For years, lawyers have stuck to the traditional methods of marketing for their law firm: print ads, bus stop ads, billboards and even phone book ads. Although these channels may have worked in the past, nowadays more and more potential clients are primarily searching for legal services as well as many other local businesses, online. Currently, if your firm’s website isn’t showing up after a quick Google search then you are missing out on a lot of traffic and potential clients.
One common belief is that a single marketing strategy is good enough good enough for the entire law firm. However, the truth is, that each practice at your firm requires its own marketing budget and strategy. The area of personal injury law is very different than, for example, family law or even criminal defence law. The same is true when marketing for each practice area.
With so many tools and trends online, it’s hard to know what your firm should be focussing on. That is why we recommend talking to a digital marketing agency first. Regardless of which agency you use, they are able to provide a digital marketing strategy specifically tailored for your law firm which should help increase your online presence and help put your firm’s name in front of prospects at the right time.
If you’re a lawyer and are interested in bringing in new clients, consider these points when evaluating your digital marketing strategy and whether or not to reach out to an agency for help:
Measured Results (Data Tracking & Analytics)
Some lawyers may be hesitant to reach out to a digital marketing agency again because of a previous bad experience. We’ve found that occurs mainly due to the lack of transparency in that relationship and how their marketing budget was being spent.
Whether or not you’re considering contacting a digital marketing agency for the first or second time, it’s important to know that all digital marketing efforts can be tracked and recorded. This way you can see the results of your latest PPC or SEO campaigns as they run in real-time. You could then compare them to your firm’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPIs should be made in collaboration with the agency as they take into account your marketing budget so that you can properly evaluate the service and your ROI.
We’ve commonly seen that some of our clients previously did not have any analytics or conversion tracking set up on their website. Without these tools, how do you know how many people are visiting your website and of that number, how many are completing a specific action?
Looking for a lawyer marketing specialist? Get help today!
In digital marketing, we rely heavily on data tracking in order to make informed decisions. Now, there is no more sitting in the dark wondering how many people have seen your new ad campaign. You will be able to see how leads are coming into your website and how much that is costing you. The results are available right away and the numbers don’t lie!
New Website Traffic
One of the most common myths about digital marketing is that if you build a new website, new visitors will come.
That’s not the case, however. Time and time again we’ve had clients come to us for help because they’ve invested a lot of money in a new website but haven’t seen a significant change in web traffic. That’s because you need to promote your new site to people but more importantly, to search engines. Search engines need to know that your website exists in order to put your name forward when someone is searching for a lawyer near me.
There are two main ways to drive traffic to your website: through SEO or PPC campaigns. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is more of a long-term strategy and helps your website climb in organic rankings. Whereas PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Campaigns can be used as more of a short-term strategy to improve your presence in the ad listings section of a Google search. Depending on your firm’s business objectives and marketing strategy, one campaign may be more in line with your goals than the other.
Keep in mind, these are strategies that are focussing on bringing in new website traffic. This does not take into account word-of-mouth referrals.
Optimize for Mobile
If you’re in the process of revising your current digital marketing strategy, you should be thinking mobile first, especially if the majority of your clients are local. In 2018, “one-third of mobile searches are local and growing 50% faster than overall mobile searches” (WSI, 2018).
A lot of times people neglect the mobile side of their website and only focus on desktop because that’s where they believe their audience is. However, we’re seeing that potential clients who are ready to take an immediate action are searching for local businesses on their mobile device. Therefore, if your website is not optimized for mobile platforms, then your firm is missing out on a lot of opportunities and web traffic.
Agency Resources
The tools and resources that are available to agencies are also available to their clients.
Often, we have seen clients sign on for a specific service but soon discover that a combination of other services is actually needed to solve their specific problem.
For example, you may have paid for SEO services, but have found that your website is facing technical errors regarding site speed. Most agencies may have an in-house developer who is capable of working on the problem as part of their complimentary service package.
Another resource that is important to consider is the agency’s partnerships. For lawyers looking to run a lead generation PPC campaign, this is crucial for you. Google Partner agencies are trained and supported by multiple resources from Google itself. They are experts on the platform and know how to successfully run and optimize your campaigns. As a result, you’re not just getting one service from these types of agencies, you’re also getting access to a whole database of resources and expertise.
If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to get in touch!