Consumer preferences have shifted. Actually, they have been shifting ever since social media became such an important part of our lifestyle.
Right now, almost everything we do is somewhat connected, driven, or even influenced by social media and other digital marketing channels.
Businesses and brands, even governments, are spending huge amounts of money to consolidate their digital marketing efforts.
Some sectors, however, have been cautious to jump onto the digital bandwagon for reasons such as their clientele is the “conservative” kind that only responds to the age-old marketing tactics.
A good example is the legal industry.
Law firms are probably some of the latest adopters of digital marketing. However, digital disruption is rapidly engulfing this industry as most firms and lawyers are now increasingly adopting digital marketing as part of their marketing.
To market your law firm in today’s digitally-connected world, you need to be where your potential clients are. When your prospective clients want legal services, most of them don’t know what law firm to work with, what services they will need, and how much they will pay.
You need to be there to provide this information so that you are the first law firm they select when they need legal advice. However, it’s not that simple, and law firms are experiencing significant challenges with digital marketing.
We now have online review sites, instant chats, on-demand Q&A, forums, social media, and so many digital revolutions that those in the legal industry need to adopt. Those who have yet to integrate these changes are facing stiff competition from those who already have.
Common Digital Marketing Challenges for Law Firms
Apart from protecting your clients’ interests and winning cases, your law firm is also a business. You need to grow your law firm, manage it efficiently and still practice.
To do this, you need a steady stream flow of new clients. You also need to maintain your current list of clients, which is rather obvious.
Today, lawyers need to constantly be in tune and understand their consumers. Technology has changed consumers and the way they shop for products and services.
The modern-day consumer has instant access to information and a wide variety of options. Engaging this new consumer requires a new way of thinking and modern tactics.
This means changing your strategy in a way that serves your existing and potential clients better.
The new law firm client does not use the traditional awareness – consideration – purchase path when finding a lawyer or a law firm.
They will not always come to you first. They will most likely not see your billboard or Yellow Pages advert and call you immediately. Instead, they will either visit your website, ask for recommendations or come to your offices – there is no clear path.
Choosing a lawyer can sometimes happen even before the need to want one arises. A consumer’s purchase journey has become non-linear.
Image Source: Martindale-Avvo
It gets interesting.
Customers are now combining both traditional and digital methods in their quest to find the optimal option. They also use the many sources of information available to them to make sure they pick the right lawyer or law firm.
They will always research issues online either before talking to a lawyer or after. Forty-nine percent of consumers research their legal issues before contacting a lawyer. They want to go in with all the information necessary.
The new consumer trusts reviews and online opinions about law firms and lawyers. They go online to read about other people’s experiences, successes, and pitfalls before settling on a lawyer.
Image Source: Clio
A 2019 legal Trends Report from Clio found that:
The same report also found that 62 percent are willing to pay a high price for a good lawyer.
The consumer has access to numerous law service options. So many law firms and lawyers are advertising their services online. Consumers can access legal services with a call or hire legal help online.
They have access to fixed-fee services that are convenient and appealing. The consumer will also go online to see if they can solve the legal matter without the need of a lawyer.
Most law firms see the benefits of digital marketing, but they are dealing with adoption and implementation challenges.
Image Source: Good2bSocial
Fifty-seven percent have a tough time convincing leadership to adopt digital marketing strategies. Fifty-three percent lack the resources necessary, while fifty-five percent don’t have enough time.
The lawyers do not understand how digital marketing can enhance their operations and increase business opportunities.
They also do not know how to measure the return on investment of their digital efforts accurately. The respondents in the Good2bSocial survey lacked the knowledge to understand click-through rates, open rates, reach, and engagement.
In terms of budget and resources, 50 percent indicated they had set apart 15 percent or less for digital marketing. Without enough resources, the marketing department fails to market their firms effectively.
Image Source: Good2bSocial
These challenges are holding back law firms from fully achieving their marketing and business objectives.
How Can Law Firms Solve Their Digital Marketing Challenges?
The first step towards improving your marketing efforts is knowing your target audience.
When you know who your potential audience is, you can target them better. You can create messages and offers that appeal to them.
You also need to conduct a competitor analysis:
Once you have answered these questions, it becomes easy to identify why you need a digital marketing plan. What are your objectives?
Some of the reasons for adopting digital marketing include:
Your reasons could differ from those mentioned above, but once you identify your goals, then you can work towards achieving them. You can improve on the marketing efforts not working for you or adopt new ones.
When you know where your marketing efforts are, you can craft a more effective strategy.
Here’s what a basic digital marketing strategy for law firms should include:
1. An Optimized Website
Your law firm must engage its audience where they are spending most of their time. This means having valuable and engaging content as well as a great user experience.
The Cazoomi Whitepaper: Top Digital Marketing Challenges (and Their Solutions) for Law Firms, gives characteristics of an optimized website as:
Optimized content: content you publish should create awareness, increase social traffic, increase visibility, and increase conversion. Provide content the customer wants to see, read, or watch. Engage them and provide proper descriptions of the services you offer.
Mobile optimized site: your website should be mobile-friendly. Your consumers should have the same experience on mobile as they do on the desktop. The layout of your page and images should fit the screen. The pages should also load fast.
Fast-loading pages: the bounce rate increases to 32 percent if the page takes 1 to 3 seconds to load according to Think With Google. To increase page load speed: shrink images, improve server response time, get JavaScript to load fast, and compress file size.
Accessible: everyone, including those with a disability, should easily access your website. Make sure your images have alt tags, provide text-based versions of your videos, and make forms accessible through voice command.
Conversion-Centered Landing Pages: your landing pages should guide the potential client to perform a specific action. You can use psychological triggers or persuasive design.
Other factors to consider include:
Schema markup: this allows you to tell search engine crawlers what your content entails. Doing this increases your ranking chances.
Don’t forget about the title tag, heading tags, URL, and meta description: they should include your keywords. Every webpage should address one subject without confusing the reader or crawlers. Use key phrases and their variations across your landing pages.
Use video: Research by Wyzowl found that when marketers use video:
These statistics show the effectiveness of video in marketing. The same research found that consumers prefer to learn about brands through short videos.
Incorporating video into your marketing strategy is an effective way to draw potential clients to the content they need.
Search Engine Optimization
A potential client gets into a car accident. They head to Google, which is responsible for 94 percent of the traffic and key in ‘accident lawyer near me’ in the search box.
Google, in turn, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand the search term. It then presents the potential client with useful and relevant information. Potential client goes ahead and clicks a few links hoping to find the right fit.
This is where right, fresh and suitable content, comes in.
You need to provide relevant content on your website to help the search crawlers index your website. By optimizing your website for search and making it easy for the search engines to crawl the site, you increase your chances of being ranked favorably. That way, potential clients will easily find your law firm.
To ensure your content is the first thing a client sees:
Pick the right keywords and phrases
Be careful with keywords because not putting effort and thought into them could ruin your strategy.
What is your target audience searching for? What language do they use? What is the search volume of the keywords? Does the keyword indicate intent?
‘I need a lawyer’ has more intent than ‘lawyer forums.’ In the first one, the customer is ready to convert; the second may be a law student looking for more information.
Choose keywords without much competition to rank easier. If more people are optimizing for a keyword, it becomes much harder to rank. Use tools like Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Moz, and Keywords everywhere to find good keywords for your brand.
Do a competitor analysis
Use the results of your analysis to improve your current marketing efforts. You also know what keyword to target and what kind of content your target audience likes to consume.
Local SEO
Leverage Google My Business to increase the chances of ranking at the top.
To optimize your Google My Business Page:
Potential clients will use near me searches or local searches when they need legal services. Claiming your business on Google will increase your chances of appearing when the consumer does a local search.
Link building and citations
List your website in local and other directories, as well as utilizing local citation software to help push your business higher in Google rankings.
Try and score links from authoritative websites to rank higher — through guest posting, for instance. As these websites link to you, Google considers you authoritative too.
The search engines realize that you are a valuable resource for your niche industry and that you have relevant content.
Another way you can build great links is through local news sites. If there is a big case happening in your area, create a press release with quotes about the case. Send it out to local websites, news stations and newspapers. If you’re lucky, you might even get a call from a reporter to do an interview.
Use reviews
Reviews give you an edge. Use Google my Business reviews, Yelp, and FindLaw.com. Ask current customers to leave reviews on your Google My Business page and social media pages. The more positive reviews you have, the more potential clients are convinced you are a great firm.
Email Automation
Email marketing helps law firms get leads and loyal clients. It’s advantages include:
According to statistics, 59 percent of marketers get their best ROI from emails.
Image Source: Campaign Monitor
Email effectively reaches your target audience. However, to achieve this, you need to segment your audience. Segmentation allows you to send the right messages to the right potential client.
Segmentation creates specific lists of recipients who have the same characteristics. You can then send a targeted email to people interested in divorce services, and another to those interested in migration services.
An email marketing software will help you add names to the various categories you decide to use for segmentation. Some of the best email marketing software include Mailchimp, HubSpot, Act-On, Constant Contact, Drip, and ActiveCampaign.
Your target segments should include:
These segmentations will depend on your practice and the kind of clients you target. Your email marketing software will capture additional information you can use to enhance your segmentation.
Once you have your segments, decide whether you will send the newsletters or automated emails. SmarterHQ found that 51 percent of consumers prefer communications from brands to be through email.
Image Source: SmarterHQ
Newsletters deliver helpful information relevant to potential clients, referral sources or current clients. They keep your target market informed on law changes that could affect them, events in your firm they should attend, and to showcase your expertise without being salesy.
When sending these emails, make sure the targeted consumer will relate to the content. Seventy-two percent of consumers will only engage with marketing messages that relate to their interests. Also, include links to sites you would like them to visit and videos.
Use images to enhance content but don’t use too many they block the message entirely. Keep your content short, precise, and interesting.
Optimize your email for mobile. The 2019 State of Email report by Litmus found that mobile is the most popular mode of reading email messages today.
Image Source: Litmus
Automated emails improve engagement and increase conversions chances. Drip campaigns, for example, use lead magnets to gain potential customer contact information.
Once a consumer downloads your webinar, podcast, or whitepaper, they give you their contact information.
Advanced email automation tools trigger drip campaigns when a customer performs certain actions like clicking a link or downloading.
You can then use the information they provide to segment them, follow them up with emails that nurture them to loyal customers. Targeted drip campaigns ensure that the one-time visitor turns to a client in the future.
Examples of automated emails include:
Some great email automation software is Mailchimp, Drip, and Infusionsoft.
Customer Relationship Management
Ackert research indicates that 77 percent of law firms have adopted CRMs, and most of them are using it for contact management and email integration.
Image Source: Ackert
CRM solutions help law firms manage prospects effectively. They help you grow your practice and market easily. The CRM platform helps you keep track of inbound inquiries so that clients sign up and convert.
The CRM is a central database from which all partners and lawyers can access customer data. This collaboration increases efficiency and opportunities for revenue generation.
Some of the benefits of using CRM for law firms include:
A good CRM integrates with other apps and software platforms like document automation, social media automation, financial platforms, and support.
With the right CRM, you can maintain and strengthen client relationships. They help you manage client experiences from the first point of contact until they convert. They set you apart from the competition by providing you with data to analyze workflows and campaigns.
You improve your marketing efforts, target the right potential clients, nurture them to conversion, and maintain the current clients. Some of the best CRMs for law firms include Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, Sugar, Zoho, and HubSpot.
Conclusion
To summarize, once you know who your target audience is, it becomes easy to improve your marketing efforts. You understand their needs and provide exceptional experiences.
Measure the effectiveness of any platforms you use for your digital marketing efforts. Most platforms offer analytics that you can use to compare with your goals. Measure by engagement rates and traffic.
Image Source: Good2bSocial
Use your website to provide advice and make it a go-to resource for those seeking information on your niche. You will not only benefit the customers but increase the number of qualified leads to your website.
Find out what your competitors are doing and use your analysis of their marketing strategies to improve yours.
Use your data analysis to convince leaders about the benefits of investing in digital marketing. Talk their language and explain things like ROI, profit, and cost per lead. Use reports to prove it’s working, and when they see tangible results, they will want to get fully on board.
The digital revolution in the law industry is here to stay and will continue to grow. Employing these strategies will maximize the results of your marketing efforts.
The right digital marketing strategy will help you meet the needs of your consumers and offer great experiences. Exceptional experiences lead to more conversions and loyal customers who become brand ambassadors.
