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The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
I am more convinced than ever that nothing that traditional bar organizations are doing is going to move the needle on the sad stats on lawyer happiness ...
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Ep. 71 - GLM Summit Special Edition: Navigating the Future of Legal Digital Marketing with Nalini Prasad and BluShark Digital
Are you ready to unlock the secrets of the future of digital marketing for lawyers? In preview of her presentation at this year's Great Legal Marketing Summit, we had a fascinating chat with Nalini Prasad, Chief Strategy Officer at Blue Shark Digital.
While we just scratched the surface on this short call, we unravel how Google's revolutionizing approach to simplifying coding and language can be leveraged by law firms of all sizes. With the potential emergence of a new AI system and a shift towards local-focused page one rankings, we explore how law firms can stay ahead of the game, using Google's newfound transparency to their advantage.
As we continue our deep-dive conversation with Prasad, we navigate the challenging terrain of striking the perfect balance between a technically sound website and one that captivates and persuades your target audience. We heed her practical advice on how to prioritize fields and features, understand coding, and optimize the back-end of a website for Google's bot. But that’s not all, we also discuss how to set your firm apart from the competition while aligning with Google's information seeking quest. Plus, you don't want to miss out on our conversation on how to avoid losing leads when there's no one to answer the phone. So, tune in and let's decode the complexities of digital marketing for law firms together.
Ben Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury and long-term disability insurance attorney in Fairfax, VA. Since 2005, Ben Glass and Great Legal Marketing have been helping solo and small firm lawyers make more money, get more clients and still get home in time for dinner. We call this TheGLMTribe.com
What Makes The GLM Tribe Special?
In short, we are the only organization within the "business builder for lawyers" space that is led by two practicing lawyers.
One thing we're sure you've noticed is that despite the variety of options within our space, no one else is mixing
the actual practice of law with business building in the way that we are.
There are no other organizations who understand the highs and lows of running a small law firm and are engaged in talking to real clients. That is what sets GLM apart from every other organization, and it is why we have had loyal members that have been with us for two-decades.
And so when you talk about technical, you're talking about making sure the back end of your website what the consumer does not see, is clean and in a language that is English, to the Google bot so that it can understand. You are the smartest person for the consumer, right? You should even be on page one, and I think that there is AI or not. That is still a piece of the puzzle that needs to be handled by someone who is into coding and is into technical. There aren't plugins that are going to run that, but Google is trying to simplify the coding and the type of information you need in the back end so that the bot is easier to understand those things and that you don't necessarily need to have maybe as many keyword heavy pages, right?
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, this is Ben. Welcome back to the Renegade Lawyer Podcast. This is Renegade Lawyer Podcast Special Edition, where I continue to interview some of our speakers who are coming to the Great Legal Marketing Summit this October in Orlando. And today on the call, I've got Nalini Prasad from Blue Shark Digital.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you that Nalini is the Chief Strategy Officer at Blue Shark. That's just the title. She's much more than that. I've seen her speak a number of times. In fact, nalini, you were just in our office a couple of weeks ago speaking to the Great Legal Marketing, the highest level marketing mastermind groups two of them and they couldn't get enough. They had more questions. You delivered more value in about 50 minutes than I've seen from many speakers over the years, because you were very practical and you're helping us answer the question which I always had, which, hey, the internet marketing for lawyers seems to getting more and more complex, more convoluted, and, nalini, there's certainly much more money, both lawyer money and non-lawyer money, I think, in the internet marketing space. I love your presentations because you're very practical and you can give people, no matter where they are on terms of budgets and what they're using their site for, all of that. So welcome to the call.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to be here. I am excited to be at the GLM conference in October. I will say what you just said is amazing. I know that it does seem very complex the whole digital marketing environment. Google is constantly becoming more sophisticated and it can seem very daunting, but I love that. You said that you liked my presentations because they're practical and I like to translate that to. I want to give value to the audience. I want your questions. I can create a slide deck, but one of the things I loved about your mastermind group is that I got just all sorts of questions on things that should I do this for my business, should I do that for my business? And I enjoyed that 10 times more than just standing up there with a slide deck right. I aim to give that DIY information.
Speaker 2:Any lawyer in December argued like at a Supreme Court level in their state or federal court of appeals level, know that you came in with your presentation prepared and you had your slide deck Two minutes in. We were in a free for all, which was just great because we did have a lot of questions. So first question curious, what are you seeing here? We are recording this clause on late summer 2023. I'm curious what are you seeing now? What are you predicting for the future for digital marketing for lawyers? Yeah, trends.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that I mentioned there was that it seems daunting, but what I've seen in the last couple of years is that Google is becoming more transparent. Google is trying to tell us when an update is coming out. They're telling us how to best utilize these new fields and features that they use to collect information about your business. They're giving us the keys to the kingdom, and it's about understanding how do we use those keys? What do we need to be doing? So I see the trend right now being that they are telling you what you need to do, and I want to take that information and teach law firms of all sizes.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that, whether you're a solo, whether you're in year three with three lawyers, or you are 10 lawyers and you are on your growth track, there are pieces of digital that you're not doing yet, that you're ready for, based on the stage you're at. Using what Google's giving you, utilizing the fields and features your firm needs to use, is going to set you up for success in the future. I see that we might have a new AI system, a new page one, coming out next year, but again, it is heavily, heavily focused on local. So everything you do with your Google business profile is going to be important for the next couple of years, even with AI.
Speaker 2:What I really like, what I took a lot of notes about, was that, yes, you can do this yourself ultimately at some point.
Speaker 2:However, your recommendation was but you got to go look in every two weeks very carefully Then and then what a big reveal at our meetings was somebody. So in Fairfax, virginia, where we are and where Price Benowitz has a practice like what I'm seeing, particularly on my Google, my Business page, google Business Profile page, and what I can see in the back end could be different from what somebody in Denver is seeing, because Google is actually appears to be rolling out tests in different markets, and what your presentation to our groups was really good. It's like all right, but here's the checklist of things to go look at, and you may go one week and then come back two weeks later. Here's a whole bunch of new fields that you might, that you should fill in. We're not really sure how Google is actually using them yet, but if they get traction, then Google may use it. So you might as well go fill out the fields, but you got to know where to go and look.
Speaker 1:And you know what something funny from sitting in that room and answering those questions and brainstorming, really thinking outside the box, your room and those folks actually inspired my presentation. That's going to be a pubcon this year, which is exactly that. You say hey, I have limited time in a day.
Speaker 1:There are so many fields and features that I can fill in, but, nolini, tell me what's our most important? I got that question multiple times. They're like you're giving me 10 answers which are the most priority fields and features I need to fill in, and so I did the research. I looked at the things to say. Here's how we start to prioritize which fields are the most important. If you only have so much time to dedicate, right, and so there is an answer for that. There is an answer as to which ones you should focus on.
Speaker 2:That's great and you're going to be talking about that in our comments as well One of the struggles I have. So I'm a marketer, I've studied copywriting. I understand words that sell and words that persuade. I'm always fearful. I don't understand the technical, what I call technical digital. It's like all right, so here's a really cool headline Ben puts down and then my technical team tells me yeah, it's really cool headline, it'll persuade someone who gets there, but it's not telling Google too much about that. We'll get somebody there. So talk to us just a bit about that tension between building something that's technically good and so the user who's researching for an attorney can get to see you. But then I still have to make my site and my page is different from the 10 other sites they just visited and they're going to visit. So, like inside, like blue shark digital, do you all put that on the drawing board and think how do we make this different from that one and still satisfy Google's quest for knowledge?
Speaker 1:Yes, this is the everlasting balance of the consumer versus feeding the bot, and so when you talk about technical, you're talking about making sure the back end of your website what the consumer does not see is clean and in a language that is English, to the Google bot so that it can understand. You are the smartest person for the consumer, right? You should even be on page one, and I think that there is AI or not. That is still a piece of the puzzle that needs to be handled by someone who is into coding and is into technical. There aren't plugins that are going to run that, but Google is trying to simplify the coding and the type of information you need in the back end so that the bot is easier to understand those things and that you don't necessarily need to have maybe as many keyword heavy pages. Right, a long time ago, you had to have the keyword of injury lawyer six times on that page, and hopefully we're moving away from that for the consumer.
Speaker 2:A discussion we even had today in our own meeting and if a law firm was. So here we have a site that's centered in Virginia. It's all about Northern Virginia, all this stuff, and so we're wondering does every page need to say a Fairfax car accident lawyer, or does Google start to go? This site is about a Northern Virginia personal injury law firm. Maybe we don't need to write Fairfax or Virginia on every page. Does that make sense or is that dumb?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think that we are, with the bot, becoming more sophisticated and understanding a little bit more and drawing more of those connections. I agree, I think in the future we will see that we can make our front end of our site a little bit more consumer friendly. The language reads a little bit better and you don't need as many of those technical aspects on the front end. Yeah, I think that we're moving in that direction slowly but sure.
Speaker 2:So Google continues to teach machines how to think like humans, and humans try to break things. So we are blessed to have you Again, folks. I've seen Nalini present at a number of big national law firm marketing conferences. She's brilliant. She uses her time very wisely, she provokes questions. But, most of all, no matter where you and your website are in the continuum of sophistication and money spent and everything, she's got something for you and she'll have actionable items that you will want to be doing, not while you're listening to her, but later back in the hotel room or maybe when you get back to your town.
Speaker 2:A very good list of things. Hey, let's go make sure that we have this top 10 list filled out appropriately. And then, of course, Nalini, which is the rest of the comments is about, which is like all right now, what do we do with those leads? Don't screw it up by not being able to answer the phone. So we've got a lot about that too, because I know that's a frustration to digital marketers. You all do your jobs. You actually do generate needs to make the phone rings and there's nobody there answering the phones.
Speaker 1:Yup, it's gotta be a full cycle, right? You gotta have all pieces of your firm firing and all cylinders. So all of that ops, it's all important, and digital is just one piece of that right.
Speaker 2:Last question just let me ask you about Blue Shark Digital, because I know you're not just a web firm, you're not just a web bending firm, which many companies out there, you're a coaching firm. So talk to us just a little bit about that interaction, the partnership really between you and the clients of Blue Shark.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one you've mentioned, seth. He has a firm here in Virginia, DC and Maryland. So Seth Price is our founder, but he's also a managing partner of a law firm that we spun out of. So we're positioned in this way to understand intake and operations of law firms. We understand, as an agency, a lead isn't just a phone call but we really care about the cases signed, right. What is our cost per case signed?
Speaker 1:So, having this knowledge and this background of coming out of a law firm ourselves, right. Also, understanding how the ebbs and flows happen with leads throughout the year right, there's a good month, there's a bad month we're able to sit down and say, hey, here's what we'll tell you to do for strategy, for digital, but also, are you having problems with intake? Are you having problems with hiring and firing? Are you having problems with bad review? Like, where can we help you also? So you have these account managers that you meet with every month and everyone within this agency is trained almost from a law firm perspective, if that makes sense. So we have a little bit of a different perspective that helps us.
Speaker 2:The law firm is holding you accountable, but you are also holding the law firm owner and his or her team accountable as well, and so when you have mutual, two groups that are working hard towards a mutual goal and a partnership, then that just ends up and I call it win because you win, the law firm wins. Most importantly, the client who's looking for you, if you are the right lawyer for them, is able to find you, figure out whether you're in the right place, figure out what kind of lawyers these guys and gals are, and then take the next step if appropriate. Nalini, thank you for your time. We are so looking forward to your talking again. Thank you for coming to visit with us just a couple of weeks ago. Our teams really enjoyed that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I am super excited in what a wonderful place to be hosting the conference. Right, we're gonna be in Mickey country, so hopefully we'll see some people bringing their families as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely All right, talk to you soon.
Speaker 1:All right, yes, thank you, Ben.
Speaker 2:Bye-bye.
