Five Tips for Marketing Your Family Law Firm Online
When people are facing family law issues such as divorce, hiring an attorney can be a time-sensitive and difficult process. Potential clients already have emotions running high with the prospect of facing the end of a marriage or a potential child custody battle. How you market your family law firm and instill trust can be particularly challenging as you work to acquire new clients.
While some people find attorneys through personal referrals, most will turn to online sources at some point in their search. According to Google, 96 percent of people use a search engine when seeking legal advice.
Why Marketing Your Family Law Firm is Different
Marketing for divorce attorneys is markedly different than marketing for criminal defense, personal injury, or other legal practice areas. Some of the unique things you will need to consider include:
- You need to hook people at the top of the sales funnel through informational searches. If you can build trust with potential clients by delivering valuable information, you won’t necessarily need to rank #1 for “divorce lawyer” to get the results you need. But people who get their questions answered somewhere else are unlikely to come to you for help.
- Your Google My Business (GMB) listing plays a vital role in how people research you. Privacy is essential for many divorce and family law clients. Most want a law firm that isn’t conspicuous but still convenient. They will use GMB to research your reputation as well as to see where you are located in their area before deciding whether or not to visit.
- Your marketing must highlight your firm’s culture and personality. Divorce and family law matters are highly emotional. Your marketing message should give potential clients a sense of how your firm handles these cases. Are you compassionate? Aggressive? People are much more likely to choose a family lawyer based on an emotional connection.
- Online reviews can be challenging for family law firms. Because divorce and family law cases can be contentious, few people walk away completely satisfied with their outcome. You are bound to have some unhappy clients and even get some terrible reviews from people you never represented. You will want to create a workable strategy to build your online review base and address any negative reviews quickly and appropriately.
Five Tips for Marketing Your Family Law Firm Online
The bottom line is that your family law firm needs a comprehensive strategy to increase its online visibility and reach those potential clients. Here are five ways you can market your family law services to the people who need them:
- Family Law Firm Website Design
As a family law firm, your website should do more than describe your attorney’s backgrounds and give an overview of your practice areas. It needs to instill trust, tell potential clients what sets you apart from the competition, and even deliver some valuable information.
Every law firm wants its website to look nice, but the real purpose of your online presence is to generate business. That said, your firm’s website should be designed with conversions in mind. Specifically, it needs to be fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and simple to navigate. There should also be a clear path on every page to contact your law firm for a free consultation.
- Local SEO for Divorce & Family Lawyers
With family law, every practice requires a focused and targeted local SEO strategy. For example, most people that hire a family law attorney want someone that is local to them. Keywords like “divorce attorney” might be important, but they are more relevant when combined with a city, county, state, or some other geographical identifier like “divorce attorney Boston” or “divorce lawyer Orlando.”
You can maximize your local SEO efforts by including many of these local identifiers in your website content. You will also want to create and optimize your directory listings, especially your Google My Business (GMB) profile, so that you show up in Google Maps searches.
- Family Law Firm Content Marketing
People going through different types of family legal crises are desperate for credible information. Your law firm can establish itself as an authority in its practice area as well as show off its personality through a robust content marketing campaign.
Start with engaging Area of Practice pages that describe your services. But make sure you take things a step further. Schedule regular blog content that focuses on particular topics that will be of interest to potential clients and pull in traffic with long-tail keywords. Some examples include dealing with military divorce, high-asset divorce, international adoptions, and same-sex custody issues.
- Video Marketing for Family Law Firms
As a family lawyer, you can build a strong and lasting connection with your clients. In this area of practice, more than any other, your and your firm’s personality need to shine through in its marketing efforts.
You can accomplish some of this through content marketing, but video marketing is one of the best ways to showcase your firm’s culture and personality. Videos on your website, blog, and social channels can help potential clients get a feel for who you are, how you approach cases, and the way you will treat them as a client.
A robust video library also gives potential clients another means to educate themselves about their situation. This can save you time as clients walk into your office with some basic knowledge.
- Social Media for Family Lawyers
Your potential family law clients are hungry for information. Social media is one of the channels you can use to deliver guidance, but you will want to approach it the right way. The client journey can be much longer with family law clients, who will weigh their options before contacting a law firm for help.
Your social media profiles should give potential clients the guidance they need to make wise decisions and contact you when they are ready. Even after a matter is resolved, clients might continue to follow you on social media to maintain a connection and get information on things that could impact them in the future. This also keeps your firm’s name top of mind for potential referrals.
Want to Sign More Family Law Clients Each Month?
As this information illustrates, there are several ways to market your family law firm online. But success won’t happen overnight, and effective digital marketing requires a cohesive plan and strategy.
At Too Darn Loud Legal Marketing, our team has a proven formula for helping family law firms boost their visibility and generate more clients. We do not take a cookie-cutter approach to legal marketing but rather tailor our strategies to your firm’s particular needs and goals. If you would like to learn more about how our experienced digital marketers can help elevate your law firm’s online presence, contact us today to schedule a free consultation.