Many lawyers or Law practices aren’t able to sign new clients and cases because they don't engage in business development activities or are doing the wrong activities and services, or they don't authentically connect with potential clients. It's becoming increasingly popular to skip traditional law practice marketing campaigns like sending expensive direct mail campaigns. Whether your law practice has been affected by the economic downturn or if you just want to give your law practice a boost, there are many ways to get new legal clients online. Here are some very important points to consider.
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It only takes a few minutes and enables you to easily advertise your legal services. Give clients a free consultation online. When you list yourself online, indicate that you will give clients a free initial consultation. By giving clients a chance to "try before they buy" you'll have happier clients and a higher retention rate.
Get rated. Encourage your existing and future clients to rate you online. New clients are more likely to request your legal services if you have a higher rating.
Consider doing more to practice law online. Now there are new online law services available to lawyers who want to work with clients online. It's a way for you to streamline your small law practice or solo law practice because you can attract new legal clients online, work with legal clients online, and even bill them online.
When we’re searching for information, our initial instinct is usually to start with a search engine (most likely Google).
So if you’re interested in generating more leads for your firm, you should focus on improving visibility in search results.
However, there are a few things to consider.
Each search result page (at least in Google) will be made up of paid and organic search results. The organic search results can be made up of a “local pack” or what’s known as a “knowledge graph.”
When links to your website feature directory listings, articles in the media, and relevant and respected websites, search engines will rank your website higher in their results.
Before you begin your SEO efforts, it’s important to make sure you choose the right range of keywords to target. Ideally, each page on your website should be targeting anywhere between 1 – 3 keywords.
The moral is choosing right keyword is the only process that can lead your business towards success because it is the foundation that needs to be robust and correct always. So you should always focus on learning important tips for searching the best SEO keywords that can help your business to grow well among competitors
Once you’ve identified your range of keywords, you’ll need to optimize your website for them.
Optimizing your website will involve a variety of technical tasks to ensure the search engines are crawling your site efficiently, and identifying the content to be associated with your keywords, etc.
A few key on-page SEO tasks for law firms include:
Making online reviews a priority was identified as one of the top Attorney marketing trends for 2017 and we see this continuing for a long time yet.
According to BrightLocal’s Local Consumer Review Survey 2016, “84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.”
Online reviews are a powerful asset for your website, and they can have a significant influence on Google’s search results.
Search your firm’s name in Google, and you should see your business on the right-hand side with some images and other data. This feature is Google’s “Knowledge Graph,” as we mentioned earlier.
The knowledge graph will show information about your firm when someone searches explicitly for it.
We want to maximize your visibility in each of these instances. Note that the example below includes social media profiles, CEO & Founder, and stock price.
Once you get a visitor to your site, you want to make sure you can convert them into a business lead.
Not only does this generate more revenue, but it indirectly boosts your SEO by demonstrating value to Google.
Here’s how you can improve your website’s conversion rate:
Social proof. There are particular elements on a website that reduces buyer anxiety and help improve your conversion rate. These include reviews, awards, memberships, etc.
Case studies/results. Demonstrating past results is extremely encouraging to online users.
Lawyer bios. Although the potential client is contacting your agency, they’ll be establishing a relationship with an individual. So it’s important for them to read about that individual prior to contacting. Give them insights into your staff including industry awards, media mentions, memberships, qualifications, and testimonials.
Community Involvement. Demonstrate that you support the local community.
Mobile and Speed. Both of these factors are crucial in ensuring the user achieves their objectives on your site. If they don’t, neither will you. So a fast, mobile-friendly site is paramount. These factors are also part of Google’s search algorithm and affect SEO.
Your goal is to be top of mind whenever a prospective client decides that it’s time to hire a lawyer. Signing client prospects up for an email newsletter is a very effective way to keep them engaged with you and your firm.
Email newsletters and blogging go hand in hand. You should be blogging about current events and common legal questions that your target clientele would find interesting, and then sending out weekly or monthly updates in your newsletter.
Growing a law practice is all about engaging with your target audience however possible. One great way to grow a following and engage with new potential clients is to host weekly or monthly discussions on social media sites.
Offering a free legal discussion on your Twitter account or your Facebook page is a good way to build up followers. Make sure to use a hashtag associated with your firm or brand so people can easily follow the discussion.
Content is king in today’s digital world. The third piece of your online content strategy, along with blogging and newsletters, should be giving away free guides for download. For example, you might offer guides like “The Complete Legal Guide to Starting Your Business,” or “How to Avoid Probate.”
So there you have it: 10 good ways for law firms/Lawyers to get more clients. Some of them require more work than others, and some cost money while others are free. Each attorney and law practice is unique, so the strategy that will work best for you may not work for the next attorney.
