Over the last year, the world as we know it has changed entirely. To survive as a law firm, chances are that you've had to make a considerable amount of changes in order to stay afloat.
Since the same old law firm marketing methods need adjusting due to social distancing measures, online marketing is critical. Potential clients are online more than ever, so it’s up to you to grab their attention and increase your business. The first place to start with your digital marketing is by maximizing your inbound marketing strategies.
Inbound marketing, a popular buzzword these days, is all about growing your brand. As the world progresses, so do marketing techniques, and a mass marketing approach is no longer as effective as it once was. Inbound marketing is based on a methodology that focuses on pulling leads in on their own terms rather than bombarding them with advertisements. It's all about mastering the client journey through three stages.
3 Stages of Inbound Marketing for Law Firms
Attracting
Bringing in potential clients and establishing yourself as a credible law firm.Engaging
Keeping leads engaged by following up and successfully with an attorney intake software.Delighting
Once your leads become customers, the goal is to delight them by exceeding their expectations and making them feel like assets.Benefits of Inbound Marketing for Law Firms
Better Relationships
A one-sided marketing approach offers very little in terms of feedback from your prospects. However, an inbound marketing approach encourages conversation, questions, and customer feedback. The end result is an opportunity to evolve as a law firm based on listening to your clients through meaningful conversations on places like social media.
More Affordable
Outbound marketing involves unsolicited advertisements urging people to buy what you're selling. Traditional advertising isn't just pricey, but it doesn't always promise a return. You can think of it as putting all your bets on one horse, and the horse loses the race. However, inbound marketing requires far less of an advertising budget and is much more likely to generate a high return on your investment.
More Credibility
When you create a name for yourself online, you establish yourself as a credible resource. The more you organically come up in search results, the more that leads will view you as an authority in your area of practice. By increasing your online visibility, you come across as a more credible and trustworthy law firm that leads will go to when they require a lawyer.
Better Leads
Even though the idea of inbound marketing is to ultimately boost your brand, above all that, it's more about producing high-quality leads. When you attract leads with a more targeted and personalized methodology, you attract a target audience that's much more likely to hire you.
Now that you've got a better idea of how inbound marketing can help your law firm let's break down the 13 best strategies.
1. Blogging
Once upon a time, blogging was for sharing your favorite guacamole recipe or discussing the latest fashion fall trends. Now, blogging is considered a staple in content marketing.
Blogging is an opportunity to write meaningful and valuable content that drives people towards your website. However, starting a blog alone isn't enough. In order to make sure that it's effective in your inbound marketing strategy, you'll need to make sure that it has the following characteristics:
A Niche
It helps if you specialize in a specific area of law. Google loves niches, and people are much more likely to search for a specific legal question rather than something general. Focus on a topic that your law firm specializes in and build on it.
Evergreen and Timely Topics
In the world of blogging, there are two different kinds of blog posts:
- Posts that focus on current topics that apply to the here and now.
- Posts that cover topics relevant to any time period that can be shared for years to come.
An example of an Evergreen blog would be a post about why it's crucial to have a will — a topic that will not change frequently and is considered general information. Whereas an example of a timely topic would be a current breaking news trial that falls within your area of practice.
Both timely and evergreen blog posts can offer equal value for your blog and are incredibly useful for reaching your target audience.
Keywords
Keywords are what lead Google to your blog. The right keywords will bring in the right traffic. Ultimately, your content will be the most important part of your blog; however, keywords are a vital part of leaving digital bread crumbs for leads to find you.
If you’re unsure what kind of keywords to use, it might be helpful to do some keyword research. You can find choices by looking through some of the top-ranking keywords related to your area of practice. Above all, make sure that they match your intended audience.
Visuals
It’s important to shy away from walls of text. They aren’t exactly inviting, and they aren’t very easy on the eye. Visuals are a great way to break up wordy posts and enhance your blog by making it easier to digest.
Statistics show that blog posts with visual content perform significantly better than those without visuals.
2. Social Media
These days, having a social media account isn’t even an option. It’s just as important to have a social media account as it is to have a website. It’s not only an effective way to attract new clients, but it’s one of the most reliable ways to create brand awareness around your law firm.
Attorneys have a chance to connect with leads on a personal level and create powerful relationships that go beyond traditional forms of advertising.
Before you get too carried away and start creating profiles on every social platform, however, consider scaling down. It’s better to choose only the right ones to devote your time to. Most attorneys start with Facebook and Twitter. Those are great places to begin since they have a significant number of users, and you only have to focus on two platforms. When you start branching out in too many different directions, it can get challenging to stay up to date unless you outsource.
Investing your efforts in only one or two platforms initially is a great way to ensure that your efforts will pay off.
It’s a good idea to create a content strategy that includes everything you plan on posting. Rather than only posting promotional content for your law firm, you should make sure you include posts that engage and build relationships. Include meaningful and shareable content that will encourage people to visit your page — and share!
Tips For Getting More FollowersFollow Other Lawyers
The best way to get people to start following you is to follow others. Find other lawyers or relevant social media profiles that tie into your area of practice. Following other relevant accounts that actively post, you’ll have a pool of followers to engage. Get to know who’s following them and get them engaged.
In your free time, go hunting for key profiles that have a big following. Interact with their posts and stay active on their profile. In time, you’ll start to attract followers who are also contributors in their comments.
Join Groups
Just like staying active on key influencer profiles can be fruitful, so can being active in groups. Active groups can be a goldmine for leading you to quality followers who can lead you to more quality followers.
Places like Facebook have plenty of groups that are great networking opportunities. If you’re really feeling ambitious, you can even start a group of your very own! Many lawyers find huge success starting a page of their own to engage and retain prospects.
Share Often
The secret to success on social media is consistent contribution. It’s a critical part of building value around your account. Rather than just regurgitating links like some kind of a bot, provide insight behind why you’re reposting a link. Remark what you think about it and why it’s valuable for your followers.
You can share anything from videos to articles to original content.
Be Engaged and Engaging
When others comment on your posts or send you messages, you should always reply. People are more likely to engage if they know you’ll respond, and when it comes to social media, engagement is currency.
Have an Opinion
People react well to accounts that have a stance on something. Make sure that you clearly demonstrate your opinions and insights. Posting content alone without an idea or opinion behind it is easy.
Followers are much more likely to engage and share content that has a strong opinion on an important matter. When posting your opinions, it helps to have data to back it up. There’s nothing that makes you look less credible than be disproven publicly online.
Use Hashtags
It’s easy to forget about hashtags when posting, but you’re missing a huge opportunity. Always consider what kinds of hashtags could be relevant for your post. If you choose the right ones, you can attract new followers and significantly boost your visibility.
Host a Live
Hosting a Facebook live is a great way to partner up with someone else in your practice area. Consider interviewing an expert who has a significant following and can bring more followers to your page.
Live meetups are a great way to bump up new followers and re-engage your current ones. Make sure you post about it before you go live so that people know to look for it.
3. SEO
When it comes to one of the most reliable methods for increasing your visibility online, it has to be SEO. Considered a must-have for marketing, SEO can significantly increase your Google search results.
A good law firm SEO strategy includes the following:Relevant Legal Keywords
Between your blog and any other content you publish from your website, you should be using relevant legal keywords that attract your target audience. Again, you can refer to keyword research to choose the right ones for maximum traffic.
Website Optimization
You can think of your website as a garden. It needs to be watered, fertilized, and regularly sprinkled with fresh content and user-friendly navigation.
Diverse Backlinks
Your content should be filled with backlinks from a wide variety of reliable sources that support your posts. The more you can include, the higher you’ll rank in search results.
Local SEO
Your SEO should be targeted towards your local area so that when leads search for your specific location, your firm comes up. Google will provide the highest-ranking local attorneys when people search for an attorney in a pinpointed area. If you can manage to appear at the top of search results
4. Targeted Advertisements
Paid ads offer an opportunity to expand your audience even more than it would organically. In turn, you’ll cast a wider net that’s easy to track how many people are taking the bait with law firm reporting software.
Marketing analytics for law firms makes it easy to assess how well your advertising efforts are working and where you can make improvements.
The main challenge with PPC advertising is standing out. With so many legal ads, you’ll have to be smart about your marketing strategy to get people to look. The best way to ensure that you have a chance at getting noticed amongst all the competition is to do your research.
Get to know what your competitors are doing and differentiate yourself by focusing on what makes you the best. Whatever they’re doing, do it better than them — it’s really that simple.
5. Videos
Videos are one of the most successful forms of content on social media. According to recent statistics, as many as 73% of people say that they’ve purchased a product or service because of a video they saw on social media.
Because of the considerable influence on consumers' decisions, it's no secret why more and more businesses are using video as a form of advertising. Despite video marketing being a somewhat new form of marketing, it’s a proven method for increasing brand awareness for your law firm.
Before you start uploading videos to your social media account, it’s a good idea to know where to start. Although there are all sorts of different approaches for video creation, one of the most logical for the legal industry is unscripted legal tips.
For example, if you’re a family lawyer, you might want to consider posting a weekly family law tip. Free legal advice is an extremely valuable and shareable form of video that can bring in plenty of traffic. Although you don’t have to worry about your video being the next Oscar contender for best film, you should make sure that it's well-edited. Ideally, it should be shot on a tripod and well-focused. Above all, make sure that you introduce yourself and your law firm, so people know who they’re listening to.
6. Offer a Deal
Running a promotion is a terrific way to promote your law firm for various reasons. If it’s a social media promotion, then it can be an effective incentive for people to like and share your page. Each person who enrolls in your promotion can receive a discount code or enter a chance to win something.
In addition to incentivizing sharing your page, it’s also a great way to boost sales. Running a limited-time discount on legal services can grow your client base and encourage referrals.
7. Newsletters
A newsletter isn’t as simple as sending out a mass boring email once a month and hoping it will do the trick. If executed correctly, a newsletter can become one of your best methods for promoting your law firm and growing your client base.
It’s a relatively inexpensive yet incredibly effective way to promote yourself directly to people’s inboxes. Your newsletter should be consistent and full of useful content. Make sure that on top of being full of valuable information that it’s visually compelling as well.
8. Marketing Automation
Marketing is considerably easier when you rely on technology to automate it for you. With drip campaigns for law firms, it’s easy to keep your leads and clients engaged. You can easily take advantage of workflow automation for law firms based on whatever triggers you decide on.
Perhaps you send a thank you message if someone signs up for a newsletter, or a “Happy Birthday” email goes out on a client's birthday. Audience segmentation software makes it possible to individually target and nurture your prospects and clients on auto-pilot while you focus on practicing law.
9. Ebooks and Whitepapers
Ebooks and whitepapers are examples of long-form content. The goal of long-form content is to convince readers that you’re the authority on the subject you’re writing about, in your case—law. By offering detailed information that presents yourself as an expert, you can potentially turn a reader into a client. Simply choose a topic that you know a considerable amount about that ties into a service you offer clients.
Make sure that it’s well proofread and ideally designed using a template made specifically for ebooks and whitepapers. Consider offering a free download when a visitor provides their email address so that their information goes straight into your CRM for lawyers.
10. Gated Content
Gated content is a great way to pack more leads into your CRM for attorneys. By offering valuable and exclusive content in exchange for web visitors' contact details, you’ll significantly expand your database.
Make sure that whatever you decide to offer is genuinely valuable enough that it's worth visitors sharing their personal information. If people feel like they were created after being promised something valuable enough to be gated, they’ll turn towards competitors.
Some ideas of gated content include product demos, data reports, and free courses.
11. Call to Action
Also known as CTA’s, calls to action are a must-have in your inbound marketing strategy. The idea is to tell your visitors what steps to take next. Never allow anyone to visit your website without getting them to move closer to being a paying client. Not to be confused with a simple “contact us” button, a call to action should be a full phrase in order for it to be the most effective.
Usually, it’s a hyperlink located at the bottom of an email or web page. Some ideas for law firms of a call to action could be:
- Scheduling a free consultation
- Downloading an ebook
- Click to Call
The idea is to compel prospects to engage rather than clicking away. Feel free to get creative with a call to action relevant to your law firm.
12. Testimonials
In the age of Amazon, shared client experiences are more important than ever. People want to know whether previous clients have had a success story with you or not and are eager to hear all about it.
Social proof is a huge selling point. When people see that your service worked for someone else, they’re willing to take the chance of hiring you to reach the same level of success.
Most clients who have had a positive experience with your law firm are more than happy to share their stories. Don’t be afraid to request a testimonial to share.
13. Case Studies
A high-quality case study can be the ultimate way to prove your expertise in your area of practice. However, it’s important to note that they take a considerable amount of time when executed correctly.
For a case study to do its job, it should outline how a client managed to reach their goals through the help of your firm. It should be comprehensive and thorough and promise the same success to your leads.
Use Inbound Marketing To Grow Your Firm
Bringing in more clients doesn’t have to be a complex process. By using the right tools like these strategies paired with a robust law firm CRM, you can increase your leads, establish yourself as a credible law firm, and ultimately boost your revenue.
Ready to find out more about how to market your law firm using Lawmatics software? Sign up for a product demo today!
