Attorney Website Design Blog

Recently one of our clients subscribed to a third party e-newsletter service for elder law attorneys. The service provides practice-area specific content for its clients and sends out branded e-newsletters to the firm’s contacts. There were a number of links within the body of the e-newsletter encouraging the recipient to read more. Generally, this isn’t a bad strategy; it can help to get contacts onto your website where there are more ways to engage with your firm. Unfortunately, in this case, the links to “learn more” took the reader to a third party site which was managed by the e-newsletter service (though it was co-branded for the firm). In clicking on any links within this third-party site, the reader was then directed to a hub for elder law content which also featured a directory of local elder law attorneys. In this case, the attorney unknowingly created an action path for contacts which may have ultimately led them to a competitor’s site.

Each year, members of the Amicus Creative team attend a number of legal conferences around the country. Regardless of whether the event is for a local bar association or national professional organization, the members share similar concerns and hesitations when it comes to marketing. In meeting new attorneys, we always ask whether or not they have websites. Over the past few years, the number of attorneys who say “yes” has certainly increased but the indifference or dissatisfaction when it comes to those existing websites seems to have remained rather consistent. The fact is that a majority of the attorneys we meet say they have a website but “it could be better” or that it is downright lousy.  In digging a bit deeper, it is often hard to pinpoint exactly why the firm is unhappy and often it is due to a number of factors. Of course, to correct the issue, you must first get to the root of the problem. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the usual suspects:

When we ask attorneys how many calls they receive each month from visitors to their websites, the large majority are quick to reply that they’re not certain. This lack of information is in many ways understandable, albeit problematic if you really want to measure your site’s ROI. Of course, you can train your receptionist to ask each caller but that system can be susceptible to human error. Even when your receptionist is sure to ask the question of the individual on the other end of the line, callers often fail to answer this question accurately.  You can regularly check your Google Analytics data and try to manually determine which visitors turned in callers but that can be incredibly time consuming. Luckily, there is another way to more definitively track calls from your website – through the use of call tracking.

As we develop websites during the winter months, we often hear from clients who want to take photos of their staff and office buildings but, with the backdrop of bare trees and harsh weather, decide to wait for more favorable conditions. With warmer spring days here, it is the perfect time to schedule a shoot for your office with a local photographer. Here are a few things to consider:

As a digital marketing agency, it’s not often that we’re challenged with a marketing project that really pushes us outside our comfort zone. On a daily basis, we design great websites, implement killer SEO campaigns and make some mean logos, and while each project presents its own unique challenges, marketing basics and our unique experience allows us to bring real value, and peace of mind, to each one. Recently, however, we decided to create a radio campaign where we would highlight our services to professionals. Our own marketing team had never created a radio spot, and while it was undoubtedly challenging (and a bit scary), the project allowed us to step into our clients’ shoes and reminded us of the very same marketing lessons we often try to share with the attorneys we serve.  

We thought we’d share a few of these valuable lessons:

This week, members of the Amicus Creative team will be heading to the Windy City for the National Association of Bankruptcy Attorneys’ 23rd Annual Convention. This great event attracts over 1,000 legal professionals from across the country, providing attorneys with a slew of educational programs and connecting  them with vendors who offer valuable tools to market and manage their law practices. 

Amicus Creative is a member benefit partner of NACBA and the “Preferred Website Developer of NACBA Members”. Representatives will be at the conference to give attendees an inside look at our innovative online marketing suite for bankruptcy lawyers which includes attorney-written content, an integrated attorney blogging system, an interactive debt calculator and a comprehensive e-newsletter management system. NACBA Members can save as much as 47% off of the website development fee and receive discounted monthly maintenance and hosting fees. 

If plan to be at the show, we’d love to see you; you can find us at booth #82!

Over the past few years, a number of web developers serving the legal industry have started to require that clients have an ongoing search marketing campaign or search engine optimization plan.  Essentially, if you don’t want to pay the price of these services, they don’t want your business. Some might argue that from a business perspective, this makes sense. After all, large SEM campaigns and SEO services can be incredibly lucrative.  At Amicus Creative, however, we refuse to take this approach; while SEO or SEM services are an option, they’re not a requirement. Here’s why:

If you take a trip around the web, and visit the websites of companies, organizations and even government entities, you’ll find that many contain animation. Simply defined, animation is a simulation of movement created by a series of rotating photos or frames. For many years, web animation was largely synonymous with Flash (it was created using Adobe’s Flash Animation software). However, as we detailed in a blog several years ago, HTML5 animation is now the prevailing technology allowing animation to be experienced across all devices.

Animation can be a great way to showcase the different strengths of your law firm, highlight multiple practice areas, showcase big settlements that you’ve attained for clients or can be subtly integrated to add a more professional feel to the design. If you’re contemplating animation for your practice’s website, consider the following:

While much of the country has spent the past month shoveling out and trying to stay warm, the Amicus Creative team has been working around the clock to create awesome websites for the attorneys we serve. In the month of February alone, we launched 16 new sites! Below you’ll find a small sampling of our winter wonders:

In your time on the web, you’ve undoubtedly stumbled across an “under construction” page. All too often, these place holders include a generic message to visitors to “check back soon” along with a photo of a construction cone or a stick figure in a hard hat. While some of these graphics may be cute, these templates don’t help the visitor learn a thing about your practice.

If you’re like the majority of Americans (78% to be exact), you likely watch a video on the web at least once per week. Video hosting and sharing sites like YouTube have made it easy to post videos and disseminate them to the masses, revolutionizing video marketing for all businesses, including law firms. We often hear from attorneys who have videos, or are looking to create them, and question whether YouTube is the right medium for their firm.