DDL: Mark Britton of Avvo

Newsflash: Now using the “DDL” (Drilling Down on Local) acronym to shorten titles.

Avvo is a ratings site for lawyers. Currently in 13 states plus DC = 65% of all practicing lawyers.

Because B2B is boring they have been able to get a strong foothold into the legal vertical. I totally agree, both with the boring part and the opportunity part.

9 days after Avvo was launched they got sued by 2 attorneys who didn’t like their Avvo rating. Lesson 1: lawyers like to sue.

The Legal Vertical:

$225B in annual revenue

$4.5B in lawyer marketing spend

$1.3B goes to Yellow Pages advertising!

-#1 revenue category| 311MM look-ups per year

• 1 page full-color = $86.4K in King County, WA

• Cost-per-call can surpass $200

• 90% of lawyer advertising is offline but coming online rapidly

• 32% of consumers search for lawyers online

“Austin DUI” searches are $70/click on Google.

Consumers don’t trust lawyers so a trusted intermediary is needed.

The interesting thing they are offering is showing endorsements by other lawyers for each lawyer.

Avvo Answers generating 1,000 questions/mnth.   Growing like crazy.  Attorneys answering questions in exchange for free advertising.