Law Firm Digital Marketing: How to Stand Out from Competitors

You can only rely so much on word of mouth to bring new clients into your law firm. You cannot rest on your laurels and expect potential leads to just show up. It doesn’t work that way. The most successful law firms take a proactive approach to generating new clients, and that means investing in marketing. Both traditional and digital marketing deserve places in your strategy, but the digital aspect is often more challenging to master. 

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What is digital marketing for law firms?

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Digital marketing for a law firm or attorney isn’t much different from marketing any other service-based business online. It consists of a wide range of channels, like pay-per-click advertising, SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and more. With a robust digital marketing strategy, your firm can cast a wide net and drive potential leads where you want them, which usually means a landing page on your website, but it could be any other digital location. 

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Law firm digital marketing statistics

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Before jumping into how to stand out from competitors with digital marketing tactics, let’s check out some important statistics regarding law firms and their use of online marketing (or lack thereof).

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• One-third of all your prospective clients begin their search online. 
• The average law firm sees a 526% ROI on digital marketing over three years. 
• 96% of people seek legal advice through a search engine search.

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As you can see, skipping digital marketing isn’t an option. So, what are the most effective tools at your disposal? How do you use these techniques to stand out from your competitors?

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Content is king

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Perhaps the most important aspect of digital marketing for law firms is creating informative, engaging content and publishing it through multiple channels. Content has been king as long as the Internet has existed, and that will not change anytime soon. What does content marketing do for you?

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• It helps answer questions your potential clients have.
• It helps establish your law firm’s authority and expertise.
• It is the lifeblood of SEO and helps you rank better in Google searches for services that you offer.

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But what types of content should you create? And what channels should you use? There are no simple answers here, and your unique marketing strategy and area of focus within the legal industry will affect the path you take. Some of the most important types of content to create include:

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• Informal blog posts that educate your audience while engaging them and allowing you to showcase your firm’s personality
• Longer posts/guides with a more formal tone that provide more in-depth information about specific subtopics
• Videos that highlight important things your potential clients should know about cases or situations like theirs

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Where you publish that content will vary depending on the type and your specific content marketing strategy. Your website and blog are great places to start.

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Let’s get social

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Social media marketing is hugely popular, largely because it’s so impactful when handled properly. Sites like Facebook, X,  YouTube, and even LinkedIn give you unprecedented opportunities to build an audience and then engage with them directly. 

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Social media marketing is also very diverse. It encompasses aspects of many other types of marketing, including content marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and more. It’s important to choose the right social platforms. They’re far from identical and your firm may enjoy better traction on some more than others. 

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Another important point about social media marketing is that you need to track your efforts. Use dedicated landing pages and phone numbers so you can verify where each potential lead comes from, where they go on your website, dwell time for various pages, and more. This allows you to fine-tune your efforts and improve your ROI while reducing costs.

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Know what your competitors are doing

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No matter what your area of practice might be, you have competitors. Other law firms are actively marketing and targeting your potential clients. If you really want to stand out from the crowd, you must know what the crowd is doing. 

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Make it a regular practice to check in on your main competitors. Ask yourself:

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• What are they doing now? This will offer insight into trends over time and give you inspiration for your own efforts.
• What sorts of results are they getting that I can see? It’s tough to see results behind the scenes, but you can gauge at least some results based on the level of engagement in social media posts, comments on blog posts, and the like.
• What can you do better than them? This is where your expertise and experience come into play. Based on your tracking, determine what you can do better, and what your competitors aren’t doing that you can do, and then create a strategy. 

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Use the right tools 

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Digital marketing requires a wide range of tools. Your website and blog fall into that category. Social networks like Facebook offer tools that allow you to measure your impact and fine-tune your campaigns. Other options like Hootsuite allow you to manage many marketing aspects from a single dashboard. 

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Get to know the tools available and choose those that offer the most bang for the buck. You want ease of access, detailed reporting, and integration with your other marketing tools. Don’t base your decision on price alone or whatever might be hot right now. 

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Speaking of the right tools…

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Don’t forget the power of partnerships in your marketing efforts. A partnership with a legal answering service will augment the power of your tools to help you save time and money while building a steady stream of qualified leads. At Smith.ai, our experienced virtual receptionists can make a measurable difference in your marketing efforts.

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You need someone to handle the influx of conversations from potential leads. Our virtual receptionists offer 24/7 answering, web chat, email replies, and other important services that free your team to focus on what they do best. 

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To learn more, schedule a consultation or reach out to hello@smith.ai.

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