Law Firm Marketing: Firing Your Toxic Clients

Given that we are still neck deep in the worst recession the U.S. has seen since the 1930's, you may think I'm a bit off the wall when you read what comes next. Drop your bad clients. Do it now. Identify them, confirm your facts and give them a nice wave goodbye. You heard me correctly; there is no better time than today for your law firm to shed clients that you should not be working with.

But John, this is not the right time for this. Look what's going on around us - stores are closing, there are unemployed lawyers out there, competition is fierce...

So what? This is completely irrelevant. More often than not, toxic clients (as defined below) cost you money - they do not make you money. Most lawyers do not realize this because they have not analyzed the numbers and mix bad clients into the batter with quality clients.

What is a toxic client? For starters, let's go with one that doesn't pay on time, or doesn't pay at all. Hey, don't get me wrong, if you have the ways and means to represent a client pro bono, by all means do some good for society. However, if a client has agreed to an hourly rate and is not paying you within a reasonable timeframe you should stop catering to this client. Not doing so will result in a different type of representation, one that an accountant I know likes to refer to as "pro bonehead."

A plaintiff's trial firm, working on contingency, can't have a bad client, right? Wrong. A bad client can be one who nags your firm incessently for the settlement check, consuming hours of resource time. If you can't set up the proper protocols to handle them, get rid of them. Having your secretary spend 3 hours on the phone discussing when the settlement check is coming is not productive).

A toxic client in this type of firm can also be one that is not financially profitable. If you handle small value personal injury law cases / no-fault and you do not have an efficient method of processing them, your firm can be losing money on this type of client. That's right - half of your law firm's cases may be covering up the bad business practices represented by the other half. You may be going through the motion on every $8,500 settlement that you think contributes to the bottom line, when the $560,000 settlement is paying a majority of your bills and costing considerably less in time and effort. Get an accountant or financial analyst type to look at your books, see which types of clients are profitable for your firm and which are not and stop taking on the ones that do not make financial sense. Adjust your marketing strategy and messaging to acquire the types of new client leads that represent profitable opportunities.

Here are a few categories of toxic law firm clients that you should consider firing when they cross the line:

- The non-payer / late payer
- The resource time waster
- The unprofitable client
- The litigious client (the reason professional liability insurance for lawyers was invented)

Now, take the extra time you have freed up and shift it to giving better service to your existing clients, networking, or strategizing on new marketing ideas. I guarantee that shedding these toxic clients will have a profound positive impact on the health of your law firm and possibly even on your general mental health.

Law Firm Marketing - No room for 2nd best

If your SEO program is not successful in placing your law firm in the #1 position for Google natural search results, you lose. Statistics show that close to half the clickthroughs go to the top position. Go below the top 3 and your traffic becomes meaningless and your program is not worth the cost.

Even is an SEO firm can get you up there, can they keep you up there? Doing so takes time and resource investments. Ultimately, you will not be able to sustain over the long haul, when your competition is paying 1/3 to 1/2 the fees for comparable SEO efforts. Today I am pitching you on why you should trust LitigatorEdge with your business. In several years, law firms and legal marketers that treat SEO like a professional service will begin to understand why getting the greatest value for your dollar is what ultimately drives SEO impact.

Put all your doubts out of your mind for 5 minutes and call me, or e-mail me and I will call you and ask me to explain in detail why LitigatorEdge is a better value to your law firm than any other Internet marketing vendor in the vertical. You are a lawyer and I am sure you are very persuasive. If you disagree with anything I say, I welcome a debate as to why using another Internet marketing firm, or handling online marketing in-house makes more financial sense for your law firm's bottom line.

LitigatorEdge - Lawyer Internet Marketing

Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing - Managing Internet Content

Personal Injury Marketing - Internet Content

My 5/21/09 post, addresses the importance of content quality and quantity, its impact on Google rankings and why this should be a critical component of most law firm Internet marketing strategies.

The next questions that usually come to mind are:

1) What do I write about?
2) Should I use a blog, articles, or both?
3) How often should I post?
4) Who should be handling these posts?
5) Is there anything else I need to know in order to make this a profitable use of my time?

Ok, let's address these one at a time.

1) What do I write about?

First, decide how you want to position your firm to the marketplace. Are you a generalist personal injury firm, do you specialize in medical malpractice, worker's compensation, auto accidents, junk faxes, securities litigation, nursing home abuse, police brutality, inmate rights, toxic torts, no fault, or some of the above? This is a critical business decision that requires serious consideration, because you will be branding yourself to the world as such.
How you make this decision may be a good topic for another post, but the bottom line is that once you decide on your focus, your content should be consistent with this.

You can write on anything related to this subject. For example, even if your specialty is as narrow as "construction accidents" you can still come up with creative ideas. Tell you readers how to avoid construction accidents, share updates on your verdict and settlement successes pertaining to these types of cases, talk about what a client can expect during the claim process, talk about what makes commercial claims different from auto injury claims, provide different links to interesting facts and statistics on construction accidents, other Internet resources that someone who has been involved in this type of personal injury accident may find useful.

2) Should I use a blog, articles, or both?

The two most common ways to generate low cost exposure online is through the use of a blog or articles. I happen to use both in my Internet marketing strategy. If I deem that some of my blog posts are sufficiently applicable to a broader audience I tweak and turn them into articles and then submit them to a major online article site such as http://www.ezinearticles.com/. I recently started using this service and am already at around 100 article views and it has already started generating meaningful traffic to my Web site - not too shabby for a niche focus, I think.
You can blog, post articles and send out Internet press releases - the choice is yours. Of course, the broader the range of tactics, the greater the impact on your search results and the stronger your overall online exposure and brand.

3) How often should I post?

Let your own time and resources dictate how much time you spend. Now, without plugging LitigatorEdge too much here, this is one of the main reasons why a low cost managed law fim Internet marketing program can be so effective. You never have to worry about topics, or content - you can just review everything to make sure that your Web content is to your liking and the result is a low cost marketing machine that is working nonstop to maximize exposure and increase your firm's visibility, at the detriment of your competition.

4) Who should be handling these posts?

This depends on the size of your firm and your resources. If you are a solo practitioner, maybe it's something you set aside a few hours for. If you already have a steady flow of business and have the capital to grow, but not the time, an efficient way to accomplish this could be to have a highly competent offshore copywriter resource research idea topics and produce preliminary drafts for you and then you can either have them approved by someone in your firm, or alternatively, an outside marketing consultant, etc...

Decide what works best for you and your firm, but make sure that you do not take up too much of your revenue producers' time with non-core law firm activities. Remember, everything you do is all about achieving a positive return on your marketing investment. If you spend too much money, or too much time, your return will be diminished.

5) Is there anything else I need to know in order to make this a profitable use of my time?

Yes. Promote your Internet presence to clients and other referral sources. This is the other piece of the puzzle. These efforts are not only designed to drive more Internet traffic to your law firm Web site, but also to increase your reputation and brand among those in your network.

In addition, and this is very important. Your content should not be arbitrary. Your keyword phrases should play to the search engine results you desire. Now, there is an art and science to doing this and this is where it pays to have expert backup. For example, back in the day, I could simply have the term "personal injury law firm marketing" appear two dozen times in this article and up to the top of search engines it would go. No more. Google is smarter and knows what to look for and what to ignore.

The way to be successful is to write content naturally, while also remaining mindful of the keyword phrases and incorporating them in an appropriate manner. Yes, this takes thought and time, so if you are planning to generate a solid income for your firm, you may want to consider outsourcing your marketing efforts to a law firm Internet marketing firm that will get you top value (read new client cases) for your buck.

Visit http://www.litigatoredge.com/ today for more information on our revolutionary onshore legal expertise - offshore Internet marketing team model that will save your firm 0ver 50% in online marketing costs.

Internet Marketing is a Superior Value for Lawyer Lead Generation in Recession

Recent figures released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) found that despite the recession, Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. were at $5.5 Billion, for the first quarter of 2009, representing only a 5% decline over the same period in 2008.

Accroding to the organizations, the recession has hit other media much harder and is a testament to both the accountability afforded by online advertising and the growing share of consumer time spent online.

What does this mean for law firms seeking to increase their incoming case leads?


Lawyer Lead Generation

First, it means that online marketing presents less risk. If you are not generating the return on your investment, you can react and modify. This may mean changing your law firm's Internet marketing provider to one delivering greater value for your money, or changing your lawyer lead generation strategy.

Next, it means that Internet marketing is becoming increasingly important in the marketing mix. You wouldn't buy stock in a company with a steady decline in revenues and a bleak future, so why would you continue to invest your valuable resources in antiquated methods of reaching prospective personal injury clients, while ignoring the Internet as a primary lead generation channel?

LitigatorEdge - Law Firm Internet Marketing

Law Firm Internet Marketing: A How To

It is remarkable that there are still a large number of established plaintiff's law firms with no defined Internet marketing budgets. I'm not talking solo practitioners here, but firms with three, four or more lawyers. OK, so your firm dominates its market because you landed a local television legal expert gig, or you have thrived as a result of seven figure case referrals from your network.

5 years ago, a professional Web site was par for the course for any successful law firm. Today, a mature Internet marketing program is a "must-have" and no longer a "nice-to-have". For a list of reasons why lawyer Web marketing has become so critical, download the informational guide on the LitigatorEdge.com home page.

So, how do you start and what do you focus on? The answer to this depends on what you are trying to accomplish and the type of new business leads that you are looking to generate.

A well designed Web site is typically the first step for most firms. Design is much more than aesthetics. It is about how conducive your Web site is to capturing leads and how well your content reflects the type of search traffic you wish to generate.

The second step for most plaintiff's firms is search engine optimization. There are onsite elements (including tags, keyword phrases, specific landing pages) and offsite elements (including directory submissions, link building, article submission, press releases). Search engine optimization has become very sophisticated and it pays to do your homework and to speak with multiple vendors before making a decision.

Because of the growing role of content in search engine formulas, the next consideration for law firms is the degree of internal or external resources to dedicate to content creation for the firm. Of course, having SEO experts monitor and optimize all content produced by your firm greatly increases its value.

Some firms may decide that Pay Per Click is a viable alternative in particular situations. In certain toxic tort or product defect cases firms have to react quickly and SEO has too long of a ramp up time and is not sufficiently predictable. While SEO may work well for a search phrase such as "dog bite lawyer New York" it will not fly for "Hydroxycut lawsuit", where time is of the essence and firms are seeking to reach a specific claimant audience before the competition does.

The best advice I can give is to learn as much as possible about SEO and PPC. There are many free Internet resources including the LitigatorEdge Web site. If you have any questions please contact me and I will gladly discuss any specific areas of marketing interest.