Lawyers and their firms tend to fall into the trap of complacency believing that their reputation and skills are enough to keep clients coming in through the door. This may be true for established practises, but the fortunes of any legal establishment can be improved when there is a strong and vibrant online presence.
Online marketing can help you put your law firm in the minds of the people that matter so that you are constantly engaging and attracting new clients. Done right, it can boost your search rankings so that your website is one at the top of search results for relevant search. Even if your law firm is already big and established, it goes without saying that improved online marketing will still benefit your practice.
Here are a few tips to get you started.
Invest in SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the set of activities you do on and off your website that increases your online visibility. Ranking high in the search engines will make it easy for potential clients to find your website easily, contact you, and engage you for their legal problems.
As a busy professional, chances are you will not have the time to learn the technical details of optimising your website. In that case, hiring a legal marketing agency is your best bet. However, if you like to get into the optimising yourself, the following best practices are a good place to start from:
- Do comprehensive keyword research and include relevant keywords in your website content
- Try to get quality backlinks to improve your site credibility
- Link to other quality sites to improve your reach
- Use plugins to optimise your site properly
You may want to first carry out an SEO audit to know where you stand.
Provide Valuable Online Content
After optimising your site for search, the next step is to populate your website with valuable and high-quality content so that when your potential clients arrive, they will find what they need. Valuable content not only keeps visitors on your site for longer, but it also brings them back. But that is not all content does.
When you provide valuable content, it provides your visitors with the essential information they are looking for, while at the same time helping your website rank high for relevant keywords, thus driving traffic to your site. But when creating content, ensure that you use headlines and catchphrases that will attract the attention of search users and visitors. For example, users searching for “What to do after a slip and fall accident?” are likely looking for lawyers.
Valuable online content comes in many forms, such as when you provide an insightful FAQ page with common questions potential clients ask and their answers. You can also create a legal advice blog post page, sharing helpful content that will capture the interest of your users.
Use PPC Advertising
Sometimes, organic SEO is not enough to attract the clients you want or build your brand. You may need to assist this with paid search or PPC advertising.
When search users run a query in Google, the first few results are paid search results, so if your aim is to be at the top of Google SERP for relevant search, you can achieve this aim much quickly when you invest in PPC ads. In fact, this is one of the fastest ways law firms get to the top of the online ladder.
Note that people don’t go looking for a lawyer unless they have a need for one; therefore spending your money on PPC ads is a good way to target the exact people looking for the type of services you offer. For example, if your core practice area is in personal injury, you can create targeted personal injury ads that will respond only to specific search queries so that your website can appear at the top of the search results when users search for a personal injury lawyer.
Of course, there is a bit of a learning curve to using Google Adwords and other paid search systems so you may also need to hire a professional to handle this for you. However, whether you choose to create and run your paid search campaigns by yourself or hire a professional, using paid search will bring in very fast results that will make up for your search campaign investment.
Optimise for social media
Social media is definitely one of the most powerful tools for online marketing today. As a lawyer, almost every kind of client you need for your practice can be found on social media. In fact, research suggests that people spend more than 9 hours every day on various social media platforms looking for engagements and so on. Therefore, if you are not on social media, you are missing out on huge business benefits.
When optimising for social media, it is not enough to have a social media presence. You should also be available to engage with potential clients, answer questions, offer legal advice (for free), and generally show that your law firm is the right place to get legal help.
What’s more, marketing your practice on social media is free and easy, and even if you prefer to invest in social media marketing, where you can send targeted ads at potential clients, you will not have to break the bank to do so. Read more about 17 Law Firm Marketing Strategies for 2019