Is Web marketing truly costly?  If you are dealing with the wrong vendor, it will be. If you are dealing with the right vendor, you will get a high Web marketing ROI that is far better than the ROI that TV advertisers receive or that Yellow Page advertisers received when Yellow Page advertising was in its heyday.

If your firm has been shopping for an online marketing vendor, you have likely noticed a wide range of price tags. From one size fits all packages to campaigns custom-designed for your firm, the cost of Web marketing will vary by vendor. What should your firm realistically expect to invest in a campaign that will consistently deliver cases?

The Investment

Some law firms focus too heavily on price when selecting their Web marketing provider, assuming that all vendors are created equal. That mentality, however, is the same as saying a “lawyer is a lawyer.” A firm that has experience, expertise, proven success, and a high quality staff is going to bring better results than a solo who is fresh out of law school and has one or two people on staff.

By the same token, a vendor that has made significant investments in experienced, knowledgeable team members and makes the proper resource investments is going to achieve higher long-term returns than a vendor with a small staff taking SEO shortcuts such as buying links, keyword stuffing and using black-hat techniques. Bear in mind that some vendors quote low prices initially hoping to increase the price with other services, or they are planning to sell to a large number of clients knowing that they will lose several of them. Always check references.

It takes investment to produce worthwhile results.

While Web marketing investments can vary widely based on a firm’s location, practice areas and goals, law firms should expect to invest $3,000 to $6,000 per month for a comprehensive and aggressive Web campaign. Certain practice areas are naturally more competitive (e.g., personal injury) while others are much less saturated and require fewer resources and minimal expertise to compete.  As you add new market or practice areas, you grow your competition and thus require additional time and resources to effectively compete and achieve results.

So, what exactly will $5,000 per month obtain for you?

The Product

A portion of any Internet marketing investment pays for set-up work on the backend and ongoing maintenance to keep everything up and running. The core of any Web marketing campaign requires careful planning and execution. Account management is essential to carry out the strategy of a Web campaign and is best handled by a dedicated and experienced individual. An account manager with a watchful eye will be able to troubleshoot issues and track results and competitors, as well as strategize for the future.

The bulk of your investment covers all of the details that must work in unison to create a successful search marketing campaign. The three primary components of any successful locally focused campaign (assuming fundamental SEO best practices are in place) include engaging content, quality links and local optimization.  From performing keyword research to Social Media posting and networking, to creating local citations and establishing Google+ authorship attributes, there are numerous elements that must all be functioning properly to keep the engine of your search marketing campaign running.

Simply put, to rank the best you have to be the best. Merely adding a generic page of content on your site will not produce results. To be successful in competitive markets, you need to separate yourself using the information and content on your website. Custom photography, helpful videos, graphics, strategic use of case victories and testimonials and a user-friendly website design will attract, engage and compel prospective clients to convert. To do that successfully, you need a team of Web marketing experts continuously working to not only strategize and produce great content for your site, but also to leverage that content once it has been added.

A significant amount of resources will go toward marketing the quality content on your site as well as producing content off-site. Unlike certain industries, people are not naturally inclined to ‘share’ legal content on the Web. That is why having an outreach team to introduce your content to high quality and relevant websites is important in order to enhance your Web visibility and keep your site growing in traffic.

A comprehensive Web campaign that is planned and properly executed will drive traffic. A design that is compelling and encourages inquiries will drive leads. Finally, a well-oiled intake process will sign cases.

The Return

What do you get for your investment? After all, the goal of your marketing is not to have a standout online presence–the goal is increased cases and more clients. ROI, or return on investment, is a strong, quantifiable metric for evaluating how your firm’s business decisions are made.

Have you been waiting to make valuable investments for your firm? If the cost of a quality Web marketing campaign has been making you hesitant to invest, consider that in our experience several clients receive 10 to 1, if not higher, returns on their investments. In other words, for every dollar they invest into the Web, they receive ten back.

As the year draws to a close, it is a perfect time to evaluate your law firm’s ROI and cost-per-case to date. It would also benefit your firm to evaluate your Web marketing team.