Digital Marketing for Lawyers?

As someone who was a mediator, as well as a digital marketing specialist for 20-25 years, on top of running (however briefly) a mediation nonprofit organization, I met and worked with quite a large number of lawyers.

I had enormous respect for their specialized knowledge and training; and also learned that from the perspective of a digital marketing executive, I also had information of my own that could benefit their practices. That knowledge wasn’t of a legal nature but based on those decades of experience having worked for multiple marketing and ad agencies.

More often than not, I found that lawyers, like many other types of business owners with specialized knowledge, they excelled in their area of speciality, but were often very unfamiliar with digital marketing. This is where I could easily step in, show them how to expand into new markets and reach more clients more often and more easily than ever before; if they were ready for rapid growth.

Based on those decades of experience and familiarity with how lawyers and mediators went about finding clients online, here’s a little help.

Here are 7 ways in which digital marketing could help lawyers, mediators, attorneys, and small law firms (who are able to pivot when necessary) reach more of their ideal types of clients faster, and ultimately for less investment than more traditional forms of marketing.

1. Free Consultation

It always surprised me how many legal professionals simply wouldn’t offer initial free consultations. Offering a free initial consultation doesn’t mean that the legal professional has to talk with someone for hours on end, or even one hour for that matter, without being compensated for their time.

That initial free consultation could be for just a few minutes or limited to 15 minutes (as is often the case with digital marketers, so certainly could be reasonable for legal professionals) to 30 minutes. However, offering a free initial consultation can easily put potential clients’ minds at ease during potentially very stressful times and as such could help lawyers enroll more potential clients.

After all, who’s more likely to hire you than someone who’s already spoken with you regarding a matter? I’d suggest offering an initial free consultation for no less than 30 minutes so potential clients don’t feel rushed, and in so doing this would also allow the lawyer to discuss the benefits of working with their particular firm or practice, allow them to add another email address to their list, possibly subscribe that potential client to their weekly or monthly newsletter, and keep in touch. It’s a solid way to keep the client onboarding process continually working while also networking indirectly.

And this first tip leads us into our second one…

2. Video Consultations

Although Zoom seems like the “flavor of the month” as video conferencing tools are concerned, there are certainly many other video conferencing tools such as Google Meet, Whereby, Cisco’s WebEx, Skype, Microsoft Teams, and Jitsi through which lawyers and attorneys can consult with potential clients safely and securely without risking exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 virus. These video consultations can permit sharing documents, videos, and live chat along with a host of other features. Even non-technical clients can type a website address into a website browser bar and there are several video conferencing tools that don’t require a download or complicated set-ups. And with several being hosted in the EU (where enhanced privacy laws make conducting secure and private video consultations much easier), video conferencing for legal professionals doesn’t have to be a headache.

Keep yourself safe and healthy, when onboarding new clients, and offer them a form of “one on one” discussion that many others either won’t or can’t. Video conferencing for lawyers should be more commonly accepted because it can save time, money, and resources while also communicating more visually with clients.

While we’re on the topic of using video conferencing, let’s dig a little deeper into video and into utilizing the second most-used Search Engine on Earth, YouTube.

3. YouTube

Since YouTube is the world’s second largest, second-used search engine, second only to Google and not coincidentally owned by them, it makes sense that YouTube could help lawyers and attorneys gain traction with potential new clients. Further, YouTube videos can help communicate topics to clients, help bridge gaps in understanding highly complex proceedings and answer Frequently Asked Question topics, and perhaps more importantly then can help Search Engine Optimization (SEO) by supporting Google search ranking. Studies have shown that featuring a YouTube video on the first page of a site can actively aid in Google search rankings of a website, so there are few downsides of using video tutorials other than vanity and technical capability.

Technical requirements are a low barrier toward entry when all you have to do is whip out your smartphone, turn on the video recorder, and start talking. Of course it helps to have adequate lighting, test out your sound and webcam, but, again, by doing what competitors won’t or can’t, you build a content library for future redistribution while helping make new potential clients more comfortable and familiar. You could even create enough content to create your own Roku channel.

Ideally, your video should be branded, meaning that your practice or firm logo, color palette, background, are all fairly consistent if possible, and communicating in a similar manner (for example you wouldn’t want your personality to be inconsistent with who you really are for the sake of trying to garner attention or one way in one video and then different in another). The more consistent the videos are, the more they’re regularly produced and well produced, the more sleek and professional they’ll seem to viewers. They can increase perception of professionalism and capability, while helping bridge that gap in communication.

4. Branding and SEO

A little more on branding and SEO as they relate to video. Whatever logo your law firm or practice has, that should be overlaid on the videos to inculcate branding, whatever your SEO is (and most law practices want to start with local SEO, such as “Miami Estate Planning”) those terms and descriptions should be entered into the video descriptions and titles and meta tags (these are the places where you’d enter search terms repeatedly if necessary to provide Google with more cues for indexing the content).

These videos reinforce blog posts (as you’d see many blog posts here with complementary videos and podcasts and infographics) by providing more ways readers and potential clients can consumer what you’re offering. Some people prefer listening to a blog post, for example, while others may enjoy watching a video where you explain a procedure or a term in a friendly manner in an attractive setting. The more easy you make it for potential clients, the fewer obstacles in their path there are likely to be. The idea is to make it as easy as possible for consumers to find you, hear what you have to say, and reach out.

Creating Client Farms

A “farm” would be something as simple and as direct as holding an “open house” during which the agency in question would offer tasty free food, beverages, perhaps some kind of appropriate music, a brief overview presentation or informational workshop, with business card and brochure stands situated conspicuously around, and a guestbook for those attending soliciting email addresses and other relevant contact information.

These events inevitably would attract local business owners also interested in networking, people looking for work (sometimes), potential new clients, and many others. Seldom, if ever, did such an event not attract sufficient numbers of people to make them worthwhile, especially if conducted as a tax deduction business event meant to enroll new clients or new hires.

If a “farming” event were offered for free, posted on event sites such as Eventbrite and Meetup or Facebook, advertised through PPC (Pay Per Click advertising, which can be very affordable) and promoted through local Chamber of Commerce event calendars or done in coordination with another group, those efforts would only serve to ensure respectable turn-out. Done on a quarterly schedule, “farming” seldom fails to deliver, especially during holiday weekends, in highly-populated downtown areas or in libraries, or online through heavily-trafficked event sites.

6. Googling My Business

Yet another solid technique for achieving a high ranking in local Google search results (SEO, again) is to make sure your website is registered completely with Google My Business.

Even if you don’t have a website, or are stuck with a “free” DIY template brochure website that may not be ranking at the top of Google, Google My Business can still boost your online visibility by providing you with a place in their local-based business directory. Businesses listed in Google My Business are more likely to show up in geographically-local business listings and can thereby quickly outrank local competitors who aren’t listed there.

When a practice or firm website has matching local SEO that corresponds with the same local SEO in Google My Business (think “Miami Estate Planning” again as a strong example), combined with local SEO for matching videos, and if those same videos are shared through the firm website and the Google My Business listing you now not only have great video ads for social media posting and paid advertising but you also have a way to reinforce your search ranking terms in multiple Google platforms that all “speak” to each other.

What should take less than one hour to set up could attract new clients on a daily basis depending on your demographics, and even if only one new client per month, it’s a minimal effort well worth the potential to bring in new leads.

7. Googling Reviews

Another reinforcing tent pole for acing Google search rankings (especially locally since local SEO has less competition than national SEO does) is to make sure your firm or practice is listed with and can receive Google business reviews. This is usually established when a business is listed in Google My Business so that once the business is officially accepted it can receive reviews. The more reviews a business has in Google reviews, obviously, the more credibility that practice or firm has in the eyes of potential new clients. Who wants to go to a business with no reviews? Not me. Make sure any negative reviews are either not responded to at all, or if responded to, that you respond in a respectful tenor. Negative reviews have a way of also receiving often stern or negative comments from business owners in kind, and these responses don’t help depict the firm or practice in an open, friendly light. So when in doubt, don’t respond back. If you’re able and willing to respond to negative reviews in a relaxed, open manner you can do so by encouraging the offended party to call or email you directly in order to make things right. Bear in mind whatever’s posted can be seen by hundreds to thousands of people in a short period of time and the idea is onboard more clients, not chase them away, so positive comments rule while negative attacks can send them to competitors.

Taking the matter of online reviews a final step further, Yelp is still a viable means by which to reach more, new potential clients, even if you don’t pay to advertise through the service. It’s worth taking a few minutes to make sure you’re listed on Yelp, and by responding to any negative reviews in an open, friendly manner and by graciously showing appreciation for positive reviews. The greater the positive visibility extends, the more likely you are to attract new clients and make it easier for them to get in touch with you.

Summing Up

While digital marketing can certainly be intimidating to those unfamiliar with all the moving parts that go into making it work as a whole (eCommerce, content marketing, SEO, for example), there are many lawyers, law firms, and mediators out there using it to great (and profitable) advantage. You, can, too; and I hope this blog post is the first of many that can help you start reaching more clients faster and easier.