There are plenty of competitors in your field who seem to know all of the best tricks to gain more clients. Don’t watch from the sidelines. Custom Legal Marketing offers exclusive No Competition™ marketing plans.
Successful law firms do these five things,
and so should you.
Effective law firm marketing is all about making yourself visible to those who wish to seek you. And today, prospective clients will most often find you, and your competitors, online. It’s time to grow your practice, and the best way to start is by knowing what online marketing strategies are being used, why they work and how you can implement them yourself.
First, create local business listings. These listings will do the core work of a local online search marketing campaign, because they make your firm visible on the internet. The more listings you have online, the easier it will be for customers to find you. There are hundreds of directories that allow you to post a listing for free, including recognizable names like Google+ , Yahoo! Local, Yelp, Bing Places and Internet Yellow Pages. Here you will include your firm name, address, phone number and other details. Successful law firms make sure their name, address and phone (NAP) is consistent across multiple citations, as consistent local citations are a big local ranking factor. Additionally, you should develop a strategy for gaining user reviews on these listings, because that will help you gain credibility.
Listing your NAP across these local directories is a solid start, but its only the beginning. Higher SEO ranking can be achieved not only online, but by laying a foundation in the real world where you can gain influence and connections that may ultimately loop back to the online world.
For example, you can join professional organizations or your local chamber of commerce, and then create your profile with those organizations. By speaking at luncheons, volunteering at local schools, networking events or sponsoring a charity event, you can create opportunities for backlinks that will directly add link value for your search engine rankings, possibly lead to positive reviews and get your name known in your community.
Spending a lot of money on a new website design with no plans to promote it is one of the biggest mistakes a law firm can make. Too many lawyers fail to include their website on letterheads, email signatures or update their URL on their various web listings. Without promoting their sites, these firms should not expect to see leads lining up outside their doors.
Regardless of how new or old your website is, post content on social media that will direct people back to your site. With social media as ubiquitous as it is, there is no reason not to promote your content.
Use Facebook and LinkedIn to post links to your blog, which you have spent so many hours writing. Search for professional influencers in your field of expertise to follow on Twitter. You can tweet your latest posts directly to these accounts, which will often retweet the post and help your content gain exposure to a much larger audience.
Blogging is an example of a trackable marketing strategy — you can easily keep an eye on how many views your content is receiving, who is commenting and who goes on to become a lead.
In addition to blogging, channels like email, paid search and organic search are trackable strategies that every successful law firm uses to develop a more cost-effective marketing budget.
Consider creating a custom digital campaign through Google Analytics. Referral traffic, paid search and organic search are all tracked for you by Google.
With Google Analytics, you can track a wide range of digital efforts through a custom campaign.
Additionally, be proactive and creative in how you keep in touch with those who express interest in your firm, such as through having site visitors access more information by signing up for your weekly emails or monthly newsletters.
No lawyer can offer everything to everyone, so in order to effectively manage your marketing strategy, focus on your strengths. This is the niche that will gain you the most leads online and help you get Google’s respect as an expert in a particular field.
When you frame yourself as an expert in a specific practice area, you are more likely to instill trust in prospective clients looking for a lawyer who specializes in that field.
You can narrow your content output to specific themed posts on social media, and you can send client updates via email regarding these subjects. You should focus on these topics in your blog posts, as well as the news articles you post on social media.
Users tend to respond better to websites that prompt them to ask for help via live chat, a tool many firms have used as a major lead generating feature. Live chat is perceived as more casual than speaking with an attorney via email, and it provides instant gratification and peace of mind from speaking directly with someone in real time. This is a feature you can add to your website that will effectively engage users with your site, help them gain answers instantly, and thus gain trust in your firm.
User studies have shown that interactive content that prompt visitors to take action — such as live chat, quizzes and polls — helps users remember content from websites. This leads to more clicks, and more users returning to your site.
Successful law firms also know to respect the user’s experience. Intrusive live chat boxes may interrupt and frustrate the visitor causing them to leave the website without contacting you. Make the chat option obvious but remember, nobody likes to be interrupted.
Anything you produce for the promotion of your practice should encourage people to take further action, so you can earn leads while they are gaining awareness of your firm.
For example, prompt people to take quizzes on your website, leave reviews on your local page listings and engage in conversation on your social media profiles. Every page on your site should have a call for action, saying something like “Talk to An Attorney Now” or “Contact Us,” where users can fill out a form with their contact information.
You are not alone. Every law firm is working toward discovering the marketing strategies that help them gain more quality leads. These tips will help you take the first steps in the right direction. Soon, other law firms will be wondering how you did it.