Some lawyers think that all Internet marketing vendors and all websites are the same. When seeking a Web marketing vendor, in their haste or lack of experience, the first item they look at is the price tag. These same law professionals would never choose an investment advisor, a lawyer for their personal needs or a coach for their college based upon the cost.

How Are Law Firms Different?

To compare this approach with law firms, we all know the type of lawyer who tackles every case with limited experience, success and preparation – the type of lawyer who might ”wing it” or use past trial techniques. Our law firm clients approach their cases with a totally different philosophy and much higher success rate. They qualify a case well; identify the best lawyer for the case; prepare the plaintiff; carefully select expert witnesses; explain the case to other lawyers inside or outside the firm and obtain input; and practice the trial in front of carefully chosen, representative jury volunteers and obtain feedback and ask for their verdict. One of our clients, New Jersey-based Davis, Saperstein & Salomon, has a courtroom set up in their office building. Their clients have the opportunity to get the feel and experience of a trial before walking into a courtroom.

Are Web Vendors and Websites the Same?

Web marketing vendors also approach their work in different fashions. Some offer template designs and cookie-cutter approaches, have few experts on their team, have no lawyers or content focus, and do not offer experienced Account Managers. The vendors’ websites seem designed to hide their lack of qualified staff and experience behind catchy marketing phrases.

To illustrate the difference, I would like to describe how law firm Web marketing specialists such as Consultwebs.com are structured. We currently have 70 Platinum clients, and we limit the number of Platinum clients to fewer than 100. We define a Platinum client as one to which we assign an Account Manager and provide proactive marketing and maintenance marketing support each month. To support the 100 clients, we currently have more than 50 team members and more than 50 contractors, including lawyers, programmers and other professionals with skills we deem necessary. Our employees include three licensed attorneys and highly educated team members with MBAs and other graduate degrees along with extensive expertise. Our veteran designers get to know our clients before developing conversion-based designs. Each client is assigned an experienced, highly trained Account Manager who meets with the firm each month to review progress, reports and marketing ideas.

Our Account Managers meet frequently with staff from our other departments to strategize ways to improve our clients’ results. We proactively introduce tools to increase clients’ performance, including online chat, client intake and other Web marketing best-practice techniques.

The Proof Is in the Pudding

If a Web vendor has the right staff and commitment, it will deliver cases to its law firm clients. After all, the Internet is quickly becoming the leading medium for obtaining cases. The growth of Internet advertising revenue has outpaced other media every year since 2005.