Tips on What to do Before Leaving FindLaw’s Legal Marketing Service
A while back I shared about the inflexibility of FindLaw’s legal marketing service. However, I didn’t dive into what you should do if you’ve already signed this agreement and want to get out of it. That’s what we’re going to discuss here in this article.
Let’s say that you’re stuck in a contract with an agency that’s not providing you with the best results for your firm. You’re paying out thousands of dollars with no ROI.
Well, it’s time to prepare yourself with these steps – but you must start with a plan.
Before you fill out FindLaw’s 90-day notice, discuss your options with several reputable legal digital marketing agencies
Here are the main issues to address when you’re looking at leaving FindLaw’s master service agreement (MSA). Be sure to follow each so you can be prepared for when that 90-day timeframe has passed:
Understanding the MSA in full detail will help you remember what you need, so you can be prepared to leave. The MSA may have held your firm hostage for months, if not years, and racked up service fees. The more openly vocal you are to the public about your FindLaw experience, the more FindLaw will want to settle an arrangement with you.
Knowing who actually owns the domain of your firm can help you quickly determine the next steps. If part of your contract was for FindLaw to request the domain, there will be a strong possibility that they may own it. What this means is that all those service fees you’ve been paying has been to build their business, not yours. If you have any questions as to who may actually own your domain, click here.
Whether you find it’s indeed your domain URL or not, you will need to make plans to address the ownership of the site, along with where it will be hosted next.
Although the content by FindLaw may or may not be of high quality, it’s content that you paid for. Once you hand over the money, the content is expected to be yours when the contract is terminated. Be prepared for both positive and negative aspects of having the content as part of your new site efforts. You may still have issues associated with content that FindLaw created. What this means is addressing everything from 404 directs and even making sure you have a fresh series of blog posts ready for your site.
Data Analytics
Just like any digital marketing effort, it’s important to be connected to Google Analytics. Be sure you have administrative access to anything associated with your digital marketing footprint. Doing so will allow you to remove individuals and/or businesses you’ve hired to do specific tasks for your firm. By allowing continued access to your website’s data, FindLaw would have the ability to review all data whenever they want. Unfortunately, that could result in allowing your data to help FindLaw promote their services to your competitors.
Addressing these issues can seem daunting. After all, your time should be devoted to helping your clients and not having to focus much on marketing – since that’s what you hire experts to do.
If you considered or are currently using FindLaw’s legal marketing services, reach out to us. Our team specializes in addressing concerns associated with FindLaw’s legal marketing services. We can help you with your digital marketing efforts without a multi-month inflexible contract. Contact us today at 877-602-7510.