Law Firm Digital Marketing Strategies
Every firm owner wants to know the secret to online success, but it is often all about the fundamentals. Without a solid foundation, even the latest and greatest digital marketing for law firms can fall flat. That is why you need to start with the core pillars of your marketing plan from the very beginning.
For law firms aiming to generate more organic traffic and leads, these pillars are based on what potential clients are searching and interacting with: on Google, on social media, with paid ads, and with engaging content.
In order to succeed in this competitive market, your firm needs to know the 4 components at the core of digital marketing for law firms. Let’s take a look at what they are.
Why Should Every Law Firm Have A Digital Marketing Plan?
The importance of having a digital marketing plan for your law firm must be addressed first. While many lawyers launch campaigns here and there – using Facebook or Google Local Service Ads for lawyers, for example – they often fail because they fail to evaluate the impact of these efforts as part of a broader strategy.
Having a plan means analyzing what your customer wants and how they interact with the content they discover online. It involves uncovering the best channels and strategies to increase your company’s competitive advantage.
This guide will take you from the ground up, so you know exactly how you can make your law firm successful from day one.
If law firms wish to generate more leads and traffic on a consistent basis, they need to utilize the following 4 main pillars of digital marketing.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Law firms rely on SEO as the primary source of organic traffic given the nature of the business. Clients mainly turn to Google – the world’s largest search engine – to find lawyers in their area. If you’re not on Google, your competition will drown you out.
It is crucial for lawyers to use SEO for web optimization because the goal is to attract clients who are already looking for your services. For instance, if an injured client searches for “injury lawyer in Atlanta,” you will want to have your website at the top of the search results.
There’s strong competition in the legal field nowadays, and even the smallest service areas are quite competitive. Getting high rankings in search engine results is one of the best ways to attract more website visitors and turn those visitors into paying clients.
Using SEO tools like SEMrush.com, you can uncover what keywords your target audience is using to search for law firms like yours and how competitive these terms are by counting how many searches they get per month.
To increase your chances of ranking for these keywords in search engines, you should then strategically include these keywords throughout your site. Another best practice is to optimize your local listings (Google My Business, Bing Places, Yellow Pages, etc.) for even more traffic.
2. Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing
Various methods can be used in Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising to increase visibility and generate more leads for your law firm. Essentially, you pay for each click on your ad. PPC marketing can be rather expensive, but you’re likely to achieve much more information much faster. We recommend running Google Local Service Ads for Lawyers in combination with a solid SEO strategy.
If you want sustainable growth for your business, investing in SEO is crucial. However, it can take a few months to see your SEO efforts start to pay off, which is why most law firms start with PPC immediately.
It is crucial to run paid ads in highly competitive markets, as they are displayed above the organic search results. If you see that your competitors are running paid ads that are burying your site in the main search results, it may be worthwhile to run paid ads as well.
Consider creating key landing pages and running paid ads on your website to generate more high-quality leads. You may want to check whether your competitors are running paid ads or if the top search results for your target keywords are being dominated by ads.
You may not understand the intricacies of PPC, so working with an expert is a good idea. They will know what keywords to look for and how to set the right targeting parameters and calculate your advertising budget.
3. Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is an area that most lawyers have heard of, but is still misunderstood and underutilized by lawyers.
Although there are so many social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more – not all of them are equal. What platforms you utilize will depend on who your target audience is and how they interact with your content.
Despite the fact that users may not be actively seeking your business, social media marketing can help your business get noticed by potential clients.
By sharing eye-catching content that is relevant to your audience, you will gain followers, build trust, and potentially attract more clients once they are ready to hire an attorney.
You should nurture your social media audience if you want to become an obvious first choice when they inquire about a law firm. Users may follow and interact with your social media profiles for months before they are ready to contact you.
You shouldn’t post random cat memes or pop culture articles thinking that this is how you inspire “engagement”. Instead, post content that your potential clients will find interesting.
As an attorney specializing in family law, you can post about family law issues, overcoming the stress of divorce, how to deal with a custody dispute, etc.
It doesn’t hurt to mix it up with some lighter topics and ask thought-provoking questions to encourage your followers to interact with your content.
There’s no need to be on all social media platforms at once. Get started with one or two and find what works best for your audience.
Optimize this strategy until you are generating consistent leads on social media, then look into expanding to different platforms.
4. The Use of Content Marketing
The best SEO strategy revolves around content marketing, since users do not only seek law firm service pages but also information on their questions.
In other words, if somebody searches for “how to file for a green card for a spouse,” what they are hoping to find is a straightforward guide on the process rather than an attorney’s bio explaining their services.
It provides many opportunities for firms like yours to publish interesting, SEO-friendly content to boost traffic and leads.
Your law firm can attract more traffic from a wider audience that is searching for questions regarding the services you provide with great content. Providing great content will help you raise visibility, build trust, obtain more followers, and get more leads for your law firm.
Content can take many forms such as blog posts, ebooks, videos, or even email campaigns. There are many ways you can create engaging content and help your audience learn more about what you do and how you can help them.
Think about finding SEO keywords that might help you attract more clients. These keywords are better suited for blog posts. Examples might be, “10 Steps to Filing for Custody”, or “5 Things You Need to Do After a Motorcycle Accident”.
Write articles on these topics and publish them on your blog. You can also create videos in this area and share them on social media for added traffic. Additionally, build your email list so you can send this content out to your subscribers whenever you publish a new article.
Publishing content other websites will be interested in is also a great way to attract quality links to your website, which will help you bolster your SEO. Try contacting these publishers directly to see if they would want to link to you.
Conclusion
Making your own digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be confusing or stressful. By starting with the basics – SEO, PPC, social media, and content marketing – you’ll have a solid foundation to build upon in the future. A law firm that is serious about increasing traffic and leads needs to stick to these 4 principles of digital marketing for law firms.
Begin implementing one or all of these pillars today to start setting your firm up for success. Though it may not take you long to start seeing results, you’ll be glad you took the time upfront to lay down a solid foundation.
If your business is looking to make a good first step with digital marketing, we hope that you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions about how to get started, please contact us at 404-301-9189. Thank you for reading, we are always excited when one of our posts is able to provide useful information on a topic like this!
