Berbay Corp.

Berbay Corp. Sponsors Legal Marketing Association Meeting: How to Manage Crisis

Administrator — 2010-04-05T23:25:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
April 2010

BERBAY CORP. SPONSORS LEGAL MARKETING ASSOCIATION MEETING: HOW TO MANAGE CRISIS

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, will sponsor the Legal Marketing Association-Los Angeles’ (LMA-LA) professional networking event titled, “How to Manage Crisis” on October 21, 2010. The event will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

Berbay Corp. is a continuing supporter of the LMA-LA, an organization that provides fundamental legal marketing strategies to industry professionals. LMA-LA is a chapter of the national Legal Marketing Association, which has nearly 1,000 members and educates the legal community and other professionals about the role of the marketing professional and its function within the legal services industry.

Berbay Corp. is a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms:
legal, financial services, real estate, and other professional services. The firm is located at:
2001 S. Barrington Ave., Suite 305, Los Angeles, California, 90025.
The phone is 310/914-4200. The fax is 310/914-4201.
The firm’s website is www.berbay.com.

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Berbay Corp. Exhibits at the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles' 13th Annual Trial Lawyers Skills Seminar

Administrator — 2010-04-02T20:23:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
April 2010

BERBAY CORP. EXHIBITS AT THE CONSUMER ATTORNEYS ASSOCIATION OF LOS ANGELES’ 13TH ANNUAL TRIAL LAWYERS SKILLS SEMINAR

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, exhibited at the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles’ (CAALA) 13th Annual Trial Lawyers Skills for the New Attorney Seminar. Held on March 20, 2010, the event educated new attorneys on basic trial skills and provided tricks-of-the-trade from renowned plaintiff trial lawyers. Through education and training, CAALA strives to provide the highest standards of quality legal representation and ethical conduct.

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Photos! Berbay Corp. Exhibits At Crocker Symposium

Administrator — 2010-04-01T20:10:00+00:00

March 2010

BERBAY CORP. EXHIBITS AT BENJAMIN S. CROCKER SYMPOSIUM ON REAL ESTATE LAW AND BUSINESS 2010

Berbay Corp. exhibited at the Benjamin S. Crocker Symposium on Real Estate Law & Business 2010 for the third consecutive year. Presented by The Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and The Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, the Symposium was held on March 23, 2010.


Maggie Lukaszewicz and Summer Vernon Exhibit at the Crocker Symposium	Kyle Barnes, Summit Point Escrow and Sharon Berman, Berbay Corp. Principal

Business Development: The Perfect Recipe for Making Rain

2010-02-22T22:08:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: Rain Today

In the past, the most pervasive and perplexing challenge in professional service marketing was motivating young associates to become rainmakers. As times got tougher, that challenge expanded to include the principals and partners who never had to market before. Suddenly, the large cadre of seasoned professionals who used to be the "minders" and "grinders" of the work others brought in are in the spotlight and under pressure to become business developers.

Whether it's a law firm exhorting its associates to market or an engineering firm prodding its senior professionals to make some rain, the problem is equally daunting. Although there is no "magic wand" that turns people into business developers, some firms have been more successful than others by applying a recipe that consists of four distinct ingredients: commitment, culture, compensation, and cultivation.

Commitment

When business slows significantly, the impetus for asking more of a firm's professionals to market often stems from panic. Unfortunately, business development doesn't happen overnight. Effectively transforming service providers into rainmakers is a long-term proposition that requires persistent commitment from firm management. It takes a farmer's patience and perseverance to plant the seeds, see them take hold, and nurture them to grow to fruition.

In the absence of long-term commitment, firms usually embark on a series of unsuccessful programs designed to teach their professionals how to generate sales. This is worse than maintaining the status quo because your team will quickly see through your sizzle-without-substance efforts and won't take them seriously.

At the same time, it's important to remain uncommitted until you know what business development program you're going to pursue. Start by investigating what it will take to see change. What kind of investment will you have to make in terms of time (not just yours, but your professionals), training, funding, and compensation? What level of investment might be required to hire consultants, coaches or business development specialists? Is the firm willing to examine its compensation structure and adjust it if necessary to produce a greater return?

Once you have embarked on a course of action, don't expect the first substantial results for 12-24 months, although you may see some success sooner. By committing today to begin motivating associates to market, you are laying the foundation to take advantage of the economic upturn.

Culture

Your business development imperative has to permeate the firm's culture, championed by influential shareholders who have demonstrated the ability to generate revenue. These business champions have to communicate business development expectations clearly and consistently.

Changing the firm's culture depends on an individualized approach to change the behavior of each professional. That's because different people are motivated by different "carrots." For some, extra compensation may do the job, while others need an additional, less tangible motivator such as recognition by peers and firm management, or the prospect of greater opportunities, such as becoming a relationship liaison for a larger client. Still others like to follow a mentor or role model who engenders loyalty and aspiration. In general, attempts to motivate will fail when expectations are unrealistic and not in line with the individual's skill set, experience and personality.

Some of the leaders in your program could be young professionals already champing at the bit to develop business. They won't need extra motivation at all—just the right tools and a clear direction to focus their efforts. They understand that becoming a business developer benefits the firm today, as well as benefits them individually tomorrow.

If your firm is lucky, you'll have others who instinctively "get it." They realize that their Ivy League diploma is just paper if they don't have the ability to bring in business. If they were to lose their job in this economy, they would be just another commodity in a vast marketplace and could suffer a decline in earning power. They will recognize that a book of business, or a demonstrated ability to develop business (especially in a valuable niche profession), will assure them of a much stronger place than those who have always had work handed to them.

What do you do about those who just don't want to market? For some, the problem may be that they don't really understand what you're asking of them. Most likely they equate marketing with selling and find that idea distasteful. In that situation, exposure to training may open their minds. Others will pay lip service to their interest in business development but won't take action.

An effective way to change the behavior of recalcitrant cases is to involve them in developing the rainmaking program. For example, ask them to help create a focused plan that defines the target populations and industries of desirable clientele and identifies the type of work the firm would like to pursue. A particularly effective way to increase motivation and commitment is to create a Business Development Committee or Associate Marketing Committee with some decision-making authority. Include those who might be fence-sitters, as well as highly motivated people.

Compensation

Monetary incentives show you're serious about business development. Clearly define who will be paid for what. For instance, are you going to give a fee or percentage to anyone who brings in major billable work, as well as to the person who brings a prospect to your table who ultimately hires another firm?

In addition to compensation, your investment in business development has to provide for specific marketing training with time charged against an in-house account so no one is penalized from a productivity standpoint. Firms often overlook the fact that any training they provide is a gift to the associate. What better motivator for associates than self-interest?

However, think twice before using your top rainmakers as the trainers. Those newer to the workforce may benefit from hearing what tactics work for different colleagues, but unfortunately the best "salesperson" often is not the best teacher. Instead, consider investing in professional coaches, consultants, and trainers to underscore the firm's commitment and generate buy-in.

Cultivation

People will take the matter of rainmaking seriously only if it stays on their radar screen with a clear message that the firm means business. Your team won't pay attention to half-hearted reminders to "get out there and bring in clients." They will just keep their heads low and wait until it goes away—after all, it did last time.

As you cultivate your new rainmakers' skills, keep your expectations realistic and flexible. For example, a young professional may be discouraged if he believes the only acceptable measure of success is to bring in the type of "big fish" only a partner could land. A realistic expectation may be to assign rainmaker trainees to network strategically with key members and influencers of a certain industry group to get the firm's name out and begin to build or strengthen relationships.

How flexible is your firm willing to be in its support of people who are just learning how to market? For example, if someone introduces a new client with work that might not meet your firm's usual standards, are you willing to take on the project rather than rebuff that neophyte's attempt at business development? Clearly, the individual has to understand that this is not the type of work the firm is looking for, but at the same time, it may be important to reward and give positive reinforcement to your team members for small successes.

Finally, accountability is critical in the process of cultivation. Your professionals will not change their behavior if no one is watching. Consider monthly marketing meetings where someone is closing the loop and following up on commitments that were made to make phone calls, write articles, explore organizations, etc. Chart successes, and give help and encouragement where needed.

Sharon Berman is principal of Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional services firms. She can be reached at berman@berbay.com.
The firm's website is www.berbay.com.

Marketing Your Ability to Help Corporate Counsel Manage Risk

2010-02-22T06:00:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

A common thread running through surveys of corporate counsel is that managing legal risk is high on their list of concerns. Effectively communicating your understanding of risk’s components and demonstrating how you can help corporate counsel manage that risk is essential in attracting the attention of a potential new corporate counsel client, or reinforcing your relationship with an existing one. It’s also a key way to demonstrate that you understand the legal components as well as the business implications of that risk.

There is no common definition of "risk" among in-house counsel; it varies depending on parameters such as the industry, the technology, the practice area, and the size of the organization. Risk can include a litigation outcome, a counter lawsuit, or a public relations nightmare, but whatever the risk, it can be quantified in terms of expense. The value of your ability to avoid risk or its result directly correlates to the money you save your client.

It is also conceivable that in-house counsel will not be able to articulate what the specific risks are that you’ll be called upon to help avoid or mitigate. What may keep counsel awake at night is free-floating anxiety related to a broad range of business perils, including concern that the actual consequences of an important business or legal decision will not become clear until after the course of action has been decided and acted upon.

So, how do you market your business and legal risk acumen? How do you show in-house counsel that you can not only manage risk preemptively, but that you also have the ability to manage the outcome if the risk can’t be avoided?

There are essential steps to take. One of the first is putting your legal and industry expertise to work identifying what issues most general counsel in the industries you know are facing. Select one or two top industries in which you already have developed experience and expertise. Also, review Industry trade wWeb sites, newsletters and other material to make sure you’re covering all the bases.

Connect the dots. Unless you have performed risk analysis, due diligence, or avoidance/mitigation assignments for the target/client in the past, do not rely on your prospects to draw a line between their needs and your ability to be of service; you must make that connection.

The next step is to "package" and convey your abilities, expertise, experience and achievements in a way that resonates with your sophisticated target audience, and then “distribute” that package through constant and consistent communication. Your success in growing your practice will depend on how effectively you communicate your skills to your targets.

From dish detergent to legal services, everything that is offered for sale benefits from communicative packaging. Effective packaging will make a product stand out from similar offerings in the marketplace, conveying useful information about the product. Corporate counsels are knowledgeable buyers of outside legal services; they reject hyperbole and will ignore packaging that lacks valuable content. They are more likely to respond to your package if it is up to the level of sophistication and quality that matches the image and needs of their business and your qualifications.

Think about the quality and quantity of material you have to place in that package. Review recent transactions and think about them in terms of how your role minimized or managed risk. Did you analyze a company's real estate portfolio with an eye toward identifying a gap that should be closed? Did you uncover and mitigate an existing or potential risk? While you were negotiating and documenting the sale of a client's subsidiary, did you realize you had seen the same documentary loopholes in a previous transaction, and thus had the knowledge to mitigate or eliminate the potential risk? These are the types of transferable value-added skills that make the contents of your package worthwhile.

Once you have thought about the specifics, focus your attention to how you can extrapolate from a specific instance of transactional analysis or loophole identification into a topic with broader application across industry segments or even entire industries. You must communicate clearly that you understand and can work with corporate counsel across the full range of risk management – from risk identification and prevention to managing the outcome if the risk can’t be avoided.

Consider the words you use to communicate what you know, what you’ve done, and what you will do. The services you offer may have commonalities across industries, but describing how you add value may need to be couched in different terms for each target. For example: the phrase "real estate lease review" lacks both urgency and motivation, but "real estate risk minimization" is far more likely to resonate with an in-house counsel dealing with real property issues.

Once you have effectively described your services, the challenge shifts to reaching in-house counsel while distinguishing yourself from other attorneys, all of whom are seeking the same business. There is no magic process to doing this, just good old roll-up-your-sleeves marketing using carefully crafted marketing tools designed specifically for your targets.

The most productive way to efficiently and effectively market yourself to various in-house counsel is by focusing your efforts on one or more segments of the target market, whether by industry, size of company, geography or practice area. For example, you may be pursuing all in-house IP counsel in entertainment companies with revenues over $100 million in the Southwest U.S. Segmenting counsel this way will allow you to create a manageable target market and carefully tailor your marketing materials to the expectations of the target audience.

You’ll need to create a database of prospects that includes e-mail and ‘snail mail’ addresses. Creating your target database is a foundational step, one that is often overlooked or avoided. While database creation and updating takes research and time, you can’t effectively market without it. And, be sure to include your referral sources, such as attorneys who don’t do what you do, but who may be able to ‘refer you in.’

The first place a prospective client is likely to explore when evaluating a professional’s qualifications is the wWeb. You will want to create specific pages or even a different website describing how you can help corporate counsel manage and respond to risk. Relying on a firm’s general Web site to convey your risk management expertise is not as strong and clear as developing a separate page or two directly addressing the needs of corporate counsel and your ability to meet them.

Don't stop with just a wWeb site; use the Internet to gain access to potential clients. Consider blogging or podcasting; review the respected blogs dealing with your target markets, then participate.

Another proven method to get the attention of prospective clients is by regularly sending out client alerts focused on recent legal updates and decisions in your areas of expertise. Don't just report on the changes; provide some meaningful insight and analysis that highlights your risk identification and management skills.

Writing bylined articles is ar powerful way to establish credibility, especially when your articles are published by respected industry journals. Pitch topics to industry trade groups as well as to vehicles targeted at your corporate counsel targets. Don’t be afraid that you’ll give away your secrets of success. That’s the last thing you want to keep secret, since your buyers want to know why you are valuable; not merely that you are valuable.

Offering in-house and off-site legal seminars is also a useful marketing tool. Your effective presentation on the risks inherent in the industry will enhance your exposure as a legal risk manager and help insure that you are the 'go-to' person to manage that businesses' risk.

Don't forget industry conferences or organizations that focus on your industries of expertise. Begin networking; look for those conferences that attract in-house counsel and other prospective client types.

Finally, recognize the fact that there is ‘no finally.’ The successful marketing of your risk management skills is not limited by time, nor is it self-perpetuating. Constant attention, either by yourself or outside professionals, is required to build and maintain momentum.

Today, in-house counsels are facing an ever-expanding array of risks. They are expected to identify these legal and business risks in advance, and to evaluate them from both a legal and business perspective. To have the edge, outside risk advisors need to communicate their understanding of the in-house counsel’s needs and position, as well as being able to communicate how they will help to effectively manage current and potential risks.

2010-01: Make Sure Your Marketing Campaign Isn't a Flop

Administrator — 2010-02-17T00:38:00+00:00

Issue 2010-01

February 2010

HOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR MARKETING CAMPAIGN ISN'T A FLOP

By: Sharon Berman
Published: Rain Today

Is My Marketing Working?

That is one of the fundamental questions professional services marketers ask themselves--and is asked even more often by their management. The only way to know is to measure your marketing results, and that has proven notoriously difficult in the field of professional services.

One reason behind this difficulty is the absence of immediate results in many aspects of service marketing. In this context, marketing is usually a long-term effort, so you may not know the results of a marketing strategy for several months or more. Say you publish a bylined article in a professional journal, and no one calls to learn more about your services. From a short-term perspective you might consider the article a marketing failure, but it doesn't necessarily mean the tactic is ineffective in the long term. Often a firm will receive an inquiry months after an article appears, especially given the shelf life of content on the Internet.

Some marketing tactics appear more straightforward to measure than others. For example, you launch a direct mail campaign (yes, direct mail can still be effective), and after the first mailing you receive three phone calls from qualified prospects. You now have a concrete measurement of three leads. But does that mean this approach is working?

Continue reading How to Make Sure Your Marketing Campaign Isn't a Flop to find out how to evaluate if your approach is working.

Download a printable PDF of How to Make Sure Your Marketing Campaign Isn't a Flop.

Berbay Corp. Exhibits at Greater Los Angeles and Orange County Associations of Legal Administrators

Berbay Corp. exhibited at the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators 2010 Annual Employment Law Forum for its fifth consecutive year, as well as at the Orange County Chapter Annual Chapter Education Summit.

Berbay Corp. is an ongoing supporter of the Association of Legal Administrators, an association that strives to improve the quality of management in legal services organizations, and to promote and enhance the competence and professionalism of legal administrators. Sharon Berman, principal of Berbay Corp., regularly contributes marketing articles to the official GLAALA publication.

In This Issue

Make Sure Your Marketing Campaign Isn't a Flop

Thomson Reuters Purchases Super Lawyers

2010 Crocker Symposium

Berbay Corp. Exhibits at GLA- and OC-ALA

Thomson Reuters Purchases
Super Lawyers

Thomson Reuters has bought the attorney rating system Super Lawyers (superlawyers.com).

Minnesota Law & Politics, the publication which gave birth to Super Lawyers, was not included in the sale, and is ceasing publication.

Crocker Symposium
March 23rd -
LA Convention Center

Presented by The Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and The Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, the 2010 Benjamin S. Crocker Symposium for Real Estate Law and Business will provide a mix of in-depth information, creative and practical analysis of real estate challenges, networking opportunities and a range of diverse points of view on legal and business knowledge.

For the third consecutive year, Berbay Corp. is handling the public relations.

For more information or to register, visit:
crockersymposium.com.

About Berbay Corp.

Berbay Corp. is a marketing and public relations firm specializing in working with professional service providers including law firms, real estate, finance, accounting and other professional services businesses. We're marketing and public relations specialists who take marketing "hows?" and turn them into "wow!" results.

Please visit www.berbay.com to read more about marketing your professional services. If you'd like more information about any of our marketing and public relations services, please call
(310) 405-7345 or email berman@berbay.com.

Berbay Corp. Exhibits At the Greater Los Angeles and Orange County Chapters of Association of Legal Administrators

Administrator — 2010-01-23T04:22:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
January 2010

BERBAY CORP. EXHIBITS AT THE GREATER LOS ANGELES AND ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTERS OF ASSOCIATION OF LEGAL ADMINISTRATORS

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, exhibited at the Greater Los Angeles Chapter Association of Legal Administrators 2010 Annual Employment Law Forum for its fifth consecutive year, as well as at the Orange County Chapter Annual Chapter Education Summit.

Berbay Corp. is an ongoing supporter of the Association of Legal Administrators, an association that strives to improve the quality of management in legal services organizations, and to promote and enhance the competence and professionalism of legal administrators. Sharon Berman, principal of Berbay Corp., regularly contributes marketing articles to the official GLAALA publication.

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Berbay Corp. Again Selected as Public Relations Counsel for Benjamin S. Crocker Symposium

Administrator — 2010-01-22T04:31:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
April 2010

BERBAY CORP. AGAIN SELECTED AS PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL FOR BENJAMIN S. CROCKER SYMPOSIUM

— Berbay to Spearhead Public Relations for Third Consecutive Year —

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, was selected to oversee the public relations for the 2010 Benjamin S. Crocker Symposium on Real Estate Law & Business for the third consecutive year. Presented by The Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and The Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA, the Symposium was held on March 23, 2010.

Sponsored by major Southern California law firms and businesses involved in a wide range of real estate development, financing and management, the Symposium is recognized for its mix of in-depth information, creative and practical analysis of real estate challenges, networking opportunities and a range of diverse points of view on legal and business knowledge.

This is the second year the Crocker Symposium was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is LEED-EB certified to fit the continuously growing demand for sustainable green development. It is also in close proximity to the 5.6 million square foot L.A. LIVE entertainment destination where the best in sports, leisure and state of the art real estate developments come together in one place.

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Berbay Corp. Exhibits at 2009 Construction Defect Seminar

Administrator — 2010-01-20T05:02:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
January 2010

BERBAY CORP. EXHIBITS AT 2009 CONSTRUCTION DEFECT SEMINAR

— Presented by Association of Southern California Defense Counsel
and Construction Defect Claim Managers Association —

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, exhibited at the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC) and Construction Defect Claim Managers Association 2009 Construction Defect Seminar and Holiday Party. The event was held on Thursday December 10, 2009 at the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa, which also honored the Orange County Judiciary. The seminar featured special guest speaker Senator Tom Harman.

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How to Make Sure Your Marketing Campaign Isn't a Flop

2010-01-06T23:06:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: Rain Today

Is My Marketing Working?

That is one of the fundamental questions professional services marketers ask themselves—and is asked even more often by their management. The only way to know is to measure your marketing results, and that has proven notoriously difficult in the field of professional services.

As much as we'd like precision, measurement is a matter of perspective. If 1,000 mailers result in three leads, you could regard that as a very small return. Alternatively, you might consider that converting just one of those leads into a client could pay for the whole year's mailings, giving you the opportunity to generate additional leads.

Further, measurement is not only about quantity; it's also about quality. If you generate 15 leads from 1,000 emails, are those results better than obtaining three leads from 1,000 direct mail pieces? If both approaches result in the same caliber of lead, then email is better because it has rendered a higher quantity and is more cost-effective.

What to Measure

Because tracking and measuring your marketing can sometimes be like trying to get your hands around thin air, it's tempting to dismiss those activities as unnecessary. Despite the difficulty, it's important to create systems and measure whatever you can.

Simply stated, you should measure the results that are important to your business. Even data on results that appear to be elusive can help you make better choices about future marketing efforts. Here are some things you should consider measuring:

Leads. Many firms measure sources of new business, but that doesn't tell them how effective their overall marketing activities are or what they may be missing. It's possible that the majority of new business came through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising but that the greatest number of leads came from trade shows. Why are the trade-show leads not being converted? Is it the quality of the leads or are they not being nurtured?
Responses. Measuring responses indicate your organization's visibility and name recognition. For example, you might want to track responses to your newsletter that you get from lapsed contacts, or the alternative, who is asking to be deleted from your email blast.
Networking results. Track the leads you receive from each networking group you are engaged with to find out, for example, if the construction management association you're a part of is doing better for you than the commercial real estate group you belong to.
Inbound and outbound referrals. While the professionals in your office may say they know where their referrals come from, they may have trouble giving you specifics. You should track who you give referrals to and what you get in return. Bear in mind that in some professions recipients of your referrals may not be able to reciprocate tit for tat. But do they try to express their appreciation in some other way? You also want to know if you're sending "juicy" referrals to another firm but getting weak ones in return.
Conversion rate. It is critical to know how many leads you convert to clients and where most of those leads come from. This indicates how many qualified prospects you need to "touch" in order to create a sale. Working backwards, you can calculate how many touches generate one lead. Measure conversion based on the total count of all leads generated, not just the ones that turn into new business. The conversion rate can also tell you a lot about the most effective sources for business. For instance, if your conversion rate is higher for leads generated through speaking engagements than for those coming through your website, you can focus on the more effective source.

Contain Information Collected

To measure your marketing, you need information—but firms have a way of letting information seep out of their systems. The first step toward creating an occlusive seal around your information is getting management's commitment to gather the pertinent information.

Some firms believe they are measuring their marketing when they track where clients come from—the "How did you hear about us?" question—but that's actually sales information. Capturing full marketing information involves tracking where your leads come from. That's the kind of information that tells you if your marketing is working.

Develop a System

Effective capture of information requires a tracking system, good communication among the members of your firm, and, ideally, a management champion. Your system should converge at a central collection point—a single person who receives, compiles, and reports on leads. All your professionals should know this person's role so they can forward information regarding inquiries, leads, and sources.

If your firm distributes a newsletter, anyone who receives a call as a result of a newsletter article must notify the central collection point about that contact and its source. Without a central system, your firm may receive 10 calls after sending out an email blast or newsletter, but no one ever knows how well that effort worked.

Your firm's priorities will determine the level of tracking that is most effective for your purposes, such as simple acknowledgements of communication or valid leads only. Although tracking leads may be preferable, feedback and comments about other marketing efforts are also important. They show that you are maintaining your name recognition and visibility, which are key factors in getting the phone to ring.

Some simple but useful analytical tools are available to help you measure and track results. Google Analytics is free and can provide you with a great deal of information about your website and what your audience is interested in. Similarly, the system you use to send email blasts can tell you how many people opened the email, clicked through to your website, and so forth.

Think Long Term

Marketing requires patience. It can take time for a specific approach to pay off, so give it a chance. Be prepared to measure results over the long term, not just for one quarter. Measuring over time will also give you the opportunity to observe any seasonality and to tweak efforts when results begin to fade.

W. Edwards Deming, the father of Total Quality Management, said there can be no improvement without measurement. If you want to improve your bottom line, measuring your marketing results can tell you what tactics are working so that you can leverage your time and resources to get the biggest bang for your buck.

2009-05: Competing with a Larger Firm

Administrator — 2010-01-06T22:08:00+00:00

Issue 2009-05

December 2009

COMPETING WITH A LARGER FIRM: HOW THE WEB LEVELS THE PLAYING FIELD

By: Sharon Berman
Published: Rain Today

Until recently, professional service firms of different sizes marketed on an uneven playing field. Larger firms held the high ground and had the advantage. Fortunately, the Web has lowered the barriers to entry so that smaller firms can now promote their services as successfully as large brand-name firms. For a relatively low investment, smaller firms can expand their presence and reach desirable clients as effectively as those that have larger wallets. Seizing turf is as simple as taking advantage of the tools the Web has to offer, but it does take a willingness to learn the tools and apply them.

It's Not the Money

When it comes to marketing, smaller firms have traditionally believed that money is what distinguishes them from their larger counterparts, but that's not always the case. Rather, the difference lies in a firm's vision, its ability to recognize opportunities and seize market share, and its marketing focus. In today's world, dollars don't have to be a roadblock to communicating that you're a firm that has talent and substance.

Just because a firm can afford an in-house marketing director or department, it does not mean it has the advantage. Every marketing department in the country is stretched to the limit trying to cover too many bases. If you're a boutique firm with a niche, you may even have an edge because your big-firm colleague may not get attention from the marketing department and doesn't have the control you have to tailor and target marketing vehicles.

Continue reading Competing with a Larger Firm to find out how to build your book of business.

Download a printable PDF of Competing with a Larger Firm.

Berbay Corp. Launches Blog

"Berbay Marketing Blog" provides updates on current marketing news, as well as offers advice for increasing your personal and firm-wide marketing. Please visit blog.berbay.com.

In This Issue

Competing with a Larger Firm:
How the web levels the playing field

Marketplace Trends

Social Media for Your Firm

Berbay Corp. Launches Marketing Blog.

Marketplace Trends

For the first time in three years, controlling spending on outside counsel has returned as the top priority for in-house counsel, topping compliance concerns: 2009 ACC/Serengeti Managing Outside Counsel Survey.

Does your firm want to learn about social media and networking?

Does your firm or organization want to learn more about social networking? Berbay account managers Megan Braverman and Maggie Lukaszewicz recently gave a well-received presentation, "Social Media: Bridging the Networking GAAP," to the California Society of CPAs' Industry Section. They'd be pleased to talk with you about presenting it to your firm or group. You can contact them at maggie@berbay.com or megan@berbay.com.

About Berbay Corp.

Berbay Corp. Account Managers Address California Society of CPAs on Social Networking

Administrator — 2009-11-18T20:55:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
November 2009

BERBAY CORP. ACCOUNT MANAGERS ADDRESS
CALIFORNIA SOCIETY OF CPAS ON SOCIAL NETWORKING

LOS ANGELES – Megan Braverman and Maggie Lukaszewicz, Account Managers at Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, presented “Social Media: Bridging the Networking GAAP” to the California Society of CPAs' Industry Section, on November 18, 2009. The presentation reviewed the “big three” professional networking sites: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, as well as offered advice on how CPAs can use social networking as a business development tool. The presentation was held at the Spitfire Grill at the Santa Monica Airport.

“We have entered a new era in the way we develop business relationships,” said Ms. Lukaszewicz. “With many great tools available, it is important to use them to promote both yourself and your company by networking and staying connected via social media.”

In addition to discussing the “big three” professional networking sites, the Berbay team addressed issues including maintaining your privacy, networking for a new job, and company social media policies.

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Competing with a Larger Firm: How the Web Levels the Playing Field

2009-11-04T04:48:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: Rain Today

Until recently, professional service firms of different sizes marketed on an uneven playing field. Larger firms held the high ground and had the advantage. Fortunately, the web has lowered the barriers to entry so that smaller firms can now promote their services as successfully as large brand-name firms. For a relatively low investment, smaller firms can expand their presence and reach desirable clients as effectively as those that have larger wallets. Seizing turf is as simple as taking advantage of the tools the web has to offer, but it does take a willingness to learn the tools and apply them.

It's Not the Money

Maximize Your Website

Your primary tool when competing with larger firms is your website. You do not need to have all of the latest bells and whistles, but you do need a classy, clean, contemporary site. Its content has to sell your firm by positioning you as an expert in your discipline and demonstrating to prospective clients that they have come to the right place.

Having as compelling and informative a website as a large competitor doesn't need to eat up all your profits, but you do need to make an investment. Take time to research website designers who can create a site for you that depicts your firm's energy and leadership. For example, if you or your partners speak at conferences or tradeshows, have a section on your site showing that. You can also have a news section to post articles about speaking engagements, new hires, promotions, or sponsorships. Then distribute those articles via other social media outlets, such as your blog or Twitter. A continuing stream of news and information underscores the fact that you are active and take a leadership role.

High Tech, Low Cost

For little to no money, firms can take advantage of several online tools and tactics that enhance their standings as thought leaders and improve their chances of being found by prospects.

Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is an equal-opportunity marketing tactic that puts small and large on a level footing. With organic SEO, in which you optimize your website's ranking through search engine results through your site's content, meta data, in-bound links, and other techniques, you can generate leads from qualified prospects. Now is the time for professional services firms to act while many behemoth firms are still pooh-poohing SEO. They claim their clients don't search for their type of service online. They're wrong. Many decision-makers at all levels do this, and many more will.

SEO takes expertise, patience, and focus, but here again, the world is flat. If you have someone in-house who has the interest and bent to optimize your website, that person can get the ball rolling. However, SEO is its own art and science, so consider engaging a professional. You can optimize your website as competently as any larger firm without having to spend a lot of money.

Sponsored Search Engine Results: Sponsored search engine results, often through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising programs, also offer equal marketing opportunity. In this model, you obtain top rankings by bidding on the search terms that your prospective clients may use to find you. You pay only if someone clicks on your ad and goes through to your website (a click-through). While you might need a larger budget in some highly competitive areas (e.g., personal injury law), there are ways to narrow this down so that you compete on very specific terms, such as "track engineering" as opposed to "civil engineering." The field is still wide open in many niche disciplines where you can capture leads with a modest investment.

Video and Audio: Video is another marketing avenue rife with opportunity. By adding video to your website, not only will it differentiate your firm, but it will also contribute to higher search engine rankings. With current technology, anyone can create and post high-quality videos. If you prefer to work with a video professional, the cost is not prohibitive. The same ease and simplicity applies to audio recording. Using free software, you can record and edit your own MP3 files and make them available for download from your website.

Social Networking Websites: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and a myriad other social networking sites have also leveled the playing field for communicating with your target markets. You and your colleagues should have profiles on one or more of these sites. Use them to establish your thought leadership and build relationships with clients.

Get Organized to Communicate

Email is a low-cost means of communicating regularly with your clients and prospects, but it requires an up-to-date database or mailing list. Here again, the hurdles for a large firm can be greater than those for a small one. At a large firm, creating a targeted mailing list and coding it by market is like trying to corral an octopus. While it may appear no less daunting to a small firm, it's a task you can get your arms around. Then, once you have it up and running, maintaining it takes minimal time.

Your hard-copy marketing materials can also be on par with those of your larger brethren. Conveying a professional image does not require expensive, four-color glossy brochures. With the quality of in-house color printing today, inexpensive binding machines, and other sophisticated hardware and software, you can create enviable and flexible marketing materials that make you look like a larger firm.

If you don't have the budget now to revamp your website or create polished collateral, keep in mind that the shelf life of websites and materials is about two years. Before you turn around it will be time for a revision, so do your best for the time being and don't wait for perfection. What you create now will have a significant positive impact on your ability to bring in business. Besides, grappling with the challenges of developing your materials and online presence today will make creating the next version easier—you'll have a foundation and a better idea of what worked.

Play to Win

Does all of the above take money? Yes, but you can be effective within a modest budget and can get a large bang for your buck. Whatever you do, remember, it has to convey a professional image. Call in professionals—marketers, writers, designers, SEO experts, etc.—as you need them.

More important than money, the marketing measures discussed above require commitment, attention to detail, and follow-through, which are independent of firm size and budget. The playing field is level, so go play ball.

2009-04: Site Unseen

Administrator — 2009-09-24T20:43:00+00:00

Issue 2009-04

September 2009

Berbay Corp. provides the Marketing Spotlight E-Newsletter as an update on trends in professional services marketing. We hope you find this information useful; however, if you'd like to be removed from the distribution, please click on the SafeUnsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail.

SITE UNSEEN: WHY REVISING YOUR WEBSITE SHOULD BE AN ABSOLUTE PRIORITY

By: Sharon Berman
Published: The Daily Journal

At a time when Web 2.0 and social media marketing are on everyone's lips, a surprisingly large group of professionals are still far behind the times with the web's first incarnation. They haven't touched their website in years - or worse, they don't have one at all. An outdated website is easily spotted because the most recent piece of "news" was posted in 2008 or much earlier.

Quite often, the reasoning is that the website really won't make a difference in the firm's business development, or that the important thing is that the firm has a website - they did it once and that's it. And, let's not even talk about search engine optimization (SEO) because there are many firms who are convinced that the type of client the firm is seeking will not be searching for the service online, so search engine rankings really don't matter. The truth is that in today's world, prospective clients search online for firms in all disciplines and specialties.

Assuming your firm has a site, are you one of the many professionals who acknowledge that it is "embarrassing" or "awful," and that you "have to do something about it"? Does "doing something about it" somehow never seem to reach the top of your priority list? Most professionals are concerned about generating leads and capturing business, but there are still firms that don't seem to think that the website has any impact. Simple logic would dictate that if competitors invest time, effort and money in keeping their website design and content fresh and up-to-date, they are deriving value from those efforts.

The fact is, having an outdated website (or none at all) is simply no longer acceptable for professional service providers. A current site that showcases the firm and its accomplishments is just too important a business development tool to be relegated to the bottom of the priority list. And before you discard search engine optimization, you may want to consider the qualified leads that are slipping through your fingers to someone else's.

Continue reading Site Unseen to find out how to build your book of business.

Download a printable PDF of Site Unseen.

In This Issue

Site Unseen: Why revising your website should be an absolute priority

Berbay Addresses Cal Society of CPAs

BTI Premium Forcast

Two-Track Marketing

About Berbay Corp.

Marketing News

Account Managers Megan Braverman and Maggie Lukaszewicz will present "Social Networking: Good Practices and Ethical Issues" to the California Society of CPAs' Industry Section, on November 18, 2009.

According to the recently released BTI Premium Practices Forecast 2009 Survey of Corporate Legal Spending, small and midsize firms increased their presence on corporate "short lists" from 24.5% to 38.2% in 2008.

Two-Track Marketing: This is the time of year when firms are marketing on two tracks: keeping their marketing strong for this year on one track, while building a strong foundation for 2010 on the other. We're here to help.

About Berbay Corp.

2009-03: Systemize Your Marketing

Administrator — 2009-08-06T21:17:00+00:00

Issue 2009-03

July 2009

Berbay Corp. provides the Marketing Spotlight E-Newsletter as an update on trends in professional services marketing. We hope you find this information useful; however if you'd like to be removed from the distribution, please click on the SafeUnsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail.

SYSTEMIZE YOUR MARKETING

With the Year Half Over, It's Time to Get Yourself Organized

By Sharon Berman
Published: The Los Angeles Daily Journal

With only six months left in 2009, is it too late to maximize your business development results for this year? Not if you leverage the remaining months by becoming organized and systematic in your marketing methodology. Not only will it make a difference this year, but your efforts today will put you on track for 2010. Is there really any alternative? Continue your haphazard marketing and you're likely to miss out on a lot of potential business.

Time and again professionals say that while they market - have lunches, network and more - they would like to get their efforts better organized and more productive. What they mean is that they want to systematize what they're already doing in order to increase the return on the time they invest. Haphazard marketing may be adequate when business is plentiful and money flows freely, but tougher economic times call for more efficiency. Casual marketing is inefficient in any economic climate, but the waste is magnified when everyone is watching their pennies and the results they bring (or don't).

So where do you begin systematizing your marketing? Most of the professionals who express a desire for better organization have already built some momentum, which makes it easier to ramp up and improve outcomes. You can, however, also start from a standing position, and create momentum quickly. Either way, the foundation of the process is evaluation and assessment.

Continue reading Systemize Your Marketing to find out how to build your book of business.

Download a printable PDF of Systemize Your Marketing.

About Berbay Corp.

Berbay Corp. is a marketing and public relations firm specializing in working with professional service providers including law firms, real estate, finance, accounting and other professional services businesses. We're marketing and public relations specialists who take marketing "hows?" and turn them into "wow!" results.

Please visit www.berbay.com to read more about marketing your professional services. If you'd like more information about any of our marketing and public relations services, please call (310) 405-7345 or email berman@berbay.com.

10 Steps to Systemize Your Marketing

1) Get Into Action. Get your arms around your calendar. Now is the time to get into action with a systematized plan.

2) Update Your Database. Add, update and delete contacts information for referral sources, colleagues, and prospective clients, current and former clients.

3) Prioritize Your Contacts. Develop a list of the contacts you want "touch" regularly, then code them according to frequency of contact.

4) Design Your System. Decide how many contacts you will "touch" each week, how often you will update your blog, etc.

5) Set Realistic Goals. Determine what you can realistically accomplish within a set time frame, and get it on your calendar. If you know what and when, the probability of putting it into action is more likely.

6) Organize Your Files. Know where your pertinent files are so that you're able to find your marketing-related information quickly when talking to a contact.

7) Delegate, Delegate, Delegate. In order to broaden your system and make your marketing more profitable, assign tasks to assistants, associates, etc. Be clear with the task you are assigning.

8) Think Strategically. Be strategic about your communication when talking with contacts. There's a place for small talk, but you also need to communicate the kind of work you do, what you're working on, etc.

9) Be Consistent. Consistent marketing wins out over blockbuster marketing. Commit to a consistent program so that you can keep in front of your target markets.

10) Roll Into Next Year. Systematizing your marketing this year builds a momentum for your marketing in 2010.

2009-02: Make Your Mark With Marketing

Administrator — 2009-08-06T20:04:00+00:00

Issue 2009-02

June 2009

MAKE YOUR MARK WITH MARKETING

By Sharon Berman
Published:The Los Angeles Daily Journal

In today's marketplace, having a book of business can make all the difference between making the cut and losing one's job. Professionals who, in the past, never thought much about building their own book of business are now realizing they need to set themselves apart from the crowd or face the possibility of joining their fungible peers on the unemployment line.

A book of business is the foundation for differentiating yourself in the eyes of firm management. But the age-old question that has stymied even seasoned professionals is where to begin marketing your services. Resolving to take action is the first step, but what are the following steps that will get you where you want to go?

First, you need a plan to guide you through the application of the core principles of marketing. These principles apply to everyone -- professionals and partners established in firms who want to differentiate themselves, as well as those who didn't make the cut and have vowed to do things differently in their next position.

Start by answering some basic questions. First, what exactly are you going to market? Before you leap into action, ask your management for some direction, because your marketing initiative must support and contribute to the firm's overall game plan. You may find that management wants you to market their core services or service line. Or, their strategy may be to expand and develop a burgeoning practice area, in which case they may encourage you to focus on this area.

Your next step is to identify your own strengths and interests so you can leverage them. If there are specific practice areas or specialties within a practice area that intrigue you, see how you can align these interests with your firm's direction. If that's not possible now, keep your eyes open for opportunities as the firm evolves.

Continue reading Make Your Mark With Marketing to find out how to build your book of business.

Download a printable PDF of Make Your Mark With Marketing.

About Berbay Corp.

10 Steps to Jumpstart Your Own Book of Business

1) Decide to Differentiate. Commit to doing what it takes to differentiate yourself in the eyes of firm management, your clients, and in the marketplace. It can make the difference between being invaluable or disposable in the workplace.

2) Commit to Developing a Plan. Decide what you are going to market. Communicate with management so your marketing initiative supports the firm's overall objectives.

3) Identify Your Strengths. Decide what practice areas or specialties interest you the most, then see how you can align these interests with the firm's direction.

4) Define and Focus Your Target Markets. Decide if you will market directly to "end-users," such as company presidents or consumers, or target referral sources, including CPAs, attorneys or other professionals.

5) Identify Targets. Research where your target markets can be found and formulate a plan for approaching them. Use online tools, such as LinkedIn, as well as "off-line" sources.

6) Develop Your Database. Don't underestimate the value of your databases, such as ACT! or Outlook. Organize clients, colleagues and other business contacts into categories, and code them according to frequency of desired contact.

7) Define Your Tactics. Evaluate a range of marketing tactics: direct mail, e-mail, speaking, writing, website, social networking, etc. Choose two or three tactics you can commit to.

8) Market to Your Level of Experience. Don't expect to bring in the same kind of business as a senior associate or partner, if you have only been at the firm one year. But know that you may be able to introduce them to people they might not otherwise meet.

9) Track Results. It is important to capture as much data as possible so you know what's working and what's not.

10) Be Consistent. Develop a means to communicate consistently with your database. Marketing is a numbers game, whether in the size of your market or the number of times you "touch" prospects. Keep those numbers up!

2009-01: The Missing Link

Administrator — 2009-08-05T22:09:00+00:00

Issue 2009-01

May 2009

Welcome to the inaugural email version of our Marketing Spotlight newsletter for professional services marketing. We hope you find this information useful; however if you'd like to be removed from the distribution, please click on the SafeUnsubscribe link at the bottom of the e-mail.

THE MISSING LINK

You have a LinkedIn profile. Now what?

By Sharon Berman
Published: The Los Angeles Daily Journal

If you're like many of your peers, you know someone who already has a profile on LinkedIn, the social networking site geared toward professionals. You may even have a LinkedIn profile, but are wondering how to use LinkedIn as a rainmaking tool.

The purpose of social professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, is no different than any other kind of professional networking: It's to build long-lasting relationships.

You're looking to identify and connect with those people whom it makes sense to build a relationship with, but who may not be within your existing circle of professional contacts. You can expand your network of contacts by pinpointing those people in your existing circle who are also in the network of someone you'd like to get to know further.

While marketing may be about relationships, it's also a numbers game. You have to cull through many potential contacts to find the ones with a real and potentially profitable fit. Leveraging your existing network's network of contacts on LinkedIn exponentially increases the number of potential business contacts you can have and develop.

Social networking is not a magic marketing bullet. It's another element in the mix of tactics you want to consider for your marketing, such as your website, speaking, writing, etc. However, like other tactics, you'll need to decide where it fits in your strategic priorities, and how much time to devote to it. Now is the time to explore its potential, and plant your social networking flag.

What can you do with LinkedIn?

Continue reading The Missing Link to find out how LinkedIn can work for you.

Download a printable PDF of The Missing Link.

About Berbay Corp.

Berbay Corp. is a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional services firms including law firms, real estate, finance, accounting and other professional services firms. We're marketing and public relations specialists who take marketing "hows?" and turn them into "wow!" results.

Please visit our website to read more about marketing your professional services.

10 Best Practices for LinkedIn

Social networking can be an effective marketing tactic, but how you use it makes all the difference in the results you get. Here are 10 Best Practices for success on LinkedIn:

1) Complete Your Profile - The more information you put in your profile, the more searchable your profile becomes.

2) Choose Your Words Wisely - Fill your profile with action-oriented, searchable words. Consider the people you are trying to reach, and fill your profile with words you think they might do a search on.

3) Update Your Profile Frequently - Keeping your profile "fresh" helps to inform your network, as well as make you more searchable. Consider updating your "status" with your current projects, presentations and articles.

4) Customize Your Account - LinkedIn offers a variety of ways to personalize your profile and make you more searchable. Upload a headshot and customize your URL so it says www.linkedin.com/in/yourname, instead of the automatically generated numbers LinkedIn gives you.

5) Network Judiciously - Don't accept everyone into your network. Choose your contacts based on your willingness to introduce them to other people.

6) Be an Expert - Sharing knowledge is one of the hallmarks of social networking. Consider answering questions in the Answers section and asking questions of your own network.

7) Join and Participate in Groups - Group participation shows your commitment and dedication. Join groups which interest you and can increase your visibility.

8) Create a Group - Identify a niche which interests you and launch a group. Managing a group reinforces your credibility in that field.

9) Understand Privacy Levels - Social networking sites are designed to be open, allowing everyone to view your projects and connections. However, if you'd like your profile to be private to non-connections, edit your settings when creating your profile.

10) Beware of Ethical Issues - Handle social networking as you would all networking. Don't give legal advice and keep all confidential work off of social networking websites.

Site Unseen: Why Revising Your Website Should Be an Absolute Priority

2009-08-03T21:07:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

At a time when Web 2.0 and social media marketing are on everyone’s lips, a surprisingly large group of professionals are still far behind the times with the web’s first incarnation. They haven’t touched their website in years – or worse, they don’t have one at all. An outdated website is easily spotted because the most recent piece of “news” was posted in 2008 or much earlier.

Quite often, the reasoning is that the website really won’t make a difference in the firm’s business development, or that the important thing is that the firm has a website – they did it once and that’s it. And, let’s not even talk about search engine optimization (SEO) because there are many firms who are convinced that the type of client the firm is seeking will not be searching for the service online, so search engine rankings really don’t matter. The truth is that in today’s world, prospective clients search online for firms in all disciplines and specialties.

Assuming your firm has a site, are you one of the many professionals who acknowledge that it is “embarrassing” or “awful,” and that you “have to do something about it”? Does “doing something about it” somehow never seem to reach the top of your priority list? Most professionals are concerned about generating leads and capturing business, but there are still firms that don’t seem to think that the website has any impact. Simple logic would dictate that if competitors invest time, effort and money in keeping their website design and content fresh and up-to-date, they are deriving value from those efforts.

Why are so many firms finding it difficult to get around to their websites? Let’s face it, developing a website or overhauling your current one takes time, money and effort. And to do it right, it takes your time, money and effort. While you have to invest the hard dollars for the design, programming, writing and project management of the site, it is your personal commitment that has the highest cost, but can also have the highest return. Delegation to outside agencies notwithstanding, the project needs your brainpower at all stages. Good results from your web development team depend on your input regarding preferences, choices, points of view and firm tastes. Because much information resides only in your and your colleagues’ heads, you will need to provide detailed information about certain specialties, recent successes and other material to be highlighted on the site. Finally, also expect to dedicate some time for review and approval of copy, design and layout.

Another reason professionals don’t pay attention to their websites is that they view them as just an obligatory online presence. In reality, along with your database or distribution list, the website is the very heart of your marketing program. In fact, a key thrust of your marketing is to drive prospective clients or referral sources to your website where they are converted to prospects who contact the firm. Thus, if you have a website you don’t want people to see, it sabotages your entire marketing plan.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you want to take advantage of the cost-efficiency of communicating through email with current, former and prospective clients, referral sources and influencers. Perhaps you would like to distribute an e-print (electronic reprint) of a recent article you authored, or let the world know about a recent success. While you can simply email that information, it will be much less effective without a current website. Why? The key aspect of distributing the information is to attract the recipients to your website so they can learn more about the firm and your expertise. Whether or not you want them to, many readers of your communication will visit your website. Don’t waste those contacts by showing them a site you haven’t touched in years!

You can track a lot of information about who visits your site – whether they came in through a search engine, what page they first entered on, how long they spent on the site, etc., but there’s a key statistic you can’t track. That’s the number of prospective clients who have visited your site, looked at your competitors’ sites, and then called another firm because they were unimpressed or deterred by your online presence. Are you losing business because of your website?

Sometimes firms don’t update their websites because they are daunted by the prospect of tearing it up and starting over. Actually, immediate major construction may be unnecessary. It may be possible to work with what you already have – updating copy, adding navigation buttons, posting new content or introducing a news page where you can tout recent successes. Some sites are more difficult to update than others because of the way they were originally programmed, but start by exploring the short-term options inherent in your current site. When the time comes, in the near future, to revamp the site completely, that job will be easier with content that has already been cleaned up and refreshed. If you do need to start from square one, make sure you commit to a deadline for completion, and consider updating your current site simultaneously to the extent possible.

Today’s online world is one of linking and leveraging where nothing stands alone. For instance, let’s say that you appear on a “Top 10” list in your specialty. Updating your bio on the website with that information is a step in the right direction. But if it stops there because your colleagues are embarrassed by the website, you are missing opportunities to enhance and reinforce the name recognition today’s web world offers. To get the most out of the opportunity, you might develop a press release about the ranking and post it on your home page news. Further, you should mention the honor in your firm’s email distribution – a client alert or newsletter. Perhaps a firm member would Tweet about it, post something about it on LinkedIn, or mention it in the firm’s practice area blog. All of those steps are designed to raise people’s curiosity enough to want to learn more. Without a website of which you can be proud, it’s a dead-end road.

Search engine optimization has become an essential component of many firms’ marketing programs across a broad range of practice areas, and will only continue to increase in importance. Yes, you will need to sort through a certain amount of chaff in the responses you get, but chances are you’ll find some worthwhile leads, which more than make up for the others. Obviously, if your site is not fit to convert leads into prospects, optimization is a waste.

So what steps should you take right now? Commit to making your website one that showcases the firm’s expertise and successes. Set a hard deadline to get it done. Identify who wants to be involved in the legwork – attorneys, paralegals, administration. Who among them will be the marketing “champion’ who will nip at the heels of others to gather the materials needed?

For the highly professional product you need, work with a professional team, which can include a designer (who designs the look and layout of the site), a programmer (who programs the site following the designer’s lead), a writer and a project manager who coordinates the entire effort. Ideally, these people should be a team so you can avoid the extra logistics of dealing with each party individually. Identify a point of contact in the firm who will liaise with your outside web team. While the technical deployment of the website may be in the purview of your IT department, its design and messaging should not be.

Lastly, create a budget to get your site up and running. Don’t forget to allow for elements such as original headshots and other photos and any original artwork that might be needed.

Be prepared for the fact that once your website is updated or totally redone, that’s it needs time and attention. Someone needs to be the point person for making sure it’s kept up-to-date.

There’s simply no way around the fact that bringing your website up to the present has to be an absolute priority. This investment of time, effort and money is just that – an investment with the goal of yielding a high return. The costs of not doing it are the opportunities you are missing and the business you are losing because others are passing you by.

Berbay Corp. Promotes Two Marketing Professionals

Administrator — 2009-07-23T20:20:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
July 2009

BERBAY CORP. PROMOTES TWO MARKETING PROFESSIONALS

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, has announced two promotions: Megan Braverman, previously Assistant Account Manager, has been promoted to Account Manager, and Summer Vernon, formerly Marketing Assistant, has advanced to the position of Assistant Account Manager. Megan will continue to spearhead client projects and build on her demonstrated leadership skills. Summer will expand her client responsibilities and assist the account managers with various client projects.

“Both Megan and Summer have demonstrated great understanding of Berbay’s mission to provide innovative marketing strategy and on-point implementation,” said Sharon Berman, principal of Berbay. “Their advancement recognizes their commitment to provide continuous support to Berbay and its clients.

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Berbay Corp. Sponsors Greater Los Angeles Chapter Association of Legal Administrators Luncheon “Resurrecting Your Nest Egg”

Administrator — 2009-07-16T20:57:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
July 2009

BERBAY CORP. SPONSORS GREATER LOS ANGELES CHAPTER
ASSOCIATION OF LEGAL ADMINISTRATORS LUNCHEON
“RESURRECTING YOUR NEST EGG”

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, sponsored “Resurrecting Your Nest Egg” presented by the Greater Los Angeles Chapter Association of Legal Administrators (GLAALA) Small Firm Section, on July 16, 2009. The presentation included a roundtable discussion with speakers Glennda Adair, a representative for Natalie Pace, and Shelley Whizin, a representative for Green Goddess Investment Club. They discussed successful investment strategies and ways to prevent unnecessary losses in your nest egg. Both Natalie Pace and Green Goddess Investment Club are investment strategy firms providing clients with investment solutions. The luncheon was held at Manning & Marder, in downtown Los Angeles., from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Berbay Corp. is an ongoing supporter of GLAALA, an association that strives to improve the quality of management in legal services organizations, and to promote and enhance the competence and professionalism of legal administrators. Sharon Berman, principal of Berbay Corp., regularly contributes marketing articles to the official GLAALA publication.

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Systemize Your Marketing: With the Year Half Over, It’s Time to Get Yourself Organized

2009-06-30T20:07:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

With only six months left in 2009, is it too late to maximize your business development results for this year? Not if you leverage the remaining months by becoming organized and systematic in your marketing methodology. Not only will it make a difference this year, but your efforts today will put you on track for 2010. Is there really an alternative? Continue your haphazard marketing and you’re likely to miss out on a lot of potential business.

Time and again professionals say that while they market – have lunches, network and more – they would like to get their efforts better organized and more productive. What they mean is that they want to systematize what they’re already doing in order to increase the return on the time they invest. Haphazard marketing may be adequate when business is plentiful and money flows freely, but tougher economic times call for more efficiency to maximize the return on your money and time. Casual marketing is inefficient in any economic climate, but the waste is magnified when everyone is watching their pennies and the results they bring (or don't).

So where do you begin systematizing your marketing? Most of the professionals who express a desire for better organization have already built some momentum, which makes it easier to ramp up and improve outcomes. You can, however, also start from a standing position, and create momentum quickly. Either way, the foundation of the process is evaluation and assessment.

Assess your current activities and analyze the results. Let’s say you have been doing a decent, but not stellar, job of rainmaking. You might be reaching out to your network whenever the mood strikes you – a phone call here, an e-mail there, a few lunches or breakfasts a month, one networking or professional meeting a month and perhaps speaking or writing once a year. It’s a start, but you can do much better by leveraging those efforts with organization.

Systematize your contact mechanism. List the contacts you want to “touch” regularly – whether once every six months or every other week. Then, take it a step further by coding these people in your database according to frequency of contact so you can pull them up easily. Book the ‘touch’ call on your calendar just as you would any other important date. Keep the list and your entire contact management system organized and clean by adding, updating and deleting contacts as necessary, including referral sources, prospects, current and former clients, or colleagues who just help you keep your ear to the ground. This way, you are capturing the information systematically rather than just picking names out of a hat – or a stack of business cards – for a random contact.

Close the loop. After you contact someone, make a note in the file or in your contact management system to keep track of your “touch.” Then, add a tickler on your appointment calendar to remind you of the next time to contact that person.

Design you system. A “system” is defined as a procedure or process for reaching an objective, as well as a complex of rules governing behavior. Both of these definitions pertain to marketing. What procedures might you establish to achieve your marketing objectives? What rules could govern your marketing behavior? For example, could you devise a method of covering your list of contacts systematically, say by prioritizing them and reaching out to three each week, and then starting anew? Other systematic marketing behaviors might include posting to your blog every other morning or spending 15 minutes on the 15th of each month to determine whom to invite for breakfast or lunch the following month (and actually contacting them by the 20th of the month).

Automate your system. Having a system in place means you focus on the contact rather than the method, and automation reduces your mental effort even more. Review all of your marketing processes to determine what you can make more automatic, such as getting e-newsletters out the door, entering contacts in your database after returning from a meeting with new business cards, creating a straightforward method of tracking leads, posting to your blog on certain days of the week with a preset means of transmitting the post to your Facebook friends or LinkedIn network.

Be strategic. Effective systems depend on stable and reliable foundations. Your contact management database and distribution lists must be clean and up-to-date since sending to people who have long moved on will dampen your effectiveness and waste your money. Take a strategic approach to communicating with your networking contacts. Talking with them about the local baseball team may be a good conversation starter, but if that’s the extent or focus of the whole conversation, you’re not marking and are better served handling billable tasks. Breaking through to exchanging ideas on the work you and your contact are currently doing is how you generate more work for both of you.

Delegate. Can you increase the efficiency and impact of your system by leveraging various resources already at your disposal? There is nothing wrong with having a one-person system, but your efforts and results are magnified by broadening your system to include assistants, associates, your in-house marketing department, and outside resources such as writers, designers, public relations professionals, programmers and more. Including others in your system will require some additional – but ultimately profitable – organization, such as regularly scheduled marketing contacts and calls. Everyone on your team must know what they are responsible for, and the responsibilities of other team members. Delegate as much as possible regarding the operational aspects of your system, but be clear on roles, responsibilities, and timing. This frees you up for the most important contact calls with your reliable referral sources and hot prospects.

Organize. In addition to systematizing your tasks, “organizing” your marketing is also a practical event. Do you know where to find the pertinent files on your computer or network? Can you quickly put your hands on contact and marketing-related information without shuffling through stacks of papers or searching through subdirectories and files? If not, your task will be frustrating and you will be easily distracted.

Be realistic. Professionals often resist planning these kinds of marketing tasks because their schedules are unpredictable. Having a system in place for business development, and knowing what you intend to do when, increases the likelihood that you will actually do it – even if it doesn’t happen exactly as you've planned.

Imagine yourself standing on a calendar square for Dec. 31, 2009, and looking back at the last six months. What tangible business development results will you wish you had accomplished? What marketing systems should already be up and running and generating leads? Will you wish you had implemented a consistent program of networking, published an article every other month or made regular blog posts that were automatically forwarded to your social networks?

Whatever your results have been up until now, the way to improve those results by Dec. 31 is to get organized now. Look at the next six months and plan what you can realistically accomplish. Then, you can celebrate on Dec. 31, and you can turn and look ahead to the New Year knowing you already have a head start on your marketing for 2010.

The Lead Pipeline: Nurturing Prospective Clients Will Pay Off Later

2009-06-10T20:32:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

In today’s law firm lexicon, the terms “marketing,” “business development” and, to a certain extent, “sales” are entrenched. However, an aversion to the use of “lead” and “lead generation” regarding a law firm’s business development still exists because of the perception that such terms are the calling card of a salesperson, or harken back to the days when attorney advertising was prohibited.

Nevertheless, if you’re going to generate new legal business, the first step is to establish a qualified lead – a prospective client who fits within the parameters of the services you provide.

If a lead isn’t converted into a client shortly after first contact, it is imperative for a firm to focus on three areas: capturing the lead information, keeping it in the pipeline, and nurturing it. Law firms are sometimes weak in maintaining or building on these three areas, which can transform a lead into a client.

While it’s great to get an email or phone call with an inquiry from a qualified prospect, and a few days later have a signed fee agreement and a check deposited into the client trust account—it doesn’t always happen this way. This doesn’t mean the lead should be dropped or discarded; rather with the right care, feeding and patience, your lead has the potential to become a valuable future client. The key is for the law firm and the appropriate attorney to remain on the lead’s radar.

Capturing the lead and making sure it’s in your database is the first part of the process. If you don’t get the lead in the pipeline, there’s no way to build on it. For example, if a qualified prospect calls to discuss your services but doesn’t become a client, you’ll still want to get their contact information and referral source into your database. Firms have a tendency to only put actual clients in their database, or clients and referral sources. As a result, you overlook large number of prospective leads by not including people who’ve indicated a more-than-passing interest in your services, but perhaps without making you the attorney or firm of choice…yet.

You may have read the statistics that say it takes anywhere from 10-24 “touches” to convert an introduction into a client. While most people give up after the third or fourth unsuccessful touch, it is important for you or your firm to continue with subsequent touches through your marketing pipeline. You can never estimate when in the marketing process one of your touches, which have previously gone unnoticed, will instantly capture attention because the lead suddenly has a need to get a deal done.

To capture the information about potential clients, it is imperative that you develop a simple and easy to implement mechanism to prevent such information from being lost. Building this process affords an educational opportunity in ensuring your attorneys, administrative assistants, paralegals, etc. identify potential leads, and most importantly do not discount such information or data. For example, you get several calls as a result of your e-newsletter from people wanting more information about an issue you covered. For whatever reason, these people aren’t on your existing e-newsletter distribution list, but after talking with them you realize they fit your client profile. An attorney might have a short conversation with a lead, but ends the call without having taken down any information. Unless that attorney and others in the office realize this is someone they should continue to communicate with, any opportunity to showcase your expertise and positive results to build on this lead will be lost.

Capturing lead information is also a key element in your firm’s ability to track sources of business. Firms often track where their business is coming from by analyzing which industries or fields clients are drawn from, but some qualified prospects will, for whatever reason, fail to convert to a client. This source data, even for failed lead conversions, is key for your firm to successfully market themselves in the target market. You may learn that you are running an advertisement in an industry trade which generates leads, but you’re not converting them because of your hourly rates or you lack the depth of industry expertise they’re seeking. Listen for what your callers tell you, and as important, for what they don’t say. Unless you capture that data, you won’t have the information to fine tune your marketing investment or strategy to pull ads or build your qualifications.

To calculate your real conversion rate, you must track the number of prospects who contact you, and the number of prospects who become clients. Don’t be discouraged, very few professionals convert everyone they get in front of—even if they think they do.

Nurturing a lead to convert to a client means continuing to foster the relationship by demonstrating your firm’s expertise and validating its credibility, as well as communicating the firm’s personality and culture. This is the way a prospect will see you or your firm, and then decide if it’s a proper fit.

Use a variety of methods to demonstrate your services. Different leads respond differently to different methods. Communicating in a podcast will have a positive impact on a certain group of leads; leads in another group may automatically delete your email with the podcast. And there are still a lot of targets out there who respond to “snail mail.” Each contact method employed for these leads qualifies as a touch, and tracking and analyzing your results will tell you which methods have more impact and achieve positive results compared with others. Regardless of methodology, you should vary in degree as to how personal each touch is. Ideally, every third or fourth contact might be in-person or on the phone, with those in between coming through email or direct mail.

Not every lead warrants the same degree of attention, which is why you want to try a tiered structure to your method and frequency of contact. Your top leads may receive a phone call or lunch every quarter, with several touches in between via mail and email – distributing a by-lined article, an invitation to a webinar, or an announcement about a new office opening. Those leads on the lower tiers might receive your e-newsletter or hardcopy newsletter with a personal handwritten note. The leads you believe are the least likely to convert…the bottom rung…may not receive any personalized communications.

Including firm promotional material in your communications, in your firm’s unique style, is fine to a certain extent. Remember though, the point is to impart clear and unambiguous information that shows you are the go-to person or firm that can solve a lead’s problem. What reinforces this expertise is third party credibility that is built from being published, quoted, ranked on a list, and praised by existing clients— where such third parties are respected industry members, influential websites, known research firms, or trade journals that validate you expertise or standing.

Today’s world of online social networking is another source of leads that you also want to get into your firm’s pipeline. Those would be the new contacts you develop through sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. As you expand your ‘in real life’ network and build relationships, you want to ensure that your qualified prospects are accounted for in your database, which may be separate from your on-line social media distribution. Those who follow you on Twitter or who receive your LinkedIn updates, are not yet leads—although you are effectively nurturing relationships with them, as you would with identified leads. The goal is the same: to convert them to identified leads and then to clients.

Taken together, marketing, consistency, and persistence are the keys to nurturing lead relationships. What you’re sending, emailing, or calling about must be relevant and on-target to the lead, but does not need to be blockbuster to be effective as a touch. Developing something new, creative, and different is terrific, but only reaching out when you have that kind of marketing means sporadic marketing, and delivers sporadic results, at best. Consistent repetition builds results exponentially. Like other aspects of your business, nurturing leads takes time and patience, yet will yield optimized growth for years to come.

Have you touched a lead today?

Berbay Corp Principal Moderates LMA-LA June Program: Best Practices - Implementing Client Surveys in Law Firms

Administrator — 2009-06-09T20:59:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
June 2009

BERBAY CORP PRINCIPAL SHARON BERMAN MODERATES
LEGAL MARKETING ASSOCIATION/LA JUNE PROGRAM:
BEST PRACTICES: IMPLEMENTING CLIENT SURVEYS IN LAW FIRMS

LOS ANGELES – Sharon Berman, Principal of Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, moderated a panel discussion presented by the Los Angeles chapter of the Legal Marketing Association (LMA-LA): “Best Practices: Implementing Client Surveys in Law Firms.” Panelists for the June 17 program include:

Vickie Spang, CMO of Sheppard Mullin

Kathleen Flynn, CMO of Sedgwick

Larry Kohn, Kohn Communications

Kelvin Chin, former CMO

Panelists discussed best practices for administering client surveys in the legal realm, as well as the challenges marketers encounter and how to overcome those obstacles. The program took place at the Standard Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“In the past few years, there hasn’t been as much ‘buzz’ about surveying clients regarding their satisfaction with law firms,” said Ms. Berman. “It’s great that LMA-LA is resuscitating the subject, so we can all share information about the benefits of client satisfaction surveys, as well as lessons learned.”

The Legal Marketing Association provides a forum for its members that encourages and educates the legal community about the role of marketing professionals within the legal services industry.

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Make Your Mark With Marketing

2009-05-18T20:22:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

A book of business is the foundation for differentiating yourself in the eyes of firm management. But the age-old question that has stymied even seasoned professionals is where to begin marketing your services. Resolving to take action is the first step, but what are the following steps that will get you where you want to go?

First, you need a plan to guide you through the application of the core principles of marketing. These principles apply to everyone — professionals and partners established in firms who want to differentiate themselves, as well as those who didn't make the cut and have vowed to do things differently in their next position.

Start by answering some basic questions. First, what exactly are you going to market? Before you leap into action, ask your management for some direction, because your marketing initiative must support and contribute to the firm’s overall game plan. You may find that management wants you to market their core services or service line. Or, their strategy may be to expand and develop a burgeoning practice area, in which case they may encourage you to focus on this area.

Your next step is to identify your own strengths and interests so you can leverage them. If there are specific practice areas or specialties within a practice area that intrigue you, see how you can align these interests with your firm’s direction. If that's not possible now, keep your eyes open for opportunities as the firm evolves.

Before you decide on your tactics; however, you need to establish the parameters of your target market. For instance, will you be marketing directly to "end-users," such as company presidents or consumers, or will you be marketing to referral sources such as other professionals? Research where your targets can be found and how you can reach them. For example, do they participate in specific online groups? Where and when are their conferences? What are they reading or listening to? What professional groups do they belong to?

Once you know where to find your targets, your next challenge is how to approach them. Here you may need help from colleagues and friends. Most likely, you already know people who can make an introduction. Younger professionals tend to discount the value of their contacts in database programs such as ACT! or Outlook, because they might not be filled with names of senior executives and CEOs. But these contacts are actually the core of your marketing program. In the blink of an eye, a few years from now, a pal from college might be in a position to dole out exactly the kind of business you want.

Add to your database all the people with whom you want to communicate from a business perspective. This will include current and former colleagues, college alumni, and other people you know in the business world. It's crucial that your database is up-to-date and well organized. Consistent communication with your markets is a key factor in successful marketing, and you can't be consistent without a shipshape database.

Organize your contacts into categories and code them as A's, B's and C's in terms of priority. For example, A's are the people who warrant monthly contact, while a quarterly "touch" might be sufficient for the C's. Keep expanding this core database as you identify prospective clients and referral sources.

If you've ever taken a marketing class, it's likely you have heard the term "marketing mix." It refers to the fact that effective marketing consists of a mix of tactics, such as direct mail, e-mail, networking, speaking, writing, Web site, social networking, advertising, etc. Relying on just one tactic is like putting all the proverbial eggs in one basket. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula for the perfect blend; it just comes down to an educated guess that is refined by experience. Further, because your mix may change over time depending on the marketplace and your objectives, the marketing mix has to be monitored and measured.

Explore a range of tactics and decide what fits your personality and firm culture. Then, choose two or three tactics which you can commit to with consistency. Start blogging, get involved in a strategically selected organization with the goal of working up to a leadership position, or develop a means to communicate consistently with your database (e.g., forwarding your company's client alert or newsletter with a personal note). Quantify your goals as much as possible and assign a timeframe to them. For example, specify that you are going to send a news alert to your markets once each quarter, or join one committee by the end of August.

Don't set yourself up for failure by aiming too high. Market to your level of experience. As a second-year associate, for example, you should not expect to bring in the same kind of business as a senior associate or partner. You may, however, be able to create opportunities for senior professionals to be introduced to people they might not otherwise meet, whether potential clients or referral sources.

Marketing success is notoriously difficult to measure, but it's important to capture as much data as you can so you know what is working and what is not. From the start, develop the habit of tracking the results of your marketing activity. An example would be the number of responses you get to an e-mail blast — not just new clients you landed, but people contacting you in response to your communication. The brass ring is a lead generated — someone who would like to talk with you further about using your services — but there are preliminary steps, like reminding people of who you are and what you do.

While it's difficult to cut through the clutter when marketing a professional service, consistency and persistence usually win out over a blockbuster approach. Keep answering those questions on LinkedIn or distributing those articles you published, because someday someone will need your services, and on that day, they will finally "get" the message you delivered 20 times before. Marketing is a numbers game, whether it is the size of your market or the number of times you "touch" prospects. Keep those numbers up!

The core principles of marketing — your plan, your organized database, your measurement of results, your consistency and persistence — remain the same in any economy, but in a way it's easier to stand out from the crowd during difficult times because so many others hunker down and stop marketing. Regardless of where you are in your associate career, now is the time to begin building a book of business or, if you already have one, to reinforce your business development activities. Your career depends on it.

The Missing Link

2009-04-01T05:00:00+00:00

You have a LinkedIn profile. Now what?

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

If you’re like many of your peers, you know someone who already has a profile on LinkedIn, the social networking site geared toward professionals. You may even have a LinkedIn profile, but are wondering how to use LinkedIn as a rainmaking tool.

The purpose of social professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, is no different than any other kind of professional networking: It’s to build long lasting relationships.

You’re looking to identify and connect with those people whom it makes sense to build a relationship with, but who may not be within your existing circle of professional contacts. You can expand your network of contacts by pinpointing those people in your existing circle who are also in the network of someone you’d like to get to know further.

While marketing may be about relationships, it’s also a numbers game. You have to cull through many potential contacts to find the ones with real and potentially profitable fit. Leveraging your existing network’s network of contacts on LinkedIn exponentially increases the number of potential business contacts you can have and develop.

Social networking is not a magic marketing bullet. It’s another element in the mix of tactics you want to consider for your marketing, such as your website, speaking, writing, etc. However, like other tactics, you’ll need to decide where it fits in your strategic priorities, and how much time to devote to it. Now is the time to explore its potential, and plant your social networking flag.

What can you do with LinkedIn? Here’s an array of possibilities.

You can expand your network; you can do research on target clients or opposing counsel; you can reconnect with colleagues; you can find people who can introduce you to the people you’d like to meet; you can join groups of users who share similar interests; you can recruit; you can look for a new position; you can send regular daily updates about what you’re working on -- which is a powerful way to alert your existing contacts of services you offer that they may not know about. Similarly, as your existing contacts add new contacts, you’re alerted by daily updates, opening all sorts of possibilities to monitor your colleagues and competitors. Every time one of your contacts edits his or her profile, you’re given notice, and the same type of notice is given to your contacts when you update your profile.

If you are already a member of LinkedIn, begin by first critically revisiting your own profile. Often, profiles are hastily posted without a lot of thought, and without a defined goal. What you say, and how you say it will make a world of difference in your success on the service. LinkedIn keeps track for you in terms of how complete your profile is. The system encourages you to make it as complete as possible, which is to your benefit, so that you are all the more searchable, and more importantly, findable.

You are allowed upwards of 2,000 characters, including spaces, in your main profile. Make the most of the room by strategically describing your services and offerings. Think about keywords and phrases that prospects would use to search for someone in your practice area, then work them into your profile. Continue by revisiting the balance of your profile, keeping in mind what you want other professionals to know about what you do, and the search terms they might use. If you have a standalone blog, you can link it to your profile page to expand your content.

Judiciously building your network on LinkedIn is very important because following the six degrees of separation, every connection you add expands those you can potentially connect with, and who can connect with you. Be cautious because the whole purpose is to make valuable connections, but that goes both ways. You don’t want to add anyone to your network if you wouldn’t feel comfortable making an introduction for them to someone who trusts you.

Joining groups is another way to extend your network and be visible on LinkedIn. In the box at the top of the screen where it says “search people,” there’s a pull-down menu to search groups, companies, etc. There is a myriad of groups covering every possible practice area, and you don’t have to be talking only to other professionals in your field. But to maximize the return for you, you have to be visible. One way to do this is to post or answer discussion questions and participate in the conversation.

If you don’t find a LinkedIn group that addresses a particular area you’re involved in, consider opening your own group, and then inviting appropriate contacts to join. They will then invite their own appropriate contact to join, as well. The profile of every member is available to every other group member, and that’s a powerful basis to suggest direct linking.

You can also maintain visibility by keeping your profile up-to-date and updating it often, especially by responding to the “What Are You Working On” box. Everyone who views your profile will see your response to this question, and everyone in your network will get an update.

On LinkedIn, the system automatically determines who are the contacts of your contacts. Where the system says that a person is a “2nd” it means that you are connected to that person by someone in your group who knows them. The “3rd” means that you are connected to someone who knows someone who knows them. As you expand your linkage, your 2nd level contacts can grow exponentially.

LinkedIn will show you contacts up to the 2nd level, meaning it will show you the names of the people who know the person you want to know. If someone in your network knows someone (Level 2) who knows someone (Level 3) who knows your contact, you will not see who those people are at the third level. You will have to approach someone you know to see who is willing to approach someone they know to make an introduction to the person you’d like to meet.

So how do you use LinkedIn to get introduced to someone in your target market? For example, let’s say you want to talk with the general counsel of a target company about doing an in-house MCLE presentation. Perhaps you’ve already tried a letter or an e-mail, but no response. You could drop it there, or you can check to see if the GC is on LinkedIn. If the GC is a LinkedIn member, but not in your extended network, you can send an InMail – an e-mail through LinkedIn -- directly to the GC. He or she may still not respond, but it’s another channel of trying to reach someone.

If the GC is not on LinkedIn, other professionals from the company may have a profile. One of the contacts could be in your network’s network, or even one degree further removed, and you can tell them about your presentation and why it could be useful for the GC and ask for an introduction. The GC may or may not be interested, but may be more likely to pay attention because of the introduction.

Let’s say you have a meeting with a potential client, and you’ve done your due diligence on the company, but want to find out more about your contact in particular. If someone in your extended network knows that person, perhaps they’d be willing to give you a heads up on the person’s likes, dislikes, etc. -- information that might help you make a better connection.

No discussion of social networking is complete without the subject of privacy. You can select different degrees of privacy on most social networking sites, such as LinkedIn. For example, you can choose whether anyone viewing your profile can also view your network. Among other selections, you can also choose whether you’re identified by name when you view someone else’s profile. Like all networking sites generally accessible to the public, remember that what you write can be seen by your friends, and your competitors. Consider anything you post as public information.

There’s a lot of potential in social networks, and users are pushing the envelope every day. Social networking is here to stay. So plant your flag, show you’re in the know and grab the opportunity to lead.

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Berbay Corp Selected as Public Relations Counsel for Benjamin S. Crocker Symposium 2009

Administrator — 2009-03-19T03:17:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
March 2009

BERBAY CORP. SELECTED AS PUBLIC RELATIONS COUNSEL FOR
BENJAMIN S. CROCKER SYMPOSIUM 2009

LOS ANGELES – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, was selected to oversee the public relations for the 2009 Benjamin S. Crocker Symposium on Real Estate Law & Business, presented by The Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and The Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA.

This year’s keynote speakers include Timothy J. Leiweke, the chief catalyst behind the L.A. LIVE entertainment complex; John Chiang, California State Controller; David Sears, Managing Director of J.P. Morgan Asset Management – Global Real Assets (JPMAM-GRA); and Stuart Gabriel, Arden Realty Chair and professor of finance at UCLA Anderson School of Management. Additional feature speakers include D. Eric Remensperger, Symposium Chair and Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP; Donald Nanney, Real Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Chair and Partner at Gilchrist & Rutter Professional Corporation; and Tim Kawahara, the Executive Director of Richard S. Ziman Center for Real Estate.

This marks the first year the Crocker Symposium will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is LEED-certified to fit the continuously growing demand for sustainable green development. It is also near the new 5.6 million square foot L.A. Live entertainment destination where the best in sports, leisure and state of the art real estate developments come together in one place.

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You Are Not Alone

2009-03-01T23:14:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Leadership Exchange, Greater Los Angeles Chapter - Association of Legal Administrators

This rough economy has been a great equalizer for law firm marketing. Attorneys from firms of all shapes and sizes are asking what they can do in this economy to build their business, and where to begin. The State Bar says that about 70% of the members work in small and solo firms, but even partners in large firms are scratching their heads about what to do.

Here’s a question I received recently that fairly well sums up what’s facing a lot of attorneys today:

Dear Sharon:
I’ve been practicing immigration and family law for about a dozen years.
I formed my own firm early in my career. My business comes from referrals from clients, colleagues, friends and family, and in the past it used to come steadily without the need for marketing. Since the middle of last year, however, the phones aren’t ringing as much as they used to and business has really slowed down.
Some years ago, I had a website designed, but I’m not sure if it generates any business. Which of my two practice areas should I promote? I also prepare estate plans occasionally, so I’m wondering if that is a service I could market. I enjoy networking with colleagues, but when I get busy I don’t keep it up.
I know it’s time to start doing things to market my practice, but I don’t know where to start.. Can you help me with some advice?

Dear Emerging Marketer:

You’re hardly alone. Many attorneys are in a similar situation. Here are some recommendations to get you started.

The starting point, and the core of any marketing program is a database — your list of prospective, current, and former clients, referral sources, colleagues, and influencers. These are people with whom you need to communicate regularly.

If you’re relying on informal lists kept in different places, e.g., business cards stuffed in drawers, you don’t have an effective database, and you cannot communicate efficiently with your target markets.

A clean and up-to-date database is the first prerequisite for any marketing effort.

Start by gathering all of your contacts’ information and enter it into some format which can be manipulated efficiently. Many attorneys use Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, or other database programs. It’s not ideal, but you can start to create your database in spreadsheet programs like Excel or Google Spreadsheets.

As you enter your contact information into the database, “scrub” it to make sure the information is current and error-free.

Next, segment your database so that you can target your marketing. For example, use simple intuitive code words to distinguish people who should receive material about family law from those who would be interested in your immigration services. In some cases, you can add several ‘codes’ to a contact who would be interested in several of your different offerings (i.e., family law AND immigration).

Lawyers in both practice areas you mention – immigration and family law – have the opportunity to generate good leads through their websites. Take this opportunity to update the website you had designed several years ago. Make sure the copy quickly and clearly reflects your expertise and cases today. It’s one of the first things a prospective client or referral source will check. In addition, you’ll want to start educating yourself regarding search engine optimization (SEO) – appearing as high as possible in the search engines. Many successful attorneys drive visitors to their websites by using keyword-targeted Google and Yahoo ads which cost pennies per click.

Since you’re not sure whether your website is working, you probably don’t effectively track where your business referrals and inquires comes from. Tracking does not have to be complicated. Start with something as simple as a tic sheet for incoming phone calls and emails, and be sure to track the sources of not just new clients, but leads as well. Over time, as you analyze the results, you will garner valuable information to help you develop a marketing game plan.

If your hard-copy marketing materials are also out-of-date, this is the time to revise them. Start with something as simple as one sheet of paper summarizing your practice and credentials. This will give you something to distribute at networking meetings or forward ahead of time to a prospect or referral source you’re about to meet —something that legitimizes you. You’ll probably want to do separate one-sheets for immigration and family law.

Your two practice areas put you in an excellent position to build a referral network with other attorneys in small and solo firms. Because the scope of what you do is focused in the two areas, you have the opportunity to make outgoing referrals, which one of the most powerful ways to build incoming referral relationships. Every outbound referral you make is an investment in getting a referral back, and not necessarily from the same person. Because you’re not an expert in estate planning, you should refer that work out, building referral relationships, rather than taking it on yourself. That work is only a distraction for you, keeping you away from your core expertise.

A particularly good way to build visibility in your target markets and reinforce your credibility is through writing or speaking, whichever appeals to you most. If you enjoy writing, for example, create some simple articles on “10 Things You Must Know About…” or “The 10 Most Common and Costly Mistakes in…” Regardless of whether they are published in a newsletter, newspaper, or magazine, you have to post them on your website and create reprints to mail and distribute at networking meetings. If you enjoy speaking, leverage your writings by turning them into presentations.

Consider viewing today’s economy as an opportunity, not a threat. You’re ahead of the game because you have longevity and a client base. A little downtime now will help to focus you on getting your marketing house in order. Get started now. As you ramp up, you won’t have to wait for the economy to catch up with you.

Measuring Marketing

2009-02-02T03:44:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Leadership Exchange, Greater Los Angeles Chapter - Association of Legal Administrators

The results of marketing and public relations are notoriously difficult to measure, particularly in the realm of professional services. One reason is that marketing these services is a long-term, relationship-building process. For example, a prospective client may hear one of your attorneys speak, then receive your email newsletter a month later, and three months after that meet with another one of your attorneys for lunch. When that prospect finally signs up for a service, perhaps a year later, what do you measure?

There are steps you can take to capture useful information and measure your results to the extent they can be quantified. It’s not rocket science; it just takes some discipline.

1. Develop a system to capture the information

Many firms have no formal method—not even a paper “tic” sheet—for tracking where their business comes from. They may capture the information for new clients, but not the equally important information on leads that don’t turn into clients and referrals who call for a brief conversation but are never heard from again.

Some attorneys claim that they convert every prospect they get in front of into a client, which would make tracking new clients the same as tracking leads. However, their memory is probably selective, and if all sources of business were actually tracked, it could be eye-opening.

Consider the leads that are generated by your website and other online marketing. Your attorneys may not have the opportunity to get in front of each one of them, yet you want to know the total number of leads generated through your site.

2. Centralize and seal your system

Tracking all sources of business requires a “sealed” environment with a centralized data recording point. That means everyone has to be aware that the firm is capturing the data and to whom it should be forwarded. Make sure everyone knows they are expected to contribute, and determine who is responsible for tracking what data. Appoint one person as the centralized keeper of the data. Communicate those expectations regularly lest people forget and you lose pieces of the puzzle. Say, for example, that you are sending out client email alerts on a regular basis. If Joe Attorney gets a legitimate lead as a result of such an alert, but does not capture the information because the prospect does not become a client, important information is escaping from the system. Miss enough tic marks and you may wrongly conclude that your alerts are not generating any interest and stop sending them.

3. Establish a baseline

Measuring anything requires a baseline. For example, an IP litigation firm may have the goal to increase its trade secret litigation work by X%, but it has no figures on the amount of work it is currently doing in that area or has done in the last year or two. How can the firm know its progress toward the X% increase without knowing the starting point? This does not mean you have to spend countless hours establishing accurate figures down to the last penny. All you need is something against which you can measure progress, even if it’s your best educated guess.

4. Measure everything you can

Under ideal circumstances, new business (or additional business from existing clients) can be traced to specific marketing initiatives. For example, after one of your attorneys gives a talk or writes an article, she gets a phone call and a new client signs the engagement letter. Those one-to-one correlations are terrific, but they are not the norm. Different tactics call for different measures and measurable outcomes are not necessarily even leads. For instance, an attorney might receive a phone call or email from a referral source, client or colleague just to comment on a recently published article or to say thank-you for an actionable email alert. Those types of communications should also be tracked because they mean that awareness is being generated sufficient to prompt a contact. Awareness leads to top-of-mind awareness, and that eventually leads to business.

5. Measure marketing separately from sales

Another reason why it’s so important to go beyond simply tracking new business is that marketing and sales are different processes. In short, the role of marketing is to get the phone to ring; once you answer it, the sales process begins. Your marketing may be working and generating qualified leads, but if your attorneys are poor closers or rainmakers, they may not be able to convert those leads into clients. If you don’t track both leads and new business, you might erroneously assume that your marketing is not working when it’s really your attorneys’ selling skills that need polishing.

6. Commit to measuring for the long-term

Marketing a professional service is a long-term, relationship-building effort, so results need to be measured over time, say a year or longer rather than just quarterly. Start now by taking a look back at 2008. Where did your qualified leads come from? Did you embark on a consistent website optimization program in 2007 or early 2008, which resulted in more inquiries through your website? Or, were those prospects attracted by the blogs a couple of your attorneys started writing?

While there is much to be measured, some marketing outcomes will remain intangible because they are based on anecdotal or instinctive knowledge, such as some general positive feedback attorneys may be hearing about e-blasts. If a particular initiative appears not to have any concrete, measurable results, ask yourself what the difference would be if you discontinued it. Would you be losing ground? How about reducing your visibility? If either answer is yes, then it makes sense to persist and keep an eye on future results. If the answer is no, it may be time to rethink that tactic, or try another.

Don’t be discouraged by the less tangible aspects of marketing outcomes. Set up a system to track and measure what you can and be persistent in the effort.

W. Edwards Deming, father of Total Quality Management, said there can be no improvement without measurement. Measuring your marketing results is a prerequisite for leveraging what’s working, so you can invest your time and resources wisely for optimal ROI.

Cultivating the Four C's

2009-02-01T06:19:00+00:00

By Sharon Berman

Published: The Daily Journal

Motivating law firm associate attorneys to develop new and expanded business seems to be among the most pervasive and perplexing challenges law firms face. As yet, no one has found the “magic bullet” that instantly transforms associates into rainmakers.

Some firms have been more successful than others in motivating their associates to market. Those firms that successfully motivate associates share four distinct attributes: commitment; culture; compensation; and cultivation.

Commitment

Emphasizing the importance of business development and motivating associates to market is a long-term initiative. It requires a commitment from firm management and supervising partners for the long haul. Seasoned professionals know how long it takes to see marketing initiatives take hold like seeds and grow to fruition. This effort is no different, and takes a farmer’s patience and perseverance, and the recognition that not all crops will grow to their full potential.

Embarking on a new associate marketing program with a half-hearted commitment is worse than maintaining the status quo. Your associates may see it as one in a line of programs that have sizzle but no substance, and they won’t take it seriously.

But it’s just as important to remain uncommitted to a new associate marketing program until you know what you’re committing to. Investigate what it will really take to see change. What kind of investment will you have to make in terms of time, training, program funding and compensation? Time means not only yours and the firm management’s, but also the associates’. What kind of investment might be required to hire consultants, coaches or business development specialists? Are you willing to examine your compensation structure, and adjust it if necessary to produce a greater return?

Realistically, plan for a minimum of 18-24 months to grow results, although you may see results in less time. For example, if you commit today to begin motivating associates to market, you are actually laying the foundation to take advantage of the upturn in the economy, as inevitability that will occur.

Culture

The importance of business development has to permeate the firm’s culture, and an influential member of the firm’s top management has to assume the mantle of “champion” for the initiative. The expectation that it is part of an associate’s job to contribute to the development of new business—and additional business from existing clients—has to be clearly and uniformly stated, and it is best stated by the champion.

While the firm’s culture as a whole may need to change, motivating your associates to develop business has to be more individualized because different people are motivated by different “carrots.” Involving your attorneys goes a long way toward cultural change and people are more motivated if they feel they have a stake in the program. Consider creating a Business Development Committee or Associate Marketing Committee with some decision-making authority. Include those who might be fence-sitters, as well as those who are highly motivated..

Most law firms have a small core of attorneys who are chomping at the bit to develop business. They don’t need to be motivated, just given the right tools and pointed in the right direction.

Other associates instinctively “get it.” They realize that without the skill to bring in business, and lacking a practice niche, they are fungible. If they were to lose their job in this economy, they would be just one among the hordes of others looking for a new “home.” They will recognize that a book of business, or a demonstrated ability to develop business (especially in a valuable niche practice area), will assure them of a much stronger place in the partnership line than those who have always had the work handed to them.

Then there will always be that group who simply doesn’t care what price they pay for not contributing to business development. The problem may merely be that these associates don’t have a good grasp on what marketing does—and does not—entail. Perhaps they equate marketing with selling and find that idea distasteful. Still others will pay lip service to their interest in business development, but ultimately won’t take action.

Recognize and accept that you cannot motivate all of your associates (or all of your partners, for that matter) to market. You can only make the tools available to them, such as business development training, coaching, etc.

When it comes to motivators, no one size fits all. You’ll have more success by tailoring the motivator to a person or group motivated by the same thing. For some, additional compensation may be a driver, although money by itself does not usually get people off the couch. Some individuals are less motivated by money than by sincere praise, greater opportunities, and recognition in front of their peers and the firm’s management. Still others are motivated by a firm mentor/role model who has the ability to engender loyalty and aspiration. Many want to make partner and realize that business development is among the firm’s criteria for advancement. Attempts to motivate will fail when expectations are unrealistic and don’t consider the individual’s skill set, experience and personality.

A new attorney may be totally discouraged if she believes that the only acceptable measure of success is to bring in a client that really could only be landed by a partner. A realistic expectation for associates may be to have them strategically network with key members and influencers of a certain industry group to get the firm’s name out and begin to build or strengthen relationships.

Everyone’s ultimate motivator is self-interest. Firms often overlook the fact that any training they provide is a gift from the firm to the associate.

Associates who take advantage of it can take the newly acquired knowledge and leverage it to more expanded roles in larger cases. The same goes for building a book of business. In the short term, it may seem to benefit the firm more than the associates, but in really the associates are the ones who benefit because their ability to bring in business differentiates them, give them visibility, and a smoother and faster track to the hallowed title of ‘Shareholder.’

How to Demonstrate Commitment

Associates won’t pay attention to half-hearted reminders to “get out there and bring in business.” They will just keep their heads low and wait until it goes away—after all, it did last time. People will only take the matter seriously if it stays on their radar screen with a clear message that the firm means business.

Commitment is demonstrated through an investment of time and money. Start by developing a focused plan that defines the target populations and industries and identifies the type of work associates should focus on pursuing. Then share the plan with them and outline their role so they know how they personally fit into the firm’s big picture.

You can also demonstrate your commitment and seriousness about business development by providing specific marketing training, and charging that time against an in-house account that does not penalize them from a productivity standpoint. Sending associates to networking events every night will simply exhaust and discourage them if they don’t know what to look for, what questions to ask, or how to do long-term follow-up with prospects.

When offering internal training, think twice before using your top rainmakers as the trainers. Associates may benefit from hearing what tactics work for different colleagues, but unfortunately, the best “salesperson” is often not the best teacher.

Bringing in professional coaches, consultants and trainers is an investment, demonstrates the firm’s commitment and can generate buy-in.

Monetary incentives also show that you’re serious about business development. Clearly define who will be paid for what. For instance, are you going to give a fee or percentage to an associate who brings in major billable work, as well as to an associate who gets a prospect to your table, but then the prospect ultimately hires another firm?

How flexible is your firm willing to be in supporting associates who are just learning how to market? For example, if someone introduces a new client with work that might be smaller than your “sweet spot,” are you willing to take on the work rather than rebuff the attorney’s attempt at business development? Clearly, the individual has to be made to understand that this is not the type of work the firm is looking for, but at the same time, to what extent are you willing to support your attorneys in building on small successes.

Accountability is also part of making a commitment. Associates won’t be motivated to change their behavior if they know that no one is watching. Consider having monthly marketing meetings where someone is closing the loop, as by saying, “John, you said you were going to follow up with three prospects. Can you give tell us how those contacts went?”

Firms that proclaim they take business development into consideration in salary increases, promotions, and partnership track don’t demonstrate good accountability if doing no business development has no negative consequences for the associate.

Don’t Wait Too Long: The other 4 C’s

Often, a firm’s management doesn’t realize it needs the associates to develop business until some crisis arises. This is usually when business slows down considerably, but can also be when succession becomes an issue. The firm has had a decade or two of success, and now its senior partners plan to retire in five to ten years and realize that there won’t be anyone around to develop new business to fund their retirement shares. They have always expected their dedicated and talented attorneys to keep their nose to the grindstone while the partners—or just one partner—did the rainmaking. At such a crisis point, a culture change will be difficult to accomplish. Proactive firms recognize the opportunity of a slow economy to begin motivating their associates to market and providing them with business development tools.

Considered this way, associate marketing’s other 4 C’s are: Continuity, current cash flow, confidence in retirement income, and capacity to grow the firm. Every partner will now how to value those 4 C’s!

Berbay Corp. Receives Two PRSA-LA PRism Awards

Administrator — 2009-01-06T05:23:00+00:00

For Immediate Release
January 2009

BERBAY CORP RECEIVES TWO PRSA-LA PRISM AWARDS

Los Angeles – Berbay Corp., a marketing consulting firm specializing in working with professional service firms, received a PRism award and an Award of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America-Los Angeles Chapter for materials created for two of their clients: Sheldon Mak Rose & Anderson PC (SMRA), an intellectual property law firm, and Horvitz & Levy LLP, the nation’s largest civil appellate firm. Presented annually, the PRSA–LA PRism Awards recognize outstanding public relations and marketing campaigns, as well as superior materials created by marketing and public relations professionals.

“It’s gratifying that our clients recognize the value corporate identity material has in differentiating a firm in the marketplace,” said Berbay principal Sharon Berman. “We appreciate that clients have chosen us to create these materials.”

For SMRA, Berbay created a new firm look that communicated the intellectual property firm’s expertise, depth of experience, and industry leadership. The corporate identity package includes a suite of marketing materials encompassing a signature brochure, companion brochures, announcements, email newsletters and tradeshow materials. For Horvitz & Levy, Berbay developed a brochure which showcases its more than 50 years of appellate experience.

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Berbay Corp.

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