[Author: Noreen Fishman]
Effective law firm marketing is all about getting your message out to people who are looking for what you have to offer. Simple enough, right? Well, it’s more complicated than it sounds, especially in today’s increasingly fragmented and fast-paced digital landscape. We’ve worked with companies of all sizes and specialties, and we’ve collected best practices that consistently deliver results. Here are 10 legal marketing habits of successful law firms.
Legal Marketing Habits
1. Be consistent
Consistency is really key when it comes to marketing. All too often we see companies neglect to update blog, podcast or social media for too long. A lack of consistency can be detrimental to credibility, and not having active strategies results in many missed opportunities.
2. Think locally
Far from thinking “small,” focusing on geography is a smart strategy for many reasons. The fact is, most of your future customers are looking locally before hiring a lawyer. Your marketing will work best in the areas where you actually practice. Start by creating local business listings. These listings work as part of local online search and make your business visible. Take advantage of the hundreds of directories where you can list your business for free, including Google My Business, Yelp, Bing Places, and more. The quality, consistency, and spread of your online directory listings can affect your local search engine optimization (SEO). ) results. Ext is a great tool that can help you manage your online reputation through directories.
It is also important to get user reviews of these listings. Just as important as the digital aspect is the physical aspect: join local professional groups, volunteer, participate in local forums, etc. Your goal is to get your company name out there as much as possible in the local market.
3. Test Often
How will you know what your audience wants if you don’t test? A/B test is when a marketer changes an attribute of marketing material and releases two versions to test which attribute works best with their audience. The savviest marketers will keep trying different variables until they find the perfect formula for success with their audience. You can test things like landing pages, emails, ads, and more.
4. Optimize your website
A slow or difficult-to-navigate website won’t cut it. Having a well-designed website with great content is important, but adherence to technical best practices is just as critical. It’s key that your website is mobile-friendly and loads quickly, as people tend to look at websites on multiple devices. Your number one priority should be making sure your site works on any device. Then look at your loading speed and do what you can to make your site faster. Also, consider making the site ADA compliant. For tips on making your site accessible to people with disabilities, see our past blog.
5. Create targeted and tracked marketing programs
As legal marketing moves more into the digital realm, it’s easier and more important to focus on specific audiences and then use data to understand how those activities are performing. Examples of tracking strategies include everything from blogs to paid advertising to email and account-based marketing.
Consider your ideal audience (you can create customer personas to better articulate these personas—start with a free guide like this one: A law firm’s guide to creating an ideal client profile), and then think about where they spend their time and the best ways to get there. What topics interest them? What are your challenges? Content creation should revolve around these areas. Then make data part of your overall strategy.
Fortunately, Google Analytics is free and offers the ability to set up and track a wide range of digital activities. Constantly get data about your efforts so you can optimize and make more profitable law firm marketing plans. Be wary of activities that target a broad audience or that don’t have a way to track results.
6. Create content specifically for your target audience
Niche-focused marketing allows your law firm to target potential clients that meet their specific business growth goals. A deep understanding of your customers, your industry, your long-term business goals, and your prospect’s business problems enables your company to provide personalized services that truly add value in the eyes of your customer. Focus on your attorneys’ strengths and what they’re good at, and work to instill confidence in people looking for experts in that field.
Then, after identifying these pain points, you should focus on providing solutions in the form of blog posts, electronic bookspodcasts, videos or by email.
7. Encourage visitors to interact
Anything you produce that promotes your business should gently remind people to take the next step. Although that may mean call to action (CTA) in content like white papers, it also means helping people engage when they’re on your website. User studies have shown that interactive content, such as quizzes and surveys, prompts people to take action. Additionally, many companies have had success implementing a live chat characteristic People like the instant gratification of getting answers, without the pressure of setting up a real discussion with staff. Engagement also extends to encouraging users to leave reviews for your business, engaging with them and asking them to respond to social posts, etc. It’s important to remember that when establishing your legal marketing habits, include contact forms on your website and make sure every single web page has some sort of CTA to know what to do next.
8. Take advantage of the data
The key to understanding what will work best is to draw actionable conclusions from your data. Marketers should review data on a weekly and monthly basis to assess what’s working and what’s not. Monthly data should also be positioned against 17-month averages or annual averages so that you can accurately assess trends. Always track how your strategies have changed from month to month so you can understand what’s impacting your data and what’s working and what’s not.
9. Expanding your knowledge
Even the smartest lawyers and legal marketers can’t stay on top of things all the time. The legal marketing landscape is constantly changing and it is very normal for them to not understand the latest tactics or best practices as time goes on. Be sure to take advantage of free online resources such as blogs, podcasts, and newsletters in the legal marketing community. Or consider investing in a global digital marketing course like this one: Digital marketing certification course for law firms.
10. Competitive analysis
Many firms hesitate to check out their competitors, but a solid competitive analysis can help law firms see new opportunities and understand their strengths and weaknesses. While you don’t want to simply copy the strategies of others, an analysis of your competitors can help you understand areas for improvement and industry best practices.
Take away:
Prioritizing these legal marketing habits will allow you to improve your online authority, helping you grow your practice and generate more business online. Knowing you need to implement these strategies is one thing; having the bandwidth to do them is another.
This post has been edited and republished since July 2, 2021.
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