Earlier today, Doug Jasinski and I gave a presentation on the topic of content marketing for law firms. The event was organized by Brian Mauch and his team at BMC Networks. Many thanks to BMC for the invite.
Content marketing is a fairly vast space and the presentation flew through some of the trends, platforms, and economics that have made “content” the hot topic in the marketing world. While law firms may adopt each emerging online platform, adoption itself does not answer the content question: “How can our firm find the time to produce high quality, timely, and relevant content?”
The demand for quality content relevant to the legal industry is one of the top requests from our clients. Considering that many lawyers lack the time to develop their own content, outsourced options are being considered. However, finding outsourced providers who can be trusted with nuanced practice-specific legal matters can be challenging.
For today’s presentation, we put together a Prezi that I have embedded below. While it lacks our witty banter and explanatory narrative, it does offer an overview of the topics covered.
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I am pleased to announce that Skunkworks Creative Group Inc. is now a Google AdWords Certfied Partner. While we have been managing AdWords accounts for our clients for several years, we have now completed the requisite qualifications to formalize our expertise. The certification badge speaks to our proficiency in Google’s increasingly dominant marketing ecosystem.
Making optimal use of a search engine marketing budget requires a sophisticated understanding of site analytics, AdWords tools, and campaign management experience. Accordingly, managing AdWords accounts is increasingly professionalized within marketing agencies. While we’re pleased to have Google’s certification in place, we continue to learn from each client. Optimizing an account is always an ongoing endeavour. Client’s needs change, the AdWords market changes, and new functionality becomes available on an almost weekly basis.
AdWords is a fantastic platform for marketing professional services firms and we look forward to developing campaigns for our clients as it continues to evolve.
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Posted in Agency News, Digital Marketing, Google, Law firm websites, Outsourcing, SEM/SEO, Things we like | Add a Comment »
I am pleased to announce that Skunkworks has partnered with online practice management software provider Clio. 
Our strength in marketing legal services follows from the fact that three of our staff have legal practice experience. We know the business of law. For my part, I worked as a sole practitioner for a period prior to moving in-house and eventually joining Skunkworks. My relationship with Clio comes from having used their software to run my own practice. I now feel compelled to spread the gospel (or at least make the option known).
For those of you not familiar with Clio, it’s a web-based suite of practice management software tools specifically designed for sole-practitioners and small firms. Clio is used for time-tracking, billing, managing appointments or deadlines (calendaring), task management, collaborating with clients, document management, and reporting. As a cloud-based solution, Clio works through your web browser on any operating system (including on your smart phone or tablet).
Specifically designed for the legal industry, Clio uses bank-grade encryption with daily security audits to protect your practice information. While the privacy and confidentiality of cloud systems is worth a moment of your professional judgment, my sense is that Clio’s cloud storage is far more secure than most law offices, let alone your briefcase. As always, you’ll need to look at your particular practice and make an assessment of the risks associated with your client data and how best they can be managed.
In contrast to some IT investments with large up-front hardware and software costs, Clio pricing is based on a subscription model at $49/month for lawyers and $25/month for support staff. The nature of a subscription model means that the software is always up to date and won’t chain you to expensive upgrades down the road.
Based on my own practice experience Clio is certainly an option worth exploring if you are a small firm considering upgrading your practice management systems. Likewise, if you are leaving a firm to start out on your own. On that note, we’ll be looking to use Clio Connect as a secure back-end for our clients that are interested in experimenting with virtual practices.
If you’re not quite sure whether Clio suits your practice, a free 30 day trial will let you kick the tires.
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Extrinsiclegal.com is the online home of Extrinsic Law Firm Business Process Information Strategies & Support. Extrinsic is a Vancouver, BC-based legal services outsourcing company. Led by Lynda Roberts, MLIS, Extrinsic assists law firms in leveraging technology to increase effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of legal services. To get the ball rolling Skunkworks helped Lynda develop a business name, and corporate identity including collateral pieces like business cards and a services brochure. Next, Skunkworks designed and launched Extrinsic’s WordPress-based website/blog. The site is set up to allow Lynda to provide information about the benefits of outsourcing and how Extrinsic can help law firms and lawyers enhance client service while improving the bottom line. The blog format will also allow her to update the site as new services come on line and provides a useful forum for Lynda’s clients to keep up-to-date with developments in legal information resources and knowledge management. Visit Extrinsiclegal.com.
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