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Effective marketing is an ongoing journey, especially because the whole landscape of online marketing is always in flux. Your law practice changes over time, and changes at Google, Facebook and other big sites affect your marketing strategy, too. Even online user behavior is changing at a rate that’s difficult to keep up with.
Carving out success in this kind of shifting environment often feels like a gargantuan task, but the challenges can be overcome. You just need to be sure that your law firm has a plan in place to adapt to the changes and connect all the dots.
It used to be enough to just have a professional website, especially if it was full of relevant content. Social media, smartphones and an always-on culture have changed that. Everyone is online, all the time. There are dozens of points of contact for potential clients, and the people who find you online expect much more from the experience than they used to.
While your website is still the cornerstone of your online presence, people are looking for businesses that will also meet them where they are, when they need it. This isn’t difficult if you have the right tools, but it does mean that you must tend to a web of factors that feed your overall online marketing efforts, including:
The problem with this evolution in online marketing for law firms? There are a lot of dots to connect if you want results. You can’t expend all your energy on just one type of campaign. Instead, you need to decide on the mix that is going to work best for you.
Figure out what works to attract the kinds of clients you want and how you can minimize the time you spend on contacts that aren’t the right fit. Prioritize improving your local presence, your mobile functionality and the user experience on your website — these are foundational areas that will drag down your other efforts if they’re lacking.
Remember, too, that a million clicks are no longer a measure of online success — you have to go deeper. Clicks won’t do you any good unless they’re actually turning into leads and cases. It is crucial that you put in the extra time and effort to track, measure and analyze your marketing campaigns. This data offers incredible insight into how well your marketing strategy is working and helps you make sure that great leads don’t fall through the cracks.
Above all, don’t give up if you don’t get it right the first time. The right mix of marketing is different for every law firm, and it can take a little time and adjustment to build momentum.
Tom Foster is a nationally recognized author and online marketing expert, focusing on the legal and medical industries. He is CEO of Foster Web Marketing and author of “The 5 Biggest Mistakes 99% of Lawyers Make With Their Websites,” along with several other books. Tom has been featured on numerous television stations, including affiliates of CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX, and speaks widely on web marketing for the legal industry. Follow him @tomfosterweb.
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February 19, 2019 0 0 0