Legal Marketing Consultants

Alyn Weiss and Associates

SURVEY: 82% of Business and Transactional Firms Get Cases From Web

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 2, 2006

DENVER-- Law firm Web sites are the single most effective marketing tool employed by corporate, transactional and defense firms, according to a just-released national survey by Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc.

The Denver-based legal marketing firm's survey also revealed a growing number of business law firms employ formalized search engine marketing to obtain case inquiries from the Internet.

"For the past 20 years, our bi-annual national survey of business and defense firms, along with every other survey we have ever reviewed, has ranked seminars and presentations/speeches as the most effective business development tactic a business and commercial litigation law firm could employ," said Robert A. Weiss, president and founder.

However, the 2006 Alyn-Weiss survey reveals that 82 percent of the 119 responding firms had "received work directly or by referral during the past 24 months," from their Web site. That's up from 51 percent of firms in 2004 -- a huge leap reflecting the power and pervasiveness of the Internet on traditional legal services purchase patterns. No firm reported using search engine marketing techniques in the Alyn-Weiss 2004 survey, but 20 percent said they did in 2006.

"Follow-up calls to firms about the change confirmed that most of the 20 percent of responding firms who had employed formal search engine marketing techniques -- key phrase optimization, geo targeting and click-through campaigns -- had received a steady flow of case inquiries," Weiss said. Search engine marketing raises a firm's ranking on Google, Yahoo and MSN, which dominate the online research market.

"These techniques are well-known and widely-accepted in the contingent fee world but are used much less commonly by hourly fee-based practices," Weiss said.

Seminars and presentations slipped to second on the list of most effective marketing tactics. Fifty-five percent of firms reported receiving work directly or by referral from those efforts, which is down from 77 percent in 2004.

Trade and community group participation came in third with 47 percent of firms, the same as in 2004, reporting they obtained work that way.

The survey also ranks the use and relative effectiveness of client entertainment, law firm networks, cross-selling programs, print advertising and other marketing tactics. It also reveals how much firms spend on marketing overall as a percentage of gross fee volume. Results are compared to answers given by firms in 2004.

Participating firms filled out detailed questionnaires concerning their marketing efforts and expenses. The questionnaires were developed with input from a panel of law firm marketing directors and legal administrators. Returns were received from December 2005 to January 2006.

The survey is conducted every other year by Alyn-Weiss & Associates, which writes strategic marketing plans for firms nationwide. In off-years, Alyn-Weiss & Associates surveys the marketing done by contingent fee practices. The 2006 survey and previous surveys done by the firm are available at www.themarketinggurus.com/survey.php .

MORE INFORMATION: Contact Bob Weiss, Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc, at (303) 298-1676 or by email at weiss@themarketinggurus.com.

To order a copy of our survey, please print and fill out the order form.

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Alyn-Weiss & Associates, Inc.
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1331 - 17th Street, Suite 410
Denver, CO 80202
Fax: 303.298.1679

Please call us at 303.298.1676 or email us to schedule a private consultation with Bob Weiss.