The Truth About Lawyer Internet Marketing

Before the Internet, marketing for law firms was so much simpler. Certainly there are more opportunities now that the Internet is such a big part of our lives. However, instead of a handful of choices of marketing programs available, an attorney has dozens or even hundreds-depending on how you slice it! What makes this even more challenging is that most of the Internet marketing programs are sub-par at best and scams at worst. No wonder most law firm marketing programs are bad, and most attorneys are still frustrated with the whole Internet marketing world.

So in this post, I will highlight what I have seen first hand to be some of the biggest mistakes Law Firms made in 2009. Don’t worry-my next post will be more positive. It will be all about what strategies you should be implementing in 2010!

Here are the mistakes I saw-did you make any of them?

Local Internet marketing mistakes:

• Picking the wrong local Internet marketing program (most of them are bad, but a few are worthwhile and great opportunities you are probably missing)
• NOT localizing their SEO efforts, for example: optimizing for “auto accident attorney” instead of “Atlanta auto accident attorney“

Just Do It…or don’t!

• Just doing “something”
• Just doing “nothing” (at least if you do “something” and fail, you have the opportunity to learn from it)
• Just putting “anyone” in charge of Internet marketing for your company
• Putting “no one” in charge of Internet marketing for your company
• Just throwing a bunch of links in a blog post to your website, without thinking about potential negative ramifications or how you should structure the links
• NOT putting links from your blog posts to your website

Embracing “absolutes”:

• Deciding SEO was the only way to go
• Deciding SEO was dead
• Deciding Pay Per Click marketing was dead
• Deciding social media was the only way to go
• Deciding that blogging for business was a waste of time
• Deciding a blog was the major or “only” key to success
• Deciding Internet marketing was a waste of time
• Deciding they did not need a website
• Deciding Social Media Marketing was a waste of time
• Utilizing the wrong solution provider:
• Trusting a big company because they are big
• Letting Google manage a PPC program
• Buying a search engine marketing program from a yellow pages company

Fire…Aim…Ready!!!
(Strategies implemented before goals were set and a strategy for reaching those goals was mapped out)

• Implementing an Internet marketing strategy and then asking good questions
• NOT analyzing the competitive landscape before or during the development of an Internet marketing strategy
• Buying the wrong website
• Signing up for a Google Adwords program without consulting an expert
• Building a website and then asking the question “What do we want to do with our website”
• Building a website and then asking the question “How are we going to get people to our website”
• Implementing a social media marketing strategy
• Spending too little
• Spending too much

Opportunities Missed
(Due to perceived “cost”, laziness, busyness, or unwillingness to look at options)

• Not implementing a social media strategy
• Thinking that implementing a social media strategy was the answer
• Not considering search engine optimization
• Not considering pay per click marketing
• Not building a website
• Not utilizing marketing automation tools
• Not utilizing Internet analytics or website analytics tools

Lack of Research

• Asking the wrong questions
• NOT contacting Dan Stratford, Peter Kent, or someone else who is as honest and straightforward as he and I are.

For help on developing the right strategy for your firm, you can call Dan at 303-952-0844 anytime

 Internet Marketing Blog: www.nobseo.org, website: www.integrityroi.com or visit the marketing for law firms page.

Ever since the announcement I saw on Friday, it seems my online subscribers for Twitter have increased exponentially.

So go ahead, follow me. I dare you
Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/danstratford

Legal Marketing Twitter: www.twitter.com/lawseoexpert

Professional Blog:www.nobseo.org

Personal Blog: www.istratford.com

Join me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/integrityinternetmarketing

Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/istratford

Join me on Naymz: http://www.naymz.com/dan_stratford_2754970

I will still blog here as a reference for information on SEO, PPC, Social Networking, Press Releases, Twitter Marketing, Facebook Advertising, etc., but all of my new posts will at the new blog.

After 2 1/2 years of working for LexisNexis Martindale Hubbell I have left on good terms. It was great run, and I very much enjoyed working for a great team of sales professionals, managers and executives.

The travel was really burning me out, so a while ago I began looking for a company to join that could meet my criteria:

• A company that did an honest and transparent job of Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click martketing, and other types of Internet marketing
• A company with a track record of success with major clients across the country.
• Did I mention how important Integrity is to me?
• A company based in Colorado, so I would not have to leave my kiddos every week and enjoy this beautiful state I can now call “home”.

So now I am the Director of Search Marketing for Integrity Internet Consulting and Marketing Creation Group

Call me if you need anything-720-985-7945.

Come join us for a 1 hour educational session on search engine marketing presented by Dan Stratford
Time: 3pm
Location:
Willows at The Boise Centre on the Grove
850 W. Front St.
Boise, ID 83702
Phone: (208) 336-8900

I gave a Certified Legal Education SEM webinar last week to over 200 attorneys for LexisNexis. I am going to answer a few of the questions I received but could not get through my blog today and over the next few days. I will also post answers to question I did have time to answer.

As for upcoming SEM (search engine marketing) seminars:

June 2nd El Paso County Bar Internet Marketing Seminar (contact the bar for location) http://www.epcounty.com/

June 12th Multnomah Bar Assoc. Sanctioned SEM Seminar (contact the bar for location) http://www.mbabar.org/

More to come throughout the west and specifically in the Bay area over the next few months.

Here are the first few Q & As from the Webinar:

Q: How do you qualify lawyers.com/findlaw.com - as local searches?
A:For many industries there are vertical search engines. For a few industries there are highly used vertical search engines. The legal industry is one of them. Searchers get to vertical search engines usually when they appear at the top of a search engine results page. In the case of Lawyers.com, I have seen in some regions where up to 40% of the traffic is from people going directly to the site by typing in www.lawyers.com. They can also find Lawyers.com on search engines.

Technically it is a vertical search directory, but this report does not have a category for vertical search directories, so depending on the industry different vertical directories would be part of “other” and some percentage of the “local search directory” market. I suppose it is possible that they might also take away some market share from the search engines.

Question: would like key word search information dcampanelli@day-ketterer.com

Answer: Links to Free tools for researching keywords below:
SEO Book (free version of Wordtracker results and links to many others)

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

Google Adwords:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Tools worth paying for:
Paid Version: www.wordtracker.com

More answers to come next week

Call me if you have any questions you need answered now: 720-985-7945

Common Internet Marketing Mistakes Attorneys Make When Building a Website
 
As I have stated many times before in this blog, in my conversations and in my seminars; there are more bad Internet marketing programs available for attorneys than there are good ones.

One of the most common mistakes I see them make is in the website building process.

MOST attorneys believe they need to have a website. So the first thing they do is build a website or hire someone to build it for them.

Example One: The attorney or law firm may decide to choose to “save money” by building a site themselves or having it done the “cheapest” way possible.

Example Two: The attorney may decide that they are willing to spend whatever it takes to have a beautiful site designed by a competent and creative web designer.

Which one of these attorneys is making the biggest mistake?

Answer: With this limited information we cannot really know which attorney or law firm is making the biggest mistake, but it seems they are both making the same mistake:

They may have both made the mistake of building a website as their first step to improving their web presence, when there are many other things they should have considered first.

Before building a website you need to ask yourself some key questions:

What do you expect from your website presence?

If you want to get new customers from your website, then you need to consider search engine marketing as an option. More people use a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or MSN to find an attorney than the yellow pages. (according to TMP Marketing). You may also want to consider local directories like yellowpages.com, dexknows.com, or vertical directories like lawyers.com, martindale.com and others.

If you simply want someone to find your site when they have been referred to you then you do not need to spend a lot of money on marketing your website.

However, in both cases you need to invest wisely in a website that will meet the following minimum criteria.

A: Represent your firm well online. More people will see your site than see your office. If you have a clean, professional office that puts a good foot forward for your firm, then you should also have a website that is clean, professional and content rich (like you!).

If you skimp on a website with an ugly template or fail to put good content on your site you may hurt your firm’s reputation rather than help it, and you may even lose a referral that checked out one of your competitor’s websites. When you are being compared online your referrals may feel your competition is better qualified to handle their legal needs.

I met one firm who apologized for their site when they got a referral call from someone who began the conversation; “I was looking at your website…”

As you can tell by my blog I am not a website designer; I am a search engine marketing expert. If you came here for some honest information about Internet marketing you have come to the right place, but if you want a website designed for your firm I would have to recommend an expert that works for me to do it for you.

Conversely; most web designers are not up to speed on the latest search engine optimization (SEO) best practices.

B: Your site needs to be search engine friendly.

You may not need an extensive SEO program to meet your needs, but if your website is not search engine friendly then your prospects or referrals may not even be able to find your site when they look you up by name in your city. Furthermore, if your site is built correctly from the start, then driving your site to the top of search engines like Google is going to be a lot easier, and you might even get up there for specific searches with very little additional effort.

I think it is worth repeating: most website designers are not up to speed on the latest search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. If it was my firm, and I was looking to build a website I would first begin looking for an SEO specialist. They can help you find a web designer that will build a site with search engines in mind, or they can manage the process for you so that your web designer builds your site correctly from the start.

Come back soon to learn how to find the answers to the questions below-and do not hesitate to call me at 720-985-7945 for a free consultation.

For what types of searches do you want your site to appear on Google and other search engines?

How competitive is your market?

Who are your competitors and what do their websites look like?

What is your budget for your website?

What should your budget for your website be?

How do you select a website designer?

How will you track the success of your web presence?

How much should you invest in an Internet marketing program?

Should you build your site yourself?

Yellow page has become a very tricky business. In this post I will attempt to give you some insight from my experience with the yellow pages, what I am hearing from other attorneys and even some reliable statistics on yellow pages vs. Internet usage.

(For a comprehensive analysis for your firm please feel free to call me anytime at 720-985-7945)

Don’t get me wrong-the yellow pages is  a viable way to market a local service business, but in the current world it is often over priced and over rated by the people selling it. Of course, that can be said about many people selling advertising and marketing programs.

10 or 15+ years ago, businesses used to line up at the local yellow pages office (the “real yellow” pages-always associated with the phone company) to buy ads so they could grow their business. It was like trying to get Jonas Brother tickets. You had to get in line early, make the big decision on whether or not your were willing to spend a few hundred dollars a month on the biggest ad in your heading-which at one point was a “half page ad”.

Year after year the yellow pages grew the size of the ads, and admittedly accomplished some very high quality full color ads on paper that was maybe slightly thicker than the paper in a compact bible.

This program often worked very well for attorneys until recently.

Then came cover ads, spine, inside covers, tabs, magnets and even brochures and magazines delivered with the books. Not to mention all of the smaller community books. For example, I believe Dex Media (the YP for Qwest) has as many as 20+ books being delivered in the Denver metro area alone. The Yellow Pages for a long time has been a cash cow with huge profits-up to 60% on each book.

Then competitors like Yellowbook came into many towns and in some cases offered an excellent return on investment for the attorneys and other businesses in their markets. I will not try to explain in any detail how this affected the legal industry, because I know that many of the attorneys could tell that story better than I could.

Then came the search engines, and the shift from using the yellow pages to find local information to Google, Yahoo!, MSN and others-but mostly Google.

I worked for Dex Media for a while at their headquarters working with product development and sales. From 2004 to 2005 we more than doubled the revenue Dex generated from Internet marketing, however, that did not make a dent in the lack of growth in the print side of the business-which at the time was a $1.6 billion source of revenue, vs. under $70k in Internet advertising revenue.

Let’s get some facts:

This report came out in October 2008 from TMP Directional Marketing; a reputable company that sells Pay Per Click marketing, Online Yellow Pages and Yellow Pages. They act as representatives for all of the major yellow pages across the country for businesses that need to advertise in multiple states but want one point of contact. They have credibility with me because they have to approach direct advertising from a consultative approach for national and international businesses like Pizza Hut and Porsche, and they have to deliver results to stay in business.

Here is the report they put out from their research last fall:

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire - October 9, 2008) –
TMP Directional Marketing (TMPDM)-the largest local search marketing agency…
…announced today the findings of its second annual Local Search Usage Study conducted by comScore, which confirms shoppers still use a variety of online and offline directional media resources to find local business information.
First sources used are Search Engines (31%)
Print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%)
Internet Yellow Pages Sites (19%)
Local Search Sites (11%)
(61% of Searches are online searches-more than twice the usage of the books)
This represents a change from last year’s study, which ranked:
Print Yellow Pages first (33%)
Followed by Search Engines (30%).This affirms what most attorneys I talk to are experiencing, and as a result I am seeing many attorneys this year do one of two things:1-Pull their ads from the book

2-Negotiate some pretty amazing deals

3-Get talked into a very bad Internet marketing strategy managed by their yellow pages provider

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire - October 9, 2008) - TMP Directional Marketing (TMPDM), the largest local search marketing agency, announced today the findings of its second annual Local Search Usage Study conducted by comScore, which confirms shoppers still use a variety of online and offline directional media resources to find local business information.

First sources used are Search Engines (31%)

Print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%)

Internet Yellow Pages Sites (19%)

Local Search Sites (11%)

61% of Searches are online searches

This represents a change from last year’s study, which ranked:

Print Yellow Pages first (33%)

Followed by Search Engines (30%).

Bottom Line: It is now very apparent that local search is being dominated by the Internet.

Come back soon for the best ways to capitalize on these drastic market changes-and how to win the negotiation battle with your yellow pages representative.

Wow.

I still cannot believe how much bad Internet marketing I see out there all over the West. You would think by 2009 the legal industry would have figured out how to market their firms on the Internet.  Make no mistake-I do not blame the attorneys. They have been sold and promised a bill of goods for years now-often from people they thought they could and should trust.

What is a lawyer to do?

The yellow pages are tanking. RH Donnelly/Dex was de-listed after their stock dropped below 25 cents.

I see anger, frustration and fear on the faces of some of the attorneys at my seminars-not because of me, but because they have been burned so many times in the past. Most of them are relieved to attend a seminar like mine where they are not given a sales pitch, but truly educated on the nuances and truths of attorney Internet marketing.

The good news is that the attorneys and the local bars are realizing they need to educate themselves so they can make educated decisions on how to market their firms online. Our seminars are a great place to start.

Meeting with a good sized firm today that has been trying to find someone to help them successfully market their firm online for a few nears now. I am excited that I have the opportunity to help them out.

Remember, I work with attorneys exclusively. If you have another kind of business I recommend you contact the Denver based, Peter Kent endorsed firm Integrity Internet Consulting. They are the SEO Denver based experts you can trust to steer you in the right direction and give you an honest assessment of your Internet marketing potential. They have clients in Denver and all around the world-but they refer all of their law firm prospects to me, because the legal industry is so competitive you really need a firm that focuses on that industry only.

Good luck-and feel free to comment with any questions you may have. One of my resolutions this year is to try to add content and answer questions every day.

Happy 2009!

I have been traveling around the western United States since November giving 60-90 minute seminars on “SEM for Attorneys”. So far we have been in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Pasadena, San Diego, Spokane, Boise, Salt Lake City, and Denver. Many of these are CLE certified. I have a few more I am doing this month-and more in the months to come. Next Tuesday I will be in Salt Lake City, and on the 26th I will be in Long Beach California. I have more scheduled in February and March.

The feedback from law firms has been very positive:

“Very informative.”

“I appreciated the fact that it was not a sales pitch, but truly a learning experience.”

“Finally! I have needed to learn about this for a long time time!”

If you are interested in attending one of these coming up, or if you would like me to come to your area, please comment on this blog and I will respond.

Here is an outline of what we cover:

• What is Search Engine Marketing (“SEM”)?
• Key SEM Definitions
• Keyword Research
• PPC Best Practices (Pay-Per-Click)
• SEO Best Practices (Search Engine Optimization)
  • Site Development and Updating
  • Link Building Opportunities
  • Social Networking
• Best Practices in Measurement
• SEM-Do it Yourself or Outsource?
• How do you find someone to implement and manage a successful SEM program?
• Free Tools
• Q&A

I can doing over a lunch, or even in the evening.

It’s a great way to start off 2009!

By the time you read this you may have read the books, blogs, or listened to someone you trust explain how to get your site content “optimized”. You researched your search terms (“long tail”, “short tail”, “no tail”)You update your site more than your competition (you hope). You know about all of the acronyms; “URL”, “SEO”, “SEM”, “PPC”, “SERP”, “CPC”, “CTR”, “ROI”, “CPA”, etc.

 

Now what?

 

Just wait?

 

No.

 

If you haven’t done so already, you need to get the highest quantity and quality of links to your site. How many? How high of quality?

 

How long is a string?(It’s all relative)

 

If you have a better website than your competitors, and better and/or higher quality links to a website that is more consistently updated than your competitors, you may beat them to the top of Google.

 

Could I BE more ambiguous? Short of stealing the “secret sauce” from Google, this is about as specific as it gets.

 

Back to links:

 

How do you get links?

 

1. Internal links
   • Link content within your site to other pages within your site-in ways that make sense.
   • Example: Link the words “divorce lawyer” to the page on your site that is about “divorce lawyer”, link the word “links” too your page about links.
   • Level of difficulty-low
   • Time consuming? Yes, but still easy
   • Beneficial? Yes
2. Link your site to other sites. This is very easy-and easy usually means you will not get much SEO value from it. However, more Internet users may appreciate useful and relevant links and come back to your site after realizing you give them valuable information.
   • Level of difficulty-very easy.
   • Beneficial-possibly a little.
3. Reciprocal links:
   Linking to someone else’s site in exchange for their site linking to yours.
   • For a while this was the “game” everyone played.
   • This is still a good way to get links to and from relevant sites.
   • Get links from the highest ranked most relevant sites you can:
   • The bar, other attorneys you would like to recommend, and who would like to recommend you.
   • Level of difficulty-medium to hard
   • Beneficial? A little bit.
   • Biggest problem with this type of linking-lots of time to get lots of them with minimal value.
4. “Narcissistic” links, or one-way links: links that are all to, for and “about” you.
   • Links from legal sites-but you don’t link to them
   • Links from blogs
   • May be easy to get from your own blogs or friends
   • Very time consuming
   • High time to link ratio
   • Can be a very high quality link.
5. Links from press releases about you or your area of law
   • Not too hard to get
   • Take time
   • Take money
   • Need to be done right to achieve value
   • If they are not done right they could be a waste of time and/or money
6. Links from non-news articles about you and/or your area of law
7. Links from forums
   Examples: Lawyers.com blogs and forums
8. Links from directories
9. Social Networking
   Setting up profiles about you and/or your firm can be a great way to improve your web presence and get links.
   • Linked In
   • Facebook
   • MySpace

 

Links can be a lot of work. Finding someone who has successfully optimized other law firm websites could save you a lot of time, but make sure they have a track record of SEO work they can show you.

 Think about Search Engine Optimization this way: no matter how good you are, if you are not getting yourself out on the Internet letting everyone know what you are doing, what your expertise is, how experienced you are and what makes you the right choice for your prospects-and on a regular basis, no one searching online for a lawyer will be able to find you.

 Many attorneys want to get to the point where they can just practice law. They want the phone to ring with the best cases calling from referrals, or at least have the choice of operating this way once they have grown to the level they are comfortable with. Your referrals “Google” you by name, and as long as your site represents you well and is decently designed you should come up at the top of Google by name. Even the referral based firms need to remember that more people will see their website than see their offices, so they need to try to keep their website up to date and at a level that does not increase the risk of you losing referrals.

 I was at a firm a few months ago that said every time the phone rang from a referral that said “I was looking at your website…” the attorneys cringed because as good as they were, their website looked very “last century”. They did not want to invest in optimization for advertising purposes, but they needed to be represented online at least as well as they were at their office location and through the words of others who were referring them business. A firm like this can get a fully customized website with RSS feeds, and add flash and video for a total cost of between $5K and $15K-with no need for significant time or money spent on Search Engine Optimization.

 If you aren’t already famous, but think that you have something to offer, and you need more quality clients, then you need to treat the Internet like another community that you are reaching out to and getting to know. You need to “take Google out to lunch” and discover what they want from you for you to be considered an authority in your field and recommend you to the people who come to their site looking for an attorney like you.

 You need to get up to date information about you and your firm online regularly. Taking a doctor out to lunch once every two years is not going to work as well as taking them out once a month or once a week.

 How do you do that? The short answer is through blogs, press releases, forum postings, videos, emails and of course your website or websites.

 If networking is not your strong suit, you might consider developing that skill or hiring a PR or sales/marketing specialist to do it for you. If you are not capable of implementing the strategies required to earn Google’s respect and have them begin to refer you business, and you do not want to spend your time learning how to be a website developer and optimization specialist, then you need to hire someone you can trust to do it for you.

 How do you find someone to do it for you?

Check out my previous post on search engine optimization.

 Of course, if you really wanted to be thorough, you could take the time to put together a comprehensive RFP (request for proposal) and ask 2-3 reputable SEO service providers to look at it, put together a proposal and present it to you.

The problem is that you are not likely to be an Internet marketing expert (if you are, that’s still only half the battle). Every SEO service provider has a story as to why you should hire them and not the other guy. Call me at 720-985-7945 and I will help you put an RFP together for free, as long as you let LexisNexis be one of the respondants to your RFP.

 Meanwhile here is a link to an RFP outline you might consider using- rfp-outline.doc