Digital Marketing For Law Firms: A Must-Read Guide

Considering how competitive the legal market has been, digital marketing for law firms has become an important strategy for staying competitive. With an effective Internet marketing plan, you can improve your law firm’s online presence and build a strong brand identity.

Most law firms still bank on traditional marketing strategies to get leads. And there is nothing wrong with that. No strategy to generate leads is valueless in marketing. But then, while executing your traditional marketing plans, let digital marketing be at the forefront of your lead generation plan.

In this post, we’re going to discuss how Internet marketing can transform your law firm, whether new or existing, into a successful business. By successful, I mean an increase in your law firm’s popularity, online visibility, and caseloads. Read on!

What Is Digital Marketing For Law Firm?

Digital marketing, also called internet marketing, online or website marketing, is a marketing strategy that involves promoting a brand, products, or services via diverse channels. It could be through channels like search engines, social media, email, and other digital channels.

Digital marketing offers diverse ways of promoting a business to potential customers. These include strategies like search engine optimization (SEO). With SEO, your law firm’s website will rank high in the search engine, making it easier for prospects to find you.

Word of mouth and referrals are two traditional marketing methods law firms deploy to deliver results. However, these strategies are time-consuming, demanding, and require heavy financing. You can only talk to a few people about your business on a daily basis. Get ready to include more personnel in your marketing team if you wish to reach more potential clients via traditional marketing techniques.

With digital marketing strategies like SEO for lawyers, you can reach a wide range of people who may also be interested in your services.  The ones who aren’t interested might visit your web page in search of information. So, search engine optimization will expose your law firm to a wider audience comprising people you normally wouldn’t have known existed. It places your business in front of potential clients.

Why Is Digital Marketing Vital For Law Firms?

98% of all online experiences begin with a search engine. The majority of people seeking legal representation now search online. Google records tons of these online searches on a daily basis. So, prospects are looking for lawyers to hire on Google and other search engines. However, the one important thing you should know is that people place more value on websites that appear higher up the search engine result page.

With an effective digital marketing plan, your law firm won’t have to struggle to land clients. Instead, your firm’s name will be so popular that prospects won’t break a sweat to find you. Whenever anyone seeking legal help enters your target keyword in any search engine, your law firm’s website will be among the options that will appear in the search engine result pages.

When you implement the right digital marketing strategy, your law firm’s website will not only appear in the search engine result pages (SERPs). Rather, it will appear higher up the search results, giving you a higher click-through rate and organic traffic.

As a lawyer, digital marketing can help you grow your business. It will showcase your law firm to potential clients you normally would not have known existed. Gradually, your caseloads will increase, leading to higher revenue and business expansion.

Unlike other traditional marketing strategies, digital marketing, for example, SEO, is a more long-term and sustainable marketing strategy. It will help you generate sustainable traffic and higher revenue than other marketing strategies.

Digital marketing, particularly search engine optimization, is a more budget-friendly and effective marketing strategy. Though most people may argue that SEO’s initial cost is high, no one can deny the fact that it’s a much cheaper long-term marketing strategy.

Now, let’s wrap it up. To improve your law firm’s ranking, organic traffic, popularity, caseloads, and online reputation, you must pay great attention to digital marketing.  Internet marketing or digital marketing will set your business apart. It will give you a competitive edge over your rivals.

Top Digital Marketing Tips For Law Firms To Generate More Leads

Now that we have highlighted the reasons law firms need internet marketing, let’s discuss valuable marketing tips you can deploy to grow your business.

1: Build a professional-looking website:

Having a website is crucial for your digital marketing campaign. It will serve as your office online, where visitors will learn about your business and how to contact you.

Visitors will land on your website, navigate from one page to another, and even consume most of your articles before deciding whether to hire you. And they won’t hesitate to hire you if they like what they see.

Having a strong website is a great foundation for an effective legal marketing campaign. You need a good quality website to compete in today’s highly competitive legal market.

Here are some key details to focus on when building a website for your law firm.

• Get a website that is professional looking. Let visitors have a good first impression of your law firm from the moment they land on your website. Ensure your website is well designed and functional.
• Ensure your website is a breeze to use. It should be a breeze to navigate and find information. Site visitors are always going to be in haste. So, please don’t make them work hard to locate what brought them to your website in the first place.
• Improve the user experience (UX) of your website. Visitors will spend more time on a website that offers a great user experience. That alone can lead to an increase in dwell time and a lower bounce rate.
• Another great way to improve a site’s user experience is to fix the loading speed. Page load time considered ideal is 0-2 seconds, but 3 seconds is an acceptable score. Organic traffic will drop significantly if your website load speed is slow.
• Most site visitors will perceive a law firm whose website loading speed is low as poor quality and unserious. No individual seeking legal representation wants to gamble with the quality of the lawyer they hire. Everyone wants the best lawyer to handle their case. So, don’t give your visitors and potential clients a reason to doubt the quality of your services.  Create a good impression by fixing your website.
• Optimize your law firm website for mobile devices. Ensure your website can load on any device – mobile or tablet devices. The number of mobile device users keeps increasing on a daily basis. You can’t even tell what device potential visitors will use to access your site. Google considers mobile optimization to be a ranking factor. Therefore, optimizing your website for mobile will also improve your website’s search ranking.
• Make your address and contact information visible to visitors. Website users shouldn’t struggle to find information about your business or the kind of legal services you render. Additionally, make available diverse options potential clients can use to reach you.
• Indicate your location on your website. Note that most potential clients will prefer to hire lawyers from their location. It will be more expensive for an individual living in Houston to hire a lawyer based in Chicago.

2: Implement effective SEO strategies:

Having an effective SEO plan is crucial for online success. You’ll rank high in the search engine result pages (SERPs) and get more organic traffic.

With SEO, you can get sustainable organic traffic. In other words, potential clients seeking legal representation will find and hire you.

An effective search engine optimization strategy places your business at the forefront of potential clients. SEO can also help you build a strong brand identity and online reputation. It can make potential clients trust you, and when they do, they’ll feel more comfortable doing business with you.

Search engine optimization for lawyers is a cost-effective marketing strategy to promote your business online. It improves online visibility and delivers a higher ROI.

The majority of search engine users trust organic search results more than paid search. That is, organic search has an 8X higher click-through rate than paid search.

Now that we have discussed the benefits of SEO for your law firm, here are SEO practices you should consider.

• Consider website categorization. Improving user experience is a great way to enhance dwell time and ranking. Google appreciates and rewards websites that offer better user experience. Website categorization can improve your site’s user experience. It will make it easier for visitors to find the information or services they seek without stress. Website categorization is necessary if your law firm offers diverse legal services.
• Conduct in-depth keyword research. Finding the right keyword is a crucial process in SEO. People use keywords to search for information, products, and services online. Therefore, when you target the right keywords (keywords with reasonable search volume, competition, etc) the right potential clients will find you.
• Focus on local SEO. Using location-based keywords is important for local law firms. You’ll rank high in local search results, making it easier for prospects to find you online. Targeting location-based keywords also reduces the competition and improves your chance of ranking high in local search results.
• Hunt for long-tail keywords. An example of a long-tail keyword is “divorce lawyer in [city],” while an example of a short-tail keyword is “divorce lawyer.” You can see that the short tail keyword is more generic. Short-tail keywords also have higher search volume and competition. Thus, it’s more challenging to rank high when you target short-tail keywords. The best you can do is to sprinkle some related short-tail keywords in your content.
• Adopt proper keyword usage. How you utilize your target keywords in your content is as important as finding the right keyword. Google considers keyword relevance and usage. Thus, keyword stuffing and cannibalization are two unacceptable strategies. Avoid both if you want to rank high in the Google search engine. Keyword cannibalization is when you use the same keyword on multiple web pages. Keyword stuffing involves overusing a particular keyword in your post with the aim of tricking the Google search algorithm.
• Optimize your web pages.  Gain a competitive advantage and rank high in search engines by optimizing your web pages properly. Place your target keyword strategically in your content. Other ways you can optimize your web page include adding keywords in title tags, meta descriptions, alt text, subheadings, images, and URLs.

3: Implement an effective content marketing strategy:

Years ago, Bill Gates said, “content is king.” It’s been decades now, and nothing has changed. A website without content is like a garage without cars. On the flip side, populated with poor-quality content is like a garage parked with damaged and abandoned vehicles.

The quality of the content on your website is vital to the success of your digital marketing campaign. Visitors will consume your content and judge your law firm based on what they see. Visitors will trust your services and feel confident hiring you for their legal matters.

Your content must be top-notch. Show prospects that you have the experience, knowledge, and expertise in your legal practice area by populating your website with valuable content. That way, you can easily convince them to hire you for their legal cases.

People want to be sure they are hiring the best lawyer for their cases. So, expect thorough scrutiny from potential clients. By reading your content, prospective clients can conclude if you are the right lawyer to hire.

Here are tips that will help you to write better content for your law firm’s website.

• Identify your target keyword. Decide the keyword you want to target in your content. Use premium keyword research tools to get ideal keywords for your content.  A law firm SEO expert will help you find the best keywords for your content marketing campaign.
• Know your target audience. Who are the people your blog posts are meant for? What is their age group? What are they searching for? What sort of information will they be looking for? What kind of content will they be interested in? What tone should you use? You also need to know what challenges your audience is facing. These are some of the questions you should reflect on. Identifying your target audience is crucial to the success of your content marketing campaign, as it helps you set the tone and deliver your message clearly.
• Choose content types. Do you wish to create blog posts (list posts, short guides, and how-to articles) or answer legal questions internet users are asking? Decide the type of content you want to create before you start writing. If you’re writing informational content, ensure you provide value to the readers.
• Analyze your competitors. Identify your competitors and analyze what they are doing to rank high in the search engine result pages. Find out the length of their content, structure, subheadings, writing style, keywords used, and more. Analyze the internal and external links, images, and other virtual materials used. The reason for doing this isn’t to copy your competitors’ strategies. Instead, it will keep you one step ahead and help you decide steps to take to outrank your competitors.
• Conduct an in-depth research on the topic. You’re a lawyer, and you expect that you can write good content without research. You can write on any topic in your practice area. And that is where most lawyers miss it. The fact that you’re an experienced and knowledgeable lawyer doesn’t mean you shouldn’t conduct research before writing. Even if you know the topic like the back of your hand, always research before you start writing. When you conduct in-depth research, you’ll find different ways to write the content and engage your target audience.
• Draft content guidelines. You already know your target keywords and target audience. You also know the type of content you want to create and have analyzed your competitors to know what they are doing differently. Your next step is to start drafting your guidelines. Having a guideline will help you cover every area of the topic and deliver your points clearly. Another benefit of having a guideline for your content is that it enables you to write faster.
• Create high-quality content. Having done thorough research, you can start writing your content. Ensure your content is high-quality and informative. Make your blog posts valuable to readers so that they can comfortably recommend them to others. Google also ranks high-quality content high on the search engine result page. A high dwell time and low bounce rate are among the factors that indicate how valuable and high-quality your content is.

Conclusion

Digital marketing for law firms is important for obvious reasons. With an effective online marketing strategy, your law firm can be more successful.

Digital marketing, also called internet marketing or website marketing, comprises various strategies. The aim is to improve a website’s visibility, making it easier for potential customers to find and patronize you.

With strategies like search engine optimization, you can improve your website’s ranking in the search engine result pages. You can rank your website high in the SERPs and generate more leads.