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Blog Marketing and SEO Strategy for Law Firms

Written on May 11, 2009 by Michael Martine

istock_000008823789xsmallInside Blawging Lawyers, we’re big on SEO (search engine optimization). We “bake it in” right from the very beginning in all of our lessons, so that our members learn it in a very non-technical fashion (because the best on-page SEO is simply the most relevant content presented correctly).

Since our last post — How Blogging Helps Solos Beat the Big Firms (and How Firms Make it So Easy) — was about solos, I thought I’d write something beneficial for firms this time. This isn’t a solos vs. firms thing, it’s just that firms need different strategies and tactics when it comes to marketing with blogs and in general online.

You’re Doing it Wrong

Having said that, most firms’ website are horrifying. Yes, they need to use different strategies and tactics, but by that of course I mean the right ones. Here are some mistakes many law firms make with their website:

  • It looks like it was made in the mid-90s and never changed
  • It’s filled with stuffy, pretentious legal-speak gobbledy-gook marketing lingo
  • Other than pronouncing how great the firm is, no other real information is provided
  • Each page in the site has the same title tag as all the other pages
  • Graphical links are used instead of text links
  • The content of the pages offers no compelling reason to justify retaining the firm
  • Other than the name of the firm may be a string of partner names, there is no indication that human beings work in the firm, who they are or their practice area

If all the other law firm sites were like this, too, nobody would notice. But more and more, blogs and social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are being used successfully to market law firms. These blogging law firms appear in search results when consumers research online to find an attorney (and make no mistake about it: that’s exactly what they’re doing–consumers turn to Google and the yellow pages are dead).

Law Firm Blog Marketing

A solo setting up a blog as the main site for a practice makes perfect sense, but how should a firm do it? Should there be one blog, or many? What domains should be used? There are many questions. Without giving away all the best stuff on the inside of Blawging Lawyers, here are some tips for firms that wish to redesign their marketing methods:

  • If a firm covers more than one area, each area should have its own blog and domain or subdomain of the firm’s domain. For example: criminaldefense.lawfirmname.com. Google loves subdomains.
  • For firms that cover multiple practice areas, the attorneys for these areas will blog for the practice area blogs (if a firm has several family law attorneys, they will all write on the family law blog, for example).
  • If a firm specializes in just one area, the blog should replace the previous site entirely, and each attorney will contribute articles to the blog
  • Multiple practice area firm blogs need to point back to the firm’s main site like spokes in a wheel point to the hub.
  • Clearly placed contact forms and information need to placed at the top of each blog (preferably top right).

As you can see, the biggest hurdle to get over is simply that it is the attorneys themselves who do the marketing (certainly ghostwriters may be used, but it’s preferable to be as “real” about this as possible).

Advantages

The advantages of the above tactics are:

  • SEO - If a firm can’t be found via search for keywords related to the firm’s practice areas (not the name of the firm, which nobody will search for) then it may as well not exist on the web. The tactics I’ve outlined above will greatly increase the chances that the firm’s online properties, both singly and collectively, will have higher search rankings. This starts a cascade of other benefits, such as…
  • Greater traffic to the site, which means higher conversion rates.
  • Far more convincing and persuasive marketing information, which will greatly increase conversions.
  • The firm will be more prepared to attract, hire, and retain the next generation of attorneys, who will be much more web-savvy.

On the Inside

The above is barely the roughest of overviews for this subject. We cover the details of strategy and implementation inside the members area of Blawging Lawyers. If you really want your firm’s marketing to succeed and thrive by taking advantage of change (instead of just merely suffering it), then we invite you to join us in Blawging Lawyers.

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How Blogging Helps Solos Beat the Big Firms (and How Firms Make it So Easy)

Written on March 30, 2009 by Michael Martine

istock_000007043112xsmallBlack Thursday

If you’re an attorney, you would have to be living under a rock if you hadn’t heard of Black Thursday, when many of the U.S.A.’s largest and most prestigious law firms went on a pink slip rampage. Nobody knows for sure how many bodies were thrown overboard, but estimates are anywhere from 800 to over 1,000 attorneys lost their positions.

What’s even more unsettling are the whispered rumors that this is just the beginning.

It’s not hyperbole to say we are living in extraordinary times.

I’m not saying any of this to scare you. Note the positive headline for this blog post. We feel that now is the time for unprecedented opportunity–for those brave enough to reach out and take it.

You know there are plenty of “solos” out there. Single attorney law practices have existed forever, but they were never able to really compete with the big firms.

Until now, that is.

Extraordinary Times, New Opportunities

There are two forces that work in favor of the solo practitioner, now: the rapid rise of technology and because of that, a sea-change in consumer behavior.

It used to be that a solo just couldn’t muster the kind of marketing money and muscle a big firm could. And that’s still true, in a sense. But what is also true is that it doesn’t matter, anymore, precisely because technology and consumer behavior are changing.

A solo does not beat the big firms by doing the same things they do. A solo beats them by doing things they could never do. Let me tell you a story as an example:

A woman (let’s call her Sarah) is beginning to think she needs to acquire the services of an estate planning and elder care attorney. Where do you think is the first place she is likely to begin her search?

If you guessed the internet, give yourself a gold star, you are correct. Sarah goes to Google and types some words into the search box. What words do you think she types in?

I’m not going to answer that here, but keep that thought in mind as we take a look at the strategies employed the Big Firm and the Solo.

The Big Firm

The Big Firm is as “old school” as it gets: posh offices, senior partners and partners up to the rafters, and a website that hasn’t changed in over five years. After all, to their thinking, what is a website but simply an online brochure? There is no need to change it: their services haven’t changed, nor has their phone number. If you could transform a stuffed shirt into a website, the Big Firm has managed to do so. The Big Firm can afford to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a month to pay a marketing firm to run a Google AdWords PPC campaign to keep that phone ringing.

Almost none of the people in the firm know what AdWords is. Every little technological advancement is fought tooth and nail, and most of the firm’s senior partners can barely use email. The younger attorneys have their Blackberries super-glued to their hands, and they seem “with it,” but beyond email and FindLaw, they’re nearly hopeless.

The Big Firm still spends a considerable sum of money every year on Yellow Pages advertising and print ads in the local paper (which is filing for bankruptcy).

The Solo

The Solo, on the other hand, (let’s call her Amanda) works out of her home office. Amanda’s website is a blog. Every other day or so, she writes a new article and posts it, adding to her already considerable archive of previous posts–all about the same topics: elder care law and estate planning.

Other law blogs and even regular news sites link to her blog, sending her traffic. Reporters call her and email her to get her opinion on a proposed change in nursing home regulations in the area. Other lawyers and even judges in the area read her blog.

Amanda gets an email from the contact form on her blog. Sarah has written to her, saying she did a search online and Amanda’s blog came up number one. Sarah tells Amanda she spent a lot of time reading Amanda’s posts and they have already helped her make some important decisions regarding her parents. Because of this, Sarah would like to set up an appointment to meet with Amanda to discuss the possibility of engaging her legal services.

The Solo’s Secret Weapon

When Amanda first set up her solo practice, she did all the things she thought she was supposed to do… and it nearly put her out of business. Her “brochureware” website brought in no clients. Nobody found her online when they did a Google search. Nobody looked at the Yellow Pages and saw her expensive ad.

Luckily, a friend of hers who was into “techie stuff” told her about blogs and how single-person and small businesses were using them to market themselves. Amanda looked into it and soon found Blawging Lawyers.

At first, she didn’t know a lot about blogging or how to market a law practice with one, but with the educational materials and support from the instructors and her fellow Blawging Lawyers members, Amanda got up to speed in only a few months.

Now, she’s even using social media networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, which she’s using to send potential clients who also use these services to her blog. Amanda can hardly believe it. The country is slipping into a recession, but she’s doing better than ever.

Meanwhile, the Big Firm is thinking another round of layoffs will be necessary. The senior partners are discussing it.

We invite you to learn more about Blawging Lawyers.

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Lawyer Attracts New Clients and Press Inquiries Immediately After Starting New Blog

Written on March 16, 2009 by Michael Martine

legal-marketingWe try to be cautious about over-promising. We don’t want to seem “hypey” or “salesy.”

But then something like this happens and what are we supposed to do? Pretend it didn’t happen? Play it down?

Heck, no! This is exactly what happens when you market your law practice the Blawging Lawyers way. You get clients. You get attention. Here is a quote from one of our members (some information omitted to protect privacy, emphasis mine).

Thought that I would share some good results that I am beginning to experience from my new bankruptcy blog. I started the blog several weeks ago and have been doing my best to implement the instructions and suggestions of Grant, Michael and the other members here at Blawging Lawyers.

So far this week, I have been contacted by 5 individuals who found me directly from the blog. And what’s even better, 2 of these individuals have become paying clients! I also received a call from a local TV reporter last week who read one of my blog posts on foreclosures and he came right out and interviewed me for that evening’s newscast. I received quite a few calls and emails from friends, family and business associates who saw the news story, so that was some great free PR.

I am very pleased with these results since my blog is so new and still very much a work in progress.

I think that when attorneys read what I say about how blogging is a potent marketing tool that practically lands clients right in their laps, they must think I’m exaggerating.

As you can see, I’m not.

Results like these (while not guaranteed) are not uncommon when legal marketing blogs are done the Blawging Lawyers way. We teach you how to plan, set up, and manage your online legal marketing for maximum effect. Our methods work.

If you’re interested in discovering how a blog can attract clients for you, sign up for your free Blawging Lawyers Report.

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How Blogging Gained One Attorney Never-ending Clients, Unexpected Media Attention, and the Respect of His Peers

Written on March 10, 2009 by Michael Martine

busyWe’ve been a little busy

Not even a month has gone by after we opened the doors, and new members are joining every week now that word has gotten out. Grant and I couldn’t be more pleased, but what’s even more important is that the members on the inside are thrilled.

Members are thrilled!

One surprise has been the number of attorneys joining who already have blogs and are already in fact doing well with them, pulling in clients left and right, like this person:

I’ve been out on my own for just over 5 months now and the blog has been an amazing tool for my solo practice. I’ve been able to achieve first page Google, Yahoo and MSN results for search terms that potential clients might actually use when looking for a criminal defense attorney. In Southern California, where you can’t swing a BMW key without hitting a lawyer, that’s not to shabby. I have to attribute it to the blogging. More importantly in these economic times, website traffic has translated into paying clients.

I’m really looking forward to the upcoming lessons & interactions in order to take things to the next level.

In order to protect the privacy of our members, we can’t tell you his name, but we were thrilled to read this in our member support forums (members get all the help they could ever want in the private forums). We knew attorneys who didn’t yet have blogs would join, but it makes sense that the ones who already blog would join in an effort to make a good thing even better.

You may still be skeptical…

But we know that a lot of you may still be skeptical about whether blogging can work for you. Perhaps Grant’s runaway success with his family law practice was a fluke. Perhaps the gentleman above in the quote is just “lucky.”

Perhaps… but we don’t think so. Successful blogs by lawyers are not a fluke. They are becoming more and more commonplace, which means that there isn’t a better time than right now to start yours (translation: it’s a first-mover’s advantage). That’s what we do here at Blawging Lawyers: teach attorneys how to make blogging work for them.

Here’s Proof Blogging Works for Law Practices

You can listen to Leanna Hamill’s story on the Blawging Lawyers home page, how she gets 50% of her clients from her blog. It’s a great interview if you haven’t yet heard it.

But…

Grant and I talked it over and we wanted to offer even more proof that blogging is killer marketing for law practices. We don’t have to worry about “giving the farm away” because there is a wealth of material inside Blawging Lawyers (and new material is produced every week).

We can freely share this with everyone as a demonstration of the power of blogging for a law practice.

What we have for you is an interview Grant conducted with D. Todd Smith.

Listen to how one attorney gained clients, unexpected media attention, and the respect of his peers

D. Todd Smith is an appellate specialist based in Austin, Texas.  He opened his practice in 2006 after spending nearly a decade with the international law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., where he was a member of the appellate and litigation practice groups.  Before joining Fulbright, Todd served a two-year clerkship with Texas Supreme Court Justice Raul A. Gonzalez (ret.).

Todd is a solo attorney who uses his blog as one of his main marketing tools.  Not only does Todd obtain actual clients from his blog, but you are also going to hear how his blog has gained him exposure with the media, attorneys and even Appellate Judges.

If the great benefits Todd talks about happened to him, they can happen to you too. Getting started on the road to blogging to market your practice can be tricky, and that’s why we created Blawging Lawyers: to help you begin, profit, and prosper.

What to do now

Convinced that learning how to blog to market your practice is the smart move? You’re invited to enroll now and join your fellow attorneys on the inside of the Blawging Lawyers membership area:

Enroll Now in Blawging Lawyers

Still not quite convinced? That’s okay, we understand. You should check out our free Blawging Lawyers Report by opting in on the home page. Simply enter your information into the form and get your free report (your address is safe with us).

Get Your Free Report

Listen to Grant's interview with D. Todd Smith

Or right click and 'Save File As...' to play in your own music player.

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Blawging Lawyers is LIVE!

Written on February 16, 2009 by Blawging Lawyers

It is 8:30 Eastern time and the doors are open to Blawging Lawyers.  Please visit our Register Now page to sign up today.

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Blawging Lawyers Sneak Peek: Orientation

Written on February 15, 2009 by Michael Martine

You’re About to Get a Glimpse…

We’ve copied the orientation all new Blawging Lawyers members get once they’re inside, and we’re posting it here on the blog so you can see for yourself what members will have access to.

Blawging Lawyers Orientation

womenshakehandCongratulations on your choice to embark on a new journey into law practice marketing with us. We’re very happy you’ve chosen to come with us. We have a lot of great material in store for you that will help you market your law practice effectively through blogging and beyond.

Overview of Blawging Lawyers Features

Blawging Lawyers has several major features that combine to provide a total 360-degree education in law practice blog and internet marketing:

  • Written course texts in both Web page and downloadable “print-and-carry” PDF formats.
  • Audio “teleclasses” which overlap the other materials, but which are not duplicates of them and have their own unique content.
  • WordPress Walk-through videos that show you step-by-step how to use your blogging software.
  • Audio Interviews with Professionals you can listen to or download as downloadable PDF-format transcripts.
  • Recordings of all previous live teleseminars available for you to listen to whenever you like.
  • A Recommended Resources Area where you’ll find links to the best resources we know of to accelerate your learning curve with blog marketing and make setting up your blog easier.
  • Community forums where you can interact with other Blawging Lawyers members and ask questions of Michael, Grant, and each other.
  • Live teleseminars three times over the 6 months, in which you can ask questions of Grant, Michael, and the experts brought in to lend their expertise to a subject.

All-told, you’re looking at a rich vein of blog marketing gold. There are still plenty of good blogs on the web with plenty to offer about blogging and internet marketing, but most of them aren’t focused exclusively on law practices. Everything you need to become a law practice marketing wizard is here, under one virtual classroom roof, in Blawging Lawyers.

Overview of Course Content

Blawging Lawyers course content is divided into several broad categories, each containing a series of individual lessons or topics. There are many lessons within Blawging Lawyers, and more are created on a frequent basis. The major categories are as follows:

  • Blog Marketing and Internet Marketing Lessons
  • Interviews with Professionals
  • WordPress Walk-through Videos
  • Blog Case Study Videos
  • Live Q&A Session Audios
  • Recommended Resources

The Lesson Plan

Setting a dateBlawging Lawyers features content that is released “automagically” according to a scheduled lesson plan, just like a “real” curriculum in a “real” school.

Each member of Blawging Lawyers receives the content according to the lesson plan. As each new member joins, the timetable begins for that person, and new content is made available according to the lesson plan as it progresses from their start date.

The timing of the Lesson Plan is to release the next lesson (and sometimes more than one topic) once per week. Once per week might be too quickly for some, but once a lesson is available to you, it’s always available. You could go on vacation for a couple weeks and just catch up when you come back refreshed.

Blog Marketing Lessons

Most of the course content is focused on this area, naturally. Below is a complete list of these lessons:

  1. Why A Blog for a Law Practice?
  2. Aligning Your Blog to Your Practice Area
  3. Getting Set Up and Running 1 – Hiring Help
  4. Getting Set Up and Running 2 – Do it Yourself
  5. How to Use a Feed Reader and the Benefits of RSS
  6. How to Get Noticed 1 – Promoting Your Blog Before Launch
  7. How to Get Noticed 2 – Promoting Your Blog After Launch
  8. How to Get Search Traffic
  9. What to blog about
  10. How to save yourself from writers block
  11. Using an editorial calendar and organizing to blog
  12. Turn Visitors into Readers
  13. Turn Blog Readers into Clients
  14. Reading the Numbers: Visitor Statistics
  15. The Social Media Connection – An Overview
  16. Twitter for Lawyers
  17. LinkedIn for Lawyers and Practices
  18. Facebook for Lawyers
  19. Ethics of blogging for lawyers and firm policies
  20. Using a blog and a website together or separate?
  21. Networking online and offline to promote your blog
  22. Email Marketing Basics 1 – Use the Power of Permission to Grow Your Profits
  23. Copywriting Basics – The Importance and Power of Words
  24. Linkbaiting for Lawyers – What it is and How to Do It
  25. Using Video Effectively on Your Law Blog
  26. Promoting Your Blog Locally
  27. What to Do when You Run for Office

WordPress Tutorials

These are provided starting after the Getting Set Up and Running 2 – Do it Yourself lesson.

  1. Getting Around in WordPress
  2. How to Write a Blog Post in WordPress
  3. How to Manage Comments in WordPress
  4. Creating Core Content Before Launch
  5. Working with Widgets in WordPress
  6. Working with Themes in WordPress
  7. Working with Plugins in WordPress
  8. Getting and Using Great Pictures for Blog Posts
  9. Creating and Managing a Blogroll

Internet Marketing for Law Practices

Once you graduate beyond having all the clients you can handle, you can use Internet marketing to take advantage of your position to create passive online income streams. These will begin to appear in your Content area (Lesson Plan) after the Copywriting Basics – The Importance and Power of Words lesson.

  1. Email Marketing Basics 2 – Use the Power of Permission to Grow Your Profits
  2. What a Landing Page is and When to Use One
  3. Advertising Online 1 – The Basics
  4. Advertising Online 2 – Pay Per Click Campaigns with Google AdWords
  5. Create and Market Information Products to Attract More Clients and Generate Supplemental Profits

Quick Links

Blawging Lawyers News

The News page is where you’ll find members-only announcements not found on the blog. Look here for news regarding technical or content updates and changes which you need to know, but which are not intended for the public.

Blog Case Study Videos

From time to time, we’ll be doing blog case study videos, where, using screencasting (video of what’s on a computer screen) we’ll perform a critique of a member’s blog. Blog case study videos are immensely helpful, not only to the attorneys whose blogs we study, but for everyone who watches. Each one will have valuable take-aways you can apply to your own blog.

Success Interviews

One of the keys to your success in “blawging” is doing what others have done successfully. In other words, you need great examples to work from. We have them aplenty. A small overall number of attorneys are blogging, and out of that small number, a smaller number yet are successful enough to serve as examples to everyone else. These Success Interviews are made available here as a collection you can listen to whenever you want, as often as you like.

Live Q&A Session Audios

Three times over the 6 months, we’re going to conduct live question-and-answer seminars where you can ask any question and get no-holds-barred answers from us and our experts. These will be made available to any member who wants to listen in on these session later.

Recommended Resources

You will find a listing of resources external to Blawging Lawyers which we recommend to you. The Recommended Resources lists includes any of the following:

  • Other law practice marketing blogs and sites.
  • Relevant books on law practice marketing (some of these are authored by experts we’re interviewing).
  • Blogging sites and books.
  • Internet marketing sites and books.
  • And more.

Thanks for Reading Through the Blawging Lawyers Orientation

As you can see, there’s a lot of content in Blawging Lawyers. But you don’t have to worry about trying to absorb everything as fast as possible, because the Lesson Plan automagically presents the lessons in a time-release fashion. You’re in for a great ride! Successfully marketing your practice through blogging could be the breakthrough for you that it has been for us and our experts.

Live the Dream - Gain Steady Clients through Blogging (Learn How)

We hope you’re impressed by what you’ll find inside of Blawging Lawyers. More important, though, is what it will accomplish for you. Attorneys who use the information we provide inside the walls of Blawging Lawyers will have a much better chance of thriving in the near future (yes, even in this economy). Why do we say this? Because some of the successful blogging lawyers you’ll be hearing from inside the members area have already been clients. They’ve already used this information to get results and their practices are vibrant proof of that.

You can join them. You can know what they know, do what they do, and live the dream you want your practice to give you.

What You Can Do Now

  • Sign Up to get your Free Blawging Lawyers Report for an overview of today’s law practice marketing landscape–and discover why now is the best time ever to start or get serious about a blog for your practice.
  • Tell your colleagues and associates about Blawging Lawyers by copying and pasting the following into an email: http://www.blawginglawyers.com and sending it.
  • Ask questions below in the comments or use our handy contact form.
  • Print this and keep it around as a road map to the course for when you enroll. Make sure you write a note to yourself at the top: OPENS ON MONDAY MORNING, 8:30.

PS - Yes, enrollment opens Monday morning at 8:30 AM Eastern. As we mentioned yesterday, there are only 250 spots available, so be up and ready!

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Blawging Lawyers Opens Monday, Feb 16th, 8:30 am Eastern

Written on February 14, 2009 by Michael Martine

blawginglawyers.jpgYes, the wait is nearly over! We’re opening the doors to enrollment on Monday morning at 8:30 AM Eastern time (7:30 AM Central, 6:30 Mountain, and 5:30 Pacific).

Grant and I have been working feverishly behind the scenes on content, editing audio, and creating screencasts. We can’t wait to let you in so you can see it and start your “blawging” education. We can’t wait to see you in the community support forums so we can say hello and answer questions for you. And we really can’t wait to see you gaining clients and growing your practice because of what you learn in Blawging Lawyers.

250 is the Magic Number

But there’s one thing you need to know. We’re not sure how many members we’ll be able to support effectively. When you have a question in the forums, you want it answered within a day, not within a month. And we want to make sure the server can handle the load we’re going to put on it, especially since there’s video and audio files to stream and download.

So, even though we’d love to have Blawging Lawyers be available to every attorney who wants to join… we just aren’t willing to sacrifice the overall experience of the group to do that. We’ve decided to limit the number of members to 250.

We’ll make sure we can handle that many members before we open the doors again to enrollments. If it turns out that we think we can take on a few more, we will open the doors again, and if you’re on the email list (did you get your Blawging Lawyers Report? then you’re on it) you will be notified in advance.

Next Semester

If you don’t make it into Blawging Lawyers this time around, there might be openings in six months. That is how long the Blawging Lawyers program lasts. We say there might be openings because we’ll always be adding great new content and people may not be willing to let go of the camaraderie they’ve developed in the forums.

So it’s possible people may not want to leave! They may want to renew their memberships even when the six months is over. Now, in our dreams, every member will renew, :) but we’re sure there will be at least a few slots available in six months. But in all seriousness, we don’t know how many.

Are You Ready?

Are you ready? Grant and I are just dying to throw the switch right now, but of course there are always last minute detials to attend. You’ll just have to wait until Monday! If you have questions or just want to share your enthusiasm about Blawging Lawyers opening its doors, please leave a comment!

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Welcome to Blawging Lawyers

Written on February 6, 2009 by Grant Griffiths

Michael and I are excited to welcome you to the official blog for Blawging Lawyers. From time to time we will be posting updates to Blawging Lawyers here.  We also will use the blog as the vehicle to get you all of the great content, videos, audios and other membership material as it becomes available.

In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to use the contact form located on the Contact Page if you would like to reach us for any reason.  Or you can leave your comments in the comment section.

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