Upcoming Wyoming Bar Association CLE's: September 9th, 2015 (Jackson Hole Wyoming)

Please join us for the upcoming CLE's hosted by the Wyoming Bar Association.

Faculty Speaker: Dustin Ruge

CLE Credits: 4 (total)

Times:

Social Media for Attorneys

9:45 AM - 10:45 AM (1 Credit)

Time for a Makeover? Attorney Brand Management
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (1 Credit)

Attorney Marketing on the Internet
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (1 Credit)

LinkedIn Networking for Attorneys
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM (1 Credit)


Location: Snow King Hotel

400 East Snow King Avenue
Jackson, WY 83001

To Register: https://www.wyomingbar.org/for-lawyers/events/programs/?event=15#

#cle  #lawyermarketing #wybar 

Is your website costing you business?

Attorneys often ask how consumers view them, how they search for them online, and how they can best position themselves for maximum consumer exposure and results.

But what about other attorneys?

Many attorneys I have worked with over the years claim to get some of their best clients and cases from other attorneys. Moreover, some of the best attorney referral sources are from other attorneys.

So what are attorneys doing to better market and position themselves to other attorneys and more importantly, what are other attorneys looking for in other attorneys and why? A recent in-house counsel report helps to shed light on this issue and how you as an attorney can take advantage of it.

Click Here To Read More...

#lawyermarketing  #referral  #attorney  #lawyer  #website  #conversions

Is Your Law Firm Ready for April 21?

April 21, 2015 could be a defining moment for your law firm. Why? Because Google is planning on telling the whole world (through their own search results) whether or not your online marketing in
mobile ready or not.

On average 30% of people (and growing) will access an attorney website each day through mobile devices. Moreover, attorneys who advertise to the Hispanic community could take an even bigger hit. On April 21st Google has announced that this can all change...especially for those who are not prepared and for those who are fortune enough to benefit from it.

Are you ready?

Click Here To Read More...


#lawyermarketing #attorney #lawyer #mobile #seo

Is The Internet Really Dying? Many Say Yes

Yesterday we heard some pearls of wisdom out of Davos from the Chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt

who proclaimed that “…the internet will disappear.” To many of us who work in the industry of internet marketing, this should come as no surprise…but to most it still is.

In November of 2014, an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled “The Web Is Dying; Apps Are Killing It” was published after many prognostications dating back a number of years now that mobile is transforming the internet landscape. Additionally, many industry experts now predict that the number of people accessing websites in 2015 from mobile devices will exceed those who access them by PC. Why is this important? Because most websites in use today were not designed for mobile access.

But then again, neither was the web.

Many product innovators talk about the point of inflection in which products and industries hit their peak growth and then decline. So has the web and the internet as we know it today hit the point of inflection? More importantly, what forms of information and access will now replace it?

Here is what I do know: the growth of the internet without the simultaneous growth in access points (personal PC’s) was not possible. The growth of personal computing enabled the internet to grow and flourish but the sales of personal computers is now in decline - being replaced by mobile devices. Anybody who has ever tried to access and use the internet on a mobile device which is a mere fraction of the size of a 1024 X 768 resolution computer screen knows the limitations this now presents. Additionally, mobile now enables and utilizes something else a PC could never do: your location at any one time. This is what has help lead to alternative search applications we now refer to as “Apps.”

How have Apps changed the game? We know from the aforementioned Wall Street Journal article that 85% of smart phone users spend their smart phone time on Apps while only 14% of their time is spent on the web. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to visit any school, restaurant and bar to notice how pervasive the amount of time people now spend on smart phones truly is.

So here is the million dollar question: what will replace the internet? 

First off, nobody knows the answer to this question and if they think they do, well, they don’t. We may not be able to predict the future but we can look at trends and see the following:

• Apps are beginning of the next evolution of virtual productivity. As I have previously written, Apps are revolutionary in how they enable and improve processes in our everyday lives and the impacts are pervasive. Uber for example, which was in large part enabled by the Uber App is now helping to transform the nightlife and revitalization of downtown LA.

• The days of the website are dying along with the web. Will websites every completely go away? Not likely. But what will change is how websites are used and their overall importance in internet marketing. Far too many brand plays are now being made into the web for people to only trust one source of information – namely your own website. Decisions made online are increasingly non-linear and involve multiple information points and citations. Moreover, smart phone access is leading to increasing levels of alternative search vehicles and away from major search engines which were the mainstay of websites. 

 

• Google’s biggest threat is mobile – which is likely why they are trying to roll-out high-speed fiber networks and now mobile wireless services to their customers. Google understands what ultimately enabled the web (and their initial meteoric growth) and how losing that enablement threatens all of the advertising revenue they receive from businesses who advertise on their sustained search volume that the web provides.

• Your brand is no longer your website alone that you control but increasingly every web property that gives visibility to your brand that you largely do not. People now trust third party sources and reviews about you – even from nameless, faceless people on the web. This is what helped enable companies like Amazon.com to sell books and YELP to sell advertising. Search and trust on the web is no longer linear but involves multiple decision points all of which increasingly lead to action or inaction. How much inaction? Recent studies have shown that 45% of consumers have found something online that caused them NOT to do business with someone and most of this came from third-party brand sources.

In conclusion, yes, the web and the internet as we know it is indeed going through a major innovation transformation led largely by the change in access enablement from the personal PC to smart phones. Some will call this the death of the web or the disappearance of the internet – all of which makes for great headlines. What they don’t tell you is how quickly this death is coming and what it will be replaced with but we do know this for certain: it is coming and faster than anybody thought…

#lawyermarketing  #apps  #mobile  #branding  #internet  #web

Creating Attorney Videos That Convert

One of the best ways that attorneys can compete and win online is by focusing on conversion. Despite all the focus on rank and search engine traffic, the vast majority of attorneys still get the bulk of their business from referrals. Since referrals tend to be given out in number (ie here are 2-3 attorneys you can contact), it is important to know how you stack up against your referral competition and how best to convert those referrals to clients.

VIDEOS HELP YOU OUTPERFORM YOUR REFERRAL COMPETITORS

The majority of referrals are looking up attorneys online BEFORE and after they meet you. If you don’t believe this is happening, you are living under a rock. I see this behavior growing in my work and hear examples of this daily now from other attorneys. The fact of the matter is that people are making judgments about attorneys based on what they are “seeing” and reading online. They are creating an impression of your brand long before you even have a chance to sell your brand to them in person or over the phone.

Beyond having a highly professional website (for both PC and Mobile), which every attorney should have by now, attorneys now need to focus on conversions and the most effective conversion tool online today is video. Conversion is nothing more than the art of turning people into clients / cases. Since most attorneys already have a website, additional factors now come into play such as “what kind” of website are they seeing and “how are you different?” This is where video can give you the upper hand.

WHY VIDEO IS SO IMPORTANT FOR ATTORNEYS

Most people truly know little / nothing about the legal profession. So when it is time for them to deal with a legal issue, most people do not know who to go to and often rely on others to help them with that decision. Most matters requiring legal representation are also emotionally charged (good or bad) and people are making buying decisions about attorneys based on the same mindset. When people look at attorney websites today, most have a lot of text – thanks to Google. The problem is that most people don’t not want to read a website alone when making an emotional buying decision – they need something more. They need to better understand the attorney, see if they can connect, speak competently about their issue and if they can trust you. All of this can be better conveyed by video than by written text. We know this to be true. Video producer Animoto recently found in their own studies that video helps persuade 73% of people to purchase a product or service.

HOW VIDEO CAN SET YOU APART

I commonly tell attorneys to write down the names of your most common referral competitors. Next, do a Google search for each of them by name and firm name. Do you see any search results that include videos? Guess where people’s eyes (and clicks) go when videos are displayed in search results? Look at each attorney’s website; which ones have video and which ones do not? If referral competitors have video and you do not, you have a conversion problem. If nobody has video, you have an opportunity to better compete and win. It is always better to be a leader over a lemming and video allows you to do just that.

WHAT KIND OF VIDEOS DO I NEED?

The most effective videos deal with brand (you), your firm and your practice areas. The benefit of the web is you can create as many videos as you want – the challenge is to understand “why.” If you receive the majority of your business by referral, then people want to know more about you (the brand). In these instances, you should always have a profile video of yourself. If referrals are commonly sent to “your firm” and/or your firm is well known by name, you need a video about your firm. Finally, if you have focused / unique practice areas, you should create videos speaking to each practice area (or your most important) and list them on the respective practice area pages.

HOW LONG SHOULD MY VIDEOS BE?

A recent study released by socialbakers found that typically the shorter the video the better. In their studies of videos on Facebook, they found that a typical video is around 44 seconds long and only 57% of videos were watched in their entirety. This video “completion rate” finding helps to address a question I receive all the time from attorneys; how long should my videos be?

In the study, videos with the highest completion rate ran around 21 seconds on length while those with the poorest completion rate ran around 2.5 minutes

. The happy medium tends to be around the 1 minute (60 second) mark – which is where most attorney videos should not exceed.

In summary, most videos perform the best when they do not exceed 30-60 seconds. If properly edited and produced, you will be surprised just how much you can produce in such limited time. More importantly, this allows you to create multiple videos that can each be independently optimized and positioned relative to their topics.

HOW DO VIDEOS SHOW UP IN SEARCH RESULTS?

Beyond placing videos on your website, you can also post them on popular video sites as well such as YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Most social media orientated sites (facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) are increasingly added video capabilities and you should take full advantage of them. The first place to start is to create a new channel for your firm on Youtube. As you can see from this video, this will only take a few minutes to complete and allows you to easily upload, optimize, manage and track the performance of your videos on YouTube. Since YouTube videos are most commonly displayed in Google search results (hint: Google also owns YouTube), this is the most important place to start. For each video, make sure to include a title, description and links that are relevant and optimized for each video. Other authority building SEO tactics also apply to improve the search results and visibility of your videos in Google.

IN SUMMARY

Videos are one of the most effective ways to convert new clients and referrals online. Created targeted videos depending on your brand and needs and keep them to 30-60 seconds in length. Once created, make sure to distribute them outside of your website and optimize them for maximum search engine results. 

#lawyermarketing  #attorney  #lawyer  #video

Is Gmail Bad For The Practice Of Law?

When I speak to bar associations across the nation, one of the first questions I ask the audience when it comes to client communications is if they use Gmail for your client communications. Invariably, a number of hands go up. At that point, I always ask them if they have read the Gmail’s privacy policy and if they know that Google is scanning their emails?

Why Is All Of This Important For Attorneys?

Attorneys, like many other people find the free Gmail email service to be effective, easy to use and highly portable (you can access and use it anywhere). The fact that over 425 million people now use Gmail speaks to its success.  When Gmail was released back in 2004, it was a break-through technology by providing users with an email account that had literally limitless storage capacities – providing a unique value to users that they could have a huge archive of emails they would never have to delete. The benefit to Google by having all of this m

ass storage of emails was they would now scan the content of those emails to provide relevant advertising for each Gmail user – based on the content of each individual’s emails.

Why Your Gmail Communications Should Not Be Considered Private

With the scanning of email content for advertising, Google opened up a Pandora ’s Box of potential privacy problems. Arguments emerged that if Google could use such data to create increased advertising intelligence for Google, then what else could this data be used for and why? What if governments would subpoena your communications and courts would issue search warrants for your data and communications housed with Google? Think it couldn’t happen? Google has a whole section on their website and even has instructional videos on YouTube about how Google responds to search warrants. For those who still think using Gmail for client communications insures attorney-client privilege, I would highly suggest watching this video and reading Google’s privacy policy before coming to that conclusion.

Google Proactively Alerting Government Agencies

A recent article published in the UK telegraph brought new light to a technology now utilized by Google to scan for illegal images in Gmail accounts. The intent of the case cited in the article was to allow Google to better identify pedophiles by matching “hashed” (or known) images on Google that are also collected by child protection agencies and then notifying these agencies when a potential image match is made. In the case cited in the article, once the image match was recently made in Texas, child protection experts were notified by Google and a warrant was issued to gain access to the user’s information (Gmail) at Google. While most would argue that steps taken to better manage pedophile activities on Google are admirable, it leads to new more ominous questions and concerns about what else such technologies and activities could also be used for. More importantly, where will Google draw the line in the future when potentially illegal content is communicated and when authorities should be proactively notified by Google as to the results?

The Bottom Line & Alternatives

The bottom line for attorneys using Gmail for client communications is that legal protections for information saved and stored on your own computers is far different then information stored in other places – namely on Google’s Gmail servers. As we continue to see by the actions of Google in their improved scanning of your Gmail communications and now taking proactive steps to help “alert” government agencies of potentially unlawful content, one has to wonder just where privacy and confidentiality of communications is protected with Google. For attorneys, this should be particularly concerning but there are alternatives.

It is hard to argue that cloud based email such as Gmail is not useful but just as an attorney would not cross ethical boundaries with other forms of client information, equal care should be provided to their email communications as well. It is very easy for even the average internet user to go to website service providers such as GoDaddy.com and easily register a new URL and setup new email accounts for that website address at a nominal cost. Most even provide web-based email access similar to how you access your Gmail today allowing you to have the same web-based access you currently enjoy – just at a different location. 

In the end, your emails can be more secure and you will look more professional if your email address ends in your company’s website address instead of @gmail.com. Think about it: what crosses your client’s minds when they still see attorneys with an @aol.com email address? Well, similar perceptions may exist for your Gmail address as well…along with other potential confidentiality problems to boot. So make the change.

#lawyermarketing  #attorney  #lawyer 

72% OF CONSUMERS RETAIN THE FIRST ATTORNEY THEY CONTACT

There is a good deal of discussion these days about client/case conversion but what attorneys often fail to realize is something that the insurance companies learned a long time ago: most people buy from the first responder. Geico, who has literally spent billions of dollars on their brand name alone, found in their own studies that most people will only get one insurance quote and then buy from that firm. When it comes to attorneys, people’s buying habits are no different.

In FindLaw’s recently released 2014 consumer legal needs survey they found that fully 72% of respondents indicated that they only contacted one attorney before selecting them. The remaining 15% contacted two attorneys and 13% three attorneys. In short, nearly ¾ of consumers do not continue to shop around after initially contacting an attorney.

SO WHAT CAN ATTORNEYS LEARN FROM THIS?

We know from previous studies that people will on average look at 4.8 attorney websites before they contact a firm – so they ARE shopping around. The issue here is that the shopping process for attorneys ends 72% of the time after the initial contact is made.

So what can be done to help improve this process BEFORE the initial contact is made…

IMPROVE YOUR BRAND & REPUTATION ONLINE

Online consumer opinions were the backbone to building such websites as Amazon.com, ebay, Yelp and others. Why? Because 79% of consumers now indicate that they trust online opinions about you. This is important for attorneys because many page-one search results for attorneys and/or law firms include consumer opinion sites like Yelp, AVVO, Google local and others. So have you created a strategy to manage your brand reputation online? Remember: if you do not proactively define your brand, others will define it for you. Since most referrals are given out in numbers, write down the names of your top 3-5 referrals competitors. Next, Google their names and firm names and look at the results – compare them to yours. Finally, look at their websites and also compare them to yours. If you were an objective consumer who has never used an attorney before, which search results impress you the most? If it is not you, you have work to do here.

IMPROVE YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE

Is your online presence an accurate reflection of what you want people to think of your firm (your brand)? As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Most attorneys today already have a website so the question is moving beyond “IF” you need a website to now “HOW” you need a website. Most of your new and referral clients are looking at your website and formulating an opinion about you BEFORE they ever contact you. They are also increasing looking beyond your website alone to look for more information about you from other resources.  In a growing number of instances, we are seeing these “delayed conversions” in excess of 60% of the time.

INCREASE YOUR VISIBILITY

Most attorneys limit their brand and online presence to a website alone and in most cases; their websites fail to provide high visibility in Google for anything beyond their own names. As we have previously discussed, a website is like a book and in order for search engines like Google to be able to properly index and display your website for desired searches, you have to structure the website optimally to do so.  Additionally, your brand footprint should extend well beyond just your website alone so you can create additional citations to support your brand. People who don’t know you won’t always trust what you tell them on your website alone – they want citations to support it. These can come from videos, rating & accreditation websites, news, social media and others. Want a great example of how this can look? Try this one:  https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=tom+girardi

INCREASE YOUR QUALITY OF YOUR CONTACTS

We know from the same FindLaw survey that 74% of contacts attorneys receive are by phone while only 7% are by email and 2% by online contact form.  We also know from other surveys that 80% of callers will hang-up when they get a voicemail. I am still amazed at how many times I will call a law firm on hours and off hours and receive a voicemail or no answer within 5-7 rings. If a caller receives and voicemail and/or if they hear 5-7 rings or more, you are sending them a message (intentional or not) that your contact is not of high importance to them.  If you do not have a live body answering the phone quickly 24/7 you are losing client and cases – period!

In summary, people shop around for attorneys but 72% of the shopping stops at the first attorney they contact. Since the majority of the decisions the consumers and referrals make about you comes from their research online BEFORE they contact you, you need to be smart, proactive and competitive in your evaluations of how you can become the first attorney they chose to contact. You also need to make sure that they way the majority of them prefer to contact you (PHONE) leads to a conversion and not a hang-up. 

#lawyermarketing  #attorneymarketing #sales #business #law #attorney  #lawyer #sales manager