Steps to Building a Law Firm Marketing Plan – Getting Ready for 2025

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Whether you’ve just hung out your shingle or are an established law firm, you likely understand the importance of generating a steady stream of clients. Without new business, it will be impossible to build a thriving and successful practice.

Unfortunately, hope isn’t a solid or productive marketing strategy. And the solutions that worked this year or last may only be effective for so long. There are a lot of lawyers out there, meaning your prospective clients have plenty of options. If you want to rise to the top in the coming year, you need a plan. Here are some steps for building a law firm marketing plan to get ready for 2025.

Steps to Building a Law Firm Marketing Plan for 2025

Legal marketing involves promoting your law firm so that a prospective client will find and choose you when they are facing criminal charges, get injured in an accident, need to create a will, or require some other type of legal assistance.

The goal is first to boost your firm’s visibility, then build credibility and trust, and finally close the deal by illustrating why you are the best choice. Since that would be a lot to accomplish with a billboard, most law firms today use the internet to reach and connect with prospective clients.

When it comes to digital marketing, you need a plan. Without one, it’s easy to waste a lot of time and money. Here are ten simple steps to building a law firm marketing plan for 2025 that can produce results:

1. Establish Your Foundation (Who, What, Where)

Building your law firm marketing plan for the coming year should be based on three things: who you serve, what services you offer, and where you offer them. Clarifying these three items will establish a foundation for defining your target audience, creating a unique value proposition that describes how you are different, and outlining how you plan to reach those people. 

2. Consider Your Marketing Budget for Your Law Firm Marketing Plan

Few law firms have a limitless marketing budget. But without dedicating some resources to connecting with your target audience, there is little chance of long-term success. How much should you invest in legal marketing? That depends on many factors, such as your legal practice area, location, firm size, and goals. Most firms spend roughly 10 percent of their gross revenue on marketing.

3. Define Your Law Firm Brand

Before you can begin to market your law firm, you need to define your brand. Spend some time thinking about what sets you apart from your competitors and how you can best connect with those you intend to serve. Are you a traditional or more modern firm? Will your marketing voice be formal or casual?

4. Create an Engaging Legal Website

Your law firm’s website will be the foundation of an effective digital marketing strategy. Since most legal consumers now turn to the internet for answers and legal referrals, your site will act as your digital front door. It needs to be fast, engaging, user-friendly, secure, and look amazing to get the results you need.

5. Leverage Content Marketing

Having a killer law firm website is only one piece of the puzzle. You need helpful and interesting content to support it and attract visitors. Ongoing content in the form of practice area pages, blog posts, ebooks, and videos should be one of your top priorities. Your content marketing efforts can build trust with your readers and establish you as an authority in your field.

6. Use SEO Best Practices

Many legal websites and content marketing strategies fail to consider SEO best practices, which is why they don’t achieve positive results. Short for search engine optimization, SEO refers to strategies and tactics that will help your website achieve top search engine rankings for popular search terms, like “divorce attorney near me” or “truck accident lawyer in Lexington.”

7. Target Your Local Audience

Most law firms cater to a local audience, so your digital marketing efforts should be optimized to reach the people who live in your geographic area. You can do this by setting up and optimizing your Google Business Profile, encouraging clients to leave online feedback, and focusing on local SEO when adding content to your website.

8. Invest in Video Marketing

People today watch an average of 19 hours of online video per week, as this form of content has become a popular way to consume information. Your law firm can capitalize on this trend to reach more potential clients through video marketing. Short video content can answer frequently asked questions (FAQs), introduce your attorneys, and explain different aspects of the law.

9. Connect Using Social Media

A large segment of the U.S. population is also active on social media platforms. In addition to using these sites to stay in contact with friends and network professionally, many people use social media to connect with trusted brands and find answers to questions. Your firm can and should be leveraging social media to make and maintain valuable connections.

10. Measure and Track Your Efforts for your 2025 Law Firm Marketing Plan

As you consider how you will approach your legal marketing efforts in the coming year, don’t forget to establish some goals and tie them to key metrics. Key performance indicators (KPIs), such as organic website traffic and conversion rates, allow your firm to track its results and make quick adjustments to its strategies to improve overall results.

Is Your 2025 Law Firm Marketing Strategy Ready?

If you haven’t given much thought to how you will market your law firm in the coming year, now is the time to start. What worked in 2024 may or may not be effective going forward because marketing trends are notorious for shifting and evolving. It’s critical that you have a clear vision of where you want to go and a plan to get there.

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we specialize in helping law firms of every shape and size achieve success. We offer results-driven legal marketing solutions that are customized to fit your particular needs and goals as well as consider the current environment. Call us today at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free consultation and website evaluation.

Law Firm Mobile Marketing Strategy — Reaching Clients on the Go

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In this digital age, where tablets and smartphones have become commonplace, the importance of marketing your law firm for mobile can’t be overstated. Your law firm’s digital marketing strategy should be focused on connecting with the clients who most need and want the services you provide. It turns out that many of those potential clients are searching for your services using mobile devices, so developing law firm mobile marketing strategy is of paramount importance.  

The Rise of Mobile Device Use

Mobile has become more important when it comes to brands connecting with potential customers. This is because we now live in a society where most consumers are attached to their phones around the clock. 

According to Pew Research Center, 97% of U.S. adults now own a smartphone, which allows them to connect to the internet on the go. If they’re trying to find a law firm, your legal strategy should be designed in a way that helps them find you over the competition. 

What is Mobile-First Marketing for Law Firms?

Mobile-first marketing assumes that more of your potential clients are using mobile devices for search than conventional devices like laptops. According to Statista, global mobile users reached 7.1 billion in 2021, a figure that is expected to reach nearly 7.5 billion over the next year. 

Google reports that more than 50% of web traffic comes from mobile. Since this figure is roughly eight years old, you can be sure the percentage of web traffic far outpaces other types of traffic today. 

A mobile-first marketing strategy allows your law firm to target mobile users. This strategy has several benefits. First, your website will be more accessible to people using mobile devices and trying to solve their legal issues on the go. Second, you can provide a better user experience by offering engaging, concise, and easy-to-navigate content on any type of device. 

Ways Your Law Firm Can Reach Clients on the Go

If you want to create a mobile-first marketing strategy for your law firm, it will require focusing on several different areas to achieve success. Here are some ways you can ensure your potential clients using mobile devices can find your firm and will have a positive experience once they do.

Use a Responsive Design

When designing your law firm’s website, make sure it is responsive. This means that it will automatically custom-fit onto the device the visitor uses to access it. A site designed for mobile-first will have a crisp, clear layout and design, providing visitors with everything they need to know about your firm without any unnecessary fluff that can make the site cumbersome to read or navigate. 

Streamline Your Site’s Content

Your law firm’s content should be formatted so that it reads well on a mobile device. Long paragraphs don’t work with mobile. Instead, you want to use plenty of headers to break up your content and don’t be afraid to shorten your paragraphs, even when the breakpoints don’t seem natural. Another way you can break up the content is to use plenty of images or infographics to get your point across. 

Include Video Content

Many of today’s web surfers prefer to watch video content, so make sure you include this as part of your legal marketing strategy. Video works well on mobile devices and can also be shared on social media sites. Studies show that a majority of Facebook users watch videos without sound, so consider using tools that offer closed captioning to enhance the experience. 

Make User Onboarding Simple

When a mobile visitor wants to contact you or sign up with your firm, you should make it as simple as possible. Specifically, mobile websites should streamline the onboarding process by eliminating any unnecessary steps. 

Your contact page should be easy to fill out with large touch areas that can avoid the frustration of navigating drop-down boxes or toggling between number and letter key screens. It’s also helpful to include a tap-to-call link for people who would rather just speak to someone instead of filling out a form. 

Improve Your Site Speed

Mobile users aren’t willing to wait too long for your website to load. If your law firm’s website is sluggish and doesn’t show up on their screen in the first few seconds, they will swipe to get back to their search engine to try their luck with a competitor. 

When you work with a website designer, make sure you focus on speed for the sake of your mobile visitors. This often means getting rid of massive image files, content that runs on multiple pages, and intrusive pop-ups. 

Leverage Social Media Marketing

Many people now turn to social media to search for law firms and lawyers. This means you should have a strong and engaging social media presence. As you work on building your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other sites, remember that many people will be accessing them using smartphones. This will also make it easier for you to manage your profiles and engage with your audience using a mobile device. 

Optimize for Voice Search

The increased use of mobile devices has also given rise to a different type of search — voice search. Instead of typing an inquiry into a search bar, people now speak into their phones or other smart devices. 

This requires that you optimize your website and content for a different type of search. For example, voice search is usually longer and more conversational. A person might say, “Siri, find me a good personal injury lawyer near me,” or “what does a divorce lawyer cost in Alabama?”

Consider Running Mobile Ads

Many paid ads, such as those on Google and Bing, allow you to specifically target mobile users. You can even create a separate landing page dedicated to your ad campaign that is designed for mobile. Social media ads can also be targeted to users within a specific geographic area, which is useful for attorneys who want to target their message to a specific audience. 

Get Help With Your Firm’s Mobile Marketing Strategy

Because so many consumers use mobile devices to find and connect with brands, having a mobile marketing strategy is vital for your law firm’s success. At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we specialize in helping our clients with our results-driving legal marketing solutions. To learn more about how we can help your law firm get found and chosen by its target audience, contact us today to schedule a free initial consultation and website evaluation. 

Digital Marketing Strategies for Law Firms — What Worked in 2023

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If you want your law firm to succeed, you need to have a strong online presence. But the definition of that can change slightly from year to year due to shifting consumer preferences and digital marketing trends. Here are some highlights of what worked well in 2023 to give you a good idea of what digital marketing strategies for law firms will be the most effective going into 2024 and beyond.

Digital Marketing Strategies for Law Firms — What Worked in 2023

Understanding digital marketing trends is a critical part of developing the best strategies for your law firm in the coming year. Good or bad, the digital marketing industry is one of the fastest-changing sectors you’ll encounter. What was effective five or ten years ago may not work as well today. And what is working today may not have even existed a few years in the past.

  1. Content is Still King

Content marketing continued to be the most effective legal marketing strategy in 2023, and that is not expected to change anytime in the foreseeable future. Every law firm needs a modern and engaging website. But the content your firm posts is how potential clients learn about your law firm, make a connection with your brand, start trusting that you can solve their problems, and find out how to contact you.

Law firms can use a variety of content like practice area pages, blog posts, videos, white papers, podcasts, and other content to make these connections. Video content has become even more prominent in 2023, with law firms starting to embrace a wide variety of video content (YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc.) to engage audiences and drive conversions.

  1. Harnessing the Power of AI

As technology has continued to evolve, artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a more prominent role in law firm marketing. AI is not an ideal technology for content creation because there have been many problems with accuracy and consistency. However, AI is being used to create a more personalized marketing experience for prospective clients.

AI algorithms can be used to tailor interactions with prospective clients so the content they receive is more relevant to their needs and interests. AI can also better analyze insights so your business is making the most informed business decisions.

  1. Using Social Media Authentically

Social media continues to be a fundamental legal marketing strategy. Considering more than half (60%) of the world’s population uses social media regularly, there’s a good chance your target audience is on these platforms. But just having a presence on social networks is not good enough for law firms to get the results they want.

In 2023, law firms and other brands discovered that authenticity is essential on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn. Specifically, businesses that demonstrate transparency and genuine values are able to make more authentic connections with their audiences.

  1. New Paid Advertising Opportunities 

Google ads and social media ads remain an excellent strategy to supplement some of your long-term legal marketing solutions. Over the past year, new campaign types have emerged that leverage the power of AI. Google’s new “demand generation” campaigns allow your firm to display engaging, multi-format ads across all of the company’s platforms, including YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and more.

These Demand Gen ads allow your firm to reach up to three billion active monthly users. However, most law firms aren’t targeting that law of an audience. The ads also use AI-powered bidding and insights to ensure your ad dollars are being spent in the most efficient way possible.

  1. Adapting for Mobile & Voice Search

According to Statista, just over 95% of internet users globally are accessing online resources via mobile devices. Considering most people are using mobile devices for things like search, it remains essential that your law firm’s website and online content are customized for these various platforms. This is not only important for the client experience but also for your search engine rankings.

With the increased use of voice search, many law firms are improving their results by including conversational keywords and language in their online marketing efforts. This type of language, such as “What’s the difference between a will and a trust?” or “What’s the penalty for a 2nd DUI in Florida?” can help law firms capture additional traffic via search and ads in the coming year.

  1. Integrating Online and Offline Channels

While law firms get more leverage and a higher return on their investment through online marketing, there’s no reason to completely discount offline channels. Whether your firm invests in billboards or involvement in community events, the most important trend is in unifying your online and offline channels.

In other words, your branding elements, messaging, and promotional strategies across multiple platforms should be consistent. Potential clients will notice if you are presenting competing messages across different channels.

  1. Evolving the Client Experience

The client journey begins when a potential client realizes they have a legal issue requiring professional intervention and continues well past the time they engage your firm’s services. Today’s consumers have higher expectations from the brands they support, whether it be a product or service provider.

Many law firms are finding it beneficial to deploy new chatbot technology to offer immediate and individualized client assistance. This technology can tell clients your operating hours, outline your specific geographic coverage and practice areas, and alert someone at your law firm when there is a qualified lead requiring assistance.

Is Your 2024 Digital Marketing Plan Ready?

Now is the time to begin planning your 2024 legal marketing strategy. What worked in 2023 may continue to be effective in 2024, but marketing trends will continue to evolve. It’s essential that you have a clear idea of your goals and a roadmap to achieve them.

If you are ready to drive more traffic to your law firm’s website and boost your business, Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing can help. We offer results-driven legal marketing solutions that work in the current environment. Call us today at (800) 649-1764 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation and website evaluation.

It’s Time to Get Started on Your 2024 Marketing Plan

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Another year seems to have flown by, and many businesses are already considering their goals and strategies for the coming year. To ensure your law firm is spending its marketing dollars wisely and getting the best possible results, a well-thought-out plan is a good idea. Here are a few things to think about and some steps you can take to get started on your 2024 marketing plan.

What is a Law Firm Marketing Plan?

Your law firm’s marketing plan is a place to document and define the goals and strategies you wish to pursue for a given period, usually the coming year. Your marketing plan defines what you want to accomplish, who your law firm is targeting with its efforts, your budget, the strategies you plan to use, and the various roles and responsibilities of people who will execute the plan.

Why Your Law Firm Needs a Marketing Plan

It doesn’t matter whether you are running a large law firm or are a sole practitioner — you still need a marketing plan. It’s the glue that connects your strategies together and ensures you are focusing on the right activities at the right time. Here are some of the benefits of having a legal marketing plan.

  1. It helps you create measurable goals.

Your legal marketing plan ensures you create goals that align with your firm’s overall business objectives. Going even further, it allows you to designate key performance indicators (KPIs) to track each of your marketing initiatives.

  1. It helps identify your target audience.

Your firm can waste a lot of time, effort, and marketing dollars on strategies that don’t reach the right audience. Your marketing is an excellent tool for defining who your target audience is and how you can customize your firm’s message to reach this demographic.

  1. It pushes you to create and stick with a budget. 

The last thing you want to do is spend money on the wrong marketing strategies or not know where your marketing dollars are going. A marketing plan pushes you to create a detailed marketing budget and designate how those marketing dollars will be spent.

  1. It provides marketing consistency. 

If you post new blog content or social media updates only occasionally, you won’t be as effective at creating a connection with your audience or building authority as you would be if you were more consistent.

  1. It can serve as a strong motivator. 

Because your plan outlines your goals and creates a roadmap to achieve them, it can serve as a powerful motivator for your team to stick with your winning strategies.

  1. A plan makes your firm more competitive. 

You can be sure the most successful law firms in your area are making legal marketing a priority and executing their strategies with a solid plan. By doing the same, you are ensuring your firm remains as competitive as possible.

  1. It can make your law firm proactive in its strategies. 

Being reactive to market trends or conditions isn’t a successful legal marketing strategy. Having a plan in place allows your firm to be proactive and take advantage of various opportunities to achieve better results.

Top Trends in Legal Marketing to Watch in 2024

One thing that is a constant with digital marketing is that strategies continue to evolve, and what the search engines prioritize can change from year to year. It’s always interesting to consider what the new year will have in store for digital marketing. Here are a few trends you can expect to see in 2024 and beyond.

  1. Use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

There is a right way and a wrong way to use machine learning and AI for digital marketing. The wrong way is to expect these solutions to do the work for you effectively. They won’t produce the results you want. But they will deliver more accurate and in-depth insights about your target audience so you can optimize your campaigns.

  1. Growth of Social Media Advertising

Social media use among consumers remains strong. People still use social networks to stay in touch with people they know as well as to learn about and make connections with brands. In 2024, advertising on social media will become more personalized and interactive.

  1. Increased Role of Video Advertising

Consumers are watching more and more video content online, which makes this channel ideal for marketing in 2024. Marketers will continue to use video to create brand awareness and boost engagement across various online channels.

  1. Emphasis on First-Party Data

Marketers are placing more emphasis on first-party data due to increased privacy concerns and a need to gain consumer trust. This type of data offers greater reliability, accuracy, and regulatory compliance, as well as improves the user experience.

Putting Together Your Law Firm’s 2024 Marketing Plan

It’s a good idea to take a close look at your law firm’s marketing strategy at least once per year. Without an annual marketing plan, things can get confusing and more costly than necessary. To make creating your plan easier, here’s a list of of the steps you’ll want to include in the process.

  1. Conduct a Marketing Audit

If you aren’t sure where you stand, it will be challenging to create a comprehensive legal marketing plan. For this reason, you may wish to start with a marketing audit that delivers a snapshot of where your business is currently at and an analysis of the effectiveness of any marketing strategies.

  1. Perform Market Research

In addition to examining the state of your current marketing efforts, it’s also essential to research the market in general. This will include taking a look at various trends in the overall digital marketplace and your local area. Specific attention must be paid to the competition. Specifically, where does your firm stand regarding market share in local search results?

  1. Understand Your Audience

If you haven’t spent a lot of time defining your target audience, this is an excellent opportunity to delve into this subject. Legal marketing won’t be effective if you don’t have an intimate understanding of your target client’s wants and needs. Going further, your website and content must match your target visitor’s intent, which can vary depending on your practice area. For example, some potential clients are interested in “how to get out of a DUI,” while others want to know “how to set up a living trust.”

  1. Establish Your Goals and Objectives

Early in your marketing plan, you’ll want to create a list of goals and objectives. What is your purpose for marketing your law firm? For many, it’s to get more clients. But this is a process that includes increasing your online visibility and building trust with your audience. You can create specific objectives tied to each strategy, such as gaining a certain number of social media followers per month, a particular click-through rate, or various local search rankings.

  1. Create Your Budget

If you haven’t already done so, it’s vital that you create a realistic budget that can help your law firm achieve its marketing goals and objectives. If you aren’t sure how much to allocate for marketing, you may wish to consult with your digital marketing agency for guidance.

  1. Map Out Your Messages

Your messaging is tied to your law firm’s branding and marketing strategy. Ideally, what you have to say and the things your law firm stands for will set it apart from the competition. Your marketing plan should define how your messaging will be incorporated into your website, content, social media posts, and more.

  1. Outline Your Strategies

A successful marketing plan is comprised of many different strategies. Your practice area, goals, and target audience will influence this decision. For example, if you are a criminal defense lawyer who serves a lot of younger clients, you may wish to focus heavily on social media. Most law firms, however, will want to use a combination of strategies, including having a strong law firm website, ongoing blog content, video marketing, and more.

  1. Measure Performance

Those goals you established at the beginning of the process play an important role in the success of your overall marketing strategy. You can identify one more key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the performance of each of your goals. Each KPI allows you to benchmark your progress. At various intervals throughout the year, these metrics give your firm valuable insights that enable you to make adjustments when something isn’t working or take advantage of new opportunities.

Take Your Legal Marketing Strategy to the Next Level

Now that you understand the importance of having a digital marketing plan for your law firm and some of the steps to create one, you’re probably ready to take some decisive action. We can help. Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing specializes in results-driven digital marketing solutions for legal professionals. We can help your firm boost awareness, create value, and improve its results throughout 2024 and beyond. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and website evaluation. We can be reached at (800) 649-1764.

5 Questions Lawyers Must Ask Themselves About Their Current Marketing Strategy

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A lawyer’s primary purposes are to ensure that laws are upheld and clients’ rights are protected. But it’s tough to accomplish those goals if your law firm can’t remain in business. You need a steady flow of new clients to keep the doors open and grow your business, which means you need to market your services.

Making marketing an afterthought can be dangerous in the legal industry. It’s simply too competitive and important to ignore. It’s also not something you want to waste resources on and not get the results you want and need. Here’s why your firm needs to make legal marketing one of its priorities and several questions it should be asking about its current marketing strategy.

The Importance of Effective Law Firm Marketing

Every business, regardless of industry, needs some type of marketing plan. While it’s easy to overlook marketing when you’re focused on managing your busy law practice, the reality is your business won’t be busy for long if you don’t have an effective strategy. Legal marketing has become a vital aspect of law firm success for several reasons:

Connects You With Prospective Clients

A legal website is often the first introduction a prospective client has to your business. They might arrive via a web search, social media link, or some other online source, such as a referral. But, when they do arrive on your site, what they discover in the first few seconds is vital. Ideally, they’ll experience a well-organized and engaging site that provides some answers and encouragement to move forward with contacting your firm.

5 Questions Lawyers Must Ask Themselves About Their Current Marketing Strategy

It’s highly unlikely any law firm is going to achieve success without a robust digital marketing strategy. According to one consumer survey, 97% of people use an online search to find the services they need. Whether it be a restaurant for tonight’s dinner, a local locksmith, or a skilled DUI lawyer, the internet is what connects these clients with businesses that can fulfill their needs.

But not every digital marketing strategy is the same. If yours isn’t up to par or better than your competitors, you won’t get the results you want and need. To ensure the best possible results, here are five questions lawyers must ask themselves about their current digital marketing strategies.

  1. Is our law firm’s website up-to-date and an effective lead generator?

One of the first questions you’ll want to ask yourself is about the effectiveness of your legal website. People often make a judgment about a business within seconds of landing on a website. If your law firm’s website is outdated or doesn’t convey the right message to visitors, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get the results you need.

Website development has evolved substantially over the past several years. Consumers can tell an outdated website immediately and will judge you for it. They will also judge your law firm harshly if your website is slow, not secure, hard to navigate, or has unprofessional photos.

One of your website’s primary roles should be to generate leads for your business. After all, without new clients, your firm will eventually be in trouble. If it’s not doing this, it’s time to make some changes.

  1. Are we targeting our marketing efforts to reach the right audience?

Who are the people most likely to need your law firm’s services? Where do they live? What are their ages and gender? What type of lives are they typically leading? Where do they spend their time online?

Knowing the answers to these questions is vital to a strong and successful legal marketing plan. Whether you are focusing on organic traffic or paid ads, you must know who your target audience is first. This information will guide your choices relative to which keyword phrases you will target and the type of content you decide to create.

For example, if you’re an estate planning attorney, you know that everyone could benefit from your services. But the people most likely to search you out are in an older demographic. Once you clearly identify your target audience, you can also choose the best channels for reaching those potential clients.

  1. Do we need more compelling content to engage and attract clients?

If you want your law firm’s digital marketing efforts to be a success, your online content must be a priority. Posting a compelling “About Us” page and detailed practice area pages is an excellent start. But your efforts need to go even further.

You need content to fuel your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, which is what will help you achieve better website rankings. Ongoing content is also what helps your law firm engage visitors and build credibility and trust as a skilled and experienced provider of specific legal services.

You can post different types of legal content regularly, such as blog posts, videos, and ebooks. As visitors read or consume these items, they will form a stronger connection with your brand and become more likely to hire your firm.

  1. Are our marketing practices violating any attorney ethics rules?

Believe it or not, there are a lot of rules when it comes to how you can and should market your law firm. The American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct is one example, and some rules vary from state to state.

While a client isn’t likely to file a complaint about your law firm’s marketing practices, a competing firm might. And the last thing you want is to be the subject of a disciplinary investigation or face sanctions.

So, how can you avoid violating any attorney ethics rules with your marketing practices? Here are several guidelines:

  • Avoid any false or misleading information, such as claiming you practice in a larger geographic area than you do.
  • Avoid using copyrighted images in your marketing materials without permission.
  • Avoid making direct comparison statements between your firm and others, such as claiming your firm is the “best.”
  • Avoid promising a guaranteed case outcome, such as “We’ll get your charges dropped.”

The best way to avoid these potential issues is to work with an experienced legal marketing agency that understands these rules.

  1. How are we defining and tracking law firm marketing success?

Your law firm and its digital marketing partners should have established some key performance indicators (KPIs) to track its success and inform ongoing business decisions. Without these, your entire program is simply guesswork, and you may end up wasting resources on strategies that aren’t providing a positive return on your investment (ROI).

Your KPIs should align with your business’s strategic objectives. Some examples of marketing KPIs include organic traffic, cost per lead, social media traffic, conversion rates, and many more.

Each time to review your marketing results, it’s important to understand whether you are getting closer to your goals or further away from them. Regular measurements are essential so you can view trends in the KPIs that give clues about items you may need to address.

One of the biggest mistakes law firms make is not taking action on valuable insight. Change isn’t always comfortable, but the sooner you take action to correct a bottleneck or seize on a new opportunity, the quicker your firm will be able to enjoy the benefits of improved business results.

Are You Working With the Right Legal Marketing Agency?

Ok, that’s one more question. But it’s a critical one. Choosing the right legal marketing agency can make a significant difference in your marketing strategy’s outcome. At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we understand how competitive the legal industry is and focus our efforts on helping our clients get found and chosen by clients who need their services the most.

Whether your firm is large or small, new or established, we can help you create a winning online presence that produces results. Our approach is 100% customized, meaning we only recommend the services you need. Give us a call at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free initial consultation.

7 Reasons Your Law Firm Marketing Plan Isn’t Working

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Managing a successful law practice requires a specific strategy. When you take a case, your firm wouldn’t waste thousands of dollars on unnecessary investigations, discovery, and litigation. But many law firms waste that much, if not more, on ineffective legal marketing.

The business of law is incredibly competitive, so marketing is critical. But there are many approaches to marketing, some more effective than others. If you aren’t getting the results you want and need, there’s certainly a reason — or several. Here are seven reasons your law firm marketing plan isn’t working.

Why Isn’t Your Law Firm’s Marketing Plan Working?

  1. You Don’t Have a Well-Defined Strategy.

If you don’t have a well-defined strategy in place, you are simply relying on luck to produce the results you need. This is rarely a recipe for success. For example, many law firms decide they’re going to invest in tactics (like social media marketing) but do so without a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Your firm needs a clear strategy that outlines a framework for achieving specific goals that includes a plan to measure success. Many businesses use what are called SMART goals, which are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. From there, determine what strategies you will use to achieve each goal and the key performance indicators you need to measure progress and success.

Having a solid marketing strategy in place is critical. But it must be unique to your law firm — not your competitor’s plan or a cookie-cutter plan some agency hands out to everyone. This study shows that implementing generic marketing strategies isn’t effective.

Your legal marketing strategy must be tailored to your law firm’s needs and goals. If you haven’t been working from a well-defined strategy, it’s time to start.

  1. You’re Targeting the Wrong Audience.

If your marketing isn’t reaching the right people, it’s not going to produce positive results. Even if you have an outstanding website and great messaging, you’ll be unhappy with your results if you’re not reaching the people who are most likely to need your firm’s legal services.

Instead of trying to reach the broadest audience possible, it’s often a better strategy to narrow your focus. Of course, many law firms have multiple target audiences, such as those that offer different practice areas like criminal defense and family law. In these cases, it’s best to create multiple unique client personas to help guide your marketing strategies.

When creating client personas, it’s important to be as specific as possible. This includes things like age, location, academic background, and more. In addition to creating different client personas, law firms must focus on a customer’s particular wants and needs. Specifically, what problem is each group facing, and how can your firm help solve it?

  1. You Haven’t Considered Your Law Firm’s Branding.

If you aren’t getting the client referrals you want from your digital marketing efforts, it could be because of your branding. Customers and clients want to work with businesses they know, trust, and like.

It’s essential that you build a brand that positions your law firm and its attorneys as knowledgeable in their practice areas and approachable. If potential clients aren’t convinced that you are trustworthy or that you have the ability to solve their problems, they’ll hire someone else.

Your law firm’s branding is how you distinguish yourself from your competitors. It includes things like your logo and taglines. It also includes your value proposition, which is the overarching promise you intend to deliver to every client, whether that be aggressive defense, compassionate advocacy, cost-effective representation, or something else equally compelling.

  1. Your Law Firm’s Website Is Lacking. 

You might feel as if you’ve done enough by creating a website for your law firm. But a website alone isn’t enough to produce the results you want. After all, there were nearly 2 billion websites in existence as of January 2023, according to StatsFind. How is yours going to stand out?

Fortunately, you only need to outperform your competitors. But even that can be challenging in some markets. Consumers increasingly turn to search engines to research answers to questions and find local businesses to help them solve problems. And searching for a lawyer is no different. When someone needs a lawyer, whether to defend them against criminal charges, file for divorce, create a will, or something else, you must have a website that accomplishes several goals:

  • It tells a client how you can help them solve their problem
  • It explains why you are qualified to take on their case
  • It is easy to navigate
  • It loads fast and is secure
  • It is attractive and engaging

In short, your website is your firm’s digital front door because it’s often the first contact a potential client has with your law firm. It needs to count.

  1. You Aren’t Investing in Legal SEO. 

In addition to having an engaging website, your law firm must make search engine optimization (SEO) a priority. This is a series of actions and strategies that make your website and content more attractive to the search engines (i.e., Google), which will help get your site found by your target audience.

You may be able to find plenty of SEO tactics online, but these strategies must be used correctly for them to be effective. For example, Google is known for penalizing websites that use some aggressive or otherwise dishonest strategies meant to achieve quick results.

To get a meaningful and lasting outcome, you need an ongoing SEO strategy. First, your website must have the proper on-page and off-page SEO elements that will get it noticed by the search engines and your target audience. You will also need to post ongoing content that includes relevant keywords to provide better search results for your users. This content can be in the form of blog posts, videos, white papers, and more. The content you post should aim to solve the problems your potential clients are most likely to have.

  1. You’re Ignoring Social Media. 

It’s not enough for your law firm to have a Facebook page. Depending on your audience, you also need to have a strong social media presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

According to Pew Research, roughly 72% of the public is using some type of social media to connect with one another, share information, engage with content, and stay entertained. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the most-used social platforms among U.S. adults.

If your law firm isn’t using social medial to promote its business, you’re missing an opportunity to boost your online visibility and grow your business. Take a close peek at any of these major platforms, and you’re almost guaranteed to find that your competitors are already actively using them. In fact, a recent Attorney at Work social media survey revealed that 70% of law firms have made social media marketing part of their overall strategy.

When approached correctly, social media marketing can elevate your entire digital marketing strategy. Specifically, it will help raise brand awareness, build trust and credibility in your firm, attract new clients, help you retain existing ones, and improve your SEO.

  1. You’ve Failed to Set Benchmarks and Track Results.

Successful legal marketing requires a commitment of resources. Unfortunately, you’ll never be “done” marketing your law firm if you want to continue to produce amazing results. One mistake many law firms make is quitting too soon or failing to make proper adjustments to their strategy as they go along.

You’ll never understand what’s working and what isn’t if you don’t establish benchmarks and track your results. Digital analytics demonstrate the effectiveness of your campaigns, but you must track the proper key performance indicators (KPIs) for those figures to be meaningful.

When you begin your legal marketing campaign, you’ll want to clarify the top things you want to accomplish and identify some KPIs that align with those goals. If you want to increase engagement, a KPI might be “page views.”

Failing to track your results would hold your law firm back from making improvements to its strategy. It would also prevent your business from taking advantage of any opportunities the data might uncover.

Bonus Reason — You Aren’t Working With the Right Legal Marketing Agency

Marketing isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. You didn’t go to law school to become a digital marketer, and there are plenty of professionals who can help elevate your business while you focus on representing your client’s interests. When you work with Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, you can feel confident knowing your digital marketing strategy is in the right hands.

Our team of experienced legal marketing experts will take the time to understand your firm’s business and specific goals. We will develop a digital marketing strategy that will get your firm found and chosen by its target client base and improve bottom-line results.

If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to us for a free website evaluation. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have about our top-rated legal marketing services.

Builds Credibility and Trust

People want to hire a lawyer and law firm that they trust will solve their most pressing legal issues. Your legal marketing strategy can build credibility and trust by demonstrating the attorney’s knowledge of the law and background in helping others resolve a wide range of legal matters. When website visitors get answers to their questions, they begin to trust that your firm can provide the assistance they need.

Improves SEO Rankings

One of the goals of law firm marketing is to show up in the search engines ahead of your competitors for various search terms, like “divorce lawyer near me,” “car accident attorney in Birmingham,” or “estate planning in Mobile.” A well-organized and written law firm website will also answer many frequently asked questions, which improves rankings.

When your website appears in organic (free) search results, potential clients are more likely to click on those results to learn more about your law firm. Your investment in SEO can pay off for your business long term.

Give us a call at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free initial consultation.

How to Use Google Analytics – Improving Your Website Ranking

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Staying focused with the right data can help your law firm get more leads and paying clients. But the key term is the “right data” and not just all the facts and figures available. Google Analytics is an important tool to track and analyze how well your law firm’s website is contributing to its digital marketing goals.

With a strong understanding of how to connect to and use Google Analytics, law firms can ensure their efforts are on the right track for success. Here is how you can use this valuable tool to improve your website’s ranking. 

Why Your Law Firm Should Use Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an obvious choice for law firms because it’s connected to and owned by the search engine your business wants to master – Google. The online insights software offers many pre-programmed reports. But, you can also customize your experience to get data that is unique to your business. Not sure if you need it? Here are five reasons your law firm should use Google Analytics:

1. It’s Free

One of the best reasons to use Google Analytics is that it’s completely free to get the data you need to make your digital marketing efforts more effective. 

2. Simple to Use

Most people find it somewhat easy to access Google Analytics and begin collecting some basic data. Once you create an account, you can grab a code that goes on your website. 

3. Real-Time Results

Another benefit of Google Analytics is that law firms can see what is happening on their website in real-time. Whether you are tracking the performance of a new blog post or some other website changes, you can see how they are being viewed and accessed instantly. 

4. Audience Insights

Google provides website owners with useful visitor demographic information such as location, type of device, age, and gender. You can also determine who visitors arrived at your site, whether through social media links, your Google Business Profile, organic search, email, or Google Ads. 

5. Competitive Analysis

Google also allows you to spy on the competition, which might be one of the best features of the software when you are trying to improve your SEO. Google Analytics allows you to view your competitor’s website traffic, which you can compare to your own. 

Google Analytics Features for Law Firms

Google Analytics can track a massive amount of your law firm’s website data. So much that it can be overwhelming to the point of no longer being useful. Fortunately, you can customize your Google Analytics dashboard and only choose the KPIs that have the most meaning for your digital marketing strategy. 

If you want to get the most out of Google Analytics, here are some of the top metrics, or KPIs, you may want to add to your dashboard.

1. Total Leads

This KPI tracks the total number of leads going to your websites. Ideally, you’ll want to see an upward trend over time. You can also create different tracking codes to differentiate different types of leads, such as email sign-ups, blog posts, and ebook downloads. 

2. Cost Per Lead

Most law firms have a limited budget for digital marketing. Understandably, you want to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth for various efforts. Google Analytics can help you determine how much you are paying for each type of lead if you differentiate the code between your different channels. 

3. Types of Traffic

If you’ve ever heard the term, “don’t place all your eggs in one basket,” you probably understand that it’s not an ideal practice to rely on a single channel for all of your marketing success. When you track the different types of traffic you receive, you can ensure you’re getting traffic from various mixes, such as social media, organic search, and paid ads. 

4. Conversion Rate

Leads are well and good, but it’s important that visitors to your website take some type of action, like give you a call or fill out your “Contact Us” form. A percentage of those conversions are going to become paying clients. You can also track these conversions using Google Analytics. 

5. Bounce Rate

When a potential client arrives on some page of your law firm’s website and then never visits another page, this is considered a “bounce.” And this usually happens when a visitor isn’t engaged enough to keep looking around. Google Analytics can reveal your website’s overall bounce rate as well as the pages with the highest bounce rates. 

6. Exit Rate

Exit rates are similar to bounce rates, but not quite. These are the pages that visitors most commonly exit your website from. Having this data can be valuable because you may be able to add some additional information, like blog posts links or video content, to keep visitors engaged. 

7. Average Page Views

In the online world, not all website visits are created equal. Some visitors just want an answer to a single question and don’t have the intent to hire an attorney. Others are looking for legal counsel immediately. When you track average page views, you will have a better gauge of how many pages a typical person visits so that you can work on things like navigation and engagement. 

8. Top Pages Visited

Looking at the top pages on your website that people visit can give you an idea about what content is driving traffic as well as what content might need some optimization to boost engagement. 

9. Traffic Growth Rate

One of your marketing goals should be to get a steady increase of visitors coming in month after month. You can track this with your traffic growth rate and break it down by various traffic sources.

10. Visits to About Us and Bio Pages

When a visitor to your site is serious about hiring a lawyer, they are probably going to visit your About Us and Bio pages to learn more before making a decision. Track how many visits you get to these pages and compare it to bounce rates. If the bounce rate is high, you might have some work to do. 

Google Analytics also allows you to set goals, where you can define what you’d like to achieve with your law firm’s website. Finally, if you are using Google Ads, you can also track conversions using Google Analytics. 

How Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing Can Help With Google Analytics

Google Analytics for law firms is a powerful marketing tool, allowing your business to measure and leverage valuable insights. It’s free and easy to use, but not every law firm has the time to dig into this data and find ways to improve its efforts. 

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we specialize in helping law firms increase their online visibility to gain more clients and boost overall revenue. We welcome the opportunity to tell you about our comprehensive suite of digital marketing solutions for law firms. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation. 

There Are So Many Choices When Marketing Your Law Firm – How Do You Choose the Right Agency?

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Did you know that there are nearly half a million law firms in the United States? The industry has been growing at a steady clip for the past decade and shows no signs of slowing down. If you’re a lawyer or thinking of starting a law firm, it’s a thriving market. But, it’s also competitive, meaning you need a robust marketing strategy to achieve success.

Few law firms are completely satisfied with their volume of leads and paying clients. Of course, more is better when it comes to business results. You already have enough on your plate delivering a superior client experience. So the solution is to find a partner that can help you get the results you want.

But which legal marketing agency is the right one to help you achieve success? And do you really need help anyway? Here are the answers to some of those questions so that you can advance your digital marketing efforts.

Why You Need a Law Firm Marketing Agency

There are plenty of click-and-publish website solutions online. And social media seems pretty simple, right? Why can’t you just take care of your own legal marketing and save some cash? This is a valid question and a fairly common one.

Most small businesses at least attempt the DIY approach to digital marketing. It generally doesn’t work. Online marketing is highly complex, and those insta-websites aren’t optimized for the search engines.

A lawyer who spent years studying to become a legal authority would probably advise against someone wanting to represent themselves in court. Likewise, a digital marketing professional has spent years studying and applying online marketing strategies to achieve positive results.

How to Choose the Right Law Firm Marketing Agency

Once you’ve made the decision to hire a digital marketing agency, how do you choose the right one? Here are a few tips to get you moving in the right direction:

  1. Establish Your Law Firm Marketing Goals

Before you hire anyone to help with your law firm’s marketing, take some time to evaluate your goals and objectives. Here are some questions you can answer to get started:

  • How many new leads would you like to target in the next quarter or year?
  • How many new clients do you want to covert over that same period?
  • Do you have the capacity to convert those leads? If not, what do you need to do?
  • How do you want your law firm’s brand to be perceived?
  • What are your law firm’s revenue goals?
  • What current digital assets do you have that can support your objectives?
  • What additional content would you like to develop?

It’s important that you outline these goals thoroughly before you move forward. One of the critical pieces you’ll want to address is your capacity to handle new business once you get started.

  1. Investigate the Agency’s Track Record With Law Firms

When you develop a shortlist of marketing agency candidates, find out how much experience they have with legal marketing. Ideally, you want to avoid being an agency’s guinea pig for entry into this sector.

Target agencies that have a thorough understanding of law firm marketing. Make sure they are familiar with keyword targeting for lawyers, using the right legal directories, law firm website best practices, using paid ads, and getting high-quality backlinks for a law firm.

  1. Find Out Whether They Have the Ability to Achieve Your Goals

Just as you need to be able to handle any new business that comes in, make sure the law firm marketing agency you hire has the capacity to handle the work you’re giving them. Find out what sort of personalized service they provide. Ask them how many current clients they have and how they manage their deliverables. When the agency promises you something, such as a proposal, are they on time with the delivery? If not, this is a red flag.

  1. Ask About Their Work Processes and Reporting Procedures

Assuming you’ve found an agency that specializes in legal marketing that has the capacity to handle your work, dig a bit deeper to learn more about how they operate. Specifically, ask how they will communicate with you so you can decide if you are compatible. Some of the questions you may wish to ask include:

  • Will you have a dedicated account manager?
  • What level of contact can you expect from the agency?
  • How will the agency track and report performance and results?
  • What specific steps are they planning to take to achieve your goals?
  1. Carefully Review Fee Structures and Contract Conditions

You’ve made a good choice if you’ve decided to hire a digital marketing agency. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to get locked into a long-term commitment with hidden or exorbitant fees. As an attorney, you know how to read contracts. So make sure you read this one and ask some pertinent questions:

  • What is the contract length?
  • What’s the process for breaking the contract if things aren’t working?
  • Are any KPIs built into the agreement?
  • How are fees charged? Are they fixed or based on an hourly or “for-service” rate?

Getting the answers to these questions up front can help you avoid any surprises and disappointments down the road.

  1. Start Small and Scale Up Digital Marketing Services

No one says you have to commit to a major digital marketing agreement immediately. Unless you’re sure that you need a new website or some other services, consider dipping your toes in the water first. For example, you can start with a small campaign or some website content and scale up from there once you have a clearer idea of how well you work with the agency.

Call Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing  Today to Speak to a Law Firm Marketing Specialist

Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency that helps law firms throughout the United States get more leads and unlock more revenue. We offer a full suite of online marketing services, including law firm website design, social media marketing for lawyers, legal SEO, and paid ads for law firms.

We customize our solutions for each client, so you only get the services designed to produce the best possible results. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and site evaluation. Our number is (800) 649-1764.

Creating a 30-60-90 Marketing Plan for your Law Firm

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Digital marketers are constantly working on a variety of tactics and strategies to achieve a desired result. But, if you’re just jumping from one strategy to the next based on what is trendy, it’s all too easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.

A comprehensive marketing model like the 30-60-90-day marketing plan can enable your law firm to align its efforts with your firm’s overall marketing objectives. By using a defined timeline and process, you can ensure that your work makes sense from a short and long-term strategic perspective.

Here is what you need to know about the 30-60-90 marketing plan and how your law firm can create one.

What is a 30-60-90 Marketing Plan?

A 30-60-90-day marketing plan outlines the goals your law firm’s marketing efforts are working towards over the next three-month period. It also defines the strategies and tactics that must be accomplished during that same period to achieve your stated marketing goals.

Why 30-60-90 Marketing Plans Make Sense for Law Firms

This specific type of marketing plan is useful when you are launching a new marketing strategy. It can serve several important purposes for your law firm.

Identify Your Goals

Above anything else, a 30-60-90 day marketing plan helps you identify your marketing goals. Beyond increasing revenue, there may be a few things you’d like to get out of your digital marketing strategy: to increase engagement, establish yourself as an authority in your field, or build a strong brand reputation.

To achieve these goals, you need a plan. And a plan cannot simply consist of a “commitment to be the best.” You must have actionable, grounded goals that can help you move closer to the finish line. Sure, anyone can get lucky. But sustainable success is rarely built on luck.

Get Your Team on the Same Page

Now that you know what you’d like to achieve, it’s a good idea to bring everyone on your team into the mix. In fact, you can even have your team help you establish those goals.

A 30-60-90 day plan is a great way to ensure that everyone is on the same page. A clear digital marketing plan also helps everyone understand their roles.

Measure Your Progress

Finally, your 30-60-90 day marketing plan gives you a baseline to start measuring your progress. For example, if you want to accomplish a goal in the next 30 days, you can use this plan as a gauge. This is a helpful tool for staff, managers, and even business partners to bring clarity to what you want to accomplish.

How Your Law Firm Can Build a 30-60-90 Marketing Plan

If you’d like to create a 30-60-90 marketing plan for your law firm, here are some tips:

  1. Understand Your Audience

Before jumping into the items your marketing plan will contain, you should spend some time defining your audience. Are they 40-somethings who need estate planning services or younger adults who are facing divorce or criminal charges? Think about your audience’s needs and what they would expect from a law firm. You can use this as the foundation for your plan.

  1. Define Your Goals

Next, what are the goals you are working towards? Any marketing goals you establish should be clear, measurable, and attainable. Take a close look at your law firm’s case load and see where there might be some deficiencies or gaps. You can set some goals that address these issues to provide a better client experience and improve your firm’s overall performance.

  1. Determine the Right Strategies

Now that you have set a few goals, you need strategies to achieve them. For example, if your goal is to increase new client sign-ups by ten percent per quarter, what digital marketing strategies will you use to get there? Some examples include video marketing, Google ads, and social media marketing.

  1. Get Specific With Your Tactics

Defining a strategy isn’t granular enough to get the results you want. With a 30-60-90 marketing plan, you’ll want to break those strategies down into specific tactics. If you decide to use video marketing, one of your tactics might be to create four new videos per month as well as corresponding blog posts and social media posts to promote them.

Mistakes to Avoid with a 30-60-90 Legal Marketing Plan

Of course, a 30-60-90 marketing plan is a good idea. But there is a right and wrong way to approach it. Here are a few mistakes to avoid with your plan.

  1. Avoid Being Vague About Your Goals

Not being specific about your goals is one of the easiest mistakes to make with a marketing plan. “Increasing engagement” isn’t a bad goal, but you need to add specifics to that goal. What type of engagement? How much engagement? How much would you like to increase new client conversions over 90 days? What about referral rates?

  1. Don’t Create a One-Size-Fits-All Marketing Plan

Your law firm is unique, and its digital marketing strategy should reflect your specific brand, voice, practice areas, and goals. As such, it’s never a good idea to accept a cookie-cutter marketing plan that could apply to just about any business. Make sure you customize your plan so that it reflects your client base, workflow, and firm values.

  1. Avoid Using Your Plan as a Crutch

Plans are great, but the digital marketing landscape can shift rapidly. What this means is, don’t let the most impressive part of your digital marketing strategy be your written plan. There is something to be said for being nimble in a fast-changing environment so that you can make adjustments when needed and take advantage of new opportunities.

Get Help With Your Law Firm’s 30-60-90 Marketing Plan

As a law firm, you have enough challenges to conquer without having to worry about how to get the right message in front of your target audience. If you’re looking for ways to stand out, boost engagement, and increase your business results, a robust online presence is the answer.

Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing specializes in helping law firms get noticed with a results-driven digital marketing strategy. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation to learn more about our services. Reach out to us online.

7 Tips for Creating Paid Ads for Your Law Firm

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When it comes to legal marketing, law firms need to utilize all the available digital marketing strategies to stand out amongst competitors. Naturally, some will get more priority than others. But, one of the best ways for an attorney to quickly get their name in front of searchers is to use paid ads or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Since most people are searching for legal answers on Google, it makes sense to focus on Google Ads. But your firm may wish to explore things like Bing ads or paid social media ads at some point. That said, here is what you need to know about using paid ads for law firms and the top tips for getting the most out of this legal marketing strategy.

Why Paid Ads Are Challenging for Lawyers

If your law firm has ever dabbled in PPC ads, one of the first things you probably noticed is that they can be expensive! In fact, the search terms “lawyer” and “attorney” are two of the most expensive keywords for law firms to bid on. When you’re averaging $100 or more per click, it can be challenging to get a positive return on your investment. There are two reasons why this is so tough:

  1. The Competition is Fierce

There is only so much space for paid ads at the top of page one. When a lot of law firms are bidding on the same keywords, this is going to drive up the price per click of those search terms.

  1. Capturing Qualified Leads is Challenging

If the ads aren’t targeted correctly, they may not be pulling in qualified leads. This can significantly eat into your ROI.

7 Tips for Creating Successful Paid Ads for Your Law Firm

Now that you understand some of the challenges with paid ads, here are seven marketing tips to help your law firm get the most return out of its paid strategy. Hint: Whether you choose to use Google Ads or some other paid platform, these tips will help optimize your results on any paid platform.

  1. Research the Competition and Differentiate Yourself

Remember, we just pointed out how fierce the competition is with some paid ad search terms. Because of this, you need to find a way to make yourself stand out. Start by researching your competition. Find out what firms, in your practice area, are already using paid ads. Armed with this information, highlight what makes your firm a better choice, whether it is your experience, track record, commitment to customer service, or something else.

  1. Make Sure You Are Using Geotargeting for Ads

If your law firm is located in Dallas, Texas, and serves clients throughout the Metroplex, you’ll want to avoid displaying ads to people located in Europe or even a few states away. When it comes to targeting the right audience and keeping your costs in check, geography is vital with a paid ad strategy. Figure out the proper geographic radius that makes sense for your advertising. In Google Ads, navigate to “Locations” and choose regions, cities, postal codes, or a radius for the best geotargeting. When using Facebook advertising, you can select a focus point and then cover a radius around that focus point in order to target your ads.

  1. Ensure Your Ads Speak to the Searcher’s Intent

Plenty of people search for answers to legal questions on Google. But not all of them are ready to hire a lawyer. If you’re going to pay for ads, you will ideally want to target an audience that is far enough into their journey that they are thinking about taking some action. For example, a person who enters “hire a DUI lawyer” is likely much more ready to retain an attorney than a person entering the term “what is a living trust?” That said, your ads should always speak to a searcher’s intent. Structure the title, text, and landing pages for your ads so that they match what the searcher is looking for.

  1. Set Up Call-Only Ads

Having your paid ads set up so that a potential client calls instead of clicks through to your website is preferable. More mobile searches are taking place on Google than ever, and potential clients who are further down in the sales funnel are more likely ready to speak to a lawyer on the phone. Google allows you to set up call-only campaigns, where a searcher can push a button on their mobile device to place a call to a live person. Your website address is still visible, so the searcher still has the option to visit your site if they want to continue their research.

  1. Optimize Your Law Firm’s Website

Your paid ads can be incredibly effective at bringing traffic to your law firm’s website. But if your site doesn’t provide the answers a prospect is looking for, you’ve wasted money on that click and won’t convert your visitor. So make sure you optimize your website or landing page:

  • Have an immediate answer to the inquiry with clear and engaging copy.
  • Use the same or similar keywords from your paid ad in your content.
  • Include consistent branding throughout your content.
  • Have a clear call to action to get a prospect to the next step.
  • Consider using an online chat system for greater accessibility.
  1. Build a Strong Brand With Display Ads

Branding is something that many law firms overlook. But it can be a valuable part of your digital marketing strategy if you use the Google display network to do it. The Google display network is much more affordable than search engine paid ads, but only about 5% of legal spend is allocated to it. When your graphics show up on other websites, potential clients will begin to recognize your name and turn to you or recommend you to others when a need arises.

  1. Track Every Action and Make Adjustments

Even when you follow all of these tips, paid advertising will continue to be challenging. As with everything else in digital marketing, it’s vital that you track every action so that you can analyze it and improve your results. Running A/B tests is also a valuable way to optimize your ads and try new strategies. Running two ad programs (Program A and Program B), each unique, allows you to compare the results of each to determine which campaign is more effective.

Paid Ads Are Not a DIY Thing

As you can see, paid ads are highly competitive, and there’s little room for error in this space. If you try a “set it and forget it” approach to PPC, your experience is likely to be costly and ineffective. This is where a legal marketing professional can be invaluable.

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, our paid ad specialists can add tremendous value to your law firm’s online marketing strategy. If you’re ready to see results from both your organic and paid campaigns, contact us today to schedule a free consultation. We can be reached at (800) 649-1764.