You already know the legal industry is fiercely competitive. There may be tens or hundreds of law firms in your locality offering the same legal services you provide. So how can you stand out, attract your ideal clients, and do it consistently?
Understanding the fundamentals of internet marketing for law firms will give you a firm grasp of what it takes to build a solid online presence and generate quality leads consistently.
If you’re still wondering if law firm internet marketing is worth the rave reviews, consider these local business statistics:
69% of small businesses use some form of digital marketing to attract customers and drive sales.
79% of small businesses communicate with their customers on digital platforms.
74% of consumers rely on social media to make purchase decisions.
86% of consumers use the internet to find a local business.
46% of all Google searches aim to find local information.
Investing in online marketing channels — such as websites, search engine optimization (SEO), paid ads, social media, and content marketing — will help potential clients who need your services discover your law firm and ultimately use your services.
Critical Areas of Internet Marketing for Law Firms
There are several ways you can position your law practice to attract your ideal client, including:
Website
Many legal consumers start their search online. Your law firm’s website is your opportunity to showcase your firm’s credibility, expertise, and the positive results you’ve achieved for past clients. Many law firms have a website, but some don’t understand the role a great website plays in converting website visitors to clients.
Your website should draw visitors in immediately. Prospective clients will always judge your professionalism by the quality of your website. However, a great website design is not all about having welcoming colors and engaging images. It’s more about presenting a solid image of your firm, providing a great user experience, and making it easy for users to find the information they need. All of these aspects of a great website will make prospective clients more likely to want to work with your firm.
You should also consider your website’s speed and responsive design. These are some crucial technical aspects of any website because no matter how amazing a website looks, your visitors are not likely to stay if it loads slowly. And because most people access the internet via mobile devices, you want to ensure your website displays well on mobile.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engines like Google have ranking factors they use to determine which pages they will display when a user searches for a term. Search engine optimization improves your website’s ability to appear higher on the search engine result page (SERP).
Optimizing your website for increased visibility will improve your website’s organic traffic and, ultimately, your bottom line. The higher you are on the organic result page, the more clicks you’ll get. According to Baclinko, the number one organic result is 10 times more likely to get clicked than a page in the 10th position.
There are several ways you can improve your site’s SEO. You can start by improving your page loading speed. Slow page loading is frustrating to internet users. 40% of visitors will leave your website if it takes over three seconds to load, and 80% will never return.
A solid SEO strategy also includes local SEO. Most law firm services are localized, so you must ensure your firm shows up when people around you need the services you provide. An easy way to start is to optimize your Google Business Profile.
Another tip is to create content around low-competition keywords, especially if you’re just getting started with SEO. You will have more results if you identify and create content around low-competition keywords.
Another way to improve your law firm’s SEO is by strategically adding internal links and building external links. Having other websites link to your website increases your site’s SEO. One easy way to do this is to create a profile on law directories, such as Justia, Avvo, Nolo, SuperLawyers, Lawyer.com, and HG.org. You can also get backlinks by publishing guest posts on reputable websites your target audience visits.
Paid Ads
Paid advertising is an efficient and cost-effective way to increase brand awareness, start conversations with your audience, generate leads, drive conversions, and increase revenue. Your small firm may not have the marketing budget to compete with deep-pocket law firms in traditional marketing, like billboards, radio, and television. But, with paid ads, you can start wherever you are and still reach your target audience and calculate your return on investment (ROI).
Pay-per-click (PPC) is a pricing structure used by paid ads platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads. PPC means you pay a particular amount each time a user clicks on your ad.
Setting up Google Ads involves choosing the keywords you want to bid for, setting your budget, and selecting where you want your ad displayed. Google offers two ad options — search ads and display ads.
Search ads appear on search results, while display ads show up on various websites in Google’s display network and Google’s AdSense program. Google Ads even lets you decide how much you're willing to pay to appear on top of search results. You can also estimate the cost of your Google Ads.
To run profitable paid ads, set clear advertising goals. In other words, what do you want to achieve? This will help you set an appropriate marketing budget and measure your ads' effectiveness and ROI.
While SEO helps to drive traffic organically, paid ads will give you faster results. But, together, they can drive impressive results. For instance, you can use data you got from running PPC ads to tweak your SEO efforts and achieve better results.
Social Media
Many lawyers use social media primarily to network with other lawyers. However, social media is also a great place to connect with your ideal clients. An important marketing rule is to go where your clients are. And according to Statista, the average internet user in 2022 spends two hours and 27 minutes on social media platforms daily.
Your law firm can benefit from maintaining an active presence on social media platforms. Sharing valuable and engaging content on social media will help you build trust and credibility with your audience. When they need your services, you’ll likely be the first person who will come to mind.
Social media also creates an opportunity to have genuine conversations with your audience and better understand the issues they face. Lawyers, especially solo practitioners, can leverage social media to build meaningful connections with old, potential, and new clients.
Social media can also help with content distribution. Sharing your website articles on social media platforms will help drive traffic to your website.
The right social media platform(s) depends on your firm’s practice area. For example, if you’re a personal injury law firm, you will probably have more engagement and results on Facebook than on LinkedIn.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a digital marketing strategy focused on sharing helpful information and answering questions in your prospects' minds. The content can be in different forms — videos, ebooks, blog posts, infographics, and podcasts — and distributed on various platforms.
Content marketing can help your law firm build brand awareness and establish you as an authority in your niche practice areas. It’s also an effective way to drive traffic to your website.
Creating the type of content that will attract your audience, especially using more recent platforms like TikTok and Instagram, may require a bit of creativity and planning. So you will need a content marketing strategy.
Your content marketing strategy includes discovering the topics your audience is interested in and presenting them in the most effective format. Your content should meet your clients where they are on their buyer journey. For example, a content idea for a personal injury lawyer that handles car accident cases may be the topic “how much can I recover from my car accident claim?” You can create a blog post or a video answering that question.
Work With a Reputable Legal Marketing Agency
Understanding what law firm online marketing entails is one thing; implementing strategies for success is another. As a lawyer, you’re an expert at meeting your clients' needs and solving their problems. Working with law firm marketing experts will give you results faster.
Scorpion provides comprehensive marketing solutions for solo practitioners and small and medium-sized law firms. We have the skills and technology needed to help you grow your law firm and generate revenue consistently. Contact us today to see how we can help.
