To Satisfy New Search Algorithms, Legal Websites Need Quality Content

The success of a law-firm website is determined by how many clients and potential clients visit the site, spend time there and take action based on what they discover.

Over the years, law-firm marketers focused on keyword and link strategies to enhance search engine results and increase traffic to their websites.  While these are still valuable tools, recent developments in the search universe have shifted the emphasis to content strategy.

Quality content includes well-written articles, blog posts, videos, webcasts, presentation slide decks, infographics, eBooks and white papers.  Quality content addresses client needs.

Sixty-seven percent of the time, online searchers use Google to find what they are looking for.  To provide the best results, Google is constantly tweaking its search algorithm. (An algorithm is a process or set of rules to be used by a computer in calculations or other problem-solving operations.)  These algorithms are designed to maintain search engine integrity and punish violators.

Sara Downey Robinson and Chris Davis discussed the changing landscape of digital marketing and search engine optimization at the monthly meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association, held May 13 at Guard and Grace in LoDo Denver.

Davis is business development director at Burns Marketing, a full-service B2B marketing agency that combines traditional and digital marketing to help clients drive demand.   Robinson is marketing coordinator at Inflow, a top inbound-marketing firm specializing in search.

Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird

Panda and Penguin are two major changes to the existing Google algorithm made in 2011 and 2012, respectively.   In 2013, Google released a totally new algorithm called Hummingbird (which incorporates and enhances the updates made by Panda and Penguin).  These three developments have completely changed the way law firms must look at search.

“Law-firm sites that regularly showed up on page one now find themselves on page 20,” said Robinson.  “Since searchers rarely go beyond the second page of results in an online search, this is a real problem.”

Google Panda focuses on keywords.  Sites with keyword “stuffing” are demoted or flagged as spam.  Panda also penalizes low-quality content, thin content, duplicate content and the amount of advertising compared with the amount of useful content on a site.

Google Penguin focuses on links.  It focuses on “black hat” tactics like links that come from poor-quality sites, from sites that aren’t topically relevant to a target market, paid links, and links where the anchor text is overly optimized (exact-match anchor text).  Use natural language in your links, and vary it.

“Quality inbound links are not found at garage sales, “said Robinson.  “Steer clear of link farms.  A few high-quality, carefully developed links perform much better than a large number of weak, irrelevant links.  It takes time and perhaps a dedicated staff person to develop and nurture quality links.”

The new Google Hummingbird algorithm looks for a steady stream of high-quality, relevant content and natural language on webpages – and rewards those who provide it.  Hummingbird attempts to decipher a search engine query by using the context of a question rather than the specific keywords within the question.  Thin content, keyword stuffing and lack of relevant content will cause significant demotions.

“Content marketing is a technique that creates and distributes valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience,” said  Davis, “with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Identify client personas and clarify their needs

Before a law firm can create relevant content, it needs to know with whom it is communicating.  In marketing talk, this is called the “user persona” – or target market.

“In user-centered design and marketing, personas are user types that might use a legal service in a similar way,” said Davis.  “A small law firm might target one user persona.  A large law firm will target numerous user personas.”

One law-firm user persona might be high-income individuals going through divorce.  Another might be small businesses in need of venture capital.  Another might be large medical equipment manufacturers facing product liability lawsuits.  The more specific the persona, the more specific a law firm’s content can be.  Relevant content will answer the questions these users are asking, using natural language.

A user personal is a representation of the goals and behavior of a hypothesized group of users.  In most cases, personas are synthesized from data collected from user interviews.

“An effective law firm website will focus not on the firm’s capabilities, but on the identified needs of a persona or personas,” said Davis.  “It will use industry- or interest-specific terminology within a context familiar to the targeted persona.”

Create relevant content

Law firms that want to prevent or correct loss of search engine result page rankings and traffic should publish meaningful, original content on a regular basis.  The goal is content that will establish a firm, practice group or lawyer as a though leader in an area relevant to a user persona.

“Take the time to discover the common questions your clients have, and provide the answers to these questions,” said Davis.  “Relevant content can be written, but it also can and should be visual.  Video content posted on YouTube (which is owned by Google) is particularly powerful as ‘Google juice.’”

Instead of using keywords like “car accident,” use more specific terms like “car accident lawsuit” or “car accident insurance”, or better yet natural language terms like “What should I do if I am sued for a DUI car accident?” or “What should I look for when buying car insurance for an older vehicle?”  Think in terms of full-fledged questions that a person might ask Siri on a smartphone.

Once search brings users to a law firm’s site, there must be a way to create and nurture a relationship and convert the potential client into a real client over time.  Each item of posted content should contain a call to action – some way for the user to interact with the site so that the firm can capture data.  This could be a way to comment on a white paper or download information about an upcoming event.

Use analytics to measure success

“Take advantage of Google Analytics to collect data that can be used to improve the quality of your webpages – adding more of what works and eliminating what does not,” said Robinson.  “In Google Analytics, which is currently free, law firms can set up specific goals to study how users are entering and interacting with your website.”

Google Analytics lets a law firm know which content is most-viewed and acted upon, so that similar content can be added.  It lets the firm know which content is ignored, so that it can be eliminated or improves.  It lets a firm know the exact path users take through its site, so that adjustments can be made to create a better user experience.

If observation and analytics show that a law firm website is not getting the results it wants, an audit can help determine the source of the problem, take steps to fix the problem, measure the results of these steps, and look for any others areas that could be improved.

“Increasing inbound traffic to your website is not magic – it is a combination of art and science,” said Robinson.  “You should select any agency that makes you feel comfortable and uses language that is easy to understand.  You should never feel intimidated.

“At the same time, do not expect miracles,” said Robinson.  “Go into the process with reasonable expectations.   It takes time to make changes, add quality content and wait for the search engines to find and reward this content.  Each day, more than one million pieces of new content are posted to the Internet.  It takes time to rise above the fray.”

A law firm that has experienced worsening search engine results in the wake of Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird can take positive steps to restore performance.   Google will continue to reward webpages with strong content marketing efforts, including answer-driven content.  It also rewards sites that generate social media buzz – especially an active presence on its proprietary YouTube and Google+ platforms.

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One week until the LMA P3 Conference, June 12-13 in Chicago

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the LMA P3 Conference to be held in Chicago June 12-13, 2014.

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When

Thursday – Friday, June 12-13, 2014

Where

Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile
633 N. Saint Clair St.
Chicago, IL 60611

Dig deeper into project management, pricing and process improvement.

The 2013 LMA P3 Conference set the bar high with fantastic breakout sessions, partner presentations and networking opportunities, but this year’s conference looks even more promising.

Join us for P3 – The Practice Innovation Conference, where pricing, project management, and practice innovation experts will discuss the use of various tactics to explore solutions to real issues face by law firms today.

This execution-focused conference will have attendees roll up their sleeves and collectively work out solutions. Click here to view the full conference schedule.

There is still time to register! Register now!

2 more weeks until LMA P3 – Practice Innovation Conference, June 12-13, Chicago, IL

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the LMA P3 Conference to be held in Chicago June 12-13, 2014.

LMA_P3_WB250x250_Frame2

 

When

Thursday – Friday, June 12-13, 2014

Where

Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile
633 N. Saint Clair St.
Chicago, IL 60611

Dig deeper into project management, pricing and process improvement.

The 2013 LMA P3 Conference set the bar high with fantastic breakout sessions, partner presentations and networking opportunities, but this year’s conference looks even more promising.

Join us for P3 – The Practice Innovation Conference, where pricing, project management, and practice innovation experts will discuss the use of various tactics to explore solutions to real issues face by law firms today.

This execution-focused conference will have attendees roll up their sleeves and collectively work out solutions. Click here to view the full conference schedule.

There is still time to register! Register now!

LMA P3 Conference – The Practice Innovation Conference, June 12-13, Chicago, IL

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the LMA P3 Conference to be held in Chicago June 12-13, 2014.

LMA_P3_WB250x250_Frame2

 

When

Thursday – Friday, June 12-13, 2014

Where

Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile
633 N. Saint Clair St.
Chicago, IL 60611

Dig deeper into project management, pricing and process improvement.

The 2013 LMA P3 Conference set the bar high with fantastic breakout sessions, partner presentations and networking opportunities, but this year’s conference looks even more promising.

Join us for P3 – The Practice Innovation Conference, where pricing, project management, and practice innovation experts will discuss the use of various tactics to explore solutions to real issues face by law firms today.

This execution-focused conference will have attendees roll up their sleeves and collectively work out solutions. Click here to view the full conference schedule.

There is still time to register! Register now!

Innovate, Embrace Change, Don't Fear Failure: Takeaways from LMA (Legal Marketing Association) Annual Conference

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One message rang true at this year’s LMA Annual Conference: innovation and change are requirements for success. Change may be scary but innovative firms stand out from the rest. At times they may fail, but these failures serve to make firms stronger, not weaker.

Build Unusual Partnerships

Look at Cinnabon’s President Kat Cole, who gave the keynote address this year.  When market share started to dip for Cinnabon, she boldly partnered with Pinnacle Vodka, and with competitors like Pillsbury and, Dunkin’ Donuts. These unusual collaborations helped to dramatically grow revenue to over one billion dollars annually for the company. She not only had to take a risk but she also had to convince management to do the same if they were to expand the brand and business. Yet, for her, being innovative was a necessity, not an option. If she didn’t do it, someone else would have. She credits her success to understanding how the business got started and what sets it apart from competitors. This formed the basis for her collaborative partnerships which proved hugely successful.

Work with Multiple Generations

Change has also come to impact law firms simply by the fact that multiple generations are now present in the market. The most senior partners are not retiring. A generational rift exists both within law firms and between law firms and their target clients. While the senior and boomer generations still hold the majority of power within the firms, clients and prospects are frequently fitting into the Generation X demographic. The different generations have completely separate expectations, motivations and desires, some of which are diametrically opposed. Understanding those generational differences and reshaping our internal cultures and power dynamics will be a key to retaining talent and attracting new business.

Help Grow Your Clients Business

Providing excellent legal work is a given. But clients expect their lawyers to understand their business, to help them mitigate their business risks, and to come up with ideas to help them generate revenue. Clients expect to see their attorneys at the same industry conferences they attend – speaking, networking and making recommendations.

The General Counsel panelists reported they have to do more with less money and time. One way lawyers can help is to personally forward client alerts and draw the GC’s attention to a specific section (e.g., see “bullet point 3”) — instead of making them read through the entire article. The GC panelists also agreed that the articles talking about the law itself are not helpful; talk about how the law affects the client or prospect’s business. Co-authoring articles with clients was another suggestion – it makes them look good and brings the relationship closer as well.

Innovate

The pre-conference CMO Summit focused on innovation, i.e., new products and services. Jordan Furlong of Edge International and Law21.ca led an interactive discussion on using research and development to establish a competitive edge in the legal industry. What are some of the new products and services, or yet-to-be-developed possibilities that lawyers could offer? A variety of apps and toolkits, a virtual general counsel set-up or client hot-line, a mobile or shared workforce to reduce overhead, and more…the key being to identify the needs of industries and clients, and respond to those needs innovatively.

Many other topics were covered at the conference but the overarching theme is that those who innovate and embrace change will be the ones to find the most success. Step out on a ledge and don’t be afraid to fail – you will find greater success and learn more than those who just watch from the window!

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How LinkedIn Publishing Could Kill The Law Blog

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For one brief, bright, shining moment in the history of mass human communication, everyone had the ability to talk to everyone else and no corporate gatekeeper was not in control. In that moment — after the mass media no longer decided whose message would get through and before the social networks truly took over — you could hear and choose to listen to anyone who had something real to say.

It might be time to say goodbye to all that. But that goodbye comes in the form of a great opportunity for you to distribute your legal content to a huge business audience. LinkedIn has become a content aggregator, one that boasts the power of 275 million business people. LinkedIn is a social network where two-thirds of corporate general counsel go to gather business information on an at least weekly basis. Publishing a very timely and relevant piece of legal content on LinkedIn’s publishing platform can get you more qualified business eyeballs than you dreamed possible, and more comments than you’ve ever seen on your blog in a month of Sundays.

With the entrance of LinkedIn to the content aggregation world, your blog might start to look like a ghost town. Publishing that blog post on LinkedIn generates views, shares and likes that have the power to outstrip what your blog delivers. This is where the people are, and they no longer have to click through on a shortened link – the article is right there on LinkedIn for them to review.  If your goal is to have your content read by relevant audiences (and it has to be), then you must master publishing on LinkedIn, National Law Review, JDSupra, and possibly Mondaq and Lexology. And by doing so, you might kill your own blog. Its either that or let that your content die of loneliness.

This trend has more implications than I can explore in a single blog post, the most important of which are:

  1. What does this mean for your Google juice? Blog posts done right mean that you are providing an answer to the most pressing questions your potential clients are asking of search engines. Now, will the answer to those pressing questions lead those potential clients to your articles on LinkedIn rather than to your blog?
  2. If your article, published on LinkedIn, shows up in Google or Bing search results, will potential clients find the information they need to choose you as a lawyer on LinkedIn? Will your LinkedIn profile be what it should be? How’s your LinkedIn company page? Because those two things just got a lot more important!

I loved it when a law blog was a destination, but I’m a modern girl, and I think this is the next wave. What was originally called blogging has recently been re-named content creation because it is about the writing, not about publishing it to your blog. So I suggest you get onto the content aggregators and join me in a lament for the brief moment that was all about blawgs. We loved them, but it’s time to expand our thinking.

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Chasing Leads – You’re doing it all wrong.

1.  Don’t be cheap on lead acquisition.

I’m constantly amazed at how cheap many lawyers want to be on getting someone to identify themselves as in need of legal services and then closing the deal. Folks, we are in a high transaction business! Your emailed newsletter (alone) will never cut it. We must be arranging our businesses to outspend our competition on the generation of a new lead. It won’t happen overnight, but this has to be your mindset.

My view is that in order to do this, you must be very efficient in your marketing. Being “efficient” does not mean being cheap. It means being “smart.” When you sit down to create an ad, ask yourself: What exactly are we trying to accomplish? Before that ad is let loose, there are usually about 7–12 different steps/other pieces that must be created in order to make the ad work. This will usually involve at least one (and sometimes two) videos, with well-thought-out scripts, one or more physical marketing pieces that must be designed, and a funnel with follow up specific and appropriate to that ad created. Going through this process is the only way to achieve the goal of “spending more than your competition is willing to spend to acquire a good lead for your office.”

2.  You need real clarity and comfort with whatever it is you are selling.

You can’t really have any “moral ambiguity” about the fact that you are a lawyer and you are selling.  Everything I do is marketing and selling. Every conversation with a client, every conversation with a judge or opposing counsel is a marketing opportunity. (Tip: after every trial, I send my opposing counsel one of my books, congratulating them on a job well done for their client. Not necessarily a marketing book—sometimes it’s a business book, sometimes it’s “The Ultimate Success Secret.”) If you follow most of the lawyer listserves that don’t have anything to do with marketing, you will see a trend “against” the marketers. It’s just so easy to jump on that bandwagon. I see it all the time, lawyers who don’t have a clue about the quality of another lawyer’s legal work slamming them in a listserve because of the ads they run.

Here’s what to think about if they are the least bit squeamish about marketing and selling: I have two questions for you.

  • Is there a potential new client out there for whom you would be the perfect lawyer?
  • Someone with a problem that you would, in fact, be the best lawyer for and with whom you can make money? (If you can’t answer Yes to that question, then you really need to be looking for another line of work.)
  • Assuming that the answer to the above is yes, why in the world would you leave it up to that person to choose the lawyer to solve his problem by random chance?
  • It’s your moral obligation to get yourself in front of that client, just as it is your moral obligation to reject and send elsewhere that client you have no business representing.
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Study Shows Smaller Law Firms Value Big Picture Approach to Marketing

Marketing has become a critical function of all law firms, big and small.  Large law firms (over 200 attorneys) tend to have vast resources that can be devoted to all marketing aspects, while small to midsize firms (40-200 attorneys) must be more creative in the ways that they utilize their marketing resources, in order to maximize the benefits of their efforts.  J. Johnson Executive Search, Inc., commissioned a study, conducted by ALM Legal Intelligence, in order to examine the marketing trends of those small and midsized firms and show how marketing departments’ efforts help their firms gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

A group of 90 legal marketing professionals were surveyed via web between November 18, 2013 and December 18, 2013. Professionals from small law firms (40-75 attorneys) made up 42% of the 90, while the other 58% was comprised of professionals from midsize law firms (76 or more attorneys).  Part one of this two-part article will discuss how small to midsized firms are valuing marketing departments and dedicating their resources to marketing efforts in a concentrated and consistent manner. Part two will discuss the shift in the way that small and midsized firms conduct their marketing activities in order to remain competitive in our current economy; the results showing that smaller law firms do have a big picture approach to marketing.

Dedicated Marketing Functions Have Become the Norm

Ninety-percent of the firms surveyed had at least one dedicated staff member responsible for their marketing efforts, such as business development, practice development, marketing, communications, and public relations activities.  Smaller firms have naturally lower budgets and resources, but according to the study, are on target to mirror larger firm marketing structures.

The ideal is to have one marketing professional for every ten attorneys at the firm.  Eighty-one percent of the small firms surveyed had 1-4 dedicated marketing professionals, 48% of midsized firms have 1-4 people, and 47% of midsized firms had five or more marketing professionals on staff.  In this delicate economic climate, more firms are focusing on the importance of having a marketing initiative, simply because previously used methods no longer suffice.

Additionally, the overall firm resources devoted to marketing have grown to reflect the increasing importance of marketing roles in the law firm.  Forty-four percent of the firms surveyed had increased their marketing budget from 2012 to 2013.

From “Nice to Have” to “Must Have” Team Members

Traditionally, attorneys were responsible for their own rainmaking activities and the development of a dedicated marketing department may have been seen as threatening to the process and responsibilities of attorneys. Now more than ever, firm management has requested that attorneys spend more time on client development efforts, which can conflict with an attorney’s need/want to bill time.  This is where having a marketing team can be crucial for their attorneys.

Two-thirds of respondents in the study confirmed that the marketing department is an important factor in winning the firm business.  For smaller firms, marketing is an evenmore critical factor in the win by greater than a 3-to-1 margin.  Gone are the days where corporate counsel will hire a firm simply from how they rank in publications.  Winning business is predicated on building relationships.

For example, the marketing team at Porter Hedges, a smaller firm out of Houston, Texas, helped coordinate a marketing plan that gets the managing partner out in front of the clients and introduces the clients to the attorneys in the trenches.  Their marketing department was able to coordinate and execute a program where clients were able to feel valued. The marketing group is also responsible for organizing client events, so that their firm has a presence among potential clients. On the whole, Porter Hedges is distinguishable from their competitors because of the emphasis they make on client connection.  Developing these relationships would have been more difficult to coordinate without a dedicated marketing team.

Justification for Marketing Efforts

The firms surveyed have seen their marketing efforts pay off in several ways.  In total, 82% of respondents saw a growth in their law firm and 79% saw client retention as a direct consequence of marketing efforts.  There are also several other areas of success, such as an increased image or awareness of the firm in the marketplace (80% of respondents experienced this), and an increase in the firm’s competitive advantage over their competitors (64%).

This study shows that the perceived (and actual) importance of marketing departments has steadily risen over the years. Smaller and midsized firms are recognizing the value of marketing departments and investing in them because of the increased need to remain competitive with their larger brethren.

Stay tuned for part two, where I will discuss exactly what small and midsized firms have been focusing their marketing efforts on and how effective they have been.

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New ALM Report Says Small Firms Investing in Big Marketing

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A new report from ALM Legal Intelligence entitled, Small Firms, Big Marketing reveals that small and mid-sized law firms (40-200 attorneys) have upped their investments in marketing because of a belief that effective marketing is mandatory for a firm to succeed.

ALM Legal Marketing

The survey was commissioned by J. Johnson Executive Search, Inc., and relies on data collected from 90 small and midsized firms in the U.S – 42% of responses were from firms with 40-75 attorneys and 58% were from firms of more than 76 attorneys.

Some key findings from the survey:

  • 90% of responding firms said they had a dedicated marketing team in place
  • 75% said marketing was critical to winning new business
  • 54% use marketing for research and client feedback
  • Marketing is key not only for obtaining new clients but also for retaining existing clients
  • 75% of firm management says marketing is a critical piece in winning new business
  • Spending on outsourced marketing functions increased 44% in 2013 and is expected to rise in 2014

Firms justify their investment in marketing in the following ways:

ALM Reporting Marketing

The firms surveyed found these 10 marketing tactics to be the most effective for their firms:

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The full report is available free for download here.

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The Rainmaker Institute

The Best ACC (Association of Corporate Counsel) American Conference Giveaways. Part One

I like to wander Exhibit Halls to see what grabs my attention, and evaluate the law firms’ booths and tchotchkes. Below is a collection of some of my favorite giveaways.  Most were the typical low-end crap — cheap logo’d pens, hard candy, miscellaneous squishy or light-up doo-dads.  But some of the freebies were more creatively branded or executed.  I’ll write 2-3 posts summarizing those that caught my attention.

Part One, below, is dedicated to geographically focused messages, implicitly “If you need a firm in [location] remember [our firm].”  A simple, straightforward marketing theme. 

I attend so many conferences every year that I rarely shlep home the swag.  But for ACC’s particularly target-rich environment of clients and prospects, the law firms went the extra mile to capture the clients’ attention.  I actually squeezed a number of them into Bird & Bird’s handy, environmentally friendly cloth bag.

 Swag bag

Initially, some of the hottest items were Meritas’s simple but clever luggage tags:

  

Meritas is an international law firm network, so a travel theme made sense.  Some tags were pre-printed, others were written by Tanna Moore, Kim Heinrich and the Meritas gang, e.g. “Hands off or I’ll call my lawyer.”   Frankly, I was slightly concerned that the tags’ sayings might be perceived as too cute, but the incredibly high demand for them proved me wrong.  You could see attendees surreptitiously walking past the booth many times over two days, seeking to complete their collection.  We were able to swap these coveted tags for other booths’ giveaways. I have a few tags on my roller bag and they actually generate a lot of conversation.

Most booths are happy to pass out their promotional items. That’s the point, after all — get your logo’d materials in the hands of targeted attendees.  And most don’t want to drag all the leftover goodies back home anyway.  But some supremely confident firms make you really work for them.

The best example of this was Blakes’ coveted Canadian wool hats.  With new designs every year, some in-house counsel said that they look forward to collecting them each year.   Great quality, useful, impossible to discard, and well-branded both with the firm name and implicit connection to their Canada brand, it’s effective marketing from every angle.  Even better, CMO Alison Jeffrey wouldn’t give them up easily, greatly increasing the demand.  My family and I have been sharing them throughout this miserable 2014 Chicago winter.

    

Another firm, Stikeman Elliott also played up their Canadian connection with an adorable, plush beaver wearing a red logo’d t-shirt.  The children of many ACC members are playing with these.

     Canada

Migrating south to Louisiana, I also liked the Kean Miller’s Cajun cooking collection.   They offered Cajun spices, étouffée mix, a cookbook of KM employees’ favorite recipes, and a wooden spoon/spatula that my wife is currently using.  Of course, you can’t go wrong with Mardi Gras beads.  Every item is useful, branded, and memorably connected to their Baton Rouge/NOLA locations.  BTW, I’ve already used up the delicious private-labeled KM hot sauce, Steve Boutwell.  Just sayin’….

      Cooking set

 

Even farther south, all the way to Brazil, Demarest Advogados leveraged Brazil’s “beach” connection with a high-quality folding mat, complete with inflatable pillow.  These were also very popular, with passersby trying to sneak two or more as they strolled passed the booth.

       swag bag

In short – an effective, well-considered collection.

More examples, from high-tech videos to low-tech oven mitts, will be shown Part Two.

 

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