Liza is an executive employment attorney with a private practice in NYC. She specializes in helping high level executives negotiate high income employment contracts. When Liza called me last month she told me about the website she had launched, complaining that it didn’t seem to bring her any business.
I checked out her site. Hmmm…I know Liza to be a bright, successful and talented attorney. She had developed a niche practice with a group of sophisticated clients. But frankly, her website just brought her down.
Instead of a marketing message on the home page, there was a scrolling list of what you could find on her site. I found it confusing, even though I understood her business quite well before visiting the site.
She wasn’t specific about the clients she worked with or the types of cases she liked best.
The navigation bar led to pages that weren’t any better. They were too broad, very wordy, and lacked any reference to the problems that her ideal clients faced or the solutions she provided.
None of the pages were optimized for search engines.
The graphics were uninspired and generic.
To be honest, if I were an executive in the process of negotiating a 6 or 7 figure contract, I’d be turned off.
In other words, her website didn’t support her core marketing message or her branding.
Unfortunately, Liza is not alone. She’s one of the 100’s of thousands of professionals who are really good at what they do, but don’t have a handle on how to market or sell their services.
The truth is that building a website without zeroing in on and highlighting your core message first, is a waste of time and money.
Susan Martin, Lawyer Marketing, Marketing Coaching
