Online Marketing

It’s not at all uncommon to see law firms include a list of upcoming events on their websites. After all, it’s a great way to showcase your expertise, demonstrate an active presence in the community and inform clients and colleagues about these events so they can attend or spread the word. Unfortunately, far too many attorneys let this powerful resource fall to the wayside—allowing it to become outdated, stagnant or fail to implement tools which will make the listing of events a true resource for site visitors. If your law firm is considering future events and making these a part of your website, be sure to utilize an integrated event management system which features the following tools:

You draft a clever email message and send it off to hundreds, or even thousands, of contacts and there you have it – your firm’s monthly e-newsletter. Seems simple but without the right program, these email blasts can do more harm than good. Just yesterday, we received an email blast from a law firm which committed all of the cardinal sins of e-newsletters. While the greeting was a nice one, the delivery and presentation of information was grotesque and potentially unethical on the part of the firm. We thought we’d share these mistakes so you can make sure your firm doesn’t repeat them by using a well-designed e-newsletter program.

Success is always subjective. For some firms, website success may be achieving a top spot on a local Google search. For another, it might be getting four leads a month from the firm’s main site. And yet another may just consider having a professional-looking website as online marketing success.

Every day we’re contacted by prospective clients.  Many ask the same questions like how well do your clients rank with Google? How long is the development process?  How extensive is your content management system? One consideration which is far too often overlooked when selecting a website provider is loading time. How quickly does the server respond when a visitor arrives at a new site?

A slow loading time can be harmful in a number of ways.

We meet a lot of attorneys at conferences and networking events. Of course, the topic of their firms’ websites always comes up. The most common reaction we hear from lawyers is “I have a website but it could be better.” After digging a little deeper, we often find out why it could be better. Often the graphics just aren’t great, the content was never completed, the site is outdated or it looks nice but it just isn’t bringing in business. In an effort to help attorneys better understand the potential of their marketing efforts, we’re pleased to offer free, no-obligation website assessments.

Even though we're all about technology here at Amicus Creative, we have to admit that tech terms can be confusing. There are lots of them and when developing a website, many lawyers face the difficult task of familiarizing themselves with all of the basics of domains, websites, DNS hosting and email. To save attorneys time, we thought we'd create a little cheat sheet of key terms and how they are all connected when it comes to your law firm's website.

If you’re a regular reader, you know how we feel about content; we love it! We encourage law firms to add as much content to their websites, as often as possible, to create an effective online presence. Our love does have some limits though. Sometimes, there really is just too much content on one page. We often find this on the home page. Firms attempt to combine a firm profile, information on multiple practice areas and contact information all on one page—very often the first page that a visitor sees when they land on the site. And while this information is pertinent, guess what happens when visitors see so much information?

A basic component of any legal website is the almighty attorney profile page. There are hundreds of articles devoted to drafting an effective attorney bio which conveys experience while engaging the reader. And while the subject of attorney profiles has been widely explored, discussion of whether or not support staff should be included on a law firm’s website has been rather limited.

You set up a great looking website. You blog daily, writing insightful posts oozing with keywords and helpful tips for clients.  You send out e-newsletters every week, and you reach out to referral sources and have them link back to your new website. You put in the work for website success, and in just a few short months, you start getting big cases from your website; your site is optimized and will continue to bring in business, right? Not so fast.

There are countless legal marketing scams out there. Companies regularly target law firms trying to sell them costly domain name renewals (when already set to renew with existing host), expensive yet ineffective directory listings, a mobile version of the firm’s website or engage them in a link scheme. We hear all about these rip-offs from our clients who call us to ask if it’s worth the investment or whether there is any merit to the claims that these sales teams are making. Recently, we’ve heard from many clients who have been solicited by multiple companies who make “landing pages” for the firms in hopes of increasing online exposure for a particular set of keywords. Before you decide whether or not this is a valuable strategy for your firm, it’s important that you consider how they work and why they’re generally ineffective (and may actually be harmful) marketing tools.

When we give presentations to attorneys, we inevitably hear one or two say “I get most of my business through referrals, I don’t need a good website (or a website at all for that matter).”  What these attorneys fail to realize is that a firm’s website is not only a business generating tool but also a big part of the firm’s overall appearance and reputation. Even firms bursting at the seams with new clients need to have a good website. Here’s why...