When you’re embarking on your law firm’s marketing strategies, step back and think about what you do as a consumer to other companies. If you’re like most people, you’re probably checking out brands’ reputations and reading online reviews long before you decide to make a purchase, right? Guess what? That’s exactly what your future clients are doing when they’re searching for attorneys in their areas.
Online review management is imperative to any successful law firm’s practice, and if you don’t stay on top of your digital footprint, you could soon find yourself losing business to your competitors. Why? Because people want to know that you’re in it for them and that you have their best interests at heart. Sure, we acknowledge that it’s not exactly an overnight process to build a five-star reputation, but when you put a little due diligence into the matter, you’ll soon reap great rewards. With this in mind, let’s dive deeper into what you need to know about online review management for lawyers.
Importance of Getting Reviews and Managing Your Law Firm’s Online Reputation
In recent years, online reviews have become an ever-essential part of every local business’s arsenal when it comes to gaining new clients. There are tons of review sites, which give your potential clients plenty of places to learn more about your practice. That’s a plus, as long as you’re managing your online reputation appropriately. On the downside, the more review sites that exist, the harder it can be to keep tabs on what people are saying across all these various channels.
Let’s stop for a second and discuss what online review management actually is. In short, this is the process of monitoring, generating, and leveraging the feedback your clients leave for you online. Generally speaking, reviews are left by clients with whom you’ve worked, and they’re often left in places like your own website, on Google My Business, on various social media channels, or in places like Yelp.
Why should you care about reviews? Because your future clients do! If you care about improving your firm’s reputation and local search presence, you need to pay attention to the reviews your clients are leaving for you and manage them appropriately. Here’s the thing, though—review management doesn’t always fit cleanly into the roles of specific personnel when it comes to law firms. You might have your marketing team manage these responsibilities (if you have one), or you might find that you need to carve out a few hours a week yourself to take care of this task.
It’s important to be mindful that online review management isn’t just for law firms that already have a poor reputation. Sure, those firms definitely need to step in and take drastic steps, but even those firms without negative reviews should be proactive about maintaining their online presence and ensuring future clients are getting the very best information they can glean about your practice when they’re doing their research.
How Do Attorneys Get More Online Reviews?
Attorneys sometimes face difficulties in gaining reviews, depending on their fields of practice. Whereas someone might be proud to tout their dentist’s talents online, they might shy away from talking about how great their divorce attorney was because that’s a very personal situation. No matter your area of practice, there are a few things you can do to facilitate the flow of fresh online reviews for your law firm.
Your law firm should have profiles created on all of the most important review websites. It’s vital that your profiles not only exist, but they need to be completely accurate and filled out as much as possible. Need a little direction? Head to the following sites first:
Google My Business
True to its name, Google My Business is connected with all of Google’s products, including Search and Maps. As a local business, it’s imperative that your law firm be searchable by your surrounding community. After all, Google is the place where the majority of people go when they need anything, legal services included. By building up positive reviews on GMB, your law firm will appear more inviting and trustworthy to Google’s users. Keeping your profile up to date here will also improve your overall search rankings.
Facebook literally has almost 3 billion monthly active users worldwide. While your law firm certainly isn’t targeting all of those people, it’s highly likely that a good chunk of your target market is using this platform. With this said, you really can’t afford to ignore the power of Facebook. It’s worth noting that your Facebook page is likely to show up in Google searches when someone searches for your law firm’s name.
Yelp
We mentioned it before, but it’s worth diving deeper into this platform’s potency. While Yelp sort of started as a place where people can review restaurants, it’s blossomed into a platform where every type of business and industry can be patted on the back (or blasted in the mud!) It’s become a very popular website where many people instinctively turn as they’re doing their research about local businesses in their areas. Yelp also offers advanced advertising features that can help you put your law firm in front of people who might specifically be looking for your services, but it’s completely free to create and maintain an account with the platform.
Avvo
While not every attorney loves Avvo, this channel has been successful for a reason: clients are listening to the things people say about the lawyers they’re considering working with. On Avvo, the platform assigns ratings to you, even if you haven’t yet created a profile. Although these ratings often look like some sort of client satisfaction measurement, they’re actually representative of how much information you submit about yourself to the site. It’s in your best interest to tailor-make your profile and help your future clients gain as much insight about you as they can with honest, true information that comes directly from you.
Apple
There are a lot of Apple users out there, and while some stick to the tried-and-true brand of Google when it comes to review research, others heartily stay with Apple. Did you know, 75% of people with iOS devices use Apple Maps; not Google Maps? Here is where your Yelp profile comes into play, as your reviews, star rating, and photos all populate on Apple Maps directly from Yelp. As such, you’ll want to make sure your law firm is visible (and accurate) on this channel, as well.
Nextdoor
Often overlooked and underestimated, Nextdoor is becoming a force to be reckoned with when it comes to reviews for local businesses. With this app, you can keep your finger on the pulse of the local community you’re trying to serve. By participating in conversations and offering non-legal advice, you can put your brand at the forefront of your neighbors’ minds so they think of you when they need an attorney.
How to Monitor and Respond to Online Reviews
You basically have two options: use a review-monitoring tool or check every site manually. Obviously, manual monitoring is time-consuming (and, frankly, quite frustrating). Considering the number of essential platforms we named above (and trust us, there are many, many more), it’s in your best interest to utilize a tool that will help you monitor and manage your online reviews with as little manual intervention as possible. That’s where Surefire Local comes into the picture. Our local-first software offers you a robust marketing intelligence platform through which you can monitor, manage, and engage with your past, current and future clients.
How to Leverage Reviews in Your Marketing
You want your clients to be engaged with your practice, but that means you must be actively engaged, as well. You need to constantly be aware of the discussions surrounding your practice so you can address any issues and respond in an effective and timely manner. Set up alerts so you’re aware of when your brand is discussed; this is a prime opportunity to engage in conversations with your target market. Plus, it will give your law firm credibility, as prospective clients want to hear directly from the source when they have questions or need more information.
Here are some other tips:
Turn a Great Review into a Highlighted Case Study
If your clients are eager to talk about the great work you did, this is an opportune time to use this case study as a way to talk about your talents. You might need to change some names or redact a bit of information, but you can still showcase the skills of your law firm.
Share Reviews on Social
Extend your reach by leveraging reviews and showing them prominently across leading social media channels. This strategy will not only generate more exposure among your current followers, but it can help to generate new business, particularly if you add a relevant call to action (CTA). Always add a CTA to your reviews, quotes, and testimonials so you can direct potential clients to specific service pages on your website.
Become the Top Rated Lawyer in Your Community with Surefire Local
Use an all-in-one marketing intelligence platform to consolidate all of your review management needs into one place. Attend a Surefire Local marketing platform demo today!