It’s knowing what works and what doesn’t work for your firm. Whether you handle your marketing in-house or you hire an agency, you must know what brings you the greatest success. You have plenty of options for bringing new clients to your firm and knowing which ones offer the most value ensures you aren’t throwing money at marketing tools that don’t work for your firm.
Understanding how clients find you helps you better target your marketing efforts. What are the most common ways clients find attorneys?
- Search Google
- Referrals from other attorneys
- Referrals from friends
- Lawyer directories
About half of people turn to the internet when looking for an attorney. This is why online marketing for attorneys is an essential part of your business success.
There are three components involved in making the most of your online marketing opportunities.
First, your firm must be “findable” online. Once clients find you, they must be greeted with a high-performing website. Finally, they must believe you can help them. These three things work in unison to help your firm grow.
How do you implement all three of these tools to help you find new clients?
1. Findability
You won’t get new clients from your online marketing efforts if people aren’t able to find you. Your firm needs to appear on:
- Google’s and other search engine’s search results at or near the top of the page
- Law firm directories including SuperLawyers, Avvo, Yelp, and more
- YouTube
Increasing your findability requires improving your SEO. One of the most important ways to do this is to make sure search engines view you as a credible source of information online. The more credible search engines consider your firm, the higher you rank.
Studies show the first website to show in search results gets about 30 percent of clicks. The second gets about half that. Sites that don’t appear on the first page of search results get fewer than 2 percent of clicks. This information proves you must do what you can to rank on the first page of search results and rank as high as possible within that first page.
How Do You Do This and How Does It Help with Online Marketing for Attorneys?
Your first step is improving your onsite SEO. Onsite SEO is the SEO on your site – the keywords, content, etc. Your site should feature search terms that help Google recognize you as an expert in your legal field. Every element of each page of your site should be optimized for the best results.
In addition to onsite SEO, you’ll want to improve offsite SEO. Offsite SEO pertains to your firm’s overall reputation online. Do search engines view you as a credible source in your industry? The more external links you accumulate from high-ranking, relevant sites in your industry the better.
Optimizing your site and building a strong presence online helps your firm become more findable online.
2. High-performing Website
Being found is just the first step. Once potential clients find your firm, you need to get them to take the next step.
Remember, the money and time you’ve put into being findable won’t pay off without a website optimized to convert visitors to take action by calling your office or requesting more information via your site. Your site must be easy to navigate and make it clear to someone looking for legal assistance what they need to do next.
3. Help Potential Clients
Finally, you want to make sure you’re helping the people who find you online.
You need to have a website that answers potential clients’ questions. The more helpful your site, the longer people stay on your site.
This not only increases the chances they’ll reach out to you, but it also makes Google happy. You create a cycle of success with all three steps of your online marketing for attorney plan.
Help with Online Marketing for Attorneys
This is a basic overview of a solid plan for online marketing for attorneys. The specifics vary a bit from industry to industry. No two marketing plans are exactly alike, but understanding this basic strategy helps you determine where to go next with your marketing plans.
What comes next? We can help you create a marketing plan that works for your firm. We know designing and implementing a good plan takes time and effort. If you’d like more information about how to get started with online marketing for attorneys or you’re looking for a team that can help you implement your ideas, contact us at 888-480-3585.
