In the old days we were as visible as our wallets allowed. Enough money bought you enough advertising exposure. How times have changed – or have they?
In the old days, your wallet dictated your marketing success in many respects. Your ability to throw up a double-truck Yellow Pages ad was limited only by your bank balance, and the ad reps were happy to accommodate your request so long as it was made before the printing deadline.
Television and radio, too, were governed by the Law Of The Fat Wallet. Fatter was better, in spite of the old saying that you can never be too thin. Even the greenest newbie law school graduate could shell out some cash and be running ads on the nightly news right out of the fate.
That’s precisely why so many lawyers serving consumers – divorce, bankruptcy, and personal injury attorneys – could make a dent in the market fast. Money talked, and it talked loudly.
But then technology came along and changed the rules of the game. Law firm internet marketing was unlike our offline techniques. Whether we liked it or not.
In 1993 a bunch of grubby kids flipped the switch on the first commercial Internet browser and everyone went off their rockers. Consumers started asking their computer screen questions. And they began to get answers.
In the beginning, the answers weren’t so terrific. But then, like echos across a canyon, the answers that began to come back were in the same voice as those originating them. Other people were doing their own legwork and helping people just like them to get through their issues.
Some of these answers were well-researched and complete, others less so. Though this would have been the death knell offline, this was different – it was a culture of people who were looking to help one another. When one person got half the answer correct, someone else leapt in and finished it up.
It was community-generated law firm internet marketing … except, there wasn’t any lawyer involved in the process. You thought Wikipedia was the start of it? Look at the old bulletin board systems that predate Wikipedia by a decade or more and you’ll see it, evolving like a species.
There was a lot of chatter online, but the lawyers didn’t hear it because we weren’t there.
Hundreds, then thousands, and then millions of web pages sprung up over the first decade of the Internet’s popularity. Consumer sites, forum areas, and general community places were born and thrived. We began to rely upon the words of total anonymous strangers for our information, especially for embarrassing things like bankruptcy, divorce and that troublesome DUI arrest.
Lawyers were online, but not in their official capacity. They did not have law firm internet marketing on their minds, they were passers-by like anyone else. They asked questions about the best television to buy, the right brand of tires for the car, and (in some cases) about the source of that strange itch.
The party was over long before we got there.
The Yellow Pages and the big offline “legal advertising” companies woke up one morning and figured that their business models were dying fast. So they did what they knew how to do – they sold advertising. Directories, template-driven websites with stilted language, and banner ads were the order of the day.
And for awhile, it was good for their business. But nobody came to the party they were throwing – consumers were off asking questions and getting answers. By now, they were reliable and credible responses.
We relied on the same old ad reps for their guidance, and didn’t realize that they weren’t using the new tools. Instead, they were taking the same old tools and just putting them onto computer screens.
Flashy Yellow Pages ads with generic stock photos gave way to flashy template-driven websites with generic stock photos.
Slick brochures gave way to brochure sites.
The megaphone of “spend enough money to blanket the airwaves” became de riguer for law firm internet marketing.
The platforms evolved, but we didn’t.
So we became invisible as far as the web searching public was concerned. We got conned into a website that looks like everyone else’s or, even worse, doesn’t exist at all.
Our sites contain the same dry, boring language.
Our names are our headlines.
But without a clear-cut law firm internet marketing plan we are invisible. We do not address the wants of our prospective clients, those who would ordinarily look to us for help.
Simply put, we do not exist. As an industry, as a profession. Law firm internet marketing must evolve in order to provide better answers, better guidance, and better resources for the consumer.
Don’t believe me? Go to Google and type in “divorce information.” Or “bankruptcy information.” Or whatever the heck you do for a living. How many results do you find? Are you the top result? Top 5? Top 10? Not even on the page?
If you do not answer the questions then your law firm internet marketing renders you invisible. But have no fear, there’s some help around the bend. Stick around.
