There has never been a better time to invest in marketing for your estate planning law firm.
While it’s true that estate planning activity has dwindled over the past decade, concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have left many Americans wondering what would happen to their family if they pass suddenly.
Dealing with one’s mortality has created tremendous interest in the already competitive space of estate planning law firms. According to a study conducted by LegalZoom in November of 2020, “33% of all American adults believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more important to create a will or estate plan.”
When you couple that with the fact that more than 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the USA (many of whom need estate planning services), it’s easy to understand why estate planning firms must be sure that clients can find them online.
With such a crowded market, you have to ask yourself: “How can I optimize my estate planning marketing?” In this article, we will take a look at a few of the most effective paid and non-paid marketing strategies for estate planning law firms so that you can stay ahead of your competitors and dominate them in local search.
Want to talk through options for driving more leads for your firm? You just happen to be in the perfect place for that.
Free Organic SEO Strategies for Estate Planning Lawyers
If your service area is specific to a geographical region, optimizing your firm across the local search ecosystem is one of the most effective ways to drive leads to your estate planning firm. Here’s how to get started:
Claim and Optimize Your Free Google My Business (GMB) Listing
One of the quickest ways to gain trust with prospective customers, boost your overall SEO, and have Google recognize your business is by creating a free Google My Business listing. Once you do, you can use GMB’s tools to show new clients that your firm is the epitome of awesome.
Here are a few tips to optimize your GMB listing:
- Include accurate information regarding your firm’s phone number, address, hours, and website URL.
- Write a description for your estate planning firm.
- Add fun, engaging photos of your staff and your office. Don’t forget to smile. 😊
- Develop a strategy to acquire positive reviews from your clients. Shoot for the (5) stars!
- Try using a variety of posts to drive interest such as What’s New, Events, and Offers.
- Use Call to Actions like Call Now, Learn More, Order Online, and Sign Up.
Publish Informative Content That Demonstrates Your Expertise
If SEO were a photo puzzle, one of the most important pieces needed to complete the full picture would be content writing. There’s just no substitute for original, well-written content on your website. We’re talking content that answers client questions and convinces them that your estate planning firm is the best at what it does. When optimized with organic keyword implementation, a great piece of content can mean the difference between showing up on the 1st page Google and the 2nd… and no business owner wants to be on the 2nd page of Google.
If you’re not a great writer and don’t have experience writing for SEO, find someone that does. Trust us; it’ll be worth your time. Here are a couple of content ideas to ponder:
Blogging
Yes, we’re serious. No, we don’t mean blogging about what you had for dinner last night. Blogging for your business is a whole other ballgame that can increase your exposure online and give your audience helpful, easy-to-read information about topics they care about, like common concerns a person might have by being the sole beneficiary of a will.
Press Releases
Many SEO agencies consider press release writing a futile effort for estate planning marketing. However, press releases can still be effective for sharing company news. If you’re planning a community-based event, sending press releases to local news stations can be a great way to drum up interest in your brand. When you use social media to expand upon this premise, you can build positive brand awareness and trust within your community.
Service Pages
Explaining your areas of expertise is a great way to add quality content to your website. Once these pages are crawled and indexed by Google, your SEO will benefit. Try to stay away from writing about mundane topics that are heavy on stats and numbers. Rather, focus on content that clients want to read, like the benefits of setting up a trust or how estate tax can affect a person’s inheritance.
Build Business Citations for SEO on Niche Directories
Remember back in the day when the mailman dropped off the Yellow Pages at your front door? We remember too. Don’t worry – we won’t tell anybody how old you are.
The days of print directories are gone, but they have been replaced with digital versions, many of which you can use to bolster your estate planning marketing.
If you have ever used an online directory like yellowpages.com to find a product for sale in your town, the listings you’re looking at are local citations. These listings include a businesses’ address, name, and website.
As an example, having a listing on yelp.com that matches your GMB contact info is considered a local citation. However, rather than spending time building citations on large directories, we recommend focusing on niche directories. For example, having a listing on an industry-specific site like the AAEPA can increase your overall visibility to new audiences and strengthen your local SEO.
Paid Marketing Strategies for Estate Planning Law Firms
Developing an SEO strategy takes time to create and implement. If you’re looking for quick leads, paying for preferred placement is an easy way to keep your phones ringing. Since most web searches are performed on Google, we will focus on a couple of their paid services below.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
When combined with an effective local SEO strategy, pay-per-click (or PPC) advertising can be a great way to bolster your organic SEO and “cut to the front of the line” to get new leads quickly. In some cases, leads on platforms like Google Ads can start the very same day. In the PPC model, estate planning firms pay for their business ads to appear high in search engine results, using keywords and phrases like “estate planning in Colorado.” When a user performs a search using the keywords that the estate planner is paying for, their ad populates just above Google’s organic local search results. Every time a user clicks on one of your paid ads, you are charged.
Local Service Ads
Local Service Ads (LSA’s) are relatively new for estate planning law firms, though they have been used in other industries for some time. If you have searched for a handyman or contractor online, you might have noticed a selection of “Google Guaranteed” services, which are located at the top of Google’s search results. This paid estate planning marketing service uses the pay-per-lead model, meaning you pay Google whenever a user is converted into a lead when they call the tracking number provided to you.
Affordable Ways to Get the Most Out of Your Paid Marketing Strategies
Use Long-Tail Keywords
Unless you’re using hundred-dollar bills as napkins during dinner, you probably can’t afford to pay hundreds of dollars every time someone clicks on your paid ad. When you’re coming up with keywords for a PPC campaign, try using more specific keywords like “estate and trust administration in Denver” rather than “estate planning in Colorado.” These more specific search terms won’t give you the same volume of traffic that broader keywords will but drilling down to niche phrases can translate to more qualified leads at a lower price per click.
Try Using Ad Extensions
As mentioned above, Google Ads campaigns can get quite pricey. One way to make the most of your money while separating yourself from the pack is to use ad extensions in your Google Ads PPC campaign. Ad extensions give more information about your estate planning business for free, like your phone number, location, and alternative URLs associated with your firm (like your About Us page). Having more info for the user to consider can increase the chances of someone visiting your website or calling your office.
Retargeting on Google
If you shop for anything online, you have probably seen retargeting methods in action but may not have even known. Retargeting for estate planners works by adding a simple script to your website. This script tracks every user that visits your website. If that user continues their search for something like “estate planning firms in Colorado,” they will be served with an ad for your estate planning firm while they’re on a competitor’s website. Because not everyone is ready to buy right away, this strategy can be an effective reminder of sorts, which builds brand recognition and plants a seed in the user’s mind that they should revisit your website.
Hire Juris Digital to Handle it for You
As you probably know, getting your estate planning law firm on the first page of Google is critical in 2021. Achieving this goal is easier said than done, particularly in the legal space where competition is fierce. However, with a dynamic Search Engine Optimization campaign, landing on Google’s first page is very possible. This is especially true when you work with an experienced, innovative estate planning marketing agency like Juris Digital. We are proud to offer our clients a full-service suite of SEO and digital marketing services, including:
- Link Building
- Local Optimization
- Web Design
- Web Development
- Content Development
- Legal Content Writing
- Legal Research
- Brand Development
- Social Media Marketing
When you’re ready to improve your rankings, reputation, and ROI, we’re here to help you every step of the way.
Author: Ray Higginbotham
Ray Higginbotham is a special contributor to the Juris Digital blog. Ray has over a decade of experience in digital marketing for law firms and other SMBs across the United States. Connect with Ray on LinkedIn and check out his company The Blue Ridge Writer.