Marketing your law firm: 4 digital marketing fundamentals that’ll boost your firm’s outreach

Category: Blog, Practice Management 13th January 2023

Majority of clients (49%) are recommended a law firm by their peers or family members.

Second to recommendations, individuals choose their legal provider by searching online. Searching for answers to their problems, looking for prices, or comparing law firms is easily done digitally. But if your practice isn’t visible, you won’t be considered as an option.

The four fundamental digital marketing channels outlined below will help law firms, like yours, set themselves up for success online. They’ll make sure you’re visible to potential clients and increase your outreach to a wider audience; important when people feel like they have more choice than ever when choosing legal services.

Four digital marketing channels for SME law firms

We’ve outlined four digital marketing channels that provide a long-term growth strategy for SME law firms. Rather than expensive quick wins, these channels help you to build a reputable online presence that continues to improve overtime. Our advice is to be consistent and regular with every channel and you’ll reap the benefits.

1. Optimise your website

The first step to optimising your website is having one. So if you’re in the minority of law firms that don’t already have one, setting yourself up with a website is the only place to start for improving your digital presence.

Otherwise, optimising your website should focus on three things:

Making it easy for your prospect to find the information they want
Answering your potential client’s questions
Making it easy for people to contact you or buy your service.

Effective website design is a lengthy topic but there are a few fundamentals you’ll want to keep in mind to improve the performance of your website:

Simplicity and ease-of-access

Navigating the law is complicated, but to help you stand out from your competition, make your website simple to understand and easy to navigate. Separate content out logically and make it easy to connect your services and content through embedded links and content blocks.

Avoid using jargon in your descriptions and keep your language simple and relatable. Make sure the key content on your website is easily accessible and visible. For example, your contact details or contact page should always be visible on any page and key pages should be linked to in the header and footer.

Add a trackable call to action

It’s important never to assume that the action you want your potential clients to complete is obvious. Determine what your call to action (CTA) is for every page – we recommend a primary and a secondary CTA – and then ensure it’s obvious on each page. Clear buttons, hyperlinks, and highlighted content blocks should be repeated throughout the page to make the next steps clear for your reader.

Call to actions don’t just have to be enquiry related, they can also be downloading brochures, viewing case studies, reading articles, registering for a webinar, or watching a video. To help you improve lead conversion, ensure all key CTAs are trackable and measurable to help you know what’s working and what can be improved.

Ensure your website is mobile-friendly

Make sure your first impression is a positive one, regardless of where your prospects find your website. Ensure your site is functional on both desktop, tablet, and mobile. Check your content, imagery, load speeds, forms, and call to actions to ensure they all work on every device. Otherwise, you could risk losing your prospects before they’ve even read your content. An effective mobile website will also help with your SEO performance, discussed more in point three.

2. Publish client-focused content

Successful websites shouldn’t exist to purely advertise a business; it should primarily provide clients with valuable information and answers to their questions.

Answer your clients frequently asked questions on your web pages – or in blogs, guides, and videos – to help make your clients’ experience easier and stress-free. Alleviate your prospects’ fears, and help guide them in the right direction to show your expertise and build trust.

If your potential client can find what they’re looking for, or learn something new from your content, they’ll more likely to contact you when they need your services over a competitor. When individuals are doing their research online, you want to be the firm that makes that experience easier and straightforward.

The content you create also impacts all other digital marketing strategies, so it’s sets the foundation for improving your SEO and social media presence which we expand on below.

3. Improve your visibility with SEO

93% of online experiences start with a search engine, so it’s important that the content you’ve spent a lot of resource on appears in your prospects’ search. SEO – search engine optimisation – focuses on reviewing and improving your content so it’s favoured by search engines. Helping it to be found by your potential clients.

Expert SEO consultants can help you to boost your performance but there are a few fundamental things to consider when creating your content that can help.

Firstly, it’s important you know what your keywords and key search terms are for your website. Use tools like the Google Keyword Planner and Google Search Console to discover what your website is currently ranking for, as well as discover new keywords for your business.

With your top keywords selected, ensure they’re visible in related existing content and then build additional content around those keywords too to increase the volume of web pages. The structure of your web pages and content will affect how well Google can understand the content. Ensure there’s a clear H1 and H2 – ideally that features your keywords, plus a relevant meta description, page title, and internal and external related links throughout the text. A top tip to improve your SEO is to search in Google for the keyword you want to rank for and review what is shown on the first page. What page titles and descriptions are your competitors using? How does your firm show up if you’re already visible on Google? And how could you improve it to better appeal to your clients?

4. Grow your social media following

Social media allows you to build a targeted audience like no other channel, as it can provide users, and even potential clients, a channel for one-to-one communication, giving your firm a more personal touch to boost engagement.

Starting a social media presence is simple, as you already have ready-made content on your website. By using excerpts from your blogs, customer testimonials, or positive statistics, you can produce a schedule of content, while also driving traffic to your website.

It doesn’t need to be limited to text posts either. By diversifying the type of posts you create, such as creating graphics, slide decks, or even simply recording yourself talking into a webcam, this will provide the opportunity for more engagement. This strategy can be used on any social platform such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.

Increase client intake with these fundamental digital marketing channels for your law firm

Using these four digital marketing channels in tandem you can attract clients not only by recommendations, but by the large majority of people who are searching online as well. Ensuring your firm has a digital presence will ensure you’re part of the conversation and a potential choice for prospects. Without a digital presence you’re decreasing the likelihood of being chosen. These key fundamental digital marketing channels work together to create a strong marketing foundation; one which is both cost effective and easy to implement.