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The Web site as a Marketing Tool

In 2001, 57 percent of small businesses used the Internet for marketing and promoting products and services.² A further 27 percent of small businesses made a profit from their Internet presence within the first three to six months.³ These statistics underscore not only the importance of a Web site in a small firm’s marketing plan, but also the return on investment that a Web site is likely to offer. To be clear, these statistics do not imply that the only way to improve your bottom line and to increase revenue is to sell goods and services online. On the contrary, this same study shows that only a small percentage of small businesses with Web sites generate revenue from onsite sales. While there are very notable exceptions, most small businesses use their Web sites to stimulate sales of either goods or services, not to transact sales. This is especially the case with legal services. When searching online for legal services, people first use a firm’s Web site to gather information about the firm. They then conduct the purchase of that service offline. Two-thirds of buyers have gone online to find legal counsel, and greater than one-third of this same group goes online to locate legal services weekly or more often.⁴

Does a small firm or solo practice really need a Web site?

The answer is yes. Whether your small firm is looking for new clients, or it has all of the clients it can handle, your firm needs a Web site. In the case of firms that are not seeking new business, Web sites act as a reference point, or an “electronic business card” for current clients. They provide clients with contact information, directions, and information about the firm’s practice areas. Perhaps more importantly, a firm’s Web site, like its letterhead, business card, or physical offices, contributes to the firm’s overall image in the eyes of its clients. A professionally developed Web site can go a long way in solidifying a strong and positive perception of your firm. And as previously stated, most law firms have Web sites, so having a Web site might send the message that your firm is “behind the times,” causing your clients to worry about the quality of their representation.

For firms actively seeking new business from prospective clients, Web sites have proven to be the highest return on investment of ANY marketing strategy, including press, newspaper and magazine articles, and print advertising. Further, a study published by Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy (SBAOA) shows that the smallest firms stand to benefit the most from having a Web site. This study shows that as a direct result of their corporate Web site, 56 percent of small businesses saw increased total sales, 67 percent gained new customers, and 62 percent reported improved competitive position.⁵ The bottom line is that a small firm looking to grow its practice cannot afford NOT to have a Web site as part of its overall marketing strategy.

Types of Web sites

Typically, a firm’s Web site audience and budget determine the category into which a Web site falls. In The Fundamentals of Marketing Your Solo Practice, Debbie Cohen and Reid Trautz point out that the need to identify your audience is one of the essential components of successful marketing. It follows that the same holds true for your firm’s Web site, as your Web site is a component of your overall marketing plan. You’ll need to ask yourself, “Is this Web site for existing clients, prospective clients, other lawyers, or law student recruits?” Most small firms plan their Web site around an audience consisting of existing clients and prospective clients. The other primary factor in determining the type of Web site your firm develops is budget. Budget will greatly influence the level of interactivity you present to users, as well as the ease and flexibility you have as an administrator in updating and managing the site.

As many readers are aware, there are a number of different types of Web sites that can meet a variety of different corporate objectives. A Web site can act as a vehicle for transactions, selling goods and services to people all over the world. This type of Web site is typically referred to as an “e-commerce” Web site or a “shopping cart” Web site. Some Web sites exist only to facilitate processes between two partner companies in effort to streamline operations. These Web sites are known as “extranets.” Of course there are intranet Web sites that allow employees of a company to better communicate with one another and share information. Small firm Web sites usually fall into another category of Web sites: marketing tools.

Basic Marketing Web Site

When planning a basic marketing Web site for your firm, ask determine what prospective clients want to see when they go online to research your law firm. Regardless of its size, most of a firm's business comes from referrals.⁶ Particularly with small or solo practices, Web sites can act as a confirmation of a colleague or friend’s referral. A referred prospect can visit a firm’s Web site and review a list of clients, the firm’s practice areas, on-point experience, lawyer biographies, and any published works. A positive Web site experience reaffirms a referral and greatly strengthens your firm’s image in the prospect’s mind, and it is relatively inexpensive to develop.

Advanced Marketing Web site

A greater investment in your firm’s Web site will afford you much more flexibility and reach, not only in promoting your services to existing clients and prospective ones, but also in enticing these visitors to come back to the site after an initial visit. Repeat visits give your firm that much more of an opportunity to communicate your marketing messaging to these qualified viewers (i.e. prospective clients). There are a number of advanced techniques a small law firm can integrate into its Web site to actively promote its services. Here are some of the more effective ones:

E-mail Newsletter: E-mail newsletters' effectiveness lies in the principle that you are requesting permission from those who register to receive them. Permission marketing has proven to be the most effective means of marketing to clients and prospects; over 69 percent of American e-mail users have made purchases online after receiving permission-based E-mail marketing.⁷ Your firm’s e-mail newsletter can contain updates on cases of interest, news related to your firm’s practice areas, industry-specific information, and more.

Library/Case Database: Whether featuring your own firm’s cases or other local and national cases related to your firm’s practice areas, a library of case information is an excellent way to keep researching users coming back to the site. As such, your firm is more likely to remain “top of mind.”

Legal Tips Database: Free anything is attractive to users. When it’s legal tips or knowledge, which is information that people actively seek, free “stuff” can be enormously effective in extending the time visitors spend on your site, and enticing them to return. By offering monthly or even weekly legal information for free, you can give users a taste of your expertise. If you do decide to implement this functionality, don’t forget to include disclaimers like “This is not intended to provide specific legal advice, but is for informational purposes only.”

Calendar of Events: There are a million Web sites that will post any event that comes across the webmaster’s desk. There are very few, on the other hand, that offer hand picked events for its audience. Featured events can include local seminars, conferences, and public lectures related to your firm’s practice area. Particularly because a good portion of your Web site’s audience likely includes corporate counsel seeking your services, a calendar of events on your Web site is an excellent value add.

Testimonials: Testimonials are rarely displayed on law firm Web sites. But in the case of small and solo practices, referrals are crucial in generating new business. Why not offer visitors to your site your clients’ perspective on your services? A revolving section on the Web site homepage can display tastefully a variety of different client testimonials without occupying too much space.

Discussion Board: Discussion boards are a particularly effective means of marketing for a small firm, because a successful discussion board is dependent on the community of people participating (i.e. not the sponsoring firm). So, the upfront time and effort invested in establishing a discussion board with topics of audience interest continues to pay off long after you set it up on your Web site.

How to Get Started

There are a number of professional and affordable options for getting your small firm or solo practice online. Depending on your audience and budget, you will be looking to establish a basic marketing presence on the Web, or you will explore some of the more sophisticated functionality that an advanced marketing Web site can provide your users. Either way, perhaps the most important aspect of your firm’s Web site is its appearance. You must have a professional-looking Web site. Consumer Webwatch, a division of the Consumers Union, conducted a study with 2,600 average users to rate the credibility of Web sites. When evaluating the credibility of a Web site, participants commented on the design or look and feel of the site more often than any other Web site feature, with 46.1 percent of the comments addressing the design in some way. According to this study, design is the most important factor for users when determining a company or firm’s credibility.⁸ Most law firms will attest that trust is a critical element in a potential client’s decision-making process when selecting a law firm for representation. The lesson here is that you should not have a Web site if you’re not going to do it right. A Web site that is unprofessional makes your firm look unprofessional.

Option # 1: Build It Yourself

One of the most powerful aspects of the World Wide Web is the amount of good quality, information available for free. This statement certainly holds true for guides to Web site development. There are a number of excellent Web sites on the subject; www.webmonkey.com and www.jimtools.com, are two of the many informative Web sites with step-by-step information on the how, what, and where of building a Web site. Additionally, www.webopedia.com/TERM/H/HTML.html includes a list of articles on everything HTML, from tags to image uploading to domain name registration.

There are a number of excellent books on the subject as well, written in plain English, appropriate for any “newbie.” HTML for the World Wide Web, Web Design in a Nutshell, and Web Design for Dummies are a few of the better ones.

To develop your Web site, you should invest in an HTML editor. An HTML editor is a software program for developing web pages. It provides a “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) authoring environment that simplifies the production of basic Web sites with “point and click” functionality. Editors are worth the investment if you decide to build a basic Web site on your own, because they greatly speed development time and decrease the learning curve with beginner-friendly features.

Building the Web site on your own is certainly the most inexpensive approach to getting your firm on the Web. The cost of an HTML editor varies from free (“freeware”) to less than $200. Two of the most popular editors are Macromedia HomeSite, which retails for $77.50-99.99 and Microsoft FrontPage, which will cost you anywhere from $138.95-169.99. Hosting will typically run you about $10-20 per month for a basic Web site. Typically, this includes personalized e-mail addresses and a one-year registration of a personalized domain name.

However, while this is the most inexpensive way to get online, the build the Web site on your own is easily the most time consuming option. And, as many readers will attest, lawyers are some of the busiest professionals, and time is perhaps their mostly valued possession. Moreover, you could spend a lot of time building a Web site only to end up with something that looks unprofessional, does not communicate your firm’s marketing message appropriately, and isn’t cross-browser compatible.⁹ As such, the “do it yourself” approach to building your firm’s Web site might not be the wisest choice given the learning curve involved in building a professional, custom-designed Web site that creates a positive image of your firm on the Web.

Option # 2: Web site Package

Given the importance of good design, your small firm should consider a Web site package or custom Web site solution. A Web site package is a pre-planned Web site that includes custom design; packages are offered by most Web site design and development firms. Web site packages are different than a template-based Web site. There are a number of companies that offer template-based services, where users can select a general design template, type in the text, and upload images for their Web site directly over the Internet. While there are certainly exceptions, most template-based designs look, quite frankly, like templates. And because it is up to the user to layout the text and images within each page of the site, the finished product is often second-rate in look and feel. Remember that the most important characteristic in a Web site’s credibility is appearance.

This is not to say that all template-based sites look unprofessional. There are some that are well-designed, but, by definition, template-based sites neglect a very important objective of any Web site: a unique look and feel customized to your particular target audience. Only custom design can accomplish this important goal.

A professional-looking site does not need to make use of fancy, graphic intensive designs, or heavy flash integration. Some of the very best and most sophisticated Web sites feature clean, uncluttered pages allowing users to find quickly and easily the information they need.

The total cost for the custom design and layout for 8-12 pages, hosting, e-mail addresses, and personalized domain name can range from $695 to $1200. Overall, Web site packages are a very inexpensive and effective way to establish a basic marketing presence on the Web.

Option # 3: Custom Web site Solution

For maximum return on investment, a small law firm should contract a Web site design firm to build a custom Web site solution. With a custom solution designed by a professional Web site firm, you are investing in much more than a Web site; you are profiting from the skills and knowledge of a person who understands how to accomplish your stated business goals and objectives on the Web. A custom Web site solution is not a product, but a true service from which your firm will continue to benefit long after your initial investment. This statement especially holds true when a Web site is properly promoted on the Internet, generating qualified traffic to your site by prospects traditionally out of a small firm’s reach (More on this below).

The primary difference between a Web site package and a custom Web site solution is the strategic planning and consulting involved in developing custom functionality tailored to your specific target audience. Custom solutions dictate that you start from scratch to map out a site according to specific design and/or functional requirements. The process should be highly collaborative in order to deliver a solution tailored uniquely to a company’s business needs and objectives.

Once you have contracted a Web site development firm to design and build your Web site, you are not finished. In fact, this is just the beginning! A Web site is a service, not a product, and like most other services, it requires close collaboration between the client and the provider. Here are some of the most important things to discuss with the Web site design firm you select to build your law firm’s custom Web site:

What am I getting? You should have a detailed description of what your site will look like and what it will “do” BEFORE development begins. This holds true even for a Web site package. Your Web site design firm should give you a proposal or project plan before development begins, mapping out the various components of the site (i.e. interactive forms, any database integration, dynamic navigation, etc.). This proposal, or project plan, will act as a barometer of your satisfaction with the end product, and should be followed fairly closely throughout the development process.

What’s the breakdown in cost? The proposal should include a breakout of the costs associated with design and development. It should resemble a line-itemized list of each piece of functionality to be developed, and how much each component will cost. Line itemizing allows you to pick and choose the highest priority functionality to integrate first into your Web site. Further, with particularly complex solutions, there is always a variety of different ways to accomplish the same goal. The proposal should outline and describe the pros and cons of a few different approaches to accomplishing this goal and the cost of each. Usually, it is the overall flexibility and scalability of the solution that determines the amount of time it takes to develop, and thus, its cost.

What should the site look like? As mentioned above, the design of your site is crucial to shaping your firm’s reputation online. Therefore, you should be integrally involved in determining the look and feel of your Web site. The site should reflect and communicate your company’s mission or overall objective. For example, the design for a beauty salon Web site might be flashy, slick, and progressive, whereas the Web site design for a law firm specializing in antitrust law will probably be conservative and classic. You need to be very specific in verbalizing the message that you want to communicate to your audience to the company that develops your site. A Web site’s design communicates just as much, if not more, than the Web site content in conveying a company’s personality and vision.

How do I stay involved with the Design Process? The best way to guarantee that your Web site design reflects your desired marketing message is to think through the message you want to communicate with your Web site design BEFORE you start the project. The more accurately you describe your vision up front, the more quickly, and thus more inexpensively, your Web site design firm can deliver your final design product.

Your Web site design firm should present you with a number of different design “comps,” or mock-ups, before beginning on the actual design. Then, you should have a design review so that you can offer feedback and suggestions to be incorporated into the next round of revisions. Remember that you selected the design firm you are using for a number of reasons, one of which is that you liked their work and trust them to deliver a good product. Give them an opportunity to translate your vision into reality. In other words, guide them with your verbal requirements, but grant them some creative latitude to do what they do best.

How long will this take? The company developing your site should provide you with a project timeline, regardless of the size and scope of the project, before development begins. The project timeline should indicate major milestones as well as other dates of planned review sessions. One of the most important keys to a successful development project is clear coordination between the client and the Web site design firm on when various stages of development should be completed.

How do I measure the finished product? Is there a guarantee? The finished product should closely resemble the proposal or project plan that you were given before the start of development. Your Web site design firm should ensure that you are satisfied with the end result and that the project was finished within the time allotted by the project timeline. For a period of at least 20 days after you sign off on the project completion, the firm should commit to fixing any errors or “bugs” in the Web site at no cost.

After it's completed, does the site belong to my firm? Make sure that you are granted full rights to your Web site after development is complete. The contract you sign should have language similar to the following in terms of what belongs to your firm: “Client Content shall remain the sole and exclusive property of Client, including, without limitation, all copyrights, trademarks, patents, trade secrets, and any other intellectual property or proprietary rights.”

Due to the highly personalized nature of a custom solution, the total cost for custom solutions vary significantly. They can range from $1,500 to $15,000 and up. It is very important to remember that, as a small firm, you do not need to do everything you want to do with your custom Web site all at once. A well-planned Web site strategy typically calls for pieces to be integrated over a period of years. A good custom Web site is like the foundation of a house. It is built in such a way so as to support future additions. Have your Web site design firm sit down with you and map out a long-term strategy that encompasses what you think you want to do on the Web now and in the future. Then, slowly but surely, once you have the “foundation,” you can incorporate the functionality, one piece at a time, as your budget allows.

Promoting Your Web site: Getting your Marketing Message Out on the Web

Your Web site might articulate the most compelling marketing message in the world, but if people don’t know about it, then it’s worth nothing to you in terms of generating new business. In other words, promoting your Web site is just as important as the Web site itself. The most effective way to promote your Web site is through a combination of offline and online promotional techniques. Offline promotions include letters to existing clients announcing the Web site, press releases highlighting news stories found on the Web site, and articles and print advertisements in industry magazine and/or journals that include your Web site address.

Online promotion of your Web site can similarly take many shapes. Probably the most cost-effective, results-generating promotion method is search engine optimization, sometimes referred to as search engine marketing.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of using targeted keywords and customized placement of your Web site to achieve higher rankings in search engines (such as Google, MSN, Lycos, AOL) and directories (Yahoo, Netscape’s Open Directory). For example, if you type “Sports Memorabilia” into a search engine, the Web sites that are listed on the first page of that engine's results occupy that position because those sites have been optimized for the major search engines and directories on the Web. There is an increasing amount of competition for keywords on the Web, with the latest estimated number of Web sites registered with search engines totaling over one billion.¹⁰ Web sites not just registered, but also properly optimized for these engines have an extremely high chance of being found by Internet users. According to the Georgia Institute of Technology more than 85 percent of people online use search engines to find new products or services on the Internet. Search engine users are three times as likely to click on a top-ranked site as they are to click on those ranked number four and below.¹¹ And specific to law firms, an astonishing 89 percent of corporate counsel use search engines to find legal services.¹² A strategic, well planned Web site can attract new clients all over the country. For a small law firm looking to attract new customers traditionally out of its reach, there is no internet marketing technique more effective than SEO for generating qualified traffic for your Web site.

There are a number of different options for a small firm looking to optimize its Web site. The firm can choose to do it itself, as there are a plethora of free resources related to the subject available on the Web. Two of the best Web sites dedicated to SEO are www.highrankings.com and www.searchenginewatch.com. There are also some very good books on the steps involved in optimizing your Web site. Shari Thurow’s Search Engine Visibility is one of the better ones.

Many companies choose to contract a Web site design firm that offers SEO, or an SEO consultant to do search engine optimization, particularly because SEO has become a fairly complicated process in recent years. This is due to the increasing number of Web sites added to the Web on a daily basis, changing search technologies, and as well as the continuously changing search engine industry landscape. The more Web sites in existence, the higher the chance of there being a Web site that directly competes with your firm’s for rankings in these engines. Additionally, search engines often change their algorithms, or the way they rank Web sites, necessitating a great deal of continual research by the search engine optimizer to stay current with how to best position a Web site for each given engine. And finally, major industry partnerships, such as the recent acquisition of Inktomi by Yahoo, are frequently established.

If you outsource SEO, expect to pay anywhere from $750 to $1500 for a basic search engine optimization campaign. SEO can be performed for an existing site or while developing a new one. It is worth noting that SEO is much less time intensive, thus less costly, if performed at the time of initial development, because there is no reengineering of the site architecture and layout that needs to be done. So, if you’re planning on getting your firm online, budget for online promotion at the same time. Statistics show that keyword related advertising can make up 80 to 90 percent of your traffic to your Web site; this short-term investment will more than likely pay off in the long run.¹³ While you can try search engine optimization can be tricky and extremely time-consuming process. Considering how important Internet promotion has become in a firm’s overall online strategy, it may be a good idea for you to outsource search engine optimization to experts.

Conclusion

Companies and law firms without Web sites are rapidly becoming anomalies these days. Web sites are nearly as fundamental to a firm’s identity as its logo or its business card. Moreover, Web sites have proven to be one of the most valuable and cost effective marketing tools that a small firm can employ to better communicate with existing clients, and attract new ones. There are a number of excellent options a small or solo practice has in getting online, depending on its target audience and its marketing budget. Regardless of budget, though, a professionally developed Web site with custom design is very affordable. Finally, the wide usage of search engines by Internet users gives small and solo practices that optimize their Web sites access to a much larger pool of prospects searching for their services.

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2. Andy Brown, Clicks or Bricks? Internet and Online Banking Adoption and Usage Behavior Among Small Businesses (TowerGroup Reports, 2002) 5.
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5. Joan H. Pratt, E-Biz: Strategies for Small Business Success (SBA Office of Advocacy, 2002) 5-6.
6. Debbi M. Cohen and Reid F. Trautz The Fundamentals of Marketing Your Solo Practice
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8. B.J. Fogg, Ph.D., Cathy Soohoo, David Danielsen, How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility? (Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab, 2002).
9. Despite efforts made by groups such as the World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ), the governing body created in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability, not all browsers view Web sites the same way. For example, a Web site that looks one way in Internet Explorer 6.0 might not even load in Netscape 4.7. You need to make sure that all of the different browsers used by the Internet community can view properly your Web site. For more information, visit http://www.w3.org.
10. Nua Analysis, How Many Online? (2002).
11. Thom Weidlich, Revving Up (Search Engine Marketing, 2002)
12. Finding and Working with Lawyers on the Web (Greenfield Belser Ltd, 2001) 4.
13. BrandWeek Online Magazine