New and old businesses alike often wonder how much of their overall budget should be spent on marketing. In 2019, more than $103 billion will be spent on search engine marketing, social media marketing, display advertising, and email marketing. However, most businesses do not have million of dollars to invest in digital marketing. So, just how much of your budget should you spend in this area? 

The amount you should spend on marketing depends not only on the size of your business, but your industry and business goals as well. In general, businesses that are around one to five years old should use about 12 to 20 percent of their revenue on marketing. Businesses that have been around for more than five years should use about 6 to 12 percent of their revenue on marketing. 

Earlier this spring the online marketing firm, OVC, Inc., celebrated its ninth year of providing specialized products and services for attorneys and law firms in need of a powerful online presence. The company’s anniversary took place on May 28, 2017.

Over the years, OVC, Inc. developed a series of strategic relationships with both local and national organizations, including the DuPage County Bar Association and Kane County Bar Association. As these relationships grew, the company added services and products that enhanced Search Engine Optimization for clients including legal directory partnerships and blogs. Writers with legal industry experience and/or English backgrounds, marketers, SEO experts and social media gurus joined the team, allowing OVC, Inc. to provide complete marketing programs for law firms across Illinois and throughout the United States. The company currently serves clients in 14 states.

“OVC has enjoyed nine years of growth and we could not be prouder with the direction of the business as we begin our tenth year in business,” stated Greg Wildman, OVC Founder and CEO. “We owe our success to the effort of the entire team, as well as to our clients and the confidence they have in us to provide superior service.”

Most people—even those who have never experienced a brush with the law in any form—are familiar with the concepts of attorney-client privilege and confidentiality. While the two are not the same, they both afford protections to a client who has retained professional legal representation. The attorney-client privilege is generally a procedural privilege which generally provides that the client’s lawyer cannot be compelled to testify or provide evidence—including notes, memos, and other documents generated as a result of being retained—against the client. Confidentiality is a broader concept and prevents the attorney from revealing information he or she received from his or her client without the client’s express, informed consent.

Over the last several decades, a new challenge has arisen for attorneys in protecting their clients’ confidential information. With more and more systems becoming digital for the sake of stability, efficiency, convenience, the likelihood of client information being hacked or stolen through electronic means has also increased.

Protecting Clients’ Information

The world of online marketing and digital technology is constantly evolving. Any entrepreneur or company that fails to keep up with the changes will quickly be left behind. But, is it even possible to stay on top of such advancements? It may be a little ambitious to expect anyone to revamp their marketing strategies every time Google makes a minor adjustment to it search algorithm, for example, but it is vital to the long-term health of your business to stay abreast of search engine updates. At the very least, you must be aware of the direction of larger trends that are increasingly evident.

Mobile-First Priorities

As 2016 draws to a close, we can now look back on the year that was with a measure of big-picture perspective. Over the last 12 months, Google and other internet leaders have made one thing abundantly clear: mobile-friendliness is no longer an option, is it a necessity. The trend of rewarding mobile-friendly websites began several years ago, but search engines were still largely designed to facilitate desktop searches. Throughout 2016, Google made several mobile-related updates to its search engine algorithms and continued a serious push of the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project to improve site performance on smartphones and tablets.

While most of us are using the wonders of technology to communicate with one another and for recreational purposes—think Pokémon Go—computers and the Internet were originally developed as tools to make solving problems more efficient. Over time, of course, computing technology has made its way in to just about every industry on earth. Harvesting combines are guided by GPS, manufacturing plants use CNC machines—CNC stands for “computer numeric control” to cut and process materials, and lawyers are able to reach prospective clients through social media and marketing campaigns.

Computers have also long been used in the fields of biology and chemistry for various purposes, but a recent announcement from Microsoft still has many wondering if the technology giant will be able to deliver on its promise. According to reports, Microsoft has begun work on a series of programs that has led to a prediction that cancer will be “solved” within the next decade.

A Multi-Pronged Approach