When you run a law firm, your revenue depends on turning leads into paying clients on a consistent basis. But getting qualified leads online isn’t automatic. Digital marketing for lawyers requires expertise and a solid strategy. If your law firm’s website isn’t generating enough leads, that’s a problem, and here’s how you can fix it.
1. Hire a professional digital marketing agency
You can’t afford to guess with digital marketing. Research shows that more than one-third of potential clients start looking for an attorney online, and 70% of law firms acquire new cases through their website. If your website isn’t generating an ideal amount of leads, you’re losing money.
It takes more than just a beautiful website to get results. Partnering with a marketing agency that specializes in the legal industry is the fastest path to getting consistent, qualified leads. A professional agency will know exactly how to run high-performing PPC campaigns and SEO strategies to get your website in front of people searching for your services. But it doesn’t stop there. Visibility is great, but an agency can help you get what really matters – conversions. So if you’re tired of trying to figure it out on your own, reach out to a marketing agency for help.
2. Specify your practice areas
When potential clients land on your website, they’ll immediately want to know if you take their type of case. If they don’t think you’re the right law firm, they’ll bounce and find someone else. To avoid losing qualified leads, all of your practice areas should be immediately visible, either on your home page as a list or through a link labeled “practice areas.” This way, people can quickly discern whether or not you’re the right type of lawyer.
But don’t just stop at listing general practice areas like “family law.” Include specifics, like divorce, child custody, alimony, paternity, child support, guardianship, and adoption. Being specific will help you get leads who don’t know their case is categorized under the umbrella of family law. This applies to other practice areas, too, like criminal defense. People want to know you’re the right lawyer for the job, and if they’re facing DUI charges, they’ll want to know that you’re the best DUI lawyer in town. Specificity generates more leads.
3. Run paid ads
It takes time to see results from search engine optimization (SEO). And even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll get good visibility in the results pages. That’s why it’s smart to run paid ads alongside your SEO efforts. SEO is a long game. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads will bring you leads immediately, and it’s typically more effective. In fact, Google Ads drives 6.98% conversion rates in the legal industry, which is more than double the results of organic search.
With PPC ads, you can target locations by city or zip code, specific keywords, and plenty of demographics. You can also add negative keywords to avoid irrelevant clicks. For example, just adding the phrase “how to” to your negative keyword list will prevent your ads from showing up in searches for things like “how to beat a DUI” and “how to fight a traffic ticket,” which are phrases that indicate a person wants to solve their problem without a lawyer.
The best part about running paid ads is being able to use retargeting to capture leads who checked you out but didn’t convert. For example, when people click on your ad, visit your website, but never contact you, you can run ads that only show up for those people. This allows you to tailor your ads to appeal to people who are aware of you, but might still be on the fence.
4. Verify the basics
Sometimes a lack of leads is caused by something simple, like not having a visible phone number on every page. Go through your website and make sure you have a clickable phone number in the header on every page. The best location for your phone number is the top right corner. It should be on every page and stick to the top while a user scrolls down the page.
Optimize your marketing for better lead generation
Your website can deliver qualified leads, but only when it’s optimized for contact and conversions. Part of that includes working on SEO while running paid ads to bring in immediate leads. But it’s not as easy as it sounds, and if you’re struggling, you should consider hiring a pro. A professional marketing agency can pinpoint exactly where you’re falling short and implement fixes that finally move the needle.
Photo by Austin Distel; Unsplash
