How To Fail At Internet Marketing

For large and small firms, regardless of practice area, use of the Internet to attract new business can be one of the most productive and efficient forms of business development. Internet marketing ' Web sites, search engine ranking, e-mail campaigns, and the like ' is targeted, operates on a wide geographic scale, and can produce valuable leads while the lawyers are generating billable hours, vacationing, or doing other activities.

However, because it is a relatively new medium for law firm marketing, effective use of the Internet is not widespread. There are many myths and misunderstandings about how it works and what will succeed, and what the future holds. Here is a list of some of the best ways to fail at Internet marketing.

Don't try. It's self-evident that if your firm has no presence on the Internet, it isn't likely to generate business from the Internet. But the reasons that firms don't try are driven by misunderstanding about the medium, their clientele, and their own practices.

The most common fallacy goes along the lines of: “Our clients would never look for a firm like ours on the Internet.” That doesn't say very positive things about the clients or the firm. While a case can be made that, for example, a Fortune 500 company isn't likely to start and complete the hiring of a new law firm solely on the basis of that firm's Web site, the Internet's status at the greatest collection of information ever created makes it an indispensable tool in making purchasing decisions.

While the initial contact with a potential client may be offline, many companies seeking legal representation review a law firm's Web site as part of the due diligence process. If that potential client is choosing between two firms and uses promotional material as part of the decision-making process, the firm with a well-designed and informative Web site may be in a better light than the firm with no, or, worse yet, a shoddy Web site. Put yourself in the place of a shopper for services ' what would you think about a merchant that had yet to “catch on” to the Internet?

Try to do it all. Rare is the lawyer who is an expert in all practices of law. And trying to market the firm's services to all practices, despite the claim of being a “full-service firm,” is likely to be very expensive and produce marginal results. What's better is to establish through marketing, including Internet marketing, the reputation ' some call it a brand ' of being the top firm for a certain practice or set of practices.

This is particularly true if the firm is not yet comfortable with online marketing. A good start in this case would involve Internet marketing concentrating on practice areas for which the firm is well known or exceptionally skilled. This is due to the nature of the search engines and how they reward Web sites with high rankings.

A search engine attempts to show the searcher the Web sites containing information the searcher wants to see. The more specific the search terms, the more likely the top-ranked results are going to be interesting to the searcher. In general, search engines rank highly Web sites (or more accurately, Web pages) that appear to be resources on a particular topic. The more specific and the more informative, the more likely it is that the Web page gets ranked highly. In contrast, a diffuse, unfocused Web site is not likely to be ranked well for many types of searches and will miss out on those searchers who view only the first two or three pages of results.

An example: The Philadelphia law firm of Berger & Montague, PC, one of the oldest class action firms in the country, maintained a main firm Web site that listed many of its practice areas in the traditional way ' a page per practice area, links to cases in each, with easy-to-access contact information. With this in mind, the firm sought to use the Internet to develop new business for a particular type of case: lucrative lawsuits involving defective synthetic stucco and the resulting damage to homes and buildings.

The firm chose to use targeted marketing for this practice area by building a separate Web site entirely devoted to the topic of defective synthetic stucco. Starting with the goal of achieving high search engine rankings for phrases such as “defective stucco,” the firm and its Web-development company wrote about the topic on every page, intending to make the Web site the Internet's leading resource for this type of case. (See, www.defective-stucco.com) As the search engines found the Web site and included it in their databases, it quickly rose to the top of the rankings for “defective stucco” and other search terms, where it remains. The result has been a great increase in new clients for these cases, bringing in many times the cost of the Web site and marketing effort.

Do it on the cheap. Internet marketing is an activity just like any other type of marketing ' to get good results you will have to invest time, money, and effort. It will take time to find the right Internet marketing partner, money to create and market a Web site, and effort to find the right message the marketing will convey. The payback for those firms that do it right is great.

Hiring the right Internet firm is a tricky subject ' complex enough for its own article. But there are Web design and search engine marketing firms catering solely to the legal industry that are established companies who know the legal field and have a track record of effective legal marketing. With this specialization and expertise typically comes higher costs to retain the company's services, but the result is generally a more professional marketing campaign.

Part of choosing the firm will involve setting a budget for marketing. Not always a simple task, but one that is the basis of a good campaign. Decide how much the firm can invest, looking at a multi-year expenditure, since Web sites typically last a firm 2 or more years before the Web site needs a complete overhaul. Note that costs to build a Web site marketing campaign are likely to be front-loaded compared to the ongoing maintenance of the Web site.

Don't track. Just as with investments in individual stocks or mutual funds, marketing on the Internet should be a matter of return on investment. Knowing how much you put into the effort and how much you've received from it will help you decide on whether it is worth continuing.

To make this determination, keep track of Internet-derived leads. Whether you use a formal case-management system deployed firm wide or simply a paper list of results, you have to record the origin of new leads. Technology can help, though ' the request-for-information forms on a law firm's Web site can be programmed to e-mail the firm the information collected and store it in a database for lawyer review. An essential part of these forms is a “where did you learn of us” question that provides insight as to whether the visitor had prior knowledge of the firm or found it via a search engine or Internet link.

Realize that not all Internet-driven leads contact your firm via the Internet. Some people who find the firm by search engine rankings pick up the telephone, too. Train your receptionists on intake procedures, such as asking briefly about how the caller heard about the firm and if the caller used a search engine.

Having tracked the leads coming to the firm, it is essential to review the data periodically, such as every quarter. Note where each lead came from and whether the contact resulted in revenue. Talking to a prospect and being hired are not the same thing, of course, so take into account identifiable reasons why a prospect did not become a client. For those that did become clients, add up the current and potential revenue (important in contingency representations) to see if your Internet marketing expenditure has brought positive cash flow. This will determine if the effort was worth it.

For those firms that have not done extensive Internet marketing, beginning the process can be daunting. If done properly, an Internet campaign can pay off many times the investment. Avoid the ways to fail listed here and your firm can effectively use this medium to increase revenue and acquire new clients.

For large and small firms, regardless of practice area, use of the Internet to attract new business can be one of the most productive and efficient forms of business development. Internet marketing ' Web sites, search engine ranking, e-mail campaigns, and the like ' is targeted, operates on a wide geographic scale, and can produce valuable leads while the lawyers are generating billable hours, vacationing, or doing other activities.

However, because it is a relatively new medium for law firm marketing, effective use of the Internet is not widespread. There are many myths and misunderstandings about how it works and what will succeed, and what the future holds. Here is a list of some of the best ways to fail at Internet marketing.

Don't try. It's self-evident that if your firm has no presence on the Internet, it isn't likely to generate business from the Internet. But the reasons that firms don't try are driven by misunderstanding about the medium, their clientele, and their own practices.

The most common fallacy goes along the lines of: “Our clients would never look for a firm like ours on the Internet.” That doesn't say very positive things about the clients or the firm. While a case can be made that, for example, a Fortune 500 company isn't likely to start and complete the hiring of a new law firm solely on the basis of that firm's Web site, the Internet's status at the greatest collection of information ever created makes it an indispensable tool in making purchasing decisions.

While the initial contact with a potential client may be offline, many companies seeking legal representation review a law firm's Web site as part of the due diligence process. If that potential client is choosing between two firms and uses promotional material as part of the decision-making process, the firm with a well-designed and informative Web site may be in a better light than the firm with no, or, worse yet, a shoddy Web site. Put yourself in the place of a shopper for services ' what would you think about a merchant that had yet to “catch on” to the Internet?

Try to do it all. Rare is the lawyer who is an expert in all practices of law. And trying to market the firm's services to all practices, despite the claim of being a “full-service firm,” is likely to be very expensive and produce marginal results. What's better is to establish through marketing, including Internet marketing, the reputation ' some call it a brand ' of being the top firm for a certain practice or set of practices.

This is particularly true if the firm is not yet comfortable with online marketing. A good start in this case would involve Internet marketing concentrating on practice areas for which the firm is well known or exceptionally skilled. This is due to the nature of the search engines and how they reward Web sites with high rankings.

A search engine attempts to show the searcher the Web sites containing information the searcher wants to see. The more specific the search terms, the more likely the top-ranked results are going to be interesting to the searcher. In general, search engines rank highly Web sites (or more accurately, Web pages) that appear to be resources on a particular topic. The more specific and the more informative, the more likely it is that the Web page gets ranked highly. In contrast, a diffuse, unfocused Web site is not likely to be ranked well for many types of searches and will miss out on those searchers who view only the first two or three pages of results.

An example: The Philadelphia law firm of Berger & Montague, PC, one of the oldest class action firms in the country, maintained a main firm Web site that listed many of its practice areas in the traditional way ' a page per practice area, links to cases in each, with easy-to-access contact information. With this in mind, the firm sought to use the Internet to develop new business for a particular type of case: lucrative lawsuits involving defective synthetic stucco and the resulting damage to homes and buildings.

The firm chose to use targeted marketing for this practice area by building a separate Web site entirely devoted to the topic of defective synthetic stucco. Starting with the goal of achieving high search engine rankings for phrases such as “defective stucco,” the firm and its Web-development company wrote about the topic on every page, intending to make the Web site the Internet's leading resource for this type of case. (See, www.defective-stucco.com) As the search engines found the Web site and included it in their databases, it quickly rose to the top of the rankings for “defective stucco” and other search terms, where it remains. The result has been a great increase in new clients for these cases, bringing in many times the cost of the Web site and marketing effort.

Do it on the cheap. Internet marketing is an activity just like any other type of marketing ' to get good results you will have to invest time, money, and effort. It will take time to find the right Internet marketing partner, money to create and market a Web site, and effort to find the right message the marketing will convey. The payback for those firms that do it right is great.

Hiring the right Internet firm is a tricky subject ' complex enough for its own article. But there are Web design and search engine marketing firms catering solely to the legal industry that are established companies who know the legal field and have a track record of effective legal marketing. With this specialization and expertise typically comes higher costs to retain the company's services, but the result is generally a more professional marketing campaign.

Part of choosing the firm will involve setting a budget for marketing. Not always a simple task, but one that is the basis of a good campaign. Decide how much the firm can invest, looking at a multi-year expenditure, since Web sites typically last a firm 2 or more years before the Web site needs a complete overhaul. Note that costs to build a Web site marketing campaign are likely to be front-loaded compared to the ongoing maintenance of the Web site.

Don't track. Just as with investments in individual stocks or mutual funds, marketing on the Internet should be a matter of return on investment. Knowing how much you put into the effort and how much you've received from it will help you decide on whether it is worth continuing.

To make this determination, keep track of Internet-derived leads. Whether you use a formal case-management system deployed firm wide or simply a paper list of results, you have to record the origin of new leads. Technology can help, though ' the request-for-information forms on a law firm's Web site can be programmed to e-mail the firm the information collected and store it in a database for lawyer review. An essential part of these forms is a “where did you learn of us” question that provides insight as to whether the visitor had prior knowledge of the firm or found it via a search engine or Internet link.

Realize that not all Internet-driven leads contact your firm via the Internet. Some people who find the firm by search engine rankings pick up the telephone, too. Train your receptionists on intake procedures, such as asking briefly about how the caller heard about the firm and if the caller used a search engine.

Having tracked the leads coming to the firm, it is essential to review the data periodically, such as every quarter. Note where each lead came from and whether the contact resulted in revenue. Talking to a prospect and being hired are not the same thing, of course, so take into account identifiable reasons why a prospect did not become a client. For those that did become clients, add up the current and potential revenue (important in contingency representations) to see if your Internet marketing expenditure has brought positive cash flow. This will determine if the effort was worth it.

For those firms that have not done extensive Internet marketing, beginning the process can be daunting. If done properly, an Internet campaign can pay off many times the investment. Avoid the ways to fail listed here and your firm can effectively use this medium to increase revenue and acquire new clients.