Success leaves clues: Nancy Hudgins
July 23, 2008
Success Leaves Clues is my occasional series of interviews with interesting ADR professionals who have effectively navigated the intersection of technology use and ADR practice-building.
This time around, I have the pleasure of interviewing fellow ADR blogger Nancy Hudgins. Nancy is a San Francisco, CA lawyer and mediator specializing in civil cases. She’s also the blogger behind Civil Negotiation and Mediation, a Mediate.com-featured and Alltop-honored ADR blog she started in January of this year.
Nancy and I have gotten to know each other via email chats and when she shared a sample of her most recent print marketing piece, the 22-page page full-color pamphlet, “Winning” at Mediation: A Blueprint for Preparation, I knew I wanted to profile her here. Nancy sends the pamphlet to attorneys interested in using mediation to resolve a civil case and the pages walk an attorney patiently through how they can maximize the opportunities provided by mediation. It’s clear from the moment you open it that Nancy put great care into the content and quality. [Read more]
How to cure an allergic reaction to mediation marketing
July 19, 2008
Back in March, attorney and marketing consultant Cole Silver interviewed me for his Raindancing Expert Audio Series.
At the time, I shared the 30-minute interview audio, How to Market a Mediation Practice and it’s still there for the listening if you’re new to Mediator Tech or didn’t have the inclination at the time.
Cole’s alerted me to a marketing article he’s got running at The Complete Lawyer (also home to The Human Factor, from fellow ADR bloggers and super-women Diane Levin, Vickie Pynchon, Gini Nelson and Stephanie West Allen).
In Powerful Cures for an Allergic Reaction to Marketing, Cole suggests, [Read more]
Are you selling the shovel or the hole?
July 17, 2008
When you’re marketing your mediation services, are you selling the features (great shovel, ergonomically designed, sharp cutting edge) or the benefits (the fastest, cleanest hole you’ve ever dug…and no back pain, either)?
Here’s a little clip from last week’s Making Mediation Your Day Job summer book club conference call, where I read a brief excerpt from my book to kick off the conversation. The excerpt distinguishes features from benefits and why you want to focus on the latter.
Get Flash to see this player.
Which are you selling? If you already have a “Frequently Asked Questions” or “Why Choose Mediation” section on your website, why not take another look at your answers.
Mediator Tech newsletter for july 2008
July 12, 2008
What’s better than a savvy marketing plan to jump-start your ADR business? Better than a website to leverage the web for your business? Well, read on, and you’ll find out.
But first, let me welcome you to the July ‘08 newsletter and thank you for being a Mediator Tech reader. I’m glad you’re here because it’s a whole lot of fun to blog for subscribers and commenters like you.
Here’s what’s in this edition of the newsletter:
- New marketing and web strategy service for mediators
- A special reader offer
- ACR conference registration now open
- Good reads and resources for mediation marketers and business owners
- Digest of Mediator Tech articles from the past month
Mediator tech goes mobile!
July 11, 2008
It seemed fitting, on the day of the new iPhone launch in the U.S., to announce that Mediator Tech has gone mobile!
You can now get Mediator Tech on your web-enabled phone (not just the iPhone) by pointing your phone to http://m.mediatortech.com. Or visit Mediator Tech’s subscription page to get a text message with the mobile site’s URL delivered automatically to your phone.
Mediation target markets and market niches: not the same
July 9, 2008
In the first group call for the Making Mediation Your Day Job Summer Book Club, conversation about mediation marketing turned several times to selecting the right target market for your ADR business, and differentiating between a market niche and a target market.
Click the link to listen to a 5-minute clip on the difference between mediation market niche and target market.
You’re welcome to join the book club at any time along the way. The next club call is this Friday, July 11, 12-12:45 pm EDTime, and calls continue every two weeks through August. Signup is simple and I’ll never share your contact information [note: if you can't view the short signup form in your email or RSS reader, just click on the title of the article]:
Social media: join the shift from monologue to dialogue
July 6, 2008
In Making Mediation Your Day Job, I discuss at length the way dialogue and conversation are replacing the old monologue marketing model and what mediators should do about it.
Still not convinced it’s worth your while to network online and use social media to promote your business? Take a look at this excellent slideshow, filled with some pretty interesting data. For instance:
- 36% of consumers think more positively about companies that have blogs.
- Millenials spend 16 hours or more per week online…and by 2010, they and Gen Y’ers will outnumber baby boomers.
- Social networking sites are officially more popular than porn sites.
Intrigued? Take a look at the whole show…it’s 5 minutes of your time and the future for your ADR business.
[Can't see the link to the slideshow in your email or feed reader? Click here to go directly to the slideshow.]
Thanks to Liz Strauss for the find.
What social media do you participate in? What value are you getting from it? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so comment away!
Going all the way before the first date: the folly of sham link exchanges
July 6, 2008
Picture this: You’ve got your eye on someone special. Maybe you haven’t met them yet but have worshiped them from afar. Or maybe you just met them in passing at a party, but barely know them. But you heard they’re popular and you’d love a little of that popularity to rub off on you.
You decide to email them. “Hello, I’m a really big fan and I just know we’d be a good match. Would you be my friend? Or maybe we can just hop in the sack right away?”
Yeah, right. [Read more]
Making mediation your day job in Ontario bar association news
July 1, 2008
Canadian mediator, arbitrator and attorney Colm Brannigan has reviewed Making Mediation Your Day Job for the Ontario Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution News, and kindly sent me a copy.
Here’s a snippet of what Colm had to say in an in-depth review that includes Colm’s own valuable musings about ADR marketing and what it takes to be successful at it:
This short book is a gem. It is quite different from the other relatively recent books on marketing mediation and clearly demonstrates that you do not need hundreds of pages to provide your reader with a comprehensive overview of a topic which bedevils many in our profession…While you can easily read the book in one sitting, it lends itself to a bite-sized approach where we return more than once to those parts that resonate with the reader. It is a resource worth having.
None of this is new, the author says “there’s not a single new idea” in the book. But there is. Her synthesis of existing marketing ideas into a “mediator friendly” process is more than just that. It opens up a new way of problem solving, and after all, isn’t that what mediators are supposed to do?
