Earlier this month in San Francisco while speaking at the Legal Marketing Technology Conference West, I made a startling observation. Marketing automation in the vast majority of law firms is either nonexistent or 10 years behind the times. What a CPA Firm's Revenue-Generating Website Can Teach Us. I did a panel together with Eric Majchrzak, CMO and shareholder of Arizona accounting firm BeachFleischman. Although Eric's firm is small in comparison to most large law firms (with approximately 100 accountants and CPAs), they are light years ahead of most law firms in terms of online marketing. The website that Eric and his team have created is a revenue-generating machine, projected to bring in half a million dollars in new business this year, and over $1 million next year. Does your website do that? It can. But it won't, unless you make these six fundamental changes to your online marketing strategy.

The Legal Marketing Technology Conference West in San Francisco, produced by the Legal Marketing Association and its Bay Area Chapter, is a forum for product debuts and first looks at new ways of doing business. This year’s conference (held Oct. 5-6) did not disappoint. Without ado, here are five marketing technology and social media trends to watch.

Technology continues to raise clients' expectations. They want improved performance, better communication, accurate billing and quicker results. Lawyers will fail to keep up with those expectations if they refuse to incorporate the necessary technology into their work. Brilliant tools are available to help you meet clients' desires faster, without compromising on quality. Here are five types of productivity tools, and a favorite in each category.

Email may be good for maintaining a relationship, but it is not good for building one. Both email and texting are fast, convenient and essentially allow nonstop 24/7 communication. The downside is they are easily misinterpreted — and emails have become so numerous many go unread or wind up as junk. When you have face-to-face contact, or even talk by phone, the conversation naturally strays into other areas, and you get to know someone as a person. Clients expect a professional to be technically competent, but they also want to work with someone they like and trust. Using the right mode of communication for the given circumstance will help you build and maintain strong relationships and stand out from the crowd

Comma placement matters. Broadway musical Hamilton’s Angelica Schuyler sings in “Take a Break”: In a letter I received from you two weeks ago I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase It changed the meaning. Did you intend this? One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days Hamilton wrote “My dearest, Angelica.” He calls Angelica his “dearest,” a noun expressing extreme affection. If Hamilton had omitted the comma, “dearest” would be an adjective. The phrase in a letter to his sister-in-law would be more formal, like the “Dear Sir” opening of a business letter.

You spend the whole day in court, or in meetings and conferences with clients. And what do you have to show for it? A legal pad filled with scribbles, a few random thoughts on sticky notes — and more scribbles on the back of an envelope because you couldn't find a notepad in your bag? You may have even more notes on your computer, but are they associated in any way with the legal pad, sticky note or envelope? If you are smirking, you know you are as guilty as me. Fortunately, organizing projects and tasks doesn't have to be as hard as you think.

Where Does Your Time Go? Lawyers' utilization rates and productivity measures have been hot topics since Clio announced it will release its first “Legal Trends Report” later this month. Among the most stunning revelations will be the finding that, on average, a mere 22 percent of solo attorneys' time is billable each day. (That's two hours!) And that number only begins to improve slightly as the firm size increases to five to seven lawyers.* In anticipation of the report's release, we asked four practice management experts for their best tech tips to boost productivity and ensure more of your time is profitable. Here's good advice from Natalie Kelly, Courtney Kennaday, Erik Mazzone and Nora Regis — state and local bar advisors who assist solo and small firm lawyers every day.

I read an article recently called “Marketing Yourself as an Expert: What Clients Look For.” According to the research presented, there are five key factors that clients associate with “visible experts”:

• They come highly recommended by friends and colleagues (this was mentioned by 57 percent of the respondents)
• They’re effective communicators with the ability to make complicated subjects easily understandable (38 percent)
• They’re problem solvers with a proven track record of success that’s highly visible (36 percent)
• They inspire confidence when they speak (31 percent)
• They’re published in prestigious publications (27 percent)

Our own Merrilyn Aston Tarlton recently wrote here about five ways solos can find time for law firm retreats. And on that score, recently I became involved in a lengthy conversation with a large group of solos at TBD Law about both work and personal retreats (including the heavenly-sounding “annual personal retreat” designed around your personal definition of downtime, whether long solo mountain hikes or weekends at an ashram). While there are many reasons why retreats are important, I want to make the case for why solo and small firm lawyers should seriously consider the idea for ethics reasons.

Clients often ask me, “Roy, what’s the biggest mistake solo practitioners and small firm owners make when considering their retirement/succession strategies?” My answer? Attorneys permit their office situation, specifically a lease obligation, to muck things up. When family and friends ask why you have chosen this very moment to retire, do you really want your answer to be, “Well, my lease was up”? I sure hope my answer is a more thoughtful one