AttorneySync Blog

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.

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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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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.

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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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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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We continue to get questions from lawyers asking to explain the differences between paid search, organic listings, Local Business Center listings, etc. I think since there are so many services out there offering all different kinds of internet marketing options for law firms, it’s critically important for you to understand the Google search engine results page. By understanding each element of the page, how it works, and whether the results are sponsored or not, you can get a better idea of what each type of service is offering you. Here is a short video to get you started:

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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One of the best things about the Firefox web browser are the add-ons and extensions developers have created to make Firefox a much more powerful tool than simply a browser. One of our favorites here at AttorneySync is Rank Checker from SEObook. (FYI you should subscribe to this blog as well if you have any interest in learning more about search engine optimization.)

The rank checker is a free tool that allows you to easily check your current ranking for any number of keywords across as many domains as you like. It will tell you your current position in all three major search engines, Google, Yahoo, & Bing. Even though you should focus more on your traffic levels and analytics as opposed to obsessing over your rankings, it’s still a good idea to keep track of your positions.

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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There are a host of applications on Facebook that allow you to integrate your blog with your Facebook pages. However, Networked Blogs is one worth using. It allows you to promote your blog to your friends and the entire Facebook community.

You can download the application for you Facebook account here.

Networked Blogs Features Include:

• Works on both: profiles and Facebook Pages
• Import your blog feed to your profile or public page
• A visual blogroll on your profile to promote your blog and blogs you like
• A directory of blogs organized by topic and geographical locations
• Read news and vote articles you love
• A community of like minded people to connect with

We have ours setup to automatically post new articles from our blog on our AttorneySync Facebook Page. It’s worth checking out.

Free Guide: Facebook For Lawyers Want to learn how to utilize Facebook to build relationships and bring more business for your firm? Download AttorneySync’s Free Guide: Facebook For Lawyers.

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Giant Flywheel

Any marketing or advertising program should have one goal in mind, bringing in more clients and revenue for the firm. However, I think some lawyers are getting confused about the difference between investing in advertising vs. investing in marketing for their firm. While both are important strategies, the approach, expectations, and the amount of time each takes to see results are different. Let me explain.

Perhaps I should start with my definition of each so that we are speaking the same language.

Marketing

I view a marketing plan as the entire system your law firm is implementing to get new clients. With a marketing plan, you are building equity in a brand and a presence that will continue to produce for your firm, month in and month out. This includes everything from your advertising dollars spent, your interaction with clients, your logo, your points of differentiation, referrals, and more. Your marketing will evolve, change, and grow over time.

Advertising

Advertising is a component of your marketing system. Advertising is more of an isolated campaign you are spending money on to get eyeballs and phone calls for your firm. You pay money to run ads where potential clients can find you. You get instant gratification because you get calls immediately (assuming the advertising is effective). Of course, once you stop paying, you no longer receive clients from these ads. Also, if you want more clients, it will cost you more money. This isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the way advertising works. As I mentioned earlier, this is one component of your marketing.

The Flywheel

A flywheel helps to stabilize something because it resists changes to it’s rotational speed. Think of your marketing like a giant flywheel. At first you can start rotating the flywheel, which is very heavy, at a very slow pace. You work really hard and invest time and effort into getting the flywheel rotating. Your returns aren’t fantastic at first, the flywheel is moving, but still somewhat slowly. At some point though, you hit a tipping point with the speed that the flywheel rotates. Now it is moving much faster and since it doesn’t change speeds easily, you exert less effort to keep it going fast. This is a great analogy for your firm’s investment in marketing. Although you must be patient as you build your marketing presence, once your marketing hits a tipping point, it begins to produce with less effort, time, and money. It works more reliably month in month out. It is a long term investment for your firm, but you must invest properly in your marketing and have the patience to get your “marketing flywheel” rotating.

If all you are doing is investing in your advertising, then you are not getting the flywheel moving very fast. When advertising costs increase or you can’t spend as much to advertise, your flywheel starts to slow down again and might even stop all together.

The larger point I wanted to make is that some lawyers say they want to invest in their online marketing, but in reality their expectations and patience level is more inline with someone expecting results from an advertising campaign. They want immediate and fantastic results without taking into consideration that it takes time to get the “marketing flywheel” going. They want a shortcut to getting it moving fast. However, the very definition of a flywheel is that it doesn’t change speeds quickly. There are no shortcuts to a solid marketing plan. It takes time, effort, resources, trial and error, and patience to do it properly.

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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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