The problem with lawyer directories

September 4, 2013 by
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I got yet another unsolicited email from a new lawyer directory inviting me to list my practice. Aside from the fact that I no longer practice, why would I want to be listed with a company that does marketing through unsolicited bulk emails?

Anyway, I’ve got a problem with lawyer directories. Actually, several problems:

  • People searching for lawyers usually prefer to go directly to individual lawyers’ websites, rather than wading through a directory (which is another search engine, after all). If they do visit a directory, they’ll see little to help them narrow their search, other than practice area and location, and that’s not enough. (See next point.)
  • Directories make everyone look alike so it’s harder to stand out among your competition. Premium (paid) listings give you better placement, more room, and more features, but it’s still a directory and the kind of information found in directories usually isn’t enough to convince people to call. (See next point.)
  • What makes you stand out isn’t telling people what you do, it’s showing them what you do. Articles, blog posts, client success stories, YOUR story, photos of you and your staff successfully doing what you do, show people your capabilities, experience, and commitment in a way a rote listing of practice areas never can.
  • Therefore, a listing is only as good as the website it links to. Most people won’t call based only on a directory listing. They want to see more. They want to see your website.

The good news is that not only will a content-rich website sell visitors on you and what you can do for them, it will also bring them to your site through search engines and social sharing. In other words, you don’t need to depend on directories.

If a directory is free, sure, go ahead and add your listing. It will provide another inbound link to your site and yes, you may get some business from it.

Should you get a paid listing? Hey, you only need one case or client all year to pay for it. That’s the pitch, isn’t it? I won’t say never. But I’d rather see you put your energy into building your own website and getting some of that free organic traffic Google would love to send you.

If you want to learn how to build a successful website and get traffic, this is all you need.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: ,

Long blog posts, articles, and emails, or short?

August 7, 2013 by
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How long should an article or blog post be? Right, long enough to say what you have to say. If you can communicate your information or message in three well written paragraphs, great. That’s what it should be. If you need 2500 words to get the job done, that’s what you should do.

But there are other considerations.

It is well known that long blog posts (articles), I’m talking 2000 words, or more, tend to get more search engine traffic and incoming links. Longer posts tend to be perceived as authoritative and rank well with search engines and human beings (social media sharing).

On the other hand, the objective isn’t just traffic. It’s clients and sign-ups for your email list. To accomplish that, visitors have to read your content and see how smart you are and what you have to offer. If your content is long, they may save it “for later”. I don’t know about you but I’ve got gigabytes of saved articles (and pdfs) that I’ll probably never get around to reading.

Also, if you write to your email list frequently, as I suggest you do, you may overwhelm them with too much content. They either won’t read it or they will unsubscribe from your list.

How frequently you post or write, and how long individual posts should be, does depend on context. Are you writing for consumers or business people? If you’re writing to professionals and providing valuable and relevant content, they will probably make the effort to stay with you. Consumers may not, but if are writing about the very problem that currently plagues them they’ll read every word.

So, the answer to the question of “long or short” is a very lawyer-like, “it depends”. The best course is to have a mix of both.

Write longer, authoritative articles and posts for search engine traffic and to address issues prospective clients want to know about. Write shorter posts to engage your readers and allow you to contact them more frequently.

One thing you can do with longer material is to break it up into segments. Three 700 word posts instead of one with 2000 words. In addition to giving readers the impression that there’s not “too much to read so I’ll save it for later,” it gives search engines three opportunities to find you. (Make sure each of the three parts is optimized for different keywords).

So, this post is around 400 words. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right.

Learn more about internet marketing for attorneys. Click here.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Communication, Email, Law office management, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With: ,

Audit your website

August 1, 2013 by
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When was the last time you audited your website?

Okay, you need to do that. You need to go through the pages of your site and make sure that all of the requisite elements are present.

Like your contact form. Have you made it easy for website visitors to contact you by phone and email (at least)? Is there a link to this on every page?

Or your newsletter sign up form. You want visitors to join your list so you can stay in touch with them until they are ready to hire you or refer someone. That should also be on every page.

How about a page that lists all of your services, with links to sub-pages providing details about each of those services?

But here’s the thing. Your website may have these and other essential elements and you may think you’ve got things covered. But having them isn’t enough. They need to be easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use. It’s hard to be objective about things like this.

So, after you audit your website, I suggest you find someone who has never seen your website and ask them to do the same.

Ask them to go through your site, page by page, and tell you what they see and what they think. You might do this with another lawyer, i.e., they go through your site and you go through theirs.

Give some instructions, i.e., “find the services I provide,” “sign up for my newsletter,” or “email me and tell me you want an appointment.”

Have them report if they hit any snags along the way. Was everything easy to find? Was it easy to understand? Did anything slow you down? Did you have any questions that weren’t answered?

Have them start on your home page, and then start again on one of your blog post or article pages, i.e., “landing pages” where they might enter your site if they find it via search.

After they read the home page, ask them to tell you what page they went to next. How long did they stay there? How many pages did they click through to get to something they wanted to see?

The best way to do this is to sit them down in front of a computer and watch them. As they go through your pages, have them narrate their journey–what they see and what they think.

See if they can quickly navigate through your site and find everything you have asked them to find and anything else they are attracted to. This is very valuable information.

You’ll learn what your website visitors encounter when they arrive at your site. You’ll see what you need to add, improve, move, or replace. You’ll know what questions visitors ask themselves as they arrive at and click through your site. And you’ll see how long it takes them to find the key elements that make your site work.

In Make the Phone Ring, I identify nine essential website elements for attracting (prospective) clients and getting them to hire you or take the next step. Whether you create your own websites or hire someone, if you want to get more clients online, you need to know what these elements are and how to implement them. Check it out on this page.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Law office management, List building, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Technology, Web traffic Tagged With: ,

3 ways to turn boring legal topics into interesting articles and posts

July 26, 2013 by
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If you write a newsletter or blog (and if you don’t, make sure you see me after class), you may struggle with finding interesting topics to write about. The law can be incredibly dry and arcane. Why would clients and prospective clients ever want to read about boring legal topics?

It’s a fair question. After all, if people don’t read your articles, they won’t act on them and, well, what’s the point?

Here are three ways to turn boring legal topics into something people want to read:

1. Write something else.

You don’t always have to write about legal issues and, frankly, you shouldn’t. In my posts, I often write about topics that aren’t overtly about marketing legal services. I’ll write about my wife’s dealings with various vendors, our cat, or anything else that catches my attention. It makes things interesting and provides a never-ending source of topics.

I do tie things together with some reference to marketing legal services, however, because that’s what you pay me for.

You can either start with a legal issue and look for something in your everyday life or outside interests to illustrate or contrast that issue. Or, you can do the opposite, that is, write about your dry cleaner, a movie, or something in the news, and relate it to a legal issue. Or neither. You don’t always have to write about the law.

2. Write about people.

Talk about your clients or other lawyers or judges. Talk about people in the news or in history. Tell stories about how people and the law intersect, how their lives were affected, or will be.

People are always more interesting than a code section or appellate decision. Stories are interesting because they have conflict in them and people want to know “what happened?”

Write about people. Tell their stories. Put most of the “legal stuff” in another article and link to it for those who want to know.

3. Write it anyway.

Boring legal topics are not boring to someone who is facing those issues. Write for those people.

When someone goes to a search engine, they are seeking information about their problem or objective. They want to read about the law, procedure, options, and risks. They want the details, even if most of your other readers (currently) do not.

Write for the person who wants to know.

Your other readers may skip over those articles, waiting for your next post about your cat’s antics or your crazy next door neighbor. They’ll stick around while you help someone with a pressing legal issue. They probably won’t read your posts that are pure legal content, but they’ll be glad to know that if and when they need that kind of information, they know where to find it.

Now, if you can just figure out a way to write a legal analysis post and illustrate it with a story about your cat using your Twitter account to send naked selfies to your neighbor’s puppy. . .

For hundreds of ideas for articles and posts, see Make the Phone Ring.

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Filed Under: Communication, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Presentations, Web traffic, Writing

4 reasons you should run a contest or drawing

April 17, 2013 by
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You don’t see too many attorneys running contests. That’s one reason why you should. You don’t want to be like every other attorney, do you? I’ll answer for you: no you don’t.

You want to stand out. Be different.

No, a contest or drawing doesn’t demonstrate fundamental differences that prove your superior abilities or experience. But anything you can do to look different in a positive way is a good thing.

Besides, contests are fun and everyone likes to have fun.

Here are four reasons you should consider running a contest or drawing:

  1. It’s news. It gives you a great excuse to connect or reconnect with clients and prospects in a fun and positive way. You could see some repeat business and referrals as a result.
  2. It gets people engaged. They have to do something to enter the drawing or contest. That makes them more likely to do something else you ask them to do, like promoting your webinar or forwarding your new report.
  3. It makes you more likable. People like people who are positive and like to have fun. Attorneys are known for being stodgy and serious. Not you!
  4. Results. If the contest requires participants to Like or Tweet your page, for example, your traffic and email list will grow. But even if Liking or Tweeting isn’t required, many will tell their friends and followers about your contest and encourage them to enter, especially when you tell them to “invite your friends”.

If you’re thinking a contest is unprofessional or inappropriate for your market, think again. There’s always a way to do it in an acceptable (and ethical) way. If you’re still not sure, do a tie in with a charity or cause you support. For example, ask participants to Like or Tweet on behalf of your local dog shelter or blood drive. Or, “anyone who donates $5 or more (send your receipt to me) will get a free (one of your services)”.

The easiest way get started is to use a template. Pay attention to the contests and drawings you encounter online and in your email. You’re bound to find one or two you can adapt to create your own.

Marketing is easy. Start here.

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Filed Under: List building, Marketing legal services, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With:

Google Adwords for attorneys? Read this first.

March 4, 2013 by
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An attorney who reads this blog asked me what I thought about attorneys using Google Adwords to get clients for a law practice.

I’ve done a lot of advertising over the years, including Adwords, both as an attorney and in my attorney marketing business, and overall, I’ve had positive results. But I don’t recommend Google Adwords for most lawyers, at least not until they have many other ducks in a row.

Here’s what I mean.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, advertising of any kind can be a huge financial sinkhole. There are lots of things you have to get right and if you don’t, you’ll get poor results or spend way too much money for the results you do get. True, with Adwords you can get started with a small investment (e.g., $50 or $100) and you aren’t locked into a long term contract. But it’s far too easy to get caught up in the game of trying to make make your ads work, and that can be a very expensive game to play, especially for attorneys who might pay up to $50 per click.

If you don’t have the budget and the stomach to play that game, you should probably stay on the sidelines, at least for now.

In other words, don’t start with Adwords (or any advertising), to get traffic to your law firm’s web site. Start by building organic traffic by posting high quality content. Use referral marketing, social media, speaking, writing, networking, and other means to build your practice, before you even think about advertising. Once you have a sold base of clients and lots of disposable income to invest in further expansion, then you can consider advertising to provide an incremental increase in that income.

You might use Adwords short term, to test headlines and offers, however. Invest a couple hundred dollars to test several different report titles, for example, and see which one gets the highest response. When you know which one pulled best, you’ll know which one to use for your report.

Advertising is only part of the challenge. You may have great ads that pull lots of traffic, but is it targeted traffic, appropriate for your practice? Are they looking for a lawyer or just free information? At $50 a click, you need to make sure.

In addition, you must have effective landing pages. You may be getting lots of the right traffic but if they don’t opt-in or call you when they get to your site, it is all for naught.

You also need to be able to handle those leads and convert them into appointments. Someone needs to be available when they call and that could be long after business hours. And whoever takes the calls must be good at closing the appointment. The goal isn’t traffic and clicks, it’s appointments and clients.

If you do want to try Google Adwords (or Facebook ads or any other kind of Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Action advertising), here’s what I recommend:

  • Make sure Adwords is right for a practice like yours. Do your ideal clients use search engines to find lawyers? Do they click on paid ads? Do you have high enough margins to justify the per client acquisition cost of advertising and associated overhead?
  • Learn all you can about Adwords. Start with the Google Adwords help center. Read books and blogs and take courses.
  • Start small. Open an account with no more a few hundred dollars and be prepared to lose it all. Take a break and evaluate your results.
  • Start with bids on low volume key words: “brain trauma law south bay” should cost a fraction of what you’ll pay for “Los Angeles personal injury attorney”.
  • Be prepared to roll out your winners and pull the plug on your losers. You must spend enough on your ads, however, to get enough clicks so you can quantify the difference.
  • Be prepared for constant monitoring, testing, and tweaking. You will need to know which headline, displayed in response to which key words, and sent to which landing page, is producing traffic that opts-in or calls. Then, you have to compare those results to other combinations, so you can maximize results and minimize costs.
  • Don’t expect that what works today will work tomorrow. Or vice versa. Advertising is never “set it and forget it”. You can never stop testing and making changes.
  • Get help. Hire consultants to design and track your campaign, and write your ads and landing pages. Let them do what they do best so you can do what you do best.

I’ve spent millions of dollars in advertising over the years and I love what it can do. If you get the pieces right, there is no faster way to bring traffic to a web site (aside from having something go viral, and that’s something you can’t control.) And yet. . . I’m not doing any advertising right now. I don’t want to work that hard.

What are your experiences with Google Adwords? Please share in the comments.

If you want to get more clients without advertising, you need The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Technology, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , ,

The only metric that matters

December 11, 2012 by
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Wow, you’ve got a LOT of Facebook friends. And your mailing list is fatter than Santa. Traffic? Your web site is busier than So Cal freeways. And, oh-my-goodness, look at all those Likes and Retweets!

Very impressive.

Big numbers. Big list. Big stats.

But, um, question for you. How many clients did you sign up last month?

No, really, I know you’ve got all this traffic and stuff, but how many clients came in through the Internet?

See, there’s really only one metric that matters. The rest is one big distraction. Fools gold. Rope-a-dope.

Don’t kid yourself. Your time and effort (and money) spent online is either working or its not.

What’s that? More traffic and more subscribers does lead to more sales? Sometimes it does. But I’d rather have a site with 100 visitors a month and five clients signing up than a site with 10,000 visitors and only one new client.

Bottom line, baby.

Traffic and subscribers are factors, but not the most important ones. Not by a long shot. Your offer is way more important. So is your content. And how often you stay in touch with the people who visit your site. And what you say to them.

So, if your web site has itsy-bitsy traffic but you’re signing up boat loads of clients, rejoice! You’re an Internet marketing goo roo. If you have tons of traffic but nobody signs up, hey, that’s okay. Everyone needs a hobby.

Get more clients online, and off. Get The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media marketing, Web traffic

Is your law firm listed on Yelp? You might be getting reviews and not know it

September 27, 2012 by
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When my wife is checking out a new restaurant or other local business, she often checks the reviews on Yelp. If they have a poor rating she usually moves on. She may also use Yelp’s directory to find businesses in our area. She found a great auto service business that way and we’re very happy with them.

If you target consumers or small businesses, prospective clients may be checking you out on Yelp. If you have a listing, it’s one more place people searching for an attorney can find you.

The thing is, clients can post a review about you even if you don’t have a listing. You might want to do a search and see if anyone has. While you’re there, create an account so that you can post your details and contact information. This article points you in the right direction.

Once you have an account, you can add your photo, additional details, and special offers (i.e., a coupon, a free report or video, etc.). You can engage with people who post reviews.

The listing is free and it’s easy to set up an account so there’s really no reason not to. Tell your (satisfied) clients to post their reviews. You may or may not get new clients from the directory, but if anyone hears about you somewhere else and goes to check you out on Yelp, you’ll be ready.

Are you listed on Yelp? Have you gotten clients from your listing? Let me know in the comments.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , ,

4 tools for finding ideas and content for blogs, articles, and presentations

September 19, 2012 by
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How do I create content that will rank well and bring me traffic? What are my prospects searching for? What should I write about?

If you’ve ever asked yourself these questions, help is on the way. I just discovered 4 tools for finding out what people are looking for (aka, what people want to read), generating ideas for content, or fleshing out content you’re already working on.

I know I’m going to be spending some time playing around with these. (After I’ve updated to iOS 6, of course).

Check out the post on this page for a description of these 4 tools.

I don’t spend much time on SEO. Frankly, the whole subject is daunting. But I do pay attention to writing content that people want to read and I am always looking for ideas. That’s why these tools are helpful.

If you have used these tools, or others like them, please let us know in the comments.

Find out how to earn more than you ever thought possible. Download The Attorney Marketing Formula.

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Filed Under: Communication, Marketing legal services, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Presentations, Public Speaking, Social media marketing, Technology, Web traffic, Writing Tagged With:

How to use someone else’s blog post to get traffic to your website

August 9, 2012 by
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You read lots of blogs, right? For work, for news, for fun. You might think most of it isn’t something of interest to your clients and prospects. But you might be surprised at how much of it is.

Your clients and prospects are interested in lots of things that can make their lives better. They want to make more money, cut expenses, protect their credit, and get a better return on their investments. They want to get their kids into college and plan for retirement. They want to know how to be safe when they travel.

No matter what your clients are, they are also consumers.

So when you see an article entitled, 6 Things You Should Never Say to a Police Officer, and share it with your list, you’re providing them with value. The next time they see something from you, they’ll be more inclined to read it. And the next time they need a lawyer, they’ll be more inclined to think of you.

When you come across a post that’s interesting or useful, you probably do share it via social media. But when you share a link to a story and someone clicks on that link, it will take them to the website with the original story. Wouldn’t you prefer to have them go to your website?

Why not write your own article on the subject and share that link?

People will come to your website to read your article (and then onto the original), but by coming to your website first, they may see something else you wrote and be reminded that they need to hire you. When they share your link with their friends and followers, those folks will also come to your site first and hire you, sign up for your newsletter, or see something else they want to share with their friends and followers.

If you are a criminal defense lawyer, an article on what not to say to a police officer is a natural. You can add your comments, agree or disagree, and tell stories about your clients who messed up. What you have to say could be even more interesting than the original post.

If you are not a criminal defense lawyer, you can still comment on an article like this. You might have a personal experience you can share or know someone who has. You can ask a criminal defense lawyer for his take on the subject and add his comments or stories. A quick search may lead to a another article or two you can link to.

A blog post doesn’t have to be authoritative. It doesn’t have to be long. A few short paragraphs are fine. Tell your readers you found something you want to share, and why you like it (or don’t).

If there is a connection with what you do, yes, that is better. Your post will be longer and readers will stay on your page longer to read it. Your post will also be more valuable. That can only lead to more sharing and more appreciation.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Client loyalty, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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