Will live in an increasingly digital world. From education to healthcare, from business to entertainment – everyone is moving shops on digital platforms, day by day. Do you know Bose company is closing all its retail stores in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia? Adapting to and embracing this digital shift can undoubtedly help businesses in the 21st century. And the legal field is no different. I will not be surprised if many law firms go entirely online in the nearer future. It is vital for the law firms to move online, and market themselves in the digital space. But are they specialised in digital marketing? How would they prepare their online marketing strategy? Most importantly, what are the most common mistakes law firms make with their online marketing strategy? In this post, I help you find answers to all the above questions.
Here I Share The Top 6 Most Common Mistakes That Law Firms Make With Their Online Marketing Strategy.
1. Following A Build & Park Approach
The first and most common mistake that most law firms tend to make in their online marketing strategies is to assume that the digital marketing effort will be a one-time effort and they will be able to reap its fruits for an extended period. Well, this fact may hold for the legal world. But, let me tell you that it is not how it works in the online world!
Any online marketing campaign requires constant nurturing and upkeep. Many times, I heard managing partners of law firm saying that we built this website two years ago, and we do not think that it requires more work. If you build a good website for your law firm and expect that it will generate more leads on its own without improvising, you will find disappointment. If you build the campaign once and then let it run for an extended period, it will gradually stop performing. Therefore, it is essential to perceive digital marketing as a full-time and continuous activity. The more actively you will run the digital campaigns, its benefits will start rising at an exponential pace!
2. Being Exclusive To One Social Media
From a legal industry perspective, one may perceive specific social media platforms to be more beneficial than the others. Well, that might be true to a certain extent. However, restricting your digital marketing efforts to a selected one social media platform is never a wise strategy. Social media is a reasonably dynamic place, and the behaviour of the netizen changes pretty fast. Given this fact, you never know where your target audience is unless you discover them!
Therefore, you must include enough social media platforms in the social media strategy of your law firm. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, BlogSpot, and more – all of these come under the category of social media. How much effort you should spend on which platform and what specialised strategy you have to develop for each, depends on the needs of your law firm. However, using multiple social media platforms is a good strategy.
3. Neglecting The Website Design
Many times, law firms tend to neglect the importance of the website design and go with a plain-looking non-interactive, and non-responsive design. Well, this is the biggest mistake you can make. Your website is the face of your law firm in the digital space. And mind it, the competition is great. So how are you able to stand out in the crowd, and get noticed? How are you able to catch and retain the attention of your prospective customer online? It is possible only and only through good website design.
Apart from the design, look, and feel of the website, as a law firm, you also need to focus on the structure and the technicalities of the law firm website. Working on this front will help you become discoverable by Google, and even play an important role in making you rise the ranks in the search engine results. As a result, more and more prospects will land up on your website, which is good for your firm! Do not forget the legalities too, as a part of SRA compliance; you will need to share company registration information, pricing information and SRA badge if you are regulated by SRA, these are mandatory compliance requirements. I have seen many SRA regulated law firms not following these.
4. Neglecting Quality And Quantity Of Content
When it comes to the digital space, content is the king. However, many law firms do not realise this. They tend to give more importance to either quality or quantity of content being shared online. Well, more often than not, it proves to be counter-productive. Compromising on the quality of the content is never a good idea, and you require enough content to share the right information to your prospects. I have seen websites which have barely 150-200 words on its service page, how can we expect that the prospects find the content helpful when they are looking for in-depth information on their legal matter.
The quality of your content is a direct indicator of the credibility of your brand, if you treat your prospect with the right amount of, high-quality content in a well-calibrated manner, it will leave a much deeper and long-lasting impact. Evidently, by focussing on both quality and quantity, you increase the chances of the success of your digital strategy many-fold.
5. Not Being Responsive Online
Digital, as against many might be believing, is not one-way traffic. It is very much two-way traffic, which involves interaction both from the firm’s side, as well as the client’s side. Therefore, it is important that you not only generate high-quality content but also interact with your target audience. Further, your brand needs to be responsive to this interaction and make the best of this opportunity.
6. Hiring An Agency With No Knowledge Of Legal Field
The final, and arguably a mistake that most law firms make, is to hire a digital marketing agency that has zero knowledge of the legal field. To run a digital campaign for any firm or organisation, it is important to understand and has a basic overview of that industry, if not more. Therefore, always look for a firm that has worked on projects with firms like yours, previously. This will save you a lot of trouble and make this digital endeavour a lot smoother and less time consuming for you!
Online marketing of a law firm can be managed nicely with the right strategy. It should be viewed as an ongoing and continuous process, with all social media channels in its fold. The focus should also be on building a good website, that attracts the clients. Further, the quality and quantity of digital content should never be compromised, apart from being responsive to your clients. And most importantly, online marketing of the law firm would be a lot easier if digital marketing expert who knows the legal field, involved in the process!
Let us know if we can be of any help, book Free Consultation with Lawyer’s Growth Partners.
