As part of Law Father’s sponsorship, Law Father’s staff will provide participating students with marketing and feasibility planning consultations through the summer of 2013. Law Father President Travis Luther is an adjunct faculty member at MSUD, teaching two courses in Entrepreneurship. Law Father provides law firms the digital and media services they need to grow and improve efficiency. These services include attorney website design, law firm search engine optimization (SEO), videography, and trial support.

Mobile Application Easily Connects Consumers to Personal Injury Attorneys

The Denver based legal marketing firm Law Father has announced the launch of **Injured (**4658733), a mobile phone short code that allows people looking for personal injury attorneys to easily connect with participating law firms by simply dialing **Injured from their mobile devices. The **Injured mobile short code is supported nationally by almost all major wireless carriers including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

Law Father company President Travis Luther believes the mobile short code is a natural extension of their current business, which focuses primarily on website development and internet marketing. “The volume of mobile based internet searches continues to double every year,” Luther stated. “In line with our own clients’ goals of easily connecting with more potential clients, **Injured presents an exciting opportunity for consumers to easily connect with attorneys while simultaneously providing them web based portals to further explore legal topics.”

When a consumer calls **Injured, they are connected to an attorney who has paid to opt-in to the **Injured mobile marketing service. The consumer simultaneously receives a text message from Law Father with the attorney’s information, as well as a link to www.LawFather.com, one of the company’s websites which provides free and detailed background checks about attorneys to consumers. Luther says that www.LawFather.com currently receives about 3000 of these queries every month. “The growth of Law Father’s consumer focused services has really taken off over the last 12 months,” Luther said. Luther attributes this growth to a growing base of consumers who want more options than the attorneys they routinely see on television.

Marketing of the **Injured mobile marketing program is initially being supported with over 60 billboards placed throughout the Denver metro area. Luther says he plans to expand the **Injured marketing program to television and radio sometime over the next six months.

While **Injured is geared towards civil attorneys and injured people who may need to retain them, Luther said the company has also licensed the short code **Justice, with the intent of broadening the types of attorneys and consumer base who could connect via a star star mobile short-code. “Star star mobile short codes are an extremely new medium,” Luther cautioned. “But with more and more mainstream adoption, such as the National Football League’s massive marketing push of their star star mobile short code, **NFL, I believe expanding our mobile short code program will be of tremendous benefit to both law firms and consumers for a long time to come.”

To learn more about the **Injured mobile marketing program, please fill out the contact form on this page or call Law Father at (800) 325-7715.

We regularly receive email solicitations from companies who claim they can create and post testimonials for our clients to relevant review sites throughout the web, including Google, Yelp, and Citysearch. Most bar associations prohibit attorneys from paying their own clients to provide testimonials. I suspect that paying for fictitious testimonials from clients attorneys never actually served could be grounds for disciplinary action.

Over the the last few years, localized search returns incorporating star ratings and consumer satisfaction scores have dominated the top of the organic search returns. For a number of years Yelp’s star ratings were a regular inclusion in Google Places local search returns – until a dispute between Yelp and Google over fair licensing ended their relationship.

In July of 2012, we reported that Yelp and Apple had struck a deal making Yelp Apple’s primary business data provider for the Apple Maps application incorporated into the iOS6 operating system. With Apple iPhones hovering around 25% of all smart phones, it is easy to see why some business owners would be motivated to pay for more reviews in the hopes of appearing more prominently in local and map searches.

Law Father has creative and ethical ways for encouraging your actual clients to talk about the great experiences they have had with your law firm. If you are interested in learning more about an easy to use testimonial solution that is fast and intuitive for your clients, reach out to Law Father today at (800) 325-7715. You can also create a profile on http://www.lawfather.com and encourage your clients to post reviews there.

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The Great

Law Firm ‘A’ wants their web design and SEO project Awesome + Fast. Awesome + Fast = Not Cheap.

Law Firm ‘A’ is not cost conscious, but rather results driven. They are going to pay what is necessary to have the most success as quickly as possible. They are conversion oriented and share Law Father’s core values.

The Good

Law Firm ‘B’ wants their web design project Awesome + Cheap. Awesome + Cheap = Not Fast.

Law Firm ‘B’ understands the importance of online marketing for their law firm, but is also cost conscience. They are willing to hire us to do less monthly work than what we would do for Law Firm ‘A’, and over a longer initial period of time (i.e. 24 months instead of 6 months). Law Firm ‘B’ generally shares Law Father’s core values, but has set realistic goals for what is reasonable within their current online marketing budget.

The Ugly

Law Firm ‘C’ wants their web design project Fast + Cheap. Fast + Cheap = NOT Awesome.

At Law Father, we are only interested in doing work that is Awesome (who wants some half-ass crap in their portfolio?). Law Firm ‘C’ almost always wants to know what “this” is going to cost them before ever asking exactly what “this” entails. So Law Firm ‘C’ is usually invited to pursue a web marketing and law firm search engine optimization (SEO) program with another company.

The Great, The Good, and The Ugly Within Your Own Law Firm

I suspect there are some similarities between how we group potential clients at Law Father and how you could group potential clients within your own law firm. A few years ago we were hired to videotape a presentation by a practice management consultant. He was the first person to present (to me) the challenges of taking on too many “C” type clients. Something that the presentation helped me recognize was that C clients were the only type of client that could actually have a negative effect on the entirety of my business. A and B clients improve your business because they share your goals & values, trust that you will do what is in the best interest of their legal issues, will refer their friends and colleagues to you, and pay on time. C clients will take up the largest amount of your time. They need constant reassurance. They rarely seem satisfied. They are faster to lend criticism than praise. They seem to get more satisfaction out of getting “a deal” than from obtaining quality legal representation. They demand far more service for far fewer dollars. They are also harder to collect payments from, meaning you become their bank, fronting a lot of the costs to have these clients on your books. Overall, C clients become a huge distraction to all the work you have and hurt your ability to perform well for your A and B clients.

If you apply the 80/20 rule to your caseload, you can identify your C clients pretty fast. They generally tend to be the 20% of your clients that take up 80% of your time and only make up 20% of your revenue. I would encourage you to try and reduce the number of C clients you have as quickly as possible. Objections to this type of action usually include, “Yeah, but they cover the overhead.” I had the same objections myself. I know that cutting C clients loose can feel extremely uncomfortable at first. But remember a couple of things. 1.) You probably went into business for yourself so that you could choose the kinds of people you work with, people who shared your goals, vision, and values. This should ALWAYS include your clients. 2.) If you do outstanding work for your A & B clients, they WILL send you referrals. You risk reducing the quality of their work (and possible referrals) if 80% of your time is spent handling the distractions presented by your C clients.

How a Search Engine Optimization Program (SEO) for your Law Firm Can Help

SEO puts your law firm’s website in front of more potential clients. SEO does this by positioning your website further up the search returns, where more people will see. If your website is designed with conversions in mind, then the more people who see your website, the more people who will email or call your law firm. More calls means more options. The more options you have in the types of clients and cases available to you, the more opportunity you have to sign up A and B clients. Search engine optimization gives you the ability to take the cases you want, not just the cases you think you need to cover your overhead. SEO creates a high quantity of calls that can be reduced down to high quality clients. This will improve the overall profile of your caseload, and allow you to do a better job practicing the law by minimizing the distractions caused by C clients.

How Law Father Can Help

Law Father can evaluate your current website and make recommendations for a sustained and effective SEO program. We can increase your law firm’s position in the search returns and increase traffic. This increase in traffic will give you more opportunities to pick and choose the types of clients you want to bring on. Contact us today for a FREE law firm website evaluation. We can be reached toll-free at 800.325.7715 or through the contact form to the left of this page.

But over the last few weeks new life was breathed into Yelp as Apple Maps announced that Yelp will be THE local search data provider for Apple’s new iOS 6 operating system, providing timely local search displays for Apple’s new series of iPhones. Though Apple Maps has already been using data provided to it via Yelp, Yelp has never received the search return branding from Apple that should now put it toe to toe with Google as the top local search data provider.

Before the Google v. Yelp battle, Law Father routinely advised attorneys to have their clients review them on both Google and Yelp. This was because the Yelp reviews added a nice second row of stars which helped the Google Places search return standout more than a competitor listing with no stars. But over the last few years, monitoring and updating Yelp profiles has taken a back seat to more pressing SEO concerns, such as revving up Google plus profiles. For a lot of SEOs Yelp profiles moved down the priority list of things to do during a new client set-up.

The take-a-way from this week’s news is that it is time to revisit and update your Yelp profile. If you don’t have a Yelp.com profile yet, you can create one here.  Apple is moving fast to take up space traditionally held by Google local search. We would all be wise to monitor and adjust our SEO strategies to take a long-term view of Apple’s efforts.

If you are an attorney or law firm interested in generating more clients from the internet, reach out to Law Father today. Let us show you how our proven law firm SEO strategies are bringing more cases to our partner law firms. We will provide you a FREE website evaluation over the phone at 800.325.7715.

5.) AVOID CHEAP, FAST AND EASY SEO PROGRAMS

Sorry. Real SEO is not cheap, fast, or easy. If anyone tells you different, they are lying or just don’t know what they are talking about. It is a tedious and time consuming process that requires patience and consistency. Avoid programs that let you buy anything in bulk for “cheap”, like content and back links. And be suspicious of anything that is automated. Ask your potential account executive what’s going to be done, when, and who is going to do it (heck, even ask for employee names). This will help ensure that you’re not doing business with someone who is just going to buy their own cheap links and bulk content on your behalf. Your SEO company should know you – and you should know your SEO company. Make sure there is a customer service number and call a few times before you buy to make sure someone is always there to answer. Getting mixed up in anonymous link farms and other cheap SEO programs can get your law firm’s website penalized by the search engines and force you to start from scratch. THAT is never a good investment.

4.) FIND AN SEO COMPANY THAT JUST WORKS WITH ATTORNEYS

You would not hire a personal injury attorney to handle your divorce. You would not let an ear, nose and throat doctor perform your ankle surgery. This is because you recognize that most professions have sub specialties. SEO is no different. “Niche” SEO companies are more likely to be constantly monitoring your market, your keywords, and your potential clients. They are also more likely to already have in place rich, content specific networks of websites from which you can draw higher page rank. They should also already have the appropriate media you need to perform well in universal search. A niche SEO company is going to know exactly what to do and exactly where to do it far faster than a company that handles a wide swath of professions. And my experience has been that the lawyers who generally find themselves burned 2-3 times are the ones that have hired general SEO firms rather than looking for legal specific search engine optimization companies.

3.) YOU SHOULD NEVER GET OFF THE PHONE NEEDING A PROPOSAL

If you are about to get off the phone with a potential legal SEO company, and you find yourself asking for a written proposal, you’re probably not talking to the right company. I know this sounds totally contrary to everything you believe is right and good about business and the law, but it’s not. So why shouldn’t you ask for a written proposal? Because if you’ve just spent an hour or two of your time (which I know is pretty valuable) on the phone, you should not have to spend another hour or two down the road deciphering a proposal. A truly knowledgeable SEO consultant should leave you with no unanswered questions. Everything he or she discusses with you should be explained in a way that makes perfect sense. You should hang up the phone feeling far more educated than when you started the call. In fact, I don’t even provide written proposals anymore. If I am asked for one, I know I’ve missed something important in that attorney’s mind or failed to cover a topic in a way that was informative. If I am asked for a proposal, my response is always to ask what the attorney believes is still confusing – what would they like to see in a proposal that we have not covered or that is still not understood? I do this because I don’t want to waste any of your time – and if you remain confused, then I probably have. You should view this item in the same way you would within your own law firm. If you have set time aside to meet with a client and talk to them about their case, you would probably feel disappointed if they stood up and said, “Great. Now can you put all of that in writing?”

2.) DON’T BE IN A HURRY

A quality lawyer SEO company should measure their success by their ability to educate you and make you feel comfortable with the goals and expectations they have set for your law firm’s website – not by meeting sales quotas. Don’t feel hurried by an SEO company that seems more focused on getting a signed contract than educating you. If you call me and we seem to be on the same page and share the same goals, I AM going to ask you for your business, but getting your business is not going to be the focus of our conversations. Look at your potential SEO company as you would a potential employee. You are going to want to hire the person who seems to have the best understanding of what your firm does, has the qualifications that fit the position, and is going to be around for awhile. During the job interview process you would not put “pushy” as a quality at the top of your evaluation (though “pushy” may be a good quality down the road – especially if a lot of your time is spent trying to get opposing counsel or hospitals to produce records!). The same should hold true with your law firm’s SEO company. Remember rule 5 – that SEO is a tedious and time consuming process. You need to hire a company you can feel comfortable working with into the foreseeable future.

1.) SPEND MORE

If you have found an SEO company with a proven track record, who has been able to educate you, shares your growth goals, and has a clear vision for your law firm’s website – spend as much money with them as you can stomach. For us, the more you can spend, the more we can do, and the faster your website can move up the search returns. The truth is that if you spend a little you get a little (if anything at all). If you spend a lot you can get a lot. It may give you butterflies at first, but once you are well positioned in the search returns you’ll recognize that spending more produces more cases. At this point the online marketing dollars you are spending are no longer a risky investment but an effective tool for growing your caseload and building your law firm. Eighty percent of all clicks go to websites that appear on the first page of the search engine search returns. You could spend $1500.00 per month to get on page two or three where few people will see your website and contact you, or you could double what you’re spending to $3000.00 per month and appear on the first page of the search returns, being exposed to FIVE TIMES as many potential clients! That’s a pretty good investment – and far less risky than “almost” getting in front of people who are looking for an attorney online.

To learn more about Law Father and the ways in which we can grow your caseload through a quality and comprehensive search engine optimization program, call (800) 325-7715. You may also contact us through the contact form along the side of this page. We know that lawyers are busy and that not everything can be accomplished Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, so if it is easier for you, feel free to call in the evenings or on the weekends. Someone will answer the phone or get back to you right away.

This article was recently written for and published in Trial Talk, the bi-monthly publication of the Colorado Trial Lawyer Association.

The gap between the wealthy and the poor is growing (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 2011). Over the last 20 years, U.S. economists and policy makers have created significant literature chronicling the decline of the middle class (Watson 2010). Unfortunately, this decline is not because the middle-class have grown wealthier, but rather that they have slipped down to income and wealth levels in which they are now economically categorized as “lower-class”. The lower-class is in fact the fastest growing income bracket in America. Explanations for this growth are abundant and include the loss of U.S. based manufacturing jobs, consecutive recessions, and the burst of the housing bubble (Censky 2011). Both the U.S. Census Bureau and the The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education expect the growth of the lower class to continue for at least the next 15 years. Both agencies explain this growth, in part, as a consequence of a rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino population, predicted to have an overall lower educational obtainment level (and thus, lower income levels) than that of Asian-Americans, Whites, and African-Americans. Colorado has one of the highest Hispanic populations per capita (about 21% according to the 2010 U.S. Census) in the country. This means that whatever the actual long-term consequences of this trend, Colorado will be one of the first states to face them. (As an interesting side note, an ABA survey found that “those who had the most favorable opinion of lawyers tended to be female; African-American or Hispanic; with an annual family income of less than $20,000; and between the ages of 18 and 29 (Paxson 2002:193).”)

In sociology, we often examine the correlation between one’s economic class and the amount of one’s Social Capital. Social Capital is a concept that gained traction with sociologists through the 1980s and 1990s, largely from the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Rather than solely examining the role of economic capital in explaining one’s social status, Bourdieu pushed for a more thorough observance that included analyzing one’s social capital. Bourdieu (1983) defined social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.” Simply put, people and institutions are also resources that one can draw from to improve one’s social status. Much like money, the more friends, acquaintances, and professional ties one has, the more likely they are to be financially successful. When someone from the middle class finds herself facing difficult financial challenges, she may be able to draw on her social capital to slow or stop a slip into the lower-class. This draw can come in many forms. It may be a loan from someone within her social network. It may be more opportunities to interview at companies where she has many acquaintances. It may even be an opportunity to start her own company, exploiting her network of business contacts. When faced with tough economic times, those members of the middle-class with little to no social capital could be at greater risk of slipping into the lower-class.

For people born into the lower-class, accumulating and taking advantage of social capital can be nearly impossible. This is because lower-class people generally achieve lower levels of education, which keeps them in jobs where their primary social network (and social capital) consists of what is available to them from others in their same financial position. They do not have college class mates who can provide job opportunities. They do not have family members from whom they can borrow money. And the lower-class are less able, financially, to join clubs or participate in activities which require fees that could increase the size of their social network. The consequence of this is that very little new social capital comes into the social networks of the lower-class.

Social capital and how it affects one’s financial and social status is important for lawyers to recognize because it provides some insight into the different ways law firms can generate new clients. Lawyers can choose to generate new clients through their own social capital, taking advantage of their large social networks to disseminate information about their practices. Lawyers can reach out to the large and growing population of people who do not have the social capital required to quickly find and hire a lawyer. Lawyers can even choose to do both, using both their own social networks and a strategy that reaches out to those with little to no social capital through advertising. Through some of my own focus groups and surveys, and the surveys of others, one fact stands out: Most people with low social capital do not know an attorney or have an attorney within their social network. There is a lyric in a song by the band Pedro the Lion, which best summarizes this predicament, “successful people rarely stay in touch with unsuccessful friends.” When these lower-class people, with little to no social capital, are faced with legal issues, whether it be a divorce, bankruptcy, or personal injury, there is no attorney readily available for them to reach out to. It is in this scenario that lawyer advertising becomes an important resource for these individuals as they pursue the possibility of legal recourse.

The data show that if you believe that all clients can be obtained and served through personal references, you may be wrong. In fact, the data also show that with regard to the size of this lower-class/low social capital population, an extremely high number of the people who need the services of an attorney cannot find one through their own social network. And perhaps even more disheartening, in the remote chance that there is an attorney somewhere within their social network, they most likely cannot afford them. This fact is most obvious within the practice area of criminal defense, where court appointed attorneys provide the legal representation needed by the lower-class and poor. But there is no tax funded or state mandated representation promised to the low-income victims of an injury. They are left largely on their own to negotiate with insurance companies or property owners when they suffer an injury due to the negligence of another. Lawyer advertising provides a bridge between these injured individuals and the lawyers who can serve them. The American Bar Association (ABA) published an article acknowledging this fact, writing that “Advertising is a viable vehicle to enable low income families to find legal representation. The importance of this finding cannot be ignored as the organized bar continues to pursue its goal of of improved access to all persons regardless of their income (Paxson 200:195)”.

Personal injury attorneys are in a unique position to provide “improved access to all persons regardless of their income (ABA).” This is because unlike most practice areas, personal injury attorneys can work on a contingency fee basis – meaning an injured person does not have to pay any up front cost if the attorney is unable to collect compensation for them (though they remain vulnerable to costs associated with losing a legal battle). In this way, a personal injury is not unlike the “sanctuary city” – a place where all are welcome. Personal injury attorneys can provide an important bridge between low-income individuals and the justice system, while exposing themselves to the same financial risks they assume with their more affluent clients. One other fact which is especially important to note from my own research, is that most lower-class people with no social capital express confusion over the term “contingency fee.” Though this concept is commonplace within law firms, lower-class potential clients do not always realize that they can seek out legal representation without having to make payments they cannot afford. Attorneys who choose an advertising strategy to reach out to this population should consider very clear messaging that reinforces the unique position personal injury attorneys are in to provide justice to low-income victims of negligence.

In listening to attorneys as they discuss law firm advertising, most suspect that advertising creates negative public perceptions about personal injury lawyers and their profession. However, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Advertising found that “while the legal profession strongly believes that advertising contributes to the decline of the profession’s image, the public rarely mentions advertising as a factor (Paxson 2002:195).” Perhaps more devastating to the image of personal injury attorneys is their lack of concerted organizations aimed at debunking the trial lawyer myths used as ammunition by large companies to scare citizens. Health insurance companies, physician’s groups, and well lobbied government officials have spent years broadcasting messages about the devastating consequences of the trial lawyer industry (see www.doctorsadvocate.org & www.thinkaboutitcolorado.org for some examples). The budgets for this messaging (including both media and lobbyist expenditures) far exceed the advertising budgets of almost every trial lawyer. Given this disparity in marketing spending, the public is much more likely to hear a negative message crafted by business interests against trial lawyers than they are to see an attorney advertisement. To combat this negative messaging, lawyers who do choose to advertise may want to consider messaging that encourages victims of negligence to reach out to them, but that also incorporates themes related to the role of attorneys in consumer protection and securing justice.

The number of our population who are categorized as low-income is growing. Whether they are born into the lower-class, or slip down due to a financial crisis, they have little, if any, social capital to draw from to improve their economic status. When faced with legal challenges, these people often do not have an attorney within their network who they can reach out to. It is at this time that lawyer advertising becomes an important bridge between the poor and the attorneys who could serve them. Lawyer advertising can also serve to debunk some of the myths disseminated by organizations who view justice as an obstacle to maximum profitability.

References:

American Bar Association Commission on Advertising (1995). Lawyer Advertising at the Crossroads; Professional Policy Considerations. American Bar Association. Chicago.

Bourdieu, Pierre. (1983). Ökonomisches Kapital, kulturelles Kapital, soziales Kapital in Soziale Ungleichheiten (Soziale Welt, Sonderheft 2), edited by Reinhard Kreckel. Goettingen: Otto Schartz & Co. pp. 249.

Censky, Annalyn (2011). Middle-class income fell in the last decade. CNNMoney.com. Published Wednesday September 21, 2011. Retrieved 09/21/11 from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Middleclass-income-fell-in-cnnm-1748504813.html? x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (2011). Growing Income Inequality in OECD Countries: What Drives it and How Can Policy Tackle it? Paris Forum. May, 2011. Retrieved 09/21/11 from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/20/47723414.pdf

Paxson, Peyton (2002). Have You Been Injured? The Current State of Personal Injury Lawyers’ Advertising. Journal of Popular Culture. September 1, 2002.

Watson, Bruce (2010). Disturbing Statistics on the Decline of America’s Middle Class. Daily Finance: America Online. Published 10/17/10. Retrieved 09/21/11 from http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/10/17/disturbing-statistics-on-the-decline-of-americas- middle-class/

U.S. Census Bureau (2010). State and County QuickFacts. Retreived 09/21/11 from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/08000.html.