Larry Bodine Law Marketing Blog : Law firm marketing, legal editor, legal marketing, attorney marketing, business development, marketing consultant, legal consultant, business development

“In the Internet age, online content marketing is the best way for lawyers and law firms to establish their reputations and attract new business,” said Per Casey. “And web traffic analysis is the best way for lawyers and law firms to measure the success of a content marketing campaign and move forward based on that information. Content marketing and web analytics are inseparable parts of the same strategic process.”

Casey, founder of Tenrec (www.tenrec.com), a web technology consulting firm that focuses on law firms, discussed strategic content marketing and web analytics at the monthly program of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association in Denver.

“Content marketing involves distribution of your content using popular social media sites (like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) as well as successful content syndication sites (like JD Supra, LegalOnRamp and Scribd),” he said.

Each time your keyword-rich article is published on one of these sites, it is indexed by Google and other search engines – enhancing results for searches on terms like your name, your law firm’s name, your geographic area and the relevant subject area.

“Not only does the Internet facilitate the wide distribution of content,” said Casey, “it also allows lawyers and law firms to closely track distribution – to know how many visitors click on the content; how much time they spend reading, listening or viewing the content; and where (your website, search or some other site) they found the content.”

The popular Google Analytics program is free and yields information about site visitors, including:

• number of visitors (unique, new and repeat)
• page views
• repeat rate
• visit length
• page view length
• page view per visit
• bounce rate (those who leave quickly from a given page)
• entry pages (where visitors enter you site)
• exit pages (where visitors leave your site)
• referral sources (direct traffic, search engines and other referral sites)

“Web analytics programs are capable of generating a vast amount of information,” said Casey.

For more about Casey's presentation, read the story reported by Janet Ellen Raasch on the LawMarketing Channel.

Half of smartphone owners say "It's My Life!" A majority of smartphone users are fully integrating their devices into every aspect of their daily lives, according to a new smartphone survey conducted by Prosper Mobile Insights.

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The survey found that 52.9% say they utilize all of the functions of their smartphones, 30.4% say they use the basic functions of their smartphones and 16.7% only use their smartphones for calling, texting and emailing.

Calling features, GPS, and Facebook are also necessities to some. Despite privacy concerns - such as someone tracking their location - 55.9% of smartphone users say they prefer using their smartphone to access the Internet over using a computer (35.3% prefer to use a computer while 8.8% aren't sure).

The vast majority of smartphone users say they use their smartphone to browse for products or services. Three quarters use their smartphone to locate stores or look for store hours. Reading reviews and researching specific products are also top smartphone activities, and half say they have made a purchase via their smartphone device

Law Firm Marketing Takeaways

If your law firm website can't be viewed well on a 2-1/2 inch screen, you are missing a lot of online traffic. It's time to put a mobile marketing plan in place.

82% of businesses plan to increase their spending on mobile phone marketing over the next year, as I reported in May. In response, 33% of businesses currently have a mobile strategy in place, a

The LawMarketing Channel, which I operate, has had a mobile-friendly version for two years. I took a cue from my own personal habit, which is to view websites on my Samsung Droid Charge with 4G capability whenever I have even two minutes of downtime.

Call me compulsive, but law firm clients are just like me. For further evidence, read The M-dot Revolution is here. Has Your Law Firm Marketing Joined It?

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