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