It is remarkable to note that there are still many established plaintiff's law firms with no defined Internet marketing budgets.
I'm not talking solo practitioners here, rather firms with three, four or more lawyers.
Maybe 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 - why would any lawyer not want to generate additional leads from the Internet, where the return on your marketing dollars can be higher than virtually any other investment? 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".
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 off site 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.
Having SEO experts monitor and optimize all content produced by your firm can magnify the value of these efforts.
In fact, this is one critical area that most law firms overlook.
They optimize their Web site, they have a firm engage in link building and then the law firm proceeds to have an internal staff member update a blog, with little or no regard for the impact on search engine recognition.
As a result, Attorney Internet marketing efforts become less efficient and much time is wasted, when results could have been obtained with less resource investment.
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 "medical malpractice 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 and the impact of content on organic search results.
There are many free Web resources on these and other lawyer internet marketing strategies.