Running a legal firm in Boston, MA could be a lucrative business with multiple opportunities to uphold justice. Yet the competition could make even the boldest lawyers shrivel. According to Boston University, about 2,000 firms are looking for clients. Often, some firms use uncanny methods to acquire clients, including black hat SEO hacks. Discover ten transparent legal marketing strategies to get you ahead of competitors without relying on shady methods.
1. Reach Out to Marketing Consultants
One of the advantages of the digital marketing space is how easy it is for everyone to access information. You can take some courses on Hubspot and get certified in some marketing elements. However, DIY may not get you the results you want for a fully-fledged marketing plan. Understanding every aspect of digital marketing is humongous, so it’s best to reach out to marketing consultants.
Some marketing companies exclusively serve legal businesses and even offer free law firm consulting before you can settle on their services. Even if you don’t hire someone to do every marketing activity, marketers bring a professional and experienced perspective that can help you craft an effective marketing plan. Marketing companies have different personnel who specialize in one aspect, which makes them experts in their field.
While marketing consultants can help you get a good ROI from your investment, the wrong consultant can lead you astray. It would help if you had a consultant with a track record of using transparent legal marketing practices. One of the best ways to know this is to check for reviews. A marketing company with a history of getting websites penalized is a no-go. More experience in the industry is also a good sign.
2. Check Out Your Competition
Law firms are not scarce in Boston, MA, so the problem clients face is not lack of options – it’s choosing the right one. You need to check your competitors in the physical, legal landscape, and digital space. Please note that your online competitors are not necessarily your offline ones. You need strategies that monitor and adjust depending on your research findings.
For your offline competitors, check out their location, branding, and even customer service. When a market is so competitive, clients become pickier. Shoddy branding work says you don’t care enough about your work. Use your competitor research to identify gaps you can fill.
You can use software solutions to get helpful information for your online competition. For instance, you can use Ahref’s competitor research tool for a gap analysis. Your competitor may use these valuable keywords to rank high on search engines.
3. Base Your Strategies on Your Target Clients
One of law firms’ biggest mistakes is basing their strategies on a general audience. Traditional advertising has no way to enable you to target only one audience. However, digital marketing channels can target specific audiences. For instance, a family law firm can set age limits on Facebook when running ads.
You must research your target audience before sending out marketing material. Yet your target audience may not be what you’re thinking. For instance, most people think that only parents buy diapers, yet people without children make up almost half of diaper buyers. Look at data of your past buyers, what they were looking for, and what pain points they want solved.
When curating your transparent legal marketing plan, think about your audience’s intent and features. Millennials may have a different way of communicating than baby boomers. High-end customers will not respond to a marketing message emphasizing cheapness or affordability. Similarly, a client recently involved in a car accident doesn’t need another person to ask them if they’re at fault.
4. Don’t Neglect the Power of SEO
The most powerful arsenal in the pocket of a legal firm is SEO. SEO stands for search engine optimization, meaning ensuring your website is visible on search engines. Law is one of the fields that need reliable content to prevent misinformation. It’s your chance to show off your expertise in legal matters.
The best way to share content related to your area of specialization. For instance, if you are a firm of health law attorneys, focus on that side of the law instead of every aspect. According to Ahrefs, 68% of all online experiences start with a search engine. Optimizing your website for SEO makes you visible on the top search results.
Beware, though, there are many self-proclaimed ‘SEO specialists’ who promise results but use unethical practices to get you ahead. One of these practices is trying to send spammy links to your competitors to rank higher than them. Instead, hire SEO companies with transparent legal marketing strategies.
5. Use A/B Testing on All New Strategies
Novices in marketing typically create and share content without insights into data and testing. Not so with experienced marketers who understand the power of insight-led marketing. A/B testing is a transparent legal marketing technique marketers use to understand which type of similar marketing content brings a higher ROI. For instance, if you were running an ad, you can design the same ad with different colors and then run the ads concurrently.
A/B testing helps marketers know where to invest more. If long-form blog articles are raking in more views than short-form, a personal injury law firm can focus on the well-performing format. Thus, A/B testing helps prevent wastage of marketing budget targeting the wrong audience. Higher ROIs are achieved when the marketing message resonates with the right audience.
Start by defining your objects when running A/B tests. For example, do you want to increase click-through rates, reduce bouncing rates, or enhance user engagement? With clearly set objects, you can proceed to create variations. If you’re designing a website, you can have two calls to action with different colors, designs, and text. Next, run the A/B tests and take note of any differences. The insights will help you run better ads.
6. Enhance Your Law Firm’s Website
Your website can become a 24-hour marketing agent if you do it right. Think of it: If someone wanted to hire a personal injury firm, what do they want to know most? They need information to help them make an informed decision. They don’t have to call you if your website has a resources page. Besides, a well-optimized website is a lead magnet, bringing qualified leads down your marketing funnel.
Enhancing your law firm’s website is no light task and you should invest in it. Four components make up a well-optimized website: design, copy, user experience, and SEO. Some legal digital marketing offers these services under one roof using transparent legal marketing techniques. While it may cost you to enhance your website, the return will be worth it.
According to Forbes, every four in a hundred website visitors will interact with calls to action placed on the website. So, your copy should have a strong call to action placed strategically within the website. Good web design will help with both user experience and SEO. Users can easily navigate your website to look for information, and your website will be visible to internet users.
7. Stay Active on Social Media
Some legal businesses understand the value of social media, but others miss it altogether. Yet, using transparent legal marketing strategies, social media can be a superb source of leads for your business. There’s a high likelihood your potential customers are on the internet. So, show up and come up with helpful content. Remember that posting is not marketing, so have a solid content marketing strategy for social media.
You can use social media to drive organic and paid traffic to your business. For you to remain consistently etched on people’s minds, post regularly with helpful information. For instance, if you run personal injury law offices, post about cases you have solved, injury prevention tips, and have a call button so customers can easily access you. Post frequently, but not too much to bore people out.
Since social media management is intense and repeating work, it’s best to outsource. Depending on your firm’s size and needs, you can hire an agency or a freelancer. Ensure to hire people with experience with similar roles. While social media may seem easy, so much goes into marketing and creating content that connects with your audience. You can work through a marketing company to hire the person for you.
8. Create Strong Business Relationships
Marketing is more than the activities you pay for and control. It’s also your network – the people who can mention you in a room full of opportunities. One of the best marketing forms is referrals, which can come from people who have used your services. So, create strong business relationships with others. If you are a personal injury firm, you can befriend local real estate law firms. When they get an opportunity suitable for you, they’ll flush it to your side.
One of the best ways to form relationships is by being helpful. Most people enter into relationships thinking about themselves and what they can get, which makes them unhelpful. Instead, try a different strategy in which you offer a helping hand. For instance, you can join local business support groups and answer all legal-related issues from a professional perspective.
As a transparent legal marketing practice, you should avoid unethical means of relationship building. For example, avoid link-for-link strategies because it could cause your website to be penalized by search engines. Instead, focus on mutually beneficial setups where you recommend clients to each other.
9. Start a Targeted PPC Ad Campaign
PPC ad campaigns are the quickest way to get qualified leads to your funnel. According to Tech Jury, PPC ad campaigns bring twice the visitors that SEO does. While PPC is not sustainable in the long term as a source of traffic, it’s an excellent choice when you want immediate results. For instance, if you are a criminal law lawyer, you can fill up your schedule in a month because paid ads bring in traffic immediately.
Targeted ads are a good option when you are running a sale. For instance, you can run an ad during winter when winter sports and injuries are common. PPC ads may not be the best if you want a more sustainable and slow-burn type of transparent legal marketing. Google account allows you to run an ad campaign from your device. Yet, running an ad is more than setting some parameters. It requires strategic research and good ad copy.
When setting your ad campaign, ensure you set specific ad campaign objectives that are measurable. Your metrics should go beyond impressions and clicks to include money goals, such as how many qualified leads you got. If your only interest is creating brand awareness, going for SEO is better.
10. Prioritize Client Relationships
While transparent legal marketing practices will get you noticed and bring clients to the door, it’s not enough. Sometimes, marketing can be so good without services matching up. The best legal firms understand what matters most is authentic relationships with clients. Clients want to know that you care about their case and you’re doing all the best you can with what you have. If you sign a business contract, ensure to follow it to the letter.
The best way to maintain healthy and productive relationships with clients is through communication. Clients looking for legal services have often gone through destabilizing events that make them anxious. All they want is a reassuring, professional voice that they’ll get the legal help they need. If you can’t pick up calls or respond immediately, hiring an assistant to respond to all queries would be best.
To bring it all together, the legal landscape is quite competitive, but the right marketing strategies will get you ahead. Unfortunately, in an age of technology, some little ethics use uncanny methods to get ahead. While using such strategies is tempting, remember your firm could suffer in the long run. We hope these ten transparent legal marketing strategies will help you get ahead correctly. Please explore our website to learn more about legal marketing.
