Every law firm wants more clients. But with so much competition out there, potential clients have plenty of alternatives. So, how do you ensure prospects find you and choose you over equally viable options? By building a robust digital presence. Since 36 percent of consumers use the internet to look for attorneys, it’s important to optimize your digital presence to make it easy for them to find and connect with your firm.
Keep reading to learn tips to improve your digital presence so you can attract more clients to your law firm.
Define Your Goals
The first step is to determine your goals. These objectives should align with your overall marketing strategy. You can start with goals like:
- Increasing social media engagement with prospective clients
- Boosting law firm brand awareness
- Becoming a thought leader in your practice area
Remember to focus on a few goals at a time, ideally three. Objectives give you a clear picture of what you can and can’t achieve, depending on the available resources. Moreover, they help motivate you and your team because they give everyone something to work towards. In addition, objectives keep your marketing efforts and campaigns aligned toward attaining the ultimate goal – expanding your client base.
Share Original, Useful Content
Original content is content that hasn’t been posted elsewhere. With countless pages of content on the web, developing original content will enhance your online visibility and set you apart from the competition. Unique, engaging, and helpful content builds credibility and boosts your engagement in terms of shares and page traffic. Further, it helps you appear at the top of relevant search results on Google when prospects look up the services you offer.
Picture this: A prospective client is in a vulnerable position. As a first step, they search on the web for answers to questions concerning their situation. The prospect comes across your content in their search results. As they skim through, your content thoroughly answers their questions. It outlines the importance of having an experienced lawyer in their corner. Armed with this information, your potential client is more likely to remember you and reach out to you.
Interact with Your Audience
Sharing content on social media that includes links to your firm’s press releases and blog posts gives you another opportunity to interact with your followers. While you don’t have to respond to all the comments left on your posts, engaging with your audience makes them feel connected to you. When users have your attention, they feel valued. This gives you an edge over other firms and can lead to higher client conversions.
Add Visual Content
Consumers pick and choose what they want to see and read. How can your law firm stand out in a crowded market with billions of pieces of content online and so many other attorneys typically offering the same services? By sharing visual content. Because the human brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text, using attractive visuals to convey your message distinguishes your content from the rest. Research shows that colored images make people more likely to read your content by an impressive 80 percent.
Further, posts with visuals deliver 650 percent higher engagement than text-only content. Including images in your content aids in attracting and keeping the attention of your audience. And in a world where consumers’ attention spans have become shorter than ever, it’s challenging to pique their interest with written content only. Luckily, visual stories grab attention. Even better, people tend to remember 50 percent of what they see and hear compared to only 10 percent of what they read. Add visuals if you want your readers to retain the information you post.
Maintain Brand Consistency
In a competitive industry, achieving a strong, consistent brand across every touchpoint (e.g., an advertisement, an interaction with an employee, etc.) of your law firm will help attract more clients. All of your touchpoints should be an expression of:
- who you are;
- what your practice stands for; and
- why legal clients should choose you.
Whether it’s 24/7 availability (when competitors in your practice area do not offer this feature) or multi-million-dollar results (when this is not the norm for the niche service you provide), your brand should stand out. By carving out your space in a crowded market, you’ll be able to bring more new clients through the door.
Share Online Reviews
Reviews have a significant impact on attracting legal clients and can determine whether prospects select your law firm or a competitor’s firm. These thoughts are powerful because what other clients say about your law firm is seen to be more objective than what you have to say about yourself. People are more likely to pick your practice if they read positive feedback left by others.
Measure Your Results
Tracking your results is a must. It provides insights into the efforts that are most successful. Beyond that, it identifies the strategies that need to be tweaked. It helps eliminate the ones that are not working to avoid wasting valuable time and resources. One method of analyzing and generating reliable reports on your performance is leveraging tools like Google Analytics. The tool can:
- Deliver advanced and customizable reporting
- Offer valuable data on how much traffic you’re getting
- Automatically find your target market by tracking user behavior
Humanize Your Law Firm
Humanizing your law firm makes it approachable and relatable to prospective clients. For instance, rather than using legal jargon to show your expertise, share your story in a way that reflects how people actually speak and feel. Tell people about your missions, goals, and passions, and always remember to be honest. By showing your human side, you’ll increase prospects’ confidence in your practice and in you personally. People will want you to represent them because they like what you stand for and trust who you are. This is especially true when it comes to the largest generation in world history – millennials.
Create Engaging Bios (Profiles)
Your attorney’s bio is often the first contact most prospective clients have with your firm. Your bio should be professional, engaging, and personable, telling prospects who you are and why you should handle their cases rather than a competitor. Be sure to include your credentials, areas of expertise, years practiced, awards, and location. Also, include a quality headshot – a lawyer with a great headshot gets more contacts from prospective clients than those without one.
A Final Word
Knowing how to optimize your digital presence is vital to winning new clients. With a significant percentage of prospects depending on the internet to search for lawyers, you should be where they’re looking. That way, you increase the likelihood of them thinking of you first when they need to hire an attorney. And even if they’re not ready to enlist your services just yet, these tips will help you stay top of mind with prospects.
