Marketing can make all the difference to a family law practice. With good marketing, you simultaneously build your brand and reach new clients. But what are the best ways to do family law marketing?
Start with your online presence. Build a good website, do content marketing, and advertise. Other ideas are to explore social media options and create instructional videos.
But we have more for you. Here’s a list of useful ideas for family law marketing.
Design Your Website for Prospective Clients
A well designed and informative website is an essential marketing tool for a family law practice. Many prospective clients will check your website before calling or booking a consultation. A website also serves as the place to send prospects who find you online and want further information.
The landing page, normally the home page, is key. This should present your services in the best, most inviting light possible. A good landing page will:
- Show the value proposition. What sets the practice apart from others, such as areas of expertise, attorney qualities and accomplishments, and the services offered?
- Create a sense of trust and credibility. The home page or landing page should create a sense of trust and credibility. For example, show the firm’s qualifications, professional design, and testimonials from satisfied clients.
- Highlight a call-to-action. Is there a clear call-to-action, such as a button to schedule a consultation or request more information?
Overall, the home page of a family law or divorce law practice website should provide a positive first impression. Establish trust and credibility, provide clear information about the practice and services, and make it easy for potential clients to take the next step.
Invest in Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and sharing valuable and informative content. The goal is to attract and engage a specific target audience. In the context of a family law practice, content marketing takes several forms.
Blog posts is the most well known type. Writing blog posts on topics related to family law and divorce helps to establish a practice as an expert in the field. You provide valuable information to potential clients while placing the firm as the go-to place for help.
Choice of topic and excellent writing are key to successful company blogs. You need to blog about subjects that people search for. And you must satisfy readers so they stay on your site.
Andrew Lancaster
Legal guides and resources also provide a way of reaching new clients. Create legal guides and similar resources to help potential clients understand the legal process and make informed decisions. Include infographics, which present complex information in a simple and easy-to-understand visual format.
Other forms of content marketing are to produce YouTube videos and posts designed for social platforms. We’ll explore these forms of digital marketing shortly.
When creating content, make it well-researched, written in a clear and easy-to-understand language, and valuable to the target audience. A consistent content creation and publishing schedule helps to establish the practice as a credible source of information while attracting clients.
Do Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website to improve its visibility in search engine results. SEO is important for law firms because it makes your website, and all the content within, visible to people searching the web for legal information and services.
There’s a lot involved with SEO. Hiring an SEO expert could save your firm a lot of time while improving results. There same goes for digital marketing generally. If you have an interest in this field, online digital marketing courses, both short and long, are available. These are showcased at Lerna Courses and other online learning sites.
Appearing higher in search engine results means a law firm has higher visibility and reaches a wider audience. By appearing at the top of search results, a law firm also establishes credibility and trust with potential clients.
SEO is a long-term strategy that requires consistent effort and investment. Do keyword research (e.g. on search terms such as “family lawyer near me”) to optimize the website’s content and structure. Additionally, get quality backlinks, and have a well-designed website that is mobile-friendly, and have a fast loading speed, to improve a website’s search engine rankings.
You can target specific geographic locations, such as the city in which you’re based. Techniques include using local keywords for content such as “family law attorney in [city name]”, and listing in local business online directories.
Some of the most popular search phrases are: divorce lawyers near me, divorce lawyer near me, divorce attorney, divorce lawyer, divorce attorney near me, family law attorney, family law attorney near me, family law attorneys near me, family law near me, family law lawyer, family law attorney.
It’s also a good idea to claim and verify your Google My Business listing. This helps increase visibility in Google Maps search results.
Spend on Targeted Digital Advertising
Digital advertising should almost certainly be part of your marketing mix. Most law firms should be able to find ad opportunities where the return on investment (ROI) is positive.
Google Ads is an obvious one. This is a pay-per-click advertising platform that allows you to place ads on Google’s search engine results pages. The ads can be a highly targeted and effective way to reach potential clients who are searching for specific legal services.
Social media advertising is another option. Use platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube to place ads and reach potential clients. Advertising can be highly targeted based on demographics, interests, and behaviors.
To reach a large audience and generate leads, also consider display ads. These are digital ads, such as banner ads, placed on websites and apps that are part of the Google Display Network.
Design a Social Media Marketing Strategy
The secret to succeeding with social media marketing is to be strategic. Don’t just create a bunch of accounts on every major platform and start posting randomly. That is likely to end being a major waste of time and resources. Instead follow these steps:
- Research successful competitors and others. Explore the social media presence of other family law firms, paying attention to the platforms they use, the type of content they share, their engagement with followers and, most importantly, what seems to work the best.
- Analyze the audience. Analyze the target audience, what type of content is likely to resonate with them, and what platforms they’re active on.
- Identify opportunities for you. Identify opportunities for your family law firm to differentiate itself and stand out in a crowded field.
- Create a plan. Create a plan for the firm, based on the research and analysis, that includes goals, target audience, platforms, type of content and a schedule.
- Implement and track. Implement the plan, track the performance of the campaigns, and adjust the strategy accordingly.
Succeeding with social media requires effort and persistence, with an element of trial and error. Create a professional presence on platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. You can use advertising to target specific demographics, interests, and behaviors that match the firm’s target audience to reach potential clients.
Content is important. Share valuable and informative content such as blog posts, legal guides, and educational videos on the firm’s social accounts. Someone will need to respond to comments and messages on the accounts and actively engage with followers. This helps build relationships and trust with potential clients.
Elicit Positive Online Reviews
Achieving positive online reviews for a family law firm is vital to build trust and credibility with prospective clients. They want to be sure they’ll be in good hands.
Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews. After a positive experience with the firm, invite happy clients to leave reviews on sites such as Google, Yelp, and Avvo. You can do this by email, with links to review sites included.
Share positive reviews on the firm’s website and social media accounts. Include them in marketing materials. Also consider adding review widgets to your website so that visitors can easily see the firm’s glowing ratings.
Respond to all reviews, both positive and negative, in a professional and timely manner. This shows that the firm is engaged and responsive to feedback.
The most important step for eliciting positive reviews is to provide an excellent service to clients, that will be reflected in the reviews. A client-first approach and high-quality legal service will always help maintain the firm’s reputation.
Produce YouTube Videos
YouTube is a platform worth serious attention. You can use it in multiple ways. With the speaking and presentation skills family lawyers possess, creating high quality videos shouldn’t be difficult.
Educational videos help to establish the law firm as an expert in the field and provide value to potential clients. In these videos, explain legal concepts and procedures answer FAQs, or provide info about services available. Choose topics of wide interest to gain large numbers of views and followers.
It’s also a good idea to create videos for display on your website that showcase your firm. An overview of the family law practice is one example. Record client testimonials, where satisfied customers provide convincing accounts of the value delivered to them.
Do Email Marketing
Email marketing is an important aspect of the digital marketing strategy of many family law firms. You can contact prospective or current clients directly, providing them with valuable information and updates on their case.
By maintaining connections with people, your law firm stays front of mind when any legal issues come up. That could work your in favor in terms of taking on new cases or expanding the services you provide to current clients.
Airbnb uses perhaps the most important strategy in email marketing: personalisation. Because they use your name, are informal and talk about your recent or upcoming trip, it feels like a message from a friend or acquaintance instead of a business.
Andrew Lancaster
Family law firms also use email to conduct surveys to get feedback from clients on their experience and results. This helps the law practice improve its service. Customer feedback is essential for enhancing the quality of legal services, especially in terms of how you handle law firm clients and their expectations.
Nic
When it comes to family law services, a law firm’s reputation is an extremely important aspect of marketing. Reputation can directly impact the firm’s ability to attract and retain clients, as well as its overall success. This needs to be managed throughout the process, with the goal of achieving branding excellence.