Legal Internet Marketing Blog

People with an insider’s knowledge of Microsoft say that the company will make an announcement soon that Facebook posts will appear in Bing’s search results in the near future. Microsoft has said that posts from Twitter users have already been integrated into its new search engine’s search results. It’s also possible that posts from other social media sites will also be included in the future.

The president of Microsoft’s online services division, Qi Lu, was expected to make the announcement about the integrated search results at the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco. The senior vice president for Microsoft’s online audience business group, Yusuf Mehdi, is expected to conduct a demonstration of the new capabilities of the Bing search engine.

Microsoft’s deal with Twitter, which is expected to be nonexclusive, has reportedly been included in the company plans for many weeks. Microsoft engineers had already included Twitter posts into Bing in anticipation of the announcement. The terms of Microsoft’s deal are not expected to be disclosed, but a person inside the deal who wished to remain anonymous said that negotiations included a payment from Microsoft to Twitter.

Continue reading "Microsoft's Bing Browser Integrates Twitter and Facebook Posts in Search Results" »

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Posted In: Internet News , Legal Marketing Tips , Marketing News & Information , Social Networking

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After suffering setbacks due to the recession, Internet advertising appears to be recovering well ahead of predictions. While advertising in traditional media like newspapers and magazines continues to founder, resulting in layoffs and pay cuts, advertising online seems to be gathering steam again. Kent State professor and former media analyst Lauren Rich Fine recently said that advertising in traditional media, classified sections in newspapers in particular, will never recover to pre-recession levels.

This forecast is in sharp contrast to the growing number of advertisers steadily increasing their online advertising budgets where more of their target audience spends their free time. Further worsening conditions for older media outlets, advertising online is less expensive, and an online advertiser’s return on investment is much easier to measure and track. Even companies that have longstanding advertising relationships with television networks and publishers are realizing that they need a strong marketing presence on the Internet, too.

"You can draw a straight line from the time when people hear an ad on the radio or television to when they search for that company on the Internet," said David Karnstedt, chief executive of Efficient Frontier, which helps manage ad campaigns on search engines.

Continue reading "Internet Advertising Regaining Momentum" »

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Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Marketing News & Information

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Not so long ago, small business owners had to be very selective about their advertising with their limited marketing budgets. Google AdWords and Internet marketing have leveled the playing field for small businesses substantially. However, unless owners or their Internet marketing expert plan their AdWords campaign carefully, they can quickly find themselves spending thousands of dollars with little return on investment.

First, determine if a Google AdWords campaign is the right choice for your business. For example, if your company produces a new product with very little name recognition, an AdWords campaign centered on a keyphrase like “organic turkey pastrami” might result in very inexpensive clicks, but little traffic to your site.

Next, establish an affordable budget and stick to it. Regardless how competitive your target keywords and keyphrases might be, unless you set a daily and monthly budget and stick to it, you’re setting yourself up to pay an expensive tab for pay-per-click. Instead of focusing on the quantity of clicks on your ad, concern yourself with the quality of those clicks.

Third, consider modifying your selected keywords and phrases with the names of nearby cities or your county. Also, bear in mind that AdWords will let you select a defined geo-specific area where your ads will reach local customers. If your snow plowing business is in Manchester, New Hampshire and you’re trying to attract qualified traffic with a PPC campaign for “snow removal,” it doesn’t do you much good if a user eighty miles away sees your ad. Select Manchester snow removal, Bedford, NH snow plowing services or another nearby community.

Continue reading "Small Business Guide to Using Google AdWords" »

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Posted In: Internet News , Legal Marketing Tips , Marketing News & Information

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The importance and relevance of legal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for attracting qualified clients and helping a law firm become more successful is very well known, but it’s not enough to simply know that it is effective. In order for legal professionals to really understand how legal SEO helps them, they need to know why it works and why it provides a significantly better return on investment than traditional legal marketing methods. So we’ve compiled a list of some of the things that every lawyer should know about legal SEO:

• Legal SEO lets you compete with the big firms – Legal Search Engine Optimization levels the playing field for your firm and allows it to compete successfully with larger law firms with huge marketing budgets. Smaller, savvier, more nimble firms can use legal SEO strategies to thrive in a hyper-competitive field.


• It is the most cost-effective form of marketing – Traditional forms of marketing are expensive and may or may not achieve the desired results. Once the proper foundation has been established for your site’s success, your legal SEO keeps working for your firm 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.


• It helps your site attract local clients – Web users are becoming more sophisticated at finding local goods and services on the Internet. Modifying legal SEO keywords and phrases with the names of local cities makes it easier for potential clients to find your site!

Continue reading "What Every Lawyer Should Know About Legal SEO" »

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Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Straight Talk about SEO

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By now, most Web-savvy people in the legal world, or any industry for that matter, are familiar with the importance of social marketing. They understand that social marketing not only enhances the effectiveness of other legal Internet marketing strategies but far more importantly, it allows them to receive feedback from and interact with their site’s visitors and target audience. Social marketing provides a practical way to share information. However, the owners of sites and their Internet marketing consultant need to be very careful about how this information is dispensed. Web users are becoming increasingly sophisticated at discerning useful social marketing content provided for their benefit or entertainment from attempts to manipulate their purchasing decisions via social marketing methods. In order achieve its goals, social marketing strategies must have merit and something useful to contribute to the social networking communities that is serves.

To that end, here are some social networking ideas to keep in mind that will help you through the current economy and set you up for success when it recovers:

• Keep it real! – As previously mentioned, Web users are quite astute at discerning genuine efforts to contribute to the community from fake attempts to manipulate them and can employ the power of social networking to ‘call out’ fakes. This is illustrated by a recent incident where some popular Twitterers were outed for taking cash in exchange for product recommendations in their tweets. This created an outrage among Twitter users, and the backlash sullied the reputations of the Twitterers and the products they were shilling for.


• Create your own community and engage your readers – Blog posts rank well in search results, give readers a reason to check your site often, provide interesting and useful information and create a sense of community among your readers. Consider adding a blog to your site with posts written by you, your legal Internet marketing consultant or a mix or both.

Continue reading "Using Social Marketing in a Down Economy" »

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Posted In: Client Development , Content Development , Legal Marketing Tips , Legal Web Site , Social Networking

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The old saying that “bad news travels fast,” has never seemed more relevant than it does in the Information Age. These days, a legal professional’s reputation not only can precede him or her, it can also directly influence a potential client’s decision to contact or not contact him or her. The rising popularity of Web sites that allow people to share their positive or negative experiences with products or professionals of any stripe makes it easy for people to share their opinions. Those opinions, whether based on fact or not, show up in search results and can have a profound impact on the success of a law firm or legal professional.

To that end, we’ve compiled a list of proactive reputation management tips that are inexpensive, enhance the effectiveness of other legal Internet marketing techniques, and allow legal professionals to take charge of their reputation management. These tips for lawyers include:

• Harness the power of social marketing – Social marketing sites are becoming increasingly relevant for any lawyer’s or law firm’s Internet marketing. Consider creating profiles for yourself and/or your law firm on social networking sites that cater to legal professionals as well as the heavyweights like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others.


• Host informational videos on your site – Consider hosting informational videos on your legal Web site that address some of the questions your clients often ask you about. These add value to your site, engage your site’s visitors and also rank well in search results!


• Add a legal blog to your site – Whether you write the legal blog’s posts yourself or have your legal Internet marketing company compose them for you, they benefit your site, rank well in search results, and allow you to address topical issues in the legal industry and provide valuable information to your site’s visitors and potential clients.

Continue reading "Online Reputation Management Tips for Legal Professionals" »

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Posted In: Client Development , Legal Marketing Tips , Legal Web Site , Social Networking , Straight Talk about SEO

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The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is expecting that businesses will expand their mobile marketing budgets by up to 26 percent in the coming year, despite evidence that suggests that businesses will be spending slightly less on marketing this year overall. While mobile marketing is still quite small compared to the reach, relevance and revenue generated by Internet marketing, as more and more users use their personal communication devices to browse the Web, the effectiveness and market share of mobile marketing is expected to rise in the foreseeable future.

While mobile marketing currently represents only 1.8 percent of total marketing budgets, the MMA expects that the total spending on mobile marketing will climb from $1.7 billion to $2.16 billion in 2010. Approximately half of the brands and agencies the MMA polled recently said that they were experimenting with at least one type of mobile marketing, with SMS text campaigns the most popular choice, followed by mobile Web sites and mobile email marketing, respectively.

Most often, marketers are integrating their mobile marketing efforts with the Internet as statistics suggest that mobile Internet access increased 36 percent in the United States over the last year. Further, the research indicated that over 18 million Americans currently have mobile Internet access, and 54 million people worldwide enjoy mobile Internet access. Although mobile marketing has steadily gained market share over the last several years, the research also found that slow connections, spotty network connectivity and extra fees are still the principal barriers to entice mobile users online.

Industry experts believe that mobile Internet marketing has been and continues to be effective because it reaches consumers when they are shopping, running errands and making purchasing decisions away from their home. A research study conducted by Universal McCann on smartphone usage patterns found that more than one-third of smartphone users described as “high-use” respond to mobile advertisements. The study found that:

• 53 percent of smartphone users click on mobile advertising


• 35 percent request more information or a coupon


• 24 percent make purchases through their handsets


• 82 percent said that they use mobile devices while at work


• 81 percent said that they used their mobile devices while shopping

Continue reading "Mobile Marketing Budgets Expected to Climb 26% This Year" »

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Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Marketing News & Information

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Many clients in a hurry to have their legal Web site up and running overlook the importance of the site’s infrastructure in terms of site performance, ease of use, navigation, ranking opportunities and other important considerations. They care a great deal about page layout, color scheme, cool Flash animations, how the site reflects the professionalism of their law firm and other cosmetic features of their site, but are less concerned about the actual ‘nuts and bolts’ aspect of their site.

In many ways, a Web site’s infrastructure in analogous to a house in that it can look great from the outside but, unless it has been built to withstand a wide range of different environmental pressures, it will not last or provide its intended benefits. From a legal Internet marketing standpoint, unless a site is designed and built to rank well and perform well from the very beginning of the project, it will never achieve its goals or provide the proper foundation for the success of any legal Internet marketing strategies. Here are a few reasons why your legal Web site’s infrastructure is so important:

• It ensures that your site loads quickly in all browsers and traffic conditions – Good site infrastructure will ensure that you legal site loads quickly and properly when viewed through any browser and in high traffic conditions. A site that looks great in one browser but displays broken features in another will turn off site visitors and reflect poorly on your practice.


• Makes it easier for Google and other search engines to index your site – Sites built with clean, uncluttered code are easier for Google and the other search engines to index, which is a bigger deal than you may think. The indexing algorithms are designed to ‘remember’ which sites are difficult to ‘crawl’ and therefore index their contents less often, which affects placement in search results.

Continue reading "Why Your Site’s Infrastructure Is So Important" »

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Posted In: Content Development , Legal Marketing Tips , Legal Web Site

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Microsoft is sparing no expense and thinking well outside the metaphorical box in its efforts to market its new search engine named “Bing.” The corporation is buying prominent placement in television programs and the online video hub Hulu.com as part of their efforts to raise awareness about their new search engine. In fact, Microsoft plans to air an hour-long “Bing-a-thon” on Hulu.com, matching the new search engine with the old marketing standby - the infomercial. Tired of having its old search engine a perennial afterthought to the undisputed champion of the search engine Google, the Microsoft Corporation is believed to be spending between $80 million to $100 million on advertising to give Bing a running start on the competition.

Microsoft is willing to invest in all this Internet marketing in their new search engine because Internet marketing has become such an effective way to build brand management, attract targeted, qualified traffic to a Web site and drive sales. In addition, search engine market share has become increasingly coveted because online ad spending has held up much better than most other types of media in a tough economic climate. It’s fair to say that Microsoft is implementing all this Internet marketing for Bing to get a bigger chunk of Google’s share of ad revenue.

Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president for the online services division of Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, said, “It’s a very tall marketing challenge and a very tall product challenge…It’s going to take multiple steps to get where we want to go,” he added, “and this is the first step. The key will be whether we deliver a product and connect with people emotionally in the advertising.”

Mr. Mehdi added that to achieve the second point, “You have to do something a little bit more surprising.”

Continue reading "Marketing for “Bing” Search Engine: Microsoft Thinking Outside the Box" »

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Posted In: Internet News , Legal Marketing Tips

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With the explosion in popularity that social media and social networking sites like facebook, twitter, youtube, videojug, and linkedin have recently enjoyed, many attorneys are faced with the question of whether or not to invest the time and money involved in creating and maintaining profiles on these sites. Can tweeting 30 times a day and having hundreds of followers to your profile increase the number of great cases you get? Will it cause your phone to ring more often?

The answer, in most instances, is a resounding ‘no’, but that does not mean that these sites don’t serve a purpose. The real value of these types of sites becomes obvious when you view your name (and your law firm’s name) as a trademarked brand name. A brand name that like any other in the business world, needs to be protected.

While it is true that you don’t have to devote large resources to social media sites, you do have to protect your brand name and trademarks by registering or ‘claiming’ your profiles. Almost all of the profiles that you create on the most popular of social networking sites are free. It just takes time and a valid email address. By taking the time to create profiles for yourself and your firm, you successfully claim your virtual identity online preventing brand and trademark abuse while contributing to your legal Internet marketing efforts.

Another variable here is the potential that some of these social networking sites have for exploding in popularity. Let’s not forget the story of facebook.com, a social networking site that started very small. Originally the site was intended to be a networking tool for Harvard students. As it’s popularity increased, other colleges and high school were allowed to join its ranks as well. It wasn’t until late 2006 that the site actually opened its membership to non-students. Today the site has more than 200 million active profiles. Who knows which social networking site will enjoy similar success? By claiming as many of these profiles as possible you insure that you are well positioned to take advantage of future success.

Additionally, and this is actually the most important factor from an SEO standpoint, social media sites can rank very highly in the search engines, especially for people’s names. If you’ve ever done a search for an individual you know that very often the first page of results can be dominated by myspace, facebook, youtube, and linkedIN profiles. The pages where the profiles are listed can also have very high page ranks, offering valuable links back to your firm’s website.

The most attractive part of this plan of action is that it costs virtually nothing. Any intern or office administrator can log into these sites and create profiles for your firm. The potential benefits far outweigh the time invested, and protecting your brand name on a prime domain can reap substantial benefits to you and your firm’s online identity.

Posted by Susan Sipe | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Legal Web Site , Social Media , Social Networking

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From the people who brought you the social networking sensation twitter.com, comes tweetlaw.com, a Twitter application designed specifically for legal professionals. Why tweetlaw? The webpage explains it like this:

“We believe that sometimes, labels are necessary. So many careers and specialties fall under the legal profession, and we want to give you the opportunity to stand out in your field.”

The site was launched on April 1st, 2009 and as of the writing of this article on May 10th, 2009 has 389 legal professionals tweeting.

Signing up for an account on tweetlaw.com is easy. You login by using your twitter.com username and password. You are then able to make a custom tweetlaw.com profile. Unlike twitter, your tweetlaw.com profile can be as long as you want it to be (twitter limits it to 140 characters). Creating your profile also allows you to specify several URLs to associate with your profile, one for your “personal” site, another for your ‘work” site. You can also add information like your mailing address, phone number, email address, and a bio about who you are and what you do.

Tweetlaw.com also allows you to specify up to 4 “categories” that describe what you do. Currently the site features 40 categories to choose from including: Blawgers, Law Students, Litigators, Paralegals, Family Lawyers, Small Law Firms and Big Law Firms to name a few. These categories feature members tweeting about relevant subject matter.

Like twitter, tweetlaw.com can serve a purpose for attorneys who are looking to effectively market themselves online. A large online legal network is a useful tool when gauging the temperament of lawyers nationwide. It is also very useful for bouncing marketing ideas off of your peers who might otherwise be unavailable, or unwilling, to help you. Rebroadcasting your blog stories on twitter can also increase readership and get your articles read by more individuals, who may decide to link those articles to their own blogs/ tweets (if they are any good).

Since the site is relatively new, the indexing of this information on search engines could take some time, but it is always good to have incoming links from reputable, popular locations on the internet, and tweetlaw.com seems to be destined to be just that.

Posted by Susan Sipe | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Social Media , Social Networking

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LinkedIn is a great online networking tool that caters to the individual who is less interested in connecting with ‘buddies’ or ‘friends’ and more interested in networking with like-minded and career oriented individuals on the Internet.

What separates Linkedin from other social networking sites is that it is designed with the business user in mind. With 40 million members in over 200 countries around the world and executives from all Fortune 500 companies in its ranks, LinkedIn profiles are becoming necessities for the users who are looking to not only network online, but also maintain a strong, branded online presence.

From the LinkedIn webpage:

“When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can then form enduring connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to a vast number of qualified professionals and experts.”

The benefits of LinkedIn are numerous and quickly recognizable. Besides being able to manage the information that’s publicly available about you as a professional, you can build your client development, collaborate with peers on projects, even partner with them for potential business opportunities, gain new insight from discussions with other professionals who share your interests and also place job listings for your organization.

Perhaps, most importantly, is the clout that google seems to lend to LinkedIn profiles. It is very rare to Google an individual’s name and not find their Linkedin profile among the first few organic search engine results. This is very important for several reasons. Most obviously, this increases your web presence and visibility, but it also enables you to control the information that people searching for you see.

If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, you should get one now. They are free and easy to setup: https://www.linkedin.com/.

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Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Social Networking

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Everyone knows that a good sitemap on your webpage is imperative to getting your pages noticed by Google. What many people don’t know is that Google has a Sitemap Protocol that allows you to inform all search engines about URLs on your websites that are available for crawling in a more dynamic fashion. This Sitemap Protocol is rendered as an XML file that lists all of the URLs on your site like a normal sitemap would, however its scalability and custom commands allows you other options that a typical HTML sitemap would not.

XML Sitemaps enable webmasters to include information about URL’s like when the page was last updated, how often it changes, and how important it is in relation to other pages in the site. The document provided by Google describes the formats for Sitemap files and also explains where you should post your Sitemap files so that search engines can retrieve them.

Some of the XML tags that are described in the document are:

• <lastmod>: This tag indicates the date of the last modification of this file.


• <changefreq>: Indicates how frequently the page is likely to change. Values like ‘always’, ‘hourly’, ‘daily’, ‘weekly’, ‘monthly’, ‘yearly’, and ‘never’ are all acceptable.


• <priority>: Indicates the priority of this URL relative to other URLs on your site. Valid values range from 0.0 to 1.0.

XML Sitemaps can be a valuable tool for your legal website that allow search engine crawlers to more effectively and efficiently crawl your site. It is important to note, however, that the Sitemap Protocol supplements, but does not replace, the crawl-based mechanisms that search engines already use to discover URLs. As Google’s XML sitemap page indicates:
“Using this protocol does not guarantee that your webpages will be included in search indexes… using this protocol will not influence the way your pages are ranked by Google”

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Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Legal Web Site , SEO Tools

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With today’s economic woes affecting seemingly all aspects of business, many law firms large and small are struggling with exactly how to spend their marketing budgets. A solid indicator of where to spend your money can come from looking at other industries, gauging the climate of search engine marketing budgets across the board to get a feel for how much of your budget should be spent online.

A report published on emarketer.com regarding a study conducted by Econsultancy and SEO firm Guava, indicated that online marketers around the globe are increasingly turning to search marketing tactics.

Fifty-five percent of respondents said they planned to raise spending on SEO, and 45% said the same of paid search. In addition, 31% of SEO and 32% of paid search users said they intended to maintain their budgets.

It seems that business marketing executives are learning what many of our clients have known for quite some time, that search engine marketing is the most reliable, efficient tool in attracting new customers. SEO offers inherent advantages over paid search options, although the benefits may take time to make themselves apparent.

“SEO improves organic listings, which Internet users prefer over paid search, and it is cost-effective,” said eMarketer senior analyst David Hallerman. “Furthermore, optimization works across all search engines, and an optimized site does not drop off the first results page even when marketer spending slows or stops—as it can with paid search.”

Although this article refers primarily to online sites that have a traditional, commerce driven product, the goal of a solid legal Internet marketing strategy is always the same, increase traffic to the site and visibility in organic searches for relevant keyword terms. All attorneys, regardless of their specific mode of practice, can benefit from a sound online marketing campaign whose focal point is a strong SEO plan.

Our firm has specialized in building these types of marketing plans for more than 10 years. Our track record of success is well documented and we remain at the forefront of search engine marketing tactics. Contact us today, we can help your firm dominate online searches and help potential clients find and contact your website first.

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Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips , Legal Web Site , Straight Talk about SEO

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Currently, you utilize a number of processes to drive potential clients to your practice. These may include: brochures, direct mail, billboard ads, Yellow Pages ads, online marketing efforts, TV and radio spots, word-of-mouth referrals, and repeat business.

Unfortunately, many attorneys and attorney marketing specialists -- who are quite good at analyzing the tactical consequences of advertising methods -- fail to understand the importance of developing an integrated approach to driving business.

Businesses that focus on an overall marketing strategy, do much better than firms that rely on “flavor the moment" and "get rich quick" tactics to get ahead.

Your offline and online legal marketing approaches can cement your law firm’s concept. Pick your “niche” of the “market,” then focus your entire marketing campaign on highlighting your strengths in this niche to potential customers.

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Are you thinking about building a new website for your firm and don't know where to start? Here is a short checklist of information that can help you:

1) Contact information
Include your firm's name, address, phone number, fax number, e-mail addresses, and any other critical information on EVERY page. Many law firm sites don't list contact information anywhere except the "Contact" page, which makes it more difficult for users to find it. Put it on every page in a prominent position so that potential clients don't need to go farther than the first page they land on to find it.

2) Who You Are
Make your website informational and personal. Give your clients more than an unsmiling photo and a dry professional C.V. Make them feel like they know you before they pick up the phone. Remember every potential client that comes to your site is unique - you need to be unique also.

3) Educate your user
Your potential clients are searching the Internet for information about their particular situation. Don't be afraid to educate them, it won't scare them away. It actually has the opposite effect - by establishing your site as an informational site in your niche of the law, you'll not only appeal to potential customers, but you'll also please the search engines. The more educational and detailed site is, the better chance you’ll have of organically attracting clients.

4) Description your services
Brand your legal web site effectively. In plain language, describe what your firm specializes in and what you provide in the way of legal services. Use bullet point lists, graphics, and other simplifying tools to boil down your site’s “essence.”

Continue reading "Legal Web Site Checklist (From “Basics” To “Bells And Whistles”)" »

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1) A dysfunctional practice
If your firm’s financially disorganized, troubled by ethical problems, or incapable of taking on new cases, a web site isn't going to fix it – no matter how well constructed or content rich. If your firm is having difficulties, fix them first then build your web presence.

2) The actions of competitors
The Web is a Wild West and will likely continue to be so for some time. Just because you rank well and dominate a keyword today doesn’t mean that you can sit back and relax. You must continue to build on your foundation so that you can stay ahead of your competitors. You are only as good as your current SEO campaign. The Internet is a living, breathing, ever changing animal - a shape shifter. You cannot control the behavior others, but you can control your own thematic approach by focusing on your web site and your long-term strategy.

3) The shifting algorithms
Google, Yahoo, MSN and the other big search engines are constantly looking for ways to improve search (and make more money of course). The algorithms that are used by spiders to rank web sites will evolve to fight back against so-called “black hat" SEO techniques. Your goal should not be to “trick" the search engines with rank well quick schemes, but rather to deliver good, timeless, highly relevant content. Remember the tortoise and the hare????

4) The reactions of all visitors
Your resources are limited. Focus on pleasing as many visitors as you can. You are never going to please "all of the people all of the time".

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Posted In: Content Development , Legal Marketing Tips

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It can be tempting to crawl under a rock until the recession passes, but the National Law Journal recently published surprising news from 2008: legal filings actually rose nine percent in 2008. Here’s how to turn these numbers into a great legal marketing opportunity for your firm:

- Respect the climate. Fear is everywhere…and chances are your potential clients are afraid, too. Keep your website real and make it personal. Gone are the days of the stuffy image, roll up your sleeves and smile for your website photos.

- Stay on top of the news. With so much competition for legal Internet traffic and business, you have to differentiate yourself from the pack. One great way to do this is to make sure your site has current and up to date content (think blog!). Google loves it and your search engine rankings will reap the benefits…

- Leverage existing clients. A bit more attention to customer care and retention now will result in happy referrals down the road. Remember... its the little things that count.

- Stay out there. More litigation means more people combing the Internet, looking for lawyers. Maximize your exposure by developing an Internet presence that combines a professional web design, solid SEO, informative content, and current news and advice (think blog!).

- Prepare. An increase in new potential clients is useless if you aren’t ready to handle them. Make sure your in-house systems for telephone and email responses are in place and that new leads get an immediate response when they contact your firm and not an answering service or voicemail. Make sure everyone in your office is on board for the challenges that accompany an influx of business.

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Posted In: Client Development , Legal Marketing Tips

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Let’s face it – the recession is not bringing out the best in every business. People are increasingly putting their head in the sand, pulling back their resources, and building the proverbial bunker to ride out the storm. If you haven’t been thinking of ways to cut down on your marketing budget, you’re an exception to the rule – but you might be smarter than the pack.

A recent article in the National Law Journal exhibits just what I mean. Entitled “As firms cut marketing, others see opportunity,” it sums up the entire climate in one simple headline.

It can be tempting to cut down on your Internet marketing investment in these lean times, but remember, search engine optimization – especially in the highly competitive legal field – is a numbers game and an endurance race.

Continue reading "Slowdown…or Opportunity for Legal Marketing? " »

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It can be easy to draw traffic in to your website... but what constitutes the tipping point for undecided potential clients? Often, it’s the perception of education.

Consider a potential client whose son has been involved in a DUI accident. They’re scared, angry, and sick of dealing with insurance companies and police officers. They’re ready for action and results, but more than that they want to understand what their experience will be like as they undergo the process. By acting as an educator, you can address these fears on several levels, before, during, and after the engagement.

Before: The Website Visit
Informative articles on your site (with attractive and interesting titles, of course) allow you to educate your client without ever stepping in front of them. Make sure to stress the importance of competent legal counsel while actually providing information in each article – the search engines and your future clients will thank you.

During: The Client Consultation
It’s standard practice to offer a consultation or evaluation for clients as they decide who to go with. By thinking of your educator role, you’ll be able to separate yourself from the pack. Answer questions simply and effectively without giving away the farm. Your goal is to provide enough information to make prospects feel educated and secure, but not enough to make them feel they can represent themselves.

After: Ongoing Contact
It’s easy to forget the fear factor when you’re a seasoned attorney, but your clients are often facing very real fear as they prepare for court appearances. By educating them about what to expect in court and what you are doing, you can cut down on this fear, make them feel secure and confident, and guarantee referrals and repeat business.

Many times the lawyers I speak with are worried that if they give too much information the client will feel that they don't need a lawyer... the exact opposite is true. The more information you give, the more clients feel at ease and realize they need your professional legal services. Don't be afraid to give information to potential clients.

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Though every lawyer could write a library full of novels about their life and professional work, all too often lawyers are not great Web writers. Is it because their endless rounds of court-ordained tasks and client care deplete their writing ability? Is it because they can’t write? Of course not. So what’s wrong with the legal website content written by lawyers? The answer is simple: too much legalese.

Legalese is tempting to throw into client communications. After all, you’re the attorney…you get paid to use complex legal terminology and construct legal arguments that draw on the profession’s special language. Unfortunately, this can alienate current and potential clients…and that could be a big mistake for your practice!

Here’s how to reduce the use of legalese in your client communications, be they by letter or over the Web:

- Break up those sentences. When it comes to writing for your clients, shorter is better. After you’ve written something, go through and try to find sentences you can break up into shorter ones. It’s easier on the eye and has a greater impact. I promise.

- Translate. Think of yourself as a translator. By day, you speak a legal jargon understood by a privileged few. How would you break down a complex legal concept for someone who knew nothing about the law whatsoever? Your clients depend on you to translate legal ideas into concepts they can understand. Respect that trust and reciprocate with language that’s geared toward all levels, especially when writing website content.

- Write with search engines in mind. Do you think a potential client is more likely to look up a sentence like “involuntary manslaughter conviction ramifications” or “DUI consequences”? A dash of realism in your writing can help turn visitors into clients.

It may seem difficult to “turn it on” and “turn it off”, but learning to reduce legalese in all your written and verbal communications with your clients and will benefit you. 

Posted by Susan Sipe | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Legal Marketing Tips

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