Another legal website mistake is the horribly written biographies
Lawyer Bob talks about himself in the third person. Lawyer Bob has listed many of his awards and his education background. Lawyer Bob has mentioned that he is experienced in all practice areas related to family law and that he has received favorable settlements and judgements on other cases.
Unfortunately, another legal website mistake is that Lawyer Bob has not told his clients anything meaningful about himself and potential clients click away.
The major issues with writing bios in this style are that:
- You sound like a lawyer stereotype…boring. Potential clients are looking for some way to connect to you personally. Most people make decisions based on emotion, not logic. Therefore, when you write your bio in this robotic way, it deprives potential clients of making a personal connection to you. It deprives them of being able to connect to their emotional side, which drives decision making.
- You have not told potential clients anything about what you will do to help them. Your awards and victories on other cases are probably impressive. However, potential clients don’t know what half of those awards mean and don’t know how “IRMO D.H. vs. V.V. Secured trial verdict for book valuation of eCigarette start-up company” is going to help them.
What you can do differently to craft your bio
This is one of the major legal website mistakes that can be easily avoided. It also needs to be addressed immediately as research has shown that bios can account for up to 80% of your website’s traffic. Some simple things you can do to form a connection with potential clients and get them to contact you are:
- Use the first person when you write. When you do this, you start to develop the attorney client relationship right away because the first person creates a level of intimacy and helps develop trust. If you had met the potential client face to face you would never say “Hello, he is Lawyer Bob and he is happy to meet you.” Don’t do it on your website then, either.
- Don’t just list awards and cases you have won. Choose one or two cases and explain what you did to obtain that victory and why that particular victory is significant. What steps did you take for your client? What legal avenues did you have to pursue? How did that victory help your client in the end? How did this case influence the way you practice law? Addressing these types of questions provides potential clients an in depth insight into what they can expect from you if they hire you. When someone knows what they are getting, they are more likely to become a client.
The bottom line is that when a person feels like they have gotten to know you, they are more likely to hire you. Give them the opportunity to find out who you are, what you believe, and what you will do for them.
Often, the legal jargon and technical terminology repels potential clients.
The content of your website needs to focus on your visitors. It needs to connect to potential clients. Although reading sentences that are 300 words long with 10 semicolons, 20 commas, and 175 different clauses may be second nature to a lawyer, it is not to everyone else, especially clients. The content of your website always needs to consider potential clients first. They want language that is simple and easy to understand.
If you are quoting statutes, legal precedent, and including other legal jargon on your website, potential clients will click away quickly.
In the examples below, the first explanation of an appeal does not address your potential client directly and includes more legal jargon. Whereas, the subsequent example attempts to make a connection to the client with the familiar “you” and simplifies the concept of an appeal. Again, people are driven by emotion and personal connection initiates the emotional response making it more likely for the person to become your client.
Example 1 (How not to do it):
The litigant who received the unfavorable ruling has a right to have that ruling examined by a three-judge court of review.
Example 2 (How it should be done):
If you lost, you have a right to have that ruling reviewed by the appellate court.
Which one of those two sentences do you think a client would understand and respond to?
You can fix another legal website mistake by considering what a potential client will want to hear first and foremost
Bios that allow potential clients to get to know you and writing content that is client focused and friendly is paramount to your website’s success. You need clients to connect with you and to understand the value of your firm and what you will do for them.
Having a website is not about just putting words on a page. You need to consider who your target audience is and what they are going through that they’d even be on a legal website at this point. You need to write in a way that clients feel confident about hiring your firm. Communicate your message, have a personality, articulate how the client will be helped, and avoid another legal website mistake of crappy copy.