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The Lawyer’s Online Trifecta – Do You Have It?

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For part one of this article, please click here…

 

MARKETING & ADVERTISING – You can’t just build a website and consider your work done. Like most Law Firm Online Marketingconsumer business, you should market and advertise. Your goal with marketing and advertising is about one thing – DRIVING TRAFFIC to your website.

Traditional methods of advertising (TV, radio, billboards, print) are fast becoming obsolete. For the first time ever, last year in 2013, digital advertising/marketing surpassed all other forms of media advertising. From a website perspective, your new considerations should be zoned in primarily on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing).

SEO is the method of driving traffic from FREE, organic, editorial and natural searches online. It’s a long term strategy that typically takes months, if not years, for solid results to appear. It’s like “earning” the right to be top dog in search results when someone is typing in “keyword” searches. Your goal is to be on the first page of search results and, ultimately, in the # 1 spot for your market. When “ranking” websites, search engines typically include factors such as – content, your website code, website architecture, links (to and from other websites), trust, social and personal factors.

SEM, on the other hand, typically involves PAID FOR traffic and is more akin to traditional advertising and marketing. It includes things like PPC, CPC – Paid Search – ie: Google AdWords and any other paid methods productive in driving website traffic. It’s like buying face time online. Pay the right price and you get exposure to prospective clients who are searching the internet with specific key words.

Finding someone who really knows how to market online is an integral component of the Online Trifecta. When it comes to SEO, your preference should be someone that works exclusively for you in your field of practice and market place. It’s kind of hard for one firm to say they are going to get you the number one ranking spot when they work for 5 other attorneys in the same geo-market and practice areas. Ask if they work for your competitors. Conversely, SEM can be sourced out to the most competent firm you can find. Some are good, while others . . . well, not so stellar. Ask around your market to see who has a good reputation for results. Rates can vary based on a myriad of factors.

CONVERSION – This is the final and perhaps most crucial component of the Online Trifecta. There is no point in having a website and spending money on marketing and advertising to drive traffic if you don’t have a conversion strategy to capture/generate business – IN REAL TIME – once visitors arrive at your website.

It used to be that a simple contact/submit form was enough to get the job done – that’s if you responded to an inquiry before another attorney did. Auto-responders helped improve the service aspect, but that still didn’t solve the problem of people going from one site to the next, while you lost the opportunity for an engagement to another attorney whose site looked better, flashier, or had that something extra to capture the client’s attention and earn the engagement.

The online legal space has become so competitive that a firm now has to be PROACTIVE in generating leads and driving potential business. You have to capture a web visitors’ attention while they are on your website, in real time. The best way to do that is with a live chat platform. Client chat platforms allow your website to come alive in a “personable” way that a site sans it can’t provide. This can make the difference in keeping a prospective client from heading off to your competitor’s site. Chat provides a level of personal service the moment someone lands on your website. For a complete overview on client chat platforms, see my recent posts on lawmarketing.com.

Consider implementing and promoting every way in which someone can connect with you – telephone, submit form, email, and live chat. Some may ponder the merits of video, though my opinion is that it is not a very effective method for initial contact/lead generation in the legal space.

Certainly, there are many approaches and a plethora of considerations to conducting business online. The Online Trifecta provides a streamlined approach in defining key facets that should be contemplated when launching a website, carrying out an advertising and marketing campaign, and the ultimate goal of winning clients from the effort. Do your best to stack the odds in your favor.

 


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