The YellowPages has recently done quite a bit to revamp its image by aggressively marketing and selling services online.
It’s doing so because its main area of business, the printed version of the Yellow Pages, is fast becoming obsolete. In fact, according to a CBC news report, online ad revenue outstripped print advertising in Canada for the first time in 2010.
This same trend is evident among lawyers and how they advertise.
So if you’re online or you are considering doing so, you’re probably wondering just what to do. Here are some ideas:
1. Sign up with Google. Google is the top search engine in the world and is the go-to place for most people. If people want to find a family or business lawyer online, they’re more likely to go to Google than the YellowPages.
If you want to advertise with Google, though, be careful when it comes to how much you spend. It’s very easy to spend thousands on Google advertising in a very short period of time. Make sure you look at all of the information very carefully.
They will try to upsell you, and before you know it, you could be paying to advertise on Gmail accounts and other sites with little return. Set a budget for your Google AdWords and make sure to measure how many clients it generates. You may not always get the return you expect.
2. Use search-engine optimization. With search-engine optimization, you optimize your site so Google can find you using a specific keyword search. Again, you could spend quite a bit of time and money on this and it can take months before you start to get ranked on Google. There are some sites that you can use to assist you such as SEOmoz and gShift Labs.
3. Check out legal sites. There are two types of legal sites to pay attention to: legal directories and sites specific to a practice area. These practice-specific sites will draw people who are looking for legal information related to a specific area and lead searchers to local professionals.
Not all legal directories or sites are good. If you’re considering advertising on one of these sites, you can evaluate it by doing a Google keyword search, checking an Alexa ranking report, and inquiring about the number of unique visitors it has per month.
4. Try social media and blogging. Depending on how much time you can spare for marketing, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook can all generate great leads. Twitter requires less of a time commitment than a blog. In my experience, you’re unlikely to connect directly with clients on Facebook business pages. Twitter is a great way to network with other lawyers, and if your clients are sophisticated and technologically savvy, they’ll most likely be there as well.
Blogs are perhaps one of the best ways to attract clients to your web site. A well-written blog allows your clients to see exactly who you are and what you do. It also has the added bonus of improving your search-engine optimization and provides the public with valuable legal information.
5. Use local search. How do you connect with local businesses online? As of now, there are several solutions on the market. One is Yodel Anecdotal, which will help you market yourself locally and includes directories and searches. You may also want to list yourself on Google Places, Yelp, OurFaves, Craigslist, and Kijiji.
Web sites like these are the new YellowPages. People go there to find local information on things like cars and restaurants and sometimes even legal services. You would be surprised how many legal professionals advertise on these sites.
There are many ways to make yourself known to your potential clientele. While it may be easier to purchase space in the Yellow Pages only, you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to get in touch with your clients in new ways. The five ideas above are just the tip of the iceberg.
My advice is to start small by testing a few different approaches that require little investment of time or money and grow from there. In time, you may find your practice moving in a new and exciting direction.
Monica Goyal is founder of My Legal Briefcase. She’s available on Twitter at twitter.com/monica_mlb.
