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Issue 22
Marketing Hope Is Alive and Well:
Top Firm Marketers Reveal Their Plans for the Year Ahead
By Burkey Belser and Sue Allison
We surveyed AmLaw 200 marketers and found that there is a planned uptick in some marketing activities on the horizon for the coming months, including some surprises. Read the full article as it first appeared in the ABA's Law Practice magazine.
Issue 21
Your Client Feedback Program May Not Lead to Satisfied Clients
By Sue Allison
I was recently talking with a colleague about how a majority of management event attendees say their law firms are doing client feedback in a systematic way; but when we ask clients if their law firms request feedback on service and performance, the answer is almost always “rarely” or “never.”
Issue 20
In Client Interviews, How Questions Are Asked Really Matters
By Greg Newman
In our recent "Marketing Hope" survey of plans for 2009 and 2010, 64% of Am Law 200 marketers indicated they will be investing in client loyalty interviews. That's a smart move in any economy. But how do you extract the most value from those interviews?
Recent Posts
Info Graphics Overcome Too Much Information
By Amy Keys
Posted on 05/26/09 at 1:38 pm
Today it’s easy to be overloaded by information. To combat the bombardment of world news, trends, and trivial facts, a specialized field of graphic design has flowered with the promise to help marketers make your word-centric Web sites, PowerPoint presentations, pitch material and other communications more compelling and easier to absorb. The field sometimes called as “information visualization” takes on the daunting task of creating simple and clear ways of displaying complex information. For years, this has been referred to as information design. View full article
Tags: Information Design, Online Communications, Web Design
Listen to What Your Analytics Tell You
By Neil Williams
Posted on at 12:08 pm
You’ve heard the analogy, building a web site is like building a house. And it takes just about as long to do it well. As a result, after investing the time, expense and emotional capital to get the job done, most professional service firms simply move into their new site and do minimal upkeep. Some light cleaning, yes, but no renovations based on user analytics. Big mistake.
View full article
Tags: Google Analytics, Web Design
Is Your Core Message Invisible?
By Burkey Belser
Posted on 05/18/09 at 4:48 pm
Follow up to “What’s Your Takeaway?“
Is your core message is invisible?
Doesn’t really matter whether it’s an ad or a Web site or a spread from a brochure. We can be on message, but the message is lost in a headline that competes with other copy or other visuals or a fractured layout. The result? Visual confusion. No takeaway. By the way, we can do this with illustration as well. You don’t need someone to art direct anything, frankly. Just look at the photograph or illustration and ask, “Do I get it immediately?” Even three seconds is too long. If you answer that question, then you can quickly clean up the details – choose better colors, improve the typography, etc. Consider a notorious client response, “Make the logo bigger.” Because for them, that’s a key takeaway!
Tags: Art Direction, Online Communications, Print Communication
“What’s Your Takeaway?”
By Burkey Belser
Posted on at 4:48 pm
We were chatting in our studio the other day about art direction.
The question in front of us was how to give direction in a way that helps designers or writers correct the work by themselves. But I realized the conversation also applies to professional services proposals and pitches. It applies to a consultant’s recommendations to her client’s board and certainly, a litigator’s argument before a jury.
Art direction seeks to help the creative team focus their attention on the white line in the middle of the road. It’s so easy to drive off into the bushes. Even the simplest lapse in understanding will send the communication approach careening over the cliff. It never ceases to amaze me. But, as a result, I keenly feel my responsibility to give adequate and appropriate art direction.
Our design team has all heard me drone on about the three stages of design: great idea, great design and great execution. We do all three before a piece goes out the door, but not without some serious emotional cost in our creative environment. Could there be an easier way than our process currently allows? I’d like to suggest it may lie in asking yourself a simple question that allows you to art direct yourself: “What’s your takeaway?”
Tags: Art Direction, Design, Online Communications, Print Communication, Professional Services
butallthegoodnamesarealreadytaken.com
By Gene Shaffer
Posted on at 1:03 pm
Ok, I finally have my Web site built. Great! I also have a name in mind for it. Oops! Too late. All the words in the dictionary were taken by 1996. Most common phrases were taken shortly after that. The most exotic word combinations are long gone as of this date. So, how do I come up with a good domain name that will help to get my Web site major traffic for those who care about what I have to sell? Christopher Johnson tackles this question in his article posted to Smashing Magazine, “The Effective Strategy for Choosing Right Domain Names.”
Tags: Design, Online Communications, Web Design
Twitter and Corporations
By Pasha Irshad
Posted on 05/17/09 at 5:10 pm
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story on corporate blogs and how “twittering” employees must be aware of running afoul of SEC regulations.
According to the Society for New Communications Research, 81 of Fortune 500 companies have public blogs. Twenty-three of those blogs lead directly to corporate Twitter accounts. With large corporations like Johnson & Johnson now giving updates real time from their annual meetings, the SEC rules of communication can get blurry. We all understand the speed of information, but we may not be alert to its unintended consequences.
Tags: Online Communications, Social Networking, Twitter
“We” is the New Black
By Tae Jeong
Posted on at 4:46 pm
Thanks to our collective real concern about corporate conduct, the global Great Recession and the nearly mystical attraction social media currently enjoys, the concept of “transparency” is now all the rage. Many companies are changing their message from ” This is what I can do” to “Dudes, this is what we can do together!”
Tags: Marketing, Recession, Social Networking
