Google Places is the New Yellow Pages

For many years Trial Lawyers were the biggest buyers of Yellow Pages space. They would shell out $100,000 and sometimes a lot more in annual expense to enter the cut throat competition for new clients.

I spent years obsessing with ‘The Magic Moment’ when an at need prospect decided to pull the trigger in favor of one or another supplier. In particular I worked with law firms to create the Million Dollar ad. When we succeeded it was a beautiful thing, because we were eating everyone else’s lunch, and they usually didn’t know.

Enter Google, the biggest game changer the advertising world has ever seen. They define relevance on the Internet. They are fanatically obsessed with sending people to where they want to go. And, they have recently changed their search criteria to favor local traffic. Only a fraction of law firms are aware of this. And, among those, very few are taking effective advantage of the situation. Smell an opportunity here?

Right now, law firms have a great opportunity to gather up some low hanging fruit. Google has provided every registered business, including law firms, with a free mini local website. And, they will send you traffic if you will bother to fill it out, tell the right people, get reviews and pay attention to it month over month.

There is no way in hell you can ever spend $100,000 on it. Google does not charge you for it. And they are trying to send you clients if you’ll only let them.

So, first check out this image. This is a Google search for personal injury lawyers in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Personal Injury Solicitors Albuquerque

Click To Enlarge

See all those red pins? Each red pin is a law firm that has not even bothered to fill in their Google Places page. It sits there, unclaimed. See all the letters? From ‘A’ to ‘J’? Those are the players ranked in order of relevance.

This next image is what ‘A’ looks like. In other words it’s the top traffic getter from Google Places. You will notice that there are images and videos and information. There’s a lot more that can be done. But so few law firms are doing anything…that this is truly a situation where the one eyed man is king.

Google Search Albuquerque

Click To Enlarge

Now take a look at what an unclaimed Google Places page looks like.

A Pin Albuquerque

Click To Enlarge

This is not rocket science. A staff member can get this going in a few minutes. But because it’s free and easy, you might fall into the trap of putting no effort into it. Or, doing the bare minimum, and then forgetting all about it.

What does it take to dominate Google Places? Google won’t let that happen. And every time Google catches someone trying to game the system, they kick them to the curb without hesitation and without apology. But get this—especially if you are investing in SEO to build up your organic search traffic.

The top pins are getting a lot of high quality traffic which readily converts to clients in exactly the same way it used to work in the Yellow Pages.

Should you do this yourself? Yes…as long as you have people who are watching trends and can stay on top of them, and who live and breathe the Internet. If you would like help setting up your Google Places page and sustaining it, give me a call ( 647-707-3315)

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Looking At Your Yellow Pages Ad Through a Brand New Lens

look--- One of the biggest errors that advertisers in the  Yellow Pages consistently make is thinking it’s about THEM. You think your ad is about you. You think you’ve paid all this money so it’s your chance to puff out your chest and brag about how great you are.

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Why Your Yellow Pages Ad Response Sucks

yellow page advertising for personal injury lawyers You’re not alone. Every month, personal injury lawyers across America and around the world cut a big check for their directory ads — be they double trucks, back pages, full color process pages or even quarter page ads. And the same questions linger in every mind.

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Podcast: 3 Questions you need to answer to ensure an effective marketing campaign

Marketing is a simple concept, it is all about communicating value. How do you make an effective marketing campaign? Listen to this podcast and learn how!

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Podcast: How to be a marketing genius in one minute flat

Who said marketing was difficult? Listen to my suggestions and become a marketing genius in one minute FLAT!

Before you play this podcast, make sure you already have your pen and paper ready, this surely is a marketing crash course!

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Contradictory Thinking in the Minds of Personal Injury Lawyers who Advertise in the Yellow Pages

copycat Lawyers are thinkers. They make distinctions, advance arguments, refute arguments, gather facts, make presentations, negotiate settlements.

It’s work that requires rigor, and a degree of mental acuity.

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Yellow Pages Secrets for Personal Injury Lawyers: How to Dominate the Shrinking Rump

Start with the right objective:

Strategy Execution There is a completely different and much more effective way for personal injury law firms to advertise in the Yellow Pages. You can take a double truck and fill it with bullet points and agonize about how much bold and how big the type. Or you can get strategic.

Do you even know what that means…in the context of communicating value?

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The Ultimate Secret to Increasing Referrals for Personal Injury Law

tm2Do you know the secret key to “referrability”?

(WARNING: What I’m about to tell you is so powerful  you could blink and miss it. If nothing else, read this story closely because it reveals a principle that you will not find written about or discussed anywhere else.

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INSIDE OUT MARKETING SECRETS: Successful Lawyer/Law Firm Marketing Secrets: Part 2

So you want to be a successful personal injury lawyer, but don’t know where to start? Well, it’s not always about lawyer marketing. I’ve already given you the first tip a couple of days ago, now here goes the second part of this series:

Killer Strategy #2: Understand their “Journey to Justice

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10 Top Ways to Improve Your Yellow Pages Ad : For Personal Injury Lawyers and Other Yellow Pages Advertisers

photo_652_20080907 Are you a double truck law firm yellow pages advertiser? Or, are you a tiny quarter column advertiser? No matter, here’s a quick check list you can use to see if you are on track…or way off the mark.

The result you are seeking from your yellow pages ad is a perfectly qualified person calling you and only you, knowing that you are offering  exactly what they are looking for. Sounds easy, but  many law firms investing hundreds of thousands of  dollars get this wrong year after year.

Here are your ten tips. Look at your ad and see if you are doing it right.

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INSIDE OUT MARKETING SECRETS: Successful Lawyer/Law Firm Marketing Secrets: Part I

Do you want to know something that can make you millions of dollars over the life of your law firm if you just listen to it, absorb it and DO IT? It’s so simple that you might read it or hear it and pass it by – missing it entirely or dismissing it as too obvious.

But if you are not living it, it’s not so obvious.

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The Find Engine…Don’t Make Me Laugh! Stop It! You’re Killing Me!

Once upon a time a nasty little flea challenged an elephant to a duel, but the elephant didn’t notice and it made the flea angry. But who cares about the feelings of a nasty little flea?

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Video: How Effective is Your Personal Injury Law Firm Yellow Page Ad?

If you are a personal injury lawyer and you’ve bought a page in the directory, how do you know that your yellow page advertisement is effective? Here’s the first of a series of videos I will be creating. I hope to teach you how to use your Yellow Pages ad to catch the big cases you’ve been seeking for years.

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Should a Law Firm Produce Their Own Yellow Pages Ad?

I am sure that by now you are scrutinizing your ad with a magnifying glass! Is there anything about it that would get you onto the “list of one” of a majority of prospects?

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How a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Connect With An Injured Person Through Their Yellow Pages Ad

I told you how emotions play a pivotal role in any buying decision. Today let me start the discussion with another invaluable secret.

People are Silently Begging To Be Led

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Lawyers Get Emotional About Yellow Pages Advertising

marketing-emotion The advertiser who understands their prospect’s emotional state wins. There are many “emotional” categories of Yellow Pages ads. Ads for funeral homes come to mind. A person in a state of grief who does not know who to call flips through the Yellow Pages in that tragic time and sees nothing but self-serving ads. If one advertiser understood the mindset of that person, and built an ad around them, it would skyrocket the response. I know, because I’ve done it.

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How do you get to the "list of one"?

I want to ask you a simple, and hopefully, not too insulting question. Is there any chance in hell, based on your current ad, that a person could reasonably conclude that you are the ONLY law firm they want to deal with? Forget how much you love your name and slogan or the picture of you standing in front of your law books or the picture of your building or the lurid 4-color shots of car wrecks or the laundry list of matters you can handle.

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The Secret to Yellow Pages Dominance

Albert Einstein once said, “A mind stretched by a new idea can never return to its old shape.”

Get ready to stretch your mind.

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Why Do You Need A Yellow Page Advertisement?

yellow pages My next series of blog posts are intended specifically for personal injury lawyers. If you are a personal injury lawyer, read this information carefully. You might just knock five or ten years off your learning curve in one shot.

I will teach you how to use your Yellow Pages ad to catch the big cases you’ve been seeking for years. You are about to learn about an elusive type of ad you have long suspected must exist, but never knew where to look for it.

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Should You Cancel Your Law Firm’s Yellow Pages ad?

yellow page advertising If you think advertising in the Yellow Pages is not right for your law firm, you may be right. But not so fast.

Did you used to run a big double truck, but then the response fell off year over year and finally you got out while the getting was good? Or, are you one of the many who are thinking of pulling the plug, but are more concerned about what you may lose than what you are not now getting?

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Can Joy and Fun Make You Money?

Can The Law of Attraction Grow Your
Business and Enhance Your Life?

What About Law of Attraction Combined
with Great Marketing Strategy and Support?
What Would That Do?

Dear holistic practitioner, “radical” or “conscious” business owner:

If you know about the ‘Law of Attraction’ and still don’t have it working as

consistently in your life as you’d like, I’m planning a program you might want to consider.

I’m assembling a small circle of holistic practitioners and small business
owners. We will work together for six months in 2010 to establish and
sustain a vibration consistent with the life and business we want.

That’s important…read it slowly. We will spend six months building a “vibration” consistent with the life and business we want.

With the vibration built, marketing advice, strategy and training will be offered. And I will be providing ongoing coaching and support as well.

I have doubled, tripled, quadrupled and quintupled countless businesses through marketing strategy. And, I have also taught manifestation for many years,  helping my participants to achieve serious breakthroughs, including Jean, the Sour-Faced Scottish Lady and Claudio the Nine Year Old Master Manifester. I’ll tell you more about them in a minute.

I also have a compassionate grasp of the issues and challenges of alternative healers and holistic practitioners. I have had a naturopath get so booked in advance on implementing one idea that she could not even consider any more marketing strategies. I worked with other holistic healers whose revenues went way up. I understand the challenges spiritual people have with making money and selling. Especially selling. I want to help you get “over the hump” once and for all.

This is the first time I’ve combined marketing and manifestation so explicitly.

A lot of people are still not ready to acknowledge the metaphysical foundation of EVERYTHING. They hear “you create your own reality” and think—as I did when I first heard about it at age fourteen—that it could not be…it just could not be!

Let’s just say I’m well marinated in this information, have taught it to a lot of people — who have  produced many miracles — and have manifested a lot of amazing experiences, people and things by deliberately applying what I’ve learned. And I’ve had some great teachers, included but not limited to: Al Koran, Course in Miracles, Jonathan Kramer and Janet MacDonald, Abraham, Jack Bolan,  friends, and most of all my own life.

‘The Secret’ was a good movie, and a good book. It created a huge groundswell of attention on the Internet. Not surprising! It’s intriguing and powerful information and it was brilliantly packaged. There’s nothing more exciting than the realization—or even the suspicion—that you can ‘Create Your Own Reality’.

Hey, if you watched ‘The Secret’ and six months later you were not a millionaire driving a BMW and dating a starlet or equivalent, surely something was missing from the Secret! I don’t agree. There’s a lot of conditioning to break through and you can’t focus on two things at once. If you are not shining your spirit and building up your vibration, some other thought is running you. And that’s when you become attractive to crummy states and outcomes.

Our shared intention will be to create juicy, joyous, shimmering attractive states that bring to you what you want effortlessly. One wonderful side effect of this work is a LOT of serendipity. You’ve probably experienced this when traveling. Why is everything coming together so magically, so effortlessly? Why is it not like this all  the time? I’m sure you know the answers are inside of you. Always were. Always will be. So now it’s time to deliberately cultivate the states consistent with the life you want to live.

I will happily tell you in a sentence all you need to know about attraction and manifestation and you can shut down your laptop, smile happily and go forth and create the life you know you want. Ready?

All you have to do to create the life you want is want it, love it in advance, expect it and be drenched in joyous appreciation of it’s inevitability.

There…got it?

Seriously, it’s all you have to do. When you do that—and you already do it at least some of the time—you create an irresistible vibration that brings what you want to you. It shows up, sometimes in seemingly magical and mysterious ways. Other times in banal and pedestrian ways.

The challenge is that we forget, and we have competing thoughts…and doubts and fears and negative beliefs and false conclusions…but at any moment we can choose a better thought and the needle of our compass moves in the right direction.

Here is an important question: How good are you willing to let it be? Where do you stop it. Are you daring enough to renegotiate, in 2010 where you stop it?

Where could you get to with six months of conscious, deliberate cultivation of the life you want? Is this a time for you to get serious about growing your business? Do you want to learn to deploy the Law of Attraction and the best in marketing?

My Experience With Manifestation

When I focus on ‘metaphysical creation’, my life moves inexorably in the direction of my desire. Every time. It works for money. It works for relationships. It works for housing. It works for thought, mood and state. I like ‘teaching’ others about this. It benefits them and it benefits me.

‘Teaching’ vibration is really reminding..and it’s modeling the vibration using the positive emotion and energy of the people you are modeling it for. It’s a buzz, and you can take it with you out into your life and business.

Creating and sustaining a vibration consistent with the life and business you want is what we’re talking about. My intention is to attract a circle of like-minded souls who are ready to be a bit more deliberate about creating their life and business. If this sounds like you, let me know right away. I’m not planning on pounding anyone or convincing any one. You should know by now if this is for you.

You’re probably wondering what kind of fees I’m charging for this.

I’m inspired by Tad Hargrave to offer it on a pay what you can basis, with a twist. This means we will work together to set your goals, including financial goals. You will offer a monthly sum that represents what you can afford, and in the very likely event that your revenues spike up much higher, you will pay an according increase, which we will discuss and agree to in advance.

The last time I offered a program like this—it was called ‘Double Your Business in 180 Days’. I charged $695 a month. That was for marketing with maybe a pinch of manifestation added. That was back in the year 2000. I am thinking you might be able to commit to something in the $200 to $500 monthly range for this program. Talk to me. I won’t turn anyone away if I see the potential is there and the “fit” is there.

I look forward to meeting you and working with you. To let me know you are interested, send an e-mail to cymmat@yahoo.ca with the header ‘Manifestation Group’ and ?Tammy, the registrar will get in touch.

P.S. I promised to tell you about Jean and about Claudio. Jean was a scowling faced Scots woman who took my “Your Heart’s Desire” course many years ago. It was a four week series on Monday nights in a small farm community North of Toronto. The first two Mondays she was all scowls of disbelief. Frankly she made me a bit nervous. I thought she might suddenly yell, “Bah! Humbug!” at any moment.

By the third Monday participants were noticing shifts in their lives, crazy coincidences and other breakthroughs. And something shifted for Jean as well. She started to glow. On the last Monday the whole group was glowing because of the changes they were seeing in their lives. A few weeks later she passed me on the street smiling and humming to herself. “It’s working!” she said. “It’s working!”

She had never said a word at the course and so I wanted to hear more. I dropped in at the library to ask what exactly was working. “I play the ponies!” she said.

Hmmm, I thought. I guess it works for whatever you focus on.

Claudio the nine year old Master Manifester lived next to me when I was in my twenties. He had a tough family life and I felt he might benefit from knowing about these principles. So I asked if he wanted to play a game. I would show him how to create anything he wanted by using his mind. What do you want, Claudio, I said.

He said he wanted to go to the Michael Jackson concert which was in a few days. At the time the news reports in Toronto were abuzz with this sold out show. And scalpers were demanding a king’s ransom. To be honest, I went “gulp” because I did not want to disappoint this kid. But I asked and he answered and he did not know how “difficult” it is to manifest a concert ticket for the hottest show in town that’s been sold out for months.

In fact, it’s not really “harder” to manifest one thing or another. We just get in our own way some of the time.

So I said we needed to meet three days in a row and you’ll get your ticket. He came the first day, and I took him through a sensory exercise in which he described how wonderful it was to be at the Michael Jackson concert. The sights, the sounds, the feeling of the air on his skin. The feeling of excitement. He had his eyes closed but I could tell he was experiencing and enjoying it immensely.

Next day three o’clock came. The agreed upon time. Then three oh five. No Claudio. So I went out looking for him. “Hey Claudio. What’s the deal? We’re supposed to be playing our game.”

“I already have the ticket” he said, almost blasé and walked away. Some obscure third cousin had tracked him down and offered him a ticket out of the blue.

Don’t you love it when stuff like this happens? When “crazy coincidences” happen? We will play a game I created which triggers a lot of serendipity. I can’t wait to show you how it works.

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Christmas Song for Kids’ Bedkits

I once walked the Peloponnese to raise money for a Canadian
charity called Sleeping Children Around the World. I was looking
for a feat of daring and endurance to take on before a big change
I was about to undertake… called marriage.

That was August 1993.

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7 Key Insights for the Ultimate Yellow Pages Ad

 

This is an article I wrote for South Carolina Trial Law Blog:

Lawyers are famous throughout marketingdom for the most fatuous, self-serving, horrendously expensive and laughably ineffective ads. Virtually all lawyer ads have as their unexamined theme ‘Here I am. I’m the best! Choose ME!!!’

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About Liz Heyland

Liz Heyland is a Canadian entrepreneur.

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What Makes a Great Headline?

As a professional copywriter, I’ve received a lot
of training. There’s a ton of testing that has gone
into creating the body of distinctions that any
good copywriter knows.

The biggest one is and has always been and will
always be, “The Headline is 80% of the ad”.

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