 REGISTER TODAY AT WWW.LAWPRACTICE.ORG/FALLMEETING.
What Women (In-House Counsel) Want
Presented by ABA Women Rainmakers Following a Networking Breakfast!
In-House Counsel from Comcast, GlaxoSmithKline, Gannett and CSC address key elements that drive the in-house/outside counsel relationship, and discuss building their own careers at some of the regions most successful corporations.
Extreme Marketing Makeover 10×10
Ten topics. Ten speakers. Ten minutes each. Learn from the practitioners.
Budgeting — Michael Nestor, Marketing Partner, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor
Client Surveys — Joe ODea, Partner, Saul Ewing
Ethics — Micah Buchdahl, President, HTMLawyers
Charitable Foundations — Christopher Walters, Senior Pro Bono Counsel, Reed Smith
Publications — James Austin, Publications Director, Pepper Hamilton
Alumni Relations TBD, Morgan Lewis
Trade Shows — John OMalley, Marketing Partner, Volpe and Koenig
Recruiting — Nancy Winkelman, Partner, Schnader
Sales Coaching — Sharon Caffrey, Partner, Duane Morris
Proposals — John Sparks, Partner, Post & Schell
Branding: Will Law Firms Ever Get It Right?
A Working Luncheon — Sponsored by ALM–Philadelphia Region
Moderated by attorney Steven Silverberg, a panel of experienced brand marketers from three perspectives debate and teach Bob Gero, Director of Business Development at Milbank Tweed (the law firm); Alan Sharavsky of Sharavsky Communications (the marketing communications agency); and Ivy Brown, Splenda® Franchise Director, McNeil Nutritionals/Johnson & Johnson (Fortune 100 Corporate Brander).
Internet Marketing Excellence
Web Sites, Blogs, Extranets, Specialty Sites, SEOthe nations leading attorneys in online business development together on one panel!
Greg Siskind — Visalaw.com
Micah Buchdahl InternetMarketingAttorney.com
Timothy Stanley Justia.com
Douglas Davis (CMO) Bullivant.com
The Art of Effective Public & Media Relations
A top-tier panel of journalists and media relations experts provides tips and plans for improving your law firms PR.
Jamie Diaferia, Founder, Infinite Public Relations
Allan Ripp, President, Ripp Media
John Mason, Publisher, Legal Intelligencer (ALM)
Chris Blackman, NBC 10 News Vice President
Phyllis Dantuono, Business Wire
Casey Lawlor, Latham & Watkins
PLUS: Law Marketing EXPO
Knick-Knack Breaks Premium promotional items for each attendee.
Add the Thursday, October 20th Technology Program to y