Navigating Ethical Guidelines in Legal Marketing

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At one time, law firms and lawyers could not legally advertise to promote their services. With those restrictions eliminated, most law firms now embrace various digital marketing strategies designed to gain more clients and produce more revenue. But that doesn’t mean anything goes with respect to what you can say or do when promoting your firm.

Lawyers are certainly allowed to advertise their services. But, the American Bar Association and individual state bars have created rules governing lawyer advertising practices. Here’s why it’s important to follow those guidelines and some tips for navigating the ethics of legal marketing.

Why Marketing Ethics Are Essential in the Legal Sector

Attorneys have a responsibility to provide trustworthy legal counsel to clients and uphold the law in all of their actions. Marketing ethics play a critical role in maintaining the public’s trust and that of current or potential clients.

Law firms that engage in unethical marketing practices risk damaging their credibility and reputation, which can have serious business consequences. If the state bar gets involved or the firm gets sued, a poor marketing choice could be even more costly.

How to Navigate Ethical Guidelines in Legal Marketing

Every state has different rules regarding legal marketing ethics. However, most states use the ABA guidelines as a yardstick, so it makes sense to have an understanding of these. Here is how your law firm can navigate the ethical guidelines in legal marketing.

  1. Avoid Claiming to Be an Expert

As an attorney, you probably want people to view you as an expert in your field. But ABA rules prohibit lawyers from calling themselves a “specialist” or “expert” in marketing materials unless there is an ABA-accredited certification to back up that claim. Instead, it’s best to demonstrate expertise by listing years of experience and work in various areas of the law.

  1. Don’t Make Misleading or False Statements

You obviously don’t want to lie or make misleading statements in your law firm’s marketing. Avoid saying things like you have “the lowest fees” or get “the highest settlements.” These are considered deceptive and misleading.

  1. Ensure Your Testimonials Are Appropriate

One of the best ways to attract new clients is to have positive recommendations on hand from past ones. As a law firm, it’s critical that you understand the legal practice advertising rules for obtaining and posting testimonials. For example, you aren’t permitted to compensate people in any way for their testimonials. Also, testimonials should not be worded in a way that a potential client will expect the same results. This would be considered misleading.

  1. Know Whether You Must List an Office Address

Technology has permitted many attorneys to work remotely. But, some jurisdictions might require that you have a physical location to advertise your services. Others also state that law firms must list their office address in all advertising messages, including a law firm website. For this reason, it’s important to research the rules in your state.

  1. Avoid Directly Soliciting Your Services

As a general rule, attorneys are prohibited from directly soliciting their services. This refers to a marketing message or ad directed at a specific person or group who needs your legal services for a particular matter. According to ABA Rule 7.3, attorneys can market their services online but not show up at the hospital emergency room uninvited after a major accident.

  1. Understand the Rules for Using Trade Names

Many states have rules regarding identifying information that must be included in a marketing message to avoid misleading the public. If your firm uses any trade names, research whether or not you can use these in your jurisdiction. The rules are usually specific and may change according to case law.

  1. Know What Information You Can and Can’t Include in Ads

When it comes to marketing your law firm, some states might have minimum information that you must or can include on your website or other marketing materials. Some examples include:

  • Identifying details— Things like your law firm’s name, address, and phone number are a must in many states.
  • Memberships— Current bar association and any other professional memberships are helpful.
  • Awards and publications — Law-related awards and industry publications can provide credibility.
  • Rates— Many attorneys discuss how their rates are structured, such as hourly, flat-rate, or contingency fee basis.

Things you can’t include on your website or other marketing materials include fake legal documents, pending case information, and fictitious details.

  1. Use Disclaimers When Appropriate

It’s vital that potential clients understand that every situation and case outcome is unique. An excellent way to avoid problems in law firm marketing is to add disclaimers to some of your marketing messages and testimonials. An example is “No attorney can promise a specific case outcome.”

  1. Protect Your Client’s Information

It should go without saying, but you have an obligation in everything you do to safeguard your client’s information. This includes advertising and marketing. Once a client retains your firm’s services, they must give informed consent before you can share any information related to their representation. Even if it is on the public record or “generally known,” an attorney is not free to disclose details of a prior client’s case.

  1. Stay on Top of Ethics Rules

Ethics and other rules related to digital advertising change constantly. Some of the more strict restrictions for legal advertising have become less so in the past several years. However, nothing is saying various bar associations won’t change those restrictions once again to prohibit certain actions. As with everything in the legal profession, it’s vital that you remain on top of any rule changes or partner with a digital marketing agency that can do this for you.

Create a Winning and Ethical Marketing Campaign for Your Law Firm

You need as many advantages as you can get in a competitive legal market. But it’s important to know what you can and can’t do to stay within the lines of established legal ethics for marketing. Fortunately, we can help.

Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing specializes in helping law firms become the business of choice in their geographic and practice areas. Our digital marketing specialists focus on your firm’s particular needs and goals and understand the ethics guidelines for digital marketing. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and website evaluation.

5 Questions Lawyers Must Ask Themselves About Their Current Marketing Strategy

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A lawyer’s primary purposes are to ensure that laws are upheld and clients’ rights are protected. But it’s tough to accomplish those goals if your law firm can’t remain in business. You need a steady flow of new clients to keep the doors open and grow your business, which means you need to market your services.

Making marketing an afterthought can be dangerous in the legal industry. It’s simply too competitive and important to ignore. It’s also not something you want to waste resources on and not get the results you want and need. Here’s why your firm needs to make legal marketing one of its priorities and several questions it should be asking about its current marketing strategy.

The Importance of Effective Law Firm Marketing

Every business, regardless of industry, needs some type of marketing plan. While it’s easy to overlook marketing when you’re focused on managing your busy law practice, the reality is your business won’t be busy for long if you don’t have an effective strategy. Legal marketing has become a vital aspect of law firm success for several reasons:

Connects You With Prospective Clients

A legal website is often the first introduction a prospective client has to your business. They might arrive via a web search, social media link, or some other online source, such as a referral. But, when they do arrive on your site, what they discover in the first few seconds is vital. Ideally, they’ll experience a well-organized and engaging site that provides some answers and encouragement to move forward with contacting your firm.

5 Questions Lawyers Must Ask Themselves About Their Current Marketing Strategy

It’s highly unlikely any law firm is going to achieve success without a robust digital marketing strategy. According to one consumer survey, 97% of people use an online search to find the services they need. Whether it be a restaurant for tonight’s dinner, a local locksmith, or a skilled DUI lawyer, the internet is what connects these clients with businesses that can fulfill their needs.

But not every digital marketing strategy is the same. If yours isn’t up to par or better than your competitors, you won’t get the results you want and need. To ensure the best possible results, here are five questions lawyers must ask themselves about their current digital marketing strategies.

  1. Is our law firm’s website up-to-date and an effective lead generator?

One of the first questions you’ll want to ask yourself is about the effectiveness of your legal website. People often make a judgment about a business within seconds of landing on a website. If your law firm’s website is outdated or doesn’t convey the right message to visitors, it’s going to be nearly impossible to get the results you need.

Website development has evolved substantially over the past several years. Consumers can tell an outdated website immediately and will judge you for it. They will also judge your law firm harshly if your website is slow, not secure, hard to navigate, or has unprofessional photos.

One of your website’s primary roles should be to generate leads for your business. After all, without new clients, your firm will eventually be in trouble. If it’s not doing this, it’s time to make some changes.

  1. Are we targeting our marketing efforts to reach the right audience?

Who are the people most likely to need your law firm’s services? Where do they live? What are their ages and gender? What type of lives are they typically leading? Where do they spend their time online?

Knowing the answers to these questions is vital to a strong and successful legal marketing plan. Whether you are focusing on organic traffic or paid ads, you must know who your target audience is first. This information will guide your choices relative to which keyword phrases you will target and the type of content you decide to create.

For example, if you’re an estate planning attorney, you know that everyone could benefit from your services. But the people most likely to search you out are in an older demographic. Once you clearly identify your target audience, you can also choose the best channels for reaching those potential clients.

  1. Do we need more compelling content to engage and attract clients?

If you want your law firm’s digital marketing efforts to be a success, your online content must be a priority. Posting a compelling “About Us” page and detailed practice area pages is an excellent start. But your efforts need to go even further.

You need content to fuel your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, which is what will help you achieve better website rankings. Ongoing content is also what helps your law firm engage visitors and build credibility and trust as a skilled and experienced provider of specific legal services.

You can post different types of legal content regularly, such as blog posts, videos, and ebooks. As visitors read or consume these items, they will form a stronger connection with your brand and become more likely to hire your firm.

  1. Are our marketing practices violating any attorney ethics rules?

Believe it or not, there are a lot of rules when it comes to how you can and should market your law firm. The American Bar Association’s Rules of Professional Conduct is one example, and some rules vary from state to state.

While a client isn’t likely to file a complaint about your law firm’s marketing practices, a competing firm might. And the last thing you want is to be the subject of a disciplinary investigation or face sanctions.

So, how can you avoid violating any attorney ethics rules with your marketing practices? Here are several guidelines:

  • Avoid any false or misleading information, such as claiming you practice in a larger geographic area than you do.
  • Avoid using copyrighted images in your marketing materials without permission.
  • Avoid making direct comparison statements between your firm and others, such as claiming your firm is the “best.”
  • Avoid promising a guaranteed case outcome, such as “We’ll get your charges dropped.”

The best way to avoid these potential issues is to work with an experienced legal marketing agency that understands these rules.

  1. How are we defining and tracking law firm marketing success?

Your law firm and its digital marketing partners should have established some key performance indicators (KPIs) to track its success and inform ongoing business decisions. Without these, your entire program is simply guesswork, and you may end up wasting resources on strategies that aren’t providing a positive return on your investment (ROI).

Your KPIs should align with your business’s strategic objectives. Some examples of marketing KPIs include organic traffic, cost per lead, social media traffic, conversion rates, and many more.

Each time to review your marketing results, it’s important to understand whether you are getting closer to your goals or further away from them. Regular measurements are essential so you can view trends in the KPIs that give clues about items you may need to address.

One of the biggest mistakes law firms make is not taking action on valuable insight. Change isn’t always comfortable, but the sooner you take action to correct a bottleneck or seize on a new opportunity, the quicker your firm will be able to enjoy the benefits of improved business results.

Are You Working With the Right Legal Marketing Agency?

Ok, that’s one more question. But it’s a critical one. Choosing the right legal marketing agency can make a significant difference in your marketing strategy’s outcome. At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we understand how competitive the legal industry is and focus our efforts on helping our clients get found and chosen by clients who need their services the most.

Whether your firm is large or small, new or established, we can help you create a winning online presence that produces results. Our approach is 100% customized, meaning we only recommend the services you need. Give us a call at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free initial consultation.

7 Reasons Your Law Firm Marketing Plan Isn’t Working

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Managing a successful law practice requires a specific strategy. When you take a case, your firm wouldn’t waste thousands of dollars on unnecessary investigations, discovery, and litigation. But many law firms waste that much, if not more, on ineffective legal marketing.

The business of law is incredibly competitive, so marketing is critical. But there are many approaches to marketing, some more effective than others. If you aren’t getting the results you want and need, there’s certainly a reason — or several. Here are seven reasons your law firm marketing plan isn’t working.

Why Isn’t Your Law Firm’s Marketing Plan Working?

  1. You Don’t Have a Well-Defined Strategy.

If you don’t have a well-defined strategy in place, you are simply relying on luck to produce the results you need. This is rarely a recipe for success. For example, many law firms decide they’re going to invest in tactics (like social media marketing) but do so without a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Your firm needs a clear strategy that outlines a framework for achieving specific goals that includes a plan to measure success. Many businesses use what are called SMART goals, which are goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. From there, determine what strategies you will use to achieve each goal and the key performance indicators you need to measure progress and success.

Having a solid marketing strategy in place is critical. But it must be unique to your law firm — not your competitor’s plan or a cookie-cutter plan some agency hands out to everyone. This study shows that implementing generic marketing strategies isn’t effective.

Your legal marketing strategy must be tailored to your law firm’s needs and goals. If you haven’t been working from a well-defined strategy, it’s time to start.

  1. You’re Targeting the Wrong Audience.

If your marketing isn’t reaching the right people, it’s not going to produce positive results. Even if you have an outstanding website and great messaging, you’ll be unhappy with your results if you’re not reaching the people who are most likely to need your firm’s legal services.

Instead of trying to reach the broadest audience possible, it’s often a better strategy to narrow your focus. Of course, many law firms have multiple target audiences, such as those that offer different practice areas like criminal defense and family law. In these cases, it’s best to create multiple unique client personas to help guide your marketing strategies.

When creating client personas, it’s important to be as specific as possible. This includes things like age, location, academic background, and more. In addition to creating different client personas, law firms must focus on a customer’s particular wants and needs. Specifically, what problem is each group facing, and how can your firm help solve it?

  1. You Haven’t Considered Your Law Firm’s Branding.

If you aren’t getting the client referrals you want from your digital marketing efforts, it could be because of your branding. Customers and clients want to work with businesses they know, trust, and like.

It’s essential that you build a brand that positions your law firm and its attorneys as knowledgeable in their practice areas and approachable. If potential clients aren’t convinced that you are trustworthy or that you have the ability to solve their problems, they’ll hire someone else.

Your law firm’s branding is how you distinguish yourself from your competitors. It includes things like your logo and taglines. It also includes your value proposition, which is the overarching promise you intend to deliver to every client, whether that be aggressive defense, compassionate advocacy, cost-effective representation, or something else equally compelling.

  1. Your Law Firm’s Website Is Lacking. 

You might feel as if you’ve done enough by creating a website for your law firm. But a website alone isn’t enough to produce the results you want. After all, there were nearly 2 billion websites in existence as of January 2023, according to StatsFind. How is yours going to stand out?

Fortunately, you only need to outperform your competitors. But even that can be challenging in some markets. Consumers increasingly turn to search engines to research answers to questions and find local businesses to help them solve problems. And searching for a lawyer is no different. When someone needs a lawyer, whether to defend them against criminal charges, file for divorce, create a will, or something else, you must have a website that accomplishes several goals:

  • It tells a client how you can help them solve their problem
  • It explains why you are qualified to take on their case
  • It is easy to navigate
  • It loads fast and is secure
  • It is attractive and engaging

In short, your website is your firm’s digital front door because it’s often the first contact a potential client has with your law firm. It needs to count.

  1. You Aren’t Investing in Legal SEO. 

In addition to having an engaging website, your law firm must make search engine optimization (SEO) a priority. This is a series of actions and strategies that make your website and content more attractive to the search engines (i.e., Google), which will help get your site found by your target audience.

You may be able to find plenty of SEO tactics online, but these strategies must be used correctly for them to be effective. For example, Google is known for penalizing websites that use some aggressive or otherwise dishonest strategies meant to achieve quick results.

To get a meaningful and lasting outcome, you need an ongoing SEO strategy. First, your website must have the proper on-page and off-page SEO elements that will get it noticed by the search engines and your target audience. You will also need to post ongoing content that includes relevant keywords to provide better search results for your users. This content can be in the form of blog posts, videos, white papers, and more. The content you post should aim to solve the problems your potential clients are most likely to have.

  1. You’re Ignoring Social Media. 

It’s not enough for your law firm to have a Facebook page. Depending on your audience, you also need to have a strong social media presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

According to Pew Research, roughly 72% of the public is using some type of social media to connect with one another, share information, engage with content, and stay entertained. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are the most-used social platforms among U.S. adults.

If your law firm isn’t using social medial to promote its business, you’re missing an opportunity to boost your online visibility and grow your business. Take a close peek at any of these major platforms, and you’re almost guaranteed to find that your competitors are already actively using them. In fact, a recent Attorney at Work social media survey revealed that 70% of law firms have made social media marketing part of their overall strategy.

When approached correctly, social media marketing can elevate your entire digital marketing strategy. Specifically, it will help raise brand awareness, build trust and credibility in your firm, attract new clients, help you retain existing ones, and improve your SEO.

  1. You’ve Failed to Set Benchmarks and Track Results.

Successful legal marketing requires a commitment of resources. Unfortunately, you’ll never be “done” marketing your law firm if you want to continue to produce amazing results. One mistake many law firms make is quitting too soon or failing to make proper adjustments to their strategy as they go along.

You’ll never understand what’s working and what isn’t if you don’t establish benchmarks and track your results. Digital analytics demonstrate the effectiveness of your campaigns, but you must track the proper key performance indicators (KPIs) for those figures to be meaningful.

When you begin your legal marketing campaign, you’ll want to clarify the top things you want to accomplish and identify some KPIs that align with those goals. If you want to increase engagement, a KPI might be “page views.”

Failing to track your results would hold your law firm back from making improvements to its strategy. It would also prevent your business from taking advantage of any opportunities the data might uncover.

Bonus Reason — You Aren’t Working With the Right Legal Marketing Agency

Marketing isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. You didn’t go to law school to become a digital marketer, and there are plenty of professionals who can help elevate your business while you focus on representing your client’s interests. When you work with Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, you can feel confident knowing your digital marketing strategy is in the right hands.

Our team of experienced legal marketing experts will take the time to understand your firm’s business and specific goals. We will develop a digital marketing strategy that will get your firm found and chosen by its target client base and improve bottom-line results.

If you’re interested in learning more, reach out to us for a free website evaluation. We’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have about our top-rated legal marketing services.

Builds Credibility and Trust

People want to hire a lawyer and law firm that they trust will solve their most pressing legal issues. Your legal marketing strategy can build credibility and trust by demonstrating the attorney’s knowledge of the law and background in helping others resolve a wide range of legal matters. When website visitors get answers to their questions, they begin to trust that your firm can provide the assistance they need.

Improves SEO Rankings

One of the goals of law firm marketing is to show up in the search engines ahead of your competitors for various search terms, like “divorce lawyer near me,” “car accident attorney in Birmingham,” or “estate planning in Mobile.” A well-organized and written law firm website will also answer many frequently asked questions, which improves rankings.

When your website appears in organic (free) search results, potential clients are more likely to click on those results to learn more about your law firm. Your investment in SEO can pay off for your business long term.

Give us a call at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free initial consultation.

What Makes the Perfect Law Firm Website

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Your law firm’s website is its most important marketing tool. Sure, you might get some word-of-mouth and social media referrals. But a large percentage of those people will go straight to your website to confirm your legitimacy before making contact.

The legal space is only getting more competitive. A good law firm website is an essential tool to generate and cultivate leads, which helps your firm grow. So it’s important to get the design of your website correct from the start.

If you’re creating a website from scratch or thinking about a re-design, it’s tempting to jump straight to the visual aspects. But there’s a lot more to it. Visitors of legal websites are usually dealing with pressing legal challenges and are searching for the advice of a highly-skilled professional. Your website must showcase that the firm has the experience and skill to help.

So, what makes the perfect law firm website? Here are some key components we believe are must-haves for every law firm website.

  1. Clean and Professional Design

According to Google, visitors form opinions about websites in less than a second. This means your law firm’s website needs to make an incredible first impression. Only after that will users take the time to engage with your content.

A poorly-designed website is often associated with feelings of mistrust by online users. In other words, if you can’t do this “right,” how can you be expected to solve their legal troubles? When a person arrives at a website they find unattractive, they’ll be quick to leave.

So the first order of business is to create a website that has a professional and clean design that reflects your law firm’s branding and instills confidence. It should have a visually appealing layout, use a consistent color scheme, and incorporate easy-to-read fonts.

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

For a law firm website to qualify as “perfect,” it must have comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO). This refers to the efforts necessary to achieve strong organic search engine rankings for keywords and phrases that will draw in your target audience and produce results.

SEO starts with keyword research, and it involves a lot of on-page and off-page activities. On your website, every page will need to be optimized using title tags and proper headings. There should be meta descriptions and proper permalinks for pages. Local SEO and off-page linking programs can improve overall rankings.

  1. User-Friendly Navigation

Several years ago, Google began emphasizing the user experience (UX). A big part of the UX is the ability of visitors to your law firm’s website to find what they need quickly. This requires user-friendly and intuitive navigation.

If your firm’s website is too difficult to navigate, you will lose visitors in favor of competitors. Visitors might land on your website for a variety of reasons — to learn more about a legal challenge, research a law firm recommended to them, or schedule an appointment for a consultation.

A good UX design can help visitors achieve their goals by making finding the information they need easy and seamless. Menus should be clear with logical organization for effortless navigation.

  1. Mobile-Friendly & Responsive Design

Smartphones and mobile devices comprise over 55% of the total browser usage worldwide. Your law firm’s website should be designed to be mobile-friendly and responsive. This means your site will appear professional and functional no matter what size screen or type of device the visitor uses. Also, websites designed for desktops tend to load slowly on smartphones. When you have a responsive design, this will enhance the user experience for everyone.

  1. Delay-Free Speed

Another aspect of delivering a positive user experience, which also happens to be one of Google’s search engine ranking factors, is website speed. And for good reason. Studies have shown that conversion rates drop as website load time increases.

Ideally, your law firm’s website needs to load in three seconds or less. Your website designer will use a variety of technical tools to speed up this process and prevent potential clients from abandoning their efforts.

  1. Website Accessibility

Continuing with the theme of delivering a stellar user experience, your law firm’s website must also be accessible. What does this mean? An accessible website provides solutions for anyone with limitations, such as poor eyesight or lack of mobility.

Google tends to reward accessible websites with better search engine rankings. Conversely, businesses that don’t make their sites accessible have faced lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

  1. Clear Legal Practice Areas

Most consumers aren’t well-versed in the law. They just know they have a problem and need help. Some aren’t even sure what type of attorney can or should take on their case. Your website should be crystal clear about the kinds of cases you handle.

You should state your legal practice areas in several different ways to avoid confusion. For example, you say you’re a “family law attorney.” But you’ll also want to emphasize that you handle divorces, child custody matters, adoptions, and anything else in that area of practice.

  1. Case Results

When a potential client is facing a legal challenge, they’re usually looking for a law firm that can produce results. If you have years of experience, have won hundreds of cases, or secured millions in compensation on behalf of past clients, you should say so explicitly on your website.

Many law firms dedicate a page on their sites to their firm’s outcomes and case results for clients. The more results you can post on your site, the greater impact it will have on building trust and getting prospects to choose your firm.

  1. Testimonials and Reviews

Another thing you want to list, in addition to talking about your past successes, is testimonials and reviews from prior clients. Consumers love reading online reviews, whether it’s to choose a restaurant, a new vacuum cleaner, or a personal injury lawyer.

Many resources are available for client reviews, including Google, Facebook, legal directories, and testimonials sent directly to your firm. Regardless of the source, you can dedicate a page or section of your website to provide social proof that backs up what you’re saying about your experience and capabilities.

  1. Calls-to-Action and Contact Info

Not every visitor to your law firm’s website will know what they should do next. This is where calls-to-action (CTAs) come in. Throughout your website’s content, there should be prompts encouraging the reader to take some desired action, such as “call now to schedule an initial consultation.”

And if your visitor decides they want to contact you, don’t make them work too hard to do it. Your firm’s phone number and/or email link should be posted prominently on every page.

  1. Professional Photos

Having a website full of words alone isn’t going to get you the results you need. While there are a ton of image options for your law firm’s website, you need ones that are inspiring and produce results.

Your images should be of the highest quality possible. But you also want to avoid the same photos you’re likely to see on other legal websites, like gavels and law books. The photos you choose should also have a consistent look to go with your branding style.

  1. Attorney Profiles

Many consumers facing legal issues aren’t interested in hiring a law firm. They want to hire a lawyer. Your firm’s overall branding is important, but so is showcasing the individual backgrounds and accomplishments of each lawyer. Your website should include a section of attorney profiles that includes professional headshots, experience, qualifications, areas of practice, and any other relevant certifications or accolades.

  1. Educational Content

One of the best ways to attract visitors to your law firm’s website is through the use of educational content. Your firm’s blog, FAQs, and white papers can address a wide variety of common questions people have related to your practice areas.

This content also establishes your firm as an authority in its field, builds trust with prospects, and provides excellent SEO material for the search engines. Educational content should be an ongoing effort to ensure you are providing a fresh and engaging experience for your audience.

  1. Video Content

When it comes to building trust and rapport with potential clients, there’s no substitute for video content. Adding video content to your home page and blog that introduces your firm, explains various aspects of the law, and even relays testimonials, is a great way to reach an audience that prefers to consume information this way rather than read what you’ve written.

  1. Secure Website (SSL/TLS)

Finally, your law firm’s website will never be perfect if it isn’t secure. If you use contact forms or have a live chat feature, encryption is a must. Without an SSL certificate, hackers could intercept data sent to your firm, which jeopardizes your clients. Google also places value on having a secure website, so this could impact your search engine rankings.

Are You Ready to Create the Perfect Law Firm Website?

Planning for and creating a winning law firm website might seem like a major undertaking. But when you do it right, it can transform your business results. You’ll build awareness about your law firm’s brand, improve your search engine rankings, and convert more visitors into clients.

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we specialize in helping law firms get found and chosen in their designated markets. Our digital marketing specialists spend time getting to know your firm and its goals before customizing a strategy designed to produce results. We create award-winning law firm websites that present your firm’s face to the world and help grow your business. To get started or for more information, contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

How to Create a Winning Law Firm Marketing Campaign

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Law firms are in a competitive business. They have to work diligently to attract new clients and retain their existing ones if they want to succeed and grow.

You might have the most knowledgeable and experienced attorneys in your area. But no one is going to hire your firm if they can’t find you online or learn something about your services when conducting some preliminary research.

The best way to have all of this fall into place is with a winning law firm marketing campaign. But what’s involved with that? Here are some tips for successfully getting your law firm’s message out to the right audience.

  1. Define Your Target Audience

There are many different areas of the law, so the clients your law firm targets may not be the same as the firm down the street. Each audience has specific needs that will prompt them to search out legal services. Before crafting a campaign, figure out whether you will be marketing to new clients, past clients, other attorneys, or someone else. You can even expand on this with typical client characteristics, such as:

  • Age
  • Location
  • Gender
  • Job title
  • Income
  • Industry
  • Needs

This information will be invaluable in figuring out where to reach these people and what messages will most appeal to them. In some cases, you may have more than one target audience. There’s nothing wrong with creating multiple client profiles.

  1. Map Your Client’s Journey

Mapping your client’s journey is an incredibly useful exercise in creating a satisfying marketing campaign. This consists of your typical client’s pathway as they progress from learning about your brand to signing on as a client. The journey generally has three main stages:

  • Awareness Stage — This is the initial stage in which prospective clients become aware of your brand. For example, they might see an online ad, run across your website through a search, or hear about you from a friend.
  • Consideration Stage — During this stage, prospects will conduct detailed online research of different law firms by reading practice area pages, blog posts, attorney bios, and reviews. They might subscribe to your email list or follow you on social media.
  • Decision Stage— In the decision stage, prospects will decide whether or not you are the best law firm to handle their needs. If they choose you, they will call you or contact you through your website.

To optimize your client journey and improve conversions, you can create a map that identifies the desired outcomes at each stage. For example, you might want prospects to browse your website or download an ebook at the consideration stage and fill out a contact form at the decision stage.

  1. Define Your Value Proposition

Your firm’s value proposition outlines what you can offer prospective clients to choose your law firm over a competitor. It forms the foundation of most marketing messages. For example, maybe you offer affordable services, aggressive representation, or 24/7 availability.

It’s important that your value proposition be concise enough to deliver across a variety of formats. You’ll need to convey it on your website, through social media, and throughout your content marketing campaigns.

  1. Differentiate Your Brand

You can use your value proposition to help define and differentiate your brand. Branding is how you will set your law firm apart from the competition. It includes your unique message as well as styling. Your firm’s brand should resonate consistently throughout its website, social media profiles, letterhead, and logo. Business cards, and anything else used to interact with potential and current clients.

  1. Evaluate Your Competition

Sometimes, it’s most helpful to see what’s working for your biggest competitors so you can emulate their tactics. Make sure you thoroughly evaluate the competition to learn what keywords they are ranking for and how you may be able to improve with your own strategy.

  1. Craft a Compelling Message 

To achieve your marketing goals, you need to create an effective marketing message. As a law firm, this involves crafting a message that:

  • Presents a solution to their needs
  • Answers common questions related to the law
  • Tells how your law firm has produced results for other clients
  • Explains what separates you from the competition

It’s important that your law firm avoid any language that could land it in hot water. For example, some states have specific rules about legal marketing, such as not allowing comparative statements like “We’re the best!”. You can check with your state’s bar association for specifics.

  1. Choose Your Marketing Channels

Another vital step is determining which marketing channels you will use to conduct your campaigns. Once you’ve defined your target audience, you will get a better idea of where they spend their time. For example, you’re more likely to find business clients on LinkedIn than on Facebook. But Facebook or Instagram would be excellent options for personal injury or family law practices. And targeting high rankings on Google will be beneficial no matter what area of law you practice.

The right mix of channels will depend on a variety of factors, including:

  • The demographics of your target audience
  • Your law firm’s specialties
  • The geographic area you serve
  • Your budget
  • Your specific marketing goals
  1. Measure Your Performance

One of the most critical aspects of creating a winning and sustainable legal marketing campaign is performance measurement. Every law firm’s goals are different, but they must be measurable. You can establish a variety of KPIs corresponding to your goals to measure performance and gauge when you might need to make adjustments. Some common KPIs include: Cost Per Lead (CPL), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), and Lead Conversion Rate.

Creating a Winning Marketing Campaign for Your Law Firm

Law firms need every possible competitive advantage. One of the best ways to set your business apart from the competition is to create a strong online presence that showcases your brand and engages potential clients.

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we specialize in helping law firms become the business of choice in their markets. Our digital marketing specialists spend the time getting to know your firm and its goals before customizing a strategy designed to meet your particular needs. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and website evaluation.

How to Market My Law Firm

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As a law firm, you might have a stellar reputation. But, if you aren’t proactively pursuing new clients and marketing your business, you will likely face some challenges. When someone is looking for a product or service, the most natural thing to do is to jump online. Hardly anyone uses a phone book anymore.

Your law firm’s marketing strategy will make it easy for those potential clients to find you. Even better, some of them may even recognize your name through some of your campaigns. You may not necessarily want to market your services, but it’s part of running a successful business. Here’s what you need to know about law firm marketing and some of the top strategies to get your message out effectively.

The Difference Between Sales and Marketing for Law Firms

It’s not surprising that many lawyers think marketing is the same as sales. There’s a difference. Marketing is everything your law firm does to get the message out about its practice areas, lawyers, and unique value proposition. It’s the messaging you put out that tells people who you are, what you do, and how well you do it.

Few attorneys get excited about having to “sell” their services. Fortunately, if your marketing strategy is on point, you won’t have to do much (or any) hard selling. By the time potential clients get to you, they know enough about your law firm to believe you can probably solve their issues. After you ask them a few pointed questions, you can usually convert these prospects into clients.

10 Effective Ways to Market Your Law Firm

If your law firm wants to grow and have qualified leads knocking on its door, it needs an effective marketing strategy. Here are some of the top ways to market your law firm.

  1. Create a Marketing Budget

Not every law firm has the same amount of cash to devote to legal marketing. What would be a mistake is not taking this part of your business seriously. Make sure you create a marketing budget that factors in the potential costs as well as the returns you’ll achieve by attracting new clients.

  1. Identify Your Target Audience

Understanding who your target audience is will help your law firm market its services more effectively. For example, if you’re an estate planning attorney, you likely know the average age of your typical client. This might dictate what type of content and social media marketing you will target.

  1. Define and Promote Your Brand

According to a study by Martindale-Hubbell and LexisNexis, roughly 85% of law firms find that a majority of their website traffic goes to attorney bio pages. That’s because people are looking to hire a lawyer, not a law firm. They want to read about the individuals before deciding if they will contact your law firm for help.

This means that your law firm and your firm’s attorneys should define and promote their brands online. Just as your firm will have its own brand, so will each lawyer since some may focus on different practice areas.

  1. Create a Well-Designed Legal Website

In today’s digital age, your law firm needs an attractive and engaging website that is easy to navigate. It should also be fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and secure. If it’s been a few years since you launched your website, it might be time for an update.

  1. Invest in Ongoing SEO

Just having a law firm website isn’t good enough. It’s essential that you invest in ongoing search engine optimization (SEO) to achieve the best possible rankings on Google. This involves identifying and targeting the right keyword phrases for your website content, using proper title tags, meta descriptions, URL structures, and much more.

  1. Produce Engaging Legal Content

Another way to get the attention of prospective clients is by posting valuable legal content. This helps your search engine rankings and draws visitors to your website who may wish to hire your firm. Create a list of the most frequently asked questions by clients related to your various practice areas. Then, dedicate a blog post or video to each of them. You can also produce content focused on changes in the law, seasonal topics, and interest pieces about your firm.

  1. Claim Your Free Online Profiles

Your law firm’s website is just one place potential clients can find you. But there are others, whether you participate in the listing or not. So, you should claim any free profiles available on sites like Google Business Pages and various legal directories.

  1. Foster Your Social Media Presence

Many of today’s consumers are active on social media. They use various platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter to connect with friends and different brands. Make sure yours is one of the brands people see online in a helpful way, not an annoying one. Create a presence where you share information and even answer questions to boost your brand recognition.

  1. Consider Online Advertising

If you want lightning-fast online marketing results, it’s going to cost money. But it’s possible to produce some clicks and engagement on your website using online ads through Google and social media. One of the benefits of Facebook ads is that they are easy to target in terms of geographic location and demographics.

  1. Manage Your Online Feedback

A 2021 Legal Trends Report found that 82% of consumers sought client reviews when seeking legal counsel. When consumers read reviews, one of the things many of them look at is how the company responds. Clients will likely leave feedback for your law firm on Facebook, Google, and various legal directory websites. It’s critical that you monitor these sites for any online feedback so you can respond quickly and appropriately.

Your firm may not need every one of these items. What’s important is that it develops a strategy designed to reach new clients, engage existing ones, and grow the business.

Partner With a Results-Driven Legal Marketing Agency

Knowing how to market your law firm in a continually changing environment is only the first step. You won’t get the results you need unless you take some decisive action. And most attorneys already have enough on their plates without having to worry about the marketing side of the business. This is why you need help! At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we are dedicated to helping our legal clients achieve growth and boost revenue.

From small to big firms, we have helped legal clients dominate their markets and achieve game-changing results. Our strategies are completely customized, meaning we only recommend the services you need and that will deliver results. Give us a call at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free initial consultation.

Consider These 5 Things When Choosing Your Next Law Firm Marketing Agency

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Few things are more important to the success of your law firm than generating new business. Whether you are a large, multi-office firm, a sole practitioner, or something in between, you need new clients coming in consistently to remain profitable. And for your law firm to remain competitive, it needs a powerful and effective marketing strategy.

If you’re like most attorneys, you don’t have time to wear multiple hats. Your strengths lie in representing clients, not building websites, figuring out SEO strategies, or social media marketing. You probably need some help to achieve the best results. But who can you trust to provide it?

If you’re like most law firms, you probably get emails, calls, and mailers ad nauseum from companies trying to sell you law firm SEO services. They might make outrageous promises, like guaranteeing the “number one spot on Google for your desired keyword for just $300/month.” It’s important to understand that those ads are scams, and you will not get the results you need from that type of business.

Digital marketing for law firms is highly competitive, so you need a partner that is honest, knows what they’re doing, and can produce results. But there are so many options! How do you know if you are making the right choice? Here is what you need to know about legal marketing and several things to consider when choosing your next law firm marketing agency.

What is Law Firm Marketing?

Law firm marketing is a strategy for attracting new potential clients to your legal practice. A law firm marketing plan will be customized to suit your particular needs and goals. But it might include a mix of website design, SEO, digital ads, social media marketing, content creation, and more.

No matter how you approach it, marketing your law firm can easily consume a significant amount of your time and energy. Most lawyers struggle with creating a robust digital marketing strategy that reaches their target audience and persuades them to become clients. The right legal marketing agency can help achieve positive results while the legal professionals in your firm focus on what they do best — serve clients’ needs.

Benefits of Marketing Your Law Firm

First, not marketing your law firm can be a major mistake. Unless you practice an area of law that is so specialized you have no competitors, you need to find a way to set your law firm apart. Here are just a few of the most important benefits of legal marketing.

Grow Your Client Base

The most direct benefit of law firm marketing is the ability to grow your client base and boost your firm’s overall revenue. The right digital marketing strategy will produce qualified leads that are already searching for your law firm’s services. You can easily convert these leads into new clients by nurturing them. This new customer base represents a golden opportunity to attract new business through repeat business and referrals.

Boost Your Law Firm’s Reputation

Another great benefit of marketing your law firm is that it gives you the resources necessary to improve your firm’s reputation. How the public perceives your brand is vital for building the trust you need to attract new prospects and convert them into clients. Through ongoing marketing, you can create name recognition and establish your law firm as a reputable authority in its field.

Learn More About Your Target Audience

When you’re marketing your legal services, you need to know as much about your target audience as possible. You might think you understand their wants and needs, but you’ll learn so much more about them through your legal marketing efforts. Using social media, email marketing, and other strategies, you’ll gain more insights into what your audience wants, allowing you to better meet their needs and focus your marketing efforts.

Inform Your Overall Growth Strategy

Finally, you’ll be amazed at the way legal marketing can save your law firm time and money when it comes to lead generation. An effective digital marketing strategy helps you attract more clients, produce more revenue, and set your law firm up for success as it continues to grow.

Consider These 5 Things When Choosing Your Next Law Firm Marketing Agency

When you’re looking for a law firm marketing agency, it’s vital to remember that not all agencies are created equal. A lot of factors must be given consideration when making your decision. Here are five things to think about when choosing your next law firm marketing agency.

  1. Experience and Expertise

When you choose a legal marketing agency, it’s important that you consider the agency’s level of experience and expertise. The digital marketing landscape is changing constantly, so you need to choose a partner that is up-to-date on the latest trends.

A reputable marketing agency will have extensive experience working with law firms of every shape and size. They will also have a deep understanding of the unique opportunities and challenges that come with marketing in your industry. For example, the American Bar Association has created rules of professional conduct for lawyers and law firms that market their services in the digital marketing age.

  1. Legal Marketing Services Offered

What services does the marketing agency you are considering offer? Not all agencies offer a full complement of services. You’ll want to find an agency that offers a wide variety of legal marketing services, such as web design, SEO, social media management, content creation, digital advertising, video production, branding, and more.

What’s just as important is that the agency you choose creates a customized plan to meet your specific needs. If an agency tries to sell you a cookie-cutter package, it may not be the best option. When you meet with the agency for an initial consultation, the marketing professionals will learn more about your law firm, its clients, and the goals you want to achieve.

  1. Reputation and Client Feedback

You don’t want to be a guinea pig for someone launching a new marketing business. Search for a legal marketing agency that can produce a body of work and some positive client feedback. Most consumers (over 50%) do online research before they buy a new TV or switch doctors. There’s no reason you shouldn’t do some detective work when hiring a legal marketing firm.

Look for an agency that has handled marketing for law firms similar to your own. Review their websites and ask the agency for testimonials if they don’t have any posted online. Any reputable agency will be happy to provide you with this information.

  1. Communication and Transparency

Communication and transparency are essential when working with a legal marketing agency. Without open and clear communication, it can be challenging to understand what the agency is doing, why they’re doing it, and how it affects your business.

Even more, transparency ensures that both parties have accountability for their respective parts. When your agency is transparent about its tactics and strategies, this builds mutual respect and trust. Because of this, both parties are more likely to be satisfied with the relationship.

In short, you want to work with a marketing agency that keeps you informed at every stage of the process, from the initial strategy session through implementation and regular reporting. And your agency’s communication style should match what works best for you. In other words, if you prefer email versus phone calls or vice versa, your marketing team will be able to accommodate your needs.

  1. Pricing and Your Budget

Marketing agencies provide a critical service to law firms of all sizes. But pricing can be a major determining factor when it comes to choosing a digital marketing agency. While your law firm might be drawn to the lowest-priced option, it’s important to consider the value that a high-quality legal marketing agency can provide.

In many cases, an agency’s pricing is directly related to the expertise and experience of its team. More experienced agencies that produce the best results typically charge higher rates. But they also offer an elevated level of service.

When choosing a digital marketing agency, you certainly want to consider your budget. But don’t forget about the value you are receiving. You don’t have to handle this part of your business on your own. And the increase in conversions you get will easily produce a fast return on your investment.

Partner With a Results-Driven Legal Marketing Agency

Choosing the right law firm marketing agency can be challenging. But your choice can make the difference between getting the results you need and continuing to struggle against fierce competition. At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we specialize in helping our legal clients increase revenue and achieve growth.

From big to small firms, we have helped legal clients dominate their market to achieve game-changing results. Our approach is completely customized, meaning we only recommend the services you need, and that will produce results. Give us a call at (800) 649-1764 or reach out to us online to schedule a free initial consultation.

The Importance of Client Reviews and the Most Effective Way to Get Them

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In law school, the last thing that you were likely thinking about was how to market yourself as an attorney. Instead, you probably assumed that by doing good work and providing effective legal counsel, as well as by establishing or working for a reputable firm, clients would come to you. But the days of word-of-mouth marketing are all but are gone; today, more people than ever before are turning to online information as a resource that influences their purchasing decisions of various types, including who to hire for legal representation.

If your law firm is still relying on out-of-date means of client retention and acquisition, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to reach more people. At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, our legal marketing team can help you to understand the importance of client reviews and the most effective way to start cultivating reviews today.

Why Are Client Reviews So Important?

When it comes to understanding why client reviews are so important, the following statistics say it all:

  • Those who are in need of a lawyer aren’t just going to ask around to find one; instead, 75 percent of consumers seeking an attorney will use online resources to identify who they plan to hire. Again, by not having online information about your firm, including online client reviews, you could practically be sending clients to your competitors.
  • Not only are ¾ of people who need a lawyer using online resources to look for one, but nearly ⅔ of people say that online reviews greatly influenced their decision in selecting an attorney.

The bottom line: people are using the internet to learn more about a business before making a purchasing decision – this includes those who are in need of legal services. By failing to provide information to potential clients about your business in a variety of forms, including client reviews, you’re missing an opportunity to connect with a potential client in a valuable way; this opportunity will likely be snatched up by other attorneys in your field.

The Most Effective Ways to Get Client Reviews

Now that you understand just how important client reviews are for your legal practice, the next consideration is how to start building a collection of client reviews on your website.

Lawyers often fail to get reviews for a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that they don’t maintain the right spaces for clients to leave reviews (i.e. Facebook, Google, etc.). Second, lawyers often fail to ask clients for reviews, which is a critical step in the process of actually getting reviews. Third, if a lawyer does ask a client for a review, they often go about it in the wrong way. To get more reviews, consider the following:

  • Choose the right platforms. The first thing that your law firm needs to do is ensure that the right platforms for client reviews are in place. Facebook and Google are both great options – Facebook has more than one billion active users, and consumers say that Google reviews is their favorite source for online reviews. In addition to Google and Facebook, also consider using Avvo, which is a review site specifically for lawyers.
  • Start asking for reviews. It’s not just about having the right platforms in place; you’ll need to actually ask your former clients for reviews. This can be daunting and even feel uncomfortable, but there is a way to do it appropriately and effectively.

How to Ask Clients for Reviews

As you start to ask clients for reviews, there are a few key things to keep in mind for maximum effectiveness.

  1. Make sure your reviews are current by asking clients to leave you a review as soon as possible after representation has been completed.
  1. Ask for reviews from clients who had a positive experience – the goal is to have positive reviews reflected on your website and the various review platforms.
  1. Make it personal by asking for a review in person or by picking up the phone and calling them. Simply sending a generic email to a client you’ve been working with isn’t nearly as effective as personalizing it. If the client agrees to leave you a review, then you can immediately follow up with an email containing the relevant links to review sites.

Know How to Make Reviews Work for You

Finally, once reviews start coming in, you’ll need to know how to make these reviews work for you. Make sure that positive reviews are shared on your website in an area that is easy for prospective clients to find. Show recent reviews first.

Another tip for making reviews more effective is to respond to former clients’ reviews, both positive and negative. Be honest, empathetic, and use a negative review as an opportunity to admit fault when appropriate and highlight how much you care about your clients.

Work with a Professional Digital Marketing Team Today

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we are experts at helping law firms like yours improve their online presence and start attracting more clients. Not only are we skilled digital marketers, but we also understand the unique rules and regulations that you face as a lawyer, including client confidentiality rules and the consequences of fake reviews. To learn more about how we can help your firm, reach out to our legal marketing team by phone at (800) 649-1764 or online today.

How to Get Reviews from Clients

Getting reviews isn’t something you can sit back and trust people will do. You have to actively have a review-requesting plan in place, and train their staff – from managing partners down to their receptionists – in the best ways to ask satisfied clients for reviews.

Here are a few suggestions:

In Case-Closing Letters

Do your clients send a final letter to their clients with their settlement checks or copies of final judgment documents? Include specific instructions on how to leave their firm a review within these letters.

If your client sends copies of these letters via email, include direct links to their review profiles to make it easy.

In Text

Part of the problem with getting clients to leave reviews is them knowing how to. Remove those barriers by texting a link to their business’s Google profile. Here’s how.

In Person

The most powerful way to ask for a review is in person where your client can say, “I appreciated working with you. It would really help more people who need my help find me if you would leave a review online.”

Follow up this conversation with a texted link.

Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing has extensive experience with helping lawyers obtain positive client reviews. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation to learn more about our review management programs and other comprehensive solutions for law firms.

Six Blogging Tips for Attorneys: How to Write Client-Focused Content

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There is wide agreement among online experts that blogging is one of the core strategies that should be integrated into an effective digital marketing plan. This is true for virtually every industry, but it is especially the case for law firms. People encounter all types of legal trouble, and these days, one of the first places they go to try to make sense of their legal issues and solve them is the internet.

Before a typical legal consumer contacts an attorney, they will want to read as much as they can about the issue that they are dealing with so they at least have a basic understanding of it, and so they will know what questions to ask a lawyer when they finally contact one.

Attorneys and law firms that take the time to produce content that answers consumers’ questions stand out from their competitors by sharing free information with the public and demonstrating their knowledge of the law. Done correctly, blogging will drive targeted prospects to your web properties, a certain percentage of which should become clients. Dollar for dollar, this is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow a legal practice.

Developing an effective blogging strategy is not really all that complicated. It does, however, require a time commitment and consistency. A small to medium-sized law firm should be willing to produce at least one to three blogs per month. This could take three to 10 hours or so of your time to write the articles, edit them, and post them to your website.

If you or someone in your office is willing to put in the time, then you can turn blogging into a winning strategy that will grow your clientele. The traffic will trickle in at first, but if you stick to it, your website visits will begin to multiply, and you will produce successful long-term results.

To help ensure that you write a good blog post every time, here are six steps to follow:

1. Understand your Audience

It is very important to understand who you are writing the blog for and what its purpose is going to be. Primarily, a law firm blog is written for legal consumers (as opposed to other attorneys, etc.) because they are the ones who may eventually become your clients. So, when you prepare to write a blog article, put yourself in their shoes and think about what they are going through. What are their pain points? What kind of resolution are they hoping to obtain by reading your post?

The best kind of content for a blog post is content that connects with your audience and speaks to their concerns. For example, someone who was injured in a car accident is likely to be under a great deal of stress about the medical bills they have to pay, being out of work, and how long it will take to resolve their legal claim. Someone who was arrested for drunk driving is probably worried about the heavy fines they will have to pay, losing their driving privileges, the possibility of jail time, and maybe even losing their job.

By identifying your audience and understanding what they are concerned about, you will be better able to produce content that is compelling and engaging. This will help you establish an emotional connection with them, which will keep them interested in what you have to say.

2. Write for Topics over Keywords

You have probably heard a lot about search engine optimization (SEO) and the role it plays in getting your content found on the Web. Ranking for keywords that your target audience is searching for is one of the major goals with blogging, but you should never allow the quality of your content to be compromised for this purpose.

“Keyword stuffing” is a practice from a bygone era, and thankfully, it is no longer an effective SEO strategy. Google’s algorithms are far more sophisticated these days, and they are better able to interpret the context of an article and its relevance to various keyword queries.

The best approach for writing legal blog posts is to choose topics that your target audience cares about. One way to do this would be to make a big list of the most frequently asked questions you get from your clients and write blog articles that answer these questions. You could also look in places like Yahoo! Answers and Quora to find some common questions that are being asked.

Create blog posts about topics that are relevant to your target audience, and do not worry as much about keyword phrases. If your content addresses their most important issues, the search engines will reward you for that and your posts will be found.

3. Make your Content Coherent and Understandable

As a lawyer, you need to project a professional image for you and your firm. As such, you need to make sure that the content you write flows smoothly and is grammatically correct. At the same time, however, make sure it is not overly technical. Remember, much of your audience is not familiar with a lot of the legal terms that are part of your everyday vernacular. When you write a legal blog that is geared toward average consumers, your job is to make complex legal concepts understandable to your target audience.

4. Make your Content Informative and Useful

Your readers should be able to understand your content, and further, they should find it interesting, informative, and useful. Sure, your ultimate goal is for them to contact you and become a client, but you should not be continually trying to sell that within your post. Instead, give your readers practical information that they can take away from the article and put directly to use, so they believe that it was worth their time to read it.

5. Show Yourself as an Authority

Avoid talking too much about yourself within the article and instead show your expertise by discussing the legal topic and providing helpful information to the reader. The place to talk in more detail about your credentials is on the area of practice (AOP) pages of your website. Blogs can direct readers to AOP pages when appropriate, and you should do this from time to time. But within the blog post itself, show readers your in-depth knowledge about the subject. This will help establish you as an authority in your area of practice, which builds trust among your target audience and makes them more likely to become clients.

6. Include a Call to Action

You should end your blog with a paragraph or two that moves the reader toward a desired action. This is one place where you could discuss your credentials while inviting readers to contact your firm for more information and to schedule a consultation. If you are writing a fairly long post, you could also insert a brief call to action in the second or third paragraph for readers who know they need legal help and/or do not have the time to get through the entire article. This is optional and it is entirely up to you.

About Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing

Now here’s our call to action. We know that for a lot of attorneys, even fitting in an extra five to 10 hours a month for blogging and other types of digital marketing can seem like an impossible task. And this is where we come in. Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing specializes in helping law firms by reviewing their current online footprint, developing a comprehensive internet marketing plan, and implementing every aspect of that plan.

We work with attorneys and legal practices in whatever capacity they need us. For some, we just build a professional lawyer website and host it for them while they do their own blogging and other web marketing activities. For others, we implement their entire marketing strategy – from website construction to SEO to content marketing to social media, paid advertising and beyond.

To find out how we can help your firm, call us today at (800) 864-1764 or message us online for a free website evaluation and internet marketing assessment. We look forward to serving you!

The Importance of Content Marketing for Law Firms

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In recent years, law firms have begun to realize the importance of establishing their brand in the digital market. Historically, law firms received the bulk of their leads through networking events, referrals, and traditional ad space channels (billboards, Yellow Pages, etc.).

But the most successful lawyers are now dominating the search engines and social media with content and even establishing themselves as thought leaders in their field. This has only become possible through focused content marketing campaigns that deliver engaging content and follow a long list of legal content marketing best practices.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the practice of creating engaging and useful content that is aimed at a particular online audience. For law firms, content marketing involves the creation of original content, such as blogs, white papers, and web pages. The content is posted on your website and shared in a way that promotes your legal practice’s services.

The goals of content marketing will vary. But to be successful, your firm’s content should aim to fulfill at least one of these goals:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Establish expertise and thought leadership
  • Generate leads and new clients
  • Create an online community

The type of content you post will vary depending on your goals and the needs of your target audience. When done right, content marketing can be a valuable addition to your digital marketing strategy.

The Importance of Content Marketing for Law Firms

Content marketing is a big deal for any business, but it is particularly vital for law firms. The average consumer has become blind to traditional advertising methods like print, television, and even some online ads. This constant noise drastically reduces the chances that one of these tactics will sell your service to a prospect.

But content marketing can succeed where other methods fail. When a person has a legal issue that they need to solve (or any issue, such as needing last-minute dinner reservations), they are more likely than ever to turn to Google for their answer. This is where you have the greatest opportunity to connect with a prospect in the most meaningful way through your useful and targeted content.

Some of the ways content marketing can benefit your law firm include:

Content Marketing Improves Your Reach

Content marketing allows potential clients to find you who otherwise might not have. That person that is worried about the potential “DUI penalties in Alabama” or wants to know “How to appeal an SSDI rejection” might find your recent blog post and contact you.

If your content is useful and interesting, they might also share it with friends and social media followers. Someone that wasn’t searching for your law firm will see your name and remember it later when they do have a need.

Legal Content Can Improve Your SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is vital to the success of your online marketing efforts, and content marketing can help improve your website’s organic rankings. When you have a lot of informative content on your website that begins to pull in traffic, Google will notice and reward you accordingly.

Local search is essential for law firms that serve a limited geographic area. By adding your city, county, or other location data to your content, you can improve your local search rankings. So, when a person looks for a “personal injury lawyer near me,” you are more likely to get one of those top spots.

Blogging Establishes You as an Authority

People want to hire a law firm that knows what it is doing, and you can establish your authority through content marketing. A frequently updated blog gives you the opportunity to showcase your knowledge on a topic while you are addressing some of your target audience’s most pressing concerns.

A blog is also an effective way to promote your practice among your peers. When you establish authority in your field, you are more likely to get referrals from other firms that are outside your area of practice or geographic region.

Getting Your Law Firm’s Content Marketing Strategy Right

Content marketing differs a bit from traditional advertising. When most people think of law firm advertising, they picture a lawyer’s face on a billboard or bus stop imploring them to call some version of 1-800-ACCIDENT. Content marketing for law firms is a bit more subtle and can be far more effective than traditional advertising when approached correctly.

It is simple enough to produce a few blog posts and send out some tweets and then label that as your law firm’s content marketing efforts. But, to build your brand and get the most out of content marketing, you need a focused strategy.

Some of the things your legal content marketing strategy should include are:

  • Defining Your Audience – Who are you trying to reach with your content, and for what purpose?
  • Optimizing Your Website – Is the content already on your website optimized for your target audience and the search engines? Can you repurpose any of your best-performing content to extend your reach?
  • Producing a Content Marketing Strategy – Your content marketing strategy should include keyword research and a content roadmap to plan your approach.
  • Creating Compelling Legal Content – The next step is to research, write, edit, and publish content that targets a specific practice area, audience, and set of keywords.
  • Marketing Your Content – Some content ranks quickly organically, but you can also “share” content on social media sites and promote it to get it in front of the right audience.
  • Assessing Your Results – Every content marketing campaign should carefully track progress and assess results to determine what is working and what might require some adjustments moving forward.

Quality Legal Content That Sets Your Law Firm Apart

At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, we create content that helps our clients express their brand’s voice. While you focus on running your firm, the content our team creates for you will drive traffic to your website and convert visitors into new clients.

Some examples of the results-driven content our copywriters create include:

  • Practice area pages
  • Blogs
  • White papers and resource articles
  • Press releases
  • Staff biographies
  • Newsletters

Every piece of content you receive is well-researched, SEO-optimized, and 100% unique to address your needs and the most pressing concerns of your target audience. Contact Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing today at (800) 649-1764 or online to connect with us for a free consultation.