Marketing Services

I am looking to engage an independent contractor on a long-term basis to handle exclusively marketing for my fledgling law firm, Couzens Criminal Defense. Top skills would be WordPress (need not be site creation, more management of an existing site), SEO, basic writing and some social media skills. I have been an attorney for 23 years and I am in the process of moving from employment with a firm to my own firm. We are currently in the process of building our website (WordPress/Hostgator) and I have an *immediate* need of someone to help me with developing content for the website, and a long-term need for someone to do marketing tasks regularly, including:

1. Manage and help develop the website (keep the website running smoothly);
2. Create and upload legal content like blog material (this is actually MUCH easier than it sounds; the formula for these blogs is pretty simple, and I will train you, but I need your help to write/edit the blogs to apply a little “SEO magic”);
3. Help gather client reviews and spread them across the right platforms like Avvo and Google My Business, respond to negative reviews using templates, etc.;
4. Help gather client information and create letters to prospective clients (using a client list and letter templates); and
5. Assuming someday we branch out into social media you would manage Linkedin, Facebook, etc.
6. Back-up Virtual Assistant Work.

I do not need a professional writer. If you can write at all, I can train you how to write the legal material for postings; I do not know how to do SEO optimization for the posts or how to incorporate them using WordPress so you would need to bring those strengths. If you are strong in social media, great; but that is not as important as items 1 and 2 above. If you can do general WordPress and SEO concepts and have decent writing/communication skills I can work with you to develop your expertise in law firm marketing. I do need at least C1 level of English proficiency given the scope.

The second main aspect of the work needed is to provide answering of the firm phones for a four-hour block of time each weekday (four hours between 8 to 5 California time); it can be any four-hour block. You are not expected to wait at your computer during this four hour block so long as you can answer within 2-3 rings in a quiet environment and have your computer (or other means to capture client info) reasonably accessible to take down client information, etc. So long as you are doing the contracted service of “covering” the phone during your four hour block, you can do whatever you wish, work on work for a different client, recreate, even sleep so long as you are alert and ready to rock after two phone rings (must be sober, however; the scope of work for your service would be to provide energetic, unimpaired customer interaction that reflects well on the firm).

So how would this work? You would be an independent contractor, not an employee, but I would like the relationship to be long-term. You would set your own working hours (except the four-hour answering service you would be providing), I would just expect to be invoiced every two weeks for the work (broken down by daily projects)—and I am fine being separately charged for “phone time” as a separate service. What does this mean? If your chosen phone time block is 4 to 8 am PI time (1 pm to 5 pm California time) and you are working on blog postings and client letters for me during that same 4 to 8 am timeframe, then I am fine with you invoicing double—8 full hours (instead of 4) for that one 4am to 8am block. My limit is I will not be invoiced more than 40 hours in a workweek, unless approved for extra spending. This would mean that you could invoice whatever you wish each day so long as the week did not exceed 40 hours (presumably each California weekday would have at least four hours invoiced because of the phone time). Keep in mind, I do have a need for at least part-time help doing substantive work (20 hours of work like the WordPress, writing, posting, etc., non-phone stuff, in a week). However, again, one could do that work during the 20 hours blocked for phone time and thus invoice for 40 hours for only 20 hours of “working” time for that week.

My budget for this contracting work is to be invoiced $4/hour or $688 per month. If you have interest, please write me back explaining your interest in the position providing the following:

1. Provide a statement of interest in the job;
2. Please provide a sample of written work, any content.
3. Provide the following with a “|” separator between each item so I can paste into a spreadsheet:

Lastname, firstname | Hourly rate from profile | AP Points applied to this application | link to profile | email address | English proficiency score | Internet connection speed

I look forward to seeing the responses and to meeting with you to discuss this position and I am very excited to start this journey.

Ryan J. Couzens

Note: I have previously posted a position for a Legal Clerk/VA position, which I am still hiring for. I am attempting to get this hiring out of the way first.