Marketing a Law Firm | Paid Leads

If you go back and read my posts you'll see a pretty common theme with me. Every six months or so someone will talk me into paying to advertise with them. Typically it's in the form of some type of paid "leads." Well, it's about that time again, so I bought in.

As time has gone by I've become more and more reluctant to buy into these things, but when I see something that has some promise (and a relatively low price tag) I can't help but give it a shot. If it works that's great. If it doesn't I can move on. That's what marketing a law firm is all about - testing testing testing.

I've already talked about adwords and using yodle. I've talked about Nolo, but this is something new. Sadly for you, if it works, it's field specific.

The idea behind the the service is that when people go to this particular site looking for help I can give them I am exclusively listed as an attorney to call. If it sounds like a lot of the other things people are selling you're right, it is. I pay a flat fee (there was an option to pay for each lead) each month to be the main person on this site.

You're probably wondering what made this site different from all the other sites trying to sell the same thing. For me, the difference was exposure. Whenever people try to sell me something on the internet, the first thing I do is go check out their exposure - what kind of a presence they actually have on the internet. The better the presence the more people will be visiting the site and the more potential clients I get exposure to.

For example, let's look at Nolo. I'm a DUI attorney. We all know this. If you search DUI attorney it might take you 5 pages before any Nolo sites pop up (I didn't check this, but I know they aren't on page 1 - not even close). Because of this lack of exposure they don't get many people to their site that are actually qualified prospective clients.

This new service I've signed up with offers that exposure. They know http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifwhat they are doing with SEO and I've seen them moving up the rankings for the past 6 months or so. For me that is a good sign that they are interested in staying put, in actually providing me a service, and are trying to produce what they are promising.

When you are thinking about marketing your law firm, remember these things:

1. Everything is negotiable.

2. Don't lock yourself in long term - make them prove they're reliable.

3. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

4. Don't just throw your money away, measure results to see if it's worth it.

5. Think about how clients will get to you through this service. If it takes more than 4 mouse clicks it's too hard.

Have a great weekend!