You might think that search engine marketing (SEM) is just about driving traffic to your website and that successful SEM is about driving the right traffic to your website. Indeed, that is the immediate goal of a search campaign, but this goal doesn’t deliver any value in its own right; if people leave without generating any value for you, then the campaign has failed. It’s like having a shop that’s always full of window shoppers, but where no-one is buying.
The challenge for law firms, as for any other business online, it to turn traffic into income. A web report showing lots of traffic might make you happy, but it won’t add to the bottom line.
Provide what people are looking for
When someone comes to your site from a search engine, it is because the search engine has returned a link to your site in response to the search term they entered. They are looking for something specific and they judge whether or not to read your site on the basis of whether or not your site provides it.
Did you know?
The average time a visitor spends on a landing page (the page they arrive at on your site from a search engine) is 8 seconds. So you only have 8 seconds to convince someone that they have found what they are looking for and that they should read on, rather than go back to the search engine to find something else to look at. And to make matters worse, they don’t actually read what’s on the page, they scan it.
If you do provide what people are looking for, then you have got their attention and they will read your content. If, instead, you provide what you want them to read, they are unlikely to read it and will simply leave. The first rule of search is, therefore, to provide what people are looking for and to provide it in a clear and easy to read format.
The decision-making process
Assuming that the searcher reads your content and decides that it is what they were looking for, what next? Are they ready to buy?
If you are selling a low value or commodity-based product, then they might be. But if you are selling a more complex product or service (such as legal services) then the chances are that it is too early and they are still considering their options.
Conversion from a cold lead is rarely a one-touch event. The advertising world works on a base of six touches (ie six views of the marketing message) before someone will buy. So even if you have a simple product, you need to generate another five touches before you have a chance of a sale. Five more visits to your website, for example.
In my experience of selling professional services, the conversion process can take months, or even years. The final decision is often based on trust developed over a period of time.
In addition, the majority of your target audience are not actively considering engaging your services. They are looking for information, perhaps an answer to a minor query. The reason they need the information may ultimately mean that they need your help, but their active decision making hasn’t begun yet. However, they are still your target audience and they still represent an opportunity.
Relationships are valuable
Every partner knows that business development is all about building relationships. Relationships with existing clients, potential clients, even ex-clients. A partner’s network is one of their most valuable assets; it’s certainly what they are expected to bring with them should they move to another firm.
This is because everyone knows that it is easier and cheaper to sell to your existing customers. Why? Because you already have a relationship with them.
And just as they are offline, relationships are central to generating business online. The nature of the relationship is just different. Rather than being based on a personal relationship, it is based on a permission to communicate. And rather than being one-to-one, it is one-to-many, albeit that personalisation and targeting can focus the message.
Target relationships, not sales or traffic
Too many search campaigns aim to generate traffic, or to generate sales. The former is pointless on its own and the latter is unrealistic, as the chances of converting visitors on one visit are very low.
Instead, the initial visit to your website generated by your search campaign should be seen as an opportunity to start a relationship. This is a far more realistic goal, particularly in a service-based industry like the law.
In the context of the internet, this means that your aim is to generate permission to contact your visitor again. Usually this will take the form of collecting an email address (together with permission to use it, or opt in) which you can use to develop the relationship over time.
Building value
If your visitor finds your website useful, then they will be open to an invitation to sign up for a newsletter or update service. This service, like the original content, must provide them with something that they want, namely more quality content. They are not signing up in order to be bombarded with your sales messages which will only lead to them rapidly unsubscribing.
Once you have this permission, you have the opportunity to create a relationship by continuing to give value. This investment (cheaper than a nice lunch and more practical if you’re got hundreds of people to talk to) builds the customer’s faith in your ability to deliver and will develop into trust, the foundation of any worthwhile relationship. It will also keep your firm top of mind. When the customer is ready to instruct someone on a matter, there is a greatly increased chance that it will be you, as you already have an active relationship.
This value that you deliver in the course of the relationship will be in the form of content – articles and opinions relevant to the customer, selected or written by you as an ongoing demonstration that you deliver a good quality service.
This content, although delivered by email, will live on your website and will be picked up by the search engines. This will improve your search engine ranking and increase the likelihood of visitors coming to your site and becoming customers. The content you produce to build your relationships will also work to attract visitors through search and to turn them into customers.
Publish knowledge to sell expertise
There is a key distinction between knowledge, which is a commodity (particularly in the internet era) and expertise. People do not expect to pay for widely-accessible knowledge but they are happy to pay for expertise. Knowledge is simply the hook that you use to start a relationship.
The content that is of value to someone searching for legal information is not content about your firm and its services, it is content about the law. If you can answer their basic queries on your website, then they will come to you when they have the need for your expertise.
This means that you need to publish your knowledge online if you are to generate value for your potential clients.
This is not new! Law firms have been publishing updates and newsletters offline for years, as well as running seminars. The difference is that this is done to “their contacts”, making it within their comfort zone. The internet opens up an enormous opportunity for those prepared to embrace it by going public. Your clients no longer need to be defined by where they are based; they are solely defined by their need of your services.
Do you have a niche?
Most businesses (and firms) have an area of expertise where they excel, and it is this that offers the greatest opportunity. The more niche your area, the easier it is to get to the top of a search engine, as fewer people are competing. But if your niche is an area that is significant enough to be a key part of your practice, then there will be enough people looking for content about it online for it to represent a significant opportunity. Further, if it is an area where you are active, then you should be generating the content as a matter of course to ensure that you are up to date with your legal specialism. Publishing that content on the web is a simple extension of that process.
It is interesting to note that this turns the cost equation around to work against the big guys. If they want to compete in every niche, and every niche is already occupied by an expert, then they really have their work cut out. And their bureaucracy is likely to further increase their costs.
Success
Your niche offering becomes a hook to draw in customers. Most legal clients use more than one area of your firm’s business. Once you have established yourself as an expert in one area and created a relationship, it is easy to cross-sell other services.
The aim is to play to your strengths. Target your sweet-spot online to generate interest and permission and then build active relationships. This is the key to unlocking the online opportunity for law firms.
Tom Barnes is Director of BarnesGraham, an internet marketing agency working with business to understand and develop the opportunity that the internet undoubtedly offers. There is a great deal of useful marketing information on their site (underlining the topic of this article) and you can also sign up for a free Internet Marketing Update.
Email tom@barnesgraham.com.
