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Do law firms want free client development and marketing solutions?

January 21, 2010

The message of Mark Britton, CEO of Avvo, kicking off Avvo’s Internet marketing conference, is that, with the advent of Web 2.0, lawyers ought to be looking at free very and low cost client development solutions to market their services.

Is that what lawyers really want? Is free or marketing for dollar a day in the best interest of you as a lawyer? Is it in the best interest of your law firm? Is it what you really want?

Sure, the Web has brought us some incredible tools that lawyers may harness at little or no cost.

  • Consumer and small business lawyers would be foolish not to avail themselves of completing profiles, and using the question and answer features, in the Avvo and Justia lawyer directories.
  • A LinkedIn profile is a necessity for any lawyer, consumer or large business based, and the groups and answers features of LInkedIn can be very fruitful for networking.
  • Twitter, when used strategically, can be be a very effective relationship building and brand building tool.
  • Google local search may be worthwhile depending on the density of lawyers in your locale and the type of law you do.
  • A link from the DMOZ directory and/or the Yahoo Directory ($299) to your blog or website is worthwhile for SEO purposes.
  • JD Supra allows you to upload articles and pleadings.
  • Facebook can be a an effective way to enhance relationships and build communities.

But if you’re a lawyer trying to get the top of your field and trying to reach financial independence for you and your family, is your goal to keep your client development spending down to a dollar a day?

If you’re focused on honing your skill and expertise as a a lawyer, while at the same time addressing your client’s affairs, do you have the time to tinker with the free and low cost Internet marketing solutions?

Britton says all these “Web 2.0” tools are easy to use. Look at the above list of Web 2.O and social media tools. Do you know what they all are? Do you know how to use them for client development purposes? Do you know how to use them in a way where you don’t embarrass yourself? Do you know how to use them well enough to burn political capital in your firm by advising the firm’s leadership that the firm ought to embrace these tools?

I talk with thousands of lawyers and hundreds of law firm leaders a year. I observe what lawyers are doing online as much as anyone. Not only don’t lawyers and law firms now how to use these ‘free tools,’ but a lot of them, including law firms with huge marketing budgets, embarrass themselves through the foolish use of these free and low cost tools. In response to lots of lawyers who have told me they are getting seen online, I ask them “Is that a good thing?” It’s often not.

I practiced law for 20 years. I found that lawyers and law firms who invested in themselves to improve themselves as a lawyer and invested in their marketing and business development did markedly better than other lawyers.

I laud Avvo for what they are doing in offering lawyers a free directory. While serving as a VP of Business Development for Martindale, I could never get Martindale to send their people out to educate lawyers on Internet Marketing. Avvo and Britton are doing a good job of such lawyer education. There’s probably 200 lawyers sitting in front of me in Seattle at Avvo’s Internet Marketing Conference.

But free marketing services or doing your law firm’s client development for a dollar a day, less than a can of coke costs, seems terribly misguided. Especially for a lawyer who has invested seven years in getting an education. And especially for a professional who is holding themselves out to the American public as someone they can trust to address their most important and personal affairs.

Hiring someone to help you do what you’re not good at is a concept Americans are very comfortable with. You as a lawyer expect people to hire you, when perhaps they could incorporate their own business or do their own divorce.

Buying services and solutions that cast you in a better light, make your life easier, and allow you to accomplish your goals is something lawyers do every day. Lawyers buy software, lease offices (as opposed to practicing at home), hire associates and legal assistants so they can do more work for more – and better clients.

Free and low cost can be good be good for lawyers. Especially when compared to the expensive services offered by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell and Thomson FindLaw whose services often under deliver.

But I’m not sure free and low cost is what American lawyers are looking for. What do you think?

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