ADD CONSUMER FOCUS TO YOUR WEBSITE IN A CLICK
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has created a widget that can be used on your website to display a listing of current recalls and safety notices.
The list is updated automatically and shows headlines of important safety recalls. This consumer information is great and would work for many types of practices who have family oriented customers, such as PI attorneys, family law attorneys, bankruptcy, etc. We recommend adding this to your main page of your website.
Go to www.cpsc.gov to get the code to add to your site. This is a great public service and it’s free!
WE’LL BE AT PILMMA THIS MONTH. WILL YOU?
Our own Lauren Black will be speaking at the PILMMA Fall 2010 Summit in Las Vegas on Friday, October 29. She will be joined by marketing expert Jeanne Frazer in discussing The Fundamental Cornerstones for Developing Your Marketing Plan/Strategy. Many firms are in some form of crisis. In order to grow your practice, you need to stop the knee jerk marketing spin through planning and by using the right tools. The session will cover setting a budget, determining goals and priorities, integrating your marketing efforts and assigning responsibilities for executing the plan. For more information or to register for the event, visit the PILMMA website.
SUCCESS = OPPORTUNITY + PLANNING
Many firms struggle with creating a strategic marketing plan; others don’t even try. Unfortunately, not having a plan can be very costly, both in actual dollars and in lost opportunity.
A strategic marketing plan outlines in some detail exactly how your marketing efforts will support the firm’s overall mission, strategy and goals. Developing this plan and actually using it ensures that you are focused on the appropriate actions AND helps prevent overspending (or ineffective spending) by matching marketing efforts to the firm’s overall strategic plan.
In its’ supporting role, the strategic marketing plan must integrate with finance and operations. The plan should include the following elements:
1. A definition of the target markets.
2. Action items to be accomplished in support of the overall strategic plan (i.e., a monthly newsletter, social media, a book or a video).
3. Assigned budget dollars.
4. Responsibilities and due dates must be assigned.
5. Include measurement & review checkpoints to keep you on track.
A strategic marketing plan is a living document. You must review your results on a periodic basis (monthly for most tasks, quarterly for others) and adjust the plan and action steps if necessary to achieve optimum results. Learn more about strategic planning and what elements you should include in your strategic plan.
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG?
This age old question has befuddled philosophers, humanitarians and the great minds of many centuries. Ok, probably not the great minds of many centuries (they’ve been worried about curing polio, small pox and cancer and things like that….). But, it has been on MY mind a lot lately as we (Michael and I) recently became the proud parents of 16 baby chicks. How quickly they grow and develop and how much more independent they are than we are as infants.
They arrived via the US mail in an 8” x 8” box. It took them 2 days to get here (glad the US Postal Service decided to be speedy this once! – Sorry don’t mean to offend any former US Postal carriers, with no food or water, literally just after being hatched. We immediately transferred them into a larger box, put them under a heat lamp and gave them food and water, they instinctively knew exactly what to do and have been doing exactly that ever since! We’ve since moved them into a “hutch” type facility while their permanent “chicken coop” was being completed and again, they’ve flourished.