Lawfuel.com – Online Marketing for Law firms – At one North Jersey law firm, “tweeting,” “podcasts” and “blogging” are part of the legal jargon.
Lyndhurst-based Scarinci Hollenbeck is undergoing a rebranding campaign, pushing the 24-year-old firm and its attorneys into the digital realm with a new website, five blogs, multiple Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, YouTube videos and informational podcasts, at a time when the legal industry faces an overabundance of lawyers and has lagged behind other sectors in adopting new technologies.
“We’re refocused so that when somebody looks into our attorneys, they see what they are doing. It’s not just being lost in the wind,” said Peter Moeller, director of marketing and communication.
The firm, which has more than 50 lawyers, launched its new site, social media strategy and image in the beginning of 2012 after more than a year of planning. And it’s still a work in progress.
“Sometimes in business it’s better to be done than perfect,” Moeller said. To pay for the changes, Moeller said, the firm used most of its marketing budget.
Moeller researched many outside website-creating services, but after finding that the overhaul could cost upward of $15,000, he used in-house staff instead.
Moeller said the firm also used other cost-efficient methods to jump-start its Internet presence. The 11 websites were built on free site-creating tool WordPress, and the social media accounts are also free. The sites, which are spread out among different hosts, can cost from around $9 to $20 a month each to host. Each domain can be purchased for around $15 a year, or paid in multi-year bulks upfront.
And for the firm, the wait and effort have been worth it: Scarinci Hollenbeck, which typically services local small and midsize companies, has been able to attract bigger corporations. The site typically sees 40,000 to 50,000 page views a month over the firm’s 11 websites.
“That business has increased tremendously,” Moeller said. “The larger firms in the state are starting to take notice.”
