In the world of legal advertising, just like in the legal field itself, one size does NOT fit all. Your brand, your values, your unique story deserve to shine through.

• Trust your gut: Every law firm, every attorney, and every legal service is distinct. Do not be afraid to showcase your firm’s authentic brand. Just remember that your audience is diverse. Whatever voice you choose, make sure it can be heard and embraced by everyone you reach.

• Represent Your Brand: You have a vision, a mission, and a message that sets you apart. In legal advertising, we believe in representing your brand the way YOU want it to be represented. Your voice, your identity, your expertise – it is what makes you extraordinary!

• Diverse Strategies: Legal advertising has many “legs” and a true strategy to ensure those “legs” complement each other is paramount.  Your brand is multi-faceted, and your marketing efforts should be as well.

• Build Trust: When you are genuine and authentic in your advertising, you build trust with your audience. They’ll see that you are not just another lawyer, but a true partner and person who genuinely cares about their needs and concerns.

• Embrace Variety: It’s easy to fall into a rhythm of running what you know has worked for your firm in the past. But remember, audiences expand and change, so the way you create and deliver your message needs to expand and change as well. Be open to innovative ideas, because while you know your audience, you may not BE your audience.

• Elevate Your Brand: By embracing variety and innovative ideas in advertising, you are not just promoting your services; you’re elevating your brand. Let the world see the incredible qualities that make you stand out…Authentically!

At Network Affiliates, we are here to help you showcase your unique identity in the legal world. Your vision, our expertise – together, we’ll create an advertising strategy as diverse and vibrant as your brand. If you’d like to discuss the many ways NetAff can help you stand out and represent your brand the way you want to be represented, simply give us a call at 800-525-3332 and ask for Tammy Kehe! Network Affiliates. Our Network. Your Move.

Can you imagine investing millions of dollars on JUST your advertising creative? We can. And we HAVE!

At Network Affiliates, we have a massive repertoire of exceptionally effective advertising concepts and campaigns just waiting to shine and deliver results in your market. We have invested literally millions of dollars into crafting and creating a diverse collection of legal campaigns that will get people talking and move the needle with quality leads and cases. This is how you fully leverage and expand the results of your media investment.  From your creative to your marketing strategy, once you join the “Network,” your firm will stand out in your market in the best ways possible.

We have targeted creative campaigns that speak to (not at) and impact every demo, every type of personal injury case and every prospect in your market. And the hits keep coming because we’re a creative bunch and we just can’t help ourselves.

We pride ourselves on tailoring unique creative just for you. Like a suit, but better, bc our work lets you do your work… providing people the expertise and help they need when they need it most.

Network Affiliates… Our Network. Your Move.

Intake is the #1 most important aspect of building a successful practice. Why?

By building a successful intake practice, you are perfecting your brand and increasing your business! This is your opportunity to ask yourself:

• Who are we as a law firm?
• Are we representing ourselves accordingly when potential clients reach out to us?
• Do our intake specialists’ behavior, tone and customer service skills represent our brand?
• From an objective perspective, is our intake staff as compassionate/professional/well-informed as we need them to be?
• Do our intake specialists have what they need to be successful?
• Are we providing them with the right kind of support and training?
• Are we respectful of their expertise and adapting our intake approach accordingly when appropriate?
• Are our intake practices demonstrating excellent conversion?

Running a successful law firm requires that you spend time focusing on every facet of your practice. But you can’t win cases you don’t get. By performing secret shopping, you have a unique opportunity to examine and perfect your firm’s customer service experience.

How can you effectively secret shop your firm? Here are some tips that may come in handy once you have made the decision to move forward:

• Selecting a secret shopper”: Make sure to choose someone your team won’t know. You can either hire professional secret shoppers, or go with someone you know, as long as they can be objective. There are even professional services out there that specialize in “shopping” the legal field.
• Know your objectives: Make a list of what you want to learn through this process, and make sure the secret shopper knows what questions to ask.
• If possible, have multiple shoppers call. One bad call doesn’t mean your process isn’t working.
• Call at various times of the day: This allows you to gauge consistency, track weak performance windows and truly understand how your intake is performing.
• When you have to say no: Along with having one caller ask about a case you KNOW your firm would take, see what happens when a shopper calls with a case you can’t help them with.
• Compare: Consider having your secret shopper call competitors’ law firms as well. You know your potential clients are “shopping around.” Why shouldn’t you?
• Review the results with your team: Share the shopper’s feedback so they can learn what worked and what needs to improve.

You may not always like what you hear from the shoppers, but constructive feedback allows room for growth, both for your intake team and your firm!

So, what do you do with the results? Hopefully, you went into the secret shopper exercise with clear goals. Now’s your chance to leverage your investment!

Once you’ve received feedback (or even better… heard the calls) thoughtfully review what happened. Here are some things you may want to highlight for improvement:

• Evaluate hold times. Was your shopper forced to wait on the line for too long? Do you have exceptionally busy times of the day? Is your phone system up to the task? Do you need additional staff or a more streamlined intake process?
• Make intake easy. Did the caller have to answer too many questions before being offered an appointment? If your intake process is too cumbersome, callers may lose interest in proceeding after the first few minutes. They want to be heard and know if you can help them as quickly as possible. If you can’t help them, they want to find someone who can.
• Improve staff’s ability to provide answers or resources: The reason for this is twofold. Your intake team cannot answer legal questions, but are they provided with pre-approved options and answers? Are they trained to go beyond “no, we can’t help you?” Remember, even if you cannot take the case, you are still building a relationship. Now you have (1) a legitimate reason to capture contact information and (2) an opportunity to build credibility for your brand.
• Refine training:  Remember, this secret shopping process is about growth, both for your firm and your intake specialists. Be thoughtful in how you address any shortfalls. Your foundational goal throughout this process is to inspire and improve.

Now you have some real things to work on together. And you don’t have to take on all the work yourself. Bring in other members of your team to help create solutions.

Lessons

At this point you have heard the calls and processed the feedback. Now what?

• Refer to your original goals: Not only will you see where you stand, but you may see some missed opportunities and room for creative problem solving.
• Give Feedback: Be prepared with constructive feedback for your intake team.

• Think creatively on how to leverage what you’ve learned: Don’t just think about the calls that resulted in cases. Look at the calls that weren’t a good fit. Sure, it may take a little more time in the intake turn-around rate, but you are still winning hearts and minds. In a 40+% referral world, you are building capital with every call. What does your firm’s network look like? Are there other firms or resources that may help the people that you can’t help, and do you know who they are? Are you able to capture an email address to send resources? As you know… contact info is priceless to your practice.
• Addressing issues: Is your priority simply to “catch” the underperformers, or are you also looking for the successful performers and sharing their techniques? Secret shopping your firm is about growth… not guilt! Positions on an intake team aren’t for everyone, but with a little support and extra confidence, turn-over is less likely… saving you money in searching for staff and training costs.

Remember, consumers are more likely to leave a bad review after having a negative experience. The last thing you want is to have callers who are frightened, confused or frustrated diminishing your brand online. A review such as, “they couldn’t take my case, but they pointed me in the right direction” can be worth as much as any “win” in the long run. Network Affiliates. Our Network. Your Move.

In the world of legal advertising, your message speaks volumes.

The messaging we share in legal advertising isn’t just about the words; it’s about forming an emotional connection and really impacting people in their heart, mind, and soul.

Here’s why diversity in messaging is crucial:

• Reflecting Your Diverse Community: Your demographic is rich and varied, and so are the fears and challenges they face. By embracing diversity in your messaging, you ensure that everyone feels seen, heard, and represented.
• Empathy and Understanding: There’s a big difference between speaking at your audience and speaking to or with your audience. Speaking to different demos in the manner that moves each of them uniquely is critical.
• Building Trust: Trust is at the heart of every successful attorney-client relationship and that starts long before they ever need you or call you. When what you say puts the clients’ interests first, it shows that you are genuinely interested in serving the varied needs of people in your community.

In today’s media saturated environment, you need to stand out to the people who need you now and those who may need you in the future. It’s important that you are educated in the depth and breadth of the types of people you serve. And you need different messaging to meet them where they are.

If you are interested in exploring how Network Affiliates can help you really connect with your diverse audience, give us a call. This is definitely our “jam”!

Network Affiliates… Our Network. Your Move.

Legal advertising is often perceived as a serious and somber realm, where
weighty matters of the law take center stage. While the gravity of these issues should
never be undermined, there’s a compelling case to be made for infusing a touch of
humor into your overarching creative strategy in this otherwise firm advertising
landscape.

• Societal experts agree that one of the things that truly connects us as human
  beings is laughter.
• Emotional reactions such as smiling or laughing releases endorphins, creating
  a positive association with what we just experienced.
• Humor is an attention grabber in a crowded advertising landscape, whether
  that’s on-air or online.
• It allows for enhanced message recall.
• Humor triggers an effective response. When people find an ad funny, they
  experience positive feelings, leading to a favorable attitude towards the brand.
• Amusing commercials are up to 80% more likely to be shared either by word of
  mouth or social media, creating a greater impact.
• Because humor in legal advertising is unexpected, the impact tends to be more
  memorable.
  The emotional connection triggered by a gentle smile or hint of amusement between
  brand and viewer is exactly what you want to achieve!
  Let Network Affiliates’ targeted results bring a smile to your face. Give us a call at
  800-525-3332 and ask for Tammy Kehe!
  Network Affiliates… where collaboration and creativity redefine legal advertising.

According to Scientific America, the average person typically uses about 16,000 words
a day. Add timed scripts, scheduling constraints, travel fatigue and glaring lights to your
day and at least some of those 16,000 words occasionally come out a little
gollywampus. Here is a quick video showing some endearing bloopers from our last few
months of shooting. Notice how many NetAff employees are in there? Yeah. It happens
to us too. And a big shout out to our featured clients for being such good sports!

On November 3rd, the world unites to celebrate One Health Day. It is a day
dedicated to acknowledging the profound connections between health disciplines
affecting humans, animals, and the environment.

But you might be wondering, how does One Health Day relate to the world of legal
advertising? Here’s how:

Shared Values: One Health Day reminds us that our shared environment has a
profound impact on human health. Resolute and devoted lawyers and law firms
recognize the interconnectedness of their marketing, creative and brand promise to their
audience. A consistent voice builds trust and authority in the eyes of your audience. If
your message is all over the place, you weaken your position.

Ethics: Just as One Health Day highlights global connectedness, lawyers must
consistently demonstrate that they will ethically and responsibly represent their clients,
aligning their brand with their core principles.

Advocacy: Personal injury law firms play a pivotal role in advocating for justice and
equity for clients who have been injured through no fault of their own. Whether through
television, billboards, digital media, social media, or direct community involvement, all
points should lead to the singular message that you are the lawyer to choose for help. A
diversity of approaches is vital, if the messaging has meaning to the audience you are
trying to reach.

Every step you take in your marketing strategy is part of an intricate web of information
and support that advertising weaves for your brand. Whatever you define your brand
voice to be, do your marketing strategies and messaging fulfill that mission? Legal
advertising and its incumbent messaging aren’t just about promoting a brand; it is about
creating a network of support, understanding, and justice for your clients no matter
where they find you.

Network Affiliates… Our Network. Your Move.

Another fun filled NetAff Halloween party is in the books! There was a lot of
laughter, a companywide costume contest, a few rounds of Bootastic Bingo and snacks
galore today, as some of our agency’s more passionate trick-or-treaters got our party
on! It’s such a gift to work with people you genuinely enjoy hanging out with. We even
had some of our remote folks join via Zoom! Thanks to everyone who worked so hard!
Contest winners were: Greth Patterson (most creative-Miss Argentina/Beetlejuice),
Emily Frickey (scariest-FrankenBroad), Brian Hutchin, Sonya Harms & Katie Vosik
(funniest-Golden Bachelor) and Mocchi (best pet-Bad Dog).

Personal Injury Lawyers comprise one of the most competitive advertising categories in this country.  Leads are precious and conversion (percentage of leads to cases) is paramount to leveraging your marketing investment.  The surprising truth is that an increase of as little as 2% in your conversion rate can add millions of dollars to your bottom line annually.

Below are a few proven tactics to improve your intake conversion rate:

Invest in the process. You’ve made a substantial investment in getting the calls, but do you have the right people taking the calls? You need compassionate intake specialists who are able to provide an exceptional customer experience.

Understand that your biggest competitors are the insurance companies, not other law firms. Insurance companies are investing multi-millions to make sure auto claimants don’t call you first.

Timing is everything! Respond to prospects immediately with a focus to convert on the first-time call. Call backs are conversion killers.

Monitor your conversion intake metrics frequently. Waiting a quarter or a year to review your conversion metrics is costing you millions in lost clients and cases.

Secret shop yourself and other firms in your marketplace.

Your intake process is perhaps your most valuable marketing asset… not just another “expense.” Invest the time and resources to ensure every person you invite to contact you stops their “lawyer shopping” with you!  Interested in learning more?  Give us a call at 1-800-525-3332 and ask for Tammy Kehe, or visit our website at Netaff.com.