As detail oriented as most personal injury attorneys can be, and as focused on the big picture and the end game, as they have to be, it seems out of character that some of the smaller, but crucial details go unnoticed when it comes to marketing their law firms on the web.

One of the more important examples of this paradox is the selection of a domain name (URL) for their law firms.  While it makes great sense to build and market the reputation and name of your firm in your community as a general business practice, it may not be the best alternative for selecting a URL for web marketing.  We recommend registering and using a more practice and location focused URL for the web, and if necessary, a second URL that includes your firm name for your business cards and collateral.

Selecting a URL requires an understanding of the way in which potential clients search the Internet for attorneys and other services.  First of all, most searchers do not perform a global search for a service that they need locally.  What that means to your firm, is that a potential client living within a reasonable radius of your city or town will not just type in attorney when they search.  Many individuals searching for a lawyer will type in the city or town where they live followed by the word lawyer.  Many are unaware that a personal injury attorney may actually come to them, but all want the personal service and local familiarity provided by someone located reasonably close by.

In addition, as prospects become more and more savvy, they search for more specific types of attorneys, such as car accident attorney or personal injury attorney.  The more you can make your website search engine friendly, the better the chances are that new prospects will find you.  By including a key word that represents a practice area you want to market specifically in your URL selection, you can help the search engines help you.

In summary, by choosing a URL that includes a practice area of focus and your physical locale, you can improve your chances of being found on the web dramatically.  For example, YourCityCarAccidentAttorneys.com will provide greater opportunities than YourNameandPartner.com.

For more information contact Law Firm Marketing Company Cepac.com - Legal Website Design Specialist. 

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Kevin Quinlan, legal marketing guru offers tips on why ongoing search engine optimization should be part of any marketing program for legal websites and how improved page rank in Google are at stake

In the beginning when law firm marketers first started making inroads into the Internet, there was a belief that legal websites were essentially an online brochure for potential clients to glean info about the law firm and its members in a non-threatening atmosphere. In a perfect world the next step would be to start search engine optimization (SEO) by adding targeted keywords to the content and attract inbound links, which would magically appear, and the page ranking for those targeted terms would rise and stay high on page one of Google.

But this is not a perfect world and just adding keyword rich content and creating links is not enough for your firm to improve or retain your page ranking or to prevent other law firms from climbing their way to the top of page one. Search engine optimization must be an ongoing long-term effort, a marathon, not a sprint. Expert legal SEO shops can increase conversions, save money over a pay-per-click campaign and help your firm branch out into the social aspects of Internet marketing, which are now an important part of the equation.

There are significant advantages to partnering with and retaining an attorney SEO firm to provide ongoing technical and creative input for your firm's Internet marketing program.

Here are three reasons why:

1)  Attorneys tend to practice law, not SEO
Even though a content management system and blog may be included as part of a website design, members of the law firm often don't find the time to create regular postings and generate fresh content, and tend to underutilize the tools that they have paid for. Additionally, even when the time is allocated, many attorneys who write exceptionally well, tend to write their articles as they would briefs and also neglect to include key words and phrases. Having a law firm SEO team means that keyword research is always current and their writers are crafting articles that make a difference.

2)  Search engine algorithms are always in flux
As evidenced by the release of Bing, the implementation of Google Universal and now the impending launch of Google Caffeine, the search engines are constantly changing and updating their algorithms. Legal SEO experts stay on top of the ever-changing search environment and can ensure that your efforts remain on track.

3)  Attorneys are not experts in the use of Google analytics
How can a law firm expect to get the maximum bang for their buck in their web-marketing efforts when they lack the knowledge necessary to analyze where their leads are coming from, what key words are the most effective and whether or not their website is providing the best return on their investment.

Law firms that partner with legal SEO experts and invest in their efforts over the long haul will maintain or improve their current rankings and stay ahead of their competition in lead generation, branding and maintaining their top-of-mind awareness on the web.

For more information on search engine optimization programs for law firms or attorney website design, contact Kevin Quinlan.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Kevin Quinlan President of Cepac lawyer marketing offers insight on how law firms can increase their website conversion rate and maximize lead generation by including web videos in their lawyer marketing and search engine optimization programs.

The online marketing environment has evolved at a remarkable pace over the last few years, yet many attorneys who have made the commitment to market their law firms on the Internet are still unaware of the power of online videos to promote their firms. According to research by a leading lawyer marketing company, consumers visit nearly 5 websites prior to deciding to select a law firm. When video is added to the mix the average number of sites visited drops to just under two.

Now that Google and the other search engines include video in their search results, it's even more important than ever to utilize this tool as part of your search engine optimization arsenal. Because the various state Bar associations often restrict marketing messages and the fact that many attorneys credentials "sound alike" to the average consumer, web video can be the way to clearly differentiate you and your law firm from your competitors. Web video empowers attorneys to convey their marketing message and establish a connection with visitors to their website or YouTube, wherever the video is posted. That connection can make the difference between a visitor and a prospect, as viewers develop a comfort level with the confidence, intellect and personality of the featured attorney.

The key to success in developing an online video marketing program is to align your law firm with legal marketing experts who can both produce high production value web videos that portray your firm it its best light and can also optimize the videos so that they have the best chance for high ranking on Google and the other search engines. When your law firm preemptively answers that potential clients might pose and creates a bond through video communication, your conversion rate and lead generation increase exponentially.

For more information on web videos for law firms, search engine optimization or attorney website design, contact Kevin Quinlan

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Kevin Quinlan, President of Cepac lawyer marketing reports on the addition of court opinions and case law to the Google Scholar search engine and the impact on lexis nexis, westlaw and law firms across the country.

On November 16th in what was a somewhat shocking revelation, Google announced that their Google Scholar search engine would now provide free access to legal case law online. Google Scholar is a simple, easy to use, multi-disciplinary search engine that finds articles, theses, books abstracts and now court opinions across the Internet. It allows scholarly research in a diverse array of fields and locates the complete documents from libraries, publishers, universities and other websites.

There is a great buzz on legal blogs and across the Internet as prior to this development proprietary companies that have counted on case law as a revenue stream for many years have held these legal abstracts and opinions closely. The work product of judges and attorneys operating in our court system is a matter of public record, but until now was only available online from companies such as Lexis Nexis and Thompson Reuters (Westlaw) for a fee.

While many law firms around the US will likely maintain their subscriptions to these services, Google has stated in their blog "this addition to Google Scholar will empower the average citizen by helping everyone learn more about the laws that govern us all". The service provides links to cases that have been influenced by the different decisions so that the historical context of important cases can be studied. The search results pages have "Cited by and Related articles" links under each search result to help facilitate further study.

Both Lexis and Westlaw offer products that are specially designed for attorneys and law firms. and although expensive. will not become obsolete by this new offering. Both are putting a positive spin on the development indicating that they have no problem with government created content being available for free, but that their clients require much more than the raw content that will be found on Google Scholar searches. While it may not be a replacement now, it certainly might be a good starting point for research and who knows what additional functionality that Google may offer down the road to potentially make it more of a head-to-head competitor. For now it may just offer a cost effective way to keep the expense of prelininary research done for potential clients to a minimum in this challenging economy.

For  information on law firm marketing, legal web design and SEO for attorneys, contact Kevin Quinlan.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Kevin Quinlan, president of legal marketing firm Cepac, reports why legal marketers should know about new Nielsen research that shows why a consistent message using a diverse media mix is still important for law firm marketing.

Many legal marketers are familiar with the concept of media mix for attorney advertising, yet some don't grasp the impact that an integrated marketing campaign can have on their potential clients. Prospects are highly mobile, whether they require legal services now or in the future, and are exposed to innumerable marketing messages throughout their day.

To illustrate the point, here is a hypothetical day-in-the-life of a consumer. After getting up in the morning, your potential client either watches the early news on TV or reads a newspaper, while having his first cup of coffee of the day, and is exposed to a variety of ads right away. As he drives to work, perhaps listening to the radio, passing billboards on the highway and shelter advertising on the local streets, many more marketing messages are front and center. While in the office, browsing the web and checking emails, he sees pay-per-click and banner ads for a variety of products and services. At home again in the evening, watching TV, and perhaps browsing the web looking to purchase or research an item of interest the cycle is completed.

Obviously this over dramatized consumer media experience may be a marketer's fantasy, but it shows the reality that consumers may be exposed to many diverse messages throughout their day. The goal of skilled legal marketers is to select the media most appropriate for their potential clients and create a compelling and consistent message that breaks through the clutter of all of the advertising they are bombarded by every day. This approach creates a synergistic top-of-mind awareness so that when their need for an attorney arises, your name comes to mind or seems very familiar when they next see your firm's name.

Although this practice is one of the tried and true mainstays of any good law firm marketing program, new research from Nielsen's Three Screen Report now shows that  it may be even more important now. Their report provides single source electronic measurement of TV and Internet usage in the same homes. As of June, the research indicates, "57% of consumers with Internet access at home watch TV and go online simultaneously at least once a month. On average these consumers spend 2 hours, 39 minutes each month simultaneously using the Internet while also watching TV. Their online experience at home is in front of the television almost a third of the time."

What that means to law firm marketing is that consumers in need of legal assistance look to more than one single source to assist in making the decision to contact and hire a law firm. By integrating a firm's marketing strategy and including TV, search engine optimization (SEO), optimized web videos, and social media in the marketing mix it creates a greater chance for success for each individual medium.  Consumers have not abandoned traditional media for new media. The research shows that they consume both, sometimes simultaneously.

For more information on law firm marketing planning, SEO for attorneys or TV advertising, contact Kevin Quinlan.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Kevin Quinlan, lawyer-marketing guru elaborates on why skilled lawyers have a greater chance of success at generating new business with their TV campaign and in Google searches when they don't delay launching their marketing program and are the first to be seen. 

Many law firm marketers spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to convey the message that their law firm, its services and everything about the way they practice law is better than their competitors. Although the various state bar associations make that a challenging task, the fact is many equally skilled lawyers make that claim on their law firm websites. That said, when it comes to generating new business, it may not be as important to be the best law firm advertising as it is to be the first.

Whether your firm is planning to take the plunge into TV advertising or considering a web-marketing program to promote your practice in your geographic area of influence, being first out of the box has significant advantages over actually being the best. When you evaluate the category leaders for almost every product or service, the company with the greatest awareness always wins. That awareness quite often comes from being the first in the mind of consumers. First in the mind of consumers often subliminally equates to being the best.

While marketing the practice of law may not be the same as marketing consumer products, the way consumers' minds work is consistent. When your TV spot is the first one they see, or they visit your website because it came up in position one of a Google search, most often they compare what they see afterwards to your firm's message. The first one out of the box is the one that is remembered and has the best opportunity to create the greatest awareness. By way of example, other companies may offer similar services, but no one ever says anything other than "Fedex this to our client."

That said, utilizing the highest production values when producing your firm's TV spots is still a rule to live by. According to Business Week, "Advertising is meant to attract customers, yet so much of it does the opposite. One reason: Too much time and money goes into running advertising, not enough into developing it." Creating a high quality TV campaign indirectly says a lot about the quality your firm.

The same can be said for website development and web marketing. Creating an informative, easily navigated website that anticipates and answers many of the preliminary questions a potential client might have serves the same role. An effective SEO plan that consistently results in high page one ranking in Google for your key search terms gives your law firm that leadership edge.

For more information about law firm TV production, website design for attorneys or legal SEO contact Kevin Quinlan.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Kevin Quinlan, law firm TV advertising specialist advises about new web based research that clearly shows that TV is still a key tool for law firms and legal marketers across all demographic groups.

Much has been said over the last year or so about how the growth of web video and the web's increasing influence on marketing choices is indicative of the loss of the power of TV advertising for attorneys and other advertisers.

Many legal marketers look not just to trends in the adult population, but to trends in what teenagers are doing as a bellwether for things to come. The common belief is that teens are too involved in texting and social media to spend much time watching TV. Add to that the belief that teens are the biggest users of the Internet and it would seem to be a good reason to scale back on TV advertising for lawyers now, and even more so in the future. The bubble surrounding that myth has been recently been burst.

In a recent Nielsen report called How Teens Use Media, TV viewing by teens and other assumptions have been clarified and the data bodes well for TV media. The truth is that TV viewing by teens has risen by more than 6% over the past five years, exceeding the time spent browsing the Internet! Additionally, although teen web video consumption has grown both in number of teen viewers and time spent, it still lags behind the number of adults aged 18 to 44 that view online video.

While teens may be more web savvy than the average adult, and nearly 90% have access to the Internet at home, teens spent less time on the web than most other demographic groups. More adults typically spend their day with hi speed access at their places of work while students are in class, after school activities and other social outings.

Even though US TV ad spending as a whole dropped by more than 15% in the first half of 2009 compared to the same time frame in 2008, the legal services category was among the top 10 growth categories and increased 32.1%. It would seem that law firms around the country are raising the ante on TV advertising and feel that it is still a great bet. Even with the increase in web-based research and the power of web videos, TV can still be an effective medium on its own and a powerful tool when included in the mix with an aggressive search engine optimization (SEO) program. The top-of-mind awareness created by a solid and consistent TV campaign can help boost website conversions to an even higher level.

For more information on TV production for law firms, SEO, and legal media strategies, contact Kevin Quinlan.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Rene Perras law firm Internet marketing maven discusses the impact on search engine optimization for law firms because of the deal between  Yahoo and Microsoft which will have an affect on the algorithms and the focus on inbound links versus keywords.

The playing field for search engine optimization (SEO) is in the process of change thanks in part to the Microsoft/Yahoo deal and also to the new iteration of Google, currently referred to as Caffeine.  The integration of Bing as Yahoo's exclusive algorithm for search and paid search for Yahoo sites means that the new combined effort may garner 28% or more of search use, according to comScore.  That is based on total of their current share of search individually.  It will remain to be seen whether Bing can change the brand preference of Google searchers and acquire a larger share.  That said past SEO efforts for law firms  focused predominantly on Google, so if you were well optimized for Google your l;aw firm would be well optimized for all of the others. With a nearly 30% share of the search market that may no longer be enough.

While it could take a year or longer for the full implementation of the deal to take place, being prepared early and adjusting SEO efforts is probably a prudent plan. Although both Google and Bing react favorably to traditional strategic SEO efforts such as fresh keyword rich content, keywords in the title tag and domain, and the appropriate website architecture, there appear to be differences in the way they value the different criteria. Bing seems to place more weight on keywords whereas Google seems to place more weight on inbound links. Ensuring that you have both strategies covered can only help increase your law firm's website rankings now and in the future.

Microsoft is still in the process of tweaking its algorithm for Bing, so what seems to be true now, may be different as the evolution progresses.  Additionally, it is said that Google Caffeine has a greater focus on key words as well.  The best approach is to ensure a strong focus on the fundamentals of traditional, ethical, tactical SEO and keep abreast of the changes as they occur.  For now, it may require additional efforts to maintain a Google local listing and a Bing local listing but currently it does not seem necessary to have separate pages geared towards Bing or Google search engines.  Bing and Google currently deal with videos and images placement differently in the search results. Bing provides different placement for videos and images which may offer marketing opportunities for marketers that create both.

If your law firm has a relationship with an expert attorney web design firm/SEO professional for law firms that adheres to Google's design standards your firm should be on the right track now and in the future to make the necessary adjustments to your web marketing efforts.

For more information about law firm SEO, legal web site design for attorneys or other legal marketing strategies, contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Rene Perras law firm marketing expert talks about the effect of the reduction in pay per click fraud on law firm marketing programs that utilize pay per click advertising as part of an overall marketing strategy that includes search engine optimization along with traditional advertising campaigns.

As reported by ClickForensics, the industry wide pay-per-click (PPC) fraud rate for the second quarter of 2009 dropped from 16.2% to 12.7% compared to the same quarter in 2008.  They have been reporting PPC fraud statistics for nearly four years and collect their data from online ad campaigns for all size advertisers utilizing all of the major search engines and numerous ad networks.

Apparently, efforts by online ad networks to identify and curb activity from questionable sources has been effective in reducing the rate for this quarter, but highly sophisticated programs used by online publishers are still of great concern now and in the future. These publishers' goal is to generate higher revenue by increasing the number of clicks on their own sites, therefore boosting their commissions.

This downturn in click fraud is a benefit to online law firm marketers looking for quick visibility for areas of practice that evolve too quickly for an organic campaign to reach peak effectiveness or for search engine optimization (SEO) key word testing.  

Although our experience has been that SEO delivers better and more cost effective results over the long haul, a pay per click advertising campaign may be a useful tool for your law firm if you just launched your website or as a short term solution while your SEO efforts are ramping up.  

For more information about law firm SEO, pay-per-click advertising for attorneys or other legal marketing strategies, contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Rene Perras social media guru offers his marketing strategy using the impact of  social media on law firm marketing through enhancing the web experience and improved success with search engines.

In a recent survey about the effectiveness of social media marketing, the majority of respondents indicated that they believed that social media marketing was effective for increasing top-of-mind awareness, enhancing the credibility of their brand and raising page ranking on the search engines resulting in better traffic to their websites.

Although not easily quantified, the word-of-mouth effect of online reviews, pickup of content by bloggers and forum were regarded as highly effective tactics in their campaigns.  Although many law firms have begun to develop their presence on Facebook, create a blog or participate in other social media, very few have an organized strategy for managing their communications.  Social media is an interactive venue so just having a profile without participation by the attorneys is missing the point to a degree.  

Creating and managing social media marketing for law firms can be time consuming and resource intensive.  For that reason it is important to either devote the necessary internal resources required or develop a marketing partnership with a law firm marketing shop that has strong core strengths in web design, SEO, Internet marketing and integration of social media into the overall marketing strategy for attorneys.

We believe that along with an effective SEO program, social media marketing can help to begin the dialogue between a potential client and a law firm and assist in personalizing what can be a very traumatic time for an injured consumer.  Making the web experience more enjoyable, providing insight and answers to the questions raised by prospects and participating in the social media dialogue can make all of the difference in converting suspects to prospects and ultimately to clients.


For more information on law firm web design, SEO or social media strategies for attorneys, contact Rene Perras

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

When it comes to promoting a legal web site through search engine optimization (SEO), there are essentially three primary strategies.  They are the creation of keyword rich, relevant content, the construction of search engine spider friendly web site architecture and building links for law firms.

Although content creation and site design/construction offer their own challenges, building inbound links from sites that are recognized as authorities by the search engines can be the most challenging.  Building relevant, high quality links to your law firm's web site may also be the most important aspect of SEO in the algorithms of the search engines.

In the past, developing links involved hours of research into different sites that you want to link back to yours, followed by emails and phone calls to the respective web masters, all of which can be very time consuming and not always productive.  More recently, SEO professionals have developed the technique of link baiting, or spreading content across the web that is so tempting that other sites will grab it and link back to your site.

Many SEO professionals recommend utilizing a viral process of releasing articles or videos through social media sites with the assistance of highly popular social media users. The goal is to reach the right bloggers/writers that will write about and link to your story.  While that may be an effective method for retail and general consumer product marketing, it has its drawbacks when it comes to building links for law firms that offer need driven services and have limitations on creative writing and promotion.  

Cepac has developed a cutting edge product called Smart News Technology that streamlines link building by integrating a private label newsroom platform into a law firm's web site.  This platform provides attorneys with the ability to write and publish news, articles and announcements and syndicate them with just the touch of a button.  Smart news technology has a search engine optimization feature that gives each release the best chance to be picked up on the web through a large distribution network including Google news.  Each release also becomes a page of fresh web content that also helps in improving ranking on the search engines.

For more information on Link Building for law firms, legal web site design or Smart News Technology for attorneys, contact Rene Perras for legal SEO solutions by visiting Cepac.com.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

In the world of search engine marketing, the one constant that can always be relied on is that change will come.  Many of these changes are technological, such as the modifications to the search engine algorithms, the evolution of social media and the move towards web 3.0, the semantic web.  But the real driving force for change ultimately is the change in the searching habits of the consumer and their evolving expectations.

This change is good as it offers opportunities to marketers of injury law firms and other businesses by providing a chance to develop an edge on the competition.  Often clients ask how the changing search environment will affect their SEO efforts and what it means to their law firms.

SEO efforts are designed to improve a site's visibility and indexing by search engine spiders as well as organizing content, keyword placement and building links to provide search engines the cues they need to highly rank the pages.  Because of the rapidly changing nature of the web, SEO must be an ongoing and organized endeavor that takes a long view that can't be overlooked once your pages are high on page one of the search engines.

Even more importantly, your law firm's marketing should broaden as the web gravitates towards a more semantic approach and users spend more time focusing on social media, content sharing and web video.  Since Google and other search engines adopted the universal approach to searches, incorporating news, video, images, and local listings along with web pages, searchers expect to be able to review more varied content when doing their research and making the decision to contact a law firm.  By offering a more diverse array of optimized content you can promote your law practice and keep pace with the demands of consumers.  News, commentary, images and videos all add value to your efforts.

And that is where the opportunity lies.  Whenever you can meet or beat the expectations of a consumer looking for legal help, you uplift your brand, your reputation and your law firm's ability to convert more unique visitors to prospects and ultimately to clients.


For more information on how to bump your SEO and web marketing efforts to the next level contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Many personal injury law firms have become familiar with search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, but may not be as familiar with paid inclusion.

Paid search or PPC offers law firm marketers the ability to get results quickly for targeted key words and also a method to test key words for use in SEO efforts.  It can be an effective tool to breach the gap until your web SEO efforts begin to pay off.  The results of paid search appear at the top of the page above the natural search results and at the right of the page with the notation "sponsored links".  Paid search can be effective for trying to capture leads for potential cases that are a matter of breaking news, for example products liability cases based on recalls.  It can also be helpful for new terms that you have not targeted in your SEO efforts.

That said PPC can become expensive because you must bid on the key words and often many other injury attorneys are bidding on the same highly competitive terms.   Ad positioning in the search results is not based entirely on the bid price.  Google uses a metric called Ad Rank that is based on a formula using the bid price and other factors that include different measures of relevance and account history.  Effective campaigns require a high degree of testing and management to reap the best results.  Google, Yahoo and the other search engines all offer their versions of PPC.  

The majority of searchers tend to gravitate towards the natural search (SEO) results rather than sponsored links.  That may be one of the reasons why Yahoo and others offer a search marketing option called paid inclusion.  This can be a valuable source of leads that many law firm marketers don't include in their online marketing programs.  Essentially, in exchange for a fee, Yahoo and some of the other search engines will guarantee to list pages from a web site within the organic search results on the left side of the page.  Google does not offer paid inclusion.  

Yahoo has content quality guidelines that your site must comply with.  Once accepted, your pages will appear in the search results based on the relevance to the search terms submitted by the searcher.  Fees for Yahoo's basic product are based on an annual fee per URL submitted and their top inclusion product fees are based on a cost-per-click model that is determined by the content type and category rather than on a bidding process.

While we believe that SEO can be the most cost effective method to drive unique visitors to your law firm's web site for the long haul, these other tools offer alternative approaches that can also be very useful in helping your firm grow its business.

For more information on SEO, PPC or paid inclusion, contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Every day, thousands of people across the US are injured or killed because of the negligence of others.  Auto accidents, workplace injuries, medical mistakes and defective products marketed by major corporations are just a few of the types of events that contribute to the damage done to average consumers.

Unfortunately, many of these victims don't know a lawyer who can help them defend their rights or have the proper network to provide them with the ability to find one.  When the need arises and they require legal assistance quite often their first step is on the Internet.

As reported in 2008 research by the Pew Internet Project, more than 80% of Americans use the Internet for product research and that number is continually on the rise.  The only way to reach these potential clients on the Internet is to have high page one rankings on search engines like Google and to be present on a consistent basis.  The web offers the ability to brand your law firm, improve your firm's top-of-mind awareness and to have a strong presence that can be geo targeted to your area of influence.  The web uniquely combines aspects of branding and direct response.

Marketing your law firm online is one of the most cost effective tools to reach prospects and when combined with a solid media mix that includes traditional media, the quantity of traffic your site may receive can be truly dramatic.  The fact is that on the web, prospects are looking for your services and with the help of professional search engine optimization (SEO) you can help ensure that they find you.  Proper site design, key word rich relevant content and link building strategies all make this possible.

Another advantage is that through the use of analytics, contact form data capture and the use of a web-dedicated phone number, your Internet marketing program is one of the most measurable marketing venues.  These tools provide your law firm with the ability to adjust and target your market based upon results provided in a much shorter time frame than broadcast or print advertising.  

As the web matures, it is truly important to have the right SEO and web development team working with your personal injury law firm.  The use of optimized press releases, news and videos along with social media strategies can help you increase your rankings, personalize your pitch to prospects and increase your conversion ratio so that your practice can grow now and into the future.

For a one-on-one evaluation or more info on web design or SEO contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Research provided by Nielsen Online, based on April video consumption, is reporting that consumers between the age of 35 and 49 are more likely to watch full-length video programming on the Internet, contrary to prior reports and conventional wisdom.  Male viewers outpaced female viewers by a small margin when it came to their online video consuming habits.

What this means to law firm marketers is that they can now target their videos by topic and by length.  In addition to covering pertinent subjects that resonate with potential clients in the field of personal injury law, family law and negligence, law firms can attract more mature prospects when they cover the subject in greater depth.  The connection with viewers made by the use of carefully crafted videos is often much stronger than when providing content that is strictly text based.

While shorter length video content still ranks at the top for viewers of all ages, there seems to be a trend towards longer forms and the consumption of entire TV shows online.  That said, the number two-ranked site for viewing video content is still a distant second from YouTube, which garners 58% of video streams.  Just as is true for written content, the length of the content is not as important as whether or not it captures and keeps the attention of the viewer.  Based on this new data, it would seem prudent to produce both short and more substantive versions of your videos for your online law firm marketing programs.

For more information on video production and optimization, contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Press release distribution has been one of the tried-and-true methods used by law firms to communicate their successes, experiences and to update the public and their peers about accolades and changes in their firm's profile.  As the Internet has matured and more consumers derive their news from online sources, there has been a shift from traditional print media to the Internet for the release of news and press.  

While many injury attorneys have heard that press release distribution can assist in search engine optimization efforts (SEO), some do not fully understand why it can be so helpful.  Here are a few reasons why news/press release distribution can supercharge your SEO. Recently we launched an online newsroom product called Smart News Technology that can streamline the article/press release process for your firm.

• Articles, commentary and press releases offer a great opportunity to keep your clients, potential clients and referring attorneys up-do-date on current legal topics and keep you top-of-mind for that moment when they need to reach out. Portraying your firm as an authority and a valuable source of information also helps support your brand.

• Content is still king, and each key word rich news posting, through Smart News Technology creates a page of precious, fresh website content, since each delivered article of news will become part of your website. By providing articles on an array of topics, your firm can broaden your targeted key words and phrases.

• News distributed through press release distribution services also works as "link bait", tempting others to link to your article or website. The more valuable and "sticky" the information you provide, the greater the chance that you will attract high quality inbound links, each of which serves as a vote of confidence in the algorithms of the search engines.

Smart News Technology was developed to provide law firms the means to deliver articles and press releases directly to the Internet via their own private label newsrooms, bypassing expensive and cumbersome press release distribution outlets.  
Seamlessly integrated into a firm's website, attorneys will have the ability to syndicate their news across large distribution networks, including Google news, with the push of a button.  The search engine optimization feature gives each release the best possibility for pickup on the web.

To find out more about supercharging your SEO or Smart News Technology, contact Rene Perras.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

There are many factors that motivate a prospect to take action and make contact with your law firm, but there is no more effective way to communicate and move a viewer to action than web videos.  Because of consumer cynicism that has become prevalent due to the recession, it has become even more important for consumers to trust whomever they choose to represent them.  That trust can be won by including two of the key influencers  in your web videos: highly relevant legal information and a personalized message.

The Internet has evolved into an almost unlimited source of ready information, thanks to Google and the other search engines, and into a growing social network.  Your firm's videos should address the very reason that prospects go online: to get as much information as they can about their legal problem.  The greater the quantity and quality of answers to their questions your web-marketing videos can provide, the greater the chance for conversion to a client.

There is no substitute for in-person client-specific legal advice, but if you are able to address their topic of need in a broad sense, chances are that your firm will be perceived as the authority in the geographic and practice area for which they are searching.  By providing relevant information on the legal process and what they can expect, you also provide a comfort level with your firm and raise even more questions. Those questions and the level of trust you build are the keys to getting the prospect to call your office or fill out a contact form.

Certainly potential clients want to know that you are qualified, but creating a video resume and detailing your qualifications does not necessarily separate you from the crowd.  Most consumers don't know one law school from another and have no idea what "being admitted to practice in front of a District or Circuit Court " will mean to them.  Rather than touting your own credentials, the best way to demonstrate them to a viewer is to use testimonial videos of  clients who had significant cases and whose lives were changed through your efforts.

Consumers' expectations about the web have changed and they have become used to greater control and interactivity in part due to the increased participation experienced through social networking, blogs and video sharing sites.  By projecting the personality of the firm through the use of video technology, you can capitalize on this new sense of community.

While most marketing tends to have a more narrow appeal to consumers, web video marketing has a unique ability to resonate with consumer emotions and cause them to take the positive action that you seek.  For every considered purchase or decision to hire, emotion is a key element, even when the decision is pragmatic.  Additionally, in a field like personal injury law, where the services require more than a simple description, and the potential targets have varied educational backgrounds, video can be the most effective and efficient way to achieve that goal.

Web video marketing for attorneys, especially when effectively produced and optimized, can produce a much higher conversion rate than just textual content and may be the key that will ultimately help you grow your practice.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Every day we are faced with mounting uncertainty. Will the stock market go up or down?  Have we hit bottom in the housing market?  Are we beginning to see the "green shoots" of the beginning of an economic recovery?  Will I still have a job next month?  All of the uncertainty causes apprehension, which studies show has a greater negative affect on people than the occurrence of actual events.

The question for law firm marketers is how do we find some sense of certainty and use it to our best advantage in these uncertain times?  

For certain, there are companies that are still doing exceptionally well during the recession because they offer a great value proposition.  They have positioned their companies as part of the solution rather than adding to the problem.

 It is also certain that history has shown that those companies who continue to market their goods or services through a recession have achieved measurable increases in market share and awareness when everyone else is hunkering down and cutting back.

Certainty must also be expressed in your marketing messages, because it is reassuring to injured consumers who are in need of your legal services.  Consumers have become very cynical and trust is a rare commodity.  By communicating in a more personal and direct way, your law firm can take advantage of the current climate. That is especially true when your message is relevant to the stress normally associated with personal injury and the added stress uncertainty has added to all consumers' lives today.

What is also certain is that now is the time to adopt the new media to convey that message.  That does not imply that your law firm should abandon your use of more traditional media.  Studies still show that TV viewing is the strongest choice for video consumption, but your law firm must also create a presence where many of your prospects are now- on the Internet and on social media sites in particular.  

To create a more certain future for your firm, improve top-of-mind awareness and to be in front of a potential client when their need arises, you must maintain a consistent presence and integrate the new media into your marketing plan.  All personal injury firms that work on a contingent fee basis always have to manage a certain level of inherent risk.  

That said, the risk associated with allowing uncertainty to define the future of your law firm through inaction, is far greater than the risk of taking unfamiliar action so that you can emerge from the recession with a competitive edge and a more certain future.

Law firms can contact Cepac at Cepac.com or 1-212-759-1126 to find out more about how our marketing, SEO, and social media programs can help generate new business for your firm.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Although the amount your law firm has allocated for your marketing budget may have some impact on what other online tactics you utilize, such as pay-per-click, marketers both large and small agreed that search engine optimization (SEO) was the most effective technique for generating conversions online.  In fact 48 % of all marketers polled felt that way and more than 50% of those with budgets in excess of $1 million agreed.

The survey also indicated that for marketers, regardless of budget size, SEO was considered to be one of the two most effective ways to build or ameliorate a brand on the web.  The other method was site or page sponsorships, but that is a tactic that may be more effective in a retail environment, rather than for need driven services like personal injury or family law.

Now is the time to partner with a knowledgeable and proven SEO legal marketing specialist to build your online brand, create an authoritative web presence and begin to grow your legal practice by attracting and capturing your share of  the thousands of consumers searching for the right advocate to help them find the justice they deserve.

Law firms can contact Cepac at Cepac.com or 1-212-759-1126 to find out more about how our marketing and SEO programs can help generate new business for your firm

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126

Law firms need to be aware of consumer perception when they consider reducing their ad spend, especially during the recession.  Aside from the fact that personal injury law is need driven and it is critical for your message to be in front of potential clients when their need arises, the perception of consumers about the strength of your firm is influenced when they notice a drop in the number of TV ads that they see.

Recent research has shown that one of the ways consumers evaluate the strength of a company is the frequency that they view their advertising.   As reported by eMarketer, consumers that noticed decreases in bank advertising drew the conclusion that the bank was in financial trouble. The results were even more dramatic for retail advertisers.  As expected, the reverse was also true; consumers that saw a high frequency of ads were given the impression of strength and that the advertisers were committed to their business.  

Many businesses are reeling under the stress of the recession, and for many the first line item in the budget that gets trimmed may be the marketing budget.  In the short term, that may seem like a prudent strategy, but for personal injury law marketers it can be the first step towards double damage in the long term.  Your firm may be seen as struggling under the weight of the economic downturn and your top-of-mind awareness will be diminished for those in need of your services, when that need arises.   

In these uncertain times, there is ample evidence that a strong media buy continues to reinforce all of your other advertising but it can also give you the edge over competing law firms in your market that take the short sighted approach and cut way back.

For more information on how to weather the economic storm and get the most from your marketing budget, contact Kevin Quinlan.

Kevin Quinlan
Lawyer Marketing 101
208 East 51st Street
Suite 309
New York NY 10022
212-759-1126