Forget the television commercials, radio ads, and other gimmicks. This is a year that law firms are focusing on their presence online. Not only will a great online presence boost the brand and image of your law firm, it can also be a great tool for generating traffic to your firm’s website, which in turn can become leads, which in turn can become clients.

Here are the top online activities law firms should do in 2008.

1. Optimize your own website.

If you don’t already have a website, you have probably heard from
someone or read somewhere what a great promotion tool a website can be for law firms. If you are considering getting a website, a great starting point is to plan what you want your website to look like and write some content pages to put on the website. Then, contact a firm about building a
professional website that your law firm can be proud of. If you have a
website, but you are not getting the traffic from it you think you could,
consult an internet marketing agency. One firm, Ephricon Web Marketing
(http://www.ephricon.com), based in Baltimore, MD offers clients search
engine optimization which includes on-page optimization, content creation
and link building as well as pay-per-click services to help online
searchers find what they are looking for easier.

2. Add new content to your website.

New content can be in the form of new pages your site may need, such as information about your firm’s practice areas or informal articles about law topics in the news or tips on a legal topic for the layperson. A quality internet marketing agency can take an article and send it to various sites that accept articles. Particularly, sites on legal topics that accept articles would be especially beneficial. The main purpose of the articles is the fresh content that they provide your site but adding a couple links in an article that is posted on other websites helps boost traffic to your website.

3. Announce news with press releases.

Most internet marketing agencies can help spread your news to
newspapers, television stations and industry sites on the web through
services like PR Newswire and Market Wire. Because of their ability to be
picked up by many sites, press releases are a fantastic way to add bursts
of traffic to your website through links that you may include in them.

4. Add photos to your website.

Pictures of the firm’s partners and other staff, a photo of the office building if it’s in a desirable location, or a photo of inside an
attractive, professional office can give visitors to your website a reason to trust you and can convey that your firm is a successful one. One Baltimore, Maryland firm, Ingerman & Horwitz LLP (http://www.ihlaw.com) has a photo of their Park Avenue office location and photos of the firm’s
principals on the homepage. These help put a face on the firm, making it
easier for website visitors to relate. Photos are especially powerful for
professional service organizations, such as law firms.

5. Send an email blast a couple times a year.

Gather a few hundred client email addresses and send a mass email.
Topics in the email newsletter could be informative information from the
articles, interesting cases worked on or new laws that may be of interest
to the public.

6. Join directories that will link to your website.

Both directories that you must be paid to be listed in and directories that are free give links to websites along with a one or two sentence description. Local-Attorneys.com is a directory specifically for law firms that list lawyers by region and specialty. For example, search under tax and Maryland and you will find law firms like Fried & Rosefelt, P.A. (http://www.frtaxlaw.com), who focus primarily on tax-related legal issues.

Another worthwhile pursuit is to try to get listed on sites that are
specific to your practice area. In the tax law space, for example, exists a notable website for tax problem resolution specialists — the website for the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers at http://www.astps.org. Steven N. Klitzner, P.A. of Florida Tax Solvers (http://www.floridataxsolvers.com)
is listed on this site, which can provide quality, relevant traffic. A
handful of directories are also profile sites, which are basically the same as directories but allow you to expand upon your description, instead of a couple sentences, usually a couple of paragraphs.

If you want to improve the amount of leads your firm receives, consider the online activities above. Though offline marketing activities like print brochures can also see much value, focusing attention online is very useful because your clients come to you, searching on what they need and then
finding your site. Doing it right means you can spend less time on
marketing and more time practicing law.

Local-Attorneys.com is a law firm directory that sorts attorneys by
practice area and region. For example, someone who visits the site having
been involved in an auto accident will click on auto accident and the state where they are looking for an attorney. With over 1,000 law firms listed so far, Local-Attorneys.com continues to grow. For more information on getting your firm listed, visit http://www.local-attorneys.com. Local-Attorneys.com
is owned by Net Focus Media. Visit http://www.netfocusmedia.com/lawfirms/
for more info.

http://flickr.com/photos/bhartzer/

This is a new form of advertising and is completely different from the
television commercials and magazine ads people are used to. What do you
call advertising on your hands? “Well I like to call it Handvertising”,
said Mike Brown CEO of Handvertising USA.

Handvertising USA is transforming the way advertisers are looking at
your skin, more specifically your hands.
“Almost everyone has been to a county fair, swap meet, bar or club and had had their hand stamped for proof of entry. We have found a better use for this space that could make everyone happy”
said Mike.
“Advertisers are always looking for a new and exciting way to promote their brand. Handvertising USA offers a unique way to do this and everyone benefits”
said Mike.

“We find venues also use the stamps to increase business. For example venues are offering special prices on drinks if the customer has a particular Handvertising stamp. People are requesting particular stamps because they want to fit in and they want the drink special.”
Mike says.

If you would like to see some samples of what Handvertising USA is
doing visit their website at http://www.handvertisingusa.com/ for
pictures, FAQ’s and more.

Here’s my take on it…

You would probably get a lot of calls if stamped at a busy nightclub or concert!

COURT APPOINTMENTS

Courts appoint lawyers to handle not only criminal cases but also family, juvenile, probate and bankruptcy matters. The qualifications for court appointment to criminal cases vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but most lawyers will qualify for misdemeanor appointments immediately.

Handling several such cases a week, even for only a few hundred dollars each, a new solo can sustain an office while word gets out about his or her practice. Trying misdemeanors diligently for a few months, along with sitting second chair in some felony trials, will generally qualify a lawyer for felony appointments if he or she is inclined to build a criminal practice.

Criminal appointments also frequently lead to civil cases. The client who is happy with how his lawyer handled his minor drug possession charge might call the next month about a close family member injured by a drunk driver who is well insured.

ADVERTISING

Mark Twain wrote in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” that “any a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.” Advertising works, and snobs forgo it at their economic peril. This is especially true for solo practitioners, who can’t devote as much time to networking and business development as rainmakers at larger firms. The most common venues for lawyer advertising include telephone books, television and, more recently, the Internet.

In my experience, telephone book advertisements are the most productive form of lawyer advertising. More than half of my clients tell me they found me through my phone book ad.

The most common reason solos don’t advertise in the phone book is the expense. A half-page ad in the primary telephone directory of a major Texas city can cost $15,000 to $25,000. Moreover, some directories have an aggravating practice of raising advertising rates on ads each year unless the buyer increases his or her ad’s size — and thus its cost. However, such ads can produce five to 10 times their cost in billings.

Lawyers who decide to advertise in the telephone book should avoid the temptation to scrimp on design. Many lawyers spend tens of thousands of dollars on ads only to take the directory up on its offer for a free design. Don’t fall into this trap; You get what you pay for. An architect’s fee for a well-designed building project is often about 7 to 10 percent of the project’s cost. Similar figures make sense for a well-designed ad. Professional help with their image can be especially important for solo practitioners, who must combat the stereotype that they are amateurs or part-time lawyers.

Television ads are the most maligned form of lawyer advertising, often for good reason. However, they can be nearly as effective as phone book ads. TV ads also have the advantage of timeliness. A telephone book ad runs all the time, and the buyer pays for it all the time, regardless of whether the lawyer is in a position to take on new clients. In contrast, once an attorney pays for the production of a television ad, he or she can run it whenever there is a need to generate calls. This can generate more bang for the buck for solos, whose smaller caseloads generally have less flexibility than those of multilawyer firms.

Internet ads and listings are the wave of the future. Ten years ago, they were largely a novelty relied upon by lawyers more for prestige than profit. That is changing as Internet access reaches the great majority of indoor work spaces and homes of every economic level.

Just as some younger people are abandoning telephone land lines in their homes in favor of cell phones, some foresee the day when online directories replace hard-copy phone directories. That day isn’t here yet, but Web site ads and listings with Internet directories certainly complement traditional ads.

Internet listings with prominent directories often cost less than $100 per month, a fraction of the cost of a telephone book ad. After an initial development investment of a few thousand dollars, Web sites can cost as little as $100 per year to host.

REFERRALS

Solo practitioners sometimes feel like it’s them against the world, but they are best served by viewing the world as full of people who can help their practices by steering unanticipated business their way. Some of the most important sources of referrals include former firms, especially those looking to refer prized clients with specialized matters to competent counsel who can be trusted not to poach clients; referral services run by local bar associations or state bars; other lawyers, such as those with whom the solo might share an office suite, co-counsel or even opposing counsel in prior cases; former clients; and family members and friends.

The first case I accepted as a solo was an earnest-money dispute involving my older son’s soccer coach. Who could have foreseen that or written it into a business plan?

One of the greatest selling points a solo has to offer is personal attention. When a solo practitioner receives a referral, the referring person knows who’s going to do the work, and it’s not some faceless associate. For that reason, view work done for referrals as another form of advertising. Undertake it with an extra measure of diligence. Word of a job well done will likely find its way back to the person who did the referring, and that increases the prospects for more referrals down the line.

Paul Schorn is an employment law solo with offices in Lockhart and Austin, Texas. His e-mail address is paul@schornlaw.com.

“In a victory for First Amendment rights, the court permanently enjoined enforcement of most of the challenged rules against attorney advertising, including rules against attention-getting techniques, the use of nicknames and mottos, the use of client testimonials, the portrayal of judges and the use of Internet pop-up ads.”

A copy of the Court’s ruling is available on Public Citizen’s website here, and noted on their blog here.  Public Citizen also has complete information on the case at its Consumer Law & Policy Blog, co-sponsored by Public Citizen’s Consumer Justice Project, at  http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/advertising/index.html.

superlawyerfacts.com

You can lease a Billboard like this in El Cajon, California with a Daily Effective Circulation rate of 60,720 people.  It will set you back about $4300/month. 

Ahh the old cliche’… something about lawyers and lips and lying.

Now… I’ve actually had martini-based business discussions with out of town Texas-based personal injury lawyers before. They were here in Metro Detroit on a “meso” (asbestos caused cancer) case.  They really do think they’re rock stars in a sense.  I saw a little bit of George Bush cowboy in each one of them.  But when they told me how much money they were spending on leads… My jaw dropped.  I told them I was an “internet guy” and thier jaws dropped.  They asked:  “Can you get me to the top of Google?  How much does that cost? I could make you a LOT of money!”

Godin Nod- Involuntary head movement that denotes a moment of clarity as a direct result of reading anything by Seth Godin.

His latest post is entitled “Nobody Knows Anything“, and in it, he really breaks down the idea of marketing to the most basic level. And it could be a little scary to those of us in the marketing professions!

Rather than throwing in my two cents about his idea that “There are two kinds of marketing analysis, both pretty useless”, I’m telling you: go read his post.

You need to read this.

I don’t think so, but boy do I have a bias!

The Argument: States want to protect their consumers from lawyer advertisements disguised as editorial content.
Well, I can understand that. Just like they regulate the little ads in magazines and newspapers masquerading as actual news stories with the -5 font “Advertisement” disclaimer. I was really thinking about buying some plates from the Franklin Mint once. And another time, I really thought that scientists had made a breakthrough discovery, and that if I bought a copper wristband, it would increase my energy, make me much more intelligent, and seem both warm, witty, and kind to women. But I saw that one little word, and came to my senses.

Okay, I’m being sarcastic. I apologize.

Could blogs be considered advertising? Absolutely. I would be dishonest to try to ignore the fact that the goal of most law blogging, in the end, is acquisition of clients. If the goal in blogging is to establish expertise, it follows that that expertise is going to result in business. If the goal is to get the firm’s name “out there,” the same applies.

But should every blog post be submitted to a disciplinary committee for review? I don’t see how that could happen.

One of the strengths of blogging is that it is immediate. A story breaks, and bloggers are on it. People come to blogs because of their frequently updated content. And authors can post said content because it is so easy and effortless. New rules and regulations would take away the one of the main reasons for the popularity of blogs in the first place.

But another question comes to mind: How do you identify what is advertising and what is not?

On this site, I’ve compiled Ethics Rules on Legal Advertising and Marketing for all 50 states. Looking through them, I have read many rules on where a lawyer or firm may place an advertisement. But I have yet to find a clear definition of what an advertisement is.

One definition I’ve seen is that advertising involves an active quest for clients. But is having a blog an active quest for clients?

Well, if after every post, I put “See how I can help you make more money with your law firm by calling me at 555-555-8785″, I’d see that as an active quest. But what about if I just have an email link somewhere hidden in the depths of my blog? I’d see that as more of a passive quest.

But now I’m getting into semantics. Back to the issue at hand.

One of the appeals of blogging is that (and this is a mantra repeated often) blogging is a conversation. People like blogs because they show a person’s perspective on a subject. While many marketers spend hours creating buzzword-heavy text that is meant to look like editorial content, people just don’t buy it. As the web matures, our BS meters are becoming increasingly well-tuned. And the emergence of splogs makes us even more aware when we’re being duped.

The truth is: if you’re an attorney who is just writing “give us your business” text and passing it off as a blog post, you’re not going to get very far.

So, with that all said, I don’t think legal blogs should be regulated as advertising. Are there some bad apples out there? Of course there are. Are some people going to take advantage of blogs to plug their businesses? Yep. But should we treat anyone who blogs as a potential scam artist? I don’t think that’s the best way to handle it.

A client at a law firm is planning their ad placement for the rest of the year. In the past, they have used a “We would like to congratulate attorneys X and Y on being named SuperLawyers….” in their print ads.

Knowing all the buzz about the SuperLawyer situation, my immediate reaction was to stay away from this. It just doesn’t “feel” right.

But the client brought up an interesting point: Maybe it’s just lawyers that know about the SuperLawyer controversy. And since the ads are not targeted to other lawyers, it shouldn’t matter.

Given that short background, I’d like to know: do you think a firm should run an ad touting their recently named “SuperLawyers” in a magazine or paper focused on their target clients?