| In Internet marketing for lawyers of course a website without traffic is a pointless endeavor at least for you. For the vendors it may not be pointless since it is a payday for them. Most of these vendors are well enough meaning people they just lack the right knowledge about law firm Internet marketing or only can see a piece of the picture.
A common scenario of this nature is maybe they are a representatives for large outfits you already use in other ways for legal research or attorney ratings so they sell you a website and put you in a pack of other lawyers on their site listed in your city or practice area when the visitor searches on their site.
Another not uncommon scenario I find is maybe a local vendor you knew, a client, ex-client or techie relative did your website. The purpose of this report is to give you a good sense of how you can build a website that works because it is in total alignment with how everything works on the Internet.
If you are in alignment with how the Internet works your website acts like a magnet attracting new visitors who feel good about what they find and become much easier to convert to paying clients. Sound simple? Well it is simple but not that easy or everyone would be doing it correctly. So what is the secret to success that everyone is missing? It is the
CTPM model of Internet marketing. Lets get right to explaining how this model works.
The CTPM stands for Content, Traffic, Pre-Sell and Monetize that was developed by Ken Evoy M.D. in 1997 to support the more than 30,000 people and businesses that have their websites hosted by his website hosting company. He knew that if he could deliver the information and the tools people needed to be successful online his company would be able to attract and retain more websites to host than his competitors.
Ken Evoy has been extremely successful since his website is the 193rd most trafficked website in the world (62% of the SBI websites are ranked in the top 3% out of the over 56 million websites at this writing) according to Alexa which rates websites for their level and quality of traffic.
What is he doing that is driving all that traffic to his website without any advertising what so ever? Would this model work with Internet marketing for lawyers? Read on and lets talk about the "C" in Content.
Content is king on the Internet and is the currency of the Internet be it Internet marketing for lawyers or any website on the Internet. People are searching the Internet for solutions and information and they are not searching for you in particular. How can we make them want to come to your site? By giving them what they want. Answers and solutions for what they want to know.
By delivering the content your prospective clients are seeking you become the expert they have been seeking. You can create a relationship with them that consists of having a sense of knowing you, liking you, trusting you, finding you credible and you even can become memorable to them. This is way better than running law firm advertising.
What is the key to knowing what that content is that your prospective clients are seeking? You have to have completed excellent
keyword research
and written content that is "sticky" (the visitor wants to stay and read on) and "persuasive" (having them to want to do your "most wanted response" on the site). You can meet your prospective client where they are now then grow the relationship to hiring you as their attorney through your content. So now that you have the C in mind lets talk a bit about the T.
Traffic is the T in CTPM model of Internet marketing as you may have surmised from reading about the content. Once you have the content right you can attract the attention of the search engines since they like to (and need to) deliver high quality content sites to their visitors or their visitors will go elsewhere to search (thus losing market share). This is how you will capture the attention of your prospective client with Internet marketing for lawyers.
This capture occurs because you know the keywords they are searching for solutions under and you know what to say to them at the search engine itself to get them to select your website as the link to click on over the other results they see. They are on the way to meeting you at your website for the "P" part of the model which we talk about next in.
Pre-Sell is the P in CTPM. This is where you begin to create your relationship with the visitor by delivering high quality content to your visitor. They have the sense you are speaking their language and you know exactly what they need. You seem likable and credible. So they easily say "yes" to your "most wanted response" which may be something as simple as giving their first name and email address to you in return for access to one of your special reports.
By doing this they have given you permission (sometimes called "permission marketing") to build the relationship (the essence of marketing is building relationships) with them in exchange for you giving them something of value to help them further the process of solving their problem. This is lawyer marketing at it’s best.
You might even offer free educational seminars by a telephone conference line on a monthly basis for visitors if they give you their name and email address. You might offer an email series on some aspect of the law that is of interest to your prospective clients. You certainly would have a newsletter sent at least monthly that has value for them. You might even have an e-book that is in more depth on the issues facing your visitor that is free if they give you "the permission". I think you get the idea here. Lets move on to the M.
Monetize is the M in the model. This is the easy part if you have the C-T-P parts in place correctly. Conversion from a visitor who gave you permission to create a relationship with them will become a good client when the timing is right for them.
The whole process of Internet marketing for attorneys is built on the ethical foundations of "permission marketing", "attraction marketing" and an educated consumer through "educational marketing". You are never, ever in the role of a salesman or advertising. You are in the role of a valuable resource that is educating them and helping them along the way.
Some practice areas can be delivered virtually which means now you have expanded your geographic reach to anyone who speaks the English language instead of just locally. If locally is your only interest or your practice area is limited to in person work that is OK because Internet marketing for attorneys can be designed for just local as well as international.
You will also have a website filled with content that others want to link to which drives you even more traffic. As you build the value of your website over time you are building the traffic and have a very tangible salable asset in the website as well not unlike a house or brick and mortar business building. You own the site, the system, the CTPM, you know how it works and it does not stop growing. Who doesn’t want that?
To review briefly:
C = Create content that the search engine likes enough to give you at least a good ranking (we are shooting for the top 10 positions here for 20 different search terms at least to begin with) as well as creating a demand in the search engine visitors’ mind to click on your link to go to your site and meet you.
T = Your website is loaded with really great content that thrills the visitors (traffic is coming in ever larger numbers) thus virtually compels them to give you permission to get to know you and them better.
P = By having the great content that over delivers from the visitors perspective, speaking the visitors language, showing up as helpful, likeable and credible you will develop trust with them over time so they naturally want to select you as their attorney. In fact they will stop looking elsewhere since they feel like they have found a solution. They will also tell others about your site and hopefully send some of your free material to others thus causing a "viral marketing" type phenomena to occur.
M = Monetize occurs naturally, normally and in due course when the prospective client is ready to take action. Additionally if you have good persuasive architecture on your site you can greatly increase "conversions" and reduce the "sales
cycle" (in marketing terms the "sales cycle" is how long it takes someone to decide to hire you). Thus more people in less time saying, "yes" to hiring you as their attorney.
Whatever your situation currently with a website by now you may be wondering how you can get some CTPM for yourself and enhance your Internet marketing for lawyers.
Well, one of the best places is to go to a person who is a Certified Webmaster by SBI. That is what I did with my website so naturally I am a bit biased although I have thoroughly experienced the process and results myself as well so I can speak to the challenges and results. Oh, I knew of plenty of other options and this is the way I went. I am not that Certified Webmaster with SBI - it is Richard Cannon. You can reach Richard at 940-668-2145 or go to his website at
www.CannonFireMarketing.com.
Richard is not a salesman so you will not get a sales pitch I can promise you that. You need to put him on the stand and cross-examine him for sure – he won’t be offended. Ask the very hard questions. Ask a lot of why questions. Richard will answer you very directly and will back up what he says with evidence unless it is an opinion and if it is an opinion he will tell you it is his opinion.
Richard will never tell you there is a "holy grail" in Internet marketing. CTPM is the closest thing to a "holy grail" since it delivers a lot of free traffic at the lowest cost while it positions you perfectly for other related Internet marketing strategies like pay per click (that is another topic for another report).
As a Certified SBI Webmaster Richard does not exclusively just use SBI tools. No one vendor has everything you need to be successful with law firm Internet marketing. For example one of the strengths of SBI is their template designs. You absolutely do not want a template design. You must have a custom design that will cost somewhat more, however, without it you will limit you success.
The "look and feel" of a site is not the most important thing for sure. The content is the most important thing. Yet poor "look and feel" can cost you plenty in lost revenue no matter how good the content might be. Thus a custom site is a good investment with little additional cost from a return on investment perspective.
At the same time you don’t want to go overboard buying "look and feel" you don’t need. You certainly don’t need to buy "look and feel" that gets in the way. That does happen all too often as people get caught up in the "bells and whistles" or get sold on something they don’t really need to get the job done.
Additionally you don’t have to use Richard or his team for everything. You can get him to do just your keyword research, your site architecture and then just have him consult with your current vendors for example. You may only want him to consult with or manage your existing team and he can do that for you doing none of the actual work himself. Richard does not need to do everything for you although he probably can do everything for you. Take it one step at a time.
Richard will be happy to spend time with you and will send you some e-books based on what you talk about together so you can educate yourself as a consumer of Internet marketing services because being educated in this arena is your best defense and offence. Of course if Richard’s options are not the best for you he will tell you that as well giving you good referrals. Do check
Richard out. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose is my take.
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