So, you’ve just been referred to a company for a product or service. What is the first thing you do? Most of us, and like a 1,000% of Millennials, will check out the company’s website, either on the spot from their phone, or later from their work place or home.

Ok – Now it is your law firm that has been referred… Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock… Within 5 – 20 seconds, your new referral will make an inference about you and your firm based upon their “website visiting experience.”

In case you missed the first two parts of the series, you can read the foundational piece here and the Website Update Do’s Here.

This post focuses on key things not to do when planning and executing your website update. The first few may make you delete the post and point a finger in our general direction, but hang in there please. So here goes…

Obviously, our business and livelihoods depend upon Law Firms using our services, and some can shout, “Fake News….”, in that we twist the facts to our own benefit, but these facts are irrefutable. For firms that want to enhance their marketing, but do not have bodies, process, or infrastructure to do so, this discussion series/article is for you…

From our perspective, below are some important Do’s that should be followed when focusing on a website update, so your investment does not turn into… well a pile of ­­________! (you can fill in the blank, smile…)

If you decide to redo your site, from our perspective, two critically important considerations are:

1.Who are we building this site for? and
2.Where do we get our current business?

The answers to those two questions will be very important as you consider requirements for the new site.

Results from yet another survey profess the importance of email marketing to businesses. Here are 5 key takeaways from the survey that law firms need to read, and get behind, (or in front of):

clients, prospects, referral sources and other attorneys get when visiting your website is critical and should be treated as a priority investment.

We visit law firm websites and talk to firms every day. Easily 50% of firms with less than 25 attorneys are in dire need of updating their website. They are living with tired, outdated websites, that do not support mobility and are just plain embarrassing, because:
•They feel it will cost too much; or
•They don’t have the time to invest; or
•They feel no need to do it, as “nobody goes to our site anyway.”

For those of you that have updated your site to in the last year or so, Good Work!

For those that have not… Keep Reading!

In case you missed the first two parts of the series, you can read them here. The first part of the series identified 3 positive marketing actions you can take to jumpstart your marketing in 2017. The second focused on evaluating your website and some solid things to consider when you move forward with an update.

This part of the series focuses on maximizing your communication outreach and supporting you to be conclusive in your audience and consistently, consistent.

This post is my no means meant to be the “be all, end all” guide, but a start for some and a reminder for others of what you need to be doing.

In case you missed it, you can catch up with the first part of this series here. The first part of the series identified 3 positive marketing actions you can take to jumpstart your marketing in 2017.

Essentially: 1) Reviewing your website; 2) gathering your contacts; and 3) identifying potential topics.

This part of the series identifies critical items to consider and arm you with what an effective website should have as you evaluate how your website stands up to a review for an update.

You will also gather some nuggets we feel are critical to an effective law firm website, or any other professional services focused firm websites.

We are big believers in the “rule of 3”, keeping things simple and in focus. Keep an eye out for the next two installments of this series in the next week. If you take these steps to heart, you will be on your way to creating and executing a marketing plan and you will have taken 3 positive marketing actions which will benefit the firm over the course of 2017.