Is Your Firm a Throwback to the Dark Ages?
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in when it comes to marketing, and being an established law firm, however well-known and successful, is no exception.
As the competition in the world of the law becomes even more rigorous, your firm must have its marketing plans clearly defined so that you can reach new leads, reconnect with existing clients, and ensure your brand is recognized and reliable.
It is no longer any good ignoring the demands of a firm’s marketing department hired for the specific task of putting your law firm on the map.
Remember, marketing carried out successfully generates revenue.
Large law firms, for example, find that a significant portion of new business comes from developing engagements with existing clients, and this is where the marketing strategists can excel. We all know lawyers love hard numbers, which equals cash.
No more can law firms rely on clients just walking through the door to help boost the ratings and the profit margin.
Due to the rise of the digital era, all the information you could want for your business to hit new heights is at your fingertips and on the keyboard.
Raise your Game
Potential clients check online for which law firm specializes in the field of law that they require; they read your clients’ reviews with their praise or criticism, and they know what to expect when they walk through the door for their first consultation.
Even lawyers who offer free first consultations find that their potential clients know what to expect in this initial meeting.
Therefore, if you want to compete with the rest, you have to be the best – online. It’s all in a click.
So, reviews, testimonials, SEO strategies, and hundreds of other business opportunities are all available to your law firm through cyberspace.
It’s claimed by a Google Customer Survey, that 96% of people will check out a search engine when they start to search for legal advice.
Being one of the tops searched results can be amazingly profitable for your business. This is when SEO comes into the forefront.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the process of modifying your website to achieve high rankings on a Search Engine Results Page.
3 out of 4 people don’t make it past the first page of a Google search, so it pays to be at the top…
And this means higher visibility in the free results section in Google and increased traffic to your law firm’s website.
Your Firm’s Website
This is usually the first
face of your firm’s profile.
It needs to look professional, expensive, and be easy to use as it only takes a user to judge your law firm in about half a second!
Scary as it is, research has evidenced that 75% of users state that they judge the credibility of. Your law firm on what your website looks like…
No pressure then for it to encompass trust, professionalism, authority, credibility as well as friendliness into it.
It’s essential that the website’s pages load quickly and that they have clear titles and meta tags, especially for your landing page. And ensure seo for law firms high up on Google rankings.
Local SEO
Another useful online marketing strategy is to ensure that you appear in local SEO searches for your law firm.
64% of local customers now use Google to find a local business like yours.
One of the first things you must do is to claim your business from Google in ‘Google my business.’
You then need to ensure that all of your details displayed across the web are consistent
(name, address, phone number and social media contacts) in every directory, social media account, and mention of your business.
The other significant change is that 93% of Google searches now display what is known as the
‘3-Pack’.
These are the top three results that are most relevant to the searched keyword, and come complete with a map and business details.
As 95% of these searchers will not scroll past page one, it is essential, as part of your marketing efforts, that you do all you can to get into the ‘3 pack’ results.
You can do all this yourself with a bit of time and effort, as there are plenty of online resources to help guide you.
Alternatively, you can engage an SEO agency for the hard work for you.
Social Media Marketing
One marketing channel that has become more important than ever is social media.
Did you know that Facebook is the largest social network in the world and has an average of 2.28 billion active users in total, two billion users of Facebook every month, and with roughly 1.5 billion using the network every day?
So, for effective Facebook marketing and Instagram strategies, you need to know how these social networks can be manipulated to make the most for your business.
As with local SEO, you can learn how to do this stuff yourself, but it does take time and effort to get it right.
But how to get more clients from Facebook and Instagram is easy if you know-how.
All social media networks have ad formats that can be specifically designed for your industry.
The marketing strategies of these networks appreciate that all businesses have different needs and therefore offer a large variety of marketing options for you to utilize.
If you are unsure, it might be more cost-effective, engaging a social media expert to keep your social media exposure going and updated regularly.
Be Content Savvy
There’s no point in having a great looking website without having exciting and high-quality content.
It helps to target keywords that potential clients are searching for when they are looking for a law firm.
And content that is stimulating and informative can help strengthen your brand and your firm’s reputation.
But it’s important to remember that most people reading this content won’t be full of legal jargon, so make sure you focus on subjects that are interesting and enlightening to laypeople and to use colloquial language to engage your target audience.
Gated content is also a useful technique – in exchange for signing up to your firm’s emailing list, and giving their email details, potential clients can access a free guide on a particular subject such as ‘5 Easy Steps to Claim After your Car Accident’.
There are plenty of marketing strategies to ensure your law firm overrules the competition; you just need to start with a good plan…