In today’s world where the internet is so pervasive in our everyday lives and the world wide web is the number one resource people turn to whenever they need to find information, improving the visibility of your website is the best way to ensure that your business is accessible to as many people who may be looking for the kind of service that your business provides.
In the case of lawyers and law firms, perhaps the number one thing they need to help their businesses grow is an increase in the number of people who regularly call or email their office to inquire about their services. In other words, an increase in the number of leads.
While there are several ways in which such a law firm can get an increased number of leads, there are some methods that are much more effective than others.
The foregoing discusses our recommendation of the top three lead generation tactics for attorneys and law firms.
Top 3 Lead Generation Tactics for Lawyers
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
According to research findings, more than 90% of internet users discover new websites via search engines. This happens every day since people are ever in search of general or specific information, answers to their everyday questions, or solutions to their problems.
When people have a problem or situation for which they require the services of an attorney or law firm, a search engine is arguably the number one resource they will turn to, to find a solution. While there are other methods that they could, and often do use to try and find legal help, most notably referrals from family and friends, none of these methods are as efficient and effective as using a search engine. There is also the fact and advantage of the anonymity that the internet provides, ensuring that one’s legal issues are known to you alone.
The way to therefore take advantage of this opportunity is to ensure that your law firm’s website is as visible to as many of these people as possible, who will be using a search engine to find a solution to their legal problem. This is exactly what defines the terminology and industry that is search engine optimization (SEO.)
Using SEO to grow your business by increasing the number of leads it gets on a regular basis entails improving its visibility and position in search engines like Google and Bing.
While SEO for lawyers is an entire subject matter on its own, a quick rundown of some of its most important components include:
- Researching and using relevant keywords on your website
- Making your website mobile-friendly
- Improving your site’s navigation and speed.
- Reducing your bounce rate
- And much more.
2. Education Marketing
Education marketing is also often referred to as content marketing. It is essentially about using content or information to educate and enlighten people on the issues they are facing.
As we have previously stated, when people are faced with a legal problem, they are more likely to find help online rather than from friends or even relatives. This is where education or content marketing comes in. Your job, as a lawyer, is to place yourself in a position to be able to provide the answers to questions, or the information that these people are searching for as it pertains to their legal problems. The more you are able to do this, the higher the chances that people will trust that you have a solution to their problem, and they may eventually reach out to you to provide more information, give clarity to their situation, or help them find a solution to their problem.
This is the basis of how education or content marketing for lawyers works on the internet. It should, however, be stated that content marketing is a very close-knit part of the overall SEO strategy, and can in fact be considered a subset of it.
What people read when searching for legal information online are actually blog posts or articles on attorney websites and legal blogs. They browse various how-to-guides, question-and-answer articles and a variety of other informative content on the blog sections of these sites. This tactic can therefore be used as part of the overall strategy of increasing the number of leads to your business.
3. Social Media Marketing/Advertising
Another important tactic you can use to promote your website and generate more leads is the power of social media. Social media is arguable the next most used and visited platform after search engines. The various social media platforms boast several billion users and can, therefore, be said to house many of the people who are, or will be looking for your service at some point in the future.
The question then remains how does a law firm go about finding, or preferably, being found by these people? The general answer to that is via social media marketing, and/or social media advertising.
Facebook and Twitter for instance offer you a way to reach your audience using both free and paid methods. The general idea is to be able to reach these people whenever they are on any one of the numerous social media platforms. Even though they potentially are not actively searching for you, or the solution you have provided to their problem by way or an article, as they would normally be doing when they are using a search engine, the fact remains that they still have that problem, but may not actively doing anything about it at that point in time.
However, chances are that if they come across your law firm’s profile or some educational material that you wrote, they might suddenly remember how they have that legal problem they need to tackle, and might in that instant decide to look into it, which perhaps leads them to click through to your website, connecting with your social media profile, or asking you a question directly.
The above scenario is, generally speaking, how people on social media can end up becoming a lead for your business.
Growing your law practice by improving your online visibility and presence involves a number of tactics, that when used correctly and concurrently can have the most positive effect on the objective at hand. By using the above tactics, and several others, you can sustainably increase the number of leads and potential clients that accrue to your business regularly, thereby ensuring the growth and longevity of your business.
Be sure to speak to us about how we can implement all the above and other tactics to achieve this very objective.