Marketing your practice online

More and more potential clients are going online to find a solicitor, so you need to think about how to optimise your web presence. Justin Purcell offers some guidelines to successfully marketing your practice online.

It's essential for both sole practitioners and small firms to build a successful practice online – and many of the same marketing principles apply for online as for offline.

Your clients and potential clients are already online, many of them using their mobile devices and computers every day. Try to proactively reach them when they’re looking for a solicitor by implementing a well-rounded digital-marketing plan, preferably with a consultant who has a track record of proven results.

Develop a user-friendly website

Your website is your online appeal –your virtual ‘shopfront’ – that invites clients to your practice and draws them in. Your website should be designed and created by professionals. It must be mobile friendly and responsive to whatever device it’s being viewed on. It should be an attractive, easy-to-navigate site, with ‘calls to action’ that actually get people to contact your office or schedule an appointment. Add a meeting reservation tool to your site to improve inbound calls and referrals.

Invest in marketing content

It is important to create quality content for marketing yourself, your legal knowledge, and your expertise. Research and create content based on typical questions you get asked by prospective clients.

To make the best first impression possible, showcase your office and introduce your team with professional-looking photos. This relatively minor upfront investment will yield marketing returns for months and years to come, as it visually sells your practice to clients.

While other industries can make do with photos and may manage to market themselves successfully without serious content, the legal industry is one where information dissemination is the best way to create an impact and establish confidence and expertise.

Regular blogs, articles, emails, LinkedIn content, and other publications will help boost your profile. Use plain and simple English that is understandable to the layperson. Avoid using legal jargon – or language that could be perceived as such. This will alienate potential clients.

Experts say that if your business takes more than 30 seconds to explain, you need a video. Script the content, as this helps you create video-marketing that provides informative and credible information.

Once your website is live, regularly add to and build your content. This can help build your audience, which will, in turn, be helpful in generating leads and connecting you to potential clients.

Build an online profile

You need to make sure your Google My Business listing, business Facebook page, and other directory listings are accurate, consistent, and complete, with your logo, well-written descriptions of your practice, and appealing photos of your office.

Establish solid search-engine optimisation (SEO), with regular and continual maintenance of your practice website. Without some level of ongoing SEO, your website will stagnate and eventually develop errors that can hurt you in a local search. Use suitable and appropriate keywords to establish yourself as an expert in a particular area of law.

LinkedIn is a great platform for building awareness, getting ideas, and understanding better what is going on in the legal industry. Experiment with paid social media to determine a strategy that works for you. Paid social ads are similar in concept to ‘pay per click’ (PPC), but on social platforms instead of internet search engines. However, while PPC capitalises on high-intent searches by clients who are actively looking for a solicitor, paid social ads reach prospective clients who aren’t yet looking for you, but who may react with interest to a social post that catches their eye.

Increase your visibility

As well as increasing your online visibility, your reputation is enhanced by ensuring that you’re present at the right place, speaking about the things you know – whether in person or online.

Despite all the time demands made of you, try to build a strong rapport with legal professionals, colleges, journalists, PR agents, event organisers, etc. Try get speaker slots in your choice of suitable events. Attend online events as a speaker. Contact the local Chamber of Commerce and other local business organisations, such as your local enterprise office.

Resources

 

Justin Purcell is the Law Society’s practice support executive.