Lawyers.com Editor in Chief : Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, sales training, practice development, training, marketing consultant, legal consultant, individual lawyer coaching, business development, client team, practice development, business development, law firm coach

LexisNexis has rolled out Site Essentials, Site Edge and Site Exclusives, a suite of updated website development products and services — complete with blogging features and mobile device optimization — designed to help law firms establish an effective online presence and attract more clients.

“LexisNexis has updated its website development services to provide law firms with solutions that help them establish an effective web presence, generate robust site traffic and accelerate and track their web-based lead generation efforts,” said David Palmieri, vice president and managing director of Marketing and Consumer Solutions at LexisNexis. “When law firms engage with us, we can deliver higher return on investment with a wider variety of products and services that meet firms’ marketing goals.”

The new LexisNexis® Site Essentials product offers firms:

• An effective, professional website, designed and hosted by LexisNexis, that can be implemented in as little as two weeks
• A creative consultation
• Home page content with suggested content for practice area descriptions
• A website performance dashboard to track key site statistics including phone and email inquiries
• A content management system enabling users to make copy adjustments and site updates
• Basic search engine optimization
• A mobile-optimized version of the site
• Ongoing technical assistance from LexisNexis website experts.

Additionally, LexisNexis® Site Edge includes copywriting assistance as well as the addition of five articles each from three practice areas which update every two weeks, giving visitors a reason to come back to the site. Site Edge customers can also add a professionally produced video to their site.

Also available is LexisNexis® Site Exclusives, a custom, end-to-end web development product. In addition to providing all the features of the other two services, Site Exclusives gives customers significantly more copywriting and ongoing technical assistance, while also providing a fully customized site design and architecture and hosting services for up to five videos on the firm’s website.

While websites from all three services are optimized to render on mobile devices, LexisNexis® Mobile Website Personalization service gives firms the option to create versions of their site optimized for specific devices or to target specific clientele. According to a 2010 report from Gartner, Inc., mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access device worldwide by 2013, making it more important for firms to communicate their expertise and capabilities effectively on the mobile web.

For firms looking to increase online engagement via their website, LexisNexis® Blog Basics is an easy-to-use integrated blogging tool. LexisNexis Blog Basics provides customers with another effective way of promoting authoritative firm content and maximizing lead generation. According to a 2010 study released by HubSpot, companies that blog have 55 percent more website visitors and generate 88 percent more leads.

To learn more visit the Law Firm Marketing Center at http://lexisnexis.com/law-firm-marketing.

82% of businesses plan to increase their spending on mobile phone marketing over the next year, according to a new research report, "Mobile Marketing: Plans, Trends and Measurability: What Do Marketers Think?"

Law firms are faced with a growing installed base of mobile devices among their clients. Clients use smart phones for email, the Web, texting, and even working on documents. In response, 33% of businesses currently have a mobile strategy in place, and among those who don't they plan to have one within the next 12 months. Relationship marketing -- customer loyalty and retention -- is at the heart of the perceived benefits of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing involves:

• Creating mobile-friendly websites
• Apps for clients
• Methods to conduct business with programs “in the cloud” using a smart phone.

It’s called the M-dot revolution, because the URL of mobile friendly websites is usually “m.lawfirm.com.”

The spark for the revolution is the new HTML5 web code standard which makes the browser the universal computing platform – not the operating system (such as Mac OS or Windows). It helps overcome the weak processors in smart phones so they can run tasks quickly. The average smart phone user now spends more than 11 hours a month using apps, according to a March 2011 study by Zokem.

Many clients use smart phones to read news, which is accessible with an app or a browser, the information is stored in the cloud, and billing information and preferences can be easily shared.

CMOs will need to push their teams to develop compelling mobile-advertising strategies and create opportunities to use video more often. Who knows, maybe a law firm will develop a mobile app to monitor the purchasing activity of clients and offer them real-time, location-specific legal solutions.

You can see what your website looks like on a smart phone by visiting http://mobilesimulator.info. Check out this video which explains the importance of mobile marketing and has details for us techies.

I have seen the future of the Internet, and it will be viewed on a 2 by 3-inch screen.  New research shows that most people will view the web on their smart phones and PDA -- instead of computer monitors. Accordingly, visitors to the LawMarketing Portal can now see a special mobile version of the site specially designed for their handheld devices.

Like CNN.com, the New York Times online and Google, the LawMarketing Portal displays neatly on the screens of iPhones, Blackberrys, Treos and other handheld PDAs that can access the web. By simply visiting www.LawMarketing.com on your handheld, you'll see all the articles on the home page in a minimalist display that includes text, links and graphics.

No downloads nor special software is required. Simply open your device's browser and point it to www.LawMarketing.com. Your PDA will automatically pick up mobile.lawmarketing.com, the address of the handheld-friendly site, allowing you to see all the latest articles on the home page.

Mobile devices will be primary web viewer

Mobile technology has reached an inflection point where the mobile Internet could be another viable consumer resource for online shopping and purchasing. According to PriceGrabber.com’s Mobile Shopping Behavior Survey, 58 percent of US online consumers already own a Web-enabled mobile phone. Furthermore, of those consumers that own a Web-enabled mobile phone, one in 10 has purchased products and/or services with their device.

Of the online consumers with web-enabled phones:

• 21 percent own a smartphone
• 8 percent own an iPhone
• 29 percent own another type of web-enabled phone
• 42 percent of survey respondents said they own a non-Web-enabled phone capable of using voice and text service plans only.

For the entire article, visit the LawMarketing Portal at www.lawmarketing.com