Sound Solutions, Inc.
Strategic Communications: Ideas & Initiatives
630-896-2638
630-896-2638
Case Study: Internet Marketing
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See samples of our blog and social media management.
View our other Website work.
See samples of our blog and social media management.
Situation: As a newly licensed attorney in 1991, Joseph P. McCaffery established his solo law practice. After 15 years in a successful practice based primarily on referral clients, in 2006 McCaffery recognized that the Internet was revolutionizing how people found lawyers and, like many lawyers, turned to a legal publishing company to establish his Web presence and reach potential clients his growing team of attorneys would serve.
McCaffery, however, also recognized that his full-service crisis-management firm was unlike most other law firms and had distinct messages to convey. While the publishing company included site content in their packaged offering, McCaffery hired Sound Solutions, Inc., to oversee the publishing company's copy development. This involved the preparation of messaging documents for the publisher, as well as participation in conference calls with the publisher's staff writers and McCaffery to provide direction.
Despite the verbal and written direction provided to the publisher by himself and Sound Solutions, McCaffery was dissatisfied with the end product and hired Sound Solutions to rewrite the site content while the publisher continued with design, hosting and marketing efforts. Initially the site was a success, ranking well (page 1 or 2) of popular search engines for the appropriate keywords and keyphrases, consistently drawing more than 100 unique visitors per month. At the same time, through continued referral business and the new Web presence, the firm had expanded to five attorneys and a total staff of 10.
However, after roughly 12 months, the site's page ranking began to severely drop. The answer was simple. Little fresh content and no new relevant links. The publisher had launched the site with high rankings, but it was up to McCaffery to maintain it or pay to have it maintained, despite paying several hundred dollars monthly in hosting fees during a multi-year contract.
McCaffery re-engaged Sound Solutions to look at his problem. It was agreed that a complete site revamp was in order. However, the ability to make changes was limited to a set number of pages and by the inability for McCaffery or his agent to access the header areas of the pages which were controlled by the publisher. This prevented McCaffery from being able to even include biographies or profiles of his growing staff.
Approach: A decision was made to launch an alternate site. McCaffery already had the domain name jpmlaw.net, which he used as his firm's email domain. Sound Solutions identified a site host through which McCaffery could purchase a three-year hosting contract, unlimited site pages and site design tools, all for less than half of the monthly cost of the publisher's service. Most importantly, the firm, through Sound Solutions, would have complete control of the new site.
Sound Solutions refreshed content for the new site, www.jpmlaw.net, improved navigation and, because of the unlimited page capacity, site content was translated and posted in Spanish and in Polish. As the firm serves global clients, has multi-lingual attorneys, is located in Aurora, Ill., with a 41 percent Hispanic population, and has a satellite office in Chicago, where the second-largest Polish population next to Warsaw is located, this created a huge competitive advantage.
In addition, Sound Solutions designed and launched a subdomain blog site at lawblog.jpmlaw.net to increase searchable content and provide links to the primary site. A quarterly e-newsletter with links to the site and blog content was established and sent to past and current clients, and prospects. The expanded primary site also included a News & Articles page with an RSS-feed to the blog, an e-newsletter archive and a press release archive, establishing a full circle of referrals to the firm's messages.
Finally, using Internet advertising credits available through the new host service contract, Sound Solutions created and tested several Internet advertising campaigns at no additional out-of-pocket cost.
The law publisher was put on 90-day notice to terminate the existing site contract, and turn over rights to that site's domain name which was re-pointed to the new site.
Results: Within one month of the site launch, the new site was attracting more than 300 monthly unique visitors -- a more than 50 percent increase in traffic over the old site. More importantly, prospective client queries more than tripled. This level of interest has been maintained in subsequent months. The site is indexed in the #1 and #2 positions in Google and other search engines for relevant search phrases.
Blog postings also are ranking on page 1 and page 2 of general Web searches for relevant keyphrases, and oftentimes are the No. 1 result for blog-specific searches. In the first month since launch, the blog drew more than 1,500 article views, and blog directory sites, which further drive search engine query results, were ranking The Law Blog of Joseph P. McCaffery & Associates among the Top 20 law sites and Top 50 business sites
The results of the Internet advertising tests indicated a specific advantage to a single search engine and set of test ads. That ad campaign is continuing at less than 4 percent of the cost of the law publisher's monthly hosting fee.
In an apparent effort to maintain the firm's business and monthly fee, the publisher put its marketing muscle back behind the original site, and it quickly regained its earlier page rankings. However with the new site ranking equally well, McCaffery authorized the contract termination and, at Sound Solutions' recommedation, ordered a 301 redirect all pages to corresponding pages at www.jpmlaw.net, thereby maintaining any remaining or restablished search engine equity.
The most telling result are anecdotal:
- A prospective client who, dissatisfied with her current counsel, "Googled" the judge her case was before. Just 45 minutes earlier, Sound Solutions had posted a blog entry reporting on a landmark ruling by that judge in favor of one of McCaffery's clients. The article came up among Page 1 results for her search and the firm was hired to take over her case.
- Shortly thereafter, British actress and playwright Tricia Walsh who was battling her husband Philip Smith in what became known internationally as the "YouTube Divorce" typed two words into Google: Overturn Prenup. JPMA was immediately hired in the infamous divorce case, resulting in extensive media coverage including an interview by the firm's principal with Fox News Network's "On the Record" with Greta Von Susteren.