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What makes a web site successful? Information & Innovation
Rule.
By Konstantine William Kyros, Esq.
The internet is one of the great entrepreneurial opportunities of this century (and the next). Unlike television, radio and national publishing, it is not dominated by big businesses. Small firms and individuals can get exposure and success at an extremely low cost. It is truly a level playing field where even the little guys can compete and excel. Large firms must meet this challenge or get left behind. If you are innovative and offer interesting and useful information, clients will choose you. It doesn't take vast resources to reach your target audience, it takes a well developed web site.
Information based businesses excel online.
The world wide web is essentially a vast storehouse of information, it is a virtual world made of information. Products such as Pepsi cola may have nice web sites, but nothing is really going to make it more than a carbonated beverage laden with sugar. Pepsi is an information poor product. Lawyers on the other hand offer information-based services. Law is a great unknown for businesses and individuals, that need legal information provided by lawyers. Legal services are information rich. The web is the ideal medium to interest and educate a client. In a world where information is available at the click of a mouse, lawyers will thrive if they are able to something of value to a potential client who will then be compelled to make personal contact.
What this means is that if you build a site throw away your firm brochure (or at least reduce it to secondary importance). Information rules the new frontier and hints of competence are no longer sufficient. Assign paramount importance to articles written by lawyers in your firm and detailed information about your case work. This may seem obvious, but many lawyer sites fail to provide even this basic level of information. The web is a great way to indicate a specialized practice and boutique firms will have clear advantages in the new age.
"We're already on the web"
Many firms and lawyers think they can be online without a web site.
Martindale-Hubbell, yellow pages, and various other online "listings"
are not a substitute for your own office web site. The web is not
about listing your name and address somewhere, it is about drawing in and
holding the attention of your clients and the public. A site gives an instant
impression of who you are and what level of service you offer. The
old paradigm of information-seeking is dead.
Keep and retain your Audience
The web offers new information at a phenomenal pace, a dead site is of little value in a world where change dominates. The web user is an information-seeker with an infinite thirst for new, better and useful knowledge. Online newsletters and constant updates about the state of law and your cases is a great way to ensure repeat business. Most sites are online brochures, this won't work. Keep your audience interested and coming back. Change or perish.
Imagination, Innovation & Drama
There is no "automatic" way to do business on the internet, just as there is no automatic way to run your office or handle a case. It takes individual thought, effort and work. You must plan your internet presence carefully to reflect the way you do business. That effort will require imagination, innovation and hopefully some drama.Your internet presence is fast becoming the criteria clients use to judge your expertise.
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