Bankruptcy Prof Blog

Posts Tagged ‘law firm marketing’

It is a known fact that there are more lawyers in the United States than there are people who need them. As a result, competition is alive and well in this democracy. However, not only is legal marketing really a “must, ” but there has also been a change in the type of advertising being used. It wasn’t that long ago that consumers and some lawyers disapproved of the legal community advertising its services, but times have changed and more and more lawyers are using advertising to get their name in front of the public. Not many would dispute this.

Conventional advertising, radio, television, magazine and newspaper ads are what most people have grown up with as to how advertising is accomplished. However, for attorneys and other businesses, the Internet has proven to be one of the best advertising vehicles around.

Advertising through seminars and conferences as well as through the media (press, television, radio), is rather costly. Unless a law business has the funds to spend on this type of advertising, it is a closed door to smaller firms, but there are other means available.

By far the best way for a firm to reach the most people is through the Internet and usually ends up being the cheapest way to advertise. There are some initial start-up expenses and there could be some additional expenses after a website is up and running. The latter expenses are incurred when the law firm, usually with the help of a representative from the Internet provider hosting the website, wants to update his site to attract more visitors, and hopefully, more referrals.

Another area of advertising on the Internet when using the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and/or Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, is called “Pay-Per-Click (aka ‘PPC’), ” perhaps better known as “Sponsored Ads.” These are the small ads on the right side of the computer screen when a search is performed on a given search engine. These ads direct the potential visitor or referral directly to the business website, or to a page within the website. As a marketing tool it can be expensive but extremely valuable. (The business owner generally pays a certain amount each time the ad is clicked.)

Depending on what geographical area a practice serves, Pay-Per-Click can be set to show ads only in certain cities, states and countries. This is called geo-targeting. If a practice serves only one city, it would be a waste of marketing dollars to show the ads statewide or nationwide.

There’s great flexibility in setting up a Pay-Per-Click account. A law firm can choose on what days and at what times the ads are displayed on-line. This way the budget can be used maximally. For instance, a practice specializing in criminal law might want to run its ads twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week since crime never takes a holiday. Conversely, those specializing in intellectual property would do best running ads during normal business hours. The point here is that the budget should be used when traffic is likely to be the highest.

Legal marketing is a must in today’s world. If affordable, it could increase profits nicely. It can make an enormous difference in the expansion of a business. To ignore this could be a mistake because others have already and will continue to forge ahead. For more information visit http://legal-marketing-center.com/.

Websites, when done properly, can be very effective advertising for lawyers. Today I will focus on why you need multiple calls to action on your law firm’s website.

Depending on the prospect that arrives on your site, you will see a variety of ways they choose to interact with elements on your web page. This is why it’s important to provide several means of getting them to take a desired action.

When designing our website, we can’t really tell how others will respond to the design since we all have unique tastes. Just because we like it does not mean someone else will. This is the reason that we offer different ways to contact our law firm.

For example, if I am offering a relevant e-book to prospects, I should post a graphic that is a professional looking picture of the book which links to a download page. In addition, underneath the graphic should be text that a user could click on leading to the same download page. This way I am capturing users that the graphic appeals to as well as others that the text link appeals to.

Another example is listing your phone number on all the pages of your site as well as a graphic and text links to receive free case evaluations. This will appeal to users that are ready to talk about their issue now as opposed to someone that is at another stage in the process. For instance, someone downloading an e-book may still be doing research, whereas the others are ready to talk today. Either way, I am providing outlets with which they can contact me.

“I know how to advertise my legal website! Just put my info on my contact us section.”

Although you should have a contact page which contains all of your relevant information on it, you also need to offer your site visitors a reason to get a hold of you. Think what’s in it for them. WHY should they contact you? When you offer them legitimate reasons such as a free e-book or free consultation, then you are appealing to the reasons they WANT to contact you.

By implementing these ideas on your website, you will see how effective advertising for lawyers through the web can be.

Join our Lawyer Marketing Group on LinkedIn. Also check out our blog for interesting discussions, articles, resources, and tools to compete in today’s saturated lawyer marketing climate.