Components of a Successful Law Firm Digital Marketing Strategy

In today’s technology driven world, digital marketing drives a significantly higher return on investment (ROI) for law firms compared with traditional marketing. If you do not have a comprehensive digital marketing strategy in place, your firm runs the risk of missing out on valuable leads and revenue. We are often asked about the key components of an impactful digital strategy. Thus, we’ve decided to share with you this brief guide to the major components of a successful law firm digital marketing strategy.

The overarching principles of a digital marketing strategy

First of all, all of your activities should follow a general strategic path with the following steps:

1. Be flexible
2. Constantly monitor competitors
3. Measure key benchmarks

These are three general guidelines which simply mean that you need to be agile when it comes to digital marketing. Consider the changes in search engine algorithms over recent years. That’s a prime example of the way the online landscape is always evolving. Before you do anything, be prepared to be nimble and adjust your tactics. Next, keep a pulse on what your competitors are doing as you go. There are few methods that are better for gaining insight into what potential clients are looking for (and you can also see what other firms are doing wrong and avoid making their mistakes). Finally, make sure you have a mechanism in place for monitoring and analyzing results.

Key components of a successful law firm digital marketing strategy

Once you feel confident in applying the principles above, it’s time to break down your strategy into specific timeframes and tactics. These are 8 components that must be featured in your digital marketing program for it to be impactful in today’s competitive market.

1. Your website

This is the face of your firm online and the stem from which many of your marketing activities grow. Make sure your website is in great shape before proceeding with most digital marketing. 

2. Search engine optimization

Tied into your website, SEO is critical because most potential clients find information by searching online. Can they find you when they need to?

3. Paid advertising

Paid channels can often offer quicker results than SEO efforts alone. Paid advertising offers quick exposure and helps you build a client base faster. 

4. Social media

Reaching and connecting with your clients and prospects is essential. The best way to do that is through social media. Social media is an incredibly powerful platform because it’s one of the only channels where you can speak directly to your audience and hear what they have to say in return.

5. Marketing content

To be more specific, compelling marketing content. You’ve heard us say that content is king, and that will remain true for the foreseeable future. Blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. are important tools to generate awareness, grow traffic, manage your reputation, and gain leads. For tips on how to create engaging content that will resonate with your audience without being overly ‘salesy’, read our past blog here. 

6. Email programs

Email programs remain one of the most successful components of a law firm digital marketing strategy. Email is still an effective way to communicate with your audience. Use this channel to maintain healthy relationships with your law firm’s current clients, past clients, and prospects. That means avoiding talking only about your practice and your offerings. Rather, provide a healthy mix of promotional and educational email content. 

7. Your blog

Just like your law firm’s website, a blog is a must-have for any sort of success in the digital marketing realm. Not only do blogs help you build trust, credibility, and thought leadership, but they can help with your SEO efforts as well. Remember, law firms that blog obtain more website traffic than those that don’t, so all of your digital efforts are entwined. Even more reason to blog? Companies with blogs produce 67% more leads per month than those who don’t.

8. Analytics

Circling back to our general principles above, all of your efforts are for naught if you don’t monitor and measure them. The greatest asset of digital marketing is that it is easily measurable. There are plenty of tools out there to help you accomplish data collection and analytics. Check out the platforms we suggest using when it comes to tracking and measuring your legal marketing strategy: The Leading Law Firm Web Analytics Tools.

Takeaway

Digital marketing presents a wide variety of opportunities to build your law firm’s brand. Aside from the impact that budgeting and available resources will have on the outcome of any legal marketing strategy, prioritizing these components will help you to grow your practice and generate more business online. Knowing you need to implement these strategies is one thing – having the bandwidth to do them is another. If your firm needs assistance with any digital efforts, reach out to us.