Online lawyer marketing including law firm websites, social media for law firms, email marketing, and more.

1. Ethical Digital Marketing
for Law Firms
Stacey Burke, Attorney
Stacey E. Burke, P.C.
Of Counsel, Watts Guerra LLP

2. Texas Disciplinary Rules
of Professional Conduct, Part VII
• The bulk of violations will occur under Rule 7.02 “Communications
Concerning a Lawyer’s Services.”
• Board Certification by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization
conclusively establishes that a lawyer meets the requirements of
Rule 7.02(a)(6) (the ability to designate/advertise a particular
practice area) in any area in which the Board has certified the
lawyer.
• The most common violations occur with regard to:
– Case results (“unjustified expectations,” aggregate results, and net/fee
disclosure)
– Stating that a lawyer is an “expert” or a “specialist” (cannot use)
– Board Certification (specifically mandated format)
– Principal office location (must be listed and be staffed at least three
days each week)
– Joint venture advertising (you must disclose all financially interested
parties)

3. Building Successful Law Firm Digital Marketing
Macro Web Marketing – Nationwide, Worldwide
Ethical Compliance under TDRPC Part VII – Associate Bar
Number with Advertising
Social Media Marketing (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
Successful Intake, Call Tracking Procedures
Micro Web Marketing – Local Geo-Target, by Lawyer
Video Marketing
Measuring Return on Investment (ROI)
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

4. Integrated Marketing Strategy

5. Marketing Analysis
• Marketers not only examine their own business
or client, but also examine competitors.
• Focus on your competition’s relative strengths
and weaknesses.
• Look at your competition’s cost structure,
revenue sources, resources, competitive
positioning online, etc.
• Engage in test marketing groups to evaluate new
ideas, similar to trial focus groups (“pregame”).
Know Your Competitive Landscape

6. Internet Marketing for Lawyers
Website advice for lawyers from a
lawyer turned legal marketer

7. Internet Marketing – Cheaper, More Focused, Easy to Track
Why the Web is Better
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Lawyer Profiles,
Law Firm Directory Listings, other aggregate
sites. If you are not present in a meaningful
way, you are missing searchers who look for
you in a “brochure” sense (referral sources)
and potential new clients.
The first thing I do when I interview a
paralegal, talk to a vendor, or meet someone
at a networking event is try to find them on
social media channels. I also check out their
website.
Good Basics to Start Creating:
•Global Social Media Marketing Strategy,
including LinkedIn, and consistent firm
branding throughout
•Individual Attorney Marketing – Avvo, Justia,
Rocket Lawyer, Super Lawyers
•Video Presence and Video Marketing
•Client Feedback – Testimonials on and off site
Global Social Media and Internet Strategy
Print media is outdated for significant segments
of your target audience. Users want information
NOW, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Think of how you look things up yourself. When
is the last time you used a newspaper, the
Yellow Pages, or a trade publication to obtain an
answer. More likely, you used your iPad,
Blackberry, iPhone, laptop or other device.
Television remains an effective way to reach a
broad audience, leading to an extreme overflow
volume of both rejected matters and refer-out
cases that someone must manage.
E-mail Marketing – remarketing to existing
database by appropriate demographic can be
quite effective.
Websites are the online version of the former
print brochure, Yellow pages listing and
newspaper advertisement. If you do not have
one, you do not look legitimate to the 273
million U.S. Internet users.
Traditional Law Firm Marketing vs.
Web-Centered Strategy
1 2

8. Online Lawyer Listing Opportunities
• Some are free, some are paid
• Either way, you need to claim them, build
them out, and optimize them for search
• Examples: Avvo, Rocket Lawyer, HG, Google
Places and MSN Business
• Case Study (PAID vs FREE): Super Lawyers

9. Super Lawyers Profile (FREE)
• Michael Murray, a lawyer from Watts Guerra
does not have a paid listing. This is what his
unpaid listing looks like.

10. Super Lawyers Expanded Profile (PAID)
• Mikal Watts has paid for his expanded listing

11. Internal Best Practices for
Marketing Law Firms
Law firms need to adjust their internal
processes to handle the increased
intake associated with marketing efforts

12. Intake  Firm Systems  ROI
Internal Systems Must Be Set Up to Support
Increased Marketing
Ensure intake is captured in one
system so that each opportunity is
accounted for and followed up on in a
lead nurturing sequence.
INTAKE
•Database lead tracking for ROI,
remarketing, and conversion
•Automated forms, records requests
Internal Firm Systems
3
Partners should know which marketing
expenditure generates what case, and
then in turn, the estimated fee. This must
be constantly assessed to reconfigure
strategy.
ROI: RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Regular Communication is KEY
Weekly meetings regarding intake,
conversion, and issues
Quartlerly marketing meetings with
business owners to discuss ongoing
campaigns and spends as well as new
ideas
Monthly or Quarterly Communications
with Referral Attorneys regarding joint
ventures, existing inventory, maintaining
relationships, future campaigns
2
1

13. I Have a Website, Now What?
How to drive traffic to your law firm’s website
to increase visibility and new case intake

14. Law Firm Website Traffic: The Basics
1. Have a decent flagship
website. I call it your online
brochure.
2. Drive traffic to your website
via a variety of vehicles
mapped out in a
comprehensive marketing
strategy.
3. Add content to your website
on a regular basis (news,
case results, speaking
engagements, whitepapers,
awards, etc.)

15. Law Firm Website Traffic Drivers
• Online press releases and media coverage
• Banner and display advertising
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Paid search advertising
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• YouTube videos
• Offsite blogging and article writing

16. Social Media Marketing for Lawyers
How to utilize the ever-expanding amount of
social networks to interact ethically and
meaningfully with the public

17. How Many People Use Social Media?
• Millions of Americans use social media.
• According to Facebook’s own statistics, it boasts
one billion monthly active users as of October
2012 and 584 million daily active users on
average in September 2012.
• Twitter surpassed 500 million users this year.
• As of September 30, 2012, LinkedIn operates the
world’s largest professional network on the
Internet with more than 187 million members in
over 200 countries and territories.

18. Social Media Marketing:
Which Channels are Most Important
• Facebook
– In an amendment to its filing for an initial
public offering, Facebook stated that it has
42 million pages, noting that over four
million businesses have pages on its site
• Twitter
– 32% of all Internet users are using Twitter,
and there were 175 million tweets sent
from Twitter every day throughout 2012
• LinkedIn
– Over 187 million users as of Q3 2012
– Maintaining professional relationships, an
online resume
• YouTube
– Over 800 million unique users visit
YouTube each month
– 500 years of YouTube video are watched
every day on Facebook, and over 700
YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each
minute
• Google+
– G+ is Google’s own social media creation.
While Google Plus has only 150 million
users, Google is not going anywhere, so a
G+ profile is worth building out now, and
you should stake a claim on a company
page for your firm as well
• Pinterest
– If your target demographic is largely
female, Pinterest should be part of your
marketing strategy. 97% of the fans of
Pinterest's Facebook page are women
• Instagram
– In August 2012, Instagram hit 80 million
users and counting with more than 5
million photos uploaded to Instagram
every day

19. Law Firm Email Marketing
Use your existing contacts and mine your law
firm’s database in a targeted, segmented
strategy to better market your practice

20. Email Marketing Quick Facts
• 50 million people will check email at least 5 times
today
• Email reaches 93% of internet users
• Response rates to email are 10x greater than direct
mail
• Adults will account for 87% of all U.S. email users in
2013
• There will be 216.6 million U.S. email users this year
• Two out of three people in the U.S. will be email users
in 2013
• Use an ESP for its greater deliverability and “white list”
status

21. Email Marketing/CRM
Email Marketing
• Make your existing contacts work for you
– database mining.
• If you don’t tell your contacts what you
are working on, who will?
• Announce firm news
• Instantly blast your entire hit list
• Throw parties and host events
• Judicial and political fundraising
Customer Relationship Management
• A CRM system allows businesses to
manage business relationships and the
data and information associated with
them
• Reporting and analysis are centralized
and streamlined
• All data is captured in a singular
clearinghouse for both conflicts checking
and remarketing

22. The CAN-SPAM Act: Overview
• Governs “any electronic mail message the
primary purpose of which is the commercial
advertisement or promotion of a commercial
product or service”
• Do not use false or misleading header
information or deceptive subject lines
• Identify your messages as advertisements
• Give recipients the ability to OPT-OUT
• Each separate email violation is subject to
penalties of $16,000

23. Business to Business Marketing:
How to Market to Other Law Firms
While many law firms market to potential clients,
depending upon the practice area, firms can get their
best cases from marketing themselves to other
lawyers and law firms.

24. B2B: Business to Business Marketing
How to Market to Other Law Firms
• Know your audience
• Who are the decision
makers and influencers?
• Speaking engagements
for lawyer associations
• Legal article publication
and subsequent
promotion
• Direct mail, Email, Case
Studies, Testimonials,
Public Relations

25. How to Start?
• Audit existing marketing efforts and associated
internal systems for effectiveness
• Consider an update/redesign of the firm’s
logo/branding/website as part of a new, global
strategy (this new identity will live on many
channels and needs to look and feel cohesive)
• Create consistency across the firm’s lawyers with
regard to online presence
• Develop multimedia plan of attack to target the
referral sources you want and the cases you need
to survive and grow

26. More About
Stacey E. Burke, P.C.
12 year lawyer and 15 year
law firm employee (has
unique perspective)
Handled local, national and
international 7-figure-plus
marketing campaigns
Implemented
comprehensive marketing
strategy and created intake
systems for internationally-
known trial lawyer Mikal
Watts
Available Services:
1. Law Firm Audit
2. Law Firm Website Design
3. Lawyer SEO Copywriting
4. Law Firm Logo Design and
Branding
5. Television, internet, social
media, email and print paid
advertising
6. Brochure and other collateral
marketing material creation
7. Database implementation
and/or cleanup
8. Efficiency recommendation
implementation

27. Connect with Stacey!
• Website: www.StaceyEBurke.com
• Twitter: @StaceyEBurke
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/StaceyEBurke
• Email: stacey@staceyeburke.com
• (713) 225-8621 direct office line