Attorney Marketing

When a prospective client stumbles across your website, you can be pretty certain that your site is not the only one they will visit. Chances are they will also check out three or four other local firms online. We hear from many practices that acknowledge this inevitable fate and state that they want the “wow factor” so they really stand out to prospective clients. As a team of marketing consultants and graphic designers, we love when firms want to move outside of the box but we’re often surprised by their vision for “standing out.”

Recently as I was skimming through our Twitter feed, I came across a blog post from a marketing consultant that we follow. She wrote about a blog challenge which she had undertaken, vowing to post a new entry every day for 90 days straight. And while it seems like a tremendous undertaking (she is currently about three weeks in), it will undoubtedly have significant benefits on her website and the way she connects with online visitors and clients.

The issue with most people and committing to long-term marketing goals is that we want instant gratification. Most firms we work with start blogging because they know it will help their websites “do better.” They post twice a week for three weeks and then they give up.

Most of the firms that we work with have no shortage of links on their websites. These links take users to websites for colleagues, organizations that the attorneys belong to, online resource guides and news articles. And while strategic links to well aligned websites can make your law firm’s site a great tool for visitors, they can often require frequent review and modification.

Of the 500 attorney websites we’ve developed over the past 5 years, the overwhelming majority have been for solo practitioners or firms with 5 or fewer lawyers. Not to tip our own caps, but we have become the experts in small firm marketing. When we ask most of these firms what the main message is that they’d like to convey with their new websites, the large majority say, “that we’re different.” Many have come from Am Law 100 backgrounds and want to shed the reputation that many firms carry with them—that they are expensive and largely inaccessible. And while this message of being different, with lower rates and more personalized service is appealing to some prospective clients, it is not different from many of the firm’s competitors. In fact, in small law firm marketing, it’s become the status quo.

Many law firms host educational events for clients, colleagues and prospective clients throughout the year. These seminars can be a great way can be a great way to demonstrate your expertise and drum up business, but they do require a bit of “advertising” on your end to ensure you have a significant number of registrants. To get the word out about your upcoming events and make them a great success, consider the following promotional tips:

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.

When firms see our Site Manager they are often blown away; it’s easy to use and packed with marketing tools in a single interface. To familiarize our clients with our unique content management system, we schedule a one on one orientation during the development phase to give them a comprehensive lesson on making changes to their websites and utilizing the integrated features such as our Seminar Management tool and E-newsletter feature. Often the entire office, including attorneys and support staff, join in to learn the tool. And while it’s a great idea to get everyone onboard and familiar with the technology employed, it’s important that you designate one person on your team to be the office “webmaster.”

In theory, writing your attorney profile should really be the easiest part of building your new website, but for many of our firms, the development comes to halt as the attorneys put off drafting their biographies for inclusion on the site. The truth is, most people don’t like talking about themselves and they find it challenging to present their background in a way that is interesting and engaging to a complete stranger. Here are a few simple steps which will help you put pen to paper:

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...

One of the law firms that we work with recently contacted us to let us know that a prospective client had called them after finding the site in a Google search. The web visitor said that he felt a sense of immediate comfort when landing on the home page explaining that he could relate to the photos used (featuring middle aged caregivers and their senior parents). After just a few moments on the site, he called to schedule an initial consultation and later retained the firm.

With the New Year just days away, you’ve probably already decided upon your New Year’s Resolution. Like many, you might have vowed to drop a few pounds, spend less money eating out or promised yourself that you will finally master that guitar that has been taunting you for years. And while setting a New Year’s resolution is generally related to personal betterment, it is also a good idea time to reflect on the need for improvement in your professional life and set goals for your practice in 2012.

Very often in day to day operations, the firm’s marketing plan and the online cornerstone of that plan, the firm’s website, takes a back seat to the “billable work.”  Unfortunately when this happens, most firms lose their marketing momentum and it can be difficult to regain even when business slows down. To help you get started once again and set your 2012 website resolution, consider the following...