Leverage the huge advancements in technology by employing one or more of the digital marketing strategies shared in this article.
By Yuriy Moshes, Litigation and Personal Injury Lawyer
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic that led to an economic downturn, the legal industry is not collapsing; family law firms have, for the most part, adjusted to the new, virtual ways of interacting with clients as well as embracing cloud-based services for everything from file storage to accounts receivable.
Driven by the pandemic, technology has been evolving faster than ever – and we can see this in the variety of new or greatly improved digital marketing strategies employed by top law firms.
Digital Marketing Strategies to Consider
In this article, we will share some of the digital marketing strategies we use at our firm so you can consider adopting them in your family law firm.
1. Publish Informative/Educational Content on your Website
The use of billboards, attorney referrals, law firm marketing news, and TVs have connected potential clients with lawyers. However, one of the digital marketing trends you can utilize at your family law firm is publishing educational content on your law firm’s website.
Your website should contain content specifically created for your ideal clients. Educational content could be in the form of legal marketing articles, blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics. The focus should be to create client-centered content that helps your visitor solve specific problems. By creating great content for your target audience, you will have a massive SEO advantage over your competitors. The content on your law firm’s website has a huge impact on your new client acquisition rate.
2. Create an Amazing User Experience
In simple terms, it means you should make it easy for your clients to get what they need. Make sure you focus on user experience (UX). User Experience is a critical component of client-focused digital marketing strategies. Targeted efforts should be made at designing, testing, and refining any interactions with your digital audience as easily as possible.
For instance, there should be no issues with searching for your firm on Google, booking a consultation on your website should be stress-free and there should be no payment hassles. File transfers, chatbots, and FAQs should be simple and on point. You can achieve this by creating intuitive navigation, optimizing your site for mobile use, adding comprehensive bios of your lawyers, and creating legal resource centers.
3. Use Google Screened Program
The Google Screened program is now available to law, financial planning, and real estate companies. This program is designed to help you build a trusted online reputation, and to offer potential clients peace of mind knowing that your family law firm and lawyers have been thoroughly vetted. If approved, your firm’s Local Services ad will appear at the top of search page results with a green “verified” checkmark and black “Google Screened” text above your advertisement. According to Google, “All firms that have the Google Screened badge must pass a business-level background and a business-owner background check. Additionally, each professional in the business must pass a license check, and in some categories, a background check.” Once verification is complete, the verification icon from Google will help to build trust with your local clients by boosting their confidence in the services you provide.
4. Commit to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
Diversity refers to having people from multiple backgrounds – including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual preference, age, and socioeconomic status – represented in a group or organization. Inclusion means that all individuals are accepted and respected irrespective of their differences. Equality refers to the state of being equal, especially in rights, opportunities, or social status.
To implement a better commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, you must adapt your marketing, legal services, and recruitment strategies to ensure that everyone is welcome and accepted at your family law firm. Inclusivity should be made a law firm value. Data and metrics can be used to make better decisions on diversity and inclusion in law firms. You must also be aware of any form of bias that can arise. You should implement a culture of diversity and inclusion internally.
[Ed. Please consider taking Family Lawyer Magazine‘s short survey on “Diversity & Prejudice at Work & in Court” here. If you wish to remain anonymous, you may choose that option at the end of this short survey.]
5. Improve Your SEO Strategy
With Google and Bing introducing very intelligent algorithms, search engines have become more sophisticated. Clients will have to rely on search engine results to find law firms that will represent them. SEO for small law firms has to be unique and strategic for the firm’s website to appear on the index pages of search engines. Your law firm can achieve this by investing in content marketing. You can engage the services of an experienced SEO expert to boost your marketing efforts. This will undoubtedly give you an edge over your competitors.
6. Use Social Media Tools
In recent times, social media has been a popular marketing medium for various consumer brands. Companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Wendy dominate this landscape with their excellent strategies in social media marketing. In the legal industry, the use of social media among law firms and independent attorneys is becoming increasingly popular.
Social media can be used to create brand awareness, attract prospective clients, and engage your target audience. You can achieve this by sharing graphics with useful facts, monitoring conversations around your firm (brand listening), creating informative YouTube videos, and sharing valuable blog posts and updates. You can engage your audience by responding to comments and queries.
7. Voice Search Compatible Contents
With the recent advances in technology, more and more people are now using their voices to execute online searches. An emerging marketing trend is the use of voice commands to carry out online searches. With voice commands enabled, people can carry out searches on their home assistant devices, phones, and personal computers. In response to these search queries, search engines pick up content that directly answers the query, is practical, and is short enough to be read out aloud. When creating content, it is imperative to consider voice search compatibility. You should use phrases or keywords that reflect natural conversations. Search engines for voice queries will pick up your content material if it is voice search compatible.
8. Use Pay-Per-Click or Pay-Per-Lead Advertising
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) advertising allows you to target potential clients based on keywords or phrases they search on Google. You can increase the amount of traffic to your law firm’s website by utilizing targeted keywords. By using tools like Google AdWords and Bing Ads, you can select the most relevant keywords to increase traffic and ultimately gain new clients.
When executed properly, PPC can be a very cost-effective method of advertising. With PPC, you pay for the number of clicks your ad receives – but in many cases, you may also have to pay per impression (i.e., if your ad isn’t optimized enough to get clicks, you will still pay every time it shows up).
Most advertising and marketing agencies offer PPL campaigns in which the agency is responsible for everything up to the initial follow-up.
The main difference between running your own PPC and hiring an agency to run your PPL campaigns is the skill set required. There are a lot of moving parts with a PPC campaign, and for most law firms, PPL will likely be more effective and economical – even if it seems to have higher upfront costs.
Final Thoughts on Digital Marketing Strategies for Family Law Firms
You can utilize law firm marketing in 2021. Leverage the huge advancements in technology by employing one or more of the strategies we have shared in this article. Create excellent content, be strategic in executing SEO, interact with your potential clients on social media, stay glued to law firm marketing news, legal marketing articles, and ensure there is no form of bias in your law organization. These trends will see your law firm attract and keep clients.
Yuriy Moshes, JD, is the CEO of Moshes Law and an attorney with broad expertise in litigation, personal injury, and real estate transactions. He holds a BS in Computer Information Science, and he is passionate about driving his firm into new and innovative areas of the law. www.mosheslaw.com
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