Can marketing help you grow your law firm? If you’re convinced that the benefits of legal advertising outweigh its cost, the logical next step is to craft a marketing plan and begin digitally reaching your audiences. If you’re an attorney who’s just starting out with internet marketing and online ad campaigns, below are several guidelines to keep you current on marketing trends.
Don’t feel overwhelmed if some of the strategies may seem too technical for you. Just like lawyers, marketers use their own jargon which you’ll soon get used to as you practice digital marketing. Moreover, you can always work with a low-cost but high-gain digital marketing agency specializing in legal practice, such as Advantage Attorney Marketing, to build your online campaign should you want to just focus on your legal practice.
Follow the steps below to get you started on promoting your law firm online.
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Outline Your Marketing Goals
Don’t jump straight to writing blogs and creating social media pages without a marketing plan. Marketing plans contain a law firms’ advertising goals and how they plan to reach those targets. Begin by writing a one-page plan:
- Outline your objectives.
- List down projects you have in mind to carry each objective.
- Identify metrics for progress measurement.
For example, as a budding attorney, your goal could be “to promote awareness of my law firm” or “increase the number of new clients”. Projects matching these marketing goals could be webpage creation or Facebook page set up, while results can be measured by specifying the number of webpage visits you expect to get in a month or the number of digital natives who will like your Facebook page.
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Choose Marketing Campaigns Wisely
There is a large pool of advertising techniques to choose from but it will be unwise to start with too many simultaneously. After you’ve set your goals as a lawyer-marketer, you need to choose which fit well with your goals and skills. Other attorneys or legal firms would usually employ search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, paid advertising or PPC, email promotions, social media campaigns, lead nurturing, or would sometimes hire digital marketing agencies to do it for them.
Once you’ve chosen your core strategies, you will need to create a timeline for implementation. If you’ve chosen blog writing for instance, how often will you post articles? How often will you monitor website traffic?
Another inevitable element of your legal advertisement is costing. Business owners and lawyers alike would certainly want a high return on investment. Ask yourself, what percentage of your company budget are you willing to spend on ads? How many personnel would you need to hire to boost your online presence? If on the other hand, you plan to outsource your marketing, make sure to choose a marketing agent who is experienced working with lawyers and law firms.
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Create A Website
Before your marketing plan could lead to any changes, you must first create your main website. This is where your potential customers and previous clients can learn about your areas of practice as a lawyer, office address, contact numbers, and edge among your competitors. You don’t need to be a programmer to build a beautifully-designed site. Keep in mind, websites are among the first things that any visitor will look at to evaluate your credibility as a legal expert.
Unfortunately, poorly-written and visually non-appealing online sites can discourage potential leads. Your legal firm’s site should be mobile-friendly, secure (uses HTTPS), optimized for easy access and navigation, informative, and complete with clear call-to-actions plus published contact details.
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Search Your Law Firm
Conduct a Google search on your law firm name or area of practice to see how you rank on the search engine page results (SERPs). SERPs are ranked based on domain authority and relevance so the more visits your page gets and the more relevant information it has, the higher your chances of being ranked on top.
A strategy to consider is “Google 3-Pack”. This is displayed when an internet user performs a search for a store and shows the addresses and navigation to the top three relevant results. Appearing on page one of an internet search can be achieved by regularly updating your Google My Business listing. Make sure to add a map to your office, include a photograph, and a reliable phone number. After all, how can you reap the benefits of your innovative advertising plan if your clients can’t reach you?
Launch Your Marketing Plan Today!
If you have set up your campaign but need help in getting more clients, boosting your traffic, and generating more leads, contact Advantage Attorney Marketing & Cloud Solution’s law firm marketing and technology experts. Our proven integrated law firm marketing system will ensure that you get more while paying less. Call us at (866) 391-5001.
