Last Updated on November 10, 2023 by Asfa Rasheed
In today’s technology driven world where the internet has become an integral part of our lives, businesses are embracing digital marketing to promote themselves, and the legal profession too is not left far behind. Lawyers are actively promoting themselves online through various digital marketing techniques. However, it is important that you get your digital marketing strategy right or else it may not produce the desired results. With little or no knowledge of marketing, lawyers are prone to making mistakes in their marketing efforts. Digital marketing mistakes for law firms can prove counterproductive, and they would likely lose business and ultimately incur financial losses.
This article tries to explain the common digital marketing mistakes that lawyers make and how to avoid them.
Table of Contents
The Website
A strong website that is constantly updated and upgraded is the first and foremost requirement in digital marketing for lawyers, but lawyers often neglect this aspect of online marketing. Once they create a website and add relevant content to it, they tend to forget about it as they believe that visitors would come themselves and leads would be generated. This is a big mistake and should be avoided at all cost.
Therefore, it is imperative that lawyers regularly update their website with new and relevant content. Also, technology is in a constant state of change and you must ensure that your website is regularly upgraded to meet up to the latest standards. These days, information on the web is searched from different devices and on different browsers and, therefore, you must ensure that your website employs the latest technologies and is responsive and compatible with different devices and screen sizes. And most importantly, it should be easy to navigate.
Identifying Your Clients
One of the major mistakes lawyers make in their digital marketing efforts is failing to identify their clients. This is primarily because of the old mind-set that you advertise to the public in general and hope that prospective clients would notice it. This is not the case today where targeted marketing is the norm.
You have to direct your digital marketing efforts to your target audience. This means you reach out to those people who you think would need your services. And for that, you need to identify your target audience on the basis of your area of practice. Based on your existing and previous clients, categorize your prospective clients on parameters, such as age, gender, employment, geographical location, industry, etc. By doing some research you will be able to identify where and who your prospective clients are. Accordingly, you have to focus your marketing efforts to attract your target audience.
SEO and Content
Search engine optimization can be a difficult proposition for many, and that is why many lawyers get it wrong. SEO for lawyers is very important in digital marketing. Though it seems very simple when we say that it’s all about utilizing your existing resources to rank higher in the search results, it requires proper planning and implementing the right strategy. Content plays a very important role in SEO. You have to create high quality content to keep the visitors engaged. Also, you need to do thorough keyword research to use them strategically in your content so that search engines reward you with higher ranking. Higher ranking would mean greater visibility for your firm.
Social Media Presence
Irrespective of what your opinion is on social media, you cannot ignore the fact that it is a vital component of digital marketing. Not incorporating social media in your digital marketing mix can be suicidal. And even if you have a presence on social media, just making occasional posts won’t work. You have to have a well-crafted social media strategy to make your digital marketing campaign effective. Also, you need to have patience as social media doesn’t give immediate results; it’s a long-drawn continuous process. Use multiple platforms and keep track of the outcome. Provide a link to your website at the end of the contents that you post on social media.
Read More: Manage Social Media & Reach Your Audience Anywhere
Seeking Feedback
Getting feedback is critical to the effectiveness of any digital marketing effort. In earlier days word of mouth advertisement was crucial to the success of any business. These recommendations usually came from friends, family, and other acquaintances. It still holds true in today’s highly digitalized world. The only difference is that it has now become online. Feedback from your existing or previous clients plays an extremely important role in internet marketing for attorneys. However, many lawyers make the mistake of not paying much attention to it. Encouraging clients to give their feedback on your services can help you expand your client base. Even negative feedback is important as they help you understand your shortcomings, which you can address to improve your services.
Discussed above were some common digital marketing mistakes for law firms, and how they can be avoided to make your digital marketing more effective.
Author Bio
Sophia, a Google certified online marketer, and blogger at Conroy Creative Counsel – law firm marketing agency in the USA.
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