Submitted by chuck on Thu, 01/07/2010 - 14:18
Lawyers face the same challenges that all businesses face and that is to effectively get the most out of their marketing budget. All marketing campaigns have one result in common and that is “to beat the competition”. Because of the number of Law Firms on the Internet and non-Internet, the competition is fierce and the results of their marketing or advertising may not produce the results for the amount of money they spend.
Before to the Internet, the main marketing option for most lawyers was to advertise in the yellows pages. Even today, the yellow pages contain plenty of colorful, one page display ads that feature lawyers offering their services. These ads are not cheap! How successful are these ads, I don't think anybody really knows when you have 20 other lawyers doing the same thing! The yellow page companies continue to promote their marketing and advertising philosophy that “bigger is best” and law firms are forced to decide on the size and cost for following this sales promotion. In my opinion, these advertising solutions cost plenty but often produce little unless you can afford the back page!
Like so many traditional ways to advertise, yellow pages in general has gone way of the caveman and the Internet has taken its place. A recent survey indicates that 7 out of 10 people searching for a lawyer use the Internet.
If we accept that the Internet is the primary tool for marketing, we can develop a strategy that is effective and affordable. Remember, there is an incredible amount of lawyers on the net who have a similar legal practice as one example: Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer, there are 1,310,000 pages listed on Google. Without following or implementing some simple but effective on-line strategies, you will be just one of the million other pages/sites that never get found.
I recommend you follow the steps and recommendations below and at the end you will have developed a marketing strategy that will not only develop leads but clients!
1.Domain Name: Its that “WWW thing” . While most professionals like to use their name or law firm name for their domain name, it is NOT by itself a good idea unless you or your firm is really well-known. If you have your “NAME” domain name, buy a domain name that identifies your practice area. As example, Howard Spiva, a Savannah Attorney has eight primary practice areas and so we purchased a domain name for each practice area using the keywords that a potential client would type in the search engine block. An example can be viewed at: http://www.trucking-bigrig-accidents.com. We used the domain names to introduce “landing pages” to our marketing strategy. More about landing pages later in this article.
2.Content: Rule...write to the client and not to another lawyer! I see so many lawyer websites that the content is not readable by non-lawyers. Keep it simple and Keep it short. People who visit lawyer sites are looking for information and help and will contact the law firm that provides them the assistance they are seeking.
3.Website Design: Over the years people are getting accustom to professionally appearing websites and if yours looks like it was developed by a third-year art student you can NOT expect to get very good results. Potential clients will look at your website and in their minds will judge you and the service they can expect from you. Spend the money and hire a website design professional. Personally, I do not like the “template” form of website design that are offered by design firms that specialize in specific professional categories: lawyers, real estate, Avon Sales, etc.
4.Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Gosh, I hate that term so lets just call it “Internet Marketing”. It is extremely important that you do this right and it starts with the basic website design: (a) Navigation...simple but comprehensive. Think about what a visitor to you law site is looking for: about you, practice area(s); your successes/reputation; helpful content or FAQs, etc. Remember, in the western world, we read left to right so the important navigation tabs should be aligned in the order of importance. (b) Meta Tags...when you look at a website you will notice at the top of the page in the blue or black space there will be words and a good strategy is use the keyword phrases that someone is going to type in the search engine block such as: Personal Injury Lawyer specializing in brain injuries, truck or car accidents, etc. this is called a “TITLE” tag. The second tag is the description. When you find a page via a search inquiry, you notice the description and I suspect you will choose the site that describes what you are seeking. It is very important that you write a “great” description...keep it to 25 words.(c) Site Map...this is a feature/coding that a good design firm will add to a website because the search engines “bots” will search the site but may miss a page because the page was not identified in the content, etc. but a site map encourages the search engine BOT to look at each page.
5.Blogs...While writing blogs is part of Internet marketing, it is so important that I wanted to explain in detail why, who, what, how and where. Blogs are simply 350 word or less articles. They are used to explain a product or process or to introduce a new product. Search Engines love blogs. We suggest that during the design process, include a blog tab. The key is not necessarily the content (while it is important) but the frequency of the posts. We recommend writing a new blog at least once a week. Another good reason to write a blog is that you can use it to post to Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in and other social networking sites. You can also “automate” your blog to automatically get posted on your Facebook and Twitter page.
6.Social Networking...When you consider the number of people who belong to Facebook and Twitter and those who view videos on YouTube, the decision NOT to join or participate is a no brainer...Yes, join NOW! I suggest that you read, participate by offering suggestions or referring the readers/fans to useful information. The goal of all social networking options is to foster relationships and NOT selling your service. Should you add your website address to your signature or Social Networking page...Absolutely!!! If you don't have a Facebook page, you can add all of the information you wish and again think and write professionally.
7.Tools...You have followed the above 6 steps and now it is time to test your site to see if you are really ready for the big-time and I suggest you go to http://www.website.grader.com and run their report. It is free and will give you an evaluation of how the search engines are going to see your website. If you have an existing site, run the report before you make changes to see your evaluation score, the best score is 100% but I do not know of any site that will get this percentage. If your site is graded in the 90% range, you are doing great and continue to do whatever you are doing because you have the secret. Also, add a few of your competitors web addresses and see how you compare. Add my website and see how you compare to a professional website marketing company...www.sysconn.com. No website is complete without have a statistical report feature added to the site. We use Google Analytics and it is awesome because not only does it give you number of visitors but what keywords people are using to find you. A great tool for amending your keyword tags, etc.
Hopefully, I have given you some suggestions on either building a new website or improving your existing site.
I have developed a complete strategy for marketing on the Internet and I suggest you read “Circle the Wagons” at http://www.chuckstarnaud.com/node/14.
Chuck St. Arnaud is the Chairman and CEO of Systems Connect, an award-winning Internet Design and Marketing Company in Savannah, GA. Chuck is also an adjunct professor of marketing at Savannah State University, a columnist for the Savannah Morning News (Internet Marketing) and a frequent speaker on the Internet and most recently for the University of Georgia Small Business Outreach Program.