Streaming videos and blogs; social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn; Pay-per-click campaigns, Wikis and RSS; These are a few of the “new” mechanisms that you can use to help market your law firm.
Are you using any of these? Have you thought about how to leverage them in your marketing and advertising efforts, and how they can integrate with some of your traditional marketing programs, such as television and print advertising, your firm website, or your direct mail and newsletter campaigns? While it would be foolish to declare traditional marketing and advertising strategies to be old and ineffective, it definitely makes sense to understand the “new-media” techniques and how to best apply them in your overall marketing plan.
Streaming Videos are a definite part of the internet culture and will continue to grow in usage and popularity. One only needs to look at the rise of YouTube, and the advertising dollars that are flowing into YouTube from traditional advertisers to understand its relevance. This, coupled with the ability to quickly and effectively produce and publish professional-quality video at a low cost will only continue to increase the usage of web-based Streaming Video as a powerful sales tool.
Facebook and other Social Networking sites have transforming how young adults communicate with each other and the outside world. Just as the baby boomers grew up writing letters, and the GenX-ers grew up using email, the millennials are using Facebook to communicate with one another.
Blogs and Podcasts continue to grow in popularity, and their usage in the legal profession is fast growing as well, prompting the term “Blawg”. A relevant, well written blawg will draw readers, and help you cement your brand and draw new cases.
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is starting to replace email (and fax) as the method to share information with those who are interested, and is transforming how media professionals are getting story ideas.
There are a lot of ways to market and advertise your law firm. With technology ever-evolving, traditional media trends shifting and demographics changing, law firms built for the long haul need to keep pace. While we won’t proclaim the NBC Nightly News or Sunday Times dead, law firms do need to understand how new media and technology can help positively transform their law firm marketing to generate more cases and clients.