Online Legal Marketing - Why Blogging Falls Short of the Mark
By Jay Fleischman

Online legal efforts must include a consistent stream of new and vibrant content to attract potential clients and others who may be in a position to send new clients your way. The easiest platform for adding new content is the blog.

Blogging is at the forefront of online legal marketing efforts. Every lawyer has been sold on the false notion that blogging - the very existence of the platform and the content - is enough to bring in new business. We're told to blog regularly and, from those efforts, the business will come to us. As if by magic.

But all too often the lawyers who use blogging as a cornerstone of their online legal marketing efforts find a trickle of new business rather than the avalanche they'd been promised.

Why? Simple.

A blog is terrific legal marketing - but it's not a good tool for moving prospective clients to action.

The goal of any online legal marketing campaign is "convince and convert." Convince the prospective client that you've got the right solution for their problems, and then convert them to paying clients. Marketing involves informing prospective clients about solutions, including the process of persuading them that we're the right people to solve those problems.

But this form of online legal marketing does not move people to action. It brings you to the doorway, but does not take you over the threshold. A blog is an excellent online legal marketing tools inasmuch as it conveys information and convinces prospective clients of your value.

But all too often it does not take the step of converting the reader, of getting them to take that next action. And that's precisely why legal blogs fail miserably most of the time.

If you don't tell someone what to do, they will do just that - nothing.

When given the choice of taking action or no action, the brain will default to the "no action" position. It's not that we're lemmings, but human beings do need to be shown the right direction in which to travel. We've got tons of things on our mind as is, and making the leap from, "that's terrific information," to, "I guess I should call," is bigger than you might think.

Direct response marketers tell us to always use a "call to action," and to "ask for the sale." That missive remains the same in the world of online legal marketing - if you don't ask for the next step, you won't get it. People will read your blog and figure it's for informational purposes only.

Then they'll call the next lawyer they find, and hire him or her. In so doing, your online legal marketing efforts go to filling someone else's pockets. Here are some ideas for calls to action to maximize the chances that your legal blog will be a money-maker and an online legal marketing winner:

Put a contact form on the upper-left hand corner of your blog, right below the header.

Put your contact information in the header. Add a page to your blog and title it something along the lines of, "Work With Me," or, "Become My Client."

Be sure to use subscription buttons on your blog, including the ability to subscribe by email.

Are you ready to get more free information on marketing your law firm? Just head over to Legal Practice Pro and sign up to get the only no-cost, no-obligation marketing newsletter specifically written for lawyers, by a practicing lawyer. Practice Pro News is battle-tested by Jay S. Fleischman, a practicing New York bankruptcy lawyer who uses his own tactics before bringing them to you. This isn't some fluff written by an ivory tower consultant who's never had to deal with the challenges of marketing and promoting a law firm.

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