Digital marketing is a necessity no matter the industry you’re in, and law firms are no exception to the rule.
Effective promotion of your business online, in the fiercely competitive market, requires a strategic and thorough marketing strategy.
Your goal is to be visible to your target audience and differentiate yourself from your competitors by the quality of service you offer and the credibility they can expect.
Here are the five best ways to achieve it.
Perfect your website
Your website will probably be the first touchpoints between your prospective clients and your law firm and be sure that a slow, second-rate website won’t make a good impression on them.
To give a boost to your online promotion, and convert your prospective clients to paying customers, your website should be designed with your clients’ expectations on your mind.
Since 2018, more than 52,2% of worldwide traffic came from mobile, so make sure your website is optimized for mobile queries.
Your website should be fast- a 1-second delay in page response can decrease conversions for 7%. The general recommendation is to go for a loading speed no higher than 3 seconds, everything above that limit puts you in the risk of high abandonment rates.
Also, ensure that your website is clean and straightforward so that it is easy to navigate.
Reach your clients with local SEO
However, it’s not enough to put your website online, and expect clients t show up. When your potential clients do the online search for legal services, you offer, your name and your website need to turn up and rank high in their search results. Search engine optimization is a process that can help you achieve this goal by implementing the right keywords and backlinks in your content, as well as optimizing your website for search engines.
As statistics show that 46% of all searches on Google are local, you need to use local keywords to show up in local results. Also, take advantage of other local SEO techniques such as claiming and filling all the relevant details in GoogleMyBussiness, listing your law firm in relevant directories with consistent and accurate NAP details, including links from your local communities in your content, etc.
It’s a general recommendation to outsource such tasks to local agencies. If you’re running your business in Sydney, for example, you can be sure that a reliable legal practice management software in Australia complies with the Law Society regulations in Australia and New Zeland. The same goes for local SEO experts – apart from their digital marketing experience, they have a much needed local expertise too, which will make a real difference and boost your chances for success.
Show your expertise
Another crucial point for having an efficient digital marketing strategy for your law firm is building your reputation and establishing your position as an expert and a thought leader, a trustworthy and relevant source of information.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Having a blog on your website is essential – companies that blog receive 97% more links to their website. This is a great way to publish unique and fresh and content that will show your expertise, inform and educate your clients, and add value to their lives. A blog does a perfect job for SEO too, and it will attract quality leads. Use your blog to ask for subscriptions so that you can capture the leads and nurture them with your email marketing campaign.
- Have social media account on channels your target customers use. You can join local and legal groups and help out your potential customers with information or advice. When the time comes, they are more likely to turn to you for the services they need.
- You should also write for third-party publications, that are intended for your target audience – relevant websites and portals in your industry.
- Host or take part in podcasts and webinars on relevant topics.
Provide great customer service
Law firms, generally, have a terrible reputation when it comes to their customer’ service – more than 40% of their potential clients who fill out the web-form or leave a voicemail wait for several days to get a response, while less than 10% who call a law firm gets a chance to talk to a lawyer.
Differentiate yourself from the others by offering timely and adequate customer service.
To achieve this goal, here are some steps you might consider taking:
- When they make a complaint, three-quarters of your customers expect the response of your customer service rep within 5 minutes. If they contact you via chat, they expect the reply within 45 seconds. Don’t let your clients wait.
- When it comes to customer service and support, 29% of customers value the first contact resolution mostly.
- Personalize the experience of your clients with your firm, make sure that all your interactions are based on their individual needs.
- Be there for your customers 24/7. Use live chat and chatbots to give your customers information they might need while browsing your website. Fortunately, AI-powered chatbots can now successfully resolve 80 percent of the most common queries, so use this to make an advantage over your competition.
Reach out for reviews
People nowadays trust online reviews almost as much as they trust personal recommendations they get from their friends and family.
Use the power of digital word-of-mouth and make it work at your advantage.
To take a proactive approach and enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of your law firm, make it easier for your satisfied clients to leave a review on your website, as well as on the other relevant cyber places, such as Google Reviews, Facebook reviews, etc.
Do your best to gather as many positive reviews as you can. 70% of customers who are asked for a review will leave one, so don’t be shy to ask them to contribute.
Using the tips above, your digital marketing efforts will help you attract and build a loyal client base, and establish your position as a credible and reputable law firm your clients will gladly trust their legal matters with.
Hello Jacob! I read the blog and I learned a lot of ideas from it. Digital marketing for law firms is a necessity in today’s fast-paced digital world. Effectively marketing a law firm online requires multiple factors, including a powerful website, social media, and effective advertising. High-grade content will pull everything together as you attract curious search engine users to your firm.