LAW FIRM MARKETING THAT ACTUALLY WORKS

LAW FIRM MARKETING IN A NUTSHELL

Law Firm Marketing is very different than marketing other types of businesses. Why? Because in order to create and effective law firm marketing plan, you have to approach it the right way to win at legal marketing. It comes down to things you must do offline as well as online.

To be effective at lawyer internet marketing you have to know how law websites talk to Google. Most of the things you have heard that you should be focusing on first and doing first are not what you should be actually focusing on to grow your practice online. I can help you sort the fact from fiction and help you win at law firm internet marketing.

While many of the tactics you think or have been told will help you in the overall effort to effectively market your law firm, recognize that some things matter more than others in your legal marketing and they must be done in the correct order of priority...so, the first question is:

WHAT SHOULD BE YOUR PRIORITY NUMBER 1 IN LAWYER  INTERNET MARKETING?

Ranking your website on Page One of Google. There, I said it! Make no mistake, ranking your law firm website on Page One of Google Search is the absolute number one priority any lawyer should have for marketing their law practice online.

WHY?

Because most people don't sit around and read lawyer blogs and articles for fun. While content creation, blogging, social media and other tactics are valuable, they are not the first thing you should be focusing on to get clients from the Internet. Google Search is where people go to find a Lawyer if they need a Lawyer. Fact!

Yes, some people want to educate themselves about their legal problem and therefore creating content to get them to your website is important to provide multiple entry points and build website authority. But when they have learned enough about their legal problem and are ready to hire an attorney near them, where do they go? Google! Don't you do the same thing?

RANKING YOUR LAW FIRM WEBSITE FOR THE RIGHT KEYWORDS

Law Firm SEO (search engine optimization) is so important to effective lawyer internet marketing because getting free search traffic can make the difference between effective lawyer marketing and ineffective law firm marketing.

So, when trying to rank your website, you have to think about exactly WHAT should you be trying to rank it for? In other words, should you use general legal topic terms? Should you use the word "lawyer" or "attorney?" Should you focus on local search locations?

Knowing what keywords are going to get your attorney website on page one for clients who need to hire you and knowing how to do that is the name of the game! Got it? Is it easy? No. It requires thought, research and technical know how to actually achieve what so many marketers promise or what you think you can do on your own just by creating your own website.

SMART BUDGET MARKETING FOR LAWYERS

Not only is having your lawyer website show up on Page One of Google for the right buyer oriented keywords critical, it is the most cost effective way to begin your online law firm marketing. Many attorneys, especially younger attorneys, don't have much of a marketing budget so you have to be smart about it until you get to the place where you can expand your legal marketing efforts.

Starting with Social Media, Pay-Per-Click and other important tools and tactics is not where you as an attorney should begin your attorney marketing. Creating and ranking a well developed and designed law firm website is what matters first in lawyer internet marketing! It's not all that matters but it is what matters first, in legal marketing.

HAVING AN ACTION ORIENTED ATTORNEY WEBSITE MATTERS

Gone are the days of your law firm website being an online brochure. It's not 1999. People don't want to visit or explore a static business card-like lawyer website. Nor do they want to be overwhelmed by too much information.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD ATTORNEY WEBSITE?

Your website must be action based with calls to action to the people who need to hire you. You have to balance the right amount of useful information and talking about your qualifications with making your attorney website "client facing" and discussing their legal problem and your solution that brought them to your law firm website in the first place. Then, tell them what you want them to do!

I see so many law firm websites that focus on all the wrong things, are not visually appealing, are not based on calls to action and provide a lousy user experience...don't be that!

Your website is your online real estate and all of your lawyer marketing efforts start there. It is your home base. It is where your content lives. It is your primary point of contact with clients who need your services. So having a quality law firm website that is optimized for Google Search and structured correctly will make all the difference in whether your legal marketing is effective or not. 

GREAT LEGAL MARKETING STARTS WITH RANKING (Traffic) and CONVERSION (User Experience)

So now you hopefully understand where to start in your law firm marketing. Having a good website that provides the right user experience and ranking that site for buyer intent keywords to attract clients who need you in your local market is where it all starts.

How do I know?

Because I've done it and the results speak for themselves. Check out this video I made for a case study of an attorney website I recently ranked on Page one of Google for a client. I cannot stress enough how crucial this is to your first step in correctly marketing your law practice online. Does it stop there? You already know the answer...of course not. Here's what comes next!

USING VIDEO IN YOUR LAW FIRM MARKETING

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the online world, second only to Google, who by the way happens to own YouTube.

I'm not talking about video that resides on YouTube for the heck of it. I'm talking about video to get your website to show up in Google Search and get clients who need you to your website.

USING VIDEO TO RANK YOUR LAWYER WEBSITE ON GOOGLE

Effective video with the right message and that is properly optimized on YouTube can really jump start your search rankings. Think about it. When you search something on Google and there are 6 or 7 organic search results but one of them is a video, which one do you usually click on first? I know what I click if it's what I'm looking for...the video!

It took me a long time to realize how important this really is. There are many factors in law firm seo (search engine optimization) but properly optimized YouTube videos are very important in your legal marketing. I recently had a video rank in 8 hours on Page One of Google for the keyword I was shooting for. It's tricky and most people do it wrong but I have learned what works and how to use it for ranking in Google Search and it can be very powerful in attorney marketing if done correctly.

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR LAWYERS

After you build your beach head with a good attorney website that is optimized the right way and incorporates video, you can use social media to amplify your message to clients and show Google you are sending "social signals" for your attorney website. Now you are now taking it to the next level. 

Keep in mind that you don't have to be on every social network. In fact, this is the biggest mistake I see because law firm marketing isn't really the best content for social media to begin with. Some platforms are better than others for law firm marketing and knowing where to focus your message and content is sometimes the most important factor so you don't waste time or money in your legal marketing.

People use social media to be "social" and let's be honest, keeping up with your friends and watching cat videos is the original purpose of it. However, it can be very effective for driving traffic from your content that resides on your lawyer website by inserting your take on a popular topic that is trending. You also have to remember that "selling" on social media is not appreciated so how you present your legal content is very important. It's different than other types of advertising and it takes skill to use it correctly.

LAWYER MARKETING - STRATEGY VS. TACTICS

Once your online legal marketing has boosted your bottom line and increased the number of clients your law firm is getting and you can actually have more of a law firm marketing budget to work with, there are many other tactics you can employ. These include Google Adwords and other "pay-per-click" types of advertising, Retargeting website visitors, creating Ebooks to offer for downloading to build an email list and then using Email Marketing campaigns on a consistent basis and other tactics.

We help lawyers do all of those things in their legal marketing but the point is that these are tactics. Tactics without a marketing strategy are not nearly as effective as when they are combined and sequenced properly in a well thought out law firm marketing plan.

This is why I believe that all good legal marketing starts with a sound strategy of doing first things first, then building and expanding that legal marketing plan as victories are achieved.

GOOGLE ADWORDS FOR ATTORNEYS

Many of you have probably tried Google AdWords at one time or another and it probably didn't work out well for you and you became convinced that it just doesn't work. I bet I can tell you why it didn't work for you...you didn't have enough money to play the game!

Here IS the truth about Google AdWords for Lawyers: 

In the legal profession, paid keywords can be very expensive. Sometimes, that single click can cost $20, $40 or even $100 for the most competitive areas of practice, like personal injury.

It does work, but you have to have enough money to play the game because your competition who are playing that game are spending a lot of money to be there.  Once you get to the point where you are achieving good organic rankings for your law firm website and you are bringing in more money and can afford to expand your legal marketing into the world of pay-per-click advertising, then it can work.

Not having the legal marketing budget to hang in there and do it consistently can be frustrating. But using Google AdWords to expand your law firm marketing strategy is just one tactic to be used after you have a foothold on your organic ranking, social media and can work very well. Remember, first things first!

SO HOW DO I KNOW SO MUCH ABOUT LAW FIRM MARKETING AND WHY SHOULD YOU HIRE ME?

In a nutshell, because I've been there.

Having practiced law for 21 years and doing my own lawyer marketing and advising other attorneys for many years how to market and grow their law practices, I have learned through experience what really works. I have spent a lot of time and money to crack this nut we call legal marketing and how effective online law firm marketing should be done.

SO NOW WHAT?

So now you have choice. Keep struggling all alone on your own OR at the fate of some techie who thinks they know how law practice actually works and how to market it, despite never having done either...OR CALL ME AT 407-801-1925.

If you have actually read all of the above, then you hopefully have some of the basics of online law firm marketing from my perspective and you are intelligent enough to know that I know what I'm talking about. Time is valuable...your time and my time so let's not waste it. 

Just, 

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So the real question is whether you are serious about getting actual results and improving the quality of your lawyer internent marketing?

Only you can decide that...I can only give you the option to hire someone who not only practiced law for 21 years but has learned and mastered these strategies and tactics over many years, for my own practice and for other lawyers. 

Taking massive action is the only way to get a better result and I look forward to getting to know you and helping you take that action to improve your law firm marketing and grow your law practice in 2017!

Let's discuss how we can help you make that happen on a budget you can afford.

Rick Baker, J.D. (1992)

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