Internet Marketing for Lawyers - How to Dominate the Web
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by Brandon Cornett
Lately, there's certainly no shortage of articles about lawyer marketing online. Many of the legal journals and website are suddenly filled with advice on Internet marketing for lawyers. It can get tiresome, or it can be a wake-up call. Hopefully you'll view it as a wake-up call. Here's why:
The reason you see so many articles about lawyer Internet marketing lately is because the legal industry is moving online in a major way. Lawyers across the country have discovered the value of a strong Internet presence, and each day hundreds of new legal websites pop up across the Web.
Why are so many lawyers creating websites and focusing on Internet marketing? Simple. Their ideal clients are using the Internet to search for the very services they provide! So by building an online presence, lawyers are able to tap into a new audience.
How does all of this affect you? Well, in several ways actually. First, it means that if you don't already have a strong Internet presence, you are missing out on potential clients. Secondly, it means that you will have to work harder to build a highly visible Web presence, because of the growing number of legal websites online.
This is where lawyer Internet marketing comes into the picture (which, by definition, is the act of using the Internet for legal marketing purposes). Here are five ways you can use the Internet to grow your business:
Lawyer Marketing Online - 4 Ways to Dominate the Web
1. Build a Quality Website
In your online marketing efforts, your law website will serve as website as "Web Marketing Central." In other words, your website is the critical centerpiece to your Internet marketing strategy. The first step to building a great legal website is to add value to it, largely in the form of helpful content. Fill your website with legal information, articles, FAQs, etc.
This will help your Internet marketing program in several ways. First, it will make your website "sticky." This means people will be more likely to stay on your website longer (than they would if your website lacked information). And the longer people stay on your website, the more likely they are to contact you about your legal services.
An informative website with plenty of content will also help your search engine visibility. Content is the fundamental building block of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine ranking. The more relevant topics you cover on your website, the more ways people can find you through search engines.
Also, be sure to incorporate some type of lead-generation technique. Offer high-value reports with information about your legal specialty ... something your ideal audience would really want. Offer this item in response for a newsletter sign-up, or have people request the item by email. Online, this is often how business relationships begin.
2. Submit an Online Press Release
Public Relations (PR) is often overlooked as an online lawyer marketing tool. This is unfortunate, because an effective online PR system can generate endless exposure for minimal cost. The same cannot be said of traditional advertising!
Press releases are one component of a PR program, and they have come a long way in terms of the Internet. For instance, most lawyers don't realize they can syndicate a press release across the Web for somewhere around $100, and then have that highly visible press release stay online for months or longer. PRWeb.com is one of several resources you can use for this purpose.
When you publish a press release online, you are helping your lawyer Internet marketing program in two major ways — PR visibility and search engine visibility. By having your press release appear on legal and business-related websites, you can get the attention of humans and search engines alike.
3. Publish Articles Online
When it comes to Internet marketing, you can use articles in much the same way as you use press releases (see above). Article marketing, as it is known, is the act of publishing articles online for increased exposure, web traffic, and search engine visibility.
With a bit of research, you could find dozens of legal websites that seek quality articles from lawyers and law firms. EzineArticles.com is a multi-topic article directory, but it also allows submission of legal-related articles.
Over time, an article marketing campaign will help you grow your Internet presence in several ways. First, your articles will include a "learn more" blurb about the author (that's you) plus a link to your website. This link will help people and search engines alike find your law website. This technique also helps you demonstrate your expertise over your subject matter, which is priceless for a knowledge-based profession.
4. Start a Legal Blog
Blogging is an area where the web-savvy lawyer can really excel right now. That's because (at the time of this writing) there are not a lot of legal blogs online. There are even fewer that specialize in a certain type of law. So an ambitious lawyer would have little competition if he or she were to launch a legal blog.
Basically, a blog is a content management tool that makes it incredibly easy to publish content online. If you can type an email, you can publish content to a legal blog. And if you blog often, you will increase your search engine visibility and website traffic, as well as demonstrate your knowledge / expertise.
Conclusion
For best results, you should take a multi-pronged approach to legal marketing online. As with financial investing, you should avoid putting all your eggs into one basket. Diversify. Create multiple channels and let them reinforce one another.