In It Together: Marketing Using Online Events

• How Eric is using online seminars to generate new business
• Advice for attorneys new to using online seminars
• Pizza as a way to thank others

Recorded: April 6th, 2020
Interview: Eric Goldberg, CELA, Mandelbaum Salsburg

Eric Goldberg, CELA, formerly the founder and principal attorney at the NJ Elder Law Center at Goldberg Law Group (NJELC) is now co-chair of NJELC at Mandelbaum Salsburg in New Jersey. Their entire law firm is currently working remotely and things are running efficiently for their team.

Using email marketing, we invite people to join us for the online event that they host on Zoom. We come up with these fairly basic ideas for the topics of our online events.

• What kind of estate planning does one need during a crisis? Or when there is no crisis?
• How is COVID-19 affecting your plan?
• What’s the difference between a DNR and a living will?

Last week we created a panel for our online event. It is a huge success and I highly recommend other elder law attorneys do it. We invited four health professionals in our area, psychologists in assisted living facilities, nursing home placement person, care agency owner, and a geriatric care manager. And we acted as moderators. After the meeting ended, our phone was ringing off the hook. It showed the attendees:

• We are compassionate about the community
• We want to give information to people
• We are passionate about our professional relationships
• We are confident in them.

Engage Attendees During Online Events

Tip: Get all the names of the participants and call on professionals you know. Give them a shout-out or asking them pointed questions. Asking questions of these professionals and getting them involved in the meeting makes it more of a conversation and doesn’t bore the listeners.

Pay it Forward
We are still here. We still really care about our community and those giving so much during this time.

I started reading about these assisted living facilities and nursing homes and how hard the employees were working and how many of them are sleeping there so that they don’t leave and come back and infect elderly people. We are sending pizza to these facilities as a thank you and to help them and their morale.

How to get started with online events?
This is the new paradigm. I believe that one of the silver linings of this crisis is that it is forcing us to really be able to work remotely and to be comfortable with it. I can do seminars now in an assisted living facility for the families of the residents but I can also now feel comfortable having this Zoom meeting with the family members during lunch so they don’t have to leave their desks. I can just transmit to them right in

front of the computer. They’re sitting at their desk anyway – why not to listen to Goldberg for a few minutes and see what he has to say. If I’m not feeling well or if I’m traveling or something and I want to meet with someone I feel comfortable doing it online.

Don’t worry about the future, you have a couple extra hours a day to work on your business. We’ve been working in our business for so long. Use this time to look into how can we enhance our business going forward and this virtual meeting space is definitely one of the ways that you can do it.