In our web-connected world it’s hard to remember what promotions and advertising looked like before the Internet’s popularity exploded.

The Old Days

It’s difficult to think of twenty years ago as being “the old days” but that’s what they are, especially where PR is concerned.

In the “old days” if you wanted to market or advertise your products you could count on having to spend a lot of money.

In the “old days” almost all marketing and advertising was done through the buying of media ads: radio, television, newspaper and periodical (magazine).

In the “old days” direct marketing was done via the USPS and it could take months to find out whether or not your marketing campaign was actually working.

In the “old days” if you wanted to know what someone thought of you or your business, you had to ask them or hope that someone would tell you what people were saying. It was almost all hearsay and rumor.

In the “old days” a good and expansive marketing campaigns were something that only bigger companies could afford. Smaller and independent businesses had to rely upon word of mouth and highly targeted small campaigns because it was all they could afford.

Today

Today, there is still traditional advertising and it costs a pretty penny but there are lots of other marketing and advertising methods available to companies and businesses.

Today, a social media campaign costs only as much as the person you pay to run it because, in the springtime of 2013 social media is largely free (unless you want to pay for extra pointed advertising on the systems).

Today you can tell people all about your business without ever speaking a word or communicating with anybody one-on-one. Your website does it all for you.

Today direct mail costs only what you pay for someone to write it because it can be sent via email.

Today, monitoring what people say about you and ensuring that your reputation is solid and good is as easy as checking out your online reputation by doing a Google search. You can actually see what people are saying instead of having to rely upon hearsay. Consider online rep and check out this Company Overview of Reputation.com, Inc. to see why rep.com might be a good place to start.

Today it doesn’t matter what the size of your business is—putting together a solid and effective marketing campaign is just as easy for a single person to put together as it is for a big corporation.

Gone are the days when people pick up the Yellow Pages in need of legal representation and look for an advertisement that displays your smiling face along with a bullet point column of accolades. Your future clients are online, and the search engines have replaced all paper forms of “lawyer hunting”. Every competing firm in your area is fighting to get their share of the online client market, and all in all, the victor will be the firm with the best online presence. SEO (search engine optimization) is the key to enabling clients to finding your firm’s website in the search engines. This article will address some basic tips that any competitive law firm should be following.

Use the blog
Blogging or content marketing is a huge player on the SEO field. Having a law marketing blog not only provides clients and colleagues with informative material, it helps your SEO tremendously. Hiring someone who can provide your website with well-written, unique and captivating articles is important in order to keep people reading and engaged with your site. However, your blogger should also be well versed in the science that goes into making your blog in a search engine friendly manner. Using Google AdWords and knowing how to build links within the content is incredibly important. Recently, Google has come down with some strict search engine monitoring practices that have caused many businesses to completely drop off the face of Google for “spamming” the system and not linking under these strict regulations. The law of search marketing must be followed precisely in order to appease the Google gods, and to ensure your organic placement in the search engines will have steady growth.

Social media marketing
Facebook isn’t just a place for stating that you hate Mondays or that you left your coffee on the roof of your car. These days businesses ranging from medical clinics to home inspectors are using Facebook to market their business while improving their SEO.
Remember, SEO is achievable by creating keyword-sensitive and optimized content with added link building. Once your website is fully optimized, your law firm’s popularity in social media will improve your organic traffic statistics. Virtual Social Media advices that one posts informative teasers that link to articles and blogs on your social media accounts. By doing this you can land readers to your website, indirectly.

Do some research
When considering which social media platforms you want to use to increase your website’s SEO, take a look at the number of users each platform has and determine if the initial traffic and exposure is there. Then take a look at how these platforms function and see how they can be made to serve a legal marketing strategy. Facebook is already known and proven to drive more business and web visitors, as is Twitter. However, new platforms like Pinterst have recently offered business accounts, and the public have responded in massive numbers by “following” their favorite businesses. This social media platform allows you to use visual imagery in a collage formula to market your business and drive traffic to your website.

Get ahead in the game
If you think the law firm up the street is sitting idly on their hands, guess again. Your field is already over-populated and competition for clients is fierce. Hire an industry professional to produce your legal blog and link your website to the big players in social media.

Image source: http://www.dunncriminallaw.com/images/Computer_Crimes.jpg