Offline Marketing for lawyers

Yes, local seminars can be a great way for a lawyer to get known by potential clients.

But "employment law" is far too general.

Absolute best is if the lawyer can offer a seminar for business owners on a new law about to go into effect.

Second best is to center the seminar on a "what if" seminar that is the type of danger that could ruin the business if the owner hasn't done things right.

Marcia Yudkin

My PI Lawyer bases his advertising around the fact that 'You may not need a lawyer.' Kennedy all the way. He has written several books. A couple alone and severeral more with other people. (one with DK even, I think.)

The 1st thing he gives you when you come in his office is a copy of a book he wrote that outlines several situations where a lawyer would not be in you best interest and also outlines the procedure to carry on with out one.

Fairfax, Virginia - Best Personal Injury Car Accident Attorney Website | Benjamin W. Glass, III & Assoc. PC

These 4 books I think he wrote himself.
He has several more he co-authored

• The Truth About Lawyer Advertising
• Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Accident Case
• Why Most Malpractice Vicitms Never Recover a Dime
• Robbery Without a Gun

Thank you both for your input.

This is the sort of stuff I'm interested to know more on. PPC and Local business searches are marketing ideas, but it's the other stuff that I think they'll also sell on.

Like how would you sell the idea of an autoresponder to a law firm? Is it a good idea?

Trademarking is a sensitive issue companies go through, I guess a talk on "Trademarking your future the legal way" might be an interseting talk for local business people to attend - should the lawyer specialise in trademarks.

Hello Cringer:

I have been diligently studying Offline Marketing (OM) since May 2009... previously having been a Software Applications & Eval. Consultant specifically for business apps in the MS Windows environment... helping companies from Microsoft to small shareware authors.

To give some personal context to your question... I have purchased some 30 OM WSOs... and have recently achieved the following for my 1st client, a certified commercial insurance broker:

• #1 Google Map positions
  
  
• Google SERP 1ST page organic positions
  (3 to 7 positions in 1st page top 10 results) for 6 highest competitive keywords.
  

To answer your question... I am going to target market PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEYS... offer them CUSTOMER ACQUISITION... render them much more findable on the Internet... and position them to DOMINATE local customer Google searches.

Just (1) new client can represent profits for an attorney client of $25,000 to $100,000.

I hope this may prove helpful!

Alan

One thing I do want to point out is that there are fairly specific legal issues in regards to the type of advertising a lawyer can do. I'd suggest getting some information before moving forward as I believe, from conversations over a year ago, that the rules are much different then any other profession.

One thing that is often over looked when it comes to a lawyers website is "website accessibility", meaning....many clients the lawyers represent are disabled in some way....looking for settlements on those disbilities. The lawyers own websites for the most part are NOT accessible for disabled as in vision or hearing impaired clients or employee's.
I believe there is even a law somewhere that states that government or legal websites with over 15 or more employee's (as little as 6 employee's in some states) must be ADA compliant with website accessibility laws. (ADA = Americans with Disabilties Act)
InfoQuest! Website Usability and Accessibility - ADA Guidelines

It just makes sense that a disabilty lawyer would make sure their own website, which is an extention of their business is accessible by the clients they represent.

The ADA and its application to WWW sites
*pay attention to section I...What is considered inaccessible in web design

Things as simple as adding a script that magnifies on-page text...and adding "ALT Tags" on all images, logo's, navigation buttons, etc...
Making it "screen reader" capable...
Adding an "audio clip" of on-page text & contact infomation, phone numbers, etc...
Making the site translate into other lanquages......
All these are not hard to do for most experienced webiste designers....outsource it if your not up to speed on it...could get a nice fee for this service...

Target was sued for not having an "accessible website", southwest airlines also....Priceline & Ramada.com too...
http://www.jmbm.com/portalresource/l...me=/retail.pdf

Section 508 ADA Website Accessibility - Vision & Vocational Services

Bottomline is.....it's another service to offer lawyers....another income stream for offline marketers. Most lawyers themselves are not aware of this...& most would not relish the though of being sued over it...
I bring this up everytime I meet with a lawyer for website design or SEO...
Print out some of those articles & bring them to your meetings....helps alot when they see it in print...

Good luck,

~Ken

I have 3 lawyer clients...each has went with the compliance package I offered....each is on monthly website maintenance program...actually was a lot easier to get them to understand than I had thought. I know some stay away from lawyers, but so far I have no reason to....

I'm going to expand the "compliance pitch" to include medical & chiropractor sites too...

~ken

The idea of a compliance package is a good one - do you find the lawyers are open to that idea and by that I mean does it require a lot of "selling" of the idea or do they understand it fairly easily?

Have you asked (assuming they are clients) the lawyers what their biggest "money maker" services are?

Once that is identified, then you'll simply design a marketing strategy that will generate leads, follow-up with leads, and close sales for the lawyer on complete autopilot.

Something like a free report or discount on services for lead generation, and then having that lead enter their contact information so the autoresponder can follow-up with additional info etc.

Then the autoresponder can eventually send emails for the lead to contact the laywer for a specific service etc. or if this is post-payment, have additional upsells that the client can purchase from the lawyer (wills etc.)

Easily increase profits for a law firm doing this and charge a nice fee at the same time! I might be working with a law firm in my City in the near future here, but I must admit (like Andrew C said above) I'm a bit hesitant since lawyers can be tricky *******s!

Cheers,

~Dexx

If it's presented in a way that it's easy to understand....yes, it actually sells itself. Once they realize the possible legalities involved & the image it may project if they are defending disabled clients themselves & not in compliance for persons with disabilities .....they usually come around to it on their own. Like I said, I presently have 3 lawyer clients, I brought this up to them & each within 24 hrs signed up...

I printed some of the information articles I found online, highlighted the important parts, made a small presentation brochure.....printed up an itemized list of just what I would do to rectify the situation, added it to the brochure....handed them the brochure to view at their leisure....In all 3 cases, They called me back within 24 hrs looking to sign up...

I went in with the intent of talking to them & presenting this idea to them, leaving the material. Once they realized this would benefit & protect them, they wanted in on it.......from there it gave the opening to talk to them about some other services they may benefit from, such as website redesign, content management, geo-targeted SEO, client acquisition / newsletters, social marketing...etc.
I also gained a referral from one so far....

Use some of the articles I have above or do a search for ADA Website Compliance...a lot of artciles will show, pay attention to sction 508, this pertains mostly to the internet & websites.....gather & compile your information, highlight the bullet points. All the info is put in front of them to see that this is the real deal & it makes for an easy decision...

All I can say is try it out....I have always done this in person but I think it may work well by direct mail also....emails may work too....with a headline like "your website is not in ADA compliance"....I have not tried the direct mail or email. Test a few methods to see what works for you.

~ken

I was looking at some UK sites re website compliance - came across this on. Given wht they're offering I found it very hard to read (font, etc)! Accessible Web Site Design UK - Standards Compliance & Accessible Web Design Specialists.

The RNIB outlines what UK websites need. UK Law for websites.

Cringer, if you were to do workshops or seminars WITH a solicitor firm, what would you present, or would you just organise it?

~ Jacqui