Reaching new clients is always a goal for law firms, and with the growth of digital marketing, building new relationships and establishing a trustworthy presence online is essential. Referrals will likely be a driving factor behind law firms’ cases for years to come. Still, lawyers should look to build a reputable referral network online by integrating digital marketing tactics that work together to create a successful marketing strategy.
Set Goals
The first step to creating a successful integrated marketing strategy is to set an attainable goal. Don’t set an objective that is too easy or too far out of reach, or you will be disappointed in the results. This goal will be the driving force behind your campaign and should be a point of reference to keep your efforts on track. One example of a goal is to find more clients who need a divorce mediator. Once you determine your goal, you can develop creative content to deliver that story to potential clients.
Create Campaigns
Once you know your firm’s objective, you can create campaigns around your goals. Each campaign should have a clear message for your audience, and the content you create should center around that message. You should incorporate a variety of marketing channels with eye-catching visuals such as graphics, images, and videos. Once you establish the messaging, you can plan how to share your campaign online.
Select Appropriate Channels
The “integrated” portion of your marketing strategy comes into play here. Based on your budget, you need to decide which distribution channels are most effective to get your campaign content in front of your target audience. There are many potential tactics to shoes from – social media channels, blogging, advertising, email marketing, web design, public relations, video and more.
Using our divorce mediator example above, you may want to share a newsletter with blog posts about divorce tips, along with a series of posts on Twitter and LinkedIn. You could also partner with a therapist who shares relevant information for potential clients, and you could promote each other on your social media channels.
By understanding your audience, you can determine which channels will be most effective. Each tool can be used to target a different audience. This is your opportunity to be creative and share useful information so that clients will see your knowledge and reach out to you about their case.
Build the Funnel
The entire process comes together when you build the “funnel” for your strategy. A funnel is a term for establishing awareness, engagement and conversions for your audience to learn about your practice, engage with your content online and become a client. You “funnel” potential clients through your marketing infrastructure until they become leads.
Think through the order that each channel should be used in your funnel. For instance, you could start by posting about your firm’s experience in divorce cases on social media with a link to your website where visitors can download a checklist about preparing for divorce. A download could trigger an email drip campaign that shares relevant blog content and drives people back to the contact form on your website. And, if anyone visits the Contact page but doesn’t fill out the form, you can retarget them with a digital ad and drive them back to the site.
Plan your content ahead of time and make any necessary changes along the way. By using a variety of integrated digital marketing channels, you can reach a targeted audience in line with your firm’s marketing objectives. You should make sure that you can track your results through insights on social media accounts and Google Analytics. You will never know if your strategy delivered results if you do not track your website traffic and the number of new clients who contact you.
On a scale of one to five, with five being the most confident, respondents from a variety of law firms placed their level of confidence in their firm’s marketing efforts at 2.9, according to the American Bar Association.
If your current marketing strategy is not bringing in new clients, we can help you create an integrated digital marketing strategy that will drive results.
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