A New Year: A Perfect Time to Perfect Your Image

The New Year is a perfect time to perfect your image by perfecting your marketing techniques.

Website
A website is a marketing tool that should be created to achieve certain predefined marketing objectives, although the specific objectives may vary from firm to firm. There are several nonnegotiable principles of Web development that are critical for a successful site: establish your own domain name; do not include too many pictures, graphics, and animations; create a logical and consistent structure so that it is easy to move from section to section; and make sure that lawyers within the firm internally develop the content for the firm's site.

Social Media
Social media—whether it encompasses blogging, a LinkedIn or Facebook page, a Twitter post, or any number of new iterations—constitutes a powerful marketing tool for lawyers by combining personalized observation with facts and insights from the lawyer's area of focus to help create new client relationships. It's essential for any lawyer who does have a social media presence to maintain it and integrate it with the full range of online marketing tools.

Client Relations
An effective—and essential—marketing tool is improved client relations. Clients are not concerned about whether you are resolved to help them and whether you are communicating with them so that they can understand what is truly happening with their matter. Some things that you can do to show your dedication to your clients include believing that the client is No. 1, returning phone calls promptly, and communicating regularly with clients.

Billing
Bills serve as an important marketing tool if used correctly. A narrative billing statement communicates in the most tangible manner possible what you have done during the month to justify asking for the fee that is in the statement. In other words, the bill should be more than a recitation of the copies of documents received and sent from your office. The contents of the billing statement should be complete enough to describe the work done so that clients have an appreciation of the effort expended on their behalf.