Internet based marketing options pose a unique challenge because there are so many choices. Traditional legal marketing sources provided fewer alternatives. With the yellow pages and newspaper advertising, the primary decision was simply the size and location of a law firm’s advertising. The Internet offers more than just choices of size and location but of many types of advertising including attorney matching services, legal content marketing programs, pay per click campaigns and social media marketing. The choices are so numerous that they can be confusing and overwhelming. One of the most effective online legal marketing programs can be online legal directories. This form of online legal marketing offers the comfort and familiarity of traditional phone directory type advertising in a more substantive and information based format. The key to effective legal directory based advertising is picking a successful online legal directory. Below are some common strategies to consider when selecting an online legal marketing directory:
Longevity: It is not difficult to launch an online legal directory. The longer a directory has been online the better. The length of time an online legal directory has been online is relevant in two separate respects: 1) the age of a domain (URL) affects how it performs in Google rankings as aged domains perform better; and 2) directories that do not provide a reasonable return on investment for their clients tend to fail.
Ease of Use: A legal directory should be easy for consumers to use and navigate. The more complex or difficult the site is to use the less effective it will likely be in generating prospective clients. Clients typically will not have the patience to navigate through many screens that require inputting large amounts of data. The best online legal directories keep things simple.
Degree of Exclusivity: Typically, the fewer the number of attorneys that are listed the more each listing is worth. Some online legal directories have multiple pages of attorneys which is simply too much competition. If an Internet lawyer directory requires scrolling through multiple pages of attorneys, you should be very cautious.
Objective Indicators of Performance: You should always request detailed performance data in terms of traffic, lead volume for existing attorneys, and renewal rates. Many online legal marketing companies may tell you that they cannot provide this information. If an online legal marketing company will not or cannot provide such information, you should probably assume such data would not be positive.
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