Digital marketing is an essential aspect of any business strategy because of the reach of online channels. Search engines are the primary info source for people seeking legal advice, and nearly 92% of web traffic comes from Google. But what are the best ways for a family law firm to succeed with digital marketing?
To supercharge your law firm’s online visibility, here are 9 ideas for a family law digital marketing strategy. Each idea can generate significant growth. But when all methods are executed together, they’ll produce a surge in online and phone enquiries.
A lack of digital marketing strategy for a family law firm can result in missing out on a vast amount of online traffic that can be converted into business. Don’t let this be you. Invest in digital marketing to grow your family law practice.
Hire a Digital Marketing Agency
This is a fairly obvious one but it has merit and reduces the marketing burden on the practice itself. Hire a digital marketing agency with expertise in the marketing of law firms.
Hiring a digital marketing agency can be a good first step in developing and implementing digital marketing strategies for your family law practice. They can provide a range of services at a single point, including web design, content creation, SEO, social media marketing, and PPC management. An agency can also provide a strategic overview and a cohesive approach for all your online presence.
Consider the level of involvement you want in the process. To be closely involved in the strategy and execution of your digital marketing efforts, it may make more sense to work with individual freelancers or specialists. You may need to do a digital marketing course (from Lerna Courses) to get up to speed. On the other hand, if you prefer to have a hands-off approach, an agency can handle all aspects of online marketing for you.
If you have a limited budget, you may want to start with the basics instead, such as building a professional website. You can then gradually add additional services as your budget allows. If you have a larger budget, an agency is able to provide a more comprehensive solution from the start.
While hiring an agency may be a good first step, evaluate your specific needs and budget before making a decision. A good idea is to consult with some agencies and compare their offerings, pricing and approach to your specific needs before making a final decision.
Develop a Strong Website
A website is the foundation of any digital marketing strategy. It should be easy to navigate, provide detailed information about the attorneys, and include testimonials from satisfied clients. To make one, you can hire a web designer to create a professional and user-friendly website, and optimize it for search.
A clean, modern design that is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate will assist readers find the info they’re looking for. The site should include a contact form or other call-to-action, such as a “schedule a consultation” button, so prospects can get in touch with the firm.
Include detailed information about the attorneys, such as their qualifications, experience, and areas of expertise. People should be quick to understand what the firm can offer and whether the attorneys have the experience to handle their specific case. Testimonials from satisfied clients help to establish what you do as well, while also building credibility and trust.
A chatbot or live chat feature on your website is an idea to help potential clients quickly and easily get the information they need. Just quietly, it can also help you to gather more information about who is using your site and build client profiles before you reach out to them.
A secure portal where clients can access their documents, make payments, and communicate with the firm is a great way to improve client satisfaction and reduce admin tasks.
Use Social Media
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are great ways to connect with potential clients and share informative content related to family law topics. To get started, you can create accounts on these platforms, and hire a social media marketer to manage your accounts and create content.
To make this idea work, check out your competitors, industry influencers and any law firms that are already succeeding in this area. Engage with their content. This will help you to learn what works, stay informed about industry trends and developments, and identify opportunities to differentiate your firm.
Advertising is the quickest way to reach more prospective clients. Platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn offer targeted advertising options that allow you to reach specific demographics.
Use social media to promote your legal services website and other online content, such as blog posts and videos. This will help to increase traffic to your site and improve search rankings.
To implement a social media strategy, you can hire a marketer to manage your accounts and create content, or assign a team member or attorney to handle the task. Create a content calendar, engage with your audience, measure the results and adapt the strategy accordingly.
Create a Blog
A blog is a great way to provide legal information and advice on issues related to family law. You can create a blog on your website and post regularly on topics like child custody, divorce, and property division. To fuel this, you can hire a content marketing expert to create and manage the blog.
A blog can be used to generate leads by including calls-to-action in your blog posts, such as asking readers to schedule a consultation. It’s a cost-effective way to reach a wider audience and promote your firm, as compared to other forms of advertising.
The blog will also establish authority and trust for your family law practice. In addition, you’ll gain traffic by giving people a reason to visit your site.
Your blog should provide valuable and informative content related to family law topics such as child custody, divorce, and asset division. Optimize blog posts for search by targeting popular search terms such as “family lawyer in [your city]”. Software such as Surfer allows you to audit posts to see if they’re hitting the mark in SEO terms.
Do Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO techniques help to improve the visibility of your website in search results. You can hire an SEO specialist to research keywords, optimize your website’s meta tags, and implement other techniques to improve your search engine ranking. If you have the knowledge and resources, you can also do it in-house.
Keyword research is important. Use a keyword research tool to identify the keywords and phrases that people use to search for family law services. Include these keywords in your website’s content to gain high-volume but well targeted traffic. Other ideas are to do the following.
- On-page optimization. Optimize your website’s on-page elements, such as the title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and content, to ensure that they are search-friendly.
- Link building. Build high-quality backlinks to your website from other websites to improve your rankings. This can be done by creating valuable and informative content that other sites will want to link to, or by reaching out to other websites to request a link.
- Monitor your rankings. Use software tools such as Ahrefs to monitor your website’s search rankings, so you can track your progress and identify areas for improvement.
Keep an eye on your competitors’ websites and rankings too. This will help you identify opportunities to improve your own rankings by copying them or doing certain things better.
Build Your Reputation on Review Sites
Online review sites like Yelp or Avvo can help you establish a good reputation and build trust with potential clients. To build volume, you can ask satisfied clients to leave reviews on these sites or, if you have the budget, you can also use reputation management services.
Positive reviews from satisfied clients builds trust, as people will see that others have had positive experiences with your firm. Reviews also improve your visibility via the review sites themselves, which can attract many more potential clients to your site.
Review sites can provide you with valuable insights into what clients like and dislike about your firm, helping you to improve services and attract more clients. Even negative reviews can be beneficial. Respond to any bad reviews quickly to show you care, address the issue, make improvements, and potentially have the review amended or withdrawn.
Create and Distribute Video Content
Video is an engaging form of content that can help you reach more people. You can hire a video editor, graphic designer or even a production company to create videos, and upload them to platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and TikTok. Your law firm pay have plenty of presentational talent, which you can tap into to reel off a new video whenever you have a good idea.
Different types of videos are possible, including the following.
- Educational. Informative content related to family law topics.
- Client testimonials. Create videos featuring testimonials from satisfied clients.
- Introduction videos. Introduce your firm and attorneys, and provide an overview of the services you offer. Help the audience understand what your firm offers.
- FAQ videos. Create videos that answer frequently asked questions related to family law.
- Video for ads. Use video for ads on platforms like Google, YouTube and Facebook, to target people searching for family law services in your area.
Make some videos available on your site and share on platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and TikTok to reach more prospective customers. Another option is to create live webinars to provide in-depth information on specific family law topics and answer questions from attendees.
Run Digital Ads
Running Google or Facebook ads targeting people searching for family law services in your area can be a great way to increase website traffic and attract potential clients.
To launch an ad campaign, hire a PPC (Pay-Per-Click) expert to set up and manage the ads. Once you learn how they do it, or if you already have the knowledge, you can also do this task in-house. Experiment with different approaches and monitor the results to see what works best.
- Targeted advertising. On platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or LinkedIn Ads, create targeted campaigns to reach potential clients in your area who are searching for family law services.
- Retargeting. Use retargeting to reach potential clients who have visited your site but haven’t converted yet. You can use cookies or pixel tracking to display ads to them on other websites they visit.
- Ad formats. Try different ad formats such as text, display, or video ads.
- Branding campaigns. Create branding campaigns to increase your firm’s visibility and make your brand more recognizable in your area.
Local service ads (LSAs) are a type of paid advertising designed for local service providers such as family law firms. They’re available on platforms like Google, and help local service providers connect with potential customers in their area.
To improve the strategy over time, monitor the results of your ad campaigns. Performance metrics to look at include the click-through rate, conversion rate, and return on investment (ROI).
Offer Free Consultations or Info Webinars
Offering free consultations or informational webinars on topics related to family law is another way to attract potential clients. To implement this, you can create an event or webinar, and promote it on your website and social media platforms. Here are some specific ways free consultations or webinars can be used.
- Free consultations. Offer free consultations to interested parties to discuss their legal needs and provide information about your services.
- Info webinars. Host informational webinars with valuable information related to family law topics. A webinar may cover topics from general legal information to specific areas of family law such as divorce, child custody, or property division.
- Use webinars for lead generation. Include calls-to-action and encourage attendees to schedule a consultation or sign up for a newsletter.
- Use webinars for retargeting. Reach out to people who attended your webinars but haven’t converted yet.
- Use webinars for upselling. Upsell your services to your current clients and attract new clients by highlighting your firm’s expertise and success stories.
You can hire a webinar platform provider, a marketer or a copywriter to handle the creation, design, and distribution of webinars. You can also use a webinar service to automate the process and track the results or, if you have the resources, do it in-house. It’s important to have a clear call-to-action, segment your audience, and measure results.
Managing a digital marketing campaign for a family law firm can be a daunting task. Trying to do it while running the firm can be overwhelming, that’s why it’s advisable to seek help. My suggestion is to hire people first, observe, and later do it yourself if possible.