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Law firm websites: Does any law firm believe they’re key to business development?

The Snark at the Fulton County Daily Report, an Atlanta legal newspaper, is having a tongue in cheek contest about the best large law firm websites. It’s a parody of the real contests on the best law firm websites.

A parody here, but it seems strange that law firm marketing professionals even discuss which law firm websites are better for marketing and business development.

I was speaking with a law firm Chief Marketing Officer this week about what his group was working on. He talked of adding new business development professionals, working with lawyers on what they need to keep in mind in their business development efforts, and particular efforts underway to build relationships with people in certain industry segments.

At the end of our talk, he mentioned they were also doing an upgrade to their website. I asked if he expected the website to generate any business for the firm. He responded “Of course not, but the site’s important for providing info on the lawyers, practice groups, the firm, the industries it represents, the type of work it does, and full contact info for all professionals in the firm.”

Though legal marketing professionals talk of the importance of law firm websites for business development, I’ve never had a managing partner, executive committee member, or CMO (the people charged with making sure the firm is doing well business wise) talk of the importance of a law firm website in developing business. More than one managing partner has told me they don’t believe any business has been developed from their website.

The reason? Law firm websites are great. They are what they are. They provide helpful background info on the firm and its lawyers, much like a brochure would. Enough said.

I don’t buy the “Our website goes far beyond brochure-ware. It does so much more with its updates, articles, blogs built into the site (as opposed to blogs independent of the website), news center, and forums.” I also don’t buy cool design and branding makes our website work for business development.

Your clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and the influencers of those three (bloggers, reporters, association leaders, publishers, conference coordinators etc) are not coming to your website for great legal info, insight, and commentary. It’s not how they consume legal information and commentary and you’ll not break their habits no matter how hard you try.

Law firm leaders know that business is developed from relationships. Relationships established by engaging your target audience. Engagement that takes place by listening to conversations your target audience is participating in or listening to. Engagement by taking part in those conversations by offering value to the conversation, as opposed to shouting content at people.

This sort of networking to nurture existing business relationships as well as to establish and grow new relationships is what law firm business development is all about. Always has been.

As practicing lawyers we engaged our target audience, built relationships, and built a word of mouth reputation as a good lawyer or good law firm through this sort of networking long before law firm websites. Ask any of us who practiced for a decade or two before websites – it’s true.

  • http://www.podwojneopodatkowanie.pl Rafal

    Hi Kevin!
    Great post! I realized this idea a couple weeks ago, when I was speaking to Salans lawyers about e-marketing for lawyers in the process of client development. You confirmed my reasoning.
    Regards!
    Rafal
    Poland

  • http://stayviolation.typepad.com Chuck Newton

    It is not only an excellent point, it is true. A good website, blog, social media, can do a lot of good in helping to transition a referral to a law firm, it can build confidence and educate its readers, it helps in maintaining relationships and staying top of the mind, it facilitates making contact, but it does not replace relationship building in most all instances.

  • http://www.shawnjroberts.com Shawn J. Roberts

    Kevin,
    So is your conclusion that a lawyer website is only capable of providing information and cannot be a business-generator?
    I see lawyer-websites as having the potential to serve as a “digital-hub” for all the content and interaction an attorney has online.
    I agree that adding value is fundamental to building relationships that generate business.
    Shawn Roberts
    http://www.shawnjroberts.com
    Shawn

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    A law firm website serving as the “digital-hub for all the content and interaction an attorney has online” is a recipe for failure. Makes as much sense as a lawyer saying my law office is the hub where all my interaction with clients, prospective clients, referral houses, and the influencers of those three will take place.
    Shawn, I looked at your site. You want to do among other things, “estate planning, corporate law, and healthcare law.” Presumably in and around Oklahoma City where your office is.
    If you’re going to limit your online interaction with your target audience to your website, as you say you are, you are going to starve. At best, you’ll always be trying to figure out why you’re not like the lawyers’ lawyers in your town who are getting all the good corporate and estate planning work.
    Ask yourself these questions:
    * Do you think the business & financial reporters from the Oklahoman and your region’s business journals are going to come to your website to interact with you to give you the opportunity to build a relationship with them so you can be a reliable source of information for them?
    * Do you think OKC financial planners and accountants are going to come to your website so they can get to know you as a person and get to know that you are are a lawyer capable of handling the estate planning work of their clients?
    * Do you think the healthcare industry association directors in your state and their conference coordinators are going to come to your website so they can get to know you well enough and evaluate your competence on healthcare law so they feel comfortable enough inviting you to speak on legal matters at their regional and state conferences?
    * Do you think the better estate planning and corporate lawyers in your state and the country are going to come to your website to interact with you so you get the opportunity to network with them and learn from them so you can become a better lawyer?
    I suspect you are interacting with clients, prospective clients, referral sources and their influencers as well as good lawyers offline to build relationships for both professional and business development. The Internet hasn’t changed that, the Internet is a powerful tool to use in engaging your target audience to build relationships. But a website, just because it is on the Internet, is not where you engage your target audience to build relationships.
    If I’m looking to become a better lawyer and build a practice using the Internet, I’m looking for tools that engage:
    * Blogging in a strategic way so as to listen to and then add value to a conversation my target audience is either participating in or is listening to.
    * LinkedIn used in a proactive & strategic manner.
    * Twitter to become an intelligence agent and then to build relationships.
    * Facebook for networking with those people who are closer to me.
    * Closed communities with larger audiences interesting in legal information and commentary which have forums & other interaction – lawyers.com, martindale connected, Avvo etc.
    Bottom line Shawn, you know you need to get out of your law office to interact with the people you need to interact with to succeed as a lawyer. Same with the Internet, you need to get outside your website to interact.

  • http://www.shawnjroberts.com Shawn J. Roberts

    Kevin,
    Thank you for your feedback and time you put in to create it, I appreciate it very much. I am going to read through it in more detail tomorrow and it looks like you have given me a lot good material to work with.
    One thing I need to clarify is that I do not intend my interaction with potential clients, influencers, referral sources to be limited to my website. I am active on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, some YouTube, I am starting to blog on a regular basis and I will be launching a podcast soon.
    When I say “digital hub” I am referring to a central place on the web I can send someone who wants to access all my content and also a place to host my blog. It is a gateway. I do not want another source to own all my content (e.g., Twitter, Facebook) so my content will start with my website/blog and move out into places where I actually interact with people.
    Thank you again for all your comments.
    Shawn

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    You are welcome for the feedback Shawn, but I would not look at your website as you say a “digital hub – central place on the web I can send someone who wants to access all my content and also a place to host my blog.”
    Your website is not the gateway to Shawn Roberts or any other lawyer or their content.
    If I want info on a lawyer I don’t go to their website. I go to LinkedIn. Then I go to Google to see where the lawyer has been cited and what people in my network are saying about the lawyer. I’ll also see what people are saying about the lawyer among the networks I participate online – the blogsphere, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
    More likely than not I am not even going to use a lawyer which I do not know through my network, which I have built through my online interaction. Online interaction that not once started with a lawyer’s website.
    And forget your website as being the gateway to your blog. That type of logic is a looser from the get go. If you’re doing a decent job with your blog, 66% of people are coming to your blog via links at other blogs. The majority of the remainder are coming from links shared in social media and Google searches. The last place you want to rely on for traffic to your blog is your website. That’s one of many reasons a lawyer’s blog doesn’t belong as part of their webiste.
    A website is an interactive (you can click on stuff) brochure. It’s not a hub of anything. If want a hub, make it you, not a brochure.

  • http://www.LegaLisi.com Jason P. Lisi

    Kevin — Been reading your stuff for a while, but commenting for the first time.
    As a owner of an Internet marketing firm for law firms (websites, search engine optimization, etc.) and a former practicing attorney, I find (a) there is certainly business generated from law firm websites but (b) it depends on the practice, the firm, and how a strategic marketing plan (to the extent one exists at a firm) uses the Internet.
    First, consumer-level-law firms, such as personal injury, class action, and torts in general, do very well at generating business via the site. Most of these firms’ clients don’t personally know lawyers and are turning to the web much as they would turn to the Yellow Pages.
    But I sense those firms are not the focus of your article. Large firms (of which we have several as clients) get benefit from Internet marketing, but the firms’ leaders are likely to be disappointed in the results if they think that the website is the _sole_ driver of a prospects knowledge of a firm. That’s not the way it works in a corporate or high-end personal practice.
    Instead, the website should be used as a overall confirmation of other ‘touches’ the firm has with the prospect. A colleague may have recommended a firm to a prospect, but before calling, the prospect may want to do some research to confirm if the firm is a good fit.
    Further, don’t discount the ability for the search engines to help in the process. That prospect that received a referral to a firm may not have the exact URL for the firm, but can find the firm with a search engine search. Or, the prospect may want to see where the firm is quoted or has made news — all items that can be mentioned on the website.
    Will an international corporate merger clients just do a search and choose the firm solely on the basis of the website? Probably not, but the site — like a personal conversation, a brochure, or a good mention in a legal directory — is part of the overall equation that adds up to a client engagement.
    JPL

  • http://kevin.lexblog.com Kevin OKeefe

    Jason, it doesn’t matter what size of law firm you are in or what type of practice you have. Better business development and marketing does not come in the form of law firm websites.
    I practiced law as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer for almost 20 years. Though we got minimal work from yellow pages, the better work always came by word of mouth as a result because of our reputation.
    It was the same thing when the Internet came along. I used the Internet from 1996 through 1998 to engage my target audience (injury victims, their family members, referral sources, and the influencers of those 3 – reporters, association leaders and the like).
    I did this Internet business development by answering questions on AOL. People passed the answers around expanding my reputation as a trusted and reliable authority. The more I engaged my target audience the more my reputation spread, the more people and the media talked about how I was helping people, and the more work I got. I did no yellow page advertising at the time and there was no such thing as SEO – heck, there was no such thing as search.
    Sure, if a lawyer does not understand how to use the Internet for client development, they’ll need to focus money on a website and SEO. And I concede a website is worthwhile. But it’s flawed to say good client development practices only work for some kinds of lawyers and practices.
    The other concern consumer lawyers ought to have with a website and SEO approach is the type of clients they will attract over time. Ask lawyers today about the quality of client they may get calling from yellow page ads. The clients are pretty weak. That same thing is coming soon with websites, SEO, and search – a much less sophisticated client, often with difficult or impossible cases and/or without the financial capability to pay a lawyer.
    I am sure you have a sound business offering a reasonable service but a website and search serve a limited purpose in sound business development for a lawyer.

  • http://www.elinfonet.com Patrick Della Valle

    This made me smile:
    “More than one managing partner has told me they don’t believe any business has been developed from their website.”
    I also love the fact that effective busiess development depends on your blog’s URL.

  • http://www.LegaLisi.com Jason P. Lisi

    Kevin — I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on this.
    You say, “a website and search serve a limited purpose in sound business development for a lawyer.”
    If by “limited” you mean “insignificant,” I have a wall full of thank you letters from successful clients who would differ with your point.
    But thanks for the opportunity to discuss the matter.
    JPL

  • http://www.impirus.com/ Kelly Spradley

    Kevin,
    You conceded that a website is worthwhile. Where do you see the value in a law firm website? If it is not for business development, what is it for?
    Kelly

  • http://www.impirus.com/ Kelly Spradley

    Look at this comment from Attorney Ralph Thompson: “Over half of my new clients come in because of my website. The site has over a hundred pages on foreclosure on bankruptcy–so why bother to see a lawyer. As Jay points out, knowledge is not the same as expertise. My website readers understand that they are learning enough about their issues to be able to work intelligently with a lawyer, but not enough to competently solve their problems.” His comment was posted on Jay Fleischman’s blog.

  • Les

    Are publising legal articles on websites like http://www.americanlegaljournal.com or http://www.Articlebase.com of any value?

  • Les

    Are publising legal articles on websites like http://www.americanlegaljournal.com or http://www.Articlebase.com of any value?

  • http://www.lawfirmarticles.com Law Firm Articles

    Yes and very much so. Here is another one as well http://www.lawfirmarticles.com.

  • http://www.lawyersontv.com A Clark

    Certainly a web presence has its advantages, especially in this modern world where people research the companies they deal with by searching the web. As part of our business as a marketer of many types of businesses, including law firms (LawyersonTV.com), a web site rounds out the marketing effort. As already mentioned by others, the usefulness of a website to draw in business can depend on the type of law; one example is personal injury, where a client may not regularly use attorneys, but has an unanticipated need for representation. Such firms do well to advertise on television as well, where a phone number and URL become the crucial contact points for new clients.

  • Martin Dack

    I’ve found that writing articles and publishing them online has been a great way to draw in potential clients. The key is to identify a question that one of my potential clients would ask as a question, and then answer that question in the form of an article. Great post! You make some good points.