Legal Marketing in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
No one can deny that COVID-19 wreaked havoc throughout the US and global economy. Many businesses, to include some law firms, simply shuttered after decades of an otherwise successful run.
While devastating and unfortunate, not everyone was on the losing side of things in 2020. Amazon, for example, posted record profits, as did many other Tech giants such as Apple, Facebook, and Alphabet (the parent company of Google).
But it wasn’t just the Tech giants who thrived during this time. Internet usage skyrocketed around the globe by more than 70% from normal usage levels. So, those with robust digital marketing strategies remained strong or, more often than not – grew.
In fact, based on Laws101.com’s site traffic and the number of client leads we’ve referred to lawyers in 2020, this year has been a banner year in demand for legal services.
[Related: Top 10 Legal Practice Areas in Demand in 2020]
While the most dramatic increases in demand for legal services have been in family law, criminal defense, bad faith insurance claims, and personal injury matters, Laws101.com saw a stark increase in client demand for lawyers across every legal practice area. So, if you’re wondering how to attract these clients to your firm, then read on.
Business as Usual Post-COVID-19?
You might think that once the worst of COVID-19 blows over, life will resume to “normal”. In some ways this may be true, but as it pertains to reaching new clients, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
In 2020, many companies adopted work-from-home policies and realized less cost without diminished productivity. Because of this, a good number of these companies have announced their plans to permanently adopt flexible work policies post-pandemic. And a giant swath of Americans have already welcomed and adopted new behaviors regarding how they expect goods and services to be available to them now and in the future.
If anything, COVID-19 only served as a catalyst for the inevitable – a global adoption to obtain goods and services in a more efficient fashion via the internet. So, when it comes to client acquisition, internet marketing will remain more important than ever and should comprise the very core of your law firm’s overall marketing strategy.
Law Firm Digital Marketing Essentials
Law firm websites and Google Ad (PPC) campaigns are popular methods of online advertising within the legal industry but are often executed poorly and, in the case of PPC campaigns, can get quite expensive for minimal results.
Whether your firm is new or old, large or small, there are at least three things your digital marketing strategy should include to yield more clients for less money, in less time.
1. Create a Law Firm Website
Believe it or not, there are a surprising number of lawyers who do not have a website for their law practice. If you fall into this category, fix this ASAP. No matter what other client acquisition strategies you have in place, having your own law firm website acts as the central hub for all of your marketing activities.
Additionally, your website is the only property you truly own in the digital world which allows you to tailor the entire user experience to your liking. And if you’ve ever dreamed of acquiring a steady stream of organic client traffic to your firm via SEO, you’re going to need a website to do it.
2. List Your Firm on Lawyer Directory Sites
There are at least two very solid reasons that creating listings in directory sites should be part of your digital marketing strategy:
- It’s fast and easy to implement. Building high-quality organic traffic to your website through SEO takes time and expertise. Most online lawyer directories already attract an organic audience of people seeking legal services; therefore, they are some of the most inexpensive ways to attract organic referral traffic to your business while your own website is being built (or is developing its own organic traffic). Laws 101 offers free lawyer directory listings for new users so there’s no reason not to take advantage of this type of powerful digital marketing resource.
- It improves your own website’s SEO. Listing your business in local or niche directories plays an important role in local SEO performance. At a minimum, list your name, address and phone number (this is what’s referred to as a NAP listing in SEO parlance) and make sure that if this information changes in the future that you also reflect those changes in your directory listing(s).
3. Leverage Social Technology
People looking for legal help seldom make a snap decision when choosing a lawyer. That means they’re shopping around and looking for reasons why you may be a better or worse choice than another lawyer out there. Think about how important online customer reviews are for any business. This gives you an idea of what social influence is all about.
Lawyers are quick to create social media profiles, but fall flat on leveraging the purpose of social tech. The point of social technology is to be interactive with your audience and incite this phenomenon of social influence.
[Related: The Top 5 Mistakes Lawyers Make Online]
Social technology also allows you to engage and influence an audience in real time. There are a myriad of chat platforms that you can leverage to engage your potential clients as they shop around for a lawyer. You can integrate or embed these types of features onto your website or use platforms that already offer chat functions.
Whatever you do, just make sure to remember that a human being is on the other side of that screen…hoping that you’re also human.
When in Doubt, Pick Speed
If all of this seems overwhelming, start with what’s manageable within your time and budget. The great news is that each of the above items can be done for little to no cost. However, if executed well, these efforts can yield far greater results than much more expensive options out there while placing you in a strong position in the current and post-COVID era.
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