Targeting The First Page Does Not Always Work

Law Firm Marketing: The Hidden Strategies

The legal industry is over saturated and filed with competitors at every corner all chasing the same clients, objectives, and goals. In fact,  the industry is perhaps one of the most competitive out there. As a consequence, some small law firms and solo lawyers are finding it more and more difficult to compete in the legal industry and many lawyers struggle to pay the rent at home and not just the office. The small firms can't compete with the large law firms and can't afford to hire law firm marketing companies to do the work for them.

The Reality Of Law Firm Marketing

So what's the reality of law firm marketing ? Well, many law SEO companies would have you believe in a dark science and how you can't do without them because of this marketing science. Therefore, filled with false promises and often over embellished reports, you sign up for the service, which is costing you thousands per month and find you do not get the ROI that you were promised. 

The reality is that I can really count on my one hand how many Law Firm Marketing companies I would recommend and could put my name to them.

My Three Top Legal Marketing Companies

1. Rankings.io

2. Apricot Law

3. Gladiator Law Marketing

Yes, these guys cost anywhere from 1500 per month upwards and you may not be able to afford their services now, but, what if I can show you a way to use what you have at your disposal. You can grow your business substantially enough using tried and true strategies to increase your law firm's presence online, then you can afford to hire these legal marketing companies to take away the burden of regular marketing and grow your legal practice as an ongoing concern.

Top Law Firm Marketing Tactics

So let's dive right in and look at the law firm marketing strategies that you can use and that will not take you a great deal of time to do. In fact, you may be very surprised at how powerful these strategies can be, and how you may not have considered some strategies for being effective as they could potentially be.

Link Building Is A Fundamental Practice 

One of the most important steps you can take for your law firm is to build quality links that go back to your site and to your content, thus giving you authority and online exposure; think of these links as votes and authoritative signals to your law firm. There are of course a plethora of methods to build links back to your law site. However, remember that no two links are equal and there are many many factors that come into play when looking at the quality of a link. Bad links can destroy your online marketing strategies and great links will of course reward you with increased rank and authority.

One of the best articles out there about link building for law firms can be found on Rankings Io, which is one of our trusted law marketing companies. You will find the article on law firm link building may cover some of what we are talking about in this article, but the guide on Ranking Io is far more in-depth.

Another great source you should check out to get a feel for link building the right way for your law firm is the article on Ahrefs, which also includes a great piece of content on high authority back links;

Link Building - How to Build Backlinks and Get Press Using HARO [Case Study] (Highly recommended case study and a must for all lawyers and law firms)

Video Marketing

Some Lawyers love video and some hate it, but whether you are an advocate or not, video marketing is here to stay for lawyers. Nevertheless, look at some of the lawyer videos out there and they are all the same - following the same trends and no one venturing to be different. How do you think you are going to capture someone's attention with the same old boring video? You have to be compelling with your video marketing and most of all, if you want someone to call you or contact you, then you need to capture their emotion. Stop being a cardboard cut out and appeal to those people looking for help by tapping on their emotion. That's how your video will stand out above the crowd. 

For example, there is a female criminal lawyer out there that I am compelled to watch her on Instagram and not because I am a criminal in need of help from a criminal lawyer, but because her short captivating videos capture the emotion and you just can't help but watch her. Imagine then, if I was someone in need of help because of a criminal charge, she would be the most likely candidate that I would call.

Getting Social

Social Media is another aspect of legal marketing that is important but Lawyers have to be careful regarding social media and how they respond to other users. There is a need for social media compliance for law firms because one mistake could cause major legal ramifications especially as there may be no way of knowing who you are engaging with may be part of a legal case that you are involved with. 

If you are a lawyer and you are going to get social, then make sure you do not do the same as everyone else.It can be just as tedious seeing the same thing all the time and one massive no no, is don't over sell. There are too many law firms that are continually offering deals, free consultations and so on. Get creative, find new ways of interacting and promoting yourself on social media. You have to remember that even though you have a legal obligation to certain criteria, you are dealing with people and so you are building and cultivating relationships. Gone is the old stuffy lawyer in an office who often looks down upon the weakling looking for help. The modern day lawyer is a millennial and tech savvy and therefore a new breed of legal representation.

Go Green and Evergreen

Are you green? Ok, that may sound somewhat of a cliche, but the truth is that if you go green, you should go evergreen. Evergreen content is content that will last and rank for a long period of time. The content is structured in such a way, that it attracts other sites linking to it because it is informative, well structured and offers great information that is in demand. Content that is evergreen tends to have a long lasting impact. Its relevance does not vanish quickly and overtime more and more sites tend to link their website with the content. Therefore, if one wishes to publish this kind of content, he/she should steer away from using numerical information, news based content, content that is seasonal or associated with a limited time event. Evergreen content that can be used by law firms may include briefs on how to activities. For example a lawyer can publish content regarding how an individual can file a law suit against his/her employer for wrongful termination. Other examples of evergreen content may include question and answer content for questions raised by people quite frequently, video based content on different court proceedings and procedures involved in criminal and civil cases.

It is considered evergreen because it contains information that does not change overtime. Furthermore, this kind of content may result in consumers and other justice system professionals recognizing that the lawyer and the law firm publishing the content is knowledgeable about law and its inner workings and may reach out to develop a relationship. Furthermore,  evergreen material may motivate other law firms, the associations of law and related stakeholders to link with the content as aforementioned and could reach out to collaborate in research. However, the main motivating factor would be to attract consumers and customers to visit the source of the content and hence drive traffic to the original author's page and make a connection when a need for the service arises. Evergreen content is definitely the way to go with your legal services and is unlikely to change for the future.

Local Targeting

Law firms and lawyers who are planning to perform internet marketing should consider local targeting to become an authority in their local area, after all, that is where your bread and butter will be. The Internet is a boundary-less world and it can help reach consumers located in different parts of the physical world, but your local area is where you will build your brand in the first instance. Therefore, while using any kind of law firm marketing, a law firm needs to make sure that it is targeting the right demographic locally. Failure to do so result in wastage of efforts. 

Law firms that are smaller in size and have recently started their firm should target their internet marketing efforts at the local (city) level rather than a macro level (state, country and internationally). This kind of marketing effort will help the law firm in getting clients easier and nearer to the location where the law firm is housed. Getting proper business citations is one step closer to getting you found locally by optimizing your presence in locally targeted law firm directories and business listing sites as well as optimizing your business location on Google maps.

What Is A Local Citation?

According to Moz (A leader in the field of SEO and marketing research - used by many SEO professionals), a local citation is as follows;

A local citation is any online mention of the name, address, and phone number for a local business. Citations can occur on local business directories, on websites and apps, and on social platforms. Citations help Internet users to discover local businesses and can also impact local search engine rankings. Local businesses can actively manage many citations to ensure data accuracy.

I would recommend you read the article from Moz about local citations here https://moz.com/learn/seo/local-citations, and find out more about how these citations will help your law firm stand out from the others.

Local Content Is King

While involved in targeting consumers who are situated in the local area, a law firm should specifically focus on the legal issues that are prevalent in their locality. For example, lawyers located in regions where there are various businesses should focus on attracting business related clients. These law firms should work on generating internet content that focuses on local legal issues. As another example, if a law firm is involved in social media marketing, acts such as publishing articles over Facebook, videos and legal tips; the firm should author articles regarding solving issues faced by businesses and include a call to action so they can be contacted. 

A law firm marketing to attract local clients should also be aware of the digital marketing outlets they are using. For example, a lawyer operating in the region of Miami and wanting to attract Miami based clients should publish their articles on Facebook pages or groups that have more visitors or members from the same city.

 While using the local targeting technique a small sized law firm should ensure that their business is listed with Google or it has a presence over Google Maps (see the information on local citations above). 

Lawyer Interviews

This is perhaps one of my favorite ways of promotion and is, of course, a much-underused asset of a lawyer or even the large law firms. Lawyer interview's both on video and in writing has a unique place in the law firm marketing strategy.  Now, I am not talking about video marketing as detailed in other articles, but more about the interview, getting to know the lawyer and making a connection emotionally by learning about that individual lawyer or law firm. It could be about the lawyers' desire to serve, why they picked that legal specialization or even their interests outside of the law firm. Of course, one must continually remain "security aware," but we are trying to build relationships and create an emotional point of attraction.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging is, of course, an excellent way to gain quality links and of course being found on authority sites. Nevertheless, one must also show judgment on the type of guest blogging and what sites you are a guest upon. There is a great deal of conjecture surrounding guest blogging and google does not support guest blogging services and often targets them in order to penalize. Nevertheless, it remains an excellent way of gaining credibility, authority and quality links and there are plenty ways to guest blog without selling. The site below is an excellent resource for that;

• Lawyerist all about legal guest blogging.

Podcasting - The Unknown Promotion Variable

Did you know that as a lawyer, you are missing out on a massively engaged audience that could not only drive you traffic to your website but also the potential new business? Podcasting is an unknown variable for lawyers as it is rarely ever used. However, it is not difficult and does not take a lot of time and very very small investment. The reality is that you will definitely increase your presence by adding your own legal podcast to your site. This is when you can talk about problems that your potential clients may be experiencing and offer advice. Perhaps you could give your take on a potential legal issue in the news. There are so many ways that you can engage this new audience. All you need is a computer, microphone and recording software and you're on your way to having your own legal podcast.

Some of the most successful legal podcasts that you can listen to in order to get some insight are;

• Trial Lawyer Confidential - Presented by LA-based criminal defense lawyer Elena Saris, Trial Lawyer Confidential focuses on the real criminal justice system and offering guidance on how to be a better criminal lawyer. The great thing about the podcast is the real cases that are discussed to give you a sense of being a part of the process.

• The Anxious Lawyer - Now this is a legal podcast with a twist and not to do with a case, but more to do with the spiritual nature of lawyers and the need to reduce stress by being a mindful lawyer.

• Maximum Lawyer - This podcast is for any lawyer that really wants to get to the nitty-gritty of marketing and how to get clients through the door. Definitely, a recommended podcast to listen to.

• New Solo, "Legal Talk Network" - How do you go from being in a law firm to becoming a "Solo Lawyer" and surviving and thriving in a highly competitive marketplace.

• Thinking Like A Lawyer - Thinking Like A Lawyer is a podcast featuring Above the Law’s Elie Mystal and Joe Patrice. Each episode, the hosts will take a topic experienced and enjoyed by regular people, and shine it through the prism of a legal framework. This will either reveal an awesome rainbow of thought, or a disorienting kaleidoscope of issues. Either way, it should be fun.

The reason these legal podcasts have been chosen is that they are different to the norm and the well-known podcasts. They offer a unique perspective and are rather enjoyable to listen to - both for lawyers and non-lawyers alike. If you still don't understand how the power of podcasting can help your law firm then just take a look at these podcasting statistics;

podcastinsights.com podcasting facts.

Conclusion

These strategies are not hard to put into place and does not take much time to do. You will find that you will gain more exposure and more authority online, which can only bring you further benefits. If you need to hire a law firm marketing company, then you can build your practice using these strategies and then when you can afford their services, you can get them to take your law firm to the next level. 

If you are a small law firm and would like a professional interview done and would like to join us on help lawyer, then message us for a very special coupon code and one to one help to get going.