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Your law firm needs a new website now
In Washington, DC today, a debate is raging between those who, for the last 4 years, haven’t been smart enough to pursue a war-winning strategy and those who, over the next 6 months, are not-too-cleverly trying to impose a war-losing strategy. Bad generalship. Typical partisanship. And, very depressing.
Thankfully, this article is not about the war in Iraq. But, it IS about your firm and its market development strategy. Here you determine who wins and who loses.
The status quo won’t work much longer
In days gone by, the firm was built by its senior partners through hard work, a track record of legal excellence – and, more or less traditional client prospecting and referrals. That tried and true formula has borne fruit for a long time now. The question is can the firm continue to sustain such results indefinitely?
Probably not. The Internet has changed how the potential client finds legal advice. Referrals are as important as ever, sure. But, the thousands spent in annual yellow page advertising no longer pulls in acceptable numbers. This is empirically true: Today, we know people primarily use their PCs to search for the products and services they need. It’s quick, packed with choices, useful options, and favors those who understand the Web.
New attorneys and associate partners want to win
Let’s face it: Law firms tend to be conservative. Ethics rules and tradition weigh heavily on any decisions regarding business development. And, of course, no one wants to throw the firm’s money around on untried or suspect avenues of approach. The Internet, however, is no longer experimental. It’s not going to ‘be here soon.’ Your website, or lack of one, will be a major determinate of your firm’s future success – or its capitulation to the better strategists.
Many senior partners and all newer attorneys know the huge value of an attorney profile page that pops ups on the first page of Google™ search results. They are beginning to understand how important “search engine optimization” is. They know of lawyers who are successfully “blogging” about topics within their practice areas. You need to let them go there too.
The ‘stay the course’ no-win strategy
Right now, in one major Midwest metro area, a survey of 107 law firms revealed the following:
- Only 17% of the firms deploy first-rate or acceptable professional websites that serve their clients and partners;
- 32% rely upon older, less-well-designed websites to represent their firm's experience and reputation;
- Fully 51%, more than half, of all the law firms surveyed either had NO discernable website at all, relied upon a wholly inadequate and stunted web template from one of the two major legal directories, FindLaw or Martindale-Hubbell for their web presence, or, had an awful web design not worthy of their name.
Now, it must be said that some firms using FindLaw for web design had decent websites. However, those relying on inferior designs and directory listings alone are certainly pursuing a strategy guaranteed never to win – whether over the next year, or the next twenty.
Declaring defeat is not an option either
It’s time to take action. You cannot leave the decision about the best business development and Internet strategy up to those who see no need to change direction, or alternately, to those who prefer to consign the whole process to what the under-informed majority of law firms think is acceptable. Both courses of action are unsatisfactory.
If you think you’re ready to move forward, get a budget of about $3600 approved. Smaller firms will need comparatively less. Then, call some reputable web design firms and get rolling. Of course, my own firm, Jordan Creek Web Design, would be only too pleased to assist.
On a personal note, I happen to believe that most lawyers are a lot smarter than those guys in Washington. So, good luck in the near future!
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