Optimizing marketing efforts to maximize results
Dena@Write-SolutionsFeb 4 · 4 min read
Great attorneys have little time to invest in a comprehensive marketing strategy. Branding, blog writing, SEO strategy, social media, and a flawless website design are crucial yet time-consuming necessities to help grow a legal practice.
Many large firms have in-house marketing teams that handle the day to day operations of marketing, but what about smaller firms? Some smaller firms use a legal marketing agency to develop and implement a marketing strategy.
Though there are great marketing firms that specialize in the legal sphere, it can still be challenging to find one place to handle all aspects of digital marketing. The challenge arises in content creation that will drive SEO, boost conversions and offer value to existing and potential clients.
Marketing Efforts Should Focus on Building Relationships
Retaining and growing existing relationships is a crucial component of long-term success for any business. Ongoing and returning clients, along with referrals, make up approximately 80% of the revenue for most firms. It can become easy to think that existing clients do not benefit from marketing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Your comprehensive marketing plan should include providing education and value to existing clients and those with the potential to return to your firm for future legal needs. Whatever your area of legal expertise, it is not uncommon for clients to utilize the services of multiple attorneys. Why? Because clients lack the knowledge that an attorney with which they have an established relationship can handle their legal needs in other areas.
Content creation can help your existing clients better understand the scope of work your firm handles and provides a meaningful way to help maintain an ongoing relationship with clients. Business law is a perfect example. Perhaps you consulted with a small business about a potential litigation issue. The client was pleased with your work, and a relationship was established.
Five years later, that client now needs articles of incorporation created and filed as they are poised to take the next step in growing their business. The client may not know that your firm can handle the drafting and filing of the articles of incorporation. Current, engaging content on your website allows them to easily find this information and results in an easy conversion based on prior performance.
Your Website is a 24/7 Sales Force
The average American spends approximately 8 hours per day online. When they need legal counsel, the vast majority of them head to Google or a similar search engine to fulfill that need. Content is crucial because over half of potential clients will reach your website via blogs or other informative and educational content.
Your website is a sales force that never sleeps and provides the capacity to establish and maintain a relationship with potential clients outside of business hours.
Critical Marketing Strategies for Law Firms
Identifying marketing goals is a crucial first step in developing a comprehensive marketing plan. Far too many firms take a scattershot approach hoping some of their content will reach the target audience. Such an approach is time-consuming, costly, and largely ineffective. Instead, your marketing efforts should be carefully tailored to outrank the competition and convert new clients.
Marketing strategies with a proven track record include:
- Expand your online footprint. In 2021, it is essential that law firms move beyond their website and invest in creating a social media presence. Increasing your online footprint to keep pace with technology will also require updated SEO strategies, video marketing, and local SEO inclusion.
If you practice family law in Texas, you want a Google search with a boolean string like “how to file for a divorce in Houston, Texas” to return helpful content from your website within the first few results offered by Google.
- Invest in content marketing — content is the actual sales force of any website. It doesn’t matter how sleek and sophisticated your website appears if its content does not resonate with readers. Content should be exceptionally well-written, educational, engaging, and tailored to your target audience.
- Track and measure your online statistics to give you a clear picture of what is working and what is not in your marketing efforts.
Search engine optimization will bring your target audience to your website, where you then have a chance to convert that audience into potential clients. The catch? It only works if your SEO is tailored for the legal field.
Organic traffic to your website offers a far higher conversion rate than traffic brought by other means of advertising. To learn how to create and manage a comprehensive marketing strategy for your firm, reach out to a skilled professional with experience in the legal field.
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