Law Firm Marketing Strategies: Lawyer-to-Lawyer FAQ Part 4

by Krista Duncan Black | Law Firm Digital Marketing

A question mark on a cube, representing the questions attorneys should be asking about law firm marketing strategies.

No law firm marketing plan should look exactly like another. To find the right law firm marketing strategies for your firm, you need to consider many factors. Some of the most important decisions regard how you wish to promote your brand, website, and content. Here are some questions law firms often ask about issues relating to strategy.

Is social media for law firms really useful?
Should I try to get listed in attorney directories? If so, which ones?
What is the value of PPC for law firms? Should I use Google Ads?
How do attorney advertising ethics relate to online marketing?

Choose Your Law Firm Marketing Strategies Wisely by Asking These Questions

This blog is the final edition in a series of four. Previous installments addressed evaluating your current status and defining your firm’s goals, creating strong content, and ensuring that the search engine optimization (SEO) for your law firm’s site is strong.

At TOPDOG, our attorney marketing strategies are based on a tried-and-true cyclical framework: we evaluate, create, optimize, and promote, we then begin the process again. This blog discusses potential methods of promotion: how can you get your law firm, website, and content in front of prospective clients and get them to take action and contact you?

Promote Your Law Firm’s Content to Maximize Conversions

How can you best reach your ideal clients online? Options abound, but the secret to success is to choose methods that help you engage with your specific target audience. It’s also critical that you monitor performance and results, then adjust your strategy accordingly. After all, nothing online is stagnant.

Here, we’ll discuss a few attorney marketing strategies you may have wondered about: social media, attorney directories, and pay-per-click (PPC) ads on search engines like Google.

1. Is social media for law firms really useful?

Social media plays an important role in driving traffic to your law firm’s website, building your brand, and connecting with your local and industry community. If you’re only dipping your toes into social networking, LinkedIn™ is a good starting place for professional networking. However, depending on your practice and goals, Facebook™, Twitter™, and other platforms may also add value and draw traffic to your website.

Generally speaking, consumer-facing practices should have a strong Facebook presence, while B2B law firms should develop their LinkedIn visibility. Even the nature of the posts matters. Items that “play well” on Facebook may not be a good fit on LinkedIn, for example. However, the best law firm marketing strategy depends on your goals and other factors, as well.

Paid social media ads, especially when paired with proper landing page content that continues the customer journey, can be a cost-effective means to build clients and traffic online.

2. Should I try to get listed in attorney directories? If so, which ones?

Legal directories are an excellent place to attract the attention of potential clients looking for attorneys in your specific practice areas and geographical region. These listings can also provide SEO value by creating external links to your site from authoritative domains.

But not all directory listings help, and some can actually hurt your law firm’s visibility on the web. For this reason, it is important to work with a legal marketing company that understands both the legal industry and how to best market law firms online.

At the end of this blog, you’ll find a link to one of our blog posts that will tell you which legal directories we trust.

3. What is the value of PPC for law firms? Should I use Google Ads?

Pay-per-click advertising clearly works to generate traffic but is disposable by its very nature. Adding insult to injury is that the legal industry has some of the lowest click-through rates (CTRs) with the highest costs. Check out the average click-through and cost numbers for the law and government industry:

CTR on search networks = 3.27 percent;
CTR on display networks = 0.5 percent;
Cost per click on Google Search Network = $6.35;
Cost per action on search networks = $85.29; and
Cost per action on display networks = $133.43.

PPC can play a role in your overall marketing strategy, particularly for newer, less-established law firms or those trying to build recognition. However, ranking in organic search results provides a far better investment-to-return ratio. You just need the tools and expertise to make that happen.

When you work with a law firm marketing agency that receives no direct financial benefit from selling Google or Bing ads, you can feel confident that your law firm will receive the best, diversified strategy to meet its needs.

4. How do attorney advertising ethics relate to online marketing?

Ethics in legal digital marketing is a critical area of concern. State, federal, and other rules and regulations govern what attorneys may and may not do when promoting their law practices. From publicizing attorney recognitions appropriately to avoiding specific phrasing (for example, in many states, attorneys can get into hot water for using terms like “expert” or “specialist”), you need to know the rules that apply to your online legal content and hire marketing professionals who are tuned in to the same requirements.

Dig in: Find clarity and insight into the complex arena of legal digital marketing in these blogs from TOPDOG:

What Questions Do You Have about Law Firms and Marketing?

Now that we’ve answered these questions about law firms and marketing, what else can TOPDOG Legal Marketing do to improve your law firm marketing strategies? Contact us to find out or to ask your own questions. Our attorney-led law firm marketing agency is ready to help you “get found” online: (844) 439-8364.