Easily Avoidable Mistakes Law Firms make Online

Online marketing is proven to be the number one way of getting your business out into the world, and it’s very tricky to navigate it accordingly. It can present a decent amount of legal issues that you most definitely want to be informed on.

Check Photo Ownership

Pictures can be the most important part of your mailer, and it’s wise to use eye catching photos and colors to grab your audience’s attention. If you’re Google Image searching a picture, be sure you know who the owner is and credit them accordingly. Using photos without the owner’s permission can get you into legal trouble. To avoid any confrontation, try using Shutterstock, or some other watermarked photo source that forces you to purchase the photos before use. Photos are generally inexpensive and it’s worth the few extra dollars to cover yourself in the end.

Scrub your Contacts Squeaky Clean

Creating your base contact list is very important. You’ll see emails across many websites, forums, or even other message boards and it’ll be very easy to collect them and start putting them to use. This is dangerous, and can get you into a mess of trouble if you’re not careful. Spam traps, fake addresses, and overall bad emails that will get your accounts banned and marked as spam. Being marked as spam makes it extremely difficult for you to be accepted as a legitimate business, and even more difficult to get clients.

If you do plan on purchasing lists of potential clients, be sure to remove anyone that has marked themselves as “Do Not Contact,” and make sure you verify your lists. There are many websites that allow you to upload your contacts to check what emails are legitimate and which are fraudulent—for a fee. The fee to verify your contacts is well worth it to avoid being banned or getting marked as spam.

Have a Security Plan

If you have plans to receive credit card information or any personal information via email make sure your website is extremely secure. Prove to your clients that you’re secure by becoming SSL certified. Basically, SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, which adds an encryption between your client and your website, blocking any hackers from stealing personal information.

Research

Do as much research as possible before starting any online marketing. Although it’s easy to avoid any legal confrontation through online marketing, it’s best to research every option and every negative possibility.