In this modern age, digital marketing within the legal sector has become a do-or-die practice. It has become nigh on impossible to compete within your specialist area of law without an optimised website. However, some stats available online also reveal that many of those with websites aren’t doing it properly.
Therefore, when considering how best to market your law firm, there is a clear gap in the market for legal professionals with a fine-tuned online presence. With that in mind, we have created a series of factors to consider when looking to market your legal website online and how you can give your firm the best chance possible at ousting the opposition.
Consider What You Want from Your Digital Strategy
In order to get what you want from your legal marketing strategy, first it is important to understand exactly what it is that you want to achieve. Are you looking for more website visitors, an increase in brand exposure or a higher density of cases coming your way?
When considering the overarching question of how to market a law firm, the nature of your brand and an accurate definition of your end goals should determine which branches of digital marketing should be the primary focus of your strategy. Here is a brief summary of some digital channels to consider when redefining your law firm’s digital strategy:
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Pro: Large volumes of “free traffic” once up and running
Con: Can take time to start seeing impactful results
SEO is a means of optimising your website’s onsite and offsite performance in order to improve your rankings on search engines. This is achieved through – among other things – meaningful content creation, improving your authority on your legal specialism and technical tweaks to the site.
Once in full flow, SEO for lawyers brings large swathes of relevant, high-intent traffic to your website. However, it typically takes a few months to start bringing any meaningful visitors to your website.
PPC (Pay Per Click)
Pro: Guaranteed high intent traffic to the website
Con: Traffic is paid for
PPC is a form of online marketing for law firms that allows you to bid against fellow firms in order to appear at the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages). The ads show up as per the image below and are effective thanks to the fact that you bid on exactly the kind of terminology you want your clients to be searching, or aiming at individuals that fall within a specific behaviour bracket.
Example of PPC ads:
The fact that you have to pay for this traffic is an undeniable drawback. However, as you only pay “per click” you are only spending budget on those that actually come through to your site.
Social Media Marketing
Pro: A brilliant branding platform for your legal business
Con: Unlikely to get a significant amount of conversions
Social media is a marketing platform that requires no real introduction. It is estimated that there are around five billion social media users across the world today. This makes it an unparalleled opportunity for brand exposure, no matter where your primary audience resides.
Legal social media strategies can be either organic or paid. The former targets your current follower base, while the latter expands your reach into other “similar” groups of individuals based on their online activity. Posting on the likes of LinkedIn is an effective means of interacting with an already engaged audience and displaying your brand to others in the industry.
Always Consider Your Audience
It sounds obvious, but it remains undeniably essential nonetheless. Behind every single decision in your marketing strategy – whether it be legal content creation or paid advertising targeting – should be a consideration of the preferences, characteristics and behavioural patterns of your audience.
By considering your audience and exactly what they would want from their experience, you are sure to improve client acquisition for your law firm. This can roughly be broken down into two different considerations:
Client Persona
You should always base your legal marketing efforts around an ideal client persona. This should be a fictional depiction of your “ideal client”, based on a mixture of the following (among other influential factors):
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Occupation
- Wages
Once your client persona has been created, utilise it where relevant. For example, in your targeting settings for a Google Ads campaign. An accurate persona and consistent consideration of this persona is a surefire means of creating more effective promotion efforts for your law firm.
UX Assessments
While important, your client persona is not something that should be considered set in stone. It should ebb and flow with the manner in which all individuals interact with your website. The best way to achieve this is through regular UX (User Experience) assessments.
Using data tools like Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity, you can create a more vivid image of exactly who is interacting with your website and how. Harnessing this data and using it wisely, you can help adjust your strategy to aim your legal marketing efforts at the audience that has proven most fruitful, whether based on demographics or on-site actions.
Stay Ahead of the Latest Trends
In any industry, when it comes to digital marketing strategy it is of crucial importance to stay relevant. By holding legal industry marketing trends front of mind, you are sure not to miss a trick and fall by the wayside as your clients gallop ahead.
You can do this by:
Subscribing to Industry Publications
Getting daily updates into your inbox about the very latest trends in both the legal and marketing industries helps ensure that you don’t get caught out by important updates. It also helps get a range of perspectives on different prospective changes.
Attending Legal Marketing Events
By attending events with your industry peers, you are not just keeping up with what is happening in the industry as a whole but also getting a chance to network with others operating in your field. By networking at specific events – like the Law Firm Marketing Summit, for example – you can ensure that the most prevalent topics will be covered.
Follow Industry Thought Leaders on Social
By following voices of authority on the subject of digital branding for law firms, you can essentially access the next trend straight from the horse’s mouth. Even simply following these individuals on LinkedIn or Twitter (X) is an effective means of gaining forward-thinking legal industry insight.
If you are still left wondering how to market your law firm and would like some help from those in the know, get in touch with our team of legal marketing specialists on 02072886206 or via online@signifydigital.com and we will be sure to help.
