REMEMBER TO JOIN US!
As a learning organisation - we love sharing knowledge. Sign up for tips on making your law firm website and digital marketing even more effective.
In this article I’m going to take you through how to find new customers online.
Attracting new clients online can fuel growth for your law firm more than other marketing method. Understanding how and what is best for your law firm will vary based on who you are trying to reach.
There is any number of different methods from podcasting to thought leadership through LinkedIn. But here are a few other options open to you as a starter for attracting new visitors to your website:
- Content Marketing - this is a sustainable approach focused on you creating relevant content that attracts your potential clients based on your offering and what clients searching for.
- Organic Search - this is when your potential clients speaks or types keywords in Google, Yahoo or Bing and your law firm website is listed in the search results pages based on its ranking.
- Search Engine Pay Per Click Ad’s – this is the quick win option that displays your ad based on keywords or phrases your potential client’s type into search engines Google, Yahoo or Bing.
The diagram below illustrates a few more online marketing options for you to consider as part of your online marketing mix.
How should we attract more visitors to your law firm website?
So, all that hard work and your law firm website isn’t attracting new clients because it can’t be found.
We now need to consider search engine marketing. This is the process of gaining website visitors from search engines and is made up of two main activities:
- Pay Per Click, PPC, is a form of online marketing where websites can increasing their visibility in search engine results, SERPs, through paid advertising links based on keywords that are bid for.
- Search Engine Optimisation, SEO, which is gaining website visitors through unpaid or free listings, typically through Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Making your law firm website visible to search engines is something you need to bear in mind right from the beginning. Google rewards fast, well structured, compliant websites with higher rankings and penalises slow, poor structure and poor quality coding with lower rankings.
A good listing within the search engines is generally considered to be on the first page of search results based on keyword search terms.
Search engine marketing basics.
Here are some search engine basics you need to consider;
- Selecting the most appropriate keywords based on what you know of your potential clients and their intent.
- Increasing and maintaining optimal search engine rankings.
- Getting your site listed in legal and other relevant industry directories.
- Increasing your link popularity.
- Delivering reports to measure success.
Whilst Search Engine Optimisation can often refer to increasing the quality of traffic and attracting more visitors to your law firm website. There is also a very important component in that process, content marketing. This is where you create value for your clients with relevant content that in turn helps with your conversion rates. Search engine optimisation without content marketing is less likely to be successful.
Content marketing for your law firm
Using Search Engine Optimisation techniques your website attracts visitors who are aware and engaged with your law firm – it will attract more via content searches. To help with this you should identify your client segments and create content which is relevant, creates value for them and is based on their intent. This will also help with funnelling potential clients towards the outcome you desire.
You may want to consider the flowing steps:
- Develop a content plan for each client segment that’s relevant and is based on their intent.
- Create content funnels towards your goals
- Develop a social media strategy to increase and engage your online communities.
- Create content, both written and visual, for your website and social media.
- Develop email communications.
- Monitor and report.
Your potential clients are permanently connected through a variety of devices and channels.
Marketing your law firm in all online locations is important for the simple reason that you must be where your clients are. It’s about giving your clients the choice and opportunity to interact with you when it’s most convenient for them - so it’s essential to be there when they are ready to engage with your brand.
Evaluate your clients by asking:
- Who are they?
- Through what channels do they prefer?
- What information do they need?
- What services do they need?
- What devices do they use?
- What is their intent?
Your client messages should be choreographed, consistent and targeted across all locations online. We know your clients could experience your brand in a number of different ways;
- At a bus stop on a mobile via social media, they’ll have a quick look and move on
- Then again on a desktop at lunch time some days later,
- And again in the evening on their mobile or iPad.
They expect seamless brand communications and the same client experiences from content which is relevant to them.
You can easily get obsessed with the number of visitors to your website using these techniques. So be cautious about wasting your budget if those newly acquired visitors are being directed to poorly designed pages without much thought into who is visiting. You may want to read about conversion optimisation here.