Help, my website isn’t getting me any traffic (or clients)!

May 3, 2012 by
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“If you build it, they will come,” may have been true of fictional baseball fields, but it’s clearly not true when it comes to web sites. More like, “if you build it and do nothing else, the only ones who will see it are the ones you send there.”

But you know what? That’s a pretty good reason to have a web site. Being able to send clients and prospects to learn all about what you can do for them is a good thing.

Not only that, your clients and prospects can send their friends and collegues to your web site, and that’s even better. I’ve said it before, you don’t have to be a social media maven to take advantage of social media. If you have the right buttons and links on your site, your visitors will promote it to their social media contacts.

But there are things you can do to get more traffic to your web site. This blog post about how to start getting traffic to a new web site can obviously be used with an existing web site:

  1. Set up a listing in Google Places (et. al.) A law practice is a local business. When someone searches for an attorney with your practice area in your city, your page will be much more likely to show up in their search results.
  2. Set up a content plan. Attorneys frequently object to the idea of blogging because they don’t have time to keep it up. As mentioned, you don’t have to add a lot of content to your blog or web site if you are relying on your existing network to send visitors. You certainly have time to put up a handful of good quality articles to showcase your experience. But if you want the search engines to send you more visits, regularly updating your content is something you should do. Add something once a week, if possible. It’s not as challenging as you might think.
  3. Get some links. The author suggests asking for links from associations or groups you belong to because incoming links “tell” the search engines that you have some content others should read. If you represent businesses, ask your clients to post a link from their site to yours. You can do the same to theirs.
  4. Set up Google Analytics. The more you know about where your traffic is coming from and what key words your visitors are using to find you, the more you can “tune” your site to get more of the same.
  5. Mobile enhance your web site. Many people use their mobile devices to find businesses today. If your site isn’t easy to view and navigate on a mobile device, you may be losing traffic and clients. I’m currently updating my blog and this is one thing I’ve been itching to take care of. It was as simple as installing a free plug-in.

If you have a new web site or want to bring more traffic to your existing site, these are five good ways to do that. If you don’t have a web site, as a friend of mine frequently asks, “how’s that working out for you?”

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Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Are you a lawyer or an attorney? Actually, it DOES make a difference.

April 12, 2012 by
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I always thought that lay people use the word “lawyer” more than “attorney” and that attorneys do the opposite. “Attorney” has a slightly more professional ring to it, doesn’t it? After all, it’s “District Attorney,” “Attorney General,” and, “Attorney at Law”.

It turns out that our clients also prefer “attorney.” At least that’s what the search statistics tell us.

Search engine expert Mark Sprague found that attorney has nearly twice the search engine traffic as lawyer. “Consumers favor the term attorney over lawyer. You should use both, but attorney should be the dominant term in your web page copy,” he says.

This applies, of course, to articles, blog posts, tweets, social media profiles, and other online content.

You can read the results of search study here. Hat tip to Larry Bodine who brought this to my attention.

The data also show how people with a legal issue go about their searches. They don’t start by looking for a lawyer, they start by seeking information. This confirms the need to focus your online marketing efforts on creating content that speaks to those issues. You can do this with articles, blog posts, case studies, FAQ’s, and success stories.

Help prospective clients find you by providing information about the law and procedure as they relate to their legal issues. Describe their rights and their duties. Tell them their options, the possible penalties and available remedies.

What do prospective clients and new clients always ask you? Put the answers to those questions online.

You can spend a lot of time and money tweaking your web site to maximize search engine traffic. A much simpler approach is to provide the information people search for before they search for an attorney. When they go to your web site first, there’s a good chance they will see you as the solution to their problem and never look anywhere else.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Technology, Web traffic Tagged With: , , ,

Smart marketing by a smart lawyer

March 29, 2012 by
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Yesterday, I was interviewed live via a new video broadcast service, Spreecast. The interviewer was my friend and fellow attorney, Mitch Jackson. The subject was using Evernote in a law practice and my Evernote for Lawyers ebook. You can watch the replay here.

In the interview, you’ll note my comment to Mitch that his Spreecasts are smart marketing on his part because it allows him to network not only with the experts he interviews but with a large number of attorneys and allied professionals who come to watch. It positions him as a leader and gets his name in front of a lot of people who can either directly refer clients to him or who can lead him to others who can.

Although these Spreecasts are new, I know Mitch has for many years done a great job of networking in this fashion, promoting others’ law practices, books and events to his large network. I also know he gets a lot of referral business.

Smart marketing, and you can do the same thing. It’s called being a connector.

Being a connector can not only help you grow your practice, it is also a great vehicle for learning. I’m sure Mitch will tell you in reading the blogs and books of the experts he interviews, he learns the best ideas and latest techniques, which help him become a better lawyer and a better marketer.

To become a connector you need two things.

First, you need a platform. This can be a blog, a Facebook or LinkedIn Group, a newsletter, your own Spreecast channel, or a local breakfast group. This is where you match up content (writing, speaking, interviews) with your audience. You are the organizer, the master of ceremonies, the interviewer, the publisher. Everything goes through you.

The platform is easy. Just pick something and plant a flag.

The second thing you need might be a little more difficult. It’s not something you sign up for, it’s something you must have within you. To be effective as a connector, you need to truly enjoy helping others. It’s true, the more value you create for others, the more you promote them and champion their practice or product, the more you will benefit. But you must be willing to help others without any agenda, other than the pleasure you get from seeing others succeed.

Mitch has a series of great interviews lined up. Follow his Spreecast Lawyers Group (channel) and invite your friends.

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Filed Under: Marketing legal services, Networking, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

If I could use only ONE marketing tool

March 27, 2012 by
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I started this post intending to make the case in favor of email as my favorite marketing tool. There’s no question that it is one of the most effective ways to deliver messages to people who can hire you or refer someone who can. It’s (almost) free, almost everyone has an email address, and email is still more popular than social media.

With the click of a button, you can send out an email to hundreds or thousands of people, and almost as quickly, get orders or phone calls and appointments.

Strange that so many attorneys (most?) don’t use email in their marketing, at least not as much as they could. Or should.

You may have a list of people–clients, former clients, and business contacts–but if you’re not communicating with them on a regular basis, you’re not going to get their business. They forget about you, or they forget how to contact you, or they’re just not motivated to contact you because. . . you haven’t contacted them.

The point of having a list, indeed, of all of your marketing efforts, is to stay in touch with people. Or as I put it, “. . .to be in their minds and their mailboxes so that when they are ready to hire a lawyer, or know someone who is, there you are. . .”.  Email is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch.

So, I was going to say email is my favorite marketing tool, but that’s not quite accurate. Nope. My favorite marketing tool is. . . a sales letter.

Lawyers may not call it that. We’ll call it a newsletter or information or anything but a sales letter (because we don’t sell, right?)–but whatever you call it, and however you disguise it, if it’s designed to get someone to do something, it’s a sales letter. My favorite marketing tool.

A sales letter is words, on paper (or electrons), that communicate a message and an offer or a request. People read it and call for an appointment, Like your web page, or sign up for your seminar. You can send it by postal mail, or by messenger. Hand it to someone in person, or deliver it via fax or text message. You can post it on your blog, web page, or on Facebook.

Oh, and guess what? Every time you talk to a prospective client on the phone or in person and you tell them about your services and what you can do to help them, you’re delivering a sales letter. A spoken sales letter.

Do yourself a favor and write it down, so you can send it by email.

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Filed Under: Communication, Email, Newsletters, Online Marketing, Relationship marketing, Salesmanship, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Guy Kawasaki on social media and SEO

March 5, 2012 by
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If you’re like me, you (a) want more search engine traffic, (b) you don’t know much about SEO, and (c) you find the whole subject to be overwhelming and frankly, boring.

If so, you may like what Guy Kawasaki said about the subject in a recent interview:

My recommendation for SEO is very simple. It’s Write Good Stuff. In my mind, Google is in the business of finding good stuff. It has thousands of the smartest people in the world, spending billions of dollars to find the good stuff. All you have to do is write the good stuff; you don’t need to trick it. Let Google do its job and you do your job.

Relax. Don’t worry. Write what people want to read. They’ll find you.

Of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help them find us. When I can, I put key words in my blog post titles and body, but I don’t contort myself to make that happen. Yes, I want you to find me but more important to me (and you) is that when you do find me, you get value out of what you read. It means you’ll come back and read some more and you’ll tell others and they’ll come, too.

SEO is not the only way people find things on the Internet. Word of mouth is very powerful.

On the subject of social media, Kawasaki says many entrepreneurs want to hire consultants and formulate a plan before they get started. He has different advice:  just dive in. Set up a profile and “just have at it”. You’ll learn more by actually doing it.

I subscribe to a few blogs that write about SEO and social media but to be honest when I get to their posts my eyes glaze over. Most of the time I don’t read them. I use that time writing.

If the growth in the readership of this blog is any indication, I’ve made the right choice.

Write Good Stuff. People will find you. And hire you.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Online Marketing, Social media, Social media marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

A simple way to promote your law practice with email without being spammy

February 20, 2012 by
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I just updated my (personal) email signature. Now, everyone who gets an email from me will see, “Author of Evernote for Lawyers” under my name and contact info. It is hyperlinked to the sales page for the book. If my emails get forwarded to anyone, they will see it, too. These few words tell people I am an authority (book author) and, of course, they also promote the book.

Your email signature has your contact information but it can also be used to directly promote your specific legal services (i.e., a list of your practice areas), your blog and it’s valuable content, your next speaking event, or your new book.

Take some time to review your signature and update it with links or information. Here are some more ideas:

  • A direct link to your most popular blog post
  • A link to the FAQ page on your web site
  • A link to a “welcome” page on your web site
  • A promo for your newsletter
  • A mention of you or your firm in an article or blog post
  • An offer (e.g., free consultation, free report, seminar discount)
  • A call to action (e.g., “Call now to schedule your appointment”)
  • Links to your social media profiles

While you’re at it, consider curtailing or even eliminating all of the disclaimers and legalese that are so prevalent in lawyers emails. Do they really protect you? Will someone really be able to claim that because you sent them an email you were their attorney or you gave them legal advice? I’ll let you answer those questions, but I can tell you that from a marketing standpoint, they don’t help. They push people away at a time when you want to invite them to come closer.

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Filed Under: Email, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How to get more clients with joint venture marketing

February 9, 2012 by
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John Jantsch shared a great marketing idea today and he used attorneys as an example. The idea is to get together with other professionals and businesses who target the same market you do and create a content-filled blog as a resource for that target market.

So the small business attorney pairs up with an insurance broker, an expert in employee benefits, a CPA, and a marketing expert, all of whom contribute articles or blog posts speaking to the issues business owners want and need.

The site or blog will get search engine traffic, attracting prospects who will learn about the individuals who write the posts and the services they offer.

Jantsch provides recommendations for WordPress plug-ins that will help you organize and run the blog. Here’s another post I saw today that recommends 15 plug-ins for multi-author blogs.

But what if you’re not up to the task of organizing and running this little venture just now? Is there anything else you can do to utilize this idea?

Yes there is and thanks for asking.

You can organize a one time collaboration where you and other profoessionals contribute articles, posts, reports, audios, or other content. You can put that on a web site that won’t necessarily attract a lot of search engine traffic because the site wouldn’t be regularly updated, but it would be a tremendous resource for each of the contributors who send traffic to the site.

You can put the content on a cd or dvd or in an ebook and use it as a reward for opt-ins to your regular web site. Or as a gift to people who attend your seminar, webinar, or teleconference. Or as a giveaway to your clients and contacts, encouraging them to send copies to their friends and contacts.

You can also organize a live event in your local market, with half a dozen speakers, each of whom invites guests.

The value of a collaborate marketing effort like this is that each of the participants is repsonsible for creating only their article or report, but each of you benefits from the content of the others. In addition, with each of you sending visitors to the site or otherwise distributing the content, each of you will get the tacit recommendation of the other professionals, as well as exposure to their clients and prospects.

If even a simplified version of this idea seems like too much work to take on right now, find one other professional or business owner who targets your market and do something together.

Send an en email to each other’s lists, offering a free consultation or a free report. Do a guest post for each other’s blog or newsletter. Invite each other to attend a networking group you belong to and introduce each other to centers of influence you know.

Cooperative marketing is effective because it instantly exposes you to a large group of prospective clients, all of whom have the implied or explicit recommendation of a professional they know, like, and trust. It’s a great idea no matter how you go about it.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Referrals, Relationship marketing, Web traffic Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apps for lawyers: do you really need one?

January 23, 2012 by
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If you have a smart phone, the chances are you’ve seen more than a few law firm apps coming through the app store. A lot of law firms are getting them and you may be tempted to do the same. With all the smart phones out there, it’s got to bring you some business, right? Hey, even one new client will pay for the app.

Before you get out your checkbook, there are some things you should consider.

Most apps fall into two categories. The first is of the “digital brochure” variety. This may do a great job of showing your firm’s capabilities but you’re not going to bring in much business with an app that nobody downloads and if a brochure is all you’ve got, not many will.

The second category of app falls into the utilitarian category: it does something useful. Personal injury lawyers seem to have a preponderance of this kind of app, of the “what to do in case of accident” variety. There are places to fill in information about the other parties, witnesses, insurance information, and also some pointers on what to do.

This sounds good but think about it: when you’re in an accident, nervous, waiting for the police or ambulance or tow truck, will you really want to launch an app and start typing with your thumbs?

Some of these apps have audio recorders, but still, in the heat of the moment, most people aren’t going to use it.

“Ah, but the point isn’t that they use it, it’s that they have it so that when they get home, they’ll remember they have it, look through it, and call us.”

This is true, but you don’t need an app for that. An old fashioned booklet in the glove box will accomplish the same thing. A booklet is a lot cheaper (free if the client prints it themselves from your pdf) and a booklet is something people might actually use.

Another form of utilitarian app is one that contains information. It might be a summary of bankruptcy laws, divorce options, or tips for protecting your small business. If a prospective client is browsing through the app store and sees an app that promises to inform him about something that’s currently on his mind, this could get his attention. The big question is, “will he see it?”

When an app is released, it appears in the list of new apps for a few days, and then it’s no longer “new”. Unless an app is extremely popular, very unlikely for a law firm app., the odds are that nobody will ever see it again in the app store.

What good is an app that nobody knows about?

It will be up to you to promote your app via your web site, newsletter, and social media. If it’s good, people will download it and promote it. But you can accomplish the same thing without an app. All you need to do is put your information into a report or ebook.

Can an app bring in some business? Yes, it can. But before you rush into having one made, lest you be “left behind” by your competition, remember that getting the app made is just the beginning. If you’re not willing to invest in promoting the app, don’t bother getting one. If you are prepared to promote your app, you might simply write a report and save yourself several thousand dollars.

Does your law firm have an app? Has it brought in any business? Please share your experiences in the comments.

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Filed Under: Advertising, Marketing legal services, Online Marketing, Referrals, Social media marketing, Writing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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