Online Legal Marketing for Law Firms

Online legal marketing differs from traditional outlets for advertisements, such as television, print, and radio, in three fundamental ways. Firstly the internet can combine the modalities of television, print, and radio into a single presentation of video, text, and sound. This combination of modalities can result in a one of its kind impact on information search, choice, and memory. For instance when clients are generally exposed to advertisements in a print media, then use of an interactive medium that is a combination of video and print components may result in cognitive interference and reduce the quality of clients' decisions about and memory for the information contained in the video. Second, the lawyer can allow the client to tailor the video to his or her particular needs and preferences by allowing various point-and-click options in the video. Clients can obtain information about the lawyer’s services from multiple sources and restructure the information to facilitate decision making. Each of these differences may affect how much and what type of information clients acquire, the strategies with which they integrate the information to make a choice, and the amount and structure of information retained in memory for subsequent lawyer hiring. In sum, internet networks such as the World Wide Web may establish new and more efficient forms of communication between people, including clients and law firms. Clearly the Internet is not limited to conveying information about services, but may also include communication that affects people's perceptions of their position in a rapidly changing global community. Although legal marketing on the internet will not necessarily mean a scientific revolution, it may constitute a form of cultural revolution.



Web based legal marketing benefits both the law firms and the clients. Many of these benefits stem from the form of the interaction between the web site and the client. The internet is a new, interactive means of communication. This computer-mediated communication is the union of hardware, software, and computer know-how that allows millions of people to "surf" the Net in search of entertainment, information, sense of community, and/or commercial exchange. Law firms have been quick to recognize this new medium. The popularity of the web is driving law firms to have a presence on the web. The web allows the client to easily seek out information about a number of services from their homes, can ignore advertising or parts of advertising they perceive as irrelevant, can pick specific ads in which they are interested, and, most importantly, can potentially control the content of the information presented to them. Online legal marketing lacks the delays of other media. It also costs less than maintaining traditional ads. The ease at which one can change online information is another benefit. It can also be done rather quickly. The broadcast nature of television, radio, billboard, and print means that a traditional advertisement is limited to one short memorable message. Online legal marketing does not have any such constraints. Online legal marketing enables you to communicate with clients using more content-rich service information.