How do you market a law firm effectively in 2022?
It’s a good question. If you don’t have a marketing strategy in place, or if your current strategy isn’t performing as well as you’d like, one of the things you need to look at is WHERE you’re marketing. Generic content marketing advice can help. But for great law firm marketing, you need to focus on local marketing tactics, as well.
Local marketing tactics for attorneys can help you dominate in a way that generic inbound strategies won’t for this industry. The latest search trends indicate that when people are looking for legal help, they specifically search with the location in mind. They don’t just search for terms like “family law attorney” or “civil law attorney”, they add terms like, “near me” or a specific city name.
Because searchers have marked the location as an important factor, Google and other search engines also prioritize local factors in search rankings for this industry. The search engines develop their algorithms to help the searchers find the right information faster. But the good news is that you can use these same metrics to make sure that your practice has a much higher chance of being the firm they find.
In today’s post, we’re going to dive into the top local marketing tactics you can add to your strategy to help rank you higher in your area. Used with your current strategy, you can build your online presence in significant ways.
5 Local Marketing Tactics for Attorneys
You may be using several inbound and outbound marketing techniques. Your strategy might include things like PPC ads, Search Engine Optimization for your content, email marketing, and more. These can be excellent strategies and some of them can be enhanced with local SEO tactics to increase the quality of your leads.
There are both immediate and long-term strategies that can help you boost your local online visibility. Ranking in local search makes it easier for new clients to find your firm.
Including high-quality, informative content on your site is also wonderful for your client. But without the specific local terms, you’ll get traffic from other geographic locations. For attorneys, this isn’t the most targeted or beneficial traffic. Your ideal client will be in the area and in need of attorneys who are licensed in their state.
Adding local marketing initiatives to your strategy will help you capture the right audience to nurture qualified leads.
Five local marketing strategies attorneys should invest in:
- Local SEO
- Digital Advertising
- Google Local Services Ads
- Reviews & Ratings
- Google Business Profile
Local SEO
You’ve probably optimized your law firm’s website for search engine optimization (SEO), but you may not have optimized for local SEO. Traditional SEO is optimized for organic search, and that’s important. It means using the right keywords to rank for your topics and industry, making sure all the backend SEO is taken care of, and that your website is easy for search engines to crawl (how they read your website).
Optimizing for local SEO will help you rank with local searches. This includes voice search, showing up on Google Maps, and having your reviews and business information quickly found through local listings.
Digital Advertising
Digital ads on Google and Facebook, and even LinkedIn can be an excellent way to attract new business leads. While there can be some debate over which is better, Google or Facebook, both allow you to tailor your ads to specific locations.
Whether you use one platform or all three, the analytics features give you options to segment your audience and narrow the audience down based on your location.
Google Local Services Ads
For local services, pay-per-click ads can be an excellent investment. This type of PPC ads appear at the top of the search page, ahead of traditional Google Ads. This means your ad will get prime search engine real estate for the search term you’re paying to target. The audience will know it’s an ad because they’re clearly marked with a green badge showing you are Google Guaranteed, meaning Google has vetted your law firm and backs it. But that will often net a high click-through rate for the right audience and a targeted service area.
These types of ads can get expensive, but they are often very effective. This strategy does depend on the kind of law that you specialize in. PPC ads will usually offer an ROI. But there’s a higher return on the investment in certain specialties. For instance, criminal law, such as DUI, tends to be an area where clients might click on the google ad. With other specialties, clients often want to see recommendations, reviews, and personal referrals.
Reviews & Ratings
Managing your online reputation is an important aspect of marketing for any law firm. Most prospective clients will read reviews. Even when you’ve been referred by someone, they will often look up your website and reviews prior to contacting the firm.
One place where you might want to cultivate reviews is on Google. Those reviews will show up with your Google Business Profile on a local search. We’ll discuss your Google Business Profile below. But the nice thing about these reviews is that a searcher will see them attached to your listing, making it easy for them to research your firm.
You might also cultivate reviews on Facebook if you’re using that platform actively. And sites like Avvo, Nolo, and lawyers.com also allow you to build company profiles. As you well know, these platforms are specifically for lawyers and to help people research legal needs so it can be advantageous to cultivate reviews here because searchers on these sites are often very qualified leads. In other words, they’re actively looking for law services.
It’s important to claim the listing for your firm and monitor the reviews. While your firm has no control over what people write in their reviews, you should respond to all reviews as promptly as possible. You can also ask your clients for reviews and even send them to your preferred review site. You’d be surprised how effective simply asking is, but make the process as convenient as possible by sending them a link to the review platform.
Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile is essential for local marketing. And Google makes it simple to claim and build your profile. The profile is free. There’s no charge to set it up or maintain it. Once you create your profile, you can add information to help customers find you on Google Maps and list pertinent information, like your address, contact information, website URL, and business hours.
You can also interact with customers and visitors through your business profile. Add posts so that people can see the latest news immediately. Respond to reviews and include frequently asked questions so that searches can get quick answers to any question they might have before contacting you directly.
Your Google Business Profile also gives you performance analytics. You’ll be able to use this feature to see what keywords your visitors are responding to and what type of engagement your listing has over time. This can help you judge the effectiveness of other campaigns and ads, as well as any changes you may have made to the business profile itself.
Claiming your Google Business Profile will showcase your business and give searchers a convenient way to research you in one place. They can see reviews, ratings, FAQs, hours, services, and contact information without going any further than that listing. Building and maintaining your Google Business Profile also helps raise your website ranking on the search engine, and it gives visibility to your business on Google maps.
Looking for Help Launching Your Local Marketing Tactics?
Adding local marketing tactics to your strategy is an excellent way to help more qualified leads find your firm. We’re happy to provide tips on our blog to help you learn the ins and outs of launching these tactics manually. However, many firms need some help in developing and managing their local marketing strategies.
Surefire Local’s business intelligence marketing software was created for firms like yours. We make it easy to manage your entire online presence from one convenient platform. Interested in learning more? Request a demo today.