With experts recently citing the official conclusion of the Great Recession as June 2009, companies are slowly beginning to stabilize after an 18-month downturn that left 55 percent of Americans recovering from a mix of hardships.

Even after the gloom and doom has officially ended, law firms are still recovering from that difficult period. Now the question is how should companies spend their resources as they get back on their feet?  Should they invest in advertising, blogging, attending trade shows etc.? Or should they review current marketing plans and update them as necessary?

To be candid, all of these lead-generation methods have their advantages, but, there are other actions attorneys can take, in their legal practices, that are more likely to produce more bang for your buck when things are slow.
Here are some areas to review in your legal practice:

1. How frequently do you reach out to your professional networks? How well do you maintain your extended networks?
2. Harvard Business School research found that a 5-percent increase in customer loyalty can lead to 40 percent to 90 percent increases in the lifetime value of that customer relationship. You need to earn your customers’ loyalty. What are you doing to improve your client systems?
3. Are you perceived as the expert in your niche? If not, what concrete actions steps are you taking? Do you know where to begin to start building your expert status?
4. Review your strategic plans. Slow times are a great time to review your plans and see if you are still on track.
5. Are you taking opportunities of collaborating with strategic partners and authoring articles for local papers and trade journals. If so, how are you leveraging them?
6. Are the systems in your legal practice operating efficiently like a well-oiled machine? If not, what area needs improvement? Your marketing? Public relations? Managing clients? Are you still searching for a system that works for you?
7. Is the press calling to quote you? When was the last time a reporter called you?
8. Do prospects get to see and hear you up close and personal? How often and where are you speaking?
9. Reviewing all these different areas of your law practice and discovering where weaknesses lie are far more likely to be  productive and dollar cost effective instead of trying new marketing strategies and hoping they will work.

About SCG Legal PR Network

SCG Legal PR Network is a global network that connects lawyers as expert sources with reporters and features a 24/7-accessible database of legal experts from a variety of areas. Its team is comprised of former award-winning journalists whose experience spans over three continents and 30-plus years of experience in the field of journalism and public relations. The network was started by a former journalist, Paramjit Mahli, who has worked within news outlets like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Financial Post, CNN, CNNfn and The Journal of Commerce. For more information about the SCG Legal PR Network, please call 212-661-9137 or visit SCG Legal PR Network’s Web site at http://www.scglegalprnetwork.com.