Lawyers have traditionally garnered new clients by word of mouth or through referrals. With Internet research in the mainstream, a whole new world of marketing possibilities awaits. From content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to using social media and email marketing strategies, law firms today have a wide variety of avenues available for reaching potential clients. The firms unleashing the power of legal web marketing may well be the ones making it to the client finish line first.

Why Legal Web Marketing Is More Important Than Ever

While still the newest kid on the marketing block, web marketing is by no means untested or novel. Unfortunately, that’s how many law firms view marketing on digital media. Still living in yesteryear when referral and reputation were the mainstays of growing a client base, many law firms continue to use 1980s strategies with 21st century technology. Just like nonmoving photos shock the wizarding world in Harry Potter’s chronicles, using traditional print media thinking for a firm’s digital marketing does little to enhance a law firm’s credibility or desirability.

Traditional legal web marketing used a kind of “if you build it, they will come” approach. As long as people had a phone book or could read a billboard, they’d know where to find a lawyer if and when the need were to arise. This model is no longer effective. Younger generations have never heard of phone books, relying instead on the instant access to information via the Internet. And that’s like having an entirely new dimension at your fingertips.

Law firms today need to approach digital marketing from a 21st century state of mind. Millennials represent $200 billion in buying power, and they have a very different approach to buying than their predecessors. Law firms need to expand from a baby boomer mindset to include how millennials make purchasing decisions. Including millennials’ digital-savvy research methodologies in making buying decisions will help law firms reach more people in a more meaningful way.

The Purpose of Digital Law Marketing

Knowing why you are doing something helps tailor how you approach it. Law firms and lawyers wanting to take advantage of the new dimension that is Internet marketing must first understand the purpose of digital law marketing. In so doing, they can shape their marketing efforts to get the most bang out of their marketing dollar.

Lawyers use digital marketing for the following:

• To increase the firm’s reach to potential customers;
• To further a particular lawyer’s business development;
• To establish the firm or a lawyer in the firm as a thought leader in a specific area (reputation);
• To improve the firm’s or lawyer’s brand; and
• To network with potential clients and professional referral sources.

Law firms should approach legal web marketing with these and related goals in mind.

Digital law marketing allows law firms to reach a much larger and geographically diverse audience than earlier marketing platforms allowed. But marketing efforts need to do more than just give a map and contact information. The rich media available today allow businesses to become leaders in their field through their marketing efforts. That leadership position, in turn, helps improve your brand.

Types of Legal Web Marketing to Explore

Internet marketing is both larger and smaller than the full spectrum of digital marketing opportunities. Also called digital or online marketing, Internet marketing means establishing your presence in some fashion on a digital medium, platform, or methodology in order to further one or more of the goals listed above.

Below are some of the basic types of digital that lend themselves easily to lawyer marketing:

• Content marketing;
• Law firm SEO marketing;
• Social media marketing;
• Search engine marketing; and
• Email marketing.

Each type of digital marketing has a slightly different audience and scope. As a result, using a combination is the best bet for reaching as broad of a potential client base as possible. For the best results, work with a legal web marketing expert to develop the means to fit your goals.

Unique Benefit of Internet Marketing for Lawyers: Data Collection and Analysis

Determining the return on investment (ROI) on any marketing effort is the key to determining its effectiveness. When marketing was limited to print and other traditional media, ROI was hard to decipher. Tracking the effect of a mass publication or broadcast often meant conducting surveys to estimate the impact of your ads.

With digital marketing options, data collection is built in. For example, Google Search Console and Google Analytics track  your top-performing keywords, the words used to designate the topic discussed on a web page that guide users to that page. Similar data collection practices track mobile web page usage as well. A review of this data will show you how many people visit each page on your website, which pages are visited most often, how long users stay on a page, and whether they click through to another page on your site. With this data, you can determine which pages are performing well and tweak the ones that are less successful.

Putting Legal Web Marketing to Work for Your Law Firm

To keep pace with the increasingly digital marketplace, law firms and practitioners need to learn about digital web marketing. A good 21st century marketing strategy includes web marketing on various platforms, tracking the analytics to evaluate ROI, and making adjustments to increase the reach of each strategy.

The Internet provides rich content to educate practitioners on digital marketing, but many firms prefer to hire a legal web marketing team. If your law firm is ready to up their digital marketing game, contact us today. We will use our experience and knowledge to help magnify your firm’s online presence: (844) HEY-TDOG (439-8364) or (480) 744-7331.