In this economic climate, it is imperative to utilize every resource you possibly can to market your law firm or legal services. Marketing is an efficient and successful way of attracting new clients when done correctly. One of the easiest ways to market your services is by using testimonials from past clients. What better way to convince potential clients that you’ll achieve successful results for them than showing testimonials from past clients you won cases for?

Using Customer Testimonials to Attract Clients

According to findings from the Local Consumer Review Survey, “approximately 72% of consumers surveyed said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, while 52% said that positive online reviews make them more likely to use a local business.” Here are several different types of client testimonials that will help attract customers:

• Video testimonials: Many attorneys offer video testimonials of past clients on their attorney websites. This is a great way of attracting clients as it offers legitimacy of the review. People tend to respond to recommendations that are valid, frank, and unscripted. Not to mention, a video testimonial can help create a connection with potential clients. If you share a video about a client suffering from a traumatic car accident, online users searching for a car accident attorney are more likely to hire you. The review does not have to be perfect or eloquent either. They just need to sound believable and positive.
• Review Sites like Yelp and Google +: A study performed by Cone, Inc. found that 85 percent of consumers research products or services online before they decide to make a purchase, and 85 percent of consumers also claim that they were more likely to purchase products or services when they can find online recommendations. Reviews on popular sites like Yelp and Google + are great because they do not require much work from attorneys. All you need to do is create profile page for your law firm. If your page is lacking reviews, be sure to ask past clients to post a review on your page.
• Word of mouth: A recommendation through word of mouth is the most trustworthy type of review. Many people are more likely to trust their friend than an unknown online user. Ask clients to refer you to their friends and family. This simple suggestion can make a huge difference in generating new clients.

Online Marketing Services

Customer reviews are just one avenue of online marketing. Other successful strategies include SEO, social media marketing, writing press releases, and creating pay-per-click campaigns. For all of your legal marketing needs, contact the online marketing specialists at WebShark360.

This is one of the most vital aspects of legal marketing for an attorney or law firm today. With people utilizing the internet to search for legal services, a lawyer must have an exceptional attorney website to match. Often times, your attorney website will be the first impression a potential client will have of you. Thus, it is extremely important to have an updated website that not only attracts visitors, but convinces them you are the right choice to hire.

How to Generate Leads with Your Attorney Website

While it may sound easy to generate leads with your attorney website, it is much more difficult. Creating a successful attorney website that generates leads is a process. Read the following tips so that you may create an efficient and lead-grabbing site.

• Successful Website Design- You want to create a website that not only has a great appearance, but is easy to use and navigate. Websites with poor web design give a negative impression and may illustrate that you are not innovative or up-to-date on modern times. In addition, your website should offer visitors information that they may be searching for. For instance, you should offer web pages with the different practice areas your services offer. The multiple pages will also help increase your SEO.
• Create a connection – Your website should include content that creates a connection with visitors. For example, upload video testimonials from past clients who suffered from a situation that is relatable to many. This will help create a connection with potential clients. Post pictures of yourself, staff, and past satisfied clients so that visitors can get a feel of who you are. A great way to know who visited your site is by including a web page that offers free consultations – this will allow submit their information.
• Effective SEO – Optimizing your attorney website is one of the most important steps in generating leads. If you don’t optimize your website, how are customers going to be able to find your page. Optimization leads to increased online visibility. While some may say off-page optimization and back linking is the most important step in optimization, on-page optimization is just as important. You must include specific keywords, design your website so that it is easily searchable by Google, and include many links to help rank your website. Try to refrain from “black hat” tactics as their effectiveness won’t last long.

Lead Generation Services

For other ways to help generate better leads including social media, SEO, and pay-per-click campaigns, call us today for a free consultation. The specialists at Webshark360 can help your law firm create a marketing campaign that gathers attention and new leads. Contact us today.

For business owners, review sites can be either dangerous or tremendously helpful. In today’s online world, review sites are increasingly popular with the emergence of Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Google Plus offering consumers a directory of local businesses. The most popular review site is undeniably Yelp with millions of users and a mobile application available on both smart phones and tablets.

Yelp is an American company with a local business directory service and review site that possesses many social networking features. Yelp.com allows users to rate and review businesses while interacting with other online users. The site is widely popular and successful with more than 100 million monthly visitors and having generated $137.6 million dollars in revenue.

Almighty Yelp: A Firm’s Worst and Best Friend

While most people may automatically think of restaurant reviews, Yelp also features reviews and listings for a wide variety of businesses including law firms and attorneys. Many clients will post reviews about an attorney’s services, skills, and results. Here are the many pros and cons that make Yelp a firm’s worst and best friend:

Pros:

• Yelp helps place attorneys and law firms on the map. Law firms can create company pages where they offer a description of their services, contact information, and when the best time to reach them is. Yelp also allows businesses to post pictures so they can offer a clear image of what their law firm is all about. In addition, the site is user friendly and makes searching for law firms easy, simple, and quick.
• Online users are allowed to post reviews about your services. Thus, positive reviews from past clients will help influence prospective clients.
• The site also allows businesses to offer a “yelp deal.” For instance, if the customer mentions the yelp deal they get a certain discount. Yelp deals help entice potential clients to choose their services over another when searching online.
• Because the review site features many social networking capabilities, it is easy for a business to create a fan following. If your products and services are widely admired and enjoyed by clients, you can easily create numerous followers online. The more positive ratings the more likely you will attract new customers.

Cons:

• However, negative publicity can be extremely harmful. Several negative reviews about your services can do more damage than none. According to a study done by Lightspeed Research, between one and three negative online reviews is enough to deter the majority of shoppers (67%) from purchasing a product or service.
• Not to mention, anyone can write a review. People who never hired your services or rival attorneys may be able to write a negative review about your firm.
The best way to deal with a negative review is by addressing it firmly. When dealing with a negative review, explain your side of the story. If you were wrong, apologize for it. When dealing with harsh criticism, respond maturely in a friendly tone – this will portray you in a better light and influence potential clients to hire you.

Legal Marketing Services

Online directories, review sites, and social media platforms are all effective ways in gaining publicity for your law firm. However, updating these sites daily can be time-consuming and require much effort. For all of your online marketing needs, contact the legal marketing specialists at WebShark360. Contact us today for a free consultation.

While social networking can be performed online, events allow attorneys to make a more lasting first impression. Through events, attorneys can create stronger connections in just a few hours. However, social media should not be completely disregarded compared to event marketing. Social media can help attorneys boost their event planning and allow them to meet more people.

How to Integrate Social Media

Whether your firm is hosting an occasion or you want to increase the pool of attendees for a more successful event, follow these rules on how to integrate social media with event planning. Through social media marketing, you can publicize your event and create for an even better occasion.

• Your first move should be creating an event page on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Plus. By creating a page on social media websites you can easily see who will be attending. This will help in planning the event. In addition, these websites will allow you to easily inform those attending the date, times, location, and what to expect. Not to mention, Facebook will also notify the guest list whenever you make a change in the event information.
• With social media marketing, you can create a buzz.  On these websites, share content and graphics to get people excited. Even use content from past events to show the success your events have had.
• Get people excited by giving them a sneak peak. Mention speakers, attendees to give them a reason to come. Tell them what they can gain – what kind of knowledge and tips that will be introduced.
• With Facebook, people can check in and inform others. This will help spread awareness about your company and events.
• Don’t forget to take pictures of your event. Using Facebook and Twitter, thank everyone who came to the event and helped made it successful.

Legal Marketing Services

When it comes to legal marketing, there are numerous resources and outlets that can be utilized to spread awareness of your firm and produce leads and revenue. For help marketing your next event or generating better leads, call our agency today for a free consultation. At WebShark360, we can increase your firm’s online visibility to gain leads. Contact us today.

The last thing a business or law firm wants online for everyone to see is a negative review. Currently, review sites are all the rage with online users flocking to:

• Yelp
• Google Places
• CitySearch
• UrbanSpoon
• Yellow Pages
• Angie’s List

However, with popular review sites, anyone can give a negative review or rant about your law firm. Even people who weren’t a client of yours or rival attorneys can offer a false testimony.
Unfortunately, these reviews can have a large impact on your law firm as prospective clients may read them. According to a study done by Lightspeed Research, between one and three negative online reviews is enough to deter the majority of shoppers (67%) from purchasing a product or service.

How to Use a Negative Review to Your Advantage

Do not fear. Businesses and law firms, alike, can use negative online reviews to their advantage. You do not have to feel powerless against awful or unfair reviews. Follow these tips to transform a negative review into a positive one:

• When receiving a negative review, always respond to it. This will help engage users and show that you do care about your clients. Simply taking out the time to respond to reviewers makes a huge impact with potential clients, but does not require much time.
• This also gives you a chance to defend and explain yourself. Tell your side of the story. If you were wrong, admit to it, apologize, and let the reviewer know how you will work on it.
• Take this opportunity as a chance to portray your amazing customer service skills. Try to win them back. After explaining yourself, thank the customer for taking the time to give feedback. If you handle the review with grace and maturity, prospective clients will appreciate it and are more likely to hire your firm.
• As cliché as it may sound, take this review as a way to improve your business. Without honest feedback, you may not be able to grow and develop your services.
• If you feel that the review was unfair, ask other online users to address the review. Prospective clients will shrug it off as just one bad experience and not be influenced by it.

Online Marketing Services

All law firms and attorney dread a negative online review, but with online reputation management, you can use negative reviews to your advantage. For reputation management and legal marketing services, contact the specialists at WebShark360 for a free consultation today.

If you haven’t heard of social media marketing then perhaps you have been residing under a rock. Social media marketing is one of the most efficient tools in marketing today. To explain simply, social media marketing is the process of gaining attention through social media websites. Such popular social networking sites include Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Many of these sites were initially created for leisurely social networking amongst individuals and friends. However, social media has transformed as businesses and lawyers are now utilizing these websites to gain website traffic and fan followers.  Numerous companies and law firms choose to market through social networking platforms as they are able to connect with millions of users registered on these sites.

The Top 5 Internet Sites That Every Law Firm Should Be Listed On

Understanding the importance of social media marketing is one of the first steps in creating a successful marketing campaign. These are top five internet websites that every law firm should be on:

• Facebook: Today, Facebook is the most popular and commonly used social media platform with over 1 billion users as of October 2012. Facebook is extremely helpful as it allows law firms to create and customize their own profile page. With Facebook, your law firm can advertise new events and deals, provide contact information and share content and website links to engage users. Facebook allows users to share your posts with other users so that you may increase your following and gain awareness.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is another extremely imperative platform to be listed on as it is known to be the social networking site for professionals. With LinkedIn, lawyers can create a presence in the professional world by networking with other attorneys in the legal field, finding out about important events, and reaching out to new clients. In addition, signing up with LinkedIn may increase your visibility on search engines like Google.
• Twitter: Twitter is a networking site that allows micro blogging messages up to 140 characters. While these messages may be short, twitter offers a great amount of publicity as it is one of the top ten most visited social networking sites. Through twitter, companies and law firms can connect with their followers through short and simple tweets.
• Pinterest: One of the newer sites, Pinterest is a fast growing and popular platform being used by millions of online users today. On Pinterest, users can share content by “pinning” pictures, images, videos, and articles. Because Pinterest is based more on images, it can help create your law firm’s brand image and lasting impression. In addition, other users can pin your images, too, sharing it with their friends.
• Google+: Google + is extremely helpful for law firms as businesses are able to create their own profile page, link websites, and share content. The site also allows users to categorize their friends so they can share content with only certain groups of people. This is helpful if you would only like to share articles with current clients or other attorneys.

Free Consultation Today

Social media is crucial in successfully marketing your law firm today. For more advice regarding your online marketing campaign, contact the specialists at WebShark360 for a free consultation today.

Here are some easy to do organic ways in which you can increase your website traffic and potentially boost your customer base.

1. List your site in search directories online.  Submit your website to all the major web directories to generate more traffic from visitors browsing online.

2. Sign up for social media.  Start working all these free networks! Each social media site is a free network of millions of people who could be looking for your goods and services right now!

3. Optimize your SEO. You want to be associated with the keywords you care about. Do you offer oceanfront real estate property? You might want to be associated with those and various beach city names. Determine which keywords will drive business to your site.

4. Participate in a banner exchange with another site.  It’s free advertising that you can do with brands that also appeal to your target consumer.

5. Public relations works! Work public relations with online and traditional media to highlight your business and its goods and services.  Are you hosting a charity golf event this weekend? Publicize this in the media and include links for journalists to link back to your website.

6. Start blogging.  Is your brand designer puppy clothes? Start writing a blog about everything you love about dogs, dog care, dog clothing, you name it and watch visitors pour in to read about their favorite topic too!

7. Create a regular newsletter that highlights your brand and services.  Ask visitors to sign up for your newsletter with coupons, promotions, insight into new products and services, and community based information.

8. Sponsor a promotion and give away free stuff to people.  People love free stuff and if you’re offering a cheap pair of earrings, a free car wash, a free seminar, they’re all in.  People will check into the site to see how they can win.

9. Join an online community based on your industry.  Post on blogs, chat rooms, and social media pages of professional associations in your industry.  Leave comments with your website link.

10. Join an offline association in your community.  This can include your local Chamber of Commerce, a young professional’s group, alumni groups, networking associations, you name it!

If you incorporate these 10 tools into your online strategy, you’ll be attracting visitors to your website in no time!

Instead of worrying over whether or not you’ll actually join a gym this year and stick to it, why not make some legal marketing resolutions instead?  We’ve got some great suggestions to help your legal business achieve great results.

Legal Marketing Resolutions to Make this Year

Let’s face it, legal marketing isn’t very intuitive.  If it were, every attorney entering the business would be a millionaire.  But not all legal marketing strategies are created equal.  Consider ditching the well worn strategies of the past and updating your legal marketing with some of these fresh techniques:

• Listen to what consumers want.  Often overlooked, every new marketing campaign should begin with knowing what your desired audience wants.  What are people saying about the law firms they sign with?  Do you know what makes a client sign up with your competitor instead of signing on with you?  Is your website hard to read? Do you lack experience in their eyes? Do you appear too generic? What do consumers say about you? Do they know you exist?  Inform yourself and arm yourself with actual marketing intelligence information, not just ideas you think are true.  Go find out what consumers want.  You may be surprised.
• Hire a firm to handle your marketing for you.  Let’s face it, you don’t want to spend all day doing the legal marketing for your firm.  What you want to do is practice law and make money.  Don’t take time away from your passion.  Let the experts with a passion for legal marketing handle it for you.  Their expertise can open up new potential avenues of business and get you featured in places you never knew could bring you business.
• Brand yourself as well as your business.  Consumers today have access to more information than ever.  In just a few keystrokes, potential clients can find out if you really are the expert you claim to be.  Are you featured anywhere online?  Are you published? Have you won awards?  In order to market your law firm and your legal prowess, you might also want to engage in personal branding as a complimentary marketing tactic.  Consumers find their attorneys in a variety of ways and establishing yourself as a leader in the field can increase your odds of being found, being trusted, and being sought after.
• Track your return on investment.  There are multiple tools available to do so, but when you track your return on investment (ROI,) you’ll find out what’s working for your law firm.  Once you know what’s working, you’ll be able to determine where to spend your money. Knowing the dollars and cents behind your marketing can help you to save money and increase your bottom line.

This year, instead of trying to convince yourself that you really will hit the gym 5 times a week, focus on making some legal marketing resolutions that work.  It’s time to update those strategies and take your legal marketing to the next level.

Are You Undermining Your Marketing with these Mistakes

If you’re new to attorney marketing, your eagerness may lead you astray. Often, attorney marketers come up with an idea or strategy that they think is genius and later discover was a costly mistake. Before you waste precious marketing dollars, read through the common mistakes to avoid:

• You forgot a call to action. You published a wonderful blog which is supposed to reach clients. But you forgot to include a call to action. When clients are done skimming your blog, do they know what to do next? If they don’t know where to contact you, or where to click to follow up, they may go elsewhere and you will have wasted your efforts. If you’re guilty of this one, it can be an easy fix if you’ve got the time to go in and edit your work.
• Forgetting to add your contact information to press releases. This is a frequent attorney marketing mistake. Sometimes, in their zeal to get a press release out and publicize a great case, attorneys forget to add contact information. When your press release is already out there and thousands of people have already seen it, you’ve missed an opportunity to let consumers know where to find you again. And you’ve just wasted the price of the press release and precious impressions. You can email the press release distribution service in a panic to edit the release, but you’ve already lost countless leads that didn’t see your contact information. That flushing sound you’re hearing is your marketing dollars at work.
• Not personalizing your email marketing. In 2013, marketing has gotten more personal. Attorneys who personalize their email marketing are able to attract more leads and convert more of those leads to paying clients. Gone are the days when blasting out generic faceless spam emails work. Instead, today’s email marketing is more personalized and more nuanced to attract clients. If you’re not personalizing, there’s a number of contact management software options available to handle this for your law firm.
• You didn’t collect any information about the leads trying to obtain your free downloads. If your law firm created a wonderfully informative eBook for download, why would you waste those efforts by not requiring some simple information first? The point is to collect information about the lead that is hoping for more information on the subject. If an internet visitor is seeking information regarding transvaginal mesh, they’re likely hurt and scared. If you’re a product liability attorney, this is your target client. Create a contact form to collect basics about your lead before they can download your free eBook.
• Misunderstanding your target audience. Marketers in various industries are frequently guilty of this marketing fail. If you base your marketing approach to what you think may be the case instead of what you know your target audience likes, needs, responds to, then you could be setting yourself up for disaster. Consider the case of a website developer who thought they could introduce websites at high prices via a cart at the mall. Instead of researching whether there was a need for pricy websites on a cart, this company put it in, assuming local businesses would see the cart on their lunch break and respond. They failed spectacularly. Instead of assuming what people want, take the time to find out what they want.

Don’t Make Expensive Mistakes

If your law firm is trying its hand at attorney marketing, there will likely be a period of trial and error. You can lessen this pain by doing your homework first. Or you can fail spectacularly and waste marketing dollars that might’ve been better utilized in other areas of business development. Don’t flush your money away. Educate yourself about attorney marketing and seek the help of professionals if you’re in doubt

What are Native Ads

Native advertising is sponsored content which appears to blend seamlessly into a website’s content. When you’re searching a site like Mashable, you may not even notice that a post you’ve clicked on is really an advertisement, and not an article written by one of their staff writers. Native advertising offers credibility to advertisers in this form. The key to this form of advertising is to structure it to move beyond mere advertising pitches and to instead offer a deeper look at your services. Attorney marketers for instance, could be discussing a legal issue in depth as it relates to the website’s theme and subject matter.

Native advertisements sound great, but they’re a lot of work. Your attorney marketing guru will have a lot of work ahead of them to make this advertisement appear as an organic story on this website. This includes writing high quality featured content, creating high quality links and graphics that appear to be in line with what the website normally offers its internet viewers.

The Benefit of Native Ads to Attorney Marketing

Attorney marketing is a niche component of marketing because attorneys are bound by specific ethical and business codes. That being said, it is also not an easy product to sell consumers. Attorney marketing won’t sell a consumer who isn’t looking for attorneys. It’s not a commodity that encourages impulse buys. Instead, attorney marketing seeks to attract the attention of consumers who are looking for legal services. Despite the challenges, native ads can provide the following benefits to attorney marketing:

• Native advertisements represent an opportunity to lend credibility to attorney marketing. It offers attorney marketers the ability to produce high quality advertisements that appear to be endorsements from the website itself. Endorsements are highly prized in marketing because consumers view these as much more legitimate and credible than obvious advertisements. As Google reports, only 25% of consumers click on pay per click advertisements because these users have largely trained themselves to ignore advertisements. Native ads in comparison do not carry this stigma.
• Additionally, native ads aren’t yet blocked by ad blockers. Because they appear to be legitimate articles featured on websites, ad blockers don’t yet know how to block them. Attorney marketing can benefit from this exposure when competitors are still pursuing pay per click advertising that is blocked.
• Attorney marketing can link to native ads on their website and social media to increase the exposure of this advertising. Imagine if your native ads got a high amount of social media shares. This would propel your native advertising to higher ranks in search engine results, providing an organic boost to your advertising.

Advertising is an ever shifting component of outbound marketing. Attorney marketers have an opportunity to capitalize on these new shifting trends and to be leaders in the industry. Pay per click advertising will soon join other outdated advertising methods and will be replaced with fresh approaches such as native ads. It behooves your law firm to jump on this form of advertising to stay ahead of the pack.