Avvo Highlights 2009
Well, the end of 2009 is finally upon us. What a crazy, wonderful and busy year it has been for Avvo. A few highlights before we pack things up and head into 2010:
2009 was the year where Avvo’s “win-win” for consumers and lawyers really kicked-in. On the consumer side, we helped millions make better legal choices, whether it was getting them free legal advice in our legal guides and Avvo Answers or helping them choose the right lawyer in our industry-leading lawyer directory. Nothing was more gratifying than the letters and emails we received from everyday people telling us how Avvo helped them during an emotional time. Getting consumers the information and guidance they need to make informed legal decisions shouldn’t be so rare; but sadly it is, and on that front Avvo is happy to be the vanguard of today and the stalwart of tomorrow.
For lawyers, put simply, we delivered them a dump truck full of business in 2009. With Avvo becoming one the of most-trafficked legal directories this year and, in so doing, driving 150,000+ contacts for lawyers each month, we created a fire hose of demand for great lawyers. I often quote the noble words of Harold Goldner, a Pennsylvania Employment lawyer and Twitteraholic. Harold tweeted earlier this year, “I’m not yet convinced of what my LinkedIn profile can do. Twitter drives traffic to my blawg. Avvo generates business.” Amen brother. As we hear more and more lawyers echo Harold’s sentiments, it only reinforces our core theorem: I + G = B, where “I” and “G” are more Information and Guidance for consumers, and “B” is more Business for great lawyers.
Avvo also grew a lot this year in both product and personnel. For product growth, we added enough new lawyers to our directory in 2009 to bring our coverage to 90% (i.e., we now rate and profile 90% of the practicing lawyers in the United States). That nicely reinforces our position as the World’s Largest Legal Directory (someone call the Guinness folks!). We also saw Avvo Answers participation for both consumers and lawyers skyrocket. Avvo Answers is now getting around 20,000 questions per month supported by a very high answer rate from lawyers. It’s simply fantastic to have such viral growth without having to spend millions of dollars on low-ROI television campaigns. As I often say, our customers are our best advertisers. Finally, we launched Avvo Pro which is a great product for those lawyers who want to turbo-charge their Avvo Profile. You only need to see all of the “Pro” badges in our directory to understand the growth in (and power of) Avvo Pro.
As for growth in personnel, our advertising sales hit warp speed over the summer, which caught us a bit off guard. We had been so focused on delivering the “free” Avvo that we had to shift gears and get a team in place to manage the “paid” Avvo. This led to us to hiring eight new sales people at the same time we were moving into new space. While it took some operational scrambling, we are now all snug as a bug in a rug in the new Avvo offices, and things are humming along quite nicely. Rapid personnel growth is always a challenge, but the team handled it with aplomb and we are now set up to attack 2010 with deliberate abandon.
Even as I write all of this, I really don’t want 2009 to end . . . until I start to think about 2010. I could say something poetic like, “I feel like we are just getting started,” but the reality is we did just get started. We launched in June 2007, and already we have established a better way for lawyers and consumers to tango. Could 2010 be as productive? Could we continue to get consumers more help and lawyers more business? Could Avvo’s growth curve continue to be so steep? Could we introduce a new dance?
Yes, yes, yes and yes. See you in 2010.
Mark
