Consumers often have products that include confusing instructions regarding assembly, and/or how to avoid risk or injury.  One of the most important pieces from any purchase is an avenue to contact someone when there are questions.  Missing parts or pieces?  It won’t turn on, off, left, or right as it says it would?  Call this number, and ask someone about it.

But this “someone” typically ends up being a faceless, generic person who has a first name but no idea who their client is or what they may actually need.  John Q. Consumer, meanwhile, spends much more time having to explain more than they should rather than identifying the key issue at-hand and resolving it in a timely fashion.

Lawyers are consumers too, and marketing on the Internet can be just as puzzling as any other product.  FindLaw prides itself in offering to you a face, and a last name, and a sense of familiarity with you once your relationship with us has been initiated.  After we assemble your products – your website developed, your spot on our award-winning FindLaw portal secured – you are given a dedicated Account Manager including:

• their full name – first and last
• their direct telephone number
• their direct e-mail address

They serve as your all-around connection from that point forward.  Along with your client development consultant, they are your single-handed, multi-talented, jack of all trades. But if you have an inquiry about your FindLaw experience, you will know who you can talk to.  Personally.  We are masterful at attending to your needs.

Do you have questions?  If we can’t answer it ourselves, we will know where to go, and who to go to in order to get a solution for you.  We will stay in direct contact with you – via telephone, via e-mail – throughout any particular issue to ensure that you get your answers.  We can help you with:

• edits to your site once it’s published, live for potential clients to review
• any billing questions and inquiries from what you are charged
• ongoing  services, such as adding and updating your site (at no additional cost)
• consulting with you not only on traffic to your site, but also your online marketing objectives
• updating your directory products on www.findlaw.com to make sure that they are ideal for drawing clients to you
• any changes to your practice or your firm

This is just the beginning of what Account Managers can and will do for you.  We are the specific person you will want to call, and we are trained to get you what you need.  As quickly as possible.

My name is Sumner Musolf, and I am an Account Manager with FindLaw. I look forward to working with you.
 
Take care.

Yes, you read that correctly, for FREE! Well, this is only partially true.  I assume that you have put a great deal of effort and resources to build a great website as the core of your marketing campaign. 

Now, thanks to the folks at Google, Yahoo! And MSN you can have a free local listing in their directories. All of them are really easy to set up and they provide some great benefits to your online visibility.

Mobile Visibility

Consider, for example, MSN’s business listing, which is used to power up searches on all Windows-Mobile-based-smartphones as well its MSN.com and Live.com sites.  Windows Mobile gives you the opportunity to reach about 25% of the domestic smartphone consumers at no cost to you.

Recent studies have shown that the number of people searching on their smartphone devices (Blackberry, Treo, iPhone, Pocket PC, etc.) has increased significantly in the last year.  Paul Burani examines the connection between the rise in mobile and local searching and concludes that this is only the beginning.  As the prices of smartphones continue to drop, while they get better and better, and as the mobile phone companies include more services in their packages, internet browsing becomes more and more prevalent. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, mobile data penetration is far higher amongst the African-American and (English-speaking) Hispanic populations than it is amongst the white population, which opens up numerous possibilities for reaching out to new customers.

Local Flexibility

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Google Maps, and their Local Business Center,  revolutionized the area of the local searching.  For years people had relied on the Yellow Pages or similar directories to deliver search results.  However, the combination of at-your-fingertips-results with customer ratings and map and directions has literally brought people to many small and medium business’ doorsteps.

Once you get past the creepy feeling that people can actually see a still photo of your office and the street in front of it, the Google Local Business Center is very flexible and easy to customize.  These days one can even add a video from YouTube.com.

Links, Links, Links

One of the biggest benefits to local internet listings is the links they provide back to your website.  While content is still king in the land of search engine optimization, having various inbound links from local directories can only help your site’s visibility and may increase traffic altogether. Unlike the more traditional paper directories, the internet local listings allow you the flexibility to target specific pages and change the link from time to time as needed.

It turns out that in the virtual world, just like in the real one, some of the best things really are free!

Slavey Tolev