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Online Marketing

By Fred J. Cohen

I’ve come across a wide range of perspectives on the value of online marketing from the thousands of attorneys my company has interacted with in the last 12 years. While these clients are not a perfect microcosm of the legal industry, they usually fall into one of three categories:

  1. those who see the web as an absolutely indispensable aspect of their practice and are single-mindedly intent on leveraging it to achieve massive financial success;
  2. those who appreciate the web’s importance but for some reason don’t harness its power; or
  3. those who view the web as little more than a digital business card.

The first group almost always works with legal marketing professionals such as Zola Creative (zolacreative.com) or The Modern Firm (themodernfirm.com) to develop a strategy, build an effective web presence, and drive relevant traffic. This might be owing to selection bias, but I’m convinced that what makes these attorneys successful is the appreciation that they cannot merely dabble in marketing; it’s too nuanced and multi-faceted. It encompasses design that appeals emotionally to a target audience and user experience that keeps visitors engaged, along with knowledge of search engine optimization techniques and the ability to appreciate marketing analytics. If attorneys need to invest time to give their online marketing efforts the sustained focus that it requires, they will soon struggle to deliver first-rate representation and service to their clients. Needless to say, compromising on the latter will offset the benefits of their marketing efforts.

As for the third group, their numbers are dwindling as we approach the third decade of the century. To be clear, I’m not referring to these attorneys based on an age cohort; some of our savviest clients are attorneys who have been in practice for decades. I suspect that there are increasingly fewer web-skeptics out there because attorneys have observed colleagues benefiting handsomely from online marketing.

The second group is by far the largest. They’ve already bought into the power of online marketing. Here are some initiatives that can get them on the path to executing a plan:

1. It Won’t Work Unless It’s Sustained

Getting massive visibility requires an ongoing effort. If you want to land the right clients on a regular basis, you need to keep your site relevant for search engines and engaging for visitors. Done right, over time it generates a significant number of prospects from which you can cherry pick. Others may be ideal for referring out—which can provide a supplemental income stream.

2. The Egg Comes First

Many attorneys who are just putting up a shingle fail to invest sufficiently in their online presence, thinking they will do so once their practice gains momentum. There are some issues with this mind-set. For one, the best time to focus on marketing your practice is early on, before your schedule is filled with court dates and client work. Second, when starting a new practice, lawyers are anxious to book some revenue, which often results in taking on cases that are far from ideal. An online marketing strategy can narrowly target the right client profile and generate a larger volume of high-value, qualified leads from which you can be more selective.

3. Know Your Ideal Client Profile

It seems obvious, but the biggest impediment to working with the ideal client is knowing exactly who he/she is. Defining this profile in writing will go a long way in terms of fleshing out the attributes that best match your skills, passions, and revenue goals. These attributes can include practice area, case value, jurisdiction (do you really want to travel to the courthouse two counties over?), and ability of the client to pay a certain minimum retainer.

4. Know Your Metrics

Start with conversion rate, which is the rate at which visitors to your website end up contacting you. Call-tracking software that’s tied to your online marketing can give you a breakdown of leads by source—such as the referring website or specific online ad campaign. What percentage of calls do you close? If there is more than one attorney at the firm fielding the calls, this can trigger some friendly competition over close rates. Finally, when you have these metrics, you can attain the mother of all metrics: your cost of acquisition, which will help you focus your marketing efforts and set your fees and marketing budget to optimal levels.

5. Have a Process

Newer practices are not as concerned with creating systems to keep things organized and achieving high levels of productivity because they’re less likely to be as time-constrained with client work. Marketing can be expensive, whether you do it yourself or work with professionals. A systematic way to qualify prospects, perform follow-ups, generate retainer agreements, and complete intake, all while gathering data at each point in the process, is invaluable as your practice gets busier. Legal customer relationship management (CRM) software such as ZolaCRM (zolacrm.com) and Lexicata (lexicata.com) are powerful tools for establishing process discipline and gathering metrics.

Conclusion

There is a ton of (mostly) great information online about the minutiae of effective online marketing. Many firms take it upon themselves to design and execute on a strategy and do so with impressive results. Others choose to work with an outside team of experts. Regardless of the route you choose, a systematic and sustained commitment will be the primary determinant of a successful outcome.

Fred J. Cohen

Fred J. Cohen is a former practicing attorney and founder of Zola Media, a legal marketing (zolacreative.com) and practice management software (zolasuite.com) company serving thousands of law firms nationwide. Fred has an extensive background in marketing, user experience design, and business process optimization. He is a noted speaker on these topics at various legal and technology conferences.