Integrity Marketing

Waking up to Mobile Marketing for Your Law Firm

By James Campbell, VP
Practice Development

Have you recognized the impact smartphones are having on business today? Did you know that 50% of all local search is now done on a mobile device?

An excellent article from Marketing Week discusses how "Brands have been urged to “wake up” and ensure their websites are mobile-ready or face losing billions in sales as new research finds consumer demand for mobile optimized sites is set to rocket next year."

Read The Full Article Here

Just because your business is estate planning and not selling books like Amazon or in telecommunications like Verizon doesn't mean your clients give you a free pass on not having a mobile site and catering to their mobile experience. Consumers expect that a qualified service provider will provide easy functionality and an optimized mobile experience.

    To quote the article from Marketing Week “More than two-thirds of customers (69 per cent) in an IAB and Crowd DNA study say mobile optimized sites are a necessity for brands next year, just behind the top-rated “appealing” technology: the mobile wallet (74 per cent).Every brand needs to get their head around the mobile web but they can’t just use that to stop there. ... There’s a real urgency for brands to wake up and realize the change towards mobile and ensure the experience is richer and slicker than it is currently.”

If you are ready to make your website mobile and capitalize on the mobile movement, you are in luck. Integrity Marketing Solutions specializes in creating mobile websites specifically for estate planning / elder law attorneys. Learn in this video:

Estate Planning Marketing and High-Impact Video

By Michael Campbell,
Videographer

Some of you may remember when your family's first television was delivered, maybe even the first one on your block (my mom says she remembers, but I'm not supposed to tell anyone!). Obviously, the video-viewing experience has changed dramatically since those first days with Uncle Miltie!

Well, the video viewing experience continues to change, driven today by the internet and mobile internet. Mobile devices are becoming an all-in-one experience, forcing the cable TV industry to adjust to the many options viewers now have.

NPR recently covered this topic, suggesting that we're witnessing a cultural change in the viewing experience. Families no longer gather in the living to watch one program on a big screen. Now everyone is watching their own thing, on their own device in their own little world.

http://kcur.org/post/so-many-screens-and-so-little-time-watch

So how does this effect your estate planning marketing? 

The point is that to be effective with video you no longer have to buy expensive television air time to reach your target audience(s). You represent a niche market, so when people actually start to look for estate planning or elder law services you need to be positioned to accommodate their search in every way.

The rise of the smartphone, the tablet computer, Netflix and other on-demand services has changed the screen/viewer relationship forever.  -- NPR Oct. 21, 2012

Video is one of the most effective ways for you to commuicate compelling messages about estate planning and elder law. Combine video with local search, mobile search and social media -- and you have a powerful marketing strategy!

If you make social media a priority, and start growing your "likes" and "friends" you could have a more effective viewing audience than your local tv station could ever provide. If you are blogging on a regular basis about estate planning, you are becoming a credible source to all who see your posts on their news feeds. If you share a video (that is done right), people will watch it.

What better way to educate your audience than with video? What better audience to share that video with than one that you've built of family, friends, past and current clients?

Even more importantly, video gives you a huge competitive advantage on Google, and even more so for for mobile search. While a mobile-optimized site is an important foundation, video works so well for mobile search that you really cannot afford to be without it. 

If integrating high-quality, targeted video into your online marketing seems overwhelming, don't despair. We offer one-stop service, and we do it every day. In fact, here's a great video of one of our clients, Lizette Sundvick, discussing her experience shooting video with us.

Design for Mobile Websites vs Desktop Websites

By Alyssa Mahlberg,
Graphic Designer

In the past week I've designed two mobile websites for two of our great essentials clients, Terry Bertram with Legacy Law Center and Richard Hughes with The Hughes Law Firm. As I've prepared for and worked on the design for these two projects, I thought I'd note some of the important differences between website design and mobile website design.

A mobile website is not an app that is downloaded and saved to the phone, with specific functions that the user would need or want to use more than once. And yes, your website will show up on a mobile phone or device without having a specially designed mobile website.

So why is having a mobile website important? For two main reasons:

1. Mobile is mainstream. Over half of all local searches are performed on a mobile device. The number of people using mobile devices and creating business for companies who have well-designed mobile websites is just too large to ignore.
2. Design. 61% of mobile users who visit a mobile unfriendly site will click away immediately and go to a competitor's site. This is where you specially designed mobile website comes in. Once the mobile user finds you, you have to a have a good, user-friendly mobile web design to keep them there.

So, now that you have your beautiful, information-rich and technology-forward IMS law firm website, why won't this same website be ideal for mobile users? Because of a few design considerations that make specially designed mobile websites the user-friendly solutions:

• Layout. When designing for your IMS web site, we consider the dimensions of your average computer monitor or laptop screen, so it is easy to see why this doesn't translate well to the screens of most mobile devices. When pulling up a regular desktop site on a mobile phone, the result will either be way to small, requiring the user to zoom in and possible click on tiny links by accident, or have to do excessive scrolling both vertically and horizontally. The best mobile websites (and all IMS mobile websites) are designed to be readable without zooming, and scroll only vertically.
• Simplicity Your desktop website is filled with tons of information, easily accessible to the user... if they are on a desktop computer or laptop. On a mobile device, all this information can overcomplicate the website navigation and confuse the user, while most mobile users are looking for simple a phone number, email address or directions to your office. When designing a mobile website, we sift through all the excess information and strip down to the essential pieces of info that the users are likely to be looking for. This simplifies the mobile navigation and is less likely to confuse those who stumble upon your site on their mobile device.
• "Tap-ability." Desktop websites are designed with the mouse or trackpad in mind, on mobile devices, users are usually navigating with their fingers on a touch screen phone. Good mobile websites have a navigation and buttons that are large and finger-friendly. Our mobile websites also come with useful buttons that allow users to save contact info to their phone, call the office with just a tap, or send directions to their mobile map application.

To learn more about getting an IMS mobile website designed for your law firm, contact James at 1-877-352-2021 ext. 0.

Going Mobile -- What's the Big Deal?

What is this “mobile revolution” and how does it affect your legal marketing? 

Did you know that in 2012:

• 94% of smartphones users will be mobile internet users.
• All mobile phone users will reach 242.6 million
• Tablet users will reach 54.8 million, up 62.8% from 33.7 million in 2011.
• From 2011 to 2012, the average number of apps per smartphone jumped 28% from 32 apps to 41 apps. Android & iOS users account for 88% of total mobile owners who have downloaded an app in the past 30 days. To date, more than 15 billion & 25 billion Android & iOS apps have been downloaded, respectively.

If you still don't think mobile marketing affects your law firm, consider this anecdotal evidence. Last week we welcomed a new law firm to The Essential Solution®. Of the eight people on their review committee (from paralegals to shareholders), ALL had smartphones and all but two had tablets.

You need a mobile solution, because your beautiful desktop website probably doesn't render well on a tiny smartphone screen. But what, exactly, is a "mobile solution"?

When you start looking at "going mobile," you have several options to consider, and your best choice may include a blend of options each geared to specific needs in your practice. Let's take a look at some of your options and how you might use them.

Mobile Optimized Website. A mobile-optimized website is not just a stripped-down version of your desktop site. It's important to think through the needs of your mobile audience. What are they looking for? First, they want to be sure they're in the right place, so your mobile site should look as much like your desktop site as functionally possible. But, your mobile viewers are not usually "surfing" leisurely on the web, they are typically in a hurry and looking for specific information. So, you need to put that information front-and-center on the opening screen. Click-to-call, click-to-email, and GPS-integrated mapping functions are all must-haves.

QR Codes. It's a good idea to get a QR code for your mobile site so people can quickly scan the code from your marketing materials, business cards, or desktop website without having to type in the address. The longer your web address, the more important a QR code.

Mobile Apps. Yes, you might actually want to consider having a mobile app developed for specific audiences. You might even want a couple of apps. I can imagine one app developed specifically for your referral sources, and another for your clients -- especially if you have a client maintenance program. Again, your mobile app should be integrated with your website, and extend your firm's branding. Some features you might consider in your app? How about event promotions, an RSS feed from your blog, in-App email, e-newsletters, videos, or even a photo gallery from a client event? It's also possible to include in-app scheduling, even invoicing and payments!

You can learn more about how the mobile revolution affects your law firm marketing at our upcoming Fast Track Marketing Workshop, Sept. 19-21st. But hurry, the $100 early registration discount expires Aug. 15 (that's TOMORROW).