The Art of Being Discrete
How well do you know your clients? Sure, you may know where they work and what they do, but have you ever paid them a visit at their workplace? Of course, your clients probably visit you at your office, and not the other way around. After all, when someone needs a lawyer, usually trouble is a foot, and most people prefer a discrete consultation in their lawyer's private office rather than a more public chat in their own cubicle in front of their co-workers.
Well, as it turns out, you probably have visited your clients at their workplace, that is if you have a law firm Web site. A quick scan of your Web site statistics should tell you whether your visitors are browsing during the weekday when they are at work or during nights and weekends when they are at home. If your visitors are coming to your Web site during working hours, you should make sure that your Web site exhibits the same level of discretion that you would show if you were visiting them at their workplace.
For example, if you walked into the lobby at your client's office, asked the receptionist for your client, and then casually mentioned that you were his attorney and were meeting him to discuss his recent arrest for spousal abuse, what do you think would happen? First, all his co-workers will think he's a wife beater. While this may or may not cost him his job, it will most certainly cause you your job. Your client will fire you at the his earliest opportunity for your lack of discretion.
This leads us to your Web site. Do not place any flash, audio or video file on your law firm Web site that will potentially embarrass your client if his co-workers would happen to overhear. Your client may not want his co-workers to know that he is seeking a divorce, was cited for drunk driving, was arrested for burglary and a bunch of other unpleasant details. If he wants to share this with his co-workers, then it is up to him. Until then, don't let your Web site broadcast the nature of his problems around the office.
Be discrete. Be trustworthy.
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Respect the Medium
When you enter the theater, the lights have already been dimmed. The final trailer is showing. You wait a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the darkness before you spot a pair of open seats. "Excuse me, pardon me," you mumble repeatedly as you wend your way down the crowded row. Once you've reached your padded stadium-style seats, you savor a quick sip of cola before settling down and turning towards the screen.
You've already read the novel. Now, you're wondering whether the director has honored the original text—which you've held as practically sacred. Then, to your horror, you realize that while the director had left nothing out, he also didn't add anything in. For the next two hours, you stare in boredom as a close-up of each page from the novel flies across the screen. What's good enough for book lovers is not good enough for movie viewers.
To transform a novel into a movie, you need an attractive cast, a gorgeous set, engaging dialogue, a luscious soundtrack and stunning special effects. You cannot treat a movie as a novel, and you cannot treat a web site as a brochure. In other words, you have to respect the medium.
For law firms making their first foray onto the Internet, a common mistake is to just post content online that has come from prior marketing efforts. You may see some of the following when browsing the web:
- Scanned copies of yellow pages or magazine advertisements.
- Scanned copies of client newsletters.
Repurposing existing marketing collateral is a great time-saver. However, it must be adapted for the web. First, let's take a step back to see why. In all likelihood, a potential client will come to your site through one of the search engines. And, what are search engines good at? Reading text, categorizing text and matching text patterns.
This dependence on text highlights the problem with displaying scanned images on your web site. If Google cannot understand the text contained within your scanned image, then it cannot match it to user queries. So where will Google send your potential client? To another law firm's web site. The second problem is that even if a potential client comes across your scanned newsletter, she will find it frustrating to use. Unless it's a high resolution scanned copy that has been OCR'd, your potential client cannot search through it for particular keywords or phrases.
So, if you are going to reuse your existing offline marketing collateral, make sure that the text is readable both by the search engines and your potential clients. Furthermore, whenever you develop offline marketing collateral, remember to preserve an electronic copy of the underlying text so that you can easily adapt it for your online readers.
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Do you see what I see?
Said the law firm to the Googlebot:
Do you see what I see?
Come and see my site, Googlebot,
Do you see what I see?
A flash, a flash
Dancing on the screen,
Scrolling text with voices to hear,
Scrolling text with voices to hear.
Said the Googlebot to the people everywhere:
Listen to what I say!
Don't click here, people everywhere,
Listen to what I say!
A blank, a blank
Nothing here to see,
This web site is plain as the snow,
This web site is plain as the snow.
Your home page may be the most valuable page on your web site. From there, you will dispatch visitors and search engine spiders to the far corners of your site. So, why would you want to tie up this valuable piece of space with only a graphic image or some gimmicky animation? Polling your users to see what they think of your home page is a hassle. So, in the alternative, why not just ask Google? It's easier than you think.
Using the cache: operator on Google is one way to view a web site from Google's point-of-view. And, to your surprise, you may discover that Google views your home page as one big blank page if you offer nothing more than a graphic image or an animated flash file. When the Googlebot pays a visit to your site, make sure it doesn't draw a blank.
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Feds Subpoena Google
The San Jose Mercury News reported that the Feds have subpoenaed Google in a bid to obtain their search records. In an act reminiscent of certain countries in "Old Europe," Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL all surrendered, leaving Google to fight it alone.
Here are copies of the motions. I've OCR'd them so that they are searchable and copy-and-pasteable.
- Notice of Motion, and Motion to Compel Compliance with Subpoena Duces Tecum
- Declaration of Joel McElvain
- Notice of FIling of Declaration of Philip B. Stark, Ph.D.
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Silence is Golden
When you meet with your clients, do you bring them into your quiet office or conference room so that you can speak to them free from distractions? After all, you have some valuable advice you wish to impart and you want them to absorb as much of it as possible. And, surely, during an intial consultation, you do not have an associate or paralegal standing by your side ringing a bell or striking a gong every time you mention your law firm's name, let alone spinning a poster of your law firm's logo in the background, do you?
So, why would you think differently when you are trying to communicate to clients via your web site? If a repetitive chime during an initial consultation meeting is considered annoying, why would it be perceived as being cool or high tech the second, third or fourth time your potential client hears it as she browses through your web site. The truth is, it isn't. Be judicious in incorporating any flash, audio or video on your web site. Make sure it enhances, rather than distracts from, the user experience.
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Happy Year of the Dog
Chinese New Year is coming up and, as fortune would have it, January 29, 2006 marks the start of the Year of the Dog. I know one smart pug that just can't wait for the festivities to begin.
Anyways, as this year winds down, Sheba and I would like to offer some legal marketing suggestions for law firms.
Woof!
Did you catch that? If Sheba were to repeat herself, I'm pretty sure that she'll say the same thing again. The lesson here is that barking is a poor way to communicate with people. If you want to communicate clearly with English-speaking people, then speak English. Likewise, if you want to communicate with Spanish-speaking clients, then make sure your web site contains Spanish pages. Otherwise, you are just barking at them and they'll have to turn to a translator to decipher your message. And, who knows how accurate those are.
Don't bark at clients. Speak to them in their own language.
Se Habla Inglés
But, your law practice is different. You don't need a Spanish page, because your audience speaks, reads and writes English fluently. Sure, they do, but do you? Consider for a moment the problem that Plain English for Lawyers seeks to address. Now, look at your law firm's web site and see if it is easy to read and communicates to potential clients using the keywords and phrases that they would use to describe their problems.
Translate your web site from lawyer English to client English.
Turkey?
Sheba loves turkey. I mean she L-O-V-E-S turkey. So, when I am trying to communicate with her, you won't find me waving around a big flap of turkey because her eyes will be glued on the turkey and not on me. Likewise, if your law firm web site automatically plays some audio, video or flash file whenever someone visits your site, you can bet that your client will be distracted by the special effects when they should be focusing on the great content on your site.
Unless you are selling turkey, don't wave it all over your web site.
May you and your clients enjoy a safe and prosperous Year of the Dog, sorry, Pug.
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MacWorld Today! and a Free MW Pass Link from Other World Computing
Hi Friends,
I am going to MacWorld today. If you need a free pass you can download one from Other World Computing. Apple Plasma Screen Computers (PowerPage.org) - but note New Intel MacBooks - should be kewl. So there is today's free tip or free pass link.
Here is Steve Jobs' Keynote Speach
Peace - Tim
:: Have Love, Will Travel, The Last DJ by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
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