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Chances are good that if your law firm does not yet have a legal website, it is not because you do not want one. Maybe you have been putting it off because other priorities seem more pressing. Maybe you are concerned that designing, building and maintaining a law website is complicated, time-consuming, labor intensive, and expensive. Maybe you think that marketing for law firms using law firm websites is more trouble than it's worth.
Well, think again. Marketing law firms online has never been easier or more affordable, thanks to the proliferation of site-building software and the increased technological sophistication of professional web development companies.
Building law firm websites for law firms marketing does not have to be painful
Affordable electronic tools can now automate the site building process. Some
automatic site-building software is so intuitive that users do not even need
to know HTML in order to create their own home on the web. If the thought of
using new software makes you break into a cold sweat, you might want to hire
a professional web development company to create your legal website. Aside from having the ability to get law firm websites up and running in no time, professional web development firms can add customized features and provide regular technical support that make marketing law firms online a breeze. With a slew of options available for building law firm websites, law offices have run out of excuses not to mine the power of the Internet when marketing for law firms.
Law firm websites used for law firms marketing in this day and age is vital to staying relevant. The best law firm websites provide users with information they can act on. Law firm websites can encourage visitors of your site to:
• Communicate with you or with branch offices or partners
• Contribute opinions, customer feedback or client testimonials
• Link their site to yours
• Register to receive a prize or free content. You can also capture customer
personal data during this process.
• Fill out a form that leads to a sales call or similar follow up.
• Subscribe to a service or e-newsletter
The best law firm websites should reflect the law practice in look, feel, content, and purpose. Do not just put up your legal website without giving it much thought and then walk away. Make sure you keep it up-to-date and that the site positioning and format correlates with your offline marketing. If you shift messages or logo, do not forget to adjust the website as well. Too often web design companies when marketing law firms tend to drift away and not keep the law firm websites content up to date.
Law
Firm Websites Must Implement a Potent Privacy Policy
Marketing for law firms does not begin and end with having clients submit a filled-up personal information form. Gathering information about a client becomes a pointless exercise if law firm websites do not have a privacy policy with teeth. One of biggest drawbacks to using law firm websites for law firm marketing is the threat of privacy breach. Every day, spammers, spyware purveyors, and others of similar ilk trawl the Internet for the purpose of pilfering personal information. Because of the vigilant nature of the business they represent, law firm websites are particularly guarded about the privacy of their clients' personal information. This kind of wariness affects all businesses, not just online ones. If you gather any information from your clients, you need to have an effective privacy policy in place. Such a policy means more than just declaring that everything you know about your clients will remain forever under wraps.
Here are some guidelines to help law firm websites develop a sound privacy policy, or possibly improve the one already in place.
Know precisely where you are now. The first step in devising an effective and comprehensive privacy policy is reviewing what privacy parameters may already be in place. Check out what sort of data you collect, how it's gathered, where and how it's stored, and other elements pertaining to personal information.
Give your clients specifics on how you will use their information. Tackle those issues that you are not obligated to mention when marketing for law firms, but is in your best interest to raise. For example, tell clients as precisely as possible what sort of personal information you gather and why; why and how you will use this information; how this information is stored both online and off, and if, how and why the information is shared.
In conclusion, law firm websites can be easily built and maintained with today's technology, such as with Attorney Café, and marketing law firms without a legal website today is almost moot. To be an effective vehicle for marketing law firms, best law firm websites must complement their corresponding offline marketing programs in terms of look, message, and goals. In addition, care must be taken to protect the privacy of visitors to law firm websites. Having an effective privacy policy in place will make visitors to the site feel more comfortable in submitting personal information. Only when these two concerns are addressed does marketing law firms through law firm websites become a “winnable case.”
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