Posted on April 13th, 2013 by JurisMarketing
Law firms are realizing more and more that a marketing program is a necessity, not a luxury. But, are you getting the most out of your marketing program? Whether your firm runs marketing operations in-house or outsourced, it requires care and attention in order to be as effective as possible. Below are several steps your firm can take to ensure max efficacy and the greatest ROI on your Marketing dollar:
• Make sure your staff is aware of and supportive of your Marketing efforts. Cooperation is often lacking between departments or branches. In order for both efforts to be successful, they have to work together. Your staff should be informed, and for some, involved in the firm’s marketing initiatives.
• Combine methodologies. A single approach is rarely as effective as combing several methods of market outreach. For example, you can use eMarketing to send invitations to monthly webinars for your clients and prospects, then use telemarketing to follow up on the registrants and try to set appointments. Or combine Social Media Marketing with SEO to increase web traffic and raise firm awareness.
• Market strategically. It can actually be counterproductive to deploy a haphazard marketing effort. Instead, think long term, decide what you want the overall effort to accomplish, and take the necessary steps to achieve that goal.
• Stick with the program. Marketing success doesn’t happen overnight, so don’t get discouraged when after 30 or 60 days your firm hasn’t signed dozens of new clients. Remember, if you have a good strategic plan in place, and the right tools and people to use them, your marketing plan will succeed. Just be sure give it time to work.
Tags: attorney web marketing, law firm emarketing, law firm web marketing, law firm webinars, lawyer emarketing
Posted in Law Firm Marketing, Law Firm SEO, Law Firm Social Media | Leave a Comment »
Posted on March 13th, 2013 by JurisMarketing
Web visibility is a crucial component of any effective law firm website. Your site will get little to no traffic if it can’t be found on a search engine. Targeting those who are looking for you – in-profile prospects – is paramount in this endeavor. Leveraging keywords and developing content that speak to your prospects will dramatically increase the likelihood that your site, and therefore your firm, will be found through search engines.
But visibility alone is not enough. Your site must appear credible to both search engines and human visitors. If search engines deem your site unsound, they will demote or even blacklist it. Your content must be original, when you do refer to others’ content you must credit them, and you must write in a way that leverages your keywords enough for search engines to notice them but not so much that they appear spammy. This may sound somewhat complicated. That’s because it is. But any SEO expert worth their weight will know how to accomplish the task.
This brings us to the next level of credibility – what prospects will see when they arrive at your site. A modern law firm website must present itself in a professional, polished, and informative manner. It should look attractive to the eye, while brandishing enough content to engage search engines and the human eye. Ideally this is accomplished through a combination of text, images, and video. These can speak to the specialties of your firm, noteworthy legal news, and even introduction to your firm and its value proposition. As long as it isn’t too sales-y, search engines and prospects alike will engage.
Tags: law firm search engine marketing, Law Firm Websites, lawyer website development, legal seo
Posted in Law Firm Marketing, Law Firm SEO, Law Firm Websites | Leave a Comment »
Posted on February 13th, 2013 by JurisMarketing
The days of printing five thousand or ten thousand brochures for marketing distribution and “leave behinds” are coming to an end, as snail mail campaigns and canvassing (stopping off at prospective accounts to drop off a brochure) are on the wane. Branded eCollateral should have replaced traditional printed law firm brochures by now for firms across the board. eCollateral, if done correctly, offers some significant advantages over traditional, printed marketing materials:
- Use it for individual email fulfillment and lead handling
- Print on demand when visiting prospective clients
- Use it on your web site (public or private)
- Update it quickly when products/services change
- Update it as your agency branding changes
- Create personalized versions for each producer
- Leverage case studies for quality eMarketing fulfillment
If you don’t have eCollateral (eBrochures, Case Studies, etc.), you’re missing a key opportunity for both your law firm marketing and attorney lead generation. For more information, contact us today.
Tags: attorney marketing, law firm ebrochure, lawyer ebrochure, lawyer marketing
Posted in Law Firm Marketing | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 16th, 2013 by JurisMarketing
For almost a decade, I’ve enjoyed the flexibility and increased productivity of a work from home office environment, conducting all of my business virtually and efficiently. In fact, my entire team is virtually based across the US. So it came as no surprise that a recent study concurred with this sentiment, as many people now consider themselves to be more productive when working away from their traditional offices. In a recent Puget Sound Business Journal article, Todd Bishop discussed the Microsoft Telework study, “Sixty percent of respondents to the Microsoft Telework survey – conducted among 3,600 employees in 36 cities nationwide – say they are actually more productive and efficient when working remotely,” Microsoft says today said in a summary of the findings. “With less time spent commuting and fewer cubicle ‘drive bys’ causing distractions, respondents say, more time can be spent on the task in front of them.”
Boston, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Atlanta were listed as top telecommuting cities, while Seattle didn’t even make the Top 10 list. This was a tad ironic, as Microsoft is pushing their virtual tools including many of their cloud based solutions. Notable was Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Yammer, a collaboration solution that would play well in the virtual business market. Microsoft said that only 41 percent of the companies responding had established policies for remote working, offering a large and untapped user base for virtual tools.
While millions commute in a stressful and limited productivity environment, virtual workers begin their day with minimal effort and in many cases at their preferred and optimum starting time. This should mean less gas, less pollution, lower costs, less stress and improved productivity. For those companies and jobs which can accommodate a virtual “telework” program, sooner is better, especially with all the new cloud computing tools available today.
Tags: virtual law firm, web marketing for lawyers, working virtually
Posted in Law Firm Marketing | Leave a Comment »
Posted on January 2nd, 2013 by JurisMarketing
Web marketing is a crucial component for almost any business, especially law firms. Increasing web visibility to drive more traffic to your firm is what will separate you from the pack. The more effective your web marketing strategy, the more clients you’ll be able to acquire, and the more selective you can be about which clients you take on. But web marketing isn’t any one specific approach – there are a plethora of techniques, strategies, and skills to employ. Check out some of our recent law firm web marketing blogs to learn more.
Tags: attorney emarketing, email marketing for attorney, law firm web analytics, law firm web marketing, lawyer marketing
Posted in Law Firm Marketing, Law Firm SEO, Law Firm Websites | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 20th, 2012 by JurisMarketing
An HTML Tag is a code typically used for Web page formatting. HTML tags are denoted by the characters < and >. There are dozens of HTML tags which can be used, some of which are very important to insurance SEO efforts (or SEO efforts for any business). For example, search engines place greater weight on <H1> tags than <H6> tags. This is similar to Chapter Titles in a book, think in terms of large fonts monopolizing a disproportionate amount of page space (or web page space in this case). HTML tags can influence the actual text on a page:
- Font size/position – (H1,H2, H3, etc.)
- Font format -Bold <b>, italicize <i>, lists <li>, paragraphs <p>, etc.
- Hyperlinks – <a href=”yoururl”>Your Link Text</a>
- Hidden from users view but important to search engines (<img> Image Tags for example).
Smaller law firms working on their own legal websites and attorney SEO should optimize applicable HTML Tags to refine their SEO efforts and improve website traffic. For more information, visit our Law Firm SEO page.
Tags: attorney seo, attorney websites, Law Firm SEO, law firm webdev, Law Firm Websites, lawyer seo
Posted in Law Firm SEO, Law Firm Websites | Leave a Comment »
Posted on December 6th, 2012 by JurisMarketing
If your law firm sends out eMarketing campaigns, or is planning on doing so in the upcoming year, make sure you understand and follow the CAN-SPAM Act.
- Don’t use false or misleading header information: Your “From, To and Reply To” (and routing information) must be accurate and clearly identify the agent or agency initiating the message.
- Don’t use deceptive subject lines. This is important from the CAN-SPAM Act perspective and from a Law Firm eMarketing best practices perspective. Your subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
- Identify the message as an advertisement (assuming it is an ad): The law offers latitude as to how your firm should do this. That said, you must clearly disclose if your message is an advertisement.
- Tell recipients where you’re located: Your message must include your valid physical postal address.
- Tell recipients how to opt out of future email: Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of future emails. Even if you are using Outlook to send group emails (not a good idea by the way), you must offer a clear opt out method. And make sure your insurance agency spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
- Honor opt-out requests promptly: Your agency must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message and you must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days.
- Monitor what others are doing on your behalf: If you outsource your email marketing to a Law Firm marketing agency, make sure they are credible and knowledgeable. Ultimately what is sent, is still your responsibility.
Beyond the stigma and fines potentially associated with inappropriate law firm eMarketing, there can also be a backlash with your website, domain name and Internet Service Provider (ISP). Recently, and agent told me they purchased 10,000 emails and did a “blast”. Their eMarketing vendor shut down their folder, due to a large number of complaints, refusing to do additional eMail campaigns for them. Just as an attorney would suggest to their prospective and existing clients that they should follow their guidance and expertise when it comes to legal matters, your firm should seek guidance and expertise when it comes to eMarketing for attorneys.
Tags: attorney email marketing, attorney emarketing, email marketing for lawyers, law firm email marketing
Posted in Law Firm Marketing | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 21st, 2012 by JurisMarketing
Web analytics is a crucial component of any modern law firm. Ascertaining the amount and type of traffic that flows to your site allows your business to understand the clientele it is attracting, the success of email campaigns and other outreach programs, as well as identifying the most and least successful pockets of your target market. Without web analytics, you are flying blind.
The tools are often inexpensive or free, such as Google Analytics and Visitor ID Tracking. Using them effectively, however, requires substantial training and an ability to reduce the vast quantities of information into salient and manageable material. Bringing these skills in-house can be effective for large firms, but for most, outsourcing is the most scale-able and cost-effective option. Leveraging these tools increases leads and the efficacy of your marketing outreach, while avoiding them can prove a costly mistake that puts you behind the competition and leaves you in the dark.
Tags: law firm web analytics, legal web analytics, web analytics for lawyers, web tools for lawyers
Posted in Law Firm Websites | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 15th, 2012 by JurisMarketing
Most law firms lack the time, knowledge, or resources to staff up on all their marketing needs. This is true in many other businesses as well, especially those between $1 Million and $50 Million in revenues. Some might refer to this as the SMB market. Businesses of this size may lack a sufficiently large marketing department to cover all the skills needed for a comprehensive marketing program. Consider that a law firm marketing plan can incorporate any of the following elements.
- PPC ads
- Law Firm eMarketing
- Law Firm Newsletter Distribution
- Law Firm Blogging and Vlogging
- Law Firm Social Media Marketing
- Law Firm Websites Development
- Law Firm Web Seminar Marketing
- Press Releases and News Releases for Attorneys
- Contact List Generation, eMail List Generation for Lawyers
- Law Firm Telemarketing, Appointment Setting
- Law Firm Client Testimonials and Case Studies
- Law Firm Lead Generation, Insurance Agency Leads
- Organic Law Firm SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Law Firm Video Creation (and YouTube Video)
- Law Firm Agency Marketing Plans and Web Marketing Plans for Lawyers
These are just some of the marketing activities law firms might utilize in their marketing efforts. There are also many traditional initiatives such as print advertising, association marketing, sponsorship, etc. How can a partner determine if they should internally staff a position or outsource the position? An easy ROI is based upon the marketing activity and frequency of the activity. For example, let’s say they want to increase lead generation for members of the firm, and opt to send out two webinar email campaigns per month and run a webinar as the Call to Action for the campaigns. Further, let’s assume they want to do this every month for a year. If it costs $60,000 per year to hire an eMarketing manager to do this, versus $20,000 per year to outsource it, it’s an easy decision. However, if the goal is to run six webinars a month to various target verticals, with 12 eMarketing campaigns per month, then it could become a closer call, as the outsource costs may begin to approach the internal staffing cost. Make sure both costs are evaluated as fully burdened costs (outsource should include all infrastructure while internal staffing costs should include health benefits, expenses, and related overhead).
Take the same approach with law firm websites. Would a full time developer be needed to create and update your law firm website, or do you simply need a new website with periodic updates? Today there are many good options for new websites that include Content Management Systems (WordPress, Joomla, etc.) allowing businesses to use nontechnical resources to make most of their own website changes.
Tags: law firm list generation, Law Firm Marketing, seo for lawyers, social media for attorneys
Posted in Law Firm Marketing | Leave a Comment »
Posted on November 8th, 2012 by JurisMarketing
We discuss a large array of web marketing solutions for attorneys and law firms on the Juris Marketing Group blog. This is because there are so many different ways to bring in new business and increase firm visibility. A multi-pronged approach is usually most effective, so here are a few recent blogs on different ways to reach out, promote, connect, and close:
Tags: emarketing for attorneys, law firm vlogging, law firm web marketing, lawyer email marketing, lawyer emarketing
Posted in Law Firm Marketing | Leave a Comment »
