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Internet Marketing For Lawyers/Solicitors

1. What is website or internet marketing?

The easiest analogy here is to refer to your practice's brochures. If you spend money producing brochures, it will be of no use to you if you do not send them to clients and prospective clients. The same applies to websites. If you spend a large amount of your marketing budget on a website but then spend no money promoting it, you are missing a very real opportunity to acquire new clients for your law firm at incredibly effective prices (it can work out as little as £10 per new client depending on your market and the amount of competition).

Internet marketing includes Search Engine Marketing (often referred to as Search Engine Optimisation), or Pay Per Click marketing.

2. Search Engine Marketing

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so to help please see the diagram of search results below from Google which show where results for Search Engine Marketing would appear (along with Pay Per Click results too).

Organic Search Engine Marketing (or Search Engine Optimisation)

This allows you to be featured in the results of the search without paying for clicks through to your website (the results on the left of the image above underneath the first two blue boxes). The search results for the term, for example, "Solicitor" will be displayed at the top of the page on the left hand side of the screen (see diagram attached). By its nature the search results are closely matched to the search made as the search engine matches the search term to a website which contains that term a number of times.

Therefore, if your business can be listed on the first page of a search for the areas of law that you service, the chances of a viewer clicking through to your website are increased. Most viewers will only look at the first two pages of a search result. If you are not on the first two pages of the search, potential clients are unlikely to find your websites.

Search Engine Marketing is a specialist area and many different aspects apply to ensure you obtain good first page rankings. I will not overwhelm you with detail, the most important point to appreciate is that it is possible for any law firm's website to appear on the first page of search results, so whether you are a top city firm, or a sole practitioner you can compete evenly.

3. Pay Per Click Marketing?

Pay per click is easier to explain, in that it is a "Ronseal" form of marketing. You advertise in the sponsored results on the right of the page or the top blue boxes if you are performing especially well (see diagram). However, you do not pay to appear in these results, you only pay for your advertisement when a visitor clicks on your advertisement and travels through to your website.

Whereas Search Engine Optimisation can take months to achieve results, with Pay Per Click marketing you can be featured on the first pages of the results within 15 minutes of placing your advertisements. The click charges vary enormously. Some months ago some solicitors were paying up to £20 per click for the term "Road Traffic Accident". However, most click charges start from 4p per click.

4. How do I know it is worth spending time marketing on the internet?

The beauty of the internet is that it is one of the easiest methods of marketing to track your return on investment. Before you commence a campaign, a company (such as Samson Consulting) can use research tools to tell you exactly how many people are searching for certain terms on the internet every 24 hours, or every month.

For instance, on Google on average there are 52 searches made in every 24 hour period for the term "solicitors", 26 for "solicitors kent" and 21 for "personal injury solicitors". There are literally thousands of other search terms similar to these, it really depends which type of visitors you would like to attract. More importantly, how many do you wish to attract when they are actually ready to buy legal services.

Think about how you use the internet. Many of us now search for products or services online. Itis absolutely no different for legal services as you can see from the numbers above. Thousands of people are looking for a solicitor to represent them every single day. The question is this; are they finding your website when they are searching?

5. Where do I start?

If you have a website you can be promoting it in no time at all. Samson Consulting's website marketing management fees start from as little as £250 per month, with a guarantee that we will refund this fee if you are not completely satisfied with the results at the end of the first month. We are pleased to say no client has ever requested this refund as a result of the success of their campaigns.

One of our satisfied client's comments " I have no doubt that my practice has benefited hugely from the very cost effective advice provided to me by Nick Jervis of Samson Consulting. Thanks to his advice I am in the unusual position, for me, of actually being able to directly attribute financial benefit for advice received from a marketing professional. It helps that all this advice is delivered in a clear and friendly manner from someone I feel I can trust. " Noel De Speville, De Speville & Co. www.despeville.co.uk

Would You Like More Advice Like This?

To discover what small steps you can instantly take to bring new clients to your law firm and to increase your profits please complete your details below to receive my free guide: "8 Ways To Instantly Increase Your Profits!". The guide covers the following vital matters for you:

• the fatal mistakes most solicitors make with their advertising along with a formula to use to correct them;
• how to finally find out what is working for you so you can do more of what works and stop doing what is not working;
• the best form of marketing for solicitors (and you will be pleased to hear it does not involve spending thousands of pounds);
• how to make more of your free advertising space (your premises);
• Website marketing - what you are missing and how can you improve;
• creating your army of salesmen for your services; and
• the one tip that could instantly increase your profits with NO COST whatsoever

I will not sell or pass on your email address, ever.
Nick Jervis, Solicitor (non-practising).