Digital marketing is a cost-effective way to enhance conversions and engagement for any business, yet many law firms are still utilizing online strategies and capabilities to grow. In this article, we discuss which digital marketing tactics are used by modern law firms to fuel growth. We spoke to legal marketing experts who shared some insights on how law firms that are focused on growth can quickly evolve their online strategies.
What’s driving the move to digital marketing in the legal industry?
Many businesses were forced to invest in digital capabilities to support their growth beyond traditional marketing avenues when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Expanding into new online ecosystems provided an opportunity for businesses to enhance direct-to-consumer engagement, build their authority and grow their customer base. Indeed, law firms that tailored their websites incorporating digital advancements have made good progress. Let’s go over some key reasons why law firms are turning to digital marketing.
Need to offer clients an omni-channel approach
Today, many businesses are looking to engage their customers through multiple touchpoints. Similarly, lawyers want to be able to engage with their clients remotely, in-person and digitally. Through online marketing, law firms can approach clients on multiple channels depending on their preferences. This enhanced connectivity presents a great opportunity for lawyers to create long-lasting relationships with their clients and reduce customer acquisition costs. What’s even better is that digital marketing provides an opportunity for law firms to engage with existing and potential clients and better understand their needs. Consider a TV ad or billboard. These traditional marketing tactics only offer one way of communicating to potential clients. Digital strategies can be tailored to create two-way communication that enables your law firm to tailor its services to meet each client’s needs.
Engagement on digital platforms doesn’t just occur automatically. You must intentionally create a continuous engagement framework to get the most out of it. For instance, when a website visitor lands on your law firm pages and doesn’t immediately find the information they are looking for, they are likely to leave immediately. This may create a high bounce rate that may generally affect your site rankings. To avoid this, you need to find ways to engage with the potential clients before they leave the website, such as having a live chat section on the landing page.
Enhanced availability
Even though law firms don’t operate at odd hours of the day, clients are browsing the web 24/7, looking for lawyers to hire and educative content to consume. Law firms that invest in content marketing as part of their digital strategy can grab this opportunity and reach out to potential clients even on days and hours when the business is closed. “If a potential client looks up the Internet and doesn’t find anything about your law firm, you lose out at that very moment. Digital marketing ensures that no matter where a client is searching from, your business shows up,” says Julie Rebarbar, digital project manager at dNovo Group. This kind of visibility is not possible with traditional forms of marketing. For instance, an outdoor sign or billboard will only be visible to those who visit the place where it’s put up. Radio and TV ads are aired at specific times. However, digital marketing strategies like investing in an effective law firm website with great content, claiming your Google My Business Listing, and social media management can provide information about your legal business at any hour of the day or night.
Digital marketing is proven and practical
Most people use digital channels to solve their biggest business challenges simply because it’s easy to track results, and the strategies can be quickly implemented. Let’s take a scenario like social media marketing. Your law firm can maintain social media channels and use them as an avenue to educate existing clients, share updates in the legal industry and build its authority. “Lawyers must understand that social media marketing involves a lot more than just posting content on a day-to-day basis. Legal businesses that manage to effectively market on social media have invested in a suitable strategy and consistently post content that’s geared towards achieving certain goals,” says Rebarbar. Unlike some forms of traditional advertising, every digital marketing tactic can be effectively monitored, and the actual results can be reviewed before making strategic decisions. Another plus is that digital allows law firms to focus on their target audiences. Using social media advertising, legal businesses can decide whose attention they want to capture and create messaging that effectively communicates with them.
An opportunity to start small
With digital, there are so many options and opportunities for any type and size of business to explore. Small law firms can have a start at digital marketing even if their budget is limited and become very successful. Digital marketing channels provide an opportunity to customize the cost depending on your needs, unlike most traditional forms of marketing. Some clients spend a few hundreds of dollars on digital marketing and then scale that over a couple of months as they begin to see the results.
How to get started with legal marketing
There are many types of digital marketing that your law firm can explore, depending on its needs and budget. To get started, consider the following channels.
SEO: An SEO strategy can help your law firm improve its online rankings and get more traffic and new clients online. SEO tactics such as keyword research and optimization, link building and advertising are a great way to get started.
Email marketing: Building and maintaining an effective email list for potential and existing clients can help promote any law firm online. Law firms must ensure that email messaging is customized and tailored to each target audience.
Content marketing: Every law firm website needs quality and relevant content that answers the questions and fulfills the needs of potential clients. Content marketing involves blogging, creating great web page content, videos, infographics and more.
Social media marketing: Every law firm needs to be present on key social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Content shared on these platforms must be properly curated to maintain the law firm’s brand identity and engage with potential clients.
PPC Advertising: With just a little investment, law firms can begin to attract targeted online users through advertisements on social media platforms, search engines and websites. Effectively curated PPC ads can generate high ROI depending on the targeting options you choose.
Law firms can also explore additional digital tactics such as affiliate marketing, pay-per-click advertising and website optimization to create that strong online presence that will set them apart from the competition. There are just so many new doors of opportunity for law firms to explore in the digital world. With the help of legal marketing firms like dNOVO Group, you can tailor a digital marketing strategy that offers substantial returns for your business.
Shamil Shamilov is a legal marketing strategist at dNOVO Group.
