Via Above the Law, A Public Defender and Defending People, the criminal law firm of Lindeman, Alvarado, and Frye has been taken to task for it’s website that uses tasteless, if not offensive, photographs to give their marketing a bit of punch.  There’s a bit of debate between Bennett and Gideon about whether this was the product of Findlaw’s professional marketing assistance, or whether the firm chose its own direction.

Gideon makes a painful point by offering an alternative approach; if you want to induce vomiting, he’s got a murder photo that will really get people talking.  I won’t post it, or even link to it.  If you’re inclined to take a look, the actual website photos are available at ATL and the nasty murder pic is on A Public Defender.  Go there and take a look, if that’s what you want to do.  There are some sick people out there who would pay to look at photos like these.

Instead, I want to talk about effective marketing.  After all, why market if it isn’t effective, if it’s not going to persuade someone checking out your website to call you, talk to you, hire you.  That’s the point of marketing, after all. 

My brethren make the point that this is scum marketing.  Forget dignified, this is as ugly as it gets.  But is it effective?  The images are very professional, and certainly spice up a website that would otherwise be indistinguishable from ten thousand others. You can take comfort in your dignified website, with appropriate photographs that meet the approval of your friends at the bar, but if it doesn’t bring in clients, so what?  Marketing isn’t about making your friends happy.  Marketing isn’t about getting the dignified lawyer of the year award.  It’s about business.

Internet marketing is still in its relative infancy.  In the very beginning, only a handful of lawyers had websites.  They look pretty much the same, and generally say the same nice things about the lawyers.  We’re experience, aggressive and fight hard for our clients. Woo hoo.  Some of the early adopters created websites designed to mislead or deceive consumers, making claims that were either technically true but deceptive, or just incorporating outright lies into their websites.  It’s not like anybody check them for accuracy.

Over time, the websites became more slick, more professional.  The cookie cutter websites offered by enterprises that catered to lawyers gave way to greater innovation, as lawyers no longer wanted a website that looked exactly like every other lawyers website.  The only difference tended to be the name at the top. Not a particularly effective way to market.

While no one wanted to be the only kid on the block without an internet presence, as it made you look as if you weren’t “real” if you didn’t have a website, they didn’t do much to bring in the business.  Some paid for placement at the top of Google’s search list, but everybody can’t be on top. 

So the question over time is what can be done to distinguish one lawyer’s marketing effort from another’s.  And the website of Lindeman, Alvarado, and Frye was born.  While they are being excoriated for their tastelessness, what did you expect?  There’s going to be a race to the bottom, to come up with the concept that’s going to distinguish one lawyer from another.  This is just the start.

How much worse can the lies and deception get?  How much more tasteless and salacious will the photos get?  I’m quite certain that I lack the imagination to foresee where this is all going. It will be far worse than I would ever believe.  It’s got to, for anything less will just be mundane and ineffective.  While the Lindeman, Alvarado, and Frye website stands out for the moment, it’s just a matter of time before someone else uses far more tasteless pictures to suck clients in. 

There are a lot of criminal defense lawyers out there.  Each one wants/needs business. That’s how we feed our families.  What will we do to get it?  We’re still a long way from finding out where the bottom is.