5 Key Marketing Must Do’s and Tips for Lawyers in 2020
Is this you? In 2019, your marketing campaigns for your law firm didn’t turn out exactly as you had hoped. You couldn’t reach your KPIs, fulfill your goals or make enough money to justify the time and energy you put into your strategy.
You aren’t exactly sure what went wrong – perhaps you didn’t understand your audience, you weren’t tracking campaigns properly or you didn’t hire the right people to help you – but you do know one thing: in 2020, you have to improve.
Thankfully, modern day marketing presents a multitude of ways to reach your target customers and drive conversions for your law firm. It’s a confusing landscape out there, and we exist to help clear that up. Whether you are a DIY’er, have an in hour marketing person at your firm or buying marketing services from a vendor, following up on these 5 tips will add to your marketing success in 2020.
Here are five marketing tactics to add to your law firm’s marketing success in 2020.
1. Correctly Set Up Your Google My Business Listing
This is number one for a reason. It’s the simplest, easiest thing you can set up for your law firm. If you have a GMB listing setup already, make sure you log into it now and ensure you are taking advantage of all the new features. Make sure you have primary and secondary business categories selected, bio and images updated as well as hours and more. Once you log in, migrate to the info tab and fill out every section you possibly can.
This year, Google did an algorithm update that shook up local SEO listings. The businesses that came out on top were ones that listed relevant categories to their businesses on Google My Business as well as included the same or similar keywords on their websites. For example, if you were a personal injury lawyer, you would list that as your primary category and create content around this topic on your site’s blog, as well as use those keywords on your home and service pages.
In addition, due to Google’s updated neural matching, it doesn’t matter whether or not your business type is in your business name anymore. For example, you don’t need to list “Matthew and Smith, Personal Injury Lawyers.” You could just list “Matthew and Smith” if that’s your real business name. Now, Google is now smart enough to tie your keyword and category “personal injury lawyer” to your title, which makes for a better search experience for the user.
To stand out on the search engine results page make sure you completely fill out your profile – including the categories section – and ensure the information is consistent with your website, your Yelp page, and any other business listings you have online. One tool you should consider investing in to guarantee accuracy across the board is BrightLocal, which monitors all your listings and allows you to update them from a simple, easy-to-use dashboard.
2. Increase Your Website Speed
Desktop and mobile website speed has become increasingly important over the years, as Google has changed its algorithm to favor fast sites and users’ attention spans have dwindled. According to one study, 53% of mobile users will exit a website that doesn’t load within three seconds. Since smartphones account for 70% of time spent with digital media, you need to make sure your law firm site loads especially fast on mobile.
You can do a Website Speed Test, which shows you how many seconds it takes your site to load in different locations around the world. Then, see if those numbers are higher or lower than three seconds. If it takes longer, you’ll need to up your speed. How? Compress your HTML, JavaScript and CSS files (ask your developer about this if you’re not technical), don’t use too many link redirects, compress your JPG and PNG images and allow your site to be cached just once per year.
3. Utilize Facebook Lead Ads and Google Form Ads
No, we’re not talking about traditional PPC. We are talking about products Google and Facebookhave rolled out called lead forms. These ads are meant to keep searchers on the platform they were searching or seeing ads on without having to leave. As such, these types of ads tend to have a cheaper cost per result. If you advertise on Google or Facebook, you want to collect possible clients’ information, like their email, phone number and legal needs when they respond to your ads. With these ads, it takes any inadequacy of your website out of the equation. Google and Facebook make it easy by populating users’ information in these forms when they click on your ads. Through these ads, you can generate high-quality leads that will hopefully result in cheaper cost conversions. In 2020, don’t just show your potential customers ads; allow them to click on the ads and fill out a customized form without ever leaving the Facebook or Google platform.
4. Create Local Content and Have Local Se Structure On Your Website
Google pushes content that is local to a user to the top of the search engine results page, because it helps that user find the exact information they need. In 2020, local content should be one of your top SEO priorities. This will mean writing content specifically for geographies your firm attracts clients from.
For instance, if you have a blog on your law firm site and run a personal injury law firm in Austin, Texas, you would want to create blog posts like, “What to Do if You’re Injured in a Car Accident in Texas” or “What Are Worker’s Comp Laws in Austin, Texas?” Create location-specific service pages as well, like Personal Injury in Texas or Texas Car Accident Lawyer.
You can use geotargeting to see where most of your website visitors are coming from, and then create content based on that. Another trick is to do keyword research to increase your chance of landing at the top of the search engine results page. Use tools like Moz and SEMrush to find keywords to insert into your blog posts and service pages.
5. Invest in Next Generation Hyper-Targeted Advertising
The old way to advertise to people was to create an ad that was so general it could appeal to a wide range of potential customers. Today, on the other hand, we are generating so much data on our devices that companies can use it to create hyper-targeted ads that actually speak to us and may persuade us to buy a product. You can utilize hyper-targeted ads to find clients as well.
Be as specific as possible when running advertising campaigns. For example, if you’re using Facebook ads, don’t target a general audience – target a niche one. Don’t just say, “males over 30,” say, “males between 30-4- in Austin, Texas who like The Home Depot’s fan page.” Install the Facebook Pixel on your site to target specific users who found you on the social media site or on Google. Look at website data from Google Analytics to find out exactly who your audience is. There’s a plethora of data out there; you just need to know how to effectively utilize it in 2020 to advertise to your potential clients.
Make The Best of Your 2020 Marketing Strategy
Keep in mind that even when using the above strategies, you must always track your campaigns and measure your results. Then, you’ll gain insight on what went right, what went wrong and what you need to do to succeed the next time around. This year, make marketing success one of your law firm’s New Year’s resolutions, and you’ll be set up for a fruitful and fulfilling 2020. If any of these topics seemed interesting, but you would like a more details analysis and custom strategy for your law firm, reach out to us at 877-602-7510. We would be happy to help set you up for success.