United States: Internet Marketing Explained

Are you promoting your law firm through the Internet? More importantly, is your Internet promotion meaningful? In order for your Internet presence to be meaningful, it must employ a strategy designed to meet your goals. For many, the goal is to receive new business, which is the focus of this article. The Internet can be one of the most effective venues for telling your firm’s story if you pay careful attention to key issues.

Everyone is familiar with the dot ‘bomb’ catastrophe of last year. Many new concepts were tried and many failed through the natural evolution of this new technology. Where the Internet has always been successful and where it excels today is the dissemination of free information.

Your law firm simply must take advantage of the pervasiveness and power of the Internet’s unique ability to distribute information. Millions every day use the Internet to gather information. Regarding attorneys, the vast majority of people do not have a direct relationship or connection with one. When legal problems arise, they aren’t sure where to begin. These people may not find traditional lawyer advertisements appealing or they may want a little more information before picking up the telephone.

I need to point out that different firms must have different Internet strategies. Large firms may be primarily B2B (business oriented) and should tailor their site and strategies accordingly, while smaller firms may be primarily B2C (consumer oriented). I will focus mainly on smaller firms in this article.

Josie is looking for an attorney to sue her father for having a bad sense of humor. This is not in any way related to my daughter, Josie, or my bad sense of humor. Josie goes to Yahoo!, an Internet directory, and types in some keywords designed to find web sites of attorneys in her city. She types in a basic, common search: ‘st. louis’ and ‘attorney’ because she lives in St. Louis.

Remarkably, as of the time this article went to print, no law firm in St. Louis appears as a result of this search. Frustrated, Josie types in ‘st. louis’ and ‘lawyer’. She falls on the floor when she sees that again, no law firm appears in the directory listing. Does this mean there are no lawyers in St. Louis with a web presence? No, it just means that their web presence is not as meaningful as it could be.

Promoting your firm on the Internet begins with establishing a presence. This presence must begin with your own web site. Think of your firm web site as your virtual marketing office. Here you can tell your firm’s story any way you choose. This is your opportunity to show who you are, what you are about and why you are the right attorney.

Some firms rely solely on listings in attorney directory web sites as their Internet marketing solution. This is a mistake. Attorney directories are an excellent component of promoting your firm on the Internet, but should not be the basis of your Internet presence. When you list your firm in a directory, you are at the mercy of the directory web site to promote the directory. When clients do find the directory, your firm competes with many others for attention. Moreover, your listing most likely will not provide an Internet address that you can reference in your other marketing efforts (i.e. www.thisismylawfirm.com)

This is not to say directory listings aren’t important, because they are, which we will touch on a little bit later. But, promoting your web site on the Internet must include your ability to market your web site address through your existing marketing efforts, letterhead, business cards, etc. You also want to maintain complete control over the look and feel of your web site as well as search engine submissions. You want to have the ability to promote your web site in a way that will drive high traffic to it. These things can only be accomplished by maintaining your own independent web site.

Moreover, the attorney-client relationship is as much about interpersonal connection as anything else. You are the commodity and you must put yourself on display, allowing the prospective client to take a look and kick the tires. People appreciate and want as much information as they can get. Law firms that have a strong Internet presence therefore enjoy a significant advantage over those that do not.

Web sites can vary greatly. Some firms simply build a one-page web site with basic firm information. Others build elaborate sites with attorney bios, news and other features designed to establish a connection with prospective clients. So, what is a web site, technically speaking? Don’t worry, no one is giggling, Being an attorney, I know that most of us are technical wastelands and believe the Internet is some magical land of pixie dust.

A web site is like any other document on your computer. What makes it unique is a web document is built on a universal code called HTML. This code enables web browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, to display the contents of the document. HTML also enables you to utilize features such as navigation buttons and pull down menus to effectively organize your information.

To use a simple illustration, many of you use Microsoft Word. Word gives you the option to save your document as an HTML file. If you choose this option, your document will not look any different, but it can suddenly be read by a web browser. When properly placed on a web server, anyone on the Internet can read the document.

I will assume that you do not intend on sitting down with a slide ruler and cup of coffee to build your own site, but hopefully this de-mystifies the whole Internet thing a bit. Many companies are standing by ready to build your site for you.

Still, you should have an idea of what you want your site to be. Search web sites and think about what you would like yours to be like. What features are you looking for? Do you want just basic information presented or do you want the site to be interactive and constantly changing? Try not to look only at other attorney web sites. Have a reason to do things a certain way other than "all the other lawyers do it this way." They went to law school, not business school. Put yourself in the shoes of the client and think about what they might find appealing.

Common attorney web site features include attorney bios, a firm bio (area of practice, philosophy, etc.) contact information and news. I would also suggest a means for people to reach you after hours. You can accomplish this by either including a pager number or dedicating an after hours e-mail address which is tied to a wireless device. Many cell phones can receive e-mail. Incorporate an ‘after hours’ contact form which is forwarded to your cell phone e-mail. This way you won’t miss an opportunity.

Another feature I would recommend is an e-mail newsletter list. Allow your clients/prospective clients to sign up to a newsletter that you publish on a regular basis. Even a quarterly newsletter helps keep you connected to your network of clients. Remember, for every client and former client who considers you their attorney, every person that client knows is a potential new client. E-mail newsletters are cheap (basically free to write and send out) and a powerful marketing tool for your firm.

Finally, some law firms try and make their site interactive and dynamic—one that clients will return to over and over again. One effective means I have seen is the use of a forum. Here, the attorney assumes the role of expert and fields questions online in a regularly scheduled chat session. For a half hour or so investment per week, this interaction allows the attorney a way to reach out and connect with people. It’s like having your own ‘ask the lawyer’ talk show.

Sadly, millions of fantastic web sites will never be seen because they can not be found unless by chance. Their owners have failed to promote the site and it just sits there undiscovered by modern man. There are affirmative steps you must take in order to lead prospective clients to your site, not the least of which is publishing it on a web server. Your web design company will either be able to provide this service or direct you to a company that does.

Part of the promotion process is the selection of a ‘domain name’, which is your unique Internet address, also called a ‘URL’. This is no different than a telephone number or street address. It allows people to quickly and easily find a unique web site out of billions. A domain name is a translation of numbers to letters, which is done because letters are easier to remember than a random series of numbers. While a random series of 12 numbers might have no monetary value, ‘business.com’ sold for $8 million. What domain name you choose depends on your marketing strategies.

A domain name will not really affect your search engine placement. You can achieve high rankings with a domain name that is a random series of characters. Where a domain name becomes important is if you want to market your web site address through other means, such as print, radio, television, business cards, etc. In that case, it helps to have a memorable name. It is the same principal as having an ‘800’ number that spells something (1-800-FLOWERS) and also why bank robbers don’t have vanity license plates.

Many firms use the firm initials followed by ‘law’ or ‘-law’ or ‘attorneys’. Avoid abbreviations, hyphens, and other things that could create a memory barrier or make it difficult to tell someone quickly how to reach you. If you find yourself explaining punctuation or abbreviations, you are circumventing the efficiencies of the Internet.

Some companies that offer web sites to lawyers also offer a domain name that is ‘nested’. A nested domain name is one that is simply an offshoot of the company’s, such as www.marketingcompany.com/yourfirmname. This is not a good idea. This is the equivalent of living in someone else’s house and hoping people find you in the phone book by your association with this other person. Or, imagine if your firm telephone number had an extension but no main number that people would know is yours.

Moreover, search engines most likely will not index your web site since many only index the home page associated with the main domain name, which would be the hosting company’s. Your own domain name will allow you to more effectively promote your firm both through search engines and through your other marketing efforts. Just like you tag your phone number to your current marketing, you should also tag your web site address. Make it easy on yourself to lead people to your web site where you enjoy their undivided attention.

Registering a domain name can be done at any number of registries for a small fee. Some companies lease domain names as well. Your web site hosting company will take care of associating the domain name you choose with your web site, you just have to let them know what name you have chosen.

One quick note about extensions, you will have the choice of several, including ‘.com’, ‘.net’ and others. Go with ‘.com’. For the time being and perhaps for many years to come, this is the premier. In fact, many versions of web browsers even assume ‘.com’, so if you were to leave it off in the address bar, it would still go to the web site with the ‘.com’ extension.

More importantly, people in general assume ‘.com’. If you take the same domain name as a competitor in your city, except it ends with ‘.net’, you’re marketing efforts will probably send plenty of business their way thanks to you. Where possible, register the same name under the other extensions to protect yourself.

Okay, you have a great web site on a web server and a good domain name, what now? It’s time to let people know about your site. First and foremost, reference your web site address on all of your existing materials, marketing and otherwise. Your letterhead, advertisements, business cards, etc. all should list your web site address. Your web site can be one of your most effective marketing tools and you should take every opportunity to lead people to it.

Next, submit your web site to Internet search engines and directory listings. There are two types of Internet search tools: search engines and directories. Both are very popular. Search engines utilize ‘robots’ which search the web looking for content. When a robot comes across your web site, it searches for keywords and text on your web site and categorizes the site in its database. No two search engines employ the same indexing software, so it can be a real challenge to design your site to rank high in multiple search engines. A skilled web designer will tailor-make your web site with the purpose of dealing with this.

Although search engines send out robots, the most effective way to get your web site listed is to go through the process of submitting your site. Ask the company designing and/or hosting your web site whether search engine submission is provided. Examples of popular search engines include AltaVista, DirectHit, Google, HotBot, and Lycos.

Internet directories vary from search engines in that actual people examine your web site and determine whether to include it in their directory. Yahoo! is an example of a directory. Think of it as a phone book. Web sites are categorized and broken down by topic, region, industry, etc.

The wildcard with directories, however, is you do not have much influence over how your web site is described in the directory. The description of your site will strongly affect its ‘searchability’. For instance, a directory may fail to include the name of your city and/or the words ‘attorney’ or ‘lawyer’ in your web site description. This is precisely why Josie in our example above was unable to find a St. Louis law firm in her search in Yahoo!.

When it comes time to submit your web site, higher a professional and avoid the free submission web sites. While it is true that their submission service is free, you may be doing more harm than good. An expert can review your web site and tell you how search engines will deal with it. If you don’t know this information ahead of time, some search engines may not list your site at all and may even block it because of misused keywords or other irregularities. Don’t get your web site blacklisted. The free submission sites will not analyze your web site sufficiently, if at all.

Newer twists on site promotion include ‘pay-per-click’, offered by companies such as LookSmart.com and GoTo.com. Here, site owners bid for search engine placement when chosen key words are entered. Marketing guru and attorney Don Kramer of AttorneyFind.com strongly endorses this technique and has enjoyed great success marketing his attorney directory this way.

Another method popping up is the use of ‘doorway’ web sites, which is a means of setting up many web sites that all lead to one, but appear to be individual sites to the search engines. The theory behind this is each site is tailor made to rank high with a particular search engine. Because each search engine utilizes its own unique ranking formula, it is difficult to get a high ranking in multiple search engines with the same web site, so a special web site is made for each search engine. That site then forwards the visitor to the real web site. This is sort of like sending having a Spanish speaking associate for Spanish speaking clients, a French speaking one for French speaking clients, etc. This is a costly and complex process, but one that probably has merit.

If you have a memorable domain name, consider using it as a centerpiece of your marketing efforts. Remember, the point is to get people to your site. No other means of advertising is going to be as powerful as your web site. Your web site will tell your story much more completely and effectively than a print, television or radio ad.

Finally, take advantage of attorney directories provided by a multitude of companies. These companies provide listings to attorneys that are sorted by state and/or city and area of practice. Some attorney directories offer primary placement for an additional fee as well as hyperlinks to your web site. Many of these directories are free and others are virtually free. It is good, inexpensive promotion.

However, do not rely on these listings as your primary Internet presence for the reasons stated above. They should be utilized as promotional tools for your web site and inexpensive ‘feelers’ beating the bushes for more business.

The legal industry tends to be slow in embracing change. This is probably because of lawyers, themselves. If you are looking for the oldest computer in your city, go to a lawyer’s office. Trying to find a typewriter? Try the lawyer. Horse and buggy? Lawyer.

Here’s something that isn’t new: communication. That’s all the Internet is, a venue for communication. People expect to find information about anything they desire on the Internet. They’re looking for you right now. You should be there to say "hello".