Developing a Good Internet Marketing Strategy for Your Law Practice
If you
haven't yet developed a good internet marketing strategy for your law firm, now
is the time to start. I'm friends with so many attorneys that either have
absolutely no internet presence for their law practice, or they have a minimal
presence through a service such as Martindale-Hubbell or
Findlaw.com (incidentally,
this is a strategy I vehemently oppose.
Click here for the reasons that I
oppose this strategy).
A good internet marketing strategy is important to help you build a solid
foundation for your law practice.
Click here for more information about the different lawyer marketing online
strategies that you can use to drive targeted traffic to your
website.There are very few successful lawyers
who do not have a web presence. Maintaining a good internet marketing
strategy is critical to engaging potential clients, and keeping them engaged via
permission marketing. Without a web presence, you are unable to follow up
with potential clients who "raise their hands" and ask for information from you.
Click here for more reasons why Attorney Web Site Marketing is so vitally
important to a law firm. Provided that these prospects meet your strict requirements for acceptance as a
new client, then these are the best potential leads..
Why is it so important for a lawyer to have a good internet marketing
strategy?
- A thoughtful, value-driven, informative and engaging Website will
position you as an expert in your practice niche. In other
sections of this website, I discuss the importance of making potential
clients "know you, like you, and trust you" so that they will want to hire
you. A firm website and a good internet marketing strategy will
increase your visibility, credibility, and trustworthiness.
-
Builds a database of prospective clients that
you can market to. An informative and well written website can
instantly increase the effectiveness of your overall legal marketing plan by
building a targeted list of prospective clients who have given you
permission to follow up with them. You build this database by offering
something of value (an ebook, subscription to a newsletter, etc.) in
exchange for the prospect's email address. This is especially important for
legal marketing, because the only limitation that attorneys have when
marketing to prospects that have requested information from a lawyer is that the information they send out can't be misleading. As a member of the Florida Bar, I've
discussed this issue at length with attorneys at the Bar's ethics hotline.
As an example, in Florida testimonials are absolutely prohibited in legal marketing
materials. However, if a prospective client has contacted you and
asked for more information from your firm, then the only restriction on your response is that
you can't mislead the prospect. So now, all of a sudden, there is a
way that you can use testimonials in Florida, ethically. See my
page on ethical legal advertising for more information on this topic
(currently under construction).
Click here for a link to Florida Bar Rule 4-7.1(f) that deals with this
issue.
-
Allows you to communicate with potential
clients 24x7. The beauty of a website is that it never shuts down.
It's always there for your clients to peruse. You can be sleeping or
on vacation, but with the help of autoresponders, you are still there to
communicate with prospective clients.
-
A good internet marketing strategy will allow
you to filter out unwanted clients. As you can tell by reading
this website, I am a firm believer in information marketing. When you
have an effective web presence, you can save precious time by giving clients
information about you and your practice, the services you provide, your
policies and procedures, and (most importantly) the types of cases
that you do and do not take. This prevents clients that do not qualify
for your services from contacting your firm and wasting you (or your
assistant's) valuable time.
-
Expands the reach of your potential clients.
I have represented clients throughout Florida, and in the states of Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Arizona, Oklahoma, and even as far away as
Washington, all because they found me on the web. Most of these
clients I never met face-to-face.
A Good Internet Marketing Strategy will avoid
this One Major Mistake
The biggest mistake that almost all lawyers
make with their online strategy is that they fail to obtain the email addresses
of their visitors (and permission to market to them in the future) in exchange
for a useful piece of information. Any website that fails to do this is
ineffective at best, and possibly even useless. You may get a few calls
and even some new clients, but the vast majority of people that visit your site
will never come back again.
A good internet marketing strategy will focus on
building a list of potential and current clients who will eagerly anticipate the
information you send them. Remember the "know you, like you, trust you"
mantra. The more contacts a prospect has with you, the more they will
begin to trust the information you are sending them, and you as their potential
lawyer. Just remember, a good internet marketing strategy will offer
extraordinary value to the prospective client in exchange for an email address
and permission to follow up.
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