New Opportunities in Online B2B Marketing

by Ken on February 1, 2010

If your law practice is commercial litigation or management side employment law or some other type of law where your ideal client is another business, then you already know that your best referral source is other attorneys.

This is because most people would rather get a personal referral to an attorney from a friend, relative or colleague, rather than search blindly for representation online. When the person who needs an attorney is a business owner, chances are that he or she is already connected in some way to the legal community and has someone to ask for a personal referral.
Consequently, networking with opinion leaders and other lawyers in your community will always be critically important for the B2B law practitioner.
However, there are affordable online marketing opportunities that can be effective in getting your message in front of prospective clients.
LinkedIn
The business networking site, LinkedIn recently started allowing people to advertise to other LinkedIn members on a pay-per-click model. Like Google advertising, you write ads that you would like to be displayed on LinkedIn pages and you pay LinkedIn a small amount of money when someone clicks on one of your ads.
Your ads are linked to specific pages on your website that can be, and should be, custom tailored to the type of person you are targeting on LinkedIn.
Unlike Google advertising, your ads are not associated to search phrases, triggered when someone types something into a search box. Instead, you place your ads according to certain criteria about the person you want to reach, for example, geographic, industry type and job title.
Managed Placements in Google
Google’s “Content Network” refers to the thousands of websites Worldwide that Google partners with to deliver ads that pertain to the content of the websites’ pages. For example, if you scroll to the bottom of the homepage of the New York Times (http://nytimes.com), you will see a gray box with the words “Ads by Google.” Google places the ads there with the permission of the website owner and shares the click revenue with the website owner.
Normally, Google decides where an advertiser’s ads will display based on the content of the pages across the Content Network, but a variation of the Content Network, known as “Managed Placements” allows you to pick the sites where your ads are displayed.
This can be very useful for the B2B law practitioner who wants to reach a specific demographic. Placing ads on websites like the NY Times or financial or business news websites frequented by business owners is a chance to raise awareness in the local business community about your firm’s services.
Microsoft AdCenter Content Advertising
Microsoft AdCenter offers a product similar to Google’s Content Network known as “Content Advertising” which can get your ads inexpensively on business news websites like the Wall Street Journal (http://wsj.com) and financial news websites like Barron’s (http://barrons.com)

If your law practice is commercial litigation or management side employment law or some other type of law where your ideal client is another business, then you already know that your best referral source is other attorneys.

This is because most people would rather get a personal referral to an attorney from a friend, relative or colleague, rather than search blindly for representation online. When the person who needs an attorney is a business owner, chances are that he or she is already connected in some way to the legal community and has someone to ask for a personal referral.

Consequently, networking with opinion leaders and other lawyers in your community will always be critically important for the B2B law practitioner.

However, there are affordable online marketing opportunities that can be effective in getting your message in front of prospective clients.

LinkedIn

The business networking site, LinkedIn recently started allowing people to advertise to other LinkedIn members on a pay-per-click model. Like Google advertising, you write ads that you would like to be displayed on LinkedIn pages and you pay LinkedIn a small amount of money when someone clicks on one of your ads.

Your ads are linked to specific pages on your website that can be, and should be, custom tailored to the type of person you are targeting on LinkedIn.

Unlike Google advertising, your ads are not associated to search phrases, triggered when someone types something into a search box. Instead, you place your ads according to certain criteria about the person you want to reach, for example, geographic, industry type and job title. Click here to read more about LinkedIn advertising.

Managed Placements in Google

Google’s “Content Network” refers to the thousands of websites Worldwide that Google partners with to deliver ads that pertain to the content of the websites’ pages. For example, if you scroll to the bottom of the homepage of the New York Times, you will see a gray box with the words “Ads by Google.” Google places the ads there with the permission of the website owner and shares the click revenue with the website owner.

Normally, Google decides where an advertiser’s ads will display based on the content of the pages across the Content Network, but a variation of the Content Network, known as “Managed Placements” allows you to pick the sites where your ads are displayed.

This can be very useful for the B2B law practitioner who wants to reach a specific demographic. Placing ads on websites like the NY Times or financial or business news websites frequented by business owners is a chance to raise awareness in the local business community about your firm’s services.

Microsoft AdCenter Content Advertising

Microsoft AdCenter offers a product similar to Google’s Content Network known as “Content Advertising” which can get your ads inexpensively on business news websites like the Wall Street Journal and financial news websites like Barron’s.

Is Twitter Right for Your Law Practice?

by Ken on November 3, 2009

Over the last several months, Twitter has become the most talked about
and fastest growing social media site in the United States. A free,
web-based service, Twitter allows anyone to join and start “Tweeting”
micro-blogs posts of 140 characters or less.

Many of our clients have asked us recently if Twitter is a good idea
for attorneys, and if so, how they might go about participating.

Our answer is always, it depends.

There is no inherent harm in and of itself in participating on
Twitter. It can be a great place to network with colleagues (and
therefore generate referrals back and forth) or to be seen as a
thought leader in your legal niche.

As a direct source of clients? Maybe. But there are several caveats to
keep in mind.

First, if you are responding to a direct question, there is always a
danger that your answer could be perceived as legal advice. Since your
feed can be seen by all of your followers, it is possible that you

could expose yourself to a malpractice claim if someone relies on your
Tweets to their detriment.

It has been suggested by others that it would be worthwhile to
periodically post to your feed a disclaimer that you are only
providing legal information, not giving advice, and that a lawyer
should be consulted if someone has a legal issue.

Second, when inviting followers to make contact with your law office,
you want to be sure that you don’t run afoul of ethics guidelines
pertaining to solicitation of legal business. Since every
communication with prospects in your feed will be written, public and
discoverable, the State Bar may have transcripts to use against you
should they decide that you’ve crossed a line.

Finally, although Twitter is at heart a very casual way of
communicating with large groups of people, you want to ensure that the
tone and subject matter of your Tweets won’t cause any harm to how
potential clients or colleagues might perceive you. Tweets that are
spammy-sounding, unprofessional or boring are all big turn offs. You
should also be willing to participate in the give and take of the
Twittersphere by following others and commenting on their Tweets.
With all that said, if Twitter sounds like something you would enjoy
doing and might benefit from without taking away from other activities
that are more effective in generating new business, then yes, it might
be a good idea for you.

On the other hand, don’t feel obliged to
jumped on the Twitter bandwagon — a tremendous number of people don’t
participate on Twitter and have no intention of ever doing so.

What is Your Analytics Software Telling You About Your Web Site Visitors?

January 12, 2009

If you have a Web site for your law firm, it is very important that you have analytics software installed and that you pay attention to what it is telling you. With the right reports, you can make informed changes to your site, ensuring the best user experience for visitors to your site, and maximizing […]

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Recent Google Changes Give Attorney Advertisers More Targeted Opportunities

December 18, 2008

The year 2008 has been a year of frequent and significant changes in Google advertising. Not every change introduced this year was a success and we saw Google phase out a few things that we liked, but several innovations directly and positively effect attorneys who are advertising in Google. Everyone currently advertising in Google, and […]

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Search Engine Advertising: Taking the Plunge

August 13, 2008

In our last post, we presented reasons one through five of why search engine advertising is a great, cost-effective way to get more clients.
Now it’s time for part two: Reasons six through ten.

You pay only when someone clicks on your ad. It doesn’t matter how many “impressions” there are (that is, how many times your ad is […]

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Marketing Your Practice Through Google

July 19, 2008

Five tips on the benefits of search engine advertising
Are you thinking about marketing your law practice in a search engine like Google, but aren’t sure you should take the plunge?
Here’s part one of a two-part series about why search engine advertising is a great way to get more clients:

React immediately to events in the news, changes in the […]

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Dealing with Tire Kickers

June 1, 2008

Turning a consultation into a client
There’s a lot of discussion in legal blogs and forums about “tire kickers” - a term used to connote prospective clients who go to a consultation with an attorney but fail to hire the attorney for any legal services. It’s frustrating to meet with prospective clients, not get paid for your […]

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Turning Your Web Site Visitors Into Clients

May 21, 2008

As an attorney, you know that referrals from other attorneys or satisfied clients are one of the best sources of new clients for your law practice, not the least because the referring party has already said good things about you and the work you do. Most of your clients probably come to your practice in […]

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Dividing Your Diverse Practice Areas into Separate Web Sites

April 18, 2008

If you practice two or more widely divergent areas of law, such as a law practice consisting of criminal law and estate planning, you may want to think about the benefits of marketing the two or more distinct practice areas in separate, stand alone Web sites. This article discusses the pros and cons of doing this.
Advantages
One […]

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Reach the Spanish-Speaking Population Using Google AdWords

March 21, 2008

If you or someone in your law office speaks Spanish, you probably already serve a number of clients who need to, or prefer to, communicate with you in Spanish. Through your involvement in these cases, you’re probably aware that the growing Spanish-speaking community can be a valuable source of clients for your law practice.
According to the […]

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