Kevin O’Keefe makes a strong case against law firms building custom apps in an article titled, Why Your Law Firm Should Forget About Building An Iphone App. In short, his reasons against custom apps are:
Kevin suggests getting your firm’s blog on Kindle or connecting into networks such as JD Supra or Lexblog where people are aggregating content by subject.
In my experience, the majority of apps I have seen from law firms are basically reproductions of a law firm website in app form. I agree with Kevin that an app that is simply your website or blog, reproduced is a waste of time, money, and resources. However, I have come across a couple of law firm apps recently that are attempting to do something different.
Robert Ambrogi wrote about an a solo attorney, Aaron Kelly, that produced a clever app for his clients. Robert explains the app in more detail:
The app is designed to give Kelly’s clients access to information about their cases. To this end, the app features integration with both file-sharing site Dropbox and project-management site Basecamp. With the integration of those tools, the app lets clients review their documents and check the status of their matters. The app also integrates PayPal, so that clients can use it to pay their invoices.
The app also includes features you might expect. It allows users to follow the firm’s news and blog posts and to follow its Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds. The app can be used to launch a live chat with someone at the firm. It can also be used by a non-client to submit a case for evaluation.
Robert goes on to say that he likes the app because it actually serves a function for Mr. Kelly's clients that doesn't exist simply by visiting his website. The fact that Mr. Kelly practices internet law means his clients are more tech savvy and likely to appreciate having access to case information via their mobile device.
Van Wey law has created a free car wreck app. The firm provides this description of the app:
Van Wey Law is offering consumers its free Car Wreck App, an application for your iPhone that can store your vehicle and insurance information, help you find a tow truck company, and make emergency calls after you've been in an accident. You can also store audio and video content and create a personalized accident report.
All of the information you store in your App will remain confidential. Van Wey Law will not receive any of your stored information unless you decide to send it to us.
Aren't sure whether you need an attorney? You can simply send the information you collect and store in the Van Wey Law Car Wreck App to Van Wey Law for review. Kay L. Van Wey will personally review what you send and let you know whether you have a case.
This app is providing additional benefit to the user beyond just a blog feed or access to the website.
Do you think that apps are worth the investment for law firms? Are the apps above marketing gimmicks or is there a real ROI in producing custom apps for law firms?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Over the years, law firm prospects have sent us reports from just about all of our competitors. Unfortunately, even today, some law firm marketing agencies still mislead their clients via "reporting." One particularly egregious example comes in the form of ranking reports. Which prompted this LinkedIn post. To my surprise, I received a lot of […]
John Wanamaker supposedly said "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." In an an effort to figure out "what half is working," attribution was born. Coupled with a transition from traditional, offline ads to digital media, attribution became the holy grail for analyzing advertising spends. But […]
I recently asked ChatGPT, "What are some of the top personal injury law firms in Chicago?? Actually, first I ask "who are some of the top personal injury lawyers in Chicago?" ChatGPT couldn't handle that one, so I modified the prompt. ChatGPT listed five very well-known firms downtown. Can you guess the other four? That's […]
If you're like me, you have some degree of AI, ChatGBT, Bard, exhaustion. Now don't get me wrong, this is stuff is remarkable and is changing, well, a lot. But before you hook up the ChatGPT API to your WordPress API and crank out 10,000 pages, here are a few things to think about. Let's […]
If you know me, you know my opinions about links and SEO advice from Google. If you don't, here's the TL;DR: Meh, links! Meaning, all things being equal, links still remain a competitive difference maker for ranking. Take Google's SEO advice with several grains of salt. Google has no economic incentive to help your site […]
The best marketing advice I can give you is to be authentic. Of course, you don't find that very helpful in terms of meeting your growth goals. So, you might decide to game the system. As I'm writing this, one of the more popular ways to gain the system is to pay for engagement. This […]
The following post was written by ChatGPT. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is a state-of-the-art language model that can generate human-like text based on a given prompt or context. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the way that businesses, including law firms, market themselves to potential clients. One way that a law firm could use […]
How long does SEO take? When can I expect to see results? What results should I expect to see? These are all reasonable questions that we field from lawyers every day. And, like many legal answers, the answer is: It depends. Yes, I know that's not the answer you wanted. But it's the most honest […]
And how much time should they spend doing it? I recently had the privilege of chatting with Tyson, Jim, and Conrad for an upcoming episode of The Maximum Lawyer Podcast. If you're not familiar with The Maximum Lawyer community, you should definitely check it out. Jim asked a really great question about who should do […]
[...] I started researching this post, I was mostly looking at negative reviews of the type of apps discussed above. Then I discovered the website Law Firm Mobile, and I was [...]
[…] I started researching this post, I was mostly looking at negative reviews of the type of apps discussed above. Then I discovered the website Law Firm Mobile, and I was […]