Marketing your practice may not be on your list of top priorities when it comes to practice management, but it’s one of the things that will ensure your success no matter what is happening in the world or economy. With 97% of lawyers saying they have no personal content on their website, digital marketing is one of the areas where lawyers fall down on the job.
Perhaps more troubling than that, 70% have no call-to-action and 40% of small firms don’t have a website at all. There are simple marketing options you can immediately put into action to educate, inspire more confidence in your services, and compel them to call you for an appointment at your criminal defense law firm. Here are the top 10 marketing options.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is important for your criminal defense law firm because it allows you to make a connection with a potential client. That engagement is critical to your growth and success. Beyond building your email marketing list for future marketing efforts, you’re building brand awareness and increasing your return on investment (ROI).
Content/Video Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to educate your prospects and clients, while helping to understand what you do and how you can help. Content marketing can appear as articles and blog posts, as well as other content on your website. Video marketing takes your content marketing to the next level. You can address your prospects and clients, directly answer their questions, and let them see a bit more of your personality.
Website Design
Effective website design puts the most important content for your criminal defense law firm front and center, but it also features a personal profile for you and other staff. Your website design will also include prominent call-to-action features, links and details for how to contact you, and full details for your services. Depending on your stats and credentials, you may want to share the number of cases you’ve won, awards you’ve received, the number of books or articles you’ve published, and other details.
Organic SEO
Once your website design is in place, and you’ve started to build your repository of content and other multimedia resources on your site, focus on your organic SEO to achieve prime placement in your search engine results pages (SERPs). When you achieve that prime placement, it is easier for your people to find you when they search for your practice or services.
Local SEO
Local SEO is important for your criminal defense law firm because it offers a competitive edge when local prospects search for you and your practice. To effectively market via local SEO, you need to search out and optimize your listings via Bing Places, Google My Business, and Apple Maps Listings. Local SEO goes hand-in-hand with organic SEO to ensure your optimal placement and rankings based on keyword research and on-page SEO.
Reputation Management
Reputation management is a critical piece of your integrated marketing plan. The first step is to review how your profile and criminal defense law firm is appearing in reviews and postings online. Then, the next step is to work to carefully craft your online personae, so that your clients and prospects will find you more approachable. They’ll know that they can trust you, which leads to them (hopefully) hiring you as their lawyer when the need arises.
User Experience Enhancement
Another part of your marketing options is how your clients perceive you as a lawyer and in connection with them and your law firm. Optimal user experience is critical not only for the reputation management you’re working to facilitate but also for every other aspect of your marketing efforts online. If your clients do not have a positive experience with your firm, you should find out why, and work to improve.
Media Placement
Media placement involves radio, TV, newspapers, banners, billboards, etc. While these marketing efforts can be an expensive part of your integrated marketing plan, you may want to try some forms of media placement just to see if they work for your criminal defense law firm. If they don’t get you the response you’re looking for, you can scale back, but it could be that you see an amazing return-on-investment.
Paid Search Management
Paid search is another aspect of your developing your online presence, as part of Search Engine Marketing. There are a wide range of ways that you can use paid search to optimize your SERP, which can lead to higher traffic on your website and even higher conversion rates when your prospects are more easily able to find you and hire you.
Conversion Optimization
Conversion optimization is an ongoing process for your criminal defense law firm. You use digital marketing tools to gauge your conversion rate, so you can work to improve your numbers. A conversion cannot happen if you don’t include a call-to-action and other key conversion features like a contact form, and other contact details.
It’s critical to consider SEO for criminal defense law firms. But you’ll also find that many other marketing options will work well for your needs. Start testing and see for yourself.
