Your ADR Marketing Strategy: Avoiding the Opt and Dropped Trap

I once heard marketing professional Adam Urbanski use the phrase “opt and dropped” to describe the haphazard marketing approach taken by many service professionals. It’s both a memorable and apropos term.

Opt and dropped happens when you run a newspaper ad for a few weeks and, when response isn’t what you hoped, you stop. Opt and dropped happens when you start a business blog, write for a few months, and let the blog die a quiet death when clients aren’t jamming your phone lines. Opt and dropped happens when you build a website, put it up, and generally forget about it.

Like so many things, healthy and effective marketing strategies need to be given a real chance to work. That means putting serious forethought into them and making sure that each individual piece of your strategy contributes to your overall approach and goals. And it means running with the strategy for a legitimately effective stretch of time.

How do you avoid the “opt and dropped” trap? Share them in the comment box below!

Tags: marketing mediation

Marketing Mediation: What Are Your Obstacles?

I’ve had conversations with several mediators who face obstacles to getting started with marketing their ADR practices, with our without the help of technology. I’d like to learn more about what’s on your mind and so invite you to take 20 seconds to contribute to my quick poll. Thanks!

Naming Strategies for Your ADR Business

A few weeks ago I wrote a short series on how to select a domain name for your online business presence. I’m writing now with another naming resource you may find helpful.

Rivkin & Associates produces the free periodic e-zine, The Naming Newsletter, that’s always got some good ideas and fun information. The most recent edition includes an article, Summon a Suffix, on how to use suffixes to engineer effective business names. Worth a read if you’re playing around with business and domain name possibilities.

What’s new at Mediator Tech: This Friday’s teleseminar, Driving Traffic to Your ADR Business Blog, is open for registration.

Tags: marketing mediation

Backing Up: Protect Your Business Data

Backing up your computer hard drive may be a little like flossing your teeth: You know you should do it frequently yet don’t always do so. If you’re not backing up your computer at least once weekly, and ideally several times a week, you’re risking just the kind of painful, time-consuming and expensive headache that a bad tooth can give you.

The key is to have a backup process that’s easy to carry out, easy to remember, and effective in the event of a sudden hard drive failure, computer theft or other data catastrophe. Rather than repeat good advice that’s readily available elsewhere on the web, let me direct you to a good article on backup process options (scroll past the ads to see the beginning of the actual article) and one on the types of data to include in your backup.

I’ve been using IBackup for quite a while now and have found it easy and efficient (this endorsement, by the way, doesn’t benefit me in any way). IBackup is an online backup service, so my data is encrypted and stored remotely for a small monthly fee. I’ve found their software intuitive to set up and I schedule my backups to run automatically at times I’m not using my computer (usually late at night). Once I’ve set it up, the only thing I need to remember is to leave my computer on so that the backup runs as scheduled. I should mention that I have a broadband (DSL) Internet connection, which makes online backup a more feasible option.

I’ve also recently tested out Mozy, a new free online backup service that’s still in beta. They describe themselves this way: “Mozy is a secure, automatic remote backup service for any PC in any home or office. It’s simple to install and configure. No external hard drive, expensive subscription services, CD’s or DVD’s to burn. All you need is a broadband connection and you are ready to go!” I have to agree…the user interface is really straightforward and I was up and running in just a few minutes. I did find the backups slower than with my IBackup account, though not so slow I wouldn’t consider using Mozy for all my backup needs.

Keep in mind that if you choose to use a fee-for-service or free online backup service like one of the above, the first backup will likely take many hours, even with a broadband connection. That’s because all the files you have selected need to be backed up; after that, only files you change are backed up.

What’s the New at Mediator Tech: How to Write for an ADR Blog is now available as an audio download.

Tags: mediation practice management

When a Mediator Should Not Be Neutral

I had one of those forehead slapping “d’uh” moments the other day. Of course I want to share it with you!

I was talking to a mediator from the Midwest (she’s read this post in advance, by the way). She’s been in private practice for about two years and is not yet coming close to paying the bills. She’s been advertising in her local daily, takes out an annual yellow pages ad, has a static website, sends out a print newsletter quarterly, and has a few other traditional strategies in her informal marketing plan. The yield from these strategies is pretty dismal, despite real effort and care put into them.

During the conversation, I asked her how she communicates her passion for mediation and its benefits to her prospective clients and audience. There was a long silence. Then she said, “As a mediator, I believe it’s my responsibility to convey neutrality and professional distance. Passion doesn’t really enter into it.”

If I hadn’t had a telephone headset on, I’d have slapped my forehead soundly, because her response awakened me to something I hadn’t considered before: That some (maybe many) mediators hesitate to convey passion for what they offer because the directive to be neutral is so well ingrained or taken very comprehensively. Neutrality may work for mediation (I’m a much bigger fan of the notion of impartiality), but it surely doesn’t work for marketing mediation.

What do you think? Leave your comments below!

Tags: marketing mediation

A Narrow Target Market Makes for a Better Mediation Blog

Earlier this week I wrote about the ways a narrow target market broadens your chances for business success. Today I’m going to extend that thinking to blogging, since I believe blogging is an exceptionally useful part of any mediator’s marketing strategy.

When you have a well-defined, focused target market, I believe you’ll blog more successfully. Here’s why:

• It’s much easier to blog with well-defined target market because you know exactly whom you’re talking to. Don’t believe me? Try writing two short (250 words) articles on the ways that mediation can specifically help your reader. Write the first article for “everyone and anyone.” Write the second for a specific, narrow target market that you’re interested in or know something about (e.g., rock musicians, construction companies, real estate brokers, visiting nurses). Which one is more convincing?
• When you know the people you’re writing to and for, you’ll know how formal or informal your writing style should be.
• When you know your specific audience, you’ll be much better able to determine what kind of content will be compelling and what will bring them back to your website again and again.
• A focused target market helps you be alert to value-added resources for that market. For example, if your target market is couples who are getting married (and their mothers, perhaps), you’re going to be able to provide great resources and advice on hiring and communicating effectively with the wedding photographer, on how to avoid disputes with the facilities staff, etc. You may also be able to point your readers to blog posts and other online resources that have to do with creating a great wedding—and those resources need have nothing to do with conflict. Your readers will come to know you as someone who’s looking out for their interests.

What’s the Buzz at Mediator Tech? Teleseminars and downloadable audios on blogging and its benefits for building business.

Tags: marketing mediation, mediation blogs

Marketing ADR: How a Narrow Target Market Broadens Chances for Success

Many mediators try to do it all, trying to reach a broad market and doing a little bit in several different arenas. The reasoning, as I understand it, is that you don’t want to say no to someone who calls, since not a lot of people are calling. The fear, as I understand it, is that narrowing your target market will do you out of potential work.

This approach, while common among ADR professionals trying to build a practice, is inconsistent with some of leading marketing advice out there. While seemingly counter-intuitive, narrowing your market actually gives you greater opportunity for business success. Here’s why:

• With a focused target market, you can speak with a clearer voice and more focus to the people you’re trying to reach. When you try to write for everyone, for instance (brochures, website, letters), you end up speaking to no one in particular and your message becomes watered down.
• With a narrow target market, you know where to find the people you’re trying to reach. If, for example, you’re targeting a rock musician market (I know a mediator who does), you’re probably going to find these folks in different places and through different venues than, say, environmental agencies and organizations.
• If cast your net too widely, you spread yourself and your dollars thin trying to reach everyone.
• Marketing mediation and ADR is more about educating than selling yourself. You’ll have an easier time educating a narrow market you’re genuinely interested in and have invested time and energy learning about.
• You will convey greater passion when you focus on a narrow market in which you’re generally interested, rather than trying to convince everyone you’re interested in what they’re seeking.

A narrow market is a place to begin, not the place you have to be forever, if you have diverse interests. For instance, when I founded my practice in 1997, my one target market was institutions of higher education. That’s who knew me and whom I knew. I knew how to reach them, how to speak their language, and what their particular needs were. While I don’t only serve higher education today (neither do I market to everyone), that work provided a strong foundation with a solid income from which to build.

When I look around at the mediators I know who are making a real living wage (or better!) in this field, every single one of them has identified one or a few very specific target markets. They may offer multiple types of services in those markets (e.g ., mediation, facilitation, training), but they’re clear about their audience. Are you clear?

What’s New at Mediator Tech: Interested in learning more about marketing your mediation practice using affordable and geek-less technology? Teleseminar sessions and downloadable audios are now available. Come visit for more information.

Tags: marketing mediation

Choosing an ADR Domain Name: Fixing Naming Mistakes

In Choosing a Perfect Blog Name, Chris Garrett offers some terrific wisdom about a domain name’s ideal characteristics:

1. Readable
2. Pronounceable
3. Spellable
4. Memorable
5. Concise
6. Unique

What if you’ve already got a well-established domain name that isn’t all that it can be, yet don’t want to lose the traffic that knows of your old business name’s URL? Or you’ve purchased alternate domain names that you don’t use as websites but want to point to your primary domain?

Fear not. Here are two web strategies to the rescue:

• Domain forwarding is the redirection of one domain name to another domain name. A person typing in www.ConstructionMediation.com, for example, is seamlessly taken to www.ConflictResolution.com. Domain forwarding is inexpensive ($4-$8 per year). You would use domain forwarding if you have a primary site and have purchased related alternate domain names (with no websites operational on them) that you want to point to your primary site.
• Domain mapping is the process of re-mapping your entire site using a new name, so that the URLs of all your web pages will now direct a visitor to the new page with the new address. For example, if you have a blog hosted by Typepad, your domain name will be www.OldBlogName.typepad.com. Let’s say that your original blog site has 50 articles and a number of regular web pages. You certainly wouldn’t want to forward the old domain to your shiny new domain, because that would prevent people using your new domain from seeing any of the material on your original blog. Through domain mapping, a visitor to your site could find your “Mediation FAQs” page by using either www.OldBlogName.typepad.com/faqs/ or www.ShinyNewBlog.com/faqs/.

This closes out my short series on domain naming for mediators. If you haven’t been with us since the start, the first post was Naming Your Domain: Make It Easier for Clients to Find You Online. If I can ever be of assistance as you apply what’s been discussed here, I welcome your exploratory call.

Tags: adr website advice, marketing mediation, online marketing, mediation

ADR and Mediation Blogs: New Directory Is Terrific Resource

Some of you have asked where to find ADR and mediation blogs, both for information you can use in your work and for examples of blogs that are part of a business promotional strategy.

Now there’s a terrific new resource that tracks exactly this information: The Directory of Alternative Dispute Resolution Blogs. Creator Diane Levin, of course, is the author the Online Guide to Mediation, a blog I highly recommend to anyone working in ADR. In explaining why she created her new brainchild, Diane writes,

Blogging, after all, is an ideal medium for sharing ideas, transmitting knowledge, engaging in dialogue, and connecting with others in our field. My hope is to ultimately see blogging capture the imagination of conflict resolvers in the way it has for other professions and endeavors.

Here, here!

Tags: marketing mediation, adr blogs

Your Mediation Domain Name: Strategies for Naming a Website

Your domain name is like an online business calling card. It says something about who you are, what you do, or how you can help. Preferably, it conveys professionalism, credibility, and stability, which are particularly important for helping the relatively young ADR field create public trust and interest.

In this third article in a short series on naming domains , I offer some considerations in choosing the right domain name for your mediation practice.

Your business brand and your domain name should be the same. I say “business brand” instead of business name because your business may have several brands. For instance, my formal business name is Lenski Strategic LLC, under the umbrella of which Mediator Tech exists. I made the decision to create a new brand (Mediator Tech) and domain (www.mediatortech.com) for this portion of my work because it makes good business sense to do so.

Choose your business/brand name and domain name at the same time. This, of course, only makes sense if you’re newly in business and still forming your business presence online and off. If you’re experimenting with possible business names, be sure to find out if the domain is available before making a final decision. I recommend PowWeb and GoDaddy to check out the availability of domain names.

What if your business name or brand is already taken? If you’ve already established a business presence you don’t want to change but don’t yet have a well-developed online presence for your business, there are several ways to work around a domain name already owned by someone else:

• Choose an alternate extension. Though .com is the prevalent choice, there may be other viable options, including .info, .biz, .org or your country extension (e.g., .uk). The web is full of competing opinions about whether or not these alternates are good business sense or not, so do what feels right to you.
• Add hyphens. As with alternate extensions, there are strong opinions both for and against hyphenated domain names. Some suggest that names like www.your-business-name.com work better in search engines and make the name more memorable because the separate words stand out. Others say it looks contrived, signals “late-comer,” and is annoying to type.
• Offer to buy the domain name from the other owner. I don’t know how realistic this is but if none of the other options are acceptable, it may be worth seeing if the current domain owner might sell. You can find the owner of a domain name by visiting Network Solutions WHOIS Search or Internic.

A few other recommendations to keep in mind. Your domain name can be up to 67 characters long (or 63 characters before the “.com”). That’s a whole lot of letters. To use those letters well, consider:

• Choose a name that’s brief enough to be easily memorable but with enough substance to say something. While there’s also competing wisdom out there about domain name length, many marketing professionals seem to be suggesting that shorter is better as long as it’s got substance as to who you are or what benefit you offer.
• Browsers recognize upper- and lower-case letters equally. So, if you’ve got a long-ish domain name to put on your business card, consider printing “YourBusinessAndBrandName.com” instead of “yourbusinessandbrandname.com.”
• It’s so inexpensive to buy un-owned domain names that there’s nothing to prevent you from buying multiple domains to protect your business name. So, if you’re primary domain name is ResolvingBusinessDisputes.com, you may also want to register ResolvingBizDisputes.com and ResolveBusinessDisputes.com. There’s even a way for your extra domains to send people to your primary domain and I’ll cover that in the next post.

The first post in this short series was Naming Your Domain: Make It Easier for Clients to Find You Online. The next post is Choosing an ADR Domain Name: Fixing Naming Mistakes.

Tags: adr websites, marketing mediation, online marketing, mediation

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