How to Make the Most of Your Most Effective Advertising Medium

This effective advertising tool consists of two parts: the website itself and an organized approach to promoting it online. When executed properly, a website and online strategy can help you in the following ways:

It's important to network. The key to successful marketing of your legal practice is establishing and maintaining an atmosphere of trust with your target audience and existing clientele. Without spending more of your valuable billable hours being physically present in the lives of your clients and prospects, a well-designed website and promotional plan can achieve this goal.

Explore untapped markets. Customers choose to work with you because... Is it because they are in desperate need of legal assistance and have no other choice but to retain the services of a lawyer? What if you had access to a market that was less reactive to crises but still produced stable, long-term profits? Amazingly, you can accomplish this using an online and offline marketing plan centered on your website.

A faster sales cycle is a must. It's likely that if someone calls you, they've already checked out your website. Prospects' trust in your company, the quantity of unqualified leads, the likelihood of a "call to action," and the start of a lasting connection may all be improved with the correct web strategy.

Always be accessible and easy to recall. The old adage that "out of sight, out of mind" holds true even in the courtroom is accurate. No matter how well you treat your current customers, you can't be sure they'll come back to you the next time they need your services. When there is a long interval between requirements, too many potential factors and influences may converge. It can be difficult to find the time and resources to conduct "off-line" keep-in-touch operations like phone calls, direct mail, and consumer surveys, but your website and online strategy can easily fill this void.

Increase the velocity of your business expansion activities. A well-designed website can serve as the "hub" of your company's public persona. When potential customers hear about your company from a friend, colleague, article they read, or direct mail piece, they should immediately click to your website to discover more. Once they are on your site, you can educate them, grow their loyalty and confidence, illustrate your outcomes, and push them to take action for a fraction of the time, effort, and money it would take to do the same things offline.

Spending on advertising needs to be better managed. Imagine if you could determine which offline marketing efforts yield positive results and which do not. With the correct strategy, you can achieve precisely that by leveraging the technology powering your website to conduct "measured marketing." Never again will you have to second-guess whether direct mail, networking, or publicity are worth the investment.

A Few Basics

The ROI of your website and marketing plan is directly proportional to the number of people that are converted from "surfers" into paying customers. What you need to know to create a website that works hard and produces results

Practicality should always come first. There is no shortage of beautiful websites that fail to deliver the value that customers and leads need. People who go to your site expect it to.

Quickly load
Be legible
give a wide variety of content (remember that not everyone will read everything, but that different things will interest and motivate different people).
Make it simple for others to reach you.
Not waste their time or distract them with unneeded effects.
It's a breeze to print

maybe fill up a knowledge gap for them. While visual appeal is crucial, it should not be the primary consideration when developing a website's structure, menus, and user experience. It should not carry more weight than the content or the navigation.

Long, well-written material is more likely to be purchased. You'd be surprised at how much more your readers will read if you write about them, their issues, their world, and their needs. What you say, though, must focus on them rather than on your company at first.

Consider the marketing laws we covered in the first installment of this series, "How to Put Law and Order into Marketing Your Law Firm." (available for free on our website at /Free Resources/Articles/). Most businesses in this industry don't follow this rule, and they all sound the same as a result. Make your company stand out by catering your website content to your customers' interests rather than your own. Provide people with knowledge, inspiration, comfort, persuasion, information, and the push they need to take action.

Third, stock up on beneficial information. Make your site so useful that people can't help but come multiple times and even "bookmark" it for future reference. Customers will develop a deep affection for your company if every visit to your site furthers their education and makes them feel knowledgeable and capable. Strange as it may seem, the more you reveal about your expertise, the more people will be drawn to your work, and the more they will believe that your services are truly invaluable and not just a necessary evil.

Combine offline and online efforts in step 4. Is it through recommendations from current customers that you find new ones? Referrals? Networking? Is this an introductory letter? Mentioned in print? Typically, this occurs in real-world settings. Let your website conduct the first relationship development by inviting people to visit it. Send a follow-up email introducing your company, linking to your website, and inviting the recipient to sign up for a free electronic newsletter. Include a piece you wrote that speaks directly to the issue they reached out to you about. Call them up after sending the article to see if they got it and to carry on the conversation.

If you don't obtain a new customer right away, a monthly e-newsletter can remind them how valuable you are and entice them to return to your site to check out the latest updates. You'll have a new customer before you realize it, thanks in large part to your fantastic website.

If you own a business and have a website, evaluate how helpful it is. Always keep in mind that successful marketing requires building and maintaining connections with your intended audience and existing clientele. Having a well-designed website and an effective online strategy can make this process much simpler.

TurningPointeTM Marketing, Inc. works with businesses providing professional services to increase clientele, maintain growth, and expand to new levels of success.

Visit http://www.GrowYourLawFirm.com for additional information about our website audit services, Marketing Your Professional Services Firm Clinic, market strategy coaching, 3-hour market strategy analysis, and one-day learning and strategy session.