In the face of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many law firms are moving to a digital practice.
As a marketing professional, you should be aware of the many implications that this might have for your law firm.
The Great Influencer Shortage
With so many influencers and content creators struggling to figure out how to monetize their content in the wake of the pandemic, it’s no secret that the demand is outstripping the supply. Even if you’re an established influencer with millions of engaged followers, finding a suitable new niche might be harder than ever.
Here’s where marketing comes in. You may have noticed that many law firms have adopted a marketing strategy whereby they would focus on branding and awareness-building campaigns to attract potential clients. This is because, in many cases, they have a single point of contact for legal issues: the lawyer. The contact might be relatively high-value to a firm’s bottom line, but they don’t typically generate many new leads, and when they do it’s usually through organic social media channels.
Why Online Marketing?
Even if you don’t yet practice law, you probably work in an office, and you use email and other online platforms regularly. As a marketer, you know that these are goldmines for consumer data and that almost all modern businesses operate online or have an online presence.
According to marketing research firm Canvs, as of 2022, 69% of American adults use online resources to research products and companies. For comparison, only 23% used traditional resources like newspapers or magazines and 14% rely on personal recommendations.
Although they’re not always accurate (and sometimes can be a little deceiving), online reviews can help provide valuable information about the products and services that you offer. This, in turn, can help businesses determine what they are offering and whether or not it’s what the marketplace demands.
In fact, according to Cannes Media, a media group, 66% of people have gone online to research products or services, while only 4% have turned to social media for product comparisons and reviews. For comparison, traditional yellow pages marketing and TV commercials have a 53% “brand recall” and 20% “product recall,” respectively.
If you’re considering a move to a digital practice, now might be the right time to explore the many benefits that online marketing can bring to your law firm.
Here are just a few of the things that digital marketing can do for a law firm.
Improved SEO
If you’re not experienced in SEO (search engine optimization), then it’s time to learn. SEO (which stands for “search engine optimization”) can be a tricky thing to learn, but it’s an essential tool for any marketer or business owner in today’s ever-changing world. SEO is a form of online marketing that can dramatically improve your law firm’s search engine rankings and thus, its overall traffic and conversions.
In general, SEO involves using keywords and proper grammar in your website’s content to increase the likelihood of someone searching for your services or products. For example, if you’re a lawyer specializing in real estate law, you might want to consider using keywords like “real estate” or “mortgage” to gain more traction with your target audience.
Increased conversions
Thanks to the prevalence of search engines like Google and the decrease in costs associated with acquiring user traffic, online marketing has become much more accessible to law firms and businesses of all sizes. In 2021 alone, about 66% of all American adults went online to do their shopping and 52% of those people signed up for special offers or commissions (up from 50% in 2020). If you’re looking to increase your law firm’s conversions (sales), then SEO is a must.
However, it’s not just about getting someone to click on a link (even though getting someone to click on a link is always a good start). You also need to create an authentic relationship with your audience, which can be achieved through better user experience (UX). When we design websites, we often have to make many technical and design choices that can impact the user’s experience. While you may not be able to control all of these factors, you can carefully consider them and create a user friendly website that will increase conversions and, ultimately, your law firm’s income.
Improved customer engagement
When users search for a business like yours, they typically want to learn more about your products or services. To do this, you must have a good quality website as well as a mobile-friendly version. Having a mobile-friendly version is especially important for users who search on their phones.
A user who comes to your website through an SEO optimized mobile version is more likely to engage with your brand than a user who comes directly to your website. This is because mobile users are less likely to visit a website that is too small to read on their phone. Your law firm can take advantage of this by making the user experience on your mobile version as good as possible. This will increase the likelihood that they will engage with your brand and thus, become a potential client.
Raised brand awareness
Thanks to SEO, your law firm’s website will appear in the natural (organic) or social (paid) search results for relevant searches. Thus, you will be able to raise brand awareness among potential customers.
To demonstrate this, we can look at the search results for two popular terms: scalp waxing and septics (yes, scalp waxing is a thing). Since the scalp waxing website has a higher ranking in the organic search results, a user will find it easier to learn about this service than the septics website. In other words, a user will be more likely to know what scalp waxing is than they are to know what septics is.
Reduced adverse selection
People generally avoid legal service providers that are scam artists, so it is of vital importance that you exclude these businesses from reaching your target audience. The best practice for attorneys is to refuse to work with anyone who is not a member of the American Bar Association. This is amongst the most trusted professional community and, in most cases, an SEO optimized website will do just fine.