Legal Digital Marketing Tactics to Make 2024 Your Best Year Yet

Digital marketing for any law firm or attorney is not much different from marketing for other service-based businesses. There are many channels like pay-per-click advertising, SEO, social media marketing, continent marketing, email marketing, and many more. With a well-thought-out digital marketing strategy, firms can cause a very widespread net that will drive potential leads to your website or any other digital location.  

It is important to stand out from competitors and there are digital marketing tactics that will enhance your business's online presence. It is first important to understand the statistics regarding law firms and their use of online marketing.

Content Creation

One of the most important aspects of legal digital marketing is to create engaging and informative content and publish it through multiple channels. Content marketing will help to answer any questions potential clients may have, establish your law firm's authority and expertise, and help you rank better in Google search results. 

A good guideline for creating content is to make sure it follows E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). This is part of Google’s Search Quality Radar Guidelines, which are criteria people use to evaluate the quality of search results. Although E-E-A-T is not a direct ranking factor, Google wants to share results with strong E-E-A-T which leads to more conversions to your website and strong user trust. Experience speaks to the creator's first-hand experience with the subject matter that lends credibility. Expertise is what quality raters use to determine whether authors' knowledge, qualifications, and credentials give reliable information. Authoritativeness refers to the overall reputation of your business, especially from experts and influencers from your industry. Lastly, trustworthiness is the most important part of Google E-E-A-T, where quality raters take the creator, content, and website into account, edit factual accuracy, cite trustworthy sources, and avoid hiding content behind ads. 

Constant Improvements

Digital marketing is constantly changing and updating and with these new innovations, your business may come upon hurdles to keep an eye out for. The use of regular reporting tools for tracking will help you stay on top of your industry and your business. 

Social media marketing has become hugely popular because it can be very impactful when handling property. Channels like Facebook, X, YouTube, and Linked In can allow you to build an audience and interact with them directly. Social media marketing encompasses many aspects of other types of marketing such as pay-per-click advertising and content marketing and it is important to track your social media marketing efforts. Using dedicated landing pages and phone numbers to verify where each lead comes from, where they go most only on your website, and teaching dwell time on different pages will help you refine your efforts and improve your ROI. 

There is also the power behind partnerships for your marketing efforts. Having a partnership with, for example, a legal answering service can increase the power of your tools and help your business save time and money. This may also help build a steady stream of qualified leads. 

Some important statistics regarding law firms and their use of online marketing include:

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

As you can see, the use of digital marketing right now is more relevant than ever. 

Consistent Branding

There are various channels across digital marketing and across all marketing strategies. It is important to maintain consistent business details and cohesive branding with clients and future leads. Constantly emphasizing your company's mission and communicating with your clients about the intent behind their brand voice will help build a strong brand identity that is important to the success of any business. Messaging always needs to come through clearly, and having a consistent brand image shapes how a company may be perceived by potential clients. 

Local SEO

Any local business that is serving in a physical location or a geographical area should be using a local SEO strategy. Potential leads use “near me searches” on Google more than ever and use local SEO because it is the primary channel of how consumers discover local businesses. 

Local search entails customers using search engines to find local businesses that serve products or services that are near their geographic location. It can be challenging to infiltrate local SEO because of the constantly changing algorithms and updates throughout the year. 

The Google Business Profile can be a very useful tool when it comes to local SEO. Building your business profile and using intentional strategy can help businesses grow and reach local customers. The Google business profile will allow you to maintain accurate information about your business online, interact with prospective customers, and attract new customers. It has been said that businesses that engage and respond to a minimum of 25% of customer reviews average up to 35% more revenue.  Visiting google.com/business will walk you through the verification process, during which Google confirms your business is real and active. 

Optimizing Google Business Profiles

There are many ways to optimize a Google Business Profile (GBP) to get your firm in front of potential clients. While as a general rule, businesses should always implement or add applicable information Google is providing as options, there are four key areas to focus on in 2024. 

1. Services
2. Service Areas
3. Reviews
4. Performance Data Tracking

Services

Services can be auto-generated and auto-added by Google depending on what categories are selected as the primary and secondary sections. However, not all services truly apply to a business. For example, ‘criminal justice lawyer’ is listed as a service of the ‘general law attorney’ category. If this is not accurate to that business, but the owner or marketing team is not paying attention, the firm may be advertising themselves as and getting calls for criminal cases. 

It is important to audit these auto-additions and add new services that focus on the breadth of the firm’s practice areas. 

Service Areas

Not to be confused with Services, the Service Areas are locations that can be added to a GBP to show Google where you take clients. This can be a list of cities, neighborhoods, zip codes, or a mix of all three. Only 20 can be selected though - unless the GBP is tied to an LSA!

The Service Areas, while helpful to expanding reach, are not magic ranking factors. A firm must already be ranking nearby at least to show up further out. For example, a firm in Washington DC cannot add Baltimore as a Service Area and expect to rank, unless they already were in all of the cities in between. Utilizing service areas to slowly expand market reach over time is the most successful use of this ranking factor. 

Reviews

GBP Reviews have and continue to be a significant ranking factor in the local SEO space. Maintaining a competitive review count is imperative to ranking. While a business may not always need to have the most to rank well, it is also a conversion factor. A potential client choosing between a firm with 20 or a firm with 100 reviews will normally choose the latter. 

Keeping an eye on not only the business’s review count but also the top competitors in the same market regularly can help determine if a firm is on track. 

Performance Data

The Performance data are automated reporting line graphs provided by Google. It shows the last six months of data only but does break down the interactions the public has with a GBP. As of July 2024, the breakdown included Calls, Messages, Bookings, Direction Requests, and Website Clicks. 

Tracking month-over-month changes in the Performance data can show if a business is improving, diminishing, or stagnating in their Local SEO marketing efforts. 

Paid Add-Ons 

Digital marketing is the fastest and easiest way for lawyers to grow their business. The more people who discover your firm, the more potential clients you will gain. One strategy that has gained significance is the add-on model or paid add-ons. This model is centered on complementing a company’s core offering with additional products or services. This can influence identifying opportunities to enhance the value of customer experience while also increasing revenue streams. 

The add-on model involves offering supplementary products or services to add value to a business’s primary offering. The goal is to create a compelling value proposition for customers. Paid add-ons can differentiate businesses in their industry and foster customer loyalty. 

“Paid Ads can help get leads in the door quickly, but SEO is the long-term play to keep your business successful for years to come. If you need a quick boost to your business or are just starting out, paid ads - especially LSAs - can be the best tool for your firm. But making sure to focus on SEO as well in a recurring manner is imperative for long-term success,” explains Seth Price, Managing Partner of Price Benowitz Accident Injury Lawyers, LLP, and CEO of BluShark Digital.

Local Service Ads

Local Service Ads (LSAs) are a paid advertising option for many industries but have been relatively new to the legal sector. LSAs meet demand by populating for non-branded search terms like “personal injury lawyer near me,” for potential customers who are searching for your services. 

These ads will help your business to appear at the top of the page in search results and give businesses visibility on Google and in turn have higher than pay-per-click ads, local map listings, and organic results. Your business will receive a “Google Screened” badge once you are verified through Google. There is no cost to implementing LSA’s unless someone clicks to call from the ad which is called a lead. 

To get started, you will first need a Google Ads account with payment information to submit the required business information. This may include proof of liability insurance, tax information, license numbers, etc. Then, it takes about four to five days for Google to conduct and finalize a screening. While waiting for approval, you must choose your service area, categories, and more. There are 17 categories to choose from for the legal industry but it is important to be careful when choosing because changing simple things will require a call to Google with long wait times. 

Why Search is Necessary 

When it comes to predicting the future of digital marketing for legal services, it is clear that specific tactics and strategies must be implemented to help companies stand out to consumers. Google is constantly changing, and the key to business growth starts with ensuring your business meets the new ranking requirements. Taking all of these tactics into consideration will help you to grow your customer base and online visibility, making you a master of ranking on Google. 

Make 2024 the Best Year Yet

If you’re looking for an agency to help grow your law firm or business, BluShark Digital can handle all areas of digital marketing and SEO development. 

It’s equally important to make sure those leads get through to a human when they want to connect with your team. Smith.ai provides an answering service for law firms, so you never miss out on a potential client. In addition, we offer additional services, such as conflict checks, appointment setting, and lead intake to improve your communication efforts.