Comments on Martindale-Hubbell ads claim its lawyers.com directory has the 'Best Lawyers?' | Real Lawyers Have Blogs http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/ Sure looks that way in Martindale-Hubbell's Google ads for their consumer and small business lawyer's directory, lawyers.com. Doing a search for the Best Lawyers directory, here's what I found at the top of the Google's first page. Martindale-Hubbell is buying... en-us Copyright 2012 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:50:17 -0800 Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:05:45 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss ken@justia.com (Ken Chan) Let's see if "Best Lawyers" will complain about Martindale using their service mark within their ad text.

]]> http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/#811203 http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/#811203 Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:09:28 -0800 ben@benglasslaw.com (Ben Glass) I don't think any consumer will be fooled. Most consumers, I believe, now recognize that the ads at the top and right side of Google are just that, ads. I don't think they'll be fooled any more than by seeing an add that promises "best cars."

But go ahead, click on it. What you see is that it takes the consumer to a mind numbing list of mainly lookalike websites. Most consumers will find that its very hard to differentiate one lawyer from the next on that list. (I know, I know...you could buy one of those dumb expensive banners that shows up in the Lawyers.com listing.. but again, they don't differentiate much, do they?)

Any lawyer who is buying into that type of marketing scheme (being listed in an on-line lawyer directory where you can show up right next to your 200 nearest and dearest competitors) isn't really thinking about how best to use his/her marketing money.

]]> http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/#812854 http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/#812854 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:55:48 -0800 trout@bretttrout.com (Brett Trout) You guys are correct. Would you rather be a sponsored link for Best Patent Lawyer, or would you rather show up on the first page of actual search results for someone searching for the Best Patent Lawyer? Blogs are the way to go if you actually want to connect with clients worth having.

]]> http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/#813004 http://kevin.lexblog.com/2007/10/articles/law-firm-marketing/martindalehubbell-ads-claim-its-lawyerscom-directory-has-the-best-lawyers/#813004 Wed, 31 Oct 2007 11:50:17 -0800