Blogging, social media, adwords, SEO, and internet marketing, in general, just don’t work for law firms!
We hear and see this sentiment often. It is the conclusion that is commonly drawn when busy lawyers try to do “internet marketing on the side”, or hire inexperienced, irresponsible, or unscrupulous internet marketing agencies to market their practices online.
But the truth is, it’s not that internet marketing, per se, doesn’t work for law firms, it’s that many law firms are executing it in a way that doesn’t work very well for them.
After all, when a building is constructed poorly, do we blame the hammer?
Blogs, social networking platforms, websites, and other internet marketing devices are merely tools. Whether or not the internet becomes a viable business development medium for your law firm depends upon how you use these tools.
If you’ve concluded that the internet just doesn’t work for developing business for your law firm, despite limited exceptions, chances are that it’s not internet marketing, it’s you. Or at least how you, or your internet marketing people, are executing on your behalf.
Instead of blaming the internet, go read https://www.localviking.com/: focus on developing specific, measurable internet marketing goals. And I’m not talking about reaching 10,000 followers on twitter.
For law firms, internet marketing shouldn’t be thought of solely as a numbers game. Especially if the numbers that you are using limited to followers, likes, links, rankings, etc.
If you’re looking for internet marketing or online social metrics to measure, try these:
- Twitter – Instead of measuring followers, measure at replies and re-tweets. These are conversation metrics.
- Facebook – Instead of measuring likes for your facebook page, take a more comprehensive approach to Facebook Insights. Think about WHO and WHY, people are liking you and talking about you.
- Search Engine Optimization – Instead of obsessing about links and rankings, focus on the quality of traffic to your site and whether your visitors are engaging your site and practice (i.e. subscribing, commenting, emailing, downloading, and calling).
While many firms are still contemplating whether to “buy-into” the internet as a tool for business development, more and more are moving into the “make it work better” phase.
So, if internet marketing and marketers have failed you, remember, it’s probably not the internet’s fault. It’s how you’re executing your business development strategies online.