There was a time not so long ago when a law firm’s advertising reach was simply a function of how much the firm invested in marketing. This meant that big law firms with virtually limitless marketing budgets had a huge advantage over smaller firms with limited budgets. This traditional realm of legal marketing meant big firms could bury a small firm 40 pages deep in the attorney section of the phone book with a full color, two-page advertisement. Larger law firms could also spend unlimited amounts of money on television advertising. These traditional forms of legal marketing have become increasingly less effective as web based legal marketing has become the order of the day. The web has balanced the playing field by allowing small firm’s with limited marketing budgets to compete effectively with big firms and their massive advertising budgets.
A law firm with a substantial marketing budget can find many ways to spend large amounts of marketing dollars on web based legal marketing programs. Options include pay per click (PPC) programs, expensive banner advertising, and other high-end, expensive forms of marketing. However, these are often the most expensive, but least effective forms of online legal marketing. These methods of online legal advertising can be very expensive yet generate little in terms of actual revenue. A small law firm with a limited online advertising budget may not be able to compete with this type of advertising, but the firm may not lose much in terms of revenue by avoiding such expensive and ineffective forms of online legal marketing. Many consumers often disregard the sponsored ads as mere advertising.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others may be considered the great equalizers in terms of online legal marketing. The placement of a law firm in organic search results is not just a function of purchasing position, but the value of a law firm website based on the quantity and quality of information it provides to consumers. While law firms often focus on keywords and links, these are often a function of the content on a law firm’s website. If the site provides a significant amount of useful information, the information will contain a high number of key terms quite naturally.
A small law firm with a limited marketing budget can be competitive on search engines with little planning and effort. Some key techniques for being competitive on a small budget are as follows:
Have a Professional Looking Website: A law firm website need not be fancy or expensive, but it must look professional. If it looks professional, it will be as effective as a high-end law firm website that may have cost a small fortune. The point is, a law firm website should present an image of professionalism, not the image of an amateur.
Use Free and Low Cost Legal Directories: A good way to develop links and expand one’s reach online is to place the firm on legal directory websites. Many legal directories are free, while others are relatively inexpensive. When assessing legal directories that charge a fee, ask for specific performance data indicating the number of clients that typically contact listed attorneys and renewal statistics. It is advisable to evaluate such programs in light of those statistics.
Devote Some Time Each Week to Content Development: Whether the law firm publishes lots of legal content pages on its firm’s main website or a law firm blog, the firm should publish content pages on a weekly basis. To have a staff member prepare 2-4 draft articles per week for you to review, edit, and publish on your law firm website is a fairly inexpensive marketing tactic. If you set aside the appropriate amount of time and resources, a small firm website or blog can become competitive in search results as a result of the quality and frequency of the content being added to the website.
Publish Articles on Other Websites: Some legal resource sites will allow firms to publish content on their website for a nominal cost or even for free. These websites will typically provide links from the content back to your website. They may also provide quality relevant links.
While many big firms still spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands per year on SEO positioning and Internet marketing, the web greatly levels the playing field by making the quality and quantity of the information offered to a consumer more important than the dollars a law firm spends. The Internet is not like the phone book where the biggest spender gets the most visibility. A smaller law firm can be competitive on a limited budget with a little planning and effort.
{ 0 comments }