A week or so ago I wrote a little bit about the only marketing I'm paying for. I'm using Yodle to market my law firm right now. What they do is put ads up at the top of Google search and on the sidebar of google search so that people can see that your firm is out there and that they can do what the potential searcher needs. I think it's been about a month and I've received three calls, one from a prospective client and two from internet marketers trying to sell me the same type of stuff, and a lot of ad clicks.
Does this mean that adsense and adwords advertising doesn't work? I don't know if I'm ready to say that yet. For one thing, it's not possible for me to tell if people are just not interested when they click or if they are not interested when they get to the site. That remains to be seen (and I'm doing some site modification as a bit of a test to see if it helps).
Another thing that has caused me to shy away from this type of advertising is the studies and articles I've read on it that show that people don't really look at those ads anymore when searching for what they want. And those articles make sense to me, because when I am searching for stuff I never look at or click on the ads that are around. In some sense it is almost like they've disappeared into the background. I immediately go for the organic search results to find what I am looking for, in part because I can see some of the content they've created and gauge whether or not I think they are a trusty source.
I'm going to try to talk to the Yodle people and either suspend my account for a bit or significantly downsize it until my site changes are made. I'll let you know how that works out, since we don't have a term contract in place, just an agreement to start the services. I have a feeling they get responses from customers like me all the time, so we'll just have to see how they handle it.
In the end, getting law firm clients is king. Without them, not only do you not work, but you don't eat. So keep your marketing efforts ramped up, keep going after those clients, and don't rest on your laurels. Business may be good now, but there is always someone (like us!) hot on your heels trying to dethrone you as the (in my case) Seattle criminal defense attorney in town.
Update on Yodle Law Firm Marketing
Here are the other Yodle Marketing Posts.
Yodle for Law Firm Marketing - Part 1
Yodle for Law Firm Marketing - Part 3
4 comments:
For whatever it is worth, Yodle is junk. Paid ads work great (if you are worried about people not clicking on these ads then your account would never spend any money!) but it is only lucrative if properly managed. I bet they are advertising you for keywords like "bankruptcy", which is rarely someone looking to spend money on an attorney. You should try there is better technology out there for you!
Thanks for the comment, anonymous, but don't leave us hanging like that. What other technology is out there? What have you found to be effective? Can you give us any more information?
Anonymous is right in that paid search ads do work when used right, as is true with any technology. The keys are to have these 3 pieces tie-- your keywords, your ad, and the landing page. If the landing page sucks, then who cares how effectively you're buying traffic-- it will just be money thrown away. Same thing if you don't answer the phone. Finally, if the Internet marketing firm is pocketing most of what you're giving them, that's also a dead end for you-- not reflective of Google being "bad".
Yodle is a great company-- just make sure you know what you're getting and not getting-- then fill in the holes. Attorneys who send potential clients to a blogger.com domain aren't exactly engendering trust. Where is your domain and your video greeting?
By the way, when you're linking to yourself, only the first url counts. Choose different urls each time.
Dennis, thanks for the comment. I tend to agree with what you are saying, as you'll note in post (at least I think it says it) that I'm not sure if its the ads or my website that is preventing people from contacting me (people are not sent to a blogspot.com address).
I have a phone call with a Yodle rep tomorrow to continue to work on what we are doing to maximize their work. I'll let you know how it turns out and if the clicks begin to turn into clients.
As for the links on my posts, they are not to the same page, so they are technically different and each gets credit. If you check the urls, they are all different.
Thanks for the comment. And thanks for visiting and reading.
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