Law Firm Internet Marketing | Drilling Down

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a master mind session with a friend of mine who I consider to be a law firm management and law firm marketing guru. His name is RJon Robins, and he is in the business of consulting with lawyers to help them make more money. I may have talked about him on here before (I'm not searching the archives to check) but I used his services when I first opened up my firm about a year and a half ago. Since then we've kept in touch and I hit him up for some help every once in a while.

RJon lives in Miami. I am in Seattle. So we'd never actually met face to face before. Until two weeks ago. He was here presenting some seminar, and we decided to meet up for drinks and talk about law firm business. This "talk" was in the form of a mastermind session, where, essentially, everything about my business is broken down to expose the inherent flaws in my thinking. See, we all make assumptions about things. Sometimes we're right, sometimes we're wrong. If we are wrong, those assumptions can hold us back from performing at our best. I wanted to challenge my assumptions and see how I could improve.

One of the things we worked on for my firm was law firm internet marketing. See, I'm doing good, but I could be doing so much better. There are problems with conversions on my site and getting people to my site (problems we all have). Because I was making a little money I thought I was doing okay. I was getting lazy. So we broke it down.

Here's what I realized.

First and foremost, I'm still looking at too general a client base. For me, one DUI client seems like all the rest. They all face the same issues (generally) and many come to the internet to find my services. Because of that, I was having trouble drilling down exactly who my ideal client was. The problem was and is that anyone can get a DUI potentially, regardless of race, gender, or economic status. And I want them all to come to me. Problem is, the same things don't appeal to all people. It's kind of like fishing. All fish like food, but you have to decide exactly what kind of fish you want before you can set out the right bait.

Second, my website isn't converting because it too is too general. Aside from who my ideal client is, there are different people coming to the site with different problems. There is a big difference between a first, second, and third DUI, and people need to know my approach to handling each different scenario. I can do that in several ways, one of which is to create a page for each different type.

Third, and finally, my website isn't personal enough. If you take a look at it you can see that it's chock full of great information for people. But it doesn't give people a sense of who I am and how I am different from any other attorneys out there. A key to law firm marketing is differentiation. We all sound the same in our ad copy and websites. If you can make yourself different, you can really increase your client base.

Are you making assumptions that are affecting your business negatively? Are you even aware of them? If you're curious about your business, set up a mastermind session with some colleagues. Think about what you are doing, what your problems are with your business, and figure out how to solve them. Good luck!

Law Firm Internet Marketing | Don't Blog for Business

I bet you think the title is a bit weird, right? Don't blog for business? That makes no sense. It does make sense, and I'm going to tell you why right now.

First things first, I don't really care how great your writing skills are. I don't care how profound your ideas are. The fact of the matter is that most people will never read, see, or know your blog exists, much less hire you because of it. They will either stumble across your website, get referred from a friend, or find your blog and call you because of that. But it won't be because you wowed them.

Let's face it, most of the people that will read your blog, if any, are colleagues and others looking for a discussion about the state of the law in your area of expertise. And, if potential clients are reading all that you have to say, it's probably because they want to try to take care of the case on their own, and they are looking for all the free information they can get.

No you shouldn't blog for business, you should blog because it provides you a vehicle to not only discuss what matters today in your world and in your profession, but it allows you to memorialize those discussions, to look back on them later and reflect, and to know you are building your expertise with thought and analysis so when that client does show up you can actually help them out.

Take this blog, for example, the law firm internet marketing blog. I'm not really doing this for any other reason than I love talking about internet marketing and how it's helping my business. I also think there are a lot of scam artists out there claiming to be law firm internet marketers who are just cashing your check every month and laughing all the way to the bank. I want to help people distinguish between the good guys and the bad guys so they don't waste their money. I also want to pull back the veil that is internet marketing so people can understand what is really going on.

Sure, it doesn't hurt if you link to your site from your blog and let people know you're out there. That will help you in the long run. But you shouldn't be writing just for marketing purposes. Think about the topics that are top of mind in your practice area and discuss them and talk about them. It will help your internet marketing efforts, it will help your practice, and it will help you become the expert you want to become.

Law Firm Internet Marketing | Targeting Markets

Before I get too far, I want to update everyone on the law firm internet marketing challenge I laid down before myself a couple of months ago. I'm stopping the challenge. That means I won't be actively building links to this site anymore. And the reason is this - I just don't have the time. I've got a lot of different projects going on right now and I don't have the time to devote to a project that isn't going to help my business or help me make money. So, sorry, you're just going to have to take my word that this stuff works.

Now, on to business. After creating a stronghold on my primary keyword, I've decided to branch out and begin working on other keywords - these keywords are location specific. The locations are essentially suburbs of my primary location, but these cities are big enough to get their own traffic. I'm also going to be going after the big keyword - just the general term without any geographic limiter. I'm already on page one for it, but I want to be number one.

This is an important lesson for law firm marketing - always be thinking about how you can get in front of other people. Don't limit yourself to what you're doing - always reach further. That's the best way to ensure you continue to have the business you want and deserve.

One thing I did want to talk about a little bit today with regard to internet marketing is building links. If you want internet exposure, you need to be building links. And it doesn't matter where they come from, so long as they are from legitimate websites (you can get links from bad websites, but they aren't going to be worth anything). This means if you have a buddy that's a plumber and he can give you a link - get it.

And one last thing before I go today. Law firm internet marketing is hard work. It can become very monotonous. It can become very boring. It can become "work." But it pays off, and it pays off huge. If you put the work in you will see the results. So get to work, start marketing your law firm, and get ready for the phone to start ringing.