by Dan Goldstein and Adam Rowan
Many law firms see significant returns on investment from traditional advertising strategies like TV, radio, and billboards. However, internet marketing is impossible to ignore.
According to the 2017 Legal Trends Report released by Clio,1 37% of clients look for a lawyer through an online search—more than television, radio, and billboard ads combined. Technology is a broad field, with many different strategies and solutions to generate leads and cases. So how can your firm use technology to generate more business?
Here are three pieces of technology that are essential to attorneys when it comes to digital marketing.
1. MOBILE DEVICES
Your biggest ally to make sure your law-firm website is effectively communicating with prospective clients is physically small. You use it throughout the day, every day, and it fits in the palm of your hand. Mobile internet traffic first surpassed desktop traffic in 2016, and the upward trend has not abated. According to Stone Temple, 60% of users access websites in the law and government space on a mobile device.2
The majority of potential clients access your website on a smartphone or other mobile device. So, use your smartphone to check your own website. If the website is difficult to navigate, loads slowly, or doesn’t display well on a small screen, your marketing and lead generation abilities will suffer.
TIP: Today, mobile-first website design is a must. When you build your website, check the site on multiple devices (e.g., desktop, iPhone, Android, and tablet) to make sure it adjusts to different screen sizes while still maintaining the branding, conversion elements, and appearance you want.
2. REVIEWS AND RATINGS MANAGEMENT PLATFORM
Online reviews are the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth referrals. Having more reviews and consistently better reviews than your competitors will earn you business when potential clients find your website or read testimonials on Google, Facebook, Yelp, Avvo, and other sites.
Getting good reviews doesn’t happen by itself. And, as the California Supreme Court recently made clear, third-party websites are not obligated to help you maintain your reputation in the event of a negative review.3
In order to get satisfied clients to write about their experience with your law firm, start by providing excellent customer service and exceptional legal results.
A reviews and ratings management platform makes it easier for clients to post reviews and gives you the ability to send follow-up messages to clients politely asking them to leave a review. The message can include instructions on how to leave a review for select websites, enhancing your standing where prospective clients are most likely to find you. Reviews and ratings platforms also include the ability to receive notifications when reviews are posted, including when a client writes a negative review.
Google now prohibits a practice called “review gating” in which a customer with a negative experience is directed to send you an email. While this may discourage some law firms from asking for online reviews, that would be a mistake. If you provide quality legal results and a positive customer experience, you should encourage all clients to share their experiences. Ultimately, you will have many more positive reviews and generate more leads.
TIP: Even if a client is not satisfied with the experience at your law firm, he or she may decide not to post the review online if you respond diplomatically and offer to address the concerns. Create a plan with your office staff for how to handle negative reviews, including the messaging and who is responsible for handling the response.
3. CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
In the early days of digital marketing, many attorneys invested in a basic HTML website to represent their law firm online. HTML websites are static and difficult to maintain, not to mention unfriendly to mobile devices.
A content management system (CMS) makes it possible to update your web pages, write blog posts, and adjust call-to-action elements with a minimum of time and effort.
Drupal and WordPress are two of the leading content management systems. Instead of updating pages individually, a modern CMS has built in mobile-first capability and gives you, your office staff, and your marketing agency full control of individual web pages and your content as a whole. The CMS is a central hub that streamlines updates to your branding, linking, on-page optimization, and design.
TIP: Every CMS has a learning curve. Make sure your website developer trains you on how to log in to the CMS, how to write content, how to update content, and how to make other changes. Your agency may need to handle major updates to the website design and functionality, but training on the CMS will empower you to perform a host of on-site marketing activities independently.
CONCLUSION
Change is hard, and many attorneys find the pace of digital marketing difficult to weather without help. Investments in marketing technology are wise not only because they help you keep pace with the evolving marketing landscape, but provide an advantage for adapting to future changes.
In order to market your law firm effectively online, you need to communicate with prospective clients on the devices they use, provide proof of your success, and keep your web presence up to date. By investing in tools like a mobile-first website, a reviews and ratings platform, and a modern content management system, you will take the first steps toward setting your law firm up for success.
ENDNOTES
Dan Goldstein is a licensed attorney and the president and owner of Page 1 Solutions, LLC—a digital marketing agency serving attorneys and law firms, as well as doctors and dentists in private practice. He can be reached at dang@page1solutions.com. Adam Rowan is the content specialist at Page 1 Solutions, where he reviews, writes, edits, and optimizes content for attorney and law firm websites. Adam can be reached at adamr@page1solutions.com.