Legal Marketing Articles

Archive for January, 2010

About The Legal Marketing Association

Friday, January 29th, 2010

“The Legal Marketing Association was founded with the idea that the individuals working to market legal services needed a forum to share and exchange ideas with each other. That basic principle holds true today. LMA is a vital resource — a lifeline — for anyone working in the marketing of professional services. You simply can’t be in this profession without being a member of the Legal Marketing Association.”

The Legal Marketing Association (LMA) – which was founded 25 years ago – is a non-profit organization that offers a vast variety of helpful tools, information and knowledge that allow those in the legal world to succeed in their practice. With over 3,000 members from the U.S. and 11 other countries, the LMA has a total of 17 chapters located all across North America and Canada.

The members of the LMA are mainly marketing professionals of all different positions who support legal marketing and help lawyers successfully develop their practices by offering professional and educational opportunities and valuable information.

To join the LMA or to explore its information-filled website, visit http://www.legalmarketing.org/ to learn more.

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Posted in Internet Marketing, Uncategorized, Websites | No Comments »

Good Content is Key

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

People surf the web for information about anything and everything. Whether a person wants to find a product to buy or find a professional or company to help them with a matter, the internet is where everything can be found.

For every business, getting yourself on the internet is the easy part. How well your content is written and optimized and how well your site ranks on various search engine lists is what separates well-marketed businesses from those who simply just “exist” on the web and are hardly visited.

The content on websites is the most important aspect of a good marketing plan for any business and it’s what immediately draws viewers and consumers to continue exploring that company’s site.

Particularly in the legal market, developing good content is extremely important.

The best thing a law firm can do on its website is first outline exactly what services the attorneys provide. Instead of including a bunch of legal jargon and terminology, it’s essential that lawyers also post content that will appeal to anyone and everyone. Not only should everything be grammatically correct, spot-checked and edited, but the vocabulary and terms used should be easy for anyone to understand. If you’re a lawyer explaining various aspects of criminal law, for instance, make sure to define all terms that everyday people (and non-criminals) may not be familiar with.

Nothing looks more unprofessional than sloppy, unorganized and poorly written content on a website.

If a woman’s looking for a divorce lawyer and the law firm’s website is unclear with grammar mistakes interwoven throughout, she’s going to move on to the next family law attorney. People don’t want to take the time to translate your content. It should be informational, straightforward, organized and well-written.

Once you have a steady stream of good content posted throughout your site, make sure to keep it updated. Especially if you offer “legal news” or “newsletters” pages, it’s important to always keep it up-to-date and fresh.

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Posted in Email Marketing Campaigns, Internet Marketing | No Comments »

Do you have the best marketing strategy for your law firm?

Friday, January 15th, 2010

Perhaps the best existing marketing strategy for law firms is one that is most obvious and extremely easy to understand. However, it seems to be overlooked by many attorneys and legal firms.

Like any business, individuality is the most important aspect for any law firm to have. Some people may feel that is stating the obvious, but this notion is often ignored.

Most firms discuss their areas of practice, their experience and their successes regarding case settlements and verdicts. What about what sets them apart from the thousands of other lawyers out there with the same credentials?

Most personal injury and accident lawyers state in their website that they will get clients the compensation they need and deserve, but doesn’t every personal injury attorney do that? Isn’t that their purpose?

Divorce lawyers say that they’ll help clients with child custody matters and spousal support, but what makes them different than other family law attorneys?

To establish a well-marketed firm, it is important for lawyers to recognize the need to advertise their uniqueness and what makes them better than the rest. It’s important not to fall within the traditional legal wording expressed on most law firm websites and get your name out there and all over the web for more unique reasons.

For example, these creative ideas can set your law firm apart from others:

  • A divorce law firm which offers community resources for the emotional and financial needs of children of separating couples
  • Personal injury lawyers who offer to meet with the client in their home or hospital
  • Real estate attorneys willing to close property transactions on a Saturday
  • Lawyers who have late hours so clients do not have to lose work time
  • The use of inventive technology in criminal law cases

Any press is good press. Conversation monitoring tools such as Social Mention (www.socialmention.com) are useful tools to help lawyers track how often they are mentioned – in whatever context – on the web. After all, all publicity and online mentions are good.

How can you make your office unique?  We’d like to hear!

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Posted in Strategies that Work | No Comments »

Google’s Latest Toy – Can it help a real estate lawyer?

Friday, January 8th, 2010

There was an article on an internet marketing website reporting that Google is planning to display panoramic and 3-dimensional real estate ads for customers searching Google Maps for properties.  Can this tool help the legal industry?  Yes, it can and here’s how.  If this concept becomes a popular reality, then advertisers and businesses involved in property management, commercial properties, or residential properties, may also be displayed in the same manner.  Coupons, hours of operation, etc. may eventually be displayed in pull-down menus.

What can that do for your business?  It can make you more visible in a popular modality, and make your sellers’ properties more visible also.  Selling a home in any region in this market needs advanced marketing techniques.  

You can read more about the Google’s to the US Patent Office by reviewing their application.

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