How Law Firms Can Use Paid Social Media for Lead Generation

Social media is much more than just a way to grow your law firm’s brand and connect with current clients. When done properly, you can actually use sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to generate real leads for your practice. Moreover, social media lead generation is cost effective. Keep reading for several lead generation strategies, including platform-specific tips.

1. Gate your most compelling content

Social media users always have their eye out for helpful, interesting content. They are often willing to exchange a bit of their time in order to get pieces that they find truly valuable. If your law firm has created any proprietary lead generation content such as thorough white papers, checklists, or templates, you can promote these on social media while asking users to fill out a form in order to receive the information. Many people are happy to exchange contact information in order to get access to valuable content aka lead magnets. Then, save the information in your database for further lead nurturing. 

2. Leverage Lead Generation Form ads on LinkedIn and Facebook 

Lead generation forms are an easy ad type for law firms to set up. There is no landing page needed, only the form fields and any supporting information you want to be included on the form itself. This allows members to send you their information with only a few clicks, saving them time and making them more likely to use the form. One nice thing about this ad strategy is that you can pull statistics on cost per lead, form fill rate, etc. for your law firm’s campaign.

3. Use Lookalike Audiences 

The ability to create lookalike audiences and serve targeted ads to them is one of Facebook’s most powerful tools. The segmentation tool finds users whose demographics and interests are similar to those of your existing followers. You can upload a list of current clients and Facebook will build out targets whose traits mirror that of your list. Advertisers find Lookalike Audiences to be an extremely powerful form of targeting that generates high-conversion prospects. 

4. Account targeting on LinkedIn 

Created to help marketers follow an account-based marketing technique, LinkedIn introduced the Account Targeting tool. It enables both Sponsored Content and Sponsored Message campaigns to be customized and structured to a list of targeted accounts. With LinkedIn’s Account Targeting, legal marketers can simply upload a list of 300,000 company names in .csv format and you’re good to go. As powerful as LinkedIn’s account targeting functions are, it doesn’t take much to get started.

5. Personalize social ad content 

A little personalization goes a long way for your law firm’s lead generation campaigns. One study found that personalizing content can help drive more leads than any other tactic. A simple place to start is by creating different campaigns for different audiences and tailoring the message in each. For example, you can slice and dice your LinkedIn’s audience by location, occupation, industry, company size, etc. and put together a campaign that best speaks to each audience. This is also a great place to use retargeting. Since you can target based on previous actions, the ads are more likely to be relevant to the viewer. Finally, don’t forget to personalize the inbox, whether you create a Facebook Messenger Bot or a LinkedIn Sponsored Message lead generation campaign. According to LinkedIn, sponsored messages that directly address someone have a 19% higher click-through rate than those that don’t. 

6. Email drip campaigns to your captured leads 

Once you have these leads in your database, you can develop lead nurturing campaigns to build relationships over time. Again, these should be somewhat personalized based on segments or previous actions. If you have a marketing automation tool, you can automate these processes so the program happens automatically. For example, if someone visits a certain landing page on your website, then they automatically receive an email with a case study 2 days later, and then another email offering a consultation 3 days after that. 

7. Refine lead strategies using data and analytics 

If you are collecting leads, you’re automatically collecting other information too. Set up Google Analytics to track leads on your law firm’s website and the social channels that drive them. This will allow you to monitor which social media platform is the best source for your law firm. 

The big social platforms also have their own analytics applications so that you can constantly measure and adjust your campaigns directly in the platform. Take advantage of these tools to review and refine your creative and messaging so you can spend more time and effort on strategies that work and drive ROI.

Takeaway

Gaining new and qualified leads is at the core of any law firm’s digital marketing strategy and social media can be a gold mine for leads. Through a variety of ad formats, law firms have the ability to create highly targeted, personalized social media lead generation campaigns and then nurture the leads until they become their next client!

If you need assistance with your law firm’s social media lead generation strategy, reach out to us today. We have vast experience helping lawyers and law firms achieve measurable success through social media.