No matter what type of law you practice – personal injury, corporate litigation, products liability, and beyond – you’re aware that the world is full of lawyers competing for the same clients you are. To the average person, all legal practices look the same on the surface, which means they need a compelling reason to choose yours over the others.
How can you give them that reason? What are you going to do to make your legal practice stand out from all the others?
The key lies in digital marketing (also known as online marketing or Internet marketing). Maybe you’ve thought about Internet marketing, but you’re not sure where to start, what to do, or how to measure success. Good news – there is a way to use digital marketing to do what your firm needs to do: convince prospective clients that your firm is the right fit for them.
Read on for 3 tips that will put your firm head and shoulders above the rest.
#1: Learn How to Be Found
What do people do when they’re looking for a lawyer? They do a Google search for lawyers in their area. They’re probably only going to consider the first page of results, and the top few results on that page will be considered first.
When you Google the same thing, does your practice’s name show up at the top? Or are you being pushed down the page by your competition?
If you’re not visible, you can’t expect to be found. And in order to be visible, here’s what you need:
- A responsive, engaging website with great content.
- Directory listings that are correct and up to date.
- A solid number of reviews (hopefully positive ones) on sites like Google and Yelp.
- Social media accounts that are active and informative.
- Links to your site from other business sites, such as educational institutions and directories.
- Online advertisements that put your brand directly in front of people looking for help.
#2: Optimize Your Website for SEO
Google is the reigning king of search engines, and it needs to trust you before it will put you at the top of search results. So how can you get Google to trust your website?
- Create high-quality, informative content that is consistently updated on your website (for example, a blog)
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly and responsive (i.e. the website adapts to the size of the screen on which it’s being viewed)
- Strategically provide useful and informative content all over your website – not just your blog content.
The days of saturating text with keywords are long gone; today’s SEO strategies are much more sophisticated!
It’s also important to make your content great from a reader’s perspective. The words you use have to not only incorporate proper keywords, like “personal injury lawyer in _____”, but have to also inform and educate your audience and provide something useful. They’re looking for help, and your pages have to offer it.
#3: Look at Marketing from the Client’s Perspective
The best website and marketing in the world won’t matter much if it doesn’t reflect how a potential client actually thinks.
Put yourself in their shoes and look at your marketing from their perspective. Ask the questions they ask, use the words they use, and imagine the things they’re going through. What stands out? What would catch their eye if they were browsing online? And how would they search for your service?
Think of it as Internet marketing for clients, not just Internet marketing for lawyers. Do everything from the perspective of the client and your marketing will be that much stronger.
Ready to start a conversation with legal marketing experts? Contact us today!
