Legal Technology

Attorneys Delivered

When I first started a solo practice, I got some advice on how to generate clients: advertise, advertise, and advertise. And in that order. Well, just how do you advertise and distinguish yourself on a dime -- sometimes a nickel.

One answer is the Web. But that's the short answer, because advertising on the Web can be as passive as setting up a Web page and as active as engaging in some search engine optimization to get found. Yes, that's search engine optimization or SEO to manage your site and your links so that the main search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN can allow potential clients to find you.

Now if you know what SEO is and how to do it, fine. You're probably doing it now. But if you do not, check out Attorneys Delivered. There, you can see what some real SEO experts can do to accelerate your marketing efforts on the Web.

Pay-Per-Call Advertising For Lawyers

This post is not about Pay-Per-Click adversting, so don't bother to correct me. It's about Pay-Per-Call advertising offered by San Francisco, Calif.-based Ingenio.

Pay-Per-Call advertising was made for lawyers in search of telephone leads. Pay-Per-Call advertisments appear in prominent search engine results and directories like AOL Yellow Pages, Infospace, Local.com, Marchex and Switchboard. When potential clients click on those results it drives business down to your phone.

With Ingenio's Pay-Per-Call, Lawyers do not need a Web presence and they do not have to worry about unsolicted e-mails coming their way that may cause a conflict of interest or otherwise violate a disciplinary rule or code of conduct. Ingenio's advertising generates a lead via the telephone, not e-mail, and you only pay when you get called. This advertising service fits lawyers like a new suit.

It is much easier to ascertain and develop a client relationship on the telephone than through a series of e-mails. And with Ingenio's new partnership with LexisNexis, advertising just got a whole lot easier for lawyers already advertising on attorney.com and lawyers.com. Ingenio will power the Martindale-Hubbell Attorney Match-Direct Call Service. Visitors to attorney.com and lawyers.com searching for legal services will be connected to a lawyer by phone.

Now you might think that Ingenio has dragged an aging technology like analog phone services to the Web to make a buck. That's not the case. Ingenio has set up its own VoIP network and developed its own call manager to intelligently manage call transfers to your law office. And remember, you only pay for the call.