Our Legal Content Writer Explains the Types of Law Firm Marketing and Explains Why Online is Still King

As a lawyer, you are also a businessperson. Whether you have your firm, or you work in one, your job consists of working with people. That means that for every case you take, there is someone who trusts you with their legal problems. And to receive more cases, you need to have more people who are willing to let you represent them and solve their problems.  In order to demonstrate that you can solve those problems, you need to advertise.  There are several types of law firm marketing to show prospective clients how you can solve those problems and why they should hire you.  Our legal content writer explains the different was and why online is still king when it comes to legal marketing.

This is despite the fact that the legal field is somewhat old-fashioned in that aspect. Many lawyers use the old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing method which is effective to a certain extent but is also extremely dated. In the age of technologies, word-to-mouth just will not cut it anymore. To stay relevant, you need to evolve and stay on-trend. And that means developing marketing strategies. 

Shifts from Word-of-Mouth to Business Marketing

If you have some experience as a lawyer you are probably seeing the switching of public attention from the most well-tested and proven services, to the ones that are trendiest and most attractive at the moment. It is how the newer generation operates and if you want to stay in business you need to keep up. 

And now comes the question. How do I keep up? How do I stay relevant?

 The answer is marketing. Marketing is a crucial part of developing any business and building an audience. Advertising is the best way to bring attention to your brand, especially when done well.  

There are many options for marketing and it is key to find a marketing method that’s suitable for your business and works for you.  TV, radio, and billboards are all great options for advertisement but the real money maker is the internet. You see internet marketing all the time. When you’re on your phone, on your computer, reading your email, or watching a youtube video. The virtual space is overflowing with marketing content and there is a great reason for that. It’s just what works best. 

 You can, of course, use more traditional methods of promoting your services such as newspapers, billboards, and radio but your investment will be way more valuable if you put it in online marketing. You don’t believe me? In this article we have compiled some of the many marketing channels, so we can compare them and decide which one is the best. 

If you’re a lawyer and you want to increase your caseload through marketing, keep reading what our legal content writer is trying to show you. Let’s see what the best advertisement for lawyers by reviewing the various types of law firm marketing.

Word of Mouth

This is still one of the most important types of law firm marketing.  When you like something, usually you would go and tell your friends and family about it. That is especially true when it comes to services. If you want to know, what I’m talking about you should find a lady that is happy with her nail technician. She would give you one of the most convincing 30-second ads you have heard in your life. That’s because she speaks from experience. 

This principle is applicable for any type of service and is extremely important for your law firm’s marketing. The word of mouth marketing system is one of the oldest and most effective advertisement methods.

Pros of Word of Mouth Marketing

It is also powerful.  Word of mouth marketing is hailed as the most valuable form of marketing.  According to a study, 92% of all people who received recommendations from word-of-mouth found them to be trustworthy and useful.  That is a huge percentage of people that rely on and likely act on word-of-mouth advertising.  Word of mouth marketing is also said to account for around $6 trillion of annual consumer spending in all fields, resulting in about 13% of all consumer sales.  That is why it can be absolutely powerful for your law firm.

For some of the old time lawyers (some called “dinosaurs”), word-of-mouth marketing is the bread and butter for advertising.  Many rely on this method, and if anyone can have a law firm based on this type of advertising, that is a huge boon.

This is because word of mouth advertising doesn’t have a budget as all it takes is providing a high-quality service that your clients will want to recommend. You can promote your law firm just by being a good lawyer.  This is honestly what all lawyers should strive to be.

Cons of Word of Mouth Marketing

The problem with this type of marketing is that, unless your happy clients are influencers, it may not reach enough people to significantly grow your business. There may also be limitations on how far your client’s word-of-mouth can go.  Only certain circles will get these advertisements.  Most word-of-mouth clients are also older, meaning they aren’t using social media to help push out your services further to help you.

Conclusion on Word of Mouth Marketing

Yes, there are problems and it is very hard to get this type of marketing.  But this is what all lawyers should get a law firm brand that can survive on just word of mouth marketing—that would be the gold standard.  With a 92% conversion rate, that is the best way to get new clients.  It is also free too.

But that may not be realistic for most lawyers, and it cannot be relied on for younger lawyers.  Thus, the types of law firm marketing that work for other lawyers won’t be word-of-mouth marketing, although this should be the end goal for all law firms.

Press Releases

What is press release marketing? 

A press release in marketing is an announcement of something that a business is trying to promote.  Press releases are official statements from your law firm that journalists might choose to cover in any type of physical or digital piece of media. They could be in print or online.

Press releases can be anything from a big win to an appellate reversal in your favor.  They could be a huge settlement or a testimonial from a client—usually after a huge settlement.  But press releases could also be about a new hire, a new service area, or even just to drum up business about your firm.

Pros of Press Release Marketing

Press releases are labeled as the “gold standard of public disclosure.”  The main advantage of using a press release is the convenience and ease it brings. You can whip it up quickly and send it out to as many journalists as you want. It’s a good way to get the word out when you have something big to announce.  Sometimes a big lawsuit or settlement will even be free, and the press will come to you, write the article, and disseminate it for free.  That is a huge boon.  

Other times you may need a legal content writer to write your press release and pay to have it distributed.  That is fine too, although can get costly to pay-to-advertise.  Although the legal content writer is usually cheap and affordable.

Using statistics and other information that could “hook” the media and readers is also a very effective way to improve your press releases.  Out of all the types of law firm marketing, press releases can be powerful if done right because they could be in print magazines, newspapers, emails, online mediums, and scattered on websites.  They could also be broadcast as headlines and picked up by social media.

Cons of Press Releases

The disadvantage is that most journalists’ inboxes are overflowing with flowery, unimportant press releases which makes it easy for yours to get lost within the crowd. However, when written effectively, a press release can stand out and benefit both you and the journalist.  It is also hard to get the news to come to you, even if you have a big and important case.  This is especially true in heavy competition markets that have a lot of normal news, like NYC, Los Angeles, or Miami.

Press releases work when you have something big to announce. An actual lead that is worth following by journalists and not a secretly inserted ad. 

Conclusion on Press Releases

There are many discussions about whether press releases are effective or not. It’s a fact that they often get lost on the way to your audience and many people don’t pay that much attention to them. It’s also a fact that in present times press releases should not contain follow-up links unless you want to risk being penalized by Google.  

But the flip side, if they are done correctly, there can be many SEO benefits to having a press release. Our legal content writer stresses that press releases do have a place in your marketing plan.  However, it should be a secondary mode of advertising. It should not be a primary and often-used means to advertise.

In conclusion, press releases are one of the marketing methods that has started falling behind in terms of relevance and effectiveness. However, it may work if you have something truly valuable to promote. 

Billboard Advertising, Bus Murals, and Exterior Signage 

Seeing a picture of yourself on a billboard is a confidence booster but is it effective in promoting yourself as a lawyer? 

Billboards, bus murals, and any type of advertising images on windows are called exterior signage. Exterior signage marketing has been popular for many years as it is one of the first forms of mass marketing in the world. At one time this was the only way to advertise to the masses in a way that converted new clients.  That has deadened with TV and online marketing.  But billboard and bus mural advertising may seem old-fashioned but it turns out it’s still pretty effective. 

Pros of Billboard Advertising, Bus Murals, and Exterior Signs

Although old fashion, there is merit that billboard signs and bus murals still work.  According to a billboard study, 58% of those surveyed said they 1) learned about an event they were interested in attending through a billboard, and learned about a restaurant they later visited (converted customer) after seeing it on a billboard.  From the same study, those surveyed said approximately 26% to 28% of the time they remembered a phone number or web address being advertised on a billboard.

As for exterior signs, according to a 2012 study of the Economics Center of the University of Cincinnati, signs are the most important form of visual communication. The 61-page study showed that 75% of consumers have gone to a store just because they have seen a sign of it somewhere. By creating a sign of yourself, you are creating an image that thousands of people can see daily. 

Bus murals fall somewhere in between billboards and exterior signs in terms of effectiveness.  Although many sources still say that bus mural advertising cannot be ignored and is still important.  Especially in competitive markets or huge cities.

Cons of Billboards, Bus Murals, and Exterior Signs

It is a good marketing strategy that might bring you a lot of cases. However, a con of exterior signage is that it requires a big marketing budget. The prices of billboards are pretty high in present times. Bus murals can easily cost over $5,000 when you take into consideration that you need to wrap the bus too with the design and logo.  That means it is not suitable for new or small businesses as they might not have the budget to create such a lucrative ad campaign. 

Further, billboards and bus murals are also temporary.  They are only going to run a certain amount of time before they are replaced in the ad spot.  Even if they are not replaced for the next lease term, the carrier may just leave the advertising on the bus.  While that sounds like great, free advertising (and it can be), these types of law firm marketing are not meant to be used for so long.  They will deteriorate and break down.  That will make them look bad, and could be a poor reflection on your business.

While exterior signs for your office are needed and necessary, the upfront cost is also very expensive for a nice sign.  This could price out some new law firms and younger lawyers.  While signs are permanent, they have maintenance and may need to be replaced, painted, repaired, and otherwise kept up.

Conclusion of Billboards, Bus Murals, and Exterior Signs

The truth is, billboards, bus murals, and exterior signs are somewhat old fashioned.  But there are strong statistics and support that billboard advertising is not going away anytime soon and is still important as one of the types of law firm marketing.  Exterior signs are also imperative for obvious reasons to help people find your office and know where you are in the community.

Although the pricing will keep many people out of this space until they really “made it,” they are important.  Some lawyers may start out using smaller signs or less fancy signs, and upgrade when—or if—they make it big as a law firm.  Bus advertising and billboards may be a goal further down the road, or not at all, depending on the costs and market competitiveness.

TV Marketing

Television commercials are some of the most obvious forms of advertisements that we see almost every day.  These are short little videos that help inform or persuade people about goods and services.  Some TV ads are national, while others are state or local.  Overall, the purpose of a TV commercial is to push a product to get people to inquire about it and make a sale.  TV commercials can be focused to a specific market or demographic.  Advertisers and marketers may refer to television commercials as TVCs. 

Pros of TV Advertising

TV advertising is just powerful.  In the US, TV marketing delivered the highest return on investment (ROI) of all advertising mediums for every dollar spent at $14.34. It is considered one of the most effective media advertisement strategies. With many people watching TV daily your service is exposed to a significant number of potential clients.

And this is for good reason. According to research, the average American spends approximately four hours each day watching TV. That number has been increasing substantially for the last 10 years and will probably continue to increase.  For each 3 hours of TV, the viewer sees as many as 47 ads. The conversion rate is the highest of all media marketing strategies. According to Forbes, it just works.

Cons of TV Advertising

A TV marketing con would be that the most effective time to play your campaign which is known as prime time is incredibly expensive for advertisements which means that it is not suitable for new and small businesses. There are also creation expenses that must be paid upfront before you have money coming in from those ads.  Despite its impressive conversion and wide range of exposure, it’s still just very expensive. And that might turn out to be a problem for long lawyers and new law firms.

TV advertising also disappears.  Now, a firm can re-use an advertising in the future.  However, it can quickly become stale and may need to be updated.  Once the campaign is over, the ad will be off TV.  Sometimes ads can be brought on YouTube to stay “alive,” but that does not mean people will be drawn to watch it randomly.  Ads could also be placed on a law firm’s website, but that can get overwhelming and overstimulating.  

Conclusion on TV Advertising

Again, of all the types of law firm marketing, TV advertising is both the most effective and usually the most expensive.  In high volume markets or with a lot of competitive, it can also be drowned out.

Radio Advertising

Radio advertising is about buying a time slot to air a short snippet of a verbal speech or advertisement. A business advertising pays the radio station or business owner in charge of the station for air time during a commercial break.  That purchased slot is where the advertiser can make a pitch.

Radio advertising is different in its nature because the listener of the radio station probably has some type of emotional connection with that station. The radio station has already established a level of trust with its audience, making it more susceptible to being influenced by marketing. 

Radio has many tricks that other marketing channels don’t. For example, short audio formats that they replay periodically are called jingles.  Such as the one from McDonald’s (that we don’t need to repeat but it’s probably already in your head). That’s because the McDonald’s radio jingle that has become viral and has stuck with the brand. It’s an exemplary case of successful radio marketing and the result is impressive. 

Pros of Radio Advertising

Despite there being less people listening to AM/PM, especially with many ad-free options out there, the truth is that radio advertising is still popular.  People who listen to the radio are often connected to their station.  As a result, it is said that radio advertising is both a cost-effective and influential marketing medium.  This is particularly true because people can hear the advertisements in short but powerful bursts throughout the day, week, and month.  This won’t break the bank for a lawyer, and is effective.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, the huge pros of radio advertising as one of the types of law firm marketing is that it is affordable, quick, and easy to target listeners.  The US SBA specifically highlights targeting listeners as a main boon for radio advertising. Thus, local radio stations can be used to help target local listeners that are dedicated and trust the station.  This is very powerful for law firms.

Cons of Radio Advertising

However, radio marketing has some significant disadvantages. Despite its high engagement level and emotional connection with the audience, radio is not that relevant anymore. People listening to it are mostly older which is not a bad thing if that’s your target audience. If it’s not, however, it might be a problem. And still, it is a great marketing method that you should consider when planning the promotion of your legal service. 

A lot of people are also visual learners and may need to see an ad to be able to recall it later.  Coupled with that must people hear radio ads while driving, people may “tune out” or not focus to the ads while driving.  Some people may even switch stations during ads and come back in a few minutes once the ads are over.

Finally, radio ads also fall victim to the fact that many ad-free radio alternatives exist.  This can harm radio advertisers and stations quite a bit.  Again, like many other means, ones a radio ad is over, it is gone and disappears unless someone puts it on another medium like YouTube.

Conclusion on Radio Advertising

Radio advertising is not for everyone, although it can be very effective and powerful for law firms and lawyers.  The cost will not price out new law firms and younger lawyers.  Although, advertising expenses could probably be better spent with a legal content writer doing online marketing.  Radio ads are effective when put in front of a local population in a local station.  But they do disappear and are victim to some ad-free stations.

Online Marketing for Lawyers: Of All the Types of Law Firm Marketing, This is Why Online Marketing is Still King

Advertising online seems taboo at first.  Many lawyers ignored it—and some still do.  Many lawyers also deemed online and the internet to not last.  That no one would use it.  That it was wasted money. Some even though it was money being scammed away.

Boy, were they all wrong.

If TV marketing is the gold standard of advertising, online marketing is the platinum standard.  Here are some powerful statistics that show why:

• 68% of online experiences start with a search engine
• 80% of purchases (including lawyers) start with a search engine
• 85% of people conduct online research being marketing a purchase
• 76% of people who searched for a business nearby visited, called, or patronized the business within 24 hours
• 61% of mobile searchers are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile friendly website
• 72% of online marketers describe content creation as their most effective SEO tactic and means of conversion (hint lawyers: get a legal content writer for your law firm blog and website!).

There are several types of online marketing that you can engage in, but let’s highlight the most important types of law firm marketing using the internet here.

Google Ads: Paid Advertising on Google

There are approximately 63,000 searches on Google every second, which equates to roughly 5.6 billion searches each day on Google.  You can see them on the live tracker which estimates the searches made.  The overwhelming majority of search results pages include Google ads. Paid for by businesses, Google ads can be an extremely effective way of driving relevant, qualified traffic to your website exactly when people are searching for the types of products or services your business offers.

Google is also particularly influential.  It presently owns approximately 92% of all search engine searches.  This is a staggering figure when you consider some of the early leaders like Yahoo! only have 1.5% of that share now.  Bing, the second highest, is only at 2.34%.  These just highlight the dominance at Google.

How it Works

Google sells the top spots of search engine results for any keyword or buzzphrase that a person could search for online.  In order to buy these ads, you have to purchase them through the Google Ad’s auction system.  This is a dynamic system which takes place every single time a searcher performs any type of Google search.

The Google Ads auctions us a point system to give you a quality score of your content.  Your quality score is based on some of the factors such as the following:

• Relevance of your ad to the search keywords
• How relevant the keyword is to your ad keywords or ad group
• Relevance of your ad to its overall landing page and website (overall relevance)
• A review of the historical click-through rate (CTR) of the ad and its ad group
• Overall historical performance for your website and your Google Adwords account.

 There are also overall benefits to having a high-quality score:

• Lower costs –  Google rewards websites with high quality scores by lowering their cost per click (CPC), helping improve ROI and helping stretch a budget
• Higher exposure – The higher your quality scores, the higher your ads will display on search engine results in a higher position

Costs for Google Ads

While this sounds like an easy system to understand for many niche websites, it is completed when it comes to cost.  That is because the cost is based on several factors outside of your control, including demographics, geographic, industries, searches, site performance, and other SEO factors.

On average, in the United States the average cost per click for the average Google paid ad across all industries is $2.32. This means that for 50 clicks, you would pay $116 on average. This is pretty high compared to other marketing channels but the effectiveness compensates for it. 

Google ads are one of the online methods that can bring you high ROI and elevate your law firm marketing. Consider it when planning your strategy.

Pros of Google Ads

As noted above, the pros of Google ads are numerous.  It is the place where people search for goods and services, including lawyers.  It is the main stop for almost all people searching anything, even something that is offline.  Google has developed other systems to help support online searches too which strengthen a law firm’s appearance.  Such as Google my Business, Google Maps, Google Reviews, and other related services.

Having a paid Google ad will bring you right to the top of search engine results.  This means your business and your pitch can be right in the top and front for a searcher.  They can also help benefit your business greatly to get more clicks and conversions.  This is because you can pick your search terms that you will come up on so people can clearly see you right away, with exactly what they are searching.

Even after your ad campaign finishes, there is some evidence to suggest that paying for Google ads can actually help your business’s organic traffic and SEO to a degree. This means you can get a little boost of your organic traffic by paying for Google ads.

Cons of Google Ads

The cons are that it is expensive when you are in a competitive field.  Some costs per clicks can be over $10, especially for personal injury lawyers in big markets like New York City, Los Angles, and Miami.  Individuals clicking on ads are also not necessarily customers, they could be competitors looking at your website—or worse, purposely trying to spend your money on clicks.  Thus, even if you are paying this much for clicks, it may still result in no conversions.

Google ads also disappear when you stop using them.  They can have a residual effect on your SEO, but that isn’t confirmed by Google.  Google ads are also hard to set up if you do not know what you are doing.  Poor ads can waste your money quickly.  This includes bad keyword choices for searches.  You may also get the wrong audience and waste money.  

Conclusion on Google Ads

At one point or another, every personal injury lawyer or law firm should use Google ads.  Having a legal content writer draft your ads can help you immensely with this. Also making sure the landing page you are directly clicks to is a powerful and detailed page is an important to not waste money.  

Many web hosts will offer free Google ad credits, and there are sometimes promotions through Google or third parties to get these ad credits.  Lawyers should use them, even if for just a brief time, because they can help organic traffic and ranking as well once the ad stops running.

SEO Marketing

Google explains what SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” Basically, SEO is the principle that you can improve your website’s visibility on search engine results by optimizing it per Google’s webmaster tools and recommendations.  These recommendations are based on Google’s research to help deliver relevant, authoritative, trustworthy, educational, expert, and otherwise helpful results to individuals performing the search.  The better your website can do this, the better your website will do on searches.  It also means that the better visibility that your website will have. 

It is also organic, meaning that you get it automatically based on the strength of your website.  That means you do not need to pay Google to place your website higher on the search results.  Although that will guarantee you a top spot, above organic results.  But organic results are the proverbial “gift that keeps on giving.”

How it Works

Search engines put pages an index.  They do this by searching out bots or “spiders” to crawl your website.  The bots and spiders collect relevant information about the posts including keywords.  They also look at certain other helpful things, like photos, infographic, and other information.  Links are also helpful.  Bots and spiders use this information to categorize the pages in the index.

Once that is complete, algorithms analyze the pages and look for many different factors that can help determine which page is most relevant for a search.  Hint, this means your page versus a competitor’s page.  Thus, if your page is better than a competitors, it can be used to help boost your search engine results per the algorithm.  There are many different factors that are analyzed by these algorithms, hundreds even.  Although Google will not tell you everything, and wants you to understand the most important ones.

Factors Considered by Google

The factors considered by Google are extensive.  Many sources have tried to break it down into the SEO Periodic Table of Elements to help explain it better.  These factors are extensive and are best served in a stand-alone blog post.  Watch out blog for that post in the future!  We will add a link to it here (hopefully if we remember).  Another good source about it is here.

One of the most powerful ways to improve SEO is through backlinks.  These are links that are directed to your website.  When other websites point to your website and “cite” your webpages by hyperlinking to them, it really boosts your SEO.  However, backlink creation is not something that Google likes.  They like normal back link building, as opposed to paying for backlinks that just blindly link to your website.  But having backlinks that are explaining and advertising your website, or using information on your website, are acceptable.  The difference is nuanced.  Ask our legal content writer for help with this.

SEO is an inexpensive marketing method that is fairly easy to operate and still can skyrocket your web traffic. And higher traffic generally means higher service demand and popularity. Perfect for any lawyer!

Pros of SEO Marketing

SEO marketing is powerful.  According to statistics, 53% of all website traffic comes from organic searches.  That means having strong SEO principles to elevate your website will get you more traffic than any other source like social media, direct, or other ads.  Of these searches, one in three where searched with a location (i.e., Boston car accident lawyer).  Overall, the first Google search results gets clicked on between ~27% (mobile users) and 32% (desktop users).

The best part of SEO marketing is that it can remain for a much longer time than paid ads.  This is why it is often called organic marketing.  The more you post expert, authoritative, and trustworthy topics, the better it will be.  It can really help your website.

It is also cost-effective.  You can learn many of the steps yourself to post blogs to your website.  A blog is free once you have a website.  You can post as many pages as you want too, without any extra costs.  You and pick whatever topic you want to advertise too.  The more blogs that are relevant and helpful to your website, the better your website will do.

SEO marketing can also be improved quite a bit very easily.  For instance, a legal content writer can really boost your website’s content.  Both static content like your practice area pages, but also your posts which are revolving and constant.  This means that you will really get a lot out of your website.  

You can also improve your SEO marketing a little at a time.  Doing little things like adding photos to blogs.  Even one at a time, can really help you—including adding “alt text.”  Other things you do can also help your SEO, like using better keywords and ensuring your website is mobile-friendly.  All of these tricks really can help and be done a little at a time, sometimes just in 10 minutes.  Meaning 10 minutes a day, every day, can really improve your website’s SEO.

Of course, you can hire an SEO firm to really help you.  When you do that, it will boost your website quite a bit.  This benefit stays with your website for a long time too.  Meaning that it is very helpful in the long run and effective for your budget.

Cons of SEO Marketing

It just takes time.  If you have a new website, you cannot expect to go right to the top of Google tomorrow by adding 7,000 or 10,000-word blog posts.  It can take years before your website gets better traction.  It can also take a long time to really develop a stronger foundation.  This type is not a light switch.  When combined with other types of law firm marketing, SEO marketing is excellent.  But it will take some time.  Which is what some people using a legal content writer do not always understand.

In addition, hiring SEO experts can be expensive.  There are some firms that just focus on SEO and they are very expensive.  Now, that money does go far.  But the initial cost to invest may be a lot of a new lawyer or young law firm to absorb.  This is especially true because, although an SEO expert can help you a lot, again SEO marketing is not a light switch.  Especially in a very competitive market, where it can still take an experts months or even years to get you results.

Conclusion of SEO Marketing

Our legal content writer recommends every single law firm and personal injury lawyer to use SEO marketing.  You need a strong website and strong blog.  This will slowly increase your website’s ranking on Google search engines.  While it can take many years, you will likely be a lawyer for a long time—right?  Let it start to improve now and it will pay you dividends in the future.

It is also something that, once invested, stays there for a long time.  You really benefit from SEO marketing.  And it is always working for you, all day and all night.  Even when you stop posting and working on your website, SEO marketing really keeps on going to help you.

As one of the types of law firm marketing, this is the most important foundation.  Even if you have great TV ads and radio slots, even with perfect Google ads, if your website content is bad—you won’t get the sale.  Even strong word-of-mouth recommendations can fail too if you have a bad website.  Remember, Google’s slogan is “content is king” and SEO marketing really highlights that.

 Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing has exploded.  That is an obvious understatement too.  There are over 3.6 billion people active on social media.  This type of marketing uses the power of social media platforms to help advertise.  It can be used to build your personal injury law firm brand and advertise about your wins or major decisions in your favor.  Social Media marketing can be used to help highlight new hires and drive website traffic to you.  It can also be used to just help develop a community of followers who can go to your website and increase traffic.  This will, in turn, help improve your website’s SEO.

Social media marketing is important to use too.  Approximately 54% of all social media users will research products and services on social media before buying.

It involves creating social media accounts and posting ads, photos, posts, and other information that your followers, friends, or connections can see and interact with.  It also involves some level of “boosting” posts and analyzing the results, like one would analyze a website.

The major social media platforms (at the moment) are the following: 

• Facebook – the leader with over 68% of adults using this one
• Instagram – 98% of markets say Instagram is more influential than Facebook for businesses 
• Twitter (link clicks on Twitter were 92% of all tweet interactions—huge! 
• LinkedIn voted the most trusted network
• Pinterest – when looking for an idea, service, product, or project, 85% of users start here and 98% of users said they have tried a new thing from something they saw on Pinterest
• Reddit – receives more than 50 billion+ MONTHLY screen views (whoa)
• YouTube – the second-largest search engine globally behind only Google, and second most popular channel for business video sharing  
• Tik Tok – high follower engagement even with low-level accounts, and 
• Snapchat – 60% of Snapchat users are likely to make an impulse buy of a product or service they saw on it.

It’s one of the easiest methods to promote yourself or your business on the internet.  All you need is an influencer, with enough followers to suit your needs. Which that can be you and your law firm if you do it right.

Pros of Social Media Marketing

With its high conversion rate, easy-to-launch ad campaigns, and low effort advertising, it is one of the best modern marketing methods.  This is particularly true if your personal page already has a lot of followers or friends.  Advertising can also be very targeted by interests, keyword, or geographic location.  

Most social media websites also allow you to track the performance of your campaign with analytics which gives you valuable insight into what works and what doesn’t. It also allows constructing your whole brand image with a single profile post. All it takes is one post to go viral. After that, you just need to grab the opportunity and scale up the audience from there. 

Moreover, with the popularity of social media, law firms can really benefit from using this type of advertising system.  With a legal content writer to help do advertisements for you, you can have some very powerful posts and ads.

And most of the time, you are going to be promoting blogs or website content, press releases, pages, and other copy produced by a legal content writer.  That means you are really only sharing the post since you already used it.  This allows you to expand the use of your products and posts, making them more than just a single use post or page. It saves your money and spread it further.

Cons of Social Media Marketing

Of course, it has its flaws. For example, the investment rate is quite high. Depending on your chosen influencer, you might have to pay $500-1000 for an ad posted by a micro-influencer (up to 50,000 followers). Influencers with millions of followers might charge tens of thousands of dollars for a single post which is quite pricy. However, if done right, it might double the investment. 

To do it yourself requires also a substantial investment of boosting posts.  This costs a lot of money.  Although it can be targeted, there are flaws.  And if you are relying on your own friends and connections, chances are they already know what you do and would come to you for help.  Thus for this to work, you need to rely on them or strangers to share or promote your posts.  That is sometimes easier said than done.

It also can take a long time to get results.  Because it can take a long time to get more followers and individuals who will be watching your business.  This means that personal injury law firms relying on this as one of the types of law firm marketing may take years to see progress or for it to pay off.

Conclusion on Social Media Marketing

Even though it can take years, it is worth it.  It is also uses content you already created which can help stretch your budget.  Most times sharing is very easy and can even be scheduled.  Meaning you can do this on the weekend and set your whole week up.  Social media marketing is also the wave of the future.  Many younger individuals use social media.  While they may not necessarily need a lawyer now, they may in the future.  They may also help to assist friends and family.  

This is why social media marketing should be a part of everyone’s marketing strategy.  Not just for personal injury lawyers, or really any type of law firm, but every single business out there.  Social media is not going away.  It may evolve and change it’s form a little, as it has shifted to more video and picture-based products.  But it will not disappear.  And the younger generations hooked on social media will eventually become the main customer demographics.  Connecting with them will not only be a smart business decision, but it may be the only way for a business to survive.

Marketing Funnels

A marketing funnel is a carefully curated path that your customers travel through to get to your website, business, goods, or services. It governs the first step when someone learns about your business and guides them through the education, convincing, purchasing, and delivery stages.  This is important, because 95% of buyers choose a business who provides them with sufficient content about their product or service, and gives them detailed information about the process.  Thus, a marketing funnel is how you can map first contact through conversion.  With careful analysis, a marketing funnel lets you know what your company must do to influence consumers at a certain stage. 

The most common way to think of a marketing funnel framework for lawyers includes the following:

• Awareness – Getting people unaware of your firm aware of who you are
• Consideration – Getting those people to know you and consider your services
• Action – When they need help, they will know right away to contact you and call
• Engagement – Getting those people more involved in your website, social media, and other types of interaction with you and your business—even if they don’t need your legal services, yet
• Advocacy – Becoming authoritative enough and trustworthy enough that these people will—whether they used you or not—be aware of your brand and advocate for you to others who do need your services.  This is done through recommendations, usually word of mouth.  Which we talked about above which is super powerful.

As a lawyer, the value a marketing funnel brings you begins at the awareness stage. Even if the potential client doesn’t get to the advocacy stage, you have a new person aware of the legal services that might tell their friends about you resulting in a big chain of people that might not necessarily become clients but spread the word about you and that is exactly what a successful law firm marketing should look like. 

Pros of Marketing Funnels

These are well-developed plans and are part of an overall process that you will need to take to help your website.  That means everything is well-researched and analyzed.  Steps are calculated.  When they work, they work beautifully.  While the upfront cost of time and money can be significant, a marketing funnel can really help your business in the future without having to pay extra.

That is, once a marketing funnel is in place and you have it working, it can snowball.  It will do it’s own thing, especially with word-of-mouth advertising.  Thus, a marketing funnel is a very influential way to build a law firm brand.

It is also a perfect way for lawyers to give back to the community.  It is something that can really help people remember your brand if you do it right.  That can be a way to AVOID potential customers from searching on Google.  

Yes, avoid it.  

Why?  

Because you can get away with having less SEO marketing and Google paid ads.  People who remember your brand and go right to you will not search online and potentially see the services of a lawyer with better marketing.  Either because that lawyer has pumped thousands and thousands of dollars into it, or because that lawyer has just been around longer.  Maybe that lawyer just has a better legal content writer than you—which is why you should hire us.

But the point of the marketing funnel is to build your business good will up enough through a combination of marketing tactics so people don’t search for you.  They just know you.  That whole process is a type of marketing as it is part of a plan.  And marketing funnels like that work.

Cons of Marketing Funnels

They are expensive and often need an expert on SEO first.  You also need a marketing business too.  This means you will have to pay a lot of these fees upfront before you get it rolling.  These expenses can be very expensive.  It can also take a long time for a marketing funnel to work.

In high volume and competitive markets, a marketing funnel can also be one of the harder types of law firm marketing to pull off successfully.  While it can ultimately work well in a competitive market, i.e., building a huge brand to get people to know you before looking at Google searches (boxes out your competitors), that can takes years.  This is because you will have to build your business good will.  When there are a lot of businesses around, that can be hard.

So the costs and time it takes to create a marketing funnel make be huge drawbacks for new law firms and lawyers who are starting out and hope to get some quick cases to pay the bills now.  In the long time, a marketing funnel is a great plan.  But just starting out, it can be difficult to get a quick return on your investment.

Conclusion on Marketing Funnels

Every lawyer advertising needs to develop a plan.  That plan should include a marketing funnel to a point.  But remember, a marketing funnel is also about building your business good will.  When you first start, your website and blogs needs to be about your services.  You need to improve your SEO too.  Your Google ads need to be able how you can help people in need.  Many of these initial tactics to start a new website or improve your website will not necessarily fit in a marketing funnel.

As a result, marketing funnels may not be great right away for some lawyers and law firms.  But they can be very productive in the long run.  Establish firms should use marketing funnels to really maximize their exposure, but also to stretch their budget.  This is because marketing funnels can get to the point where other people are spreading your business’s good will, which really helps you both for budget reasons but also on conversion rates.

Conclusion on the Types of Law Firm Marketing

While all marketing is important, online is still king.  It has the best returns and is always available.  SEO marketing in specific is the foundation of all marketing.  While TV ads and radio ads have their place, and billboards and bus murals work, people will go to your website to call you.  If your website looks horrible or has bad information, you likely will lose the client.  That means your other perfect ads will be wasted.

Get strong website content.  Get a strong legal content writer.  The best legal content writer can help with all types of law firm marketing, just like ours.  We can also help recommend the types of law firm marketing that are appropriate for you.

Every lawyer needs to be well-known. And as essentially every lawyer is a brand, lawyers need marketing to promote themselves. There are many methods of advertising but the latest trends show that the best strategies in terms of ROI, engagement, and overall effectiveness are the internet strategies. It makes sense when you see everyone on their phones all the time. 

The internet is the one universal platform where you can gather as much audience as possible through social media, websites and attract new clients with google. We don’t undermine the importance of variety in marketing. Just the opposite – diversity is crucial when it comes to a successful advertisement. However, we believe that currently, the best option for a law firm marketing is online marketing. 

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. We would love to give you a consultation about how our legal content writer can help you pick the best types of law firm marketing that will help your personal injury law firm.  You can contact us here by using our easy-to-use and convenient contact us box here.