Integrity Marketing

Looking Under the Hood Of Your Estate Planning Website

We have started the process of updating & optimizing Kyle Krull's estate planning website. Like many of you, Kyle's site was designed several years ago, back when most people still used the Yellow Pages to conduct a local search. Times have changed, and it's time for Kyle's website to change, too.

 

Last week we outlined the questions to consider before optimizing an estate planning or elder law website. Those questions covered topics like content area, keywords and localization. As we began the process, Kyle naturally started taking a keen interest in learning more about websites, SEO, blogs, online video and optimization. Whereas previously most of these were just terms that he casually ignored, Kyle seems now to be on a mission of self-education.

 

This is good. It is part of the process. If we start to work on your website, you quite likely will do the same thing. And this is one of the first things you (and Kyle) will notice: many of the websites that you think are just beautiful, that you even think we should perhaps emulate in your website optimization process ... a GREAT many of those websites totally suck. There, I said it. They just plain suck.

 

When we evaluate a website in terms of effectiveness, we have to consider more than just the beauty of the site, more than the "bells and whistles." We have to look at the technical coding of the site and how it ranks with the major search engines for keywords and phrases, in your local area.

 

Hence, optimization becomes a delicate balancing act between pleasing design and effective coding. Much of the optimization process does go on in the "background" of the site, in the hard-coding that no one but web crawlers, spiders and web geeks (like us) ever sees. Take a look "under the hood" of many "beautiful" sites and you find sloppy or even clue-less coding. Run some analytics and we frequently find these "beautiful" sites are not ranking among even the top 100 websites for key searches. In other words, they are not "working."

 

It's like owning a sleek Corvette with no engine, or with an engine that isn't connected to anything. It looks pretty and shiney in the driveway, but it's not going to take you anywhere!

 

By the same token, the really hard-working websites, the ones that deliver results, may not be nearly as pretty or flashy. They shouldn't be ugly or amateurish, that's not what I'm saying. It is a balancing act. We need to include lots of copy, we need to exclude extraneous code, we need to minimize features that take a long time to download or eat up bandwidth, we need to follow certain mathematical protocols that are defined by the search engine algorithms. Hey, we don't make up the rules, we just learn to play by them!

 

Over the weekend, Kyle learned that one of his favorite websites is not optimized -- at all. We dissected the site and discovered that the pages were named with titles like "home," "contact us," "howitworks" and "stories." These kinds of page titles clearly do nothing for search engine ranking. We further found that key meta tags were either empty or non-existent, such as the tags for the page descriptions and keywords! On one of the pages, we even found a tell-tale sign of amateur design: the meta tag for the page description read "insert your page description here" !

 

We ran a few quick analytics, and the site did not show up within the first 10 pages of Google, MSN or Yahoo! After ten pages, we quit looking.

 

Whether your website is a beauty or an ugly duckling, if you want to take a look "under the hood" and find out how well it's working, call James at 1-877-352-2021, ext. 0. He can show you have to lift the latch and see for yourself.

Out with the Old!

Here was Kyle's old web banner:

After getting the go-ahead from Kyle, we had a new banner designed and approved within 24-hours. The new banner will be incorporated into Kyle's website, his e-newsletter, his hard-copy client newsletter, and to his law firm brochures. It now serves as the "anchor" for all his integrated marketing materials:

Questions to Answer Before Optimizing an Estate Planning Website

We are FINALLY getting started with the update / redesign /optimization process for Kyle Krull's website. Kyle is a full-time estate planning attorney in Overland Park, and the president of Integrity Marketing Solutions. His site, as we explained yesterday, was originally designed several years ago before iPhone, Facebook, Twitter, and the ubiquitous nature of Google search. But, as we worked diligently updating client websites, Kyle's kept falling to the back of the line. Well, we can no longer ignore Kyle's site. He needs an updated website and internet marketing strategy for his law practice as badly as everyone else!

 

Soooo ... we are getting started with the website optimization process for Kyle Krull's estate planning law firm. Here are some of the questions Kyle needed to answer before we could begin (Kyle's basic answers are in blue):

 

1. What content areas do we need to include on your site? Estate planning, obviously -- but to include estate administration, probate, and an estate tax calculator as well? There is an additional fee for the calculator, but calculators are very popular to drive traffic, so we recommend adding that. What about asset protection, business law and business succession, elder law, charitable planning, advanced strategies? Any other areas of law, such as real estate, family law, etc? Estate Planning, estate administration, probate and the estate tax calculator, plus business law and business sucession, elder law, charitable planning

 

2. Local Search -- what local areas do you want to target for optimization? We need to narrow it down to one primary city and state, then we can expand to others that would be secondary. Overland Park, KS, Leawood, Kansas City, Olathe, Prairie Village, Johnson County, Kansas, Missouri

 

3. Social Media -- Do you want us to set up your Twitter account, Facebook page, and your blog account? Then, do you want us to integrate those three so that postings to one show up on the others? Would you like to have your posts published on your website? Yes

 

4. Conversion & Follow Up -- What strategies do you want to implement to capture leads on your website? Shall we include an e-newsletter and an online subscription form? What about workshop schedules and registration forms? Do you have any other materials you would want to offer for download? We'll use an enewsletter and on-site subscription form

 

5. Is there anything else we haven't covered that you particularly want or need on your site? (There may be additional fees to incorporate these "other" items, but now is the best time to do it) Keep the link to my profile on Martindale.com, and keep the estate organizer download

 

6. Finally -- what about the overall design? Do you have any specific ideas about color scheme, layout, logos, etc? I really trust you guys to come up with something great for me -- but I would like to keep the "blue" in the color scheme because I have boxes and boxes of navy blue presentation folders, embossed with gold and I'd like for everything to continue to coordinate.

 

No problem! We can easily accomplish everything on Kyle's list, including keepin his "blue" color scheme in an updated, modern design. We know those presentation folders are spendy, so we sure don't want to make them obsolete! AND -- it's a great idea to make sure that all of your marketing materials present a cohesive, integrated and professional image.

 

Kyle's new banner was designed and approved within 24 hours. We will now incorporate that new design into his printed newsletter, his e-newsletter, his website, all of his brochures and his Twitter, Facebook and blog accounts. Terrific!

 

Stay tuned ... there's a LOT more to come!

Diary of a Website Optimization

You have heard the expression, "the cobbler's children have no shoes." Well, this would aptly describe the current situation with Kyle Krull's website. Kyle is a full-time practicing estate planning attorney in prestigious Overland Park, KS, and president of Integrity Marketing Solutions. His website, while very effective at doing the job for which it was designed, has become outdated. Unfortunately, as our workload on website updating and optimization has heated up, Kyle's website has languished.

 

Like many attorneys, Kyle's site was designed several years ago, before iPhones, Facebook, or Twitter even existed. The main purpose of his site was to reassure those who had met him through personal networking or direct marketing, to educate and inform them, and basically to prepare them for their initial consultation. Kyle's site has performed very well at that task. His site consistently ranks among the highest in terms of "visibility" with Martindale-Hubbel, he is always within the top few in his market for click-throughs to review his M-H profile. But, his site is not (yet) optimized for local search, does not (yet) incorporate social media, and does not (yet) drive new traffic to his office.

 

However, there is a rainbow here! We have STARTED the updating and optimizing process, and we invite you to join us on the journey! We will be recounting and documenting the process here. For starters, you may want to take a look at Kyle's site as it exists today: www.kekpa.com

 

Tune in for the transformation process and eventually the Big Reveal.

 

Next we will outline the process we went through to get Kyle started on the road Optimization.

 

P.S. -- If you think it might be time to revamp, update and optimize your website, call James for a free SEO Analysis: 1-877-352-2021, ext. 0. He will show you exactly what to look for, how your site currently ranks, and how it could be improved!

 

Estate Planning Website Optimized: View The Reveal!

We just completed a complete website re-design and optimization for your colleague, estate planning attorney Jerry Reif, who practices in Saginaw, Michigan. Jerry is a long-term IMS client who had a very nice, fundamental website. But, realizing that online marketing, and especially online search, was becoming increasingly important, he decided to have us update and optimize his site.

 

You can review his new site online now at www.jerryreiflawyer.com

 

Some of the highlights of the new website:

1. Content -- we added volumes of targeted new content to Jerry's site. In the initial planning stages of the site development, we really focused in on Jerry's key markets, and built compelling content that speaks directly to their needs.
   
2. A Little WOW! -- Additionally, we added 11 animated content modules on topics such as Estate Administration, Business Owner Blues, Elder Law 101 and etc. These animated presentations not only add a little WOW! factor to the site, but they also add tons of keyword-rich content that will boost Jerry's ranking with the major search engines. (Check out the page on Michigan Probate & Estate Administration, which includes a link to one of Jerry's new animated presentations)
   
3. Estate Tax Calculator -- Calculators and checklists really drive traffic online, so we added an estate tax calculator to the site, and links to it from strategic pages within the site. (Here is the page on Estate Tax Planning, which includes a link to Jerry's estate tax calculator.)
   
4. SEO -- Once we had decided on the key markets for Jerry's practice, we conducted search-demand research and developed a master keyword list. All of Jerry's new content incorporates words and phrases from his master list. We then set about to build the background hard-coding of the site in the file names, page titles, descriptions and keywords meta tags.
   
5. Lead Capture & Follow-Up -- Jerry's site includes a subscription link to his free monthly e-newsletter. Now he has a perfect way to follow-up and build relaitonships with the qualified leads from among his site visitors.
   
6. Local Search -- We localized Jerry's SEO for his target market and got him listed on Google's local business directory. Even though Jerry's site was just published yesterday, you can see he already appears at the top of Google's page one for the search string: "Saginaw Michigan Estate Plannnig Attorney" because of his listing on the map.

It does take time for Google to re-index a site re-design like this, so we will be watching the Google rankings for Jerry's site over the next six months. But I am confident we will see results.

 

We recently completed a similar optimization project for another of our clients, Noreen Murphy, in Winchester, Massachusetts. Before we started Noreen's project, her site did not show up within the first 50 pages of Google on searches for "Winchester Massachusetts Elder Law Attorney." Today, however, if you search on that phrase, Noreen's site comes up #1. Not just on page one, but NUMBER ONE on Google. Check it out for yourself: Winchester Massachusetts Elder Law Attorney

 

We have more work to do, search engine optimization is an ongoing process. Every month, we will add fresh new content to these websites, create and submit a new Google sitemap, and add targeted keywords in the new content, page titles, and meta tags. Additionally, both sites could benefit from off-site promotion through online PR and social-media. Our plan is to ensure that our clients DOMINATE the local-search online for their target markets.

 

We realize that not every attorney is ready to take these bold steps, some are quite comfortable where they are right now. But if you are ready, call James now at 1-877-352-2021, ext. 0 for a free demonstration and online marketing proposal.

Plan Now for Fall Revenue

Kyle and I have often thought that marketing and practice development in the estate planning law firm is a lot like farming. I actually own a small farm, and through the years I have come to realize that marketing and farming are almost EXACTLY alike ... except that having good marketing skills will NOT get that fence repaired, the barn organized or the horse's stalls cleaned!

Nonetheless, I did learn a valuable marketing lesson from my farm this year. You see, it is mid-August and summer is almost over. I have FINALLY gotten the farm back in shape from last winter. The roof is repaired from that ice storm, the swimming pool is sparkling, the patio furniture has been painted and repaired, I even put the finishing touches last week on a new automatic fly spray system in the barn. Whew! I'm READY to sit back and relax and enjoy the place ... for the remaining two weeks of summer. Sigh.

What did I learn? Next year, I'll start sooner. I will take those first few non-bitter days of late winter and start working on the fences, the barn and the patio furniture. I'll pull out any weeds that survived from the fall. So when the balmy days of summer arrive, I'm not sweating in the blistering sun but swimming in the sparkling-clean pool.

So it is with marketing. September and October will be here soon. These are prime revenue months in an estate planning practice, before everyone gets into holiday-mode. To really reap a bountiful harvest, though,the planning and hard work needs to begin NOW.

Whether it's buffing up your law firm website, purchasing a new estate planning workshop presentation, or launching a direct-mail campaign, NOW is the time to get the marketing wheels in motion. I encourage you to call James and set up a free appointment to visit with him and plan now for fall revenue. You can reach James toll-free at 1-877-352-2021, ext. 0.

Estate Planning Attorneys Drive Down Client Acquisition Costs with Internet Technologies

One of the first things I do when consulting with a new client is pull together key financials that speak to the long-term health of their estate planning or elder law practice. Client acquisition costs are a key, and frequently overlooked, indicator of long-term health ... or impending difficulty.

 

I recently reviewed a promotional offer from another marketing company claiming that retail seminars are "still" the best practice-building strategy. I chuckled as I thought to myself, yes indeed - they certainly are ... for the marketer! This fellow's practice grows every time he signs someone up for his seminar marketing service. Seminar marketing is a gold mine -- for marketeers. There are invitations to be designed, printed and mailed, mailing lists to purchase, advertising to be designed, purchased and placed, phone calls to be made, presentations to be created, and the follow-up ... oh the follow-up! Ah ... give me a moment while I bask in the glow of bygone years of profit ...

 

Whenever I work with a client for whom seminar marketing is the primary practice-building strategy, I know I need to perform a marketing intervention, because client acquisition costs will be through-the-roof. And, because seminars do bring in new clients and new revenue, the attorney often is nearly evangelistic in his fervor to defend them...until we look at the numbers.

 

An estate planning practice requires a steady stream of new qualified prospects, so it's not unusual for marketing expenses to be somewhat higher than in other practice areas. This is understandable. But this just means that every marketing dollar needs to work even harder in the estate planning practice. Client acquisition costs need to be driven down at every turn. Otherwise, the attorney is not unlike the pet-store hamster, constantly running in perpetual motion but never getting ahead!

 

Leveraging internet technologies is the key to driving down client acquisition costs. We have known this at Integrity Marketing Solutions for more than a decade! You seldom find us exhibiting in fancy booths at expensive trade shows or advertising in high-dollar glossy magazines. Why not? Because that is not the smartest investment of marketing dollars, for us or for you either! Over the past five years, virtually all of our new business has been generated either through word-of-mouth referrals, or from our online efforts with Google Adwords, our optimized website or blog, and more recently Twitter or Facebook. In fact, just yesterday we were privileged to welcome a new client with whom our only previous interaction had been on Twitter.

 

How many new clients came to your door through your website, or other online marketing efforts, during the past six months ... or year? It's time to leverage those technologies to cut your costs, expand your influence and build revenue!

 

Join us at 12 noon (central) on Tuesday, August 25 for a virtual Practice Development Workshop, and let us show you how. for more details, read on below or visit our website at http://www.estateplanningpartners.com/ims_clientworkshop.htm ... or call james toll-free at 1-877-352-2021, ext. 0 and he can give you the whole scoop and get you registered over the phone.

Practice Development Workshop for Attorneys

Leveraging Internet Technologies
To Cut Costs, Expand Influence & Build Revenue

What would it do for your estate planning practice if tomorrow morning you were invited to speak to a packed-hall of entrepreneurial business owners? And all of them in attendance were keenly interested in selling their business, transferring it to the next generation, or equalizing their estate for all of their children? Additionally, each and every person gave you their email address, visited your website, and asked if you would please stay in touch with them over the next several months. What if this happened every single day of the week?

Would this transform your practice?

Of course it would! And it is happening on the internet every day. Not just business owners, but special-interest groups of all types from caregivers for the elderly to sailing enthusiasts and alpaca farmers. People are gathering together on the internet to pursue their interests and find services that meet their specialized needs.

But reaching them is both science and art. Old sales methods fall flat and even backfire on the internet. Violate the netiquette  and quickly become a pariah.

In our next Practice Development Series workshop on August 25, we will show you how to leverage internet technologies to cut your costs, expand your influence and build revenue, even in a down economy!

Websites, SEO, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Linked-In, pay-per-click, Google, Bing! -- there is a vast new online universe with its own lexicon. If you haven't caught up with the technology, there's no more time to wait! NOW is the time to get up-to-speed and start leveraging technology to grow your practice.

Practice Development Series Online Workshop
Leveraging Internet Technologies
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 | 12 noon (central)

We will show you how to leverage your time with social media and share strategies that guarantee you get the most out of your online investment. You will learn the secrets of search engine optimization, the keys to getting local search results, why blogging is so powerful and how to use social media like Twitter to expand your influence within key markets.

Additionally, we've invited your colleagues Jerry Reif and Lizette Sundvick, two successful estate attorneys practicing in very different markets, to share with you their insights about the trends and challenges in the estate planning marketplace. We're also building a social networking space where you can continue to share ideas with your colleagues from the workshop.

Workshop Details:

• Online Workshop w/ audio, video and chat

• 12 noon (central time) | Tuesday, Aug. 25

• Program will be recorded and available for review to all paid registrants

• Opt-in networking site so you can share ideas with your colleagues

Tuition

• Regular Tuition: $149 per firm

• Early Registration (through Aug. 18): $99 per firm

One tuition fee will cover your entire firm. You can broadcast over the web into your conference room and share ideas and valuable training with your entire staff.

Special Offer: 100% Tuition Rebate!
Apply your entire registration fee to any new website design service,
re-design & update, or search engine optimization.

Click Here to Register Now & Save $50!
$99 Early Registration

New Stats on How Consumers Find Businesses

I just ran across some very interesting new statistics out about how consumers find businesses, including professional services, released this month by the Berry corporation, a Yellow Pages publisher. (These numbers are based on their own consumer surveys.)

 

Berry describes the new model as "Multiplatform Consumer Usage."

 

During the previous month, the consumers surveyed reported searching for business services using the following media:

 

64% of those surveyed used the Yellow Pages.

54% used a website

47% used an online search engine such as Google

24% used Internet Yellow Pages

 

I think these numbers are particularly interesting because they are reported by a Yellow Pages publisher, surveying their own customers. While it may appear at first blush that Yellow Pages still wins out, with 64% saying they used Yellow Pages, the website / search engine usage combined makes a compelling argument for search engine optimization!

 

Even the phone directory people are figuring out that "we are all digital marketers now."

 

What does this media revolution mean to you and your estate planning or elder law practice? How do you leverage internet technologies to reduce your costs, expand your influence and increase your revenue?

 

Join us at 12 noon (central) on August 25 for our Practice Development Series workshop, "Leveraging Internet Technologies."

 

We will show you why internet technologies are essential to your practice marketing. We'll show you how to use them to leverage your time (rather than eat it up!) and we'll share strategies to ensure you get the most out of your marekting investment. You'll learn the secrets of search engine optimization, the keys to getting local search results, why blogging is so powerful and how to use social media like Twitter to expand your influence within key markets.

Additionally, we've invited your colleagues Jerry Reif and Lizette Sundvick, two successful estate attorneys practicing in very different markets to share with you their insights about trends and challenges in the estate planning marketplace.

Conference Details

• Online Workshop w/ audio, video and chat
• 12 noon (central time) | Tuesday, Aug. 25
• Program will be recorded and available for review to all paid registrants
• Opt-in networking site so you can share ideas with your colleagues

Tuition Fees

• Regular Tuition: $149 per firm
• Early Registration (through Aug. 18): $99 per firm

One tuition fee will cover your entire firm. You can broadcast over the web into your conference room and share ideas and valuable training with your entire staff.

Special Offer: 100% Tuition Rebate!
Apply your entire registration fee to any new website design service, re-design & update, or search engine optimization.

Click here for more information, or to register online.

social media: blogging and facebook and twitter, oh my!

posted by kyle e. krull, esq.

i am onsite at integrity marketing hq today. as i look out the french doors to the pasture, lake and woods, i am reminded of how blessed we are to have worked together for more than 15 years. jennifer has been giving me a hands-on demonstration of current marketing technology, to include the place for social media. wow! for example, ims now has its own intranet, blog, facebook and twitter account. indeed, i am learning to "tweet" as i type this.  ;D  jennifer is using "tweetbeep" and "google alerts" and is explaining to me why these are vital practice development tools. internet marketing has progressed far beyond having a website presence.

the days of relying solely on hanging out a shingle, and the concept of "if you build it, they will come," are gone ... and so are the attorneys who relied upon that. in the words of peter frampton, do you feel like i do? as a baby boomer, i was born into the estate planning field on the heels of the dinosaurs who had a hang-out-a-shingle mentality. well, like the literal dinosaurs, those dinosaurs are now gone (retired). i'm the "sandwich generation" of estate planning attorneys.

regardless how much i would like to ignore these new technologies, they are here and if i want to stay here, i will learn to use them to my advantage. and even though my lovely 80-year-old widowed client may not be on facebook, the entrepreneurial business owner likely is. for the long-term success of my practice, i need to be talking to both types of prospects, and i need to meet them where they "live" per se ... and i need cost-effective ways to stay in touch with them, nurture those relationships, and enjoy the harvest of downstream referrals.

unfortunately, not everyone can come out to ims hq and get a full day of one-on-one training with jennifer. the next best thing, however, will be our online client workshop at 12 noon (central) on August 25, "leveraging internet technologies." joining us will be your colleagues from the front lines, jerry reif of saginaw, michigan and lizette sundvick of las vegas, nevada. these successful attorneys, practicing in very different markets, will share their perceptions of how the practice has changed and why they are now embracing those changes in their own practice development efforts. 

stay tuned to this blog, or follow us on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/integritymarket) for the latest updates and registration details.