Law Firm Digital Marketing

Law Firm Digital Marketing: The Ultimate Guide for Lawyers

Digital marketing. Online marketing. Search engine optimization. These are terms you’ve likely heard that all share a similar goal - getting clients from the internet to (1) find you and then (2) purchase your services. 

The best digital marketing strategies are like a stool - they need multiple legs to function. Your law firm digital marketing strategy needs to branch off into content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization. These three efforts combined create a digital marketing (aka internet marketing) strategy and plan that will convert potential clients on the internet looking for your services with your law firm. 

At PaperStreet, we’re digital marketing experts and we do it exclusively for lawyers. Founded by a lawyer, our company creates digital marketing campaigns to help you get new clients (the ones you actually want, not spammy leads).

• Law Firm Digital Marketing Services
• The Importance of a Digital Marketing for Lawyers
• Types of Lawyers that Need Law Firm Digital Marketing
• Common Questions Answered by Our Law Firm Marketing Experts
• Understanding Keyword Research
• Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Service
• Measuring Success in Law Firm Digital Marketing
• Our Top Law Firm Digital Marketing Tips for Beginners
• Maximize Your Potential with Digital Marketing for Lawyers by PaperStreet

Law Firm Digital Marketing Services

Get the Phone Ringing with a Comprehensive Digital Marketing Plan

At a minimum, digital marketing generally refers to content marketing, social media marketing and search engine optimization. However, as the name suggests, digital marketing encompasses any marketing or advertising effort on the Internet. 

• Content Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising
• Email Marketing (Newsletters) 
• Video Marketing
• Website Design & Development 
• Podcast Creation

Not sure what services are going to be the most beneficial for your law firm? Not a problem. The process starts with a deep dive into your goals. From there we can recommend an approach that we think may work the best. And if it doesn’t we pivot and change up our tactic. Any digital marketing agency that touts one plan that works for everyone is a spinster. (Trust us - we see it happen all the time!)

The Importance of a Digital Marketing for Lawyers

To exist on the web isn’t enough. There are likely 10+ lawyers in your area who offer the same services as you do. Digital marketing breaches the gap between the customers who are using the internet and have a need for your services with the ability to find you and convert via a phone call or form completion.

Digital marketing allows lawyers the opportunity to tap into a virtually (pun intended) endless market. The right strategies get your name front and center and allow potential new clients to understand how you can help. From a strictly business sense, our digital marketing strategies are responsible for thousands of leads every month to law firms across the country. Imagine what that kind of business would do for your law firm?

Types of Lawyers that Need Law Firm Digital Marketing

• Personal Injury
• Criminal Defense
• Family Law
• Immigration
• Employment Law
• Bankruptcy
• Estate Planning & Probate
• Small Law Firms
• Large Law Firms

Common Questions Answered by Our Law Firm Digital Marketing Experts

Why do lawyers need digital marketing?

Lawyers need digital marketing to sustain and grow their business. A steady stream of phone calls and web inquiries allows you to provide services for more people, which means better business in every capacity.

How much do lawyers spend on digital marketing?

The cost of your digital marketing efforts depends on your needs and can range from several hundreds of dollars each month to thousands. Comprehensive SEO campaigns that monitor rankings, provide new content, and build a link portfolio start at $1,950 per month. Social media writing and photo services on most major platforms start at $1,500 per month. To have a quality page of content or a blog post written by a lawyer (not an intern or moonlighting junior student) costs $200 for every 500 words. Newsletter and podcast creation contracts hover around $700 per month for content writing, image selection, and list distribution. We understand the average for PPC campaigns to include a $450 setup fee, and then that cost per month or 20% of your ad spend (whatever is greater).

Do lawyers need a digital marketing agency?

No, lawyers don’t need a marketing agency, but having one ensures marketing is always a priority and keeps you from having to learn a skill that’s unnatural for lawyers. You hire a digital marketing agency for their expertise and to save you time and the burden of being responsible for ensuring your business grows. Lean on PaperStreet, we’ve got it!

How do I market myself as a lawyer?

As a lawyer you can market yourself by ensuring your law firm website is accurate and up-to-date. You can contribute articles and thought leadership pieces to your own law firm website and other legal business organizations as a guest poster. You can be sure to publicize your awards and big case wins with press releases, news alerts, and also on your own biography. Finally, you can join online conversations on LinkedIn and Facebook by liking, sharing and commenting on posts from your law firm and other prominent lawyers in your area.

What is a good ROI on attorney internet marketing?

For cost per conversion, $150 is a base average, though that can depend on the practice area market. We have clients who are getting leads for less than $50 for specific campaigns and sometimes costs per leads can be $250+ for very competitive, high-value case types. An average clickthrough rate is between 4% and 8%. Generally anything near 10% is an appropriate close rate, but you should strive for over 25%. The cost per acquisition (CPA) range is at an average of $600 to $1,500 roughly, based on a $150 cost per conversion.

The top contributing factors to your ROI are location and keywords. Law firms in top demographics like San Francisco, Atlanta and Miami are going to have different numbers then law firms in Boise, Akron and Columbus. Plaintiff-driven practice areas like personal injury and criminal defense are also generally more competitive and can impact your ROI.

What is involved in search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization includes content writing (blogging, core website content, social media, etc.), technical optimization (speed, ADA compliance, etc.), and link building (directories, guest posting, public relations, etc.) Each of these three funnels is necessary for a successful SEO campaign. At PaperStreet, our team handles all of this for your law firm. Our attorney writers brainstorm ideas and write content, our developers test the website monthly to ensure no glitches, and our link building team is consistently updating directories and reaching out for PR opportunities that will help us secure links to your law firm website (thereby helping to increase your domain authority and overall Google rankings).

What is included in digital advertising?

Digital advertising includes any services designed to promote your products, or services online. For law firms this includes content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising (PPC), email marketing, video marketing, website design and development. Some or all of these services and efforts work together to form comprehensive digital advertising strategies with the ultimate goal of getting you more clients. The services that you need should be tailored to meet specific business goals and objectives. For example, not every lawyer needs email marketing.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is arguably one of the most important factors of a well established digital marketing plan. Content marketing can include blogging, practice area content, firm-related content (biographies, About pages, Careers pages, Diversity pages, etc.) thought leadership writing, guest article posting, newsletters writing, Facebook posts, LinkedIn posts, and video script writing.

Understanding Keyword Research

Before you leap into any marketing efforts you need to focus your campaigns on certain target phrases that you know people are typing into Google’s search bar. We do a deep dive into the phrases that are important to you and create variances for all of them. The most common variances are “lawyer” and “attorney” (and the plural version of each), plus “law firm.” The root of the keyword is your practice area or an abbreviated or slang term that might better match users intent. For example “injury lawyer” or “car wreck.”

When doing research you also need to consider long tail keywords vs. short tail keywords. If you think about your own Googling habits you’ll understand that not all users are brief in their queries. Our goal is to consider all the phrases someone might use to get to your website, which often means longer sentences, or even questions.

Choosing the Right Digital Marketing Service

Your digital marketing agency shouldn’t be selling you on everything. Each digital marketing service suits law firms differently based on their goals and budget and selecting the appropriate marketing channels is crucial. Each channel caters to a distinct audience, so it's essential to understand your audience and align your choices with your marketing objectives.

Social media platforms, for example, can enhance your visibility and provide engagement opportunities within the community. Email marketing is effective for nurturing personal relationships with clients. Content marketing is invaluable for establishing your authority within the industry. PRO TIP: You basically always need content marketing!

Measuring Success in Law Firm Digital Marketing

So, how do you know your marketing efforts are working? You track them. If you’re working with a digital marketing agency, they should be providing transparent access to your results so they can be measured against the cost you are paying for their services. 

At PapeStreet we provide access to a dashboard from a third-party provider. You can be sure the results are real-time and not altered to look favorable. If something is not working, we analyze it and change avenues. Sometimes that means a different focus on content writing, sometimes that triggers a technical review that finds hidden links, sometimes that means revisiting a service altogether.

Potential clients who have shown some form of interest in your firm are known as leads. Since most law firms need new clients to remain viable, the process of generating new leads should be ongoing. How can you tell how well that process is working?

The easiest method is to add up marketing costs over a certain time and divide that by the number of leads generated in that time. This gives you a cost per lead. But that only gives you part of the picture. Ideally, you want to track where the leads have come from to see how much you are paying for leads from each source. This can be as specific as a single ad campaign on one social media platform.

Call tracking software, unique tracking links, and lead tracking software are all useful tools for analyzing where traffic is coming from so you can see which online marketing avenues are providing the best return. Old fashioned methods, such as asking a client directly how they learned about your firm, can also give you some indication how well different forms of outreach are connecting with and convincing your audience to become clients.

Our Top Law Firm Digital Marketing Tips for Beginners

We have a lot of best practices and important steps to ensure your digital marketing efforts are successful. As a beginner, these are the most important insights we can offer to help you achieve more leads online. 

Tip #1: Create a user-friendly website. 

Your website needs to be responsive (designed for mobile, tablet and various laptop sizes), easily navigable, comprehensive, and fast. Your law firm website should have a sticky navigation, a contact form, a clear phone number, calls to action on every page, an active blog and a responsive design. 

Tip #2: Generate content every month. 

The more content you can generate the better. The most successful law firms blog weekly, announce their wins, share insights on relevant news, and offer guidance related to their practice areas. Post something to your website every week. BONUS: Be sure to then share that same post to social media!

Tip #3: Put a plan in place to handle phone calls and web inquiries.

It’s an amazing thing to get your inquiries from your marketing efforts, but don’t drop the ball at the finish line! Once the phone rings your digital marketing team has done their duty- you’re getting phone calls! Now it's up to the firm to be friendly, organized and helpful. Create the standard operating procedures necessary to ensure you are handling phone calls and web inquiries promptly. Connect them with someone who can answer their questions and create a follow-up procedure.

Tip #4: Stay involved in your marketing efforts.

No one understands your practice like you do. The more involved you are in your marketing efforts, the most successful they will be. Share with us your recent case wins, forward us material you found interesting to read, engage with your own content on social media, and ask clients for Google testimonials. These small actions add up!

Tip #5: Review your results often.

We don’t recommend setting your marketing actions and then never looking at it again. While that might keep you relevant because at least you’ll have new content being added, your campaign needs regular check-ins to ensure your goals are still the same and that your efforts and results are really worth your time and investment. (Another reason why hiring a digital marketing agency is ideal.)

Maximize Your Potential with Digital Marketing for Lawyers by PaperStreet

Digital marketing is an indispensable tool for law firms striving to expand their clientele and maintain a competitive edge in today's digital landscape. If you're looking to grow, there is no beating the benefit of investing in online marketing.

Content marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) give law firms the opportunity to reach and engage with potential clients actively seeking legal services.

At PaperStreet, we're experts in creating digital marketing strategies exclusively for law firms. We understand that each firm has unique goals and requirements, and we work closely with firms of all sizes to develop strategies that align with their objectives. Whether it's increasing brand visibility, generating leads, or enhancing client engagement, our comprehensive approach covers a range of services, including content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, PPC advertising, email marketing, video marketing, website design, and more. Contact our law firm digital marketing experts to get started today.