When Is It Time to Re-Design Your Web Site?

Whenever we are contacted by a new law firm prospect, we are inevitably asked, “So, what do you think about our web site?”

We try to answer this question as best we can, being honest as to our opinion – regardless of what that might mean in terms of our pursuing this client further. If it’s a great site, we say so and look to discuss ways in which we might leverage this fact. Other times, we may suggest that the firm make some changes to the site, be it of a design, textual and/or of a technical nature. And of course, if the site has some major issues, we are forthright about the need to start over – regardless of whether that site was originally developed by the prospect’s wife, kid or mother-in-law. 

It’s the latter of these situations that I would like to address today – How do you know when its time to scrap your current site and begin again from scratch? 

I think, there are, for the most part, five situations when building a new site makes sense. I’ll try to identify these and categorize them as best I can. But please, feel free to let me know if I’ve missed the boat on some or missed some obvious reasons altogether.

Situation #1: There’s a Major Change at the Firm
This one’s a no-brainer. If the Smith Law Firm, which provides elder law services to folks in Worcester, Massachusetts decides to merge with Reynolds, Reynolds & Reynolds, a multi-practice firm serving all of New England --- well, that’s a great reason to get rid of the old and bring in the new (or at least to get integrated into the larger firm’s site). Similarly, if the law firm that offers family law services now decides to expand into PI, immigration law and estate planning – that is likewise an obvious reason to create a new site that reflects the firm’s new direction. Taking on a new partner may or may not suggest a new site as may expanding into new locations. Similarly, your major competitor’s launch of a splashy new site (one that’s getting a lot of attention) may also provide a reason to pause.

Situation #2: The Site No Longer Does What You Need it to Do
There was a time, not so long ago, when the typical law firm site consisted of not much more than a “Home” page, an “About Us” page, a “Practice Areas” page, an “Our Attorneys” page and a “Contact Us” page. Today however, two things have changed. First, content development has taken on a much bigger role in determining firm ranking on the online search engines. And with that, comes an inherent need to put that content somewhere. Second, technical advances have made interacting with potential clients so much easier and certainly much more compelling. Whether its connecting with them on their mobile devices, downloading white papers, registering for a firm webinar or seminar, filling out an inquiry form, or being directed to a firm blog, today’s web sites are multi-faceted. If yours is not mobile friendly and providing opportunities for your prospects to interact with the firm, you are a) immediately seen as out of step and b) missing a multitude of opportunities to generate leads and improve your conversion rate. If this is, in fact, your situation –it’s time to create a new site.

Situation #3: Your Site Looks Outdated
This reason is a little less obvious. After all, when your site was first developed, it looked great! So how do you know when its time to say good-bye to the old and say hello to that brand new you? Two tell-tale signs. First, if you are already asking yourself this question, then chances are it’s time to move on. Second, if you show your current site to your teenage kids and they tell you it’s “old,” listen to them. It’s kind of like the forsaken spouse – the one who had created the site in the first place is often the last to know. 

Situation #4: Technical Problems
Less common, but important nonetheless, are those situations in which the site’s technical glitches have become more trouble than they’re worth. For example, we once inherited a law firm’s web site that had all kinds of issues, the worst of which was that it been hacked and infected with cryptic coding that linked it to, shall we say, “adult” web sites? Unless, your firm specifically wants to be connected with pornographic URL’s, it might be best to have such mistakes corrected. And if they can’t be easily addressed, well, in the words of that famous football coach (don’t know who), “It may be time to punt.” There are, of course, a whole host of technical issues that can arise. Some can be “fixed,” but at a certain point, it usually becomes clear that a major change is in order. 

Situation #5: You’re Not Getting the Results You Want
This is probably the biggest reason of all. When the law practice starts seeing some of its site metrics decline, it may be time to take a closer look at the site. Are you getting less traffic? Are visitors staying on your site for shorter and shorter lengths of time? Is your site’s load time putting a drag on how high Google lists you on its directory? Are the quality scores of your landing pages not what they once were? These are all potential indicators of a problem that may or may not have to do with the site itself. You will need to dig a little deeper, test a lot, and do some inductive reasoning. But if you determine that the site itself may be the cause of your problems, well…

In most cases that we come across, the decision to make the change to a new web site is due to a combination of factors. For example, a site that is technically obsolete may also be outdated from a design perspective as well. 

Regardless of the reason however, while there will obviously be some expense in making such a change, the purist in me suggests that one look at this as an opportunity to reinvent the firm on more favorable terms – one that may actually promote both revenue as well as profit growth

Marrying IT with the Legal Marketing Function

Businesses of all kinds have historically had a difficult time reconciling the respective roles of those in the marketing and in the accounting/financial departments. It has always been understood that marketing should "pay out." Yet those who performed that function had difficulty articulating how each element of their program contributed (for better or worse) to the company's bottom line. 

Now however, that “fuzziness” of respective roles has carried over into the IT department as well. Marketers of all kinds (and legal marketers in particular) might well ask where marketing begins and ends. More often than not, in today’s information driven society, it begins and ends at the desk of the firm’s technical guru. 

For proof, one need look no further than the importance CRM software plays in the business development process. If attorneys (particularly at larger firms) had to procure, understand, implement, train and then utilize such applications on their own, it is doubtful this technological advance would be as widespread as it is today. Same holds true for the marketing guys who may well understand how to develop a message, place an ad, disseminate a press release or even create a pay-per-click campaign, but who at the same time, would have difficulty recognizing the compatibility of one legal application with another.

So much of legal marketing today revolves around online activities. Yet it is the IT folks who understand the benefits (and limitations) of the various social media outlets, the changing algorithms involved in search engine optimization, the capabilities of online dissemination services, and the potential of the firm’s web site to convey everything the firm wishes to convey.

The law firm that places too great a distinction between marketing and information technologies runs the very real risk of inefficiency, but even more important, is almost certain to miss out on opportunity. A much wiser approach is to promote the full integration of the IT folks into the marketing decision making process.

By doing so, law firms are almost certain to discover ways in which to efficiently stand out from competitors through both substance and style. And even in the information age, “standing out” is still what marketing is all about. 

Why Won’t Those ‘Darn’ Associates Make More Rain?

In my last post, I discussed the fear many managing partners hold, that the firm may be leaving money on the table by not effectively cross-promoting the full range of legal services and not encouraging internal referrals.

Today, I would like to discuss a little bit about a second concern that law firm management often express to us.  It is much less a fear than it is a frustration that associates in the firm do not generate the requisite new business activity necessary to move the firm forward.

This creates a conundrum that firms often find difficult to resolve. On the one hand, lower level attorneys offer the possibilities of greater profitability because they command lower rates of compensation.  Yet, in spending time on providing such legal services to the firm’s clients (i.e., billable hours), they are, by definition not rustling up new business.

To resolve this dilemma, smart law firms must ask themselves exactly what they see as the role of their associates.  Typically, most would say that the function of the firm’s lower level attorney’s requires a hybrid of both client-related work and new business initiatives. We have seen instances however, where firm management has determined that associates should focus on clients while management itself should be responsible for generating new revenues.  That is not necessarily a bad approach because, at the very least, it is clearly defined. Less positive are those situations in which firm management chastises attorneys for the lack of billable time while also lamenting the lack of energies towards acquiring new clients.  Hence, most important is developing a clear definition of roles and an articulate conveyance of them to the firm’s staff.

But it cannot really stop there. Generating business is a skill.  And as a skill, it requires proper training. Most young attorneys do not learn how to do bring in business in law school and depending on the firm in which they practice, they may not acquire such training at work either. Firm management must understand that generating new business (whether it be through social media, referrals, internal cross-promotion, more revenue from existing clients, etc.) all requires an investment – not just in marketing and business development activities, but in the people being counted on to build the practice as well.

And even there it cannot stop.  It is foolish to think that each individual possesses the same set of skills of every other. Some attorneys are particularly good at getting out and meeting the world; others at writing engaging legal articles. Similarly, some attorneys may be innately limited in their ability to create new revenue, but contribute to the firm through their legal brilliance and capacity to solve their clients’ problems. Identifying the specific talents and the deficiencies of each associate is a far better way to leverage the collective manpower of the firm than is to make general assumptions about associates as a whole. Much of this evaluation can be made qualitatively. Yet, believe it or not, there is a software application (RainGauge) which allows management to quantitatively assess the degree to which associates (and senior attorneys as well) contribute to the firm through different marketing and business development activities and even offers the potential to compare such versus their working on strictly client-related business.

The bottom line is that getting the most out of associates requires removing the label “associate” from the equation and instead, harnessing the talents of each individual towards the greater good of the firm.

This is the second in a 5-part series on the business development concerns we have heard most often by managing partners and legal marketers.