Today we’ll look at the things you could do to develop an online marketing plan for your law firm.
Online marketing is essential for any business, especially now that people spend more time online than ever before. An effective digital marketing strategy can increase engagement, generate more leads, and increase revenue. It’s no less important for your law firm and can be a valuable source of new clients.
However, the problem is that most people don’t have the necessary skills and experience in digital marketing. This makes it difficult to know where to start developing an online marketing plan.
Set your Law Firm’s Online Marketing Budget
The simple truth is that marketing costs money, and when you want to create an online marketing plan for your law firm, you’ll have to create a marketing budget. These costs can include anything from social media spend for advertisements, hosting costs for your website, analytics tools, and even the fees you have to pay freelance writers to produce content for your website.
Keep in mind, though, that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creating a marketing budget, but you have to keep in mind that, typically, the smaller the budget, the less you’ll be able to do with it.
So, you’ll have to consider what your goals are with your online marketing plan and what your budget is, and then align those two to make sure you get the best value and return on investment for the marketing channels you choose. In simple terms, you’ll want the best bang for your buck.
A common rule of thumb for marketing budgets is roughly 10% of your annual revenue. The BDC has more information about small business marketing budgets.
Build a Well-Designed Law Firm Website
You can almost think of your website as the store window that people walk past every day. This means that if it isn’t attractive, people will be less likely to go inside.
Likewise, your website should be modern and well designed to encourage visitors to spend time there. The more time they spend on your website, the more they’ll learn about your firm and your services, and the more likely they’ll be to engage your services should they need it in future.
We have a great post about building a professional law firm website.
Ensure Your Site Is Search Engine Optimized
One of the most crucial pillars of any digital marketing strategy is that your site should have a search engine optimization strategy. SEO – or search engine optimization – is what makes it possible that Internet users find your site.
For this, you’ll need to use the right keywords on your site, and you have to take several other steps to ensure that it is optimized. These include things like using headings and paragraphs in your content, adding alt tags to images, adding site descriptions and page descriptions, and many more.
Once your site is optimized, you’ll get more organic traffic through search results, resulting in more leads, and with the correct conversion techniques, more revenue.
Claim Your Free Online Profiles
It’s vital that you claim your free business profiles on the business services available online like Google My Business.
This will not only increase the number of Internet users that’ll be able to find your firm, but you’ll also be found easier in local search results. You’ll also up your firm’s credibility, and you’ll be able to make your online advertisements more effective.
Make Sure Your Law Firm Has a Social Media Presence
Social media is one of the most critical parts of an effective digital marketing strategy. You’ll be able to offer your audience relevant and valuable content that they can use as a resource if they want any questions or need advice, especially when it comes to the law.
Social media, however, has an added advantage because it allows your audience to engage with you on a more personal level. And it’s simple, if they get to know you on a more personal level, they trust you more, and when this happens, they’ll be more likely to do business with you.
There are additional reasons why your law firm should be using social media, so be sure to incorporate social media into your online marketing mix.
Manage Your Law Firm’s Online Reviews Effectively
It’s crucial that you manage your law firm’s online reviews effectively. You’ll have to respond quickly, keep reviews up to date, and use effective review management tools.
It’s also vital to know how to respond to negative reviews. The proper course to take with any negative reviews is to engage with the reviewer, answer their questions, and thank them for the feedback. You should, however, be careful not to become involved in a dispute online with a past client that was unhappy with your services. So, it would be best if you kept your engagement with the client short and to the point.
Start Content Marketing on Your Website and Social Media Channels
If there’s one thing that underpins your entire digital marketing strategy, it’s content. Content serves a few purposes. For one, it provides a resource to your clients where they’ll be able to find valuable and relevant information they can use if they have a question or need advice.
Secondly, it also shows your expertise in law and that you are an authority in your field. So, over time, as more clients use your site as a source of information, your reach will increase, you’ll get more leads, and you’ll be able to earn more revenue.
The key with content, however, is that you move away from selling and move to helping. So, your content should not be aimed at selling your services to your audience, but rather helping them. If you help them solve their problems, they’ll return when they need to pay for legal services.
Measure Your Law Firm Marketing Efforts
It’s simple; you can’t improve your marketing strategy if you don’t know what works. For this reason, you should measure your law firm’s marketing efforts with any one of the available analytics tools on the market.
Measurement will show you what parts of your strategy are working and what parts are not. When you know what’s not working, you’ll be able to make improvements that’ll make your overall strategy more effective.
And don’t stop measuring your performance once you make these improvements. Through this process of iteration, you can make constant improvements while checking the effect on your strategy’s effectiveness. In this way, you’ll build a robust system over time.
Final thoughts
Hopefully, this post was helpful to show you some of the things you could do if you want to create an online marketing plan for your law firm. Keep in mind, though, that there are many other things you could add to this plan. As you practice, you’ll learn what works for your firm. This experience will make you more effective as a marketer.