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A guest article from LawInfo.com
 Video production doesn’t need to be intimidating. With these step by step instructions you’ll be creating engaging videos that attract prospects in no time.
Step 1: Select a Topic
Topics should be questions or issues that come up repeatedly in your practice, and answerable within a minute. Be careful not to answer any legal questions or disclose any information regarding any of your clients. Some excellent topics may include: “What Should I Do After A Car Accident?” or “Why Is It Important To Have A Will?”
Step 2: Set Up Your Shoot
Make sure to illuminate your face, the background, and if you can, the top of your head. If you have access to an external microphone, use it! Videos that fail to impress usually lack quality audio.
Step 3: Shoot Your Video
Prepare a script or at least a few bullets so you know what you’re going to say. All videos should be concluded with a call to action – something like “For more information, call my offices at 555-5555 for a free consultation.”
Step 4: Edit Your Video
Both PCs and Macs come with software pre-installed that is capable of fairly sophisticated video editing. Using Windows Movie Maker® or Apple’s iMovie® cut your video into a short 30 to 90 second clip. During your video, make sure to display contact information as a banner along the bottom of the screen. Finish your video with a five second graphic that displays your firm logo and contact information.
Step 5: Upload your Video
Your videos should be displayed prominently on your website and uploaded to various video hosting sites like YouTube® and Vimeo®.
For more information on video marketing visit http://www.lawinfo.com/ or call 800-397-3743.
Submit a 140-character tweet (to @AbacusLaw) for a chance to win up to $300! Not on Twitter? No problem. Email your submission to contest@abacuslaw.com.
Prizes:
- 1st place: $300
- 2nd place: $200
- 3rd place: $100
Entries will be judged on insight, humor and persuasiveness. Click here for the official rules.
One of the best attorneys and marketers, Alexis Neely, will join Abacus founder and president Judd Kessler, Esq., for a special webinar exclusively for AbacusLaw customers. They will show you how to market yourself and your practice to distinguish yourself from the competition so you can get more good clients.
What: WEBINAR: The 5 keys to Getting More Good Clients and Getting Your Phone Ringing with People You Love to Serve
When: Thursday, July 21st at 10am PST
Click here to sign up >
A guest article from LawInfo.com
Potential clients use the Internet as their number one source for product and service reviews and base their hiring decisions on what they read. If you’re failing to monitor what others are saying about you online you run the risk of losing business because of unchecked negative reviews.
Step 1: Take inventory of what’s already published about you and your firm
The easiest way to inventory what’s already said about you is to perform a Google and Bing search of your name and your firm’s name. In addition to these sites, you should also search for your name on popular social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. You should also search for your name on popular rating sites such as Google Reviews, Yelp.com, CitySearch.com, JudysBook.com, and InsiderPages.com.
Step 2: Set up automatic alerts to signal you when certain keywords are used online
Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) will send you automatic emails notifying you whenever any of your pre-selected keywords appear on a Google search. You’ll want to focus alerts on phrases like your name and firm name, but you might also consider using alerts for your clients or competitors. The software is simple to setup, free, and can be changed at anytime to accommodate new phrases or keywords.
Step 3: Implement both a short and long term strategy to build a marketable web presence
Short term: If through your inventory or alerting process you discover false information or a clearly defaming review, your best strategy is to contact the website’s customer service center and demand the review or information be removed immediately.
Long term: Build an optimized website and encourage your clients to write positive reviews about your firm. In addition to your firm’s website, it’s good practice to manage your firm’s social network profiles which can help build the linking essential for proper SEO.
For more information on online reputation management visit http://www.lawinfo.com/ or call 800-397-3743.
Want more clients?
 Potential clients are looking for attorneys online. If your firm’s name and address doesn’t appear everywhere they’re searching, you’re losing clients.
As a busy lawyer, you don’t have the time it takes to get your law firm listed on all the websites you need to be listed on. Our new service exclusively for law firms, AppearEverywhere, does it for you. We manually submit your firm to over 200 popular sites (including Google Places and Bing Local) and create custom content that showcases your practice including original articles, photos and custom video.
As a special introductory offer, save 50% on our packages. To learn more click here.
Problem 1: Case intake is time-consuming
Abacus solution: Intake forms make starting new cases easy. You can even have your new client enter their information for you online! Once the case and client details are entered, AbacusLaw automatically checks for duplicates, sets up your case file and establishes workflow with upcoming calendar and task assignments.
Problem 2: Case intake is error-prone
Abacus solution: With no double of entry of data or handwritten intake forms, manual errors are significantly reduced.
Problem 3: Case intake is incomplete
Abacus solution: You’re prompted to enter all information, completely, helping ensure you’ll have the information you need to later produce documents, court forms, reports, etc.
To learn more about the case intake features of AbacusLaw, visit www.abacuslaw.com.
Did you know that every time you use certain copy machines you’re inadvertently storing confidential client information? A CBS investigative report found that copy machines are a gold mine of classified information. From social security numbers to financial records, most copy machines (since 2002) contain hard drives, which store information. In this case, a digital image of every piece of paper put through the machine.
This isn’t a problem if the machine stays in your office, but what happens when you buy or lease a new one? Your old copier leaves your office, taking all confidential client and case data with it. Identity thieves recognize this source of information and purchase used copy machines with the intention of stealing information from the hard drive.
How can you avoid this? Before you get rid of your copy machine, make sure you wipe the hard drive clean. Many copy machines come with encryption packages and if not, there are numerous software products and vendors that offer this service.
An interview with Roger Oldaker, a check printing and security expert
The National Check Fraud Center estimates check washing causes $815 million in damages every year. So, if you’re going to print checks, it’s important to take precautions to ensure they make it safely from your office to the recipient. Roger explains how his company’s checks provide uncompromised security at half the price.
Q: Why do you call your checks the “uncompromised line”?
A: Although there is no way to guarantee 100% protection, we provide so much security within our check stock that potential thieves will decide to go after an easier target (i.e. an easier check to commit fraud on). It’s the same theory that many home security companies use by putting signs in front of their clients’ houses. Most thieves will see that sign and go to the next house that has no sign of protection.
Q: What are some of the features that make your checks so secure?
A: All of our checks come with 10 standard security features to help prevent check washing.
Q: How does your pricing compare to competitors such as Deluxe?
A: We’re 57% cheaper than Deluxe on orders of 500 checks.
Q: How can an Abacus customer get their checks 50% off?
A: All first time orders from Abacus customers are eligible for “Buy 250 Abacus Laser Checks, Get 250 Free”. So, on your first purchase, order 250 Abacus Laser checks and we’ll double your order…for free! We save Abacus clients a lot of money when purchasing their checks and potentially save them much more money should a thief attempt to wash their check (rewrite it to a different payee and increase the amount payable).
Q: How does your Bank Freedom Guarantee protect me?
A: Order a 6 month supply of checks, and should you change banks or accounts, we will credit you with any unused checks on your next order (up to 500 checks).
Q: Are your checks guaranteed to work with AbacusLaw?
A: Yes. Our checks work seamlessly to print from both operating and trust accounts from within AbacusLaw. To order high security checks with the Bank Freedom Guarantee and save up to 57%, click here, or call 800-782-2946.
An interview with Tony Capabianco, a copy machine expert
Most business owners choose to lease office equipment (copiers, scanners, fax machines, etc.) thinking it’s their most cost-effective option. This is usually not the case. Leasing companies charge you more over a 3 year period than it would cost to buy a machine. Tony explains why this happens and how his company saves firms a lot of money.
Q: What makes buying a copier so much more economical than leasing?
A: We get copiers for 75%-85% less than your best discounted price. That means you can get a $15,000 copier for $5,000 or less. In contrast, many lessees only use 12% of a copier’s life but pay for 75%-85% of its original value, plus the finance charges.
Q: If it’s so much less expensive to buy rather than lease a copier, why do firms do it?
A: Three reasons. First, the attractiveness of just making a monthly payment instead of a capital expenditure. Second, some firms enjoy the luxury of passing on “the cost of doing business” to their clients. Third, many firms that should be concerned about their overhead are often unaware of the used copier market and are persuaded into taking short-term leases because of the apparent ease and convenience.
Q: How much does it cost to lease a copy machine over a 3 year period?
A: A lessee pays more than 100% of the price of a copier on a 3 year lease. Leasing companies typically calculate your payments based on 76.5% of the original price, plus the finance charges, which are often more than a 20% equivalent annual interest rate. When the copier is returned to the leasing company’s receiving agent, the agent hopes to sell it for 23.5% of the original value, but often gets less.
Q: So how do I get a good copy machine just off a lease?
A: We have been buying machines just off lease from receiving agents who recover the residual value of the machines on behalf of the leasing company for many years. Like most businesses, it’s who you know, and the receiving agents call us when they get in good lease returns.
Q: Are the returned machines in good condition?
A: About 20% are returned after three years hardly used! It’s corporate and institutional waste. We purchase only the lowest meter lease returns. Most machines have a conservative useful life of 750,000 copies. We buy machines with 20,000 – 199,000 original copies on them. This means the machine still has at least 70% – 95% of its conservative useful life remaining when you buy it.
Q: What’s done to the copiers before you resell them?
A: We refurbish to like-new tolerances. We replace all worn parts and make all required adjustments. We can then guarantee all parts and supplies for as long as we maintain the copier, and you get a guaranteed low cost per page.
Tony Capabianco has been in the copier industry for the past 27 years. He started Copy Quick Digital Solutions in 1998.
www.copyquicksd.com
760-744-9488
Potential clients come to you with anxieties about their legal issues, as well as anxieties about the legal process itself. It’s your job to not only provide exceptional representation, but to provide them with the understanding and encouragement they need during a difficult time.
In a recent blog post, Allison Shields, Esq., offers some tips on how to reduce client anxieties. She recommends:
- Developing a client welcome package
- Reviewing your intake procedures
- Making sure your website, blog and other marketing materials speak to the anxieties of potential clients
The more comfortable your clients are, the easier it will be to represent them and make them happy.
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