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

Most Common Internet Marketing Mistakes:
Letting your yellow pages salesperson talk you out of a good plan and into a bad one.

Both of these cases studies are based on true stories I have heard from attorneys. Names and possibly genders are changed to protect their anonymity.

Case study one:
Tom is waiting for his yellow pages rep to meet with him to go over his yellow pages plan. He is prepared to cancel his whole plan because he remembers; “The calls are not coming in like they used to, and I am tired of paying $5,000 a month for a yellow pages ad because I am afraid that I will miss out on that one I case I would have received had I been in there. I am going to put this money towards something that will bring me more and better business or buy a Porsche and give up on this advertising thing.”

The yellow pages rep, Joe, arrives with Judy; his “Internet Specialist”.

They explain the “power of the Internet”. They say “Online yellow pages yada-yada, Google yada-yada this, Yahoo! yada-yada that, and yada-yada websites.”

Then they say:
“If you take advantage of our Internet marketing/SEM/SEO/PPC/online yellow pages program for $3,000 a month, we will lower the price of your print yellow pages to $3,000 a month.”

Tom thinks: “Wow, I only have to pay 20% more than I paid last year, and I will now have a website and an Internet marketing program from my trustworthy yellow pages salesperson and their brilliant Internet Marketing Guru! This is going to be my year!”

Stories like this have been going on for years nationwide, and they still happen every day across the country; especially to attorneys.

The next day, week or month Tom realizes he has just signed a 12 month contract he cannot possibly get out of, and he is worse off than he was the year before. He does not have a $3,000 Internet marketing program. He has a sub-par website, a sub-par Internet marketing program that is at best over priced, at worst completely useless and he still has a yellow pages ad that is generating fewer calls than ever.

He has invested more money, he is getting fewer clients and now there is less of a chance Tom is going to get a Porsche, a boat, or buy a house for a homeless family anytime soon. (You were thinking of doing the last one, right?)

Ouch!

Case study two, part 1:

Eva cancelled her “double-truck” (2 page) yellow pages ad last year when the yellow pages rep visited. The rep, Justin, called shortly before the close of the book and said; “Eva, we would like to invite you to get back in the book for half price. Would you be interested in that?”

Eva said “Certainly-come on out and let’s talk about it.”

Justin came out with his “Internet Guru” Judy. They offered the Yellow Pages ad at $7,500 (half the “rack rate”) and an online program for $2,500 a month.

Eva was mad. She said; “I only paid $10,000 for my double truck last year. You have two choices:
1-Leave now.
2-Give me my ad this year for $5,000 like you ‘implied’ (promised?) over the phone, and then leave.”

She got her ad for half price.

Case study 2, part 2:
Mike and Dan from the company that built her custom website the year before came in to visit with her a few days later and began to talk to her about the advantages of SEO.

They had a sound strategy that made sense:

1. They could show her examples of other law firm websites they had optimized in other competitive markets.
2. They offered conversion tracking-not just clicks and impression tracking.
3. They offered transparent reporting of the work being done on her website and monthly ranking reports.
4. They offered limited exclusivity, so she knew they would not be providing this service to all of her competitors.

She asked for references and she got them. Mike and Dan came back a week later and she signed up for the program.

Case Study 2, part 3:
8 months later the yellow pages came back with the tactic attempted in case study one. Eva said: “My SEO is working. I dominate Google and other search engines for my search terms and I am getting clients from the program every month. There is no way I am going to mess with that. Either renew my yellow pages at the same rate I had last year or take me out of the book.”

And so it goes…

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!

Is it the Amway salesman?
No.
Is it a used car salesman?
No.
Is it the “cure all” juice salesman? (formerly known as the “snake oil salesman”)
No.
It’s the Internet marketing consultant! Run for your lives!!!

The great thing about blogs is we can vent and complain freely, but as a friend once told me; just because I am only venting doesn’t mean I do not offend.

So let me apologize to the honest Amway sales person; Sorry-you guys do have some great products.

I also want to apologize to the used car salesmen-NOT including the guy I bought my Lexus from. I actually had to put in a new engine 2 weeks after I bought it. Now I have to drive it for another 10 years to get my money’s worth out of it. I am sure somewhere out there lives an honest used car salesperson, but I am a little bitter about them right now.

Some of that juice stuff from Australia tastes really good, but my wife swears we can do better at with her own concoction from ingredients found at Whole Foods. Since she makes the food choices in our home, I can apologize to the juice people but I can’t buy their juice.

As far as the Internet marketing consultant goes, I am sorry. Sorry that you have made my job so hard.

Why is that? What’s the story? Why can’t I proudly raise my head as I tell people what I do for a living without adding-”but I am an honest Internet marketing consultant.”

Well in the late 1990s, ”Internet marketing consultants” walked into small businesses and fortune 500 companies and took them for a ride. They spent millions and got little in return.

After Enron, Worldcomm, and 9/11 the advertisers got a realty check and pulled their money out of the Internet. It wasn’t until the end of 2003 that more money was spent on Internet marketing than was spent in the 1990s heyday.

Starting a few years ago local search became a big deal. People started looking for local service related businesses that were well suited to the information and efficiency offered by the Internet. Insurance, real estate and lawyer searches have gone through the roof.

The result has been everybody and their brother trying to sell all of you law firms every kind of “Internet marketing solution” under the sun. At best, the people selling you all these programs are/were naïve, at worst-dishonest and greedy. They want your yellow pages, television and your banner advertising budget, and they are willing to say just about anything to get it.

Whatever the reason, the truth is that I can tell you from my experience 90%+ of the Internet marketing strategies out there are bad ones.

I have yet to meey an attorney that has figured out how to market their firms on the Internet perfectly (it’s an imperfect world). Here is a paraphrase from a blog I wrote over a year ago, and looking back it still holds true.

In this post I try to answer the question: “As a business/firm owner; do you need an Internet marketing consultant?” In the next post I will answer what questions you can ask to figure out WHO you can trust. (Of course, you could just call me at 702-966-9414, or 206-501-4569)

Whether you have just started a law firm or you have been in business for years, you probably fall into one of these categories when it comes to Internet marketing:

Level 1 Internet Marketer:
You do not have a website; however there is a good chance that you have some kind of Internet presence that you may be unaware of through your local Yellow Pages, Lawyers.com or some other source.

Level 2 Internet Marketer:
You do not have a website, but you have an intentional Internet presence through different organizations like Lawyers.com, City Search, a local Yellow Pages Company, the local bar web site, the Better Business Bureau or some other organization. You are probably getting decent results from your efforts-at least your referrals are finding you by name.

Level 3 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, but have no intentional marketing presence where people can find you, other than what you may have as a Level 1 Internet Marketer. Your web site is probably dated, and more people will see your web site than see your office. I would argue that you could be better off at Level 2.

Level 4 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, you have spent money on a marketing it, but nothing has worked so you have a bad feeling about Internet marketing. Again, you could be better off at Level 2, because at least then you would have an optimistic outlook on Internet Marketing.

Level 5 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, you have spent money on a marketing it, you are getting some results that you are happy with, but you could be getting a better return on your Internet Marketing investment if you were implementing better strategies for your firm.

Level 6 Internet Marketer:
You have a web site; you have done a perfect job of marketing it and you have reached the full potential of the Internet with your brilliant Strategic Internet Marketing Plan that includes strategic email marketing and cross-marketing. I have yet to meet anyone who is at level 6.

If you are at level 1-4, there is a good chance that you could benefit by utilizing an Internet marketing consultant. If you are at Level 5 and want to get to Level 6 or if you think you are at Level 6, it is probably worthwhile to at least sit own with a consultant and see if they can help you increase your return on investment. There is nothing wrong with a free consultation-if the consultant is looking out for your best interests.

Who can you trust to be your “Internet Marketing Consultant”? Well, for attorneys, my peers at LexisNexis/Martindale Hubbell and I are a professional bunch of knowledgeable and integrity based consultants. I have met them all and I believe they know the market and they look out for their customers. I am sure that there are also good consultants from other companies, but it seems to be the exception, not the rule.

Here are some other options, which I will discuss in detail next week.

-Your Yellow Pages representative. (Good, bad and ugly suggestions from this talented and persuasive bunch)
-A Google or Yahoo! Representative. (Can you trust Google?)
-A website developer. (Is he or she left or right brained?)
-An SEO firm. (How do you select the right one?)
-A PR firm. (Do PR firms know Search Engine Marketing?)
-A Pay-Per-Click management firm. (How can these guys help you?)