March 2019 Tech Tip - DIY and Professional Online Marketing: A Collaboration

by Dan Goldstein

At the start of a new year, attorneys and law firms take stock of what they are spending. On average, law firms spend slightly more than 2.5% of their revenue on marketing and business development.¹ Payroll, benefits, and operations are costs that are difficult to cut, so you might look at your marketing budget as a place to start reducing expenditures.

Law firms looking to limit their marketing budget might be tempted to end the relationship with their marketing agency and bring the work in-house. Before you take that step, it’s important to know the trade-offs of an unsupported DIY marketing strategy.

Here’s a look at some of the ways attorneys can handle their own marketing, as well as activities that you are best served entrusting to a marketing agency.

1. Website Design and Development

You’ve likely seen commercials for website builders like Wix, GoDaddy, and Weebly. Some are available for a low cost, and all of them advertise ease-of-use. With the savings and user-friendliness, you might be inclined to ask why your law firm needs a professionally developed and designed website when you can build and maintain it by yourself.

Commercial website builders and templates tend to be limited in their capabilities. You can design a basic website that reflects the branding of your law firm, but these tools offer limited options for optimizing your website for search engines, monitoring user activity on the site, and generating and tracking leads. While a WYSIWYG website builder works for some lawyers, most firms choose to partner with an agency on their website design.

2. Social Media Marketing

Like most people,² you are likely active on social media multiple times a day. Although it’s important to think of personal social media profiles differently than you would the firm’s profile, many attorneys do a great job of writing informative social posts for the firm that draw the attention of followers to important legal news, tell prospective clients about their practices, and forge a genuine connection with the online community.

When it comes to social media marketing, a divide-and-conquer approach might make sense. If you have both the time and interest, you should consider participating in your firm’s social media marketing. Your marketing agency can work with you to create a consistent voice for your law firm on social media. In addition, social media marketers can test the effectiveness of individual posts, overall engagement, and paid ad campaigns through audience analysis.³

It takes both a compelling voice and engaging content to stand out on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. As a result, marketing on social media provides an opportunity for attorneys and their marketing agencies to pool their expertise.

3. Videos

Online video consumption continues to see massive growth, particularly on mobile devices.⁴ The quality of online video varies greatly, and there is a place in legal marketing for both amateur and professional videos.

Users today do respond to quick, off-the-cuff clips; the popularity of short-form videos on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and others are a testament to this. Video testimonials from your clients, for example, may appear more authentic when captured on a smartphone instead of a professional-grade camera. However, you should ensure good lighting and sound quality when capturing this footage or it won’t be effective.

Smartphone cameras have come a long way, but they don’t capture video and especially audio the way professional-grade equipment does. Therefore, when developing a video strategy, it’s important to consider how you want to present your law firm. If you want to present a professional image in your video clips, you should invest in a quality digital camera, lighting, and audio equipment. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but if you rely exclusively on your smartphone, your video quality may suffer.

As with social media, attorneys and marketing agencies often achieve optimal results through a collaborative effort. Your marketing agency can recommend strategies for integrating videos (both self-shot and professionally produced) in multiple areas of your marketing, such as your website and social media profiles, as well as legal directories that allow you to post video.

Conclusion

Trying to handle all your digital marketing yourself is a daunting task. Some attorneys do excel at creating website, social media, and video content that reflects their voice and establishes the brand for their law firm. However, attorneys often find it difficult to manage their own marketing amid all the other items on their to-do lists. A marketing agency partnership does cost money. However, before you cut the expense of a professional marketing company, make sure you take the ROI into account. If your marketing brings you leads and cases that bolster your bottom line, remember the adage: “You have to spend money to make money.”

ENDNOTES

1. BTI Consulting Group, Law Firms to Add Big to Marketing Budgets in 2018 – Here’s How to Get Yours, BTI Consulting Group (Nov. 1, 2017), https://www.bticonsulting.com/themadclientist/law-firms-to-add-big-to-marketing-budgets-in-2018heres-how-to-get-yours.
2. Aaron Smith and Monica Anderson, Social Media Use in 2018, Pew Research Center (Mar. 1, 2018), http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/.
3. Jill Messinger, Snapshot: A Day in the Life of a Social Media Specialist, Page 1 Solutions (Oct. 10, 2018), https://www. page1solutions.com/blog/snapshot-a-day-in-the-life-of-a-social-media-specialist.html.
4. Average Daily Time Spent With Digital Video Content Among Adults in the United States as of 1st Quarter 2018, by device (in min­utes), Statista (July 2018), https://www.statista.com/statistics/420799/daily-digital- video-content-consumption-usa-device/.

 

Dan Goldstein is the president and owner of Page 1 Solutions, LLC, a digital marketing agency serving attorneys and law firms as well as doctors and dentists throughout North America. He is also a licensed attorney who has practiced in Washington, D.C. and Colorado. Dan is available via email at dang@page1solutions.com.