Lawyers are not generally thought of as being great at marketing, and compared to many kinds of websites, many law firm sites are very bland indeed, even when compared to those of accountants ! The accountants seem to understand that when searching online, we all tend to skim read, in a world which just gets faster and faster, if we want or need something, we want it now, in digestible form, often with a bottom line call to action, benefit or price.
Personal injury lawyers are definitely an exception to most other lawyers – they understand their clients and prospective clients, they tend to offer highly understandable messages such as “claim now”, their sites are far more visual and most pages only contain a few clear messages and easy option for personal injury claims.
Some of the general practice law firms do now understand better what’s needed, and many have a strategy of having a brochure style site, who they are, what they do, why they are good, plus some targeted microsites, perhaps on niche legal topics such as divorce or leasehold. This strategy is just one of many but it can work very well, and to differentiate the firm from so many others. One thing is for sure, law firms or any other businesses that continue to either ignore the web or to simply do the minimum that their competitors seem to be doing are likely only to be left behind and research suggest that in line with many other services online, up to 25% of instructions are now derived online. Can any business simply give up on 25% of the market ? We think not.