The Business of Branding: Help! I Need an Effective Web Strategy!

Your firm's website is the single most important component in its marketing communications efforts. Period. It's the lynchpin on which all of your other mar/com efforts rest, it's your “first impression,” your opportunity to communicate with targeted clients on a regular basis via blogs, and hopefully it supports your firm's business development efforts.

Recently, Moir' Marketing Partners attended a Legal Marketing Conference, where law firm leaders and marketers gathered to discuss the pressing issues facing their firms. One of the most common themes we heard was the need to update law firm websites and improve their search engine rankings.

By now, all law firms have websites. However, many of the conference speakers and attendees expressed a high level of dissatisfaction with their current sites ' particularly if their firm's site was three years old or more. One particular area of concern was with their firm's Google rankings. Not only was the firm affected by poor Google rankings, but so were its key rainmakers and growing areas of practice. They were quite vocal about their frustration over how little time they had to develop a competitive online strategy that would better position their firm and their lawyers on the web. Oh, how they wish they had the time and a plan!

Your Firm's Plan

Successful legal websites need comprehensive plans and strategies, including specific SEO objectives. These strategic web and SEO plans must be unique to each firm, developed with the specific business goals and objectives for that firm and its lawyers. Off-the-shelf solutions are simply not going to cut it in this competitive environment. The speakers and attendees we talked to wanted positive results that would ultimately support the firm's business development efforts.

Strategic web planning requires research and purpose, while taking into account the firm's culture so that it rings true with its current clients and street reputation, or “organic brand.” Websites should also be more than a repository for your practice area descriptions and attorney bios (the “firm brochure on the web” approach). Law firm websites need to be informative, engaging and easy to navigate, ultimately providing value to clients as opposed to being focused on the firm, or “firm-centric.” This simple strategic approach helps better position the firm and its lawyers against its principal competitors.

A strategically effective law firm website should include as many of these elements as possible:

• A clear purpose and distinct message that appeals to your target reader;
• Information that appeals to clients and the industries you serve rather than yourself;
• Excellent design that includes meaningful imagery and strategic architecture, so visitors know what to do or where to go to find the information they are searching for;
• Well-formatted attorney bios designed for the scanning reader;
• Engaging client case studies (in states where permitted);
• Testimonials (in states where permitted) as a third-party validation of your firm and attorneys' successes;
• Newsletters, white papers and breaking news on recent
  changes in key practice areas of the firm;
• Blog(s);
• Short videos;
• SEO and SEM;
• Links to social media networks and well-written Wikipedia listings;
• A Content Management System (open source is recommended); and
• A mobile version (adaptive or responsive)

With this in mind, here are the most common reasons firms come to us to refresh or update their firm's websites:

1. Their site has become so neglected over the years, the firm is literally embarrassed by its current site. They need their website to effectively communicate their brand message and finally get in the game. Do they have a brand message? They find themselves calling someone, somewhere simply to make the simplest change each call ending up in a bill.

2. One of the firm's senior partners has just rushed into an executive committee meeting asking if everyone has seen their biggest competitor's new website that just went live ' careful not to say the obvious, that “their new site blows our firm's website out of the water.” “Haven't we been talking about doing something about this? Why don't we talk to Marketing about what's going on?”

Ironically, guess what happens next? This partner who sits on the executive committee suddenly gets the wake-up call that the gloves are off and their competitor is really going after their business, or at least sending the message that it takes marketing seriously. In addition, attracting lawyers with a respect and understanding of marketing that come with established books of business that will grow your firm faster than chasing after new business and responding to RFPs ' something else to consider when your competitor launches a new website.

3. The rare exception is the firm with a CMO who realizes that her firm's website is an extension of the firm that needs to be nurtured, tended to and yes, refreshed or “realigned” on occasion. Reasons for moving in this direction include:

• The firm's business development evolves;
• Changes in laws, statutes, tax codes, etc.;
• Market conditions make it inherently necessary to compete differently; and
• The needs of your client have changed or evolved.

'How Did We Get Here?'

So how did we get here? Fear. How many times during the day do you read on any respectable law marketing list-serve someone asking for a “best practice” in attorney bios, practice area descriptions, case studies (if they be used in their state), video or when to launch a blog? Have we become marketers who simply follow what others are doing or wait around until the firm finally reaches its breaking point and then sends out an RFP to get its website updated as quickly and as inexpensively as possible?

Building an effective law firm website to include positive search engine results requires a well-crafted plan. However, unlike sites built three years ago, today's law firm website should be an extension of your business development efforts and not just a mar/com tool. So what are you waiting for? The time is now to take action, even if that means bringing in outside assistance. Remember, if you don't control your website, you will lose control of your firm's market perception and the market will take over that perception for you ' and no one wants that.

Jeff Roberts, Partner & Creative Director at Moir' Marketing Partners, may be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Connect with him on LinkedIn (@moire) and Twitter (@jeffreymroberts).

Your firm's website is the single most important component in its marketing communications efforts. Period. It's the lynchpin on which all of your other mar/com efforts rest, it's your “first impression,” your opportunity to communicate with targeted clients on a regular basis via blogs, and hopefully it supports your firm's business development efforts.

Recently, Moir' Marketing Partners attended a Legal Marketing Conference, where law firm leaders and marketers gathered to discuss the pressing issues facing their firms. One of the most common themes we heard was the need to update law firm websites and improve their search engine rankings.

By now, all law firms have websites. However, many of the conference speakers and attendees expressed a high level of dissatisfaction with their current sites ' particularly if their firm's site was three years old or more. One particular area of concern was with their firm's Google rankings. Not only was the firm affected by poor Google rankings, but so were its key rainmakers and growing areas of practice. They were quite vocal about their frustration over how little time they had to develop a competitive online strategy that would better position their firm and their lawyers on the web. Oh, how they wish they had the time and a plan!

Your Firm's Plan

Successful legal websites need comprehensive plans and strategies, including specific SEO objectives. These strategic web and SEO plans must be unique to each firm, developed with the specific business goals and objectives for that firm and its lawyers. Off-the-shelf solutions are simply not going to cut it in this competitive environment. The speakers and attendees we talked to wanted positive results that would ultimately support the firm's business development efforts.

Strategic web planning requires research and purpose, while taking into account the firm's culture so that it rings true with its current clients and street reputation, or “organic brand.” Websites should also be more than a repository for your practice area descriptions and attorney bios (the “firm brochure on the web” approach). Law firm websites need to be informative, engaging and easy to navigate, ultimately providing value to clients as opposed to being focused on the firm, or “firm-centric.” This simple strategic approach helps better position the firm and its lawyers against its principal competitors.

A strategically effective law firm website should include as many of these elements as possible:

• A clear purpose and distinct message that appeals to your target reader;
• Information that appeals to clients and the industries you serve rather than yourself;
• Excellent design that includes meaningful imagery and strategic architecture, so visitors know what to do or where to go to find the information they are searching for;
• Well-formatted attorney bios designed for the scanning reader;
• Engaging client case studies (in states where permitted);
• Testimonials (in states where permitted) as a third-party validation of your firm and attorneys' successes;
• Newsletters, white papers and breaking news on recent
  changes in key practice areas of the firm;
• Blog(s);
• Short videos;
• SEO and SEM;
• Links to social media networks and well-written Wikipedia listings;
• A Content Management System (open source is recommended); and
• A mobile version (adaptive or responsive)

With this in mind, here are the most common reasons firms come to us to refresh or update their firm's websites:

1. Their site has become so neglected over the years, the firm is literally embarrassed by its current site. They need their website to effectively communicate their brand message and finally get in the game. Do they have a brand message? They find themselves calling someone, somewhere simply to make the simplest change each call ending up in a bill.

2. One of the firm's senior partners has just rushed into an executive committee meeting asking if everyone has seen their biggest competitor's new website that just went live ' careful not to say the obvious, that “their new site blows our firm's website out of the water.” “Haven't we been talking about doing something about this? Why don't we talk to Marketing about what's going on?”

Ironically, guess what happens next? This partner who sits on the executive committee suddenly gets the wake-up call that the gloves are off and their competitor is really going after their business, or at least sending the message that it takes marketing seriously. In addition, attracting lawyers with a respect and understanding of marketing that come with established books of business that will grow your firm faster than chasing after new business and responding to RFPs ' something else to consider when your competitor launches a new website.

3. The rare exception is the firm with a CMO who realizes that her firm's website is an extension of the firm that needs to be nurtured, tended to and yes, refreshed or “realigned” on occasion. Reasons for moving in this direction include:

• The firm's business development evolves;
• Changes in laws, statutes, tax codes, etc.;
• Market conditions make it inherently necessary to compete differently; and
• The needs of your client have changed or evolved.

'How Did We Get Here?'

So how did we get here? Fear. How many times during the day do you read on any respectable law marketing list-serve someone asking for a “best practice” in attorney bios, practice area descriptions, case studies (if they be used in their state), video or when to launch a blog? Have we become marketers who simply follow what others are doing or wait around until the firm finally reaches its breaking point and then sends out an RFP to get its website updated as quickly and as inexpensively as possible?

Building an effective law firm website to include positive search engine results requires a well-crafted plan. However, unlike sites built three years ago, today's law firm website should be an extension of your business development efforts and not just a mar/com tool. So what are you waiting for? The time is now to take action, even if that means bringing in outside assistance. Remember, if you don't control your website, you will lose control of your firm's market perception and the market will take over that perception for you ' and no one wants that.

Jeff Roberts, Partner & Creative Director at Moir' Marketing Partners, may be reached by e-mail at [email protected]. Connect with him on LinkedIn (@moire) and Twitter (@jeffreymroberts).