March 8, 2010
Any DUI lawyer reading this probably already realizes that I'm a true believer when it comes to marketing law firms online. A web presence is very helpful in attracting new clients who don't know who you are. But it is essential to have a web presence even if you get all of your business through word of mouth, networking and referrals.
Nearly every potential client that contacts you attempts to find you on the internet before they make the call. If they don't before they make the call, then they do before they come to your office. If not before they come to your office, then certainly before they hire you.
Your website is like you office. Once a potential client visits it, they feel like they have already met you, or at least they should.
For all of the above reasons, you need a web presence. If you don't, some other lawyer in your jurisdiction will take good care of the clients that should have been yours.
But what kind of web presence do you need? Do you need a website? Do you need a blog? What is the difference?
The answers are yes, yes, and a lot.
A DUI lawyer website, in its conventional sense, is a collection of one or more pages that rarely change. They might talk about your firm, your lawyers, your defense philosophy, and even explain a little bit about the law.
A DUI lawyer blog on the other hand is a dynamic and ever-changing publication that talks about anything and everything that might interest your clients and potential clients, and even other lawyers.
If you rely on a non-attorney to update your website content and/or blog that appears to be in your voice, you best check yourself before you wreck yourself. Why? Your clients and potential clients want to know who you are. When they go to your firm's website, it is as if they visited the four walls of your office. They have looked at your diplomas. They have seen your collection of certificates, framed bar admissions, and seen that you have an extensive library of law books. But they don't know you… at least not in your own voice.
Your blog posts should be in your voice, talking to your audience. You wouldn't let your best paralegal address a judge on a phone conference while pretending to be you. Why would you ever allow somebody else to write something that will be seen by everybody who looks for you, and put your name on it? Not a great writer? Don't have time? It bores you? It's beneath you? Your time is far too valuable?
To all of those excuses, I say you can't afford not to. If you don't have time now, you will later as your flow of new cases starts to dry up. If writing in your own voice bores you, what can you do to make yourself more interesting to yourself? There are few greater uses of your time when it comes to marketing that writing content for the Internet. This is because the content is always there, always accessible.
You may spend twenty hours preparing a speech to a CLE or a rotary meeting, but once given, will anybody really hear it again? With a blog, users can access it at 3am when their pending DUI case is keeping them up. Your voice and your words can give them comfort and hope. Write a good article on a good blog, and I guarantee that more people will see it than even the most attended DUI CLE in the history of the universe.
You don't have to blog like crazy. In fact you don't have to even call it blogging. But if you aren't contributing fresh content on a regular basis to the online conversation about DUI law (at a minimum of twice a month), people are going to start to wonder why. It may not bother some people, but others, particularly younger ones, are going to think that you are either out of touch or that you are too busy. Being too busy in the eyes of the younger demographic is not a good thing, and you don't want your potential clients to mistakenly believe that you are spread too thin before they even contact you.
My thoughts about ghost-bloggers: Many attorneys use the practice of hiring ghost writers to do their blogging for them. I'm in no way suggesting that you get rid of any inside or outside copywriters that you have. What I do suggest is to redefine their role. Instead of writing in your voice as if by you, why not give them their own voice? Let them write under their own by-line or blog account. Then the things that they say that are nice about you will be better received. Your blogger will probably appreciate getting the credit. You will never get stuck with something attributed to you that you didn't mean to say. And your readers will love it. They want to hear from you once they get to know you, but they are open to good information regardless of its source.
Have a receptionist who likes to write? Let her blog about things that she can observe that make you and your office look good. Perhaps there was a time when you were running a little late coming back from court, and you didn't want to keep your valued client waiting, so you skipped lunch, ran up the stairs and burst into the office right on time. There's no legal value to such a story, but trust me, your clients and potential clients will love it. They will feel like they are getting to know you and your staff. The more familiar they are with everybody in your office, the more comfortable they will feel and the more likely they are to hire you, and to have good feelings about your firm long after their case is done.
In a future post, I will discuss the various types of blogging platforms. Blogging is easy and for the most part free, but how you set yourself up can make a huge difference in the long-term.
Filed under Dear DUI Lawyers, News, Updates