Purchasing a legal service is not something individuals or businesses do on a whim, a lot of thought and research goes into selecting the perfect Solicitor/ law firm for the job. Whether it be based on price, experience, location or reputation.
Although, word of mouth still holds great power, your law firm cannot rely on it as its only source of traffic. More and more law firms are turning digital and taking the time to invest in their online presence as they know the value of being found online. The competition is fierce and although cliché, you do not want to be left behind.
A strong marketing strategy can set your firm apart from the rest. If executed effectively it can improve your online presence, boost your brand awareness, increase traffic and in turn improve profitability. Digital Marketing gives you the ability to boost your ranking within Search Engines, allows your website to be found by your target market and gives your law firm the opportunity to build a good rapport with your clients.
We, at FireTap Legal, have listed 5 techniques that will assist your law firm in building its online presence, communicate with a key audience and attract clients within your target market.
Let’s start from the beginning: Building and expanding your website
1. Ensure you create a specialised page for each core service offering
Most law firms specialise in more than one sector; even hyper-specialised law firms offer more than one service.
The saying goes, content is king. Ensuring your website has a separate page for each specialised service gives your firm the opportunity to elaborate on the service offering. It ensures navigation throughout the website is easy as visitors do not have to scroll to the bottom of your ‘services page’ just to find a paragraph on – let’s say – divorce. Having a drop-down menu or a clickable CTA (Call to Action) allows visitors to find exactly what they are looking for quickly and will avoid them abandoning their search on your website.
If your firm decides to invest in online advertising, it is crucial to send the search engine traffic exactly to the service page they are looking for and match the advert. As mentioned above, if you list all of your services on one page, and do not allow for a dedicated page to each one, the content will possibly be too long, hard to read, and difficult for a visitor to navigate to the specific solution they are looking for and why they ‘clicked’ the advert in the first place. There will be a greater chance that they will then come off your website, and look again elsewhere.
The Digital consumer is impatient and used to instant ‘click of the button’ information, making sure that your first impression is a good one, is paramount to converting traffic and generating enquiries.
2. Invest in Great SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the optimisation of your website to ensure it is found for vital keywords organically. For example: If your Law Firm is based in London and specialises in Family Law, you want to ensure your firm is being found for the following terms when potential customers search them:
- Family Solicitor London
- Family Law Firm
- Divorce Solicitor London
The goal is to utilise a specific goal-orientated strategy to get your firm’s website ranking higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). If your firm does not have the time to implement or learn about SEO we recommend hiring our experts to give your website an overhaul. FireTap Legal are specialists in Law Firm marketing and know what it takes to ensure your firms’ website is well optimised.
3. Valuable Content
Publishing blog posts on a regular basis is crucial. It provides your firm with an opportunity to:
- Showcase your firm’s area of expertise
- Contribute to topics that are trending
However, the most prominent point to highlight is that it massively contributes to the improvement of your SEO.
The easiest way to look at this is, “If you are not speaking about it, how do you expect to be found?” Publishing more content does not only offer your potential clients a more in-depth explanation about your services – if they are looking for one, but it also provides you with an opportunity to rank for vital keywords and draw in relevant traffic. Blogging gives your firm the opportunity to create ongoing content to stay relevant in search engines.
4. Online Reviews
Online reviews are essentially the digital form of “word of mouth.” They give consumers/clients the ability to review the service or product they received. As mentioned earlier, when potential clients are looking to instruct a solicitor they are likely to do their research first. If your law firm only has negative reviews or a poor star rating, or no reviews at all, your likelihood of encouraging the potential customer to engage with your firm would be disadvantaged.
These reviews are utilised to build trust. Requesting that your happy clients leave a review of your firm if they were satisfied with the service they received, is a worthwhile and important marketing task. Reviews also contribute to your website’s SEO, as Google are likely to rank higher than those law firms with better reviews than those that have poor ratings.
Never underestimate the power of reviews! People are more likely to trust what other people have to say about your law firm and the services you provide, than what you have to say about yourself.
5. Invest in PPC Advertising
Organic marketing is phenomenal and should never be ignored. However, it is a slow burner and the hard work and effort does take time to reflect within the SERPs. If your Law firm is looking to drive relevant traffic to your website immediately, Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a quick and effective online method to do so. Google AdWords in particular is an amazing platform that allows businesses the opportunity to rank on the first page of Google, whilst working on organic rankings. The great thing about PPC advertising is the ability to match with potential clients that are actively searching for the services you offer. If done correctly it gives your firm an opportunity to grow the relevant traffic coming to your website and in turn, increase enquiries.
Our specialist Marketing experts offer a wide range of services catering specifically to the legal sector. If your firm is looking for a team of experts to review your online presence you can make an online enquiry here or alternatively give us a call on 0207 842 1830.
