In today’s competitive market, law firms need to constantly be evolving their marketing strategies if they want to continue to land new business and grow revenues. Gone are the days when superior legal skills and word of mouth were enough to keep clients happy and drum up new business. Clients expect innovation and technological advancement, which applies not only to practicing law, but to marketing efforts as well. The following marketing guide for lawyers will help you make sure your law firm is on the right track to reaching new clients and growing your business.
1. Build a Brand
A good marketing strategy involves creating a solid brand for your law firm. Branding is about more than just coming up with an eye-catching logo and official business cards and letterhead. It’s about developing a strong message that you want to convey to your clients and potential clients. What image do you want to portray, and why should clients choose your law firm over another? Branding is about figuring out what your firm does better than the others and what makes you unique. Once you figure out your brand, you can incorporate it into all your other marketing efforts to make them more successful.
2. Make Sure You Have a Strong and User-Friendly Website
Today, a good website is the best way to reach clients. If you don’t already have one, now’s the time to build one. Even if you do have a website, you should take a close look to make sure it’s doing what you need it to do for your law firm. Your website should be clean and easy to navigate, clearly conveying your brand and ways for potential clients to get in touch with you. In addition to a clear mission statement, you should consider having specialized web pages for every service you offer. If you’re not tech- or design-savvy, you should hire an experienced web designer to help you build a website that will wow your customers. After all, your website is your 24/7 presence and a way to give your clients information even when you’re not available.
3. Create Original Content
While having good website copy is important, you need to be trying to reach a broader audience. You need to show your clients and potential clients that you’re up on current developments and are always honing your expertise in the areas you practice. The best way to do that is to regularly be creating original content to offer insights to your clients. This should include both blog posts on your website and more in-depth articles in relevant publications. If, like many lawyers, you’re too busy to create content yourself, you should partner with a vendor who can handle content creation for you. The important thing is that you’re getting your name out there and demonstrating your expertise.
4. Get to Know SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of using certain targeted keywords and strategies to get your firm ranked higher in internet search results. SEO comes into play in your website copy and the other content you create. When potential clients run a web search for lawyers in your practice area or information on one of your specialties, you want your law firm to appear within the first few search hits, not on the fifth page of Google results. SEO is important and requires a fair amount of thought and strategy. This is another place you can partner with an expert vendor if you’re not getting the results you want on your own.
5. Embrace Social Media
In 2019, social media is much more than a place to share viral cat videos or clever memes. Social media is a valuable and necessary marketing tool for any business, and law firms are no exception. There are several social media platforms to choose from these days, and no firm should try to master them all. Pick a few that you think your clients are most likely to use, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, and make a point of regularly posting content on them to get your name out there.
6. Capitalize on Good Reviews
Like any other business, law firms benefit greatly from positive reviews on sites like Google, Yelp, or LinkedIn. Good reviews from current and past clients are one of the best ways to convince new clients to use your services. Don’t be afraid to directly solicit positive reviews from your current clients. Not only does it help you grow your business with new customers, the feedback will help you ensure that you’re offering the best services possible. You should also include some of these positive testimonials on your website.
7. Monitor your Marketing Efforts
A marketing strategy is only helpful if you know it’s effective. That’s why it’s important to rely on tracking, reporting, and analytics tools to see how much traction you’re getting on your website and your various social media posts and articles. You should figure out what exactly you’re trying to accomplish with your marketing strategy and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that you want to meet. If you’re falling short of your KPIs, you need to develop a plan to adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.
Having the right marketing strategy is key to retaining clients and attracting new business. The marketing guide for lawyers outlined above are a great way to get started. At any step of the way, you should consider partnering with legal marketing experts to make sure you’re getting the most out of your law firm marketing strategy.
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