AttorneySync Blog

There was a great post by Seth Godin I read recently called The Wordperfect Axiom. Seth tells us:

When the platform changes, the leaders change.

Wordperfect had a virtual monopoly on word processing in big firms that used DOS. Then Windows arrived and the folks at Wordperfect didn’t feel the need to hurry in porting themselves to the new platform. They had achieved lock-in after all, and why support Microsoft?

In less than a year, they were toast.

When the game machine platform of choice switches from Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of bestelling games change and new companies become dominant.

When the platform for music shifted from record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too, and many labels were crushed.

Again and again the same rules apply. In fact, they always do. When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled.

Law Firm Marketing Online

If you are reading this blog, there is a good chance you already recognize a change in marketing platforms for law firms is occurring. The days of taking out a full page, yellowbook ad and watching the clients pour in are long gone. In fact, with the staggering amount of new lawyers entering into the work force each year, reliance on referrals and local recommendations is a tough way to drive significant revenue for a firm.

I recently talked with an estate planning attorney that said he has no interest in investing in the internet because his clients are older people that don’t use it. While there may be some validity to the fact that an older generation isn’t using the internet today as much as other sources, do you really believe that it will remain this way? Do you think the baby boomers aren’t going to be researching estate planning online? If you need to be convinced you can attract estate planning clients online then you clearly aren’t ready to invest what it requires to have a successful online strategy. You are Wordperfect in my opinion.

The reality is that the internet is the new marketing platform. The law firms that understand this and invest accordingly will reap the benefits. They will be the new generation of law firms leading the way. The ones that fail to get on board will be playing catch up at best and won’t be around at worst.

Photo by Larry Page

Free Guide: Hiring A Law Firm SEO Consultant Are you looking to increase your visibility online but are feeling overwhelmed by the number of service professionals promising the world to you? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Hiring A Law Firm SEO Consultant.

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Can you guess what is the most important Internet marketing tool? Here are a couple hints: It’s not an adwords account, it’s not video, it’s not even a website. Give up? It’s your telephone. More specifically, it’s the way your telephone is answered.

Don’t get me wrong, all of the other tools that I named are vitally important to driving new business for your law firm from the web. However, none of those will work as efficiently and effectively as possible without someone answering your phone.

As you probably already know, the attention spans of Internet users is very short. If a user finds your online law firm advertisement, video, blog or website, you only have a couple seconds to get them to take action. Assuming they do take action, you only have a couple of minutes to respond to their action before they move on.

Part of our job is to report to our clients on how many phone calls we generated through our various efforts each month. All too often, our client will be shocked as to how many calls came into the office that they never fielded. These lost opportunities are a huge efficiency killer.

When it comes to law firm internet marketing, not answering the phone is simply not an option. In fact, even automated messaging systems really aren’t a sufficient solution anymore. That being said, having a dedicated receptionist can be pricey. That is why virtual law assistants are such a great idea.

No matter what telephone answering solution you choose, the bottom line is that the phone must be answered. With all the money you spend to get the phone to ring, you would be foolish not answer it.

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There is a good book I read a little while back called Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. One section in the book dealt with fear and it’s effects with marketing. I thought it was applicable to law firm marketing, especially in some consumer segments such as personal injury, criminal, bankruptcy, etc., so I wanted to share.

The book describes the effects of fear based communication as such:

For the most part, research has demonstrated that fear-arousing communications usually stimulate the audience to take action to reduce the threat. However there is one important exception: When the fear producing message describes danger but the audience is not told of clear, specific, effective means of reducing the danger, they may deal with the fear by “blocking out” the message or denying that it applies to them. As a consequence, they may indeed be paralyzed into taking no action at all.

Advertising campaigns that inform potential customers of the real-world threats that a company’s goods or services can alleviate should always be accompanied by clear, specific, effective steps they can take to reduce the danger.

Simply scaring customers into believing that a product or service can help with a potential problem might have the opposite effect, potentially cementing them into inaction.

I believe this has an impact on a lot of law firm marketing efforts out there. I have seen quite a few that utilize fear as a strong emotion to get a potential client to take action. However, this may be back-firing if not done properly.

A Law Firm Marketing Example

Perhaps you are marketing your criminal law practice. You have a page on your site discussing the ramifications of what can happen after an individual is arrested for a DWI offense. You lay out the consequences and punishments of a DWI for the reader, with the intent of informing them about consequences and the need to hire a DWI attorney to help them. After arousing a bit of fear in them, you tell them they should contact an attorney. However, you do not clearly articulate what the process is from that point forward or what hiring an attorney can do to help “reduce the danger or fear”. The end result can be one you didn’t intend, a potential client that is frozen into inaction.

Photo by Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha

Free Guide: Writing Content For Your Law Firm’s Website Want to learn how writing content for your firm’s site can help bring in business? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Writing Web Content For Lawyers.

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Google Local Business Center Listing

Getting your law firm found in Google is all about local search results.  One of the free tools that Google provides for local businesses is their Google Local Business Center listing.

Optimizing Your Listing

David Mihm has put together a fantastic report to help you better understand the local search ranking factors for your LBC listing. In his own words:

Participants were asked to rate the importance of 49 criteria with respect to their influence on rankings in the Google and Yahoo Local “Universal” search algorithms (those that drive the 10-pack, 3-pack, and authoritative onebox search results; NOT the standard organic algorithms)

This is the second annual report and you can read it here.

Free Guide: Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google Do You Want To Know How To Get Potential Clients To Find Your Law Firm On Google? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google.

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AttorneySync’s newest free guide, How To Build Links For Your Law Firm Website, is available for download.

In the world of search engines, links TO a web page equal votes for that page. But not all link-votes are created equal. A link from CNN.com is much stronger than a link from a site that you just set up today. In this sense, links are the “currency” of the web. Any successful search marketing campaign involves link building.

This Guide Will Give You A Proper Introduction To Building Links To Your Law Firm’s Website Including:

• Common Strategies For Building Links
• Why Having A Content Creation Strategy Is Important
• How NOT To Ask For Links
• Types Of Websites You Want Links From
• The Importance Of Having A Diverse Link Profile

Download your free guide: How To Get Get Links For Your Law Firm’s Website today!

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There is an interesting post at the Predictably Irrational blog that discusses the author’s troubles he had recently while playing squash. He tells us that he enjoys playing squash as it not only provides exercise, but is also a game of strategy. The strategy comes in as each player tries to build an advantage over the other by positioning the next shot just so. He goes on to tell us:

Anyway, I have not played for a while so yesterday when I played I was out of shape. But what was interesting was that I realized that my thinking ability was also diminished. Usually I try to plan my moves in advance, and think about where my opponent will move, what I will do next etc – but being out of shape made me think very myopically, and focus just on making the next shot. This of course was a very bad strategy and to my delight of my opponent I lost badly.

Perhaps the larger point is that being exhausted (and maybe also being under stress, physical exhaustion, sleep deprived, etc) makes people focus on the short-term and ignore the long-term – and this way become more susceptible to making mistakes….

How This Applies To Lawyer Internet Marketing

Marketing your law firm properly is a time intensive and strategic task. Just as in the squash example given above, there is the execution of your marketing strategy (actually hitting the shot and placing it where you wanted) and strategic planning (thinking about where the next shot should go). One of the problems that I see as an SEO consultant is that firms become so entrenched in their current marketing and getting short-term results, they forget to explore new ways of marketing. They lose focus of the long-term marketing strategy for the firm. Their strategy is focused on just connecting with the next shot, instead of thinking strategically where the next shot should be going.

A good example would be a firm where the entire marketing plan consists of spending money on advertising. The appeal is that by investing money into advertising, you get immediate results. The problem is that advertising costs will rise and if you want more leads, you have to pay more money. I’m not insisting that advertising is bad, it’s just that it doesn’t provide a sound, long-term strategy. You are simply “hitting the next shot”. You are not building equity in something you own that will continue to produce for you even if you stop paying money tomorrow. This is why it’s important to complement your advertising campaigns with other types of marketing avenues that position you for the future such as SEO, name recognition, social media strategy, networking, referrals, etc.

Make sure you are focusing on both your short-term and long-term goals with your marketing plan. Think about where you want your next shot to go in addition to how you’re going to actually hit the shot.

Photo by flydime

Free Guide: Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google Do You Want To Know How To Get Potential Clients To Find Your Law Firm On Google? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google.

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Depending your practice areas and nature of your law firm, you might be able to leverage many of the advantages that the internet and search engines afford to local businesses. For example, if you have a consumer-based practice (i.e. injury, bankruptcy, criminal defense, divorce, etc.) and a very targeted geographic area, you will most certainly benefit from paid search, google local business center, and various other local business focused web solutions.

In addition to the more generalized local business solutions, there are several “legal-specific” platforms, networks, and services that really work wonders for producing results for local search marketing. You see, law firm internet marketing isn’t ONLY about seo for your law firm.

Like local business owners, when it comes to law firm marketing matters, you want more quality potential client leads, some of whom will turn into new clients for your firm. Do you really care from which source these potential clients come? For example, assuming the quality of the leads is generally the same (which often is not the case for a variety of reasons), do you care whether new client leads come from your website, a directory listing, or some other source? Typically, the answer is no (although the cost, effectiveness, and efficiency will vary greatly). The key performance indicator is whether or not the source is producing a positive return on your law firm marketing investment.

That is why diversification across several local-legal internet marketing platforms is so important. It exposes you to many more segments of the legal services market and allows you to identify which platforms, networks, etc, are actually producing positive results for your firm.

Thinking like a local business owner has generated excellent results for many of our clients. In our experience, there’s simply no magic bullet solution that works equally well for all law firms. Successful lawyer internet marketing isn’t as much about seeking out that one method that works best, but rather, testing many methods and allocating more resources to those that perform well.

Free Guide: Hiring A Law Firm SEO Consultant Are you looking to increase your visibility online but are feeling overwhelmed by the number of service professionals promising the world to you? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Hiring A Law Firm SEO Consultant.

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WP Greetbox is a plugin for Wordpress blogs that can help build readership to your law firm’s Wordpress blog. The creators of the plugin describe it as such:

This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url. For example, when a Digg user clicks through from Digg, they will see a message reminding them to digg your post if they like it. Another example, when a visitor clicks through from Twitter, they will see a message suggesting them to twit the post and follow you on Twitter.

The photo above is a snapshot of what WP Greetbox does when a visitor arrives on our blog from a Google search. A dropdown box appears below the title of the article inviting the user to take an action such as subscribing to your blog, retweeting the post, etc. It’s a great way to automate a call to action that appeals to the visitor. Since the call to action is customized based on how they arrived, it comes across as more personal than just a simple “subscribe to my blog” you place on the sidebar.

We have seen our subscriptions and readership increase since using this plugin. I highly recommend it.

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On Page Optimization In 52 Seconds

There are many factors that go into a successful search engine optimization campaign. As a start, it’s important that you include properly researched keywords into certain areas of your site. This video will show you several key areas or your site where you should include keyword phrases. You can learn more about implementing law firm SEO strategy by downloading our Short Guide To Getting Your Law Firm Found In Google below.

Free Guide: Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google Do You Want To Know How To Get Potential Clients To Find Your Law Firm On Google? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google.

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One of the areas that becomes difficult for lawyers, especially solos and smaller firms, is keeping in contact with potential clients that have not retained your services yet. For example, perhaps you are offering a free guide or e-book to download in exchange for a potential client’s information. Once they download the guide, some lawyers are so busy they don’t even have the time to send out an email or make a phone call. Others may email or call the prospect once. However, if there is not a response back, than that is the end of the communication. Others find that a prospect that downloaded a guide or e-book might be in a different stage of the “buying cycle”. Another words, they are not ready to sign a retainer just yet, but could be ready in the near future. These people need more nurturing before they are ready. This takes time, which is difficult to come by. Fortunately, there is a solution to help with many of these issues.

Lead Nurture Campaigns aka Autoresponders

A lead nurture campaign, or autoresponder, is an email marketing campaign that allows you to send out a sequence of automatically delivered emails. The emails are delivered at a time interval that you decide. You supply the content for the emails and then the software will automatically deliver the emails on your behalf.

A Few Of The Advantages

• The system is automated, you don’t have to personally write and send each email.
• The users receiving your emails have opted-in to receiving them, giving permission for you to contact them.
• You can “nurture” the potential client that is not ready to buy yet. By sending relevant, targeted, informational emails to them, you will build trust and help educate them about the benefits your firm can provide.
• The automation allows you to stay in touch with and handle a much larger set of inquiries than if you had to do it all manually
• It allows you to scale the “salesforce” within your firm without hiring additional assistants

Recommended Services

One of the better autoresponder and email marketing services is Aweber. They provide an excellent suite of email marketing tools at an affordable price.

You Will Need Leads To Make Use Of An Autoresponder System (Duh!?)

Of course, the use of autoreponders and lead nurture campaigns are only effective if you have a strategy in place that is generating leads for your firm. Download our free guide below to learn more about getting your law firm’s online marketing on the right track.

Free Guide: Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google Do You Want To Know How To Get Potential Clients To Find Your Law Firm On Google? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide On Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google.

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