Improving
Attorney Marketing:
Lawyer Marketing and
Knights of the Bar
The Legal Marketing
Conundrum
For three decades,
attorneys have struggled with the issue of legal marketing.
Initially, the vast majority of lawyers looked with disdain upon
attorneys who used television and large display ads in the
yellow pages. As time passed and the market became
increasingly competitive, more lawyers reluctantly joined the
marketing movement, almost as a defensive measure. Still,
the larger and more prestigious firms resisted this pressure and
preferred to stay above the fray.
With the dawn the
World Wide Web, lawyers began to see the possibilities in using
web pages as a more dignified way of getting their message to
legal consumers. In 2000, it was a rare and bold firm that
had a web site. Today, it is a rare firm that doesn't.
Consumers are increasingly turning to web sites to help them
gather information about a law firm before they decide to call.
In the past, a lawyer referral was a two step process; the
client got the name of an attorney from someone they trusted and
called. Today, the process is much more complex.
Consumers will still ask for referrals, but before they call,
they will check the firm web site. In many cases if there
is no firm web site, they will not call. Consumers will
also use search engines to compare law firms before they call
one.
We have come to the
point where, despite the profession's general discomfort with
marketing, most lawyers recognize that if they don't keep pace,
clients will go elsewhere. Still, they yearn to find
dignified marketing methods that deliver the message without demeaning the
profession.
In this regard,
Knights of the Bar represents an ideal marketing solution.
Knights of the Bar recognizes your outstanding achievements in
an understated way. There are no splashy display ads, no
purchasing position, no books to buy that consumers never read,
and no glossy magazine issue that is in the trash in 30 days.
Knights of the Bar simply maintains 24/7 traffic to our site and
allows legal consumers to find the best lawyers in the
profession without hype.
Attorney Marketing
is Highly Competitive
With so much
competition, it is important to differentiate your practice from
the crowd. Among the top tiers, the competition
for the most desirable clients is especially fierce. This is where Knights of the Bar can be
an asset in your marketing efforts. Knights of
the Bar differentiates you and your practice as being among the
most prominent in the profession. While there are many
peer review honors bestowed upon attorneys to help them to
differentiate themselves for marketing purposes, Knights of the
Bar goes a step further.
Knights of the Bar uses
objective measures of leadership to further limit those who
qualify, making this one of the most elite memberships in the
profession. As such, it also makes a distinctive statement about your
practice that raises you above the din of normal attorney
marketing and distinguishes your practice to both clients and
other lawyers. A
Little Known Fact About Attorney Website Marketing
Most web developers will tell you
that you should have your web site "search engine optimized", so
that you place highly in important keyword searches.
However, for most law firms, less than 30% of all their web
traffic comes from keyword searches from search engines.
The vast majority of traffic comes from searches of the
attorneys' names or the law firm's name or from links from other
sites.
What is important to know is that most people who visit
your website have heard of you already. It might
be from another website or from a referral source or from a
friend of theirs or from an article you wrote. They are
not there to learn who you are. They are there to learn
more about you. Your website is a research tool they use
to decide if they will call you or move on to someone else.
For this reason, it is important to
differentiate yourself from the other attorneys they have seen
on the web. Knights of the Bar helps with that
differentiation by giving you a distinction that very few
lawyers can claim.
Using Your Knights of the
Bar Membership
For Effective Attorney Marketing
Knights of the Bar is
especially effective for use in internet marketing for lawyers
and law firms. Once you have qualified for Knights of the
Bar and join, you will have a powerful internet marketing tool at
your disposal. Being selected
to Knights of the Bar is a distinction shared by very few
attorneys. This will give you an edge
in landing clients and impressing contacts. Knights of the Bar
sets up two links to your website, one to your firm home
page and one to your individual profile page, so potential
clients can immediately read about you. You can also create a
link to Knights of the Bar from your website, so visitors to
your site can see the rigorous standards you have met to be
chosen as a member. This will immediately differentiate
you from even prominent attorneys as a breed
apart.
In addition to this marketing benefit, Knights of the Bar has an attorney search engine exclusively for members. This attorney
marketing tool will help potential clients find the very best
attorneys in their state. Being listed in this online
registry will provide desirable new clients who are
looking for the very best attorneys in practice today.
Knights of the Bar advertises on Google® and Yahoo®
as a Sponsored Link advertiser to maintain a high volume of traffic of
potential clients looking for the best attorneys in the
profession.
Publicity for Your Achievements
Another attorney marketing
tool to promote your success is Knights in the News, where we
reprint stories that
have been published in the media regarding achievements of
Knights. Whenever a news story is published in
the media, a Knight may submit it for publication in the news
section.
This will provide another impressive forum for your achievements, allowing
potential clients and other attorneys to immediately access key information about
you after reading the news story.
A Prestigious Honor and
A Powerful Lawyer Marketing Tool
Knights of the Bar
acknowledges
your accomplishments and leadership and helps your legal
marketing efforts by creating a more powerful image for your
practice and web links that will get clients to your website
instantly. For top lawyers, Knights of the Bar can
serve as an important factor in attracting potential clients and
increasing the likelihood of referrals from other attorneys. |
