http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/ en Copyright 2011 2011-02-03T19:50:10+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/facebook-law-firm-marketing/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/facebook-law-firm-marketing/#When:19:50:10Z Social networks like Facebook, MySpace and others are being used more and more. Recently, Facebook topped Google to become the most visited U.S. Web site, indicating a shift in how Americans are searching for content (http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/16/technology/facebook_most_visited/). As these social networks grow, and their services, tools and capabilities expand, they are steadily revealing themselves to be viable marketing channels for local businesses, including law practices. Creating Your Profile: The first step to build your law firm’s presence on Facebook, is to create a personal profile. Sign up for Facebook, upload a picture and add contact info in your profile. Then you can also upload your existing contact database to see which of your contacts are already on Facebook and ask whichever ones you want to become your Friend. This can get you started off the bat rather than leaving you to start cold in building your own little community. Creating Your Company Page: After you have a personal profile, you can create a Company page for your law firm. You can populate the page with company information, news, upcoming events, photos, etc. You can also add applications that increase the functionality of the page. Even if you already have a business website, having a business profile page on Facebook is still important in that you want to have a presence where your existing and prospective clients are spending their time online. Joining and Creating Groups: Another way to network on Facebook is through the use of Groups. It shouldn’t take you long to find a Group or Groups that are likely to include good prospects for your law firm, but if you can’t, no problem: Simply start a new Group yourself and get the ball rolling by inviting some friends and fans to join it. Paid Advertising: In addition to the options above, you can expand presence on Facebook with paid ads. To learn more about these paid advertisements, simply visit: http://www.facebook.com/advertising/ Happy Facebook Marketing! Online Law Marketing 2011-02-03T19:50:10+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/google_launches_adwords_help_site_for_small_business/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/google_launches_adwords_help_site_for_small_business/#When:14:59:03Z Google recently announced their AdWords Small Business Center: an AdWords resource focused on providing tips for small and medium sized business owners. The site offers advice and articles on a variety of PPC advertising topics like: “Write great ads” or “Track your Results” among others. There are also links to the official AdWords blog and a discussion forum just for small business owners. While we know that many small business owners don’t want to run their own Adwords campaigns, for those considering doing so, this is a great place to start to better understand the necessary process. Happy Small Business Marketing! Online Law Marketing 2010-09-21T14:59:03+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/online-law-marketing-terms/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/online-law-marketing-terms/#When:14:37:41Z Whether you are first starting your online law marketing campaign or you’re a seasoned pro continuing to sharpen your skills, there are bound to be a few instances where you have been flooded with unfamiliar jargon that you just can’t seem to make sense of. Therefore, instead of spending your time searching for the definitions of Internet-marketing related words when you could be fine-tuning your campaigns, take a quick look at this post to decipher some of the most commonly used terms—you may even want to bookmark this page for future reference as well. Banner ad: A banner ad is a graphic advertisement used on websites that is linked to an external site. You may want to consider placing banner ads for your business on another site to help drive more traffic to your own site. Click-through rate (CTR): This number signifies the number of times that a particular ad is clicked on, divided by the number of times an ad is shown. When you know an ad’s CTR, you can determine how successful it is in grabbing an audience’s attention. Conversion rate: This represents the number of visitors to a website who then performed a desired action, such as purchasing a service or signing up for a newsletter. Landing page optimization (LPO): Every time potential clients click on a pay-per-click ad, they will be brought to a corresponding landing page. LPO encompasses all of the methods used to increase the conversion rate on a landing page. Cost per click (CPC): This is an advertising option in which the advertiser pays— often to a search engine such as Google and Yahoo!—every time someone clicks on their ad (that then directs him to a landing page on a website). Cost per lead (CPL): Instead of paying per click, this is a model where advertisers would pay a third party every time they successfully received a new sales lead, such as a phone call or email. Cost per acquisition (CPA): This form of advertising is especially enticing because the advertisers only pay when they make a sale. However, this type of agreement is rare to find since it is not very favorable to affiliates and marketing companies. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): This describes the process of increasing a website’s ranking on search engines. The benefit is that statistically, the higher your position is on search engines, the more likely it is to garner clicks and traffic from potential new customers. Unique visitors: These represent visitors to a site who have never been to that website before or haven’t been there in a certain amount of defined time period. Hopefully you’ll all find this short glossary helpful. For more info and tips, check back to this blog and read all of Yodle’s marketing team’s helpful advice. Online Law Marketing 2010-08-26T14:37:41+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/online-marketing-partner-law-firm/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/online-marketing-partner-law-firm/#When:14:28:45Z With all of the time and work necessary to run a successful law firm, your legal marketing campaign may be an area that you want handled by an outside expert. While we’d love for any of you to choose Yodle, regardless of who you choose, before you hire any online advertising partner and make that final decision, be sure to ask yourself these key questions: How will the success of your campaigns be measured? Even though nearly every aspect of online advertising is quantifiable, many local online advertising vendors don’t provide their clients with a way to track the success of their websites. A local online marketing company worth your time and money should give you the capability to monitor how your ad dollars are performing against the metrics that matter most to your business, be it Cost-Per-Lead, Click-Through-Rate, Cost-Per-Acquisition or any other. How experienced is the vendor? As opposed to a vendor who has just started marketing in the legal industry, a company with experience in your industry will have a better understanding of the ad copy tactics and keywords that will perform best. How long is your contract? A good rule of thumb (unless of course you get a great deal for a longer contract) is that results should be able to be seen within 3-6 months for a PPC campaign and 9-12 months for SEO. If you are told that you have to sign a contract that will extend well beyond these periods of time, it’s probably a sign that you should start looking elsewhere. How interested does the vendor seem in your website? Before taking your law firm on as a customer, a representative from the vendor should examine your website and offer you suggestions for improvements that will help increase the amount of new phone calls you receive. After all, web traffic is only of any use to your firm if it is driven to a website that will successfully convert online visitors into offline cases. How widely will your business be distributed on the web? Any company can get you a spot on the sponsored section of large search engines such as Google and Yahoo. While search engines are undoubtedly a huge part of a healthy online presence, there are tons of directories, Internet Yellow Pages, and local sites that can provide valuable incremental exposure, traffic, and cases. Moreover, these complementary sites are often very cost effective ways to advertise your law firm given their lower levels of competition. Whether you decide to hire a company to market your law firm for you, or decide to do it on your own, continue to check back for more ideas and tips for successfully advertising your law firm. Online Law Marketing 2010-08-16T14:28:45+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/top-search-marketing-blog-yodle-lawyers/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/top-search-marketing-blog-yodle-lawyers/#When:22:32:30Z Although there is a lot that you can learn about online marketing from your own hands-on experiences, there is also a great deal to be discovered in this ever changing marketplace by reading blog posts from industry experts. We suggest the following 5 search marketing blogs that you should consider reading on a regular basis: 1. Google Webmasters Blog: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/ The official blog from Google that supports the resource center for webmasters. 2. Matt Cutts Blog: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ Matt Cutts joined Google as a software engineer in January 2000 and is currently the head of Google’s Webspam team. Follow his blog for everything from Gadgets, Google, and SEO 3. SEOmoz Blog: http://www.seomoz.org/blog One of the best SEO resources on the web. Follow this blog to keep up to date with the most current News, Tips & Highlights from the search marketing industry. 4. Search Engine Land: http://searchengineland.com/ One of the most read and trusted sources of information on search engine marketing including SEO, PPC & Social Media. 5. Search Engine Journal: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/ Search Engine Journal, established in 2003, is a 6 year old publication of Search & Social Media, LLC, which specializes in a community approach to the reporting of search engine news & the sharing of Search Engine Marketing knowledge & tactics. Online Law Marketing 2010-08-10T22:32:30+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/social_media_marketing_options_for_your_law_firm/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/social_media_marketing_options_for_your_law_firm/#When:20:32:54Z Incorporating social media outlets into your current legal marketing plan is an effective strategy that your law firm should be using to its advantage. Even if you’re not particularly tech-savvy or you’re not sure where to begin, there’s no need to panic. Going social is simple and often the most interactive and enjoyable way to reach your potential clients. Blogs According to many experts, adding an informational blog to your firm’s current website is a key social media component for driving new clients to your business. As an attorney, you’re no stranger to the fact that the law is complex and sometimes downright confusing. Naturally, your potential clients are going to have a lot of questions, and a blog is a great way to address some of the most common inquiries and create a strong reputation as an expert in the field with locals in your community. Additionally, blogs can be a great way to help your website’s ranking on the search engines, due to all the fresh content a blog will help you create. Social Networking Social networking sites not only present you with a great outlet for giving your clients a less formal view of your law firm, but also are an excellent platform for discovering what issues people in your area are concerned about. Understanding what people are talking about will give you great insight into your target-market when you create your next promotional campaign. The top social network sites that your law firm should consider having a presence on are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn. However, if you’re uncertain that you will have the time (or the patience) to manage numerous networking accounts at the same time, then starting with a Facebook profile may be the most effective approach. With Facebook you can: • Create advertisements that target your potential clients based on demographic, interests, and other valuable elements of information on their personal profiles. • Share business information with locals, or create an event for your law firm and invite your fans to attend. • Post links to helpful landing pages on your website that will take visitors directly to the area of your law firm they are interested in learning more about. Using other free media vehicles Free media sites like YouTube and Flickr also make social marketing campaigns extremely easy to implement for any business, including local ones. All of these platforms create opportunities to position your law firm, help you interact with your potential and current clients, and increase online awareness of your brand and services. Online Law Marketing 2010-07-29T20:32:54+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/video-law-firm-website/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/video-law-firm-website/#When:19:20:20Z In our post “Building your Law Firm Website: Your Options”, we discussed the four options for generating an effective website for your law firm. While having a basic website is a great option for many firms, additional features like online videos can help keep people engaged and interested in your services so that they will come back to the site or, better yet, pick up the phone and call you to inquire about your services. While initially you may be a bit skeptical about how useful an online video actually is, the truth is, there are quite a few reasons why a carefully constructed video can become a useful tool for your law firm: Videos prove that you are genuine: The secret to creating a video that speaks to potential clients is to be real. Most experts recommend creating one that will run anywhere between 30 seconds and three minutes, because this will allow possible clients to get a glimpse into your practice, and will also help establish the type of connection that will entice people to contact you for a consultation. It won’t necessarily be costly to create: For as little as a few hundred dollars you can successfully create a video for your law firm and have it coded into your existing site. And while it’s definitely possible to create an acceptable video on your own using your personal video camera, you may be better off hiring a professional who will help project the image you are trying to communicate. Introduces your staff: Through allowing viewers to meet you and your staff, you will help establish an initial level of trust between your prospective clients and your firm. Relay positive feedback: If you have had clients in the past who are overjoyed with the way that you represented them in a case, ask them to sit in front of your camera for a few moments and relay their experiences to your future clients. Obviously be sensitive to asking for client video testimonials if you practice in an area of law that may be considered sensitive. Explain all that you do: If you are repeatedly asked the same few questions by prospective clients, then take a few moments to address these inquiries during your video. Let clients know that you offer free consultations, have over 25 years of experience, or whatever it is that makes your law firm unique and desirable. Additionally, uploading your video to websites such as YouTube is a great way to gain exposure beyond your website while also creating links that will help your SEO efforts at the same time. For more helpful hints on expanding your law firm’s client list and creating the most effective website possible, continue to read our advice for all of your legal marketing needs. Online Law Marketing 2010-06-24T19:20:20+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/social-networking-law-marketing/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/social-networking-law-marketing/#When:15:41:19Z I saw this really interesting article on the Wall Street Journal's website about how solo practitioners and small firm attorneys are using social media to attract potential clients effectively. Law firms, particularly those that represent plaintiffs, are increasingly devoting resources to developing a presence online, where consumers—and potential clients—congregate For example: Soon after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig sank in April, Parker Waichman Alonso LLP turned to the Web in pursuit of law clients. The New York-based plaintiffs' firm set up websites with names like bigspills.com, oilspillclaims.com and oil-rig-explosions.com, and it filled them with news related to the disaster and invitations for visitors to provide their names and contact information. More than 1,000 people have now completed the forms on the websites, and Parker Waichman, which has 23 lawyers, has filed about a dozen suits related to the oil disaster. Read the full article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704324304575306581598351428.html 2010-06-15T15:41:19+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/yodle-organic-law-firm-online/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/yodle-organic-law-firm-online/#When:15:12:09Z Many attorneys are being overwhelmed with online advertising companies promising to get them “listed on the first page of Google” and get them “more new customers and cases”. Breaking through all the noise to find the right strategy for your online presence is a significant challenge faced by solo practitioners and small firm attorneys alike. Yodle, a leader in local online advertising, the fastest growing locally based online media company in the U.S. (according to Borrell Associates), and co-author of the recently published Local Online Advertising for Dummies has set out to solve this problem through a new product offering – Yodle Organic. Yodle Organic takes the complexity, mystery and high cost out of “SEO” to offer a comprehensive, transparent and cost effective product offering. Read the full article here. Yodle Organic 2010-06-15T15:12:09+00:00 http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/building-law-firm-website/ http://www.yodlelawmarketing.com/blog/post/building-law-firm-website/#When:18:28:41Z Outside of a great education and years of experience, one of the most crucial parts of successfully running a law firm or practice is having a great website that represents your law firm. In many cases, your website will be the first way that potential clients connect with you, and your first opportunity to convert leads into long time clients. However, with so many options available for creating an effective site, it can be hard to locate the one that’s right for you. Instead of taking time away from your clients so that you can research website building options, we’ve done the legwork for you. Basically, there are four different ways you can go about creating your website: Do it yourself: Unless you are an expert at web design and you have plenty of time to spare, this approach is not recommended. For most law firms, the time it would take to learn about designing a site and actually executing the plan would be far too time consuming. DIY, Using a template: This option still puts a lot of the work in your hands, such as updating content and hosting the site, but it allows business owners to create their websites based on predesigned templates. Most online companies that offer templates have large portfolios with various designs for you to choose from based on your price point and the quality of the website you are looking for. For basic, lower-cost templates check out vendors such as Template Monster (http://www.templatemonster.com) and Homestead (http://www.homestead.com). However, if you are looking for a higher quality site that will be more customizable, then you may want to research offers provided by dzine it (http://www.dzineit.net) among others. Having a site built for you, using a template: There are plenty of companies who specialize in creating websites based on approved templates. By choosing this option, you will have secured a reliable, expertly crafted site for your company, while ongoing content updates and hosting is managed by the company you hire. This option is a great way to balance cost against getting a quality site that reflects your practice well, and is one of the options that we here at Yodle offer our own clients. Having a custom website built for you: This option is very similar to the previous one, except instead of building you a site based on a template, the site is built entirely from scratch. While there can be benefits to this strategy (especially if your practice has some very unique needs that should be reflected in the design of your site), this option is undoubtedly the most costly. Ultimately it will be up to your practice to best what fits your specific budgetary and design needs. Now that you know about the different options in hand to create a website for your law firm, in future posts we will talk about ways to make your site more engaging, and how to leverage it to get more clients and grow your firm. Online Law Marketing 2010-05-28T18:28:41+00:00