Internet most effective marketing tool used by business and transactional law firms

The Internet is now the single most effective marketing tool employed by corporate, transactional and defense firms, according to a recent survey by Alyn-Weiss & Associates.

Highlights include:

• The number of law firms that ‘received work directly or by referral during the past 24 months’ from their Web site is up from 51 percent of firms in 2004.
• 20 percent of responding firms who had employed formal search engine marketing techniques — key phrase optimization, geotargeting and click-through campaigns — had received a steady flow of case inquiries.
• Seminars and presentations slipped to second on the list of most effective marketing tactics. Fifty-five percent of firms reported receiving work directly or by referral from those efforts, which is down from 77 percent in 2004.
• Trade and community group participation came in third with 47 percent of firms, the same as in 2004.

Bottom line, business and transactional law firms need an effective Internet presence. A web site or a blog is not enough for an effective Internet presence. Firms need web sites and blogs that get seen by prospective corporate and business clients performing substantive legal research and investigating firms during the firm selection process.