Law Firm Digital Marketing: Grow Your Law Practice

I am sure you would agree that the law field is competitive.

In 2016 alone, 
there were more than 1.3 Million lawyers in the United States.

No wonder, if you are a small enterprise,
you would like to improve your law firm digital marketing and get the best positions of Google results, right?

Think about this: as a user looking for, say an injury lawyer,
would you navigate to the second page of Google? _ I know I won’t.

For example, when I searched “injury lawyers near me” on Google,
it showed me more than 1 million results.

google search injury lawyers near me

Not that the first four, in this case, are Paid results.

Further, you can see the organic results for the same query string.

organic results google search injury lawyers near me

Since thomasjhenrylaw is higher in organic rankings than ryanorsattilaw,
you are more likely to first contact the former.

Referrals and word-of-mouth have been
the bread and butter of most legal firms.

Come 2018, and things are not the same anymore
(not sidelining though- they still are important).

In the digital era, 96% of users seeking legal advice
use a search engine (such as Google).

Moreover, the search queries are mostly “non-branded”.

In other words, users are most likely to use keywords
such as “injury lawyers new york” than using brand names.

That explains why it is crucial that your law firms use the
right digital marketing (SEO and more) strategy for growth.

Moving on to the pertinent question that matters to you-
What is the best marketing strategy for a law firm that needs to generate more leads through its website?

In this post, I will walk you through
some law firm marketing trends for 2018.

Additionally, I will provide actionable tips to use the data
to help you engage (and convert) more users on your website.

74% of all legal consumers visit law firms’ websites to take action

website optimization law firm digital marketing

That’s an awesome stat!
Why?

Unlike other things such as buying a shoe or shopping for a B2B SaaS product,
your (law firm) prospects are likely to convert faster.

That is, the sales cycle for law firms
is likely to be shorter than that of other domains.

Sadly, 70% of law firm websites FAIL
to have a CTA (call to action) on their homepage.

Make sure that your law firm website is engaging and easy to navigate.

70% of law firms have generated new clients through their website

It goes without saying that without a well-designed website,
your law firm is not going to drive traffic and conversions.

Consumers have become incredibly picky these days.

If a prospect searching for legal services comes across two websites,
one that loads well on his smartphone and the other that takes forever to load,
you can bet that he would ditch the latter for the website that loads quickly.

And if your law firm website happens to be the slower one,
well, good luck!

You cannot afford to ignore Page Speed
in legal digital marketing.

In fact, only 33% of law firm websites
were mobile optimized in 2015.

Not a good thing when your prospects are increasingly
using their smartphones and tablets to find information on the Internet.

Pay attention to the content, navigation, UX,
and other subtle aspects of your website to increase the
time on page for your users.

For example, I observed that the contact form
of this law firm’s website is not optimized.
law firm contact form
Look at the image below:

While it has all the necessary fields,
it lacks the “aesthetics” to encourage me to fill it out.

CRO (conversion rate optimization) as part of UX (user experience), therefore, is important.

It sucks that 66% of law firm websites don’t even have a contact form.

This means even when you have a prospect
visiting your website and engaging with your content,
they have to hunt for a way to contact you for more information.

The result?
You lose a prospective client.

What’s even more surprising is that 27% of law firm websites don’t display their phone number.

Now, I am assuming (correctly) that a prospect is
not going to pay you anything if they do not even have a phone number to reach you.

You can develop trust with your website visitors
by adding information such as phone number and email address.

97% of all law firm websites FAIL to have personalized content

personalized content law firm digital marketing omnidigit

Personalized content marketing is the secret to building strong relationships with your prospects.

If your website offers a “solution” to the “problem
(or pain point)” of a potential customer,
you are on the right track.

However, in the era of competition,
having a great product or service is not enough.

There could be another law firm providing similar services
and crushing it at online marketing.

For this reason, you would have to go that extra mile and ensure that you understand your prospects.

This could mean assessing their behavioral traits and demographic information.

Who are your prospects? How do they find you?
What channels and devices are they using to access your website content?

This kind of questions can help you get a better
understanding of your personas.

How to create personalized content?
For starters, do not lay all your eggs in one basket.

Your content should include a mix of blog posts, emails,
landing pages, videos, webinars, white papers, and e-guides.

However, before you start blasting emails to everyone in your email-list,
pause and think about segmentation.

Personalization is about addressing the “specific” needs
of a segment of prospects, and not sending the same message to everyone.

How about some examples?

Email Newsletter

You can start by sending monthly or quarterly newsletter
to your list to promote related events, law-firm news, special offers, or a useful blog post.

Make sure that the content is relevant to your audience.

Smart Pricing

What are you doing with the customers who have been loyal to your firm (aka repeat customers)?

Tweaking your pricing model; and using loyalty programs, referral programs,
and discounts would help you develop a stronger relationship with your existing clients.

Check out how Paypal generated 100 million users with this simple growth hack of “referral’ marketing.

Email Automation/Lead Nurturing

Lead nurturing and follow-up emails can have a significant impact on your business.

For example, if a visitor fills out your website contact form,
they should immediately receive an email containing more information about your business.

If you do not do have this system in place,
you are missing out on personalization.

In fact, less than 15% of law firms send an
automated follow-up email to users who fill out their online contact form.

Think of ways to you can provide valuable information
to your users at different points in their customer journey.

Video will drive 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020

video marketing law firm digital marketing

Content Marketing is inevitable for the success of any online business.
And for that reason, it should be part of your law firm digital marketing strategy.

If you are not focusing on video to engage with your prospects, you are missing out.
Did you know that legal firms utilizing video content for marketing
observe 41% increase in search engine traffic?

That’s not all.
Utilizing video marketing can help you increase
your law firm’s organic search traffic by 157%.

Users tend to engage better with videos than with articles.
When you create a video demonstrating
your skills and your services,
your prospects would connect with you better.

They will be able to understand who you are
and what services you can provide
and whether (or not) you are worth their time and money.

Make sure that the video immediately captures the attention of the user;
most users have a shorter attention span.

Create videos that can add value to your audience.

While YouTube is the first choice for most of us,
do not make the mistake of limiting your video content
to just one platform.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vimeo, and Snapchat
can help you reach a wider audience.

Can your videos be played without sound on news feeds?
If not, it is time to change that.

Social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
use feeds to display videos, photos, articles and text snippets.

When your user is in public,
they might not be able to play the sound.

Finally, add a CTA (or multiple CTAs) to your video.
This can include taking them to a lead magnet or just visiting your law firm website.

Take a look at this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EKBJ0cuDWQ

The video starts with

Have you or a loved one been injured? Many people have an injury case and don’t even realize it. The Helios Legal Group can help you get the compensation you deserve.

It then talks about the types of injury cases, injury details, fees,
and injury settlement time-period.
Finally, it offers the CTA- Call our injury hotline for a free consultation.

No wonder that this video has generated over 282k views.

While it has good content and information,
a little “personalization” could increase the engagement of this video content.

When I last checked, it has only 13 comments.
And that could change with a little tweak in the
video content and formatting.

Your prospects spend on average 16 minutes per hour
on different social media platforms

social media marketing law firm digital marketing

I have observed that a vast majority of people
in the legal domain aren’t too excited about social selling.

Perhaps that explains why 23% of legal organizations
have no social media presence.

Social selling requires consistency and discipline.
You can’t expect to post a few images or videos and have users convert into clients.

At the same time, this shouldn’t be a time-consuming task.

More than 50% of over 101 law firms observed that
increased social media engagement brought more clients.

Where to start?

Start following and engaging influencers in your domain.

This could include popular legal authors, legal publications,
and professionals.

Comment, retweet and share their content.

When you become a part of the conversation,
you can expect reciprocity.

Do not be hesitant to sharing useful third-party content.

When you post valuable content for your target audience,
you will gradually start accumulating followers;
and in the process, your online reputation will improve.

You can save time posting content on social media platforms
using automation tools such as HootSuite or Buffer.

As part of omnichannel legal digital marketing,
you want to be present on all major social media platforms.

Did you know that
LinkedIn accounts for 45% of all traffic to law firm websites?

Instead of just hopping onto a social site,
try to understand which platforms your users frequent.

While Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn should be part of your social strategy,
you should not immediately dismiss other platforms
such as Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube.

As a general rule, you would find it easier to market to professionals LinkedIn and Twitter,
while you would do better with millennials on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram.

However, do not just take my word.

A little research would help you get better insights about your target audience
and their behavior on different social platforms.

What do you think of these law firm digital marketing tips?
Does your law firm utilize these in your digital marketing?
Share your views in the comments section below.
law firm digital marketing free guide omnidigit

 

About OmniDigit Law Firm Digital Marketing Agency

You want business growth- more traffic, more conversions,
more revenue.

We help you get there with digital marketing, website design,
SEO, PPC, Social media marketing, email marketing, CRO,
Content Marketing, and Consulting.

OmniDigit is a professional full-service digital marketing agency
with a single goal- to help you grow.

Let’s work together to drive business growth.

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