Lawyer Internet Marketing Pricing Models

Law Firm Web Marketing Pricing Models Compared

Written by Gyi Tsakalakis

December 18th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

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Posted in Blog, Lawyer internet marketing, law firm seo

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Law Firm SEO Pricing Models

Compare the pros and cons of these various lawyer internet marketing pricing models.

The Billable Hour

This one is familiar. Hourly rates for law firm SEOs can range from $40-50 to $300-$500 and beyond.

Pros: If you’re paying by the hour, you should be able to get an itemized list of the hourly activities your web marketer is performing.

Cons: Many of the activities your web marketer performs may look “greek” to you. You probably won’t be able to identify the effectiveness or efficiency of your web marketer’s efforts by a simple time sheet. Even worse, the incentive is for the marketer to bill hours, not help you “get found”.

Grade: B

Pay Per Project

Flat fee pricing takes into consideration the time, effort and personnel involved in the project. This is like the typical home improvement project pricing model. The marketer builds the quote based on your law firm’s specific goals.

Pros: The fee is fixed. The blueprint is set. You know exactly for what, and how much, you are paying.

Cons: Under this model, two problems arise, time and quality. You’d better include some form “time is of the essence” language and liquidated damages provisions. Otherwise, you may be waiting for completion months or years after the anticipated finish date. Good luck locking web developers into these agreements. Further, pay in installments. Don’t pay if the quality of the job is not living up to your expectations. Again, the incentives of your law firm and the web marketer are misaligned.

Grade: C

Pay-Per-Service

There are a lot of law firm web consultants that offer their services on a pay-per-service basis. This allows the law firm to select individualized web marketing components without paying for the whole enchilada.

Pros: This is a great way for your law firm to “get its feet wet” with web marketing. By trying individual pieces, you can see the results of each method, and decide what’s working for you.

Cons: Unless you know what works for you, you could end up paying for services that aren’t producing results. I would only recommend this model to the fairly savvy. Like the previous models, there are no results-based incentives for the marketer.

Grade: B+

Hybrid Success Share

This arrangement may be structured like Pay-Per-Action (PPA) or Pay-Per-Lead. Warning, be very careful how you structure this agreement. Most state bars prohibit fee-sharing between lawyers and non-lawyers. While many states permit reasonable pay-per-lead advertising fees, you need to structure these agreements carefully.

Pros: The incentives of the law firm and the law firm seo are properly aligned.

Cons: As the incentives are intertwined, so are your fates. Both the law firm and the SEO need to be intimately familiar with the business practices, systems, and processes of the other. The law firm also needs to be wary of the ethical considerations at play.

Grade: B-

The Retainer

While an annual retainer locks you in for too long, the basic monthly retainer can be a very good model for building a lasting relationship with your web marketer. This way, you can analyze the results that your web marketer is generating each month.

Pros: Each month you can see what your web marketer actually did in the form of results. Did they generate more traffic? Did they generate more leads? If not, you are free to take your money elsewhere.

Cons: By paying month to month, you may become anxious about what results you are seeing. Remember, effective web marketing takes time. While it is good to hold your marketer accountable, you need to invest anywhere from a couple months to a year (depending on the competitive landscape) to see significant results.

Grade: A

Pay Per Visitor

Under this model, payment is based on the measure the law firm SEOs ability to get more visitors to your site.

Pros: Incentives are aligned properly. More traffic may mean more leads and more clients.

Cons: When it comes to traffic, the rule is quality over quantity. Would you rather have 100 visitors that take no action, or 1 visitor that becomes a new client? Exactly.

Grade: C

Pay Per Rankings

While at first-blush this may seem like a very attractive model, this can be a trap. Under this model, you pay based on where your site ranks for a select set of key phrases.

Pros: Hey, you only pay when your site ranks!

Cons: SNAKE OIL ALERT! Some law firm SEOs will tell you that they will get you ranked #1. Sounds great! Unfortunately, these keywords are typically extremely low volume, which means they aren’t getting searched for. Which means they aren’t generating visitors or leads to your law firm. The truth is, “getting ranked” is a piece in a much larger puzzle.

Grade: D