The Essentials of a Powerful Online Marketing Strategy

Your Web site was launched some time ago, you send clients e-newsletters and alerts, you've dipped your toes in social media and online advertising, you realize that search engine optimization (SEO) and Web analytics are also important. How do you integrate these individual efforts in a coordinated strategy to build brand awareness and achieve your marketing and business development goals?

What Are Your Goals?

Before you embark on a Web site redesign or send your first tweet, step back and think about your marketing and business development goals for the short and long term. What are your objectives? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Move into new markets? Grow specific practice areas? Increase qualified leads? Unify the firm and empower your attorneys and staff to speak with one voice? Attract top talent? Identifying your objectives during the planning phase will help you:

• Select which online tools will make the most sense to obtain your objectives.
• Stay focused. You should not take on initiatives just because competitors are or because there's internal pressure to do so. You can use your goals as a road map to guide your decision-making.
• Develop metrics that will help you measure the performance of your online initiatives against your goals.

Best Practices

Developing a successful online media strategy requires more than just a Web site. You need a strategic plan that integrates all your online efforts into a unified and consistent brand presence. Just like in real estate, it is all about location, location, location. Online, as in offline, you need to be where your clients and prospects are, or are browsing, and offer them value.

Here is a list of best practices to consider when developing a powerful online marketing strategy.

Get Found

The Web is driven by valuable content. It's what makes YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, among many other sites, so popular. To appear at the top of unpaid or organic search results on Google, Yahoo, Bing or other search engines, your online content must include keywords about your services that people are searching for. This is known as search engine optimization. SEO should be the centerpiece of any online marketing strategy. Whether on your Web site, social networks, blogs or articles, develop content with specific keywords in mind.

Include keywords your targets are searching for. Think about how your clients and prospects use search engines. Are they searching for practice areas or key issues in their industries? Rather than focus your efforts on just describing the firm, provide information that is valuable to your audiences. Keep copy brief, but long enough to integrate your keywords. A good rule of thumb is 200-400 words per page with 10-12 keyword mentions.

Keep content fresh. Every time you post new information on your site, search engines will need to index it. Search engines learn how often you update your site. If you do not update regularly enough, search engines will not bother to index it.

Encourage linking. Search engines rank your site according to the number of sites that link to you. Link to relevant industry-related Web sites as a way to encourage inbound links.

Use Your Web Site to Engage Your Audience

Google law firms and you'll find search results filled with firms whose Web sites are online extensions of their firm brochures. They spend a lot of pixels describing the firm, its services, history, the credentials of its attorneys, all the great things the firm is doing. To engage clients, prospects and drive targeted traffic to your site, you need to shift the focus away from you and on to your audiences. Give your targets a reason to visit your site by becoming a trusted source of information that is valuable to them. Here are some basic tips:

Make your value clear. To succeed online and offline, you need a strong brand that differentiates you from your competitors and offers a unique value that is meaningful to your clients. Put your value proposition on your homepage so that users will clearly see the benefits you offer.

Help users find the information they want. Once someone lands on your site, you need to engage him immediately and give him a reason to stay. Select navigation headings that resonate with your audience, not you. Highlight the industries you work with, your offices' contact information, resources and insight clients and prospects would find valuable. Use quick links to popular pages on your homepage to help clients get to the information they want fast.

Offer valuable information. Once you've established cues to help users navigate your site, make sure you provide content that a visitor finds valuable. Position your firm as a problem solver and an expert. Show how you have helped clients achieve their business goals with short, descriptive stories or case studies on the home page that recount the client's challenge, your solution and the outcome. Rather than touting your accomplishments as news, dedicate a section of your site to information clients and prospects will truly appreciate and benefit from: legal and business insights that affect their industry. Encourage clients and prospects to return to your site by updating these thought leadership pieces frequently. Clients will view your site as a valuable resource and check back for updates.

Make an emotional connection with videos. Your thought leadership will demonstrate your expertise. Use video to paint a picture of what it is like to work with you. Abandon the talking head approach and make your videos conversational. Rather than a video of an attorney at her desk, show partners in an environment that speaks to their passions both in and out of work. Video clients at their job site explaining how you have helped them.

Make it easy for people to learn about and share new content. Use RSS feeds, subscribe buttons and social media links to encourage visitors to your site to stay connected with you and share your expert analysis.

Promote Your Content

The adage, “build it and they will come“ does not apply to Web sites. To help your targets find out about the valuable industry insight and analysis your firm offers, you need to promote it. Remember, though, that promotion should be client-focused. Do not fall back into the habit of touting your achievements. Instead, focus on the client value you deliver.

Advertise. Turn the keywords from your Web site into a GoogleAdwords campaign. GoogleAdwords is a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign that enables you to place ads alongside the search results for keywords your targets are searching. In conjunction with a search engine marketing campaign, place banner ads on Web sites frequented by your clients and prospects. You can even target industry-specific sites to promote particular practice areas. Trade association Web sites are particularly effective outlets for this type of advertising.

E-mail marketing. This is a cost-effective way to instantly reach out to GCs. But, just as with direct mail, your e-mail marketing needs to be distinctive and deliver value to cut through the clutter. Design for the preview pane to make sure the most crucial information can be seen. Use a call to action and allow people to share your information with links to social media. Also consider using different URLs for each mailer to test how each one performs.

Text messaging. The next wave in online promotion is texting. Instead of e-mail alerts, send clients notices to their BlackBerries and IPhones via text message. This works especially well for breaking or time-sensitive news that you need to share immediately.

Engage Your Audience with Social Media

Over the last year, you have been inundated with talk about the wonders of social media. Here are the facts. Seventy-one percent of corporate counsel participates in a social network (according to the second annual Networks for Counsel Survey). The survey also found that one of the top three reasons corporate counsel are active in social media is to identify, evaluate and select outside counsel. If that does not convince you, here are some other benefits that make social media a no-brainer. With social media you can:

• Engage and connect with clients and prospects. Think of social networks as a cocktail party that is not constricted by time or geography. You can seek out and engage the people you want to meet immediately.
• Establish yourself as a thought leader. Social networks are about sharing information and providing value. Demonstrate your value by offering your expertise and insight to others via your status on LinkedIn, tweets or Facebook updates, for example.
• Drive traffic to your site and boost SEO. Use social media to share links to your latest blog, white papers, alerts and videos. It will drive traffic to your site and encourage inbound links. Social media can also improve you firm's visibility in search results through blog posts and network profiles on sites like Twitter and Facebook. But remember, you need to update your networks regularly to remain high in search results.
• Target your efforts with networks for attorneys. While the big three ' LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook ' allow you to connect with a wide range of professionals, use online communities specifically for attorneys and legal professionals to focus your efforts.

Integrate Online and Offline Efforts

Social media presents an exciting opportunity to connect and engage with peers and corporate counsel across time zones and geographies but it still cannot replace face-to-face interactions. To get the most out of your online marketing strategy, integrate your online efforts with what you are doing offline.

Leverage thought leadership. A white paper delivered online can be reconfigured as a press release, presentation, webinar, blog post, article, tweet and LinkedIn and Facebook status.

Leverage your creativity. Create a consistent and coherent brand and raise brand awareness by leveraging a strong creative concept across all your marketing touch points: Web site, blog, print and online ads, social media pages, e-mail marketing, events, collateral, etc.

Connect your online and offline worlds. Blog or tweet about industry events you attend. Events the firm hosts can be promoted online. Connect online and then follow up with an in-person meeting. Invite online contacts to presentations or firm events. Connect online with contacts you meet at events. The more ways you can find to integrate your online and offline efforts, the greater the reward from your marketing and business development programs.

Measure Performance

The most well thought-out and executed online strategy in the world will be wasted if it cannot be measured against your goals. That is ROO, or return on objective. Here are recommended metrics to consider when evaluating how to best track the success of your strategy.

Brand awareness. Analyze conversations surrounding your brand by monitoring blogs, forum posts, online news sources, social networks and microblogs like Twitter. There are multiple tools available to track your brand perception online. Google Alerts is a simple, free tool that allows you to monitor mentions of the firm in Google results for news, Web, blogs, video and groups.

Web site traffic. There are endless companies that offer Web analytics services to help you analyze your Web site traffic. Google Analytics is free and incredibly robust and provides detailed statistics about how users find your site and navigate through it.

Advertising response. If you decide to launch an Adwords campaign, Google Analytics provides all the data you need to assess the performance of your campaign, ad group and keywords. For other online ads and print campaigns, use unique domains, phone numbers or even SMS (Short Message Service) for text messages to track ad responses.

E-mail marketing statistics. An effective e-newsletter will have a click through rate of 10%-50%, a bounce rate of less than 2%, an open rate of 20%, and an unsubscribe rate of less than 1%.

Social media. To evaluate how effective your online media plan has been you need to look beyond the number of fans, friends, connections and followers to examine the qualitative impact of your efforts. Look at the traffic you are generating, the quality of your interactions, qualified leads and conversions.

Conclusion

Now more than ever it is important to use your marketing dollars wisely. To make sure your marketing budget is invested well, you need to think strategically, not tactically. Rather than implement a collection of disparate initiatives, build a cohesive strategy guided by your goals and priorities. A strategic approach to marketing will not only unify the efforts at the firm, saving time and money, but it will also raise brand awareness, build a competitive advantage and increase business. In today's ultra competitive environment, who can afford to ignore those advantages?

Jeff Roberts is the President and founder of Moir' Marketing Partners, a strategic branding and communications agency specializing in professional service firms. You can reach him at [email protected] and connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter (@JeffreyMRoberts).

Your Web site was launched some time ago, you send clients e-newsletters and alerts, you've dipped your toes in social media and online advertising, you realize that search engine optimization (SEO) and Web analytics are also important. How do you integrate these individual efforts in a coordinated strategy to build brand awareness and achieve your marketing and business development goals?

What Are Your Goals?

Before you embark on a Web site redesign or send your first tweet, step back and think about your marketing and business development goals for the short and long term. What are your objectives? Do you want to increase brand awareness? Move into new markets? Grow specific practice areas? Increase qualified leads? Unify the firm and empower your attorneys and staff to speak with one voice? Attract top talent? Identifying your objectives during the planning phase will help you:

• Select which online tools will make the most sense to obtain your objectives.
• Stay focused. You should not take on initiatives just because competitors are or because there's internal pressure to do so. You can use your goals as a road map to guide your decision-making.
• Develop metrics that will help you measure the performance of your online initiatives against your goals.

Best Practices

Developing a successful online media strategy requires more than just a Web site. You need a strategic plan that integrates all your online efforts into a unified and consistent brand presence. Just like in real estate, it is all about location, location, location. Online, as in offline, you need to be where your clients and prospects are, or are browsing, and offer them value.

Here is a list of best practices to consider when developing a powerful online marketing strategy.

Get Found

The Web is driven by valuable content. It's what makes YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, among many other sites, so popular. To appear at the top of unpaid or organic search results on Google, Yahoo, Bing or other search engines, your online content must include keywords about your services that people are searching for. This is known as search engine optimization. SEO should be the centerpiece of any online marketing strategy. Whether on your Web site, social networks, blogs or articles, develop content with specific keywords in mind.

Include keywords your targets are searching for. Think about how your clients and prospects use search engines. Are they searching for practice areas or key issues in their industries? Rather than focus your efforts on just describing the firm, provide information that is valuable to your audiences. Keep copy brief, but long enough to integrate your keywords. A good rule of thumb is 200-400 words per page with 10-12 keyword mentions.

Keep content fresh. Every time you post new information on your site, search engines will need to index it. Search engines learn how often you update your site. If you do not update regularly enough, search engines will not bother to index it.

Encourage linking. Search engines rank your site according to the number of sites that link to you. Link to relevant industry-related Web sites as a way to encourage inbound links.

Use Your Web Site to Engage Your Audience

Google law firms and you'll find search results filled with firms whose Web sites are online extensions of their firm brochures. They spend a lot of pixels describing the firm, its services, history, the credentials of its attorneys, all the great things the firm is doing. To engage clients, prospects and drive targeted traffic to your site, you need to shift the focus away from you and on to your audiences. Give your targets a reason to visit your site by becoming a trusted source of information that is valuable to them. Here are some basic tips:

Make your value clear. To succeed online and offline, you need a strong brand that differentiates you from your competitors and offers a unique value that is meaningful to your clients. Put your value proposition on your homepage so that users will clearly see the benefits you offer.

Help users find the information they want. Once someone lands on your site, you need to engage him immediately and give him a reason to stay. Select navigation headings that resonate with your audience, not you. Highlight the industries you work with, your offices' contact information, resources and insight clients and prospects would find valuable. Use quick links to popular pages on your homepage to help clients get to the information they want fast.

Offer valuable information. Once you've established cues to help users navigate your site, make sure you provide content that a visitor finds valuable. Position your firm as a problem solver and an expert. Show how you have helped clients achieve their business goals with short, descriptive stories or case studies on the home page that recount the client's challenge, your solution and the outcome. Rather than touting your accomplishments as news, dedicate a section of your site to information clients and prospects will truly appreciate and benefit from: legal and business insights that affect their industry. Encourage clients and prospects to return to your site by updating these thought leadership pieces frequently. Clients will view your site as a valuable resource and check back for updates.

Make an emotional connection with videos. Your thought leadership will demonstrate your expertise. Use video to paint a picture of what it is like to work with you. Abandon the talking head approach and make your videos conversational. Rather than a video of an attorney at her desk, show partners in an environment that speaks to their passions both in and out of work. Video clients at their job site explaining how you have helped them.

Make it easy for people to learn about and share new content. Use RSS feeds, subscribe buttons and social media links to encourage visitors to your site to stay connected with you and share your expert analysis.

Promote Your Content

The adage, “build it and they will come“ does not apply to Web sites. To help your targets find out about the valuable industry insight and analysis your firm offers, you need to promote it. Remember, though, that promotion should be client-focused. Do not fall back into the habit of touting your achievements. Instead, focus on the client value you deliver.

Advertise. Turn the keywords from your Web site into a GoogleAdwords campaign. GoogleAdwords is a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign that enables you to place ads alongside the search results for keywords your targets are searching. In conjunction with a search engine marketing campaign, place banner ads on Web sites frequented by your clients and prospects. You can even target industry-specific sites to promote particular practice areas. Trade association Web sites are particularly effective outlets for this type of advertising.

E-mail marketing. This is a cost-effective way to instantly reach out to GCs. But, just as with direct mail, your e-mail marketing needs to be distinctive and deliver value to cut through the clutter. Design for the preview pane to make sure the most crucial information can be seen. Use a call to action and allow people to share your information with links to social media. Also consider using different URLs for each mailer to test how each one performs.

Text messaging. The next wave in online promotion is texting. Instead of e-mail alerts, send clients notices to their BlackBerries and IPhones via text message. This works especially well for breaking or time-sensitive news that you need to share immediately.

Engage Your Audience with Social Media

Over the last year, you have been inundated with talk about the wonders of social media. Here are the facts. Seventy-one percent of corporate counsel participates in a social network (according to the second annual Networks for Counsel Survey). The survey also found that one of the top three reasons corporate counsel are active in social media is to identify, evaluate and select outside counsel. If that does not convince you, here are some other benefits that make social media a no-brainer. With social media you can:

• Engage and connect with clients and prospects. Think of social networks as a cocktail party that is not constricted by time or geography. You can seek out and engage the people you want to meet immediately.
• Establish yourself as a thought leader. Social networks are about sharing information and providing value. Demonstrate your value by offering your expertise and insight to others via your status on LinkedIn, tweets or Facebook updates, for example.
• Drive traffic to your site and boost SEO. Use social media to share links to your latest blog, white papers, alerts and videos. It will drive traffic to your site and encourage inbound links. Social media can also improve you firm's visibility in search results through blog posts and network profiles on sites like Twitter and Facebook. But remember, you need to update your networks regularly to remain high in search results.
• Target your efforts with networks for attorneys. While the big three ' LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook ' allow you to connect with a wide range of professionals, use online communities specifically for attorneys and legal professionals to focus your efforts.

Integrate Online and Offline Efforts

Social media presents an exciting opportunity to connect and engage with peers and corporate counsel across time zones and geographies but it still cannot replace face-to-face interactions. To get the most out of your online marketing strategy, integrate your online efforts with what you are doing offline.

Leverage thought leadership. A white paper delivered online can be reconfigured as a press release, presentation, webinar, blog post, article, tweet and LinkedIn and Facebook status.

Leverage your creativity. Create a consistent and coherent brand and raise brand awareness by leveraging a strong creative concept across all your marketing touch points: Web site, blog, print and online ads, social media pages, e-mail marketing, events, collateral, etc.

Connect your online and offline worlds. Blog or tweet about industry events you attend. Events the firm hosts can be promoted online. Connect online and then follow up with an in-person meeting. Invite online contacts to presentations or firm events. Connect online with contacts you meet at events. The more ways you can find to integrate your online and offline efforts, the greater the reward from your marketing and business development programs.

Measure Performance

The most well thought-out and executed online strategy in the world will be wasted if it cannot be measured against your goals. That is ROO, or return on objective. Here are recommended metrics to consider when evaluating how to best track the success of your strategy.

Brand awareness. Analyze conversations surrounding your brand by monitoring blogs, forum posts, online news sources, social networks and microblogs like Twitter. There are multiple tools available to track your brand perception online. Google Alerts is a simple, free tool that allows you to monitor mentions of the firm in Google results for news, Web, blogs, video and groups.

Web site traffic. There are endless companies that offer Web analytics services to help you analyze your Web site traffic. Google Analytics is free and incredibly robust and provides detailed statistics about how users find your site and navigate through it.

Advertising response. If you decide to launch an Adwords campaign, Google Analytics provides all the data you need to assess the performance of your campaign, ad group and keywords. For other online ads and print campaigns, use unique domains, phone numbers or even SMS (Short Message Service) for text messages to track ad responses.

E-mail marketing statistics. An effective e-newsletter will have a click through rate of 10%-50%, a bounce rate of less than 2%, an open rate of 20%, and an unsubscribe rate of less than 1%.

Social media. To evaluate how effective your online media plan has been you need to look beyond the number of fans, friends, connections and followers to examine the qualitative impact of your efforts. Look at the traffic you are generating, the quality of your interactions, qualified leads and conversions.

Conclusion

Now more than ever it is important to use your marketing dollars wisely. To make sure your marketing budget is invested well, you need to think strategically, not tactically. Rather than implement a collection of disparate initiatives, build a cohesive strategy guided by your goals and priorities. A strategic approach to marketing will not only unify the efforts at the firm, saving time and money, but it will also raise brand awareness, build a competitive advantage and increase business. In today's ultra competitive environment, who can afford to ignore those advantages?

Jeff Roberts is the President and founder of Moir' Marketing Partners, a strategic branding and communications agency specializing in professional service firms. You can reach him at [email protected] and connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter (@JeffreyMRoberts).