This post was written by Victoria Blute, Director of Education at LawLytics. She is passionate about legal marketing and helping attorneys learn what works for law firms on the web.
How you approach your online marketing strategy this year can either set your firm up for future long-term success or cause you to fall behind. The good news is that there are lots of easy ways to do successful web marketing for your law firm in 2019.
If you do it right, your online marketing in 2019 (and beyond) is likely to work even better than it did in prior years.
Here are three things to think about when it comes to the future of your law firm’s online marketing.
1. Put yourself in control of your law firm’s online marketing.
Being in control doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do everything yourself, and it doesn’t require you to be an expert in technology, marketing, or search engine optimization. But attorneys who are in control of their web presence are in control of their future. They know several key things:
- They know what is being done to their web presence, and they know why those things are being done. That way, they can be sure that their marketing is effective.
- They know that their marketing is transparent. They have full access to their marketing assets, they know where their assets are located, what role these assets play in marketing the law firm, and they have the ability to exert influence over them. Attorneys who are in control can independently measure results and refine their marketing strategy as a result.
- They know that their marketing is affordable. Instead of becoming dependent on wasteful forms of advertising with high price tags, attorneys in control are able to cost-effectively grow their businesses through sustainable marketing.
When you’re in control of your online marketing, you’ll have an easier time getting new clients in 2019 without wasting time or money.
2. Set yourself up for a strong year with a high-performance law firm website.
Whether you’re starting a brand new law firm website or you want to improve the one you already have, a high-performance law firm website is essential to your online success.
A high-performance law firm website should have content-rich pages that are optimized to convert web visitors into potential clients for your firm, as well as compelling calls to action, smart forms, and an easy-to-use management system that you have access to and control over.
If you’re starting a brand new website, it’s important to make deliberate, educated choices when you build and launch a new site. This includes decisions about website design and choosing the right website platform for your firm’s needs. When you build a law firm website that’s cost-effective, engaging, and also scalable, you’ll be able to set yourself up for both short and long-term success.
If you already have a website and it doesn’t work as well as you’d like it to, it’s time to take control and understand why it’s not performing well so that you can fix what doesn’t work and safely build on what is working. At LawLytics, we’ve helped many attorneys fix their underperforming websites so that they can get the most out of their web presence without having to become tech experts — and without breaking the bank.
3. Be prepared to collect more client reviews.
Online reviews are becoming more important in recent years, and client reviews are persuasive to potential clients.
Many potential clients look to online reviews (positive, negative, or the lack of reviews altogether) as part of their decision-making process when it comes time to hire a law firm.
A potential client’s confidence in your law firm can change when they see good reviews, bad reviews, or no reviews at all. And that can affect your business. You can’t control what a client will say about their experience with your law firm. But you can be proactive about collecting reviews, as well as monitoring and managing your online reputation.
When you can translate the experiences of happy clients into reviews for your law firm, you’ll likely see a positive effect on your firm’s business.
Reviews generally show up in two places: Your law firm’s website, and third-party review sites.
Your website is a great place to add reviews from happy clients. It’s free from distractions and you have control over what gets seen. When you have control over your website and you’re using the right technology, you can decide how many reviews are listed, which reviews get published and in what order they appear.
But reviews don’t exist on your law firm’s website alone. There are many third-party websites that feature law firm reviews, and potential clients are likely to see several of these sites.
Collecting, monitoring, and managing your reviews is important, but it doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Technology is making this process easier, and much of it can be baked right into the work you do on an everyday basis.
Summary: Be Proactive About Your Online Legal Marketing
If you haven’t yet reached your marketing goals, now is the time to start thinking about how to make 2019 a successful year for your firm.
Be proactive about your marketing: Evaluate your historic marketing results and expenses, be clear about your goals, and make sure that you understand how to improve your online marketing without increasing your expenses as you grow.
