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Do Not Waste Money on a .Law Domain Extension

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As you may have heard, the .law domain extension became available to credentialed lawyers as of October 12th. There are a lot of front-end promises in terms of what buying a domain name with this extension can do for your web presence – and ultimately your SEO. Don’t believe those promises.

The newly-released .law domain extensions will not automatically rank higher than .com domains – plain and simple. Two years ago Matt Cutts, head of Google’s Webspam team, quickly dismissed the idea:

“Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD). Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either. If you want to register an entirely new TLD for other reasons, that’s your choice, but you shouldn’t register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you’ll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings.”

When it comes to advancing SEO efforts, consumers become easy targets because we’re all looking for that “silver bullet”. The truth is credibility and domain authority can only be built with a strategic approach and quality content over time.

If there is one reason to buy a .law domain name, it would be for a vanity campaign. However, before doing so, make sure to research other relevant .com vanity domains. Depending on your geographical area or area of practice, many are still available.

Here’s an example: DenverInjury.law 

The only value (if any) would be to use this domain only for vanity campaign purposes (namely in TV advertising). However, a better and move valuable domain would be DenverInjuryLawyer.com.

The bottom line is: don’t be suckered into this. There are many, far more valuable things you can do for your web presence and SEO. Focus on what’s important – building credibility, generating quality content, establishing domain authority – ‘silver bullet’ promises. They don’t exist.

Not sure where you rank these days? Our SEO experts are happy to give you a FREE and confidential evaluation of your current web presence. Give us a call to find out where you stand 888.461.1016.

Why Afterhours Calls Matter in Legal Advertising

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Want to know an easy way to boost your case conversion? Get better than the competition at handling afterhours calls. Intake after hours is one of the most significant growth areas for improving your law firm’s bottom line—without spending more money.

While this sounds like a simple fix, there’s strategy involved in truly dialing in your attorney answering service. But this critical form of intake can also very quickly separate you from other law firms—if you do it well.

Here’s how:

Change your expectations. Advances in technology and consumer expectations means people anticipate more from an attorney answering service. If potential clients’ needs aren’t met immediately in an intelligent and pleasant manner, there’s a strong chance they’ll just hang up. Think about your own frustrations with waiting on hold or not getting useful answers when calling about a product or service. Lawyers should expect that people increasingly expect more than an answering service can provide.

Pick the right answering service. Before hiring any answering service, ask a lot of questions. Visit the call center or office. Invest time in finding out how this service will report to you. Most importantly, talk to your legal advertising agency about best practices and how your marketing partner plans to incorporate call tracking and leverage analytics to better target your advertising efforts.

Record your calls. These days, this practice really goes without saying: You can’t act on data you don’t have. So be sure  your firm’s calls are clearly recorded and tracked. You’ll be impressed by what you can learn about your prospective clients just from the messages they leave with your answering service.

Know your drop call rate. Not sure what this is? Get up to speed today. Dropped calls are calls that are put on hold that eventually lead to a prospect hanging up. Uncover your true drop call rate—hang-ups that are never accounted for. It’s possible that a simple change in initial messaging, hold music, or tone could help keep people (legal cases!) on the line longer.

“Secret shop” your service. Have you ever tested or secret shopped your current answering service? Calling your own firm’s answering service at least once a month can lead to rich insight about what’s working best. Better yet, have a friend outside the legal industry call your firm after hours. Prepare a questionnaire for your secret shopper regarding voice tone, ring length, messaging, hold times, and other key qualitative and quantitative feedback that could help your law firm improve performance.

Remember, what happens when your law office closes shouldn’t stay behind closed doors. Keeping the lines of communication open around your answering service practices is a helpful way to enhance your intake—and convert more callers to cases.

Need more insight on how to improve your afterhours intake procedures? Network Affiliates has been helping lawyers tap the smartest ROI-propelled advertising and marketing strategies since 1981. Call (888) 461-1016 today!

When to Expect ROI in the Legal Marketing and Advertising Lifecycle

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Legal marketing and advertising strategies are increasingly pinned to return on investment.

Why? Because advertising consultants now have better metrics to track marketing for law firms, from specialized call-tracking methods to actionable Google Analytics on Web-based advertising campaigns.

Seeing a return on your investment in advertising depends on several things, such as: your new campaign creative, the mix of marketing tactics being used and how integrated your legal advertising strategy is, among other considerations.

Creating true cash-flow momentum takes planning—and patience.

Typically, an attorney or law firm can expect to start seeing significant ROI in between 6 and 18 months. This equates to the length of time it takes for a typical auto accident case to settle, for example. If the case goes to trial, you can expect to see a return in more like 18 to 36 months.

However, in an area like workers’ compensation, temporary disability payments can start in as little as one month. However, permanent disability payments take much longer and typically require the assistance of a lawyer or law firm to negotiate with the employer and workers’ compensation insurance provider. Obtaining a resolution in a social security disability case usually take between 12 to 24 months.

You get the point. Marketing leads in legal advertising are ultimately tied to cases, and getting more in the pipeline will work to create a steady stream of clients—and ROI.

Most lawyers like to see how this might play out for each aspect of a marketing initiative, and a qualified advertising consultant can show you how each effort can tie back to ROI. Additionally, an agency with deep history and interest in the legal profession will understand the case life cycle and plan a smart marketing strategy around that cyclical process.

Likewise, the ability to shift strategies, especially with flexible Web-based “test” campaigns, helps your law firm try a specialized social campaign, for example, or a PPC-driven effort to adapt and adjust for variations such as seasonal fluctuations, expansions in the firm’s legal capabilities or mass tort campaigns.

Interested in running the numbers on the effectiveness of your current marketing mix? Call Network Affiliates’ expert legal advertising consultants to understand the potential of your advertising ROI — (888) 461-1016!

TV Advertising for Law Firms: Attracting a More Valuable Case

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The cost to ask for a low-end case is the same as a high-end case. However their values are vastly different.

Law firms around the country pay top dollar for TV commercials that all essentially say the same thing: Call us now. This generic plea for copious leads is just that: a solicitation for potentially unqualified inquires.

What if you could turn a commercial into a high-quality case simply by changing your attorney marketing strategy? How about surveying the local and national competition to see how your firm can say things differently—to make your message stand out—without paying more for creative?

That’s just the start of smart TV advertising for law firms. You’d be amazed by what you can get when you ask for what you really want—better paying, higher quality cases; happier clients; and stronger, more profitable referrals.

Here are three places to start:

Platform: What is your TV commercial standing on, anyway? Is TV just a highly visible platform for one-upping the competition with more “bragging rights” about big settlements or hotshot attorneys in effort to attract new clients? We’d argue that your platform ought to stand on its own by using brand messaging to tell your law firm’s story in a way that’s relevant to clients’ biggest concerns, which are inevitably about them—not you. How do your attorneys stand out in the area of client service and representation? Why is your approach to law different—and better—than your peers? How can you draw in prospective clients using emotion and empathy? What’s a real-world example of how your lawyers solved an actual legal issue for a client? Show it!

Production: You might be surprised at how far television production quality has come. Thanks to advancements in video technology and digital editing tools, professional-looking TV commercials are easier than ever to craft—and afford. If you haven’t considered how the quality of your TV ad might be impacting the quality of the cases you’re getting, think again. Production can’t be overlooked in today’s competitive legal landscape. Make sure your advertising agency is giving you all the visual and audio upgrades your newly distinguished messaging platform deserves. After that, it’s all about how your video and commercial assets consistently measure up to and pay off every part of your comprehensive marketing strategy—your brand platform, your website presence, your digital campaign, even a client’s in-office experience.


Placement: Now that your law firm’s TV advertising looks like it plays in the national space, make sure that you outfox other firms by reaching prospective clients in creative ways, at inventive times, away from the clutter of competition. While new messaging will give you an immediate advantage against the generic legal ads droning on TV today, placing your commercials in highly targeted ways could garner even greater response. Talk to your media buyer about new times, stations and strategies for getting your ad out to more—and ideally new previously untapped audiences. Sometimes simply showing up where others are not can make your law firm win in the race to be top of mind.

Need more ideas for turning up your TV advertising? Network Affiliates has in-house creative, production and media planning departments to handle all your TV advertising needs. Call (888) 461-1016 today!

Attorney Email Marketing: If You’re Reading This, It’s Working!

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It makes sense that database marketing—or digital campaigns targeting the email addresses of people who have already worked with or have shown interest in your law firm—works well: it’s effective and inexpensive.

Over 90% of the planet’s more than 2.5 billion email users check their inbox at least daily. That alone gives you a strong open-rate opportunity. Plus, database marketing for lawyers is downright cheap. You’ve already surveyed your clients for feedback and current contact information. It costs next to nothing to maintain those relationships by reaching out once or twice a month with a short email message, or even weekly if you have the bandwidth and something relevant to say.

Converting content to cases

However, to recognize true ROI, attorney email marketing has to convert “readers” to cases, right? Your database is invaluable because when tapped correctly it’s a steady source of referrals, and law firms know better than any professional that direct referrals typically lead to the most qualified cases.

Email marketing campaigns have become more sophisticated. Just staying top of mind by keeping in touch with past clients, it not enough. The legal industry must build on the special kind of relationships that only lawyers have with their clients. The most lucrative email marketing for law firms use quality, “sharable” content that’s highly relevant, informative and downright interesting to past clients, which means you can’t just slap it together.

Here are a few ideas for boosting your database marketing.

Use video. Be compelling. Start by sprinkling in one video a quarter in your attorney email marketing. It’s one more way to quickly engage your database while adding variety and freshness to your campaign (and website, where you can showcase it later).

Pay a pro. Content is king. Lawyers are typically too busy to write compelling content. Hire a writer who knows law or knows how to interview your attorneys to tell a story your database wants to hear.

Survey the competition. Stay ahead of the curve. Have your marketing agency gather competing legal email blasts, blogs and digital content examples that your team finds helpful and pertinent. Reinvent that style, tone and approach to suit your own firm and clientele.

Make it mobile. And, make it responsive. Increasingly your database members, like the rest of the world, are opening and reading email blasts on their smartphones. Be sure to check that your campaign is fully optimized for easy reading on the fly.  Not sure if your email template and/or website is responsive? Call me to find out (303) 817-7313!

Need more insight on how to improve your database marketing?

We would be happy to do a FREE and confidential evaluation of your advertising. Network Affiliates has been in the legal marketing game since 1981, currently representing over 90 Law Firms around the country. Contact us to see if your market is available.

How PPC Advertising for Lawyers Pays Off

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Pay-per-click, or PPC advertising, is a savvy way to gain some serious traction online.

This highly targeted form of paid search Internet advertising can pinpoint prospective clients to drive targeted traffic directly to your legal site. Attorneys only pay when someone “clicks through.” PPC works as a complement to TV advertising and even as a stand-alone Internet marketing investment for lawyers with smaller or stretched budgets.

There are three key reasons why PPC for lawyers is worth considering:

It’s fast and flexible.

It’s targeted and tangible.

It’s driven by results and ROI.

Let’s dive into these benefits so you can see how pay-per-click really pays off.

It’s fast and flexible.

By fast, we mean if your PPC ad posts today and you could see pay off immediately through increased traffic to your website. With PPC for lawyers, attorneys can competitively bid so more people see their ad near the top of a search-results page. Statistics consistently prove that the higher up ads appear, the better click-through rate (people who see your ad and actually click on it) they earn. As you dial in this scientific method further with your legal marketing partner, the more your ads will appear. Likewise, because of the speed and impermanence of the Web, law firms can change ad text at any time, testing and adjusting around the keywords that are resonating (encouraging click-through) best for different audiences. This flexibility is nearly unmatched in traditional advertising.

It’s targeted and tangible.

As your law firm continues to articulate its ideal client, paid search campaigns can target with remarkable precision this person through keyword development (the words and phrases people type in a search engine when looking for a specific type of attorney, for example) and exclusive PPC landing pages designed to drive people to your firm’s website. To attract the most qualified client, you can hone PPC strategy further by location, time, language, gender and other analytics tied to consumer behavior on the Internet. What’s even better is lawyers can see tangible results straightaway. Through specialized PPC management tools for lawyers, you can now see how people click on your optimized ads, follow through to your website and, ideally, take the next step to convert to a case.

Bonus: PPC ads can also generate calls for free! By placing a phone number in the ad, people are able to call without actually clicking on it. However, make sure to use a unique number – or track line – so you can trace the lead back to your PPC campaign!

It’s all about results and ROI.

Lawyers, not unlike other service professionals, like it when advertising results are directly tied to investment; a measure that’s trickier in traditional advertising. In PPC for attorneys, ad- and traffic-tracking tools like Google Analytics actually measure minute-by-minute what’s working in an online campaign and what’s not. The way to realize true ROI in PPC advertising is to do a quick calculation based on click-through rate and conversion. Good CTR for a PPC ad campaign starts at about 1% and up. A solid conversation rate (website visitors who “convert” by taking action to contact your firm, for example, to request a free consultation) starts closer to 2%. Some quick math using the most conservative rates shows that about 5,000 people need to see your ad to generate a qualified lead.

Ready to learn more about how PPC can work for your law firm? We’re here to answer all your questions about pay-per-click. Just click here or call us today (888) 461-1016.  

Why Content Equals Authenticity in Law Firm Marketing

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A quality content strategy is key to beating the competition.

Let’s face it: As a whole, one of the legal industry’s greatest challenges is getting past some damaging stereotypes about attorneys.

Your law firm’s marketing goal?

Stand away and apart from this type of competition. Top attorneys are learning that one of the smartest ways to do this is by building a solid pipeline of quality content that’s both informative and engaging, and leveraging it through your website, social platforms and database.

Why? Because this form of thought leadership actually works. Sharing content on topics that your lawyers know about deeply—and your prospective clients care about deeply—serves to build trust and boost your brand, reputation and authority in your legal niche. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that search engines now reward the best-quality, most relevant content, helping your firm get found on the Web and users to stay on your site longer. (Hint: That usually leads to phone calls. And, ideally, paying cases.)

The problem is lawyers do law, not content, and they often don’t know where to start. In fact, one recent study by American Lawyer Media Legal Intelligence, The Zeughauser Group and Greentarget proved this very point: 84 percent of law firms said they expected to produce more content during the year, but just a quarter of surveyed firms said they had a written content marketing plan, and only 29 percent had a professional managing content development.

So where do law firms start?

Content marketing for lawyers takes a measured approach—but, then again, attorneys are pretty darn good at crossing “T” s and dotting “I”s already. Here are a few ways to gain some momentum in your content marketing efforts:

Gather stakeholders. If team members are too busy to create content internally in a consistent, dedicated way, pinpoint your “experts” on certain topics and outsource your writing to a professional. A content development partner can create original content in a conversational voice for your law firm, interview key stakeholders when necessary and make your content sing—while your attorneys focus on law.

Aim for variety. No one will come back for more if every blog, e-blast or piece of content is the same. Variety is critical and also allows you to test what works best for your audience. Posts can be “newsjacks” (adding your own perspective and spin to a recent legal case, for example); short form (bulleted tips for selecting a good accident attorney); or long form like an in-depth white paper or case study, a form of content marketing gaining strong traction in SEO).

Upcycle your efforts. The rule of thumb is each piece of content can be leveraged up to four times. A content marketing expert can help you rework an eCRM topic into a blog post into a “likeable” Facebook update into a compelling LinkedIn article. Save time, money and resources by upcycling content and increasing the chance of your content being shared by others.

Monitor the mission. If you’re putting effort into creating content to engage with your audiences, generate website traffic and build new leads, you’ve got to monitor your progress. Get your Google Analytics and SEO statisticians in line; see what your clients are saying about your legal counsel; and be open to change and adjusting for constant improvement.

To find out what Network Affiliates can do for your content marketing efforts, give us a call! Speak with one of our experts and get a FREE, confidential marketing evaluation. What are you waiting for?

Posted in SEO

The True Story of Attorney Television Advertising on a Budget

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Despite what you may have heard, TV advertising is accessible—even for lawyers operating on slim margins.

However, making your advertising dollars go further requires a smarter, more pinpointed media strategy. Since you can’t bully your way into the market by buying up copious ad spaces and airtime, your challenge as an attorney with a small budget is two-fold.

Mastering your message

Hone your brand message so it’s both concise and perfectly targeted for your audience, rather than repeating previously popular but now unfounded tactics of focusing on how superior your lawyers are, how many big cases and settlements your firm was won, and over-generalizing to the saturation point. This will make viewers tune out or turn you off altogether.

Take a deeper dive into understanding your real clientele and mutual pain points. What do prospective clients really care about in life—and in a lawyer? Are they really looking to make history as the biggest payout in the firm’s history, or are they more concerned with finding a lawyer who is going to listen, remain responsive, and make it easy to work with throughout the lifespan of a case? Surprise, it’s the latter.

Work on making your advertising message unique to your firm by defining your exclusive differentiators (what do you consistently do better!) and addressing your clients’ real-world needs. If that message is distinctly different from the competition (even larger firms with deeper pockets) and speaks directly to what your prospective clients might be feeling, grappling with and trying to understand when choosing an attorney, it will quickly take you out of the mediocre legal media milieu and set your firm apart.

Remixing your media buy

Small media budgets require creative, strategic-thinking media buyers who can survey the competition and get your message to the right people right when they’re tuned in to the TV. That might mean focusing on one demographic and one message, or buying a single station in your market and dominating those niche airwaves with a powerful message and local call to action.

Finding the media mix to maximize your limited attorney TV advertising budget will also require tying up lose ends after you get the message out to a targeted audience. Make sure your stations are tracking your exact spend with a post-buy media analysis—how many people you are reaching for what you are buying.

Likewise, what are you doing with TV leads that do come directly from your targeted advertising campaign? Work on buttoning up your firm’s intake process in a more accountable way. After all, even if you get one call, what’s measurable is what your firm made of the call. Did it convert to a case?

Attorney television advertising can be striped down to message and media mix. Take a direct and strategic approach to marketing your firm on TV, and you may find that your budget is can stretch in some surprisingly creative ways.

Find out what Network Affiliates can do for you. Give us a call, speak with an expert and get a FREE, confidential marketing evaluation 303-817-7313 .

Ranking Is Still Important, But There Are Other Factors As Well

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Instead focus your efforts on what really brings qualified leads

In the world of search engine optimization, it used to be that keywords were king. Stuffing website content with specific highly searched terms was the way to rank higher on search-page results and attempt to pull in more traffic to your website.

Not anymore. SEO is moving away from keywords as a primary ranking factor. Search engines are shifting priorities to a more complex and dynamic ranking system called semantic search — which determines the intent and contextual meaning for search queries. For law firm SEO, that means duping the system with keyword overload is done; now it’s the quality of your content that will serve your site best.

What’s critical is how relevant your content is. This creates both a challenge and an opportunity for law firms around the country. Yes, it will require modifying content on your website and digital marketing campaigns, but it could also create a leg up against the competition if you do an SEO overhaul right—and do it now.

Shifting from a keyword-concentrated to a semantic search content strategy requires a shift in thinking about SEO for law firms.

Try to ignore rank: Ranking may temporarily boost ego, but isn’t necessarily the end goal for attorneys. The end goal is using content marketing to generate more quality leads.

Add more meaning: If content is meaningful to the end user, Google now recognizes that value. This explains why keyword padding has gone by the wayside—it is of no significance to the end user.

Ratchet up relevancy: New semantic search algorithms can decipher entire phrases, or long-tail keywords, to serve up the most relevant information to the user. Your mission should be to add greater relevancy to the content you produce.

Account for humans: Just because you rank No. 1 for a vanity search term like “personal injury lawyer” doesn’t mean the user always clicks on the No. 1-ranked website. Humans click on what is the most personally pertinent.

Consider keyword variables: Google now leverages a user’s location, search history, demographic data, time of day and other variables for keyword ranking.

Prioritize conversion: Put ranking in the background and start to prioritize conversion. Are conversion rates going up? How many of your law firm’s leads are qualified leads?

The new story of attorney SEO is get relevant to get more business. You can have tons traffic and top keyword ranking, but if the traffic is not geographically focused or your content isn’t helpful to the user, then it won’t convert.

Interested in learning more about how your law firm can convert more cases? Network Affiliates SEO strategists can show you how.  Give us a call today 303-817-7313.

Posted in SEO

Websites for Law Firms Must Convert Leads to Cases

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Get your digital marketing up to date or risk losing new business.

Law firm web development is going mobile. Why? Because more than 50 percent of search traffic now comes from mobile devices, with Google reporting it currently gets more U.S.-based search queries via mobile devices like smartphones than it does from people searching on a PC.

If your legal website isn’t yet optimized for mobile use or updated to make on-the-go browsing easier for potential clients, your case load is probably falling short too.

This cultural shift of consumers preferring mobile search should be driving all facets of digital marketing for lawyers, but let’s start with your website.

Here are three ways Network Affiliates helps improve websites for law firms to make them more mobile-friendly—and better at generating cases.

Update: With Google’s newest algorithm update (which happened 90 days ago!), the search-engine giant now boosts the ranking of mobile-friendly pages on mobile search results. For a consumer that means it’s easier to find and read relevant search results without tapping or zooming. For an attorney that means your website better be optimized for mobile or competitors’ sites that are will quickly start to outrank yours. Check to see how mobile-friendly your current site is by simply typing in your URL right here.

Analyze: Once you start to review Google Analytics on the performance of your site, you’ll quickly grasp how and how many people get to your site and just what they do there. Remember, what’s critical is that potential clients stay on websites for lawyers long enough to gain the right insight to make a call or quickly understand how they can take action. Monitor your unique visitors and you might be amazed at how many people are actually seeing your law firm’s website—and, more importantly, how many of those could convert to cases.

Optimize: The next step is starting to leverage the presence you do have on the Web. If your website is not mobile-friendly enough, start there. If people are not staying on your site very long, consider how you can beef up original content and set your firm apart as a thought leader. If visitors are rarely converting to cases, add a call to action on each page and use tracking numbers to gain metrics on phone calls. Consider adding video to further engage visitors and help people make a more informed decision about choosing your firm.

Consumer behavior, namely searching on phones, is driving SEO. As such, it should also be driving digital marketing strategy for lawyers.

Not sure where you rank these days? Give us a call to find out where you stand 303-817-7313.