The clock has struck midnight and you have a whole new year ahead of you to take your law firm to new heights. So, with that in mind, we thought we’d give you a helping hand with our 2023 Online Marketing Strategy Template for Lawyers.

We’ll take you step-by-step through what you need to do for success in 2023. Follow along with our law firm online marketing plan and take the steps that will get you where you want to go.

Setting the stage for success

Before you move forward, it’s good to take a look back. Whether your marketing went really well or not as well as you would have liked last year, you will have learned from it. At the very least, you’ll know what not to do, but more likely you’ll have a list of successes that came from various aspects of your marketing efforts.

Start by going through what worked and looking at how you can take what you’ve learned into 2023 and replicate or even increase that success.

Next, it’s time to look at your goals for your law firm. What would you like to achieve over the next twelve months?

If you don’t set goals, you’ll have a hard time measuring what you’ve achieved and it’s likely you won’t be as far forward as you’d like.

Take a look at the big picture first, including whether you’re happy with your company’s reputation in the market. Do you feel that you get the types of clients you want to deal with? Do you think your marketing outreach and your branding are creating the right impression on your audience?

Are you thinking of expanding this year, either by hiring more lawyers and support staff in your current location or perhaps by adding one or more new branches to your law firm?

Are you encouraging your current staff to level up and grow into new, higher roles? If so, do you have a plan for replacing them at the lower levels?

What about profitability? How much revenue would you like to bring in this year and how much of that revenue should be profit? It helps to know this because you can then look at how much, on average, people spend with you and what your retention rates are. With that information, you can calculate how many new leads you need per month and what your conversion rate needs to be to get you to that revenue figure.

Where do you really want to be by the end of 2023? Settle the answers to this question first and then your marketing plan can follow.

Lastly, look at your existing figures from last year and your estimated income for this year. What resources and budget can you allocate to marketing in 2023? Whether you have a full marketing team, just one person in an office, or whether you run the marketing as part of your role, you need to know how much you can safely spend so that you don’t blow your budget.

Crafting your marketing plan

When building your law firm online marketing plan, you need to decide what online marketing activities you’ll include in your strategy.

The first thing to note is that you can’t do everything. You can’t keep up a posting schedule on every social media platform. You can’t be everywhere all at once. And you shouldn’t try. Spreading yourself too thin will only lead to disappointing results and quite probably to burnout.

Instead, choose the things that are going to make the most impact, to help you to reach the right audience and drive leads into your sales funnel. Then do them well! That’s what really moves the needle.

At the start of each year, it’s a great time to look at what you already have and assess how effective it is, and then decide on where to make improvements and add new tactics and strategies, if needed.

For local marketing success, here are our top picks to focus on to make a big impact on your bottom line:

1) Your website

Whatever else you have in your marketing plan, your website is the hub of it all. It’s your home on the internet where you drive your leads so that you can work on converting them into clients. It’s your own property where you can post whatever content you want and have complete control over it.

You can’t choose exactly where Google ranks your articles. You can’t make every follower on each of the social platforms see every post. Those sites don’t belong to you and all you can do is follow best practices with each of them and make the most of them. You also don’t control policies on any of these platforms and what they will allow with every update of their T&Cs and their algorithms.

Building your whole marketing plan on social platforms without having your own website is akin to building your whole business on somebody else’s goodwill without signed contracts in place.

That’s why you need your own website, with your own domain name and hosting. Because you need to be in control of every aspect of it and be sure that no one else can take it away from you.

So, take the time every now and again to look at your existing website from a visual point of view. Does it still reflect your brand? Does it still look up-to-date and modern? Is it clean, attractive, and uncluttered?

Next, check the flow through your website. Can clients easily find what they need? Are your contact details on every page? Does your website guide people smoothly through your sales funnel? Does it still sell and convert for you?

Does everything work well technically? Does your site work well on all platforms and devices? Is your site speed good? Are your menus and navigation easy to follow? Does your checkout process, if you have one, work properly and smoothly?

Then you need to decide if you need a full, new website to reflect your law firm as it is now, or whether some updates will give you what you need.

2) SEO

Search engine optimization helps you gain visibility online. Optimizing your site and your social media posts for SEO helps to show the search engine crawlers what your site is about and where to rank it.

With a fully optimized site, including any articles and blog posts, you’re more likely to show up higher in the search results and be found by your ideal audience.

Local SEO is especially important for businesses with a bricks and mortar office, and there’s so much you can do to ensure that your business gets found when people search for a law firm in your local area.

We’re going to talk about directory listings management later, which helps a great deal with your local SEO efforts, but in a nutshell, you need to have complete and consistent listings on all relevant directories and your Google Business Profile (GBP), including your contact details, opening hours, and list of services.

SEO is a huge subject that’s ever-changing as the search engine algorithms change and, while we don’t have room for a full primer on SEO here, here are some links to learn more that you may find useful:

The Beginner’s Guide to SEO – Moz

17 Advanced SEO Techniques for 2022 – Backlinko

12 Ways to Have SEO Success With Google in 2023 – Neil Patel

Local SEO: The Definitive Guide to Improve Your Local Search Rankings – Search Engine Journal

3) Digital advertising

Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, ads on other social platforms… When it comes to paid digital advertising, you really are spoiled for choice. Obviously, lawyers do have ethical considerations and must take note of their state bar rules, but there’s nothing stopping you from using advertising as long as you’re careful.

As always, with marketing, it’s a case of choosing to spend your advertising budget where you know your ideal clients are. If they don’t spend their time on Facebook, for example, then using Facebook Ads won’t reach them, no matter what you do. So, find the platforms where they spend most of their time and use the ads dashboard to inform your advertising.

You can choose particular demographics and local areas on most platforms to ensure that your ad is targeting the right people. Then it’s a case of creating an ad that will appeal to your target audience while still keeping to your branding. Create visuals and copy that will attract the right leads, set your budget, and then you’re ready to go live with your ads.

You’ll always need to keep an eye on your ads to see how they are performing, but you can gain great visibility quickly by using digital advertising.

4) Review / reputation management

Potential clients rely heavily on reviews and testimonials from existing or previous clients. You know yourself that if you’re looking for a roofer or a gardener, you’ll want to be sure that they can do what they say they can do. You’ll ask around friends and family to see if they know anyone, and if not, you’ll scour the online reviews of nearby companies to see who looks to be the best.

That’s what everyone in your area that needs a lawyer is doing right now, and that’s why consistently getting great reviews is important. You need a plan in place to collect reviews and keep them coming.

While it’s great to have testimonials on your website and reviews on sites such as Yelp, Facebook, and your Google Business Profile, people tend to only look at the last four weeks of recent reviews. If there haven’t been any for a while, no matter how good the existing reviews are, they will likely move on to another firm.

People also like to see businesses respond to their reviews and take the time to say thank you for the good ones. They even want to see how you handle the poor reviews too, so don’t neglect this.

If you already have a plan to acquire and manage your reviews, take the time to check it and refresh it, if it needs it. Don’t drop the ball on gaining great reviews and managing your online reputation.

5) Directory listings management

Your law firm needs to be on any quality, relevant directories, including your Google Business Profile.

We’ve covered this briefly earlier, but directory listings, especially your GBP, can add greatly to your local SEO.

What you need to do is ensure you fill in every part of each profile. You need to include your opening times, contact details, whether you take walk-ins or whether you need an appointment, and full information on your business and your services. Choose the right categories, where offered, and don’t forget to add great keywords and phrases to your listings, especially in section titles and in the first paragraphs. Every chance you get to boost your SEO, you need to take it. It’s also important to include high-quality, professional images to create the right impression.

A complete and fully optimized Google Business Profile will give you a better chance of appearing in the Local Pack results on Google Maps and being one of the top three featured lawyers listed. You don’t get much better visibility than that.

In addition, adding your contact details means people can call you right from your GBP to make an appointment or talk through what they need. And if you add your opening hours, people can search for “lawyers open now” and your company will be listed if you’re available.

These directories really do add greatly to your visibility, and we don’t think they’re a step that you can afford to miss.

6) Social media marketing

Here, too, it’s a case of choosing the right platforms where you know you can find your potential and existing clients.

With social media marketing, you can build your reputation and show potential clients just what you can do. You can send people back to your website by sharing posts and articles you’ve added to your website, and offer lead magnets so that people can sign up for your newsletter. Social media done well can also add to your SEO efforts and drive leads to your law firm.

While you will have ethical and privacy concerns that can limit what you post, you can still create great content and show your expertise and the personality and branding of your business.

7) Content marketing

Content marketing is ideal for lawyers. It’s a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your field and to show potential clients that you well and truly know what you’re talking about.

Create a schedule of blog posts covering any common questions that you’ve had, any helpful posts that clients will appreciate, and other solid content that shows you as the expert people can rely on.

In addition, make sure to optimize your posts for SEO so that they show up in the search engines on any relevant searches.

This is a major chance to show your leads why they should choose you over all the other lawyers in the area.

If you’re stuck for ideas, take a look at what your direct competitors are posting on their sites and on social media. It’s also worth looking at any other lawyers that you think are doing a great job with their content marketing, even if they aren’t anywhere near you. Ideas can come from anywhere. Use what you find to inspire you rather than to copy and you should soon have a long list of ideas that will work beautifully for your law firm.

8) Email marketing

If you’ve been following these steps, you should already have at least one lead magnet that you can use to entice people to sign up for your newsletter.

If not, think about what people in your target audience would like to receive. Would they use a checklist on preparing for court or a guide to a certain aspect of the law? Create your lead magnet, ensure that it to is fully branded, and then start to build your list by posting about your lead magnet at the end of blog posts, on social media, in your directory listings, on your email signatures, and on your website.

Once people are on your email list, you can market to them as often as you like, and just like your website, your list is an asset that you own, and no one can take it away from you. It doesn’t matter if Facebook shuts down tomorrow or Elon Musk decides he’s done with Twitter. You can still continue marketing to your list and bringing in viable leads.

8) Lead nurture

While some leads will reach your website, call you immediately, and book an appointment with you straight away, yet others need careful nurturing to move them through your sales funnel.

You can do this in various ways, including providing the right content at each stage of your sales funnel. At the top of the funnel when a lead has only just found you, you don’t want to be pushing demos and calls. At that stage, people are usually in the investigation stage. They’ve found you, but they don’t know if you’re who they want yet. This is where you need to nurture them by providing content that persuades and shows them your expertise. You can then move them down your sales funnel, providing white papers with more in-depth information, and then when they’ve shown they’re clearly interested by signing up to your mailing list or asking for more information, you can then guide them into a sales call or to the part of your website where they can book.

9) Text message marketing

Collecting phone numbers and permission to text your list can be another excellent way to reach potential leads. It’s just like an email list, where again, you have full control over it, and people sign up and allow law firms to market to them.

Most people look at their emails and more people than ever seem attached to their phones, so this is another great way to send targeted marketing directly to individuals who have shown they are interested. They are much more likely to open and read a text message than they are to see a post on social media. If this one’s not on your list yet, it could be worth a look in 2023.

10) Analytics

All of that hard work you’ve done can go to waste if you don’t keep a close eye on your analytics.

You need to make sure that your ads are landing well and that you have good click-through and conversion, without overspending. You want to be sure which posts are working well on social media and which you should do more of. You need to know which of your website content is hitting the mark and which isn’t.

Other metrics that you’re likely to want to measure are the number of leads, where you’re getting the most traffic from, conversion rate, marketing spend vs marketing results, and, of course, revenue and profit.

Without deciding on suitable metrics and regularly looking at your analytics, you don’t know if any parts of your marketing aren’t working. You might still be spending on some tactics or strategies that simply aren’t working for you this year.

And you won’t know when you do hit those huge stretch numbers you chose for your 2023 goals so that you can celebrate.

To us, every one of the above items is essential for marketing success. Each one builds and adds to your online reputation, visibility, and your bottom line.

Executing your marketing plan

Now you know what should be in your marketing plan and how to track your results, it’s time to get the calendar out and start planning everything. It’s a good idea to follow a monthly calendar to maintain consistency and ensure you’re never left looking at a blank page and wondering what to write.

Plan out your social media posts and schedule what you can in advance. This saves you a lot of time and you can batch posts when you’re less busy to take away some of the pressure when you are busy. That allows you to be consistent and have relevant posts appearing on social platforms even if you’re on holiday or far too busy with legal matters to make the time.

Similarly, you need to plan out what content you’re going to create. This helps you get everything done far more quickly than spending an hour or two each week wondering what to write. It also allows you to look at what content you’ve already got and fill in any gaps.

You can also plan your newsletter content in advance and schedule your emails to go out on time. Again, it’s a great time saver and means that you don’t lose momentum when you’re busy.

There’s so much you can do with marketing automation to help speed your marketing efforts along and we recommend that you utilize professional marketing software to help make things easier for you and your team.

Setting the stage for growth

We’ve already talked about analytics above, but they really do matter if you want to be sure you’re spending your budget on the right things and that you’re getting the best possible results. Analyze everything. Test everything. Be sure what you are doing is working and not going over budget to do so.

If you find something that’s really working well, be flexible enough to allocate more of your budget or time to that. Likewise, if something isn’t working, don’t stick with it for no good reason. Use your analytics to decide if you should get rid of it and spend time, energy, and money on other things.

Identify where your customers are coming from so that you aren’t spending time on platforms that don’t work for you. And don’t be afraid to reallocate your budget to optimize conversions and new customer growth. Doing so is how you will achieve greater and greater revenue.

If you’ve got a lot of experience with marketing, you’ll know that no marketing plan is ever written and then done. You can always optimize it further, streamline it, remove tasks that aren’t working, and add new online marketing activities to your marketing plan. In fact, more than that, you should!

Then, when you come to do 2024’s marketing plan, you’ll be in an even better position to learn from this year’s marketing and to do even better next year.

Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform demo

At Surefire, we offer business intelligence marketing software at a fraction of the cost of other tools or agencies. Our all-in-one marketing software can help you manage the most important online marketing activities within one platform, with just one login and a straightforward dashboard.

You can manage your directory listings, reviews, email marketing, social media, content, and more, without having to log in and out of multiple platforms. And you can receive accurate reports and analytics across all of your marketing activities to ensure that you’re on the right track.

There’s enough to do when running a successful law firm and managing your own marketing. Why not make it easier on yourself and rely on the right software for the job?

Book a demo today and see how we can help.