One thing typically in common with the most successful law firms is that you know exactly who they are. Unfortunately however, having a strong law firm brand commonly goes overlooked or approached without a solid plan.
If you want to stand out in a saturated market and attract more of the BEST cases then you need to stand out. This is your law firm’s brand.
This billboard would be unlikely to attract the best clients and cases.
Let’s dive a little deeper. Simply put, your law firm brand is the sum of every interaction someone has with your company. Whether that interaction is online or offline their experience with your firm is what your brand represents. A brand is much more than just a logo or a font.
According to OpenAI a law firm brand is recognized as the process of creating a unique and consistent identity for a law firm. This includes developing a name, logo, and overall visual aesthetic for the firm, as well as defining its key values, mission, and areas of expertise.
The goal of law firm branding is to differentiate the firm from its competitors and establish a strong and recognizable presence in the legal industry. By creating a consistent and professional image, a law firm can attract clients, build trust, and establish credibility in its field.
The firms that execute a brand strategy very well will be recognized as the go to authority in their market for their primary practice areas. It’s hard to be recognized as a jack of all trades but easier to be recognized as a subject matter expert. That’s why we typically find that the most successful brands niche in as far as they can.
At Juris Digital we believe in being very intentional about brand building. One example that comes to mind here is Law Firm website design. Sometimes due to marketing deadlines or goals people want to push their websites to completion as fast as possible. However we have seen that the firms that do the opposite and put more time into unique page designs for each practice area with specific pain points and calls to action see much higher ROI’s. The difference between at $5,000 website and a $50,000 website designed with intent is the difference between that $20K value case and the $4 million dollar case.
All of your firm’s branding should be focused on attracting the ideal clients from your target audience instead of worrying about what the competition is doing.
Here are some attorney branding examples:
Great law firms and attorneys are recognizable. Think about it. When potential clients are making a decision on who to hire they might be asking their friends or family, they might be doing an online search, or they might find you in the yellow pages. Wherever they find you they’re more likely to use you if they’ve heard of you or seen you before.
The chances are you haven’t had as many high profile cases that have garnered media attention that you want. Those are when your brand can really take off. But even small brand message & impressions make a difference.
Have you heard of the rule of seven? From a marketing perspective the definition is: In marketing, the rule of 7 states that your prospects need to come across your offer at least 7 times before they will take action or purchase what you’re selling.
With the internet that number might be 70+ depending on how potential clients are looking. The fact remains that a consumer may need to see your brand multiple times before they decide to click on your website or use your services. From this alone it makes sense to have a recognizable brand. And did you know that through internet marketing you can easily convey these impressions? That you can get in front of your clients time and time again?
Your goal while building something to last is to build something memorable. You want your clients to think with the mindset of term branding. Instead of “I need a criminal defense lawyer”, I need “Johnny Cochran”.
At Juris digital our team knows that having a strong brand is more than having flashy business cards and marketing materials. Your firm’s brand should encompass your personality and all elements of your marketing including content marketing and brand promises should be consistent.
According to AYTL, “By definition, brand strategy is a long-term plan for the development of a successful brand in order to achieve specific goals. A well-defined and executed brand strategy affects all aspects of a business and is directly connected to consumer needs, emotions, and competitive environments.” (AYTM) Basically you want to look good in front of your audience.
A brand strategy is not just your logo or firm video, tag, or marker. It’s your brand story, how you look, how you feel, and how you stand out from everyone else in your marketplace. I want to put heavy emphasis on your story. This is your firm and it needs to represent your work and achievements. Are you really different?
Recently I asked a personal injury attorney what set his firm apart from the others and his answer included these things:
Two out of those three are pretty common between anyone in the personal injury field. It’s not different. Having a winning success record that’s verifiable (check with your state BAR on advertising regulations), is a start.
I hope the above article helps to paint a basic outline of why you need a brand strategy. Time and time again the most successful clients we have are the ones who adopt this philosophy, listen to it, and grow their firm. Your brand isn’t limited to just your online or offline advertising.
A law firm’s branding is every interaction someone has with your firm. Whether that be a phone call, a comment posted on a message board, a client review, or a logo, they will have an impression about your brand based on that interaction. Think about this when you think about how your clients and potential clients interact with your firm.
Here are some law firm branding strategies for traditional media:
Here are some of the benefits on strong law firms brands
There are several challenges that can arise when it comes to lawyer branding. Some of the most common challenges include:
There are several ways to measure the success of law firm branding strategies. Some of the key metrics to consider include:
By tracking these metrics, you can gain a better understanding of how effective your law firm branding strategies are and make any necessary adjustments.
Does your law firm have a brand strategy?
In 2023 the short answer is that if your budget allows for it, you should engage in both paid search options such as Google Ads, LSA’s, & retargeting. But you also need to focus on a strong local and organic presence as the ROI on these channels will be much greater.
Which one is better depends specifically on your goals but 9/10 it makes sense to focus on an organic free click strategy first (unless speed is an issue).
When it comes to digital marketing there are essentially two main areas of focus of how to market or advertise yourself online. These are SEO and PPC. Let’s look at each individually in greater detail below:
With search engine optimization you focus your efforts on local and organic results. These are the free clicks you get in Google. The free clicks in Google happen in 3 pack, local pack, maps results, and organic search results. If you rank here for keywords relevant to your practice areas or services you will get clicks for free which can then turn into new clients for your firm.
An example of the local results are shown below:
The free clicks vary greatly from Google’s paid products such as Google Ads or Local Services ads which are a pay for each click or pay by lead model.
With Google Ads you have the option to either pay per click (Google Ads) or pay per lead (Google Local Services Ads).
The biggest problem with this type of advertising for attorneys is that it’s typically cost prohibitive. For example a click for “Car Accident Lawyer” could cost hundreds of dollars just for the click (not a new case, just a website visit). For firms that need a lot of leads or a lot of cases you can see why this can quickly becoming a scaling issue.
The best strategy for your law firm will depend on your budget, time, and goals. To make the best decision it’s important that you understand the pros and cons of each strategy. Let’s look at this below:
Search engine optimization is any action that you take to improve your organic listings within the major search engines, especially Google. Google controls over 60% of the total traffic on the Internet.
All three major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing, together with control around 70% of all traffic on the Internet.
Organic page 1 results on Google receive 90% of the clicks for all online pages competing for that keyword. Below is quick video explaining the different type of search results in Google.
Needless to say, it is essentially important for your online visibility to be included in Google search results.
Organic search results appear in Google down the center of the page. Organic search results have exponentially more value to the average viewer, especially in terms of the legal industry. This is because organic listings are trusted far more than paid advertisements.
An example of organic search results are below:
You cannot pay for a placement in organic listings. Your position in organic search rankings is determined completely by the internal algorithms of the major search engines.
They choose your placement based on how relevant they think your content is to the keywords and topics that you have chosen. Because we are talking specifically about the legal industry, your content must relate to your legal specialties. It may also help if you localize your content to your surrounding area.
There are many ways to improve your search engine ranking. Although there is no set strategy, you should go over all of the techniques below to try to maximize your organic visibility within Google and the other major search engines. The same tactics work for niche-oriented search engines as well.
Fast loading, responsive mobile websites are visited much more often by the major search engines than slower websites. In most cases, law firms will start a blog or a syndicated newsfeed in order to keep their site updated with content your potential clients are most interested in.
In short, the more relevant your website is to your niche, the higher it will go in major search engine listings.
Keywords that are specialized and localized will give you a more highly qualified audience. For instance, if you are doing personal injury law, there is no reason for anyone looking for a criminal lawyer to view your pages.
All of your content, from the pictures on your homepage to the blogs you write each day, should focus on the topics that you specialize in.
Unless you are taking cases from different geographic regions, your audience will be comprised mostly of people who can visit your physical location.
The major search engines also reward law firms that have a foothold in their local jurisdiction. If you try to create a wide net marketing strategy to capture a general audience, not only will you have less qualified traffic, but you will also be punished in major search engine rankings.
Google still relies on links from other websites pointing to your own as a vote of confidence. By earning links from local news sources, local websites, and legal related websites you can help skyrocket the authority of your website in Google search rankings. Check out our link building guide for tips on how to earn more links.
You do not need to fill your website with an overload of information. If a website seems cluttered to the human eye, then it is likely confusing to the major search engines as well.
Make sure that you have white space in your display and that you stay specific in your content. Resist the temptation to add all kinds of third-party apps just because they are the latest thing in the market.
While Google uses hundreds of different ranking factors to determine where a website should rank, this is a starting place to make sure you’re doing the right things for your firm.
If you follow these tips and continue to build your presence and authority, then you should see your website begin to appear in the organic search listings for the keywords that you have chosen. You may have to hire a search engine optimization specialist for this to work because you will likely have competition even within your specialty.
Pay per click is another way to get your website on the major search engines. However, this is paid to advertise. These listings show up around the organic search listings. Pay per click ads and organic search listings are never mixed together. An example of pay per click results with the “ad” box is below:
In certain cases, these listings have an advantageous place over organic listings. For instance, if you are willing to pay top dollar for a certain keyword, your paid advertisements can actually appear above organic search listings on Google, giving them above the fold priority when people search for a law firm in your area.
The term paper click refers to the fact that you do not have to pay for every impression. An impression simply means that your ad showed up in front of a user as they conducted a search on one of the major search engines. However, you do not actually pay for that listing until that user performs what is known as a “clickthrough.” This simply means that they click on your ad and the link that you have connected to that ad takes them to your website.
Once the Internet user clicks through to your website, you will pay for the impression. The amount of money that you pay depends on the competition that is taking place for that keyword and location.
In order to have your ad appear at all, you will need to bid for certain keywords. If you have a great deal of competition in your area, then the bid price will likely be higher than if the competition was low. More popular keywords will usually get paid on by more law firms as well. In order to gain visibility in search listings here, you will need to outbid enough of the competitors to receive priority.
This, of course, means that you must be strategic in the keywords that you pick. However, the landscape may change more quickly than it would for organic search listings. Once people realize that you are getting traction for a particular keyword, they may enter the market for that keyword. Because all they have to do is outbid you, they can quickly supplant you when it comes to visibility. This is what makes pay per click advertising a more short-term strategy in most cases when compared to search engine optimization.
However, there are a few strategies that you can employ to maximize your use of paper click advertising. We will go over a few of them in the text below.
This can be a tricky practice, as you still want to compete for keywords that are relevant to your general areas of practice. However, a bit of savvy research can help you here, and experience is always the best teacher. If you have a specialty that none of your local competitors is able to compete with, then you have a definite advantage when it comes to your pay per click keywords as well.
Once you see there is too much competition for a particular keyword, you can quickly move onto another keyword that you have already identified. Doing this will keep your competitors on their toes, forcing them to pay more for their keywords while you move ahead to keywords that are less stringent on your budget. You can use local news cycles to see what people are looking up. That is one advantage of a paper click advertising campaign – it can be changed on the spur of the moment, ensuring that your campaign is always in line with real-time events.
Paper click advertising is not all about how much money you can spend for a particular keyword. If you have a more compelling headline than your competitors, then you will receive more attention from people who are looking for lawyers in your specialty. Make sure that the introduction text that you have in your headline speaks directly to the issues that your potential clients are dealing with.
Paper click ads are generally perceived as less trustworthy, meaning that there is always a measure of personal trust that goes into each click that a user makes. If you have a better reputation in your area than your competitors, then you may be able to use that to generate more attention to your advertisements.
No matter which strategy your law firm employees, it is very important to understand the importance of localization. Becoming known to a local audience is not only important for short-term sales, but it is also important for long-term trust as well, especially for law firms.
The major search engines have taken great pains to reward companies that focus their attention on the local market rather than trying to overstep their natural boundaries and market to a bigger audience than they should.
Any online marketer worth his or her salt will tell you this up front – if you want to go global, go local.
Search engine optimization and pay per click advertising are meant to be used in tandem. As mentioned before, search engine optimization is a more long-term strategy.
Pay per click advertising is more flexible, but it is a short-term strategy for most law firms. The two strategies can be used alongside each other to help each other out. Here are some of the techniques that you might want to employ.
If you are unsure of how a keyword will perform and you do not want to commit to it over the long term, you can test it by using a paper click advertisement based on the keyword you’re interested in.
You can then amass real data that will allow you to determine quantitatively how it would perform in a long stretch. If you find a keyword that does perform well, then you can base blogs and other content around it, raising your value in organic listings for that keyword in the major search engines.
In short, you are using the short-term strategy to bolster your long-term strategy. As long as you keep people coming to your webpage, the major search engines will assume that your customers deem that page trustworthy. Clicks that come from short-term advertisements will raise the visibility of that webpage in organic listings.
You can also use pay per click advertisements if you have a seasonal sale. The beauty of paper click is that you can scale it up or down depending on your needs at the time.
If you know that you are in a slow season, you can cut back and save that budget for other things around the office. If you know that your competition is about to ramp up for a busy season, you can then redirect those funds back into an advertising effort. You can also take funds that you would not be using for a paper click campaign and move them into a campaign for search engine optimization.
Is very important that you understand how you can actually use the money to bolster your organic listings. Many law firms will hire copywriters to build out a blog based on a certain keyword. Although the writers are only paid once, the attention those blogs receive (as long as they are well written) will keep a page in the major search engine listings for a long time.
You can also hire professional help to optimize the page so that the major search engines will trust it more. There are certain coding techniques that you can employ to increase site speed and the organization of the website backend. If the major search engines see that your website is more organized than the average website, it will be listed in a more advantageous position in organic listings.
It can be difficult to tell which strategy you should use in your own public-facing efforts, or if you should use both of these strategies at the same time.
There are many different aspects that you should consider. The most important of these will be listed below.
Although your budget is listed here first, it should actually be the third or fourth thing on your list. Search engine optimization and pay per click advertising are both proven methods that both bring back a high ROI if they are implemented appropriately. Under the circumstances, it is really not a question of how much to spend, but more how to spend the budget appropriately to create a positive net cash flow.
Law Firm SEO can take from six months to a year to generate results where as pay per click can happen right away.
Firms that are trying to make names for themselves may want to invest in more long-term advertising in order to build a reputation within the local community. It is very important at the beginning of any marketing campaign to be as ubiquitous as possible.
If a law firm does not have the budget for both a search engine optimization and paper click campaign, most firms go with the search engine optimization option first. Short-term sales are definitely tempting, but they do not build the reputation that most legal entities need to have in order to survive in a highly competitive marketplace.
A law firm should also consider the time that has to put into an online marketing effort. If it does not have a lot of time, then it may want to employ a paper click campaign in order to take advantage of the time it does have most advantageously. If there is no one in-house to manage a long-term campaign, then a short-term paper click advertising campaign may be the only thing that is viable.
It is also possible to hire professionals for both types of campaigns. Many third-party marketing specialists have the ability to create interwoven campaigns that combine the advantages of both SEO and PPC.
Online marketing does not have to be your core competency in order for you to invoke an aggressive and successful campaign for your law firm online. There are many professionals who will help you create a strategy that will work in the short and long-term.
However, there are also many bad options as well. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of a good online marketing firm.
First of all, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There is no technique that can take you to the top of Google organic listings in a week. Any online marketing company that claims to be able to do this is lying. They are probably using underhanded techniques that will get your site banned from Google after a short time.
It is also incredibly easy to vet online marketing companies – simply look at how they are performing in online search results! If they do not even have the expertise to bring their own name up, there is no way that they will be able to help you do that either.
Finally, look for an online marketing firm that speaks your language. Online marketing is not your core competency, nor should it have to be. The secret to a positive relationship with an online marketing firm is communications. They should be able to explain to you exactly what they are doing in language that you can easily understand. If they cannot do this, then you should move on, no matter how good their portfolio may be. A partnership with an online marketing firm is a long-term commitment, and you need to deal with people who understand you.
Use the tips above to get your law firm started on the right track in your online marketing efforts. Whether you choose to focus more of your time on search engine optimization or a pay per click strategy is up to you, but you should always keep your ear to your analytics in order to determine the best strategy for the future.
Keep in mind that your market will always change based on new competition and the rule set that the major search engines invoke on the marketplace. You should always look to new strategies so that you can stay on the cutting edge of what works in the legal industry. The basics may stay the same, but the details will always change. Come back to this text as a reminder on how to use SEO and PPC from a fundamental standpoint, but always look to educate yourself on the latest happenings in the online space.
By this day and age, most attorneys know that having an active social media presence is a must in order to stay competitive and connect with past, present, and future clients.
However, fewer attorneys understand how to develop and sustain effective social media in the long-term that will result in strong client connections, an expanded community connected with your firm, and, ultimately, more and better business.
In this post, we will make certain that you will never run out of exciting, diverse, and effective posts for your social media platforms, including Tik Tok, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
1. Share client tips: While you want to avoid giving specific legal advice online, lending a hand to your audience with some general advice is helpful and educational. Give your audience tips that they can use regarding the general issues surrounding your practice areas. For example, a divorce attorney might share tips about dividing assets, considering mediation, or even deciding who gets to keep the family dog.
2. Post breaking news: Act as a news source by sharing current events, developing legal issues, and providing relevant and interesting stories pertaining to your specific law firm and practice areas. To be sure that you are in the loop, set up Google Alerts for keywords that pertain to your practice and keep an eye on the news. For example, a personal injury attorney who takes workers’ comp cases might post news stories about a local construction accident or a local company getting fined for safety regulations.
3. Post opinion pieces: Share opinion articles from thought leaders in the legal world about breaking news, giving your followers a deeper understanding of key issues. In addition, consider sharing your own opinions by linking to original blog posts on your website. Just be sure when posting opinions to stay away from very controversial issues (such as religion) and to avoid alienating large groups of people who could be offended by your stance or the stance you present. You don’t want to make enemies with potential clients.
4. Share industry research: People love to read the results of new and interesting studies. Dig deep into academic journals and research organizations’ archives to find relevant research. The research or study results don’t always have to be new – some research doesn’t get the immediate publicity it deserves. For example, a business attorney might post about a new study about the current success rate of mergers and acquisitions.
5. Post helpful content excerpts: Tease your audience’s curiosity by sharing informative passages or statistics from your website copy or content. Not only is this a great way to drive web traffic coming in from social media outlets, it is also a great way to get extra bang from the content that you are posting on your law firm’s website.
6. Share podcasts: Take advantage of the podcast craze by linking to your favorite industry-related episodes or even creating your own. Giving your social media followers an option to listen to content rather than read it will attract a certain portion of the community that prefers audio over visual, increasing your overall audience. Podcasts are also an excellent way of educating your users so that they are easier to work with as clients.
7. Post quotes: Humorous, inspiring or motivational quotes always perform well on social media and may be shared far and wide by your users, increasing your social media audience. You should make sure that your quotes are at least related to legal issues or your practice areas–consider quoting famous attorneys or choosing quotes that are significant to the kind of cases you take. For example, a bankruptcy attorney could choose quotes about finances, happiness without money, or starting over.
8. Share fill-in-the-blank posts: These posts (e.g. “If I had $1 million I would _________”) encourage participation, interaction, and thought. They can also be very fun for readers. While it is always good to include a legal angle in your post, don’t be afraid to get creative. For example, a business attorney might try: “In 2017, I am going to grow my business by _________.”
9. Create polls: Much like fill-in-the-blank posts, polls are a great way of getting your users to chime in with their own thoughts and opinions. A few social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, make it extremely easy to create polls with just a few clicks. Think of a poll with an angle related to the law or your practice, and you are ready to go!
10. Post behind-the-scenes photos: Take candid shots of yourself, your legal team, or casual shots from inside of your law office. These non-professional photos can make you seem much more real and much less intimidating to potential clients who truly need to feel comfortable before picking up the phone and calling your number. Be sure to pair the photos with short, informative, and fun captions.
11. Share statistics or data: Share new, relevant statistics regarding legal issues or issues related to your practice areas. These short, informative posts often perform well, especially if you make the statistics or facts stand out by creating a meme or infographic. For example, a car accident attorney may present a pie graph breaking down the top causes for fatal traffic accidents in his or her state.
12. Share links to an old blog post: Recycling isn’t just for tin cans. There’s nothing wrong with recycling old blog posts from your website as long as they are still relevant. Recycling past posts extends their lives by giving them new engagement–and it also makes your content marketing dollars go farther.
13. Post links to ebooks: Social media is an excellent place to promote e-books–both those that you have written and relevant ones that would be of interest to your readers. To gather the best information about your users, put the e-books behind opt-in forms. When offering e-books to readers via a social media post, be sure to include a short summary in your post that outlines why the book is important and what the reader will gain from it.
14. Create educational article compilations: Collect informative articles and present them in a single page for your followers’ convenience using a convenient app like paper.li. Be sure to tag and credit the authors. For example, if you are a maritime law attorney, consider building a resource that lists the most useful articles dealing with the Jones Act, all in one place, that you can post for interested clients.
15. Run a themed post series: Run a collection of related posts over a set period to keep followers tuned into your major social accounts. Pick a theme for a week or a month and plan out interesting pieces of content (either created by you or curated) and post them intermittently. For example, a bankruptcy attorney might pick the theme of Chapter 13 bankruptcy one month and the theme of rebuilding credit after bankruptcy the next. Your themed content could include blog posts, statistics, ebooks, infographics, photos, news stories, article lists, and more.
16. Run recurring weekly posts: Create posts under a common theme to share at the same time each week and complement them with a catchy hashtag. For example, each week you may choose to profile an employee, answer a frequently asked question, or post a picture from around your office.
17. Create weekly round-ups: Reshare the week’s most successful content each Friday, giving users who didn’t see your best posts another chance to click and engage. It’s important to remember that especially on more popular social media websites like Twitter, content can get lost in minutes under the constant flood of tweets. Weekly round-up posts can make sure that a greater number of your followers get a chance to see your content.
18. Post questions: Pose simple, basic questions that your followers can answer quickly. Question posts should mostly be relevant to your clients and practice areas, and they should always involve short one-sentence or one-word answers. For example, a divorce attorney might ask, “Did you keep your wedding ring after your divorce–and why or why not?”
19. Link to a guest post: Share or re-share a link to a post you contributed to another site. Be sure to give the background behind the post–and to give a nod and tag to the site where your guest post is featured. Linking to guest posts not only help establish you as a skilled and knowledgeable attorney in your area, it also helps strengthen your general authority.
20. Post a branded image: Post an inspirational image with your logo or website address on it. Don’t be afraid to get creative. Pair your logo with any number of words or images, including an inspirational quote, statistics about your case, results, or a picture of your legal team. It is so important that your social media community is familiar with your brand, and posting a branded image is a great strategy to remind them of it.
21. Share an infographic: Find an infographic your followers would appreciate, or, even better, make one yourself to share. Infographics that are well-designed and that contain lots of educational material will be shared far and wide, so don’t forget to include your logo and your website information on the graphic if you are creating it yourself. For example, a Social Security disability attorney may create an infographic explaining the Social Security disability benefits for those suffering from cancer.
22. Post a photo: Sometimes, all you need is a simple and striking visual. Get creative: while photos of employees and your office are nice, you can also post photos that simply convey the feeling behind your brand. For instance, coffee giant Starbucks shares photos on Instagram that associate their brand with sunshine, warmth, and good friends, not just beverages.
23. Link to a controversial blog post: There’s nothing better for eliciting engagement than a little controversy. Link to a blog post related to your practice areas that is getting attention and ask your audience for their opinion. Just be sure not to take sides yourself (in most cases) lest you offend half of your audience. Also be sure to check your social media comments for inappropriate language and other issues.
24. Ask for input on your business: Your followers will love giving their thoughts on how to improve your legal services and they will also love that you are open and ready to receive their ideas. Ask them about specific ways to improve your business, possibly with a poll or questionnaire. Or consider focusing your query on a single question, such as, “How could we be more attentive to your needs during your case?”
25. Share from Pinterest and Instagram: Pinterest and Instagram are a goldmine in terms of finding beautiful images you can share, such as images and quotes. Just be sure to give proper credit and just be sure to keep things relevant to your clients in the majority of your posts. Remember that you can cross-post on social media platforms: you can share Pinterest pictures on Facebook or Instagram photos on Twitter, for example.
26. Share a helpful resource: If you’re truly concerned about sharing the most useful info with your followers, don’t be afraid to direct them to other people’s valuable content, not just your own. Of course, be sure to share accurate, up-to-date resources from reputable sites, such as non-profit organizations, government agencies, and educational websites. Always avoid sharing resources posted by the competition, too. A good example of a helpful resource would be sharing information about the red flags of nursing home abuse from a non-profit, for your nursing home abuse and neglect clients.
27. Post a SlideShare presentation: Slideshare is a service provided by LinkedIn that allows users to share slideshows with others. Feel free to create and post your own Slideshare presentations or to find one that is already useful and popular. To look for currently popular slideshows, go to the ‘Trending in Social Media’ section at the bottom of the Slideshare homepage. To find relevant presentations, search your favorite keywords.
28. Link to a case study: Case studies are great for delivering useful info in a way that’s often more palatable and actionable than a standard blog post. As with other types of posts, consider both linking to case studies that you find online and creating your own case studies to share with your audience. When writing legal case studies, be sure to do so for a general audience, avoiding too much legalese, dense writing, or complex information.
29. Ask for reviews or testimonials: Eliciting reviews and testimonials from fans or followers is one of the best ways to get testimonials that you can use as social proof on your website. Consider posting a link to your review page on AVVO or Google+, along with a short message asking your followers to say a few words about their experience working with you. Just be aware that some review sites, such as Yelp, may penalize you if too many people review your law firm on the same day.
#TestimonialTuesday: You can never go wrong with this post, all it does is further instill trust in your audience. If you have video testimonials even shot from an iPhone it will make it more authentic and increase your engagement even more.
30. Recommend a tool: Share a preferably free tool or app that you think your followers would find useful. There are a multitude of useful apps that relate to almost all practice areas; for example, tax attorneys may consider sharing an app that tracks business expenses, while car accident attorneys could share an app that walks you through what to do after a traffic collision.
31. Share a favorite book: Offer a book recommendation your fans or followers would appreciate and one that is relevant to your practice in some way. Link to a place to purchase or download the book, and post a short review that explains why you think it would be enjoyable or helpful. Great creative: you don’t always have to share straight, dry resources or even non-fiction.
32. Share a day in the life post: Give a recap of a typical day in the life of one of your attorneys or someone else on your legal team, such as a paralegal or administrative assistant. Add pictures, make a slideshow, or post statistics to increase interest. You could also link to the person’s bio page or LinkedIn profile.
33. Recommend your favorite products: Share a list of the products that help you succeed in your law office, from something as small as your favorite pen for taking notes during trial to a type of software you use to organize your office and cases.
34. Link to your most popular blog post: Give a brief intro to the post to explain why it’s your most read and shared post as well as a little background information, such as when it was originally published and who wrote it. These posts can help your content go viral all over again.
35. Provide a business recommendation: Share the love by recommending a business you’ve worked with successfully in the past. This can be anything from a transcription service or another law office to a favorite restaurant that delivers lunch to the office each Friday. You might be surprised at how often the businesses you boost respond to your post by posting about your law firm, helping to grow your authority and your audience.
36. Share a work/life balance tip: Your social media followers want to know you’re a real person with the same struggles as they have. Share a tip you’ve learned for balancing work, life and family, such as how to keep your work at the office on the weekends or how to make sure you make all of your kids’ baseball games. These tips are meaningful coming from an attorney, who clients know works hard and faces long hours.
37. Ask for advice: Pose a hypothetical question and ask your followers what they would do in that situation. These are great opportunities to get your audience to participate on your page as well as great opportunities to educate and explore ideas. Your questions can and should absolutely have a legal angle – you can even discuss a recent case that has been in the news.
38. Take a trip down memory lane: Share photos of old logos, websites, or headshots. These posts can be either funny or introspective. In the written portion of the post, think about how far you’ve come, your accomplishments, and where you want your law firm to head in the future.
39. Share posts that show you’re a real person: While you want to remain professional, you also want to show your human side from time to time. While personal posts should be rare, it is a great idea to occasionally share part of your life, whether it is a great book you are reading, a fun weekend plan, a hobby, or a picture you took while on a hike.
40. Share popular Reddit topic: Reddit is a great place to find interesting content and conversations. Visit Reddit’s Trending Subreddit page to find popular and trending topics to post about that relate to your practice and practice areas. Just be sure to read the threads carefully to check for appropriateness, and adding a disclaimer that Reddit’s opinions are not necessarily your own is always a good idea.
41. Recommend someone else to follow on social media: Share a link to someone else’s social media profile and encourage your fans to ‘like’ or follow them. For example, on Twitter, “Follow Friday” encourages everyone to recommend someone to follow. Not only will your audience appreciate the guidance, you may be surprised how many people you recommend return the favor and recommend your social media profile to their own followers.
42. Share a Pinterest board: If your customers are on Pinterest (hint: if one of your demgraphics is educated, high-income females, they probably are), share a Pinterest board via Facebook or Twitter. Pinterest used to be focused solely on topics like fashion and crafts, but now the social media platform is filled with a hugely diverse amount of content. Create a board that helps your clients in some way, or share a board that someone else has created that is relevant to your practice.
43. Share a comic or meme: Getting your customers to laugh with you is a great way to start building relationships. Sharing a humorous meme, comic strip, picture, quote, or video can help you connect to past, current, and future clients. While it is okay to share humorous links that don’t have to do with law, you should keep unrelated posts to a minimum. There is plenty of funny material related to attorneys and your practice areas once you start to look.
44. Post a video testimonial: Share a video review or testimonial so that your social media followers can see a real person talking about your skills and expertise. Video reviews are a great alternative to written reviews and often catch the notice of slightly younger users. Also consider making a post in which you request former clients to submit a video review.
45. Recommend a colleague on LinkedIn: Encourage your connections to reach out to someone who acts as a valuable resource for your business. In your post, be sure to outline why you recommend your colleague, how you did business with them, and what their best skills and attributes are. You can expect that at least some of the people that you recommend will recommend you back.
46. Hold a photo contest: Ask for photo submissions based on a theme and then get your fans to vote. When you have the results, share the winning photos in a new post. Your photo contest could have a local theme or a theme related to the law in some cases. For added interest, offer a small prize from a local business for the winner.
47. Share a trending Twitter topic: Search Twitter hashtags and trending topics to find content that’s currently popular. Be sure to specifically search for topics that will be of interest to your clients and and that are appropriate for your firm. For example, an estate planning attorney might want to share content about a celebrity death that involved a will or trust.
48. Hold a debate: Starting a debate on social media, by asking a question or presenting two sides of an issue, is an excellent way to get lots of users to participate as well as an excellent way to expose new users to your feed. Make certain to stay on top of the thread and curate it closely so that it stays civil and professional. Delete any comments that are inappropriate or incendiary.
49. Hold a ‘caption this’ contest: Post a photo and ask your fans to come up with creative or funny captions. Your caption contest doesn’t necessarily have to do with the law or legal issues, but it is a nice touch if it is relevant.
50. Post a YouTube video: Video is an increasingly wonderful way to connect with users, especially those in the younger generations. You can either post your own videos (that share legal advice or introduce your legal team) or you can post a video that has been created by someone else–just be sure to give them credit. Pair your post with a good description of the video so that your audience is interested enough to watch.
51. Tag a Facebook page: Generate some good karma by helping to promote another business or organization. For example, you might promote a non-profit that your office contributes to or a business that works with yours. Don’t just post their page–make sure that it is paired with a good description of who they are, what they do, and why you like them.
52. Share holidays: Wish your followers happy holidays, from the big ones like Independence Day and Christmas to the fun ones, like Grandparents Day and Groundhog Day. Pair your good wishes with a photo or a video for added interest–and try to be inclusive of different cultures, countries, and religions.
53. Share and ask for predictions: Make a prediction about a legal case that is in the news, something related to one of your practice areas, or even something off-topic, like the outcome of a big local football game. These posts can be fun and informative, and by asking your users to participate as well, they can generate a lot of interest and views.
54. Answer questions: Let your users ask you anything. They might want to know about how you do your job, what your favorite case was, or where you went to high school. Be wary of giving specific legal advice on these threads, or getting too personal. But other than that, have fun and don’t be afraid to show your knowledge and show your personality.
55. Post a controversial view: Some of the most popular social media posts are the ones that rustle a few feathers. By posting something slightly controversial, you will generate great conversation and perhaps lots of likes and shares. Tread carefully: you do not want to post something offensive or unprofessional and you do not want to post an idea that you can’t back up with facts.
56. Use Facebook’s trending topics for content ideas: Facebook offers users a number of trending topics of different types, including one for politics and one for entertainment. Scan these trending topics for anything that is relevant to your users or practice. Don’t post about just anything–curate your content carefully for the best results.
57. Profile an employee: Let your followers know they’re dealing with real people by sharing lots of information about one of your team members. Remember to include both professional and personal information in the profile and remember not to limit your profiles to attorneys–put the spotlight on everyone from your top partners to your paralegals, administrative assistants, and interns.
Attorney Spotlight: Great way to showcase some key members of your firm and new hires. For new hires, the best way to spotlight them is a candid picture with them and the team with a sweet welcoming message rather than a link to his about me section on the site.
58. Post product recall notices: Keep your ear to the ground so you can be the first to share important safety information with your followers. This is an especially good post to make if you are an attorney who deals with defective product cases and personal injury cases. Make certain to link to a good resource that shares what people who have the product should do to safely get a replacement or refund.
59. Post a ‘truth or false’ question: This is a great way to educate your users while also engaging them. Post a fact (or a myth) and have your readers guess whether it is true or false. In the comments, reveal the answer and give them more information on the topic. If it is a myth or misconception, be sure to share the truth and explain why the myth endures.
60. Use a trending Google search for content ideas: Visit Google Trends to find out what people are currently searching for and give your own spin on the latest topic of interest. Don’t pick just any topic that is popular; instead, choose issues in which you can give an interesting legal opinion or issues that have any kind of relevant legal angle.
61. Pick a follower of the month: Acknowledge your brand ambassadors and let them know they’re appreciated by picking a friend or follower to tout each month. You can increase the amount of content you share by tagging them, writing a mini-profile, or even having them fill out a short questionnaire. On Twitter, you can pick a user to showcase on #FollowFriday.
62. Share a case result: If you’ve just won a big court case or if you have successfully settled out of court, let your followers know all about it (without sharing confidential information, of course). Sharing your positive case results shows how effective you are in a concrete way. Be sure to link to newspaper articles or other media about the case if possible.
63. Share a media mention: Were you interviewed by the local paper or a local television station? Did you just win a big case? Was your law firm in the news for making a big donation? Be sure that every time your name appears in the news in a positive light, you link to it on your social media sites, along with some information for context.
64. Share awards or accolades you’ve received: Celebrate with your followers by announcing any awards you or your firm has received. Just be sure to write the post carefully, as the idea is to build trust, not to brag. For example, be sure to thank the outlet that gave the award as well as other recipients or other people in the running.
Ratings: Promoting awards and high ratings on social do wonders for your engagement and trust
65. Write about your continuing legal education: All attorneys are required to continue their legal education after law school. Post about your CLE so that your audience is aware that you are still learning and so that they can have an inside peak into what topics you are brushing up on.
66. Share the latest company news: Did you just hire someone new to your office? Did you just win a big case? Did you start offering a new type of legal service? Let your users know by sharing the information across all of your law firm’s social media platforms. Pair your news with a visual if possible and consider writing a blog post to compliment the announcement.
67. Share pictures from a recent industry event: Have you or someone on your team recently attended a legal conference or another attorney event? Share your experience online along with pictures and insights. Don’t forget to use the event hashtag for maximum exposure and to gain new followers from the legal world.
68. Promote a free download: This could be a plugin, white paper, ebook, app, or anything else that your audience could find useful and download. For example, a criminal defense attorney could post an ebook about what you should do if you have been charged with a DUI, while a business attorney could post a link to an app that helps users organize their monthly bills.
69. Say thank you: A simple thank you can go a long way to building connections with your friends and followers. Write a heartfelt post about how you couldn’t do your job without your clients and supporters–and how they make your day and your job better.
70. Offer expert insights into a topic: This type of post helps establish you as a thought leader in your field. Pick a topic in current events or one that is trending on social media and offer your thoughts on the topic as an attorney. You can either do this as a written post or shoot a short video. Be sure to link to a resource or news article as well.
71. Do a countdown: Countdown the days to a special event or countdown your top ten case results. This creates a lot of fodder for posts over a series of days. If you are counting down to an event, share a different reason to attend each day. You can also count up: share 30 things you are thankful for, or 30 tips regarding one of your practice areas.
72. Get your employees to guest post: Have different people on your legal team take turns posting on social media. Ask them all to answer the same question, or make the same kind of themed post. Here are two ideas: Have your employees share a “Day in the Life” or have your employees each tell a story about their most interesting day at work.
73. Create and share a compilation of industry news stories: Use a social magazine app like Flipboard to create great-looking compilations of news stories that are relevant to your practice and your users. Not only is Flipboard a great way to get well-curated content to your followers, it also helps educate them so that they are more knowledgeable and up-to-date when they walk in your door.
74. Promote a Google+ hangout: Invite your friends, fans, and followers to join you for a Google+ hangout conversation. The conversation could take many shapes: it could cover a specific legal topic, it could be a forum for frequently asked questions, or it could simply be a chance for you to generally chat with a number of community members and see where the conversation leads.
75. Encourage your followers to support a cause: Post a link to an online fundraiser or a charity organization. This is not just an opportunity to raise money for those in need, it is also an opportunity to highlight your law firm’s own giving. You may even challenge your followers to raise a certain amount of money as a group, or to donate volunteer hours or other resources.
76. Post an expert quote: Ask an industry expert a question and post their answer on social media. You can even make it look great by integrating the quote into an image in order to make a meme. This is great for getting retweets and shares, especially if your expert has a good following on social media, too.
77. Hold a giveaway: Giveaways are wonderful tools for social media marketing. A contest can be as simple as asking your fans or followers to comment to enter, and the prize can be simple. Consider tickets to a local event, a gift certificate to a restaurant, a gift basket of local items, a coveted item, like an iPad. For added interest, give your giveaway a theme or pair it will a photo contest.
78. Offer a sneak peek: Whet your followers’ appetites by showing a sneak peek of an upcoming blog post, contest, or product launch. This is a great law firm social media marketing strategy because these posts are quick and interesting while also keeping audiences engaged and aware. Post a picture or quote with your sneak peek and get everyone wondering about what is going to come next.
79. Start a conversation with an industry leader: Tag or mention a notable authority in a post and engage them in conversation by talking about their work or asking them a question. There are two possible outcomes: he or she may respond, boosting your own authority and exposing his or her audience to yours, or he or she may ignore you, which is no harm done.
80. Post a photo collage: There are large numbers of apps that can make a collage of pictures in just minutes. Take advantage of these tools by creating collages to post on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Give your collages themes: perhaps you make a collage of office pictures or pictures of a recent event.
81. Teaser content: Increase your clickthroughs by posting an intro to a blog post that doesn’t reveal the punchline. For example, if you are a bankruptcy attorney who has written a post about bankruptcy due to medical bills, your teaser social media post may say, “Do you know the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States?”
82. Update your readers about changes in the law: Has there recently been a change in the law in your city or state? Write a post that explains in simple language how the law has changed and how it will affect your readers. These posts, even if they are only tangentially related to your practice areas, help establish you as a knowledgeable authority and local expert.
83. Link to a blog comment: Have you had a particularly helpful or controversial comment on your blog? Post a link to the comment and ask for your readers to weigh in on one side or the other. Not only will this start a conversation on social media, it will also increase traffic to your website and blog post. This is a great way to deal with a controversial comment that you don’t simply want to delete or ignore.
84. Answer an FAQ: Have a question you get asked a lot? Answer it on your law firm’s social media accounts. Not only will this be interesting and helpful to your followers, it will also save you time in the office–if you answer a frequently asked question online, your clients won’t ask you again on your time. Take an extra step and compile all of your FAQs to create a new blog post for your website.
#FAQFriday: This post links to a video. FAQFridays are a good way to showcase your knowledge and inform the public about your practice area(s).
85. Post links to old newsletters: Recycle your newsletters and gain new subscribers at the same time by posting your old issues. This is a very good way of getting more use out of content that you have already created as well as a great way to remind your audience that you have a regular newsletter.
86. Ask your followers for content ideas: If you’ve run out of ideas for what to post, find out which issues or problems your fans need help with. These posts can be great ways to connect with your past, current, and future clients and give you a great idea of the kind of content that your readers actually want. Just be sure to follow up by creating some of the content they ask for, whether blog posts, images, or videos.
87. Post a link to a helpful Facebook or LinkedIn group: If you know of a helpful resource on Facebook or LinkedIn, share a link with your fans. This is an especially great idea for attorneys, since both Facebook and LinkedIn has groups that your clients can benefit from. For example, a wrongful death attorney can link to groups of people mourning after a loss, while a business attorney can link to local groups of entrepreneurs.
88. Tell a story: There is a reason that the simple story has endured throughout history and even before the written word: people love to hear a good tale. Make a post in which you simply tell a story from your life or your day, as it relates to you or as it relates to your profession as an attorney. For example, you might post about how an exchange with a client taught you a lesson about how to be a better lawyer, or how you won a case despite its challenges.
Client Successes: Sharing the success of your client shows that you not only care for your clients, but that your clients are so happy with your service they want to share it with the world. So help them share it!! (You can also be the one to share that success on your page if the client agrees for her case to be posted on social media)
89. Find out what your competitors are sharing, and do it better: Tools like Social Crawlytics allow you to determine your competitions’ most shared content and biggest influencers. Check out where they are getting their information as well as what their best posts accomplish. You can either take tips from how they are running their social media campaigns or you can try to one-up them. Just be sure not to copy their ideas exactly–that won’t benefit you or your readers.
90. Use your website analytics to find content ideas: Take a quick look through your analytics to find out which topics generate the most interest from your audience. While the topics at the top of the list certainly aren’t the only ones that your users find helpful, it is a great way to start. For example, if you are a divorce attorney and one of your most popular posts is “Ten things to do before filing for divorce,” consider breaking down those ten things in a 10-post social media series.
91. Share your AVVO profile: If you have great reviews and a full profile, share your AVVO or other attorney profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Not only will sharing your profile teach your users more about you, it might inspire a few to leave you a review. Just be sure to share only if you have a solid rating and only if all of your information is accurate and up to date.
92. Share an opinion on a recent case in the media: Your followers want to know you stand for something; don’t be afraid to take sides on an issue and back it up with your thought process and the facts. If there has been a recent decision in the courts locally that is interesting, or even a Supreme Court decision at the federal level, take the time to weigh in and explain your view.
93. Post a link to an employee bio: If you have bios on your site, post a link to help your followers and friends get to know the individuals behind your company as well as their stories. If you don’t have employee bios on your website, you should consider adding them!
94. Answer a question from Quora: Quora is a website that specializes in answering user questions. Find a relevant question related to the legal world on Quora and post your answer on social media. This is a great strategy because if someone on Quora has asked a question, chances are that other people are interested in the answer as well.
95. Respond to a tag or mention: Social media for lawyers isn’t just about your firm and what you are doing, it is about interacting with others and communicating with the community. Be sure to check to see who has been talking about you and respond to what they’ve been posting. Often, it’s a question or comment that can spark a conversation. Not responding to these mentions makes you seem distant, cold, and inattentive.
96. Post an excerpt from a blog post: Rather than just posting a link and summary of the post, cut and paste a particularly intriguing excerpt to pique your readers’ interest. Choose a line or paragraph that makes a big statement, asks, a question, or even raises a bit of controversy. Then link to the blog in the body of your social media post. This not only makes for interesting content, it also brings a good rate of readers over to your website.
97. Share a chart: Share an interesting chart or graph that is relevant to your audience–readers love visuals and they love to learn. For example, a car accident attorney might share a chart that breaks down the most common causes of traffic collisions, while a criminal defense attorney might break down the outcomes of his or her recent cases.
98. Post a screenshot of a social media conversation: If you see another interesting interaction happening on Twitter or Facebook, ask permission to take a screenshot and post it on your own profile. Then add your own thoughts to the conversation and ask your readers to chime in.
99. Promote an industry-related event: This can either be a live or online event. You can promote the event by sharing the event’s page, taking pictures of the event and posting them, or sharing how you will be involved in the event. For example, you might post about your firm’s anniversary celebration before the event, during the event, and after the event. Post by utilizing event pages, pictures, video, and more.
100. Share promotions: Do you offer free consultations, free e-books, or other promotions in order to connect with potential clients? Don’t forget to mention these every now and again on your social media platforms. Don’t try to do it as if you are advertising, instead, find simple, fun, and casual ways to remind your readers that you have offers for them to take advantage of.
101. Promote your legal services: There’s a reason this one is last on the list. Although there is a time and a place for self-promotion on social media, the space should first and foremost be used to build relationships, establish trust, and build your reputation as an industry expert. When people are in need of legal services, who do you think they’ll come to first? It is the person that they feel like they know and who they believe knows the most.
102. Tik Tok Explainer Videos: Since it hasn’t yet been banned in the US one main point of focus for generating new clients for your law firm should be TikTok. In 2022 this continued to increase in visibility and gain traffic. Some of the most successful lawyers utilizing this create videos of legal scenarios and tips for potential customers.
Here are some general guidelines for lawyers when it comes to using social media:
Now you have dozens of ideas for how to successfully post on your social media sites–but we know that some lawyers and law offices need next level help regarding social media strategy. We invite you to partner with our team to get the most out of social marketing, including, what, when, where, and how to post. To learn more about our services, or simply to ask a question or meet our team, call us today.
In the age of social media, even businesses that do not typically have an online presence can use this online market to their advantage. Social media marketing for lawyers can have a significant impact on growing your law firm brand if you have the right strategy.
There are many ways to utilize social media marketing for law firms. With Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and so many more, where do you even start?
To get started, it’s helpful to know precisely how you will benefit from it. Building a strategy depends on which social media platforms serve the needs of an individual firm and align with their marketing goals.
Promoting a law firm on social media can seem overwhelming or even boring at first, but if you take it one step at a time, the rewards can be worth it.
Here are a few ways our clients use social media to help market their law firms:
A common goal of many businesses using social media is to reach potential clients. This is by far the most popular goal but in my experience I have seen people only participate so that they can sign more cases and when it doesn’t happen quickly, they stop.
But, because more and more parts of our lives are becoming digitalized, an online presence is more important than ever.
Many law firm social media campaigns find success in building a more extensive client base. Not only can potential clients see your posts and ads, but they can also find your content during their own search.
Your practice area will heavily dictate the strategy and platforms you decide to use here.
Before you start any planning, take a look at what online presence your law firm already has. Take what people have to say into consideration at every step of the way. This way, you can build upon what you already have and fix what needs fixing in the process.
Consistency is vital when it comes to social media marketing for lawyers. Posting on a regular basis lets your audience know that you are active and accessible.
Sharing or making posts is not always enough, however. You will want to answer questions people have or reply to any reviews left by clients. Everything you say and do will impact how the community feels about you.
Maintaining a presence on social media relies heavily on continuous engagement with others.
Another benefit of social media marketing for law firms is the ability to make your name known. Sharing your story can help people understand what you stand for. In turn, that will make an impression that sets you apart from other firms.
Sharing unique content, especially if yours, lets people know that you have knowledge and experience. A respectable online reputation depends on first impressions, but quality and sincerity keep people coming back.
It can also re-activate people who didn’t need your services before, but now need them.
The hardest part of social media marketing for lawyers is knowing where to start. It is best to take it slow and ensure that you are well-informed rather than jumping right in and creating a profile just for the sake of creating a profile.
From who has access to accounts to dealing with negative posts, establishing company rules for social media is crucial. There may also be specific regulations regarding social media set by the bar.
You must comply with these rules and the ethical statutes set by your local law society.
Determine what you hope a law firm social media campaign will accomplish. How many new clients can you realistically take on? Is there a certain amount of recognition for which you strive?
With long and short-term goals, you have the groundwork for a social media strategy. These goals should, however, be feasible and practical. Since you will use them to develop your plan, it is essential to focus on the attainable.
Research should not stop with how to promote a law firm on social media. A quick search can take you to profiles of successful legal influencers. From there, you can see what they do with social media and use it for inspiration.
Instead of thinking like a lawyer, approach these profiles like a potential client. Doing this allows you to have a useful perspective on what does and does not work.
When you have established social media accounts for your law firm, it is always good to engage with others. You can also keep up to date with trends by following profiles and learning from those who have more experience.
In the beginning, it is wise to pick only one platform for a law firm’s social media campaign. With multiple, there is a higher chance of becoming overwhelmed. It can also be challenging to split your attention between several platforms evenly, especially when starting.
Take the time to learn when first creating your profile. Follow similar profiles and observe their approaches to social media. This method familiarizes you with terms, conversation styles, and where potential clients spend their time.
It can be tempting to focus on your favorite platform or the most popular. However, it is far more beneficial to pick what aligns best with your goals.
Other factors to account for are your team’s social media skills, how much time you have for marketing, your audience, and which area of law you practice.
Just last week I spoke with an attorney who has grown their practice almost solely off of producing iPhone Youtube Videos at home for the past 7 years.
Regardless of where you decide to establish your practice, it is best practice to follow the 80/20 rule. This ratio states that 80 percent of your content should provide value for the client, and anything sales-related gets the remaining 20 percent.
In this instance, value content refers to anything shared on your social media that shares something unique or gives insight into your team’s culture and experience. Cultivating resources to share is one way to do this, but creating your own has the most impact.
Content that you share can be infographics, photos of the team, articles with relevant information, FAQ videos, and more.
A significant aspect of developing an online presence is how you interact with peers and potential clients. Most people who contact a business either have service or product questions or want to inform people of an awful experience.
When left ignored, these publicly unanswered inquiries give the impression of indifference. People want to know that someone is listening. In this situation, you are that someone.
Keeping up with social media marketing for law firms’ demands is easier than it seems at first glance. A social media schedule can be a lifeline for a busy workplace. Pre-planned content is another technique that can save you from scrambling around at the last second for something to contribute.
A social media schedule should cover not only daily content but weekly and monthly as well. This plan allows you to delegate times and days when specific content goes live. Additionally, each person that has something to do with a social media account should have a schedule.
Creating or curating multiple weeks’ worth of content at once lets you spread posts out and gives you more time to focus on interacting with people. Doing everything you can to save time can make the marketing process much more manageable.
If worse comes to worst, social media scheduling tools are useful resources.
Social media metrics show you everything you need to know about how your content is doing. Clicks, views, shares, and even locations can provide you with enough information to switch things up a bit to attract a larger audience.
The analytics of a law firm’s social media campaign has complex and straightforward versions. Complex analytics go into details such as demographics and overall impact. If you want to know about clicks, likes, and shares, the initial report will have more than enough information.
Keeping track of social media engagement lets you make regular changes in response to any assessment results.
Without an online presence, it is easy to fade into the background. Mobile devices and internet usage are so prevalent that not having social media or a website can cause people to think twice about any business.
Not every social media platform will suit the needs of all. Because of this, it is essential to make a careful choice of where to begin. Not all social networks that are good for lawyers are listed here, but these well-known, consistently effective platforms are typically a better starting point.
As the leading platform for several years, LinkedIn gives you more than an outlet for your content. Connecting with others in your industry lets you expand your reach and establish a professional image.
LinkedIn is an ideal social media platform for lawyers or a law firm. It is inherently professional and allows the sharing and reinforcement of your legal experience. An established status on LinkedIn has a significant impact when deciding to branch out to other social media platforms.
While Facebook has the widest audience of potential clients, there are things to consider before making a business page. Some features of this platform actively work against your attempts to reach anyone.
If your practice is just starting to dabble in marketing, Facebook can be an excellent way to learn how to promote a law firm on social media without tons of pressure.
The popularity of this social media network for businesses is on a steady decline. Algorithms told to prioritize content from family and friends tend to take it too literally. The possibility of a post showing up on someone’s timeline, even with paid advertising, is minimal.
It never hurts to have a Facebook profile, but it may be worth focusing your attention elsewhere.
Anything short and sweet is perfect for a Twitter profile. Following influential people and posting efficient, instantaneous, and concise blurbs can be more challenging than it sounds, but luckily, Twitter is a straightforward social media platform.
A mix of consistent content with peak times in mind is generally the best strategy for a successful Twitter profile.
Slowly making its way into social media marketing for law firms, YouTube is a relatively untapped resource. Making videos is incredibly easy with the right tools and intentions. A YouTube channel for your law firm can feature short but informational information.
This social media platform is an excellent secondary marketing tool. Sharing YouTube videos on your other network profiles creates even more possibilities for reaching clients.
As Instagram continues to skyrocket in popularity, most law firms and solo lawyers do not have a profile. It can still be beneficial, however. Showing snippets of behind the scenes shenanigans or sharing legal insight allows people to see the firm in a more humanizing light.
For building your brand, firms dealing with consumer laws, or business clients, Instagram is an excellent platform.
A few social network platforms give you the option to pay for more visibility on their site, including LinkedIn. Facebook, in particular, prioritizes paid advertisements over content not from family and friends. Twitter advertises, too, but most do not find it practical.
Instagram and Facebook go hand in hand when it comes to advertising because ads automatically show up on both platforms.
If you do not want your Facebook ads on Instagram for any reason, there is a way to turn this feature off in Facebook’s settings.
A successful law firm social media campaign requires a certain level of professionalism. You should keep the ethics of using social media in mind at all times. Inappropriate behavior and misinformation tend to have a lasting impact on any business, and it is not usually a good one.
How well does your firm actually rank in Google’s Local Pack results? And does it matter?
Is your law firm ranking as well in local search results as it can be? This is an important subject that requires more attention than it’s getting.
That’s because most people who work with SEO companies typically look at a report that shows an important keyword and a number next to the keyword which indicates where it’s ranking.
The fact is that many law firm marketers have a poor understanding of how much visibility they actually have in a market because traditional local ranking reports can be highly misleading. This is also more common than you think with attorney SEO agencies.
This is problematic for strategy development because firms often decide to pivot their marketing strategy to new geographic areas when they should instead focus on a strategy that allows their firm to rank in as many places possible within their current target city.
In many cases, law firms could double, triple, or quadruple their leads just by focusing on strategies that help them dominate one geographic area instead of spreading out to new markets before they’ve reached their maximum potential.
In this article, we are going to address how law firm ranking results in Google differ based on the searcher’s geographic location and other factors. In some industries, the proximity to searcher has a much bigger impact (for example restaurants). In this article, we will look at law firm examples only.
The reality is that Google can rank a website in a different position on a mobile device, tablet, or computer plus that result can and commonly will change depending on the location where the searcher is searching.
To put this in perspective if two people standing 100 feet apart type in “Personal Injury Lawyer” it’s possible that they could see different firms ranking in the #1 position.
That is why ranking is misunderstood.
But it’s also where people get hung up. Let me explain.
See at the end of the day, the only metric you should judge your SEO by is probably market qualified leads or cases signed. There are so many factors that go into online marketing and SEO’s are notorious for using confusion jargon.
But the reality is that if two competing websites are both getting 100 visits a month for a keyword and one is converting at 20% MQL’s while the other is converting at 1% MQL’s then running all of the rank tracking in the world is not going to help you get to the 10%. There are other factors at play such as brand messaging, conversion optimization and making sure potential clients know, like and trust you.
So really you should not FOCUS on rank tracking, but… it is important to understand the implications to track overall progress and tie that MQL’s.
Over the years, search has become more and more localized. While years ago you could easily rank everywhere throughout an entire city for a keyword like “Car Accident Lawyer”, that’s not always the case anymore.
This is why ranking reports can be so misleading. If your rank tracking software shows you ranking in the number one position for a keyword it’s probably only emulating the search from one specific geographic spot.
But what if a potential client isn’t standing in that same location where your rank tracking software is when searching for your business?
A potential client looking for a personal injury attorney doing a Google search from a hospital may see a different #1 ranking firm than someone searching a few blocks away.
To illustrate this point, let’s use a visual example.
In the map below you will see I used a cool new tool by Local Falcon to see where The Sawaya Law Firm ranks in maps results for the keyword “Truck Accident Lawyer”.
This is a competitive keyword in a competitive market, and the colored map icons with the number represent it’s ranking position if I was conducting the search from that specific geographic location.
These map markers are 1 kilometer apart from each other, and the center represents where the business is located below.
You will probably notice that a green map marker with the number one shows up where the office is.
This means if I was searching for “truck accident lawyer” in Google from the law firm’s office, I would see the firm in the number one position.
This may make you feel good, but it probably won’t generate much business if you’re not ranking well from the position where potential clients are looking.
To add another fun variable, it’s important to understand that the same search performed on a laptop computer and a phone from the same location may yield different ranking results.
This is why it’s important to track your conversions (Phone Calls, Chat, Email, etc.) by device type to understand where you are seeing the highest return on investment.
Searcher intent has a lot to do with how Google decides to display results. While Google is going to serve local results for many law firm keywords, they also understand when a search should be even more localized.
One example of this is if I searched for “Car Accident Lawyer” and “Car Accident Lawyer Near Me”.
The “Near Me” search is explicitly telling Google that you’re looking for a car accident lawyer in close proximity to the location you’re searching from. Otherwise, they understand you’re probably just looking for a lawyer in the general area.
There are many different keywords a potential client might type into Google. Let’s look at a few examples and see how they differ:
Example Searches conducted from Glen Ellyn, Illinois from a single specific location:
In this example, the firm Schwartz Injury Firm maintains the #1 non-paid local position in all three of these searches above. All of these searches were conducted from the same place within the city on a Desktop computer.
When we used Local Falcon to search for “Car Accident Lawyer” we find that they do rank well around their business, but the further away they get they don’t rank as well (See below):
In my experience, the answer to this is no. At least not for many important search terms that will drive a lot of new business to your law firm. The example below is for a competitive keyword in a competitive market. If you’re able to rank organically and locally for your important keywords you can get similar results.
Having this knowledge is really powerful because you can use it to focus your marketing campaigns on searches that are going to drive the most business to your law firm.
For example, let’s say that you’re a Family Lawyer who handles divorce cases for higher net worth clients. If you’re not pulling in the type of clients you’re looking for, perhaps you’re not ranking well enough in the higher net worth areas. You can develop strategies to create more relevance and authority in these areas where your ideal clients are.
Other firms can use this knowledge do things like:
Thankfully there are a lot of cool tools out there that will allow you to diversify how you track rankings. Ideally, you will be able to track mobile and desktop rankings by:
There are a plethora of tools out there you can use to track rankings, but here are some that we and our clients use.
There are a lot of nuances when it comes to tracking local search results. This article was intended to be a high level simplified version of understanding how law firms rank in Google’s local results.
What have you seen in your area? Are you excelling or struggling? Please let me know in the comments below. The next article will focus on how you can dominate an entire area by doing things the right way.
Simply being a lawyer with a website is not enough to sign new cases these days (in most cases).
Many people make the mistake thinking that if they invest one time in a website that it will take off and start generating leads. Sadly this leads to many firm owners thinking that it simply doesn’t work. However, for Juris Digital clients, their website is their biggest case generating asset.
That is because they understand the nuances of what it takes to really be successful in a crowded market where almost every firm in your city has their own website. They understand that they don’t only need to be found, but their potential customers also have to chose them above others in the exact same market.
Here is a list of the most common legal website mistakes we see at Juris Digital.
The worst offenders I see here are typically general practice firms where they try to tell people they’re the experts at everything. But as you know you can’t be the best at everything. The problem is that your clients and Google understand that as well.
The worst thing that you can do as a lawyer is to try to seem general. Potential clients are going to be hiring you for a reason. You have to showcase what your firm does front and center.
Do you want to field calls from people who are window shopping, or do you want to do business with clients who understand that you can help them immediately?
Pro Tip: Did you know that focusing on a narrow niche and becoming known as an expert in your field can get your MORE of the BEST cases?
Potential clients are always wanting to hire the best lawyer for their legal matter. Especially the clients with the deepest pocket books. Have you ever heard of the phrase “Jack of all trades, master of none?”? If you market yourself as a lawyer that does literally everything, you might lose trust with potential consumers. Instead, make sure to highlight your speciality and show why you’re the best.
Also the more you diversify the harder it is on your attorney SEO campaign.
I recently met with an attorney who was dead set on displaying social channel feeds, video feeds, forums, and other 3rd party plugins on his site, yet his purpose was to convert visitors. If you create a website that has more ways to leave your website instead of guiding them down a conversion funnel, then you’re mistaken.
Other attorneys make this same mistake by making their website busy and overbearing. Somehow, they believe, this will make people believe that the firm is smarter than the competition. This cannot be farther from the truth.
The best law firm sites are simple and to the point. The sales funnel technique that works for selling socks also works for selling your firm’s services. Give your audience a single path to follow, and make sure that they know exactly where they are going. Answer any questions they might have with great content.
You do not have to showcase your knowledge of Black’s Law Dictionary, especially since your client base probably does not know what Black’s Law Dictionary is.
This is a mistake that newer lawyers make; they are fresh out of school and they want to make an impression. Unfortunately, showing off using verbose language will only turn people away. Save it for the judge and for your opposition.
The exception to this is if you’re marketing directly to other law firms online.
For most practice areas you want to focus on content geared so that a high schooler or 8th grader can understand it. You want to be clear, concise, and address their pain points with great answers as soon as you can.
People that need to hire a lawyer are generally in one of the most stressful situations in their life. They want to work with someone who they know that can help them, someone they can get along with, and someone who is a clear subject matter expert.
Pictures say 1000 words. Sometimes when newer law firms are launching a new website they take shortcuts.
Photos is one place where you shouldn’t take shortcuts. Having professional photos really says a lot about you and who you are. It shows that you care about details and can instill confidence in prospective clients. In our experience having bad photos will break your website and having good photos can help increase conversions.
And let’s be honest. There is more to this than bad photos. How many websites have you been to where the main hero image on the website is all of the partners wearing suits standing in front of a courthouse or the office? Pretty much all of them.
If you don’t plan on standing out this is a great strategy to take with your photos.
The year is 2023 and more searches are done on mobile devices everyday than computers. That should tell you something. However there are still unethical companies out there building non responsive or non mobile first websites.
This is a sure fire way to lose conversions from potential clients.
Not having clear and concise information. Law firm websites should provide clear and concise information about the firm’s services, attorneys, and areas of practice. This can help potential clients quickly understand what the firm has to offer and whether they may be a good fit.
A call-to-action is a prompt that encourages website visitors to take a specific action, such as contacting the firm or filling out a contact form. Without a clear call-to-action, potential clients may not know how to get in touch with the firm or may be unsure of the next steps to take.
t is important for law firms to regularly update their websites with fresh content, such as blog posts or case updates. This can help keep the website current and relevant, and can also improve its ranking in search engine results.
Looking at your website day in and day out becomes useless after a while. You get too focused or trained on one thing and start ignoring the obvious. If you need a trained set of eyes to give you a second look on your website, give us a call. We’re happy to help.
Pay-per-click advertising on Google can be an effective way for law firms to generate new clients. It can also be a good way for lawyers to shovel large amounts of cash directly into Google’s coffers and walk away without anything to show for it.
It is not at all uncommon for valuable legal keywords to cost hundreds of dollars per click. For example, check out the estimated cost per click for this group of Dallas personal injury keywords:
With per-click prices reaching into the hundreds of dollars in some legal practice areas, it’s easy to see how law firms can get absolutely torched on their PPC investment if they don’t get the basics right.
In this post I’ve shared 10 tips to help you avoid turning your ad dollars to ash, maximizing the return you realize from your investment in PPC instead.
Structuring your law firm PPC account correctly is the best way to ensure you are getting the most for your budget. A simplified campaign structure is not only easy to manage but provides the best results.
Ideally, your account should only have 1 search campaign that contains multiple ad groups for different keywords and landing pages.
Separate campaigns should only be created if you want to target:
Example of how your account could look:
Campaign #1
Location Target = West Texas
Campaign #2
Location Target = Houston
Campaign #3
Display Campaign
Campaign #4
Dedicated Budget for Mass Tort Campaign
It’s all about location. This is true in real estate and in PPC for lawyers. Your campaigns should have the target location option set to:
Reach people in or regularly in your targeted locations (Presence). This option lets you show your ads to people who are likely to be located, or regularly located in the locations you’ve targeted.
Source
By default, when you start your law firm PPC campaign, Google will set your location target option to Presence or Interest.
With this default setting, your ad will be shown to people whom Google deems as having an interest in your area, but not physically in your target location. While this may sound good in theory, it can result in a lot of “bad” clicks that eat away at your budget. While not 100% foolproof, the Presence option helps cut down on any out-of-location leads.
In 2021, Google changed the way keyword match types function. Phrase and Exact match became a lot more lenient and the intent of the searcher was taken into consideration as opposed to only going off of exactly what the user typed.
For example, before 2021, if you were bidding on the exact match keyword [personal injury lawyer] your ad would have only shown up for people who typed “personal injury lawyer”. Now, with that same exact match keyword, your ad will trigger even if someone types in “personal injuries lawyer” “personal injury attorneys” or “law firm for personal injury.” So you don’t have to worry about missing out on valid searches.
Google really really wants you to use broad match and is going to recommend it to you with every campaign improvement suggestion. You can also find a lot of articles on how the new broad match paired with smart bidding is a good choice. While that may be true for some industries, we have never seen this work for law firm PPC. What you usually end up with is completely generic phrases like “law firm” and a lot of wasted clicks.
Our advice, stick with Exact and Phrase Match for your keywords, no matter how many times Google asks you to switch.
Automation is taking over Google. And while you do not want to give up full control, you should let Google help you where it can.
Smart Bidding lets Google take all the data and signals it is receiving from your campaign and automatically optimize it for better results. It is something that is impossible to manually replicate, so it is best to let Google do the work for you.
In our experience, Target CPA has worked best for lawyer PPC accounts that get a lot of impressions and Maximize Conversions has worked best for low impression campaigns. Keep in mind that both these strategies will take time to work. Google needs lots of data and that can mean your campaign will need to be running for 3-months before it can start performing at an optimal level.
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are the only type of text ads that Google will allow you to create for search campaigns. Unlike the old extended text ads, RSAs are designed to let Google cycle through a bunch of different ad copy and automatically serve the best ads for your audience.
When creating your RSAs you should fill out all 15 headlines, four descriptions, and use a minimal amount of pinning. This will signal to Google that it needs to serve your ad to more people at a quicker pace to figure out the best-performing combinations.
Here are some specific tips to help you create an effective RSA:
The only way to not only understand the performance of your attorney PPC campaign – but to maximize positive results as well – is to track all of the leads that your ads are generating. This includes emails, phone calls, chats, and any other way that potential new clients contact you.
This is essential data that Google needs to optimize your campaign. Without a full picture of the leads you are receiving, you will never be able to fully optimize your campaign for success. Feed the Google machine and you will be rewarded.
Pro Tip: A tool like CallRail will automatically import data to and from Google Ads and allow you to track quality and value. All these metrics will only help you get higher-value leads from your PPC.
While you want to let Google help you where it can, using fully automated campaigns such as Performance Max, should be done with caution. Google makes these campaigns very easy to set up and run, but you have very little control over where your ad shows and what keywords you are bidding on. This could mean getting a bunch of leads for non-targeted services.
If you would like to use an automated campaign like Performance Max it is best done as an accompaniment to Search campaigns.
A few things to note if you are running both campaigns:
Google likes to give you a lot of suggestions on how to improve your campaign (please see the paragraph on broad match). 90% of the time, these suggestions do not make sense for law firm PPC and will not improve your performance.
You should never blindly apply Google’s recommendations to your campaigns. Always click view recommendations and decide for yourself if the changes make sense based on the specifics of your services and your goals.
Every PPC campaign will generate some unwanted keywords, but you don’t want to waste a large number of clicks or impressions on undesirable, irrelevant keywords.
You should regularly check your search terms and add any “bad” keywords to your Account-level negative keyword list. You will also want to add all states and major cities that you can’t serve. This will keep your ads from being served to people located in your target area who are searching for services in another city or state.
PPC for law firms is expensive and not having a realistic monthly budget is the #1 problem that hampers campaign success. If you don’t have a healthy budget you are never going to get enough leads to turn into signed cases. You will basically be flushing money down the drain.
Personal Injury keywords are some of the most expensive keywords on Google Ads. We have seen some keywords in large markets that can cost $1,000 per click! That is just for a click, not a lead.
To figure out a realistic monthly budget use the keyword planner to see the average cost per click to be at the top of the page on keywords in your target location. You can assume that ~20% of clicks will turn into leads. If the average CPC is $150, a budget of $2,000 will only get you 13 clicks, which means 2–3 leads total for the month. Any budget that is getting you under 10 leads a month is not worth your time.
I hope you found these tips useful and feel empowered to go out and optimize your law firm’s PPC campaigns. If you’d like another set of eyes on your ad setup, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for a strategy review.
So you need more leads for your personal injury practice. You are intrigued by the prospect of simply purchasing personal injury leads from a lead generation company. After all, you are a lawyer, not an advertiser or marketer. You know how to recover compensation for your clients, not necessarily how to get those clients in the door.
But is buying personal injury leads the best way to invest your growth dollars?
Or, should you invest in building marketing assets whereby you generate your own personal injury leads and cut out the middle man?
Here’s my best advice as someone who has helped grow dozens of personal injury law firms over the last decade:
Buying personal injury leads can be an effective way to generate revenue quickly. However, buying leads produces zero residual value for your law firm. When you stop paying, the leads stop coming. Alternatively, when you invest in marketing for your law firm, the returns on that investment compound over time because you own those assets rather than renting someone else’s.
If you have the resources, it might make sense to both purchase personal injury leads from a lead generation company, and invest in building and marketing your own properties to drive leads directly to your firm. But if it comes down to a choice of one or the other, I say you are always better off investing in marketing your own brand rather than renting someone else’s.
At Juris Digital we do not sell personal injury leads. Instead, we help law firms invest in digital market assets that establish their brand identity and effectively produce consistent and quality personal injury leads in a sustainable fashion.
If that sounds interesting to you, let’s talk.
Note: If you are looking for a comparison of personal injury lead generation companies, this post won’t help you. The only way to know for sure whether a particular lead generation company can deliver on its promise is to engage with them directly and test out their service.
Before we go any further, there is an important distinction that needs to be made between companies that generate and sell you leads, and companies that advertise your law firm on their web property (law firm advertising platforms).
If you search the web for something like “personal injury leads” you are going to find a smattering of companies who offer something like this:
Companies like this advertise for general personal injury representation via TV, radio, SEO, PCC, social media, etc., send the resulting leads to you, and charge you a fee for each lead.
On the other hand, there are a plethora of law firm advertising platforms where you can pay to have your firm listed. Examples of this sort of service include websites like Avvo.com, FindLaw.com, and Nolo.com.
Some of these platforms offer some version of a pay-per-lead model. Others simply charge a fee for ad space and do not take the number of leads generated into account whatsoever.
Google offers a pay-per-lead ad service called Google Local Service Ads (LSAs) which it began offering to law firms in 2020. Here’s what these ads look like when someone is searching for a personal injury lawyer on Google:
It’s important to distinguish between buying leads from a lead generation company and advertising your law firm on a platform that may help generate leads for your firm.
When you buy leads from a lead generation company those leads will have zero information about your law firm because lead generation companies don’t advertise your law firm. Instead, they advertise your general services.
Alternatively, when you advertise with Avvo.com, FindLaw.com, Nolo.com, or Google LSAs – while the end goal is the same (to generate leads) – there is the additional value that any given lead will have already had a touch-point with your firm.
In other words, advertising on a law firm ad platform is an exercise in brand building. Buying pre-generated leads is not.
Let’s take for granted that the lead generation company you end up using delivers on its promise of sending you viable personal injury case leads. Here are the key questions you should ask yourself before deciding whether to buy personal injury leads.
Just like every other marketing initiative, it’s important that you have tracking in place to determine your ROI before launching a campaign. Ultimately this is how you will find out if it’s worth the investment for your law firm.
Below is an example of how you might calculate and track the cost per acquisition for any given lead generation source. In the example below we use the ROAS formula wherein the return on investment means how much money you make for each $1 you invest in a specific channel.
Lead Source | Cases Signed | Cost Per Case | Avg Case Value | Return on Investment |
SEO | 10 | $750 | $20,000 | $26.60 |
Local Service Ads | 10 | $1,900 | $20,000 | $10.52 |
Nolo.com | 10 | $8,650 | $20,000 | $2.31 |
Tracking these numbers and building a campaign around them will help you make data-informed decisions on your marketing efforts as opposed to anecdotal ones.
With almost any personal injury lead gen company you work with, you are going to pay per lead, not per new case. This means that if you can’t close the good leads you receive at a high rate, your investment will go entirely to waste. Ask yourself:
If the answer to any of these questions is not a resounding Yes, buying leads might not be right for you.
When you are purchasing personal injury leads, it’s a numbers game. You will most likely need to speak with 10 leads in order to sign a single case, which means you need to have adequate support staff in place to properly follow up with, qualify, and work with those leads. While 80 or 90% of the leads that you pay for are not going to become clients you’ve still got to be able to work every lead like it has potential in order to sign up any cases at all. If you find this prospect upsetting, purchasing personal injury case leads might not be right for you.
If you are only looking for the highest-value serious injury and wrongful death cases, you will almost certainly be disappointed by the leads you get from a lead generation company. While you may on occasion get a high-value lead, the majority of the leads you get are going to be middle-of-the-road injury claims. You need to be willing and able to monetize these cases in order to see a return on your investment.
If you practice in California or Texas or Florida sure there is more competition for personal injury leads, but there is also an extreme abundance of cases. Conversely, if you practice in Rhode Island or Wyoming, the volume of leads is so small no lead generation company will be able to produce consistent and quality leads. If you are in a small market you’ll be far better off owning your lead generation sources instead of renting someone else’s.
There are some obvious benefits to purchasing personal injury leads from a lead generation company rather than investing in marketing and advertising to generate those leads yourself. There are also drawbacks. Here are the pros and cons that I find most important for law firms to consider:
Now let’s look at the pros and cons of investing in marketing in order to generate your own leads.
The pros and cons of investing in marketing your personal injury law firm in order to create lead-generating assets that you own are more or less the opposites of the pros and cons of buying leads.
At Juris Digital we encourage our clients to invest in holistic, inbound digital marketing channels – like web design, branding, SEO, and content marketing – because we believe it’s the best way for personal injury law firms to achieve sustainable growth while establishing a brand that makes selling less difficult.
We also recognize the concerns that many firms have with investing in marketing, and we know that under certain circumstances buying personal injury case leads can generate reliable revenue and a positive return on investment.
If you’re trying to solve the problem of getting new clients for your personal injury law firm, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’ll listen to your position and offer our best advice on how you can achieve your goals.
This post reflects the opinions of the leadership team at Juris Digital: CEO Casey Meraz, CSO Matt Green, and COO Leann Pickard.
Imagine that you are pregnant. You know the sex of the baby and you’ve got a name picked out. You’ve started preparing your home for the arrival of your new family member. You have dreams and aspirations for your child.
You go in for a routine appointment with your doctor, and you’re given the worst news imaginable: Your baby has a disease that prevents lung tissue from developing. Your doctor informs you that your baby will, at most, live for minutes after being born. And she tells you that giving birth to your baby will put your life in danger.
Now imagine that you live in a state where abortion is illegal, and so your doctor tells you that she cannot help you safely terminate the pregnancy. Moments after receiving the most devastating possible news about your baby, you must now face the reality that you need to travel out of your state to receive an abortion to avoid risking death or decades-long imprisonment.
This is not some far-fetched hypothetical. 8 percent of all pregnancies involve complications that threaten the life of the baby and the mother.
Want to help women get access to safe abortions? Check out this resource from Alison Turkos.
We are appalled by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. We believe that this decision to strip women of sovereignty over their own bodies is not only a symptom of a dying democracy but will literally cause women to die.
We believe that women have a self-evident right to control their own bodies and that any law to the contrary is a violation of their human rights.
We recognize that women who live in states where abortion has been criminalized – and who do not have the financial resources to travel – will be most impacted. This will disproportionately affect women of color.
We recognize that 1 out of every 6 American women will be the victim of rape in her lifetime and that this barbaric ruling will prevent those women from safely terminating pregnancies that result from rape.
At this time Juris Digital’s leadership is dialoguing with legal counsel and women’s rights advocates to understand how we can direct our resources to help the women on our team and in our communities get access to abortions and reproductive health care that is safe, private, and free from government tyranny.
In the meantime, we wanted to make our position clear.
If you want to help, we encourage you to visit this resource which provides a list of the most productive ways to support access to safe abortions.
Did you know that Google penalizes websites that operate outside of their terms of service? A couple of years ago Google was actively penalizing a lot of law firm websites who were going after links in unnatural ways. But penalties are not just limited to law firm websites.
Having been actively involved in the SEO industry for almost 20 years now, iv’e seen, worked with, and been apart of some very nasty penalties. Iv’e seen first hand what they can do to a law firm’s case intake and also seen the joy they receive when getting out of a mess like this.
This whole journey is part of our story and why we’re ethical white hat marketers. Unfortunately uneducated marketers may not even know how to diagnose a penalty or realize that they’ve been in one.
If you’ve ever hired an internet marketing company, built links, or participated in shortcuts it’s probably a good idea to run an analysis to see if your website is under a Google Penalty.
There are a few signs that may indicate that your website has been penalized by Google:
If you think your website has been penalized, you can try to identify the issue by reviewing the guidelines provided by Google and making any necessary changes to your website. You can also try submitting a reconsideration request through Google Search Console to ask Google to review your website again.
To learn what types of penalties you can get let’s first talk about Type of Penalty and then we can get into the causes of penalties. Not all type’s of penalties are created equally. Here is a brief run down of the types and how they can affect you.
1. Manual Penalties
Manual actions are actions that members from Google’s Webspam team took against some or part of your website. In these cases someone from their quality team physically reviewed your site to come up with the decision to send you into a penalty.
With manual penalties you will be notified in Google Webmaster Tools via the message center and can also check it by visiting: Search Traffic > Manual Actions. (You can see an example of this to the right side of the screen)
On this page any manual penalties will be listed along with more information about the penalty. We will get into this a little bit later.
With manual actions there are two sub types you can get hit with:
A. Site Wide Action
Site wide actions indicate that the problem is affecting every page of your website and none are immune to the penalty.
B. Partial Matches
Partial matches are penalties that impact individual URL’s. It will be limited to the individual pages or sections on the site which the action applies to.
Watch this video from Google’s former head of Webspam Matt Cutts to learn more
2. Algorithmic Penalties
In addition to getting a penalty that was manually assessed by a Google Employee, you can also get what we call algorithmic penalties. Have you heard of the dreaded Google Updates named after animals such as Panda or Penguin?
These updates the algorithm are meant to take out people trying to manipulate Google’s search results unnaturally at the algorithmic level. Since there are so many violators this is a way they can assess quality in much greater volume based on trends of spam based websites.
Since people are constantly trying to manipulate search engines you can can safely assume that there are a lot of ways a website can be penalized. I’ll go into all of them briefly below but the most common ones I see are link penalties, Content Penalties, and Hacked sites. More on this in a bit.
Unnatural links
How To Remove It: Manually remove bad links and create a disavow file. Submit reconsideration if it’s a manual penalty.
This is a big one that is about as common as SEO companies sending you emails trying to sell you SEO services. One of the problems with unnatural links is understanding trends and being able to make corrective actions. If you have ever paid for a link or participated in a scheme for the purpose of getting a link then you have violated the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
Remember how I mentioned Thumbtack.com earlier? They were penalized by giving away “points” in exchange for a link to their website. Google is a corporation and can make their own rules so it’s important to stay in the loop with them.
In the law space here are the most common things I have seen Webmaster’s participate in that has gotten them penalized.
Even if you didn’t participate in any of the above tactics you need to be checking into this. In some cases your SEO company may not have told you what they participated in. In others you could be a victim of negative SEO where potential competitors or other shady goons are building unnatural links to your website.
Thin content with little or no added value
How To Remove It: Create good substantial content and get the pages re-indexed.
If you’ve familiarized yourself with Google’s best practices or commonly read internet marketing blogs then you must have heard how bad duplicate content is. Duplicate content won’t help you rank in the search engines.
In addition to this, thin content won’t help you either and also puts you in a very tricky situation with a looming penalty. Thin content could be pages with just a few words or it could also be doorway pages.
In 2008 I saw a lot of law firms create multiple city landing pages with little or no unique content. In these cases I also noticed them copy and paste these to different pages optimized for different cities while replacing just the city name.
If you did this get rid of it ASAP. That’s just asking for it if you’re still getting away with it.
Hidden text and/or keyword stuffing
How To Remove It: Remove keyword stuffing and clean up your content
Back in early 2000’s someone figured out that search engines were remarkably less sophisticated back then and relied heavily on the number of keywords used on the page. You may have heard the Keyword Density Myth. If you’re hiding black text keywords on a black background you will need a time machine to succeed.
Although I joke about this, it’s sad because I still see it from time to time. However more commonly I see keyword stuffing as a problem. How do you know if you’re keyword stuffing? Just ask yourself if it reads naturally. If not, you may have a problem.
Things like this make me puke: “Do you need a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer to help you with your Los Angeles personal injury case?” ~ and you can get MUCH worse than this.
Hacked Websites
How To Remove It: Remove spam or hacked issues. Submit reconsideration request.
This one is actually pretty common and unless you’ve seen the notice you might not know. Hacked websites are pretty common because hackers are constantly finding vulnerabilities in platforms and plugins.
Pro Tip: Be careful about the WordPress plugins you install. Some can cause vulnerabilities.
Spam
How To Remove It: Remove spam. Submit reconsideration request.
Thankfully spam reasons are not as common as anything else I see. Typically if you get a spam warning you know you did something wrong and that you need to fix it. As a rule of thumb don’t do anything unnatural such as using spammy structured markup or participate in cloaking and you’ll be ok.
Want to know more about penalty types? Here is some further reading from Google on Manual Penalties. (Source: Google Search Console Help)
Now to the meat of this this post. Are you wondering if your website has a penalty? At this point I’m assuming you’ve already checked to see if there is a manual penalty associated with your website. If you haven’t, here is what you need to do.
Checking For A Manual Penalty
**Note: You must have Google Webmaster Tools Installed
If you do have a manual penalty it’s best to consult a penalty recovery expert for further advice. I am working on a penalty recovery guide for attorneys which will be published soon.
Keep in mind that link based penalties will take dedication to remove and can be more complicated than most others.
Checking For Algorithmic Penalties
Checking for algorithmic penalties is a serious business. The problem with algorithmic penalties is that unlike manual penalties there are no notifications. In addition to this, algorithmic penalties may only affect a page or a small section of your website.
Learning how to read between the lines here and figure out whether or not your penalized is best left up to experts. However there are some things you can do to get a good idea if you were penalized or not. One such method is by using a free tool called Panguin by Barracuda Digital. This tool requires you have Google Analytics but will connect to it and align known updates with your analytics data.
A quick tutorial on how to use this is below:
This tool is a very powerful tool that allows you to comb through organic traffic data and get a clear picture pretty easily. The problem is that identifying you have a penalty due to a traffic drop off on a certain data requires different work to remove it.
If you do see major traffic drop offs with these changes you need to develop a plan to see which specific pages were affected and how you can go about removing the penalty.
First relax and take a deep breath. Your situation may not be as bad as you think. Honestly it just depends on how far in the hole you are with Google. Penalties mean Google has lost trust in your website to some extent. Determining the extent to which the trust was lost is important as is figuring out a plan to help you get back where you were.
When your website was penalized it was receiving some sort of artificial boost from your activities. Not only do you want to remove the penalty, you want to gain back the trust naturally and in a white hat method.
Penalties suck and since I’ve personally seen some of the worst I would be happy to talk with you about your current situation. Simply give me a call or feel free to email me direct at cmeraz (at) lawyerseomarketing.org. I can also advise you on do it yourself options.
If you’ve made the decision to invest in content for your law firm’s website, congrats! You’ve made a really good choice.
At Juris Digital we can genuinely claim to have built our business on the back of targeted, compelling, and useful website content.
In turn, we have helped hundreds of law firms grow their practices and get more of their best cases by deploying strategic lawyer website content.
Did You Know: Juris Digital is a marketing and SEO agency that also staffs a 30-attorney content writing team with experience in dozens of practice areas and jurisdictions? It’s a potent combination. Ready to put us to work for your law firm?
Let’s Talk ContentMy name is Matt Green and I am one of the founding partners here at Juris Digital. I love to help lawyers and legal marketers make smart investments in effective website content that creates measurable growth for their business.
In this post, I’ll discuss 9 of the most important questions that you ought to ask yourself before you invest in website content for your law firm.
It’s important that you understand why you’re creating content for your law firm’s website. What do you hope to achieve by publishing content? In most cases law firms use website content for marketing –– to directly attract new clients to the firm.
However, there are plenty of other productive reasons to invest in content for your website:
Before investing in legal web content it’s important that you clarify the purpose of the content you’re creating. A strategic content service provider will help you with this during the initial phase of your engagement.
RELATED: How Much Should I Pay for Legal Content?
For most law firms the primary audience for their website content is prospective new clients. In other words, the individuals that they hope will hire the firm to help with their legal issues.
For some though, the primary audience is the firm’s existing clients, attorneys who refer cases to the firm, other attorneys at the firm, or even journalists and news media who cover the firm’s casework.
Before investing in website content it’s crucial that you define who your primary audience is for each piece of content that you create.
Once we have defined who the audience is for our website content we need to ask ourselves what type of content is required to satisfy those folks and ultimately have them take the action we want them to take.
There are a several website content archetypes that we deploy for our clients at Juris Digital:
These are pages on your website that convey your primary services. These tend to be linked-to from the main website navigation and are more or less “static” in nature. These pages are normally aimed directly at potential new clients.
Service pages are generally optimized for search keywords that have a strong transactional and local intent (eg. “DUI attorney houston”). Service pages are a more-or-less essential ingredient of any law firm website.
Here are a few examples of service pages that perform well for our clients:
About the firm pages are just what you’d expect: Pages that convey things about the law firm such as the firm’s history and mission, biographies of the firm’s attorneys, examples of the firm’s results for clients, testimonials from the firm’s clients, and honors, awards, and media coverage that the firm has received.
I sometimes refer to these as braggy pages. They represent the firm’s opportunity to talk themselves up. Here are a few examples of About the Firm pages that perform well for our clients:
Client success stories are among this author’s favorite types of website content for law firms. These are pages that tell the story of the firm’s clients. In my opinion, there is no better way to convince your audience – whether they be your potential clients, your existing clients, or people who can refer you clients – that your firm is the right choice than by telling the stories of others that you’ve helped.
At Juris Digital we offer client success story creation as a service. You can learn all about what that looks like – and see examples of our work – on our client success story service page.
RELATED: How to Create Client Success Stories That Turn Website Visitors Into Your Best Clients
Informational articles are aimed at folks who have questions or are doing research about your area(s) of practice. Law firms who are serious about deploying content as a means of widening their reach and gaining more new clients online invest in informational content. Whereas service pages are written for folks who are presumably ready to hire a lawyer, informational articles attract a much wider audience because people who search for legal information are not necessarily ready to – or even considering – hiring a lawyer (though they often are!).
An example of a search that someone looking for an informational legal article might conduct is “average payout fo 18-wheeler accident“. Someone who searches a query like this is looking for information that is relevant to the services of a personal injury law firm, even if they are not yet convinced that they need to hire a lawyer. Law firms who publish this sort of website content give themselves an opportunity to get in front of these folks.
Here are a few examples of informational legal articles that perform well for our clients.
RELATED: Evergreen Content Marketing for Law Firms
This sort of content is typically delivered in the form of blog posts. This includes reactions to and analysis of legal rulings in the firm’s practice areas, and research related to the firm’s areas of practice. Generally, this is not content that can be effectively ghost-written by an agency like ours. This sort of content needs to be produced by experts in the field (ie. the attorneys at your firm).
The audience for this type of content is generally folks who can help amplify the law firm such as journalists, bloggers, thought-leaders, etc. While this type of content can absolutely generate positive outcomes for the firm, those outcomes tend to be much more difficult to track and attribute because the benefits they produce are indirect.
At Juris Digital we believe that the best way for law firms to get their content in front of their audience is via organic search (SEO). When a content strategy is backed by keyword search data the results can be transformative.
But there are other digital channels for getting your website content in front of your audience as well including:
A strategic website content partner like Juris Digital will work with you to understand the best channels for promoting your law firm’s website content.
For law firms that have been engaged in content marketing or other forms of web marketing for some time, there is often an opportunity to significantly improve results by evaluating what content exists and then repurposing and revamping that content strategically.
One of the things that separate Juris Digital from other legal web content vendors is that we take the time to assess our client’s current website content before making recommendations for new content. Of course, sometimes the clients who come to us are starting from scratch and so they need new content written from the ground-up. But often we are able to save time and money and achieve positive outcomes by repurposing and revamping existing content.
CLIENT SUCCESS STORY
See how we deployed legal content marketing to help Massingill Law massively increase traffic and leads from the web.
Before investing in website content for your law firm you need a plan for measuring the performance of the content you published.
At Juris Digital, because we are a marketing agency and not just a purveyor of written words, we help our clients understand the potential outcomes of any given piece of content, and we help them measure the performance of the content after it’s published. We do this by ensuring that web traffic tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console are properly configured on your website. This enables us to help our clients understand what specific pieces of content are most effective at generating positive outcomes so that those pieces can be prioritized for continual updates and improvements.
You might be noticing a theme here, which is: Simply “ordering” pieces of website content is not good enough. There needs to be strategic consideration behind each new piece of website content your law firm produces. One of the key considerations before investing in legal web content is to understand where that content should live within the existing structure of your website.
For example, if you want to do a piece on the penalties for a third DUI charge in your state, should that content be presented as a service page? Or as an informational article? Or, should it not even be its own page, but instead, be incorporated as a new section in your existing DUI service page?
In making this determination, we may uncover opportunities to make improvements to the way that your website’s existing content is structured. At Juris Digital we help our clients uncover these opportunities by taking a holistic approach to website content creation.
RELATED: How to Use Topic Clusters and Keyword Clusters for More Effective Legal Content Marketing
In the world of legal marketing, the word content is often synonymous with written content — words. But written words are far from the only format for conveying information on the web. Based on the nature of your law firm’s practice and the specific topics you want to cover, you may benefit from producing other forms of content including:
At Juris Digital we advise our clients on what supplemental content types might be needed to achieve their goals, and because we are a full-service digital marketing shop, we have the talent and resources to create those additional assets.
It’s important to understand that website content is simultaneously an asset and a liability. It is an asset in the sense that it can fundamentally transform the quantity and quality of new business opportunities that your firm generates from the web.
But it’s also a liability in the sense that it’s something that must be hosted, managed, and updated over time. Accordingly, it’s important that before you invest in content for your attorney website you consider whose job it will be to manage that content, and what that process ought to look like.
At Juris Digital we can help you define what must be done to maintain high-performing content over the long term, and put a plan in place for ensuring that is achieved.
To sum up: It’s possible that you understand perfectly what sort of content you need for your law firm’s website, and you simply need someone to write the words. In that case, we might not be the best fit for you. But if you’re like most of our clients, you’d benefit from a website content provider who will go beyond typeing words, and will also take the time up-front to understand your goals and your audience – using a rubric like the one I’ve presented here – in order to maximize the efficacy of your investment.
Let’s Talk Content