I haven't written about Yodle and starting a law firm in a while so I thought I'd give you an update on the progress it's been getting me. If you don't remember, I hired Yodle to do an adwords campaign for me. Adwords, generally, is the process of getting ads up in the search engines for your services. When search something in Google, they are the ads that appear at the very top and down the right hand side of the page.
If you remember, my campaign was geared toward Seattle DUI attorney and related keywords. And it wasn't working out so well. It seemed like people were seeing the pages, they just weren't clicking on the ads. Because there weren't that many clicks, I really wasn't spending that much money (I don't think I spent my entire monthly budget of $1,000 once) so it wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't producing.
One thing I learned about Yodle through this process was their dedication to customer service. I had numerous meetings with several people and we addressed such things as the text of the ad, the call to action on my website, and the ability to have someone answering the phone at all times (so no calls were missed). Despite our best efforts, there really wasn't much progress.
So, here's my two cents on adwords. Like I suspected, they aren't that effective, standing alone. They should be used as a secondary marketing mechanism to get more eyeballs to see your firm information. What I mean is, it's important to utilize these ads almost like a billboard or a sign on a truck. You don't necessarily need to have people calling the number directly because of that ad, but you want to create some top of mind awareness for your firm.
Because of this, I've decided to reign in my law firm adwords campaign for a couple of months while I focus on getting my name up top on the search engine rankings and the local rankings. Once this happens (which should be soon), then I can begin another adwords campaign for my Seattle DUI practice. This will, at times, give me three positions on the first page of Google. People subconsciously start to associate that with trust, and more people start calling.
It's important to always be thinking about how to get new clients into your office and tinker with what you have to make it better. There is always someone out there trying to get your prospective client, so you can't just rest on your laurels.
Friday, February 26, 2010
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2 comments:
This is smart-- Google AdWords alone isn't enough to carry a business. You need other forms of marketing to build up awareness of your law firm-- which then results in conversions when they come to you later-- at the point of need-- and then search Google.
What strategies are you using for organic traffic? Have you considered making sure you've claimed your listing at all the major directories? It's free to do it yourself, but we save time and will do it for $24.95 a month and link to you from our PR5 sites.
Normally I don't post comments like this, as I think they are too self-serving, and not really adding much to the conversation. He asked about organic traffic but doesn't really care what the answer is because he's trying to sell his own services. If he'd read the blog he'd know what I've been doing.
The reason I posted this comment is because this is the kind of call you'll get every day when you open your new practice. You can try them out, but don't be mad when you're disappointed. If you want to get your moneys worth from your advertising dollar, you have to know what is being offered and whether or not it will even help you out.
For example, claiming your listing on all the major directories, while sounding fancy and helpful, is actually not. A PR5 link would be great, but it alone is not worth 24.95 a month.
Be wary of people promising you the world. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
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