Mobile Websites = Competitive Edge

Mobile websites are becoming extremely vital to business and law firms across America, as shown in an Ipsos/Google smartphone survey that shows smartphone usage is matching that of PCs.

Most people these days use their smart phones for everything. They research on their phones, do calculations, look up places to eat, play games, and search for attorneys. Literally, when people get into an auto accident, they type in, “car accident lawyer” to find an attorney who can handle their personal injury case.

If your website is not designed and optimized for the mobile web, you may be missing out. It’s not good enough to have a website that  only works on a PC and hope your competition doesn’t pick up the slack.  If you want to remain competitive in the near future, making sure your website is optimized for the mobile web, should be a high priority.

Growth in worldwide mobile traffic (% of all unique visitors)

If you don’t have a mobile website or would like to optimize your existing website for the mobile web, Contact Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. for consultation concerning the need for a mobile website. 

How Readable is your website?

Readability is an aspect of writing that we often forget, especially, when content is specialized in a certain field. Technical writers have a hard time relating to average people because they assume the general population is just as educated in the same subject. When writing the content for your website you need to be mindful of the people who will be interpreting your information and make sure it is useful.

Writing out the technicalities of your process and expertise is no doubt a good way to show proficiency in your work. However, if people cannot comprehend what you are saying, it will be of no use. The key is to be mindful of the education level of your clients. Within every field of law there are intricacies regarding the process that the average client won’t be able to understand. In most cases, your clients just want to be confident that you know what you are doing and can trust that you will take care of the problem.

We all hope that the majority of people visiting our website would be able to understand and communicate on the same level, but in most cases that ideas is a fantasy.  In our marketing firm we have many processes and trade secrets that we don’t speak about for the sheer complexity of the content. We find that if people want specific details, they will ask, and at that point we have the ability to share with them in depth, how we can serve them. Ultimately, you want to maintain a balance. Don’t dumb down your content too much or you might be perceived as unprofessional or incapable of delivering top notch service. On the flip side, speak in a language most  people will be able to understand.

There are few ways to measure readability and even online tools that help score text if you are having trouble maintaining a good balance.

One of these tools is found HERE: 

Click on the link above, then copy & paste some of your website content in the box. The utility will measure your based many formulas.  It is useful to familiarize yourself with this tool and analyze your content when you are questioning if your content is readable by the average US citizen.

Please note: These test do not measure readability based on grammatical correctness or quality.

Typically the Harvard Law Review has a SMOG index of 17 to 18,  the New York Times scores 13 to 15, and Newsweek is approximately 10 to 11.

 

 

 

Smart Internet Marketing

Smart Internet Marketing involves the right D.O.S.E. (Diversification, Optimization, Strategy, Execution)  of marketable content in order to be successful.

D – Diversification:  You must have diversification among different web properties in order to have the greatest impact online. At Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. we have a team of people who are all dedicated to different aspects of marketing.  We specialize in a diverse range of marketing practices. It doesn’t matter whether you need SEO, Branding, Consulting, Video Marketing, Newsletter Marketing,  TV Marketing, E-mail Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Print Advertising, or advice on the latest marketing  trends, we at Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. can help you broaden your marketing reach.

O – Optimized Content: This is a very important aspect when working to increase your search engine ranking. We do a lot of SEO work at Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. we also believe in optimizing your content for other forms of distribution as well.  Contact us to find out how we can optimize and market your Law Firm with efficiency.

S – Strategy: A strategy is critical. You have to follow a plan and a detailed marketing strategy is ideal. Your marketing strategy will make the difference in how well you can execute and perform the task of a successful marketing campaign. To be honest the best strategy for anyone who is not experienced in marketing  is to hire Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. We enjoy what we do and therefore we are leaders in our field.

E – Execution: Executing the strategy is the glue that ties everything together. Diversification, Optimized Content and a Strategy mean nothing if the execution is not on point. Execution is the tedious leg work that goes into effective campaigns. The list of executable task for a internet marketing campaign is very long: Linking, website coding, directory submissions, creating web properties, link building etc.  At Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. we have a team of people who are excellent at executing the strategy that is custom fit to your Law Firm.

Contact us today for more information on how we can help market your Law Firm (918) 409-2101.  We give Law Firms that certain je ne sais quoi that raises them above their competition.

Leadership Training for Attorneys

Getting a law degree does not mean that a new attorney will have the professional acumen to be able to associate with future clients or other attorneys in your office.  It is vital that Law Firms train new associates.  A law firms ability to grow is limited by their leadership.  If a law firm has continual training on leadership and the development of their staff they will see new heights.  Remember also that people attracted to you are not necessarily what you are looking for in an attorney but they will be like you.  In other words people are drawn to like minded people.  If you look around your law firm and you don’t like what you see then you might want to think about developing yourself into the type of people you want to attract.

John Maxwell talks about the “Law of the Lid”  The lid is basically your ceiling or the top potential you can reach given your environment, training, skill set etc.  A leader automatically has a lid depending on their  level of training and their capability to grow the firm by setting the example.  The Marine Corps always teaches that leaders first lead by example.  It is not as important what you tell your staff as it is important in what you show your staff by your example.

It is possible to increase your attorneys close ratio when in front of people by simply training them to care for people more than they practice law.  People like doing business with people they like.  The person setting across your conference table is not looking for the person with the most degrees as much as they are looking for someone who understands them, listens to them and makes them feel everything is going to be ok.  I have seen so many attorneys whether they know it or not, come across with a better than you attitude that turns off the future client.  Sure they want to see confidence but not arrogance.

A planned training strategy can alleviate a lot of basic problems in your law firm.  Training can help set a good culture and working environment and it can close more business.  Remember what you put into your staff is what will come out of your staff.  Are your attorneys getting the proper input?  Are you continuing to put good things into yourself?  Raise the bar in your law firm.  Develop a training strategy the makes your attorneys better people and continues to grow and stretch them.

Reaching Potential Clients With The Right Message

We spend a great deal of time discussing “websites” and “SEO” at Lawyer Marketing Services, Inc. Mainly, because we feel that a law firm’s website is the center of all other marketing efforts.  The website is not only important, but it is essential to business. People are looking online for legal help. They are searching and pre-evaluating lawyers based on their websites.  You may be extremely smart, but If you go to a funeral in a circus outfit people are going to think you lost your mind. In the same way, how you present yourself through your website will tell people a lot about you.

If your website is professional, people will think of you being more professional. If you have clear and well written content, people will feel that you know how to communicate. Whether you want to appear strong, caring, trustworthy, intelligent or personal, think about the light your website is placing you in. Some lawyers are communicating the wrong message. They are experienced and good at what they do, but their website is telling people they have lost their mind. The layout and content have to be carefully crafted to deliver a message. That is what we at Lawyer Marketing Services, Inc. do on a daily basis. We simply deliver carefully crafted messages on behalf of our clients.

Once you have designed and formulated the right looking website, you have to know how to deliver the message. This is where SEO comes in. It makes no sense to dress up for a fancy dinner if you have no vehicle or way to get to the restaurant. The same is true if you dress up your website, you need a way to deliver your message to people. Lawyer Marketing Services, Inc. can not only help you design and craft your message, we can also be that vehicle.  We know exactly how to optimize your website for the best search engine results.

Potential clients are out there and waiting to come in contact with the right law firm.  At Lawyer Marketing Services Inc. we can help you reach them. There are many ways we can deliver your message.

The chart below is a summary of many popular SEO practices. If you need help figuring out how to create the right marketing plan. Contact us today and let us help you.  

The Power of Link Wheels

Today I would like to talk about creating a Link Wheel to boost your internet marketing.

We all want our websites to do well. One way can to insure our website does well and meets our objective of bringing in new clients is through strong internet marketing techniques. There are many techniques, but only a few work well. The practice of applying techniques to get into search engines is called, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”.  In order to be seen in the top results of sites like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc., you have to follow a strict set of guidelines. It’s the name of the game. The guidelines were created to maintain a quality list of websites. The websites that do not follow the rules get filtered out of the results. The SEO scene changes often and although it may look like rocket science, fortunately it’s not.

SEO, if done correctly will be the most powerful tool for driving new clients to your law firm. Therefore, it is immensely important and beneficial to either have a professional team working on your SEO or understand how it is done and do it yourself. Good marketing either takes time or money. Hopefully with a strategic plan and smart marketing you can minimize the investment of both.

By designing a Link Wheel we might can meet this objective. Before I go into what a Link Wheel does I should first mention the importance of linking one website to another. Search engines value the quality of links you have feeding into your website as well as the number of links you have feeding into your site. Common sense would say get as many websites as you can to add your link. However this is not the best strategy because  this is where the search engine guidelines come in. Search engines do not value and penalize websites that have irrelevant links, links from websites that look like spam sites, websites built on the same IP, websites having nothing in common, etc. Therefore it is important to be wise and build a smart linking campaign. At our company we do not submit websites to a lot of these companies that build back links and claim to miracle SEO. We are very strategic in our marketing efforts and build a solid foundation for continual growth.

A Link Wheel starts off with one main site in which you want to promote and then other web properties that interlink and link back to your main website.

These web properties can be a blog, article, mini site etc.  A lot of people go to Blogger, WordPress, Squidoo, or create a small website in a similar niche in order to create a Link Wheel. For example, an elder law attorney might realize many of his clients are retired and looking for activities catered toward the older generation. That attorney can then create a small mini website with 3-6 pages on this subject and link to the main website or another one of his or her web properties. This will create a valuable link if done correctly. It’s not all about linking back to your main website. The best thing to do is link to other web properties owned by you, then link to your website. Look at the example below.

When done properly, the Link Wheel will send so much link juice back to your Main Website it will surely climb the ranks.

Is Google+ important for Law Firm Marketing?

You have probably heard some buzz about the new social network Google+, and I know the release has brought up a lot of questions. So I’m going to try and answer the three top questions in this post.

What is Google+?

Google+ is a social network, much like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace etc. Google finally decided to get into the social media game and has carefully integrated the features it believes will enhance people’s social experience.

Is Google+ useful for Law Firm Marketing?

Google+ is built for social marketing and I believe Google+ can be extremely useful. Much like Facebook Google+ has the potential to be very important to marketing in the near future. Google+ allows users to filter content and people by placing them in custom circles. These circles allow users to segment their community and view different news feeds from each. It is important to note that an old style of marketing would not work well with Google+ because the audience can easily cut any information or person from their circles. However, the features of Google+ allow smart marketers to really make an impact through strategic social marketing.

Can I sync up Google+ with Facebook and my other social media networks?

Google+ is fairly new and there isn’t many options for integration. However, there are two good plugins that allow synchronization between the social platforms. One is called Publish Sync which is an extension for the Chrome browser that ties in:

• Google+
• Facebook
• Digg
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Sina
• Plurk

The other plugin is called SGplus, (formally known as ‘Start Google+ plugin’). This plugin enhances Google+ and allows cross posting with other networks.

If you would like a free consultation regarding Social and Business Networking for Attorneys contact us today.

Utilizing Online Video in Attorney Marketing Campaigns

There is a better way to market your law firm. 

Online video has become a fundamental aspect of successful attorney marketing campaigns. Not only have the search engines evolved in a way that can assimilate and transcribe video content for SEO purposes, but videos now carry a greater weight in the overall apparatus of online lawyer marketing. With the popularity of social media sharing, distribution channels have increased dramatically in the last few years. People enjoy watching videos and more importantly, they enjoy sharing them with their friends and colleagues. Therefore, the impact of video marketing continues to increase.

There is a certain appeal that only videos have the ability to deliver. If a picture paints a thousand words, a video paints many pictures. In attorney marketing a lot of times we try to develop emotion, build rapport, and foster certain perspectives in the vast majority of people. Attorney online video is the best medium for a viral marketing campaign. However, video integration hasn’t always been so easy. Only recently has technology made mass distribution possible on a limited budget. This is great news for anyone wanting to deliver a message, but it also serves as a warning.

Videos are a powerful tool that can be used to market your law firm, but can also be misused and do more harm than good. It is important to know the difference between what will make a positive effect and negative impact on your brand. At Lawyer Marketing Services, Inc. we help attorneys utilize online video in their marketing campaigns. To learn more about how you can market your law firm with online video, click here.

Keeping up with Google

The rules of website marketing change often, but periodically something comes along that shifts everything. Google recently shifted many websites rankings with release of the Panda update. Not everyone was affected by this release, but many websites experienced a dramatic loss in visitations.

It’s well known that Google has the greatest impact on website visitations. They create the rules and unless you’re willing to play by their guidelines, your website will never be seen. Google’s ultimate goal is to filter the most relevant content and provide better results to the people searching for it. This is done by Google’s all-powerful algorithm.

When building a website it’s important to understand the guidelines that allow your website to rank, but more importantly it’s vital to stay up to date with the changes. Like any machine, Google can also be hacked and the rules that govern how information is distributed can be learned and manipulated. Unfortunately, the more people who abuse the guidelines the more irrelevant content people receive when using the search engine. Therefore, Google has to change the rules in order to filter out spammers and websites who use “black hat” SEO techniques to climb the ranks. Google also keeps practically all of their algorithmic changes on the down low to prolong the changes effect.

What does this mean for your website? It means that in order to maintain a successful website you have keep up to date with the changes of good internet marketing. Provide quality content and add value with every page.  Build value with powerful content authority through external linking and social media integration. It is equally important to avoid the pitfalls and “black hat” techniques, so your website won’t be penalized by Google.

Many variables come into play when building and marketing a website and we at Lawyer Marketing USA Inc. want to see you succeed. We understand building and marketing a website can be a daunting task. Especially if your limited by time or money. Contact us today for more information on building or marketing your website. We would love to see how we can help you. Having a good website is vitally important for today’s law firms.

Does social media marketing dilute the need to blog?

This has been quite a popular question recently, but what you need to understand is that social media marketing and blogging have completely different strengths. Blogging and social media are both great ways to market your law firm. However, it’s important to note the primary purpose for each.

Social media marketing is one of the best ways to build a fan base for your services. It is also a great way to educate and add an element of personalization to your business. Now days, the tools and popularity of websites like Facebook and Twitter make it very easy to incorporate social media into your marketing campaigns.

Blogging on the other hand should attract a following, but it doesn’t necessarily need to in order to be effective. With rich key words and good content, blogging can propel a website through the ranks of search engines. To be honest there is not much that dilutes the need to blog.  Updated content on a blog is a lot more relevant than fixed content and it adds a great value to any website. Therefore, try to employ both types of marketing in your practice. It doesn’t take much these days to engage in social media and create blog entries. It will pay off.