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1 The handouts and presentations attached are copyright and trademark protected and provided for individual use only.

2 Presentation to ALA 2015 Conference Your Website: Make it a Strategic and Business Development Asset Nashville - May 18, People Passionate about Law Firm Marketing/Business Development Deborah McMurray CEO/Strategy Architect Content Pilot LLC mcmurray@contentpilot.net Allen Fuqua Chief Marketing Officer Winstead PC afuqua@winstead.com 1

Deborah McMurray CEO/Strategy Architect Content Pilot LLC mcmurray@contentpilot.

3 An Expert in Law Firm Websites Why Redesign your Website? How many of you like your website? 2

4 Why Redesign your Website? Does your website... enhance your firm s reputation, relationships and revenue? If the answer is no, rethink what you are doing. Why Redesign your Website? What is the point of marketing and business development? 3

If the answer is no, rethink what you are doing.

5 Why Redesign your Website? Do you believe your website effectively helps you do this? Why Redesign your Website? Reasons that so many law firm websites look alike: 1. No firm strategy 2. No courage 3. Fear of claiming a differentiating position 4

Reasons that so many law firm websites look alike: 1.

6 Getting Started What is your firm strategy? AMLAW 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research #1 Communicating your Message 1. Clear and differentiating positioning strategy Practice and industry focus are apparent Geographic reach is apparent (1 office or 40) Contact information is clear and easy to find Site features or links to foreign language translations

Clear and differentiating positioning strategy 39.1 2. Practice and industry focus are apparent 81.2 3.

7 AMLAW 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research If you Still aren t Convinced... Remember the Law of the First Impression: Your buyers are checking you out long before you know they are and that they go through 57% of the purchasing process before even speaking to you. Vetting for credibility, popularity and efficacy. 6

.. Remember the Law of the First Impression: Your buyers are checking you out long

8 Courage What does courage look like? How do you know if you have it when it comes to a website? Courage 7

9 Courage Courage 8

10 Buyers of Legal Services It s about Them Why do buyers of legal services visit law firm websites? 1. To validate a referral to a lawyer/firm 2. To get answers to questions about you/what you do/latest legal trends 3. To quickly and easily find answers they want your site to give them user-confidence they don t want to have to guess where to find things 4. Simply, to check you out Buyers of Legal Services It s about Them Table stakes: What must you provide your visitors? 1. Relevant, rich and current information about your lawyers and what they do 2. A smooth, intuitive experience on desktops, phones and tablets 3. A snapshot of what it s like to do business with you 4. Answers to the question, Why should I hire you? 5. Insight into why your lawyers are the best choice and a sense that they are nice people 9

To quickly and easily find answers they want your site to give them user-confidence they don t want to have to guess where to find things 4.

11 Content 360-Degree Content Strategy 10

12 Lawyer Biographies Did you know that 40-70% of ALL visitors to law firm websites view lawyer biographies? AMLAW 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research #4 Lawyer Biographies 1. First 150 characters of the bio are current, powerful, compelling/ relevant for SEO benefit Overview paragraph first 2-3 sentences are descriptive of the work the lawyer does and the types of clients the lawyer represents Bio does not use Mr. or Ms. Lastname throughout it uses the lawyer s first or nickname Current photos that convey personality Full contact info is easy to find and links to v-card Bio includes links to social media profiles and pages Bios list and crosslink to practices/ industries, articles/ news/ events Bios include detailed experience and matter lists Associates have full biographies 88 11

Overview paragraph first 2-3 sentences are descriptive of the work the lawyer does and the types of clients the lawyer represents 84 3. Bio does not use Mr. or Ms.

13 AMLAW 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research Lawyer Biographies GOAL: Keep visitors on your lawyer bios longer and convert visitors to viewing more of them. 12

14 Lawyer Biographies Create 3-Dimensional Lawyer Biographies 1-D: Demonstrate Expertise 1.Specific experience: What have you done? For whom have you done it? What can you do for me? 2.Client case studies 3.Client logos Lawyer Biographies Create 3-Dimensional Lawyer Biographies 2-D: Prove Relevancy 1.Relevant keywords appear in top 140 characters of bio Overview (SEO/human searching) 2.Current blog and Twitter posts feed into the bio 3.A spot to feature a book the lawyer has written or something else notable 4.Infographic highlights trends in that lawyer s practice or industry 13

Client logos Lawyer Biographies Create 3-Dimensional Lawyer Biographies 2-D: Prove Relevancy 1.

15 Lawyer Biographies Create 3-Dimensional Lawyer Biographies 3-D: Show Humanity 1.Magazine-style (large format) photo 2.Short video that tells a memorable story 3. After Hours tab or feature content that describes the lawyer s passions outside the office 4.Prove accessibility assistant s name/info, your team s contact names/info, IM contact info Lawyer Biographies 14

After Hours tab or feature content that describes the lawyer s passions outside the office

16 Lawyer Biographies Carey-Gunn-Venditti Lawyer Biographies 15

17 Take a Page from our Book Case Study: Winstead.com Case Study: Winstead.com The Big Muscles The Review Team Surveying Key Attorneys Easy Wins Scalability Pushing the Bar Up 16

18 Case Study: Winstead.com The Review Team As few as possible Well established relationships Not a place to grow leadership or provide a learning experience Case Study: Winstead.com Surveying Key Attorneys Provides all the feedback and direction you need to be successful All group leaders Representative associates Problem, out-spoken attorneys 17

grow leadership or provide a learning experience com Surveying Key Attorneys Provides

19 Case Study: Winstead.com Easy Wins High end lawyer bios (pictures/experience/ flexible tab features/videos) Newsroom Targeted regional home pages (geo-location services a/k/a where am I? ) Case Study: Winstead.com Elevating our Standards Raising the Bar Experience and specifics about skills Client case studies Video Visual branding 18

features/videos) Newsroom Targeted regional home pages (geo-location services a/k/a

20 Case Study: Winstead.com Accepting the Realities Accept that the site may be out of date the day it goes live Content origination v. content curation do both You will need more time than you think... and maybe more money, too A Best Practices Approach all the Way AmLaw 100 Ten Foundational Best Practices Results of the 2013 AmLaw 100 website study: 1.Communicating your message 72.6 strategy, brand and first impression / who are you and why should I care? 2.Graphics and design - 77 bold branding design, strong imagery, consistency, legibility, HTML5 instead of Flash 3.Navigation 70.9 intuitive, descriptive and one-click 4.Lawyer biographies 75.3 relevant, current, SEO and human friendly **The numbers are the average score of all firms on a 100-point scale 5.Content (other than bios) 70.6 visitor/client focused, current and compelling multimedia 19

21 A Best Practices Approach all the Way AmLaw 100 Ten Foundational Best Practices 6. Interactivity and social outreach 52 dynamic, interactive and Web 2.0, leveraging all Internet content 7. Site search 49.2 relevant, multiple search tools and easy finding 8. Site optimization and online awareness 54.5 site and content optimized/seo strategy 9. Mobility specially designed mobile site; intuitive, device-specific user interface, interactive map and location features 10. Site hygiene and usability 73.7 browser compatibility, visitor page tools, spelling, nothing broken Results 2013 AmLaw 100 Research 20

22 Bios designed for speed-dating. Users must be drawn in within seconds regardless of where they enter the site. Make the information easy for scanning readers to catch the highlights. Big Idea #1 Why are they coming in the back door? Big Idea #2 21

23 Recommendations Search engine optimized Focus on keyword-rich overviews, such as this example. Make it EASY for people to hire (it s all about your experience and how it s organized) YOU Big Idea #3 22

24 23

25 Recommendations Search engine optimized 24

26 DESKTOPS for lunch? PHONES for drinks? TABLETS for dinner? WHAT is REALLY going on? Big Idea #5 Mobility Phones 25

27 Mobility Phones Mobility Tablets 26

28 What Happens After Launch? Post-launch. Thank You. Deborah McMurray Allen Fuqua

29 Your opinion matters! Please take a moment now to evaluate this session.

2013 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research

Prepared for the Delaware Valley Law Firm Marketing Group 2013 AmLaw 100 Websites: Ten Foundational Best Practices Research July 22, 2014 FBPs Break Down into 3 Major Categories 1. Strategy Communicating