Effective marketing strategies lead to obtaining good leads and this theory is applicable for the legal businesses as well. As almost all the modern-day clients engage with legal businesses online, marketing through online mediums becomes important for law firms. While most legal businesses realize the benefits offered by online marketing for lawyers, many law firm websites experience difficulty in gaining new leads as they do not use attorney-specific tactics.
That being said, it is important to differentiate between effective and ineffective marketing techniques and stop wasting time and effort in incorrect initiatives.
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Here are the top modern online marketing rules that can help you in promoting your law firm successfully:
1. Use Attorney-Specific CTA
Making use of lawyer-specific CTAs is counted among the best SEO tactics for improving the search engine ranking of the websites of law firms. Call to Action statements or phrases motivate your site visitors to perform a required action upon reaching your law business website. A CTA can be put in the page header and your contact number can be included in a noticeable place on all the pages of the legal business website. The inclusion of various methods of contact can build a simple way for your prospective clients to connect with you.
2. Value Previous Clients
Even if you have finished working with a client, his/her information is still valuable irrespective of how useless it may appear. Hence, make sure you keep the contact information of your ex-clients.
A previous client is always a prospective current client and it is never surprising to find an ex-client in need of your legal services again. Your law firm can get in touch with your ex-clients by email or phone call and remind them of your services if they require further help in the long-run. If your ex-clients have had a good experience working with you in the past, there are good chances they will love working with you once again if and when the need surfaces. They may also recommend your services to their peers and associates who might be in sheer need of your services.
Previous clients can also be lured back by making announcements of free consultations or discounts. By never giving your previous clients a chance to forget your services, you can make sure they turn into loyal, returning clients.
3. Use Social Media for Marketing
It would be very foolish of you not to realize the advantage of SMM.
Social media influences society to a great extent. Almost all your clients are on the popular social media platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Hence, these online platforms provide a huge scope for marketing your law firm. Make sure that your law firm is present on social media and you have a dynamic SMM strategy.
4. Do Not Claim Yourself as Specialists
Positioning your law agency as “specialists” or “experts” can seem to be a bit of over-promotion and violate the marketing ethics. Hence, make sure you just inform your prospective clients about your service and do not push your services or speak too highly of yourself. Over-promotion may make your site visitors feel that your services are not really reliable.
5. Abide By The Attorney Schema
In general, a schema is basically system-understandable data. It is represented in HTML content. The purpose of a schema is to allow search engines to build a link with the content found on the Internet. There is a separate schema for the legal sector so that the search engines can identify content associated with legal practice.
Some of your website components which must have schema are:
- Lawyer names
- Lawyer biographies
- Reviews
- Emails
- Addresses
- Contact Numbers
6. Do Not Go Against the Design Guidelines
There are many design guidelines that tell about the size and type of images that the law firms must use. Many states also specify that only the real clients or lawyers of a law firm and not models should be presented in the pictures put on the legal business website of the firm. Manifestations of disturbing events, such as sexual assault and car accidents may also be regulated.
The Bottom Line
Running a law firm can be a very stressful job. Lawyers may have to make important decisions with demands, responsibilities, and emotions running through the mind at one time. In such a scenario, having a clear idea of the current trends and rules of online marketing for lawyers can keep you stress-free at least from the business marketing point of view.
I hope the above well-explained guidelines for online marketing and for law firm SEO marketing have helped you to understand how you are expected to market your legal business website to obtain leads in modern times. One of the important points to be noted here is that as a lawyer you should keep learning and watch out for new online marketing trends that are likely to surface in the short and long run.
