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How many emails sit in your inbox unread? How many emails do you instantly delete? If you’re like me, you probably dump dozens of emails in the trash bin every day. Email Marketing has been around for decades now, and it is still an incredibly powerful digital marketing tool for law firms if done correctly.

Below Are 6 Tips For Getting More of Your Emails Read

1 | Make Emails Click-Worthy

The subject line is your best friend in this case. The subject line will determine if the email goes straight to the trash, or whether it is read and engaged with.

The fact is… many people won’t ever open your email. So if the subject line is boring or not engaging it’s not going to do you any good. Make sure to start off any email with pertinent information as to why they should open it.

Pro Tip: Adding Your Law Firm Name in the ‘From Name’ and adding ‘Preheader Text’ that correlates with your subject line, helps increase open rates.

2 | Do NOT Rely On Images

Images are important to convey a message or enhance the content visually. However, with email marketing it’s important to not rely on visual elements alone. Many people choose to block images from loading in their inbox, so you have to think through how to convey the same message quickly and effectively without images.

3 | The Forgotten Alt Tag

Always create an alt tag for every image even if there is only one in the marketing email. This will help ensure that if the images are blocked, the recipient can still read what the image was about.

Make sure your ALT tags are descriptive of the image you’re showing. This will help visually impaired people understand what the images are about.

4 | Segmenting + Personalization

Segmenting your email lists will help you ensure that you send your subscribers only information that is relevant to the.. Personalization, which is simply adding their name in the subject line or highlighting legal services that interest the viewer, creates another layer of specificity through the email.

5 | Keep The Email Consistent With Your Brand

Your brand should be the first thing you think of when designing your email campaign or newsletter to send out. Your brand’s personality, colors, graphics, fonts and images should be implemented into your newsletter. Brand consistency creates a solid foundation for who you are and creates a bond between you and client.

The correct way to implement this in your emails:

1. Logo Placement: Place your logo in the top left or centered at the top of your email.
2. Fonts: This is important because for the email to work across all email clients, you may not be able to use some of the fancy fonts used on your website or printed materials. So, in order to use the font, you will need to self-host the fonts in order for the email to read them, or use a simple font that you know will compliment your brand.
3. Colors: Stick with brand colors!
4. Images: If you decide to use images, make sure it can add meaning to your brand and support the content given in the email. If you don’t have an image that works, it’s best not to use any image at all.

6 | Don’t Be Afraid To Be Human

This is probably the [Most Important]. Be an actual human in your emails, and don’t fluff it up with marketing talk. It’s essential that law firms build relationships and trust with clients. Emails can help with this through strong, human messaging.

How to be more human with your emails:

1. End Your email with a specific person from the Law Firm
2. Include A picture of that person
3. Add a Signature to the email

These three steps add a human person to the end of the email and shows that you took the time to let the reader know who you are and what your brand stands for.

The best Attorney SEO companies will always encourage email newsletters as a way to consistently sign clients.

Ways to Attract New Clients Before the Consultation. During the New Client Consultation, Every Lawyer Should…

Every lawyer worth his or her weight already knows just how important the initial consultation with a prospective client is.

Whether with one individual concerning a personal legal matter or a group of company representatives, a stranger or an acquaintance, a previous client or a brand new one – an initial consultation has the power to set the tone for the rest of the case.

Particularly for new clients who may never have used legal services before, the initial consultation may not only exemplify both yourself as a practicing attorney and your firm but also your entire industry. To put it bluntly: Consultations are very important.

Ways to Attract New Clients Before the Consultation

Offer Free Consultations

While this may not work for every firm – and it’s certainly not required – offering free consultations can be an effective way to shoe in more prospective clientele, particularly those who may be wary of taking on legal services or who may not be sure how to proceed with their cases (if at all). By offering a risk-free, commitment-free consultation at no cost, potential clients may feel more comfortable to take the leap at making initial contact.

Even with the potential benefits of free consultations, some attorneys disagree about their effectiveness. Here, it’s important that each firm weighs factors like firm culture, practice areas, client demographics, and more when deciding whether initial consultations should be free or subject to charge.

Make the Initial Contact Process Easier for Clients

We’re not suggesting that some firms don’t want to be contacted by clients, but it never ceases to amaze us when attorneys don’t make it excessively easy for online viewers to contact them.

How can this initial contact process be made easier?

Boldly featuring your firm’s contact details (phone number, email address, brick and mortar address, etc.) on your website’s pages is a great place to start. Giving a call to action (CTA) with contact links and a phone number to prospective clients reading your firm’s blog articles and client testimonials is also a must. Dedicating an entire subpage as a point of contact (i.e., contact page) with a secure submission form is very effective. And finally, some firms opt for contact pop-ups on their websites to offer viewers a convenient way to get in touch quickly. All of these methods contribute to making the first step of reaching out much more user-friendly.

Feature a FAQ Subpage or Blog Article about What Should Be Expected from Consultations with Your Firm

Another great way to encourage client contact is by being transparent about the process as it pertains to your specific firm. For most individuals, seeking out legal services is intimidating. By providing answers to FAQs regarding your firm’s consultations – as well as what to expect before, during, and after the consultation – nerves can be eased and the barriers to initial contact can be broken down.

During the New Client Consultation, Every Lawyer Should…

1. Be Clear about Any Consultation Fees

If your firm does opt to charge a fee for or a retainer before the initial consultation, this should be made clear both before and again when starting the consultation meeting. Any misunderstanding in this regard could not only lead to mistrust or confusion on the client’s end – perhaps even resulting in a loss of the case – but also an inability to receive fees on the attorney’s end.

2. Introduce the Firm and Working Attorneys’ Experience as Is Relevant to the Case

Every lawyer should provide a concise summary of the firm’s philosophy, mission, and track record. Explain how the firm operates, what type of cases are generally handled, and how the firm will likely handle this particular case.

Additionally, attorneys meeting with new clients should briefly explain their experience, education, and any noteworthy cases that could apply to the case at hand.

Though it may feel redundant to lawyers, by thoroughly yet quickly introducing this information within minutes of starting the consultation, new clients can begin to determine your firm’s style and abilities when handling their cases.

3. Be Attentive

While most attorneys would consider this an intuitive part of their legal practice, being especially attentive during new client consultations is important, not only to show your attention to the case, but also your attention to the client’s needs and expectations (as exhibited by their behavior, attitude, questions, and answers).

This is also a great way for attorneys to determine if taking on a client’s case is the right fit for them, as well.

4. Showcase Knowledge and Know-How

Beyond simply listing accolades and case achievements, lawyers should find ways to relate a new client’s case to any recent legal developments or the latest legislation changes. This should be done all while continually pointing to years of experience and comfort level in handling cases of this nature.

5. Engage with Specifics

During the initial consultation, it’s often a bit difficult to analyze case specifics and give all possible outcomes in front of the client while dealing with consultation time constraints.

Additionally, it’s crucial that attorneys never make promises or provide any indication of false hope.

But, consultations can be most effective when the specifics of the case are actually discussed. Some attorneys even encourage new clients to bring all documentation and fill out questionnaires to begin discussing the case immediately.

While it takes more time initially, it might be better to avoid speaking only in generalities and instead opt to get right to the relevant stuff.

6. Discuss the Process

One of the biggest incentives for potential clients to engage in consultations, apart from seeking out answers and possible outcomes for their cases, is to understand how the process will generally work throughout all steps of the case.

While certain aspects – filings, proceedings, appeals, etc. – are more regimented, other aspects of the process may vary depending on the firm or attorney. It’s important that both parties are aware of the other’s expectations of time invested, actions taken, fees incurred, and all possible case outcomes.

7. Provide the Opportunity for Potential Clients to Ask Questions

Though this may extend the length of the consultation, providing clients with multiple opportunities to ask questions not only benefits the client, but also the attorneys working on the case. Here’s how:

• By giving designated attention to the client’s questions, you demonstrate your commitment to their needs and concerns.
• Providing answers to their legal questions further reifies your professional qualification and knowledge to handle their case.
• Hearing the client’s questions gives the working attorneys insight into their case priorities, which may or may not align with those of the firm. Attorneys can then use this insight to make the decision of whether to accept the case or not.

8. Gain a Clear Understanding of the Client’s Main Concerns

As we mentioned in number 7, giving the client ample opportunities to ask questions can assist attorneys in cracking the main concerns the client has regarding the case.

Of course, once these concerns are clearly understood, both attorney and client can work in tandem to achieve the best, most feasible case results.

9. Understand Communication Expectations

Consultations are most successful when they’re most transparent. 

The clients’ communication expectations may run the gamut between “less is more” to “hold my hand every step of the way, please.” While neither is inherently right or wrong, it’s important that working attorneys are fully aware of these expectations and can agree to meet them (or, at least, agree to compromise somewhere in the middle).

Alternatively, attorneys should make clear who will be contacting the client, with whom the client will be mostly working, and when and to whom questions and concerns should be directed throughout the duration of the case.

If these aspects are not made clear, clients may be less than enthused to be working with legal secretaries, paralegals, or junior attorneys when they were originally under the impression that they’d be working directly with the attorney(s) from their consultation.

10. Give the Client an Idea of the Case’s Timeline

Insomuch as it’s possible to do so, try to provide prospective clients with a generalized timeline of events for their cases. Make it clear that a near-impossible number of factors may arise throughout the case’s duration, so this is simply an ideal, tentative timeline. It should by no means be guaranteed to the client, as we know is the case with all aspects of legal proceedings.

Expand Your New Client Development Through Juris Digital’s Expert Marketing Services

If your firm is seeking to grow, expand its outreach, and ultimately gain more clientele, the initial prospective client consultation is a crucial piece of the intake puzzle.

What’s also crucial?

A solid marketing plan that showcases your firm to the online world.

Here at Juris Digital, we specialize in all things digital: From the moment that a potential client uses a search engine to ask a legal query, to clicking and navigating through your site, reading testimonials, referring to your blog articles, engaging in your social media profiles and more, we’re here to help your firm develop its online brand.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to capitalize on the client consultation process and the ways that digital marketing can work for you, contact us today. We can’t wait to help you get started.

As any lawyer can attest, working in the legal industry certainly has its share of demands. Not only is the technical side of the job demanding, but so is keeping up with changing legislation, shifting caseloads, and the professional development that all lawyers are expected to maintain. And, it’s even more intense for partners, with the addition of new business tasks and firm managerial duties.

In the midst of all these demands, it’s just as important as ever that partners strike a balance between professional and personal, legal and managerial, traditional and innovative. What is one of the best ways to tap into this balance? Reading.

Across nearly any industry, it’s recommended that leaders and professionals dedicate time to reading materials that aren’t necessarily directly related to their fields, but which can still help them grow individually and as part of a larger network of professionals. Here, we’ll explain some of the benefits that partners can expect to enjoy by reading outside the office or conference room, as well as provide a list of 10 great books that we highly recommend for partners and other professionals of the legal world.

6 Reasons Why Every Attorney (and Specifically Partners) Should be Reading

Though we’ve always been taught the benefits afforded by reading, it’s still important to keep them in mind – particularly as reading for personal development and leisure can easily fall to the wayside when more pressing work demands creep up. Here are 6 reasons why you shouldn’t put off reading but, rather, prioritize it:

1. A Different Kind of Professional Development

Even though you may not be reading case documents or legal precedents, reading things independent of the field of law can have a tremendous impact on your ability to communicate with co-workers and clients, tap into more creative ways of processing information, and ultimately perform your job better. Though it may not seem like it in the short run, reading for leisure, enjoyment, and personal betterment will have long-lasting benefits that can then spill over into office life.

2. Better Client Relatability

When you’re knee-deep in legal jargon all day, it might make for an excellent lawyer, but it may not make you the most relatable person in the room. And, to some degree, it’s important to be relatable to clients and potential clients when it comes to expanding business development and targeting potential clients at the individual level – especially in the role of partner, where this skill is vital for firm growth.

By widening your reading selection, you’ll have more resources and information at your disposal beyond just your professional industry. What’s more, you’ll also have conversation starters and talking points to discuss with potential clients, who may be debating whether to use your firm’s services or your competitors’.

3. More Social Awareness

Depending on the books you choose to read, your levels of social awareness and other societal intricacies may be challenged and bettered. Working in one industry with a pretty specific client base may not always afford partners the chance to hear others’ points of view or stay updated on relevant social questions outside their practice areas. By choosing to read about these issues, it can bring a new perspective to how you practice law, lead your firm, and engage with the community around you.

4. Deeper Leadership Potential

While there are several factors that go into making a naturally great leader – personality, upbringing, education, experience, values, communication styles, etc. – there is also a plethora of reading resources available to firm partners that can help introduce, explain, and develop leadership skills. Even by simply reading up on workplace psychology, improving communication skills, or how to host more productive meetings, you can set positive traits into motion within your work environment that, as a leader, will affect everyone who works under your position.

5. Personal Growth

Beyond the other reasons for why you should be reading more, developing a strong habit of reading non-work-related materials can help deepen personal growth and knowledge of self, awareness of strengths and weaknesses, and any personal tendencies that are good and bad in your life. When you engage with a variety of different readings, the personal growth you experience can have just as profound of an impact as the habits you develop to advance your professional life.

6. Leisure and Enjoyment

Finally, reading for pleasure can simply be relaxing, stress-free, interesting, and just plain enjoyable. Reading can be one of the most calming and therapeutic activities that you let your mind do, especially after a busy day.

According to the National Library Trust (UK), reading strictly for pleasure has been shown “to improve(s) literacy, social skills, health and learning outcomes.” When we allow our minds to engage in relaxing, creative thinking, it’s similar to the joy we can experience by working our muscles physically or nourishing our bodies with healthful foods. As leaders in both their firms and their communities, partners should do their best to exemplify a healthy, fulfilling habit of reading simply for enjoyment.

What Are the Top 10 Books We Recommend for Partners?

If you’re ready to further develop your professional habits, personal strengths, and client development abilities as a partner, here are 10 book recommendations that we think every partner would benefit by reading:

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (1989) by Stephen Covey

Though this book certainly isn’t new, it’s timeless in its presentation of how highly effective, inspirational, and disciplined people have developed the habits that helped to get them where they are. Covey also presents step-by-step ideas for becoming a better and more effective individual, as well as a better professional.

2. The Knowing-Doing Gap (2000) by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton

Pfeffer and Sutton break down the sharp difference between talk and action while they dissect the “knowing-doing” gap. Their recommendation? Employ more common sense, and start doing instead of just talking.

3. Good to Great (2001) by Jim Collins

Collins’ research, once ground-breaking for its time, explores why some companies outperform others so egregiously. He then uses the findings to offer recommendations on leadership, staffing, and every day organizational questions that are still practiced today.

4. Getting Things Done (2001) by David Allen

For anyone who feels stressed out, overwhelmed, and disorganized, Allen’s book helps readers better understand how to set goals and priorities, use time more wisely, and take advantage of the many tools at our disposal that can make our lives easier. The aim of this book is to showcase methods for becoming more productive while learning to get a handle on stress.

5. Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success (2014) by Adam Grant

Here, Grant opens the discussion on how and why some individuals experience amazing successes professionally, while others never seem to get their bearings down to fully succeed. By taking a closer look at success, we begin to see the many forces (beyond just hard work) that are consistently at play.

6. Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day (2015) by Todd Henry

A great read designed to keep work and life balanced while also remembering that both work and life are finite. In his book, Henry offers easy ways for making “every moment count” to glean the most you can from your job and, ultimately, to achieve your higher goals.

7. Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ (2005) by Daniel Goleman

This book explains what Goleman considers to be the five most important emotional intelligence skills and their impact on everything from our careers to relationships, and even on our mental and physical health. Intelligence is certainly not as simple as research once thought.

8. Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t (2014) by Simon Sinek

Sinek takes a deep look at workplace culture and why negativity, paranoia, and dog-eat-dog sentiments commonly take root. When juxtaposed with companies that don’t experience these office attitudes, Sinek points to his idea of a “circle of safety.” This circle works both as an insulator for security and innovation as well as a wall to protect against outside threats. By capitalizing on this circle, companies can spend more time on what’s really important.

9. Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (2014) by Amy Wallace and Ed Catmull

An excellent look at creativity and the massive influence it can have on business, this book helps to explain the important role of creativity among teams and managers as a way of promoting better office culture, as well as better business results. For these authors, it all comes down to innovation and originality.

10. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (2011) by Daniel Pink

By delving into what he considers to be the three main motivators – autonomy, mastery, and purpose – Pink explains how and why these factors work together to affect the way we perceive career satisfaction, as well as help others perceive theirs. Pink’s work is a great refresher on what motivates us, and how that can lead to feelings of satisfaction at work.

Interested in Learning More about Developing Your Brand?

Whether you’re looking for great book recommendations or want to pick our brains for the latest marketing trends – including social media, content, and SEO services – Juris Digital is here for you.

At Juris Digital, we help law firms of all sizes develop and extend their brand so that they can better their practice and gain more clientele. We know how important your practice is to you, your fellow colleagues, and your firm. Let us help you develop the perfect marketing plan to suit your professional goals, both as a partner and as part of your legal community. Contact us today.

At Juris Digital we talk a lot about the power of evergreen content.

Time and again we’ve seen that when law firms can successfully identify the right evergreen topics (aka “keywords”), and then publish exceptional information on those topics, they can bring in quality new cases, even in highly competitive markets.

Because we’re such loud advocates for evergreen content marketing, we thought it would be a good idea to get some real-world data to support our enthusiasm.

So we ran a Google Survey to answer the question:

 
48.6% responded that they had researched their legal issue online prior to hiring their lawyer.

This means…

Survey methodology and key data points

• Our survey asked every respondent two questions. The first question – the qualifier – asked: Have you hired a lawyer in the last 10 years?

• Everyone who answered “Yes” was then asked: Did you research your legal issue online prior to hiring your lawyer?

• Males surveyed responded “Yes” 47.5% of the time:

• Females surveyed responded “Yes” 49.6% of the time:

• People age 35-44 responded “Yes” a whopping 75.1% of the time:

• People age 45-54 responded “Yes” 40.6% of the time:

• People age 55-64 responded “Yes” 45.2% of the time:

• People age 65 and older responded “Yes” 38.5% of the time:

To view the raw data from the Google Survey click here.

Google has been on a roll this year making change after change with how search results are displayed. In many cases, these new “features” will increase how much space you get on the search results page, but it may also decrease traffic to your website.

This is because users can potentially find the information they’re looking for right on the search results page.

What Are FAQ Rich Results?

FAQ rich results are a type of structured data that shows up in search results connected to your law firm’s organic rankings. They take up more search real estate and are intended to answer a potential client’s question without going to your website.

You can see an example of this from a Google screenshot below:

How To Optimize FAQ Rich Results

While many critics are quick to jump at the fact that this might mean fewer website visitors, I see this as the next big opportunity. If the rich results display in search results you now have a bigger opportunity to take advantage of.  The key is to use this information to your advantage and create more interest.

For this to work I suggest giving away just enough information along with a reason to contact you. Including information such as:

• A general answer to the question
• A pain point associated with the question as to why they should contact you
• A way to contact you such as a phone number in case they want to call right away.

Do People Call From FAQ Rich Results?

Yes. Recently I set up a very small test where I added the FAQ schema to several pages on a personal injury website we designed.

In the FAQ answers, I added a phone number for potential clients to call.

This has already generated several calls. I’m going to be working on testing this on a larger scale, but it’s something you can take advantage of now.

How To Add This FAQ Schema To Your Website

1. Find the pages on your website you want to add the FAQ Schema
2. Use a code generator such as this JSON one to make it easy
3. After you’re finished submit it to search console for indexing
4. Wait and see!

Sometimes it might take a day or two to show if it’s going to, but I have also seen this work in minutes.

Looking for a list of sites where attorneys can be reviewed? We did the work. Here you go.

Now let’s get to the good stuff; which of these sites is most trusted? We conducted the following test and found out that most people just do not regard these lawyer-specific review sites as trustworthy. That fact has some interesting, and actionable, implications.

This survey is in compliment to our earlier survey on where attorney’s should focus their online review efforts. Here we seek to identify the top lawyer specific review sites that people trust most when they search for an attorney.

Methodology:

Respondents to this survey were first asked a question.

Of those who answered “Yes”, or “Yes more than once”, the question, “Which lawyer specific review site do you trust?” was posed, and the responses that were recorded are heavily pointing towards a lack of usage (or at least trust) for lawyer review sites.

What can we learn from these Results? Most lawyer review sites are typically unknown, unused, or distrusted by the general public (ie. those who do not work in the legal sphere or online marketing).

This information should not in any way be construed to mean that you should not take the time to list yourself and your firm on these sites. They still provide numerous search benefits, including:

1. Referral Traffic – while people may not trust the reviews on these sites, the can still find you and click through to your site, where you should provide plenty of reasons to trust you.

2. Links – these are high authority sites, and easy/legitimate places to drop a link to your site.

3. Citations – most of these sites will allow you to list your business Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP), helping with your local search rankings.

Actionable Takeaways:

When it comes to customer reviews, spend your time getting Google reviews. Having a profile established on these review sites still drives traffic, so do not totally neglect them.

If you have any more takeaways yourself, let us know in the comments below!

How to avoid failure by asking the right questions, both of yourself and the of marketing agencies you’re considering

So you’re considering hiring a law firm marketing agency?

The good news for you is that there are a lot of good options to choose from. The legal space is highly competitive and that competition has helped create a dynamic and innovate pool of marketing agencies that specialize in generating new business for law firms.

That said, just because a particular law firm marketing agency might be a good fit for many law firms, that doesn’t automatically mean it’s the right fit for your law firm.

Similarly, even if you do find an agency that seems a good fit for your law firm, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your firm is positioned to benefit from the services of a law firm marketing agency, regardless of how good they are.

In this post I’ve drawn from my 10+ years of experience to provide you with questions that you need to ask yourself – and discuss with the agencies you are considering – prior to pulling the trigger on hiring a law firm marketing agency.

By asking these strategic questions your can set yourself up for success and avoid the common pitfalls that result in a poor return on your marketing investment.

What are my specific marketing goals?

The key word here is specific. If you don’t know what precisely you are trying to achieve by hiring a law firm marketing agency, then you probably shouldn’t hire one.

For example “get more clients” is not a specific goal. Specific goals look like this:

• Increase new personal injury clients by at least 50% over the next 12 months
• Increase in-market organic search traffic by 100% over the next 12 months
• Achieve top 5 Google rankings for keywords X, Y, and Z over the next 6 months
• Begin generating relevant leads from new geo-markets X, Y, and Z within 12 months
• Improve the rate at which we convert leads from our website by 100%
• Reduce our average website page load time by 75%
• Gain 50 new online reviews across Google, Facebook, and Yelp

By defining your goals in this way, you’ll be able to discuss them with the marketing agencies you interview to understand whether they are feasible, to get the agency’s feedback on whether your goals ought to be adjusted or supplemented with others, and to align on what it will take to achieve them.

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What is my budget for marketing?

One thing I have heard a lot from prospective clients when discussing their marketing budget is: Well, if you produce great results, I am willing to spend more.

Uhhh, yea. Duh.

For any reputable legal marketing agency it’s a given that you expect to see a positive return on your investment, and this is a conversation that you should have with the marketing agencies that you interview.

However, you need to have a budget in mind to get started. And that budget needs to be based on realistic considerations, such as:

• Marketing (especially organic marketing like local SEO) takes time to bear fruit. You need to set your monthly budget with the understanding that the returns will not be generated immediately.
• How much money do you feel comfortable spending? The bottom line is that marketing is a risk. Now, we believe that it’s an incredibly small risk, especially if you work with an agency that knows what they are doing, but it’s still a risk. Your budget should be based on an amount that you could feasibly live with losing. Don’t over-extend yourself. That will make both your life and the lives of the folks doing your marketing miserable.
• Is your budget is reasonable based on your goals and your competition? If you are one of two estate planning attorneys in your city, you may be able to see a great ROI at a relatively low budget. On the flip side, if you want to get big-dollar personal injury cases in Texas, $500 per month won’t do a damn thing for you. This is something that a qualified marketing professional can help you understand when you speak.

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What are my expectations in terms customer service and collaboration?

We have some clients who are almost entirely hands off. They want periodic updates on the work we’re producing and the progress that we are making towards their goals, but other than that, they are content to let us do our thing while they do theirs.

On the flip-side, we have clients who require weekly and in some cases even daily communication. These clients want to thoroughly review content. They want to understand precisely what we are doing and why. They want to brainstorm new ideas and areas of opportunity. They want to have in-person meetings to review our monthly reports down to the letter.

And in most cases, our clients are somewhere in-between these two extremes.

It’s important that you ask yourself what level of customer service and collaboration you want from your law firm marketing agency. Is it important to you that your law firm marketing agency be local so that you can have frequent in-person meetings? Or, is it important to you to trust your marketing agency to act autonomously towards your marketing goals with little feedback and collaboration?

This is a critical expectation to discuss and define with your law firm marketing agency.

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Do I have adequate time and resources to support marketing efforts?

It’s important that you discuss with prospective marketing agencies what will be required from you in order to execute a successful marketing campaign.

At Juris Digital our philosophy on this front is fairly simple: You stick to what you know, and we’ll stick to what we know. What you know is:

• Your customers – their frustrations, their common questions, etc.
• Your area of law
• Your firm’s value propositions
• Your firm’s story
• Your firm’s successes
• The cases you are currently working on

In general, this is the information that we need from our clients in order to be successful. We need the information that only they know.

If you are unwilling or unable to spend the time and energy required to provide an adequate amount of this type of information to your law firm marketing agency, you may not be ready to invest in marketing.

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Is my law firm ready to be marketed?

The best marketing in the world will not overcome fundamental problems with your business or your service offering.

This may come off as an insulting question, but it’s not meant to be, and it’s the most critical question posed here. You must consider whether your firm’s services are of sufficient quality to justify investing in marketing initiatives that are aimed at convincing people to hire you.

Can you articulate specific and truthful reasons why your firm is the best choice for clients who are in need of legal representation? If the answer is no, you should invest in solving those problems before you invest in marketing.

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You made it to the bottom. Thanks for reading!

Want to talk more about hiring a law firm marketing agency? Please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below and I’ll be sure to reply shortly. Or better yet, shoot me an email and we can pick up the discussion there.

A question I commonly hear during during the sales process is:

What if we have your firm do the SEO and marketing, but we use another firm to design and build our website?

My answer is normally:

You could, but I don’t reccomend it.

In 99% of cases, it makes little sense for law firms to use one agency to design and build their website, and another agency to do SEO and market their website.

Below I’ve given three reasons why it usually makes sense for law firms to use a single agency for website design and SEO / marketing. Below those reasons I’ve given an exception to the one agency for both rule.

The reasons to use one agency for both services are:

1. The best legal marketing agencies tend to overlap with the best web design and development agencies

In the legal marketing space, almost all of the agencies who have a reputation as being among the best in legal web design tend to also have a reputation for being the best in SEO and digital marketing.

In the early days of Google this was not as likely to be the case. After all, Google and other search engines used to be easy to manipulate. You didn’t necessarily need an exceptionally well designed and coded website to rank high for your keywords, so why would an SEO agency feel compelled to add design and coding talent to their staff?

But in 2017 Google is a more sophisticated beast. A website with ineffective design and sub-par development simply doesn’t have a chance of producing consistent quality leads for a law firm. The legal marketing agencies who survived Google’s evolution did so because they were able to expand their capabilities beyond SEO.

If you’re considering agencies that have great reputations within the legal marketing space, it’s likely that those agencies are more than capable of both building and marketing your firm’s site.

2. Web design-only projects lack strong incentives

If you hire a company or an individual freelancer to design and build you law firm’s website as a one-off project, they lack a strong incentive to go above and beyond to ensure that site is built to succeed.

After all, creating a comprehensive content marketing and SEO strategy – and then building an intentional design and website architecture to accommodate that strategy – takes far more time and resources than putting up a WordPress website that looks “fine”.

The goal of most web design agencies who get one-off projects is to get each project done as quickly as possible. As long as you’re satisfied with how it looks, their job is done.

But when the agency who builds your website is also responsible for ensuring that you see a return on your digital marketing investment, that agency has a much stronger incentive to think long-term, and dedicate all necessary resources to your project.

3. The advantages of proven standards and processes are lost between multiple agencies

One commonality shared by all successful businesses, not just marketing agencies, is that they have standards and processes which have given them a competitive advantage of some sort.

If the agency that you intend to hold accountable for generating a positive ROI on your marketing dollars does not control the production of the most essential tool that they’re using to generate that ROI (your website), they will necessarily have a harder time ensuring that standards are met and processes necessary for success are able to be followed.

The major exception to the rule: Need for advanced website functionality

Most law firms don’t need their website to do anything complex. Most firms need their website to covey relevant information quickly and effectively, allow people to easily locate contact information, and generally create a positive brand experience for anyone who accesses it.

However, there are cases where law firms may require the website to have more advanced capabilities like user portals, payment gateways, and integrations with third party CRM systems.

In these cases, when advanced (and uncommon) website functionality is required, it may be prudent for your firm to use a specialized web development agency to build the site, and a separate agency to handle digital marketing and SEO.

Online press releases were, in the recent past, a popular tactic that law firm SEO’s used for building links fast. And let me tell you, it worked!

However, since Google’s assault on manipulative links beginning with the Penguin update back in the day, press releases no longer accomplish this aim.

I am not here to dismiss their value entirely. There are some very valid benefits that online press releases provide. Let’s look at a couple of the things that press releases can help you accomplish, and then turn to their limitations.

What benefits do press releases provide?

1. The ability to gain exposure for particular keywords immediately

If you put out a press release which is optimized for one of your target keywords, using one of the popular online press release syndication sites, Google just may rank it on page one for your keyword. One of our friends in the local SEO industry, Andrew Shotland, pointed this out with a recent tweet:

However, consider a couple of things: First, the traffic won’t go to your website, it’ll go to the syndication site. Now, it is certainly possible that you’re site will get clicked through to if you have good calls to action in the release, but it’s obviously not as ideal as getting the traffic directly. Second, it won’t last long. In my experience, press releases tend to enter the first page quickly, and leave just as fast.

2. Help with Reputation Management

We already established that online press releases can gain high rankings in Google for your competitive keywords. Accordingly, they can also hold high rankings in Google for searches that include your brand name. This provides you with another way to control the online sentiment surrounding your brand, which may prove beneficial for some firms.

What are the limitations?

1. Press releases don’t provide beneficial links

The backlinks you’ll get if you purchase a press release aren’t going to carry any legitimate ranking value. In fact, if you use obvious commercial anchor text you could actually end up with a Google penalty.

2. You won’t generate any interest from members of the media

Before the internet, companies used press releases in order to attract the attention of members of the media. The goal was to provide newsworthy information, which a journalist would want to write about, thus garnering publicity for your company.

I have a strong suspicion that, in 2014, journalists don’t much care about press releases, particularly press releases issued by mid-sized law firms discussing their awesome new website design. In 2014 journalists don’t need press releases to get the skinny on a breaking story. In fact, with social media, consumers don’t really need journalists to get the news either. In this hyper-competitive environment, I would suspect that any journalist who is checking online press releases from PRweb.com will soon find themselves looking for a new profession.

For some great ideas on more effective ways to garner media attention, give this awesome article on PR hacking and ditching the press release a read.

Too Long, Didn’t Read

Press releases are not entirely useless, but their efficacy has limits. If you are interested in gaining temporary search engine visibility for a specific keyword, a press release might work. Also, a press release can help you manage your firm’s online reputation. However, a press release won’t help you build any meaningful links. It also will most likely do little in the way of attracting legitimate media attention.

Image credit:
http://www.prhacker.com/ditch-the-press-release

What Are Legal Blogs? How Important Are Legal Blogs Today?

As everything around us becomes more digitized, the way that consumers treat online material has changed, too. Prior to the Internet, an attorney could attract new clientele by positive word-of-mouth recommendations, feel-good community partnerships, and a solid reputation built around great advertising.

Now, everything is very different.

Not only are businesses and law firms expected to showcase a great online presence, but they must also provide information, keep up online engagement, and be easily searchable. Though this ever-increasing need for engagement may leave some firms feeling like clients demand a lot, rest assured that there are handy ways for your law firm to provide all of these aspects to your clients and potential clientele via one easy platform: the legal blog.

What Are Legal Blogs?

As the name suggests, a legal blog is an online platform specifically designed to provide easy, generalized legal information to the masses online. It serves this purpose by functioning as a place to deliver answers to simple legal questions (obviously a blog can never be too case specific), provide actionable steps toward seeking professional legal advice, and, of course, plug your own firm’s brand.

A great legal blog can also serve as a place to engage with page viewers in the comments section, segway readers to other internal or external content (via linking), and encourage users to interact with your firm’s social media platforms.

How Important Are Legal Blogs Today?

Just how important are legal blogs? Of course, we know that internet users are seeking out more information than ever online, meaning that websites and blogs are increasingly becoming vehicles that drive information and push branding faster than ever.

Blogs are part of that. According to one statistic, internet users consider blogs to be one of the top sources for credible information available online. The most effective blogs, such as video blogs and blogs that heavily engage with members on social media, gain even more online traction.

So, how important is a blog for your website? To put it simply: Very important.

3 Benefits of Having a Legal Blog on Your Firm’s Website

If you’ve decided to host a blog on your firm’s website, it’s important to showcase great content, update your blog regularly, keep your online audience engaged and informed, and post as much evergreen, relevant content as you can. If your blog manages to achieve these things, here are just three of potentially many benefits that your firm’s website can enjoy as a result:

1. Increased Traffic to Your Website

By having a blog featured on your website, you can increase web traffic among potential clients in several dynamic ways. Not only can you create great content which can then be shared to social media, featured on other blogs, or cited by other information sources, but you can also work to develop a reader base that leads to more consistent web page visitors.

Furthermore, featuring helpful content (particularly evergreen content that remains both reliable and current) can be critical for boosting the search engine optimization (SEO) of your firm’s website.

2. More Perceived Credibility among Potential Clients

There’s no denying that websites that showcase a blog, or other platform that offers valuable information to site visitors, is perceived as a more reliable, professional, and trustworthy source. The more consistent, helpful legal content your blog features, the better you’ll be perceived by potential clientele.

This perception, in turn, not only benefits your website traffic, but can also lead to more click conversions, higher search rankings, more business, and a stronger overall marketing scheme in the long term.

3. A Holistic Approach toward Your Advertising

Why work so hard to rank better on search engines without completing all the pieces of your firm’s marketing puzzle? Because your firm’s marketing strategy is optimized when it encompasses multiple layers, don’t neglect the a critical piece of that strategy: content.

Altogether, your marketing should focus on SEO and effective campaigning as well as providing great web and social media content to viewers. Hosting a blog on your firm’s website can help you create a stronger, more holistic marketing plan that can yield better results.

The Advantages of Guest Posts

Now that the benefits of blogging for your firm’s website are clear, creating guest posts for other legal blogs can be an additional blogging aspect to consider.

In essence, guest posts are blog posts written by “guest” authors – for example, attorneys, partners, professional experts, marketers, etc. – and featured on a external website’s own blog. Authoring these guest posts can not only be incredibly beneficial for the attributed writer but also for his or her practice or firm. Here are just a few ways in which creating guest posts can advance your firm’s marketing objectives:

Exposure to a Wider Audience

By being chosen to contribute on another’s blog and submit guest posts, you’re able to share your legal opinions with what’s likely to be a much wider audience than you would normally have when using just your own website. Guest posts can expose your firm to an entirely new, fresh audience (sometimes even on a national or international platform). This, in turn, can lead to more click conversions and the opportunity for your website and social media pages to get even more exposure.

Increased Professional Credibility

Because so many great legal blogs have one priority – your fellow attorney – in mind, authoring a guest post can mean more credibility and respect within the professional community as well. Not only can you boost you and your firm’s reputation through just one stellar contributing post, but you can also widen your circle of professional contacts more easily.

Sharing of Your Firm’s Potential

Simply put, by contributing a guest post wherein you provide your own answers and opinions to relevant legal questions that clients or fellow attorneys are asking, you have the opportunity to share with the world your legal knowledge and expertise. Not only is this beneficial for garnering new clientele, but it can also be professionally advantageous by exposing your work to more peers in the field.

Legal Blogs to Write Guest Posts for

If you’re considering writing a guest blog, here are some of the best legal blogs (which regularly accept contributing posts) to which to submit your work:

1. Law Technology Today

Far and away one of the most influential legal blogs on law, technology, and how the two are becoming increasingly interconnected is Law Technology Today. Not only is its audience expansive, but its content is varied and frequent (averaging about three posts per week) enough that authoring a guest post would be a great opportunity, especially if your practice involves technology.

2. Rocket Lawyer

With over 25,000 Facebook fans and over 12,000 Twitter followers, Rocket Lawyer’s online exposure is profound. With Rocket Lawyer’s express aim to help provide the best, most affordable legal advice to the masses, it’s easy to see why Rocket Lawyer is rising in the ranks as a competitive source of legal information for everyday consumers.

3. Attorney at Work

Attorney at Work is a growing site tailored specifically toward lawyers who seek to develop themselves on all levels – be it professionally, personally, technologically, or broadly within their firm and community. It serves as an excellent resource for attorneys who grapple with common questions that plague every practicing attorney. They specialize in “speaking to the individual lawyer” and helpfully answering common questions.

Ready to Take Your Legal Blog to the Next Step? Contact Us Today

Whether you’re just starting to develop a website or you’ve been online for years, it could be time to consider your firm’s blog. Because blogs can play such a critical role in not only providing your viewers with information, engaging with clients online, and helping your site become more searchable via SEO standards, it’s important to develop a great blog as soon as you can.

At Juris Digital, we have helped countless clients review, update, maintain, and even create their own legal blogs. Whether you simply need a second pair of eyes to review your content or you’d prefer that we create your legal blog’s content for you, we can help.

Not only do we service legal blogs, but we also work extensively with website design, SEO, and social media, so we can ensure your law firm is getting the maximum digital marketing exposure achievable. If you’re ready to advance your firm’s online profile, contact us today.