As an attorney, you’ve probably heard your colleagues talk about law firm SEO, digital marketing, and the like. But, if you’ve ever wondered how important these terms are for your law practice, the answer is “highly essential.” That’s especially in our digital world, where ⅓ of your potential clients will search for your services online.
Digital (online) marketing refers to all the activities you put in place to promote your legal services to prospective clients on the internet. Its components include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), email marketing, social media marketing, affiliate marketing, content marketing, and mobile marketing. Digital marketing also involves marketing analytics and pay-per-click.
There are many reasons why you need effective digital marketing strategies for your law practice. First, digital marketing gives you a cost-effective platform to reach a wider audience than you would by mouth.
It also increases engagement, enhances brand awareness, and drives traffic to your website. In the end, these advantages play unique roles in helping you achieve your ultimate goal-generating huge revenue to grow your brand.
So, if you’re eager to develop effective digital marketing strategies for your brand, you’ve taken a step in the right direction. We’ll show you how it works in this article.
Digital Marketing Strategy vs. Marketing Tactics and Marketing Plan
Before discussing digital marketing strategies, it’s essential to differentiate them from similar terms like marketing plans and tactics. Although these terms are all aspects of law firm digital marketing, they’re different terms that perform unique roles.
Generally, marketing strategies refer to your overall approach to achieving your marketing goals. For example, your primary goal may be to increase your online visibility through improved SEO rankings. In such cases, your strategy will be your long-term approach to ensuring that your customers/prospects recognize your brand easily.
While digital marketing strategies are long-term, digital marketing tactics are short-term approaches that contribute to your marketing strategies. Meanwhile, a digital marketing plan is a detailed or extensive outline of your marketing goals, strategies, and tactics. You can use your marketing plan to measure your marketing strategies’ success.
Is There a Difference Between Digital Marketing for Lawyers and Law Firms?
Digital marketing is quite different for lawyers and law firms, even though they have numerous similarities. When making yourself an attorney, your primary goal should be building a trustworthy and credible brand. You’ll want to optimize your personal profiles to represent your values and achievements adequately.
Meanwhile, digital marketing for law practices goes beyond your personal brand as all your firm’s lawyers must also build reliable personal brands. You’ll also have to ensure that your employees develop the correct ethical responsibilities/guidelines for your jurisdiction.
How Can I Create a Digital Marketing Strategy for My Law Firm?
While being the most reliable attorney for your client counts, it’s not enough to achieve your business goals. More than just improving your advocacy skills, you’ll need an effective digital marketing strategy to become a leader in your field. But unfortunately, you lack the training to market your law firm in such a competitive industry.
Fortunately, these best digital marketing best practices have been behind the success stories of the most successful law firms:
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Know Your Target Audience
Like traditional marketing, the first step to promoting your law firm is understanding your target clients. Remember that the marketing efforts are always client-focused. Therefore, your strategy must cater to their needs and interests to succeed.
So, find out what draws your target audience’s attention by getting to know them as a friend would. What are your clients looking for? Where do they spend most of their online time? What type of content do they love most? The answer to these questions will give you essential information to convert them into loyal clients.
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Set Clear Marketing Goals
After researching your target client, the next step is to set practical marketing goals to attract them. The best digital marketing goals are as straightforward as possible. Your goals must be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Result-focused, and Timebound.
Achieving a vague goal is tricky as you can’t define it clearly. More than having an objective, you should also measure it at intervals to ensure you’re on the right track. Again, goals must also be attainable to prevent you from chasing shadows and wasted efforts. Finally, ensuring that your plans have a time limit will instill a sense of urgency and make you more focused on achieving them.
Here’s an example of a SMART digital marketing goal:
To increase my law firm’s online visibility by improving SEO ranking by 10% by the end of the year.
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Determine Your Preferred Marketing Channel
Online marketing channels are the platforms you choose to inform your target audience about your legal services. The best marketing channels for your brand will depend on your niche, target audience, and where they spend the most of their time.
For example, LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for corporate attorneys. Other common digital marketing channels for law firms include emails, online attorney directories, etc. Choosing the right marketing channel for your law firm will ensure you don’t waste resources on unprofitable platforms.
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Ensure That Your Law Firm Website is SEO-Focused
Regardless of your preferred approach to law firm marketing, an SEO-focused website is compulsory for achieving the best results. In addition, websites are essential for boosting your credibility as they’ll likely ignore your brand without one. However, having a website isn’t enough, as a low-quality one will also repel your clients.
Employing SEO strategies in building your website will improve your target audience’s user experience. It will also increase your chances of converting prospects to loyal customers. Common SEO best practices for law firm websites include writing relevant blog posts, using strategic keywords, etc.
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Prioritize Analytics
Just like your digital marketing goals must be measurable, you should also be able to measure your strategy’s success. This helps you discover what to continue, improve, or stop altogether. Common metrics to focus on include click-through rates, conversion rates, leads, cost per lead, returning visitors, page views, etc.
Do You Need Help With Your Digital Marketing Strategy or SEO for Law Firms? Contact EverConvert Now!
The fact remains that applying the best digital marketing strategies for your law firm can be challenging. Many times, you don’t even know where to start. Again, just like your law degree, you can’t gather adequate digital marketing knowledge in a short time. As such, you’ll need an experienced law firm digital marketer to come to your rescue.
At EverConvert, we’re experts in digital marketing for law firms. We’ll work with you to ensure that you employ the best marketing strategies for your legal practice. Reach out to us today for more details on our services.
