Just about all new clients (80%) find lawyers or law practices from an online search. These numbers make it clear: it is no longer possible to advertise by word-of-mouth or in print alone. To reach new customers, your firm needs a strong online presence.
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Unfortunately, web marketing for law firms is not always straightforward. There are several mistakes you can make, and making these mistakes may cost you business and can even hurt the reputation of your law practice. An outdated website, inconsistent content marketing, ineffective search engine optimization (SEO), and lacking or inappropriate social media marketing are just a few of the most common blunders.
The good news is that effective, well-researched, and well-implemented Internet marketing produces results and drives new clients to your practice. To get started and to do web marketing for law firms right, ask yourself these questions first.
What Are Your Goals?
To build an effective web marketing strategy for your law firm, consider what you are trying to accomplish and go from there. For example, do you represent clients from a particular locale? Does your firm specialize in a particular area of law? Are there certain age groups or demographics who are most likely to take advantage of your services? For example, Americans 65+ and their families are most likely to seek out elder law services.
Use that information to make determinations about what marketing avenues you will use and how you will use them. Here are some initial considerations:
● Using goals to tailor search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine optimization uses various signals and elements to boost organic search rankings. Take keywords for example. To search for your firm, prospective clients will use a few well-selected key terms to find you. Carefully thinking about how new clients are using keywords and search can help guide your SEO strategy.
For example, if your law firm is one of the few in the region focusing on an extremely specific area of law, you may want to keep it simple and use market-defining keywords or product keywords. Market-defining keywords for elder law may be “elder law,” “estate law,” “Social Security law” and more. Relevant product keywords, on the other hand, may include “will,” “power of attorney,” “medical power of attorney,” or “living trust.”
However, the truth of the matter is that law is an incredibly competitive field. For that reason, it often wise – and necessary – to use geotargeted keywords or long-tail keywords to earn a higher search ranking as a law firm. If your goals are to bring in people from the local area and to rank competitively, geotargeted keywords or long-tail keywords can help you accomplish them.
For geotargeted keywords, aim to rank on terms that include the city, town, or county where you are located. (As an added bonus, this may help you earn rankings on mobile and voice searches as well.) Long-tail keywords are longer search queries that may help you differentiate your practice and stand out from the competition. For instance, if prospective clients can set up a consultation with you or one of the attorneys at your firm right away, working that into long-tail keywords can help you rank with clients seeking immediate counsel.
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● Identifying objectives to set the tone. Your website, content, social media, and marketing emails should all use the same language and overall tone to establish professionalism and continuity. To determine what kind of language you should use, think about your goals. If you specialize in helping clients get out of speeding tickets, your tone may be very different from attorneys protecting aging Americans against elder fraud and elder abuse.
A lawyer who focuses on speeding tickets and traffic disputes may aim for a more conversational tone. The main objective may be to build a good rapport with the client and set realistic expectations (i.e., while it is possible to get traffic violations thrown out, it is also very common to pay a lesser fine or settle on lesser charges as well). By contrast, an elder law attorney’s goals may be to exude professionalism and credibility. To achieve that, their marketing materials generally require a much more serious and educational tone.
● Gathering information to narrow your content marketing focus. Finally, if the content on your blog or website is too general, it may distract or even confuse prospective clients. If your goal is to be an authority on patent law, stick to it. Veering off-topic and posting about divorce law or DUIs may cost you readership, and it may sow doubt as to the level of expertise in your field.
Web marketing for law firms is a far-reaching and broad topic. Narrow your focus by identifying your goals and thinking about how these goals will shape or influence your strategy.
What Is Your Mission Statement?
According to LexisNexis, mission statements should “be clear and concise,” “capture the feel of your firm,” and relay “the hard data of your firm (e.g., anticipated size, number of clients, employees, offices, markets served).” With careful and intentional planning, a well-worded mission statement can serve as the backbone of web marketing for law firms.
Crafting mission statements can help pinpoint ideal clientele, clarify services to be provided, and helps staff look to the future and anticipate the growth of the law firm. Pinning these things down helps with all aspects of web marketing for law firms, including SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing.
Generally speaking, your website may look very different if your firm prides itself on its pro bono work or nonprofit lawyers. Your social media and content may focus on community outreach, and you may choose to highlight your contributions to the local community as well as your values rather than a cut-and-dry rundown of your most successful cases.
Content for DUI lawyers may focus on testimonials, drunk driving law, and realistic expectations after multiple offenses.
A firm that focuses on nonprofit or pro Bono work may be very small and selective, while some DUI law firms staff hundreds of employees and may even represent cases on a national level. Tailor web marketing for law firms to suit these very different circumstances.
What Makes Your Firm Unique?
There are a lot of accident injury lawyers out there. To survive and to be successful, web marketing for law firms must communicate what makes your practice unique. Use web marketing to stand out and let prospective clients know why they should choose you over your competitors.
How can you use web marketing to show what makes your firm unique? The possibilities are endless. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
● Clearly define your niche. Listing your staff as injury lawyers is still incredibly broad and may leave potential clients with questions. If it applies to your firm, specify what cases you handle most or the area where you have the most expertise. That may be truck-related accidents or wrongful death claims. For example, as long as it is accurate, describe your staff as wrongful death attorneys instead of using blanket terms, like personal injury lawyer or injury lawyer.
● Show your track record. Instead of merely suggesting that you are successful or telling your clients that you are the best of the best, prove it. Include a section on your website listing your awards and accolades. If you have any glowing reviews or mentions in local and/or well-known media publications, show that as well.
● Put together virtual classes or workshops. Offering virtual classes or workshops is a great way to establish and demonstrate expertise as well as to engage existing clients and possible future ones. Injury lawyers may want to post classes about the steps to take immediately after a car accident or work-related accident, classes about when, where, why, and how to seek medical attention, or classes related to their particular area of law.
● Start a podcast. Podcasts are quickly gaining traction. Stand out from your competitors by starting a podcast for prospective clients, existing clients, and other legal professionals to listen to. A podcast may help you reach more clients, increase traffic to your website and engagement with your customer base, and they may serve as a digestible and accessible source of new information for your clients.
Web marketing for law firms is what you make of it. Brainstorm what makes your firm unique, and use the web to get the message out to your patrons.
Who Is Your Audience?
Some of the best advice when it comes to web marketing for law firms is to know who you are talking to. Who is your intended audience? If you have it your way, who will see your message and respond to it? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you target the people who need your help most.
For example, disability claims lawyers are targeting a very different audience than those who provide divorce law services. Disability claims lawyers can use social media or email marketing to reach out to clients with a temporary or permanent disability. Divorce law services may target local or geotargeted keywords, and make it very clear from their webpages that they are open and actively accepting new business. By contrast, these lawyers will actively target divorcing couples, divorcing couples with children, and/or ex-spouses who need to stipulate or change child custody or child support arrangements.
What Methods Will You Use?
Now that you have posed these very important questions, you should have a better grasp on your goals, your mission statement, and what makes your firm unique. Use that information to build your online marketing strategy.
Web marketing for law firms takes many different forms. While methods can vary significantly from law firm to law firm, it is generally wise to seriously consider the following:
● SEO. There are hundreds of thousands of accident attorneys out there. To stand out as one accident attorney, you must have a strong grasp of SEO and what it takes to earn organic search engine rankings. Failing that, you need to hire a third-party service who is an expert in their field. Either way, SEO is a necessary undertaking. Do keyword research and use SEO tools to pinpoint the terms that will be the most profitable.
● Email marketing. Email is inexpensive and — when used correctly — it remains one of the most effective ways to reach customers (in fact, many customers describe it as their preferred means of business communications). To keep email lucrative, research the best times to send marketing emails, send emails with substance, and include a clear and simple call-to-action.
● Pay Per Click (PPC). According to the National Law Review, “PPC can be a bit more expensive than other types of marketing, but you’re likely to see much faster results and gain lots of insightful data in the process.” Not only that, PPC is another way to invest in your future and stand a chance in highly competitive markets.
Lawyers need digital marketing. Make it your own, but start with the key pillars of digital marketing, like SEO, email, and PPC.
How Will You Measure Your Progress?
To understand whether web marketing for law firms is worth the time and effort that goes into it, you need to measure your progress. Make a plan to do it now before your web marketing strategy is fully mapped out and put into place.
To gauge your progress, review web traffic and search engine rankings. Take a close look at customer reviews, and see what insights they offer. Ask your clients to fill out a quick questionnaire explaining where they heard about your firm when they submit a review. Use AB testing to test out different strategies or methodologies.
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Want to know if your firm ranks as one of the best workers compensation lawyer firms out there? One of the best ways to do that is to gather clear, precise data tracking your progress.
Web marketing for law firms is hardly a one-size-fits-all sort of endeavor. Ask yourself the questions above, determine the motivations behind your law practice, and use these motivations to drive and shape your web marketing strategy.
